#(it's not the age demographic that it's clearly targeted to that bothers me. it's the tone. it tries to be cool in some weird ways)

[britneyshakespeare]

i have to be honest. i was filling in for a third grade book club this morning and i read up to the first seven chapters of the book (which is where they were) while i was on my half-hour break and i was thinking. man i do not agree with some of the messages in this book lmao.

[anxiously-sidequesting]

[Ambrose (derogatory)] anon here (rofl I'm glad you liked that)

I think it's also up to interpretation a bit how old YW is. I mean it's assumed (because of the target demographic) they're like elementary/middle school age ofc. But at Merle's age anything under 50 could be 'young' imo (and they have to call them something, so 🤷).

Do I think YW is in their mid-40s? Probably not lol but they could at least be a young adult (unless there's some canon confirmation I'm forgetting. Which I totally could be XD)

Are there some more capable adults he could get to help? Probably. But that actually leads me to another Thought which is the book of secrets. Clearly it says something about YW being destined to save the spiral yada yada so maybe by default Ambrose trusts and relies on them even when they're not the best equipped - but maybe that's literally WHY the book of secrets says that, because it knows he's gonna put all his eggs in one basket and not bother to get support from anyone else. So it ends up that. Yeah. YW is the one who goes through all this. Thanks for the trauma bro /j

Anyway I do like the idea of the protagonist jumping in and wanting to be the hero (and also being ready to throw down with anybody) because I feel like it fits with the generally helpful but also somewhat chaotic and morally dubious image they've cultivated over their journey. If Ambrose seemed less like he didn't give a fuck (not just about YW but all death students, etc) it'd be a much better dynamic

but we were robbed

(here's hoping some fic writer revamps his character to the wise and supportive headmaster the students deserve)

FIRST OFF YAY IM GLAD I DIDNT SCARE YOU OFF

And that's definitely a good point with how the Wizard's age comes into play! I think the most heinous thing that stands out about canon is that the Wizard is assumed to be a child - probably because the game is geared towards younger kids and most of the fandom by that time WERE young kids, AND the Wizard was essentially supposed to be YOU or an insert that represented you. Also even canon, up until arc 2 or 3, even comments on how young the Wizard is constantly. So it's the fact that an adult person is taking advantage of and using a CHILD and putting them in dangerous situations. For the greater good? Yeah!!! But that's still a little kid. That's the part that kinda stands out when it comes to Ambrose's treatment of the Wizard. A child has no autonomy in a situation when pitted against an adult, a child doesn't know any better to realize what's happening, the child isn't mature enough to have the words or know the actions to stand up for themselves. Combined with the fact that the child is in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar stranger telling them to do things, the child is the completely vulnerable party in this scenario.

If the Wizard was a young adult by the time they were recruited by Ambrose, most of that would be gone. There would still be a power imbalance (Ambrose being the Headmaster and unofficial mentor of the Wizard, who has power and influence over the City guard vs. the Wizard who is just an apprentice with no societal standing or knowledge of the aspiral yet) but AT LEAST an adult would (hopefully) be better equipped to handle themselves. An adult would most likely recognize what's really going on, what the situation is, and is able to rationalize and plan accordingly.

AND YEAH GOOD QUESTION ABOUT THE OTHER CAPABLE ADULTS because yes. Yes there are. There are infinite other choices Ambrose could have chosen before the Young Wizard. At least, for a lot of other issues that don't include saving the Spiral. Like you said Ambrose likes putting all his eggs in a basket and if he can kill multiple birds with one stone, he will. Since the Wizard is already here and the BOS said they were the chosen savior, there's no need to worry about the Other Guys!

Although imo the only way this eager Wizard AU could work in Ambrose's favor if he was like, actually shown to care about the Young Wizard's wellbeing despite his inability to help. It wouldn't be enough for Ambrose to just sit back and do nothing even in his old age when The Wizard is still essentially in danger (despite being eager to put themselves in that position in the first place), I would actually have to see Ambrose take whatever action he could in order for this dynamic to feel more equal and wholesome. Does Ambrose send other companions to help the Wizard out? Does Ambrose sit the Wizard down and gently explain although he appreciates the help, he expects the Wizard to be careful? Does Ambrose use his position of power to help take the load off the Wizard's shoulders every now and then? Does Ambrose take time out of his day to simply have tea with the Wizard and check in on them outside of any Spiral business?

Even if Ambrose was too old to do things himself, he still could do other things to make sure the Wizard was safe, especially if the Wizard was exhibiting some self-destructive behavior. It isn't enough that he's just too old; taking actions to ensure the Wizard's safety and little acts of service that ensures the Wizard KNOWS that they are cared for and loved - THAT'S my ideal Ambrose and Wizard relationship. A bond that feels true and a relationship that's equal where it's less "old man uses child" and "two partners who are in this together". The last part of your ask PERFECTLY captures this that Ambrose needs to SHOW his love and care and protection for the Wizard, not just to say it every once in a while. This is a genius ask and a genius AU you've come up with anon

[lastoneout]

I'm almost 30, believe me I was around for the Disney Renaissance and several of those shitty direct to home release sequels are genuinely among my favorite Disney films of all time. And I could sit here and explain that Disney has openly admitted they are explicitly doing this because they don't think diversity sells and all they care about is mass marketability, and how that's bad and racist actually, or how this isn't comparable to the deluge of shitty sequels in the late 90s/early 2000s because OTHER STUDIOS were making those while their main teams kept putting out original films(and thus were also not working on like 3 movies at the same time which is inhumane imo and leads to very bad films) but the real thing that's getting me about this whole situation is the way it's clearly pandering to the nostalgia of people my age rather than focusing on making new things for a new generation of children, and people are defending it from that nostalgia tinted pov.

I actually hate nostalgia now because I got to grow up with incredible films, the Disney Renaissance was unimaginably influential to my little brain, those movies meant everything to me and still do, but like...what do kids today get? Regurgitated versions of the films I loved that are worse than even the most incompetent old school Disney sequel? Sequels to movies that came out decades before they were even born? They should be getting new movies that speak to them that they can look back on in fondness, not fucking Toy Story 5. I don't WANT Disney to make movies for ME anymore. I'm nearly 30, I'm more than happy to pop in my Mulan or Incredibles DVD and relive my childhood for a bit, I don't need Mulan but live action and worse or The Incredibles 3, Disney should not be targeting ME as a consumer. They are almost primarily pandering to millennials and older gen z people who are adults with kids and a job now and I cannot stress enough that we should not be their target demographic. They should be making movies for kids. Toy Story 5 and Incredibles 3 are not for kids, they're for us, and I don't fucking want them.

Like I genuinely feel like pop culture fucking died in 2009 and now we just live in perpetual 90s Kid Mode and it SUCKS. The shitty sequel era has nothing on the current stagnate hellscape that is Disney today, because again back then they paid someone else to make their terrible pandering sequels and had their main teams focus on NEW STUFF. There was room for quick cash grabs AND fun new stuff, and the fun new stuff took priority. As it should. (And yes I know they have made original films in the last five years but those clearly did NOT take priority, the problems they have make it clear the teams were stretched too thin and subjected to immense studio meddling and seemingly intentionally botched marketing, and then that is used as an excuse to stop making new things even though DISNEY is the problem not the actual animation teams or audiences.) But now all they care about is parading the same characters I've seen year after year back out in front of us so they can take my money again and I am tired of giving it to them. I miss when stories ended. I miss when going to the movies was exciting because I'd get to see something new. It stops being exciting when I'm constantly seeing Buzz Lightyear's lifeless corpse being beaten like a dead horse until it spits out money.

One of my biggest pet peeves about society is when an older group of people won't recognize when their time has come and gone and step aside so the next generation can stretch their legs. And while this obviously isn't as high stakes as politics it still bothers me that Disney actively does not give a single shit about providing the next generation of kids the childhood I got to have because it's easier to just destroy my childhood for money. My mom and grandma and I all have different favorite Disney films based on what we grew up with. Kids today like the same movies and stories I did as a kid because there's basically nothing else for them to like and that's tragic. And yes Disney has always pandered to nostalgia to get parents to keep bringing their kids to the parks and whatnot but again, the kids were still getting NEW stuff to watch. New movies with new messages and new memories to be made. They got to watch Alice in Wonderland to share some nostalgia with their mom or whoever and then also go see A Bug's Life or Tarzan in theaters. Now all we can offer them is nostalgia but bad this time. It sucks. They deserve better.

Anyway Disney has always cared about money over everything else but that mindset has gone so far that now they are so uninterested in anything new they might as well be culturally dead. If an author spent all their time writing dozens of sequels to their hit book that were noticably declining in quality or just don't need to exist because the story has ended like five times then we'd all make fun of them for that. I'm not giving fucking Disney a pass on it. (And yes I know they are not the only studio doing this shit but imo they are the worst offender, especially after this. Dreamworks does make sequels that don't really need to exist but ngl even the most pointless Dreamworks sequel is still more coherent and watchable than fucking Frozen 2. I would genuinely prefer to watch Boss Baby over Toy Story 4.)

Also I cannot stress this enough if you suck so much that Family Guy is making accurate jokes about you that's maybe a sign things need to change. The answer to "y'all make so many stupid sequels it's funny in a pathetic way" isn't to MAKE MORE SEQUELS like????

So yeah, it's fine if you're excited about some of these films. I'd be lying if I said I am not at least a little curious about Zootopia 2, but "well they made a bunch of bad sequels in the 90s" isn't an excuse for them admitting that they think culturally inspired narratives(i.e. stories not tailor made to be relatable to a white american audience) just aren't worth making anymore because fuck diversity and creativity, we need to make our employees suffer working on 3-4 needless sequels at the same time that pander to 30 y/os instead of new stuff for a new generation of kids to fall in love with because money. It doesn't even matter if any of these sequels are good, we don't need to "reserve judgement" until they come out, just the fact that Disney no longer cares to make original stories for transparently racist reasons is something that should be judged!!! This is embarassing!! If I worked there I'd be humiliated rn!! The needless sequels completely taking over is shameful and says so much about them and I'm so sick of it that at this point they could offer me a full on 2D Treasure Planet sequel made by the original team and I'd still be mad they aren't willing to put their time and attention into something new.

This is bullshit and pathetic and I don't care how nostalgic you feel about it, Disney(and everyone else who pulls this oops all remakes and sequels shit) should be mocked for willingly admitting they are creatively bankrupt and want to take your money about it.

No shade to OP as a person but believe me, this is a sign that something is DEEPLY fucking broken. Like they announced ONE new IP out of like eight films. I genuinely think within the decade they're just gonna stop making original films all together. That's what they learned from Elemental and Wish, just don't make anything new if you can help it.

Like they've unironically turned into what people pretend Dreamworks is, a sequel mill. The real downside is that Dreamworks actually knows how to make a good sequel, Disney never really figured that one out, bar a couple of outliers, and I have no faith in them pulling any of these off. Absolutely soul-crushingly pathetic. Thank god other animation studios exist.

This is the saddest shit I've ever seen, truly.

[jennycalendar]

ok you know what i think it’s actually really vital that i talk a little bit about tea time. buckle up kiddos.

first off, a brief and relatively spoiler-free summary: the premise of the issue is very simple. the kiddos (aged up, if willow’s mention of being engaged is any indication) are hanging out in the library to help giles with research, swapping stories about what it would be like were giles a vampire. each of them, save giles, gets a chance to tell a detailed story -- xander tells two! -- and each story plays out in a way that says a lot about the scooby that’s telling it AND the way they view giles.

obviously this is a VERY character-driven issue, and it’s a really really interesting look at giles and how he is perceived as well! shit like that is my bread and butter, so this has honestly become one of my favorite things that boom has put out -- possibly my ACTUAL top favorite issue if we’re being real here. 

below the cut is a spoilery dissection of every story told -- a literal summary of Every Single Thing that happens in this issue, as well as what it has to say about the scoobies and their perception of giles, so definitely keep that in mind.

as can be seen in the preview, xander’s first story is about giles rising from the grave as an ineffectual british caricature, who is easily defeated by smoldering, sexy xander harris (and xander in turn walks off with buffy and willow draped all over him, cooing about how amazing he is). it’s more of an intro to the premise than anything, but it still sets the tone pretty clearly wrt how xander handles this situation: there’s some laughter and levity, and he’s center stage. obviously a lot can be said about xander’s self-esteem issues and how he overcompensates by casting himself as the main protagonist both in canon and here. however, i wanna save my more in-depth xander analysis for his second, longer, story, so i’ll stop myself there.

willow immediately responds with skepticism: she’s of the mind that giles would be an incredibly serious big-bad level threat. the tale she spins involves giles as a dangerous vampire cleric with access to a cryptic altar, killing xander almost immediately and slaughtering buffy as a sacrifice to create eternal night. her view of giles is more clinical than anything -- and, i would argue, the most perceptive and realistic from a threat standpoint. the guy knows a fuckton of magic and he is incredibly well-read and powerful. he’d have some kind of terrifying master plan. where xander goes for comedy, willow goes straight for logistics, already looking at the battle like it’s a battle rather than laughs aplenty. 

xander and buffy have a bone to pick with willow’s story (xander is indignant that he’s immediately and brutally killed, buffy is of the mind that she would easily defeat giles in hand-to-hand combat even if he IS a vampire), so (after one more teasing story where buffy lives and xander dies) willow gracefully alters her narrative to reflect her friends’ objections: after a dramatic tussle, xander helps willow and buffy unceremoniously stakes giles in the heart. still pretty straightforward and plausible. willow sees vamp giles primarily as a threat -- one not easily neutralized. one who could easily wipe them out.

buffy, about to tell her story, is interrupted by xander, who “had an even better idea!” the web he weaves is this time purported as realistic and entertaining: while partying at the bronze, buffy and co. are interrupted by a bunch of balding, greying vampires in curlers and bathrobes, led, of course, by giles -- who is wearing a hair bonnet and disapprovingly informing the bouncers how late it is at eight PM. a knockdown brawl breaks out at the bronze -- old people feeding on and decimating the young -- and culminates in giles and the geezers taking over the band to sing “some terrible song” that’s “probably something really old and bad!” the rest of the story descends into b-movie chaos, with buffy throwing a broken guitar neck up at the stage lights to send the whole thing crashing down onto vampire giles and his vampire old person band. it’s categorically absurd.

the thing that really sticks with me about this story is how dumb it is. xander’s take on giles is not even slightly serious and wholly underestimates him. fandom at large talks a lot about how giles dropped the ball with xander, but i think tea time explores an easily overlooked factor: xander constantly, consistently underestimates giles. in canon, xander’s view of giles is not often challenged: to him, giles is a bumbling, british librarian who regularly gets his ass handed to him by vamps and demons and the like. certainly part of his story’s intent is about laughingly entertaining his gal pals, but there’s a very real and consistent thread involving giles being hilariously nonthreatening. 

giles, taking umbrage at this particular tale, calls out both xander and willow: xander’s story, in giles’s opinion, emasculates vamp giles and turns him into a ridiculous caricature -- and willow’s story, though much more flattering, lacks the kind of imagination that vamp giles would clearly have. he then offers a suggestion of his own. it’s worth mentioning here that both xander’s and willow’s stories get gorgeous multiple-page spreads depicting the vampy action, but giles’s is a simple and chilling little thing: this is his vampire story. this meeting, called to ostensibly “research” a vampire altar, is really an excuse to get the scoobies to do his dirty work and find the thing for him. they’re tired and silly because the tea and donuts he’s given them are drugged, and their library location is to keep them out of daylight. he laughs it off when he sees they’re bothered, and the meeting is then adjourned when willow finally finds what they’re all looking for. 

buffy’s left her phone in the library, so she doubles back, and accidentally wakes up a dozing giles. just as she’s about to leave, he inquires, casually, “...you never did tell your version of the story.”

and good god here is where it gets interesting.

see, buffy’s take is simple: she’s fighting giles in a cemetery, she’s given the chance to kill him, and she is entirely unable to do it. they share a tearful embrace as she sobs about the unfairness of it all -- “you’re giles! and you’ll always be! ...how will i do this without you? without your guidance?” and as the sun is rising, giles turns her into a vampire, with no resistance whatsoever from buffy. the next handful of pages depict bloody, indulgent violence on the parts of giles and buffy, the two of them cuddled up together as they watch the world burn. 

buffy’s tale is the most emotive, the most loving, which makes me so damn soft! i love this girl so much! she is unable to even joke about giles as a foe to be taken down -- he is her watcher. he is her friend. she loves him endlessly and that does not change when he’s a vampire. vamp giles as she portrays him is gentle and understanding, holding her as she cries, because he knows that they’re connected. it’s easily my favorite part of this whole issue.

notably, there is a definite buffy/giles bend that the comic itself tries to contradict. the art is sensual in nature -- vamp buffy all dolled up in a way somewhat evocative of drusilla, giles tenderly caressing her face as he waits for her to wake up. “watcher and slayer connected forever” being the quote chosen to describe the situation. i think it’s kind of what naturally happens in a vamp giles sitch, especially if he turns buffy -- the childe/sire bond is incredibly sexual in nature, especially in canon, and a lot of frustrating human sentiment gets translated into something sexual as well. sex is a big BIG part of the relationships between vampires we see in canon; it would make a lot of sense for that to hold true for buffy and giles.

the comic is reticent about Going There, which i can understand -- though buffy is decisively aged up in this issue (willow mentions being engaged to a woman, later revealed to be tara), the buffy/giles bond is always seen through a father/daughter lens in canon. i do think it’s also important to always recognize how desperately giles wishes to escape the label of father in reference to buffy, pretty much entirely because there is no way to parent a child soldier who you’re also training, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish. point is, buffy very pointedly refers to vamp giles as her father not once, but twice -- once as a human, once as a vampire herself. it’s a very clear attempt, imo, to un-sexualize the vampy experience. the reason it doesn’t totally work, at least for me, is the fact that -- like i said -- the childe/sire bond is VERY sexual (spike and dru, angel and darla, angel and dru) and it seems just totally implausible that vamp buffy/vamp giles (two people who, as human were both VERY repressed) would chastely remain within the socially acceptable version of their relationship.

i can definitely understand why they did their best to blur that line, though. the idea of buffy and giles being romantically involved as vampires is 1) Kind Of A Lot and 2) not exactly the target demographic that i think this comic is going for. but the subtext is there, to the point where the issue itself has to actively obfuscate it, which i think is .... so interesting? especially as a counterpoint to the way i often see buffy/giles in fandom, wherein the father/daughter subtext in canon is at times actively obfuscated in fic in an attempt to push a preferred reading. 

the ending i particularly enjoyed: after buffy leaves, it is lightly and ambiguously implied that giles might really be a vampire. works GREAT as a standalone, imo, and the end is like the cherry on top. it’s a really REALLY interesting issue and i highly recommend it for any giles fan. 

[opbackgrounds]

As many of you noticed, the other day I posted Part 1 in what has become a series on my thoughts on sexism in One Piece. If you are somehow seeing this post first, I would recommend clicking the link as I’ll be adding to the foundation I built there. 

I already had some pretty strong thoughts on this topic before receiving the original ask, but in the spirit of not wanting to sound like a douche academic integrity I decided to do a little cursory research into what other people meant when they said that One Piece is sexist. Here’s a collage of some of my favorite hot takes

As much as I’m...confused? Unsurprised yet somehow disappointed?...I don’t want to mock or belittle the people who feel this way. I think one of the most dangerous things in our modern internet age is that discussions only get surface deep before they devolve into shouting matches, and when the other side is vilified as ignorant or immoral or whatever it only serves to divide people into groups that grow evermore hostile to one another as the shouting matches get louder. It’s a short jump from your opinions are stupid and bad to you are stupid and bad for having them and I really don’t want to go there. 

Tl; dr: I don’t care if you disagree with anything I’m about to say, but if you send me harassing messages please know that I will laugh at you for presuming to think that I care.

Dropping the S Bomb

So first things first, a couple definitions. Sexism is prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination against a certain gender, in this case women. Chauvinism is excessive or prejudiced support for one's own cause, group, or sex. Misogyny is dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.

I start with definitions, because there are an astounding number of people who misuse these terms when making arguments. When talking about things like character design, Oda’s typical hour-glass figure is leaning into a stereotype that leads to the objectification of (fictional) women. An argument could be made that One Piece is sexist in that way. 

But it’s not that cut and dry, and I am always of the opinion that context matters. I argued in my previous post that there would be a wider variety of female character designs if there were more women, and the exaggerated aesthetic of the series lends itself to the exaggerated busts and butts typical of One Piece ladies. 

There’s an interview that came out around the time Strong World was released that I think is helpful when talking about this sort of thing. 

I approached it thinking that since I’m drawing for a boys’ comic magazine, then it’s my job to make sure they enjoy what they’re reading. When you actually do become a professional you’ll start getting fan letters and other things and you’ll soon find that the overwhelming majority of them are from girls. Boys just aren’t the type to pick up a pen. (laughs) They don’t have things like stationary or stamps and they don’t think about going through the ‘grueling task’ of writing someone just to say, “That was cool.” Boys are a life form that enjoy something but won’t bother to tell you that they actually do.

So I learned that girls will flood you with their opinions and when I took at step back and looked at the world of manga, I realized that there are a lot of people out there that made me think, “This [author] is really just going along with the girls’ opinions.” And ultimately, if you’re considering those opinions as the ‘needs of the customer’ when you write the story, you’re just left with a girl’s manga. (laughs) It’s like, if you do that, you’re only writing to entertain girls, and that’s just wrong.

Oda writes for his target demographic, pre-teen and teenage boys. He doesn’t seem to care much for the opinions of his female audience, which again could be perceived as sexist.

And to an extent maybe it is, but I also think it’s smart. You only have to look at the mess that is the new Star Wars trilogy to see what happens when a storyteller tries to appease a fan base. The end result is that everyone goes home from the theatre miserable. 

Humanity has been telling stories since time immemorial. They’re so ingrained into into the collective psyche that we have developed certain metanarriatives, types, and archetypes that have in turn been refined and distilled and applied to certain types of stories meant for certain types of people. The “rules” for telling a “boy’s story” are different than the “rules” for telling a “girl’s story”, just like I would not expect a romance to be told in the same way as one of Shonen Jump’s battle manga.

Incidentally, this is part of the reason why I think many romances in shonen fall flat. Stories best suited for fighting, camaraderie, coming of age, and growing into the best version of yourself are forced to try to include tropes and story beats that just don’t fit, and the end result is often just...bad.  

And, yes, these rules are arbitrary. They can and do change. Just look at shonen battle manga of the 80s vs the titles that were popular when One Piece started in the 90s vs what’s running today. The fact that Oda maintained an audience for over two decades while writing for a demographic that ages out every few years is nothing short of incredible. He clearly has a pulse on what his audience wants while maintaining a clear vision for the direction he wants One Piece to go.

Nor is this an individual effort. Oda works with his assistants and editors when it comes to making these decisions. It’s impossible to say how much he’s been influenced by these other voices, both in the past and now, even if he is ultimately the person responsible for what does and does not get put to paper.

What’s more, society changes. What is considered sexist now would not be thought of as such a generation ago. Our descendants will shake their heads at all the crazy, backward, terrible things we think are normative, and that’s not even taking into consideration differences in culture that not only exist between generations, but nations. America is going to have different ideas of what is and isn’t appropriate behavior than Japan, which undoubtably influences Oda’s sense of humor, which in turn influences the sorts of gags he puts into his comic.

I want to walk a fine line here, because I think there are objective standards that people should be held to regarding sexism while also acknowledging that getting people to agree to those standards are is impossible. If people truly feel as strongly about Oda’s character design and fan service as they make it seem online, then by all means comment on it. It’s not going to change Oda’s mind, but maybe with increased awareness the next generation of storytellers will be better. 

At the same time, I think that the indignant masses need to take a deep, hard look at what they’re calling sexism. Are you really going to claim, as I’ve seen, that all fan service is sexist? Are you really going to say that Robin and Nami are weak characters because they don’t get fights? Are you really going to say that Oda’s the most sexist mangaka out there, using, Fairy Tale as an example of female characters done right?

Because if you are, you’re setting yourself up to be thought as just as vapid and uniformed as those who are only reading for tits and ass. There are legitimate criticisms to be had, but just because you don’t like a thing doesn’t mean it’s bad storytelling. Just because Oda puts something out there that you don’t approve of doesn’t make it sexist. Audiences need to be better at thinking critically about the media they consume and learn to look past the sensationalism of click bait articles to truly explore the issues at hand. 

This is getting long again, so I think I’m going to split this into another post where I’ll dive into some specific examples within the series itself. Once again, thank you for your time. I promise I’ll wrap this up soon and move onto other, hopefully more positive, things.    

[thefirsthogokage]

I am once again watching the Turner & Hooch series on Disney plus. And once again, I am asking what demographic they are making this idiotic show for.

All of this stuff with the dog is so unrealistic, it is keeping me from throwing believability out the window.

Murder plots on a ... kid's show? I mean, like I said, no idea who this show is for.

I love this Olympic tie-in that makes no sense. Other than that this is around the time of the Olympics. Brilliant.

This show is just such a weird vibe that I can't put my finger on.

These people are obviously not English.

"Mommy [I swear to God she did not say at least mummy] went to go live with her tennis teacher because he was a good listener." WHAT THE FUCK IS THE TARGET AGE OF THIS SHOW?!

Also, this kid, even though she has the face for acting (detailed), she is practically reciting these lines that demonstrate she's alone. It's lacking a bit more heart. Disney usually finds child actors that are better with their delivery, but maybe she did the most satisfying English accent for them?

OH WAIT THAT'S BRANDON JAY MCLAREN! Glad to see he still works. I will always remember him from:

(he's the red ranger)

Bad blood effect would make you think this show is for kids. But then then hit the kidnapped agent (McLaren) and have semi automatics that they shoot in the next scene. I don't get this.

Oh wow. I did not expect them to say "The Olympics is all about money" in this show. Again, who was supposed to hear this, adults or kids?

Indicating they are going to threaten a kid.

I'm guessing this show is literally made for parents to watch with their kids. They are just doing it wrong. And I'm not fond of copaganda being made for kids.

Is an Olympic committee member a diplomat?

He should have slipped his shoes back on. That's two seconds.

Wait, a hostage situation in a hotel...I've never seen Die Hard. But, I have a feeling this a Die Hard plot rip-off plot.

"Yippy, Kai's in trouble." Fucking. Called it. He's even got the John McLane look:

"There's some dangerous about him" Please tell me they ripped off this line.

So this is, Die Hard meets Turner & Hooch. Not an AU crossover I expected.

I need a Die Hard fan to watch this episode and let me know how many references were in this.

Well, I guess this is supposed to be a kids show, since the guy who fell four stories and landed on his back is still alive and groaning in pain. And this other guy could have easily show McLaren's character in the head.

These guns clearly aren't firing. They didn't even bother to CGI muzzle flare. Weird fucking kids' show, man.

Oh there we go, muzzle flare. Maybe I missed it before. Certainly no recoil though.

PLEASE TELL ME MCLAREN COMES BACK! He did a fantastic job and i really like his character!

She can't knight anyone, she would know that, and it's probably some sort of insult to the Queen or something. I mean, fuck the royals, I'm just thinking a Brit would think it's an insult.

Ahh, yes, money doesn't really exist on a Disney show. Complain about it, then give in an buya $929 stroller.

This is absolutely even more insane than I thought. See this guy?

This is Reginald VelJohnson. Yes, he is surprising his role from the movie. But he also was Al Powell from the Die Hard movies. Holy fuck. Like...what the fuck Disney?

The sister's going to get kidnapped at some point this season, right? Because she's actually going to go on this mystery and find something that she shouldn't find?

I guess I'll find out. God why am I watching this? Maybe because I find it's demographic bouncing to be very bizarre? I don't know.

[darklightsworld]

Hello, I remember you saying some time ago you didn't like how female characters are portrayed in (current) anime because of how annoying and, maybe, misogynistic their archetypes are. Could you maybe elaborate on this point? I feel similar but can't articulate well and always end up feeling like I'm the one being misogynistic whenever this type of subject comes up in conversation x.x Sorry if this comes up as too personal.

Sorry about the late reply, I have been busy with a conference. Also sorry, because my answer is a bit long and all over the place ^^;

This is a difficult question, especially because nowadays people like to think in black and white, and everything is so extreme, like if they don’t like something, then it must be wrong and eliminated, not to mention the policing of every content based to this – which kills diversity and dismisses personal (and gendered) preferences. What I think is really a personal preference and not exactly a general critique of female characters in anime, especially because there are many factors to consider (genre, age and gender or the target audience, cultural background, etc.), and there’s also the audience with its multiple readings.

Personally I dislike most female character types manga and anime has to give, because I’m not really a person for overly feminine and girly things. The Japanese ideal is very cutesy and it’s the standard in both media for men, women and also real life. Not just looks, there is also the behavior side of things, the cutesy, childish, girly ideal, the passivity, helplessness, pretending to be stupid, etc, and I outright hate it when female characters are treated as stupid, clumsy messes. The question is, though, is this ideal really conservative and an embodiment of the toxic patriarchal system? Actually not necessarily. They definitely originate from the oppressive system, but over the decades girls made these ideals their own, and turned them into a weapon to get what they want. Even in real life, fashion is very feminine for me, always with frills, ribbons, flitters, tons of dresses and skirts, and it’s difficult to find plain clothes without any decoration, not to mention all the cuteness in goods and stuff, but as for the behavior of girls and women, the cutesy ideal seems more like a role to be played at a certain age or for certain purposes, like getting things they want and eventually the man. A woman, who didn’t like this ideal herself defined it as “they had to play the wounded deer”. Actually women, who use this role too much and even among women, are usually hated – this is the infamous burikko.

But no matter how they were in their younger years, married women don’t use this role anymore, and they seamlessly slip into a different identity, one that rules the family and the finances with iron fist (I’m stereotyping) – nothing cutesy, helpless or stupid about that. The Japanese themselves are aware of this cutesy role, both men and women, it’s their version of cunning flirtatiousness, it’s just a very different type of flirtatiousness than in the West. For example, there is currently even a tv show enacting certain situations where this cutesy behavior is used to get the man, and the hosts rate how effective the cutesy behavior was. But while I understand intellectually that these are not necessarily misogynistic stereotypes, I have some kind of a visceral hatred for them. The above tv show makes me outright nauseous. It’s a personal preference, and I don’t think I have to like these character types. But I also don’t think they should be erased from Japanese media, and it would be a mistake trying to push my very independent Western values onto such a different culture, so I rather avoid these characters – which is not easy.

So, what does this mean for anime and manga? Both are largely determined by genres (manga more than anime), genres work with clean-cut character types, tropes, traditions and reader expectation, so there is a reason why female (and male) characters are the way they are in different genres. Male-oriented works will obviously have female characters that appeal to men even if the work doesn’t have in your face fanservice shots (though let’s face it, if it’s anime, most of them do). I don’t like these female character types, I don’t think I have to like them, they are clearly not geared toward me, but I also don’t think they shouldn’t be there in a clearly male-oriented media. Sure, there can be discussions about removing overly exploitive situations, harassment and rape or things like that, but I’m not really against letting men have their fun – because I expect to have that same freedom in media geared toward women. There are occasionally unisex anime, but usually they still serve one or the other demographic in a way, and I don’t think it’s possible to create truly unisex anime that everybody will be satisfied with – fanservice for women will always bother men, and fanservice for men will always bother women.

Shōjo manga is a more difficult question, because somewhere in the 70s romance started to focus on imperfect heroines who still got the best guy, because he loved them regardless of their imperfections (“I love you the way you are”), and since then the genre is full of the stupid, clumsy, indecisive, housewife material archetype without any dreams beyond getting the boy (or very old-school women job dreams), which does not appeal to me either, so I usually avoid most romance shōjo manga, especially the high school variant, and even most josei manga, because I don’t care for the adult version of the same with marriage as the end goal *shrug* Actually it’s not even about these things only, like, I disliked Arte too (though not shōjo manga), despite it trying (and failing) to pose as a feminist social commentary, just because the mc way annoying. Fortunately there are a lot of other types of shōjo manga as well, even with more appealing female characters or the best, without female characters (plus the whole BL scene), so it’s not all that bad, at least in manga, not so much in anime. Interestingly, I’m much more compatible with shōjo manga by fujoshi artists. If I like a shōjo manga, usually the artist ends up coming out as a fujoshi after a while by posting BL fanart on her twitter or drawing outright BL manga – it’s been a pattern XD

Anime is more difficult, but I also admit, that my tastes might be extreme. In Japan there are many female fans who love the cute female characters of male-oriented media. Many women like Love Live, for example, because the girls are, I quote, “so cuuuuuute” – while I am fighting nausea… Yeah, Japan is imbued with cute. It’s especially difficult, because I’m usually not willing to watch a series even if there are such female characters in supporting roles or as a second protagonist with male characters I would love to see (Cop Craft was a recent-ish example). And while I avoid female only casts on principle, sometimes there are surprises. For example, the Yashahime anime has terrible writing, but I don’t hate the three main female characters (even if occasionally the anime has some iffy things to say about femininity).

I also mentioned multiple readings. It is important to note that the audience does not necessarily interpret everything the same, especially if there are cultural differences. One of the most famous examples for this is Sailor Moon, which was the incarnation of girl power and emancipation in the West in the 90s, but it has the same “dumb heroine gets the dream guy” trope, and the same conservative message of getting married and giving birth to children as any average shōjo manga, and the same “so cuuuuute” packaging. It really depends on the audience what they get away with.

All in all there are preferences, genre conventions, cultural differences, so the whole thing is quite difficult. But I don’t think you need to be worried about not liking or being uncomfortable with certain character types. And it would be a stretch to consider tastes like mine, for example, misogynistic. Sure, even in real life I make a wide berth around overly girly or feminine women (among others), but it can’t be helped, you can’t like and be friends with everyone, and I guess they wouldn’t like me or wanting to be my friend either. And that’s fine, and I don’t think it’s misogynistic for me to reject certain types of femininity for myself and to interact with, as long as I don’t want to erase or invalidate them, or deem them as inferior – and I don't. Of course, this is the attitude I expect towards myself as well. Live and let live 🖖

[thejudgingtrash]

My unpopular opinion: Chiron is a horrible teacher, protector, whatever. He’s as bad dumbledor. He often manipulates children and put them in danger? Also is RR really trying to tell me not one single demigod from before percy’s generation made it to adulthood? Not even demigods of minor gods? If not then why haven’t we heard from them, why weren’t they called to fight in the war so that literal children didn’t have to? I have more but I’m not brave enough to post them lol

Fuck, I gotta check my asks more often. Too much stuff laying around and oh please people! Send your stuff in! Don’t be shy! It’s so interesting to see what’s on your mind! Let’s have that conversation and ask me!! :D I mean a bunch of people agreed and disagreed with my stances (Part 1/Part 2), let’s see how I feel about yours!

Anyway HERE WE GO BOYS! LET’S GO LESBIANS LET’S GO! 

LET’S HAVE THAT WHOLE DAMN ESSAY!

Chiron is clearly a self insert from Riordan. I mean come on…

That’s a solid Chiron if I see one. Which is pretty ironic as Chiron’s the shitty teacher who we all know and love. Got something to admit, Riordan? You as a former teacher? HMM?

Hiding incompetence under the disguise of the gentle old wise teacher is definitely something that Dumbledore and Chiron share. Chiron is the old centaur who lived for aeons and helped out the most famous heroes of their times, so shouldn’t modern times be considered to be an easier job for him? He’s barely present, highkey vague and has absolutely no problems with tossing children literally out into the open across the entire fucking US and A to clean the gods’ bathroom messes.

Had the heroes been in their 20s like in the original myths (or even older) it would’ve made more sense to let them find their own ways. It would be rude,  but somewhat okay. You could expect adults to find the way and connect the dots. But this is just messing with a bunch of 12 year olds because you can at this point.

Chiron is that supposed sweet teacher that just fucks up. We all had one, you know the one. Seems gentle and nice and but has clearly chosen the wrong job. Don’t know if that’s the trauma of living that long and/or seeing kids dying constantly that’s hitting him in the back of the head.

I have the feeling that people are projecting their teacher fantasies on to him just like step-father fantasies that include Paul. Because we want a guide who is trustworthy, we want an authoritative figure that we can share our concerns with and who guides us to solid solutions without betraying our trust.

But like I said, he’s essentially sending out kids to deathly missions and encouraging deep traumas. Yes, we can partially blame Chiron, but most of the blame goes to the gods who enable and encourage this weird dynamic. Would all of them straight up cut the bullshit and mostly resolve their own issues without using their children as pawns, it would’ve been easier for everyone involved. Additionally, there are many kids in camp to keep busy, look after and care for. I don’t know how many there were pre-TLO but I’d assume the number was in the hundreds? Of course, in larger cabins are camp counsellors that help out and guide next to camp schedules. But since Percy’s the only kid in the Poseidon cabin I guess that thought went south? Percy being the special kid would actually mean that there should be a focus on him unless you’re going for the “I’m neutral” spiel. Chiron knew from day one that Percy was walking Poseidon seed, come on.

Also like I somewhat implied, seeing people die left and right might have impacted Chiron to make him feel indifferent/despressed (could also be a stretch, who knows). Which isn’t an excuse, but might explain some takes. Explaining the same stuff for millennia in its essentials is probably getting tiring.

I think this is the third time that I mentioned it on my blog but showing and telling are the most powerful story telling concepts/fundamentals and you see Rowling and Riordan constantly failing at that which is concerning. Instead of Chiron (or Dumbledore) just simply getting down to the point and telling and explaining stuff briefly, he only eludes, vaguely formulates and it is simply confusing especially for a child in a brand new environment who just lost his mother (if we’re speaking about TLT). This does nothing but add more stress in such a fragile situation especially when a new and bigger threat makes its way.

There’s also the discussion on how much of Greek myth Percy actually gets. He has the basic/ obvious knowledge which many tend to forget. He doesn’t come in with no knowledge. He had Latin classes back at the academy, he studies with Annabeth, he knows some of the monsters. What he simply doesn’t know, is the magic of it all. That is the most confusing part for him.

The actual magic is not explained, which it doesn’t have to be in all of its entirety, but needs to be addressed somehow and gradually.

Percy asking a simple question like how the camp stays sunny and covered 24/7 and how the wardens work and Chiron casually sitting here like you a stoopid one

doesn’t help.

What many people forget: Magic doesn’t erase logic. Even in a magical setting, unless clearly stated, there has to be some kind of logic to connect the dots. It doesn’t need to be a clear cut A to B, but it should be comprehensible for both the readers and the characters in a particular situation. And that’s just not happening for Percy as the character. This also sets up the premise of Percy being ”stupid” which he isn’t. He is surrounded by incompetent teachers and staff that don’t bother telling him how things work and assume that he’ll just manage.

Yeah. Both Dumbledore and Chiron are awfulness in a sweet calm disguise.

Onto part two of the ask. I have had so many talks with people on that exact problem. It simply boils down to one issue:

Rick Riordan‘s inconsistency in world building and setting. The story telling doesn’t make any sense.

So kids are dying like flies before 18 but many are also super famous and in powerful positions? Many are historical figures that made it well over 18? Make that make sense. Also was WW2 supposed to be kicked off by some 12 year olds with that logic? The biggest man made catastrophe of the modern era boiled down to a bunch of fighting kids? No. We all know it. Just simply no. I actually don’t mind the WW2 background but Riordan should’ve given it another thought and be a bit more sensitive…? Like the whole fascist gang being team Hades? Uhh… sure…. nope.

Also the same logic applies to Civil War? You’re telling me a bunch of kids were supposed to have started this stance? Who was for and who was against slavery then? What in the actual fuck? Using children as child soldiers to stand in for these large complex historical issues that stretch over years and show many of humanity’s horrifying sides is just….eh.

No. This whole thing about campers dying as soon as they reach the magic number of 18 are either bedtime stories to scare the kids or toughen them up orrrr my guess, Riordan actually managed yet again to fuck up his own lore.

It’s the same logic with New Rome. You have a whole city full of adults but have a few kids run that bitch? You did your ten years of service as a child soldier and then do one of these?

As if adults magically exit this world. Like is that the reason why Percy’s been 17 for a whole damn decade? Because otherwise he gotta hand riptide in and all of the boys scout medals he has collected so far? Adults would’ve had the experience and expertise to win those fights but it would break the magic and charm of the books that a bunch of kids are saving the world for the younger demographic. Let’s do not forget that the targeted audience of the books are middle schoolers. Makes somewhat sense with PJO but with HOO Riordan really shot himself in the leg. He should’ve matured the OG characters at least.

(Also speaking about the actual myths again. A good chunk of them died in their 20s/30s/40s. Odysseus guided as an old man. The heroes weren’t twelve and dipping by the age of 16. The Trojan war went on for 10 years for example. So whereas the real Perseus lived a longer life and had a somewhat happy ending in comparison to his peers, he wasn’t the only one that made it into adulthood.)

Riordan mixing up his own lore is just a shame. Yes, it’s human and he already gets a lot of flag for other stuff. I also get it as a writer with my fanfic where I really have to scroll up to search tiny details that I’ve embedded and not noted down. Perhaps it’s my inner capitalist speaking, but for I’m way more forgiving towards a free product, a gift like a fanfic, rather than something I’ve paid actual money for when it comes to this. The process of publishing a book is large. You mean to tell me that there was no editor at Disney that bothered to fact check? Riordan got a check from us all and doesn’t even bother looking up his own stuff. A little bit more effort, Ricardo. Please. You have an entire damn wiki you could use to check for free if you’re too lazy to read your own books/don’t use authors softwares. Like what?

It’s stupid. You know it, I know it. And as you can see, I fully agree with you.

[jovialjudgebonkalmond]

Inevitable, Ch 1

Aight. So, I got crotchety and decided to write a fic. Obvious disclaimer, I don’t own the characters or universe in which the story takes place - yes internet I am that old, thank you.

Summary: Monty is alive, in jail. A recounting of his experiences and memories and basically all those flashbacks we weren’t given in season 4 that I am butthurt about. It is AU in the sense that he is still alive whilst Clay & Co are attempting to frame him for Bryce’s murder. Obvious spoiler alerts if you haven’t seen season 4.

Pairings will be Monty x Winston mainly. So far this is all from Monty’s POV but that may change down the line.

Warnings include violence, sex, drug use, rape, murder, and basically everything graphic and bad you can imagine. Will absolutely contain smut. Oh, and swearing. Yay, debauchery. 

Word Count: 2,963

Another warning: I haven’t written fanfiction for like...15 years guys. Go easy on me. Also, please excuse the shitty username. I didn’t pick it and I am far too lazy to change it.

Another another warning: This is from Monty’s point of view. Clearly he didn’t view his actions with the totality of how devastatingly monsterous they were. I condemn his actions, he’s a rapist and deserved jail time. As we saw in s3 and in snippets of s4 he didn’t share that point of view. I think Monty is a dynamic character that’s interesting and I relate a lot to his back story. That’s why I was motivated to write this.

The air was thick, heavy, and moist. It had that stench of too many bodies crammed into an enclosed space, like the end of the night at a house party and you're still sober and all you can smell is stale sweat and the old farts that people pretend they aren't sneaking out when they're grinding on each other.

Not that I have much experience with being the sober one at the end of the night.

Montgomery de la Cruz kept his jaw clenched and shoulders squared as he walked to the dining hall. As he passed other men, all dressed in the same ugly orange jumpsuits, he made brief eye contact. Walking with your eyes down here was a sign of weakness and he had a target on his back from the moment he arrived. His shoulders, back, and ribs ached with his movements. It hadn't taken the other inmates long to get acquainted with him, a matter of hours really. The urge to hunch his shoulders and put a hand to stable his broken ribs was overwhelming, and fighting it made the vein in his neck throb annoyingly in cadence with his pulse and footsteps.

  White, black, brown, gnarled, wrinkled, scarred, baby-faced youth, tattooed or not.... Monty silently made an inventory of their faces and features. One way or another, they were all just fucking assholes waiting for their opportunity. It was baffling just how much it reminded him of high school. The dining hall even had the same layout as a cafeteria, the same dull drone of a few hundred pricks all talking at once. He scanned his I.D. and settled into the end of the meal tray line, leaving an arm's length of room between himself and the back of the inmate ahead of him. He was a slight, wiry Latino with a snake tattooed from his shoulders up his neck. Only moderately safer than lining up behind someone else. Race dictated almost everything here.

But his charges changed the rules. Sexually assaulting a minor carried out its own price in jail. He wasn't even safe within his own demographic. 

Which was fucking bullshit anyway. Tyler was basically the same age and it wasn't fucking sexual assault for fuck's sake.

Not that anyone here gave a fuck.

Oh, and then there were the murder charges. Fucking Clay Jensen. He grabbed the plastic tray from the stack. It was the same ugly beige that the cement walls were painted. There were slits for windows close to the ceiling like a low-rent basement suite in the wrong part of town, with that cage wire in-between the panes of glass. So small even a tiny bitch like Standall wouldn't fit through them. It was incredible how much the human body craved the fresh air and cool breeze of an open window the moment you realize you may never feel it on your skin again.

Lunch was by far the best meal of the day. The food wasn't...terrible. Today it was plain lettuce chopped up as a 'salad', sliced ham on white Wonder Bread, and some kind of from the bag frozen brown slop passed off as soup.  The silver lining was the butterscotch pudding. It reminded him of the milk cake his mom used to make him on his birthday, sort of. He stopped at each station and watched the inmates who worked the kitchen plop the items on his tray. The kitchen work was reserved for the favourites, for the most part. After all, what else are you gonna do on the outside with a record?

He looked for an empty table and dropped his tray on it with a soft clacking of plastic on poured concrete. The tables and chairs were rows of picnic style benches made out of concrete and steel, bolted into the concrete floor. They were hard, cold, and uncomfortable just like everything else in this fuckin' place. He supposed that was the point. Everyone here was just in the grown-up version of a time out corner... from life, possibly for life. He sat down, the cold, hard seat digging into the bones in his ass.

It was unnerving, intimidating... and so terrifying he had been breathless since the moment he arrived. Like a white hot fist was clenched across his whole chest, suffocating him with the weight of his fucking mistakes. So many fucking mistakes. It made his head spin like he was living in some kind of alternate reality or a fucking nightmare. Although, if he was honest...he always knew it would end up like this. Especially without Bryce around to clean up his fucking mess this time.

The hot night air whipped his face as he pressed on the gas pedal, the stars flashing by above him as he sped down the empty road. Justin reached between them and turned the volume up, blasting the music so he felt it pumping through himself like a weird tachycardia.

"I fucking love this song." He yelled, sparking up a joint. He took a few puffs off of it to get it started before passing it over. When he exhaled the air around them swilled with the familiar skunky aroma. Monty laughed, guiding the old Jeep with one hand and reaching for the joint with the other.

"Of course you do, its a shitty fucking song." he chuckled, inhaling in a slow pull. It burned at the back of his throat. He held it in for a few seconds before exhaling and shaking his head and passing it back.

"That's cheap shit."

"Well yeah, I'm not fucking Bryce Walker." Justin laughed, the streetlights illuminating his black eye. His mother had a new asshole boyfriend who picked tonight to use Justin as a human punching bag...and well that's what brothers were for. It's not like Monty had anything better to do, anyway. He flipped his signal to turn right and pulled into the parking lot by the rocky beach. They could throw rocks and sticks into the water, maybe set some shit on fire and get shitfaced. Justin took another hit off the joint and pinched the end out with his fingertips, rubbing the ash into his skin like a salve.

"Neither am I, man, neither am I..." he muttered. Justin and Monty weren't the most unlikely of friends. Justin was a bit worse off than him in the family department, sort of. But Bryce Walker? Sometimes he wondered if not for the team what was the thread that held them together.

"Fucking Bryce." Justin muttered as Monty cut the engine. The silence without the music was sudden and deafening. "Of course he's out of town with his dad on vacation."

"Probably getting laid." Monty added, laughing. Justin laughed too. Justin Foley was like...allergic to being alone. The fuckin' guy had kicked puppy written all over his face, always needing a lap to curl up in...and in the absence of that there was always a powder or a needle to get him through til the next adoption. But he was such a drag and a honest to god pain in the ass on the field when he was in withdrawal or detoxing. So. Monty was here to pick up the pieces before it jeopardized the team. And he didn't mind. It was better than being at home...

He pulled the keys out and stepped out. The California summer air meant he didn't need the doors or the top on the Jeep and he enjoyed the freedom. Justin matched his footsteps as they silently walked on to the rocky beach. His trademarked puppy dog eyes were mournfully eyeing the skyline where it met the ocean. Monty casually reached down and picked up a rock, watching it skip across the waves when he tossed it. Justin stuffed his hands in the pockets of his varsity jacket.

"Sometimes I wonder why he even fuckin' bothers with a couple of fuck ups like us." He muttered, casting his eyes down.

So that's what we're gonna do, Monty thought, we're gonna mope... fuck that.

"Now Justy, imagine how fucking boring his life would be without us. Just an endless string of bitches to rail and expensive scotch." He skipped another rock and glanced over, leaned in and gently knocked his shoulder into Justin's, knocking the other boy off balance. Justin laughed and locked eyes with Monty for a moment.

"I guess you're right about that yeah." he laughed. It was a small, unsure laugh at first but Monty saw the sorrow break a bit in his eyes. He was good at noticing these subtle things, noticing things was often what saved his ass. If you knew to watch when someone's eyes changed, or the way their muscles tensed and moved you could easily predict what they were going to do. Quite often this was what was between him and a clenched fist to his face.

Monty and Justin had similarities, Monty could admit that, but where Justin pulled inward and consumed himself, brought himself down, Monty hardened and clenched his fist right back at the world.

If he was honest, he thought Foley was weak. But that's what brothers are for, they protect each other. The strong look out for the weak, especially in their weakest moments.

"I mean, who are we kidding," Justin said, "He's going to go off to like Stanford or Princeton or something..." He leaned down and picked up a rock, running his fingers over the smooth, cold surface.

"You couldn't pay me to go to one of those stuffy ass places anyway." Monty countered, kicking at some of the rocks by his feet, scuffing a small trench into the sand beneath. "I get sick just thinking about it."

"Yeah." Justin agreed, "I just... all these fuckin' rich kids..."

"Yeah. And their tight pants and cardigans." Monty snorted, watching Justin's face break into another smile.

"Fucking cardigan's. Like a fucking grandpa."

"I'm not going to live long enough to get old, so I can't relate." Monty said loudly, almost like forced bravado. He liked being obnoxious, to smile out of spite.

"Yeah," Justin laughed, "You're gonna die in prison with a fuckin' shiv between your ribs."

Monty laughed, watching Justin release his rock with a flick of his wrist. It skipped once over the glassy surface before falling into its inky black depths. 

"And you're gonna die with a fuckin' needle in your arm...or-" His face cracked into a grin.

"Maybe you'll get the fuckin hiv."

Justin laughed loudly and gave Monty a shove.

"It's H-I-V,  dumbass."

"Yeah, but hiv rhymes with shiv. We'll both get ivved." He crowed proudly, shoving Justin back lightly with both his hands. Justin took a half-hearted swing at him, but he dodged it easily and picked up a piece of driftwood as he ran by, swinging around and walloping the other boy in the ass. Justin's legs buckled and he took a few steps, laughing and chucking  handful of small rocks at him. They pinged over his broad chest like hail on a shitty day.

"Fuck you, Monty!"

"Ohh wouldn't you like to though, Justy." Monty countered, turning around and dropping his pants off his cheeks. He bent over and smacked his own ass, "I'm waiting!" He laughed, his face breaking into a slightly demented grin. He felt the stinging welt of a stick being whipped across his bare skin and jumped, yanking his pants back up. He yelped, turning around, the grin not leaving his face.

"Fuck no, you'd like it too much. Perv." Justin pointed the stick at him. Monty picked up the stick he had dropped before and aimed for Justin's thigh, but Justin blocked it and whacked Monty again, this time in his side. They continued to chase, smack, and poke at each other, delighting in the mutual torment.

"Fuck you're relentless." Justin declared in defeat, dropping his stick with a laugh and holding his hands up with surrender. He was panting, his pasty skin clammy in the moonlight.

"It's one of my more endearing qualities." Monty said with a devilish grin as he bowed. "That and my abs."

"Fuck your 'roid ass abs." Justin half wheezed. "Think Bryce will read our obituaries from his penthouse drinking his fucking scotch?"

"Nah man," Monty laughed with a shake of his head, "They don't write obituaries for shitheads like us."

Monty was yanked out of his drifting memories when another man sat across from him with a thump that rattled the table. The boy stared at the man for a moment, one triangular quarter of his shitty dry sandwich poised in his hand as he was about to take a bite. He bit down and chewed, watching the intruder with feigned disinterest. He was good at this. Putting on a front.

Until he couldn't anymore, that is. Until the mask slipped and revealed the scared, desperate pile of shit inside.

The man was at least six feet tall, three-and-some hundred pounds, white as mayonnaise with a big ol' swastika on his bicep. He had an earring in one ear and some scars down his face, chest, and arms. Scratches. Wounds made from desperate, terrified women in self defense. He was bald as a gummy walnut, his scalp weirdly wrinkled and beginning to be dotted with age spots. He was at least mid-fifties, Monty figured. Total skinhead. Asshole. Word of mouth said his rap sheet was a few miles long, most recently connected to a decent string of raped and murdered girls and women. Almost all of them were involved in the sex trade, women or girls of colour. He was a truck driver who used his profession as a tool to evade the police, making it hard to pin him down because he changed locations across different jurisdictions. The varied age and ethnicities of his victims didn't help the police either. Some were as young as 12 years old, and others as old as mid 40's. He, too, was awaiting sentencing. Obviously whatever happened, he'd end up in a maximum state prison.

Couldn't fit the stereotype more if he tried, Monty thought, disgusted.

That's the shit end of the stick awaiting sentencing in a county jail. You get petty crooks like Tim Pozzy who likely won't even get real time, and then assholes like this behemoth pile of trash.

Monty chewed his food, watching silently as the neonazi asshole reached across the table and took his pudding. His fingers were fat, like pale bloated sausages. He opened it, maintaining eye contact with Monty. His eyes were an icy blue, and they seemed devoid of anything. They say the eyes are the window to the soul... and there was nothing there. It sent a shiver down the 18 year old's spine and made the hair on the back of his neck tickle. He smiled, showing that he was clearly in desperate need of dental care. He didn't have many teeth left, and the ones that remained were brownish-greyish nubs of rot. Monty thanked whatever god or demon that might be listening that he couldn't smell this guy's breath. It just looked like it would inevitably stink. The whole time he felt the old familiar build up, the inevitable time bomb tick, tick, ticking through his veins. His blood sounded like thunder in his ears.

How is it that I fuck with Ty-ty, just some fucking hazing, not a big deal...and I get labelled a pedophile and a rapist - a fucking rapist for fuck's sake - and this guy...this guy basically runs this place...

It's not like he wanted to fuck Tyler. That's disgusting. He wanted to hurt him, and he could admit that was wrong. Sure. But the little creep had ruined his life, and for that he had to pay. It was simple.

This asshole, though, was the real pedophile. The only difference was Monty had the audacity to target a white male, the untouchable. And this guy stuck to the easily forgotten targets.

He stuck out a surprisingly short, wide, tongue that looked like it was covered in herpes lesions and licked the foiled plastic lid of the pudding. Monty felt it come alive inside of him, blinding and electric. White hot rage boiled through his veins, exploding in his head and lighting every muscle in his body so that he had to move or it would consume him. He couldn't have stopped himself if he had wanted to try, and he didn't bother with the wasted effort.

In a swift, smooth motion he grabbed his lunch tray with his free hand and backhanded the other man up the jaw with it and stood. Before the asshole had time to react, he used his other hand to grip the top of his head - ham sandwich and all, and slam his face into the concrete table and the pudding. Blood and pudding spurted in all directions like a moneyshot of rage jizz and he felt relief hearing the echoing crack of the larger man's skull. He didn't even have time to bask in the afterglow of his violence before he felt the familiar thud of knuckles to the bottom left of his jaw, the blow eliciting a sickening pop and sending him reeling out of control. He stumbled, losing his balance as vision went static like a television without a connection. He tasted the all too familiar coppery flavour of blood filling his mouth. He spat and staggered and threw a blind fist out, feeling it connect to something, but what he wasn't sure. The immediate agony and crack told him it was in fact the fucking table and he probably broke some fingers. That's when he took a second, devastating blow to his head and everything went black.

[fandom-queenliness]

*Spoilers* Oni-Chan

Why just why. I have so many issues with this so I’m doing it how anyone would. A full-length essay dissecting everything I can from the subtitles. 

Be aware, I am not very pro-Love Square, and have a large number of problems with the shows writing/Adrien and his Nice Guy/Passive behaviour in general. 

Essay/salt incoming, you have been warned. Read at your own peril. 

For context, in previous episodes, Adrien has had little to no problem with Lila lying and has even gone out of his way so that she may continue lying. Kagami had about zero romantic interest in Adrien upon her first appearance in Riposte, which is, in my opinion, her truest representation. Marinette has been told to not be so jealous of Adrien multiple times, but the narrative has made it clear she has no control of her feelings when it comes to him. All of Adrien’s love interests (Chloe, Kagami, Lila, Marinette) generally all hate each other, are vindictive, cruel, petty and jealous. Adrien does literally nothing to stop them. 

First of all, they expect us to believe that Kagami is in love with the limp noddle that is Adrien? Get out. Just get out. In Riposte, I believe she had about no interest in him. She came here to fence and by gods was she going to fence. But Nooooooooo, Adrien just had to have another love interest, and no girl can be without someone to make her complete. What utter bullshit. I am so mad right now. 

Second, I’m glad that he’s finally taking a stand against Lila (though, still in a passive way. I’ll take what I can get). He’s cut her off, he’s yelled at her, scolded her. Now we just need him helping Mari taking her down, acknowledging his flaws, trying to improve himself, all while learning about boundaries and taking no for an answer. What a wonderful development of his character, Adrien salt is non-existent, the show is saved, the love square is trending. Oh wait, it is physically impossible for the writers to have Adrien improve because “he’s already perfect”. Ugh. 

Third, what a shitty reason to get akumatised. (I love Kagami btw). I mean, yeah, she can be mad, but really, over a guy. A guy who has already stated he likes another girl. (Chat had a good point, Lila and Kagami should have had Adrien’s input on his feelings instead of a game of tag around the city, but honestly does Chat even think of LB’s feelings? Does anyone, ever? A post for another day). But really a better reason could have been Kagami learning of Lila’s lying and Adrien’s passive-fucking-ness and how poorly it has affected Marinette, who Kagami was open to building a friendship with in Riposte. She could have learned what happened and felt betrayed because Adrien was not who she thought he was, and she becomes akumatised to seek revenge for Marinette and to confront Adrien without him being pulled away by his schedule. Bam we have character development and Adrien getting called out on his flaws, plus Marinette has someone standing up for her. So much better immediately. (Sidenote: Kagami’s whole speech about Adrien sucked ass I can’t believe a word of it. Just more of Astruc pushing perfect sunshine boy upon us.) 

Fourth, honestly fuck how Marinette behaved in the first half. I love my girl, she is awesome, but I am tired of her being so over the top and possessive of Adrien. Like, we get it, she likes him, but no girl - especially no girl who is as mature as the narrative is portraying her as - is going to stalk her crush and a girl all the way to his house. She has been told/told herself to stop being jealous in multiple episodes, but it’s undone by the next. Fuck that. Also, let her have some character outside of Adrien because honestly, I am sick and tired of him and how Marinette is made to act around him. So much of her development is around him and it’s not a good message for the age demographic this show is targeted at. It’s just terrible honestly. 

Fifth, KAGAMI CUT DOWN A TREE AND IT WAS AWESOME. SHE’S SO STRONG, I LOVE HER. *Swoons* 

Sixth, Lila had some good lies. Fucking finally. It was about time. I was worried she was incapable. And some back story on her? Wonderful, personally I can’t find an absent mother as a good excuse because the mother clearly loves her dearly but it’s nice, nonetheless. And Lila manipulating Oni-Chan? Great, just so glad that I can actually start seeing her as a threat to something other than the Love Square in canon. And that bit where Gabriel was clearly seeing her as a weapon/ally was like water in a desert, the plot is moving, hussah. God it was refreshing but we all know it won’t last. C’est la vie. 

Seventh, loved the fireman thing. Him helping Mari and LB? Adorable. Hated the reason why he helped Marinette, but it was cute how he comforted her. (Honestly I kinda wanted him to tell Mari if this guy was bothering her so much maybe she should let him go. Idk I’m just so fucking tired man). He can be added to the Marinette protection squad I love how he’s all about the safety. 

Eight, notice how Chat was whining about how no one fights over him. Are we really going there? Really. I just, Jesus. The boy is a model, famous, rich, and has girls and guys fawning over him as Adrien enough, which he clearly does not appreciate. Does he really want that as Chat, or does he just girls he can use to make Ladybug jealous, like dolls to be discarded when he is done? A question for another day. 

Ninth, Tikki finally gives Marinette some good advice but it’s too late and I’m already cringing over the whole trash bin thing. I just—*sigh* 

Tenth, Kagami’s costume? Hurts my eyes. The potential was there but it was wasted. I’m so sorry that Hawkbitch forced my girl to wear that. My poor sword lesbian. 

Eleventh, Adrien continues to be a passive bitch, letting Lila sneak around him room, ignoring Plagg’s warnings, and only getting truly upset when Lila manipulated him into leaving LB. I’m mad about that too, because like, sure he thought she was hurt, but couldn’t he have just set her down on a rooftop somewhere safe instead of the whole hospital bit? Btw, I love fireman guy seeing through Lila’s shit. “This is what you get for now wearing kneepads”. He is so concerned for safety. My boy. 

Twelfth, LB using Oni-Chan’s powers against her was beautiful. We stan a queen. So smart, so brave, I love her. 

Thirteenth, they really made Kagami idolise that fucking rose Adrien gave her. The rose Adrien originally gave LB, the rose he gave her before asking her out on a terrible date. The terrible date where he invited another girl, payed more attention to said other girl, and then made it clear to Kagami that he was using her as a rebound and he was still not over the girl who rejected him. They are really trying to make us believe Kagami the Queen loves this guy? Really? 

Fourteenth, the horn was hilarious. I wish she was stuck with it. Or at least LB video Lila lying and her horn growing. It was a beautiful thing. 

Fifteen I don’t get the whole “Chat ignores the Bien-Joué from LB to help Kagami up is Bad and Terrible”. Like, I hate the implications and subtext behind it. And the way LB deflated over it. It was unnecessary and jsut there to stir up trouble. Just… fuck that. 

Sixteenth, LB abandoning Lila to walk home was wonderful. I wish Mari was allowed to be like that outside of the mask and not get demonised for it. 

Seventeenth, Alya asking Mari why she’s not “keeping an eye” on Adrien and Lila and Marinette saying she “trusts” Adrien with Lila is weird for me. Cause it’s like she was saying it like she was Adrien’s girlfriend and was trusting him not to cheat. It was like she was already laying claim to a guy that she can barely talk to. In fact, they didn’t talk at all in this ep. Mari and Juleka had more exchanges than her and Adrien. Pshh. 

Eighteenth, Gabriel is a piece of shit. Not letting his son have friends. No wonder he’s like this. Plus making a deal with the bitch who feels so entitled to Adrien is a dick move. Fuck Gabriel and his candy cane tie. 

Nineteenth, Lila manipulated Natalie. What the shit. I’m impressed. I’m loving this whole thing. I’m really excited for Lila working with Hawkbitch. It’s going to be either really good or bad as shit. I am worried for Adrien. Just because I don’t like how he’s being portrayed doesn’t mean he should suffer at the hands of Lila. Also her mirroring Gabriel’s want to shield his son is kinda creepy and possessive. Ew. 

Twenty, Adrien: “Lila, you can count on me, unless you hurt the people I love”. Um, how about Marinette? I get you don’t love her romantically but what about your good friend??? Or do you just not care about her?? Throwback to Chameleon where Adrien decided keeping Lila from being akumatised mattered less than the truth and Marinette’s feelings. Yeah, he’s such a great role model and such a wise choice for a love interest. 

As you can see from the evidence, this episode sucked. Kagami and Marinette deserve better (preferably each other) and not the limp blond pasta sucker that is Adrien Agreste. Very sorry if you’re feeling offended by this post, feel free to rant and complain about it and me. 

[nadziejastar]

I completely agree. A lot of fans didn't appreciate the complexity they were attempting with Axel as a character. And that's why so many fans actually came away with the genuine belief that he was "dumb" or an uncomplicated happy-go-lucky guy, whose entire existence revolved around a 15-year-old boy he couldn’t have a serious conversation with. Or a heartless sociopath. I will use quotes from this forum topic since I found the opinions there to be so interesting.

First of all, I don't dislike Axel. I like his type of character, but I could never really connect with him because his rash development always kinda irritated me. In Re:Com, we get to see him as cunning, smart-mouthed, manipulative and cold-blooded. He kills Vexen without a second thought, taunts and fights Sora, plays Marluxia and gets Replicu to kill Zexion who didn't even need to die. 

Days is trying to sell me that this man who seemed hardly much different from Marluxia and Larxene (which is why they accepted him quickly) would actually try to befriend someone who can't even talk. And it's not just handing him an ice cream once after a job, but Axel actually does make an effort to keep this friendship up. He later states that Roxas made him feel like he had a heart, but that was way after he started caring about Roxas (a job he complained to have, actually).

It's not that I dismiss the idea of Axel befriended someone like Roxas entirely - but RAX is the trio that sold its friendship to me the least. There's is this jarring difference between Re:Com Axel and Days Axel and also KH2 Axel and KH3 Axel. Re:Com Axel is, like I already said, cunning and manipulative, but acts like a playful, "I'll explain the world to you" nice uncle in Days when he isn't currently out there killing people (this transition obviously doesn't bother him one bit) and after he jumps between two extremes, he is rather straightforward in KH2, being quite clear with Roxas. In KH3 he turned into a joke, sadly and I can't even see why he had to..

When I see opinions like these, it’s SO clear that Axel was supposed to get an actual fleshed out backstory. Not a 2 minute exposition dump primarily functioning as sequel-bait. That’s NOT a backstory. A lot of people think Days "ruined" him because he acted so differently compared to CoM. Like you said, he was a Slytherin in CoM. Lea was probably more of a Ravenclaw. Axel acted more like that around Roxas and Xion. 

Many didn't see that Axel was hiding so much of himself with them. In many ways, he was putting on a performance. It just made him that much more interesting and realistic to me. Real people act differently in different situations. Axel was smart enough to know that he can't show certain aspects of himself to certain people. So he wore a mask with the kiddies and of course hid his sentimental side from everyone else. He was still the same character, though. I can totally see Axel befriending someone who can’t talk if he and his best friend were used as a human guinea pigs in the past, and his best friend was left unable to talk afterwards (which is what I think happened). That makes perfect sense.

Days was the fallout, and any shred of nuance his character had was gone. There's like, a tiny bit of it when he has to go to Castle Oblivion and has a "don't ask me about my job" vibe with Roxas, but that's not enough to make up for the rest of the game in which he's this sad puppy trying to befriend other sad puppies.

You bring up a fantastic point by saying he could've been friends with other members: one of my gripes with Days is that from the outside Roxas, Axel and Xion seem like this snob trio that doesn't even try to give other people a chance. Axel ditches possible companionship with people he's known for years and that are much closer to his age and possible interests because as soon as he sees this mute and unresponsive kid he's like, completely in awe. (Axel truly was the first "must protect precious cinnamon roll" person). And you can FEEL how much Roxas wants to get away from every single person who isn't Axel or Xion.

It’s sad that it was never shown that Axel was not in the organization by choice. It was obvious that he had a tragic past, but it still should have been shown. He never wanted to be an assassin. The Subject X retcon totally contradicts all of Axel’s past behavior from every single game. It blows my mind that a large portion of the fandom can uncritically accept that Axel was simply looking for a random girl for the last ten years. I can see how Roxas seemed like a “precious cinnamon roll” to Axel. The fandom certainly treats their relationship that way, which I find cringeworthy. But I don’t think that was supposed to be the idea. Axel seemed "in awe" of Roxas because he had a heart. He didn't act like a sociopath. The organization chews people up and spits them out. That’s what happened to Lea. Axel saw his past self in Roxas, so he felt compelled to protect him. 

BBS only shows him in an irrelevant scene (sorry, it was completely unrelevant and unnecessary, but ok), and it start to try to change it into someone who cares about sad puppies and want to "be remembered forever". Well, Axel always kind of like to work in the shadows, but he likes to show of too. Alright. He seems to pet the dog when he can, even if he is also willing to kick it, too. Whatever. Not really adds nothing to me.

How is his scene in BBS irrelevant? It showed that he used to be a totally normal kid. Ya know, like Hayner's group? Not someone who is going to join Xehanort by choice. After I played BBS, I understood that after he snuck into the castle, he was kidnapped and forced to spend the last 10 years of his life in a cult surrounded by heartless criminals. Of course he would be drawn to two innocent children. He can vicariously relive his lost childhood through them. It just made him seem that much more complex.

Axel got turned into this caricature of himself because I think the series lacked the skillful writing to keep him around as one of the good guys while also mantaining his character intact.

So as soon as he started to become a positive figure he was turned into yet another acolyte of the Church of Friendship and Every Good Thing. Kingdom Hearts has too much black and white philosophy to handle a grey character like OG Axel without having to rethink and retell a lot of events. And he became the comic relief because I guess someone had to be when Donald wasn't around.

So much of what we saw of Axel was a persona---a facade. Including him talking about friendship. He was a multifaceted character. He was smart enough to fool not only the other organization members, but a large portion of the fandom, I guess. In my opinion, it wasn’t that the series wasn’t capable of making Axel a good guy while keeping his character intact. It’s that KH3 was catering to what fans wanted. KH3 went with the superficial facade version of his personality because the fandom has too much trouble with black-and-white thinking. 

I never thought his character change worked either. I thought it was funny that people didn't want Isa to be redeemed despite all the horrible things Axel himself had done in CoM and KH2. 

I had a pretty long discussion with someone who said Lea didn't seem concerned with Isa at all in KH3D. He only cared about Roxas. I didn't understand how anyone could play KH3D and come to that conclusion. I could tell Lea cared about Isa long before I ever read the novels. I guess a lot of people just don't do well with subtlety in storytelling. Apparently a lot of people didn’t even want Isa to be redeemed, despite being Norted as a child. I have no idea why. Because Saïx was an asshole? Because they didn't come right out and tell you Isa was a Nort? Isa jokingly called Lea a loser, so clearly that meant he was always evil (an opinion I have seen). If you ask me, Axel got turned into a caricature of himself because of the fandom, not because Nomura was incapable of pulling it off. Not the fans in that topic necessarily, just in general. The fans that KH3 was pandering to. Nomura could have easily pulled it off, lol. He almost did.

And while we're on the subject of Axel's intelligence, this is why I genuinely cannot fathom how people interpreted Axel as having romantic interest in Roxas. Even ignoring the age difference and amnesia, you really would have to dumb Axel down a LOT if you wanted him to look at Roxas like that, lol. Roxas was simply not in the same league as Axel when it came to intelligence, amnesiac or not. Axel could run circles around him on his worst day. Teenage Lea seemed a LOT more intelligent and mature than Ventus, too. I always felt like Roxas, a relatively simple teenager, was the protagonist for the target demographic of KH. But Axel, a complicated adult, was the "protagonist" for Nomura. He was able to put a lot more of himself into Axel, and probably related to things from his perspective far more than Roxas's. It's why I liked that game's story so much.

Saïx was very smart, but to be fair, we don’t know how much of that can be attributed to Xehanort’s influence. We do know Isa liked to make witty quips. I think he and Lea were likely in the same ballpark, which is why they had so much chemistry together. Speaking of Isa's intelligence, you bring up Axel's eidetic memory. He has an amazing ability to recall things. I think these two things are related. The imagery of the sunset is so important to Axel because Isa told him why the sun sets red. Isa was probably a know-it-all who knew a lot of random facts like that. He probably liked to act smug in a playful and charming way. I am doing a post on why that is such an important memory. 

Now that I think about it, it would have been the exact opposite of his dynamic with Roxas and Xion. Axel had to explain everything to them, like you would with a small child. Axel longed for the companionship of someone who could challenge him and who knew things he didn't. Someone who could understand his complexity. My headcanon is that Isa must have been incredibly smart, and that's why he struggled to make friends. He went to the Realm of Sleep a long time ago. Once he was revived, he was still going to be Lea's BFF. Lea and Isa are now adults. That's probably why Jiminy's Journal described him as mature beyond his years. And that's why Lea liked him.

[capn-james-t-spirk]

Okay imma be honest. The live action Kim Possible was pretty good. It had its flaws but it was a DCOM and for what it was it did amazing. You can really tell a lot of heart went into it and the characters were spot in and in times the writing was really good.

HOWEVER, that isn’t to say it isn’t without flaws. Not to play devils advocate and play both fields, but while the movie defiantly doesn’t deserve the slack it’s getting online, I sure do understand why people had some problems with it.

Athena was a decent enough concept, a bit obvious and over the top (especially to those who watched So the Drama), but at moments it worked in a way. However the one thing I really had a problem with is how they treated Kim throughout the entire movie.

Yes I understand the major theme and lesson here is that jealousy isn’t something you want to consume you, and it’s an understandable moral to teach to the target audience demographic, but it’s also a natural reaction especially for a girl Kim’s age and it bothered me no one really sat down and listened to Kim’s actual thoughts and feelings on the matter.

I feel like that could’ve been a stronger message if the film had addressed Kim’s feelings as valid rather than proving she was clearly in the wrong every chance they could in a rather black and white take on jealousy. Let Kim be upset, but teach her not to let her hurt feelings overpower her.

It left me feeling like Kim never got any sort of validation for what she went through and that any kid her age feeling any sort of jealousy and frustration is ultimately in the wrong and should be the one to correct themselves rather than both sides learning to compromise.

Other than that I thouroughly enjoyed the film. Ron was, quite frankly, fucking adorable and I honestly hope this continues on as a rebooted series.

[silverquillsideas]

sheith is pedophilia shrio was an adult and keith was a child when they met, waiting for someone to be 18 is just as fucked up bc u still have feelings for a CHILD

LOL okay here come the antis with pitchforks 🔥🔥🔥

Let me define what I (a 3rd year med student) and the rest of the scientific community, consider as "pedophilia" :

According to DSM of Mental Disorders, American Association of Psychiatry, pedophilia is defined as "intense and recurring sexual urges or fantasies about prepubescent children that are acted upon, or causes the person in question interpersonal distress"

It's a full fledged psychiatric disorder that hampers a person's normal functioning in their day to day lives, and needs medical or psychiatric attention.

With that out of the way, are you now prepared to define Shiro, an exceptionally balanced, healthy, mid-twenties young man (belonging to a futuristic science fiction universe where magical stuff like 'quintessence' exist that makes one immortal, just to give an idea of the level of high fantasy that's the world of Voltron) with the label of a "pedophile" just because a certain group of real life fans engage in an even more alternate fictional scenario where Shiro and Keith are a romantic pair?

I'm amazed by the hyperfixation of people on something that doesn't exist, in a fictional world, and something that in no way affects actual adults with pedophilic tendencies. As in, I'm pretty sure someone within the target demographics of VLD (approx age group 11 to 16) are not going to get ideas in their head, like, "Oh, okay, Sheith is a thing in the fandom? Guess what I'm going to do when I grow up? *Hit on children* because apparently, that's my only takeaway from this entire show"

Keith and Shiro met when Keith was a teenager, and Shiro was, yes, as you pointed out, an adult. But think about it, even if Sheith was canon (which it clearly isn't, in case you didn't realise), I don't think a 18 or 19 year old Shiro first saw Keith and immediately went, "Oh I like this teenage random guy, who I just met, romantically, because I am a total nutcase with disregard for normalcy".

Shiro and Keith developed a deep friendship above all else, and had enormous mutual trust and respect for each other. And I loved that about them. I have no complaints that they were not paired up in canon, because their dynamic works beautifully, as it is.

But dear anon, shipping is entirely fictional, and removed from the canon or real life rules. I'm pretty sure the fans who ship any other pairings, in any other fandom, also know this.

The people who scream about pedophilia, are teenagers, or worse, adults in their twenties or thirties who are more concerned about what unidentified, random, tumblr users, or strangers online, think about a certain aspect of fictional stories, or how they choose to engage with characters therein.

If you're uncomfortable with Sheith, or any other ship that you think will trigger you, please, my advise is, BLOCK the tag, the blog, the person who posts such content, and not go LOOKING FOR stuff that bother you.

The hot take is that : peace out, move on, grow up. Because no one should be a self entitled moral police, or have the mindset to shove their opinions down random people's throats about what they can or can't enjoy in a fandom, concerning a work of fiction.

It's everyone's space, where, at the end of the day, people go to relax and have fun. Not spend hours arguing with immature people with no sense of distinction or boundaries.

Thank you. FYI, all pointless asks/replies to this post will be promptly ignored, so don't bother. Block my blog if you want. Have a good day.

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

Teen Titans Go! REVIEW: (Part 2)

 Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt and welcome to part two of my Teen Titans Go! retrospective! Or should I say my Teen Titans.....................................................................................................................No....retrospective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzKJ4HX4Fuk

Get it? because the show isn't that good! Okay, remember to click that bell icon and turn on notifications to-  So in case your just joining in, this is part two of my Teen Titans Go! retrospective/review. If you haven't seen part one than I highly recommend that you check it out before going forward. To sum up the point I made in my last part...I didn't like this show that much.  WHAT?! A CARTOON CRITIC ONLINE WHO DOESN'T LIKE TEEN TITANS GO?! WHAT A NEW AN UNIQUE TAKE-  But for THIS part we are mostly going to step away from the show itself, and focus on the more meta aspect of the show. So really this part isn't even a review of Teen Titans Go! and more of "A review of elements that are tangentially related to Teen Titans Go! and the conversation around it." But since that title won't fit in the Deviantart title box and it's not "clickbait-y" enough, we're going with this instead.  So I just want to re-emphasize that, for the most part, none of the things I clique here are actually the fault of the shows crew or creators or anything. But I think it's still important to discuss these points because, as I stated last time, I think the conversation around the show is far more interesting than the show itself. So let's dive in.  We'll start with the elephant in the room. Let's talk about the shows handling of critics. This is one of the most notorious elements of the series. Now, I'm just going to say this...I kinda get where the creators are coming from. For real. While there are MANY legit reasons to dislike the show, (Around 4,000 words worth according to my last review alone.) However, out the gate, Teen Titans Go! got hate from ALL cylinders. Young Justice fans bitter about there show being "replaced." Old school Teen Titans fan upset this wasn't season six. People who just wanted action shows. And I'm not going to be high and mighty, as I said last time, I was one of these people. (However, I never made long curse filled rants on Youtube or called for the creators to be shot or anything crazy like that.)  Some people say that reboots are "lazy and easy" because you get a built in audience with zero effort. But I believe the total opposite. Making a reboot sounds like a nightmare. People are much more unforgiving when it's an i.p they love and often times will hate you for the littlest things and won't give you a chance. Just look up how many Powerpuff Girl 2016 rants there were BEFORE any footage of the show was even released. People who are in these positions have it rough, and deserve more appreciation. I can't imagine the amount of hate the two show runners must get on a daily basis, which is probably why they don't seem to have social media accounts.    HOWEVER this is where we get into what I think is one of the biggest problems in society today, and that's strawmaning. And I feel like I shouldn't have to say this, but here I go. And this can apply for anything. JUST BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE WITH AN OPINION ARE ASSHOLES DOESN'T MEAN THAT EVERYBODY WITH SAID OPINION ARE ASSHOLES!  I'm not going to act like there aren't people out there who take Teen Titans Go! WAY to frickin' seriously. That's just factually wrong. But not EVERYONE who has issues with the show are loud obnoxious neck beards who are mad that there "childhood was ruined." And that's how the show and some of the more hostile defenders of the show try to paint "all the haters." Some people just have legit criticisms that they want to get out into the world. When most people write a review of Teen Titans Go!, I don't think there doing so expecting the creators to see it and change the show for them. (I know some do, but again, don't mix the rude jerks in with the rest of us.) They're doing it because they feel passionately, and want to share there opinions with others. Or because they see wasted potential. There's a difference between criticism and hating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Ai4G6ccfA

 And the thing is...and this is something that I think I'm in the minority opinion on, but I don't think you HAVE to listen to every piece of criticism you get. I've noticed this trend as of late, where people expect that if they criticize something, the author or creator is obligated to change it. And if they don't then there just "not taking the criticism." But that's not how it works though.  For example, if someone where to tell me "You're reviews are too long." I would definitely take that into consideration, and I would appreciate the input. However, I like overly long analytical reviews, and that's what I'm going to keep doing because that's the type of reviews I wanna make. I might try to shorten them a LITTLE bit, but I would never just start writing few hundred word reviews, cause that's not the art I wanna create.   In the same vain, if Teen Titans Go! doesn't wanna except any of there criticism, that's fine. If the show wants to just go about doing it's own thing, more power to it. But when it does these criticism tackling episodes it's breaking the first rule of the internet. Never let people know when something bothers you. And yeah, I think if a TV show goes out of it's way to tell the critics "you suck" than the critics have the right to say it back. And I know you could say that the show has the right because they started that. But I don't know, there's just some part of me that believes that as the content creator, you have a responsibility to be the bigger person. If that makes sense?  This show basically is "Dab On The Haters: The Animated Series." Really, all the criticism tackling episodes can be summed up like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnd6WLi3TWk

 And the thing is, Teen Titans Go! really doesn't need to defend itself so hard. Because the show is a huge hit! It's clearly super popular with a large group of kids and adults alike. Why be so fixated on pleasing the people who you know your not going to please, when you can focus on the people who love you just the way you are? You don't see shows like Powerpuff Girls or Ben 10 reboots attacking the "haters" like this, and those shows don't even have the added advantage of being that popular.  As it stands, Teen Titans Go! is a show that reeks of insecurity. And as much as I shit on the show last time, it shouldn't be. Clearly the show is doing something right if it lasted this long. Teen Titans Go! the show that taught me how NOT to handle criticism. And honestly, I thank the show for this. I'm a sensitive guy, and I can be very harsh on myself. Without Teen Titans Go! acting as an example of what NOT to do, I could see myself becoming that kinda guy, who mask his insecurities with a faux ego.

Hey...did you see the way I just casually used the word "faux." Oh, I'm great and anyone who think otherwise is dumb...  However, I will give Teen Titans Go! this. I do think that when the humor goes "meta" it's when the shows comedy is at it's best. Because the people behind this show clearly know what this show is. They know it's reputation and it's status among other works of superhero fiction. Plus, as I said, the conversation around the show is far more interesting than the show itself. So when the show tacking these more interesting aspects the episodes tend to be more interesting as well. It's rare to find a show as self-aware of it's own status, and they take advantage of every opportunity that this presents.  I just wish it could do so without insulting me is all.  But do I even have the right to be criticizing this show though? I mean it's for kids, and kids clearly like it. Who right do I, a fully grown adult, have to stop kids from enjoying what they like. Why do I have to stand here and push my radical pro-Steven Universe agenda?!  That has been an argument I have been seeing a lot lately. And honestly, there are some aspects I actually do agree with. If you are reviewing a show with the hope of convincing someone to hate something that they previously liked, just because you hate the show, than in my personal opinion you are reviewing the show for the wrong reason. If you like Teen Titans Go! and somehow made it this far in the review, I want to be clear, you have the right to like whatever you want to like. Whenever I do a negative review of something, it's never with the intent of trying to stop someone from enjoying something they like. I just want to express why I don't like it.    As for the kid show argument, in some instances I agree with that argument too. Kids and adults are different. They have different taste and different things that they relate to. And shows are, from a business standpoint, targeted at a specific age demographics. I don't know why it's okay to call a show an "adult cartoon." but if you call a show a "kids show" it's deemed as an insult to the medium. Why is it wrong to say that I enjoy things aimed at kids? But getting back to the point, adults and kids look for different things in a show. Like, a kid obviously wouldn't be able to relate to the theme's presented in Bojack Horseman, and an adult would likely be board to tears by something like Peppa Pig.  However, the difference here is that Teen Titans Go! airs on Cartoon Network. And thus, it should be held to the same standard as other Cartoon Network shows are held to, since all CN shows are pretty much aimed at the same general age range. Not only that, but the show is rated TV-PG! i.e.) The same rating as Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Regular Show, and Over the Garden Wall. Technically speaking, kids aren't even suppose to watch this show without an adult. So I think it's fair to say that this show SHOULD be made with kids and adults in mind.  If this show was truly intended only for kids, and adults shouldn't watch it, than why are there so many 80's references and scenes that feel very...um....

Totally Spies...If you know what I mean.  Basically, my point here is that it is, in my opinion, completely reasonable to cirque this show. And it's weird because the whole "It's for kids" and "Don't like, don't watch." arguments are usually seen as a joke argument. (even though I personally feel like both arguments do apply in certain situations.) But with this show, I see people using these arguments a lot. And to each there own, I'm not going to stand her and say your argument is "invalid." But I think it is odd that this show seems to be the only show where these arguments is deemed "acceptable."  Also, if you watch Cartoon Networks live feed on a regular basis, it's hard to follow the "Don't like, don't watch." rule because the show is on so frickin' much!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyxX3ix2jp8

What makes this ad worse is how much this kid looks like Logan Paul...  Cartoon Network spams this show. And while I'm sure that this show would still very much be hated regardless of the scheduling, I think the scheduling is a major factor in how this show manged to stay a relevant topic of conversation in the cartoon community for over five years at this point. Humans, in case you haven't realized this by now, are very stubborn and spiteful creature by nature. If you shove something down someone's throat, or in this case tell that that it's there new favorite show, there bound to have an adverse reaction. Regardless of the actually quality of the product. Also, the show wasn't even "new" when that ad campaign started!  However, I do want to point out that it isn't Teen Titans Go's! fault that it's being spammed so much. It's Cartoon Networks scheduling departments. Traditional television is dying, and channels need to air what gives them ratings. Cartoon Network has always been in last place rating wise, when compared to there rivals Nickelodeon and Disney. They need to air what gives them ratings. And Teen Titans Go! is that. I get it.  However, and keep in mind I'm not an expert on any of this and have no idea what I'm really talking about, I feel like eventually this will come back to bite them. EVENTUALLY Teen Titans Go! is going to end. Even if it's after we're all long dead and buried, the show will die. It's already been running for five years, which is an eternity in kid cartoon time. And when this show does end, CN is going to need something else to keep people coming back. Because as of now, this show and Gumball (which is ending soon.) are the channels only main draws with the ratings. CN, as of it stands now, needs this show. And when this show does end, they'll need some kind of back up series if they hope to survive in this modern, cord cutting climate. This cash cow can't be milked forever.  R-right? P-Please God, tell me it can't last forever!

...Again with the Totally Spies.  But while I'm on the topic of Teen Titans Go! success, I have to ask the question of why? Why do kids gravitate more towards this show, in particular? Because as I stated in the last part, the idea taking an establish i.p and making a more comedic slice of life reboot may have been fresh back in 2013, but now of days we are over saturated with shows just like that. Show's like Powerpuff Girls 2016, Ben 10, and to a lesser extent Justice League Action and Be Cool Scooby-Doo are all more comedic versions of there respected brands, but none of those shows are nearly as successful. (And this isn't me saying those shows are bad because they follow TTG's mold. It's all about execution and I'm trying to make a point.) What does Teen Titans Go! have that these other shows don't?  The way I see it, the reason why Teen Titans Go! is popular while those other "Teen Titans Go-esq shows" (Even the really good ones like Justice League Action.) aren't has to do with intent and execution. Those other shows only chose to become more comedic because it was deemed "more marketable." And while I'm sure that was a factor in why Teen Titans Go! was pitched as a comedy, I feel the difference is how the shows chose to treat itself. Those other shows are made to be safe and marketable. They want fans new and old to like the show, so people will be more likely to buy the merch, which in turn will fund more seasons. Teen Titans Go! on the other hand, doesn't care about playing it "safe." It'll do whatever crazy and messed up things it wants to. The show revels in it's inaccuracy to the original.  A marketing team and a bunch of executives think Teen Titans Go! is successful because it's a comedy based on a beloved brand. But the reason I think it's popular is because it doesn't give a fu*k! To people who like this show, that's why they like it. And that's why the show is so interesting to talk about.  Also there a lot of elements in Teen Titans Go! appeals to kids. It's full wish fulfillment. Who doesn't want all the power and none of the responsibility. Who doesn't want to not have to worry about school or work, and just sit on a couch eating food all day. The show is loud, crazy, and colorful. It appeals to kids, and some adults, on a base level. It appeals to our more lazy and selfish aspects of our personalities that we all have, but chose to keep buried inside out of fear of social consequence. And while all that may sound harsh, I really don't mean that as an insult. There's nothing wrong with a show appealing to those aspects of our subconscious, because it can allow us to express those feelings without acting upon them. It's the same reason why people like characters like Bender from Futurama, or Rick from Rick and Morty. Teen Titans Go! is that for kids, and there's nothing wrong with that. Especially in a time where so many other kids shows are so nice and non-cynical. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  So, to wrap everything up, Teen Titans Go! might just be one of the most fascinating and influential shows of the 2010's? But do I recommend it? Well, despite EVERYTHING I ranted about in part one, from the lackluster comedy, horrendous writing, lazy reusing of voice acting and animation, and the lack of basic understanding when it comes to telling a story...I surprisingly actually do highly recommend it. 

 Listen, just hear me out here. While this show in all technical aspects is a frickin' train wreck. But sometimes, you just want to watch a train wreck unfold. It's fascinating to see just what this show is going to do next. What crazy, half backed decision it'll do. And honestly, it's hard not to admire how much the show just goes for it, even if "it" isn't something that you should go for. The show has this element of "watch-ability" even if I know the show itself isn't technically "good." It's a show worth watching, if for no other reason than to have an opinion on it. I think it's pretty obvious who will love this show, who will hate this show, and who will ironically love it. Maybe it's just Stockholm syndrome, but I will be genuinely sad when this show does come to an end.  But I want to end on this note. If you hate this show with a fire-y passion, feel free to do so. You have the right to like or not like whatever you want. Don't be afraid of giving your opinion just because your worried that people will think that your a "hater" or that it's "cringy to still be talking about Teen Titans Go! in 2018." Value your thoughts and share them with the masses. Just don't be a jerk about it. Don't assume that "everyone who likes Teen Titans Go! are mindless sheeple." or complain that this show "ruined your childhood." Because forcing your opinion down other peoples throats will get you nowhere. And remember that no show last forever. In ten years from now this show will most likely be forgotten about. Think about how many people HATED Johnny Test just a few years ago, and complained about how much CN spammed that show. When was the last time anyone talked about that show? Meanwhile the original Teen Titans, a show that originally aired fifteen years ago, is still getting prime time reruns on Cartoon Network as recently as early 2018. And honestly, without Teen Titans Go!, there's a good chance that the interest in the original Teen Titans wouldn't have risen to the point where it is today. So you should thank TTG for that.  And to the people who defend Teen Titans Go!, I get it. It can be rough loving something when EVERYBODY online hates it. I went threw a similar thing when the Powerpuff Girls reboot came out. It sucks feeling like you're in the minority opinion, but remember that just because something is hated online, that doesn't translate to actually results. There's a reason this show is on it's fifth seasons and got a theatrical film. And if you love this show, if it really is your new favorite show, enjoy that fact that a show you love is as popular and influential as it is. But don't be a jerk about your opinion either. Don't belittle people for feeling passionately about a series and remember that not EVERY person who hates the show isn't some kinda "hater." Never assume that the worse people in a group represents the whole group. And never let other people force you to hate something you love. You're taste make you the individual you are, and never forget that.  I want to end this review with a line from Teen Titans Go! A line that I believe the show sadly forgot about, but is a message that I think is very important. Especially given the current climate of the cartoon community.

 This applies to all sides.  Hopefully this review was able to add something new to the table.  What do you think of Teen Titans Go? Leave any thoughts you may have in the comments down bellow. I love love to hear all opinions from both sides of the aisle, and start some conversations. Maybe help people gain some new perspectives. Also what did you think of the format of this review? Would you like more deep dive retrospects in the future? Please fav, follow, and comment if you liked this review and have a great day.

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Teen-Titans-Go-REVIEW-Part-2-755898579 DA Link

[xtattlecrimex-blog]

The Fannibal Age/Gender Gap

Since I started my blog for Hannibal on Tumblr back in 2013 (then quickly got rid of it because people on there are assholes) I’ve wondered why the fandom demographic for the show is so weird. It seems that it’s 99% female, for one, and for two, it seems a crap ton of the fandom are either super old women or very young girls. There seems to be an in-between group of 20 something-year-olds but mostly it’s just old women or people under the age of 18. The key demo for the show, if you bother to look it up, was something like 18-25-year-old men. Not, well, what it actually got in way of fans.

Part of this, I theorize, has to do with the fact that the show was marketed almost exclusively on Tumblr when it first started. After the first season it did branch out, kind of, to regular ads and TV promos but before that most of the advertising was done on Tumblr. This is only super weird because the demographic NBC was marketing to with that show (or should have been marketing to) was what I mentioned. 18-25-year-old men. It was a crime drama about an iconic horror villain. NBC would have known this before airing the show because networks know what their key demo is supposed to be, in order to be able to market to them and make money. Why they let Fuller primarily advertise the show on Tumblr (where the demographic of users is like 13-20-year-old females) I have no idea.

As for the “appeal” of the show to the young girls, spanning the ages of 14-20 or so I can see the appeal, sort of. Mostly because Tumblr is very well known for a few things such as:

Daddy issues

Fetishizing age gap in relationships where the female is vastly younger than the male

Weird looking but still insanely handsome European actors

Gay relationships (especially between two attractive men)

I can only fathom that Fuller knew this somehow, already, and since it was clear that he wanted to ship Hannibal and Will himself (and still does ship them himself) he decided the best market to advertise to were people who were going to agree with him. Still, the actual content of the show should have been very off putting at least to minors, given how gory and dark it is. It’s also dialogue-heavy, which (at least in my opinion) typically doesn’t attract teenage girls.

With how some of these girls behave, I question if a lot of them ever even watched the show. It’s possible they just saw the aesthetic on Tumblr (as well as all the gay fan art and whatever) and then pretended they watched it. Started to reblog pictures and art without ever having seen the show and then stuck with it because Mads Mikkelsen is “such a daddy” and so is Hugh Dancy. I do remember in season two there was a promo with Will Graham in the electric chair being executed and a bunch of these young girls were screaming “YOU NEED TO TAG TRIGGER ALERTS!”. This is when I found out that there were legitimately people in the fandom claiming to be triggered by GORE and BLOOD and they couldn’t SEE it on their blogs or else they’d have some kind of super panic attack. Which leads me back to wondering how they were even watching the show if they couldn’t see a screenshot of it or a gif of it without being triggered. It was just stuff in the show. The show you are allegedly a fan of. Why are you triggered by the content of this show that badly and if you are, how do you watch it and why are you still watching it?

If you go through some of the videos I posted (specifically the cringe compilations) you can see that there are clearly girls in the fandom that are not adults, and at least one of them looks like she’s 12. I started watching X-Files when I was 14 and though I’m sure I was not the target demographic for that, I also wasn’t being insane on the internet like a little shit head all the time and demanding everything have a trigger warning. I knew the content of the show and I enjoyed it.

Even more concerning is the fact that there are a crap ton of older women in the fandom. I mean ranging from ages 40-60 years old, consistently interacting with very young girls and minors. There is one blog, she claims to be a mother and an English professor who writes essays exclusively to her very young teenage girl following. Not just normal essays but ones about how it’s okay for Hannibal (an older male) to be in love with Abigail (a teenage girl and a minor in season one). Some of these women, in their 40s and 50s see absolutely no problem getting together with teenagers and reading them adult fan fiction. Explicit adult erotica. Because it’s Hannigram. These women see no issue with sharing their erotica with teenagers and I would assume in some cases minors because of what they post on their blogs. Since they all meet up in real life, a lot, and everyone knows what blog everyone runs, this would denote that 45 year old women are completely fine with people they know are minors, following their porn blogs and doing nothing about it.

There’s also, almost, no men in the fandom. At all. I mean directly in the fandom as in the hardcore members who attend the conventions. I won’t say there aren’t males who are fans of the show, but what I’m specifically talking about are the fannibals. The ones that shell out thousands of dollars each year to fly to Europe and hang out with their “Family” even though what they really mean is a cult. The point is if you look at these conventions 99% of what you will see in attendance there are females or female-identifying people or biological females. As in, there are a lot of female to male transgender people. It’s actually rare that I see a man at one of these events that is definitely a biological man and identifying as such. It’s like these conventions are overrun by women for some reason.

Then we have the fact that Bryan Fuller has to know this to some extent because he inappropriately interacts with the fandom and overly engages them not just on social media but in real life. He goes to lunch with them and hangs out with them as if they are real friends. This dude has to know he has 12-14-year-old fans watching Hannibal which means he’s entirely okay with promoting explicit gay erotic art to them on his timeline on Twitter which he does A LOT. I know it’s not his fault that minors follow him or like Hannigram but he does have the ability to control himself on his own social media especially since he has to be aware this is the case. He’s too involved with his fandom, it’s creepy, he knows who’s in it.

What we have here is a show that’s actual key demo was supposed to be adult men. It somehow gained a huge cult following of females, minors and middle-aged, and almost all of them are lesbians too. Or some kind of queer or trans or something. It’s a very weird demographic for that specific content. Once again, I’m specifically referencing the MOST DEVOTED AND MOST INSANE Fannibals. The really loud ones who cry that you are harassing them if you say Hannigram isn’t canon or something. Those people. The ones who made flower crowns the trademark symbol of the show, which a predominantly male fan base would not do.

It also begs the question of “where are the parents?”. Now, I get that parents can’t or really don’t control what kids watch on TV or on the internet anymore. They didn’t do it when I was a kid either. However, they have to be allowing their kids to go to these conventions? Taking them in some cases? How is that cool? Not to mention the fact that they apparently just never monitor what their children are doing on social media or what they are looking at. Never even checking in on their kid to see what kind of content they may be consuming. As much as my parents didn’t control what I watched on TV they at least looked at the shows I was watching and decided if it was okay for a 14 year old to watch or not. At the time it was annoying but I can see, as an adult, how it’s fair to do that. Maybe you don’t want your 14 year old exposed to murder and cannibalism. Maybe there’s a reason for the TV-MA rating on a show. Maybe you should check out what your kids are watching and who they are hanging out with at conventions.

At the end of the day, what we have here is a cult fandom of 40-60-year-old women regularly engaging with very young (sometimes minor) girls and sharing explicit gay fan fiction and erotic art with them, for some reason. No one thinks this is weird or creepy, and parents apparently just DON’T check on what their kids watch anymore? What the hell is going on?

[lilac-milk-moon]

Money Experts Discuss Personal Finance Blog Readers Research

The survey results are in: FIRE and early retirement community age, net worth, income, fears, and motivation

The financial independence and early retirement movements can feel large, active, and mysterious all at once. Even though I am personally a blogger and a long-time reader, I had questions. To make matters more complex, this community does not have a clear definition, boundary, or “home base.” There’s no registration system or authoritative data. There’s a lack of existing personal finance blog readers research. But, whether you read FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) message boards or write about budgeting and side hustles, you’re part of the community.

So, I recently conducted a survey to try to learn more about personal finance blog readers and writers. Then, I asked personal finance experts to review the results and share their perspectives. My hope is that bringing in a variety of viewpoints will create more meaningful takeaways from the results.

I wanted to answer these questions:

Who is in the personal finance community?

Financially, what situations are personal finance blog readers in as they progress towards their financial goals?

What motivates the people in the community? 

What are people’s plans and concerns for the future? 

The results of the study were not flawless, but they were fascinating nonetheless. The information collected confirmed some assumptions I had about the community and challenged others. 

Method and limitations

Method

Participants in the survey included readers of Semi-Retire Plan, several sub-Reddit groups, and shares and relevant hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. More than a dozen peer bloggers, from varying countries, shared information about the survey and encouraged participation. 

I avoided sharing the survey to Reddit or Facebook groups that were country- or gender-specific. 

The survey was open from August 1 to August 15, 2019.

In all, 165 people completed the survey. 

Limitations

Sample size

I would have preferred a much larger sample, but this was the response I was able to collect. I was hesitant to promote the survey through paid channels or more broadly-focused social media groups, since that may have diluted the sample with people who are not part of the target personal finance blog readers population. 

Certainly, though, a much larger sample would produce more reliable data.

Collection method

Due to the nature of the personal finance blog readers community (it exists primarily online and has no clear structure or organization), a volunteer survey was the only possible collection method. That being said, this method has the following limitations:

Self-reported data may not be accurate

The data collection was not randomized

The groups that the participants came from may not be representative of the population

Within each group that had access to the survey, the people who chose to participate may not be representative of that group

So, this data may not be totally representative of the entire global online personal finance blog community. 

One area of particular concern, as you’ll see below, is the home country representation. The respondents were largely United States citizens. Because of this, the other data may be biased towards US personal finance blog readers. This was not my original intention, but I do understand that many of this site’s readers live in the US, so I think that outcome has an explanation. 

For other variables (gender, education, income, net worth, etc.), it’s not possible to tell if the sample was biased or not (compared to the whole population of readers). I don’t have reason to believe that the sample was mis-representative for these variables, so for the purposes of the below analysis, I will assume it is not biased.

I do still believe that the study results are valuable and give a data-based starting point to meaningful discussion. The data can give us direction on how we can best evolve to help each other, and to help others improve their financial literacy. 

Demographics

Country

Of the people that completed the survey, 77.4% were citizens of the USA. Canada had the next-highest representation at 7.3%, followed by the UK with 3%, the Philippines with 1.8%, and India, the Netherlands, and New Zealand at 1.2%. There were also responses from Denmark, France, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Nigeria.

As mentioned in the Limitations section, the proportion of respondents from the United States was significant. This could mean that the survey had disproportionately high participation from Americans, or that the US really does make up a large percentage of personal finance blog readers.

A non-US point of view

I asked my friend Cashflow Cop what his perspective was on this data.

“When Mr. SR first showed me his initial findings, I wasn’t too surprised by them. I live in the UK which has only about 0.87% of the global population, so with 3% of respondents coming from the UK, that’s pretty good going in all honestly. Now, Mr. SR has spoken about the limitations so clearly, this is far from scientific, robust or representative. However, it’s still interesting.

FIRE in the UK can be very different to the US in a number of ways:

Firstly, there is the issue of taxes. We can’t access our investment pension account until a certain age, whereas there are methods in the US to access them early.

Secondly, when I look at the medical costs in the US, I just feel so fortunate to live in a country with universal healthcare. It means our FI number can be much smaller.

Thirdly, our student loans repayment system is based on how much we earn after graduation. It means that in reality, most student loans are never paid back because people earn below a certain threshold.  As a result, the monthly repayment amount for many is relatively low.

Finally, there is culture and language difference. We don’t have many FI podcasts over here and when compared with American counterparts; we just don’t come across as enthusiastic. That’s not to say we aren’t; it’s just how we come across. I’ve even met people who refuse to use the term ‘F U Fund’.  It sounds so brash to some of our ears.

On balance, I think reaching FI in the UK can be less complicated than the US. As the movement continues to spread, I would expect more people to see its potential over here. Having said that, our childcare costs can be pretty high, but again, it doesn’t seem as bad as how you have it over there.”

If you’d like to learn more about Cashflow Cop’s story, check out the interview we did together.

Gender

The survey results were 62.8% male participation, 36.0% female, and 1.2% other/prefer not to respond. 

Ms. FireMum from A Family on FIRE shared her view on the gender data. 

“Even though anecdotally there seemed to be more men than women in the PF space, I had imagined the number of women to be a lot lower, kind of in the 20-30% range. It’ll be interesting if you repeated the survey annually to see how the male/female proportion changes year on year.

It is heartening to see the number of women bloggers represented in the survey, and I daresay that the number is increasing year on year. However, I still think that women have a long way to go in achieving equality in the domain of financial literacy. 

Men are more likely to be offered financial education in the United States. In Australia, where I’m from, a recent study showed that only a third of women were taught the benefits of investing. Financial literacy is important irrespective of gender, but we also need to even up the playing field. We need more women participating and contributing equally to financial conversations, whether that be at home, at school, or in the workplace.”

M from Radical FIRE offered her perspective too.

“Over the last decade, more and more diversity has entered the personal finance world. People from both genders have been focusing on improving their finances, earning a higher income, and paying off debt. It’s extremely important to be financially educated, to make your own decisions, and let money work for you! As more women today are financially independent and interested in their finances than ever, I’m excited to see how this statistic will change in the upcoming years!”

If you’d like to learn more about M and the Radical FIRE site, read our interview we did recently.

Relationships/marriage

The personal finance blog readers were asked if they are married or in a committed long-term relationship. 76.2% responded “Yes.”

I asked the Educator FI site for their perspective on these results. 

“Wow, more than 3/4 of FI enthusiasts are in committed partnerships! Being single allows for greater flexibility and doesn’t require perfect alignment with a partner. A partnership with different financial goals can be disastrous — both for finances and the relationship.

That said, if you’re in alignment there are real financial advantages to partnering up. There’s a reason I just celebrated my 20 year anniversary as the best investment I’ve made. 

Personal finance is personal and so are relationship choices!”

Education

I asked participants what their highest completed level of education is.

The responses were: completed high school or equivalent (10.4%), completed 2-year college degree or equivalent (7.3%), completed 4-year college degree or equivalent (43.3%), and completed master’s degree or higher or equivalent (39.0%). Meaning, a dominant 89.6% of participants had completed some college.

Incredibly, no participants chose the final option: did not complete high school or equivalent.

I shared the results with Enoch Omololu from Savvy New Canadians to get his perspective on the results.

“These results are not surprising. The survey was directed at individuals who have self-identified as personal finance readers and/or writers. I feel that it takes some level of ‘nerdiness’ for anyone to want to bother with reading boring personal finance material on a regular basis, let alone consider writing about it as a hobby.

Research indicates that there is a strong relationship between your level of education and wealth. As your education and wealth increases, it makes sense for you to become more thorough when planning your finances.”

Privilege in the personal finance blog readers community

My personal thought when I saw the results was that the community seems much more educated than the general population. Is this just a correlation — certain people are prone to prioritizing both education and wealth? Or is there a cause and effect here — more educated people are privileged, and therefore have the opportunity to earn more wealth? 

I asked Enoch about this, and he agreed.

“Yes, I do think that most people involved in the community are privileged and upper-middle to upper-class folks. It does appear that an ‘obsession’ with finances is more prevalent among people who are actually well-off. One could argue that the reason some people are into FIRE is actually because they can afford to be. Basically, they have the means to do so and the possibility of FIRE for many of them is not really so far-fetched.”

Note that I personally don’t think it has to be this way. Certainly, people without a college education or that have lower or moderate incomes can still benefit greatly from being intentional with their finances.

If anything, these results should be a call to action to the personal finance blogging community, myself included.

What do we need to change so that a wider audience can improve their financial literacy? Financial literacy is not a zero sum game. There’s no reason why we can’t all be working towards improving our future.

Current age

I asked participants to indicate their current age. The average was 34.7 and the median was 33. Most respondents were in their late 20s to late 30s.

Age when they started following personal finance blogs

I asked participants at what age they started following personal finance blogs. The average was 31.1 and the median was 29.

Educator FI shared his perspective on this topic.

“I’m thrilled to see how many people started following finances much younger than I did.  That early start is a huge advantage and will serve them well. Time is our biggest ally and smooths over a lot of bumps.

It’s not surprising that so many first discover FI/RE in that mid-20s to early 30s range. That’s when the reality of the career grind can often hit. Rather than just accepting it, they started looking for a way to improve their lives!”

Rent vs own

I asked the personal finance blog readers about their primary residence. Do they rent, own, or other — including full-time travel, living in a van, etc. 61.0% own, 34.1% rent, and 4.9% chose other.

I asked Andrew from Wealthy Nickel to share his view of this data. There are pros and cons to either approach.

“A lot of digital ink has been spilled in the rent versus own debate. There are many pros and cons to either side, and there is no one-size-fits all answer. Renting allows you the freedom to move around for your job or family without incurring the costs associated with selling your home, and it also gives you more capital to invest because you do not have money tied up in a down payment on a home.

However, owning can make a lot of sense if you plan to stay in one place for awhile (generally 5+ years). You don’t have a landlord telling you what to do, and if history continues, your home will appreciate at about the rate of inflation. If you have a mortgage, you are leveraging your money and could be increasing your net worth by 5X the rate of inflation or more!

I think those the FIRE camp tends to be weighted toward homeownership because it allows for more control (and financial independence is all about control). Many in the FIRE movement are trying to lower their monthly expenses, and a great way to do that is to pay off your mortgage and own your home free and clear. Of course you still have the ongoing taxes, insurance, and maintenance, but it will certainly be a more manageable monthly payment than rent when you are retired and on a fixed income. Real estate also seems to be a popular asset class among FIRE adherents, and one of the best ways to get started in real estate investing is by house hacking (owning your primary residence and renting out rooms or additional units).”

Motivation

Motivation for retiring early

I asked participants what motivates them to want to retire early. There were 8 response options: feeling of freedom or independence (52.8%), more time with family (14.1%), I don’t like working generally (8.6%), I have to; it’s inevitable (8.0%), more time or money to travel (7.4%), more time or money for hobbies (6.7%), I don’t like my current job (1.8%), and more time to serve my community or religious community (0.6%).

Adebayo Fasanya from Dr. Breathe Easy Finance  offered his perspective on these results.

“It is not surprising to see that the majority of people agree that freedom is the most important motivation to save money for retirement. It makes sense because if you are financially independent, you will be able to do everything else on that list. For example, spending time with family, more time to travel, fun hobbies are possible if you don’t have to worry about having enough money for retirement. 

Financial freedom and independence is a major component of the FIRE movement for that reason. Unfortunately, nowadays, we cannot rely on traditional forms of retirement savings, such as Social Security. Rumor on the street is that it might not even be there in the next 30 years. 

As a beginner attending doctor, I fall into a unique group of people called HENRY (High Earner, Not Rich Yet) and it is one of the most uncertain positions to be. There are usually many pressing needs at the same time. For example, after finishing training, I had to focus on paying off my 300k student loan, deciding whether to buy a house or not, and whether investing should take the back seat while paying off debt.

At the same time, the landscape is changing drastically in medicine that doctors tend to work more for less pay. It is almost impossible to strike that balance between a fulfilling career, high salary, and work/life balance. That is why I decided to at least maximize my retirement account throughout training while paying off student loan debt. 

My goal is to become financially independent as soon as possible, hopefully in 10 to 15 years, so I can have more time for family, travel, hobby and be able to enjoy life without worrying about money.”

Worldview

I asked participants if their financial philosophy and non-financial worldviews have changed as a result of their experiences in the personal finance blogging community. 

74.5% said that their financial philosophy has been affected by the personal finance blogging community.

Only 38% said that their non-financial worldview has changed as a result of the community.

Of those who said their financial philosophy had changed, common themes were: learning new tools for money management and investing, feeling motivated to save not just to have money but to meet future non-financial goals, and believing that wealth is achievable for anyone.

Those who said their non-financial worldview has changed often cited (1) increased feelings of control and happiness in their own lives or (2) increased understanding and interest in global economic issues.

I found it interesting that there seems to be a group of people who compartmentalizes their financial lives from their larger worldview. My own experience has been similar to those that did say that their non-financial worldview changed. As I learn more about personal finance, I find that I have a growing interest related subjects including psychology, economics, and even just learning about other people’s lives.

Favorite/least favorite parts of the online community

I asked participants what their favorite and least favorite aspects of the online personal finance community are.

51.5% said that helpful information was their favorite part, followed by the friendly and supportive people/the feeling of community (29.4%), comparison/it serves as a benchmark (12.9%), and accountability (2.5%). Several respondents chose “Other” and wrote in their answers, which included “all of the above” and “motivational stories.”

31.0% said that comparison was their least favorite part, followed by judginess (28.4%), unhelpful information (9.7%), none or N/A (which were write-in responses) (9.0%), people are cold/distant/not friendly (5.8%). Several respondents chose “Other” and wrote in their answers, which included that the community has a reputation to cater to “White Male Tech Workers,” people are just out to make money, the information is too US-centric, the community is cliquey, the information is too basic, and people think other people are bragging but they’re just trying to tell their story.

I asked Mr. The Poor Swiss to comment on these results. 

“The results from the study are really aligned with my experience with the community. On the one hand, it is full of very helpful people that are ready to spend a lot of time sharing their knowledge with everybody. The amount of information that is available for free on the internet is incredible. And I have seen many cases of people helping others on their way to Financial Independence. It is really great.

But on the other hand, a lot of people (often not bloggers, more the comments and forum users) are extremely judgemental and critical of other people. And a lot of people are completely ignoring the context. Countries and incomes should be taken into account when comparing expenses. But people are very quick to judge that if you spend more than them, you are simply worse! Many times, I have seen that people have been criticized because they were still buying their Starbucks coffee every day! This is pretty sad.”

People who keep them motivated

I asked the participants which personal finance personality has been most influential in their lives. There were 9 pre-set options of people who I regarded as the most influential, plus an “Other” option with the opportunity to write-in responses.

Mr. Money Mustache was the most frequent response (28.5%), followed by Dave Ramsey (18.5%), “none” or similar write-in responses (7.9%), the Mad Fientist (4.6%), Vicki Robin (3.3%), Paula Pant (2.6%), Suze Orman and Clark Howard (both at 2.0%), and J. Money and participants’ parents (both at 1.3%). Several other write-in responses were offered as well.

Brian from Debt Discipline shared his perspective on these results. 

“There are many influential and controversial figures in the personal finance space. Two that stand out are Mr. Money Mustache and Dave Ramsey.

Pete, aka Mr. Money Mustache, is considered the founder of the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement. His blog has a legion of followers, and Mr.MM has laid out a blueprint for reaching FIRE.

Have you ever heard a debt-free scream on the Dave Ramsey show? If not, give them a listen. They are super motivating. If you are struggling with debt, Dave is a go-to guy. His real-life examples of others who have overcome their debt, highlight the strength of his seven baby steps he preaches on his daily radio show, in books or during one of his live shows.”

Financials

Net worth/income

I asked the personal finance blog readers several questions about their net worth and income. Results are in US dollar value. For these results, I am not maintaining the scale of the histogram for extreme values. I will list the extreme values for each chart, but you’ll notice some jumps in the scale at either side of the histogram. This keeps the histograms from becoming too wide.

There are some extreme values on both sides of these distributions. They could be accurate or they could be mis-typed, but I decided to leave them in. The median and percentile results are resistant to outliers, so those statistics will give the best indication of what’s typical for the sample.

Net worth when they started following personal finance blogs

For starting net worth, the 25th percentile was $0, the median was $30,000, the average was $196,474, and the 75th percentile was $200,00. That the average was so much higher than the median shows that there were some extreme outliers from high net worth individuals.

The lowest three values were -$300,000, -$300,000 and -$200,000. The highest three values were $5,000,000, $2,000,000, and $1,800,000.

Current annual household income

For current annual income, the 25th percentile was $65,000, the median was $110,000, the average was $139,797, and the 75th percentile was $160,000.

The lowest three values were -$300,000, $0, and $0. The highest three values were $1,000,000, $900,000, and $600,000.

Current net worth

For current net worth, the 25th percentile was $4,000, the median was $210,000, the average was $797,239, and the 75th percentile was $650,000. Again, the average was higher than both the median and the 75th percentile, showing the influence of some outlier high net worth values.

The lowest three values were -$300,000, -$300,000, and -$130,000. The highest three values were $25,000,000, $13,000,000, and $8,000,000.

Insights

I talked with both Kevin from Just Start Investing and Clint Haynes, CFP from NextGen Wealth about these net worth results. Here are Kevin’s comments:

“Net worth is arguably the most important financial metric you can track — it’s your financial pulse. Whether you have $1 million stowed away, or just $1,000, it’s important to know where you stand so you can know when you can retire.

The beauty about net worth is that if invested in index funds, you’ll see it grow exponentially over time. You’re first dollar is harder than your tenth which is harder than your hundredth — and so on. Things get easier once you get the ball rolling.

Not surprisingly, if you are tracking your net worth, is that as you get older your net worth gets bigger! That data held up here.”

If you’d like to learn more about Kevin from JSI, check out the interview we did a few weeks ago.

Clint Haynes shared that there are some factors that early retirees should consider.

“The net worth and income results are affected by some high net worth individuals. Regardless of your income, if you are wanting to retire at age 50, you should probably be saving at least 40-50% of your income if you’re wanting to maintain the same lifestyle. Now, if you’re wanting to cut your expenses in half when you retire that’s a different story, but I’m guessing most individuals want to maintain the same standard of living. 

One of the biggest expenses you’re going to have to account for when you do retire early is health insurance. Depending on your situation, this can easily add $1,000 to $2,000+ to your expenses each month. You must account for this when running your expense numbers. With that being the case, I’m a huge proponent of taking full advantage of a Health Savings Account if you’re participating in a high-deductible health insurance policy. Here’s a great piece I’ve written about HSAs and why I absolutely love them. If you’re wanting to retire at age 50, fully funding a Health Savings Account prior to that can offer you incredible tax savings when it comes to paying for medical expenses and health insurance.”

Work intensity/hours

I asked participants how many hours they work per week on average.

The 25th percentile and median were both 40 hours per week, the average was 40.8 hours per week, and the 75th percentile was 45 hours per week.

Peter from Counting Every Dollar responded to these results.

“Most of the respondents work 40 hours a week. I find this intriguing –- it’s quite a bit higher than the 34.3 hours worked weekly by the average American. Are we FIRE-folks working longer than the average person who probably doesn’t seek financial independence? I am not surprised to see quite a few people working extremely long hours either. I work around 60 hours a week at my day job but then spend another 5-10 hours a week on my online semi-passive side hustle which made over $30,000 last year.

I know the general advice is to focus on growing one’s primary income and I fully agree. But once that goal has been met and you have reached the limits of your career ambition, what then? Side-hustles, however small, can shorten the time to financial independence because they increase your savings rate. This is especially true if your expenses in retirement will be comparable to your side-hustle income. If you plan to semi-retire, it’s also a great way to nurture a profitable passion project that will also ward off sequence of returns risk.”

Financial instruments

I asked participants which financial instruments they use, and they chose from a pre-set list and/or wrote-in responses. Here are the results:

Checking account — 95.2% of participants

Savings account — 92.7%

Tax-advantaged or retirement investment account — 87.9%

Taxable brokerage investment account — 71.5%

Real estate/rental property — 26.1%

Entrepreneurship/private business ownership — 20.6%

Peer-to-peer lending — 13.3%

Annuities or insurance products — 9.1%

“Other” including gold, business loans, pensions, fine art, and cryptocurrency — 0.6% each

Enoch from Savvy New Canadians commented on this data.

“Basic checking accounts are a necessity for everyday living. You work, your salary is paid into your checking, and you spend from your checking account. Whether you plan to save money or not, a basic savings account often comes in the package when you open a new checking account. As such, the over 90% results for these two accounts are par for the course.

I’m not surprised that of the 165 people who responded to the survey, 87.9% have a tax-advantaged retirement account compared to 71.5% who have a taxable brokerage account. It makes sense for a greater percentage of people who invest to first utilize tax-free or tax-deferred investment accounts.”

Early retirement plans

Projected retirement age

I asked the personal finance blog readers at what age they plan to retire. The average was 51.79 and the median was 50.

Clint Haynes, CFP from NextGen Wealth offered his input on the retirement age results. 

“I think it’s fantastic that so many people want to make it to financial independence as early as possible. It’s certainly a movement that has come on strong and I love that people are starting to take control of their personal financial lives.

However, there are some things to consider if you’re wanting to retire around that age 50 mark. One of the biggest being that you’re not able to access IRA funds penalty-free until 59.5 or 401k funds until 55 (as long as you leave it in your 401k). Now, you do have the 72t option for withdrawing money from an IRA prior to 59.5, but I would much rather recommend letting that money compound until you get to at least 59.5. Remember, the power compound interest becomes much more impactful the longer you let it work for you.

Because of these withdraw rules, you must have enough money set aside in a taxable account or have enough side hustle/passive income in order to bridge the gap before you can start taking money out of your IRA or 401k. It’s extremely important to consider and plan for this if you’re wanting to retire prior to being able to withdraw money penalty-free from your IRA or 401k.”

Educator FI also responded to this data.

“The retirement age targets reflects what we know about how humans tend to think. There are spikes at each of the major ‘milestone’ ages.  I’m flexible on my retirement age, but know I want to be FI by 50 for no other reason than it seems like a good target!”

Retirement relocation

I asked participants if they planned to retire to a country other than the country they currently have citizenship.

66.5% said no, while 22.6% were not sure, and only 11% said yes.

Insights — Myles Wakeham on retirement location and healthcare

I asked Myles from BeUnconstrained to share his perspective.

“The results here are not surprising, but parallel a different statistic on the percentage of US citizens that hold a passport. According to Forbes, it is around 42%, which is about consistent with the number of respondents in the survey that either intend or would consider living outside of the USA if they were to retire.

So my initial reaction here is that US citizens do not value internalization as much as non-US citizens and residents.  It would be interesting to do the same survey in Europe, as I think you would get polar opposite results.

That said, the definition of ‘retirement’ might need to be associated with age. The one reason that people do not migrate to other lands is because they become more reliant on healthcare. So if the retiree is 65 or older and is considering a reliance on Medicare, then they will not have access to that outside of the USA. If the retiree, however, is under the age of 65, they may not be considering the incredibly high cost of medical insurance that they will bear because they are not being subsidized by an employer.

When considering that a monthly healthcare premium could be higher than $1,000 per month depending on the number of family members, location, etc. then it would be a considerable factor in where one would live. In Arizona, for example, it is not uncommon to see families paying $1,000 or more per month for healthcare premiums, with the highest premium costs being associated with the poorly named ‘Affordable Healthcare’ plans (ie. Obamacare).

Considering the high cost of health insurance, one would think that this would be an incentive to move to a different region in which this cost is greatly reduced. What many forget to note is that the cost of healthcare in other countries (e.g. Mexico) can be 10-20% of the cost of US healthcare, often with the entire cost of major surgery being covered less than the cost of one’s out of pocket deductible.

None of these factors probably are front and center in the minds of early retirees, but although living in a foreign land may be a bridge too far for many, visiting and taking advantage of elective surgery or other factors that other countries offer that are better than available in your domestic region, should be an option to consider. This requires the individual to think beyond what they see on the nightly news and realize that going to a place where they are treated best is an option well worth taking. Again, I have grave doubts as to the number that will embrace this opportunity, but although maybe a full migration to a foreign land might be something few will consider, the time available to be able to do this for specific objectives could be well in the financial interest of those willing to go where they are treated best.”

If you’d like to learn more about Myles, check out our Sitting Poolside conversation.

Insights — M on retirement location and fast-tracking your timeline

M from Radical FIRE also commented.

“Deciding what country you want to retire in is a highly personal decision. Many people would prefer staying in their current home, being close to family and friends. There are also many options to move within your home country, to a place where the cost of living would be lower or you have better weather. For others deciding where to live when they retire seems like a decision that doesn’t need to be made yet. Perhaps you want to move, who knows? When it is still far away, changes can be made later.

However, I know some people think about geo-arbitrage, a.k.a. retiring in another country than they currently live in. These are people who want to live in one country when they retire or people who want to travel in retirement. If you move to a country where the cost of living is cheaper, you will benefit from that – you can live more luxurious or you can live on less. You can even travel and spend less money compared when you would stay at home, win-win. Whatever your personal preference is, retirement can seem far away. Do you want to fast track your way to retirement? Try to make more money, live frugally and save your way to (early) retirement!”

Concerns

I asked the personal finance blog readers, “When you think of your current or future retirement, what do you feel most concerned or least confident about?”

The top concern was healthcare/health insurance (38.7%), followed by running out of money/not having enough saved (24.5%), getting bored or depressed or lonely (12.3%), long-term care cost (7.4%), not being informed/educated enough to manage their resources (4.3%), risk of pension benefits being cut (3.1%), risk of Social Security benefits being cut (1.8%), and nothing (1.8%).

Derek from The Money Family responded to this data.

“Worries about future health insurance costs, especially as a family of four, is the biggest concern in our FIRE plans.  Our previous plans had us reaching FIRE when the kids were in their early teens but we have updated our assumptions to include part time/flexible work arrangements until the kids move out.  This will give us more optionality in raising or lowering our income with changes in potential health care and insurance costs.”

Personal finance blog readers themes

I have three big takeaways from these survey results.

Freedom and control

Freedom was the top motivator for retiring early. Also, healthcare was the top concern about retirement, and several of the expert commenters mentioned healthcare concerns in relation to other survey topics.

To me, the reason healthcare is such a concern relates back to that same pursuit of freedom and control. In the US, healthcare can be very expensive and/or it can be tied to your employer. These are costs that individuals have little control over.

So, overall, the pursuit of personal freedom seemed to be the overarching theme.

Expanding the audience

In general, it seems that the personal finance blog community is viewed as a helpful resource that has had positive change on readers’ lives. However, one of my main notes coming out of the survey is that the community currently seems to be geared to American, educated men.

I feel awkward that I’m furthering those statistics since I fit that description, but I hope that all of us can create content and pursue channels that are accessible and helpful to people of a wider demographic. We need to.

Comparison and openness

Related to the above concern, the biggest complaint from personal finance blog readers currently involved in the community seems to be that it can encourage comparison or judginess. Even through this survey results review, I’m finding it difficult to not compare myself with the averages and high results.

I think one of the first steps to expanding financial literacy and the personal finance blogging audience is to fight this trend. Each of us, individually, can only start from the situation we are in. You can only play with the hand you are dealt. The more we can encourage comparison with your own financial starting point, rather than others’, the better.

Financial literacy and early retirement shouldn’t just be for Americans, men, or people with a college education.

What are your takeaways from the survey results? Will this affect how you write or read personal finance blogs in the future?

Related posts:

FIRE vs semi-retirement: a graphical comparison

Could working longer affect the quality and length of your retirement? 

How to access your retirement accounts early

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