#I think I made a shitpost about this scene while watching it JUST TO COPE

[revenantghost]

Man, there are a lot of great (and very true) posts about how Knives doesn’t see his fellow plants as individuals, but this was the moment I really first had that gut-punch realization. I’m sure there are no rituals for laying a plant to rest, but it’s incredibly fucked up to take a corpse, writhing in pain, and string it up for your own motivation. Your own selfish purposes. The afterlife is something fairly present in the Trigun universe, and this soul surely isn’t at peace

[rukkako]

Y'know I was watching this video and it's made me think so much about so much shit tbh. It's kinda sad, not gonna lie. Like I get it- I've been in fandom for years, I know the drill, coping with memes has been a staple of fandom for ages- I was there for danganronpa, I was there for AOT, for CSM and many more.

This is kind of an insane rant so don't feel forced to keep reading. I just need to put this out there.

But the thing is, for a good while now, since a couple of years ago, I've been in this position where I... don't really see the appeal? Like yes, of course, the memes are funny. I laugh at them- I laugh at fraudkuna and at jogoat and at everything else because it's silly and goofy. But when I'm done laughing and I really think about it it kinda depresses me. How must the author feel? Seeing the people wreck and vandalize and humilliate some of the highest, most dramatic and cathartic moments of their most important work ever. How must that feel? The thing is, this isn't a question- you know how that feels. It feels bad. Akutami is lucky that he doesn't see the clownshow people are making of their show overseas, but when I see this I can't help but be reminded of a tale as old as time-artists that made drawings and those drawings became memes against the artist's will. We've seen it recently with the dancing lizard- The person who made it stated recently that the trend of redrawing Toothless over their 3D art caused them to get so depressed they switched from 3D to anime. (The tweet where they said this is sadly deleted, but if you look up "ka92 lizard" on twitter you can find some evidence, like this tweet.)

I don't like it. I don't like it because yes, I get that you're coping with the sadness the things happening in JJK are causing you- I know it's hard, I know you were very invested and I know this feels like the author may be straight up laughing in your face- but, in memeing the things happening in JJK, you strip them of everything- their shock value, their meaning, their significance, their relevance to their stories. You're no longer gonna remember that time Gojo died valiantly to protect everyone, you're gonna remember Fraudtoru Gojo and Fraudkuna and the King of Frauds and Nah I'd Win and Stand Proud, you're strong- and did I mention I'm NOT into JJK and yet I know every single one of these by hand?

I was into JJK. Nobara was my favorite character- watched Season 1 of the show and started reading the manga, saw her die, and I lost interest. And I was thinking of giving it another shot but this wave of shitposting has singlehandedly taken away my willingness too. Congratulations- now I know every single detail of this thing through stale, goofy memes that take away everything from the scenes they ridiculize and turn them into a mockery of themselves- because I've seen these memes, even if I read the manga and got caught up with everything, I wouldn't be able to experience it the way the author intended. Because when I see gojo dying or anytime Sukuna comes up or anything, I'll be reminded of these things.

I guess that's what all this comes down to. Respecting author intent. I feel like that has kinda been lost to everyone in recent years- when Marco died in AOT, back in 2013, you didn't see this phenomenon happen; people were sad, and sure some people were joking about it to cope but it never got to this level- people still let themselves be affected by the event, they let the incident get to them and touch them and they engaged genuinely with it. Are you really engaging genuinely with JJK if all you do is post goofy memes about what's happening and laughing? Is it really reaching you? Are you giving the story the chance to touch you or are you using your usual wall of irony to stop even something you willingly chose to engage with from changing and affecting you?

I read Umineko no Naku Koro Ni in 2018, and it changed my life. It meant so much to me that I refused, actively, to engage in fandom, I refused to look at any memes; it was my experience and it changed me as a person in ways I simply cannot describe without making this post any longer than it already is. It wasn't after about three years after that that I allowed myself to be, I guess, more light-hearted about it. And of course, you're well in your right to call me dramatic and to tell me that I'm over-dramatizing something that really isn't that big of a deal (and maybe I am, who knows), but even still after that there were very few memes that I really found funny. Because most of the memes everyone was making about it were ridiculizing some of the most horrible, hard-hitting parts of the story. And it was, and still is, my belief, that they took away the meaning, significance- the wheight of those moments just to make fun of them. And... I guess, at a core level, I felt like I never would like something like that to be done to my creations, so I didn't feel comfortable engaging with such content.

I'd like to make something clear- I'm not criticising YOU, JJK fan that loves the memes and lives for them and is nontheless still enjoying their experience reading JJK. If doing that is fun and enjoyable to you, go ahead- the JJK meme explosion has also given birth to many artists, I've seen animations about things happening in the manga that are so beautiful and stunning. But I guess my question is- are the memes allowing you to find new perspectives, new ways to interpret the story, are they deepening your understanding and connection to it, or are they making it more shallow, more blurry, weakening it?

Sorry for the long post- and again, I hope it's clear that I do not want to insult or berate anyone. This is just MY opinion. You can engage with the media you consume however way you choose. But please always bear in mind: is it genuine? Is it full of love?

That is all.