#I think I rambled out everything i wanted to say but. man

[saltycharacters]

Watched Nimona recently and although it was a fairly enjoyable film and I would still recommend a watch. I got a bunch of thoughts about its ending and themes and how despite it trying to build itself up as this cool queer anticop story it fails to stick the landing and instead suffers from Treasure Planet syndrome. I've decided to ramble it out under the keep reading link so spoilers for Nimona starts there

So this movie is built upon a "knight system" which is established to be an obvious cop parallel, where the knights are essentially the police of this world. The allegory doesn't stop at the job description however, as the movie takes a bold move and introduces this system as very corrupt early on; from the main character being framed by a high-ranking, police-adjacent authority, to revealing that the entire system was built on false hatred and intolerance, to Nimona outright stating that it doesn't end at the true perpetrator, but that "the WHOLE system is corrupt". Time and time again we are given proof of how the knights, whether purposefully or not, hurt, indoctrinate, and brainwash the innocent. This is a great message, and they did an excellent job of carrying it throughout the runtime until doing a sudden 180 at the end. Not only do we see the cop system still in place, with knights in universe portrayed clearly on screen, but they're painted as good with a member playing soccer with a child. They tried to reject corruption by denouncing their founder, yet they still intend to perpetuate the job built to maintain her ideals from the ground up.

Despite attempting to dive into more meaningful territory with a daring dive into a serious modern problem, the ending they gave us was palatable and conveniently perfect in a way that satisfies everyone on a shallow level, which only works with a message that's equally shallow and inoffensive. This sort of trying to have cake and eat it too conclusion is what I refer to when saying Treasure Planet syndrome, as watching the movie gave me deja vu for the same faults- because, while Treasure Planet attempts to weave a unique and subversive narrative that touches upon deeper subjects which would lead up to an unconventional yet impactful end, what they finished with was jarringly standard hogwash where they attempted to tie lose ends in a conventionally pretty, corporate-ceo approved bow. For example, one of if not the main plot of the movie was Jim Hawkins addressing his trauma regarding an absent father that abandoned him and his mom at an early age, finding a better father figure in John Silver and gradually healing from his past with a better role model. Yet at the end, the cycle repeats itself as John ends up leaving (just like Jim's father) with narry a negative emotion from Jim. Jim then goes to cop academy where, despite his journey being about rejecting societal expectations and gaining self-improvement and growth through his own means, he becomes an A-Plus goody-two shoes cop loving poster boy in no time. The syndrome also hits particularly hard with Captain Amelia and Doctor Doppler, where despite their relationship being a man and woman, it still openly rejects heteronormativity with natural romantic progression (no love at first site bullshit) that involves Amelia being way more masculine and competent than Doppler and him being the well meaning yet gullible scientist. Even the way they flirt is subversive, with Amelia calling Doppler's eyes beautiful (a traditionally feminine descriptor) rather than the instigation being made by the man. Yet at the end, heteronormativity hits as Doppler is shown suddenly more assertive and masculine as he dips Amelia in a dance, not to mention their children fall into the trop of the girls looking exactly like the mother and the boy looking exactly like the father (Also. they put a bunch of makeup on the baby girls????). In short, Treasure Planet Syndrome is writing a subversive plot/story that ends abruptly in a palatable perfect way that sacrifices both natural progression and its messages in an effort to create a more appealing happy end. A movie that I think actually LANDED its subversive storyline was Strange World, where it successfully carried through with it's deeper narrative and provided a slightly uncomfortable yet incredibly understandable and meaningful ending.

One last thing before I stop my ramble- the queer rep in Nimona is pretty bad. I mean don't get me wrong, the main character (who is canonically mlm) is fine and I'm always happy to see upfront representation in my media, but the man he was saddle with as his boyfriend treats him terribly throughout most of the movie, to the point where I was genuinely shocked seeing them together at the end. His boyfriend is this nepotism golden child who's beloved by everyone and so neck deep in the corrupt system that he: slices off the mc's arm (just says a vague sorry later), spends most of the movie refusing to trust or believe him, spends most of the movie trying to hunt him down and arrest him, easily succumbs to peer pressure when it comes down to hurting him, prefers to stay loyal to the system rather than his bf, barely questions the situation, and refuses to listen to his bf provide him with explanations or answers. Even the MC recognizes how much he hurt him, because he ends up outright BREAKING UP WITH HIM and begging him to leave him alone, only to get back with him at the end like nothing ever happened. I want a happy ending for canon queer couples as much as the next guy, but if they wanted a happy end, why did the write the love interest to be so awful? They could've made him question the motives of his superiors and the entire situation more, he could've gone out of his way to seek out an explanation before forming his own conclusion, he could've made more attempts to break the rules for harm reduction, to try and understand what happened, hell to try and TALK to the MC- it's really baffling how they tried to paint this as true love when what should've happened is the MC getting a better spouse. I see this as an extension of Treasure Planet syndrome and trying to have and eat cake at the same time mentality, to say I wasn't surprised when I discovered this movie was written by the people behind modern She-Ra would be an understatement.

[puppyeared]

(guy who has never played cotl) haha au time

[emphasis-on-the-oopsie]

WtW fandom, what are your opinions on every season of the podcast?

[scattered-winter]

every day i kick a rock and bash my head into the wall because i'll never get to go on a big space adventure and become tightly close-knit with my new found family up there <//3

[doomed-era]

one day i'll be able to tell you where gboh link and zelda's friendship goes...ONE DAY...

[sskk-manifesto]

(´･ᴗ･ ` )

[basssiliskk]

I have personal beef with most of the tiktok mlp infection aus because of how they mischaracterize or immediately kill off Twilight as if she doesn't literally give off the most potent Final Girl vibes 💀 like she's smart, strong, and knows how to function both alone & w/ a group. Her ass would NOT be dying immediately. Then if they don't make her the first to die they usually make her the evil-scientist villain or something.

Really missing the whole point of why survival horrors are scary, the main conflict should revolve around the struggle of surviving in a wasteland and the strained relationships that come along with that. What good does having a "main antagonist" do? They defeat them and then what? There's still zombies outside

[vilelittlecritter]

You ever sit in a fandom space for so long that now looking at it kind of makes you want to rip your nails off.

Yeah.

[todayisafridaynight]

not to make people believe in me and my work ethic but im lowkey a liiiitttttleeee stoked to share the fics ive been cookin lately..

[tariah23]

Outside of all of… that happening to Gojo, and finishing Snowfall the other day, eek……..

[ryderdire]

I do often Wonder who first figured out things that have become seccond nature to us. Like making tools who figured out obsidian is so sharp who first made fire, who figured out seeds. I have no doubt in my mind that they could and they did. I guess I’m just more curious on the specifics of how they figured it out.

[no1ryomafan]

Another very specific tangent but I had another very specific realization.

For awhile I was so indecisive on whether or not I’m a “mecha” fan because there’s so many shows I haven’t watched, or just the fact I have a preference for sentient robots even if mecha has a handful of those, but I think I finally come to a conclusion: I *am* a mecha fan because I enjoy the genres history and do want to watch a lot of shows even if they don’t fall under my personal robot preference, since I’m okay with a robot being used to metaphorically represent the pilot as robots or the robot can be characterized through fights even if it’s not in universe sentient- But I still don’t like to be called a “mecha fan” because people will assume “oh you watched this/these shows, your bound to like this one!” Because I am not a fan of having recommendations shoved in my face.

This is a general issue in a lot of fandoms-or quiet honestly, just a people issue lol-so I don’t put the blame on mecha fans specifically, but I noticed this mentality a lot which has turned me off from wanting to watch certain shows. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being passionate about liking a show and encouraging others to watch it, but the issue I tend to see a lot of the time is people just say a show is good without specifying *why*. Not every person will eagerly get into something unless they really have no preferences and will try everything, but if your going to recommend something make sure you *know* why someone likes something and than rec it if you think it’s similar enough.

But even then, I’m not really huge on “oh this show inspired this other show so you HAVE to watch it” because it’s taking away the identities of both individual properties. I see this happen a lot with getter and gurren, the latter becoming a huge turn off for me next to a few other minor factors. I’m sure the show is great, but I don’t like a factor of it’s identity is tied to getter because of its influence when visually it already seems like a different show from Getter. Just because something took a lot of inspiration from something doesn’t mean it’s a carbon copy, so someone is not bound to like one or the other even if they share similar elements because to one person one show might’ve just did it better than the other. (And I have seen this happened with the gurren and getter debate funnily enough, but I also say this from having personal experience with this happening with something else recently)

I also don’t like how with this mindset your assumed you like a show when you actually don’t. I can’t even get into the specifies with this one because I always fear of judgement of which mecha I couldn’t click with given its positive reputation but if the point above wasn’t clear: just because all mecha shows share at least the element of robots fighting and some were direct influences, does NOT mean someone is bound to like or wanna watch every single one. I personally have a lot of mecha I still want to watch but I’m keeping my taste to very specific choices. Mecha as a whole is a niche group as is, but if I can’t find individual communities within mecha I’m less likely to want to try a show. That doesn’t mean I can’t like a show that doesn’t have a fandom-I arguably pioneer the getter fandom in the last two years-but do I really wanna watch a random obscure 70s mecha that only one country remembered and will probably not get a new show if it didn’t get one during the mecha 2000s boom? Not really.

Also I’m just- at a point where I need to watch more 20+ ep anime as is so my ass is NOT gonna be able to stomach larger mecha’s which is why gundam and braves been out of my radar, even if the latter I would probably like a lot. I’m honestly so spoiled with fast pacing that I need to mentally prepare myself for slow burns since I understand some stories need to actually take their time and draw things out because there’s a lot they need to cover-though a lot of the time with longer anime it’s just a product of filler… albeit it’s not the case with mecha given how I don’t think there’s a single accurate manga to anime adaptation besides ig getter arc but more so specific longer mecha’s are episodic-but at the point I am I cannot do that so that limits my options.

But a tldr since I know a lot of people aren’t gonna read this: please do not recommend me mecha unless I ask or your someone I consider a close moot/friend. While I care a lot about the genres history so I want to be as knowledgeable as I can and I plan to watch a lot more shows for potentially years to come, I personally like choosing what to watch since I know more than anyone what I like. Much appreciated.

[spaceratprodigy]

one day I'll finally talk/write abt what happens between them on scylla but I think nonstop abt what his vision mom says

[sonic-adventure-3]

on issue 6 and god i love the chaotix and ROUGE!!! god i love rouge. also i love how sonic swaps between taunting shadow AND trying to de-escalate the situation by talking him down AND stalling by leading him away and keeping him busy. and then giving a flimsy reason he KNOWS is flimsy, then smirking when he finds an angle that works and he knows he’s won the argument. god i love sonic. him still fairly distrustful of mr tinker and eggman land while keeping an affable smirk and shaking his hand is so good. SONIC!!!

shadow. i like him. i loved his and sonic’s fight. but if sonic can mention how eggman helped with the black arms incident and shadows past with opposing sonic MENTION THE SHADOW ANDROIDS AND MENTION HOW EGGMAN SPECIFICALLY MANIPULATED SHADOW IN THE PAST BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF HIS MISSING MEMORY. like please he has so many fair reasons to be immensely distrustful and stubborn about anything regarding eggman and especially eggman and missing memories but please say any of it. just say it!! give him a stated reason!!! make it personal!!!!!! i did really love “if he can’t be forgiven, can you?” that’s a really good line but i wish it had been referring to the context of shadow’s memory loss! i don’t know if i’m wording any of this well, i’m not sure i’m explaining what i mean!!! i just want shadow to have a stated, specific, and personal reason for coming after eggman and then being extremely distrustful of mr tinker. he has so many reasonable reasons that would work and i just want any of them stated. why is he coming after eggman in the first place? “to ensure he wasn’t planning a counter-attack” as if he proactively tries to save the world from eggman 90% of the time????? PLEASE JUST GIVE HIM GOOD REASONS AND EXPLAIN THEM—EVEN HINT AT THEM—THROUGH ANYTHING OTHER THAN 17 PANELS OF SHADOW THINKING AND NOT SAYING ANYTHING. i like his actions here! just please say some words and make them good. please touch on the memory thing outside of the shadow’s line “losing one’s memory doesn’t make them any less dangerous” which is a great if it had then been followed up on! there’s just so many great parallels here and i wish they’d been heavy handed with it honestly

[devotedlystrangewizard]

shoutout to my dad for complaining his baldurs gate 3 download took 45 minutes. i cant even play it but go OFF

[risingsunresistance]

ugh