#I wish I was corporate Disney already

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Often when I post an AI-neutral or AI-positive take on an anti-AI post I get blocked, so I wanted to make my own post to share my thoughts on "Nightshade", the new adversarial data poisoning attack that the Glaze people have come out with.

I've read the paper and here are my takeaways:

Firstly, this is not necessarily or primarily a tool for artists to "coat" their images like Glaze; in fact, Nightshade works best when applied to sort of carefully selected "archetypal" images, ideally ones that were already generated using generative AI using a prompt for the generic concept to be attacked (which is what the authors did in their paper). Also, the image has to be explicitly paired with a specific text caption optimized to have the most impact, which would make it pretty annoying for individual artists to deploy.

While the intent of Nightshade is to have maximum impact with minimal data poisoning, in order to attack a large model there would have to be many thousands of samples in the training data. Obviously if you have a webpage that you created specifically to host a massive gallery poisoned images, that can be fairly easily blacklisted, so you'd have to have a lot of patience and resources in order to hide these enough so they proliferate into the training datasets of major models.

The main use case for this as suggested by the authors is to protect specific copyrights. The example they use is that of Disney specifically releasing a lot of poisoned images of Mickey Mouse to prevent people generating art of him. As a large company like Disney would be more likely to have the resources to seed Nightshade images at scale, this sounds like the most plausible large scale use case for me, even if web artists could crowdsource some sort of similar generic campaign.

Either way, the optimal use case of "large organization repeatedly using generative AI models to create images, then running through another resource heavy AI model to corrupt them, then hiding them on the open web, to protect specific concepts and copyrights" doesn't sound like the big win for freedom of expression that people are going to pretend it is. This is the case for a lot of discussion around AI and I wish people would stop flagwaving for corporate copyright protections, but whatever.

The panic about AI resource use in terms of power/water is mostly bunk (AI training is done once per large model, and in terms of industrial production processes, using a single airliner flight's worth of carbon output for an industrial model that can then be used indefinitely to do useful work seems like a small fry in comparison to all the other nonsense that humanity wastes power on). However, given that deploying this at scale would be a huge compute sink, it's ironic to see anti-AI activists for that is a talking point hyping this up so much.

In terms of actual attack effectiveness; like Glaze, this once again relies on analysis of the feature space of current public models such as Stable Diffusion. This means that effectiveness is reduced on other models with differing architectures and training sets. However, also like Glaze, it looks like the overall "world feature space" that generative models fit to is generalisable enough that this attack will work across models.

That means that if this does get deployed at scale, it could definitely fuck with a lot of current systems. That said, once again, it'd likely have a bigger effect on indie and open source generation projects than the massive corporate monoliths who are probably working to secure proprietary data sets, like I believe Adobe Firefly did. I don't like how these attacks concentrate the power up.

The generalisation of the attack doesn't mean that this can't be defended against, but it does mean that you'd likely need to invest in bespoke measures; e.g. specifically training a detector on a large dataset of Nightshade poison in order to filter them out, spending more time and labour curating your input dataset, or designing radically different architectures that don't produce a comparably similar virtual feature space. I.e. the effect of this being used at scale wouldn't eliminate "AI art", but it could potentially cause a headache for people all around and limit accessibility for hobbyists (although presumably curated datasets would trickle down eventually).

All in all a bit of a dick move that will make things harder for people in general, but I suppose that's the point, and what people who want to deploy this at scale are aiming for. I suppose with public data scraping that sort of thing is fair game I guess.

Additionally, since making my first reply I've had a look at their website:

Used responsibly, Nightshade can help deter model trainers who disregard copyrights, opt-out lists, and do-not-scrape/robots.txt directives. It does not rely on the kindness of model trainers, but instead associates a small incremental price on each piece of data scraped and trained without authorization. Nightshade's goal is not to break models, but to increase the cost of training on unlicensed data, such that licensing images from their creators becomes a viable alternative.

Once again we see that the intended impact of Nightshade is not to eliminate generative AI but to make it infeasible for models to be created and trained by without a corporate money-bag to pay licensing fees for guaranteed clean data. I generally feel that this focuses power upwards and is overall a bad move. If anything, this sort of model, where only large corporations can create and control AI tools, will do nothing to help counter the economic displacement without worker protection that is the real issue with AI systems deployment, but will exacerbate the problem of the benefits of those systems being more constrained to said large corporations.

Kinda sucks how that gets pushed through by lying to small artists about the importance of copyright law for their own small-scale works (ignoring the fact that processing derived metadata from web images is pretty damn clearly a fair use application).

[maxwell-grant]

“What's impressive?! I've been a boy this whole time!”

(Spoilers for Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish)

Big Jack Horner was delightfully wretched and felt a lot like he was a Shrek villain stuck in a Puss in Boots movie and it made for a really interesting contrast, with everyone else in the forest going through swashbuckling adventures of personal growth and companionship, while he’s cheating and steamrolling his way through everything with darkly comedic brutality, quite literally pulling Shrek gags out of a bag as he just kills and burns and stomps his way through the magical wonderland.

It’s like he was designed to be the Final Boss of Shrek, except there’s currently no Shrek movies for him to be in so, into the Puss in Boots sequel he goes, almost like this dark embodiment of the shadow cast over the Puss in Boots franchise that it must surpass (and somehow did). He just does not play by any of the same rules everyone else does and it’s great, it lets everyone look better by default. It lets the Puss vs Death story play out in all it’s poetic glory but still gives the movie a proper bastard for everyone to gang up on. I didn’t think of that at first, but I’ve read some comments and wonderful analysis commenting on Jack Horner as a extended pisstake on Disney, an update of Lord Farquaad for modern times, and it’s an analysis that makes a lot of sense.

In that regard: while this couldn’t possibly have been intentional given their release dates so close to each other, I do think it’s pretty funny that Jack winds up connected to Pinocchio, a character who had having a rather busy 2022 if you can tell. Not only is he followed around by a bootleg Jiminy Cricket, but we see that Jack, who was extremely well-off and spoiled throughout his entire life, bears an incandescent bitterness against all magical creatures (and Pinocchio specifically) for taking attention away from his roadside show, which consisted entirely of him reciting his nursery rhyme over and over (even his family was shown bored by it), and so that’s why he wants to own ALL the magic in the world: so that nobody else gets any.

He, who already owns a massive empire and business and land and literally endless collections of powerful magical artifacts he can use to achieve anything he wants a trillion times over, who doesn’t even know what most of what he has does or is worth, is driven by the fact that Pinocchio upstaged him once,

and so nobody else should get to do anything like that ever again.

(Again, not saying this was remotely intentional, just a funny coincidence)

Also wonderful how his ultimate undoing comes from said bootleg Jiminy Cricket, one of the countless employees he’d abused and crushed over the movie, finally having enough and sending him his incendiary “resignation letter”. 2022 saw the year end with a movie where Jiminy Cricket ends a titanic corporate manchild’s reign of terror and life by setting a magical contract map on fire and freeing everyone from it.

It doesn’t even register as one of the best things about the movie only because the movie has SO many best things going on, that it can just casually work in one of the funniest Shrek subplots of all time like it’s easy. Still shocked at how good this film was and how much life they injected into it, perfect movie to end or start the year with.

[sepublic]

Jokes aside, I’d argue Belos isn't openly homophobic because there's no point to it; There's no point in trying to 'redeem' witches and demons by changing their lifestyles if he's convinced himself they're all going to Hell anyway, so the only thing he needs to do is kill them. "Why bother teaching them anything if you can just wipe them out?"

Belos only changes aspects of witches' lives that are directly necessary to his plans; In this case, applying sigils by justifying the lack of them as 'wild magic', and then keeping magic divided with different covens so they can't easily rebel against the system that's applying sigils, thereby allowing it to keep doing that and marking as many targets as possible for the draining spell. It's really quite simple. That's why he'll refuse to replenish the Palistrom forests but then promote women like Hettie and Terra to coven heads; Because Hettie and Terra will be killed by the draining spell anyway, but Palismen won't be.

And let's be real... He's a Puritan white guy. He absolutely believes that queerness is inherently a threat to society not just on a spiritual level but a biological one, because it discourages people from making babies because they're more focused on partners of the same sex they can't reproduce with. He probably thought Boiling Isles queerness was contributing to an inevitable decline that he merely hastened and that's why he allowed it. And Belos can't be openly bigoted because people wouldn't listen to him that way.

He's also definitely racist. Belos making an 'exception' for Luz is totally meaningless because white racists make exceptions for brown and gay folk all the time, while still clinging to their beliefs. Luz just happened to be the only human around since centuries, and that's better than no humans because the lowliest one is still above the greatest demon. And he still tried to murder Luz when she didn't flatter his white savior complex, and didn't adhere to his idea of what a proper human should be.

Even if Belos didn't try to kill Luz... Genocide isn't just murdering people. It's also erasing a culture, such as when white people assimilated Native American children, forcing them to convert to Christianity and dress like white people and speak only English, under the claim that they were 'civilizing' them. So even if they were alive, it was still genocide and it was still racism in the form of the White Man's Burden.

He was a white boy raised in a colony, everyone would've taught him that the indigenous people were 'savages' and Philip not only devoted his life to exterminating an entire culture he deemed evil and demonic, but actively enjoyed it too. Why would he stop at brown humans, unlike Caleb who already unlearned one major prejudice of his. If he never learned of the Boiling Isles, he'd have gone after women in Gravesfield (which would've been misogynistic in practice regardless of Philip's intentions), and probably Native Americans too because his witch hunting games are no different than Cowboys VS Indians.

Like I dunno man these white racists do have fellow white people they care about, and are willing to make exceptions and humor brown women too. But they're still racist and will refuse to listen to those people when called out over their bigotry, and ultimately choose that. Any argument that Belos wouldn't be guilty of other human prejudices is purely wishful thinking, and fairly contradictory to his characterization and whole narrative.

And we can wax poetic about why Belos doesn't openly disparage Luz for being brown, queer, and/or a girl, but we know the real reason why; It's because Disney censors would throw a conniption over portrayals of bigotry, and the show was already shortened for 'not fitting the brand'. Look at how Texas banned critical race theory. They think discussing racism is inherently racist, kinda like Twitter users. But with the added difference that they know it's a callout of the people running corporations and the government and investors (AKA themselves) and they hate that.

This kinda gets me back to an earlier point I made; I think the fundamental disconnect fans have with the show over Belos is that Belos stans (not necessarily fans) recognize their character's backstory and motives are something gross that can't be romanticized, and that's why they work so hard to reframe the focus towards Philip's dynamic with his brother Caleb, emphasizing codependency, and religious suppression and guilt. Because they can romanticize that, but not the intentionally pathetic core of Belos' character (itself a satire of certain subgroups).

They're seething over the reminder that their sexy aesthetic will always be second-banana to a 4channer complex, and salty that the crew chose to discuss something topical instead of making a sexyman villain, because their complaints can be boiled down to tastes and preferences, not actual objective critique. That's also why they claim the finale 'retconned' Belos and stripped him of nuance, because all the show really did was just frame and acknowledge his desire to be right as cowardly and selfish, instead of flattering him with tortured abandonment angst over a brother he never cared enough for. As if we didn’t have the ghosts in the previous episode for that purpose.

[bridgertonopinions]

PR Anon - Part 2 (last post from me because i should really unplug and enjoy my vacation lol. I appreciate everyone being interested in my opinion, i do enjoy my job and human behavior. For context, I work in corporate PR, mainly male executives. I'll say this, regardless of industry, men are men. sometimes...) Here is my personal thoughts about LN. I think he's a good actor and handsome, none of what i'm about to say is to hate on him at all. I'm thinking of him in context as if he was my client/a male actor on a hit show. 1. LN was/is underprepared for what he needed to do to really take this opportunity to the next level for his personal career. Idk if it's because he expected things to just happen, didn't pay attention to his team or is just choosing to ignore advice; but he's fumbling the bag. I truly understand that he can be overwhelmed by it all, but you have a team you can lean on and utilize. He may be 31, but I think he lacks some maturity that's coming into play. 2. The Canada interview was at least the second time LN has mentioned that he's learning from NC because she's had previous success with Derry Girls. He needs to stop with that narrative because i have a feeling it's going to bite him in the butt. I think it's an immature way of thinking because LN was on a Disney Show (Disney training/media/etc for their actors is no joke) plus he was in a boy band. They may have not amounted to the same amount of hype/success as Derry Girls, but it's nothing to scoff at and he should be building upon those things as well. This feels like he's using it as an excuse for the way he's handling things.... 3. Social media is critical to the success of actors these days. The industry wants a ROI on their investments. So much of the $$ actors make these days will come from brand sponsorships/marketing and right now, his social media scoring is not great for someone on a highly promoted show compared to NC. (yes, marketers will compare bc as of right now, they are tied together) 4. Idk what type of actor he's looking to be (artistic vs commercial) but either way, he's going to struggle if he doesn't make some changes IMO. If he wants to do artsy films that get critical acclaim, they don't pay well and he'll need to supplement income via brand sponsorships etc. Hence the issue with #2. If he wants to do commercial things, he'll need to get onboard with media training for studios to consider him. I said it in a previous post, the marketing money into season is insane, it's being noticed by the industry. 5. Lastly, I think he's in a real pickle at the moment. NC is very beloved; she's getting critical, commercial and public love. If he does launch his relationship with A (who knows, don't care) the internet is not forgiving and the same shitstorm from last week will come up over and over again. If he says nothing, then he needs to be aware of how he's perceived by the general public in all the upcoming promo. He was a bit standoffish (IMO!) on the Canada show (crossed arms, distance between themselves, deflection in answers). People have noticed and there is chatter already about it online. He needs to warm it up to smooth out the "landing" of this promo season. I really do wish LN success and want to see him really grow into his own. I wish both NC and LN a ton of success in the near future. If anything, this has been a really interesting case study for those of us in the PR industry and maybe for those of you who are interested in how the PR industry thinks of things. It's not an easy job, lots of consider with human behavior and free will of your client.

I’m not sure I am buying into this but thank you for sharing!

[capsarcastica]

Alien: Romulus Review

The longer the movie goes on, the worse it gets. It has promise, and the trailers certainly sold it. But it reminds me of the two worst Alien movies. Like Alien Resurrection, it's technically well done and has all the elements that should work but don't. Like Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, it's a collection of remade scenes from better Alien movies that comes across like a well-made fan film.

There is stuff to like. The visuals are amazing. The shots of space are the best in the series. There's a lot of extra attention paid to the ship drifting through space, the station, and the planetary rings. The sets are gorgeous, perfectly capturing the classic look and feel of the original film using old school tech. The practical alien effects mostly look good. It balances that fine line between audiences already knowing what they look like and keeping them mysterious and creepy.

Between this and 2022's Prey, it's disappointing that Disney's 20th Century Studios is just rehashing the original stories rather than give something new. Almost everything has a sense of been there, done that. The story is basically the same as the original. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But this feels more like rehashing rather than homage. It's like a Greatest Hits collection by a cover band. It works, but why bother when the original stuff is so readily available and done so much better. They even threw in the "Get away from her…" line from Aliens. Throwbacks worked in the cheesy AvP movies but not in something trying to be serious.

There's really only two truly original moments worth noting. The first is when the characters try to get through a room full of facehuggers without being noticed. The reasoning behind this is dubious at best, but it is suspenseful. Except for the fact that the facehuggers look like the kind of animatronics that would appear in a Disneyland line queue. The other is the Zero-G sequence. I wish this had more than just the act one set up and third act pay off, since it's really an inventive idea. It throws the aliens off giving the characters an advantage, and getting through a tunnel filled with floating acid would be suspenseful. Except that the CGI in this one scene looks really fake.

I do like how they connected the events of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant to the original Alien. Given the lackluster reception to the last two, it would've been easy to just ignore them and move on. This at least provides some closure on Ridley Scott's last two for those who did like them. And it connects to why the company wants the alien beyond just a bioweapon.

There's only one character that's interesting, Andy the defective android. He starts off mentally handicapped who is nice but is upgraded with the local science officer's chip making him effective yet part of the corporate machine. It's an interesting dynamic having the characters decide between the good but broken and the evil but effective versions. Rain is the main character, but the blandest heroine this series has produced. She's literally only there cause the others need Andy. The rest are basically characters straight out of an 80s slasher film. The dull heroic type, the jerk who just makes things worse, the pregnant girl who has no personality, and the Asian cannon fodder girl. The first three did a good job developing the cast so it was shocking when one died. But here it's pretty obvious who isn't making it.

The biggest problem with the cast is that none of them are really believable. The series, aside from AVP:R, has always featured more mature characters who generally made smart decisions. It's hard to buy this cast as a bunch of grizzled miners who have worked 1400+ hours. And they make really dumb Friday the 13th level decisions. Like in the finale when Rain goes back into the alien nest just to save someone who should be dead when she was in the clear. It's trying to have its Aliens finale without understanding what went into it. The actors are serviceable, but never portray the sheer terror that's needed for this series.

The legacy character cameo is, like the movie, technically well done but a terrible bit of story. Resurrecting Ian Holm seems like an interesting idea, and would have if it had been just a cameo. But he becomes central to the plot and is featured far too much. Beyond nostalgia bait, there's no reason not to just use another actor to be an entirely new android. The animatronics used for the puppet looks really good, and Daniel Betts does a near perfect job recreating the voice. It's like the Dr. Loomis cameo in Halloween Kills.

Then there's the other legacy cameo, the original alien. This has the unfortunate side effect of rendering everything Ripley did pointless. It then raises a bunch of questions the movie doesn't bother to address. Why is the Nostromo still so intact? How did the alien go from being vaporized in the shuttle's engines to being cocooned? How did the station get eggs from a single drone? Why is there now a pupae stage? How long is the development cycle? Stuff like this makes it seem like the script was a collection of moments that where later tied together.

And finally there's the horrible ending. It's the ending that really makes or breaks a film. For all the grief fans give Alien 3, it's hard not to find the last scene poignant with Ripley giving her life to end the alien threat once and for all. Instead of doing anything interesting, this film goes for a nearly beat-for-beat remake of the finale to Alien Resurrection. The absolute worst of the series. The one that fans remember more for Sigourney Weaver making a basketball shot than anything else in the film. They could have stole an ending from literally anything. But they chose to give us another alien-human hybrid that is just as dumb and somehow looks even worse.

I was really looking forward to this. Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead is an amazing reboot and I was hoping this would follow suit. But like James Mangold's Indiana Jones, there's just something lost when a great director tries to make lightning strike twice under Disney's leadership.

[king-crawler]

Wreck it Ralph as a franchise is so strange. The first film represents everything i ADORE in a movie and the second film represents everything I DESPISE in a movie

The more details I learn about Wreck-it Ralph, the more it BLOWS MY MIND and the more I love and appreciate it. This film was so meticulously crafted with so much nerdy love and effort and the characters are written incredibly. There’s so much foreshadowing and little details you’d never notice on a first viewing, and it’s just so clever in every aspect. Everything just feels so natural, the dialogue, the world- I could go on about how much I love it for hours

Meanwhile Ralph Breaks the Internet is Disney’s Emoji Movie… the more I (unfortunately) learn about it the more disappointed I become. And also it’s already so outdated it’s painful. No- It was outdated when it was made. SOMEHOW. A movie about the MODERN ERA. Is MORE OUTDATED than a MOVIE ABOUT ARCADE GAMES!!? Stopping myself so I don’t rant for paragraphs. I haven’t even seen it in full because I know that watching it would break me LOL

I know they had concepts of Ralph traveling to the internet in the first film that they had to cut because it was too much to add an entirely new world. (Thank god)

I know this has been covered Extensively before. But It just continues to baffle me how this even happened. And saddens me. (Especially now that Wish is a thing) Sure it’s the same characters, but every little thing that made the original GREAT is just. Absent or downgraded at worst. And it was the same director… did something happen? Or was a sequel always going to be bad because corporate executives insisted on the vision of “Internet Crossover” cuz of how much they could self advertise and get product placement money and. Yeah.

At this point I’m just happy the first movie was as good as it is and we just have to leave it at that. Even though the missed potential Deeply Hurts me💔

[fu-cough]

I watched Disney's Wish (aka their 100 year celebration movie) and if you like the movie please just feel free to ignore me😭

ITS SHITTY.

1. Appearance - it is so bland. The castle has no color in it. It's all grey, even Asha's clothes are muted! Their city is called "ROSAS" for god's sake, they couldn't have thrown in an abundant amount of roses there?? Flowers?? They tried to do this 2d and 3d mix that the Spiderverse movies made famous and it just does not work. The characters do not interact with the textures of the background at all. It feels like they were just plastered onto the scene with the backgrounds already made. The trees and leaves do not sway. The best sequence was probably the "At All Costs" song number.

2. Soundtrack - "here I are", "Throw caution to every warning sign" (the context of the song is that she does not care about the warning signs), "I got these genes from outer space" (which does not make sense metaphorically and literally because afaik Magnifico is a human with powers). Overall, the tune is okay (more of pop music than theater style but ok) the lyrics are not. Definitely tried to copy Lin's style.

3. Asha - who EVEN IS SHE?? We don't even know anything about her except that she wanted to be Magnifico's apprentice so her family could have a higher chance in having their wish granted. Also her father died. She was so boring as a protagonist. She had an i want song where she spoke about being restricted by people telling her "no" and like WHEN?? She was never stripped of her freedom, the only time she was told no was when she asked Magnifico to have her grandpa's wish granted. She was THE SAME throughout the entire film. No development, no moral lessons, no nothing.

4. Magnifico - he kind of deserved better lmao, not the best but his character deserved better treatment plot wise. Like he turned evil in a span of 5 seconds because of some cursed book i guess. And then his wife of how many years immediately left him and took the throne for herself 😭. He granted a girl's wish about being a dressmaker and she talked shit about him the moment he was in the mirror. I don't really understand why he's a villain but that's because I don't understand how wishes worked in-universe.

5. Wishes - i dont understand THIS!! it pisses me off so much and threw me off the entire duration of the film. Like okay so the people of Rosas WILLINGLY give the King their wishes once they turn 18. Then the King grants 1 wish per month and people KNOW THIS. It's basically a lottery and there's a chance your wish will never be granted. The citizens also know that they will forget their wish once they give it and they will never get them back. So what is Asha trying to revolt against here?? People seemed okay with this entire arrangement, hell, they knew about it the entire time. What exactly is the conflict in the story?

6. Other Characters - ohh omgg Asha's friends are the seven dwarves haha nice idea Disney, if only they were fleshed out and we could've seen their wishes, right? Also there's a talking goat thing who makes butt jokes. And then there was Star that was definitely just there to make merch plushies. Asha's grandpa wants to "inspire the young generations" thru... playing the guitar??? Asha's motivations revolved around having her grandpa's wish granted and his wish is just so goddamn plain. Like where are the stakes?? It would've been better if her grandpa's wish was something life saving. Maybe her mom was sick or something.

7. Plot - there's a plot?

I am just so madd. It so soulless, stiff, and basically just an entire ball of corporate bullshit. I am not blaming any of the writers, animators and anyone in the creative field because we know damn well it's the executives' fault for making this whole mess. 1/10.

[memekeymouse]

I read an article regarding the whole thing of the copyright and trademark of Mickey Mouse and saw Disney's apparently got a trademark on Mickey's name. Me and the toon meta nerd that I am immediately took this as "Disney owns Mickey's name and when Mickey left for public domain, Disney stripped him of his name".

Now this sort of thing can either go two ways:

A. Mickey is really freaking happy. Because the name carries heavy baggage of a corrupt company he wishes to no longer associate. He can pick out a new name for himself and then go on to start a brand new life where he can call the shots.

Or B. Mickey is absolutely devastated by losing his name. Because that name is his. In a life where toons actually control very little of their own fate when owned by corporation, Mickey at least believed that his own name was something that was truly his. Until he learnt that wasn't the case and flew into a table-flipping rage, screaming and cursing at Disney and all it stands for because they wanted such tight control of him, they even took something and claimed part of his identity forever.

They took his god damn name...

On one hand, I am absolutely losing it at Option B. Definitely something that resonates with my forbidden toon lore, edgelord that I am. He’s already having enough of a crisis, reduced to a faceless brand— and now he’s a nameless brand?? Damn

But also I am looking at Option A like 👀🏳️‍⚧️❓

[cardcaptorsakura96]

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes-Chapter 21

Fandom: Supergirl

Characters: Kara Danvers, Clark Kent, Samantha Arias, Lena Luthor, Lillian Luthor, Ruby Arias, Oliver Queen, John Stewart, Diana Prince, Bruce Wayne, Barry Allen, J'onn J'onnz, Alfred Pennyworth, Lois Lane, Cat Grant, Lucy Lane, Damian Wayne, Felicity Smoak, Streaky the Supercat, Martha Kent, Selina Kyle, Talia Al Ghul, Lucius Fox

Summary: What if superheroes had to pay a property damage tax every time they had a fight in the city?

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20

Bruce rolled his eyes as he listened to the board members arguing in the background over the phone while he talked to his CFO Lucius Fox. They were trying to push a vote on expanding Wayne Enterprise to Canada. Most were for it. They just couldn’t agree on where the corporate headquarters should be. The places being thrown around were Toronto, Quebec City, Halifax, and Vancouver. Bruce honestly didn’t care about where they built, but his board members fought back that it was all about location, location, location. 

Lucius sighed and said, “If it wasn’t for the fact that you pay me handsomely for this bullshit, I would have bailed on these idiots an hour ago.”

Bruce smirked and asked, “So it isn’t the box seat passes that I got you for the Giants’ games for the rest of the season?”

Lucius chuckled and said, “Oh, that definitely took the edge off.” Lucias paused for a moment and said, “What exactly do you want me to do with this stalemate they have about Canada? We tried holding a vote but ended up with equal votes for all the cities.”

Bruce rubbed his head for a moment and said, “Have one of the associates make out a proposal for the mayor of each of those respective cities. We know what we can offer in terms of job opportunities and increasing value to the city. See what the representatives can offer us in terms of tax breaks and things of that nature. Whoever offers us the best benefits is the one we go with.”

Lucius sighed and said, “This is why I wished you were here with us an hour ago. We could have ended the meeting in five minutes with an idea like that.”

Bruce chuckled and said, “I needed to be here for Damian. This is an important milestone for him.”

“Are you sure you are not using this as an excuse to get out of a board meeting? Disneyland was a weird choice, but I have seen you choose stranger places to avoid the Board.”

Bruce rolled his eyes and said, “Damian really did have a field trip for Disney. I wasn’t going to let him go by himself. The PTA already think I am an idiot and absentminded as it is….”

Lucius burst out laughing for a few minutes. 

Bruce narrowed his eyes and asked, “What’s so funny?”

Lucius’ laugh started tapering off and said, “I’m sorry. I just never thought that you of all people would care what other people think. Imagine what your opposition in your second life would think.”

Bruce gave a deadpan stare and said, “Ha, Ha. Very funny.”

Lucius chuckled and said, “You know I’m kidding right?”

Bruce smiled coyly and said, “Sure you are.”

“Anyway, how is Damian taking to Disney? I’m sure it is different to the other eclectic things he has been exposed to in his childhood.”

Bruce sighed while rubbing the back of his head. He knew going to Disney would be a very foreign concept for his youngest, but he didn’t expect him to fight him the whole way. Or maybe it was wishful thinking. It would definitely explain the looks his other three boys gave him when he mentioned their trip. Dick and Jason just bursted out laughing at the suggestion and Tim started to do research into securing Damian an attorney in case he decided to burn the theme park down in vengeance. 

Bruce shook his head and said, “Damian hasn’t taken too kindly being here. He has already pressed the panic button he has twice to try to get Tim to pick him up since he is with the Titans this week in California. When that didn’t work, he tried to ditch me to go back to the main road to hitchhike before I caught up with him.”

“Considering his other antics are you really surprised by this?”

Bruce sighed and said, “My three older boys have already indicated the same thing. I just want him to have people his age to associate with.”

Bruce looked out the corner of his eye and noticed Lena coming back with several Dole Whips.

While looking at her thoughtfully, Bruce said, “Lucius, if there isn’t anything else, I am going to have to call you back after I get back to Gotham on Monday.”

“Okay, hope things go better with Damian this weekend.”

“You and me both,” muttered Bruce under his breath as he hung up the phone. 

He quickly changed his frown to a passive smile as Lena finally walked up to him. 

Lena smiled and said while handing him a Dole Whip, “Damian and Kara wanted some. I got some for you in case you wanted one as well.”

Bruce gave her a blank stare. He knew that Kara trusted her implicitly, but he still had some nagging thoughts about her. 

Lena chuckled nervously and said, “If you don’t want it, that is fine. I can just give it to Kara. She would probably be excited at the prospect of having two more.”

Bruce let out his charming smile which took Lena off guard for a moment. 

Bruce said, “I would actually like to try some. Some of my employees have talked wonders about this so I am curious if it lives up to all the hype.”

Bruce took the cup from Lena. He began to eat. His eyebrow went up in surprise. He knew that this was similar to ice cream but this is the best ice cream that he has had in a while.

Lena smirked and said, “I take it this means that it far exceeded your expectations.”

Bruce chuckled and said, “Definitely.”

They stood in weird silence with one other. Bruce could tell that Lena kept nervously looking around. Probably wish that Kara would come back as quickly as possible. Originally, Bruce thought about keeping silent until his son and Kara came back but then saw it as an opportunity to get to know the girl. Clark hadn’t been too keen on anyone approaching Lena. Several veiled threats were made if anyone did. If asked, he could use this as an innocent run-in, although he can hear it now from Clark accusing him that it was planned. 

He sighed and said, “Kara has said that you run a children’s hospital.”

Lena smiled and let out a sigh of relief and said, “Yes. I believe in the importance of getting children the best healthcare they could as possible no matter what the cost.”

“What caused you to want to focus on children’s health though?”

Lena looked up thoughtfully and said, “My niece Ruby inspired me actually. She was sick. Most doctors thought it was a cold or at most the flu and said with just over-the-counter medicine it would go away. However, she kept getting sicker and nothing was working. We went to doctor after doctor until one actually did their research and found out what was wrong with her and got her the treatment that she needed to get well. I don’t want any family to have to go through that. Being dismissed and thinking that your concerns aren’t valid. I wanted to have doctors look into everything instead of looking at what is most common. That is when I decided to scout for the best of the best in pediatrics and start my own hospital.”

Bruce gave her an insightful look. Many had regarded Lena using her hospital for nefarious purposes, but he has seen that the commercial that Kara and Lena did a couple of weeks back had changed the discourse around it. Now, more patients have been giving reviews and it has been overall positive. It was good to know that Lena created the hospital as a way to inspire change. Bruce was about to comment as such when he heard his phone ring again. He sighed and looked down and saw that Alfred was calling. He looked at Lena sheepishly and mouthed “One moment.”

Read the rest on AO3

[ilovescaredysquirrel2]

The problem with Disney right now...

I know I usually state my opinion on movies I see recently and give reviews but sometimes I give my opinion on movies that are going to come out soon. So, I heard about the unnecessary sequels for Moana and Inside Out, which are great movies but they don't need sequels. In all honesty, after seeing what they did with Wish, I think Disney should take a break on making animated movies for a while! Not forever, just for a short time.

Okay, so I think we all can tell that they used A.I on Wish. It's not the animation and stuff, it's just the story! I even think the songs were written by real people, it's purely the story that feels A.I generated. Watch them use A.I on Moana 2, Inside Out 2, and Frozen 3... oh gosh that would break my heart to se them ruin the sequels with A.I. I don't consider myself a Disney fan, in fact, even as a kid I wasn't a Disney-movie kid, but I did have a Frozen phase back in the day. Every kid had a Frozen phase. Inside Out is okay but it was kind of emotional, but the first Moana was really good. The thing is, Frozen is based off the Snow Queen while Moana and Inside Out aren't based off any fairytales and are Disney's own original ideas for once. Plus, I think they're only making these sequels because their original ideas like StrangeWorld and Wish are failing so they're proffiting off live action remakes and making sequels of already existing characters because they're desperate. They're just so greedy and can't stand to see the competitors, who are smaller animation companies, beat them!

I'm mostly boycotting Disney (and have been ever since I saw Zootopia) but I'll watch Disney movies pirated on free websites like Actvid and Moviesjoy. The only thing I like from 2024 Disney is Kiff! LITERALLY KIFF! KIFF! Of all things, I never thought KIFF would be the only thing that's stopping me from abandoning Disney all together. I don't use Disney plus but the website I watch Kiff on doesn't have the recent episodes and I refuse to get Disney plus. Disney should focus on stuff like Kiff and Phineas & Ferb anyway. The only good show they got on Disney channel now is Bluey and Bluey is NOT EVEN DISNEY! Bluey is an Australian show and should be seen as that, instead of having the greediest corporation in the world act like they own an Aussie show that they didn't have anything to do with. Bluey should be on PBS kids or something, not greedy Disney! Who agrees? I'm American, but If I was in Australia I'd be so mad at Disney. Disney literally censored episodes, removed episodes, and stopped the writers from throwing in a Bible reference... when they weren't even making the show! If I was in charge, Disney Channel/Disney Junior would have shows like Jungle Junction, Phineas & Ferb, Bear in the Big Blue House, Good Luck Charlie, Suite life of Zack & Cody on Deck,... ect. Basically I'd bring back everything except JESSIE because it was racist (R.I.P to Cameron Boyce tho, he wasn't a bad guy he was just on a bad show).

Anyway, Disney is on my last nerve rn, and if it wasn't for Kiff I'd hate it all together. I still do hate Disney but the only thing that keeps me from wanting it to go away is Kiff. If you haven't heard of Kiff, it's a recent show by Disney, about an orange squirrel who's really energetic (and no, she's NOTHING like Scaredy Squirrel). As far as movies go, I know for sure that I will never see another Disney movie in theaters and I encourage you too, as well. They'll end up on Actvid or Moviesjoy before they even end up on Disney plus anyway, because Disey is popular and people care enough to record it off some hidden camera in theaters. I'm not saying you have to follow in my footsteps and boycott Disney, I'm just telling you on how I do it. Like, the day they come out in theaters is the same day they end up on free websites. Plus, you don't have to waste your money if the movie is going to be bad, like how Wish ended up being bad.

So yeah, please share your thoughts! If you're a Disney fan, I'm sorry. You have to know that they've been really shady recently (they always have been shady but particularly now).

[mrawkweird]

As much as I Enjoyed Laserhawk part of me feels like it would have worked better if it was a under a different brand than Ubisoft. Like WB or Disney but at the same time the Rayman stuff works because he's famous enough to be a recognized mascot yet the company cares so little that they actually went through on a show that his him swear, do drugs, hire hookers, and goes postal on the goverment.

Or it could have been all original stuff, but I know so little about Ubisoft that it already sort of was, like I had no clue that fruity guy at the top of the tower in episode 2 was from Farcry or that Jade was from that game that got a sequel announced like 6 years ago

WB and Disney have so many things though when it comes to showcasing a brand that they're practically hogging the board. Something lesser utilized but known enough such as Ubisoft had to get it's own thing where maybe more attention can also be brought their way in return. Like, I fucking wish Watch_Dogs was bigger but I know it's not for a lot of people. A lot of people didn't fuck with it but I really liked what they had going so to see it represented here in any capacity was a really nice surprise. Also, if Ubisoft could do it then maybe that means other things could too in the future. WayForwardverse when?

And shit, you have to have a real level of comfort in your characters to let them go outside the box. If anything this show told me that they must have some high opinion of Rayman because they gave his ass an arc. They took him from corporate shill to possibly becoming the face of the new world order. In the world of professional wrestling we call that shit a main event push.

[multicolour-ink]

I’m glad you gave your input on the whole “pirate Sonic 3” going on rn, cause I have a few mutuals of mine who have posted the same thing like “if you see this film in theaters, we’re not friends anymore” and stuff like that.

I’m still seeing the film in theaters, but it’s only to support of the artists that worked their butts off for months on a short time frame and deserve to have their hard work celebrated rather than being shunned due to some bad choices by the higher ups

And I fully support you seeing the movie in theatres, dear 👍

I do understand that this is a difficult situation for everyone who wants to see the movie and is aware of the situation with Paramount. On the one hand, you want to support the movie itself and the team behind it. But on the other hand you are also financing a corporation with terrible morals. It's difficult. For those who have already made the decision to not see this movie in theatres, nor purchase it anywhere else because you don't feel comfortable doing so, that is perfectly fine and you are within their free rights to do what you feel is right for yourself.

However, for those who also choose to exploit anyone who decide to see the movie in theatres, and threaten to not be friends anymore, frankly I think that's very childish.

There's a saying: "Money talks". And sadly that's how these corporations work.

We can choose to boycott or not pay to see the movie. People can choose how they wish. However, corporations always go by the financial numbers. What I mean by that is, if few people pay for a product, and the financial gain is small, then the corporation decides that this must mean the public don't want said product. Rarely will they ever take notice if the reasons are anything else. How else do you think Disney are able to finance these live action projects? How else did Mufasa come to be without the financial aid of Lion King 2019? (not 100% saying this is the sole reason - but it likely contributed)

I myself am not sure if I will be able to see Sonic Movie 3 in theatres, but I have come to the conclusion that I will at some point have to buy it in order to watch it - if only because I choose not to go on pirate sites due to the hassle I have had with them in the past. This doesn't mean I'm immediately supporting Paramount. I am choosing to show support for the team who worked on the movie.

[ahmedmootaz]

Writing And Translation Commissions Are Open: An Announcement!

Hello, everyone! It's been a while since the last non-ask post, no? Indeed, while I have been busy attempting to write my Fan-Fics and the like, I have also decided to make an important announcement:

I am accepting commissions!

Translation and writing commissions to be precise!

I also wish to preface this by saying that, while working on commissions will not impact my work on AiP, it will limit the number of asks I can answer here on Tumblr as I will dedicate the time I used to give them towards writing and translation commissions.

So, without further ado, here are my commission services:

1. Writing:

I will write commissions between 1K words and 10K words when it comes to length. I expect 3$ per 1K words. When it comes to the story you wish to commission, all you need is to send me a vague plot of the story you wish for me to write and give me what the general atmosphere will be (comedic, serious, crack, etc.) and I will closely update you on the progress of your commission as it is being written.

The price and the length of the commission will be agreed on before the writing process commences so that no misunderstandings occur.

I WILL write :

Platonic/Familial relationships.

AUs.

OCs

Fluff/Angst, Hurt/Comfort, etc.

Any type of story except the ones in the list below.

I will NOT write :

NSFW.

Real-life politics.

Stories about real people.

Shipping stories (except for the ships I already have on AO3).

I am open to talking in length about the commission in order to provide the most satisfying results!

Fandoms I will write for:

Lobotomy Corporation

Library of Ruina

Limbus Company

Kim Possible

Ducktales

The Disney Duckverse in general, including the Italian comic verse.

Portal 2

If you have any specific Fandoms in mind that you want me to write for and it's not in the above list, you can tell me about them and about the story you have in mind and if I am able, I will write for that Fandom.

2. Translation:

When it comes to translation, I am able to translate to and from English and French. Whether it's a comic you wish to read in another language or a work of yours that you want to see translated to another language, I can translate to and from these languages. This also includes voicing over translations if you so desire, or reading certain works in a translated language.

When it comes to fees, it will depend on the amount of words or pages translated and how much effort is needed; a comic page being translated will not be priced higher than a novel's page being translated, for example. If you have any concerns regarding the pricing and the fees, they can be addressed through private messages.

3. Voice over and voice acting:

I can voice over or voice act dialogue in the two aforementioned languages (English and French) in any small projects that might require them. Samples will be provided of my voice and voice acting to give you an accurate image of what I am capable of so you can decide for yourself if my voice fits what you have in mind. However, voice overs and voice acting require constant communication between me and whoever requests them so as to provide the best possible result when it comes to the emotions and pauses shown in the voice over or the voice acting, should they be required.

The fees for this commission in particular will vary based on the length of the recording demanded, and as with the translation fees, they are flexible and negotiable within private messages.

All payments will be done through PayPal!

If you have any further questions, comments, or inquiries, I am willing to answer them!

[syn0vial]

8, 12, 19, 21, 23, 25 ♥ :) Only what you can please. As you know I'm obsessed with your work and insight on things ♥

thanks! skipping the ones i already answered... ^^;

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

SO many expanded universe characters, tbh. zam wesell. goran beviin and medrit vasuur. d'harhan. more people should like them 1. bc they're genuinely awesome and fun characters who make so many of the disney newcomers look like wet paperbags in comparison and 2. i want to see more fanworks with them :3 someone draw boba ripping d'harhan's fucking heart out of his chest please…

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like…

i'm not ashamed of anything i like :)

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

i really struggle to see the appeal of the jedi. like, i'm sure there's SOMETHING there bc so many people enjoy content of them, but whatever it is flies right over my head. as for "overhyped," i don't like to begrudge anyone's enjoyment of their chosen content, but i wish there was more canon, well-publicized star wars content (so, movies, TV shows, video games) that didn't place jedi at their center. i'd like to know more about the galaxy from other types of characters' perspectives, not just the jedi's.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

"yeah disney might not create the best content, but at least they're more progressive than the old—"

WRONG. INCORRECT. UNINFORMED ASSUMPTION. WE HAD CANON, NAMED, SIGNIFICANT GAY CHARACTERS 20 YEARS AGO. 20 YEARS AGO, I WAS READING ABOUT 10-YEAR-OLD BOBA FETT AND HIS NONBINARY FRIEND CHATTING ABOUT GENDER. 20 YEAR AGO, IT WAS A POINT OF CANON THAT THE MANDALORIANS WERE RACIALLY AND SEXUALLY DIVERSE AND PROTECTED THEIR DISABLED BRETHREN INSTEAD OF BEING A BUNCH OF SAME-FACED WHITE ARYANS WITH A MONARCHY. 20 YEARS AGO, YOU COULD HAVE A MAJOR FETT-CENTRIC PIECE OF MEDIA STARRING TEMUERA MORRISON (Star Wars: Bounty Hunter) THAT DIDN'T WRITE HIM OUT OF HIS OWN FUCKING SHOW.

was the expanded universe perfect? no. but its chaotic, free-for-all nature meant it was a much, MUCH better environment for boundary-pushing and organic, non-tokenized representation than the desolate, corporate, focus-tested wasteland disney cultivates.

[ultraericthered]

Hmm? Oh yeah, this one blogger gave a big response to both me and some other user who was saying stuff in the notes of her post. Seeing as she was decent and sensible enough to recognize that if we want to live and let live with our differing opinions, she probably should've at least done so behind a different tag and thus away from fans of the thing she was railing against, I in turn will put my rebuttal in this separate post on this blog and I will try to tag it appropriately.

That said, WOW. There is quite a lot of whinging to unpack here.

But, thanks for not bothering to actually listen to my argument, so let me go through your own:

"Not bothering?" It was not due to a lack of trying on my part that I failed to actually listen to this person's argument, I was legitimately confused and trying to make sense of what she was even saying.

No. I’m not saying Disney adults shouldn’t enjoy crap that was clearly made for them. Believe me, I knew some of that was already the case with Wish and I was excited for it being made for us…and I was disappointed by it. I wanted to like Mirrorverse but it just kept feeling wrong to me and the og post is the wording of what and how it was wrong to me.

Pulling out the term "Disney adults", even if applying it to herself as well, is an automatic alarm for me. It's a term that's very cynical and partonizing in origin, conceptualizing the idea that all things "Disney" are things that a person is expected to outgrow once they've reached adulthood, as though Disney produces things only for children. And sure, they make things that are purely for little kids or at most geared more towards them than to an older crowd. But primarily, on the whole, Disney content and the quality they most strive for are what we call "family friendly" rather than "kids stuff", and to assume that such content is kiddy fare that's meant to be outgrown by adults is completely against the spirit and the words of Walt Disney himself.

"I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be six or sixty." - Walt Disney

"We believed in our idea - a family park where parents and children could have fun - together." - Walt Disney

"Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be 12 years old. They patronize, they treat children as inferiors. Well, I won't do that." - Walt Disney

Yeah, you should get the picture by now.

I’m saying I find your uncritical devotion to the company, not the writer behind the projects, the company, is sad. It’s self-destructive.

Oh sure, I am uncriticially devoted to this mega corporation. So uncritical in my devotion am I that I've tagged posts or reblogs that address erorrs, poor quality content, and even harmful practices of the company as "Anti Disney" and have even likened the corporate side of Disney to their newest movie's villain many times at this point.

I really hate this kind of attitude towards fandom+online criticism as a whole. This 100% unironic “if you’re negative = HATE” attitude...that I can at least get because even the most pissy of us don’t wanna be surrounded by rage all the time. But, your complete lack or willing to consume any media critically? That’s annoying.

Reminder of how OP began their "critical" post: "I hate Disney's Mirrorverse so much." Please forgive me for where, how, and why I might've possibly gotten that "negativity = HATE" idea from here.

That literally was NOT what I was saying at all hon. Official merch is fine and a lot is great. Like, a lot. I don’t consider official merch itself a threat to fanstuff; what I consider a threat is the higher up of Disney wanting to snuff out fantasy-fan made merch.

Where was it confirmed that the higher up of Disney were specifically aiming to snuff out fan-made content with the very creation and release of Mirrorverse? I must've missed that press conference!

ALL I see with that game is creativity of individual people wasted on a corporate IPlords who wants to crush smaller artists inspired by them, and even their own workers. Disney does not care about you. Disney doesn’t even care for it’s own people. Disney wants to own fanworks so that they can profit off you even more than they already do. And, to me, that’s just kind of horrifying.

In other words, King Magnifico. Yeah, I already got that.

Are you saying you don’t have an imagination? Because A: no. You do have one. Obviously. Liking what some people may think is “cringe” =/= no imagination and I SINCERELY hope you didn’t take that away from my post.

Yes, obviously I have an imagination. I am unsure what it was that made this person think I was suggesting I didn't.

And then she starts getting more hyperbolic and a bit conspiratorial.

We are in a late stage capitalism apocalypse. My argument isn’t that Disney DARE'ENT be what it is but that you should use your brains when it’s pandering to you and not just like it because 'poepl worked on it whichm means it’s good.

"Poepl"? "which?" Slurred words sure do look weird in text form.

You are not mandated to like something and your attitude, to me, frankly feels like that’s why you do like Mirrorverse. Disney is telling you to like it and you’re blinded by this delusion that the company itself is on your side simply because it has Disney fans as it’s own writers and artists working on it. I want to be proven wrong on that and believe you’re like my friends who also like mirrorverse and the modern crossover disney stuff - people who like the ideas within because yeah, that can be fun, and whom I just disagree with, but given your attitude. I don’t see it.

.....Huh??? For as inappropriately big and powerful a company as Disney is today, I do not think they have the authority to literally mandate that people must like their products and that they then must consume them because they like them. Disney has put plenty of stuff out on the free market that they no doubt wanted people to like (because otherwise why even make anything at all? People liking thing made by company = people spending money on that thing and company profiting), but I've not cared for or not even touched, no matter how many sincere, well-meaning people might've worked hard on making the stuff. Mirrorverse caught my attention way back when it was first announced and still undergoing development, and when I ended up liking it, it wasn't because "Disney was telling me to like it" or that I was blinded by any delusion of the company being good or "on my side" - I like it because I JUST DO. It appeals to me and my tastes, sensibilities, and ideas of what's good, clean, creative fun, not to mention being another Disney epic crossover property to fill the void left behind by the now garbage tier Kingdom Hearts series. And even then I'm far from uncritical in my liking for it: it existing as just a mobile app game puts some limitations on it, and the combat part of the game looks like ass and doesn't play quite as well as it could've, especially compared to the polish of other app games like Disney Heroes: Battle Mode and Disney; Sorcerer's Arena. (Now, my attitude may well have gone too far beyond disagreeable and came off as too hostile, confrontational, and uncivil in my dissent against your take, so for that I apologize. I'm sorry, that really was my bad. But given all this rambling, your attitude is now worrying me.)

Fan merch is not perfect or even all that good, but it comes from a point of passion. My point was never that fan made = good. My point was I think Disney the company wants control of even that and, when they are hiring the artists who have genuine ideas about crossovers, are exploiting them. It’s *cute* of you to call me entitled when you sound like one of the most entitled people ever through your message.

I fail to see how I come off as "entitled", as though I was saying that Disney the company has every right to control imaginative fan ideas and to hire and exploit artists with similar ideas just for profit. I was not; I was saying that I'm not in agreement with this paranoid belief that this is what prompted the existence of Mirrorverse to start with. Most of the driving ideas behind why the game came to be seems to have come from the creatives who work for both Disney and Kabam, with Disney merely signing off on it becoming an officially lisenced thing because the company is so ceaselessly hungering for profits that they can never have enough app games or console games that bring their beloved IPs together in a single fantastical new canon.

You are assigning shit to me that I did not say/mean.

For that, I apologize. Please stop doing the exact same thing to me. Two wrongs do not make a right.

I’m upset on the part of the writers and artists at Disney (btw can you please maybe list some of them out? The mirrorverse artists could probably really use the revenue you’re so quick to only attribute to Disney as if Disney itself is the writer of these works.) 

But you can find them all right here.

I believe Wish was made/written with love. Every Disney project is made with love and creativity and I think it’s horrible to imply that Wish was AI-generated because it’s writing came up as lackluster, if that’s what you’re trying imply of me.

Dunno why Wish is suddenly getting brought into this. Was it my current icon being King Magnifico that put it into focus?

My issue with Wish, with Mirrorverse, and with a lot of modern Disney projects is at this point the same I am having with Illumination entertainment; and that’s not ever that “capitalist = bad”/“idea I don’t like = bad writer”. For as annoyed I still am at Princess and the Frog, you really go that feeling the the writers were trying and the project as a whole wasn’t geared by executives telling the directors “no. You have to do x, x, x, and x because then it won’t sell.” Mirrorverse had a soul. Wish had soul. Bob Chapek stole both these properties’ souls and you’re using hardworking artists’ work as an excuse to continue promoting the craphole who’s overworking them.

Bob Chapek is long gone from Disney at this point: Bog Iger is still dealing with the aftereffects of the damage Chapek did while making his own mistakes and dealing out his own share of damage to the overworked artists, writers, directors, imagineers, and all creative staff members who give their hearts and souls to Disney productions. I'm not using the artists' work as an excuse to promote or grant any lenience to corporate Disney. It's actually the very opposite: I don't want them and all the effort they put into realizing these properties to go overlooked and unappreciated due to some instinctful (and oftentimes reasonably justified) dislike and dissatisfaction directed at the company whose brand name the properties get released under. That's something akin to "collective punishment", and it reaches toxic levels when it is also applied towards the punishment and shaming of regular people; of fans who engage with the products and express any sort of enjoyment and appreciation for them. Like them doing so is an objectively morally wrong thing to do and is playing into the big bad company's hands.

My issue is that the fans (artists, creators and writers of these works) care. Disney does not. Disney cares about exploiting you even in the smallest ways and even on small matters like bad bootleg merch that’s in no way a threat to them. Because it isn’t.

This is an issue I have with Disney as well. I've said so ad nauseum.

My issue with the two of you is that you hate criticism and see my post as some kind of threat to your special interest. No. It’s not. I never even tagged mirrorverse. This is a rant meant for me and for other likeminded people like me. Speaking as a woman who’s defended and still will defend Frozen all these years - YOU are coming off as the most entitled, zealous people. You are creative. And you love Disney and obviously like Mirrorverse and Wish where I don’t; unlike the artists behind these products, you don’t have room to complain about being disgarded or treated like AI cuz I don’t like your writing or Disney’s handling of your writing- you’re just a butthurt fan.

More hyperbole. There was no "threat" detected in her post. There was only an opinion I read as a bad faith poor take and I responded to it with a rebuttal like this social media platform allows us all to do. By getting so up in arms and defensive about the rebuttal that rather than try to clear the air with a post that only clarifies what she was meaning to convey in the OP and that if I still don't find it agreeable we can hopefully agree to disagree, she goes on a whole whopping tangent? This strikes me as "butthurt fan" behavior. I'm sorry, it does.

Presuming the both of you ever read any of this, I don’t like the insinuation that my own bitching and moaning it hurting the hardworking writers and artists personally just because the fans of these overall products love them and I don’t. I really don’t like my personal criticisms being hurled at or treated like an attack on the people who are real artists. I know that’s not what I’m doing. You could have just blocked my blog or chosen to just not read the post the moment this post opened with “I hate mirrorverse”. You didn’t. You engaged and now I’m engaging to tell you that I disagree.

Yes, let us dispell that insinuation. You are hurting no one by bitching and moaning in a post put out on a public social media venue on the internet, not the writers and artists, not the company. I'd not meant to insinuate as much, and anyone who would make that insinuation would be a fool to do so. Thank you for acknowleding that you led with "I hate Mirrorverse", which made the negativitiy and criticism easier to mistake for hatefulness. I make it a rule to typically not block blogs as my first response to seeing something I disagree with, which is sadly more than I can say of other users who've disagreed with me in the past. I decided to engage you, then you engaged back, and now this is me engaging back in my own space to save your's the trouble of being too cluttered up with this dispute. If you happen to come across this and read it through, I hope you can try to take time for contemplation and understanding of where I'm coming from here, and I'd so the same in turn for you should you give a civil response. But given how I'm tagging this, chances lean unlikely.

[ask-shamebats]

About Ai art, I personally believe it could do a lot of good IF they had the consent of the artist the ai trains on because now many AI programs are being trained in a way small artists who already struggle to make a living. I think Ideally the companies could pay the artists whose images they use to train their AI with but I know it will be unlikely, I don’t think AI art is the problem but how it is being used right now in a way that small artist are collateral damage to it’s development and people making AI art and sell it are profiting while the artists whose art is stolen are in a shitty position. I wish they would develope art AI’s in a more ethical way but under capitalism that is unlikely that is all, hope you have a good day!

It's a nice thought but this isn't just rich corporations vs artists, there are in sheer numbers way more researchers and individuals who play around with MLAs locally on their own computers as a hobby and don't make any money off of it.

Something like that would just make it so it becomes inaccessible to most individuals, leaving corporations who already own huge amounts of data to have a monopoly on the tech. Just like copyright laws generally don't work in artists' favor, this wouldn't either.

There's no reason for me to believe that companies like Adobe, Reddit, Twitter, Tumblr, DevianArt, Pinterest and all other for-profit websites that host data wouldn't just update their terms of service to make it so everything you post (text, images, video, audio) will be legally owned by them. Because if you make data even more profitable, you can bet corporations would take that and run with it.

I feel like ppl used to be more aware of that back in the day, I remember "everything you post to the internet will stay on the internet, anyone can download it" being basic safety advice and I feel like it's only getting more necessary to be aware of this. It's not just art. Every time you post something, even if it's just a text-only shitpost, that can and will be picked up by web crawlers. Not saying it's a good thing but that's the current reality. Not even massive corporations like Disney can do anything about it. Bing doesn't stop me from doing this:

(the prompt for this one was literally "AI stealing copyrighted Disney & Pixar characters")

Something like a publicly available opt-in only dataset created as a community-project could become a better alternative in the future. Especially if the anti-AI push does empower corporations to a push for copyright laws that would give them the upper hand. It would take a long time to gather the necessary data that way but it might end up being a way for hobbyists, researchers and artists to continue using AI if it becomes pay-walled.