#Jesse Talks

[guitarandgallade]

I'm faced with my eternal question:

Why is virtual popstar Hatsune Miku on Rotumblr???

[jesseevelann]

Happy I Lost My Streak On Duolingo day 🎉

[callaghansjohnv]

i really wanna get m&g tickets for pvris to say hi to lyndsey bc it’s been so long and i wanna talk to her ab my chest reconstruction surgery and being nonbinary and what it means to truly be alive and finally feel like myself and just being loved ya know but ya boy is broke af

[failssafe]

My childless adult-ass speeding around Portland running errands while blasting the Chipmunks Christmas album at a deafening volume

[dykesville]

this is soooooooooo interesting to me because i’ve seen this idea from not just op’s followers but a lot of people in fandom, that atsv was an anti-cop movie.  it’s not! the movie is pro-cop.  but then why would so many people come away from it thinking it was anti-cop?!  many thoughts about this.

so, the main reason people put forward is that the cops in the movie are “bad at their jobs.”  so let’s interrogate that.  george stacy is bad at protecting the city (spiderwoman does it better).  he’s bad at being a detective (couldn’t even figure out his own daughter is spiderwoman).  he even agrees that he was not doing good in the role (he quits the force).  and you can apply most of these ideas to jefferson davis as well except the quitting one.

the idea is that if the movie shows cops who are “bad at their jobs,” it implies that cops are bad for the country and should be abolished.  but even this logic fails.  if the people in the “protect and serve” job are failing to do so, the solution is to replace them with people who can do the role better.  “these guys are bad at their jobs” does not lead to “their jobs should not exist,” it leads to “other people should do their jobs better.”  this is not abolish-the-police logic, this is bad-cop-good-cop logic.

the thing is, i don’t think anyone actually reasoned it out in this direction.  you come to this place by working backwards from the conclusion that spiderverse is a good series with great black representation, so their stance on social issues must also be strong.  guys, it’s not.  superhero movies never have a coherent political theory because they are created inside a corporate machine.  that’s why the black panther movies never have a white villain.  that’s why falcon and the winter soldier ended with sam wilson asking the government if it could improve.  that’s why barbie ended the movie by…going to the gynecologist…instead of taking any authority over the corporation that bears her image and name…

movies are fun and it is great that they are being made more diversely nowadays.  blockbusters can certainly tell real stories and even speak to truths that need to be shared.  (i have a tag full of people talking about how miles challenges his elders’ notions of trauma, suffering, self-sacrifice.  and fucking hobie brown, like, he saying some shit.)  but blockbusters can never fully embrace a liberal ideology because the financial priorities of studios place restrictions on the writers.  they will always venerate some aspect of the status quo.  and spiderverse is pro-cop.

what is a cop’s job.  that’s where we need to start.  it is not to solve crimes, to protect and serve, or to keep the city safe.  these are not the purposes for which the role was created, nor are they the legal standard to which police are held.  a cop’s job is, charitably, to protect property and to maintain the status quo.  uncharitably, it is to reinforce an underclass of mostly black and brown people which the nation’s powerful can then exploit for profit.

it’s not the cops who do this, it is the system of policing.  as long as police have the legal jurisdiction to so much as stop and frisk, they are performing the function of pushing down the lower class because the existence of police is a behavior-controlling threat.  it does not matter if those employed by the system are bad or good.  the role is bad, and so any portrayal of that role which does not identify that the role is bad cannot be anti-cop.  it is at the least cop-neutral.

spiderverse becomes pro-cop because its dialogue venerates the role, guys, it just does.  the cops talk about the position as though its intention is to make the city better.  miles g spray-paints a twenty-foot portrait of a dead police officer’s face with the words “rest in power.”  george stacy doesn’t quit the force because he thinks cops are bad; he thinks cops are good, but he’s not good enough to be one.  by the understanding of the characters: policing = good.  police themselves?  eh, good, bad, different qualities.  but policing itself is presented as a good.

and i think it’s easy to miss the nuance of this when you’re fresh off this movie that was so fucking good.  you don’t want to dwell on its flaws and you don’t have to dwell on them, but you have to acknowledge them for your own sake.  because the function of this movie has been to nudge at least some of its viewers toward moderate thinking.  if you allow yourself to think that pointing out bad people who are cops is an anti-police statement, you pull away from actual anti-police statements, many of which have to do with abolition and institution of uncomfortable trust-based practices.  guys, we have to stay on guard with that and reject the idea that just because we like something, or even because it has good politics in one area, it has good politics overall.  and we can’t look to blockbuster movies as thought-leaders because they’re compromised.  they’re obliged to the system.  they are made by people, but they’re not made by the people, if you get what i’m saying.

anyway.  dissertation over xx

i think the main thing that pisses me off about people refusing to acknowledge the copaganda in across the spiderverse is that they believe all the cops featured in the story are shining examples of how cops “should be.” i.e., family men who are supportive of their kids and want to make a difference in the world. like, genuine question: do you think the REAL cops who brutalize civilians at protests not have nuclear families at home, don’t go to parent teacher conferences, don’t love and support their teenage daughters, etc? or do you believe the requirement for becoming a cop means having a loveless lonely life akin to that of ebenezer scrooge

[frogsareallgay]

i want to crawl out of my skin

[crowreys-wormstache]

You guys will not fucking believe this

[neverlupus]

patient: bleeding from every orifice and in respiratory arrest

house’s shoes: 

[kylejsugarman]

i adore the breaking bad scene where all the guys at don eladio's place drink the poisoned tequila and start dropping dead because we the audience understand that this is an act of revenge that gus has been planning for years to avenge the death of his business and romantic partner, but jesse was never told any of this so he just got brought to a baller pool party by his new scary boss, a hot girl sat on his cock, and then everyone started dying and shooting at each other while he just stood there like

[acrownforaking]

Absolutely obsessed with the House renaissance happening on tumblr right now. Really glad everyone woke up 12 years after the show ended and went "Wait a minute. what the fuck was THAT"

[guitarandgallade]

Rotomblr what do I get my student's Frogadier for her birthday? The Frogadier's birthday, I mean.

[jesseevelann]

I've been properly practicing my marker colouring for about 2 days now, and this is my first finished piece with markers. I'm proud of it.

[vohtaro]

achilles’ breaks are a serious matter. bitch. | in which patroclus is rather protective of achilles’ break time and continues his crass manner with zagreus and also calls him a bitch because he can

[aesthetic-uni]

Miles “Who’s Morales” vs Gwen “Gwwwwanda” vs Pavtir “You seem like a nice young woman I do not know” FIGHT

[weepynymph]

they just like pushing them around

[milkbreadtoast]

choose your protag..... YOU COULD WRITE A SUPER LONG META ESSAY COMPARING/CONTRASTING THESE 2 BUT I WANTED TO MAKE A SHITPOST FORGIVE ME🤧✌️