#Long Form Essay

[pwippy]

sua's such an under analyzed character but her mentality and presentation is really interesting!! to others (besides mizi), she appears reserved (very demure. very mindful) / cold but she's genuinely going through constant inner turmoil.

growing up, she was literally used as a commodity by her guardian. she's bullied by her sisters for being the guardian nigeh's favorite, but it's really only because she makes the most money. even after death, her guardian doesn't care that sua's gone, they're more concerned with the popularity and revenue that her fandom brings.

to the segyein, sua's essentially a doll and an ideal pet human. she's a top student at anakt, aka she sticks to a routine and acts easily brainwashed. when asked about her study habits, she just says "it's not really that hard... you just have to memorize what they teach you."

her objectification by others strips her of her identity and livelihood. it definitely plagues her perception of self worth/value, and manifests in her behavior (being quiet/not taking up much space, jealousy, apologizing often, being defensive - more on that later)

^ i think this whisper sums up her situation pretty well. her circumstances and the way she presents herself affects her relationships in anakt a ton if that makes sense ?

when sua meets mizi, such a vibrant, lively, and loving person, her focus and dare i say will to live completely shifts to mizi. in mizi's eyes, sua is seen as mizi's soulmate, someone she'll be with forever. someone who's always there for her. synergyyyy

although sua's feelings are mutual, she carries a level of self doubt and anxiety with her. sua believed her love for mizi would harm her in the end. she's stated before (EXPLICITLY) that she would die for mizi, and she does end up doing this in the form of sacrifice in round 1.

it's almost as if sua feels guilty for loving mizi. she knows they're doomed, and with their limited time, why should she be focused on? is it selfish of her to not tell mizi of their inevitable fate to live in their dream a little longer?

^ the lyrics of sweet dream can also serve as her mentality and point of view leading up to alien stage. she knows the idyllic world she's in is temporary, knowing her end is imminent yet praying to be saved.

although mizi views sua in a tinted lens, the other characters do not. at least, not in the affectionate sense. to till, sua's demeanor is offputting and uncomfortable

to ivan, he sees straight through to suas actions and (maybe unintentionally but i doubt it) exacerbates her doubts. he has his own events going on and genuinely does seem to want to be close to sua (graduation message + human relationship rating) but interacts in a way that makes her feel threatened. (in addition "he keeps crossing the line" in the relationship chart)

to the outside viewer its interesting to note sua often pulls mizi away from people. she pulls mizi away from ivan, and pulls mizi's attention from till to her in a short act of jealousy.

[kaijutegu]

welp. guess i know where the new followers came from!

[mybraindumpsterfire]

I just had a fucking brain blast and came up with the best idea:

AmazingPhil aka Phil Lester “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” deep dive video essay in the style of Mike’s Mic, Jenny Nicholson, etc. Just Phil breaking down Buffy lore and characters for however fucking long.

I would watch the absolute fuck out of it holy shit

[talaricula]

I'm seeing lots of speculation in the wake of the unwanted guest about whether absorbing Loveday's soul is what made Cytherea snap and sure, I see the theory, but personally as a cancer survivor I have never ever questioned why Cytherea snapped

Cancer is an existentially terrifying, often debilitatingly painful and/or exhausting illness, that, if not cured, takes over your body bit by bit, gets into the highly essential bits which increases the suffering and/or fundamentally changes you as a person, makes you extremely vulnerable and dependent on others, and almost inevitably kills you unless you get it when you're old enough and die of old age first instead. Its treatment is often just as painful and exhausting as the illness, or even more so, and doesn't always work. When you have cancer, there are two ways out: being cured (preferable) or, when that is not an option, deciding for yourself when you have reached the point where the suffering is so bad and the outlook so non existent that you would rather die now rather than later after even more and worse suffering.

And John took both of those options away from Cytherea and from her entire line of descendants. When he had the option to cure them all all along. Idk about y'all but the revelation in Nona that John could cure cancer was the number one earth shattering realisation for me. He did this to her, and to the entire Seventh House, on purpose.

This is the first giant betrayal to me. For generation after generation, for TEN THOUSAND YEARS, this man let the heirs of the Seventh House be sick for functionally their entire lives, likely starting in childhood, go through an incalculable amount of painful and exhausting experimental treatments bc he didn't even bring modern medicine into his New Order, and die in their twenties or thirties at best, when he could have STOPPED THIS ALL ALONG with little more effort than snapping his fingers.

Second big betrayal is towards Cytherea herself, but basically the same point : he could have cured her at any time. Before she became Lyctor, possibly, since we're not sure how static Lyctor bodies are, but Mercy's powers, Harrow's lobotomy and Ianthe's arm suggest that it would have been an option afterwards too. And he didn't. He let her have cancer for TEN THOUSAND years without curing her. And he calls himself her friend. Absolutely fuck that bastard.

Third big betrayal is the same betrayal that he inflicts on all the other Lyctors, but imo worse bc of Cytherea's illness. It seems from the books that Lyctors are, if obv not functionally immortal, at least Very Difficult to kill. Consequently, John demands Cytherea's loyalty not only in the form of killing the person she loves the most in the world, but in the very same act, in the form of cutting off the One escape route she has left out of the suffering he's purposefully keeping her in. In short, he takes the one person away from her who she perhaps doesn't resent depending on and, in the same act, makes it A Lot more difficult for her to choose euthanasia. (There's meta in this about the deeply realistic and also Terrifying ableism of John "admits openly that he'll pay any price so the people he loves can't leave him" making his sick friend dependent on him by keeping her sick, taking away her (arguable) main caretaker and cutting her off from the option of leaving him by dying.)

And at the same time that the other Lyctors realise John's betrayal re: their cavaliers, Cytherea potentially realises ALL OF THIS. TEN THOUSAND years of suffering, of seeing her House suffer, on top of losing the person she cares about the most, and ALL OF IT was avoidable, and not just avoidable but EASY TO AVOID? Is it any wonder she went on a rampage to bring down John and everything he cared about and had worked towards, and that she didn't care about dying at the end (or, perhaps, was even counting on that outcome)? I had cancer (as an aware adult) for a year in the best imaginable circumstances and am still fucked up about almost a decade later. After TEN THOUSAND YEARS and learning there had been another option all along, I'd have done WAY WORSE than Cytherea. I really don't think she needed to absorb anyone's soul to get there. It is, in my opinion, a deeply understandable and realistic reaction.

[nosieposie]

teeny tiny Rena sprite redraw idk I think she's cute

[rypnami]

- did you finish your essay for binns?

- no. you?

- nope.

[tomb-mold]

together we can end the youtuber video essay industrial complex

[belfrysol]

I wish there were more people comfortable with the idea of invasions in souls games. I get why people don't like them of course, early game invasions kinda blow for both parties involved, you encountering cheaters on pc, and fromsoft definitely seems to be lowering the material incentive to participate.

But even with all of those stinkers, some of my best memories in any souls title has been within the realms of pvp. Getting hazed in Oolacile Township and Darkwood Garden, the scraps with the Spears of The Church, friendly duels with friends and strangers alike, the list could go on honestly.

There was this one instance in dark souls 1 where someone had placed a gravelord sign underneath the belfry gargoyles. Seeing as how those signs are pretty rare, I immediately went over to it and let myself into the hosts world. Me and a couple other buddies went to hunt him down and once we found him, to my horror, I realized they had gone through the trouble to get the dragon head stone early. It very quickly devolved into me and my fellow invaders trying to overwhelm them while dodging the nuclear fire breath from their dragon head. It was pretty short, I ended up dying a few times before finally getting him but it was incredibly chaotic and fun in a way that the main pve of the game just couldn't offer.

And I think that's why I ultimately end up willingly participating in invasions and duels. Going up against a real breathing opponent provides a unique and fresh challenge to the many areas of these games even after your 1st playthrough.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i mean it when i say we've gotta bring back askblogs. bring back making character chat posts with poor choice text colors over random backgrounds. bring back blogs dedicated to what outfits you think characters would wear.

fandom is an ecosystem, not a numbers game. these types of blogs/posts/etc still exist in concept, because people still want to make them and they're a great way to get your thoughts of an idea out in a simple format, but most people make them on like tiktok or instagram reels and that's where the problem lies. Those videos don't go anywhere. The format doesn't allow for the discussion to spread through the community and they're less likely to be engaged with in general. And to make them most people have to either show their face or figure out editing software, so the barrier to entry is higher (editing) and/or they have to forfeit an amount of privacy.

those types of posts/blogs are the first rung of the ecosystem. they're the perfect environment for younger members of the fandom to begin safely interacting with the larger community and putting their own thoughts and ideas out there. roleplay is the other major spot for that and those communities are diminishing as well, honestly (if you know of an rp forum board site, cherish it. and if you can make one, make one). they allow younger fans to begin engaging with the source material on a different/deeper level, but still at a very low barrier to entry, and begin conversations with other fans, which also helps them build skills which in turn may encourage them to pursue other avenues within the fandom (fic writing, other formats of askblog - which itself usually leads to art, cosplay, also fic writing, etc). Without those places to build those skills, they might feel discouraged from trying to begin when surrounded by curated people who have built their skills up for years.

And those conversations they foster also in turn help the community, by offering ideas to artists or fic writers to extrapolate on or building community jokes. And that text/blog format specifically is extremely beneficial, because it allows younger members of the fandom to remain anonymous and keep their privacy without concerning themselves with having any platform or having anything attached to them (very important for young fans figuring themselves out and navigating online community spaces for the first time, since they can remove themselves from spaces easily if they decide they don't like it and they're protected, rather than PUTTING THEIR FACE ON THE INTERNET). And those posts they make will spread a lot more into the community since they're in a significantly easier format to be reposted (few people are gonna be reposting tons of random short-form videos versus spamming their instagrams with reposts of 10 random fandom images yoinked from tumblr, or reposting to pinterest or something). Like, don't repost art, at the VERY least don't repost without credit, but also I am not ignorant to the fact that my art is not just the first google image result for "pjo pride" and related searches, but also the 4th, the 6th, the 9th, the 10th, the 11th, etc etc., and pops up in the search results before the official ReadRiordan does simply because people reposted my work more (most with credit, thankfully).

For fandom to be a community, it needs to perpetuate itself. There needs to be engagement with one another and conversation. If that bottom rung is cut off, then new fans won't be able to grow into the other niches of the fandom, and the fandom will be solely reliant on the source material and die out extremely quickly, and there won't be a community. There's no conversation! There's no reason to stay beyond the original material! But if you don't have points of entry for new fans, they won't have any way to build the skills needed to move into those niches, or engage with the community in a healthy way.

tl;dr: Bring back askblogs and character-based text post blogs. They are vital to fandom ecosystem.

[tricoufamily]

visiting the hometown

(want everyone to know this edit came to me in a dream and i changed the lore just to do it)

[heavvendisco]

They love each other ur honor.

[starfilledsea]

the “my name is john silver, and i’ve got a long fucking memory” scene will always be one of my favorites because it’s one of the points where you really feel the inevitability of black sails. it has to end a certain way because you know from the very first episode that this is a prelude to treasure island, which is an extremely well known story. you already know how silver’s story has to end, because you know who he has to become. everyone knows the person he will become, his character in treasure island has had an enormous influence on pirates in pop culture (peg leg? check. parrot on his shoulder? check.). and while there are other moments that set him on the path to being the long john silver in treasure island (such as becoming the cook on the walrus and losing his leg), arguably the most important part is him getting the name long john silver.

before that, his future isn’t quite set in stone. sure, he’s the sea cook of the original title of the book, and sure, he has the missing leg, but he’s not long john silver yet. he doesn’t have the identity that he will be known and feared for. he doesn’t have to be long john silver. gaining the name and the persona that comes with it is such an integral part of sealing his fate, and before it comes you can almost believe that the story won’t end like that. that the john silver you see won’t become the long john silver that lives on in pop culture enough that there’s a fucking seafood restaurant chain named after him.

and, if you’re like me, you’ve spent almost 3 seasons wondering how it will happen— how “silver” becomes Long John Silver. the scene doesn’t even seem incredibly special at first, until silver says “my name is john silver, and i’ve got a long fucking memory” and then all you can do is sit there for a moment because that’s it. he’s put into motion what you know will eventually become the identity he’ll go down in history with. he hasn’t become long john silver yet, but from that moment on you know he will. it’s one more piece of the story clicking into place, and it’s a crucial step in bribing us to the inevitable ending. you can see the island looming on the horizon.

[tetw]

The 200 Best Articles from the New York Times

We've updated our list of the best journalism from America's leading newspaper... click through for 100s of articles and essays from the past 30 years that have really stood the test of time

[footnoteinhistory]

Also I saw this photo attributed to the NNC pilot and I assume it’s from an early pitch where Dan doesn’t have a beard?? Hmm 🤔

[crispycreambacon]

Cliché Then and Now

An analysis of the Fraggle Rock episode "Mokey, Then and Now" and how stereotypes permeate our perceptions

Disclaimer: I am not calling for a disavowal of the show, nor am I implying the creators were intentionally racist. I am also not African, so there are likely things I got wrong or missed out on.

Special thanks to @jazzyjuno for contributing to the essay and @madamegemknight for helping me compile screenshots!

— ☆ —

When I first watched the Fraggle Rock episode “Mokey, Then and Now”, I laughed at the usual wackiness and welcomed the surprise of a dynamic between Mokey, Boober and Wembley. However, a strange discomfort lurked at the back of my head once they traveled to the past and met their ancestors. I couldn’t understand why at first when the episode seemed to radiate nothing but the fun I’ve come to expect from this show. Then, the first song came on.

I looked up the lyrics to confirm what I had heard, and to my disappointment, I didn’t mishear. This is one of many examples of pop culture’s reference to Vodou, a widely misunderstood religion from Haiti that garnered an unfair reputation for being “dangerous” and “demonic”, and like a lot of media back in the day—even still today—Fraggle Rock utilized this to create a mystifying atmosphere with a sinister undercurrent. While the portrayal is not as negative as the caricatures surrounding it, it is still a questionable usage of an already stigmatized religion.

(From the first verse)

Who do you do? We do voodoo

(We do voodoo)

Who do you do? We do voodoo

(Who do you do?)

(From the chorus)

Eye of bat, ear of toad,

Hoppin' down the dusty road,

Lizard, gizzard, beetle stew,

These will bring good luck to you.

It's true... True Voodoo!

Caterpillar, caterwaul,

Crawling up the garden wall,

Song of shadow, air of rain,

These will make you strong again.

It's true... True voodoo!

It wasn’t just the lyrics that caught my eye. Funnily enough, I went to the comments section of the music video, and I saw someone say this.

This person is not the only one who made the connection. So have I, and that is because the instrumentation sounds like an amalgamation of different African music genres. The beginning shots even showed the past Fraggles playing drums which look similar to the djembe, a percussion instrument from West Africa.

I had originally thought the instrumentation derived solely from Afrobeat, but my friend Juno pointed out how the creators had blended music from different cultures together to create what was commonly identified as tribal music, making it difficult to pinpoint a specific genre it was emulating. She even caught similarities to music outside of Africa, namely the Axé genre from Salvador, Brazil.

Once that link had been established, I realized why I felt uncomfortable with the past Fraggles. The creators of this episode likely meant to play on generic caveman stereotypes, but in doing so, they accidentally emulated elements of African culture and their stereotypes.

• African Influences in the Past Fraggles' Culture

Take a look at the clothing that the past Fraggles wore. Their accessories and colorful patterns allude to tribal African clothing, specifically Maasai bead necklaces from Kenya and Tanzania, and other jewelry they wear are made from natural materials such as stones, plants and hay.

Covering hair is a very common practice in many African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe to the point the clothing they use to wrap their heads has its own name which is a headwrap. While the hats that the past Fraggles wear aren’t explicitly headwraps, the past Fraggles demonstrate a reverence of covering their heads to the point when Mokey accidently cited a word to force them to take their hats off, they cried out in despair.

Moreover, when people depict Africans in media or simply imagine them, Africans are often imagined as bald which is a consequence of the generalization of an important part of ancient culture and the spread of ideas propped up by eugenicists. Guess what happens when the past Fraggles take their hats off.

The past Fraggles operated under a monarchy under the “Great and Wondrous leader” Fishface Fraggle whose presentation screams of what an average person may think of when visualizing an African king. His sceptre is carved like an Asante linguist staff—which, while not held by the king, is closely related to the king—and his throne has a loose resemblance to a palanquin which, while not exclusive to African culture, is used in Ghana. To add onto the African king imagery, the past Fraggles briefly showed off fans in the first song which are associated with the king’s fan bearers in Egypt.

• The Poor Implications

On its own, the past Fraggles having African influences in their culture isn’t an awful idea. It only becomes a problem when those influences are being used in a context which further perpetuates African stereotypes.

With all of this in mind, Boneface Fraggle suddenly takes on the “savage caricature” image which depicts Africans wearing bones in their nose and speaking in “broken” English.

It wasn’t just Boneface who spoke like this. There were multiple instances where the past Fraggles didn’t follow General American English and chanted caveman speech which has been associated with Africans to imply their lack of articulation and therefore inferiority.

The savage and uncivilized stereotypes are pushed further when the past Fraggles act in an unsavory way. For instance, they have outlawed laughter, even though it is a completely natural act, and imprisoned a Fraggle for breaking this law.

When Mokey is proven to not be Blundig Fraggle as she claimed to be, they immediately called for her, Boober and Wembley to be imprisoned and tied to a rock for what is implied to be eternity.

• Why Should We Care?

After all, the creators likely didn’t consciously draw inspiration from African cultures, nor did they intend to enforce these stereotypes. In fact, I proposed they were likely focusing more on caveman imagery.

That’s the thing though. Stereotypes, especially racial ones, are ingrained in us so deeply that we can subconsciously be influenced by them when we create and enjoy art connected to their subjects. Caveman stereotypes have a lot of overlap with African stereotypes, so in the creators attempting to portray one image, they accidentally invoke another.

In spite of my speculations on them drawing from cavemen, we cannot be completely sure of the intentions of the creators when trying to portray the past Fraggles as from what I can tell, they had not made them public. Regardless of what they intended, that doesn’t erase that the culture of the past Fraggles can be interpreted as a cumulation of African stereotypes.

We may not even remember where stereotypes originate from as they are a gross oversimplification of observations from our ancestors, yet these stereotypes stick with us and our culture even if we aren't actively thinking about them. Believing and passing on generalizations is a lot easier than thinking of all the nuances of a subject and researching where these generalizations came from.

Let me make it clear: you are not a bad person for not noticing before. The creators are not bad people for unintentionally perpetuating these stereotypes. This isn’t an issue with individual morality. Stereotypes are, by their design, meant to go unchallenged for literal centuries, and people aren’t meant to ponder over their validity. They are presented as simple truths so that we won’t have to think about why they factor into how we treat and think about other people, and we won’t have to confront the prejudice that they can cause.

This is why we have to actively call out stereotypes when we do notice them because how else will we ever stop believing them so easily? If we never question why we believe and enforce them, how can we undo their harm? Even something as small as pointing out when stereotypes are used in a TV show or calling out someone who uses them for their tasteless jokes can lead to bigger changes such as dismantling the racism which benefited from stereotypes.

• So What Do We Do About It?

Moving forward, we need to be more mindful about how we portray subjects in our art to ensure we can explore them with the nuance they need and to ensure that marginalized groups aren't harmed by our art. We also need to be aware of when the media utilizes these stereotypes and how they are presented in the media’s context. Recognizing harmful portrayals in others’ work can help us stay vigilant when making our own art, and we can also help each other realize our own shortcomings and minimize the harm done in the future. We live and learn then, we can live and learn now.

[andreablythe]

Happy Halloween! In honor of the holiday, I'm happy to share my new long-form essay — "The Never-Ending Tedium of Survival: The Final Girls Who Struggle to Stay Alive Again and Again and Again" — up today at Interstellar Flight!

From the opening paragraphs: Horror movie franchises are often recognized by their iconic villains — Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Ghostface, Pinhead, and many other often-masked and often-men baddies who are easily recognizable as a Halloween costume. However, they are not always the core of the series; more often, the heart and soul of a horror franchise is its survivor — the Final Girl (or Guy), who finds herself hunted all over again in the next film, who must learn to survive and survive again as she continuously stares down the ever-looming presence of the monster in the dark.

Bearing the wounds and scars granted by their roles as would-be-victims turned fighters, these Final Girls find themselves perpetually trapped in a limbo of trauma, dragging themselves through the mud and blood in the hopes of coming through the other side alive. This article will present an overview of a number of survivors, who have each appeared in at least three films within their franchise — and who each have their own journeys of coming to terms with their dark worlds.

Read the essay here: https://magazine.interstellarflightpress.com/the-never-ending-tedium-of-survival-4c5ab54a0635