#THAT'S KIND OF THE WHOLE POINT

[angels-heap]

I know my Half Life blog is not the place for this conversation, so I'm holding back from posting a fucking dissertation here, but goddamn, the lack of nuance and empathy in the conversations surrounding the Nickelodeon documentary is appalling.

[aethersea]

I do think Blazing Saddles handled its one depiction of native americans very poorly, and the full extent of its representation of chinese workers on the railroad is they were literally just there. not even one single speaking line. unclear if this is worse or better than the redface.

it's fucking phenomenal at lampooning antiblack racism though. extremely blatant, extremely funny satire, which is constantly and loudly saying "racism is the philosophy of the terminally stupid at best and morally depraved at worst, and we should all be pointing and laughing at them 24/7"

plus the main character is a heroic black man who has to navigate a whole lot of bullshit but is constantly smirking at the extraordinarily stupid racists and inviting the audience into the joke. the one heroic white character is a guy who was suicidally depressed until he met the protagonist and they just instantly became buds, and he's firmly in a supporting role the whole time and happy to be there. the protagonist saves the day with the help of his black friends from the railroad, and uses the position of power he was given to uplift not only those friends, but all the railroad workers of other minorities too, in an explicit show of solidarity.

anyone saying "Blazing Saddles is racist" had better be talking about its treatment of non-black minorities. it had better not be such superficial takes as "oh but they say the n-word all the time" or "they have nazis and the kkk in there!" because goddamn if that's the full extent of your critique I very seriously suggest you read up on media analysis. there is too much going over your head, you need to learn to recognize satire.

[danlous]

“Now I lay me down to sleep, Lay with mama whilst COVID creep. She protect me, keep me fed As we say our daily bread.” - Peter Macon

Interview with the Vampire - 1x04/2x01/2x07/2x08 // Käthe Kollwitz - Mother with Sleeping Child (1908) // Albert Anker - Young mother contemplating her sleeping child in candlelight (1875) // Käthe Kollwitz - Death and Woman Wrestling over a Child (1911) // Pablo Picasso - Maternité (1901) // Peter Macon - Shelter // Ivanka Demchuk - Christmas

[hallowvamp]

If you wanted to see ethical characters and perfect, healthy, wholesome, non-toxic relationships, then clicking on a gothic romance involving murderous blood sucking monsters with centuries of trauma was your first mistake.

[ganondoodle]

haha, oops

(uhm, ancient queen zelda and ganondorf backstory doodles- largely irrelevant to the totk rewrite since it would be purely implied in the environment and in a few lines of diary but it keeps spinning in my head so i had to make some doodles)

(want to make some doodles of it all falling apart too but i need to post these now- the summary is really just that the ancient queen and ganondorf were close friends (to lovers) in their youth until she has to marry a hyrulian knight, after which they barely see each other anymore and their relationship slowly turns sour as time passes (due to various reasons) and after her discovering the ruins the sonau protected speaking of an ancient evil she grows afraid of him and begins to enact a scheme to seal him away-)

(the doodle in the snow there is about the extra idea that ganondorfs first daughter is with her but since shes married to the knight at that point already it would be a scandal- so it is secretly brought to him to raise instead- its a .. kinda classical royal drama but i got attached to the idea bc it adds even more weight to their conflict and its escalation later... also a bit more .. human? like people and their relationships can be complicated and messy, it can make things more interesting .. but this is still all just a concept, havent decided to use it yet)

[egophiliac]

CROWLEY SSR THOUGHTS

there is zero basis for this, but I can't get this thought of my head

I don't know why I decided to draw it this way

[lazycranberrydoodles]

sibling bonding moment!

[lightnersdream]

i've been thinking about exactly why people portraying one of the other crew members successfully killing Jimmy as a "for what you did to Anya" kind of thing rubs me the wrong way a bit and it's because like..... this is just another form of taking agency away from Anya, in a way. it's kind of framing her as some meek, shivery woman-thing who's entirely at the mercy of the men around her, either to hurt her or save her.

(i understand these are mostly for wish fulfillment on the audience's behalf because everyone would like to see Jimmy pay for his crimes. whether or not this is the intention of the person writing it isn't really relevant, characterization happens with or without intent. i feel like it misses the point by portraying it as an 'ideal ending'.)

because... Anya is a capable person. she takes things into her own hands when she can. it was partially(?) her idea to get into the cargo,

(before he interrupts her.. remember when she interrupted Curly in the dead pixel segment?)

it was her idea to get the code scanner from the cockpit,

it was her idea to get the medication from behind the foam.

(the chance to do these things herself is not given to her.)

she'd been keeping Curly alive for months in a critical state somehow, her psych evaluations at the start are only so useless because Jimmy refuses to take it/her seriously and Curly is obviously biased when he puts it into his own hands. he's known him a long time, like he said. "I'll just put good for that one."

there's not a lot of material to work with because of how the game is framed, but it's there. we are working with two very biased perspectives and neither one lends Anya what she deserves

there's significant changes in how she speaks post- and pre- crash, and depending on who she happens to be talking to. i recommend re-reading her dialogue, because the difference is drastic

she acts the way she does around Jimmy because he has tangibly done horrible things to her, is actively hostile, and physically could not escape him by any means. she can't take away Curly's agency herself, in my eyes. you have to remember that Especially in the post-crash segments of the game, it's entirely from Jimmy's POV, and he obviously does not (and has never) thought very highly of her or treated her with a shred of respect

i've seen a general idea that she can't bear to hurt other people for any reason, but that doesn't really track to me. this is the real point of the post by the way

it seems based on the parts where she says she struggles to give Curly medication. "It just hurts him so much, I can't stand the noise." "It makes me nauseous."

it's not really the same thing as, say, hurting someone in self defense

this sounds like she did want the gun itself. this never felt worded like someone who would refuse to, at very least, threaten Jimmy with a gun, with violence. if she had been given the agency to make that decision on her own. she wasn't though

she still tries to reclaim some of it even as she's denied it

by the end she's still trying to keep that gun out of his hands

i think some people overly soften her, for similar reasons the game itself is trying to comment on. she's not a tender victim who couldn't cause pain to another out of the softness of her soul, she's a person who's had every last bit of agency ripped from her repeatedly until she couldn't take it anymore. that's the point. that's why framing her that way, "needing" someone to save her, is odd to me

she didn't need Curly to save her, she needed him to take responsibility

she didn't want to escalate things, but she's not an idiot. self defense was absolutely on her mind

but who knows im just saying shit *smiles serenely*

[tenderjock]

I’m with you, my love The lights shining through on you Yes, I’m with you, my love It’s the morning and just we two

[hrokkall]

Somebody else

[idontmindifuforgetme]

I love the Vegas plot in Sex and the City where Samantha can never ascertain whether Richard cheated or not, but decides to leave him anyway bc it doesn’t matter……… the whole thing is about walking away when you realize a relationship has run its course, in complete opposition to Carrie running back to Big despite his very glaring imperfections . Like Samantha just walked tf away. She realized she did not want to waste her time agonizing over whether he would cheat in the future, and even if he came correct she owed herself the peace of mind not to stay w a man she can never trust again. And that’s valid

[monsterhospital]

Oh the happiness everybody wants to be me friend :)

[bittersweet-jack-of-no-trades]

Stanley gets kicked out of the house, sure, but he's resourceful. There's nothing here for him on land, but he doesn't have to stay on land; he takes his ass right down to the local marina or port, and he gets himself a job as a deckhand. Turns out, his easy swagger, jackass personality, and eye for the con makes him great on boats. He works those big fishing/trawling boats, at first, hauling in catch and tending lines; it's back-breaking work, terrible conditions with twelve or sixteen or twenty hours shifts, but he loves the ocean, loves the rolling waves and the freedom it gives him. Somehow he ends up somewhere coastal and Southern, Florida or Texas or South Carolina, and with a played up Jersey accent and a good idea of the best local fishing spots, he makes himself into a local legend of a fishing charter captain. Where he could never fit in on land, there's no judgement on the open water, nor in the bays and bayous: just the hum of the engine, the snag of a bite, and really, really fucking good tips. (Besides, you can't drink and drive on land, but on a boat? Shit, he thinks he saw the local PD crack open a six pack the other day.)

When Stanford calls him, panicked and hurt and manipulated, there's nothing easier than than hauling his brother off like the catch of the day. Bill can't catch them out here; Stanford's mind might be Bill's battleground, but the ocean is Stan's. And the only beasts allowed on Stan's vessels are the ones he can fry.

[hallowvamp]

There are people who actually believe Louis doesn't love Lestat and in response to that, I'll just leave this here.

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

I want to carry this scene with me a little while...

[bullagit]

due to personal reasons i am now firmly on team “i hope aziraphale does change heaven for the better actually (going on the assumption that his return is as straightforward as it seemed etc” 

like if the alternative is just this ohhh he’s so NAIVE and SOFT and so WRONG and he’ll have to LEARN A TOUGH LESSON etc etc nonsense then yeah 1000% go for it babe knock it out of the park

i hope choosing hope and kindness pays dividends. i hope the soft traits that made other characters continually disparage and underestimate him and his intelligence turn out to be his greatest assets bc i kinda don’t give a shit about a “toughen up it’s the only way everyone else knows better” life lesson for this character

(which like honestly a lot of the rhetoric is dismissive of the fact that persistent goodness in the face of an existence of disparagement takes great strength and that at the end of the day aziraphale has always been able to stand up in his own way)