#They weren’t very niceys so it doesn’t bother me

[tallyhoot]

i was the funny chonny jash Person once,,,

[ganymedesclock]

So it’s been a while since I’ve really posted about some goshdang rocks on this blog but I have been staying posted with Steven Universe and it’s really starting to bother me how often I’ve seen people in the fandom insinuating Change Your Mind, or the show at large, is naively idealistic in the way that it handles talking to dangerous people.

Here’s the thing: I don’t think there’s anything naive or idealistic about SU as a show and how it depicts talking to people.

First and foremost, Steven does not ever successfully talk to people in a situation where he hasn’t protected himself. When he does, it’s a bad thing. Steven doesn’t get the upper hand on White because he makes bambi eyes at her and sniffles a little and goes “oh granny won’t you be nice to me” and she immediately falls over herself to go “oh my goodness you beautiful baby child how could I ever have thought to wrong you.”

White endangers Steven. And at that point, Steven makes considerable emphasis to protect himself and his friends. Neither half of split Steven waste much time looking at White or acknowledging her. Their focus is on each other. Steven takes care of himself first. He makes sure he’s safe and healthy.

Thing is? Pink split Steven makes it clear that White can’t hurt him. She literally tries. She gets steamrolled. She’s lying unconscious on the floor at the point that Steven’s halves reconcile.

Steven at no point neglects protecting himself to negotiate with people. Even as early as Monster Buddy half of his argument at protecting Nephrite is the awareness that she’s obviously not trying to hurt him and becomes dangerous when she’s triggered by the senior CGs’ overbearing interventions. Steven not attacking Nephrite is literally the sensible thing here and the Crystal Gems are wrong because they assume that being violent will fix everything in absence of factual evidence. Steven is in no danger. The reason things go to hell at the climax of Monster Buddy is because Garnet’s earlier violent behavior meant that the sight of her summoning her weapons was a trigger for Nephrite- and, even then, she still protects Steven, the person who was consistently nice to her.

This is not a whimsical fantasy scenario. If you use brute force to push people around, they will remember, and will either resent you or panic when it seems like you’re about to hurt them again. If you’re up against someone who is motivated primarily by fear, don’t scare them.

“Violence isn’t the solution here” in this case is not an arbitrary nicey-pants talking point where “oh but see if you just sing songs and hold people’s hands they will all universally like you!” it’s talking about the fact that you need to actually meaningfully develop your response to situations based on information. Nephrite is a traumatized soldier suffering from an affliction that makes her easily startled. When she’s able to maintain a clear head, Steven is readily able to observe that she is friendly and willing to work with him. Steven not being violent to Nephrite is based in the fact that she is not a threat, and the Gems are failing to reevaluate because they’re just assuming she’s a threat based on prior behavior (and likely some bias- both out of the assumption that corruption can’t be cured and out of knowing Nephrite is a Homeworld soldier) and they’ve stopped observing what she’s actually doing.

The show doesn’t even exaggerate how much or how well talking to people works. We see people rebuff Steven (e.g. Jasper in Earthlings). We see people indifferently stonewall his overtures of friendship (Peridot in Marble Madness). We see people who take fondly to him because he’s nice to them but frankly trust him as far as they could throw him and don’t feel that bad selling out his friends (Lapis in The Return).

We see people give him a blank look of “are you actually kidding me” when he tries to talk to them (Aquamarine in Stuck Together)

Heck- the entire thesis of Beach City Drift is that Stevonnie needs to reevaluate the way they’re responding to Kevin because he’s engaging with them in bad faith and using it as an opportunity to mess with them.

The idea that this is unrealistic because, we guess Stevonnie doesn’t decide that Kevin messing with them means they need to take him out back and extrajudicially execute him on the spot just tells us something: Our culture has been spoonfed the idea, over and over and over again and mostly through popular cartoons, that violence is the default solution for problems.

This is an idea that SU is deliberately deconstructing like in Monster Buddy. Because- why are Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl just assuming Nephrite can’t be trusted? In-universe, they have their reasons, but those reasons are also wrong.

However, we have to consider that Steven was clearly operating on the assumption all the monsters are bad even though he was able to observe that some of the monsters were only dangerous by accident (the worm from Bubble Buddies).

He assumed the monsters were dangerous even though time and time again, they largely only targeted the Crystal Gems, and most of them were in remote environments hiding, and only are drawn out of hiding because the Crystal Gems deliberately hunt them down.

And this is an assumption so pervasive that when given starkly contradictory evidence in Monster Buddies, his initial reflex is to defend this viewpoint- saying Nephrite “isn’t like the other monsters” and then trying to tell her “you’re not a monster any more!” when she never was in the first place. She only seemed “like a monster” because Steven was fed a specific narrative from people who were in some ways ignorant to the reality of Nephrite’s situation, and in others withholding information. And Steven is not a gullible, unobservant, or callous person. 

Here’s the thing: before we as an audience are told anything about the Gem monsters, we accept that. We take it as a given the Red Eye is going to crash into Beach City just because it’s bad. We assume the “Centipeetles” are hostile even though Nephrite’s drones are frankly no more aggressive than you’d expect a stray cat loose in your house to be, and Pearl is the one calmly standing there snapping one’s neck.

Personally, I grew up with the high fantasy genre. Heavy door-stopper books with dragons on the cover, and games like Final Fantasy. This is a genre that most popular codifying installments of give you broad, sweeping pastoral environments chock full of monsters that live exclusively to fight and kill you, and you need to kill them first. Anything that you shouldn’t kill on sight is going to immediately broadly flag you down so that you know not to murder this one. And killing monsters is never wrong. The ones that you aren’t supposed to kill, the narrative will coddle you so that you could never even think they might be just like the intrusive offal.

Sometimes you’re explained these monsters, they’re especially bad, because they did this bad thing or caused that bad thing to happen. Often you don’t actually witness it. Sometimes there’s simply no explanation given at all, but they are called “goblins” and they look strange and pointy and dangerous compared to the pretty likable-looking Heroes, and that’s supposed to be all the evidence you need to never worry if your heroes run them through.

We don’t worry, even if these monsters are actually people. We don’t worry even if they will directly talk to you and make it clear they believe they’re doing the right thing. After all, they have an entry in the in-game bestiary, and if they were really good, the game wouldn’t have given us the option to kill them, right?

When I hear people talk about “villains” and which villains are entitled to “redemption arcs”, what I hear overwhelmingly is thinking that sprouted from that genre, those games and those books. I hear, basically, the indoctrination that we just accept that worlds just have a bunch of Evil Things and the way to solve Evil is to kill it, and that the world will gently guide our hand so if it’s not actually Evil, then it will throw up its hands and drop to the floor and the battle music will stop and all of our combat commands will lock up.

We accept that Nephrite is evil, going in. Even though, actually watching that first episode, she’s standing on the outside of the Gem Temple, and doesn’t attack until the Crystal Gems barge out to threaten her. Nephrite is written from the very beginning of the show as an expression of its thesis statement.

Nephrite does not fling herself to the ground and whimper for mercy and try to stagger back to her proper Gem form as soon as she’s encountered. Nephrite is written, deliberately, as a monster. We accept that she’s here to be a threat for Steven to beat to prove himself. We accept that her pain doesn’t matter because she’s a monster.

We accept, in effect, that she is not a character with a life or a story. We accept that she is merely an empty receptacle for Steven’s fighting capabilities and inventiveness.

That’s preposterous. That’s ridiculous. If you suggest someone disagreeing with you is actually just an empty caricature of a person here to galvanize your growth as a person, or just show off what you’ve learned or accomplished since your past, people would look at you like you’d grown another head and rightfully so. There’s nothing “realistic” about that.

But it’s pervasive. It’s everywhere. And when patterns are repeated endlessly and repeatedly and constantly we get used to them.

It’s why Steven Universe, why Undertale, why even Off are treated as subversive narratives, even though they’re actually more realistic.

“But Clockie,” you say, “the Diamonds were so willing to talk and listen to Steven! That’s preposterous!”

“They sure weren’t in The Trial, or most of Reunited,” I say. “In fact the only reason they’re shown to have changed their mind so quickly is because Steven had a direct personal connection to them, and is that really so unlikely- that these people who have been alive for thousands of years and live at the heart of a densely populated empire would actually have connections with other people, who would not all homogeneously believe the same thing? That they could meet and interact with others who might change their opinions even slightly?”

And even then both Blue and Yellow try to talk Steven out of actually trying to say anything to White. And Steven literally points out why he’s doing this: because they tried fighting White, they tried fleeing White, and none of that worked. It failed to meaningfully change anything. And forcing change through by murdering White and standing on her corpse would just repeat the doomed rebellion because the staged murder of Pink Diamond just entrenched more people against the Crystal Gems.

Steven literally criticizes the refusal to attempt any form of negotiation as impractical. Because it is. The only reason people genuinely think violence as a narrative cure-all works is because we are basically raised in narratives- even narratives that are otherwise optimistic, friendly, and colorful- where the only solution is murder. 

[masked-puppetmaster]

giant BATIM pre game headcannons post

So um I may have gotten carried away with this- 

This is gonna be a long post guys buckle up 

* When Bendy was first summoned, he was very anxious and shy. He really only trusted Joey at first, but grew to trust everyone else eventually. * Wally had the hardest time gaining Bendy's trust * After getting used to the studio and it's workers, bendy outgrew most of his shyness. He still gets pretty anxious, especially in crowds, but around the studio he's pretty comfortable. * Despite being a demon and all, bendy still has a few fears: stage fright, crowds, and heights (also abandonment but we'll get to that later) * Elaborating on that, bendy is fine preforming in front of a camera or anyone in the studio, but put on a stage in front of a large group of people he doesn't do so well. Living with a limited amount of people in a small studio, he tends to panic in large social situations. Crowds bother him also because he's very small. Heights taller than a table are a problem, mainly because he tends to always somehow get someplace high by accident and can't get down. The only real exception is Boris carrying him. Boris is very tall but bendy allows it. * Bendy is kind of claustrophobic (this gets worse after the events of the game but shh these are pre game headcannons) * Boris and Joey are the only ones who can carry bendy without him getting scared. Bendy will allow the others to carry him but it makes him very very uncomfortable. * Henry or Sammy carrying bendy on their shoulder is okay, but only if bendy climbs up there himself.

* Bendy hides behind Joey, Henry, or Sammy's leg like a five year old when he's nervous 

* Bendy also "melts" when experiencing negative emotions. Sometimes it's just drips, other times it's more severe, depending on how intense the emotions are * He can melt and change shape on his own accord too though. Like if he wanted to get into a locked room he could melt into a puddle and go underneath the door * All the toons can shift but bendy is the only one who can do it to that extent. The only shifting the others can do is like toon logic, like getting literally flattened by a safe and then immediately going back to their regular form * Toon logic/ hammer-space is something all the toons can do. * However they don't really use it too often * It normally doesn't take much work to use toon logic but doing too much too often can wear them out * Since bendy didn't use it very often, at first no one knew about toon logic. This led to bendy getting hit by a car and everyone flipping out, only for bendy to get right back up and be confused why everyone was so alarmed * Toon logic works to a certain extent in the real world. The toons can still feel pain and get injured, but things like getting safes dropped on them that would kill a regular human won't kill them. It still might hurt like hell through. Toon logic also allows the toons to be very strong at times, no matter what their size is. * Then toons are made of ink. They can't break bones because there are no bones to break. * All the toons have some sort of ink monster form, but it's literally almost never used. Maybe once or twice in a situation of genuine danger * Pretty much everyone in the studio can sing really well. The exception is Joey, who can't sing for shit * However, Joey can play the guitar and the piano * People never really want their kids around bendy (with him being a demon and all) but bendy is actually really great with kids * Bendy is very needy when it comes to attention. He constantly has to be paid attention to * He's got a pretty big fear of being left behind or abandoned (something that intensifies after the events of the Henry incident but shh we don't talk about that) * Even though he doesn't really like getting picked up, he does like cuddles. He is very small and will just kind of....curl into you like a cat * He likes warmth * In my own mind, bendy will always be some form of ace. But if he did date, I'd say he was pan. * Like he doesn't date but if he did he wouldn't give a shit about what gender you are * Bendy really likes animals. He especially likes dogs, but wether or not this is because his best friend is a wolf remains a mystery * Bendy and Boris don't get along super well in the show, but outside the show they are inseparable * Bendy and Boris didn't take an instant liking to each other. Boris was very open to being friends but bendy was too suspicious. After a while though bendy grew more comfortable and the friendship grew * After the friendship grew, they became best friends to the point of being brothers; they are insanely close, even if they make fun of each other a lot * Bendy is the "says they know what they're doing and to trust them and then immediately makes a complete fool of themselves because they didn't know what they were doing" friend * Boris is the "I'm much more sensible than you and will warn you if you're about to do something stupid" friend but he's also the "You mean a lot to me and I'd die to keep you safe but if you just ignore my warnings and make a total fool out of yourself as long as you're not severely injured I'm gonna laugh my ass off" friend * A lot of the times bendy will do something stupid and after confirming he's okay Boris will laugh really hard for a while * Bendy gets really offended like "*sniff* how dare you laugh at me" * Boris continues to laugh but still tries to make bendy feel better like "That was hilariously stupid you're an idiot now let's go get ice cream and watch movies k" * Boris is normally a kind, soft boi™ (if not somewhat savage at times) but you dare hurt someone he cares about (ex. Bendy) He is a ferocious beast ready to destroy you * Bendy also gets a lot of nightmares and Boris is ON IT * at the slightest sound of any distress Boris will get up and sleep with the bab and comfort him * Alice was harder. Alice and Boris got along pretty well since the beginning but bendy seemed to despise her. * This went along for a while, which upset Alice because she'd never done anything to bendy * Turns out bendy was just scared, mainly of being replaced. Bendy and Alice talked a while and after that gradually started to become friends * To anyone from the outside, it would look like bendy and Alice hated each other. This is, in fact, far from the truth. They care about one another a lot- they're just extremely competitive. * Everything with bendy and Alice is a competition. EVERYTHING. * As you may guess, this rarely ends well. * There's only ever been a serious accident once or twice. Most of the time they're just small mishaps that everyone laughs about later. * they stick out their tongues at each other like 5 year olds and everyone else in the room rolls their eyes * Sometimes it even gets a little ridiculous- bendy has the tutu because he got it just to prove he could look better in a skirt than Alice * They asked joey henry and Sammy to judge who looked better- Sammy took bendy's side, henry took Alice's side, and joey walked out of the room mumbling "is this seriously my life now?" * They're always playing a constant game of everything you can do I can do better * They insult each other a lot, but it's more in a sibling manner than anything else. * Alice isn't too nicey nicey towards bendy most of the time but if bendy is hurt or scared or upset She definitely shows how much she cares about him and tries to help in any way she can, even if all she can do is provide a little comfort (this goes the other way around too- Alice will comfort bendy and vice versa) * Alice and Boris always had a good relationship from the beginning * They weren't exactly best friends or anything but they were definitely friends * Boris always respected Alice- he always made every attempt to think of Alice and include her in things (despite knowing all too well bendy didn't like her much) He never looked at/thought of her differently just because she was a girl- he fully saw that she was very strong and capable of taking care of herself (although she was not above using her feminine charm and looks to get her way) * When bendy and Alice finally started getting along his response was basically "well it's about time you two" * Whenever bendy and Alice get into fights he just kind've rolls his eyes and doesn't get involved unless it gets physical, and even then both Alice and bendy are basically the size of small children so really all he has to do is sigh and stand in between them, pushing the two away from each other while they take no notice and continue to scream at each other and throw useless air punches * When Alice was upset that bendy disliked her when she'd done nothing she confided a lot in Boris (seeing as Boris was the closest to bendy) * Boris always tried to comfort her, insisting that "its not that he hates you, he just has a hard time trusting new people. He'll come around eventually." Boris eventually turns out to be right and even after Alice and bendy start getting along she continues to confide in him * Boris is always happy to pause anything he's doing and listen * He's a helper and tries to help in any possible way he can * Out of Sammy, Joey, and Henry, Sammy is the youngest of the three adults. He tends to act much more emotional and child-like than an adult should. He's very extreme: if he's happy he's singing and laughing and dancing, if he's sad he's crying an ocean * He likes to help- he gave bendy his tutu and Boris his overalls * Most clothes the toons have were given to them by Sammy, either Sammy had them already or he took them out to a store * Sammy has a large abundance of sweaters and bendy fucking loves sweaters 

*everyone has a closet at the studio, for extra clothes, pajamas, etc. bendy often sneaks into them and steals sweaters

*The toons are the only ones who actually live at the studio, but at least one human stays at the studio per night with the toons. They usually rotate but sometimes there's voulenteers. * Sammy is also super clumsy * The toons usually look to him for fun- he's always willing to play with them and assist them with pranks and shenanigans * Despite how he acts he's smart and he knows what he's doing * He's also amazing at comfort and singing: if the toons need some cheering up they go to Sammy, and there's been more than one occasion bendy woke up from come crazy nightmare and Sammy sang him back to sleep * Everyone HATES seeing Sammy sad * Its almost unbearable * He's basically the toons dad/cool older brother * He's also a bit of a mom too * Carries around ponchos and snacks and band aids and stuff like that in case anyone needs them * He also carries around bubbles literally everywhere * Like weirdmageddon could be happening and you could count on Sammy to have bubbles * He's a wonderful person (although somewhat salty at times) and an amazing musician and singer but a terrible horrible cook * But he loves to cook * And no one has the heart to tell him he can't cook for shit * Sometimes Sammy gets involved in the toon's shenanigans * He's more neutral when it comes to what side he's on but he tends to take bendy's side a teensy bit more * Henry is the oldest of the three adults, though not necessarily the most responsible * He likes to have fun: he likes taking the toons out places and is the one that does it the most often * He's very protective of the toons- he considers them to be like grandchildren * He's also been in the army before and he sometimes will entertain the toons with old war stories: the toons enjoy them and sometimes will just come in while henry is drawing and sit down and ask to hear one- henry is happy to oblige and will tell the story as he works * He adds sound effects and gestures to make the stories more entertaining * He wears glasses but he really only needs them for reading * The toons love henry and are always super happy to see him * He's also a bit of a teacher- if the toons have any questions about the human world Henry's always glad to explain * Joey is younger than Henry by about a year and half but is still a lot more responsible (he's honestly the most responsible one there) * He likes to have fun as much as everyone else but he actually cares about if they're getting work done and reminds everyone of their work and deadlines (TBH the studio would probably be completely gone/bankrupt if it wasn't for him because if it wasn't for him no work would get done smh) * Everyone makes fun of him being serious but they all love him anyway * Joey does have  a tiny bit of a temper- he's very easily frustrated and can be a little scary * He sometimes forces the toons to be pushed a little beyond their limits but the moment he realizes he's fucked up he feels really really bad * Despite coming off as serious and strict he cares about the toons very much, they're like his children (he actually has gotten used to referring to them as his kids and the toons have taken up a habit of calling him papa drew) (the first time they called him that he nearly cried because god they're precious) * He's very proud of his ink kids he loves them very very much even if he doesn't show it 24/7 * He also has a bit of anxiety and he gets panic attacks sometimes * (The only others prone to anxiety are bendy and Henry- while Joey's panic attacks aren't too frequent (though definitely not unheard of) bendy has a lot. Henry on the other hand has very little and only get them if something triggers a war flashback) * Joey needs glasses because he is 100% blind without them * He's very prone to losing them however and has to blindly fumble around Velma style to find them * The toons have stolen them a few times just because its funny * Sammy plays many instruments. Henry and Alice don't play anything but they sing. Joey and bendy play the piano. In addition to the piano, bendy can also play the violin (but he doesn't very often). Boris plays the clarinet. Joey, in addition to playing the piano, also plays the acoustic guitar. * Wally doesn't play anything. He can dance, but he rarely ever does (in front of other people at least) * Sammy is a serious musician. That being said, one of his favorite pastimes is kicking down the door to joeys room and playing careless whisper on the kazoo. * Bendy is the shortest of everyone, he's about the size of a four or five year old. Alice is about a head taller than bendy. Bendy is just a TINY bit smaller than the size of joeys leg, if that gives you any indication to how tall Joey is. Henry is a bit taller than Joey but not by too much. Wally is about the same height as Henry. Sammy and Boris are about the same height, and are taller than everyone * The toons are completely fine in regular water. * However, holy water hurts them. They can't step foot inside a church without nearly dying. * The toons mainly survive off of ink. They can eat regular human food but too much will make them sick. They also can't have sugar. Everyone learned both of these things the hard way. 

* Everyone finds it hilarious how much the toons are fascinated with the most normal things like touch activated lamps and microwaves * Sunsets and stars were a big deal to the toons they were so amazed the first time they saw them * Most of the studio is fine with fireworks. They exceptions are bendy and Henry. * Bendy doesn't like fireworks (they're too loud and scary) and Henry doesn't like them because the loud boom noises remind him of the war. So on the Fourth of July bendy and Henry have just made a habit of staying together in the studio and having their own small celebration with food and old movies. They both enjoy it.