#WHAT PART OF OUR BEHAVIOUR MAKES THEM THING WE WANT MORE SAD QUEER REPRESENTATION

[synnoviolin]

I should have blacklisted 'good omens' because I've been spoiled to absolute death and now I don't want to watch it until I know FOR SURE that it has a happy ending in whatever conclusion comes from season 3. @neil-gaiman you're an evil, evil man. I didn't even watch it and I am traumatised. I don't want this misery. I'm DONE with sad, miserable queer representation. There I SAID IT. I don't want more Brokeback Mountain Core. I don't want dead queer people (even if they're angels and demons), I don't want sad queer people. I want HAPPINESS. I WANT JOY. FOR MISERY AND HORROR WE HAVE REAL LIFE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. /HJ (which is a tone tag for half-joking and I'm only half joking about Neil being evil)

Good Omens 2 was like reading a 100k fanfic in the middle of the night that you realize was left unfinished and last updated 5 years ago, and you are left alone with this earth-shattering cliffhanger

[historywillforgetme]

copy paste of my speech for school

Dear Society!

As you probably know, we live in a system called capitalism. And people often glorify it, because the opposite, communism, is also bad. We grow up getting to know just how “good” capitalism is, using the weeping of history to justify its actions, and drowning any other ideas, calling them communistic, naming them names of nightmares that happened in the past. We took systems which white people made, and turned them into reality. We do not seem to care about alternatives, because we are forced into it. Remember just how, as a kid, you wanted to become an astronaut? Or an archeologist? Or anyone big, or famous? Remember just how sad you probably were when you discovered that just getting the basis of school will be 13 years? After 8 years of forcefully learning almost all completely useless things, that we won’t use in real life anyways, after 8 years of spending hours at home learning and solving homework, while you could do something that is actually a part of your interests. After all the scolding from your parents for your grades, and from your teachers too, because what could possibly be more important in life than grades? Than these imaginary numbers? We were just kids, and the system failed us. They put us, kids, in imaginary roles, saying “you are a girl, you cannot sit like this!”, “you are a boy, and boys dont cry!’, “pink can only be worn by girls”, etc, etc. It failed us because it destroyed our childhood dreams, for the sake of 1% of the wealthiest people on earth. So I, as a person who’s really, really angry at the system, I come out to you, the reader, listener, to society, for a change. We should refrain from using kind language when protesting, because they, the government, that 1%, never will take us seriously otherwise. They won't use kind words to us, they will want to kill us with cold blood, and swipe us under the rug, so the rest will stay silent, waiting for someone who’ll do something! If you won't stand up, no one will! Just because we feel comfortable with the rules, or think that we do, just because we were conditioned to think so, just because we are scared, shouldn’t stop us from ending it all. Thats what they want, they want submission! We should comfort the poor, and make the one % feel completely and utterly threatened for their safety and lives. Boys, aren’t you tired of the fact that you are shamed for showing basic human emotions? For not being an imaginary, rich, strong, stoic man? Aren’t you tired for being shamed for showing basic human affection to other boys? Girls, aren’t you tired of constantly trying to live up to ridiculous beauty standards? For constantly being reminded that you need to be a “lady”? For being called a slut, a whore or worse just because you wore something comfortable? And I don't care that I'm being impolite. People call us women these words, never care about being impolite. Girls, aren’t you tired of people saying “you’ll never find a guy with this behaviour!”? Queer people, aren’t you tired of being demonised by conservative people? Are we not tired of conversion therapy? Of always being skipped when it comes to representation in the media? Of being told that you are “unnatural”? Well, if we want to see a change, we need to make it ourselves, because most of the people are so indoctrinated by capitalism, the government that they won't do it if they don't see a reason. So i am giving you quite a few reasons:

School system was made to teach the youth to wake up early for monotone work in a factory

You are literally forced to ask for going to bathroom

If you are LGBTQ+ you are hated by half or more of your government because their beliefs say so

You will probably work your whole life just so the rich people get higher salary

The world’s air pollution is in 80% caused by 100 megacorporations

Companies disregard morals and public safety in pursuit of profit

Capitalism exploits the environment and natural resources

It proposes little or no solutions to poverty, while any person who’s in that 1% of wealthiest could solve the world poverty and hunger without bankrupting

Fails to pay a living wage to billions of workers

You are supposed to be exhausted and worried you’ll lose your income to die penniless

If you like drawing, or crocheting, or fixing cars, you want to work. You just don’t want to be exploited.

If you believe in something else than christianity, you will probably have to go to school in your holidays, and will not be able to pray as much as you need in some cases (for example if you are muslim)

We made roles that are impossible to fit in. Who said that we need social classes? I’m pretty sure that the world wouldn’t collapse if we would throw them away. The economy would tho. But the economy is a code for the rich, if the economy is getting better, the wealthy are getting richer, if it’s collapsing, they are getting poorer. Of course it’ll be hard at first. I won’t lie, we will have to get used to our new lifestyle. But imagine that one day, you’ll wake up, and decide that you would like a shirt with a specific thing on it. And instead of thinking “hmmm, do i have enough money?”, you’ll ask yourself “hmmm, can i paint the design or i would need to learn how to make it first?”. Imagine that one day you would walk out of your house and breathe fresh air instead of polluted one, get some fresh tomatoes without any chemicals, and just make yourself some sandwiches. Or maybe more, for you and that person that agreed to help you with painting your walls. Imagine a world without electric bills, because you take power from the sun, the wind or the water. Imagine it. Imagine yourself doing your favourite thing, just because you like doing that, in clothes that you made too, or someone made for you, just in your style. Imagine not having to explain why you are not in a nine to five job today, because you wanted to take a day off. Are you tired? You can just take a nap, instead of waiting for the next few hours. Hungry? Your neighbour has some fresh strawberries, and you know how to make a dish from them. You can just work together to make some food and eat. Imagine this. But we cannot achieve this without getting rid of capitalism.

[ouathinktank-metacommentary]

Alright, due to general interest...

Almost two months later–we’ve been doing great, thank you for all your (overwhelming) inquiry. The life without the bottomless pit of crap that’s OUaT, as well as its cesspool of a fandom–can do wonders for your complexion. Ulcers, too. Watching actual good TV and doing actual real-life activism that does make difference, you know? So while we’re grateful for your concern, this is now a response to ALL of you who messaged us (or other people you thought were our ‘friends’ and ‘in the know’) wondering–why we chose to do this. The (long) answer would be–we were simply NOT interested in any more in…

1. New OUaT storylines, because we were there for the old ones–on which they shat on, at every turn. So, this reset/restart? Sheer desperation. Starting from the ”very special new gay character” (this time allegedly not the one to be quickly and happily swept under the rug after their cringeworthy five minutes of pointless tokenism? Wow. Groundbreaking!). All based solely on actors’ fanbase rather than characters and/or good storytelling, so the best one can expect plot-wise is just fanservice--more curses, more info dump, fast-paced shallowness and of course–retcons. Of retcons.

2. New characters/actors, because if five out of their six seasons gave us nothing more than inconsistent drivel where they broke about eleventy thousand rules of decent (see: something audience with an ounce of intelligence can watch) writing, the best one can expect character-wise is… well, what you got so far–inconsistent crap, serving just for one thing–to Mary/Marty Sue. Both on behalf of Kitsowitz as well as dimwits buying it.

3. Any new ‘modern fairytale’ they can try and sell as such, because no–we are NOT the audience for these hacks. Their target are the dim, superficial, limited and conservative (see: bigoted, racist, homophobic and misogynist) or just dumb Tweens and Twimoms.

4. New shit based on old tried and tested shit, when even bad promotion is good promotion. Shameful public behaviour from people like Aguilerra, YNB and Shatner fueling more fandom toxicity, and Kitsovitz of course kissing their collective arse despite them bullying/doxxing their fans (people who actually buy their product) because–free promotion.

5. Meta rehash – because for about four years now there hasn’t been anything out there that hasn’t been chewed up and digested, ad nauseam.

(and yes, again: not everything analytical/speculative is a meta, read up)

6. Systemic issues/intersectionality/ discussions–because as shown consistently (which yay, they DO know what ‘consistency’ is–after all?) during the past five years they simply DGaF. And besides, after all these years, please don’t tell me you still expect any decency from them in terms of acknowledgement, treatment or, godforbid–representation?

7. Either critical or hopeful, negative or positive theorizing and analyses, because–see #1, #2, #5, and #6.

8. The “other camp’s" aggressive bigotry and homophobia. Us wanting the story about two mothers sharing a son is about normalcy, about equality. Not our self-insertion because of ‘gay privilege’. Privilege would be gay people not having to pay taxes. You know, kinda like their churches don’t?

9. General idiocy of our part of the fandom, such as... “yeah, I used to ship Swan Queen, but Emma sucks anyway (and also it’s all JMo’s fault because she’s closeted and a homophobe while Lana is a faultless demi-goddess!) but I’m here just for Lana and hey, I did spit at their token lesbians because representation FTW but still, GIVE REGINA A FEMALE LI THIS SEASON!!I!” *rolls eyes* It’s okay when you’re a young queer person just starting to learn and gain their footing, but when you’re a 30+ yo? Not sure what’s more cringeworthy and sad, hypocrisy or actor idolatry.

10. General fandom bile in the same corner again, because we don’t know about you–but we here are done with the aggressive, ego-maniacal, self-centred and attention-seeking. Which unfortunately won, if you’ll just look at hat kind of individuals (quasi intellectuals who gain credibility and 'bnf' status by waving around either their academic credentials or industry insight connections, drowning the sheep in condescension--and them buying it nonetheless) you accepted as your fandom leaders, gatekeepers and authorities on all things Regina Mills and Swan Queen. Telling you what to think, what to say and how to behave? *rolls eyes* Fandom is supposed to be a FUN experience, not substitute for therapy.

11. Fandom gossip – general badmouthing, hearsay and other petty crap of such nature. Tumblr community, even one surrounding character larger than life such as Regina Mills, or the one supporting the beautiful idea of a modern fairy-tale about two mothers sharing a son (which should, by the by--be normal, not ‘progressive’ anyways?) should NOT be a microcosm of everyday human pettiness.

12. Anonymous hate in our inbox. Blaming us either for being too critical about everything, or not being critical enough (based on your own fandom ‘allegiances’) and being “a sellout, abandoning the critical/meta fraction when it was in a desperate need of level-headedness and reason”. You realise that it's not US you're angry with, right?

13. Last but not least, if you’re out ‘chaplain Anon’ with delusions of being a protector of naive, manipulated masses–whilst in all actuality being a highly-disassociative, obsessive stalker and a sociopath (in total, you’ve sent about how many, two hundred messages–about ten only last week?) I sincerely hope you’ll seek help. Professional. And then find a new hobby. Perhaps start training for a triathlon? It's great for general fitness as well as heavy neuroses, I hear.

(If you recognise self in any of the listed in #12 and #13, then you can fuck right off. In a wide circle.)

I sincerely hope that all these offer answers to ALL of the questions you’ve been sending us in the meantime. We’re grateful for all your concern, so the purpose of this update was to tell you that yes--while we ARE on an official hiatus, we did say that we’d be around. And we are, which a lot of you PM-ing us, know. We’re still here for you, and we still enjoy talking about all the great, positive things that this show and this fandom gave us. But... *drumrolll* ...

Anonymous posting will be switched OFF, as of this point.

We see no point in it anymore. Honestly, we never did because all civilized discussions and discourse we tried to encourage here--were supposed to be something you could and should have been proud to stand behind, without the greyface and shades. So if you’re going to send us a message and NOT stand behind it, then–it shouldn’t be considered worth reading, at all?

And yes. In the meantime, our decision remains the same. We‘ll be around, in other ways than doing what we used to. This is not a dramatic exit, just... a break, if you will. So if we happen to blink and miss something good happening, either in the ‘new’ show, or the fandom–please feel free to ping us.

Until then…

Your friendly neighbourhood ThinkTankers.

All four of us.