#White people genuinely have no idea how cops work

[bmoreisapunkrocktown]

I'm worried that y'all genuinely think that the police can't understand that a dot on the calendar you have on your dresser means that you're tracking your period.

And I'm terrified that y'all think they won't go through your trash to check all those home pregnancy tests you bought.

They took apart a woman's toilet and went through her pipes to get evidence of her miscarriage.

If there is data to find, they will find it. If there's evidence to find, they will find it. It isn't possible to shift it into a form they can't find, because that's not real. You have to corrupt the data.

[eat-a-dicker]

as much as cop city woman did genuinely fuck this up, it's not the result of her being a black woman (but this does result in fucking misogynoir just blantantly being a prime factor in voter's minds) it's a problem with the democrat's entire platform of being goddamn failures at not keeping any campaign promises and a bunch of terrible ideas about politics being allowed to go unchallenged because of disenfranchisement with the system. joe biden's presidency was a miserable failure and didn't do a single goddamned thing about the genocide, and encouraging people to vote only made their unchecked biases rise to the fucking surface of it all. the democrats have done nothing but shit the bed and allow all of this to happen because of corruption in DC and how much this world will bend over backwards for a shitty white man in power. this is a deeply fascist state and deeply fascist ideology is going to continue perpetuating itself unless people put in the work to be better than it, which probably isn't going to happen under the iron boot of death cult minded capitalism which sees its workers as nothing more than commodities and a means to reach an end

[idkwhatimdoingbutslay]

… I can’t imagine that we actually watched the same show. Like I REALLY AISNSOSNWKMEJDND

hold on I’m gonna need to calm down.

Let me just make a list of why I disagree and at least organize my anger. Long post incoming.

Vander was friends and had a deal with Grayson. The sheriff. Idk what else to even add to that

Caitlyn is more than a cop and Arcane isn’t copaganda. Genuinely don’t know what kind of progress some of these people are looking for. Real allies are a necessity for real progress.

SILCO IS A CLASS TRAITOR. HE FUNNELLED DRUGS INTO THE UNDERCITY AND PUT POOR KIDS IN FACTORIES FOR THAT DRUG FOR PROFIT!!! HE PAID THE ENFORCERS TO LET HIM DO IT WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE

Vi is not as much as an activist as you would like to believe

WHY IS EKKO NEVER EVER BROUGHT UP IN THESE CONVERSATIONS????

Silco was not good for the Undercity

Silco was not a great guy. Ekko had to build an entire separate hidden community for the people he hurt and stepped on for his own benefit

Caitlyn is ignorant and naive. That’s ok. That’s what character development is for.

Loving imperfect characters like Silco and Jinx then hating characters like Vi and Caitlyn is peak media illiteracy to me

FOR THE LAST TIME: VI DIDNT ABANDON POWDER!!!!! Silco literally wanted Vi DEAD for trying to stop him from killing Vander??? How could you possibly say silco was there for jinx when Vi refused to be???? SHE WAS IN PRISON BECAUSE OF HIM???

Silco’s manipulation is working wonders on y’all

Embracing all the outrage without at all looking out for the people harmed by bigotry is not activism

SILCO IS A CLASS TRAITOR x929282929394

Caitlyn was the first person in years to show Vi kindness and care. She listened and stuck by her and took care of her after Vi was locked up for years and beat up by cops (i wonder what led her to be thrown in there?). Cait being a cop stopped being a point of contention once Vi recognized her naivety and genuineness.

NUANCE NUANCE NUANCE. ITS NEVER EVER BLACK AND WHITE

The only way I can see Vi touching ‘class traitor’ in season one was the shimmer raid. Guess who the hell put those kids in there in the first place.

Just hanging out with Caitlyn isn’t being a class traitor if Vander’s allowed to be friends with Grayson.

Critical thinking is very necessary for watching shows like Arcane

What the hell did Silco really do for the Undercity???? What changed over the 7(ish) years he was basically in power of the place? All I’ve heard was he made the air cleaner, which would be great except for, you know, shimmer and the child factory workers

Jinx is unwell and feeding into it like this in a fully serious manor would not help Arcane as a show at all

What do you want Arcane’s message as a full show to be? ‘Screw cops’? That’s a little boring and unproductive isn’t it?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT EKKO AND HIS IMPACT PLEASE???? x9382728283

Caitlyn is trying to make Piltover and Zaun a better place. Is that not allowed? Am I missing something?

Caitlyn and Vi’s arcs have only just started. Season one is basically fully set up except for characters like silco and Jinx. This is far from the end.

Genuinely think Vander would appreciate Vi for being friends (using this term loosely because they are in love) with Caitlyn considering he was the one who was opposed to war and Vi wasn’t.

Silco should NOT be your idea of Undercity independence and respect. He oppressed the Undercity the same way the Council and the Enforcers did. He helped no one but himself, his team (barely) and Jinx.

You’re allowed to like and dislike any character you want but pretending like Silco is better for the Undercity than others is just so ridiculous to me. Everyone is of course completely allowed to like Silco, but we can’t pretend like he’s this stand up guy. If you have to pretend like he was, maybe you don’t like him as much as you think.

“Because Cait’s pretty” is also incredibly incorrect. Go check point #14.

Vi never stopped loving and caring for Powder. Powder’s mental health issues were amplified and utilized by Silco because he couldn’t even heal himself.

If all of your opinions of Caitlyn and Vi start and end with “cops suck” and “class traitor” then you genuinely don’t respect Arcane as a show enough to show you nuance.

The misinterpretation of characters is just so … it’s like you go out of your way to love and/or hate characters no matter how much they show you who you are.

Your closed mindedness is clouding your judgement and making you out to seem like you don’t actually want the Undercity’s triumph, you want Silco and Jinx’s, even if it means ruining the Undercity. And that would be fine because father/daughter evil duo but trying to say you’re all for this duo because you want what’s better for the Undercity when they continue to hurt it is simply not correct and very harmful (to fictional characters in a fictional universe 😭)

Only being able to understand how Silco and Jinx were oppressed and therefore should be able to not just destroy Piltover but also Zaun is not the eat you think it is

Why is Viktor never called a class traitor? I think he's great (I also think Silco and Jinx are wonderfully written) but we hardly saw him in the Undercity/ interact with people from the Undercity plus he killed someone (Sky) from there (accidentally)

EDIT TO ADD ANOTHER POINT: Caitlyn has shown little to NO malicious intent and has no real negative impacts other than Jinx’s attachment issues and insecurities being amplified by her mere existence. Again, this is her story and development. Throughout the season she is exposed to reality and recognizes her and her peers/ families wrongs. I have no idea what you want from this character. Should Piltover just be gotten rid of in the story? Then what? Should Caitlyn have just never gotten involved and continued to embrace her privilege? Should she have left Vi in prison and stay ignorant?

[dragonmarquise]

Y'know what I feel like the BRC community lacks? Solace appreciatation!!! Can I pls have all your hcs on this pathetic wet cat of a man pls?

Okay! This is gonna be hopefully shorter than some of my other headcanon posts, but I guess only because it's just one character this time, lol

Nevertheless! Gonna put a Read More here since it probably still counts as a long post.

Tryce is still weirded out by Solace to a degree (especially, y'know, because of the claustrophobic masochist thing) but after a while he just accepts that that's how Solace is. "He's a weirdo, yeah, but he's our weirdo now I guess." Kinda like a cat that chooses to adopt you, instead of the other way around, so it's like "Welp, I guess I have a cat now!" lol

Solace mostly learned how to skate in order to run from the cops Basically they would hassle him whenever he was hanging out in tight places, even if it was far from the public eye. Later on, he decided to try out being a writer, but he doesn't really do graffiti art that often. Even after joining BRC, that hasn't changed much!

Solace really likes sweaters! Mostly during the colder months of course, even wearing them in layers to help stay warm. He tends to get colder more easily than other people.

Heck, in general he seems to have sensitivity to temperature in both directions. Gets cold very easily and thus has to wear more layers than other people would. But also gets hot very easily in the warmer months, and even goes shirtless most of the time during summer. Hence his appearance during the game imo!

I like to think the dummy markings on his face is just face paint, while the ones on his chest/torso are actually tattoos. The idea being if the cops are after him, he can hide somewhere, wipe off his face paint, then just throw on a shirt and (hopefully) the cops won't recognize him. Unfortunately with his luck, it's kind of a coin toss if it works or not, lol

On that note, in general I think Solace tends to have bad luck. He's joked in the past about possibly being cursed, but the rest of BRC wonder if it might actually be true... at the least, Eclipse has confirmed that Solace has some pretty damn unlucky star signs going on, so that's something.

Solace sleeps with a weighted blanket! Not as part of his claustrophobic masochist kink (though a lot of people assume it is anyways, which he finds irritating). It just genuinely helps him sleep better.

Also in general he has problems with getting enough sleep! Besides the weight blanket, he also sleeps with a white noise machine. It helps "block" outside noises, and given he lives in a big city like New Amsterdam, there's probably a ton of city noises he has to block out before he can get any sleep!

He likes to feed stray cats near his apartment, though he also carries treats with him to feed any cats he meets while he's out and about!

He also does the same with birds, with food that's safe/healthy for them to eat (mostly just seeds instead of stuff like bread or chips). There's a couple of crows who are actively friendly with him too!

Meanwhile dogs don't seem to like him very much. They tend to at least growl at him, even if they're normally friendly otherwise.

I imagine a guy as pale as him is careful to put on sunscreen when he goes out, especially during the times of the year where he's out shirtless. Stuff like skin cancer is no joke! Though even besides that he probably tends to get sunburnt easily without the sunscreen.

He's a bit of a doormat, but he's gaining confidence now that he's with BRC! It's still a work in progress though, sometimes also a "one step forward, two steps back" kind of thing.

And finally, separating this out from the list, since it's going to take a couple of paragraphs:

He has the respect of Devil Theory! This might seem out of left field, but basically they ended up really respecting Solace after he was willing to step between them and frickin' Faux in a walking tank. Most other people would have let Devil Theory get thrashed in that situation, which would have been seen as deserved because of all the snitching, nevermind them making a deal with Faux against other writers.

So now because of Solace's bravery, Devil Theory consider him an honorary member! They also sometimes act as his bodyguards, even though he insists they don't have to. But now anyone has to think twice if they try to bully Solace, lmao

Also, Devil Theory have been trying to teach him how to be more confident and stand up for himself! But again, it's a work in progress.

Example, at one point he manages to actually stand up to Tryce on calling him a degenerate… but then almost immediately apologizes for being "rude" to Tryce.

Meanwhile the DT guys are in the background going, "NO! Dude, you almost fuckin' had it!!" lol

Annnnd, yeah, I think that's about all I got for Solace! :>

[invested-in-your-future]

You can't have white fang be both right and evil. RWBY failed the moment they made them terrorists.

Actually, no you can.

Not only WF as a concept shouldn't be a monolith hivemind, there are ways to frame it right.

Here's a simple example. A little Canadian scifi show that aired from 2012 till 2015, called Continuum. The premise is simple - a cop from the future is sent back in time to stop violent time traveling revolutionaries from changing the future any means necessary.

Simple right? The show follows a cop trying to prevent death and suffering the terrorists are causing and preserve her family and child in her own future.

Not really.

Spoilers for both RWBY and Continuum follow

As the show's first season progresses, one realizes that there are several things wrong with the initial premise:

The terrorists are 100% in the right motivation-wise because the future is corporate fascist dystopia where an immoral and unethical mega-corporation has entire world in it's hands. The tactics they employ themselves are irredeemable but also borne out of desperation and suffering. And in spite of death and suffering they cause, they are also capable of genuine heroism, camaraderie and selflessness.

The Protagonist is unreliable narrator and you are not supposed to take a lot of her moralizing at face value. The forces she works for have caused massive suffering and death on scale beyond anything the terrorists are doing and she herself is a tool of a fascist regime that does things like permanently lobotomize people into factory drones. While a lot of her decisions are morally sound, the show does end up questioning a lot of her choices and portraying the protagonist as someone who is just as imperfect and dangerous as the people she is chasing, as her experiences in the past slowly cause her to unravel.

There's no clean-cut solution on how to solve the time travel issue - for example the forces that want corporate dystopian future to stay intact simply regard the very idea of "status quo" as better alternative to other possibilities. The idea of orderly managed and calculated evil being preferable to chaotic and unpredictable one (for example one of alternatives being outright nuclear war). The show expects the audience to think and wonder about the very concept of "status quo" and how people come to rationalize it as "better", as well as the desperation and suffering that would cause the polar opposite near-accelerationist position that even everything burning is better because of even minuscule chance that it gets better.

Before you know you realize that the idea of navigating very imperfect and frightening futures is a parallel to navigating very frightening and imperfect idea of change itself - and how terrifying it is to let go of the idea of "safe and recognizable status quo" that's different for each person depending on their upbringing and experiences.

In the end, each character is defined by their fallible humanity and mistakes rather than various forms of moral absolutism. People can do absolutely reprehensible things for right reasons and people can do something heroic for extremely rotten ones.

The only thing that receives an absolute doubtless condemnation is the oppressive systems of power themselves, no matter how "comfy" the status quo and "order" is.

Now to get back to RWBY and how that relates to WF.

Imagine, what if

White Fang wasn't a monolith hivemind where everyone has exact same idea of how to do things? What if while WF is unified by singular idea, different people and groups within WF interpret it differently and also might change their minds depending on what goes on?

The protagonist position can be both right and wrong depending on situation and location and their willingness to compromise that naïve pacifism depending on what goes on around them is challenged in the story?

The story properly explores the kind of desperation and suffering that would CAUSE a more extreme reaction rather than vaguely mentioning it?

The story acknowledges that change itself is imperfect and explores just what necessitates change and whether there's a specific line that when crossed, makes the safety and known predictability of status quo unjustifiable?

Oh look suddenly we have a framework oh how to write White Fang as something more complex than "Adam's faceless redshirts" while STILL being able to have parts of WF as antagonists, both justifiable and irredeemable depending on who and when.

RWBY failed when it decided to use the absolutely nonsensical slippery slope argument as a way to justify why the very idea of justified anger of the oppressed is wrong.

One can avoid that when writing. You just have to treat WF as people.

[ssaalexblake]

How would you respond to claims that 13's run feels a bit dodgy by having a cop travel with them?

You know, the other day while generally browsing the internet I happened across somebody complaining about this war movie. They were angry it was glorifying soldiers. Were anti-military themselves in general. You know what I mean. The thing is, though, the literature course I did in school had an entire unit and exam on war literature and I've read the book upon which the movie was based on and it has stuck with me as an incredible critique of war, conscription and the military by portraying those things in fiction. I would never pick it up again, not because it was bad, but because it was rough to 17yo me, but I am happy I've read it and other pieces of literature like it. I am happy I was taught to analyse and contextualise media with a serious subject such as that.

Now, this isn't the exact same thing as this. The BBC would legit never allow their lead children's show to Explicitly portray any acab message, like, ever, lets be true to reality here. But also, I genuinely think there is a fair amount of that puritanical black and white thinking going on here on the riff of Yaz working for the police being an immediate strike against the show because people think that portraying something is automatically lauding it because uh, the content of the story does Not track with the idea they're saying cop work is good work.

I have seen (on this site and many others) people say over and over again the only good cops are either dead or have quit bc they realised it was a crock of shit. In which case, the question becomes;

Did y'all miss the part where Yaz quit?

Yaz is not a cop anymore. Yaz quit. Yaz is portrayed as thinking it's frustrating bc because the helping people thing she was supposed to be doing isn't happening and we're shown this from literally the get go, her very first scene, and from there is only seen as trying A) to get work where she's actually helping somebody and totally failing to get it and B) straight up trying to get out of going to work by actually forging paperwork. S/O to her for that bit of illegality btw. Love that for her. She does not end the series employed by the police. Yaz found an actual way to help people and chose to do That instead.

Yaz's career arc is 'disillusioned teen signs up to be cop, realises it's bullshit and there are actual ways to help people and quits to go do that instead' which is, if i'm not mistaken, what we want actual real life cops to realise about their life choices.

I get it's a tetchy subject bc acab, i agree, and I get and agree and wish that this stuff could be more explicitly portrayed as well bc i'm sick of media or execs being too cowardly to be bold about messaging, but the insinuation that this portrayed the cops as systematically helpful or useful by having Yaz start out as a cop? No. Would I have liked it to be more explicit? Well yes, duh, but I cannot emphasise how that was literally never gonna happen. I can however emphasise how ideas like Yaz, whose main goal is to help, quitting being a cop bc she wasn't helping anybody beamed into impressionable young minds do, in fact, take root though.

Like, having a plucky teen hero character go through an arc of helping people and them Ending a cop to carry on the good work is Vastly different to a plucky teen starting out a cop bc they think that's how they get to help people then quitting bc they realised that's not true. One of these things is pro cop, the other is not.

I also hasten to mention again that there is a genuine conversation here abt the dodgy-ness cops being used in mental health emergencies. I wrote this out about it [Here].

On a personal note on this score, I, much like Sonya have been forced to deal with cops throughout somebody else's mental health emergency when I never should have had to and it fucking sucked. What an unempathetic bunch of rats who clearly haven't even done a google search's worth of research on how to discuss these things, let alone give it the gravity it deserves. That my choices were either cops or somebody dying is a travesty. And maybe this story speaks to me more personally as somebody who has had this experience and wants to throw hands over it still over a decade later, but that lady did not help Yaz, Yaz helped herself after a measly pep talk and the woman obviously never bothered to keep tabs and see if Yaz was okay afterwards either. Ryan helped his mate. Graham spreads good mental health advice that benefits others. The hospital in Syria was dealing in mental heath care by professionals of the time. Cop lady convinced Yaz to go home, succeeded, and Yaz gave her the credit when it was Her who dug herself out of that pit and not anybody else.

Like, genuinely this whole thing sets me off angry. And I could critique the execution if I wanted to but the bottom line is i've not actually seen anything else even go slightly Near where this plot went and I genuinely think it was something that should be said. As I said, a decade later and I still want to throw hands.

So basically like, I get the discomfort, I do, I get not wanting to see it as well, but Yaz grew OUT of this. Not the other way around. Portrayal is not endorsement. I do not personally find this era difficult to parse but people seem either unwilling or unable to do so on literally every theme addressed in it, but I am just back to being that 17yo in an english lit class being taught how to examine things through the vehicle of anti-war stories, ones that people are actually nowadays mad at for glorifying war just because they portray it when this couldn't be farther from the truth, and I cannot help but relate the situations a bit.

I mean, I don't think it's a 10/10 and I would tweak, but I am aware you won't be finding anything as bold as blatant acab on dw in this geopolitical climate and since that's endemic literally everywhere i'm not gonna single out This show for it when at least its trying (watching classic who and the things they just openly say and portray is soooooo eye opening. TV of the 21st century has no spine in general.) But the portrayal of something does not imply that said thing is positive. If real cops ditching the badge on principle is a good thing that we want to continue, I fail to see how fake ones portraying that said same thing is bad.

[ovaryacted]

I have THOUGHTS about Leon and a an s/o in STEM. Especially if it’s medical research/virology/CDC type career.

Maybe he visits you in your lab and you’re wearing a lab coat. The first thing he thinks isn’t “omg they’re so cute in their coat” it is “Birkin”

There’s automatic distrust with your research. He doesn’t mean to, but after everything he’s been through? He sees all potential biology advances to be something that can go horribly wrong.

He listens when you info dump about your research. He’s interested, but not out of pride or genuine interest. He listens to make sure that nothing can go wrong. No one will mutate. No zombies will come out of your protocols.

He doesn’t mean to. He really loves you and is proud of you. But god damnit, he just has to be on guard with scientists.

Like, if you invite him to go with you to a conference or meeting? He’s going to analyze everyone there. He tries to memorize who you speak to incase their face comes up in one of his future missions.

He will celebrate when you publish your papers, get a grant or invited to present somewhere. He IS proud of you. He really is.

But in the back of his mind is a constant nagging of “what if…”

-angsty anon (totally not me projecting from my own career LOL)

Hey angsty anon. I know I owe you a few responses, I really apologize. Now that I’m on a long a train ride I’m gonna take advantage and just start on some of them LMAO. But I agree with you 100%, I feel like even though Leon is considerate and also smart enough to know the difference between right and wrong, he would develop a big distrust to the government and all of its branches.

I mean, he was basically groomed to become a killing machine, he knows the inside outs of the government, knows that everything is a lie. So the same would apply to healthcare and anything dealing with biology/viral research.

After the events of Raccoon City, he’s seen what happens when viruses and all of these biological weapons get into the wrong hands. He watched a whole city become annihilated by a virus and the government left people to die, while he had to partake in killing them for his own survival. It isn’t that science and this research is inherently bad, but moreso he doesn’t trust the intentions of making these things in the first place.

You could be doing revolutionary research to find the cure to Alzheimer’s or cancer, and in the back of Leon’s mind, he’s thinking about every way that research can fail or be manipulated for the worst. He knows you have a good heart, that you’re doing it for the greater good, and Leon pretends to understand that for your sake. But the truth is that “greater good” stuff is bullshit. The whole idea of having some patriotic honor and duty to the government and thus the world falls short as a result of his personal experiences and traumas:

He was like that once, thought that he was doing the world a favor by becoming a cop and helping people. Once that blew up in his face, he doesn’t believe there’s such thing as a pure heart in this world especially if you’re doing this type of work. Leon will still be a good partner, will go to your conferences in moral support and be disgusted surrounded by so many white coats. He’s silently thinking about how many Birkins are amongst them, how many people are trying to gain control by preying on the most vulnerable.

He loves you, he’s proud of all of your accomplishments especially in male dominated STEM fields, and he knows you want to use your research to give the world something that’s needed to advance humanity.

Still, no matter how many times you reassure Leon that you’re not one of the bad guys, he’s waiting for the ticking time bomb in his head to go off once everything falls apart.

[thaliagrayce]

i've been talking abt my voltron playlists and @iveofficiallygonemad asked to hear them and i want to share with anybody who wants!! i know they're not perfect, i'm working on them & trying to make them better. if you have any recommendations for any of them, let me know!! there's like A Lot and i want to give a lil explanation for most of them, so i'm putting them under the cut ^-^

SO first i have my favorite one <3 it's just. all of them. it's the whole team. it's a mess and it's a bunch of different genres because it's them fighting over the aux cord on a road trip. it's them trying to make each other laugh or annoy each other or play something catchy enough it will infect everyone in the vicinity with brain worms.

Hunk: i'm pretty happy with my Hunk playlist! chill vibes. he strikes me as the kind of guy who listens to calm music to try to find his own calm, and that's what i got here :)

Pidge: this is messier and less cohesive than my usual playlist because frankly i think pidge would have a shit taste in music. all over the board. this is a mix of meme songs and 8-bit covers and vocaloid and stuff that i think pidge would genuinely connect with, and i think pidge listens to all their music on shuffle without any regards for genre or mood because they're a gremlin. nobody gives pidge sole control of the aux.

Coran hears 80's music for the first time and loses his mind. He thinks ABBA is humanity's single greatest achievement.

Lance: i have ideas about where I'm going with this but haven't really settled yet. Lance seems like the kind of boy that loves to dance (is that canon? i forgot) so most of these are Bops That Make You Move in some way or another. he likes to present an upbeat face to the world, so there's no angsting in this playlist! we are clinging to the things that make us happy with both hands until our knuckles turn white!

Keith: i'm gonna be honest. i made him a playlist but i honestly don't think he cares about music very much. it's very important to some people! he's just not one of them! i haven't cracked this playlist open in a while but i'm pretty sure it's full of songs that i think he would conceivably train/work out to.

Shiro: this playlist involves the dumbest headcanon i have for shiro that has just not left me alone since i first thought of it. most of the playlist reflects the fact that he had an emo phase in middle school (that one isn't a headcanon, you just have to look at him to know) but BUT there are a few songs on here that are on here because. little known fact. he also went through a Twilight phase that he told nobody about. (keith knows. keith was there.) he has the entire twilight soundtrack memorized. he moved past the story but the music stays forever. he used to daydream about slow dancing to Flightless Bird, American Mouth. the first time Coran mentions that they have to avoid a place because there's a supermassive black hole there, he has to bite his tongue in order to keep a straight face. do NOT ask me why i believe this so wholeheartedly.

Allura's playlist sucks right now. I think it's because in my heart of hearts i know that, were she on earth today, she would go fucking nuts for taylor swift. i have ambivalent feelings for taylor swift. i cannot do allura justice like this. if you see my vision and have recs as to what might actually fit her, PLEASE.

Klance: i haven't done it yet but i'm gonna go through this and sort it to be a sort of progression of their relationship, starting with the more combative Rivalry songs, then slipping into "oh shit oh shit" songs, then maybe ending on the more lighthearted purely romantic songs <3

(i have two songs in a shallura playlist which does not at all encapsulate how much i'm obsessed with them. the tiny cop inside my head is just constantly screaming at me that i'm going to get yelled at for liking shallura. i am going to kill the cop inside my head.)

[idkaguyorsomething]

once again obsessing over the implications of hobie brown’s shoelaces

for those of you who don’t know, lace code is a part of punk culture where a person identifies themself by adding colored laces to their boots (purple for gay, white for racist, etc.). hobie wears blue laces on his shoes, which means he’s a cop-killer. but what makes this especially interesting is that a huge part of across the spider-verse hinges around the idea that all spider-people must experience the canon event of a police captain close to them dying, which hobie confirms has happened to him. from this we can draw at least two assumptions, that either a) hobie killed the police captain in his canon event or b) hobie feels responsible for the death of the police captain in his canon event

a) hobie is very anti-authority and in his introduction makes a point of saying that he fights the police (very punk of him 😊). given that he lives in a world of superheroes, and the world he lives in is hinted to be something of an orwellian dystopia, it’s extremely possible that he might have had to fight an officer that was transformed into a supervillain. although the spider society, including miguel, do not seem to use lethal force, we all know that hobie does not necessarily follow anything that’s expected of him, and in a situation where he had to choose between protecting innocents or putting down a baddie, the right call for him seems fairly simple. not necessarily easy, but simple. in the comics, he did beat president venom to death with his guitar (though he is a very different character in the comics and the movie) and when miles asks him about his canon event, he seems noticeably less sad than the other spider-people and more aloof. given how cautious he is of abuses of power and how much he values protecting innocents, this would add some fascinating depth to his character, but there’s also the possibility of

b) miguel specified that the police captain who would die in the canon event would be close to their spider-person, and the ones that we know about were all either loved ones or relatives of loved ones. additionally, the context we’re given for these canon events suggests that it’s common for these captains to die in the line of fire trying to save a child. with gwen, hobie has shown that he’s not averse to befriending a person who’s working in the system, whether because they genuinely believe they’re doing good or were put in a vulnerable position (though he’d obviously rather help them get out). it could be that his police captain was someone he knew before they joined the ranks or he really developed his beliefs. even if he didn’t trust his police officer, it’s possible that he may have viewed them as the least bad one, if that makes any sense, or they did something in their final moments that at least partially redeemed them in his eyes. the fact that he claims responsibility for their death suggests that it may have had something to do with a spider adventure of his, so it’s also possible that they were forced to team up against a greater threat

either way, that’d make for one raw as hell story, and hobie choosing to help miles show everyone that canon events aren’t inevitable while also claiming responsibility for what everyone in the spider society seems to believe they have no control over rocks

[which-star]

Hey! I saw your infographic about where to start reading Silk. I was wondering why not TASM 2014 comics?

Hello, anon! I'm so glad you saw my infographic, I did leave it vague in the image so I understand why someone would be curious!

Oooh boy, buckle up because Dan Slott (the creator of Silk) apologized himself for needlessly sexualizing her, if that gives you an idea of how bad it was. I screenshotted the original tweets because Twitter isn't in a user-friendly state right now below.

Essentially, Silk was introduced to be bitten by the same spider as Peter Parker, which is all fine and good until we get to the part where it meant they were so attracted to each other's 'pheromones' that they... couldn't keep their hands off each other. Yeah. Literally someone in the comic described them as "dogs in heat" and "urge to mate" was another descriptor used by Peter himself.

(TASM 2014 issues #7 and #9)

Genuinely I don't know how to explain just how much how weird that is. It's just bad writing -- obviously a cop out to have a new love interest for Peter, but not wanting to put in any work to make it work past "they were bitten by the same spider so they're meant to be." It was poorly received by fans back then; it's poorly received now. I honestly didn't think we'd get an apology for it, but I guess seven years late is better than never.

To touch upon the harmful Asian stereotypes, East Asian women have been fetishized and sexualized so much under the Western gaze that having a Korean-American woman being compelled to fuck the white male main character is... not helping things, to say the least. There's a moment where she's weirdly possessive over Peter, and it's just hard to read. Also, her original suit was bad. Like really really bad. I don't know why people still draw her in it.

(TASM 2014 #5 and #10)

I hope this explains why people tend to ignore her intro and why I recommend starting with her solos! Her first solo run sets a really good foundational base for her character and loses that whole pheromones thing entirely. It gives you a great impression of Silk while TASM will just leave you frustrated and you really don't need much prior context going head-on into it. I think that without the fatal-attraction part pre-solo the other things that happen are fun, but I wouldn't wish the bad stuff on anyone, if that makes sense. Thanks for the ask!

[official-saul-goodman]

I think what is so frustrating about a lot of popular representation politics is how shallow and neoliberal it often is, and as I saw someone else point out, lacks class consciousness - so (mostly white, but lib POC do this too) will see cops and fascists of colour and decide this must be good bc POC existing in media is Good Representation TM no matter the context, or even worse, it's Good Representation TM bc it's equality and empowerment to see POC in positions of power, even if it's fashy, something something see, POC can be bad too, equality!! (ignore that the heroes and victims are usually morally upstanding whites ofc); and then in the case of Hamilton, you get people defending the racism bc 'But LMM is not white, it's not racist when a POC does it', also, POC empowerment whoo!!', nevermind that the complaints come mostly from Black and Indigenous critics.

No but genuinely, they think equality is making white roles but having people of colour play them. There's a complete lack of class consciousness and lack of knowledge of the politics of race. It's been pointed out before that representation is often there to just shut people of colour up so we don't complain about our lack of representation or whatever. Like no no no, they had characters of colour in media before it was just extremely racist and stereotypical. People just think acceptable representation is when the poc is not a caricature. The bar is that fucking low.

Now what you see are white people (and liberals of colour) using this shoddy idea of representation as a way to have poc be the faces of white fascist industries and say that it's good representation to put poc in power, when that's not what's necessary at all. Now we have white people making racism allegories where they're the widdle victims and the evil black and brown people are the oppressors (like in the crime shows with the cops). Or they do historical distortion like Hamilton and Bridgerton, where they aim to please the white audience by removing the colonialist white foundations of the stories.

Hamilton was in fact created by a Latino man, and Bridgerton is a Shonda Rhimes project. But regardless of this both media work in favour of white imperialism due to the intentional casting of people of colour as imperialist forces, which aids to distance the core of fascist whiteness from the history. It works to sanitise the bloody and crude histories of the white colonisers.

Like what's the point in existing in media when you're making something that's historical distortion in favour of white colonialism? How is this good representation???

[gumjester]

👩‍🏫👩‍👧👤🪞?

👩‍🏫 - favourite + least favourite faculty member?

favourite faculty member has to be baba yaga 🤞there's something so great about The Witch Who Eats Children working at a high school, but also she seems to just be good at her job? everyone's pretty chill with her even if she is a bit of a royalist (which tbh get a grip lady. the girlbossery is compromised by this) and she like puts socks in the punch at thronecoming for her own personal vibes... raven has to chase down her fucking office in tsol because baba yaga does not see fit to have a stationary point of contact for any student... she's great. my idol

least favourite.. i could say grimm but honestly a) cop out. everyone hates grimm and b) i genuinely kind of love him 😭 he sucks so bad its entertaining. its great whenever he just gets hit in the fuckign face for no reason. so least favourite is rumpelstiltskin. HE SUCKS NOT EVEN IN A FUN WAY HE JUST USES CHILD LABOUR TO BUILD HIS CRYPTO EMPIRE OR WHATEVER. WHYYYYY do you need bitches to spin straw into gold is your paycheck not already covering the rent for your little fuckin caravan you manlet

👩‍👧 - favourite + least favourite parent?

i tried to subvert expectations with my faculty answer but my favourite parent can't not be the mad hatter which is THE basic answer. but girl let me have this i forget good fathers exist its nice to have my faith restored whenever his friendly little face is on screen. great bow tie ! great voice ! he's a king

LEAST FAVOURITE UM. i cant say snow white that's boring um THE RED QUEEN. FUCK THAT LADY. EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT HER HAS BEEN MADE UP BY SOMEONE ELSE AND THEY SURE AS SHIT DIDNT LIKE HER SO I DONT EITHER

👤 - favourite backgrounder + which fairytale do you think theyre from?

AGAIN!!! THAT LITTLE GOTH BITCH <3 my memory of fairy tales has depleted somewhat recently but i saw the wiki say she might be death???? from a tale called godfather death and i like that idea :) i would like to think death looks as awesome as her

🪞 - which character is most like you and why?

my pfp is maddie for a reason!! i have always seen myself in her, and my friend used to compare me to her all the time which just solidified it further. i've always been spacey and spoke weirdly and a lot of the time the way i think of the world doesn't match up to what other people perceive, and seeing that in maddie was always rlly comforting. plus i love riddles, wonderland and tea. so i get her fr 🤝

i will also give an honourable mention to alistair, at least my characterisation of him. to me he is perpetually charlie day at the corkboard. i know how you feel, al

[euthanizememommy]

As a neurodivergent poc, is it just me, or do some nd/autistic grievances about neurotypicals sound entitled? I don't like neurotypicals as much as the next guy but some posts I see I can't help but to *stare in neurodivergent black person.* And it's not the ones that are just venting abt nt experiences it's the ones that talk about nts communication style as if it's unnecessary and for no reason or ones like "why do they ask "can you blank" instead of "do blank" why can't they just communicate clearly." Like we wall haven't heard of men killing women for a direct 'no.' or acting like If nt person did directly give them a direct instruction their PDA wouldn't kick in. Like, most likely, you actually wouldn't like if the nt person above you just communicated clearly and directly. And reading these as a nd poc, I can't help but read these as incredibly entitled. How is a nt person going to know how nds communicate or how best to say things to have nds understand when we also have contradictions on our communication style like I exemplified above. And before some of you argue "well we have to mask and speak like them why can't they do the same" because that's not how ableism works, they literally do not have to. Their life doesn't depend on nds understanding of them.

And I think it's also the rejection and dismissal of the communication style that give me the feeling of entitlement as a POC. Things like "I can't read their minds" or "I shouldn't have to dissect what they say to understand" okay? And I shouldn't have to filter everything I do to be "palatable" to be perceived as a human being to not just white people but everyone including other nd people. But they don't call this world racist and ableist for no reason so i mask as both a neurotypical AND "palatable" BECAUSE I HAVE TO. I WAS FORCED TO LEARN THROUGH YEARS OF NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT. Being misunderstood as a ND while black can get me killed. In a perfect world we wouldn't have to, we don't and yes you should definitely practice trying to read their minds for you're own safety and efficiency through society. If you don't think you have to, great, I love that for you.

Like there's this idea its absolutely impossible for nds to understand nts communication style while also being known for pattern recognition. And I included that I have to mask as racially palatable for nds too bc I had an autistic yt coworker almost call the cops on a black guy just sitting in our restaurant bc they felt threatened(it turned out to be another coworker). Racism is one of the social constructs I thought we we weren't suppose to understand guys! I just simply cannot buy that we have pattern recognition, but the link to nts aversion to emotional friction to soft indirect language confounds ALL of us.

I have to learn the language of my oppressor to live, to move efficiently through society and that is the same with trying to communicate with nts. So when I hear nds talking like this it not only gives me the ick of entitlement, but genuine concern for safety. I'm not always spot on but I've figured out enough, it's not impossible.

Here are just some of the ways I've come to understand nt communication while being nd

1) WHY ARE NEUROTYPICALS LIKE THAT (MASKING):

Mask for us are uncomfortable and can only be worn as long as our energy provides. Mask for them are IMMOVABLE so much so they can actually FORGET they are not their mask.

Background: nts do not have our pattern recognition that tells us someone is a dick or a threat. Think of it like how it is in the wild, when animals are around unfamiliars that seem to be in the same place in the food chain, they don't act however they want, they have to approach slowly so that they know they are safe.

That is why nts act fake and why they rely on small talk. They're collecting information until they have enough to feel a level of comfort. And I say levels bc they have designated comfort levels for work, home, friends, romantic partners, etc.

We build our lives off of our Interest, things we enjoy, people who we share with, etc. their lives are built off their mask, their REPUTATION. Social hierarchy isn't just something they use to feel better than someone, their opportunities for advancing their quality of life is directly correlated to their advancement in the social hierarchy. For most, it's literally how they feed their children. Their mask is what they use to meet the people they need to meet in order to get the job they have or even the person they marry. If this mask were to slip everything they've built would collapse. You know in those coming of age movies where they're like "I forgot who I was to fit in" this is what they are referring to they LITERALLY forget in some sense who they are bc they don't have a special interest, they can make anything an interest especially if it means they can gain an advantage i.e "my boss likes golf, I will act like I like golf=oh no Im a golfer"

2)WHY DO THEY JUST FOLLOW ORDERS, WHY DO THEY HATE WHEN I ASK WHY. (In a work context)

In order for things like governments, offices, society, to exist there are people at every. Single. Level operating. Most of the time they aren't mad you're asking why bc they think you're being insubordinate (in some cases yes) but most of the time it's bc there are so many other factors. The task in question is one of many under layers and layers of previous orders in a specific sequence, like a chain, that so many people depend on that when interrupted could negatively affect a lot of people. All of this could also be happening all at once. So they really just need you to do the task bc the explanation is so long and the execution of it doesn't require telling you, so when you stop everything demanding explanation, disrupting an operation much bigger than you, this is why we come off as selfish.

The way I alleviate for myself so I won't get fired is I either inference the why or tell myself "there is probably a good reason why they want me to do this and I'll find out soon enough" I usually do and it usually is. So yeah they really can't just explain it to you when you want them to.

3) WHY CANT THEY JUST BE DIRECT WHY DO THEY HIDE BEHIND SOFT LANGUAGE

For safety. I'm really tired of nds acting like this concept is nonsensical as if PDA and RSD wouldn't have you in a mess if you were talked to without soft language.

Okay so WHY do neurotypicals say "CAN you do this?" When they me "do this thing." Why is "no" unacceptable and why does everything have to be in a code.

They want to be PERCEIVED as nice. Remember their livelihood is dependent on how they are perceived. They don't want to straight out say "No" bc that could mean they are offered less opportunities bc they've set a standard of rejection.

I can't think of more right, please if there's always something you wanted to understand behind why and nt does something I can probably answer I just can't remember it all bc it's a lot obviously. But the best way I navigated understanding is comparing it to the wild, the food chain, and understanding as the inverse of being nuerodivergent. After doing it again and again you begin to notice the pattern. Not only did this help me for important things like work but it helped me better distinguish between nds and nts and stop wasting my time trying to be accepted by nts.

[soleminisanction]

You seem like youre frustrated with her character the same way I get with her too.

I think see the potential of the character she could be and should be with the correct writing and stories.

I really didnt like her Batgirl run either. There are bits and parts of it I do like and concepts of things there I love but I really dont care for it.

I also wish she wasnt used as a marketing tactic during "run" as Robin. If they were actually serious about it, they wouldve written her run differently and hopefully better.

Thats also the problem with all comic book characters, they have so many different writers with different ideas of what to do with these characters. Unfortunately some of them dont like the characters they write for. I know that Dan Didio hates Steph and never wrote her well because of that. (He also hated Dick Grayson and wanted to kill him off too)

Characters like Steph really are up to interpretation how they are supposes to be personality wise. Recently i havent been liking how shes been written for certain comics (Batgirls, Wayne Family Adventures)

You and I similar to seeing a character we want to be better. I see that she has all this potential to be a great character and love her despite all the garbage writing shes had over her 30+ years of existence

The lack of good stories is a part of it, yeah.

It's also the fact that, while she's hanging around not telling any stories of her own, her ability to do so often comes at the expense of other characters. Like a few months back, they randomly shoved her into a Titans line-up when she's never been a Titan, not once in her entire career, while the actual Batgirl who joined the Titans, Betty/Bette Kane, was nowhere to be seen. And she's part of what ruined YJ 2019, getting forced in awkwardly purely because a bunch of her stans spent months harassing the creators on Twitter, spewing racist epitaphs at the new black characters and demanding that she be included in a team she wasn't solicited for and, again, had never been a part of, purely because Tim was there and they decided he wasn't allowed to have a life without her.

And speaking of that last bit, don't even get me started on the Tim Drake Pride Special again or we'll be here all day. It is genuinely offensive how many people demanded that Tim's coming out be oriented entirely around the feelings of his straight ex-girlfriend.

That's why I can't read Batgirls, either. I can't stand the way they write the relationship between Steph and Cass, it's got no teeth, and perpetually reduces Cass to Steph's "Kato," the hyper-competent Asian sidekick who does all the actual work for an inept white person. Even the issue where they tried to make a big deal out of, "Ooo, this is a special CASS CENTRIC ADVENTURE, we're doing it COMPLETELY SILENT with NO WORDS!" turned out to be all about her running around trying to find Stephanie, and then they copped out with the gimmick and made it so the only words in the book were Stephanie's, talking mostly about -- surprise! -- herself, how great she is and how much she loves being a Batgirl.

Ugh. Spirit World can't come fast enough.

Honestly, when it comes to her run as Robin, I think the story itself could've been just fine if they'd left it as it was and just, hadn't made a big freakin' marketing deal about "OoOoOooOooOoo, the GIRL WONDER, how SPECIAL!!!" They didn't do that with Carrie. Or Tris Plover. Hell, at the time a few people pointed out how silly it was for them to make such a big deal out of her being a girl when Carrie Kelly is the most well known alt-Robin period and the co-star of one of the defining texts of the age.

But, y'know, Carrie was a short-haired butch tomboy with thick glasses who fought with a sling-shot, while Steph is the single most gender-conforming Bat-femme since Betty Kane and is consistently drawn to show off her child-bearing hips so. Yeah.

The part that honestly needs fixing is War Games, which I honestly think is still something that Steph needed to happen, because it did lead her to a moment of growth that she desperately needed (even if Chuck Dixon and Bryan Miller later ruined it.) I think you could fix that story up with just a few adjustments. But, hindsight is 20/20 and all.

I do have to caution a little against attributing malice where ignorance or incompetence is more likely, though. I've never seen any evidence that Dan Didio "hated" either Steph or Dick; rather, what he saw them as was expendable. By all accounts I've ever heard, when he was editorially mandating Dick's death in Infinite Crisis, he legitimately didn't know that Dick used to be the original Robin, he just knew that Nightwing wasn't Batman or Robin and thought that made him expendable enough to kill off for shock value. It took Geoff Johns talking him out of it at literally the last minute to get him to see sense.

(Seriously, you can tell that the page was drawn off a script where Dick got full-on murdered, and the original floppy release didn't have the hilariously awkward page they inserted into the collected editions where Dr. Mid-night promises to save him. It's kinda funny in retrospect.)

Stephanie was the same way, it wasn't that he "hated" her, he just didn't care about any character introduced after the silver age and thought that killing her off would be more ~shocking~ than letting her live and learn a lesson. Didio wasn't evil, he was just bad at his job. Your standard incompetent white guy failing up.

[greatfay]

Wednesday: my thoughts

Ok, I watched Wednesday. And I liked it enough to pick it apart like string cheese.

The Good

Overall, a Scooby Doo-style supernatural teen murder mystery revolving around the iconic Wednesday Addams is a genius idea in theory, and turns out, not too shabby in execution. Watching this genuinely made me think “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina could’ve been this if it was made by someone who isn’t Roberto Aguirre Sacasa” because, turns out, this can work! It is aesthetically pleasing, the pacing is solid until it sags in the middle, and the casting choice are almost 10/10.

Jenna Ortega carries this show. She said “I am Wednesday” and we said yes ma’am, essays have been written about how great this performance is and I can contribute nothing new to it. I will add that Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams is such a brilliant casting choice that I can’t believe I never thought of it, she nailed the role and managed to still make it her own by adding layers of glamorous poise and dreaminess to her character. Luis Guzman as Gomez was also perfect, especially paired with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jenna Ortega. He has a genuine warmth to his screen presence that sells the whole point of Gomez as a character: a loving father and husband who is as supportive and generous as he is suave and debonaire. Gwendoline Christie is, as usual, having the time of her life as whatever character she plays, and Joy Sunday I think nailed her character to fit that archetype while still matching the tone of the show (something not everyone could do).

In general, I felt like the show runners knew that Wednesday herself was written so well that all they had to do was put her front and center and let that do most of the work, taking its time to establish her before introducing the Mystery, and I have to hand it to Tim Burton given the flops he’s delivered the past 15 years.

The explicit, canon Mexican-American heritage of Gomez and his children felt so natural and obvious. Like it’s one thing to have a Spanish or Latino actor play Gomez, it’s another for that ancestry, specifically Mexican ancestry and the displacement and trauma of experiencing colonization, to play a role in worldbuilding and characterization. It didn’t feel like it was just there for flavor.

The Bad

Convoluted Plot: The plot was doing fine until we got a double fakeout on the monster reveal that everyone could see coming a mile away, on top of overcomplicating the politics of Colonial Jericho and its relationship with “normies vs. outcasts.” I don’t know why Joseph Crackstone was leading the charge against outcasts (and Native Americans) to steal their land on the principle that they’re “abominations in the eyes of God” but at the same time, this guy is a fucking dark sorcerer. He’s doing Saurumon moves and there’s NO explanation, like what difference is there between him telekinetically tossing people around and girls like Wednesday having visions? Make it make sense. And like, the revenge plot: “I waited all this time to find a rare monster I can control to collect body parts and also the blood of the descendent of the witch who sealed my ancestor with blood magic so I could resurrect him with dark magic and then finally get our family’s revenge on the outcasts” girl please, please! MESS. We we were doing fine until then! And Wednesday’s revival via her necklace/talisman was such a cop out. Anyway...

Love Triangle: They really dug up the most boring, basic white boys to be love interests for Wednesday. Lbr she didn’t need love interests, and especially not two basic white boys! But if they had to... if it was in their contract or something that Netflix required a damn hetty het love triangle, there’s a way this could’ve been written to make me not eyeroll. Xavier was introduced in the pilot as the It Boy, that Dick-Slinger, the Resident Hottie™, and then spends the rest of the show swinging back and forth between “devilmaycare James Dean stand-in” and “whiny lil bitch.” Mind you he had every right to be pissed that Wednesday only asked him to the dance as a cover-up, sure, but I wouldn’t have written that. Wouldn’t have written the damn love triangle to begin with, but if they said “Write this love triangle between the two white boys or we kick your dog” what I would have done is write Xavier as a clever, mischievous little James Dean, slashed the daddy issues because that’s the other basic white boy love interest’s primary character trait, and made him way more savvy to Wednesday’s antics. She’s a force of nature; you can’t pair her up with a little rain cloud, the least a basic white boy could do is have some gale force wind charisma!! The moment she did that whole fake asking-out thing, he could’ve been like “So you’ve been desperately, madly in love with me this whole time? And here I thought you were sneaking around my private studio, looking for clues *winks* I’ll pick you up at 8, Velma. Dress like you’re in mourning.” Because that characterization would’ve made Xavier a better foil to Wednesday, and a bigger threat when she still suspected him of being the monster since he’s too clever to be manipulated. And Tyler! Boy has daddy issues and mommy issues?? Honeyyyyy. His character could still be the unassuming normie, but again, the best love interests are foils in some way. If he’d been written and portrayed as unfailingly cheery but introverted, and just unabashedly charmed by Wednesday’s morbid interests, I would’ve liked him more. Like, give me a country boy who’s got “good ole fashioned American values” which means of course he’s giving you a ride home, it’s late and dangerous, of course he remembered you mentioning your favorite book, Mama said you should give a lady your full attention when she speaks. And that leads me to my next gripe:

The Hyde reveal: when the Hyde was introduced in the plot, it was describe as a poorly understood, and under-researched member of the Outcast community. The big question was whether it was in a Hyde’s nature to be violent and cruel, if they are conscious of their actions, or if they are victims to a transformation they can’t control (which is a bit weird in a world where werewolves also exist, but they control their transformations and are relatively harmless). The moment we got that “How does it feel... to lose?” line, I was like noooo. NO. In my version of this show, Tyler is truly a cheery, all-smiles sweetheart who doesn’t blink when Wednesday brings up her pet scorpion, and instead asks “What was their name?” And it makes it more gut-wrenching and has way more narrative weight if Tyler isn’t in control of his transformations and has no idea he’s under someone’s spell, because then all the vindication Wednesday gets from solving the mystery gets slashed when it comes at the cost of a friend’s freedom and wellbeing.

The Antagonists: Obviously Christina Ricci was playing the Big Important Character. I knew it was her, I knew it I knew it. That’s fine. I liked her portrayal throughout the show, I do think her character lost narrative power in the last two episodes. I’m not a fan of when the Big Bad Guy gets replaced by a Bigger Bad Guy when the first Big Bad Guy had way more screen time dedicated to their buildup and character motives. Then there’s the sheriff, who frustrated me from Day One. Literally a jerkass from start-to-finish. The reveal that he knew his wife was a Hyde and suspected his son to be one too this whole time made his whole “I will get justice” shtick so fucking annoying, like you hypocritical bigot, you know who’s clawing mfers up left and right and he just ate the last of the fucking Cheerios in your fridge. Bianca as the first Arc Villain was great because I just can’t help but like a competent mean girl, especially when she’s not actually that mean, and the Principal was a good antagonist and obstacle for Wednesday. Do wish she was written to be a bit more savvy.

In my version of this show, the moment Wednesday was like “It’s Thornhill!” we would’ve had a quick transition to a close-up of Thornhill tapping her nails on the rail as she glides down the stairs in her greenhouse to the tune of “Back to Black” (to parallel Wednesday playing “Paint It Black”) as she’s legit jamming, like she’s shimmying and dancing her way down the stairs and having a good ass time, tossing off her polka dot jacket to reveal a black floral flowy top (the flowers will obviously be night shade), she pulls off her wig to reveal Amy Lee-style dark locks, and she is just living in her villainy. Her motivations will no longer be “the outcasts are why my family is dead, even though we’ve been harboring hatred for them since the 1600s” instead it’s “my family’s vendetta cost me a life of luxury and fortune and wealth” (because in this version, they would’ve lost the house due to her father’s alcoholism and gambling) “and I don’t actually give a damn about outcasts or normies, I just want to run the property values into the ground and set the world on fire. Whatever survives in the ashes, it belongs to me.” WE NEEDED A BAD BITCH. We needed someone who, in the end, is a strong parallel to Wednesday on the surface: a fascination with the macabre, a penchant for violence, deeply cunning and curious. But then the difference between them is that Thornhill is actually good at reading others’ emotions despite seeing everyone as disposable, while Wednesday is highly aware of emotional dissonance with her peers and family and the thought that she’s missing out on something causes her distress. This in turn could’ve been a deeper metaphor for the ease in which those who live in privilege and luxury can dehumanize others (Thornhill) vs those who are just straight up autistic and are thus othered and demonized for not conforming to or understanding social norms (Wednesday). Oh btw Wednesday is autistic, I don’t make the rules.

Anyway, in my version, when Wednesday confronts Thornhill, she gets away by smashing a vial of some smoky acid or something on the ground and gets away, but Wednesday chases after her while Principal Lady is coughing because it’s poison. Wednesday gets caught, blah blah blah, and instead of her coming back to life by absorbing her ancestor’s ghost, the Principal shows up and pours some of her blood into Wednesday’s wounds because shapeshifter-blood=healing, before succumbing to her own injuries and dying. That ^ could be planted earlier in the story with a quick flashback in episode 4(?) after Wednesday has tried to figure out why the Principal would cover up Rowan’s death and where this new “Rowan” actually went, and the Principal is being cagey, we could get a line like “I would do anything for my students. You’ve no idea.” And then a quick shot of her kneeling over Rowan’s lifeless body, weeping as she pours blood from her hand into his mouth and muttering “Come on, come on Rowan, wake up” then quick shot back to the office where the Principal is just cool and composed, refusing to give answers. Anyway, her saving Wednesday will have more to do with her genuine care plus her guilt for her part in having her father charged for murder, which won’t be because of a jealousy romance thing (which is so dry and tired) and will instead be due to her ambition and wanting to remove Morticia from the running of something important (like an internship at the New England Society of Necromancer’s Salem Branch or something).

The Ugly

Racism: Everyone’s tired of hearing about it, well I’m tired of talking about it. Tim Burton does not have a good history with race in his works. I, personally, don’t care if he never has black people in his works. If representation is handled with “colorblindness” or spite, I don’t want it. This situation had more of the former. If you don’t understand the context of how race relations work in the real world with your audience, it’s going to come out clumsy and jarring. Seeing a black boy dressed in a pilgrim costume, walking into a diner to bully a random girl he doesn’t know because she’s “different” for dressing in an identical aesthetic as he is, it makes no sense to me. Why would a black man have any personal investment in building a theme park surrounding European colonialism??? An oppression metaphor in a story just doesn’t sit well when the oppressing characters are cast as people who suffer under systemic oppression in real life. It’s so weird that Iman Marcus can start filming and play a character who is, technically in-universe, “privileged” financially and socially and politically, then he can walk off set and drive over to the nearest Starbucks and still get racially profiled by some corrupt ass LA cop regardless of his Netflix-paycheck.

It’s not so much that I find this morally repugnant, it’s that the moment I see it on screen, I’m reminded “ah this is fiction and I am watching a TV show.” Emotional and social inauthenticity (and cringe ass dialogue) makes it harder to suspend my disbelief than watching a sentient, severed hand receive defibrillation from a man with electric powers (legit made me emotional). Thought has to go into casting for this reason. I wasn’t as worried about Joy Sunday as Bianca, as being pretty and ambitious and a little mean isn’t exactly damning, though I still wonder if when she beats Wednesday in that fencing match, if we’re supposed to cheer her on and be happy that Wednesday was put in her place (I did, I was like “lil girl you’ve been here 2 seconds” and it was nice to know our protagonist wasn’t Perfect). Casting black actors as antagonists isn’t necessarily racist every single time; it becomes a problem when the antagonists are your only black characters, in a story revolving around “otherness” and discrimination. I did like that Bianca and Lucas and even Mayor Walker got more development (sad that the Mayor was murdered before he could redeem himself).

Also shoutout to the Netflix ASOUE for setting a more recent, modern precedent for that macabre, Gothic aesthetic that has dark-skinned people in it, there’s a good example of actors of color cast in various roles where their race doesn’t clash with their character. Black Mr. and Mrs. Poe are flawed, negligent adults and they could’ve been of any race. Aasif Mandvi as Uncle Monty was perfect, because embodying the warm intellectuals of the character wasn’t tied to his race; anyone could’ve played him. Alfre Woodard as Aunt Josephine was wonderful because all she needed to give the role was an eccentric portrayal of deep-set trauma and grief, the actress’s real-life race and social status aren’t at odds with how her character exists in-universe.

Queerbaiting: I only became aware of this after the show’s premier because I didn’t follow its promotional materials leading up to it. I’ve seen the posts on the official Netflix account. Yes it is queerbaiting, regardless of whether the person handling the account is an unpaid queer intern or a Netflix executive’s overly paid nephew. However, the actual writing of the show does not give queer baiting. Wednesday’s character “flaw” is her inability to prioritize the emotional and sometimes-physical wellbeing of others over her own agenda. This culminating in her falling out with Enid, and realizing Enid is her friend and cares for her, is not queerbaiting. We’re too late into this era to clamor for queer subtext crumbs to eat that up. Wednesday starts off a proud lone wolf with no friends to finding people who know exactly what they’re getting into when they become her friend and choose to do so anyway; she learns to take others’ wellbeing into account and gets friends, without compromising her own values and her personal boundaries (i.e. she hugged Enid when she was ready, when she was comfortable, not out of social obligation, and Enid gave her the space for that). Writing that arc meant that the writers paid attention to Wednesday character and maybe paid attention in Storybuilding 101 in college. It does not mean they intended a sapphic romance and then pulled the rug out from under us. And if you lot start grilling the actors on social media about their characters’ sexualities and then project those interpretations onto the actors and demand that they come out, I will find and kill you.

[semper-legens]

159. Mad Dogs, by Robert Muchamore

Owned: No, library Page count: 389 My summary: Another new mission for James Adams, one of CHERUB's top agents. Two drug gangs are clashing and a war is raging, the teenagers of London being caught in the middle. The authorities want to take them both down - but the gangs don't trust adults. With previous connections to one of the gangs and a tight deadline, James must try and bust these nefarious organisations from the inside...or it will kill him. My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

Another CHERUB book! Despite the fact that I often complain about them here, I am enjoying my grand CHERUB reread. I think a large part of my issue when I go back to them is that I remember them as being older than they are - they seemed very mature when I was reading them as a kid, but obviously I've matured since then and now they seem a bit more childish. That's not necessarily a problem with the books themselves, though; I don't expect books for teenagers to accommodate my wishes as an adult. But the other thing is that the series so often pulls its punches when it comes to politics and crime, giving a more straightforward heroes-versus-villains kind of narrative even while bringing up things like poverty and police corruption, which is frustrating to me as an adult because it has potential that it's not really using to its best. Again, I'm not expecting it to be a grim and gritty adult novel that really gets to grips with just how messed up its premise is (it is a teenage power fantasy, after all) but there's ways of addressing these topics in a way that is palatable to your audience, and this…does not really attempt it. Sadly.

James is once again our lead agent on a mission picking up where he left off with Keith Moore's associates. The idea that James is the only one who can do this mission at short notice is both a little contrived and justified enough given the established setting of CHERUB and the way the organisation works. That the mission almost killed Gabrielle and is barely passing the ethics committee is noted, in a sort of 'loose cannon' way - CHERUB has poured enough time and resources into the mission that they want to preserve it at all costs, and the agents are on-board with taking risks if it means their work isn't for nothing. I mean, the ethics of that are shady enough given that those agents are kids. But it does mean we get to see a more mature James as opposed to his earlier run-ins with this gang - unfortunately, we also have a bizarre event where the teenage daughter of one of his associates basically throws herself at him, James loses his virginity, and then has to explain that to his girlfriend. Like, this time James wasn't just cheating because he's a sleazeball, it was genuinely to help the mission. Not the same. But the narrative treats it as though they are? Weird.

This is also a noteworthy example of CHERUB kinda-sorta-almost talking about race. The rival gangs here are one white and one black gang; the one Gabrielle and Michael infiltrate is made up of Afro-Caribbean people who are said to have contacts back in the Caribbean providing drugs, and the one James infiltrates is made of up white Brits who we've met before. These two gangs are treated almost equally, which is interesting, but Michael and Gabrielle are sidelined. When both James and Michael are arrested, we see James having a terrible time in jail, whereas Michael, a black kid, only gets a passing mention that the cops were discriminatory against him. The book doesn't really want to focus on the racial angle involved, and while the black gang is not by necessity demonised (no more than the white gang, anyway) their portrayal here does still play into a lot of stereotypes about British Afro-Caribbean people and immigrants from the Caribbean, which is obviously less than ideal. I suppose the fact that Gabrielle and Michael are also Afro-Caribbean helps, but given that they're given way less page time than James, that's not much in the 'sympathetic portrayals' column.

I wanted to put a brief mention of Lauren in at the end here - Lauren gets a minor subplot in this book where she clashes with Mr Large again. She was the senior agent on a training exercise where Large got drunk and had a heart attack in a previous book, and Large is being brought before CHERUB and charged with being derelict in his duty of care. She's the key witness, and Large tries to blackmail her into downplaying the incident by threatening her dog. Lauren goes to the adults on campus and tells them about it. So far, so good. But then she launches a bizarre revenge strategy? Large has an adopted daughter, so the plan is for one of the boys (James, as it turns out) to date her and threaten Large in turn. For…some reason. I get that Lauren wants revenge, but this plan was stupid from the get-go, mean to the poor girl (who is often described in very unflattering terms), and predictably lands Lauren in a heap of trouble. While Lauren's on-campus behaviour has been poor, and she probably deserves to be taken down a peg, this just felt like a justification for that character development rather than her character developing more naturally.

Next up, two kids who shouldn't have met find themselves both more and less compatible than they assumed.