#also this is kind of about clone wars but shhhhh we arent touching that with a ten foot pole i already vented about ppl being weird im done

[squirrelno2]

Actually no it pisses me the fuck off when people are like "this is for kids we can't hold it to high narrative standards" yes the fuck we can??? That's when we should??? And that's definitely when we should examine the implications and impact of a work, not just the intent behind it or the surface level stuff, because it's for children. They do not have the critical thinking skills that adult readers (hopefully) have developed, they are learning, and they will absorb a fuck ton of learned behaviors from story without ever realising. You have to look at kids media like "this has to be that deep actually" because kids are going to listen! Adults tell stories! Adults are authority so story is authority! There's an entire Sondheim song about this!!! ("Careful the things you say, children will listen" anybody???)

Cressida Cowell is my favorite example of this because her How to Train Your Dragon books almost definitely Weren't That Deep to begin with. (With the caveat that I am not her and so cannot be sure.) The first few books were very much "haha funny dragons, isn't it fun they can talk" - and then you can kind of watch in realtime over the course of the books as she realised the implications of having an entire group of sentient beings with their own language and culture be regularly kidnapped as infants by people who keep them as pets/weapons/tools - and instead of asking her child readers not to look at that, to pretend it's not that bad, she turns around and asks us to look closer. To consider what all this means, that the characters we know and love who don't seem like bad people have also participated in this all along. There are no easy answers! It's absolutely stomach turning, and though she speaks simply to the child reader she never pulls her punches! I'm sure there are people who have issues with her execution and I'm not here to say it's perfect but god. That's how to handle children's media with unfortunate implications. Lean into it, don't tell the kids to ignore it. That's how they learn to ignore all the real world shit, they end up with so much practice.

Just because something is how it is doesn't mean it's not worth looking closer. Teach children that from the start. Don't shy away from your characters participating in fucked up systems just because you think they need to be the good guys. If they're going to be good, make them good, and make them deal with the fallout when they're not.

[asphodeline-lutea]

Original tags: #httyd books#also this is kind of about clone wars but shhhhh we arent touching that with a ten foot pole i already vented about ppl being weird im done#writing#if you like the movies i ask that you pause to consider they do the exact thing thats shitty by taking language away from the dragons#also rip hiccup being the reason the system starts. im sorry bud youre supposed to free the slaves but dreamworks did you dirty

Actually no it pisses me the fuck off when people are like "this is for kids we can't hold it to high narrative standards" yes the fuck we can??? That's when we should??? And that's definitely when we should examine the implications and impact of a work, not just the intent behind it or the surface level stuff, because it's for children. They do not have the critical thinking skills that adult readers (hopefully) have developed, they are learning, and they will absorb a fuck ton of learned behaviors from story without ever realising. You have to look at kids media like "this has to be that deep actually" because kids are going to listen! Adults tell stories! Adults are authority so story is authority! There's an entire Sondheim song about this!!! ("Careful the things you say, children will listen" anybody???)

Cressida Cowell is my favorite example of this because her How to Train Your Dragon books almost definitely Weren't That Deep to begin with. (With the caveat that I am not her and so cannot be sure.) The first few books were very much "haha funny dragons, isn't it fun they can talk" - and then you can kind of watch in realtime over the course of the books as she realised the implications of having an entire group of sentient beings with their own language and culture be regularly kidnapped as infants by people who keep them as pets/weapons/tools - and instead of asking her child readers not to look at that, to pretend it's not that bad, she turns around and asks us to look closer. To consider what all this means, that the characters we know and love who don't seem like bad people have also participated in this all along. There are no easy answers! It's absolutely stomach turning, and though she speaks simply to the child reader she never pulls her punches! I'm sure there are people who have issues with her execution and I'm not here to say it's perfect but god. That's how to handle children's media with unfortunate implications. Lean into it, don't tell the kids to ignore it. That's how they learn to ignore all the real world shit, they end up with so much practice.

Just because something is how it is doesn't mean it's not worth looking closer. Teach children that from the start. Don't shy away from your characters participating in fucked up systems just because you think they need to be the good guys. If they're going to be good, make them good, and make them deal with the fallout when they're not.