#and also the target audience for this post is people that grew up with the originals not the new generation LOL

[matt0044]

This is something I've often experienced with other shows be they stuff I have it bad for or stuff that I acknowledge is good but isn't for me. It's gotten to the point where when I see something getting dunked yet see that it's a fairly thriving series or even a full-on franchise, I start to scrutinize the scrutiny.

Especially when a lot of the popular talking points are either memes or passed around so often, they may as well be meme.

A while back, Netflix's 13 Reasons Why was bandied about Tumblr and YouTube as this most offensive thing for it's portrayal of suicide. I was aware of how this wasn't the sort of subject to take lightly lest I be eating my foot for a full course meal. As such, I took the outrage's word for it and steered clear.

I did start to get curious with a lot of specific scenes from Season 1 being passed around for the afformentioned dunking. Such as Hannah calling Clay a nerd for referencing Star Wars only for said post to show how much The Force Awakens grossed.

Said curiosity grew when I saw many video essays tackling 13 Reasons Why. Most were negative but what I footage saw didn't seem bad. Some of it was pretty... nice actually. But still, this was the show that gave suicide and poor mental health a bad name with how the female lead took her own life seemingly out of revenge.

So... I stayed away. That is, until I saw a billboard for Season 2 in NYC. Now this got me seeing that this show had a legit audience. Not just hatewatchers but those invested in the story of Hannah Baker and Clay Jensen. That's when I decided to add it to my watch list.

At best, it would be bad but maybe a fascinating kind of bad. The kind that RiffTrax would sink their teeth into. At worst, it would be a bore and I'd turn the other way. Then I started to watch it.

Twenty Six episodes later... I loved it. I felt that it... spoke to me emotionally on how life can be so messed up. I loved how no character was totally good or bad. How even Number 12 on the tapes had his depths despite being, well, the worst really.

When Hannah reached the end of her rope, I found myself begging her to not do what I knew she'd do. When Tyler Down tried to take matters into his own hands, I wished I could be there to talk him down. It takes a very special kind of story to invoke that kind of visceral dread.

Now if you've heard me out, how it relates to RWBY is that a lot of the dismissal and derision relies on a specific kind of media illiteracy: the active lack of curiosity.

Rather than be curious about people pitching a fit about "X show" and seeing for themselves what all the hubbub is about, they just stay away. They go with the crowd essentially.

And why wouldn't they? It's like how school bullies get away with picking on their victims even in front of others. Anyone else who doesn't want to play hero would keep their head down and not even be associated with the targeted kid.

I mean, we've got clickbait titles called "We Watch 'X' So You Don't Have To." That is literally ripping off the Nostalgia Critic AKA baby's first Angry Geek. It's not that looking into a show so you'd know if it's worth your time or not is bad. It's when it's from second hand sources like very leading Video Essays.

So many act autoritative and present themselves with the kind of confidence we so wish we had in ourselves. We trust that they're editing isn't being coy and that their assessment is legitimate or, if more emotionally, honest at the very least.

But what about the show itself? Why not find any clips online that highlight certain moments? Why not at least view some of the trailers? Why not go onto subreddits or Socials to ask, "Hey, why do some many seem to like this show?"

Because between James Somerton and Lily Orchard, it's become abundantly clear that there are many who are willing to abuse this this trust. And they are not isolated incidents. Even those who maybe are just giving their opinion may be twisting facts to suit their narrative. They also may be not.

But you won't know unless we let ourselves be curious. Is the show trash? Or is it just another punching bag for YouTubers to hit so money will fall out if they make a hard enough blow?

Is the show truly offensive? Or did it mishandled pre-warning those of its subject content?

Is the show bad... or just not for you?

Be curious. Find the answers for yourself. Nobody is ever immune from mob mentality.

@tumblingxelian @citadelofmythoughts @galaxy98

it is wild to me that the word of mouth on RWB/Y being 'bad' is like, secondhand

almost every time it's someone saying they've never watched the show but they got their opinion from a youtuber or reddit

the casual admittance that they outsource their thinking to other people, who they don't know, and they can't know are telling the truth, because they refuse to engage with the source material, and then proceed to go about their lives on pure confirmation bias, everyone who validates that opinion (regardless of whether they actually watched the show or are also regurgitating someone else's opinion as fact) is truthful and anyone who disagrees and says that the show is good, actually, is dismissed as either being a liar or stupid (because it's definitely smart and mature to make a mass value judgment on people you don't know, about a topic you know very little about)

and that's the thing, when you've got one group of people saying a piece of media is bad and the worst thing ever, and you've got another group who are saying it's good and fun, then a) it's clear there's some level of subjectivity involved here, which means the "objectively bad" claims you've been consuming should have immediate doubt cast on them (though really if anyone says anything is 'objectively bad' then they're conflating their opinion as fact and that's a red flag) and b) the smart thing to do would be to actually try to consume the media to see what it is that has appealed to people enough to contribute to its enduring popularity, even if it doesn't end up appealing to you, and not dismiss it out of hand

[dancermk]

I’m a little disappointed to see so much discourse, fandom competitiveness, and plain arguing going around at the moment in regards to queer film/TV. People complaining about too much sex, not enough sex, too cheesy, made for the hets, too happy, too sad, too realistic, too unrealistic, and a million other petty issues. I, for one, am a queer person in my 50s and I grew up with practically zero representation! Yes, we want to continue onwards and upwards with quality and varied shows BUT let’s be HAPPY we now have representation! Like, actual shows where the central characters are queer, not just a side character who gets f*cking murdered! There is room for all different types of representation - so enjoy the types you like, and let others enjoy what they like.

And on a side note: progress is progress and film/tv is a business that has to turn a profit! If some queer content is made to appeal to the straight community, and will also act as a means of reducing homophobia and increasing understanding, then that’s a good thing. That means in the future more and more content will include queer stories and representation. If only 10% (ish) of the population is the maximum target audience then shows won’t keep getting made!

There is a huge backlash all over the world right now - a “push back” by conservatives and religious groups that want to wind back the clock, and specifically the last decade of advances.

So stick together queers and LGBTQIA+ allies.

I’m super happy knowing I don’t have to wait years between content anymore. And I’ve loved all different types of shows over the last 5 years, for lots of different reasons!

Interview with the Vampire - is giving me the toxic, passionate gothic love affair I’ve always wanted. And addressing interracial relationships.

Heartstopper - is filling me up with pure joy and hopefulness for the future.

Shameless - gave me Ian and Mickey - unique, anti stereotypical gays with a tragic yet ultimately beautiful love story spanning 11 years

Lone Star 911 - is giving me TK and Carlos whose sexuality barely factors into the storyline! Yay!

Looking - gave me an authentic queer experience and an intoxicating love triangle.

Red, white and Royal Blue - gave me a sweet, cute romcom that allowed reality to be sidelined. Fun escapism!

Young Royals - had me captivated by first love and intense angst.

Fire Island - an underrated romcom that made me laugh so hard I cried.

Sex education - shoved the realities of sex in our faces and provided me with laughter and drama and a range of queer identities.

Gentlemen Jack -gave me historical lesbians with spectacular wit, and feminine power.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg- because there’s SO SO SO many more shows I could mention! Don’t at me because I didn’t mention YOUR favourite. This is my point! There is SO much great content it would take all day for me to include everything. This is just a sample - and that’s f*cking brilliant!!

So maybe we could all start posting/tweeting etc about what WE DO LIKE / LOVE / MAKES US FEEL LOVED AND SEEN and put down the device if we’ve got nothing nice to say.

Sending everyone a love filled week! 💜

[myfandomrealitea]

Was your Safe Spaces post discord-(or any closed forum I guess) specific, or do you think the same should go for fandom-themed blogs on tumblr? Like, if I follow someone for Doctor Who content, I'd rather they didn't put real world issues on my dash, but otoh, it's their blog and they get to decide what they post on it (preferably tagged so I can curate). I've observed that people that run themed blogs that become popular often seem to feel an obligation to use their platform for activism (or, in the case of crypto-radfems, deliberately built their platform to recruit), and it stresses tf out of me for the reasons you mentioned, but it's not like the maintags are much safer because there will be spam relating to real-world issues, or antis trying to relate fiction to real world issues.

Realistically; the same outlook can and could be applied to any social setting. Be it online, private, public, face to face, ect.

Your point about obligation in terms of platform scale is something I've also noticed and have been dabbling about raising. Mostly because you see it a lot with celebrities or public content creators who receive a large following. Its often less that they feel obligated and more than they're usually bullied into it.

For example; I follow a trans (FTM) vlogger on Instagram. His entire online presence is based around being trans and helping to educate people and support people in regards to learning about being transgender, transgender health, his personal transitional journey, ect.

He's got a modest following, nothing ridiculous but I think right now he's sitting at around 75,000 followers.

And as of late, there are random people who don't follow him and aren't at all interested in what he has to say flooding his comment section with things like:

Why didn't you mention anything about Gaza?

All these followers and no shout outs for smaller creators?

What are you doing to raise awareness for X?

All these views could've been used to raise awareness for X.

And its fucking ridiculous. People are pressuring a middle class trans man with 75,000 followers to accept responsibility for counter-responding to a literal war when there are actual celebrities and billionaires with both the actual reach and money to make a difference who simply refuse to because they won't personally benefit from it.

I used to run a really popular fandom blog here on Tumblr. For an actual fandom, not just what I do here and now. It started off small, but I eventually grew it to the point where my follow count was creeping toward 10,000. Which for Tumblr and for a fandom-specific blog was not at all insignificant.

And the moment my notes count started going up, the demands started flooding in. People expecting me to reblog their donation links, demanding I share their friend's aid post, asking why I wasn't reblogging awareness posts or donation drives, ect.

Its largely because its easier to harass accessible people over it than it is to harass someone like Kim Kardashian, but its also because again: we have such a skewed understanding of what is actually effective in terms of activism and circulation of information.

Most of it comes down to shaming people and trying to assert that they're a bad person for having the privilege and benefits of a large following but not doing anything for other people or to 'deserve' that following. They're 'a bad person' for having 75,000 people's attention and not using it to force them to be aware of X.

A good example of proper audience targeting and activism is the page We Rate Dogs.

We Rate Dogs will share awareness posts and donation drives.

About dogs.

Because their followers are there for the dogs. Their followers like dogs. They want to enjoy dog content and help dogs.

If they started sharing posts about war and death and rape, the people who are following them to see cute dog videos will simply unfollow them.

They're using their targeted platform properly.

[unscharf-an-den-raendern]

The Big German Tween Soap Opera Drama (So far)

Here's the writeup for all those of you who don't go here but still love reading about drama from fandoms you're not in.

What is Schloss Einstein?

Schloss Einstein is a German soap opera aimed at ~10 to 14-year-olds. Since it's been on air since 1998 with 26 seasons and over 1000 episodes, it also has fans beyond its target audience who grew up with it and either never stopped watching it or picked it up again at some point.

The show focuses on the live of students at a fictional boarding school with common themes being love, friendship, slice of life and the occasional comedy or mystery story.

Noah and Colin

In season 26, the show got its first mlm storyline. The show already had a wlw storyline in season 23 that was generally well received and so we had hopes.

In the first episode of season 26, Colin gets two new roommates: Noah and Joel. Joel grows suspicious of Noah because he tends to sneak out at night and won't tell anyone where he's going. Eventually, he and Colin discovder that Noah secretly took his dog Freddy with him and hid him in the woods because his parents wanted to send him to the shelter.

Colin offers to help Noah take care of Freddy and Noah slowly starts to trust Colin. But then the headmaster finds out about Freddy and tells Noah that Freddy can't stay in the woods and has to go to the shelter. Colin wants to apologise to Noah and manages to get tickets to a film premier, but Noah pushes him away. He later apologises to Colin after the principal decides to take Freddy in himself and let Noah visit him whenever he wants.

Later, Noah secretly makes a stop-motion film for a project Colin and Joel are working on and plans to make a live-action horror film as well. However, it doesn't go according to plan and ends up being canceled. Colin comforts Noah and ends up kissing him but Noah runs away right after it. Later that evening, Colin tries to hold Noah's hand but Noah tells him that he's not in love with him.

In the final episode of the season, Colin realises that he can't stay friends with Noah because his romantic feelings for him are too strong - he confesses his love to Noah but walks away without waiting for Noah's answer. Noah doesn't follow him.

The first drama - The disappointing final three episodes

The first drama was the reaction to episode 1049 (Noah tells Colin he's not in love with him), episode 1050 (Noah tells Colin "that's what friends are for" and Colin is later seen crying alone in the dark) and episode 1052 (Colin confesses his love to Noah, walks away and Noah doesn't follow him).

There were a lot of angry comments. Not just from disappointed queer people within the show's target audience but also from disappointed adult queer fans who were concerned that this was sending the wrong message to young queer people - that life would always be hard for them if they happened to be gay.

The second drama - The new opening

Traditionally, the show does an Advent calender on social media with pictures from the upcoming season and finally the new opening.

It was already clear that Colin's actor wouldn't be around for the whole season because he landed a role in a film and his schedule would have overlapped with the shooting of Schloss Einstein. But since the first press release for season 27 stated that there would be 19 main characters and being credited as a main character usually guaranteed that said character would appear in the opening, we had some hope.

Well, the new opening was released and guess what? Colin wasn't in it. Cue another round of angry comments, this time mainly from people in the target demographic who thought Colin wouldn't appear in season 27 at all. And why? Because there was no official info. You had to see a picture a cast member posted on BeReal or read the wiki to know Colin would be in season 27. And even those of us who knew Colin would still be around for at least a few episodes doubt that it will be enough to give his story with Noah a satisfying ending.

And then there's the fact that season 27 is going to focus on a mystery plot about a treasure hunt. The last season to do that was season 24 which wasn't well received to the poor execution of the mystery plot. So now people are worried that season 27 will suffer the same fate with a poorly executed mystery plot overshadowing everything else and leaving no room for some much-needed character developement.

Stay tuned!

[whitehotharlots]

Very dead spin

Deadspin's fall serves as a sad encapsulation of everything that's happened to the American left since 2010 or so.

It started out as a goofy, irreverent, willfully offensive site with a left-ish bent. Sports were the main priority, and it didn't proselytize or shame readers so much as it assumed that if you were intelligent and/or hip enough to be in their desired audience, you didn't need a writer to explain how team owners are greedy or why American healthcare sucked. Legacy sports outlets were originally not even allowed to mention the site by name, but after just a few years they got big and legitimate enough they were the main reason the Penn State child molestation scandal came to national attention instead of remaining buried.

But like all the other Gawker sites it kept getting more and whiny and didactic as its audience grew. You can be weird and mean and funny if you're only hoping to reach a couple thousand people per post, but once you've been profiled in the New York Times you got to clean up your act. Writers took fewer risks. The points they made became rote and predictable, the coverage was bland, and the jokes attacked the same handful of well worn targets again and again. They thought they had become the insiders, the cultural vanguard, and that it was now their job to police everyone else's thoughts and actions.

Aaaaand then their father site posted what was essentially revenge porn of Hulk Hogan. This was after they had outed billionaire vampire Peter Thiel as gay, and that pissed him off so much he financed a massive lawsuit on Hogan's behalf that bankrupted the whole network of sites. Whoops!

The site got bought by Univision and run by old media idiots who did not understand what generated its readership. They demanded the site focus solely on sports. The staff revolted, quit, and eventually started another, much lower-traffic site that will collapse the second Drew MaGary stops writing their NFL previews.

And then the old site essentially underwent the very Replacement Theory that its original writers simultaneously insisted would never happen and also that it should happen and is good. Even at the end, the old Deadspin's writers were intelligent, well-read, and reasonably funny (at least compared to almost everything else on the internet). Now they've been supplanted by a veritable rainbow coalition of scabs: black twenty-somethings who have never read an entire book, middle-aged hoteps who got fired from city newspapers after "allegations came to light," and white 30-year-old liberal arts grads who think socialism is when it's easy to get your dick cut off and fascism is when anyone makes it slightly more difficult to get your dick cut off.

Behold the horrors of time's march! The old left: neutered and paywalled. The new left: reactionary morons.

[oliveroctavius]

To reply to this without cluttering up someone else's reblogs:

I DEFINITELY have my issues with Alan Moore, but that quote has been taken widely out of context to fuel the anger machine. In context, this is commentary on the modern mass-media superhero movie, specifically how far it is from its working-class Jewish roots:

Today’s franchised übermenschen, aimed at a supposedly adult audience, seem to be serving some kind of different function, and fulfilling different needs. [...] The superheroes themselves – largely written and drawn by creators who have never stood up for their own rights against the companies that employ them, much less the rights of a Jack Kirby or Jerry Siegel or Joe Schuster – would seem to be largely employed as cowardice compensators, perhaps a bit like the handgun on the nightstand. I would also remark that save for a smattering of non-white characters (and non-white creators) these books and these iconic characters are still very much white supremacist dreams of the master race.

This is a legitimate criticism of popular superheroes, even early on. An example relevant to this quote: Alan Moore grew up with Marvelman, Britain's homegrown 1950s stand-in for Captain Marvel. Some pretty visible choices were made about who could be superhuman in their version of this story.

Not obvious from this image: Freddy Freeman (left image, in blue) was the one Marvel Family member with a Jewish co-creator (Mac Raboy). He was a disabled boy with a very personal vendetta against the Nazis who had targeted him and his grandfather. All this was left out of his (fully abled) Marvelman counterpart. But even Captain Marvel was a version of Superman made marketable by filing down the anti-establishment edges! (Unlike early Supes, Cap would never talk back to a cop.) All three publishers used racial caricatures in their stories.

All this buries the lede: Mick Anglo, creator of the Marvelman Family, was also Jewish. I don't know why he made the choices he did.

The initial image in the post you commented on is from "Superman is Jewish? How comic book superheroes came to serve truth, justice, and the Jewish-American way" by Harry Brod. It's available on archive.org and while it's ultimately a celebration of Jewish contributions to comics, it touches on a lot of these points: the popular re-capture of the underdog's dreams of righteous violence, the "de-Jewification" of superheroes in the modern movie imagination, and the idea that not all art created by [identity] people will actually express that identity, especially when writing into a different dominant culture.

Alan Moore can be dismissive of the Jewish histories to superheroism, but I don't want to throw out his argument--white supremacy has sunk its hooks deep into the genre's imagery since Siegel and Shuster put pen to paper.

[goldencuffs]

I was wondering about how you feel about amw. From some of the posts when you came back, and some of the tags, I get the impression that it's not a fic you vibe with. Maybe bc your tastes/mindset has changed since you started it, that's definitely happened to me in what fic I prefer to read.

So I was wondering whether you dislike writing it bc the theme isn't something you find enjoyable to write anymore or bc you just don't like the story point blank, but we love it so you continue for us so it's finished and there's resolution for the amw readers. Or if it's bc you dislike having a fic in limbo that's partially posted for your own sake. Like, it's something that hangs over you, but if you finish it, it's finally done and it won't lurk in your thoughts any longer.

I know when I have a task to do, it hovers over me and if I don't do the thing, I start to get anxious about it. And the anxiety grows every time it pops into my thoughts, but once I cross it off my list, I feel *free* and able to breathe again.

I only ask bc sometimes it seems like you don't want to write it or that it's become an arduous task for you.

I'm genuinely grateful that you've chosen to finish writing it, and I don't mean anything negative about this ask. It's just something I noticed and wanted to understand better. I adore your writing and reading your interactions/reactions with everyone. You're the only reason I still use Tumblr. I hope my question(s) don't upset you, if that is the impact, then I am truly sorry. I hope you have a beautiful weekend 💖💖💖 - all the love from another Aaron Dessner girlie 🤍

this is literally the sweetest most thoughtful ask oh my god 😭🥺

for me, all my words was honestly just supposed to be a one shot. and then it grew longer and longer and i was writing it alongside in the absence of a king which is my baby and (in my opinion) the best thing i've ever written so it was exhausting continuing the two together. especially because i dont think amw is good writing/my best writing. you can especially see that in the first few chapters, which are pretty directionless.

when i left on my hiatus i was dealing with a very tough situation with my family (which is still ongoing unfortunately) but i never truly planned on ever abandoning ITAOAK. i ALWAYS knew i was going to finish it, which is why i tried working on it as much as possible over the last two years. i wanted to especially finish it for me, bc like i said i loved it and i wrote it for myself and i was the ideal target audience lmaoooo

so in comparison - while i still definitely vibe with amw's concept/storyline - it just truly paled in comparison for ITAOAK. also i've always been worried about amw's ending. i know people have certain expectations for this kind of au and i..... have not written it the way people would want. like i said, it's unrealistic and not... great. so. that is still making me very nervous too.

ALSO i have new stories im excited for and just wanted to put those up right away and i was feeling trapped by amw being incomplete.

that being said - i am so unbelievably grateful for everyone's support and the fact that people still want to read it. it definitely played a huge part in me continuing the story and now i can move on in peace with zero unfinished works!!! 😍🤗💖

[just-antithings]

I keep thinking about people insisting "people can just forget about harry potter they forgot about game of thrones when it ended!" Especially now since that. Well. Hotd is out and people are watching and talking about it.

And something that I feel people insisting "people can just forget about hp" keep forgetting is the difference in times the two came out and plus the intended audience. Game of thrones was always for adults. Harry potter really helped kickstart YA and grew with its audience, adding that Nostalgia Factor, especially for people like me, who have fond memories of seeing the movies with my dad. And while my hometown didn't have a bookstore so I never experienced waiting outside one for the next book to drop, I know people who did that. People who not only have a community now in hp fandom but grew up in it, was shaped by it.

But also on the times the two came out: as other posts have pointed out, people change fandoms like clothes nowadays. Media gets dumped and moved along for the next one, and while game of thrones started airing before that became more of the norm, as it continued airing, streaming culture was becoming more of the norm. I think this really affects how much wider culture keeps talking about popular media, and "just stop talking about hp" is really not solving anything. It's pointing fingers at easier targets. At this point, jkterf has so much money that even if enough people stopped buying merch, books, etc to hurt her royalties, it wouldn't be a big enough dent to keep her from funding legalizing hate crimes (essentially). It's good not to want to monetarily support people doing active harm and to stop when able, but a wider issue is the fact that billionaires shouldn't be able to amass that level of wealth in the first place and that bills that seek to harm people need to be fought against. But for many of us, we feel/ate helpless when it comes to that. So "stop talking about hp, you're the problem if you talk about hp" ends up feeling like being able to wrest some of that power back.

It's complicated! Everything is complicated! I can understand people pushing past all the nuance in order to make more sense of an issue, but pushing past the nuance instead often scrambles said issue, making understanding it harder to do in some cases.

.

[garden-bug]

I’m sure many people who are bigger fans of Avatar than me with disagree with me on this BUUUT:

I don’t think Avatar needs a live action.

Consider this.

Avatars strengths lie closely entwined with its medium: animation. The animated style allowed for a stark blend of goofiness and seriousness, the hyperrealistic, and tailored perfectly to the target audience (kids) with its vibrant colours and style. There is so much charm in animation and sometimes I feel things are made into live action just for the sake of it and, worse, for a cash grab. Take much of Disney’s work in the past decade for example.

Now, let’s compare Avatar to another recent live action remake that was so incredibly successful it broke the curse of anime remakes: One Piece. Because their situations differ vastly.

One Piece is an anime of which I have watched nearly 300 episodes. Fucking help me, because the pacing is abysmal and my finger hovers over the +10 seconds button at all times. The story of One Piece is as mature and thematically driven as Avatar, and just as creative and ingenious. However, there are certain shōnen (like the ‘genre’ of anime) tropes that ‘tailor’ to its target audience (boys/men) such as the design of the female characters being identical. Small waist, massive boobs. Essentially, you couldn’t show One Piece to your grandma. There are other things but these are the most egregious. Sexualising women pisses me off full stop and this is a thing in anime just like the weird fucking incest trope is. It just… doesn’t land with a western audience (and maybe with some of the Japanese audience? I’m honestly not sure I do not know and could not tell you, this is purely my own impression). One Piece an incredible story, there’s no doubt it’s the or one of the best anime/manga of all times, but in terms of accessibility its medium (anime and manga) restricted its viewer base alongside these anime tropes.

One Piece live action is not a shōnen anime. It is a live action anime remake. Sanji is a flirt in a way that my mum found gentlemanly when she watched the live action rather than perverted or annoying as I found him at times watching the anime (sorry Sanji I do love you really). The women’s bodies are realistic because it’s. Real. Fucking. Life. And the pacing has been hailed as a huge step up from the original. It’s essentially an upgrade. It’s better, more accessible, just as fun and goofy, and just as much the incredible story we all love. The casting is insane. Oda legit christened Inaki with the straw hat I’m- AVATAR DOESN’T HAVE THAT- ok I’m getting off topic. It’s good, alright? It drew more people into the amazing story that is One Piece.

Back to Avatar. Avatar… is for kids. Yes, it can be enjoyed by adults, but its target audience is children. I wouldn’t have watched it if my younger sister hadn’t been born. It probably wouldn’t have interested me past the age of 13, whereas I still enjoy One Piece as an adult, maybe because anime/manga is also targeted at adults. There’s gore? Sort of? Essentially I don’t see the translation onto live action changing the viewer demographic for Avatar purely based on the story. Yes, more people might watch live action because ‘eww animation is for kids!’ but that just isn’t reason enough. Take the Ahsoka series, for example. Why was it live action? Because Disney is scrambling for ways to rescue the franchise its currently dragging though the mud. Did a live action help? No, the story suffered beyond belief for it (would require another massive post to get into it). Some of you will have different opinions on this because you love Avatar a lot and or grew up with it. I get that. It’s like me with Ninjago. But if Ninjago got a live action they would need to alter the story a lot, ok? Avatar is for kids, about kids, and I think it still appeals to those same kids (grown up) today. It’s going to be the same story but it looks different and my prediction is that people will still enjoy the animated version more and the live action will never come close to topping it or complementing it in the way that the One Piece live action does.

My point is that I don’t see what a live action is going to do for Avatar as a story. It’s perfect. It’s already held up as one of the greatest stories of all time by all of the writing tips YouTube channels, what more can it achieve? What will live action bring to Avatar other than ‘oooh it’s real life now!’? I fully believe the comedy can be transferred, but because if One Piece can do it so can Avatar, but I still can’t see the live action Avatar being as much of a game changer for the story or viewership as the One Piece live action is.

It’s still… a cool idea, I guess. But I mean… is the stormlight archive by Brandon Sanderson ever gonna get an adaptation? Can we like… take risks with newer stories?

Happy for the cast and everything and I hope it goes well, but yeah, I just can’t get hyped about this one guys.

Feel free to add your thoughts as I’m interested in hearing them and I’m sure I’ve missed stuff out but as always keep it friendly please.

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

ask game: tagged by @agirlnamedbone

do you make your bed: depends on your definition i think? I think I do, maybe not up to everyone's standards though?

what’s your favorite number: hard to pick but let's say 9.

current job: was gonna be boring and give my actual job title but spreadsheets, basically. sometimes unfortunately emails.

if you could go back to school, would you: well obviously i would not go back to school that would be terrible. if it's asking about returning to education then like I've sometimes thought about doing a PhD but I'm mostly glad I never have, it'd be kind of nice if I could just do a second MA though.

can you parallel park: what the fuck is a car

a job you had that would surprise people: dunno, does everyone know about how I used to work in car park management? that or the fact that I used to work for a financial advice company I guess?

do you think aliens are real: boring sensible answer is that it's quite likely there's some other form of life somewhere in the universe, very unlikely that we'll ever encounter it though

can you drive a manual car: i can walk to the bus stop, and indeed the tram stop. i suspect a yank made this quiz.

guilty pleasure: dunno which of my pleasures i'm guilty about because everything i like is objectively good, schadenfreude and the like i suppose?

tattoos: cat on my left bicep, pigeon on the right, rose on my left calf, kind of want an axolotl on my right calf for symmetry, also quite want to get NOTHING APPLIES on one arm at some point too

favorite color: purple.

favorite music genre: probably the vague collection of musics associated with "post-punk"? it's a bit of a made-up term when you think about it but what genre isn't?

do you like puzzles: yeah sure, got any sudokus?

phobias: dunno. i don't like scary dogs, don't know if it counts as a proper phobia though

favorite childhood sport: what is the target audience for this quiz?

do you talk to yourself: not really that much, maybe sometimes?

favorite movies: first ones that come to mind are probably stuff like Blue Velvet, Happiness, Synechdoche New York, Repo Man. That's a fair selection.

coffee or tea: coffee

first thing you wanted to be when you grew up: depends how far back you go? i think when i was a really little kid i wanted to be a dinosaur, then probably a writer when i accepted that wasn't going to happen

tagging @thewomanwithmissingfingers, @orpheusdrinkinga40inadeathbasket, @poetessinthepit, @godzilla-en-mexico, anyone else who wants to do it really. idk what's going on with font size but i can't be arsed to keep it consistent now.

[object-obsession]

| Combined post #5 | Some kids series

Inanimate Object Characters List | Entry: 49

I've said this before: I'll probably won't be able to cover ALL kids shows, because there are TOO MANY and I know barely any of them. But I want to mention at least A COUPLE of them, because some series are just very famous , so they can't be ignored - and I find some of the eligible characters really fun, so I won't ignore them.

(And those characters that I find fun will all be in this post.)

I'm not gonna do kids shows with vehicles right now, because as expected, the list is long with such series. There are MANY.

--

We're starting of with Dora the Explorer, because who doesn't know Dora? Just like many other people, I grew up watching Dora as well. Strangely enough, I do not remember Map being my favourite character back then... Now I'd say he is (I mean, of course I don't watch Dora anymore, but I like him as a character best - aside from Dora herself - and I wish there was Map lore), but I might have watched this show even before my obsession started? Maybe...?

Characters: Map, Backpack

TV series: Dora the Explorer (2000-2019)

Next we have Dora's cousin, Diego! I didn't watch this series as a kid (maybe a few times with my younger brother, but that's all). Though I do remember playing both Dora and Diego's video game on the Wii.

Character: Click

TV series: Go, Diego! Go! (2005-2013)

Handy Manny is another series that I did not watch myself as a kid - and I also didn't know about it until recently, but I came across it a few months ago (because apparently people have been saying that every single guy looks like one of these, lmao) and to be honest, it certainly seems like a kids show that I would have found a blast when I was younger. The characters look fun and I'm fond of tools.

I'm female, so the comment of looking like one of them wasn't addressed to me, but I'd say I'd be Turner. My face is round, too. Lol!

Characters: Rusty (pipe wrench), Pat (hammer), Flicker (flashlight), Dusty (handsaw), Felipe (Phillips head screwdriver), Squeeze (pair of pliers), Stretch (tape measure), Turner (flat-head screwdriver)

And there's a bunch of other tool (and two non-tool) minor characters throughout the show.

TV series: Handy Manny (2006-2013)

Finally, we have Finley the Fire Engine and yes, I said I would not do kids shows with vehicles just yet, but 1. there's a character I like in this series and 2. not all characters are vehicles (including my favourite).

I didn't grow up with this series, plus, I found out about it at a relatively "old" age (considering the very young target audience), but because of that one character, I have seen some episodes anyway.

It's Suds, by the way. That character I'm talking about is Suds.

Don't ask me why, but he's is just too good for this series. I'm serious.

Characters: main characters (Miguel, Finley, Jesse, DJ, Gorby, Isabelle), Suds, Mr. Bell, Polly, Lyle (left) and Lois (right)

And there's a bunch of other vehicle characters throughout the show.

TV series: Finley the Fire Engine (2007-2012)

[lnkedmyheart]

So I have been sitting on this for a while. A few days ago I made a random post about Rose, a desert dwelling person being given pasty white skin in broho when in 03 she was given more realistic tanned skin. Considering Arakawa was actively involved in the production of 03 I was only curious as to why such a change was made. Mind you Rose was a character in a black and white manga, she wasn't exactly given a specified skin colour.

But anyway, what irked me was the claim that 03 ruined the theme and the plot of the story. And that is such a shallow broho supremacist take its not even funny. I usually avoid 03 vs broho bs because at the end of the day it's just 2 groups that can't get over themselves and get it past their thick skull that people can like different things. The whole point of 03 and broho being so different from each other is the time they came out and the target audience's tastes. Arakawa began writing fma in 2001. Fma 03 was first released in, you guessed it, 2003. The anime was about to catch up to the manga super soon and the manga wasn't even halfway done. So guess what Arakawa basically let the studio do whatever, took part in the story and decided to continue fma manga in a different direction so that the 03 anime could be a self contained piece while also keeping fma manga a seperate story. Fma broho is informed by every other typical shounen save the world manga of its time as you can see from how little the concept of lasting consequences matter. 03 came out at a time where the stories were dark, tragic with bittersweet endings and the consequences mattered. The themes were dramatically different in 03 and broho as well and both stuck to their personal themes. In fact 03 stuck closer to it than broho did to its theme.

Lastly. Why was alchemy basically just magic? Idk man, because not everyone in the writer's room is going to sit and research practical application of alchemy for a show they have to pump out within a year meanwhile Harukawa spent almost a decade writing the alchemy in the manga. And mind you, 03 came out during the 3rd year of fma manga.

Fma 03 and broho are two completely different shows that originate from a single source. They are not meant to be compared or contrasted. One is not inherently better than the other for ruining a plot and theme that didn't even exist back when it came out. You are just being severely biased if you think 03 is trash when it was considered a masterpiece when it came out. Fma 03 put the manga on the map on the global scale and was responsible for the hype surrounding broho. It was adored by the gp when it came out and was absolutely beloved till the manga supremacists rolled in to trash it just to hype up broho. Both shows offer wildly different experiences and themes. As someone who grew up on blood +, wolfs rain, Trinity blood and the likes 03 was more my type while broho was a bit too shounen and slapstick for me. It would be different for someone else.

My point is, I don't like broho vs 03 fandom wank because 90% of the time it's just someone being biased and wrong.

[imaginarylungfish]

ok making an actual post about the barbie movie:

so i saw the barbie movie last night. and idk it was like ok. maybe the hype made me have really high expectations. but like i felt kinda alienated and kinda got some gender dysphoria ngl.

part of me related to growing up playing with barbies and growing up seeing misogyny play out on small and large scales. but like the whole movie was so girl-focused. like i get it. it's barbie. but barbie isn't just for girls. and also i'm not a girl (so ok maybe i'm not the target audience). but i'm afab and grew up as a "girl," so i know i am also the target audience?

so part of me felt like an outsider watching cisheteronormativity play out while i was thinking to myself, "thank god i don't have to deal with this" (cause like i don't get it sometimes). but like i still do have to deal with it. i still am seen as a girl/women by people. i am still negatively impacted by the patriarchy.

but also i'm not in some ways cis women still are. like i am also visibly non-binary sometimes which grants me some sort of privilege to not conform. but that privilege comes with a bunch of other downsides too. it's not privilege in the way men (whether cis or trans) get.

i wanted to really love the movie. other people seemed to! and i'm glad. but i just don't think it was made for me (a genderqueer afab person). it seems to be made for cis people.

so yeah, i felt alienated. and i guess that was the point? but i feel like that's kinda a crappy point to make. genderqueer/queer people in general already feel alienated, so i don't think having another movie with that takeaway was super necessary.

like i get weird barbie is neurodivergent- and queer-coded and that's the character we get to identify with (what a crumb). but like it's coded, not explicit (and again, maybe that was the point, but really? that's annoying). and allan i think is non-binary-coded. but like again, coded. i saw myself in those characters. but like the rest of it felt kinda unrelatable.

so idk i guess i'm trying to say, i thought the barbie movie was going to be more queer and relatable to afab genderqueer people like me, but it wasn't. i'm not surprised as this is normal in our cisheteronormative society, but it still sucks and is disappointing.

but also idk if i'm not too autistic to see that the movie actually wasn't for me and i need to move aside. like plz lmk if i should stop critiquing this.

[arcplaysgames]

outside the restaurant, there is

like

what if yosuke hanamura never realized he was an asshole and just grew up into a fucking Super Asshole and full blown sexist and thought wearing rose-tinted glasses was cool

i wonder if the rose-tinted glasses are purposeful, that seems like a very specific design choice, but I have no idea if that cultural touchpoint would exist in Japan as well. I'm going to continue eyeing is suspiciously.

Bro, I think Haru exclusively reads horticultural books and horror novels. I don't think she is your target audience.

That said, this fucking move of getting down on a knee to proffer up a book is incredibly over the top and dramatique, what is with this guy.

B R U H no. Haru will kill you. Don't do this. Trust me, I am doing you a solid, you don't wanna go through with this.

This is very kind of the boys though. Don't stand by while a dude pulls this shit.

That said, Haru could def kill this guy. I mean, it might be a tiny scandal for Okumura Foods but what else is new.

aaaaand we found our new Monarch clearly.

THE INSIDE OF THE CAMPER.... is kinda cute, I see what they meant about the 50s diner vibes, that's..... kind of really cute and frankly WAY better than what I imagine when I think of campers, which tends to be shitty faux-wood and bad linoleum or carpeting.

Futaba squeezing herself up onto the storage rack is really just a vibe too.

He's a light novelist, huh. I dunno how accurate it is, but I consider that a mix of manga and YA? Like, not necessarily written for younger audiences but written to be very digestible? And sometimes have interspersed illustrations? Good foundation for weird experimental shit but is very Genre.

what the fuck don't touch fucking cosplayers /horror

So there is tons of discussion and praise for Natsume online but it's all coming from Sendai.

Is he a local sensation? Like, there's already been ambient dialogue about people buying multiple copies of the book. How many of his million copies are the same people.... or is he going from city to city to spread the influence of his Jail?

HUH! Sidebar: If you have a Jail but you go to another location, does the Jail go with you or do you make another Jail? We've already established that once a Monarch is removed, the Jail remains in the Metaverse.

HMMMMM. That sounds like an interesting thread to pull but IDK if the game will play with it.

are they really going to keep calling him Gramps, he doesn't even give old vibes like Sojiro

also he's a grown-ass man, it's rude to keep referring to him by a nickname like that! the audacity!

are they serious

hey yusuke have you considered therapy? not maruki but like actual therapy?

earlier before we left, i missed the cap, but Futaba was reminding Yusuke his snack budget was 500 yen and he was like "but my rock salt" and I continue to be, like, SO concerned about Yusuke Kitagawa.

REVERIE LITERALLY PUMPS HIS FIST AS HE REPLIES TO RYUJI, L M A O.

Sleep is great, I say as someone who is going to bed the moment I hit post on this blog entry.

ANN FUCKING PUNCHES THE SIDE OF THE CAMPER AND TELLS THEM ALL okay ryuji bc ryuji was speaking in his normal volume which is outdoor voice for everyone else TO SHUT THE FUCK UP SO THEY CAN SLEEP.

FINALLY i can look around Sendai without Morgana shooing me back to the camper to continue the plot. AT LAST.

but i got work tomorrow so i gotta sleep, alas.

[kidflashimpulse]

it's morbidly funny to me that Bart, Tara and Cass Cain are three of the youngest heroes in the show and have been through The Worst Shit of basically all the characters. Cass? abused into being a weapon her whole life. Tara? kidnapped, meta-gene forcibly activated, brainwashed and abused into being a tool for the Shadows, her parents got murdered, her brother did That Shit. Bart? grew up in a apocalypse, been through who knows what, lost MULTIPLE family members. and none of them are even 18 yet

gonna answer this now cause this is exactly what went through my mind yesterday whilst i was putting together their pictures 😭 i was like damn, this sure is a special edition collection of trauma lol and the fact that the whole point was that they’re among the younger generation of heroes? it’s kind of insane

it also really puts things into perspective regarding bart’s background, like it’s not like Court and Steph had a problem free life, but being able to group him with Cass and Tara in comparison so easily based on some trauma scale, like it’s rough lol

seeing tara in phantoms was great cause it’s rlly nice to see her enjoy her new found freedom and life with support, it’s cute. And Cass too in Targets wearing civvies clothes was also sweet, like these girls finally get some type of semblance of peace. It’s the same as Bart in outsiders, just enjoying his life with friends. Like sure trauma is always interesting plot wise/for story telling/character development, but it’s refreshing to see good things going on in these peoples lives.

It’s interesting to note that with Cass and Tara, the Team are somewhat very much involved in their “origin story” and getting them out of there. So they’re quite familiar with what would be needed for them to heal and get settled down into a more stable life (Tara with therapy and Cass being taught how to communicate with ASL/read and write (based on ask greg)). Whilst in both their stories it was about them being given the opportunity of agency and they themselves ultimately making the right choice, the team still was involved in setting it up. Ultimately, it’s a way superior approach to their origin story (at the very least for Tara who’s infamous for hers in comics and for Cass well the agency plays less of a role for her and more for Barbara as to why she became Oracle, i think originally Cass made the decision entirely herself). But ultimately their stories can also be both explained with “oh they’re young, they deserve to be given this opportunity” which is a premise that YJ as a whole is largely based on. Because it’s about the original generation of the Team using their experiences to make the world a better place for future ones.

Whereas with Bart that isn’t the case, it’s almost practically in reverse. Like sure, we know he was enslaved, had to scavenge and got desensitised to death, but that’s all stuff from practically a different world that only he himself really knows of/experienced and no one else, like even we as the audience don’t know much about it. His escape was facilitated with his own agency (with help from Nathaniel) and he practically established the terms in how others got to help by playing the role of a messenger from the future. That’s what makes it so believable that even though time has passed at this point of the series and he’s clearly nicely integrated in the present, there’s still some type of underlying darkness around him, because despite him being a literal refugee from a post-apocalyptic world (which in itself sounds crazy), his backstory is more nuanced which adds to the eery factor. His whole backstory is also worth considering in terms of how important things like the Outsiders and the MHYC might be to him specifically, it’s the same type of reasoning as to why the Team also helped people like Tara and Cass. It’s not only that he wants to play hero, he has personal stakes in the weight of everything because he understands what difference that type of help explicitly does. And it must be the same for Tara in the Outsiders and Cass now in the Team.

i think all this is also a good way to show the weight and importance of agency itself, especially in the context of trauma and also explains why I HC Bart to be easily integrated in daily life without the need of therapy/much help from day 1. It’s not that he isn’t traumatised, but considering his constant exposure to it in growing up in such a world since birth for 13 years (Tara was royalty for most of her life, which must’ve made everything more shocking to her, Cass is more like Bart in that sense with the constant exposure, but had alot of her agency stripped away for so long, with Bart it’s unknown) as well as having control over his own choices in terms of his escape/planning, i think it makes a difference and also establishes why exactly he would have a high threshold of tolerating traumatic situations. This is basically all to explain desensitisation but yeah i wanted to get into the specifics of it lol

this all isn’t to compare traumas and all that, because that’s cheap lol, this is just to say that it’s crazy how all three characters can be considered “dark” using different approaches in both story telling and origins. I just think that’s really cool, because sometimes stories can get a bit repetitive with their development of jaded characters which ironically makes the story lose its edge. That’s why i really enjoy it and makes “reminder” moments like in Phantoms when he confronted the Legion all the more entertaining lol

so yeah, whoever took the time to read my word vomit, i hope u enjoyed it and would love to hear further thoughts on this if y’all have any :D

also thanks anon for sharing ur thoughts with us <3, i love these type of topics sm lol