#braindead-ass takes

[salvidida]

Funny how people will be so weird about fma 03's Scar design, citing him being younger/'bishie' compared to the manga and Brotherhood versions as a negative against the first anime adaptation because, let's be real here, a lot of people see this design decision as "feminizing", making him weaker or more palatable at the expense of the role he's meant to play.

Meanwhile 03 Scar, unlike the manga and Broho counterparts, not only is more staunchly anti-military and consistently uses violence and strategies against the system throughout his entire arc, he straight up has a kill count so massive it would make manga + Broho Scars blush (and manga + Broho Elrics have a full existential crisis).

My man never once becomes an Amestrian reformist, never once celebrates the militia (he would have laughed Miles right out of the room if he tried to guilt him for not licking military boots for a scrap of acceptance; in canon he fully declares he has zero pity for soldiers PERIOD) and goes down killing well over 7000+ soldiers and state alchemists in his entire run.

Need I remind everyone that he draws a city-spanning alchemic rune, by himself, with a boulder and a chain to drag it? And lures in the Amestrian invaders by dropping Kimbly's freshly murdered carcass (his doing of course) that he carried with his teeth to the top of a building, while armless and bleeding out? Drawing them further in while dodging gunfire on foot. Iconic. Awe-inspiring. Pure 100% platinum-grade badass.

03 Scar never loses sleep about killing the pigs of a fascist nation, never cedes any ideological or material ground to them, and he could never be shamed out of actively fighting back. Unfortunately we can't say the same for the defanged mangahood Scars. Because despite their more overtly gruff and 'tough' character designs, they're so thoroughly cowed by a small mob of Amestrians who use basic shaming tactics to stop them dead in their tracks and join their side, never to kill another jackbooted hog.

03 Scar clears manga and Brotherhood Scars, easy

[angelsdean]

I need people to understand how S&P (standards and practices) works in television and how much influence they have over what gets to stay IN an episode of a show and how the big time network execs are the ones holding the purse strings and making final decisions on a show's content, not the writers / showrunners / creatives involved.

So many creators have shared S&P notes over the years of the wild and nonsensical things networks wanted them to omit / change / forbid. Most famously on tumblr, I've seen it so many times, is the notes from Gravity Falls. But here's a post compiling a bunch of particularly bad ones from various networks too. Do you see the things they're asking to be changed / cut ?

Now imagine, anything you want to get into your show and actually air has to get through S&P and the network execs. A lot of creators have had to resort to underhanded methods. A lot of creators have had to relegate things to subtext and innuendo and scenes that are "open to interpretation" instead of explicit in meaning. Things have had to be coded and symbolized. And they're relying on their audience to be good readers, good at media literacy, to notice and get it. This stuff isn't the ramblings of conspiracy theorists, it's the true practices creatives have had to use to be able to tell diverse stories for ages. The Hays Code is pretty well known, it exists because of censorship. It was a way to symbolize certain things and get past censors.

Queercoding, in particular, has been used for ages in both visual media and literature do signal to queer audiences that yes, this character is one of us, but no, we can't be explicit about it because TPTB won't allow it. It's a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to those in the know. It's the deliberate use of certain queer imagery / clothing / mannerisms / phrases / references to other queer media / subtle glances and lingering touches. Things that offer plausible deniability and can be explained away or go unnoticed by straight audiences to get past those network censors. But that queer viewers WILL (hopefully) pick up on.

Because, unfortunately, still to this day, a lot of antiquated network execs don't think queer narratives are profitable. They don't think they'll appeal to general audiences, because that's what matters, whatever appeals to most of the audience demographic so they can keep watching and keep making the network more money. The networks don't care about telling good stories! Most of them are old white cishet business men, not creatives. They don't care about character arcs and what will make fans happy. They don't care about storytelling. What they care about is profit and they're basing their ideas of what's profitable on what they believe is the predominate target demographic, usually white cis heterosexual audiences.

So, imagine a show that started airing in the early 2000s. Imagine a show where the two main characters are based on two characters from a famous Beat Generation novel, where one of the characters is queer! based on a real like bisexual man! The creator is aware of this, most definitely. And sure, it's 2005, there's no way they were thinking of making that explicit about Dean in the text because it just wouldn't fly back then to have a main character be queer. But! it's made subtext. And there are nods to that queerness placed in the text. Things that are open to interpretation. Things that are drenched in metaphor (looking at you 1x06 Skin "I know I'm a freak" "maybe this thing was born human but was different...hated. Until he learned to become someone else.") Things that are blink-and-you-miss-it and left to plausible deniability (things like seemingly spending an hour in the men's bathroom, or always reacting a little vulnerable and awkward when you're clocked instead of laughing it off and making a homophobic joke abt it)

And then, years later there's a ship! It's popular and at first the writers aren't really seriously thinking about it but they'll throw the fans a bone here and there. Then, some writers do get on the destiel train and start actively writing scenes for them that are suggestive. And only a fraction of what they write actually makes it into the text. So many lines left on the cutting room floor: i love past you. i forgive you i love you. i lost cas and it damn near broke me. spread cas's ashes alone. of course i wanted you to stay. if cas were here. -- etc. Everything cut was not cut by the writers! Why would a writer write something to then sabotage their own story and cut it? No, these are things that didn't make it past the network. Somewhere a note was made maybe "too gay" or "don't feed the shippers" or simply "no destiel."

So, "no destiel." That's pretty clearly the message we got from the CW for years. "No destiel. Destiel will alienate our general audience. Two of our main characters being queer? And in a relationship? No way." So what can the pro-destiel creatives involved do, if the network is saying no? What can the writers do if most of their explicit destiel (or queer dean) lines / moments are getting cut? Relegate things to subtext. Make jokes that straight people can wave off but queer people can read into. Make costuming and set design choices that the hardcore fans who are already looking will notice while the general audience and the out-of-touch network execs won't blink and eye at (I'm looking at you Jerry and your lamps and disappearing second nightstands and your gay flamingo bar!)

And then, when the audience asks, "is destiel real? is this proof of destiel?" what can the creatives do but deny? Yes, it hurts, to be told "No no I don't know what you're talking about. There's no destiel in supernatural" a la "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" but! if the network said "no destiel!" and you and your creative team have been working to keep putting destiel in the subtext of the narrative in a way that will get past censors, you can't just go "Yes, actually, all that subtext and symbolism you're picking up, yea it's because destiel is actually in the narrative."

But, there's a BIG difference between actively putting queer themes and subtext into the narrative and then saying it's not there (but it is! and the audience sees it!) versus NOT putting any queer content into the text but SAYING it is there to entice queer fans to continue watching. The latter, is textbook queerbaiting. The former? Is not. The former is the tactics so many creatives have had to use for years, decades, centuries, to get past censorship and signal to those in the know that yea, characters like you are here, they exist in this story.

Were the spn writers perfect? No, absolutely not. And I don't think every instance of queer content was a secret signal. Some stuff, depending on the writer, might've been a period-typical gay joke. These writers are flawed. But it's no secret that there were pro-destiel writers in the writing room throughout the years, and that efforts were made to make it explicitly canon (the market research!)

So no, the writers weren't ever perfect or a homogeneous entity. But they definitely were fighting an uphill battle constantly for 15 yrs against S&P and network execs with antiquated ideas of what's profitable / appealing.

Spn even called out the networks before, on the show, using a silly example of complaints abt the lighting of the show and how dark the early seasons were. Brightening the later seasons wasn't a creative choice, but a network choice. And if the networks can complain abt and change something as trivial as the lighting of a show, they definitely are having a hand in influencing the content of the show, especially queer content.

Even in s15, (seasons fifteen!!!) Misha has said he worried Castiel's confession would not air. In 2020!!! And Jensen recorded that scene on his personal phone! Why? Sure, for the memories. But also, I do not doubt for a second that part of it was for insurance, should the scene mysteriously disappear completely. We've seen the finale script. We've seen the omitted omitted omitted scenes. We all saw how they hacked the confession scene to bits. The weird cuts and close-ups. That's not the writers doing. That's likely not even the editors (willingly). That's orders from on high. All of the fuckery we saw in s15 reeks of network interference. Writers are not trying to sabotage their own stories, believe me.

Anyways, TLDR: Networks have a lot more power than many think and they get final say in what makes it to air. And for years creative teams have had to find ways to get past network censorship if they want "banned" or "unapproved" "unprofitable" "unwanted" content to make it into the show. That means relying on techniques like symbolism, subtext, and queercoding, and then shutting up about it. Denying its there, saying it's all "open to interpretation" all while they continue to put that open to interpretation content into the show. And that's not queerbaiting, as frustrating as it might be for queer audiences to be told that what they're seeing isn't there, it's still not queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is a marketing technique to draw in queer fans by baiting them with the promise of queer content and then having no queer content in said media. But if you are picking up on queer themes / subtext / symbolism / coding that is in front of your face IN the text, that's not queerbaiting. It's there, covertly, for you, because someone higher up didn't want it to be there explicitly or at all.

[chappelroans]

being a chappell roan fan right now really is just

[patrick-zweigs]

you go into the tags of this website for even 5 seconds and you will see the most absolutely unhinged shit

[niishi]

Don't do a thinkpiece on skypiea if you're going to completely ignore white christian settler colonization and indigenous genocide. Just don't talk about it.

[everyurlithinkofistoolong]

Some think nuanced villains are overdone and have made people incredibly cycnical but i think the best villains are the ones who are so achingly human and they despise it. The ones who are given every chance to do the right thing but always chose the self serving, greedy, manipulative option while feeding and justifying their own god complex. But theyre not superior and theyre no better than the people who choose to be kind and generous, worse actually, so while they have statues errected in their honor in public, in private they hide from their own reflection. Not a victim of a horrific tragic backstory but a victim of free will, and there really is nothing more human than that. And here comes this good, kind hearted, complex hero who struggles protect the people they care about, to do the right thing, and they need to be eradicated because the worst thing you could do to this villain is remind them that everything they have done up until now was a choice they made.

[katyspersonal]

[fakeosirian]

is the nina-fabian-joy love triangle my favorite part of season 2? in a manner of speaking yes. is it also my least favorite part? easily, yes. do i love talking about it? yes. do i hate talking about it? yes. am i petrified for if/when hoa breaks containment and people watch season 2 and start posting takes? yes

[littlekingbergara]

thinking about the time i saw someone genuinely say you shouldn't block people on social media because it could be traumatic for them to not have access to someone's account and not know why. how about it's none of your business. do you cry about private accounts too.

[selfundiagnosed]

what part if my blog makes trans misogynists feel safe and comfortable following me. Quickly please! you know who you are! Unfollow me you fucking weird bitch acting like you have x ray vision beneath peoples clothes. Dont think youre immune to my eye beams because you make believe you have your own for weird perverted nefarious purposes. And then displace that anger at your perverseness towards transgender people. Lawwwwl.

[ask-mrxmts]

//working on an Abt pin since i havent a clue on how to make links work on mobile

[dxringred]

apparently a bunch of ste/ddie fans are harassing and threatening chrissy’s actress just because she ships chrissy/eddie (not a fucking problem, actually) and like... besties, i'm starting to think the tagging is only part of the issue. 

[timeisacephalopod]

I think that whole Battle With Radfems is funny in that I'm pretty sure they thought they were gunna make me shut up about trans people or feminism or maybe both but what they didn't know is that every time this happens to me, someone violently opposing something I harshly believe in, all it does is make me triple quadruple down on it and become Even More Trans Friendly and now I bleed trans pride flag colors lmao.

Anyway if you're Canadian and your family is shit because you're trans you're my child on Thanksgiving now. Also respect indigenous people and their cultures let's not forget the myth that Thanksgiving perpetuates and no we will not be acknowledging Fake US Holidays that are different than Canadian ones because the Americans need to learn to be humble.

[purplepollywog]

ROFL SOMEONE WONT LET YOU NAME THE ADOPTS THEY MAKE CERTAIN WORDS BECAUSE THEY CONSIDER IT "SPECIESIST" LIKE NAMING A CHICKEN "NUGGET" IT'S A DRAWING AND HAS NO FEELINGS OH MY GOD

Even if you named a chicken "Nugget" like.... it's a chicken. It literally doesn't have the capacity to give a fuck about its name. Maybe find something else to get self-righteous over.

[coffinwoodd]

finally watched lisa frankenstein and now i CANNOT stop thinking abt braindead but the roles are reversed <3

[hagravenholm]

What’s rly crazy is how much I am loathing every one of these stupid fucking World Literature classes. Holy shit