#but there are more people. so presumably more stuff?

[thornfield13713]

As someone who has never seen Buffy, that answer was extremelly ominous. I'm both deadly curious and afraid to know what happened there that required an actor to go to therapy. Was it a rape scene? It sounds like it was

It was a sexual assault scene, yes. One put in deliberately to stop people from shipping a wildly popular ship. It did not work, partly because it was pretty obvious what the actual purpose was (right down to the judgemental dickhead there to go 'see! see! this is what happens when you go for bad boys!') and it wasn't narrative, and partly because of the overall context of the scene: that this was the culmination of a season-long arc of a poorly-negotiated BDSM relationship with a lot of consent play and no-means-yes stuff involved (I will die on the hill that, in-universe, if these two had had a safeword, That Scene would have ended as soon as Buffy said it), and that Spike's reaction to realising that she really did mean her 'no' this time, after a full season of this, was absolute guilt, horror and self-disgust and immediately going off to go and restore his soul (vampires in this universe are soulless, it's a whole thing), in order to make sure that he would never, ever do that again. Which, in a show where almost every member of the main cast has committed sexual assault at some point and the narrative brushed right over it, honestly had the opposite effect to what was intended.

It put a lot of people off the pairing entirely, and it's entirely reasonable for that to be a dealbreaker, but the reason it wasn't for so many of us is simply that this was such a transparent manipulation on the part of Joss Whedon (who has a way of getting very judgmental about fans who don't interpret things just the way he does, and actors who dare to have opinions on the characters they've played for six seasons) in order to do specifically that. By the by - one of the reasons it was so traumatic was that the way the scene was explained to James Marsters was a lot tamer than the way they ended up actually filming it, when he got the script and came to the showrunner with concerns both about how in-character the scene was, and presumably about his own boundaries. Hence that comment about never knowing what they're going to make you do. So, Whedon lied to his actors to get this scene filmed, causing at least one of them serious trauma. That this is not the worst of his offences really should tell you everything.

If you are thinking of getting into Buffy, I should probably warn you now that consent violation is sort of a running theme, and one that's often handled far more lightly than it deserves. Which is both more explicable and more disturbing now that we know what Joss Whedon was getting up to backstage. There are some genuinely excellent episodes, also a fair few stinkers like Seeing Red (also featuring: one of the most iconic Bury Your Gays moments of the early 2000s!) and Pangs, which has aged like milk that was already off when you bought it. But if you have triggers around consent and sexual assault, you might want to give it a miss, because while Seeing Red is the most extreme example, and generally loathed even within the fandom for its treatment of two beloved characters (Spike and Tara), I won't pretend that sexual assault doesn't come up far more often than is comfortable, and often in a context where it is not recognised as such.

[anemicjellyfish]

I don't usually like to comment much on stuff like this, but I'll give it just this once. Because there's been something I've been wanting to say and I think this moment is the right time to say it? (Please pretend you don't see any typos or grammar issues, I'm trying my best after a concussion I got recently.)

Helluva Boss respects its audience.

Our beloved demon show is full of jokes, gags, visual and audio stimulation, and more. It's wild, it's silly, it's emotional, and it's weird. All of which are good things, imo.

But when I say it respects it's audience, I mean the show (the writers, producers, etc) trusts us (the viewers) to understand what they're trying to say without necessarily saying it aloud.

I don't have to provide screenshots by now, and I won't because I'm tired, sorry. But we've all seen the evidence that there is a big class divide in Hell. Since this divide places imps near the bottom, we see the world of Hell from the bottom tier* (or close to it, I'll touch on that in a little bit) because imps make up a lot of the named characters.

Even ignoring every instance of "small/tiny" said by multiple characters, we get a line from Striker about how it's impressive for an imp (Blitz��) to own their own business.

We see imps in difficult and humiliating service roles to the higher ranking members of society.

Seemingly successful imps like Crimson shouldn't be considered the standard by any means. We found out that his "business" was failing. He tried marrying off Moxxie to get whatever fortune Chaz had amassed (even if it did turn out that Chaz was penniless himself & had lied).

I highly doubt that Crimson's criminal empire really fell to pieces because one little Moxxie ditched him. The system is rigged against Crimson and the only way he could try to get ahead was by running a literal mob/mafia group.

We were shown through world-building and snippets of dialogue that imps haven't been treated fairly in society.

Helluva Boss told us all of this without characters breaking the 4th wall like a 1990's Saturday morning cartoon educational end segment. They pulled a "show, don't tell," on us, and I respect them so much for it.

And I don't want to be too harsh to those who didn't catch it earlier. It's totally fair and understandable to miss these things. Which is why I think they had Millie be the one to spell it out for everyone.

An imp, from a presumably poorer background (edit at the bottom**) than her two imp coworkers, was the one who put into words that imps are seen as "less than" by just about everyone else. She's our down-to-earth, badass character, who has no reason to just make up excuses for why things are so difficult in life. If Millie is acknowledging the classism, it's serious.

Personally, I think a lot of reactors get caught up in the act of reacting and don't get the chance to take in the media they're watching. Yall know that moment when someone shows you a video on their phone and you have to watch the video knowing that the person is watching you watch it?

Yeah, I imagine it's something like that. In not sure I'd come up with the best takes if I knew people were waiting for me to make online content about other online content.

* One slight add-on here is that Hellhounds appear to be below imps in social standing. Blitzø is seemingly able to walk into a shelter/kennel and take his pick of Hellhounds to adopt. So if I had to guess, imps may rank a little above Hellhounds. But honestly I'm just so tired and I think I'm gonna have to call it on the analysis here. Sorry!

I've had so much respect for this show since I first saw Harvest Moon Festival with the way they treat the world building.

** sorry I think I worded this differently than I intended, and I'm not even gonna blame the concussion this time. What I meant was maybe Millie wasn't necessarily closer to/deeper in poverty than Blitzø during their youth/early adult life (Moxxie seemed better off than both). I meant that it seemed like she stayed "poorer" for longer? In the sense that Blitzø was already working for himself when they met; he seemed to already be surviving on his own and was able to save money to start IMP and give them an office. My stupid brain is a mess, again sorry for being weird.

Danny Motta so fundamentally misunderstands Blitz and it boils my blood. Oh well. I will not elaborate.

[craigularory-joe]

Day 9

[ganondoodle]

the company i work for decided that its switching from the german formal "You"(Sie) to the informal "you" (Du) in all of our websites so now we have to scour the entire database to change it and i quite frankly hate that, not just bc the unecessary extra work but especially bc its such a weird and unecessary change

i bet its bc everything here is getting englishfied (both literally and culturally it feels like, when my new boss talks its half in english bc every second german word is just replaced by an english one despite there being perfectly fine words for it in german too, its so annoying) and bc they want to sound more personal in hopes of getting more clients bc 'company is your fwiend uwu!!', i know this here is the amercian tm site so you wouldnt understand really but i do not want to be greeted with 'du' by companies, no, thats too personal, you dont know me and im not giving you my data, stay away!!

i guess thats how i would describe it .. the formal you is like a polite distance, like someone you dont know staying outside your personal space, but when its the informal 'you' it feels invasive unless i told you you can call me that, and that goes double for companies

maybe its a small thing that doesnt seem important but i cant stand it, im just a little part time worker doing data work so i got no say in it but the companies founder also announced hes giving his post to his kids some time ago so ...... since then theres been alot of changes and new projects that solely aim to imitate whats popular and whats done by other companies, despite ours being one that is, or used to be, intentionally different, like, that was the POINT, but i guess chasing trends is just too appealing for CEOs

[wherevenusholdssomeofficespace]

Linda Flynn-Fletcher

I think Linda Flynn-Fletcher is potentially one of the most misunderstood characters in the show.

It think comes from a natural enough place. Her role in the show is of course, to act as the potential threat to their summers of fun. While they boys never see her as a threat, narratively she's the big bad. If she sees it, its game over.

Here's the thing though. She's a not a bad mom. Her children LOVE her. Similarly to how Phineas and Ferb absolutely adore Candace and would do nearly anything she asked, Phineas, Ferb and Candace all love and respect their mother and don't disobey her. Now a bit of this is clearly Linda being a more permissive parent, but any rules that Linda has Phineas and Ferb never do anything to disobey their mother. While I wouldn't be surprised if there were one or two instances where Candace disobeyed her mother willfully, the closest I can think off off hand is Candace not doing a bunch of chores that she was supposed to do. Really, the fact that all her kids love her, shows how much all her kids feel loved in their household. And I think that's super important. Candace wrote a song about how much she feels loved by her mom, even if her mom is dismissive of Candace. But she still goes with Candace to see what the boys are up to even if she doesn't believe it. She sets boundaries on how often Candace can bust the boys sure. But she hasn't forbidden Candace from doing it altogether. Nor does she punish Candace for presumably lying?

At MOST Linda will say something like: "let's get you out of the sun" after a failed bust. The worst of it I think is probably the time Linda made her promise not to try or suffer the Pharaohs curse. Which, was just some guy in a Pharaoh costume telling Candace curse you. Linda goes out of her way to read books to try and deal with her daughter. She and Candace still clearly hold a lot of affection for each other and do spend a decent amount of mother daughter time together. Linda gives books to her daughter, tries to direct her to other activities, and finds her sleep busting cute, and sometimes goes out of her way to do activities her daughter wants to do with her. All things considered Linda is REALLY patient about Candace's busting. Could she be doing more to get to the bottom of why Candace is presumably acting out? Sure. But Doofensmirtz could also be doing a better job of listening to his daughter and not insulting her (or do we not remember why Vanessa wears earbuds around the house) but we all call him a really good dad.

A LOT of shows have kids hiding a secret from a parent for one reason of another. But while the crux of the show rests on Linda not knowing what her sons are doing, its not because its a secret. The boys aren't hiding it from her. The boys genuinely believe she knows. Lawrence genuinely believes she knows. Candace is the only one in the family who really grasps the situation.

Linda's ignorance, her disbelief of the wild shenanigans that her children get into is easily mistakable for normality. For representing the oppressive day to day. The same thematic antagonist as school. A mom who wants whats best for her kids, and thinks that whats best for them is them being normal, without realizing what's really best for them. After all why else we saw what would happen if she found out in Quantum Boogaloo. But the fact of the matter is aside from that one future (which also featured an effectively evil leader in Doofensmirtz, and therefore implies more factors at play than just Doofensmirtz and Linda's characters), we don't really know how it would play out in the long term. Future Linda even just kinda moves on after discovering the truth.

Linda is exactly like her kids. She just does the same things on a less physics breaking scale. The woman has like 37 different hobbies. She takes a cooking class, donated an art sculpture, is part of a jazz group. She has a background in astrophysics. She was a pop star. She won a meatloaf contest. She takes french lessons. The fact that Linda has several hobbies is part of the reason the formula works at all. Linda is constantly trying new things which gets her out of the house, while her sons are trying their own new things. Her absence is what prompts Candace to have to go looking for her. Also, What Do It Do when the moment Linda gets put in Candace's position she acts the exact same way.

Also it's why she and Lawrence are so compatible. They have a lot of weird hobbies they spend together. She likes Lawrence's history references. They watch car racing together. They went spelunking together. They go bowling regularly enough to have equipment. She has played the bagpipes while Lawrence danced (which sidenote: do you think she taught Candace how to play the bagpipes?).

Not to mention her extended family. Think about it. Her mom was a competitive roller derby skater who once bit a skate and shook it like a dog with a chew toy and pulls elaborate pranks with her identical twin. Really she's a lot like Candace with her aggressive passion. Her dad apparently won a balloon race, but tells the story in the most straightforward way possible, sometimes very oblivious, but is overall a lot like Phineas. Her sister is an adrenaline junky. And back to Quantum Boogaloo for a minute: Her granddaughter is just like Candace, Grown up Candace is a lot like Linda. Do you not see the implications!!?!?!? LIKE???? DO YOU NOT REALIZE THAT LINDA WAS PROBABLY A LOT LIKE CANDACE AND PHINEAS WHEN SHE WAS YOUNGER?!!?! YOU THINK IT SKIPPED A GENERATION OR SOMETHING???

Do you think Linda used to complain about Tiana??? Do you think Linda thought her family was weird and was embarrassed by them??? Do you think Linda ever called herself the only mature/normal member of her family?? LIKE CANDACE DOES????

Anyway, Linda is just like her family. Sure, she is RELATIVELY more normal, but that's relative, and probably simply because the universe bends itself around to keep her from knowing. Linda literally cannot find out about the real nature of her universe. Linda is just a grown up version of her children, seeking to make the most of each day, but within the bounds the universe has set upon her, both as an adult woman and mother, but also in the laws of physics expected of her. But she still makes the most of her life. You don't have to build a roller coaster to make the most of each day and all that.

I think if Linda is representing anything its that even parents can have rich fulfilling lives. Where they make the most out of each day. Having fun with your life doesn't stop with adulthood. Even if you have more responsibilities doesn't mean you can't have fun? Sure childhood is something you can't get back but growing up isn't inherently bad either?

[hyperfixationsposting]

an immortal bisexual witch and the cute lesbian butcher she may or may not have hooked up with once or twice :))

[essektheylyss]

I love that, regardless of any other fey nature or trickery, Morri genuinely seems to love Fearne. There's no question in her greeting that she does see her as her own granddaughter, as much as Fearne sees Morri as her grandmother unequivocally.

[not-cool-enough-to-scuba-dive]

actually I would quite like to hear your thoughts on gender philosophy in omegaverse worldbuilding? :3

hm. anon, I fear this is a far larger can of worms than you probably anticipated. I'm going to spare you the worst of it by only giving you a short version, but be careful what you wish for.

I'm also hiding it under a cut because even the short version is embarrassingly long.

I'm hardly a connoisseur of omegaverse content, nor would I consider myself anywhere near an expert. I don't want to speak for all fics as I've admittedly not read many. I did do my master's diss about legal gender recognition, so this is more about gender and philosophically sound worldbuilding than an indictment of any particular writing or story tbh.

the short answer is I find omegaverse worldbuilding really interesting, but I've never fully been able to enjoy it due to the way a/b/o identities tend to have a biological determinist slant to them imo, and tendency for a lack of real world implications of what the omegaverse does to gender and character interactions anywhere outside the bedroom. I'd love to figure out a version that's more inclusive and philosophically/ideologically consistent, both with itself and with my own views on real life gender (basically, I want to make it make more sense, have less biological determinism, and be more inclusive of the wider range of human experiences). this is a big task, and ngl I haven't achieved it and don't anticipate doing so any time soon. I have like, a concept in my head, taking apart all the key pieces and putting them together again but different, but to make it thorough enough would require more effort and time than I have because I'm like, employed 😔

I feel like someday if I ever get invited to a powerpoint night though, this could be It.

[smile-files]

i don't know if ralsei is a transfem or transmasc i just know he is trans

[rustedleopard]

Unpopular Opinion(?): I'm firmly in the "Starlo doesn't have a tail" camp

[edwinisms]

see I can’t accept charles’ comic background and socioeconomic status as canon for the show because if I did that would mean the whole group would be a bunch of rich kids and that’s a horrifying concept

[brittlebutch]

Actually, it's interesting to think about the sheer amount of footage that Jay never shows us. I'm rewatching Season One again, and Entry #3 caught my eye because Jay says he cut together about 2.5 Minutes worth of clips that he pulled from around 12 different tapes.

Depending on what kind of tape Alex's camera used, a single tape could hold anywhere from 1 to like 5 hours worth of footage -- at Minimum Jay watched 12 hours worth of footage just to make that video where he showed us like 0.002% of it.

I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that Jay was deliberate about framing Alex in any particular light when he started the channel, but it is interesting to think about the footage he decided wasn't interesting or worth sharing, and what kind of story a different cut would have told

[lesbiangiratina]

A good while ago i was scrolling through someone’s testament tag and once i got past march 2022 i saw them using she/her for them n i wish i remembered who this was because they were on some remarkable shit

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

i'm here for MURDER not wistful staring at the memory of a pretty lady!! why is the romance so fucking inescapable!! it's not NECESSARY it adds NOTHING honestly a childhood best friend instead of first love or something would be infinitely more interesting and would have so much more narrative weight if done properly!

[isfjmel-phleg]

One more paragraph to go! I realized that I had put into the first paragraph information that made more sense later on, so shifting things around got some thoughts moving and rekindled my desire to fistfight some of these authors of retellings, which I think is where you're supposed to be emotionally as an academic (this is a joke. I am joking.), so...progress. Very slowly.

[angelicaether]

Hi so I thought I’d share some info about the new DAMN audio in regards to the timeline!

This audio has to come before Gavin’s confession audio because of the now removed house party audio! The house party audio came before the confession audio (both in terms of when it was posted and in terms of the timeline) and in that house party audio the elementals are in attendance (we get an appearance from Lasko and a mention of Damien)

I’m assuming the use of the term partner is a result of Gav and FL not having discussed their relationship and partner is the easiest way to introduce someone to your friends.