#cartoon and fandom activism is not real activism

[n4rval]

what if i wrote a dr wingdings gaster so real and so convincing it became impossible to see him as anything else and made tobias "radiation" fox come into my dms asking me to cease my activities immediately because im ruining the mystery

[tariah23]

White people will literally go to war for their special interests, man. They show so much grace to fictional characters who are lines on paper, and the media they consume but when it comes to real life, flesh and blood people, it’s either complete radio silence on they’re end, or they go full klan mode because they feel like they have to actually defend the piece of media that they like from the big bad, scary black and brown people who told them that the shit they like is indeed, racist.

[damnfandomproblems]

Response to 5474

"All art is political"

No the fuck it's not. Art for the sake of art/decoration/love of subject, has always been the majority. Fanartists aren't drawing political cartoons. They're drawing they're favorites doing beach episodes and riding go-carts and getting fucked stupid and everything in between. Nothing about that is freaking political. Nor should it be. Fandom is an escape, not activism.

As far as representation goes: this is the most America/west centric view, istg

the things mentioned are shown, but by dint of proportionality will always be in the minority. Because people with X handicap or LGBT, are the minority in the US and EU.

Asians are 6% of the country, and less if you split it by east/west/south Asian communities. 13% of the population is Black, just under 20% Hispanic, and about 2% Native. Of course there's going to be less of them in media.

It wasn't political until people politicized it. Some of the top earning actors and comedians in the 90s were black. Some of the most popular shows had 50-90% Black casts. Children's shows with real and animated casts were diverse as all hell with race and ability differences just accepted and spoken about normally and explained in ways kids easily understood and accepted and Literally No On questioned it outside of people that were rightfully considered crazy fundies.

Then the 2010s happened and someone decided it had to be freaking highlighted and made into a big deal and all of a sudden it's an issue when before it never was.

There is a ton of media out there with Latinos and Asians and every other group you can think of. They're just in different languages. Because the world doesn't stop at American/European TV. Branch out. Show the execs you don't want an empty check box character, but actual stories like They're doing overseas. Because that's what will get things shifted, not just demanding X media needs Y type of person just because, especially not when changing the race or sex or ability of a character would actively change the character and the story because they're a whole different person and will have different history and perceptions that will by default change the narrative.

Posting as a response to a previous problem.

[olderthannetfic]

Whenever I see the "there is no F/F content in fandoms, fandoms hate women" discussion on Tumblr, all I can think of is a phrase that is guaranteed to enrage half the Tumblr fandom audience, maybe more: "Have you tried imageboards?".

When I was younger, I used to frequent different anime and cartoon-themed imageboards. Big ones like 4Chan's /a/ and /co/, smaller ones meant for specific fandoms or kinks, non-English ones in my native language, you name it. The users were mostly straight men, and the F/F content and shipping flourished there. The "waifu threads" exclusively dedicated to gushing about female blorbos. The wast majority of kink content involving fictional women, either alone, with a nondescript self-insert man or with each other. The F/F fanart, fanfiction and ideas were just limitless, to the point where you would struggle to find one or two discussions about the guys in the midst of everyone celebrating the women.

The anime, cartoon or comic has a cast full of women? They will all get love. Women and men both? Women will generate much more discussion. One or two women amidst the cast full of men? People will mostly post about the two women, deal with it. Sure, there were designated boards and threads for the male characters, but good luck expecting there to be as much activity as there were in the waifu threads. The fandoms with lots of female characters, such as Touhou Project, thrived on these grounds, and much F/F shipping was had by everyone.

Now, of course, the imageboard culture is an entire separate beast. Right-leaning, edgy, bigoted - basically, what you get if you put a bunch of ostracized and lonely cishet male nerds in an echo chamber and let them feed each other bullshit all day long. A lot of the F/F art they made was sexual in nature, something that could be decried as sexualisation, but, the way I remember it, it was not much different from what is often done to male characters by straight women who ship M/M because they find the two dudes hot. A lot of gushing about waifus by the anonymous 4Chan dudes could be seen as misogynistic, despite the language being practically the same as when a Tumblr fandom girl is describing her blorboman and the things she wants to see done to him.

It all comes down to the the real life influencing the way we interact with fiction: male sexuality is viewed in a different light than female sexuality, despite both being more or less demonized in our society, just in different ways. Men are always predators, women are always victims. When a guy has sexual fantasies about a female character, he is a creep who wants to hurt real life women to enact these fantasies. When a woman has sexual fantasies about male characters, she cannot tell fiction from reality and is at risk of getting hurt by men while trying to enact these fantasies. And if either of them fantasizes about a same-sex couple, they are fetishizing queer people, obviously.

However, that's just how people roll - you cannot change what gender you are attracted to, and people with similar attractions stick together. It just so happens that the fandom side of Tumblr largely consists of straight women and queer men, so you get ships with guys, while the fandom side of 4Chan and the like largely consists of straight men, so you get ships with women. Both sides also happen to have cultures that don't mix well, and someone who frequents one place is likely to avoid the other.

I don't frequent 4Chan anymore, and I'm not big on fandom Tumblr, either, but Tumblr continues to be the unique place where I am more likely to stumble upon erotic fandom content featuring men than women, who are the majorly discussed and shipped characters practically everywhere else. I obviously do not excuse 4Chan's bigotry and rampant hateful bullshit, but my point still stands: if you want to see more F/F shipping and discussions of girl blorbos, but don't feel like making some yourself and creating a like-minded community on Tumblr, you should try your luck elsewhere on the Internet, especially when it comes to anime and cape comic fandoms. Tumblr is a unique place in terms of male-centric fandom content, and honestly, it's not that bad, if Tumblr isn't the only place you find your stuff at. It simply occupies a specific niche and doesn't offer much of everything else (though you can still find it if you look).

--

Now, be fair: plenty of imageboards are full of nominally straight guys who love millions of female blorbos... and art of Link getting wrecked.

[racketballz]

Hope u don't mind another perspective about the spit scene, but I actually saw the reddit comment that kickstarted this discussion. It was a deeply annoying argument (that was left on a post about aku/bloss of all things??) to the point I actually left a long reply before thinking better of it n just deleting and blocking

Just for reference, in response to someone disagreeing, they asserted something along the lines of "He's still holding her down and violating her using fluid from his body, it's WEIRD that you're ignoring that just to ship them" and that level of stretching words just. Did not signal a productive conversation to come

I really feel like people want to overcorrect for the early portrayal of the boys by the fandom (made up of mostly children, who obviously would not have known how to write a character) by like... treating them as adult men almost? It's super weird because they always end up using extremely specific, modern types of adult misogynist (like cryptobros or Andrew Tate) to illustrate their point regardless of how little sense it makes for their canon personalities

I also think people conveniently forget what kind of show they're watching sometimes because PPG is still like, a kid's cartoon where the MC's have superpowers. Everything the girls do are normal kid activities cranked to 11 because they're superhuman, and when I look at it from that lens then the boys' episodes really don't strike me as very sinister largely bc they're all just kids on an even playing field (obviously the dynamic was really lopsided for most of TBABIT, but even then I mean. We already discussed how the girls retaliated)

Idk maybe I'm biased but it's kind of obvious that the boys are super archetypal snot-nosed, sexist brats and ime, characters like that pretty much always grew out of it. Like if the girls could destroy the entire town for no good reason more than once, Harry Pitt could pull what he did in the cooties episode, and Mitch could torture a hamster without being considered monsters for it, then realistically there's ample hope left for the RRB (and even if there wasn't, I don't think just projecting the worst guy anyone has ever met onto them is guaranteed to fit their characters, but I digress)

Also to be real I don't think people take the boys' actions as seriously as they make it sound a lot of the time. Like if we're going by their logic, then it should also be questionable to portray them as friends or close siblings to the girls, but I've never seen pushback against this idea off the basis that the boys have hurt them too badly in the past. It's pretty much always leveraged against ship content, which makes me think concern about the boys' characters aren't what's actually driving this criticism, but that's just me

1000000% brother this is not my first rodeo I had a feeling thats what was happening. To demonize a ship to uplift their own favorite ship people will pull out anything and everything to misconstrue the shows intention

[keep-looking-to-the-sky-me]

The zelda fandom and homophobia and sexism to shippers

Before you read I'm not trying to say ALL yona defenders, zelink shippers or people who dislike sidlink are homophobic/sexist. This is a 'if the shoe fits' type post but I encourage everyone to read.

A type of homophobia I've seen in the fandom which isn't new to fandom spaces is the idea of wlw vs mlm. Presenting wlw as pure, more genuine and sexless well mlm is just sex and can't be deeper than that. No mlm ships are inherently unpure or immoral, even if they do have a lot of sexual content. spending so much time calling mlm shippers freaks does nothing to support wlw ships. you don't have the right to go on and on about how zelink and sidyona are 'really lesbian relationships' or 'straight ships for gay people' or just gay in general and actively try to push out actual gay ships and gay fans.

Whenever an anti sidlink post or tweet gets popular we see in the comments and likes, hard line conservatives and homophobes agreeing with y'all. I know this is unintentional but with the constant focus of proving why ships between two men are disgusting, you invite those type of people into fandom spaces and making them more unsafe for queer people as a whole.

Me and many others don't like sidlink just for sex. We like them because we like them. The idea that someone has to have a dark alterier motive for liking something is also deeply flawed.

if you can't defend yona from misogyny without resorting to misogyny yourself and demeaning others than your not getting rid of sexism in fandom spaces but adding to it. You don't get points for demanding woman for their personal interests. You're not helping the character by calling people who dislike her or ship sidlink bitches, slut, fujos, coomers,fetishist,groomers, cum-for-brains,cumdumpsters, dickriders or literal slurs(all things that I've seen). inorder to be a good feminist you have to care about the feelings of real life people more than a cartoon stingray and realize misogyny affects every one in fandom, including people who ship things that you dislike.

[xia0mi-c0m]

another rant about Dragon Maid and it's G-d awful creator

!!WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS TOPICS SUCH AS L0LIC0N AND P3DO BAITING. BEFORE YOU COMMENT; THIS IS NOT A DEFENSE POST OF THESE TOPICS BUT RATHER A RANT ABOUT THE ANIME KOBAYASHI DRAGON MAID AND IT'S UNFUNNY, DISGUSTING HUMOR.

Let's just get straight to the point; Dragon Maid is straight up fucking gross. This animes whole fucking gag whenever Kanna is in a "questionable" position is that "Oh! Kobayashi finds this physically 6 year old [Kanna] girl hot! She's such a p3do! Lol!!!1!1!1!!" Which ISN'T FUCKING OKAY. IT'S NOT A GOOD FUCKING GAG NOR IS IT A GOOD JOKE. Jokes are supposed to be funny, pedophilia is not a joke. Children are harmed by the activities of predators and glorifying this and making it a "joke" is never okay no matter what. These jokes are also always out of place and let's not forget the disgusting design of Ilulu.

Before degenerates who desperately need to touch grass come into my comment section defending the creator by saying "Oh but they're dragons!" Both Ilulu and Kanna do not have actual ages stated on the wiki. But all we know is that KANNA IS PHYSICALLY 6 YEARS OLD. WITH NO HUMAN NOR DRAGON AGE LISTED. Whether you like it or not, that is full-blown dog whistling to predators.

Ilulu is so grotesquely designed for a girl who looks like a literal 7 year old. The Creator s3xualizes her especially because he made her have large breasts that are too big for her body for the sole purpose of s3xualizing her. REMINDER; SHE LOOKS LIKE A 7 YEAR OLD GIRL. In what way, shape or form, is that okay?

And them being a dragon ISN'T AN EXCUSE. We saw it in The Seven Deadly Sins with that fairy girl who was basically a child but the fandom defended the p3do-baiting by saying that she was a fairy and they were tiny so it's okay EVEN WHEN, AGAIN, THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE.

If she or he looks like a child, they ARE a child, there's a difference between dwarves and petite individuals when it comes to comparing them to these L0lic0n characters. So, don't use that excuse with me either. If you're against proship or p3dophilia in general, then you're against Sh0tac0n and L0lic0n. Otherwise, you'd be a hypocrite.

And to go back on the "reality doesn't affect reality" thingy many people like to say, under FEDERAL LAW it is considered a crime to have paintings, images, and cartoons of minors in s3xually charged positions, and guess who usually are in these positions in dragon maid? KANNA AND ILULU. Even if these drawings or cartoons do not have real children, fictional children still counts, and when referring to children I'm talking about people under 18 in general. So, fiction DOES affect reality.

Basically, in short: FUCK THE DRAGON MAID CREATOR.

[moth--mallow]

W.i.t.c.h. 2023 reboot v2

Just some thoughts I had on this I want to get out real quick after reading it

So I didn't know till last night that this reboot was out

So I read the new reboot volume 2

Before I get started I want to make it clear I have nothing against the people who worked on and made this reboot I can tell they put a lot of passion into it

But

I read it and I have a few things to say

First will she doesn't seem that much different than how she was in the original comic I kind of like that she's somewhat the same , there are some things I wish that they had kept the same like how the girls even though they had certain elements were into different activities and I'm going to get into that more when I get to Irma but when it comes to will it just doesn't really feel like she has much to do outside of worrying about the other girls and making her Mom worry and now it seems they have her falling for this new character who's heart is the heart of kandracar

She not with Matt and will be with this Arthur dude 🫤

This feels like one of my au fix where I'm shipping a character from another fictional media with an OC I've made like this is what this is giving with this Arthur character I know I can't talk cuz like I said I'm making an au where I'm shipping a character from a mango with an OC but this just feels like someone saw a hot K-pop idol and thought yeah we'll be good with them I don't know if this will actually be a thing but it feel like it's kind of hinted at and that will probably see more when we get volume three if he's in it

In the heartbeat he's

this feels like some deeper lore related BS and I really pray that doesn't mean we're getting more books from this series

I know we have one more that's coming out possibly next year I heard a rumor maybe one more after that but we do not need any more of these books if you like these that's fine if someone you know like these that's fine but I'm begging this fandom please don't buy these books again I want to make it clear I don't have anything against anyone who worked on these books but this reboot is just so hard to get through and I know people are probably going well don't

read it but I've been waiting for something related to this show and comic to come back for forever as has everyone else and I feel like this reboot just isn't the thing we needed I would have preferred if they made a new coloring book or something at this point that would be interested me more and I don't even lke coloring honestly wish they had just made like some special edition comics that sent her around holidays or something like they used to where we got to see the girls and their families and friends again doing holiday stuff that would have been more interesting like I said I get people worked on this and put passion into it but I just don't feel like this is something anyone really wanted especially after the reactions I remember seeing last year I have not really even seen anyone talk about this new reboot volume two I literally didn't know that this had been out for a month or more so yesterday cuz I saw a few people on Reddit talking about they didn't know it was out

Why this Arthur do kind of reminds me of Cedric and season 1 where he was getting close to Elyon and it seems he's getting close to Will and it's going to lead to some bigger reveal or something but I don't know

and like what the first one is just I can't get past a lot of the things that are so different and I get that this is made for a newer generation I get the feeling that I'm feeling with a lot of the teen Titans comic fans felt when teen Titans 2003 cartoon came out and then we got teen Titans Go and everybody hated it

I feel like with the fandom for w.i.t.c.h it's about 50/50 maybe or it's just a lot of mixed feelings one thing I will not get over though is how they drastically trained tarrane personality saying what Cornelius of all people

And the whitewashing of darker skin characters from the original comic I get this as a reboot but we did not need to change everybody so many things about the characters it could have still had better similarities even the she r reboot which has a lot of things people do and don't like felt like it had closer similarities with the original She ra show then I'm feeling with this reboot

I'm getting that usual feeling I get when I see reboots of certain things where it's like someone wants to make something original but there are people who have IPS that aren't in use and they just throw them OIP and tell them to work on this show and have them just add the wrong touches to it from the original story they wanted to pitch and that's really what this feels like this was like this could have been another magical girl series like an original magical girl series but instead someone at Disney instead of giving someone a chance to make something original that stood out as an original magical show kind of like owl House or amphibia

They gave us a reboot that feels more like an original idea that's just using and changing characters we knew to fit the story they want to make again I know I keep saying this but I really don't have anything against these people maybe they really did want to work on w.i.t.c.h.

I don't know this is just what it gives to me when it comes to that when I see reboots especially when it's linked to Disney

Sorry for going off on like a side attention about all this I'm going to try to talk more about the other

They're trying to have it where they're trying to relate to kids or whoever who's reading this with Haley and she feels out a place since she's wants to be a part of her original culture but loves being in Heatherfield but I truly miss how we got to see you quirky fun and bubbly girl who liked sewing designing and painting and drawing

When it comes to Irma I don't like anything they've done with her she's not as funny and quirky and sassy as she used to be they have her on the swim team it seems like for a minute since her power is water

but I really did like that the girls in the original comic and a show had different interests unrelated to their powers will was the one doing swimming and wanted to go to the Olympics, hey lin, like aliens had different unique styles she did fashion or drawing painting designing in so many creative things, tarane wasn't a dancing studying and had confidence in herself which I do not see in this version they completely took her personality away she only wears black and gray in this comic I don't even remember of her brother was mentioned that all in this series but Cornelia has two sisters for no reason okay 🙄

And speaking of Cornelia her running to write reminds me of how in volume 50 of the original comic they had will become a writer and write a story about their magical adventures is the same energy I swear

But them having her not being sure of herself or knowing what she wants to do, Cornelia was always such a confident character sure she came off as a bit mean but you grew to love her over time reading the original comic

her parents being divorced I guess they're trying to relate to kids who have divorced parents or parents who aren't together but honestly don't think we actually needed this in the story at all like kids who have some kids even myself whose parents aren't together I never mind it seeing families and media that were together it never made me feel sad or any other people I knew they actually like seeing whole families together that's why a lot of us really likes growing up watching certain shows where the

family was all together and stuff because it gave us hope for the future when we had families going yeah I can make a family that's together again I get there trying to relate to kids who are going through this and probably have siblings on top of it and going back and forth between two parents I had to go through that myself where it was mandated that I had to go to my dad on the weekends and all

summer and it was real hard for me back then I get there trying to relate to kids with that but this kind of just feels like that's the only thing we're getting with Cornelia is that she's unsure of herself and she just has issues because her parents are divorced and she stuck with siblings it doesn't feel like they're really giving her a personality or anything to focus on

At least with tarrane and Irma in this reboot you can see the things they're struggling with kind of I guess tarrane afraid of losing control of the fire magic or whatever it seems and Irma's interested in a boy is better than nothing and at least even from haylin you see that she misses her grandma and it feels stuck between two cultures again I get that they're trying to relate to people but I do wish they had kept more things from the original comic when it came to these characters personalities or at least try to give them better things linked to it I get maybe Disney told them to steer clear of referencing too many things related to the original so they wouldn't have issues or whatever I don't know maybe the original creators are still trying to fight to get the original comic back from Disney for all I know and maybe that's why they did this reboot to show that they could do their own version but it feels like also if I think about it it feels like Disney saw that winx was getting like a Jillian reboots left and right and then they remembered how back in the day kids would compete or compare the shows and talk about what show was their favorite and which one they stand with cuz I remember those days in school where me and my friends will argue back and forth over the shows and maybe that's what they thought would happen with this newer reboot that it would be a comparison between them and maybe they would win this time I don't know that's just me guessing I don't think that's the case I don't think Disney that petty or maybe they are 🤣

There are just so many changes oh and let's not forget the biggest change

Kandracar is gone in this it seems that the girls have these emotional portal worlds or whatever these are that they go to now to communicate with their powers I don't know if things are real or fake or if we'll see him again I don't know it just feels like I know we're only getting three volumes as of right now but this feels like there's a lot more lower that needs to be built and we would need maybe 4 more books for that

And that's kind of also my fear is that I really don't want any more comics after the third one that we were told we were getting like for years I've hoped for a reboot that will continue where the comic left off like I said with maybe some holiday specials or something or showing the girls a few years older in high school cuz they were in their final few years of high school I think they were getting to I don't really remember that's what it felt like to me I swear we saw the school year beginning in several times in the original comic even after the writing started to get really poor towards the final stretches of the comic where it felt like it was lessons of the week instead of having full arcs we were following with different villains and different characters and different worlds we saw them start school and in school again I believe or maybe they were going back and forth on breaks cuz I'm like where I live when I was in school we didn't get like fall break and stuff I remember my friend told me he wanted she transferred to a different School outside the city they have fall break and I had never heard of that before and they had other types of breaks as well where I lived you went to school hail rain fire or snow if you got a break it was Thanksgiving Christmas and spring break and that was it

So maybe in the original comic I'm confusing all the different breaks they had with them going back and forth with school

Sorry I know at this point it just sounds like I'm yapping but I'm just sitting here thinking back on the comic and wishing we could have gotten a bit more from that or maybe them just giving us a season 3 for the show like if they were promoting these comics to maybe give us a season 3 for the show then yeah I would be all in support of buying these even if I'm not really much of a fan of how these reboot comics go I guess if you want to collect these to just have them with the rest of the series or whatever the other that's cool but a lot of the choices in these are just so different it just feels too different and again I know I said earlier in my post this kind of feels like what happened with teen Titans versus the teen Titans comics that originally came out and then we ended up getting teen Titans Go and everybody hated that

And like also said the fandom when it comes to this comic seems about 50/50 some like it some just start like myself aren't really sure and just don't like it and I'm just really wish we could have got something related to the original

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Miraculous is always weird about apology but it's also weird about the thing that count as joke and not. Like Marinette stalkery behavior? It used to be a joke but then BAM! S5 say nope, Marinette is just mentally unstable. And then there's the whole LB throwing CN to the trash can, "it's a joke!" Fandom said, except CN reaction said otherwise. He's basically beat himself for almost half of the episode because of his untiming joke.

I don't know what part of throwing someone in the trash is supposed to be a joke. Maybe if the character isn't affected by it at all, but considering he even talked about it to Marinette then it's not supposed to be a joke!

Miraculous' main humor style is absurdist humor and throwing someone in the trash is pretty classic absurdist humor.

To give a quick overview, "absurdist humor" is humor that is based on the absurdity of the situation the characters are in or the things the characters are saying or the way they're reacting to things. A key component of this humor style is irreverence. Even the darkest of topics aren't taken seriously, making it a terrible humor style to use in serious scenes assuming that you want the scene to actually feel serious.

If you want an example of absurdist humor done right, then watch some Looney Tunes cartoons. They're classic absurdist humor where nothing is sacred and nothing is ever treated seriously.

That doesn't mean that you're not allowed to be upset by one of these cartoons. It's perfectly understandable if one of them gets under your skin because a lot of what we see in Looney Tunes would be terribly cruel or straight up horrific if someone did the same thing in the real world. For example, this Daffy Duck cartoon always makes me laugh, but at the same time, I feel kinda bad for poor Daffy. If he was a real person, then this would not be okay:

The trash can stuff in Glaciator 2.0 falls in line with the above examples. It's very clearly there to be an absurd punch line:

Marinette: She doesn't hate you! Cat Noir: She threw me in the trash today.

But just because something is clearly a joke doesn't mean that you need to think that it was a good joke. Even if you think it was a good joke, you can still think it was a poor call for the overall narrative, which is where I fall. I love absurdist humor, but I'd never use it to have my romantic leads treat each other poorly because - joke or not - it's still establishing part of their relationship dynamic. The more you make jokes about them being cruel to each other, the more that's just who they are, jokes or not.

Circling back to Looney Tunes, when I think of Bug Bunny and Daffy Duck, I don't think of loving friends who cherish each other. I think of two characters who delight in torturing each other. If you asked me to write these two in a more serious story without any of the humor, they'd be toxic and abusive because that's the only dynamic they have. I can't think of a Looney Tunes story that shows them being nice to each other.

That doesn't mean that you can't use absurdist humor between people who love each other. You just have to be careful about what type of jokes you tell. If you stick to situational absurdist humor such as Marinette needing to steal Adrien's phone to erase a message, then you can get away with a lot more questionable behavior because there's a strong argument that a serious show would just never put her in that situation, making her actions easy to ignore.

Stuff that's a lot harder to ignore would include things like a running gag where Ladybug throws Chat Noir in trashcans when he annoys her. The more you do that, the more it comes across like she actively dislikes him. Eventually, it will reach a point where, even if you remove the joke, you still feel like you can't write her as actually liking her partner because the show never writes her as liking him. This is a problem I'd argue that the show actually has. They massively overplayed the pushy Chat Noir/annoyed Ladybug dynamic to the point where it was painful. I can only overlook it in my own writing because of how massively it goes against their intended character roles.

[allgremlinart]

hai good friend,, tell me about mai. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of her before… look what we are doing to our beautiful queens 😔

YIPEE I love when me going insane about a character for a day makes you curious about them... especially cus atp I can kind of predict what is going to pique ur interest

ok ok: so, Mai. She's 1/3 of Azula's Evil Girl Group, colloquially known as Ozai's Angels, and thats the context you see her in for most of the show which is why it's important to know. You know how all cartoons in the 2000s HAD to have ONE morose goth chic? Well she is atla's quota. She's a noble, she's an only child (THEE only child. The first only child they made at the only child factory <33), she fights with 🔪KNIVES 🔪!!! she's Zuko's canonical comphet love interest and she has a very understated but underrated arc..

Her role/arc in the show:

I mentioned Ozai's Angels because her interactions with Azula and Ty Lee are the real meat and potatoes of her character. They're like... baby's first toxic yuri love triangle <3333 REALLY can't overstate how toxic yuri love triangle they are. Mai and Ty Lee end up betraying Azula in season 3 which is both the climax (imo) of Mai's arc and the inciting action for Azula's descent (but we're not getting into Azula never ask me to get into Azula please). A lot of people reduce Mai going turncoat to JUST being about saving Zuko - and like partially it IS. She saves Zuko from dying because she loves/cares about him and that's a big part of it.

But it's ALSO about her finding her voice ?? Like throughout the show we NEVER see her voice opinions about something unless it's to say that she's bored, or jaded, or what have you. She never seems to have strong feelings about anything; her stated reasoning for joining Azula's Imperialism Girl Band is because she's bored living with her parents 💀 but it's like. It becomes clear to the audience later in the show that she was raised to never speak unless spoken to, to mask emotions, etc etc LIEKKK SHE'S SOOO REPRESSED ONLY CHILD SHE'S SO WOMAN TM... So her telling Azula "I love Zuko more than I fear you" was THEE cuntiest moment EVER because it's like oh shit ?? this is something pretty unexpected from this character ?? Waow so crazy so cunt ??

A lot of people point out that she and Ty Lee never really got a "ohhhh Imperialism is bad" arc like Zuko did but. imo there wasn't a whole lot of room in the show for it lol. Would have been something interesting to explore in the comics for sure !! but uhmmm I'd rather walk into the ocean than watch Gene Luen Yang try and write about imperialism and colonialism again so maybe its better we never got that.. (no offense to him he's just... not that great at doing it in the atla comics...not his strength..)

Her reception in fandom:

She's usually only ever talked about in the context of being Zuko's love interest (either positively OR negatively) hence my post that you saw. Like. Victim Numero Uno of zutara/kataang shipping wars cus at least a bunch of people LIKE Aang whereas people either ignore or actively dislike her.

There's often discourse about like. Who's the "toxic" one in the Mai/Zuko pairing and it's annoying when she gets flak for it cus like newsflash: they both are. My GOD they both are. They've canonically broken up twice. They're the emo boy/goth girl pairing. They're cute together. They're miserable together. They're both homosexual. You get it.

Also a lot of times people just call her boring or emotionless and it's like congrats !! you have fallen for her facade... in conclusion... sorry this is so long uhm.. your fault for asking me though... how long is it going to take until I've just told you the entire plot of this cartoon piecemeal ask by ask...

[tariah23]

oooooo white people in my replies really saying ‘I can excuse racism but I draw the line at homophobia’

Not surprised since this is the site that only talks about racism and thinks it’s a big deal when they see it demonstrated in the cartoons and comics they like *coughs* dungeonmeshi *coughs* (for example at least. I haven’t seen THIS many white ppl talk as in depth about racism on here as much as these fandom nerds, man. I stg. Like “Ohhhh, so you all DO acknowledge that racism is real? Just not in real life even if you could feel it slapping you in the face at high speed. Gotcha.” It’s crazy.

Tumblr is like, 90% white and is extremely centered around them. That’s why you barely see stuff that’s important to black and brown people ever trending here or being talked about. It has to be something incredibly huge to the point where even white people can’t ignore it like they usually do, to talk about it here.

They only talked about George Floyd here because the topic of his death became world news. Even people in other countries were talking about it. Before him, it was probably Ferguson and Trayvon Martin… most of them are still trying their best to ignore the genocides because it’s a “touchy subject.” What do you expect from white people who live in their own bubbles of comfort and refuse to pop it with a needle??? They find comfort in their privilege and faux ignorance (they love playing stupid to avoid conversations about important things outside of fandoms like, are these mfs born with half a brain dedicated to fandom or what.) That’s literally all these mfs make a big deal out of, especially on this annoying ass platform. The ao3 mfs will go to war for the site that allows racist ff and cp like it’s no big deal. I wonder how many people here even donated to the site while actively scrolling past dono posts from folks who really do need help. They act like they’re doing a civil service by defending this site that makes over the amount of it’s intended dono goal in minutes.

Then you already know as soon as you even bring up racism in the stuff they like, they start ganging up and harassing black bloggers especially, calling them TERFs and the whole nine. Anything to make that person look bad for being concerned about the racism that they have such an intense aversion to. God, it’s absolutely exhausting knowing that these people would have no problem choosing a cartoon character over your entire existence if they COULD. Isn’t that fucking sad, man?

[daystarvoyage]

Hello owl fans, I wanted to give my critical breakdown on When I first watched Owl House, now rewatching it, looking back at a well known character in

This very 3 part topic focusing on

Everyone's fan favorite Amity who I like to call

(Little Miss Self Insert) Amity analysis & why she’s popular

Literally the same (Real) hair color as the creator

DISCLAIMER THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK ON THE CREATOR But a Critic that could benefit the show & educate viewers, POC, BIPOC (Bi meaning black indigenous, Person of color) REP,

(don't Hate appreciate), if ya can't Face different opinions or anyone with an open mind who can critic just being nasty/policing people, There's the Portal Door to outer space.

Ok aight Lets start to this 3 PART topic post

I indeed love my run of Amity as a character because she made an impactful LGBTQ show great, along with her endeavor on how she developed as a character. ( Also Green Hair AMity is Better.) because she had great drive melding her into the person she is, having to face her parents, falling in loving with luz.

Due to the high demand being a lgbt character at times, (even though we been starved and wanting more rep) has at times repercussions and flaws,if the writing, narrative & pacing is compromised in the show which shown after rewatching the series ANOTHER TOPIC.

I'm fully aware that she's a well-known fan favorite character ever since the show's green light along the panel interview with Dana Terrace hyped her up during the debut panel of the other shark cartoon she worked on, DOWN BELOW

After Rewatching the show I felt there was more to her then just being luz girlfriend,

(like other characters to never get there titular moments at time like the Hexside students.)

and how she was written in a one-sided straight forward manner which people overlook cause we had proud lgbt content to gush over, googling, blushing eyes and the creator saying no romance in the series yet we have a two girls hogging peoples potential and spotlight?!

which contributed to her name trending more & talked about compared to our main POC character (which I find weird & Staggering at times.)

Theres proof from a Good post on here THATS IMPORTANT BELOW

Now we got that outta the way 3 major reasons LETS GO

The Favoritism

I feel the favoritism in fandom really says about how the show reacts TO OUR favorite characters, yes a world and great characters can be executed in titular episodes or moment you can let them see shine,

but diving into the season 1 of the show had its Rocky start till they started the real action in season 2 not to mention the kiss scene which put everyone on good edge however hogged (a titular poc spotlight.)

There's proof on how poc people in real life are depicted in media as something negative and gross yet caucisian people are giving everything handed to them in a silver spoon.

so here's a article ill bring up cause these types of behavior says in how poc see ourselves

Heck thats how we got that lumity controversial pic

(IF YA KNOW YA KNOW)

ill pull up with article on black media effects real life

I truly did feel the intent on the show at times was made selfishly at times,

Which there's a link about a unique article that sheds some light on this situation on how it treated Amity and why she was made into a self inset character. Showing relationship run throughout the show.

you can be able to write a good cartoon series and make an impact on fans, spilling your life on the show you care being in there shoes,

However don't let it sacrificed the many aspects excusing plots, and narrative with tonal whiplash & poor characterization.

Hope Your here with me now lets get on to

Shipping discourse

these girls took over the whole world by storm, to the point the fandom only cares about these girls, nothing beyond,

(social media numbers don’t lie on searched characters and many aspects on the owl house.)

if not them but solely for Amity herself. which I felt really was a selfish writing move. Cause I really did love the character until she was written good however shoehorned to being a hollow shel of herself and discourse did no favors.

It irks me to no end cause we have a prominent poc character said previously, who gets not talked about a yet amity is the one y’all favor to? At the point y’all really don’t show y’all don’t care about black, Poc, or BIPOC and there contributions to media.

it pains me to see a show like this has been nothing but a whole show of contradictions and ill-pacing,

And i know why we stand with the ship or any sexuality reveal with any character to gain a following or popularity for that matter is this a good term of how we gotten lgbt media uprising

(which I understand we crave years ago. )

PERFORMATIVE SEXUALITY (Article & Term HERE .)

Not to mention the celebrity worship yall put onto amity herself which is responsible for it

Where gonna make this quick so last session and hoep you have a good one afterwards thanks

The Colorism Issue (Glad fans are speaking out)

Its just facts that we see white or white-passing as something to be congratulated and praised for compared to what poc go through cause we POCs & myself have to work tens time harder for what we want, (one issue for another session is?)

WHY IS THE NOCEDA FAMILY HAVE DIFFERENT SKINTONES?!

FIX IT Titan

For media especially Disney has treated Poc if not BIPOC IN live action if not animation to an extent is degrading, you have kids on jessie acting any way without severe repercussions such as how they Treat BIpoc Characters with utmost disrespect. Which is shown throughout our favorite shows. (also shows how the show loves it kids cause it suffers no consequences.)

Now May wonder why i put in Princess & The Frog

We do see great chemistry to the show and movie example

The similar girl dynamic that will be is Tianna and charlotte

There relationship is done better, I do feel there was little bit of colorism played into this and alas not to mention tiana poc friends characters being black but non existing, however I do feel to a agree they really stretched on how we should have diversity in a negative way which I’ll get into in a sec.

Its at this point charlotte is the sweet spoiled girl and felt amity was favored cause of how she was written that way, they tried to make her favorable because you guess or see she’s WHITE.

Which shows not only poc characters are secondary in animation or forms of media, also how Luz is written in a white space, but with amity

She was gonna be depicted as a favorable one cause of how she was written LIKE CHARLOTTE

(To the point people started seeing charlotte as the main character form princess & the frog.)

Having the cultural representation & also inconsistent characterization shine to the point where we could’ve had great characters shown and debut yet

Have two girls take over the show as a whole really?!

oh reminder the diversity happen yet being sacrificed for a shoehorned lgbt content and activism to the degree it over whlems the show with

amity being a type of reverse mammy to make her look better for luz to counter her spicy latina ways, like a unruly tomboy to kiss the white favored girls booty, knowing full well the fandom will police anyone saying otherwise.

The article I’ll show about gearing our diverse audiences which I feel Disney needs to do a lot better on cultural representation, and harmful stereotypes as this.

ARTICLE ON HOW STEREOTYPES CAN BE IN MEDIA

Hoping I said it well, since there's so much to add to this however hope we can be reasonable on the comment section, so hoping we can have a civil discuss on about this topic thanks for reading this far you have a goodnight and great day where you are

with love kyoko cane

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #4364:

Literally every anti argument falls apart when actually approached from a rational angle

"This is illegal"

It's literally not. Artistic portrayals of things that are illegal are not themselves illegal. There would have to be an actual victim involved for it to be illegal. Fictional characters are not real.

"This could be used to groom kids"

You know how else kids get groomed? Being given attention and kindness when they aren't getting it anywhere else.

Abuse is the fault of the abuser, no one else, not any books or movies or fanfics they read, don't give them any excuses.

"You're making light of MY trauma"

Sorry, i don't think you're a cartoon character. This doesn't involve you in any way, shape, or form.

You're also assuming you know what sort of trauma the creator does and doesn't have.

"If you ARE doing it out of your own trauma that's an unhealthy coping mechanism, go to therapy"

If you actually went to therapy you'd know that any real therapist wouldn't condemn using fiction to explore dark topics, it's in fact a highly recommended way of confronting trauma.

"Why wouldn't you just write about wholesome positive things instead?"

Because forcing positivity instead of expressing darker emotions in the place that is meant to be safe to express them is just pushing down negative emotions and not confronting them, the thing that therapy tells you NOT to do.

They say art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed, afterall.

"This is triggering to me I don't want to see it"

You have tools to avoid this. Use them. DON'T actively seek out things you know upset you out of some misplaced sense of justice.

"It's still weird though."

You're allowed to think that, but "weird" isn't inherently immoral. You're on the internet, afterall, you'd better get used to the weird.

[cheshire-castle-library]

It is immensely funny to me that 2 of my childhood idles Chris and Martin Kratt wrote and produce a cartoon fanficrion of themselves and what they do as zoologists.

I know the live sction version i saw in zaboomafoo was also just a public persona, but like,,, its so fucking funny to see them draw themselves as superheroes and invent supervillains that are essentially the things i also dislike about the real world, but in funny costumes and using almost ben 10 like "scifi" to save the day.

Also every now and then theres the tiniest reference to zaboomafoo and its like "autism yippee activate" but i cant share that with my cousins, for whom i am watching wild kratts in the first place, because its nowhere online and i can't explain "yeah once upon a time, they had a puppet leemur instead of cartoons and power suits and they just like hiked and stuff, but yeah no blue brother has always been messy and green brother has always been organized and they used to have a closet avalanche on them every day" we just cant relate that way, no matter how my inner child wants to guah about zaboomafoo the same way my cousins gush about wild kratts.

Somehow, we're on uncommon common ground, and it centers about the 2 zoologist brothers i grew up watching on grainy pbs local access.

And they're like playing up their personas enough they're essentially creating their own fanon versions of themselves, and so tiny repressed childhood-programs autism creeture and the quality of the fandom and the quality and nuance of the show are Introducing Brainworms.

Also does the animation and art feel like a blend of Danny Phantom and Kim Possible????

[paragonrobits]

there's been some real drama with that Youtuber I Hate and a youtuber whom i have come to greatly respect and honestly its been a delight seeing that youtuber i dont like going full circle on 'fuck around and find out' and apparently rapid-fire switching between constantly crying about being victimized and being a vicious and hateful person to apparently EVERYONE who interacts with her (follower or not) and it's a real case of a kind of internet personality i find exhausting but its made me realize a few things:

one is she apparently considers superhero comics an inherently Bad genre without artistic value (a bold statement coming from someone whose big media opinons are 'the entirety of Japan are man-children who do sex crimes' and 'i'm going to hate on these cartoons for not turning into a murder frenzy at the last second'). i'd say she's clearly never read Magneto's story arc under Claremont, or anything to do with the Morrison run on Doom Patrol (its artistic, demented, filled with coming to terms with horrific trauma, your own depersonalization, and also the primary antagonist is literal nonsense) or the famous story God Loves Man Kills but i ain't holding my breath

the second thing is that apparently she's under the belief that once you have been victimized, it excuses all your actions. This lines up with some common elements i've seen in fandom, especially those who fixate on villlains as the True Heroes, similar to some of my other thoughts on how people seem to tihnk a compelling/tragic origin justifies anything the character does. This is the mentality of completely divorcing a character's moral place in a narrative from their actions, and instead based on their victimhood. It really explains the whole idea i keep seeing there, and its something to address in my story concepts.

Third thing is more important, more profound. Its hard for me to articulate WHY people like this bother me so much; that they're so unrelentingly unpleasant, cruel to everyone around them, and even similar attitudes of people who are just casually rude. Even if there's no harm meant, you can just... not talk like that. You don't have to be mean with every single word you say, and you can resist the urge to turn every exchange or observation into an opportunity to sound like a smart ass; that's how you get stuff after James Earl Jones dies, you post pictures of Mufasa's death and then fail to understand why people are upset by you immediately making a joke about an inoffensive, much beloved voice actor who never did anything to you.

So i think about how to describe this... or perhaps how to AVOID this. How to talk and act in ways that's softer and doesn't hurt people for a quick joke or jibe, or acts like they can't understand why its wrong. And then I remember the game Undertale, where in the Pacifist route (the only route I've ever played), Sans will warmly tell a player who has actively refused to ever kill or hurt a single monster by saying that 'it just means you kept tenderness in your heart', and i think that's a good way to do it.

Just keep some tenderness in your heart. Let yourself be open and be gentle as much as you can. A thing that is tender ache when it hurts something or hits something pretty much at all, so its important to keep that tenderness so you DON'T hurt others too.

The world is sad and unpleasant enough as it is. You don't need to make things worse just so you can feel better about yourself.

[animation-is-my-jam]

Hiii! I'm wondering what was the reason you ship tobecky? What moment did you feel that "oh yeah this is my otp!

Hello! Thank you for the ask!! (^.^)

Oh boy, okay then, strap yourselves. Call me Captain Tangent because I'm going to take too long getting to the point, but yippee!!

Alright, first is the context before the context. I watched Wordgirl during the original shorts that were between Maya and Miguel since I was a PBS kid (cable was inconsistent). During that time, I watched it up until season 4, when I dropped off in favor of other stuff. From that time, I do remember that I wasn't a Tobey x Wordgirl(Becky) fan. Instead, Tobey's crush on Wordgirl flew over my small head, and I was a Scoops and Becky truther because apparently, I recognized Becky's crush on Scoops more. (I didn't know what shipping was exactly. All I knew was that I liked to pair characters up in my head or be invested in romantic tension. EXs: Robin and Starfire in OG Teen Titans, Tiana and Naveen, ...Pleakley and Jumba...)

When about season 4 started, I didn't try to see what the show was up to until after the Miss Power special, where I curiously searched up Wordgirl on the family computer to see what happened. There then I found SuperstarWordgirl's art and amvs about Tobecky. Remember, I forgot about Tobey's crush, so I was just confused about why people wanted to see them smoochy kiss (I was like: "What?? Doesn't he dislike her? And she has the other boy??")

I was puzzled and embarrassed seeing shipping amvs, so I left it alone, only searching it up a bit on ff.net because I used it for mlp fics, and yup still was confused so I didn't hear of Wordgirl by then.

--Then, my mind broke in 2016. With animated movies like Zootopia and Finding Dory, I started to develop fixations beyond MLP and lurk into fandoms where I discovered Tumblr. (I was in the mlp fandom before, but I wasn't overtly active or multifandom yet, and was still a kid, so I was in very much danger and scarred for life to the point of my development but that's for another day--). Later that year, with the release of Sing, I really kicked into gears of wanting to make stuff/make friends with similar interests. Yada Yada, eventually over a year with being on Tumblr, I started to see posts about childhood nostalgia, and the PBS ones caught my eyes. Wordgirl was a big one, and superhero stories were getting interesting for me again, so I nodded and respected it. BUT THEN I SAW A POST SAYING THAT there was a canonical gay couple in Wordgirl, and I ran straight to the tag--look I was invested highly into gay shit so once I heard about it...in a PBS show? In my childhood show? I was like, OKAY, LET'S HEAR IT OUT.

And yes indeed, to whom that post was referring to...was TJ and Johnson... (What I didn't know, that was just when Liz confirmed stuff on tumblr for the last season like two years ago), BUT REGARDLESS, I GOT INVESTED BECAUSE GAY PPL REAL!! So yes, guys. You technically have Tjohnson to thank for getting me into the fandom and, yes, eventually to ship Tobecky.

Getting into the Wordgirl tag, I was very excited and comforted by all the art and tight-knit unity the fandom had. Headcanons, fan arts, and crossovers with stuff like other PBS shows or Captain Underpants, it really put me in a place of whimsy at the time. (remembered I was in places like the brony fandom, so by comparison, i was safe) and I was in the starting phases of high school too, so yep, seeing nostalgic wonderful art did my brain good. My fixation of animated movies waned, and I dipped deeply into Wordgirl, other cartoons, and video games. Because I was lurking in the Wordgirl tag, it wouldn't take long to see Tobecky again, along with other ships. Then it finally dawned on me after seeing clips posted that Tobey definitely had a crush on Wordgirl. And well...I'm a sucker for anything romance and especially since I missed that detail before so I went on YouTube for more clips. This was before the resurgences of ppl posting Wordgirl stuff, so I then went to deviantart for answers and got obsessed with this one artist on their Tobecky art. Like I didn't ship it yet, but I liked it. Eventually, after a few weeks on the Wordgirl tag, I kicked the bucket and watched the full show (I actually watched it through a tumblr masterpost link AHH THE MEMORIES) but regardless, after watching everything, yup....it became a hyper fixation. But what about Tobecky? So, I mentioned before that it wasn't until re-watching the four seasons again and seeing for the first time the other seasons that started to ship tobecky. Specifically, Have You Seen The Remote. I was already a bit intrigued since the first episode (because I like for one-sided infatuation relationships), but the whole thing with Tobey trying to say how much he and Wordgirl could get along and how they're similar in some ways...he was trying to convince her on their potential chemistry; but all he did was convince me lmao.

I liked their dynamic that wasn't just romantic, too, and i stewed on it for a bit and reached the conclusion like I did with Tjohnson. That yes....shipping time. I made it to the last Tobey episode, and it just confirmed deeply that out of any other woodview school character that I liked her best with Tobey (the note dude, the note was my roman empire, similar to the scene of TJ getting bashful over Johnson complementing him in what would Wordgirl do). I was critical of the ship itself, especially after catching up with it's fandom lore and it did kinda made feel a tad guilty, but at this point I've made peace that I can like this ship but also talk shit because of my love for it (you can be analytic guys it ain't gonna kill you, but also be respectful and don't bully others).

Becky is my favorite character, and Tobey is my favorite character to analyze, so match made in haven, I suppose. Plus, i liked my spin on them in a timeskip setting, and AHH-- (*Future AU happens*). The fics only made it worse by how Tobecky began to infest my brain. Shout out to Something Hidden. Yeah, also, as I mentioned, after finishing up Wordgirl, that's when I really started to break out of my shell in the fandom and express my ideas and care for Tjohnson and Tobecky. I have never been sane since...