#critics just don't understand fun

[cipheramnesia]

When I talk about media, which let's be honest is mainly horror movies, they surprise me with interesting approaches to a topic, queerness, unique ideas, or simply through being unexpectedly fun and exciting. And that's always a fun entry into talking about a movie.

Sometimes I'll be so thrilled by a movie, or something in the movie, I immediately need to look up the critical response, and that might also be a place to start talking about media - particularly when I see criticism which, to my eyes, failed to understand something interesting about the movie. I might feel like the movie hasn't been seen by many people, or wasn't appreciated, and contrasting my experience with specific criticisms (I think) creates more a more interesting conversation about a movie, and may even prompt someone to watch it when they wouldn't have otherwise. It might even be my own expectations were so wrong, I'm excited about how wrong I was.

On the opposite side of this approach is "critics just don't understand movies are about fun!" What's frustrating is that this is in part true but is also in no way useful to understand if a movie is enjoyable. As a lover of horror, I am intimately acquainted with the tendency of critics to dismiss significant parts of the genre because it's just fun, and to try and put distance between any horror they enjoy ("elevated horror" - kiss my ass). I'm used to most people dismissing the genre as scary, gross, or otherwise just deeply unpalatable.

I'm so used to all that, in fact, that I want to try and go a little deeper when I'm trying to tell people about something interesting than just "critics don't understand movies should be fun." And that's what I'm actually complaining about today. Both the instance that fun is a primary quality attribute, and contextualizing something as misunderstood because somehow critics are all stuck in the no fun zone.

It would be one thing if "fun" was meant in a general sense. I find some pretty harrowing films fun, some really grim stuff fun. However, it mainly comes up with large budget movies, widely distributed movies, that generally are already being seen by plenty of audiences and which receive a large amount of promotion. And a lot of them are fine, they're fun, and that's about it. Plenty of critics out there have the same response, and generally that's what goes on the posters and in the trailers and everyone just goes on about their way until anyone runs across a criticism comes up like "I don't think it was very good / I don't think it was very interesting" and it gets a middle of the road critical score because it's a middle of the road movie not meant to be interesting.

That should all be fairly normal stuff, but there seems to be some disconnect between "this was a regular movie that was a lot of fun and wasn't necessarily world changing, but I am a big fan," and "critics didn't like this movie because it was not filmed or written or directed in a particular enjoyable way, but rather for general consumption by anyone with no specific need to be treated as intellectual." When someone like Martin Scorsese or Jamie Lee Curtis says something negative about something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems to turn into this huge reaction of "Critics Just Don't Understand Fun" but now it's a kind of angry monster demanding atonement to fun. And on the one hand, for a lot of critics, those movies aren't for them. I think they know it, but their job is to analyze films, meaningful or otherwise.

But what I'm not sure everyone else knows is that sometimes criticism of your favorite fun movie is not for you. Critics can and do miss things that make a movie interesting, or dismiss a good movie because they think the general topic isn't worth analysis. But also like, when "critics don't understand movies should be fun" is pretty much exclusively leveraged at criticism of big expensive mass marketed movies, and also pretty often as criticism against movies which are making distinct choices which deviate from what is established as the expectation by mass marketed large budget movies, what happens is that I see that sort of phrase and I find I don't really trust what comes after it. So often, the context of that idea is a sort of film criticism equivalent to people who throw themselves in front of Elon Musk to protect the poor defenseless billionaire. And like, I don't know, maybe someone rushing to the defense of a huge movie release doesn't have the same idea as fun as me.

So I'm not gonna spend my time or money on the exciting big budget movie that critics don't understand is fun. What I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna just jump down into another scuzzy horror flick I never heard of and see where it goes, because that is what's fun for me.

[officially-other]

My first attempt at writing that's vaguely like poetry: from a dragon

I am not what you think.

I walk around, awkward limbs and flighty mannerisms, and you think I’m strange. You have no idea how strange you would think I am if you only saw what was underneath.

Underneath, I am a creature of the ocean. Something that could never pass as human, and no longer wants to. Saltwater rushes through my veins in secret, silent to everyone but me. To me, it’s a roaring sound of the waves that I have never seen except for within my soul. It yearns to dissolve into the ocean like it could long ago, but for now those days are over and I am hidden underneath skin and muscle.

Underneath, there are wings; fins; antlers. They ache to tear from my back, through my skull. Nonetheless, they stay hidden for me, safe in the silence. Protected like I protected my kin in a lifetime so close to the surface and yet unreachable. Wrapped in a form that no longer coils around them like a serpent, but keeps them hidden from predators well enough I suppose.

I suppose.

I accept my form reluctantly and do what I can to make it mine. I shape it to feel better when I discover my gender, and when I can’t shape it to fit my true self I cover it in things that feel a little more like home. A little more draconic. A little more like the ocean that I never have seen, but feel homesick for anyway.

I do find joy in being in this body, at least. Out there, there are others. Angels working minimum wage, dragons sitting on a park bench, wolves buying groceries. We hide, but we do so to be free. We walk through crowds, and no one notices our scales and fur and feathers. But we do. We see each other, even if from miles away, and we see what’s underneath.

And underneath, none of us are what you think.

(Tags for side commentary/context)

[lilbittymonster]

On a somewhat related note to that last post, I have yet to get an actual answer when I ask "so what would you have done instead?" when people call Aymeric stupid for the "throw the eyes into the abyss" line. I have never gotten an actual response, they just double down or change the subject.

Imagine for a second. You know dick all about what's happening in other cutscenes. You only know the politics of your own city. Your best friend has just been freed of possession by your nation's mortal enemy. Your allies have the means with which he was possessed in the first place in their hands. You have grown up in Ishgard and have grown up with the knowledge that the Sea of Clouds is impermeable and inhospitable ice aether. Surely no creature but the fish who dwell there could survive. It's close by. You are pumped up on adrenaline from fighting. You need to get those eyes as far away from everyone as possible.

If you aren't going to throw them off the bridge, what are you doing instead?

[rawliverandgoronspice]

oh nooooo not me forgetting to not go on zelda youtube and being forced to reckon with the sheer magnitude of its fanbase's unchecked racism

[actual-corpse]

Watching Avatar the Last Airbender...

Politely reminded of the time people wanted my head because I said that ATLA ruined storytelling because some people can't fucking think critically of media before trying to tell you what's so good about it.

I LOVE AtLA! Adore it! But like.... A majority of people watched Zuko switch sides and said, "Damn... What if we redeemed ALL the villains?" Without realizing Zuko wasn't a true villain in need of redemption.

But... The Redemption Game isn't truly JUST the fault of AtLA... There was a shift in the Moral of the Story. Idk how to explain it bc I'm half asleep, but like...

[lord-squiggletits]

Between TF and my other fandoms like BG3 and TES, I keep finding myself making OCs that have some element of "battle hardened hero who is actually good and righteous, but so traumatized by the toll of war that even after the war ends they feel empty/wrecked and can't enjoy the fruits of victory" and I'm not sure if it's bc I gravitate to a certain type of media where such OCs fit in best, or bc I have a specific character archetype I like and gravitate towards media that contains those things.

[famewolf]

I'm gonna be a little quiet on here until after I start playing Dragon Age. I don't want to be spoiled and the urge to click on posts that have DA tags blacklisted is mounting. And just like with Inquisition, I want to go in totally blind.

[imminent-danger-came]

On god just found the worst review of Lego Monkie Kid season 2. And I quote, “There are things from season one that are established for sure and referenced and capitalized on—but I feel like there’s just a little bit too much of that going on if that makes sense. I couldn’t help but feel like this was kind of a continuation to season one as opposed to its own storyline and it’s own season.”

Girl???? You mean it has an overarching plot????????????????

[deviousdiesel]

.

[demonsfate]

tek adaptations based on their watchability (from most to least)

tek the motion picture

tek (2010) [look as a tek movie it was far from a faithful adaptation, but at least it wasn't BORING]

tek blood vengeance

tek bloodline [writing wise, not as bad of bv, but it's longer, so harder to watch for that reason]

tek: kazuya's revenge

[indi-glo-archive]

and if you're gonna call him emotionally intelligent, you better put "not" in front of it! whack ass hoe

[llycaons]

can I be honest here it's true there's ppl who insist on watching shows like iwtv then wildly misinterpret everything because it's too complicated for them but there's also ppl who will mock you for only watching shows within your intellectual comfort level/for never trying anything new or challenging and ALSO for trying to understand something and getting it wrong. obviously you gotta hear from multiple perspectives and practice critical thinking as a skill and try to learn from ppl who are speaking with authority on their own experiences but that takes time and not everyone you encounter on the internet is gonna be an expert. and obviously outside of bigoted interpretations maybe it's not the end of the world if some people are wrong about a tv show and this is coming from someone who loves to complain about other ppl being wrong about media I mean you know me

like...there are very good reasons why people are so critical of iwtv fans being so so bad at understanding what's happening or being extremely judgemental of some characters over others (racism) but it is also kind of funny to see condescending posts about how 'ugh, everyone on this site only watches kids shows' one day and 'wow, viewerss are SO stupid for not immediately understanding this intentionally complex and confusing situation' the next like I thought we wanted people to challenge themselves! they're not going to immediately understand it perfectly coming from, idk, the hunger games. and if they're not given any grace it's not easy to branch out! again I'm specifically discussing the misreadings of the interview process, the sequence of events, and the structure of the story, and NOT the misreadings of the characters wrt their race. I'm not saying racist viewers who refuse to educate themselves need their hands held by black viewers I want to be clear

imo the 'discussion questions' post was a genuinely fun and accessible way to direct critical engagement over this last episode I'm dead serious I wish we had more of them. I know how annoying it is to see people misread a story and characters you understand, but it's a complicated show and not everyone is going to get it easily or on their own idk. I'm just glad for my mutuals who knows what's going on bc EYE do not <- knows her intellectual limits

THAT BEING SAID the way some of these people are wrong is so goddamn smug and annoying. no further comment. this is the internet. where better to get worked up over poor media literacy shajshfjsjdj

[prentissluvr]

tw long rant and swearing!

hey!! if you don't like something i wrote! shut the fuck up and move on!! thanks bye!! no hate is tolerated on this blog :)))

i don't care if you don't like the way i characterized someone in my story!! shut up and get a better hobby than hating on something someone has spent hours creating and pouring love into and accusing them of hating one of their favorite characters because you think that the fic they wrote FOR FUN and NOT FOR YOU is bad characterization/makes the character flawed in a way that you don't like because you have a poor understanding of what makes fanfiction fanfiction (and also humans human tbh lol). sure, they're maybe more flawed than in the actual show, but THATS THE FUCKING POINT OF FANFICTION!!! IS THAT ITS NOT A REAL PART OF THE SHOW!!! AND ITS WRITTEN!!! FOR FUNNNNN!!!!! AND NOT FUCKING FOR YOU AND YOUR FUCK ASS OPINIONS SPECIFICALLY!!!!!!!! and if you think it sucks, i don't care!! you are entitled to your opinion!!!! hate it so so so much but get the fuck over yourself if you think that telling me it's horrible and unrealistic and somehow creating a bad wrap FOR MY FAVORITE CHARACTER IN THIS SHOW is somehow a meaningful usage of your time or gonna get me to delete the fic or stop liking it or stop promoting my own hard work !!!! i'm proud of the things i write and nothing will ever change that. i hope you know what a shitty shitty shitty (and embarrassing) thing it is to do to leave a whole paragraph of hate under someone's hard work just because they interpret a fictional fucking character in a way that you don't like. genuinely genuinely get the fuck over yourself and find a better way to spend your time than caring more about fictional characters than real life people.

[rivilu]

Another negative side effect of this release is that filtering d///a//i content out of my feed has become impossible again

[marklikely]

i wonder if this site has actually reached critical levels of being annoying lately or if i just haven't been on as much as i used to (especially earlier this year when i left entirely) that now ive snapped out of the feedback loop and can fully see how annoying tumblr culture actually is.

[emdotcom]

I changed my mind. Hater behavior is undeserved, when it comes to works, & idgaf about holding creators accountable when their games are mid, anymore.