#do take what i say with a grain of salt

[reallytiredartstudent]

Okay watched the movie a second time. Because I'm currently Very Normal about this movie. I have more things to say about Gwen.

Spoiler under cut.

Yeah, her story still tragic. But also so interesting! But also so much more ouch now that i knew what was coming. And also she's such a badass. She's such a spider, it's awesome. I love the way she moves?? It's so fluid. These animations are going to be my death.

(also is it like, a genetics things that all spideys need to make extremely dumb decisions??? Does that come with the mutation?? or is it like a pree-requiste?? Gwen my beloved emo-spider, you are an idiot)

(this is going to be long. Sorry. i do not know how to be concise and this is slowly turning into a full analyse of Gwen throughout the movie bc my brain says so.)

The start of the movie? Goddamit. I had forgotten how much the start had foreshadowed. She basically said from the start 'I hurt my friends and I can't stop it and I hate that'. Idk that she's so self aware about how much she fucked that up makes it worse for me? Because it's not even a 'I didn't know better'. It's a 'I know. I know it's fucked up. And I don't know how to do this and i don't know how to undo the damage'. (She literally said that last part in her confrontation with her dad)('i don't know how to fix this') (she also said that yeah, she knew about Miles and the wrong spider, but she didn't know how to say it. Which. Fair. How do you tell someone 'hey you're an anamoly that shouldn't exist and your Spiderman had to die because of that and another world is without a spider because of that'? Well you don't do it like Miguel did, that for sure lol)

(Literally my only beef with this movie is that it all makes so much sense. All of their actions fit. Even Peter B who i would have the most beef with for not saying anything - if he was with Miguel while the world fell apart then yeah - that will do something to you and your views on how 'canon' works) (gotta admit the whole Miguel and Peter dynamic is pure gold, i loved every second of it)

Omg img img her first solo fight we see???? So gooood!! The way she looks at the helicopter and searches for the rythm with her drums to find her timing? so fucking good. the whole 'huh calling normally works' 'yep it did'? That's such a spidey move. oh and when Miguel came to take over and the 'knock yourself out' bit? I was laughing even though i knew it was coming, she's such a lil shit i love it.

(Blue Panther? DARK GARFIELD? Gwen there was no need to massacre Miguel in the first five minutes, he was needed for the rest of the movie)

Also how the whole colourscheme changed when she had the mask on and was Spider women. It felt like she was breathing again, and without the mask she was just a lil emo teenager with a few identity issues and in the mask? So much more confident.

(Do i love in general just the whole bit of people hiding themselves behind their masks and being like that second persona and then struggling with the fact that they can talk to nobody about both parts of themself? yes i do. I love it escpacially if it's also visually so satisfying. This movie haunts me)

She and Miles are like. Parallels?

Both her and Miles are so lonely. The got a glimpse of what it could be not to be lonely and then they had to give it up. Miles has been so desperate he gave up ART do go find a way to travel dimensions. ART. My boy loves his art.

Gwen is the kid that doesn't have support from home, nobody to tell her 'go do your thing i love you regardless' and she's desperate for that approval and support (without wanting to aknowldege or show that of course). She's the one that accepts the narrative of 'canon' because that's her world. That's the condition for the support she currently gets. She and Miles have about the same amount of idea what they're doing at that point. She has Spideys around her. Miles has his family. Both currently ehh with a rocky relationship to them.

But when Miles confronts his mom, she sents him on his way with like a 'look after yourself and come back to me'. After Gwen goes against her spidey ppl, she gets blamed for the whole thing and then thrown out.

(not saying that Miles didn't have it rough or that Gwen was innocent in that. I'm just looking at the parallels they have because this movie has so freaking many, i can't.)

And they both care so much for each other.

LIke the moment she sees him she just gets super excited? And wants to tell him all the stuff she's learning? You rarely see her in the movies as carefree and as happy as with Miles. (hobie. Hobie is a different thing) My point being, she cares really, really deeply about miles (i do not care if romantic or nah, they mean a lot to each other) and so does Miles.

Which makes the whole betrayal thing so much worse.

(the heartbroken face from Miles when he figured it out? The heart broken face from her when she tries to go against her orders the first time and catches him and he cuts himself lose? Because it's too little too late? Ugh. My poor heart. My poor spider children.)

(Also can i say how cute it was that despite all that happened both her and Peter B always were so proud of Miles? Like Gwen saw him do what she so feared and disrupt a canon event and all she can say is 'what i always think - that you're awesome.'??? Ugh. Peter B trying to catch Miles and having to stop like every three seconds because he's so proud of Miles for coming so far? I'm yet undecided if that is hilarious or hurty ouch lol)

But also like there are two more layers to her whole desperation that i forgot about in my first ramble?

Her Peter died. Her best friend died. We don't know if someonelse died (i don't think so? I don't know what happened to Aunt May. Oh fuck now i'm thinking about what happened to Spider Gwens Aunt May. Nooooo) but even then. Her best friend died, she had a hand in it (no matter how little she could do about it) and now she's searched for murder. Of course she does everything she can to keep Miles safe. Away from all that could annihalte him. For the, yeah, selfish reason of not wanting to lose another friend. No matter the cost.

And the next thing she learns? In nearly every other universe she's dead. Everywhere else is it like a death sentence for Gwen Stacy to fall for Spider-man. Sure, must be weird to have endless Peters. How weird is it gonna be to know that you're destinied to die in every other universe? (I think that's also why she's so ready to accept that she's gonna lose her dad. Because one, she already lost him (in a way) and two, once you accepted that you were destinied to die yourself everywhere else i think you're morals are going to be funky lol) (oh damn now that i think about it does she blame herself for Peter?? because normally it's her that dies and here it was the other way around? That Peter's death is her fault? Oh no. (i know this isn't stated in the movie, that's just my brain) but oh no)

The sent her home scene was even worse than I had remembered. The whole chase long she tries to say 'hey my gut tells me this is wrong' and got told 'no. Use your head.'

(jess looking at you, I'm having words with you and Miguel about how you treated my baby spiders)

and despite that she tries? The mirrored scene of her catching Miles how Miles had caught her earlier? (let's not talk about the heart attacks i had the whole movie long every time she was falling sheesh) And yeah, it wasn't enough. She hurt Miles real bad. And then later on the train? (Miguel we got a problem with each other, I don't care about your trauma) that was the same thing she told herself over and over again (as seen later in the scene with her father, oh dammit that scene with her father) and Miles was so right when he said 'I'm telling my own story'. But both Peter B. And Gwen looked so proud of him? Anyways, not the point. What Miles said definitely had an impact.

So when he tries to go home? She does what she avoided the whole movie long. She spoke up. Against Miguel. Against Jess. Not the rules she had observed from others, not the rules that had been told to her. She looks at them, has found her own morals, her own rules, her own story (sensing a theme in the story here? Hehe) and tells them, no this is wrong and 'Aren't we supposed to be the good guys?'

Thats the point where Miguel blames all the fault on her. (Very mature from a guy that loved to point out how childish everyone else is and that Miles is just a little kid hmmm) and what happens? She gets sent home.

Remember? The place she's been visibly scared off. Where she literally says in the movie 'you can't sent me back'. They stranded her. (fuuuuck that scene where she just stood there and 'access denied' and then she threw that container in frustration? idk what her plan was, but she went back to get the picture of Miles and her, fully ready to either be arrested or to never come back. That scene with her faaaather, omg)

also my original point of how torn she is - yeah. Like when she visited Miles and went from yeah come on let's go, to when she was alone and saw that she fucked up? She panicked. Like, she and Miles had literally the exact same reaction as they watched the footage. And afterward? When she ended the call? My girl nearly cried. Like her whole arc was kinda built around the same thing Miles first arc was built around - not knowing what to do, who to be. Because that was the theme of the movie. The finding your own story.

The talk with her dad was so good. He was so tired and worried and she (understandbly) wary. The admission 'If only tried to be a spider-women that you would approve of and i failed even at that'. Her father, the source of her rules and morels looking at her and telling her 'I quit. Do what you need to do'. Oh and then the parallel with how she had looked at him the first time she stepped trough the portal and then the second time and the 'I'm coming back'. She fled her past and now she's ready to face her fight.

The first part was about how everybody deserved a mentor and nobody was truly alone.

The second part was about finding their own stories, their own choices. That's why Hobie was such an important character btw. (Promise, different post)

The first movie was the 'help them find their wings'.

The second part was 'let them fly'.

"Never found the right band. So I started my own. You want in?"

okay i can't stop about this movie. I need to talk about Gwen.

Spoilers under cut.

Okay. Gwen's story was so fucking heartbreaking. i can't get over it. There more i think about it the worse it gets.

(It's great. I love it. I love her. It's very much ouch in the feelings department.)

Like. She fucked up real bad, she did, but her story is so tragic and it makes so much sense for her to react like she did. Lost her best friend, watched him die in an attempt to be like her because of injuries she was parly at fault for (what a fucking nightmare of it's own) watched her own father try to catch spider-women for his murder, like that gotta fuck with you so bad. And then? Finally she made a friend again. And then this friend is across another fucking dimension. And more fucked up shit starts to happen. Her own father, that we get showed how much he means to her, how he was her light and pulled her out of her spiralling, he was ready to call her in. She told him who she was and he decided on calling her in. It broke him, that much was clear but she pleaded with him and he just. Called her in. Like. Her last resort, her last island proved to her that he couldn't be safe for her. (fuck the scene broke my heart)

And then more and more happens and she doesn't even can go home anymore because the worst thing that all Spiderpeople fear happened to her - her identity got leaked (or so she thinks). There's a reason why she was so ready to abandon her own world and flee. There was, in that moment, nothing left for her. She's a teenager, a wanted criminal.

(the whole sending her back was super hard to watch, back to a world that had not a single thread of safety for her anymore. Where she couldn't escape, neither in her hero nor her civilian persona. Nightmare)

She appearntly found a refuge with Hobie that took her under his wing (Hobie is the best, whole different thing) and then.

Then.

Then she's getting told she has to let her father die??? And has to let the one friend she really made, she really trusted, she had to let him suffer because otherwise the multiverse would explode? Wasn't allowed to tell him anything? She has to betray him? Like. Every new thing about her story just makes it more tragic. She doesn't have the room for failure anymore and yeah. I think what Miles did to save the Captain was right. But for how desperate Gwen was? That was her new reality. Canon events. She needed to let them happen. That was what she was told, what her safety and her new life depended on. Those were the rules, there was no way around it. What everyone around her, the Spiderpeople that were the only ones around her, believed.

(Again. Hobie. Different story. Have i mentioned that i love him?)

(Fuck the talk with her father? Where she directly said 'you thaught to do things by the book'? It made so much more sense for me why she was so ready to follow those new rules. Because that's what she thought was the way to make it right. And her father then telling her 'I quit'? Essentially telling her 'don't mind those rules'? ugh.)

She's trying so hard and it does something to me to watch her struggle so desperately with everything. She's torn between what she needs to do with no idea what right or wrong even is anymore, and it was so plain how desperate she was to prove herself. How confident she was infront of Miles, how different she was with the elder spiderfolks just a minute later, how much she hides herself behind the mask (hehe get it? Sorry). The way it cracked when she thought Miles had gotten himself killed? My girl abandoned all pretenses, you can hear the panic in her voice.

Like. Among all of the main spiderpeople we interact with? She's also just a kid. With no one in her corner (I'm not starting about Hobie, bc i won't stop lol, that's his own post), she can't even go home. The new people she has, their love is in a way very much conditional.

And yeah i think that if she'd really talked to her friends, talked to Miles about what was going on, much could've been better. But then - what in her life would've told her that to be a good idea? Every experience so far had taught her the exact opposite.

So her last scene there? Where she finally admitted that she did have people in her corner, that there were folks that would help her, when she realized what her arc the whole movie was about?

'I always wanted to join a band. I created my own.'

That was so satisfying.

[linkedin-offficial]

where did the names for your sky ocs come from? like how did you think of 'em?

okay, but the real detailed answer is that when thinking of names for specifically sky characters, i often times like to just pick a word that i think represents each character well and then just translate it into tagalog (for example, "bata" means "child", "ilaw" means "light", ect ect).

though, when that doesnt work, i usually just shorten it or move some letters around to make it look and sound better on the tongue. (for example, "bituin" means "star" in tagalog; to me, its a bit of a mouthful. so id just use a variant of this word, like "bitu" or "itui")

i do this alot when it comes to names for characters of mine, not just sky ones. regular english names (even 'noun names') often times feel boring to me and usually dont fit the setting im putting the character in. so this is my go-to!

[thelaurenshippen]

finally taking the time to read through the SAG agreement summary and oof, I hope they have an AI town hall soon because...well, there are things to discuss!

so, in case folks are curious, here are my immediate takeaways from the deal as a SAG actor, a SAG producer, and person who is not any kind of expert but spends a lot of time being skeptical of contracts I sign. this is a summation/commentary, not a holistic breakdown of every point, nor even an in-depth discussion of the points I do talk about. and it is, of course, in no way legal advice or voting advice.

this post is already maybe the longest post I've ever written on tumblr (lol) and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. to be clear, nothing I'm saying here represents how I'm going to vote, how I think other actors should vote, or my be-all-end-all stance on a particular issue. this is me reading through, flagging what concerns me, and asking myself questions. and I'm here to take your questions too! though of course my expertise is limited.

(what?? something I wrote got annoying long?? in my tumblr? it's more likely, etc. huge write-up after the cut)

the good

self-tape stuff: this is one of the more niche/the thing that the general public will find least interesting, but they've put in a lot of provisions to make sure self-tape auditions have limits (# of pages, no stunts, no nudity, doesn't have to be professionally shot, etc.) which is amazing because these types of auditions have gotten out of control since the pandemic. this feels like a great gain

data transparency: in no world did I think the streamers were ever going to agree to any data sharing with either the wga or sag so even though the data is limited, this still feels huge to me.

folks who sing and dance will be paid for both of those things now, which is great

they've added MLK day and Juneteenth as holidays (about time)

a performer cannot be required to translate their own lines

principal performers are required to be given hair and makeup consultation or reimbursed for obtaining their own services - this seems like a small thing, but it's being put in here pretty much entirely because HMU services have generally been appalling when it comes to textured hair/a variety of skin tones. there's also stuff in here about working to hire more diverse HMU artists

it looks like it's going to be easier/provide a path for folks getting IMDb credits even if they're not credited on screen

miscellany: there's a bunch of gains in wage increases, P&H increases, relocation fees, franchise language etc. that all seem good to me, though my limited knowledge on those subjects prevents me from going in depth on them.

this is not important, but it tickled me, there's a term to replace all instances of "telegraph" in the contract with "email & text" which like...why has it taken us thirty years to do that lol.

the "...hm..."

intimacy coordinators: oof. when I watched the press conference SAG gave, I was fucking thrilled when they said that the new agreement required folks to hire intimacy coordinators for nudity and simulated sex scenes. that was almost reason enough for me to vote for it tbh - not requiring it is the exact reason I voted no on our last contract. however, reading the contract summary now, the exact language is: "Producer must use best efforts to engage an Intimacy Coordinator for scenes involving nudity or simulated sex and will consider in good faith any request by a performer to engage an Intimacy Coordinator for other scenes. Producer shall not retaliate against a performer for requesting an Intimacy Coordinator." this....sucks. "best efforts" and "good faith" are not the same as "required". IMO, an intimacy coordinator is the same thing as having a stunt coordinator or, like, any number of health and safety requirements. OSHA doesn't say you must "in good faith" put your "best effort" to providing fire exits. it's great that performers can request coordinators for any kind of scene, and this is still the strongest language we've ever had in a contract but....c'mon guys.

residuals: look, I can't speak to these new terms in any concrete way. there are increases, there are bonuses for streaming success, there's a whole thing about a fund regarding those successes that I need explained to me more in depth, but overall, it looks like we made some in-roads here. as someone who employs actors under digital distribution contracts that has no residuals (podcasts), I know how genuinely cumbersome the unholy trifecta of "views-success-profit" can be (as in views do not equal success, success does not equal profit, etc.). I also have no sympathy when the majority of companies dealing with that cumbersome trifecta are massive media conglomerates. anyway, long story short, idk if this is good enough, I'm hoping to attend the next info meeting sag has.

the bad

the new hair/makeup provisions are explicitly for principal actors. while I hope it leads to better, more inclusive HMU services all around I haaaate that this implies supporting or background actors (who oftentimes also have to sit in HMU) don't deserve the consideration. (then again, background actors are usually required to do their own HMU/bring their own costumes, but for productions where that's not the case, the same HMU provisions should apply IMO)

as with every contract, there's language that could be stronger, clarity that needs to exist, and important things missing - but this isn't the final contract and I'm not a lawyer, so I'm gonna leave that stuff to the experts.

but, "lauren", you say, "what about all the AI stuff? where does that go?" well, reader, I was planning on including that in the above but it's the hot-button issue right now and I think it's wickedly complicated, so I wanted to break it down separately, after I had a chance to point out all the good-bad-in-between stuff that's not getting talked about.

a note: in my career, I've learned there's two big things to keep in mind when reading a contract you might sign:

what is the worst case interpretation of this language (thank you to my lawyer, prince among men, for teaching me how to do this in practice (that said, anything I say here is not legal advice, he'd also want me to say that lol))

what are you willing to lose/compromise on/what are the limits of your pragmatism? contracts are not about a company giving you everything you want out of the goodness of their heart - it is always a compromise. pragmatism has to be a part of the equation.

so, with that said, I'm going to play a little devil's advocate here, and a) try to find the good/the pragmatic and b) catastrophize the worst case scenario. but first, it might be handy to look at this SAG infographic for some basic definitions. let's go.

the AI good

a ton of stuff here requires consent. that is not a small thing, and the consent continues even after your death (whether it was a yes or no; though this can be complicated by your estate/your union)

the language does establish that the consent must be a separate signing from the employment contract, even if its in the contract, which is great (but more on that below - timing matters)

actors often do get paid for use of their digital replicas, though it's different based on the use/type of replica.

the actor must be provided with a "reasonably specific description of the intended use". this language is vaguer than I would like, because it allows producers to decide what "reasonably specific" and "intended" means - there's always going to be some vagueness when it comes to this specific thing, but a good start would be for producers to require not blanket consent, but conditional consent for each significant use of digital replicas.

if the replicas are being used in other mediums, that must also be consented to, thank god.

replicas cannot be used in place of background actor counts on a given day - if I'm understanding this correctly, this means a production can't just have a bunch of fake background actors by themselves, they have to engage real people up to a certain number first (which in this new contract is 25 for TV and 85 for movies). we're already filling in background with digital people or copy-pasting of the same crowd over and over and have been doing so since at least the late 90s, so it's good we're continuing to put up boundaries around that.

the AI "...hm..."

it's unclear (to me) when an actor can be asked to consent. IMO, everything is meaningless if the consent is happening as part of regular contract negotiations. these things have to happen when - and only when - the actor has already been engaged in a role and feels empowered to say no

the use of independently created replicas (replicas pulled from existing footage, not created by the actor) being allowed without consent under first amendment reasoning - this is obviously concerning a lot of people bc first amendment arguments are so broad. that said, there's a pragmatism part of me that understands this is already happening/has been happening for a while and used in ways I think are perfectly fine - I was just watching the new episode of For All Mankind (one of the best TV shows right now!) and it's an alternate history, which meant that in the opening scenes of this season they had some bonkers good deep fakes of Al Gore saying stuff he never said. I think that's okay to do in a fiction show that imagines a different US history! "but Lauren", you might be saying, "Al Gore isn't a member of SAG!" are you sure? are you positive? because I'm pretty certain he is - he was in several episodes of 30 Rock, way more people are in SAG than you think (every NPR reporter for instance), and the two worst presidents we've had in the last 50 years (yes, those ones), are both definitely members of SAG (even if one is dead). now, the other side of this is that public figures like politicians are under a different social contract than actors, and if they wanted to sue, they could, unlike the average SAG actor who might have their image abused. this is why this is in the "hm" column - deep fakes and parody/satire/commentary use of replicas is already here and there's always going to be a 1st amendment argument to make, so we need to figure out how best to limit those and protect the most vulnerable.

alteration: with this language, a project can digitally alter without consent if the script and performance stays "substantially" the same. again, this language is too mealy-mouthed. I don't know that I have a huge problem with a line of dialogue getting replaced with a digital version of that actors voice if, for instance, a word was mispronounced, or wind garbled the sound or whatever - yes, it would eliminate the need for ADR, but if we put some limit on it like..."if there are more than 5 lines in a given episode/movie that require digital alteration in the service of clarity, the actor must be engaged for an ADR session or paid for the digital replacement" then I could see this being workable. I'm also personally okay with things like costumes being digitally altered but, again, we need limitations on that. digital altering cannot replace the art of costuming but, for instance, if a costume needs to be altered to include a hate symbol or something, I think that's fine (example: I have friends who worked at the VFX house for an alternate history TV show that involved a lot of Nazi costuming and set design - a huge part of that VFX house's job was to put swastikas in places, rather than props making nazi flags. I'm okay with that!) but again, these fringe cases do not a compelling arugment make, and this contract language can be interpreted too broadly for my comfort! like everything else in this "hm" category, I need to see the final contract language to decide.

the AI bad

there's a bunch of circumstances in which actors don't get paid for creating their replica/use of it and those circumstances are too broad for my taste.

synthetic performers - this is just awful. no. no, we should not be allowing AI to generate entire actors. just............no. there's some language about the producers having to talk to the union if the synthetic performer is "used in place of a performer who would have been engaged under this Agreement in a human role" but this doesn't apply to non-human characters so....wouldn't that be all roles?? leaving the producers room to be like "this role has to be synthetic, we never would've cast a human!" is bullshit. also, even if we're having AI create a magical talking unicorn whole cloth (which, like, also no, we have artists for this), that unicorn still needs to be voiced by a human person. this whole section is a disaster.

the exceptions to consent for digital alteration are bad-bad. I talked about the potential ADR replacement above and that has a whole host of issues with it that I didn't even get into, but I can see the argument. the rest are very troubling:

there is an exception under "any circumstance when dubbing or use of a double is permitted under the Codified Basic Agreement or Television Agreement" - okay, so does this mean we can replace dubbing artists and stunt performers entirely? this section is about digital alteration, but who's to say alteration couldn't turn an actor broadly miming a fight into an entirely digital, expertly performed fight that usually a stunt double would have done? with AI translation technology, does this mean we're replacing VO artists for dubs entirely? bad!

similarly, "Adjusting lip and/or other facial or body movement and/or the voice of the performer to a foreign language, or for purposes of changes to dialogue or photography necessary for license or sale to a particular market" - Justine Bateman has a great twitter thread on the terrible puppetry potential of this but I want to draw attention to the particular market bit - we all know that selling to china is such a huge part of studios' strategies that they'll remove entire scenes or lines around queer stuff. to me, this clause makes all of that so much easier. I know the argument here is going to be "we can replace swear words and license it for kids!" which.......sure? fine? but, uh, we already have ways to deal with that? and the potential for abuse here is terrifying to me. with all the digital alteration stuff too, there's just so much icky implication for the beauty/body standard to get so much worse.

if a background actor’s digital replica is used in the role of a principal performer, they'll be paid as if they actually performed the days for that role, which, sure, but uhhhh why are we saying it's okay for a digital replica of a background actor to suddenly be a leading role!?!?! I can't think of anything more demoralizing than going to set to act in background (a job I've done! an important job! a fun job a lot of the time! but creatively limited) and then getting a much bigger role (the dream!) and.....not being able to, you know, act that role or be in scenes with other principal actors or do the thing that you've dedicated your life to doing. nightmare stuff.

woof. there's so much more to say but I'm going to leave it there. these are the concerns I'm going to go into SAG's meetings with, and the concerns I'll be considering as I decide how to vote. I know there are things I didn't address and very possibly things I misinterpreted or misrepresented - if you're an actor, I highly recommend a) reading that Justine Bateman thread and b) attending SAG's meetings to ask questions and express your concerns. and I'd love to hear what y'all think! my ask box is open.

[asurrogateblog]

The Syd Poll

the topic of this poll is one that is frequently avoided in the pink floyd fandom, but inevitably one we all consider – our individual views on what we think caused syd's psychological struggles (and by extension, led to his departure from the band). I think that – at least in this neighborhood of tumblr – this is a conversation we are capable of having in a way that is civil, nuanced, and at least minimally disrespectful to syd.

So, to help facilitate this, here are some ground rules:

let's all assume we have a mutual understanding of the complexities of this. syd could never actually be reduced down to a poll, and all of our viewpoints are limited in various ways

the poll options just serve as just a conversation starter, and responses are not necessarily a statement of absolute beliefs

feel free to discuss as much or as little of your own perspective as you feel comfortable sharing.

in the case that debates break out, please try to assume good intent – and also demonstrate it (unless, for instance, someone is being blatantly insulting beyond a misunderstanding that needs correcting)

please do NOT vote if you are not actually a pink floyd fan with at least basic knowledge about what we're talking about here.

The options I've included below are not meant to be exhaustive, they are simply the "theories" that I have seen most commonly circulated. I have also decided not to include combinations. I'm fairly sure we'd all agree multiple factors were involved. Rather than make the poll too complicated, I ask you to instead select the one that you think is the "most" important to your viewpoint, and clarify further in your tags/comments as you wish.

so. here we go.

READ BEFORE VOTING ^^^^

(note of correction: "late-onset schizophrenia" should just be "schizophrenia". the typical timeline for onset of symptoms is late adolescence/early adulthood, so syd would've been well within that period at the time)

[pigeon-butch]

I certainly have my own concerns about the treatment of moo deng but um. well i think some of you may just be racist

[arealtrashact]

Hello! This is probably a redundant question since you answered someone else about shape language, but do you have advice on how to give more energy into your drawings?

Well, besides reiterating the usual ( finding a strong line of action, remembering the 'simple v complex' rule, focusing on gesture rather than contour ) I guess I'll say that I tend to draw with my shoulder rather than my wrist. I have a large tablet for the very reason that I prefer to make broad, sweeping strokes. Even if it takes me 3-5 tries, I make sure that the majority of my lines are made in one, long, unbroken move.

PS. When I talk about line of action I'm not strictly referring to action poses. Even a standing pose has rhythm / energy to it. It's subtle, but it's there.

Happy drawing !

[milkcanslam]

Ma-san calls Lammy a wimp all the time and seems mean to her, but I think she loves her to death and will protect her with her life

[swagging-back-to]

worst trope is found family separating as soon as the antagonist is dealt with.

[deathbirby]

okay so i have read this in SO many fics but do people really think Fodlan doesn't have telescopes? when astronomy exists?? can you even HAVE astronomy without telescopes???

YOU CAN LIKE SEE UP UNTIL CERTAIN PLANETS WITH THE NAKED EYE, BUT TO TELL THAT THE BLUE SEA STAR IS MILLION OF YEARS AWAY IS.. NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT A TELESCOPE.

[castielsprostate]

i dunno i think a lot of people have a very love hate relationship with the queer community because of the way the 90s/00s/10s media portrayed any sort of gay/queer/trans/lesbian/ace/etc relationship (whether in relations to others or themselves) as this inherent "silliness"? as this thing you're not supposed to talk about. it exists, but never let it show. it's there, but it shouldn't be seen. it's tolerable as long as it is silent.

it all ties back into misogynistic and the patriarchal systems that keep being persisted now. it's told as being a gay man is taking away your manhood, you are seen as weak and frilly and clearly not good enough to be a Real Man™. and being a lesbian takes away your femininity, you're too rough around the edges and are too manly thus you're not pretty because men can't be pretty that would mean they're gay, and thus you are not good enough to be a Real Woman™. the only "acceptable" way to be if you HAVE to be queer in any way is bisexual as long as you are a side character and stick to the "other side" when dating and end up with the opposite gender when getting married and settling down.

and even if the elements above were minor, being queer was shown as a struggle, something ugly and as a dirty little secret. a queer relationship was shown to be a funny gag, a dramatic storyline to have Normal Characters™ complete their acceptance storyline or advance their plots whilst the queer character is pushed off to the side. surface level inclusivity messages that are dressed up in "we love everyone" with the underlying tone of "we tolerate you as long as we have to and you're only here so we can hit a bigger audience"

all this to say that this is the reason most actors, male and female, are so opposed to admitting the characters they played in those decades were queer-coded in any way, shape or form. because that would mean voicing the quiet part out loud when they were told to keep it silent

[yuridovewing]

i understand the frustration with “i made this gay pairing cis x trans so they can still have biological babies” with no thought to other methods and how ppl assume thats the case when it comes to mothpool aus where mothwing is also the mother of the three, but also…. idk i kinda dont give a shit if someone wants to do that and i dont really think its inherently transphobic as long as its handled with care and respect.

what really concerns me about this debate is how some people are adamant that you cannot portray trans people having biological children in media or youre being disrespectful. and im gonna say as a nonbinary person who doesnt want children for themself- thats kinda fucking weird? like i understand that for some people, theyre trans themselves and theyre speaking from a place of dysphoria, and i absolutely get that, which is why i think the topic should be handled with nuance and diversity in trans characters, but like…. guys. pregnant trans men exist irl. trans women get people pregnant irl. trans ppl’s ability and right to parent and have biological children are being debated irl. we get denied the opportunity to adopt as well.

in a climate like this, are we SURE we want the stance on rewrites and headcanons in the silly cat books to be “if you portray trans characters having children, especially with a gay couple, youre a transphobic freak no matter what!” does it really matter? especially if its being done by a trans person handling the topic with nuance who has a lot of trans characters with varying perspectives?

obviously yes, remember that thats not the only way certain gay couples can have kids, remember that not every trans person is fully comfortable with it and keep that in mind, remember that surrogacy and adoption are also perfectly valid ways to give fan babies- but remember that there are OPTIONS. not that you need to condemn the idea of transgender parents in the first place unless they fit the very specific criteria of “proper transgender representation” and anything that dares deviate from that is proof the op is a transphobic monster (bonus points if theyre a trans creator bc i mostly see trans people getting shit for this and it kinda pisses me off. although idm if cis people do it either as long as theyre handling it with respect)

[theunknowncowboy]

The real crime of Neon White's writing is how blatantly homoerotic White and Yellow are and that I as the player cannot choose to kiss Yellow.

And spoilers

That Neon Yellow gets killed like not even 1/3 of the way into the game. Like fuckin fr? In his dying words he is being gay as shit and you still kill him that early? Fuck off.

[sillylizardguys]

While scrolling through the BSD tag, I’ve come across a lot of debate about whether Oda “Truly understood Dazai” or not. And it’s made me wanna share my view on the topic:

Does it really Matter?

He was Dazai’s friend, and that’s what I think is the most important part, because that’s what makes a difference. If he just an acquaintance, understanding wouldn’t matter, because it wouldn’t have affected Dazai in the same way. The entire reason it was impactful was because it was Oda. At the end of the day, Oda’s death made Dazai want to become better no matter what understanding he did or didn’t have. It’s a meaningless debate when the impact he had was clear.

Alright I’m gonna draw a comparison to The Black Lizard that is maybe not the best but makes sense in my head (I’m sorry I just can’t go one post without talking about these guys).

Tachihara is an undercover operative for a government force, and due to this, he probably can’t tell The Black Lizard any part of his story that might blow his cover, so they probably don’t fully understand him and his motives. But even so, Tachi cares for his teammates enough to save their lives, and later believe in what they say so much that he literally retcons a Reality bending book (ik there more to it ofc but I know I’ll start rambling). Hirotsu and Gin make him feel happy, despite not understanding everything about him as a person. They trust and care about each other which is what brings them together, not a feeling of understanding.

To wrap this up I wanna say this: even if you don’t fully understand why someone acts the way they do, if you care about them enough, you’ll want to see them thrive. Whether Oda understood Dazai isn’t the point, the point is that the entire Lupin Trio cared about each other in a way that hugely impacted all of their lives when one of them departed. Understanding doesn’t hold a candle to caring and being there for them.

[quatregats]

This is probably Bush and also Pullings's native dialect (though I have many MANY doubts about what exactly the methodology being used here was)

[myymi]

unpopular opinion but like. i kind of don't want amy to be in the third movie

it's not because i think she shouldn't be. she's my second favorite character in the franchise and i love her to death. she should've been introduced before shadow, honestly.

however. with the third film being marketed as shadow's movie, i don't trust paramount to be able to give amy the focus and development she deserves. they couldn't even manage a half decent balance between knuckles and tails debuting in the same movie which would be a million times easier than balancing shadow and amy.

we got to watch knuckles' growth play out. we got to see a glimpse of his past, we got to watch him learn to trust sonic, we got to watch him finally fulfill his destiny to guard the master emerald.

we didn't get to see anything with tails. sure, he helped sonic learn a bit more responsibility, but any character could've been used for that role. tails is just there. despite the marketing for the second movie being more tailored towards him, he doesn't have any sort of huge impact on the story. sure, minor details would've changed if he wasn't there, but there's no reason the second sonic character to ever exist should only change minor details. he deserves better than that.

if amy is introduced alongside shadow, she's 100% going to get sidelined and i don't want that for her. it sucks to see a major character get cast aside because a different one is the fan favorite.

if they really want to bring in more game characters they need to stop the movies at a trilogy and move to a full tv show. there's only so much time to share between a cast in a movie, and with their obvious bias towards human characters there's not much left to give to sonic and co.

[alaskan-wallflower]

not really qualified to ask this but like…why are yall so insistent on putting the star of david emoji next to kyle’s name whenever you’re trying to separate headcanons for him? like i’ll see ‘stan marsh’ with a dog or smth next to it, ‘kenny mccormick’ with the angel wing, ‘eric cartman’ with a chicken emoji and then it’s just ‘kyle broflovski’ with the star of david emoji. like i guess it’s because he’s the only jewish kid but like…there’s more to him than being jewish. you could put the basketball emoji or smth next to it. like whenever it’s the other boys the emoji next to their name correlates with an interest of theirs and kyle’s is just brought down to his religion and isn’t made to correlate with his interests.

does this even make sense? i’m talking about when people pull shit like this

South Park characters reacting to something or other, can’t be bothered to think of smth legit

🍗❤️Eric Cartman ❤️🍗

cartman is a discord moderator but has never done any wrong blah blah blah

🐕💙 Stan Marsh💙🐕

probably smth angsty or stan being a jock blah blah blah

🧡🪽 Kenny MaCormick 🪽🧡

kenny is the equivalent of glenn quagmire blah blah blah

and then there’s just kyle like

💚✡️ Kyle Broflovski ✡️💚

skipper doesn’t even need to make fun of his fanon because she does that enough already blah blah blah

lole idk. i can’t say much on it like yall gotta take what i say with a grain of salt. i’m not jewish and yes it doesn’t personally affect me, im just asking why people are so insistent on using that specific emoji to represent kyle. like kyle is more than his religion y’know? he likes basketball. he likes debate. he’s smart. try putting an emoji correlating with that in your headcanon headings. like you don’t put crosses next to the rest of the boys’ names, why put a star of david for kyle’s then?

Idk. it’s just a bit confusing to me.