#greatrunners meta

[greatrunner]

Am I wrong, or did they make the actor who plays Ahti in Control and Alan Wake 2 look older than he actually is?

Because I watched that whole short film and couldn't help but think, "Hm. My dude doesn't look as old as his character model does..."

But that was the first time I'd ever seen the dude in real life, so who knows...

[geenawrites]

Hey, y’all. I’m promoting my writing spaces again, check ‘em out if you got the time.

[greatrunner]

So, apparently, because politicians received an influx of calls from their constituents asking them to vote against H.R. 7521, some or most of the politicians voted in favor of it.

One of them bitches was on the news bragging about how they voted in favor of H.R. 7521 because they loathed how many times they were called upon to vote against it.

Most of the seats in the House of Representatives are up for reelection. I urge y'all to pick a target who voted yea on H.R. 7521 and find a replacement who actually wants to do their job and not spite the people for demanding that they do it.

[geenawrites]

So, like, Baltimore city just threw all their support into a surveillance plane program, the public decided to support it despite knowing the police unlawfully watchdog’ed them three years ago with the same tech in 2016 (and tried to justify it as being for their own good), and church ministers practically funded polls to get the responses they wanted.

None of this is going to solve the issue of violence in the city, and worst of all, since the city is going through a major gentrification episode, it’s simply an excuse to spy on low income neighborhoods and the people that live there to assuage the big spenders who want to displace people with new real estate projects.

I fucking hate this city, but I hate even more that the public went along with this. Like, honestly, fuck y’all.

[greatrunner]

I really hate that I don't have $1,329.99 to spend on this Godzilla statue just to have it collect dust somewhere in my house whenever I walk by it.

[greatrunner]

Moment of silence for Davros. He made it all the way to the lifeboats, then had to backtrack.

[greatrunner]

'Stay the fuck away from him. He's no right, Caz.'

Listening to different player encounters with Gibbo. If the player lingers long enough, he says more than once, "Addair's seen to it" or that Addair told him to "go down and fix it ye bastard".

Then there's the line, "Fetch my ciggies... there's a good lad," and that he (Gibbo) is "a good lad... good lad... good lad" (IIRC).

Gibbo might've been changed by the entity because of Addair while they were both in engineering? They might've both been infected at the same time.

(O'Connor going quiet while in engineering during his convo with Caz makes me think he, Bruce, and Fergus might've been attacked by Addair as well.)

Gibbo's dialog in general is unsettling to listen to. "I've seen strange beasties in the water at night" and "I don't like the water tanks", "I've seen terrible things. Terrible, terrible things".

Gibbo had the wherewithal to flee, but not enough control over himself to not attack Finlay, or kill Douglas.

When Caz 'follows' him through the water tanks to reach accommodations as he loses more and more control, he attempts to warn him off several times:

"No! Get back, Caz!"

"I don't want to hurt you!"

"You'll not wanna do that."

"Don't come in here!"

"Don't come any closer!"

It makes Addair's and Rennick's clarity (regarding their aggression toward Caz) terrifying after being radically changed. They're no more or less aware of what's happened to them, but compared to Gibbo, whose reactions sound like someone becoming a passenger in their own body ("You know I'd never... I'd never!"), they're suited to the entity's self-preservation.

And of all the characters changed by the entity - specifically Trots, Muir, O'Connor, and Roper - Gibbo retains a (decaying) self-awareness that none display, even in his growing aggression toward his crewmates and loss of control.

As far as tone-setters go, Gibbo is a great one. He establishes the unfairness of their situation, and what Beria D crew ultimately loses in the end ("Tell me mom... tell her.... I'll be hame soon... tell her...").

[greatrunner]

The stink face Faith gives all of Buffy's friends whenever she leaves with her in "Bad Girls" makes giggle every time.

[greatrunner]

Took the words right out my mouth, honestly.

I think the issue with Boom! Comics and how they've handled all the hypothetical questions they've run with using the Buffy/Angel license are problems that affect their general handling of famous IPs overall. I get the feeling that company is run by superfans or people who are so in love with their own ideas for things like BTVS and Power Rangers, they never stop to think "Is this a good idea for this particular franchise?"

Willow as a vampire slaying witch sounded awesome (that's a combo breaker, right there). Robin Wood as a teenager with a potentially healthily life (and living mother) being raised as a watcher sounded neat. Robin dating Buffy (because everybody noticed that chemistry between D.B. Woodside and Sarah Michelle Gellar) had the potential be a fun, fluffy teen romance (or tragedy knowing Buffy). Bisexual Xander was also interesting (if they did something with it), Xander being Buffy's childhood bff instead of Willow, also something you could run with. As was Anya as a Vengeance Demon ex-Watcher (???).

Robin Wood, Faith Lehanne, Kendra, are all characters that have potential for their own story arcs as well (they don't need to be attached to Buffy to, like, exist). Robin Wood is a walking, talking example of a Vampire Slayer (Nikki Wood) who decided to make a life for herself outside of her calling.

Boom! Comics Had every opportunity to make something really compelling with everything that was already established for all these characters.

The show is full of characters you could make a longform or one-shot series about, or not. But...

Instead, like you said, it's very much just published Fanfiction. Everybody's friends with everybody, Xander was a MRA vampire (I don't like the dude, but damn, why?). Willow wasn't a vampire slayer, just the same ole Willow who mucked something up with magic. The Sub-Zero of the series keeps getting jammed into the middle of everything (why the fuck was Spike on a goddamn road trip with everybody?????) if he's not part of the inciting incident.

Popular supporting characters are just the cheerleaders or the "in my headcanon we're pals" way, and characters who already had an otherwise unpleasant and racialized treatment in canon (Robin) only get worse treatment in some flimsy ass "Girl Power" story where all the dudes end up possessed by some underground evil (I forget the details).

And, then Angel, a character who was primed for the opportunities a comic book could provide in terms of long-form storytelling, angst and drama, just kinda got kicked to the side or fizzled out because no on writing him seemed all that invested in the survival of his title if they couldn't stick Spike into that shit. They went nowhere with Gunn, that cop lady, Fred, Oz. I don't even think Cordelia or Doyle even showed up, but I stopped reading at the start of the "Multiverse" arc.

And, like, for real for real, I'm not a fan of the Bangel romance (not even as a kid). But I can appreciate that the creep factor was "kind of the point"*, what with dude being both a vampire (a monster character whose schtick is about moral dubiousness, violation of personhood) and a stand in for the threats young women meet as they grow up (even if they don't see them as that). I can also appreciate that he, as a character, was meant to contradict that as a remorseful vampire.

However, I liked that their dynamic allowed for other interoperations of their relationship besides romantic (and that the show kinda reinforced for that with those Very Special Guest Appearances Boreanaz made post-S3).

You can have Bangel where Angel is still determined to make amends for his sins and help Buffy at the same time. You can have Bangel where they're not necessarily friends, but allies. Hell, Buffy and Angel could've even had a mentor/teacher dynamic like Blade/Whistler if you wanted to get interesting.

But instead, the writers decided to go with Buffy hating Angel on-sight during the Hellfire (or whatever) arc. And in opposition, Buffy ends up being more receptive to Spike being her ally and friend-of-a-friend, or her unironic love interest (The Last Vampire Slayer) despite all the heinous shit homeboy did. But Angel, the dude in her corner from the jump (however selfishly and aware of that), gets paid dust.

Like, really? Really, fam?

I was potentially optimistic about Buffy being reinterpreted outside the writing staff who worked on her series for all those years from TV to Dark Horse. Instead, I got exactly what I figured I'd get from a reboot series trying like hell to distance itself from its creator (despite there being no way to do that). Folk eager to regurgitate BTVS Fanfiction I've read for years (only slightly less racist).

*(even if the show stopped trying to make that an undercurrent at some point because TPTB bought into the unironic romance <_<)

Why Boom Still Can’t Get Buffy Right

My love for the Buffyverse is concrete but it has its limits. Yesterday I had a very unpleasant experience finishing yet another unimpressive Buffy run, courtesy of Boom Comics. It’s always disappointing to me because Buffyverse has so much potential and untold stories. It’s a goldmine that is constantly held back and simply can’t find its footing in the comics medium. Why is that? 

Boom’s been rather relentless in trying to make Buffy work. Several years and runs later, there’s still no big WOW story that can attract readers and viewers alike. Not just that, but even seasoned buffy fans don’t seem very interested in continuous attempts at rebooting the Slayer tale. You can blame the word reboot (it does tend to scare people) but the real reason is still Boom’s inability to deliver a good captivating story.

Boom had tried reinventing Buffy, sending her back to school, developing alternate realities and futures. But in every iteration, Buffy and the Scooby Gang were plagued with the same mistakes over and over again. 

Hey, I’m not sure what I am, so bear with me here 

The characters from Buffy are some of the most well-developed characters out there. Each one has a point of origin, a story, and a final form. We love them because we know them. And we know them extremely well. 

Let’s take the fan-favorite, Spike. We’ve seen his whole afterlife and even bits of his life. We know how he became William the Bloody, then Spike, a neutered vampire, and finally, an ensouled champion. We know how, and more importantly, we know why. 

I’d hate to throw in one more why but there is a reason Spike exists in the show, and we know it. 

When you read Boom comics, it feels like writers stick him into every arc just because they like him. He brings nothing to the story, he has no soul or chip yet chooses to join the scoobies. That does not look like the Spike we know. That guy was in s2-s4, not s5-s7. That’s the guy from School Hard or the one who got the Gem of Amara and happily marched to kill Buffy. 

But there’s nothing stronger than the author’s desire to make things ‘right’. Hence this spike lookalike joining the team every time. 

The funny part is, I can very well imagine a soulless chipless Spike who’s not a monster. If Dru sires him and never sees him again, if she never introduces him to Angelus, if he keeps on writing his bloody awful poetry only forever. He probably would’ve turned out like that poor librarian guy whose glasses Dru broke or like Harmony who still tried to be decent. But it’s the writer’s job to explain it, to write it into the story, not just throw a character into a book and see whether they swim or go down. They will always go down. 

Spike is only one of the issues here. In the show, both Kendra and Faith exist to show us the perfect (according to the council) and the fallen slayer. Two possible realities for Buffy. They have their own arcs (well, Faith does) but the show is strong because supporting characters serve a purpose. Just like the people we meet in real life always serve a purpose for us. You might believe that one character pushing the development of another is cruel, but that’s still how good stories are made. That’s still why Buffy is popular 20 years after the show’s finale. 

Kendra and Faith did that for Buffy in the show. In the Boom comics they just exist. They show up for no reason and they just hang around. You can take them out of the story and nothing will change. At one point in the initial reboot there were three slayers at the same time, and that felt more like a fix-it fanfic than a quality comic book. Unfortunately, some slayers have to die and some have to turn evil. Besides, without her rebellious personality, Faith is meaningless.

I have one more bone to pick. I know that Buffy and Angel (still the OTP of the show!) are a complicated matter to many modern writers. And readers, and viewers. There’s no place to hide from the creep factor and even though I will defend this ship till the day everyone finally agrees with me, I can’t deny its presence. But that doesn’t mean you get to discard this ship and separate Buffy and Angel into different books. One doesn’t exist or grow without the other. There is no Buffy in love with a vampire without Angel. There is only Vampire. Slayer. Dead vampire. 

Without Buffy, Angel is not in LA helping the helpless. He’s in New York eating low rats. Before trying to launch two separate books, how about Boom launches one good one, that provides background, even if revised and adapted to the modern days? 

I always worried what would happen when that b*tch got some funding

All this chaotic mess with the characters determines the stories Boom puts out. They tend to have an interesting start but by the time issue 3 comes out, it’s either Camazotz flying around Sunnydale, a giant crab taking over the main street, or whatever the hell Silas was (a soul eater?) Didn’t care for him much. Not even when we were evil. 

More often than not Boom writers suffer from the same disease that plagued Dark Horse comics – scale. Just because you can do anything doesn’t mean you should. Comics allow you to draw literally any kind of baddie but you are playing within a specific world, and suspense of disbelief only goes so far. Besides, in the show, it all grows gradually. You go from the Master to the First evil. In the comics… seriously, what the hell was Silas? 

From what I’ve read so far, Boom knows how to ask interesting questions: 

What if Buffy went to school today?

What if Willow took over as the slayer? 

What if Buffy was older? 

Those are all good what ifs but Boom has a problem following through. They don’t know the answer to this question and it feels like they’re making it up as they go along. If I’m being honest, it even feels like they wrote random ideas on pieces of paper, through them in a hat, and started pulling each time they hit a wall. 

Characters show up for now reason (hi, Tara from the latest run), they don’t feel like themselves, and the saddest part – none of it feels like you are getting your favorite show back. 

These characters deserve better than that. 

And there’s not a one who can say this ended well

At this point, I don’t know if Boom wants Buffy comics to succeed. I don’t mean to be this dramatic but every time someone mentions comics, fans think Dark Horse. Not because they are still considered canon, but because they had a connection to the beloved show. Boom comics don’t give you that, so you can’t look the other way when writers don’t deliver. It’s just how it works. 

I keep thinking what Boom can do to get out of this vicious circle. And I do believe there If they want to successfully play in the Buffyverse, they have to seriously up their game. It’s not impossible either. I mean, Something is Killing the Children is being released by the same studio. And what is that if not a more gruesome version of Buffy? So it’s not exactly magic. It’s doable. 

Personally, I still hold out hope that someone would dare explore the terrifying bloody past of the Whirlwind. Wouldn’t that be fun and gory? I’d like to see deep well-thought-through stories of past slayers. I’d happily read a well-illustrated comic run based on In Every Generation. And if we have to go back to Buffy variants, why not reinvent her story? But before we get to that, we’d have to work through every step of every character. Get them to where we want them, and start with a story that we want to tell, from start to finish. From her first day as a slayer to her last one (she didn’t have to empower the potentials after all).

That, of course, requires a lot of work. And if Boom isn’t ready to put in that kinda effort, they could just move from season 5, introduce a new slayer, and watch how her adventures unravel.  

Buffyverse is a hell of a property and there are too many stories waiting to be written. I’m probably still gonna give it a shot whenever Boom comes up with something new. I just hope I won’t have to write yet another long read complaining about it. 

[greatrunner]

Y'all, I'm losing my damn mind. Some random Joan Cusack sitcom was out here in 2001, repping Gundam Wing Gunpla. Deathscythe, my beloved!

On a more serious note, it does kinda tell you where Gundam was in mainstream culture.

[greatrunner]

Not mainstream media John Boyega'ing the three leads of Interview with the Vampire's second season.

[greatrunner]

When the Teen Wolf fanspace was getting shredded (justifiably so) for their virulent racism (specifically anti-Latinx/anti-Mexican sentiment) toward Tyler Posey and his family, they tried to pivot. They accused Posey of brownface, called homeboy European.

And when that didn't work they started using "white-passing" as a shorthand, despite knowing fuckall about the concept and the history behind it.

Because you can't be racist if the person you mercilessly harass isn't white.

All this to say that racism is and remains the bedrock of all fanspaces, but specifically, Teen Wolf. And the show itself did a lot to foster that behavior.

[greatrunner]

Yeah, “don’t be a dick” is a big ole red flag.

Fanspaces aren’t invested one iota in anti-racist moderation, accountability, or regulation, so any space Black (specifically), or non-Black folk migrate to will ultimately be a breeding ground for racist harassment. It’s the bedrock of fanspaces.

I’m dying to get into the space and doing something about it, or at least create a foundation with other folks, but a bitch is broke and has no money or discipline for coding lessons (yet).

Decentralizing (going to spaces like WordPress, BlogSpot, or Wix), for the time being, and building networks might be the best thing to do. Even if the platforms folk end up going to are just as lacking in the accountability and anti-racist foundation.

feeling cold about squidgeworld as a fic site alternative because they have extensive definitions/explanations when it comes to putting donation links in the A/N, use of AI, and csem, but when it comes to discrimination and racism it's just two little paragraphs of vagueness that ends in 'don't be a dick'.

that vague wording will absolutely get used against fans of color, especially black fans, and then that site really will just be ao3 with different colors, so I'm not feeling too hot about that site anymore.

[greatrunner]

Fundraisers stacking up, part ii.

NOTE: Be on the lookout for this user and others. SEE: The previous aid post I made in September.

Red = Far from goal. Green = Goal nearly achieved.

Abu Yamin | €68,906 of €75,000 goal raised | GFM

ahlammahdi | $1,228 of $50,000 raised | GFM

Hadiah | €8,353 of €50,000 raised | GFM

Nour | $39,104 of $45,000 raised | GFM

Yasmeen | €3,454 of €40,000 raised | GFM

haniyasserfamily |€2,701 of €25,000 raised | GFM

abdallahhassann | €143 of €35,000 raised | GFM

lanamohanad5 | 6,625€ of 25,000€ | Chuffed (campaign ends in 5 months)

abdalsalm | €21,657 of €50,000 raised | GFM

mahmoud4hilles | €12,623 of €50,000 raised | GFM

kenzish5 | €16,692 of €50,000 raised | GFM

wafaaresh6 | $61,240 of $85,000 raised | GFM

amnyaburas | $2,145 CAD of $68,000 raised | GFM

valentina-leonardi | €6,455 of €35,000 raised | GFM

samamohammed | $13,359 of $50,000 raised | GFM

Apologies for the delay in posting these. I see y'all's messages. I'm just trying to find a way to communicate all of them properly.

Do what you can to help folks. 💜💐🙏🍉

[greatrunner]

It is a truth universally accepted that when critiquing anything regarding AO3/OTW, reactionaries enter the building, and critical thinking and discernment gets locked out.

Nia Ola (on Substack) attempted to raise the alarm about AO3's changes in Terms of Service. This bit in particular:

Nia Ola: "[...]AO3 just updated their terms and conditions so that the only way you can use the site now is that you consent to them taking your data (so, works that you've written, distributed, saved, bookmarked, etc, everything) and give that data and information to the government."

In my time reading Terms and Conditions of Service, websites claiming that they're "duty bound" to provide data uploaded to the site to the govt, depending on jurisdiction, is not a surprise. You will not be informed or told by the site(s) when the government accesses/obtained your information. All on the pretense that it would "interfere with an ongoing investigation".

It isn't dissimilar to the one I've read here for Tumblr. The bit that says (legalese-y) that anything you post on the site can be used as evidence (IIRC) if it becomes "necessary."

But as usual, the AO3 brigade worked like hell to shout them down. Folk focused a lot on how OTW made their TOS "easier" to understand. They claimed Nia Ola was spreading misinformation. Most have gone as far as quibbling with her phrasing, "giving your information to the government" (which they would be doing) based on their personal interpretation of her meaning.

After making the video (they posted on TikTok) private, Nia Ola continued to encourage people to use security measures like VPNs and secure Browsers (they mentioned Firefox; I'm sure others are recommending Tor, Brave, and lesser-known browsers with better security features than Edge or Chrome) and to back up information they didn't want to lose.

Is it an explicit consequence of the election? Probably not. AO3/OTW knows entirely that they're hosting grimy shit on their website and refuse to do anything about it. AO3/OTW, like other websites, are "all-ages". Meaning OTW knows kids as young as 13 (and lets face it, younger) are using AO3. If the US or any other country decides it's politically advantageous to go after them, AO3/OTW is gonna cover their asses and throw you under the bus.

Point-Blank-Period.

That said, I think it would be irresponsible to exclude the election as a factor altogether. Organizations (govt or otherwise) are hang-wringing about rustling conservative feathers, and censoring themselves to avoid the wrath of a Trump Admin.

KOSA and COPPA are still in play. And there's the bill targeting non-profits to consider that's likely (and did) to pass not long after it got shot down.

When Tumblr wanted the favor of the Apple Store and their advertisers, they targeted sex worker blogs and fashion and art bloggers (primarily Black/non-Black). Then, they created an AI flagging system that still doesn't work.

When enough people (and advertisers) made enough noise about the NC-17 content that FanFiction (dot net) hosted on their site (at the height of its popularity, mind you)? They made a choice that allowed the website to survive and eliminate the target on their back. Both were financially motivated, yes, but if it's a choice of annexing content to stay online or getting shuttered?

AO3 will not be an exception. It's already embracing that "Obeying in Advance" phrase y'all are in love with right now.

Nia Ola is not the only one raising the alarm or alarmed by this decision. In your haste to fall on the sword for an organization that does not care about you, try not to make an ass of yourself by dog-piling people with experience regarding the consequences of data collection stemming from policies meant to criminalize sexual content, yeah?

This will continue unless we establish actual policies, education, and protections to prevent the mass surveillance of adult spaces under the pretense of "decency" and "protecting children." Additionally, we must address the ongoing elimination of healthy and safe spaces for children.

Because in our govt's haste to claim their concern for children, the corporations they serve have been demolishing child spaces and media online to save a couple of bucks (Cartoon Network's website comes to mind), and pushing children into adult spaces. And if they're not pushing kids into adult spaces, they're inviting adults into so-called kid spaces to increase their profits (Roblox and its attempts to become anything but a game for children, to say nothing of their monetization of the ideas that kids make).

Until our culture/society overhauls its approach to sex education, divorced from white supremacy, the actual intention of creating spaces that aren't sex-negative and don't prey on uninformed children will probably always exist in short bursts.

That means our politic has to rid itself of the reactionary ilk that (a) demonizes all things sexual and (b) refuses to practice discernment and critical thinking in their so-called sex-positive spaces. Both are why places like AO3 manifest and then ultimately help no one.

And it does not help anyone that reactionary AO3 loyalists will always fight to keep conversations about the site politically and socially stunted and unchanging.

Not all censorship and moderation is or should be sex-negative or censorious to the point of infantilizing. But, if the goal is maintaining free speech and freedom of expression (as we like to think of it vs how the govt allows it), it cannot be to the detriment of itself or for the sake of it (i.e., anti-censorship is not the answer any more than autocratic censorship is).

[greatrunner]

@tododeku-or-bust's post asking for examples of racism (experienced/witnessed) in fandom has got me thinking about how abstract the experience of antiblackness is once you (as in me, because I can only tell you my perspective) 'remove' yourself from the situation or the situation is considered 'settled.'

A lot of that is, obviously, a defense mechanism. If I didn't learn how to dissociate or numb myself from said experiences, I think I would be in a much worse place than I am right now.

But it also highlights how much I spent on Tumblr reading or experiencing antiblackness in different fandoms. Within the moment, the experience is raw and extremely triggering.

Left 4 Dead 2, Pacific Rim, Princess and the Frog, and Star Wars were probably the most active I'd been within a fanspace on Tumblr, and the antiblackness that ran rampant in those spaces was pretty vile.

At every turn, instead of owning up to the acts of passive and active racism, yt and non-Black users would break their backs to defend their position as 'not racist.'

The absolute refusal to investigate why they were so comfortable calling characters like Rochelle and Tiana boring or annoying compared to Lottie or Zoey allowed antiblackness to run rampant because, "I should be allowed to dislike a character!"

Do you know how aggravating it was to watch old-ass shows like Buffy and Angel at 14-then-22 and watch not only the writers but the audience (or LiveJournal or Television Without Pity) demonize characters like Charles Gunn and Robin Wood for doing things they cheered white characters on for doing... on the same shows? All while engaging in some truly racist stereotypes? It feels like you're going crazy when you see it. It made me wanna cry for help.

The fact that I had to remind Star Wars fans that 'DLF didn't mean it that way' wasn't an excuse for how LucasFilm treated Finn or John Boyega. That "actual racism" was benign, passive, uncritical, and often intentional.

The fact that much of my Pacific Rim experience was watching yt fandom call Stacker Pentecost an "asshole" or "control freak" because he was holding Raleigh and Chuck to account, or they wouldn't engage with his and Mako's relationship with the same respect they did with Herc and Chuck's.

I decided not to engage with the media outside of isolation or friend circles. As I moved further and further away from it, and it became vague and less sharp, I'd start to question, "Was it really that serious?" When so many people failed to read the room and centered themselves as victims of 'harassment,' was it really that serious?

And I have to remind myself, "Yeah, it was." Even as it becomes hard to verbalize or put into words to recall, it was and is that fucking serious.

And the worst part of all of this? Most of those racist shitheads knew that too. But they could get away with it, so...

The point ultimately is to drive people who'll challenge positions out of those spaces. That's why so many fanspaces don't promote growth or shifting dynamics. They prioritize anti-intellectualism and infantilization of the self or the work itself.