#guys.... we're at e on the sinned system

[nerdynikki94]

I've kind of been in limbo on this fic I've been tossing around, but I wanted to hold off and see where canon will be by the end of S16 with the emotions brewing between Mac & Dennis. And boy.... I'm glad I did.

Yes.... the 'Johnny' of it all. I have too many fucking thoughts (all wickedly delighted at this shameless development) but even just at a surface human level: Dennis catfished Mac. That's a really fucked up thing to do to your friend.

He falsified a relationship with him. That's an intimate betrayal, and I don’t think it's just a joke that Mac was in denial. He's given up at Dennis' insistence of being straight. Only for the lie detector test to determine: THAT WAS A LIE! Followed by the confession that he has been intentionally yanking Mac back, outright pursuing and establishing a written, sexual and consuming relationship because he's no longer getting Mac's attention and devotion. He tells Mac to move on, but he's secretly working against any possible progress Mac could make.

I know it's a sitcom, and reveals are played for laughs, but Rob first put on that heartbroken and wounded puppy dog expression when Dennis admitted that he was Johnny. If Mac really didn't understand what Dennis was saying, then why did he try to stop him from talking about, proving it? Why did he lie and say it was buzzing before Dennis could press it?

'Then, who is you?' Is Dennis, Dennis? Is Dennis, Johnny? Is there any hope that Mac could ever fall in love with anyone other than Dennis? After everything it took for them to become friends again; Mac doesn't want to believe it. Even if the remaining episodes do little to show it, deep down, he knows, and he's hurting over it.

Still, the point stands that according to S16E4, Dennis had devoted weeks to secretly wooing Mac. Like, they had to start somewhere before the anal beads. There's a reason Mac thinks Johnny is special, a reason Mac is certain he's in love with someone he's never met. I wonder what's in those texts.

Can't wait for the smut fics to come out on this. We all know that Mac wasn’t the only one getting off during those exchanges.

I cannot even get into the Charlie and Uncle Jack trauma they've been bitch-slapping us with this season. Like, Jesus Christ, they won't let up. I'm cringing the whole time. I started getting the neck thing.

This one was a fucking doozy, just like.... damn. Hey, at least RCG are not catering to the sunny dudebros so much, because they pretty much just finally gave us our rightful, canonically queer Dennis Reynolds!

[some-murmurings]

I think "Says profound things and then teaches Kant. are you smart or not pick a lane" summarizes my feelings about The Good Place perfectly 😭

the ending annihilates me every time I rewatch the damn show while I get more and more uncomfortable with the way so many things are characterized over time

Like

Eleanor is very much the "horny bisexual" trope (made worse bc she's a woman. intersectionally fetishy)

After watching a couple seasons of Brooklyn Nine-Nine (copaganda, notably), I can say with complete confidence Michael Shur fucking HATES fat people. So much. He hates us so, so, SO much.

Jason's whole... yknow, Jason thing. Just the model of "intelligence" Schur uses (also apparent in B99). The fact the "preposterously dumb, extremely overconfident" guy is from Florida.

The way the tone of the show changes almost on a dime bc the later parts of the production happened during Trump's campaign.

The way colonialism and racism are thematic bit parts, instead of focal conflicts that'd massively characterize ALL of the character's experiences.

That Tahani's "sins" have nothing to do with her class (insanely ultrawealthy heiress who actively exploited a broken non-profit charity system for personal fame is left as subtextual, focusing on her needless bickering with her sister)

Again, the whole "Floridian trash" thing, except now noting that it was embodied by a Filipino dude who spends 40% of the show being called a different ethnicity

I can't remember the name of the trope but Simone is pretty actively dehumanized by her role as a "placeholder partner" for a white lady, simultaneously treating her as a "fix-it" partner for Chidi's emotional hangups.

That Simone did not IMMEDIATELY crash the experiment when meeting Brent for the first time. Guy is the devil himself.

That Janet is so clearly asexual & nonbinary but the show fails to explore it with any depth. (a lesser crime but im still mad about it)

The traditional myth of the "History of Philosophy" is pretty uncritically repeated by the show.

It should not go unsaid that Immanuel Kant was VIOLENTLY racist against Africans, West Africans in particular. Like Nose-Charts-to-determine-intelligence racist.

In fact, most of the guys we're meant to believe Chidi uncritically idolizes would have H A T E D his guts for reasons so racist I honestly can't keep track of them bc they're so arbitrarily evil.

I do mean "most" btw, the 'big names' in Philosophy are overwhelmingly scrubbed of any personal & cultural context that might make them look bad (in the show and in contemporary academic culture)

THE GOOD PLACE (2016 - 2020) I 2.12 - Somewhere Else

[shrapnelstars]

Desert introduced me to Sin Kiske from Guilty Gear. I don't know the first thing about that series or fighting games, but I watched his little character intro thing on yt. If I had the energy to research further, I can tell that this would be another fatal blorbo binding waiting to happen.

Desert is one of the nicest streamers on the face of the earth, but he is a single shining beacon of light in the middle of most of the fandoms he's into, unfortunately. I've been turned off by the attitudes of most of the communities around works he's interested in. They tend to be kind of gatekeepy/"I'm better than you"/"If you don't already understand every single minute aspect of this work, then we're going to trash you for trying to get started"/"If you don't enjoy it this hyper specific way, we will dog the fuck out of you" kind of people. I don't know if this specific community is like that, but I'm not really willing to find out.

I definitely used to enjoy fighting games as a kid, because I have extremely strong positive memories around playing them on either someone else's home system, or playing with strangers at Chuck E. Cheese and other arcades, but the modern fighting/hard games community is pretty wretched, and I'm not wasting a ton of energy and sanity trying to find a safe entry point.

Teenage stranger guy who asked baby Shrapnel to be on his team in a makeshift tourney of Marvel vs Capcom, you are forever loved, and I do think back to you at times. You are the reason I like Venom and War Machine as characters.