#i ain’t saying this out of hate

[tinkeroni]

“hazbin hotel has a predominantly white cast” what the fuck are you talking about

[autism-alley]

hi originally posted this at the end of a long thread of back and forth, here’s the og post if you want full context but i feel like this needs to be its own post especially bc i keep seeing this argument being made—the argument that the kids (in this case it was annabeth) SHOULD just know the monsters are monsters and who they are and how to defeat them before ever encountering them, that it’s a problem if they don’t.

the problem is not if 12 year olds should recognize a trap when they see one, even if they’re smart 12 year olds, and if that’s realistic. that is entirely beside the point.

the problem is rick riordan wrote a book series whose formula is bringing myths to the modern age and he’s not sticking true to that in the show—percy jackson and the olympians’ Shtick is taking these classic, ancient threats and giving them a new face. these traps work because these kids are not walking into a cave marked with Get Out and getting ambushed by monsters—the monsters are disguised as harmless mortal human beings, in harmless mortal human being places (for the most part) and i think we—and more importantly, the show—are all forgetting the mist, the magic involved here. it’s not just that medusa is a “creepy lady with her eyes covered” it’s that there is ancient magic at work here, magic that, like the systems of abuse pjo exists to criticize, has been evolving and continuing its malevolence for millennia. it’s formulaic, that’s the point. it’s the same trap you’ve learned about all your childhood, the same trap a thousand children before you learned all their childhoods, and still, it works. you fall into the trap. because that’s how generational abuse works. it’s a trap. it isn’t enough to learn monsters exist, what they look like from a second hand story that originated thousands of years ago. if you want to escape alive, you have to adapt as quickly as they do, recognize their face, and ultimately, beyond any individual trap, the game itself has to change. real, generational change.

so. the problem is rick riordan wrote a series with a formula for action that perfectly captures the overarching, systemic conflicts he was commentating on, and then threw that formula out in the show because it was “unrealistic”. i don’t give a damn about realism when it works to the detriment of the story. this is a story about generational abuse, yes, but it’s told through ‘a tale as old as time’ and that’s why it works so fucking well. and when it comes to basic storytelling, if your characters know the threat before they even walk in and you do practically nothing to then make up for the stakes you have removed, that’s a flaw. now you’ve lost the entertainment value for your audience, on top of also lessening your themes.

something else that is so. honestly soul-crushing as a writer and a creative, is that to me this is reflective of the way we are now afraid to tell earnest stories. stories where we care not for listening to the people who want to pick apart fictional, mythical, fantasy stories for not being “realistic” instead of aligning with our target audience who acknowledges reality is not what makes a story. think of your favorite movie, show, book, comic, what have you—has the reason for your favoritism ever been because it is the most reasonable, the most grounded, the most practical out of any you’ve seen? or is it because of the emotion? the way it speaks to you, to your life and the person you are? the journey it takes you on? is the percy jackson and the olympians book series so good because it’s inherently realistic?

the secret to storytelling is, very simply, focus on your story. everything else is secondary. if it’s written well, it doesn’t matter to me that the characters walk into a trap that, to the audience, is obviously a trap. because i can understand how the characters don’t know it, and how the story falls apart if the narrative just tells the characters it’s a trap from the jump. that’s what dramatic irony is—first used in greek tragedies! this is literally a tale as old as time in every sense except for the end—where it’s happy. and it’s not earned if we don’t first see, over and over, the status quo as a tragic trap.

it’s not about if annabeth (or the other kids) is “smart enough” to not walk into a trap, or about if she’s just too prideful to not walk into what she knows is a trap (or any reason that could apply to the other characters), it’s that annabeth, at the end of the day, is a character. she is a storytelling tool for the messages of the narrative. that doesn’t make her any lesser. in fact ignoring it reduces her, because it reduces what she represents. it’s about how rick riordan, or whoever else at disney, has fumbled the storytelling bag so ridiculously hard that they can’t take the simple, effective formula outlined from start to finish (by good ol 2009 rick himself) and adapt it to the screen without answering the most unimportant, derailing, anti-story questions.

[dykedvonte]

I keep seeing fanarts of ppl's OC's being on the ship, so do you think that if there was 6st crewmember (specifically, another woman) Anya would've been more safe? Like, someone to actually call Jimmy's begaviour out, someone Anya might wanna trust? Is there a possibility something might have changed (even if a little) or it would not have mattered at all?

-💀

I feel like the game would make it part of the commentary on where she would believe and help Anya but still be sort of dismissive? Like the whole “don’t waste time crying and being scared keep going and move on, don’t let him win”. It’s supposed to be positive and reinforcing but sometimes it does more damage in those times of mourning and grief, it feels patronizing, like you don’t understand what you’re going through but they do. Even if they did call out his behavior it’s still on Curly to act and while another voice would help, it’s still 4 against 2 on guys that don’t get it until they have to vs women who always have to.

I don’t mind mouthwashing OCs but I do get a bit bored as they tend to be borderline saviors or like Jimmy aligned. They are either more complicit than Curly or just Jimmy haters for no reason, outside of what the creators know about what he did to Anya. I am never irked by OCs but in a story like mouthwashing you really need to think about what your character adds to the commentary, especially if they are there during the crash. It’s nice to have like characters on Anya’s side more whole heartedly and interesting to see characters who placate Jimmy but sometimes it’s one note.

I can’t and don’t want to police peoples OCs it’s never my intention when I comment on trends I notice, but I do feel like the way people make their OCs interact with these two characters and especially Curly, really show a grave misunderstanding of the narrative and these characters as people vs roles in the story. Still, I know people just make up characters for fun and that’s fine. Great even, but I guys I’m focusing more on OCs that are supposed to have those serious dynamics. My favs tend to be pretty-Tulpar or post-Tulpar au OCs.

The inevitably of the crash is on Jimmy. He did that not because he wasn’t stopped but because all his means to kill Anya were taken. The gun, the axe. Even if Curly did strip him of his co-pilot privileges and try to keep him contained there’s only so many people. An extra body helps but they have jobs they have to do, he’s the only one steering the whole ship and Jimmy would likely have an out: food, bathroom, etc. He’s not new and if he couldn’t crash the ship directly, who’s to say he wouldn’t sabotage something else? A clunker like the Tulpar wouldn’t take much. An extra person helps but it’s just another thing that prolongs what a person like Jimmy is willing to do to shirk responsibility.

It’s more than just needing someone to stand up to him and think that’s what is missing when it comes to inserting a character into the mouthwashing setting.

[starlooove]

The woobification of Gotham rogues needs to be studied

[rosicheeks]

.

[drunkeddiediaz]

.

[no1ryomafan]

Not to make another mecha rant at unholy hours about something particular that isn’t shocking and only shocking to me bc my autistic ass learn stuff so slowly but I think after enough observation I finally clocked why people are so hard on mecha: Nobody realizes robots are the appealing aspects but can still be used as story telling tools.

People think mecha fights diminish character development when that’s far from the truth. A mecha in a show is a secondary vessel to the protagonist. It has a connection to them, a relationship, even if it’s not sentient. It is an extensive of their own sheer will power and most mecha fights can be seen just like any anime fight: driven by its pilots determination and it’ll overcome the obstacle. Being in a big robot over fighting hand to hand with super powers doesn’t change this.

If shounen can prioritize cool fights but still tell interesting stories, why do people think mecha can’t do the same? When it being in the realm of sci fi opens up even more deep story possibilities? Why can’t people realize you can have “WAH COOL ROBOT” but also a deep narrative? Why do people always pick one or the other?

People who don’t realize this end up making mechas that don’t fit into both appealing categories because they think having more character focus over robot fights is better story telling, but why would I watch a mecha if the thing it IS isn’t present? Why strip mecha of its identity? Why not just make a media in a different genre if you aren’t going to respect what it is?

There is no “deconstruction”, you simply refuse to watch the actual influencers of this genre. You pick at something you don’t understand and don’t want to learn from because you think you know what you’re doing. You think you know what you’re talking about when you only watched maybe one show and put it on a pedestal without actually trying things.

It’s fine if you did try and don’t think it’s your cup of tea, but most people don’t. They just assume. This isn’t even asking to watch more mecha but to be OPEN MINDED. To LISTEN to people at least when they mention it and be aware of what the genre actually is, and not the fabrication you made up. Learn. Don’t refuse.

[randomtheidiot]

God, I fucking hate Red.

[badolmen]

Look at me. LOOK at me. Old growth forests are important. Their loss is violence against the land.

BUT that isn’t a reason to point at younger, perfectly healthy closed canopy forests and claim they’re ecologically insignificant or bad. Their sparse understory is a function of closed canopy forests. Even old growth forests will have sparse understories if the canopy is closed. That’s how photosynthetic strata works.

The west coast has vastly different forests and history than the east. The rare volcanic eruption that made the giant stands of Douglas fir in the west possible would be literally impossible here. Our species are adapted for stand replacing fires set by indigenous peoples to drive deer and rejuvenate oak. Oak as a genus is dying here. We can’t set fires. We can’t harvest patches large enough to simulate a fire. Our deer are overpopulated and browse down every sprout that dares to reach for sunlight.

Making a sweeping ban on clear-cut and similarly ‘scary’ harvests would kill them for good. The restrictions on fire have nearly done that to species like Jack and pitch pine that rely heavily on fire to establish. They’ve been relegated to pine barrens and the rare sandy forest clearing. Our fire Cherry, thankfully, can last decades in the soil seedbank. You can only see them the first few decades after a large, complete harvest and then they die.

What’s good for one forest kills another. Not all trees are made ecologically equal - and that’s a very good thing. All trees and forests have their ecological value. Management of one forest is never applicable to other forests; they all have their own unique histories and communities that should be imitated when possible and left alone when not.

[thevirginslvt]

i have so much rage contained for this one person and i feel so dumb about it because they are out there living their best life while i’m fantasizing about ways to shut them up

[vulturvolanss]

ngl as an autistic person I look at how ppl treat alhaitham and go yeah none of you would like him if he wasn’t hot. and it makes me sad. like at this point I wish he was a little weird looking or something so that people would just. leave him alone. not subtle constantly making him a robot in aus or treating him like he’s violent or cruel or any sort of mean when that’s just patently not true. y’all see a guy that doesn’t bother masking and says things like “I want everyone to live the lives they want to live” and say he’s a bastard

[gregoftom]

some of y’all haven’t grown past the treating queer ppl like shit for liking a ship you don’t take seriously stage and it shows

[starlooove]

I already said this but if u make Aisha the tallest in ur fanart i hate u a lil

[rosicheeks]

😓🤬

[applecherry108]

I am too old for this shit.

Saw the dumbest fucking discourse on Twitter. About someone complaining that a tag they used was flagged as harassment on ao3 and that the story would be hidden until they changed it.

“[ ] shippers dni eat glass and die”

Deadass they and their followers were so confused about how that’s harassment.

I don’t know how to explain to you that telling anyone to “eat glass and die” is a bad thing to do no matter what fictional characters they ship.

​Your bad actions are not excused simply because you have the perceived moral high ground.

[lildoodlenoodle]

I will say I have mostly had a positive experience on this app(oddly enough lol) but like even when I do get hate it’s always the most vague unintelligible jumble of words. Like girl, respectfully, I have no idea what you’re talking about. And it’s always also Just hate, not even a critique, totally unnecessary. Like you could’ve 100% just blocked me? Or even commented that and THEN blocked me(which they never do???) and it’s always for THE WEIRDEST SHIT.

And then, for the ones that aren’t anonymous, I check their blog and they always have the most curdled ass takes. The most recent one where I looked at their blog they literally had a post saying there wasn’t enough white straight males as protagonists anymore like GIRL ?!

“You lost me the moment….” GIRLIE I DIDNT WANT YOU