#i critique because i care

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

MDZS x Brazil (1985)

(Yes. Real movie dialogue)

[p0rk-guts]

Oh my god I just realized. The imps have black blood. All hellborn have black blood. Their blush should be grey.

[starrysharks]

evilution

[teleportationmagic]

The thing about Jayce and Mel is that like. She does not view him as an investment. That is just certifiably false. You have to skip over all her scenes to believe that.

In the beginning she does! She absolutely does! She conceives of their relationship as a business one - where she makes profit off his inventions, and he profits from her business and political acumen, both monetarily and powerwise. And overall, she believes she's fulfilled her half of the bargain.

It's only when he comes back to her after Viktor gets sick that she realizes he believes this is something deeper. And it's notable that she responds to that emotion - she opens up about herself too, comforts him, and expresses real emotionality about it. It's then that we see his ideals start to influence her - especially reawakening in her a desire for nonviolence.

Wanting to do things peacefully is something that's been with her since she was a child. It is what guides her away from Noxus, because her pacifism just does not fit there. It's why she loved Piltover so - they aren't a violent expansionist empire, which is a really low bar, but that's what she's grown up in.

She never finds the violence in Zaun, because she never goes looking for it. This is her fault, and her flaw, let me make that clear. She has some of the most power in the city, and should know about what kind of violence is holding up, and work to resolve it, truly. But she doesn't, because she's focused on her own exploits, and has so insulated herself away from the class struggle that it does not register for her until it grows to violence.

And then, once that violence comes, she maintains that pacifism with an iron grip, more than Jayce himself. It is Jayce who constructs (almost) all the HexTech weapons that are used in the Undercity, in Caitlyn's police squadron. He betrays the oaths that he's made to his partner, where Mel keeps the promise she's made to her's. She is the only politician left to try to tamp down on the worst of Ambessa's instincts, and her removal from Piltover is what marks it's descent into militarism.

She is ultimately a complicated woman, with a bunch of interesting relationships to Piltover and Zaun. I think you can divide Piltover as a city neatly between her, Jayce, and Caitlyn - each of them standing for some of Piltover's best instincts, and some of its worst.

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

Is there anything more weak than the attempt to shut down all media analysis and critique by appealing to a "everything is valid and different! Stop making it a pissing match," point of view? Either the stories are "too different" to compare and contrast, or they're "ultimately all fma so why should we fight". Maybe some people can't get it through their heads, but disagreement, venting amongst those who feel similarly, and critique are not inherently a fight.

And I'm sorry, but "breaking the cycle of violence" is a shit trope to tack onto a plot that uses a genocide and ethnic cleansing as its foundation, with heaping layers of "those poor little war criminals, stop being mean to them" to add insult to bad storytelling.

[autisticrosewilson]

Um if you write Jason having to get drugs for Catherine I want you dead btw. Not only does it tell me you assume the average drug dealer would give the hard shit to a very small child and then not supervise them at all (classist stereotype that all drug dealers are inherently evil + lazy writing with no grasp on reality) and you genuinely think that Catherine was CONSTANTLY high, as if that's even possible without overdosing far sooner than she did. That's without even getting into the bad mom Catherine propaganda.

[thelilylav]

I’ve gotta admit as much as I know Darabella is a flawed ship (and some of the ppl who are anti for it have legit criticisms I love y’all for pointing it out cause it frustrates the hell out of me too trust) they’ll always just kind of be it for me.

Because as much as it was an “I can fix him” trope, as much as Rosabella could be selfish and Daring’s flaws got cranked up to 1000, she was also the first person to look at him after his destiny, the thing he dedicated his life to, failed, when people were questioning him as a prince and putting pressure on his and Apple’s relationship and tell him that, like, maybe it would be alright? Maybe this wasn’t his destiny, and maybe that was okay.

And the part that really gets me? She’s the first person after this happens to tell him that it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside, which as much as you can like other Daring ships or him whatever he desperately needed to hear. Not even cause he was selfish, that’s not what I’m saying, but bc he placed his whole identity on this image that people concocted for him based on him appearing the perfect prince. He was handsome, he was talented, and he was handsome! So who cares about him as a person?

Idk man. You spend four seasons (I watch the specials on Netflix so that’s why four idk if it’s three to some ppl or whatever tho) watching him be praised for his looks, watching girls fawn over him, and of course he enjoys it so nobody really questions how much he enjoys it. And then you get this girl, this girl who owes him nothing, this girl who (contrary to popular belief apparently) has a life of her own and people she cares about outside of him, and she’s nice to him. And she’s the first person after everything happens to just be nice to him, for the sake of being nice. Something about that will always hit different for me

[bayetea]

Thoughts on Luke? just curious, i love all your pjo stuff and i saw that you like thaluke so 👀

(resisting the urge to say "no one gets him like I do") to be completely honest barring that one thing luke is probably the best written original character in the entire percy jackson franchise

[shorthaltsjester]

i contain multitudes and can say that i am a little :( about vex and percy being teammates with benefits because i think there’s something particularly heartbreaking about the dynamic that was neither of them ever said a thing even though they both were aware of it and it took losing percy for vex to finally admit it and Even Then, she couldn’t say it to percy’s face when they got him back, percy was the one who had to make the first move (that they were both alive for at least) and he was only able to do that because he’d heard her confession, because he never would’ve thought otherwise. to be clear, i also very much enjoy the story being told, i think i just wish they’d maybe committed more significantly to This Is A Campaign-Inspired Story Rather Than A Retelling sooner in the show so that maybe there would be a bit more grounding or set-up for the storylines the narrative is focusing on (and i understand why they wouldn’t), because i think they’re doing very well with percy’s arc for example, because they started with focusing on his and keeping his beats mostly the same and that seems to be much the same case as some of his second wave of meaty character stuff has arrived. but with vex they’ve aimed for the same character beats but it doesn’t always feel as earned or really feel like much character at all; i think saundor particularly was a bit of an :/, since in the campaign it was really a catalyst for vex interrogating her role in the party and her morality and something she struggled to get over and that haunted her far beyond the walls of that tree, but in the show it hasn’t really had a clear impact on vex beyond the scope of the episode itself — syldor certainly has, but the challenge that saundor presented didn’t really have much weight beyond its moment. and obviously a large part of that’s also probably just, 7 protagonists and wanting to expand the perspectives to antagonists and give more room for side characters is a lot of things to cover. and, i say with love, perhaps a bit too ambitious for a 12 episode per season, ~22 minute runtime show if they want their characters to have the kind of depth that really makes campaign 1 shine the way it does.

[wilsonsmcgillsweatshirt]

Okay I've been meaning to respond to a post but Tumblr won't let me reblog it for whatever reason, but I feel like my response has enough context on its own that I can make it it's own post.

So this is in response to multiple posts I've seen people make about Wilson telling House that he wishes he had been an asshole like him, House responds that he would still have cancer, and Wilson says, "Yeah but at least I'd feel like I deserved it!"

There are so many people saying that Wilson had absolutely no reason for saying that, that they can't understand why he would say it, that it didn't need to be in there, and how dare he say that to House after House helped him so much after his cancer diagnosis.

There was a reason behind it, just because it's not a happy reason, doesn't mean it's not an understandable one. I think the way Wilson sees it at first is that House has spent his entire life pushing people away and hurting them so that he doesn't get hurt in return. House has abused and ruined every relationship he's had. House constantly hurts people, and yet, he gets to live. Wilson, on the other hand, has practically dedicated his life to helping and taking care of others. He's maintained this nice guy mask his entire life, and yet Wilson, who has lived what others would call a good life, who has been what others would consider a good man, is the one that gets cancer and is going to die.

Wilson feels like he wasted his life being a "good man" instead of just doing and saying whatever the fuck he wanted like House. Wilson is jealous of House. Wilson is laying there on the couch in insufferable pain with death looming over him, and here's Gregory House, asshole extraordinaire, who's alive and well (as well as he usually is). That has to really fucking hurt.

This idea that "omg how could Wilson do that?? He said that for no reason!!" Is just not true. Wilson said it because he's was in excruciating pain and terrified and just found out he was going to die in a couple of months. Wilson was scared, and he was lashing out, which is a very human reaction. House does it all the time, Wilson is not special in the way he reacts to pain. The entire series is full of House berating people and hurting them and saying awful things, and pushing them away. He does that to Wilson multiple times. And Wilson forgave him every single time. And so when Wilson is in pain and lashing out, House knows not to take his personally, and that's why he basically immediately forgave him.

House and Wilson know each other well enough that they can see behind the harsh words, and understand each others intent. Ideally, Wilson would not have said that, and he should have apologized, but that was not a crazy horrific reaction. It's true, House has done a lot for Wilson during their relationship, especially after his cancer diagnosis, but Wilson has also sacrificed for House. After the infarction, House lashed out and pushed away and abused everybody until they all cracked under it and left. Everybody except Wilson. Wilson put up with the constant humiliation, degradation, pain, and abuse from House.

Wilson put House before everything in his life, including his marriage. Later, Wilson refuses to vote to get rid of House, and therefore loses his spot on the board, and the job that he loved and put so much of his life into. All to protect House. Wilson lies multiple times to the police to protect House, risking his freedom if they found out. Wilson and House constantly sacrifice for each other, it's just what they do. Neither one of them is "better" or "worse", they just are.

If they switched roles, and House was the one with cancer, House would definitely lash out as Wilson, no doubt about it. And Wilson would forgive him. Wilson has such a realistic reaction. It doesn't matter how many times you see people diagnosed with cancer and think that it's not personal, that cancer doesn't have an agenda, nothing can prepare you for when it happens to you or somebody you love, and a lot of the time, it feels incredibly personal.

How we react to dying and sickness is not always rational, and anger is a stage of grief. This is Wilson trying to grapple with his death, and that doesn't always look pretty. Sure, it was a fucked up thing to say and House didn't deserve it, but Wilson wasn't just insulting him for the fun of it. He had a very realistic, understandable reason behind it.

Not going to lie, I see people all the time talking about this scene in particular, with such a surface level approach to it. They act mad or confused, and talk about how they have no idea how someone could possibly hurt their favourite characters. So yeah, Wilson saying it was a shitty thing to do, but there is no way it was the worst thing anybody said, and he had very obvious, complex reasons for it.

I honestly love this scene, and I think it gives so much insight into Wilson's character. Wilson finally lashes out and exposes his grief in such a raw, mean way is lowkey a pivotal moment for him because he's finally letting himself be the "bad guy." And yeah, they weren't forced to put this in the show. It's literally fiction. They don't have to put anything in. But it fits so well. So yeah, just because he has complex reasoning for why he said what he said, that doesn't mean the reasoning doesn't exist.

[greenerteacups]

Hello GT, I absolutely love Lionheart!

I published my first fic and have been dealing with some criticism; it’s not anythjng super hateful, but it’s not anything meant to make me improve either. I’ve been feeling sort of down because of it. My question is: have you ever dealt with hate or criticism before? What is your attitude towards it?

I find your work and answers on here super insightful and inspiring! I hope you have a nice day ❤���

Fuck em. Like, seriously, just fuck em. There's a time and place for writers to take critique and be strict with themselves; it's necessary for any artist to grow. That place is with a chosen group of creatives whose work you admire and whose judgment you trust. A rando on the Internet, while they may in fact be the next Marcel Proust, probably isn't. And I was raised to believe that while it's appropriate and kind to pay compliments to strangers when they're performing — just as you'd smile at a busker on the sidewalk, and or compliment a chalk artist — it's not appropriate to criticize them when what they do isn't to your tastes. They're providing you with their art for free. No one forced you to read it; no one forced you to listen. If you don't like it, it costs $0 to shut the fuck up.

Also — that thing I said about artists taking critique? That assumes that you're doing this out of a desire to improve your writing, which, while noble, is not actually a thing you need to do if you're a hobby writer. I like trying to improve; it makes me feel good. But at the end of the day, I do this for fun. I do this because in my real job, I am ruthless and self-critical and try really fucking hard to do well, and you need parts of your life that Aren't Like that. You need parts of your life where you're not worrying about whether you're Doing It Right. And living without that anxiety of critique is, paradoxically, the only way you'll find the artistic courage to take risks and develop new skills. Everyone is a little bit rough around the edges to begin with. (Not saying you're a beginner — you merely said "publish," and I certainly wrote a lot of things before I started publishing! But every artist is always trying to develop new skills and techniques; in the grand scope of things, we're all beginners.) Giving someone blunt critique when they're in the beginning phases of their journey as an artist is about as helpful as screaming at your six-year-old kid because he can't swim the butterfly.

And the thing is, these people will bluster and say "well, I'm just being honest, I'm just trying to be helpful," but like: mmmmmmno, you're not! You're not. And it's disingenuous to say so. Because if you were actually trying to be helpful, you would introduce yourself, offer your skills as an editor/beta reader, and start building the relationship of trust that grounds any meaningful co-creative partnership. People do not just accept random critique that comes flying at them from the blue nowhere. And issuing it in that form is the best way to make them hostile, defensive, and unreceptive to it. Delivering harsh feedback without a context of care and support is almost sure to fail as a method of actually changing behavior, and either (1) you know that, and are doing it anyway — presumably because you want people to know how Terribly Clever and Better At Writing you are, or (2) you sincerely have never thought about the effect that context and word choice have on how other people receive your meaning.

Which tells me you are the last fucking person on the planet I want writing advice from.

[lucydacusgirl]

I think at this point if you still can’t cope with Sally Rooney not using speech marks you should probably just not read her stuff. And like that’s fine. You don’t have to read Sally Rooney if you don’t like the way she writes. It’s okay. Quite a few authors actually don’t use speech marks but if you don’t like it you can just read books by authors who do. And also you can critique any author on anything you like but I feel like it’s an established part of Sally Rooney’s style that she doesn’t use speech marks and you making an instagram reel saying ‘why can’t she just use speech marks’ isn’t going to change that fact. And again she’s not unique in that stylistic choice. Maybe we can say some new things about Sally Rooney.

[take-care-of-it]

Yknow I don’t think curly is as bad as Jimmy or knowingly helped him steal IDs or whatever. But I doooo think people going “the good intentioned thing means there’s no action he could’ve taken to know abt Jimmy before canon” is missing just how much you can rationalize yours and others behaviors. Especially if you want to see the best in them/yourself.

Which can lead to MORE rationalizing because sunk cost fallacy, to become better you have admit you were worse. And a lot of people aren’t willing to do that, or even think about the possibility they might need to be doing that. (Jimmy is basically doing this x10)

I’m just saying, in the interview she ALSO later says “…people like [curly] are defending perpetrators or use their power to cover up for misbehaving friends while still thinking they are doing a good, generous thing.” as we can see with Jimmy, you can rationalize anything to any extreme to convince yourself you’re doing good if you’re dead set on it.

Curly can genuinely have good intentions, want to help Anya, but still be *willfully* ignorant. You don’t have to be fully cognizant of WHAT you’re ignoring to be willfully ignorant, in fact that’s pretty counterintuitive to the term. But I do think curly could’ve chosen to dig deeper into this beforehand, but was afraid of what he’d find. So he held off until the problem became too big for him to be ignorant about. To quote the interview again, “good intentions don’t mean much when the situation has already gotten massively out of hand.”

[rxttenfish]

honestly im calling it now. the silt verses is one of those rare perfect pieces of art for me. absolutely flawless. perfectly fitting end to the story. excellent.

[epickiya722]

"The finale is bad."

Damn, we didn't even get it officially released out yet.

[seventeendeer]

Hullo, I wanted to ask you something about your Tf2 analysis from a while ago (which I really really appreciate and think about often with a more than recommended amount of skepticism to accompany my enthusiasm, I'm not going to go debate lord on you though) and I'm not too sure how to go about it or if I should. I'm nervous. Nonetheless:

You've outlined the improvident way that it was revealed that Spy is Scout's absent-yet-presently-present father and why that was a such a folly in the initial discretion of the game, as well as how that could have been executed differently while maintaining and potentially expanding it's comedic satire that it is dependent on. My question is: Do you think that, with the same retconish way that occured with Scout and Miss Pauling, there could have been a way for them to avoid the foiling trope without taking away from their own premises, too?

If it helps I'm completely neutral on it as a ship and am not pushing for some shippy debate thing, from skimming over your blog I've superficially gathered some critique on gender politics, correct me if I'm wrong but mostly as it pertains to heteronormative, patriarchal, generally inflexible presentation in media. So I'm really curious on how that could be applied here! Sorry for this strange, lengthy ask.

disclaimer up front that it's been a while since I made that analysis post and I barely remember what I said in it, and I might not even agree with all of it myself anymore (aside from like. the basics. TF2 is satirical comedy, the comics fucked up by overlooking the "satire" aspect, Spy being Scout's real dad was a stupid twist that ruins a perfectly good joke for the sake of a very silly plotline with poor payoff, etc)

that aside, Scout and Ms. Pauling ..? it's really hard for me to imagine a way they could have ended up together that wouldn't feel contrived.

Ms. Pauling's character in the comics is, in general, on very shaky ground with the game's tone, in my opinion. she's severely held back by the fact that she was not created to be a major character in the first place - her character design is understated and unfocused, her personality is quiet and mellow in a world full of bombastic characters who easily outshine her, and she cannot easily produce natural-feeling comedy. it's clear that she was created to be an extension of the Administrator's character first and foremost, and a "straight man" for zanier characters to bounce off of as a hard second priority. she was supposed to stand in the background and look normal and non-threatening as a foil to the main cast, and occasionally imply that the Administrator has eyes and ears everywhere, and is constantly pulling strings from behind the scenes.

Ms. Pauling worked extremely well for the role intended for her, but pulling her into the spotlight and essentially making her the protagonist of the longform comic was a mistake, in my opinion. she's not funny enough to make good use of her "screentime" and attempts to make her funny often feel too noncommittal and cutesy contrasted with the rest of the cast, because getting too crazy with it would feel out of character. on the contrary, the more serious and emotional aspects added to her feel too vulnerable next to all of these stone-cold (and largely-male) killers she's hanging out with. these missteps, combined with being the female character with by far the most focus in a mostly-male cast, makes her feel like a shitty "the girl one" stereotype.

for that reason, I don't think she could have ended up with Scout without the relationship feeling forced and distractingly heteronormative.

our main woman being smaller, cuter, quieter, more well-mannered, less quirky, less bombastic, and overall less impactful than all the male characters is one thing (that already sucks). but then also ending up with the shitty sexist guy who's been harassing her since the moment they were on the same comic page together? miserable. unsalvageable. then we're at a critical amount of shitty tropes stacked on top of each other

Ms. Pauling's one saving grace in all of this is that at the very least, her character orbited another female character this whole time, and her entire arc is about her relationship to this other woman. I genuinely really, really enjoyed that aspect of the comic. I think the whole plotline was a poor choice for a TF2 comic specifically, but if it hadn't been a TF2 comic? Ms. P would've been a way more enjoyable character, with so much less baggage. her relationship with the Administrator is fascinating, and the way the narrative essentially used her as a crowbar to open up the treasure chest of secrets that is the Administrator's motives and backstory was fantastic.

it just would've been better as its own thing. controversially, I think the TF2 comics should've been about the main characters from TF2, not some random minor character who got promoted into a main character role that she really wasn't fit for. and also if you're gonna promote a random side character to protagonist, at the very least pick someone who works for the genre and tone. or at least find a way to make her character enjoyable on the first read, instead of only in retrospect when you know the big twist at the end.

the writers couldn't figure out how to do any of that, but at least they didn't make their extremely mid Relatable Girl Protagonist kiss some annoying dude. she spent the whole comic obsessed with an insane gilfy old girlboss. and isn't that all any of us can hope for