#i guess anti both of them?

[fashion-foxy]

As someone who has been in the EAH and Descendants fandoms, here's my perspective:

Point 1) Descendants didn't get EAH cancelled.

Yes, it kinda did. Eah media is a doll ad first and compelling story second. Descendants gets to be a story first and a doll ad second. Mattel (owners of the eah franchise) at the time of the Eah cancellation and the Descendants (2016 and 2015 respectively) the general public was growing more and more conscious of unrealistic beauty standards for women and had a growing resentment towards stereotypically feminine things (like dolls). This was obviously very bad news for a doll ad. On top of this, Eah's much more successful sister franchise, MH, was dropping in sales, leading Mattel to eventually reboot the series and resetting the lore (making Eah even less relevant). Finally, Mattel had the license from Disney to make Disney Princess dolls. During 2015, Mattel was obviously more focused on Barbie and MH than Disney dolls. This led to Disney not renewing Mattel's license and giving it to Hasbro. This, along with MH losing value, made Mattel lose a LOT of money. EAH, at this point, was on life support, but ultimately, the final nail in the Eah glass coffin was (in my opinion) the launch of Descendants. All of EAH's very small market share was very quickly taken up by Disney. When Disney had Hasbro make Descendants dolls, it was all over for EAH, resulting in its cancellation. Descendants didn't kill EAH but it was the final nail in the coffin.

Point 2) The Descendants movies are good.

Very subjective, I'm not going to say you're wrong for liking or not liking any piece of media, but I am ultimately writing an argument in favour of EAH. I will try to be as unbiased as possible, but I'm sure my biases will be made very apparent.

The original 3 Descendants movies were very good at introducing compelling themes, ideas, and characters, but they never could quite stick the landing and make a satisfying conclusion to anything they introduced. Off the top of my head, here are the most obvious examples in semi chronological order:

The Isle of the Lost:

Really cool fucked up dystopian idea! I loved the franchise focusing on villain kids who had done nothing wrong being imprisoned for life. However, the decision to bring down the barrier felt like it came out of nowhere as most of D3 was about Mal having to deal with actually figuring out how to rule and learning her actions had consequences and than the ending was "actually no the Isle is too fucked to keep" I agree with this but I do feel like they should have had SOME plan for if the hundreds potentially thousands of people imprisoned for 20 years decided they needed revenge.

Mal using magic to "fix" girls appearances:

Extremely cool! I love her being a fucked up fairy godmother in an attempt to get close to actual fairy godmother but the ending of the subplot being Jane is so insecure that she steals the wand felt like and empty twist. Also, Mal's apology felt very empty.

Mal spelling Ben into loving her:

Let me preface this with saying I love my boy Benjamin. Love this plot. The first date was sweat, yet it filled me with dread on first watch because I was sure Ben would at least be somewhat upset with her. Then the carriage scene! Him just casually saying he knew! The look on her face! His downright manic laughter! I was so excited! And then Ben said it was fine and he still loved her. All of the excitement instantly left my body. I feel like he should have been a little mad about it, but I guess he was operating under the assumption that she had a crush on him, and she never corrects him?! I guess we kind of got Ben blowing up on her in the opening of D2, but then he instantly blames himself. Like, Benny, no, she tried to erase your memory. This isn't your fault.

Uma spelling Ben into loving her/Ben being kidnapped:

I find it fucking hilarious that Ben is perpetually a damsel in distress with these movies. Something I don't love is that he is way too forgiving! Ben sweetie, no, she also spelled you into loving her. Don't jump into the water! I did love Harry and Ben's chemistry on the ship, definitely otp (not saying much cause I dislike pretty much everyone else). Basically, same complaints as Mal spelling Ben.

The OctoUma vs. DragonMal fight:

I was so hyped! Then Ben jumped in the water. No epic fight, and Uma just swam away. Missed opportunity.

D3 Audrey:

Love her being a villain. Don't love that she has no consequences for her actions.

Audrey cursing Ben:

Ben, did you not fucking apologize?! I get he was spelled but wtf man! At this point, just give up with women it's a lost cause, my dude. Same complaints with Audrey as Mal and Uma.

Overall, my rating of the original 3 Descendants movies is 5/10, definitely a crashed landing, especially with the 'Yay Girl Power' shit they were trying to do, which just made it so Mal, Uma, and Audrey didn't have to deal with consequences of their actions.

Point 3) Descendants Copied EAH

I think, at best, for Disney, they used very similar concepts and ideas. However, this never went to court, so I can't legally say Descendants is just straight up a copyright infringement. But the case MGA vs. Mattel, I believe, is relevant because the United States uses a thing called case law, meaning that the result of old cases can influence the result of new cases (extremely simplified explanation) . About the actual case, basically, the extremely simplified version of this case is that MGA had extremely popular doll line Bratz, Mattel saw that and said "yeah let's do that, but like Barbie," and made myscene MGA saw this and sued Mattel. Main talking points include:

- 4 characters all of different races (very weird argument makes a tad more since when you look at the dolls)

- Stylized bodies. For example: big lips, big eyes, small waist. (Basically true, Mattel straight up just made Barbie Bratz dolls)

- The fashion. (I mean, yes. Mattel doesn't dress dolls to look like teenagers. Especially not popular teenagers. This is Mattels only line where they look very much like popular girls. While MGA dolls are filled with pop culture references)

MGA lost the case. Which I take to mean that if it would go to court it'd be a similar situation where Descendants I'd different enough it legally wouldn't be an issue but fucking look at this:

Also Merlin Academy is reconning old Descendants lore to make it have basically the same destiny system as EAH. Also, not an especially big piece of 'evidence' but in the song Love Ain't it, the QOH says "...and fear is more important if we're gonna rule for centuries" which is similar to when the EQ says "it's better to be feared than forgotten." Both in the context of evil mom telling good daughter to take over the world with them. But who knows! It's just a serious of very similar concepts. I do ultimately think that Descendants was at least inspired by EAH as early Descendants' concept art is vastly different than what we got.

Point 4) EAH is not lacking in content

Very hard disagree. Our show got cancelled after a significant twist was revealed. Darling Charming and Apple White were revealed to be destined lovers after they kissed. I seem to recall a cut kiss between Harry Hook and Gil (check the actors Instagram) at least our show can have a queer kiss take place! "Just write fanfiction!" Is ignoring 1) we have and will continue to, and 2) we will never get a proper conclusion to the story. But I suppose this isn't something that you would get mad about since no Descendants movie has ever had a proper conclusion. (As I've established above.)

TL;DR - 1)Yes, it did. 2)Not really. 3)Depends on your interpretation of copyright law, but I think yes. 4) Eah got cut off after a major twist, so we are missing at least a warp up.

Nah cause why are EAH fans literally incapable of enjoying the show without bringing another film down?💀 “Omg I can’t believe they cancelled it for descendants—“ buddy, no they didn’t. There were no official statements of EAH being “cancelled”. Also, the descendants movies are good? And no, just because they share similar concepts DOES NOT mean that descendants was “copying” EAH. And idk why the EAH fandom is acting like they’re lacking content as if they don’t have, what, 5 whole ass seasons of the show? Also, if you’re “lacking content” so badly, then just make it yourself? Make edits, write fanfiction, draw fanart. You don’t gotta bring down a show that other people love just because you don’t know how to enjoy media without comparing it to other media💀

[suchasurfriend]

petey's parents hated his ass damn

[navree]

"rhaenys could have ended the war by dracarysing all the greens right there" yes because a distant relation to the throne deciding to barbecue an anointed and publicly positively hailed king and his entire family who is well loved within the city and in multiple other parts of the country for the sake of the succession of a far-away princess no one was ever on board with who hasn't been seen by the populace in literal years, her psycho husband, her three obvious bastards, and two toddlers from the psycho husband would go over super well with westeros and especially in king's landing where scores of the still-cheering population were killed for no reason by that same dragon who would do the barbecuing, because when targaryens act unilaterally without thinking of how the people would react there's never any problem, which is why the storming of the dragonpit and robert's rebellion were actually just collective delusions dreamed up by readers who hate rhaenyra and not key parts of the story and house targaryen's history that directly contributed to their demise and are intrinsic to the plot

truly team black stans are made up of only the most genius and media literate amongst us

[adelinamoteru]

crazy how batman has a contingency plan for everything and everyone, including his own kids, but supposedly doesn’t have a workable one for the joker.

we know u have hard on for him bruce u sicko and u can’t convince me otherwise bc who the hell stops someone’s murder victim, their own son mind u having just come back from the dead, from getting their due back on a crazy fucker like the joker

bruce wayne I know what u are

[alicentflorent]

I didn’t sit here for years tryna stay calm and silent while listening to your bad takes on gale (who grew up oppressed, in poverty and then witnessed his entire district getting wiped out then rightly went to fight in the rebellion because it was his inlg chance of tearing down the system the wanted him and his family dead) being a “terrorist war criminal who is single handedly responsible for killing innocent people including prim and who is the REAL villain of the hunger games” just for y’all to turn and start stanning and defending actual facist dictator and child trafficker Coriolanus Snow because you saw a young hot version of him.

[goddisposez]

these two being my favorite most specialest boys in the terror kind of baffles me because they have next to nothing in common. except that i know they both come loud and abundant

[dufrau]

Chrissy Cunningham to me (in fanon i mean because in canon she barely exists) is, at her best, a kind of What If version of Nancy. What If Barb hadnt died and Nancy had stayed with Steve and neither of them had any of the impetus for character growth that came out of everything and Nancy actually became Cool By Association and they were The Golden Couple, you know? Chrissy is the Nancy who didn't fight, who let herself follow her mother's footsteps. She's interesting, entirely, as a foil.

I think this is why I can never muster any interest in Robin/Chrissy as a ship (unless, again, its being used purposely as a foil for Ronance). It feels like Ronance reskinned to have less complexity and less connection to each other and to the other characters. It's a costume swap with a straight stat downgrade. It's like sugar free low carb low sodium low fat Ronance. It's unseasoned. Chrissy is the Nancy who never became Nancy and now you have to do all this work to try to make her interesting when there is already a much more interesting version of her right there who has actually interacted with Robin on screen and isn't dead.

(nancy/chrissy to me is at least potentially interesting. i don't ship it but there's a new dynamic there that i could at least see myself being intrigued by in another world.)

[starboysbrainrot]

“zk are girls self projecting on katara gngngn” bold of you to assume i didn’t ship katoph, kataang, zutara, jetara & azutara as a preteen self projecting on who ever the fuck was shipped with katara because I had the fattest crush on her back then

[dice-n-antlers]

Riddle me this: Why do I keep seeing Gale/Astarion stuff in the Wyll Ravenguard tag?

[timdrakemybeloved]

Okay so I just thought of something based on a post I saw forever ago so let me know if that’s you so I can tag you. That person said that Jason beating Tim up at the Titans Tower isn’t as big of a deal as it sounds because they’re brothers and siblings do be like that.

I disagree. For one, they weren’t brothers when it happened. Sharing a dad doesn’t make you brothers, especially when you had him at different times. They didn’t know each other. For another, Jason slit his throat and wrote on a wall with his blood which is not??? Normal?? Sibling shit???

Another point was that Jason wasn’t an adult so it was like teenager on teenager violence which isn’t that big. I mean considering the degree of violence and the fact that Jason is much bigger and stronger than Tim and broke into a place that should have been safe, it’s pretty fucking big.

So basically Tim doesn’t have to pretend it’s not a big deal or forgive Jason and he has every right to be a hater. But of course I do love Jason and it was shitty of him but people make mistakes and he deserves every happiness. And also I love their relationship now so basically any distaste I might have felt for Jason bc of how he treated my beloved Tim is gone.

[blues-valentine]

Now here’s my TSITP take that no one asked for but I finally caught up to it out of boredom and while I am not invested in any pairing and couldn’t care less about the endgame, there’s some things I’ve seen (particularly in this site) and surely I’m not the only one with this opinion because Jeremiah being considered a healthier or better alternative for Belly is legit so wrong.

I can understand why some people would prefer Jeremiah because on the outside he looks like someone that could make Belly happier since he isn’t “complicated” but him being painted as the healthier alternative to Conrad is like, wrong, Jeremiah has alarming red flags that are often ignored by his supposedly “golden retriever” persona and that’s often way more damaging long term.

The constant anger and resentment issues that results of him feeling inferior to Conrad, often seeing their entire dynamic like a competition that extends to Belly, that has been clear by his actions and narrative. I’m shocked people on this fandom pretend this isn’t a clear narrative choice. He often speaks about how Conrad is perceived as the smart one, the athletic one, the responsable one, and in general the favorite child. Of course, he gets annoyed that Belly might be into him too. It’s always been more about Conrad than it is about Belly. He projects a lot of the insecurities he feels towards Conrad on Belly. He constantly feels the need to remind her “he is the better option�� out of not reason and it feels like he is looking for the moment Conrad fails or mess up as if he is counting the scores. Him only making a definitive move on Belly after he sees Belly and Conrad almost kissing — and then he fires a rocket to stop them. I see this being a whole comedic discourse but that’s a major red flag. He cannot possibly have a healthy relationship with her if he feels like he constantly needs to measure up to Conrad. After that 4th of July episode, it’s very easy to see him trying to manipulate and sabotage Conrad with Belly and purposefully make him run late. And he does so intentionally. He knows he is being sneaky. He knows he is inserting himself in there. And I’m not saying he doesn’t like Belly, he does, but why denying that his main motivator isn’t his own bother.

Now, I’m not saying Conrad isn’t also annoying. He was written as the early 00’s broody type of bad boy and I feel the series it’s trying to fix it by showing more of him but it lacks in writing. I feel he needed more polishing to take him out of the archetype. However, Conrad’s approach narratively makes sense. It’s not like he’s being that just by pure aesthetic. Jeremiah thought out Season 1 is living a complete different reality as Conrad. So, of course he feels more laidback and funny. He doesn’t know his mom is dying. He doesn’t know his dad cheated on his mother. Only Conrad knows that. Of course, it would affect his behavior to the point he is emotionally detached. Even the narrative itself tells you Conrad usually isn’t this emotionally constipated or disengaging, and that smoking is also a new behavior. The constant need to make him feel like a villain is so weird because he is clearly depressed and self isolating. Both in Season 1 and throughout Season 2. It’s called grieving the death of your mother. All of them have their own ways of dealing with their grief.

And the funny this is — Conrad knows he isn’t in the right mental state to be with Belly right now. He tries, cause you’re allowed to be happy while depressed but he clearly wasn’t able to handle the grieving process, so he puts Belly’s happiness (or what he thinks she needs) over his own cause he doesn’t think he can provide her with what she needs at the moment (and he is right about that!). He isn’t problematic. I am confused about this. Particularly because while I think he could be clearer with Belly, most of it it’s not his fault entirely. And I’ve been told that by the end of the series, Conrad isn’t the same person he was at the start. He is a mature and emotionally open young man with a medical career that he loves that has learned to deal with grief. And those are very qualities you already see on the show.

Mind you, Jeremiah’s anger and resentment towards Conrad is totally valid and I feel is more on Susannah’s and his dad upbringing that just created that animosity but isn’t it the reason why people perceive Jeremiah as a ”healthier” alternative more to do with the fact his “red flags” aren’t as visible and Conrad’s grieving process is not that “palatable” to audiences?

And the love triangle isn’t even about who is better for Belly — this is a journey about grief that frankly should’ve been the core of the story. The way I see it, Conrad’s grieving process is self isolation. Jeremiah’s grieving process is anger. And Belly’s grieving process is denial. And the majority of the time Belly is reading Conrad’s feelings as him not being as into her as she is — which is untrue. Conrad’s problem is not knowing how to communicate those emotions to her. And Belly’s swimming in insecurities that she projects on Conrad. And she’s also a people pleaser and that has been very obvious on her coddling of Jeremiah. At the end of the day, I will always root for the female character getting the one she truly loves and that clearly isn’t Jeremiah. He isn’t the love of her life and this isn’t some story about second love. It’s about two people not being ready to be together for specific circumstances. Jeremiah is the one that was going to lose here. He inserted himself into this mess. He knows Belly and Conrad will always exist in some capacity that he’ll never be able to measure. He knows his brother loves her. And he knows Belly’s lying to herself about Conrad. So, why is he continuing a game that he knows he’s bound to lose? I genuinely believe that he knows how it will end so it’s going to be hard for me to feel bad for him when the inevitable thing happens.

And I’m also over the whole “Conrad was away while Jeremiah took care of their dying mother!” because that’s not an objective take. Conrad was at university studying to become a doctor. He should not be fault for trying to seek some normalcy after keeping most of the secret himself for months. Jeremiah wasn’t handling those bills himself. Laurel was also legit there the entire time. And I’m sure they also hired a caregiver. Instead of putting the blame and responsibility on teenagers — you should be wondering where was their own father, because divorce isn’t an excuse to not take care of your kids. And the show would benefit from making them build a better relationship as brothers than focusing on a “love triangle” that has a very definitive endgame, hence isn’t surprising.

[professional-bulshitter]

so so I finally found words for it but there is no way Annie as a character is meant to be with Jeff,,, and yes this does come from a place of hate for anything even remotely related to JeffAnnie but it's also more than that and totally based on their behavior towards each other throughout the seasons but I just found the perfect moment that incapsulates it

and that is in 4x13 Advanced Intro to Finality wherein Jeff is ready to graduate and there's sorta paintball with the darkest timeline and all that (which just saying is such a cool fucking setup but this is not the post where I talk about it) and both the Annie's (from the normal and darkest timeline) are facing off against each other,,, what the evil Annie tries to persuade the normal Annie with is the fact that they (jeff and her) are sleeping together in this alternate future and normal Annie literally responds with, and I quote, "No-one is supposed to sleep with him. Not even me." let that sink in

Now does this seem like somebody who has a serious romantic crush/is in love with the guy? What it seems like to me is a case of admiration (as a person and a human being) which is further warped into her assuming it's love because that's what we're supposed to do and told to do by society... What is more she obviously views Britta as a woman who (might not be the smartest and I will always hate on how the show ruined her character) but is still recognised and acknowledged as a woman,, something that Annie feels alienated from since most people look at her and tend to infantilize her (which is also a part in her dynamic with Jeff which is just,, n o),,, so a lot of the tines she tends to look at britta's choice of partners to turn to, to fall in love with (obv this is something that I derived from the 6 seasons laid out before me but this is my opinion and yeah)

and yeah the question then becomes why didn't she do the same with Shirley,,, number 1. Shirley is obviously in a different place in her life with her husband and kids,,, number 2. Shirley and her also have quite a big age gap which is again only widened by number 1,,, and number 3, if you notice properly there are episodes wherein you can see her try to emulate Shirley,,, the easiest and most off the top of my head example being the one where they are the campus security together which does end with her professing that she wants to be a grown powerful woman like her.

Now, if we talk about her other main crush, talking about Troy here throughout the first few seasons,,, it's again based a lot on her admiration for him for being popular and again THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO AND WANT TO BE especially when you're literally at the sidelines of the high school hierarchy so much so that you would busy your ass to score good and do good but still never be known by anyone or acknowledged for anything you do,,, and she technically knew nothing about him which at most i can grant her being infatuated w him and yeah

and most of her attraction to anyone feels very surface level,, in the this-is-what-i've-seen-people-do-so-this-is-what-i-need-to-do-as-well,, instead of being properly attracted in a,,, i want to be romantically with you sense,,, she's essentially creating a fairytale of her life and idealising it and all the models she has for them are heterosexually inclined,, so this is the kind of behavior she ends up adopting and emulating,,

so a large part of Annie's behavior I do chalk up to heterosexual compulsivity (or comphet) because there are moments throughout wherein she shows more admiration and love for women than men in a i-want-to-be-with-you kind of way (and it would be really interesting to look at her struggle as a difficulty to differentiate btw I want to be her,,, and I want to be with her)

a large part of her character is also so interesting to me because of the fact that it feels like she gets away from the writers quite a bit,,, because a lot of the instances you can see how the writers want her to be perceived vs how she ends up being perceived by us (but that's true for most things related to media concerning the expected reception vs the actual reception)

i didn't know this was going to end up being a lesbian or at least queer Annie post either,, but apparently that's my truth and I stand by it

(also I do acknowledge the fact that the part of all this (the part about her being queer) can be chalked up to my own desires and biases and a little bit of projection but regardless,,, in any case, JeffAnnie is still weird and bad and doesn't really fit for their characters regardless (technically for both of theirs but this too long already) and I'm a firm believer of that (anti JeffAnnie till the day I die fr)

[skitskatdacat63]

.

[findafight]

So many shippers want to take stobin away from each other by either undermining their big friendship moments, especially the bathroom scene by either making Steve talk about someone else when he's describing how amazing Robin is or (as I've unfortunately seen) have Robin lie about liking Tammy (to cover her crush on Nancy) which makes the entire scene ingenuine and the basis of their solid friendship a falsehood, or by giving their dynamic to other characters like making Robin and Eddie best friends before scoops (when they probably didn't even know each other beyond going to the same school). Just. Why. Why must you separate them? Why do you feel the need to remove their big emotional moments of love and trust and give it to different characters?

[lady-corrine]

You know, I always suspected that the tvd fandom wasn't the brightest in terms of media literacy, but seeing some specific shippers claim that Lisa portrayed the relationship between Damon and Elena in a positive light in her continuations is certainly... interesting? To say the least. Because:

He’s saying that right now Elena is up for grabs.

But at the mention of Elena, Damon felt at a flush of pure greed that started in his jaws and spread outward.

If I have to, I’ll Influence you to agree with me. I probably should have done that in the beginning. I seem to remember promising I wouldn’t, but I believe that promise also had a time limit that ran out.

Now to each their own, but 😬

[haldanare]

idk i guess im not surprised the show being what it is but the final show-down between sauron and galadriel being a sword fight feels like such a misundertsanding of their characters....