#i hope this isn’t a niche audience???

[squash1]

the lynch brothers x ted lasso on forgiveness & brotherhood

[prefer-to-be-vilified]

See? We aren’t so different 🖤🖤🖤

[secretmellowblog]

I hope tumblr doesn’t die because No other social media site is as good for long, thoughtful, nuanced analyses of media. Yeah tumblr is also full of dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts, but you can make dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts anywhere —-there are no other popular social media sites that let you easily format and share long essays on the media you enjoy, and then have conversations around those long essays.

Fandom on all the other big social websites just seems so utterly …shallow. And it’s not because people on other websites aren’t thoughtful or don’t have deep things to say, but because these sites’ formats do not allow for any kind of long nuanced conversations.

Tiktok? Things have to be crammed into a super short video with an attention grabbing headline, and you can’t hyperlink sources. Instagram? Everything has to be in an image format with strict limits on length, and nothing will be shown to your followers anyway because of how Instagram’s algorithm works, and also no hyperlinks. Twitter? Strict character limits, and if you split it into threads it means someone can retweet a part of your essay completely out of context, and also very little freedom with formatting.

It frustrates me so much. If I go into the Tumblr Les Mis fandom I’ll find really compelling long essays on the original novel (including essays being written for the ongoing book club) on the story’s historical context, or the parallels between different characters and their narrative foils, or the way the politics were defanged for certain adaptations, or the way Victor Hugo’s personal life and failings affected the novel. But on tiktok I’ll get the same five shallow stale jokes from 2013 over and over, or maybe the same “DID U KNO THAT IN THE MUSICAL JAVERT AND VALJEAN SING THE SAME LEITMOTIF” style of basic Intro To Les Mis 101 For Babies media analysis (which is what Tiktok considers deep media analysis), or stale “LOL JAVERT ACTS GAY” style jokes as if we’re living in the early 2000s and calling a character gay is still a funny punchline. And it’s impossible to have any kind of deeper thoughtful discussions than “DID U KNOW <x Kool Fact>” or “lol <shallow observational joke>” on tiktok because the platform just isn’t built for building niche communities around in depth conversations. it’s built to churn out bland generic content for as wide an audience as possible, which means pointing out a small detail like an Easter egg and calling it “cool” is deep media analysis, because you cant have longer more in depth conversations without alienating people. And I hate it. Bc like, it’s not because there aren’t smart clever thoughtful people on Tiktok— there are—it’s because Tiktok isn’t built for these conversations, and anyone who wants to have them has to really fight against the things the website encourages or prioritizes!

Or like, if I go into the LOTR fandom on Tumblr, I’ll find tons of extremely long analysis and fanfic, and analysis of queer readings of the story. On Instagram people will still shriek in terror if you suggest the characters are gay, and most of the popular lotr posts are stale memes recycled from like 2007. There’s really no room for thoughtful media analysis, and even if you did create it, instagram’s algorithm would make sure no one saw your post anyway.

And everyone’s going to say “the algorithm shows you what you’ve seen before so maybe it’s your fault ~” or whatever but i do look for things I want! I do! “The algorithm” doesn’t know me or what I want or value or care about beyond this meaningless surface level.

The only thing that was worthwhile about these sites was the great visual art people were creating, but now the websites are overwhelmed with meaningless soulless machine-generated AI glurge, and it sucks. It just really, really sucks.

I’m honestly confused about why people don’t use tumblr….There’s no character limits! You have freedom with post formatting, and can insert images throughout textposts to illustrate specific points you’re making beneath the paragraphs where they’re necessary! You can add hyperlinks, linking to your sources! People can reblog your entire essay and share it, and then add on with commentary that then becomes part of a larger conversation! People can find your stuff through the tagging system! Reblogging means posts stay in circulation for years instead of being dead 30 minutes after they’re uploaded! If you want to have genuinely interesting text conversations about a piece of media, there really isn’t a better social media website for it anywhere.

To be clear, I’m definitely not saying Tumblr media analysis is *always* clever and thoughtful or etc etc. there are shitposts and nonsense here too (plenty of which I’ve created lol.) I’m saying that Tumblr gives people the tools for in-depth insightful analysis to happen. Whether people choose to do it or not is their own decision XD. But the reason lengthy in-depth conversations and book clubs are even possible here is because Tumblr is built for allowing these conversations to happen, in a way other sites simply aren’t.

It’d really suck if it died, because it’d be a huge blow to…being able to easily find long insightful in-depth media analysis written by fans. I currently don’t think there’s anything that could replace it.

[physalian]

On "immersion" in narrative

I should be relaxing today taking a victory lap because my book is finally live on sale, woo!

But I have this to say first, in the realm of “you can’t please everyone”. I am not a reader who enjoys extremely fluffy narrative, not “fluff” as in “feel good cotton candy stuff” but as in “300 words of describing the layout of a bedroom” fluff. I don’t like when the pacing moves as slow as molasses, not for introspection, but for telling about every little thing that happens in the story no matter how irrelevant it is to the story or its characters.

I had a beta reader for ENNS who left at least 20 comments across my narrative asking for all this extra material because my book felt too lean. I had a birthday party for a side character’s newborn daughter, when the side character herself was never even named. The plot takes place in a castle, and, shocker, the castle isn’t only populated by Main Characters.

It was just the inciting incident of the chapter that got my characters staged in the right location and the right mindset (happy fun birthday party, sourpuss self-saboteur protagonist is really missing out).

But she’d left me a comment asking for probably at least an extra 500-700 words of details about this party. She wanted to know about the food that was served, what everybody was wearing, what music they were listening to. She wanted to have actual dialogue between the new mother and some important character, some comment about life and death and parallels, and wanted all these details about a three-day-old newborn baby.

I deleted that comment. And every other comment like it.

Why? She is not my target audience and was my only beta with such notes, but also, even if this was that kind of book, she failed to understand what, I think, counts as meaningful to the narrative. That baby only showed up maybe twice in the book. The mother, like I said, never named.

The point of the party was simply “hey happy times exist in this place that you hate, Protagonist”. Spending paragraphs upon paragraphs on a little narration side quest to give you irrelevant details that don’t advance either the plot, the worldbuilding (there were other parties where I described the clothes and food and music), the important characters’ thoughts, feelings, goals, or conflicts, at the cost of keeping the pacing more consistent would have been superfluous.

And that party in of itself was fluff. I was following through on the set up of a pending newborn, spent time describing how a castle full of immortal vampires who don’t have to sleep can crochet baby clothes for a week straight and now this baby has far more clothes than she could ever hope to wear before she grows out of them. I had my narrator, a vampire, comment on how much he likes these events because new life is so rare in this bleak setting. I spent a few sentences describing the baby herself, and then he left to continue the story, taking talk of the party to the pissy protagonist and going “buddy you are allowed to have fun and meet the baby and your attitude is really getting old.”.

500 words might not sound like a lot, but she had asked for these extra paragraphs constantly. She argued it was for immersion.

The thing is.

I don’t like superfluous fluff, but I do like fluff in moderation. I don’t think any one element that takes up more than two sentences or so should exist for one sole, niche purpose. Meaning: You want to toss in a detail about a supporting character’s woodturning hobby? Great! You want to spend two whole paragraphs going on a tangent about this hobby that never comes up again and isn’t actually that important to the character? Why?

This is not to say that I think all books should be lean, this is just what I like. I don’t have the attention span to sit around waiting for the plot the author forgot about so I can read a whole page about the kingdom’s irrelevant potato farming practices. I do have time for a couple sentences about the irrelevant potatoes. I do have time to read a whole page about the kingdom’s potatoes if it’s setup for a potato famine.

There are ways to be immersive without overkill. All this counts as exposition—establishing details that set up your world and your story—and what she was asking for was a series of exposition dumps, several of which were redundant.

As a writer, I work very hard to give expository details as they become necessary. I won’t describe the dresses at a party until my narrator has time to thoughtfully comment on said dresses at said party—which he did. He came from a place that didn’t have dresses, much less lavish parties, and criticized the castle’s hedonistic opulence. He wasn’t plotting his escape, stopping mid-thought to tell the reader about the costumes, and then carrying on.

I could have waxed poetic all day as well-constructed and seamlessly as I could to work in those details to try and make them matter, but a) that would be rehashing the ‘hedonistic opulence’ and b) it really, truly, did not matter.

Would a reader like her enjoy my book? Eh, probably not. Would a reader like me enjoy her book? Eh, probably not.

There is plenty of room in libraries and on bookstore shelves for “lazy river” style books where the whole point is reading about as many details as the author can cram between the pages and there really isn’t a plot, it’s more about the setting and the relationships. Can’t mess up the pacing with an exposition dump if there is no pacing. Not my kind of story.

Doesn’t make either of us bad writers. She will have her audience and I have mine. I only argue for details that serve a purpose, and if that purpose is a solitary and weak one, then that’s not enough for me.

[comfyhome]

// cw: mentions of nsfw, cannibalism, and if this escapes my target audience, vore ofc

hey! sorry for the long hiatus, but I’d just like to say something.

if you don’t understand sfw vore, that’s ok!! there’s no need to interact, and you can block me as you wish. but sending hateful anonymous accusations in my inbox .. really sucks? you don’t know anything abt me or my interests??

I’m sorry that this is how I return to this account, but jesus christ. it’s insane how everyone online has begun to romanticize stuff like cannibalism recently and they can recognize it’s fantasy + they know for some people it’s sexual and for others it isn’t, but when it comes to more taboo interests, vore is totally shunned.

this is the same stuff they did w that infamous asexual vore blog lol. this person was asexual and said their stuff was sfw and people still got on their ass about it. it sucks! especially when people refuse to have an open mind and instead resort to harassment.

I’m happy to talk to anyone who doesn’t understand my interests. explaining this stuff to anyone curious has become natural to me. I’m not hurting anyone — I haven’t even spoken to anyone on this account — and there’s large enough of a community of people online who enjoy this interest nonsexually that it’s just ignorant to say it’s a sex thing.

I’ve been interested in this stuff since I was a little kid. it’s really comforting and it’s gotten me through a lot of tough spots, even if that sounds silly. anyone’s free to enjoy my posts, and even if I let anyone interact, it’s incredibly rare that I’ll interact back anyways.

sorry for writing this whole thing. it’s just really bothersome that there are so many real threats out here on the internet and people still choose to target accounts who haven’t done anything at all. this account was made because I was comforted finding a space where there were people like me who enjoy this interest nonsexually like I do; trying to fit myself into the sexual side of it never felt right, and I grappled with that struggle a lot growing up until I realized this niche of the community existed.

thanks for reading and I hope anyone who did has a good rest of their day. feel free to dm or send an ask if you have any questions or inputs! :]

[spookyscarycreepydollgirl]

I deleted your comment because it made me so mad, but I need to explain why so you don't keep doing this. You shouldn't make queer characters straight, but it's fine to make straight characters queer because they are not a marginalised group. They are not an underrepresented group. HC-ing straight people queer is not the same as HC-ing ace people allosexual. Asexual people are ridiculed and ignored within their own community, so when we get canon representation, that needs to be respected. When the media is as saturated with ace rep as it is straight rep, we can revisit this conversation, but until then if you like the dynamic of two characters there's no reason why you can't take that and make something new with it. You don't need to erase ace characters in the process. Hope this helps

That’s a dumb thing to think, and I think you know it. Characters from marginalised groups requiring protectionist double standards I mean. They’re fictional characters, they exist to entertain. They aren’t real or worth protecting, no matter what their sexual orientation or lack there of is. I literally kill my OCs in the name of fetishisation on my blog. You don’t protect fictional characters, they’re tools, they exist to be used and exploited no matter who they represent.

That’s not even getting into the fact that you aren’t even talking about media representation, you’re talking about fanfiction. A niche close knit form of media that the majority of people will never even see. If you’re trying to influence how others think on a societal or systemic level, fanfiction is a laughable way to do it. You can’t dictate how an audience reacts to a character. You can’t control who people will ship with who or what they write about. Fanfiction is a hobby, it’s done for fun, out of dedication and passion. You should be grateful that people like the same characters you like and the same stories you like enough to want to invent new stories for them, being picky about those stories in an artistic sense is fine, but pretending it’s a question of morality? That’s just self-righteous. It’s just bossing people around and shaming them cause you think you know better.

I ship Gale X Astarion X Tav even though Gale isn’t poly and Astarion has some definite sexual trauma in his past. I ship Yuugi/Atem even though Yuugi is canonically straight. I ship tons of other things that are not even remotely canon. It’s not wrong or evil it’s creative license and it’s fun.

I should clarify that the post they’re so mad about they deleted was me essentially saying: “I ship Yuugi/Yami no Yuugi, even though Yuugi is canonically into pussy, I’m not sparing the straights, so why would I spare the asexuals?” I forget the actual wording, I don’t think I mentioned pussy in so many words. So just think of this version as a slightly more crass and dramatic reenactment.

Anyway I don’t even feel offended by being deleted this time because I’m too taken back by the need of OP to correct my supposed bad behaviour.

I’mma be honest guys, while I told this person I would lance the sacred cow of canonical queerness. I don’t actually have that many fanfiction OTPs I can think of that are straight despite being canonically queer. (Does Pomni X Caine count? An AI could be assumed to be canonically asexual right? But then the Moon is implied to get frisky so…yeah I don’t think I can determine this with just a pilot episode)

So not only am I sex repulsed IRL and thus the last person who needs to be told that life is tough for folk on the ace spectrum but the supposed “horrible” thing this person NEEDS to stop me doing I’m not entirely sure I’ve actually done. (I’ve read ALOT of fanfiction in my life though so I could just be misremembering.)

If anyone’s wondering why I’m so passionate about this though. It’s cause I want to be a proper writer one day and fictional characters as tools to be exploited is an inalienable right for writers. Does this mean I think getting attached to or empathising with characters is bad if you’re a writer? Hell no! But you gotta treat them like Sims characters and drown them in the pool without a second thought. I like my Sims, I empathise with my Sims and I still wouldn’t fucking hesitate to murder them in cold blood. And THAT my friends is the ideal attitude we should all aspire to when writing.

[jerzwriter]

as a writer, when you put in all that hard effort into creating this massive story with so much thought and research, it just gets swept away and with people more inclined towards reading one shots and Tumblr's own interface designed for blog posts and not longform fiction like say, in ao3, it is unsurprising to find people gravitate towards fluff and stuff that gets wrapped up in 1k-2k words.

There isn't really a lot of interest in people wanting to read something that gravitates away from romance in the slightest. People want the engagement stories, the days leading up to it, they want the cute dates and that's perfectly fine too, but there really isn't any point complaining about engagement anymore because the fandom has just shrunk exponentially and it only makes sense to support each other's work because you like the author and you hope they keep writing time after time.

I don't know if I'm making sense lol, this is just my two cents on the situation and many random shovels of thoughts.

I do hope we get a fandom renaissance or something but that would require people to share, reblog and actively be a patron for people's works and not everyone has the time for that in this post-covid era, which is totally understandable too. I just hope we find a middle ground so people of all niches can be accepted and they can reach their audience.

While fandom events do encourage people to create; as a catalyst, the readers always play the primary part in making sure that encouragement sustains enough for authors to create. After a while it gets pointless to just shout out things into the void and you're left wondering if the stuff you create really matters or not; even if you think you're writing for yourself and you matter, it gets tedious 😭😭

OMG THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS!!!!!!

THIS!!!!!

Not going to lie… there are days lately I am like “It is time to just hang it up”, bit it still brings me some joy in a world that isn’t always so great. So I do it. But the desire to produce isn’t always there, and when it is, it is more likely to be short, simple, and like you said, that’s fine too. But I miss delving into deeper, more substantial content. But who is going to take the time to do it if … as you said… you are screamed into a void.

We always talked of “silent readers”. Well, I think a lot of them are even gone now, but I am sure some remain. But at this point if we don’t encourage one another, I think we will have very little outside of occasional shared screenshots within a year.

A year ago, the fandom was smaller, but I couldn’t have imagined hanging it up. Now, I think, “after I tell this… chances are I have nothing left to give.” And thats from someone who always has a new idea. Hey, that hyperactive mind fucks me enough, I am grateful for the good things it gives me too! lol But even for my Tobias and Casey, which are truly my heart, I can see an end. Today, it is all day by day.

Thank you for this… this post says it ALL.

[woundlingus]

I think that "if Cas has been a woman, Destiel would have been canon" means that watchers would have been more enclined to read their relationship as romantic without question, not so much that some wouldn't have dislike it and that some fans wouldn't have pressured the showrunners to take fem!Cas out of the show for this reason; it doesn't mean either that Dean and Cas would be a couple, but that (that's how I interpret the quote) they would be a "will they won't they" for the majority of viewer, even if Cas only stayed one season. Also, while there're similarities between Anna and Cas, there're not the same, neither is their relationship with Dean. Even in season 4. Btw, I really like both Anna/Dean and Annastiel. I wish she (and many other women characters) had stayed a lot longer.

You know, this is the first respectful ask I’ve gotten over that post so I’m going to say this one last time and address that post.

It was made for a niche audience of five people who knew the context behind the post, it was specifically about ONE really rancid take I saw by someone saying things like heterosexual relationships were favoured and things akin to women being respected by the fandom and the show as a whole, who I then blocked and moved in from. This post was never about Anna or Jo, though I did layer make jokes implying I had, it was about one persons misogyny that I was making to my friends.

If you saw this post and went “I don’t think this way” then congratulations, I am not talking about you! Believe it or not, I don’t know any of the two THOUSAND people who have interacted to either support a statement I didn’t make, or berate me for a statement I also didn’t make, so for so many of you to reach out to me and tell me I’m wrong for calling you a misogynist I’m sorry but frankly you’re fucking crazy, I don’t know you, and you’re right this post isn’t about you so please move in with your life. Destiel isn’t real, they’re not going to fuck you.

I’m sorry you to specifically anon for coming with what I assume in good faith is you wanting to have a discussion about something that is a very interesting topic of conversation, and you’ve been the undeserving doormat for me to lay my feelings out on here instead, but with love I truly am not interested enough in fandom wank or destiel to engage in it any further, especially considering my post garnered another 1k post turning off reblogs. I’m ready for this to die now, I hope you respect that.

I hope you have a good evening, and may your posts never break containment as mine have <3

[cosmiccinnabun]

Taking A Break

Hi everyone :)! I will be taking another little break from Tumblr for the foreseeable. I just feel like my energy to try and make content just isn’t up to par with what I actually want to make. It’s harder to do for a niche audience but I appreciate all of you who have loved my blog so far! I’ll probably be back soon after I’ve sorted out how I want to approach making stuff, but I hope to see you all then!

[emblazons]

That's a nice point about Matt Duffers, lol. But I sometimes feel like the show could not manage to deliver the message on the show. Most of the audience thinks Will was truly being childish and in the wrong for playing DnD in S3... and they still think that way after years. And of course, the audience is 'dumb' sometimes and they do not get the messages of the show and its narrative, but... it is also the case that the show could have done... better, so to say.

Honestly I think you make a fair point, though I personally don't agree with the idea that they "could have done it better" just because a lot of people don't understand what they were doing? Sure, I agree that there were maybe simpler or more straightfoward methods to get to where we are now, and I don't necessarily agree with all the Duffer's decisions, but...I certainly don't think they've done anything poorly…on top of the fact that the show isn’t even done.

I have talked about it here several times before, but: Stranger Things was and always has been a show for a specific audience (which The Duffers have repeatedly said, even walking into S5) rather than the behemoth household name moneymaker a lot of people see it as today, and a lot of the muddled interpretations of the show come from that expansion beyond its original bounds more than anything else. I think that, especially with the introduction of S4 when they “started showing their hand,” their direction for the story was clear to the audience it was meant to be—and while it is perhaps its a bit "pretentious" in a way to say so, the fact that ST is lost on people who it wasn’t designed for doesn't mean the Duffers did a weak job—it just means they aren’t the audience the show was written for.

With smaller shows (and even movies) that have more niche audiences and smaller viewerships (aka: people who know what to look for in the show), you don't see the same kind/level of criticism or audience dissonance ST gets—just like the audience for Clueless (1995) can appreciate things about it that people outside of its viewership might think was overwhelmingly foolish, same as the viewership for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is going to catch and appreciate things about it that are going to fly right over the heads of a fair number of people who watch it...despite both of those films being phenomenal examples of work for their specific audiences/genres.

There are people who don't like Jane Austen who know she's a master at what she did even if they don't understand it, and people who hate Stephen King books still know he's good at what he does (unless they're being critical for its own sake). To me, its much the same with The Duffers & Stranger Things—it makes sense to almost all of the nerdy, deeply steeped in movies and TV humans who watch the show, and most of us have realized they are on their way to making a clear point about how embracing your nerdiness is positive...even if most of the general audience hasn't gathered that yet.

Also, given the show isn't even finished yet, its jumping the gun a bit to say "you haven't delivered" on something that isn't yet complete? You can’t get 4/5 of the way through a book, see the lead up for the story, and then shut it before the dénouement…only to then say the author doesn’t know what they’re doing lmao.

Like. If The Duffers fuck this up I will be right there demanding justice for Will Byers, same as you. But I’m not gonna call Matt Duffer a liar or incompetent writer before his proverbial essay’s even finished just because someone who wasn’t the intended audience for ST doesn’t understand or see the deeper themes of the show ☠️ if it’s pretentious to say that then…I guess they have to mark me down LMAO.

Anyway. I hope that makes sense? And that you know I am not coming for you, but more the idea that the duffers are fucking up somehow because some people don’t understand them. But still, thanks for the ask!

[aquabuggy]

was wondering if the rising attention surrounding 'lost media' has impacted your documentary/archival efforts into something this niche? as someone with a similar interest it's definitely given me a more universal concept to compare my own work to, I'd also just be interested in hearing more about your process in general. Sorry if this worded too pretentiously lol

Oh it’s not pretentious at all, don’t worry.

I will say the rise in popularity surrounding lost media as well as the stressed importance of archival has done a lot to motivate me. I was interested in preserving toy history before lost media got popularized, but it did wonders to convince me just how many people can be fascinated by the simple stories of things they might not even be interested in usually. Of course media should be preserved regardless if you have an audience or not to see/care about it, but it doesn’t hurt to know people really are out there that do. More attention also is a great tool for more vigorously combing the internet for information that could’ve easily been missed, as people love a good mystery, especially one they themselves can possibly help solve. It’s definitely one of the big reasons I started this blog.

In around 3 years, the original Wonderful Waterfuls will turn 50 years old. 50 years. That’s half a century. The exact creator of Waterful Ringtoss still isn’t widely available information. I don’t know their name. They may not be around anymore. I hope they are, when I find them I have so much I’d like to ask them.

Back when Netflix put up the first batch of The Toys That Made Us, I was curious if an episode on Waterfuls would ever drop. But after all my time researching these things, I don’t know if one ever will. Because despite being in several generations of peoples childhoods in some form or fashion, there’s very, very minimal information about them. There is no comprehensive list just showing every game that was released. There’s next to nothing, almost all information you have to search for through secondhand listings and infer through context. The most popular line of these games there is, and we’re missing very basic details about them. That’s part of my duty, I feel. To fill in as many missing details as I’m able with the information I’ve gathered and intend to keep gathering.

And the longer I’m in this hobby, the more stories I infer from the things I find. Unspoken tales and series of events that honestly likely have never been recorded to any degree. What do I mean? I’ve been somewhat haunted lately by a series of water games made by a company trying to get in on the craze, and how they really truly tried to create something original, but their new ideas kept failing in the final products, to the point they eventually caved in to the typical design conventions of the time (Waterful-ification, if you will). I’m still collecting for that, I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

I don’t feel I’ll run out of content anytime soon.

[rruhlreviews]

Film Review - Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park isn’t just a science fiction thriller. It’s a marvel of innovation in film production. The special effects were groundbreaking for the time and are still better, in my opinion, than a lot of the CGI that has come since. The soundtrack is inspiring and nostalgic, and I knew it before I saw the movie because my mother liked the music so much. This being said, you can have the most sophisticated special effects and most visually attractive film in the world, but it will not have a lasting cultural impact without a good story and characters. At the same time, even the most compelling characters and highest stakes will fade without an element that sets them apart from all the other action movies. Jurassic Park exists in the best of both worlds, with a captivating story wrapped in a beautiful package.

Let’s start with the high concept. A theme park of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs. Everyone and their kids love dinosaurs. Would a story about a park that resurrects the early ancestors of mammals be as popular? Probably not. In this style of science fiction, the larger than life and the further removed from our current state of scientific advancement, the better. The film starts out with a strong sense of wonder to draw in the audience’s attention and get them excited about something that really is a long stretch of exposition and worldbuilding. The moment when the music swells and the animals are revealed— “They do move in herds.” —is something burned into the memory of everyone who’s seen the movie.

And then a flip is switched, literally—Wayne Knight’s character (whom I can only think of as Newman despite this being a completely different thing) shuts off the power—and the tone turns from whimsical adventure to survival horror. The stakes are high and just keep getting higher. The hurricane. The power outage. The computer system lockout. Then all the hunter dinosaurs have been evaded, and people can breathe—but then the velociraptors escape and form the final stakes and climax. Despite losses and injuries, the main characters survive and get off the island. The heart of the film is the characters. Several are larger than life: the billionaire Hammond, the dinosaur hunter, and the smart AND heroic duo of Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler. These characters, their skills and feats, and the speculative elements they represent are grounded into our world by the presence of the two children. The adults give up their money or safety to protect the children, and as the children are taught about the dinosaurs they see, the audience learns too. A necessary human element and emotional motivation is added to balance the thrills and physical dangers.

I have to mention the relevance of Jurassic Park to women in STEM. I’d hope this is a reason for its enduring beloved place in pop culture; it’s certainly a reason I like it more than other sci-fi thrillers. Ellie is just as competent as her male peers and even more willing to get dirty in the field. The little girl is the computer whiz. Jeff Goldblum’s character has the damsel in distress trope with the injury and the torn open shirt.

“God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man, man destroys God, man creates dinosaurs.” “Dinosaurs eat man... woman inherits the earth.”

As my favorite quote in the movie illustrates, order is broken and restored, and a safe environment for the audience to feel adrenaline and fear is maintained. It’s a satisfying thriller.

The superlative technical effects with the dinosaurs are at least half the reason for the film’s success, but if there wasn’t meaning below the animatronics, it wouldn’t have the impact it maintains in public consciousness. The dinosaurs aren’t just killing machines, they’re portrayed humanely as animals who’ve been stuck in an unsuitable environment, lashing out in boredom or simply fulfilling an environmental niche with no malice. The park fails because it’s operating for profit instead of concern for its animals or a genuine love of science. The heroes—paleontologists—serve as a foil to the greed that causes the plot problems.

Whenever you see a news report about a controversial (often, this means little understood) new area of research, especially in biology, someone inevitably brings up Jurassic Park as a warning. It’s synonymous for the theme of dangers of capitalism corrupting science. This has been a fear since the inception of the science fiction genre and continues to be relevant in our culture. Though the franchise has ironically expanded to a themed land at Universal Studios: Orlando, and its most recent Jurassic World series of sequels feels to have lost touch with the theme in favor of “let’s make a bunch of money with scary special effects and ignore the heart of the love of science.” A franchise either has a satisfying conclusion or keeps being extended long enough to become a parody of what it once meant, or something like that, at least according to me (let’s not get started on the Star Wars sequels and the butchering of the original trilogy’s theme of hope). To me, the original 1993 Jurassic Park remains the best, the quintessence of dinosaur movies. It carries the vital message that science is not the enemy but the creator of the grandeur in the opening of the film, and capitalist greed is the reason it becomes a deadly horror story. It is science that saves the characters and gives them the knowledge to survive and escape. As the film ends and the music swells once more, we see what joy and good science has achieved: a brave new world of animals saved from extinction.

[bat-besties]

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Movie thoughts

These are my personal opinions! 

Essential

From his origin, Superman has been a Jewish superhero and his tale of Krypton deeply tied to the Holocaust and experiences of Jewish refugees. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow expands on the theme of genocide, explicitly using the word holocaust a few times, and is by a Jewish writer. I really can't see how this story can be done justice without a Jewish creative team, including writers, producers, and director.

Since it is such a big blockbuster on the themes of genocide I also think it's essential they consult Amnesty International, ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and other charities. It's complex and emotional content for a superhero film, and especially with rising antisemitism it has to be handled well.

I would also love to see Jewish actors, and other creatives working on this film!

Krem can't "have a perspective", or a tragic backstory, or anything to make him more complex or redeemable. The whole point of his character is that he genuinely loves killing and only regrets it after his time in the Phantom Zone. The story has more than enough moral complexity on the side of Kara and Ruthye, it doesn't need a man who commits genocide to have a voice.

Ruthye should be played by a teenager or someone in their early twenties who easily passes for a teenager for her character to be impactful. With the success of The Last of Us, this is the one area I'm really not worried about.

Kara's actress needs some experience with tragic and complex roles rather than just action acting. I think a stage actress could really work.

I'd really like both actors to be Jewish, but with colourblind casting.

The aesthetic has to be bright and beautiful and artistic like Bilquis Evely’s work. The contrast between serious and tragic content and the ugliness of sentient beings against a beautiful universe which holds kindness is so important and makes this story unique. I so want her to consult on this.

Hopeful 

DC should be working on a unified and recognisable aesthetic for their version of space. While the recognisability of Star Wars or Star Trek is probably too much to aspire to, I think with enough funding for creatives and inspiration from comics (let Everly consult!!!), something is possible. Also, use of real costumes and sets rather than CGI.

I understand that Kara's time on Argo City will have to be condensed into a shorter flashback, but I really hope we have more time on that for the different waves of radiation. 

Niche but I’d love pre-apocalypse Krypton to be depicted as comic-style animation to show the distance/memory/innocence of Kara’s thoughts of it

The scene where Kara teaches Ruthye to wash her hands after the toilet is not only important but allows being unhygienic which women often aren't.

There should be as little exposition on Superman as possible. He's enough of a cultural icon we might need a shot of how he came to Earth, but not the whole becoming Superman thing. This isn't about him!

A consistent Kryptonian conlang for use throughout the DC universe would be great.

Films usually condense timelines, but I think there should be at least montages or timeskips to show Ruthye is with Kara for a while, and they see a lot of destruction

Let Kara Say Fuck (they probably can't have as much as she does in the comic, but she needs at least one. She's an ADULT WOMAN who has gone through so so much.)

Things I would like 

The fact Ruthye stinks and is proud of it.

Ruthye asking if "@£!^%" is the name of Kara's lover

The fact Ruthye's mother gives her blessing for the revenge

The moments on the space-bus of Ruthye's personal space being invaded and how that links into her experience as a woman

References to poems about Supergirl

Ruthye being from a rock farm is important to her character and I hope they keep it, but I get it might seem a bit weird for audiences unused to comicsy logic 

I think for simplicity's sake, Cosmo should be shot instead of Argo, and then Cosmo should be just a horse so as not to confuse new audiences.

I’d love to hear more ideas/dream castings for Kara and Ruthye/things people are hoping for :))

[sleepydrabbles]

My frustration with most criticism leveled at manga artists and authors is that people end up addressing symptoms and not causes.

When I was 11 or 12, I wanted to be a manga artist. Part of this particular fixation meant reading a lot of manga and trying to imitate the styles— something you can still see in my art. I came across a manga called Bakuman that I would really recommend, because it gave me a better understanding of why manga has a bigger tendency to have huge plot holes, fucked up character development, and flat characters when compared to, say… published novels. I’ll need to dig it up sometime so I can show y’all specific stuff but for now I’ll work from memory… I need to get these thoughts down.

Most manga are published through weekly magazines, and the artists are expected to come up with a chapter a week. I’ve seen some shifts lately due to the work-related stress and injuries that have abounded as a consequence but that is where things started, and that meant manga artists had to come up with SOMETHING on a schedule, no matter how good or bad it was. (So yeah, that terrible pandering filler chapter/arc was probably a mangaka with a hell of a block.)

Then, within the magazine, there are frequent checks and polls to measure popularity— if a manga isn’t popular enough, it gets cut, whether or not it was finished. (Yeah, that manga you loved that had a really sudden and terrible ending? Probably more niche than you realized.)

Contrast this with traditional publishing (as I saw someone here doing, comparing Harry Potter to My Hero Academia): authors take years to write, and then they have to find an editor, and even if the whole story is published in segments they have at least a year between those segments to plan, write, and edit. NaNoWriMo winners have demonstrated that the writing phase can be finished in a month or two— the rest of the effort goes to editing.

Manga artists have an editor, sure, but that editor is on the same deadline. Worst-case scenario they get a day or two to read over the chapter.

Novels also tend to remain popular enough not to have to deal with getting cut— and most novelists will just finish in self-publishing if their publisher decides to terminate their contract. Manga artists simply move to the next idea, from what I’ve seen.

This leads to a system where, I kid you not, most artists are just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. They get an idea, it gets dashed out, and then they see what happens. I can’t tell you how many artists I’ve seen express genuine surprise at the popularity of their ideas, and I think it’s just because that idea was one in maybe five or six that got submitted to the magazine that round. They have to figure it out as they go, and what does that mean? Plot holes.

And if a manga is popular enough, the expectation is that the manga artist will continue to make it… and make it… and make it. My dad joked once that you’ll always find another villain behind the latest big bad with these types of series, because the goal is not to create a cohesive story but to maintain audience attention as long as possible. My Hero may be in the middle of a final battle, but who knows whether AFO will actually turn out to be the ultimate villain— while Voldemort was clearly the problem and remained the problem for the entire Harry Potter series. (I’m working with the comparison I saw— I have some personal issues with JKR as an artist and a person that I won’t get into here.)

You see where I’m going with this, right? I sure hope so.

Learning that, as a manga artist, I would be expected to continue creating what gets popular no matter how I felt about it— that was what tanked my desire to become a manga artist. And I love manga to death, but I’ve also learned not to expect much of it because the system itself is designed in such a way that only the most batshit insane series with wild twists and turns and crazy unrealistic characters will succeed. Think about Naruto, Bleach, My Hero, ONE PIECE, etc. it’s a miracle there’s a plot line there at all.

Unfortunately, some people hold these manga to the same standard as Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Steelheart, Mistborn, etc. And as long as they do so, they’re going to be disappointed, because the manga publishing world is basically a reflection of the internet influencer world— “create till you drop and everyone forgets your name” is the goal of the game. Until we see some kickback against that system, you’re not going to see well-developed manga that are also popular.

If you do find one, congratulations! Cherish it. The mangaka probably had to kick a few shins to keep it true to their vision.

[angstyaches]

i haven’t wanted to say this because i don’t want it to upset you, but i wonder if some of the reason for less interaction lately is because you’ve been posting more fic that isn’t as sickfic/emeto focused? from what i’ve seen, emeto almost always does the best, followed by general sickness, and then other stuff tends to get almost nothing (and not just for you). and you’ve been posting some more fantasy whump (with the mars gang) and other world building stuff for characters that we aren’t as familiar with. this is just my personal preference, but the higher fantasy whump fic isn’t as enjoyable for me (like demon eating causing intense stomach pain or visions leading to headaches/memory gaps and other symptoms, although in the case of the former, i did still really enjoy the fic because there’s so much content for shayne that i feel more attached to him as a character and my interest in him extends beyond just his incidental presence in sickfic) which isn’t to say that’s the case for everyone, but i suspect the audience for it is smaller in an already somewhat niche community. does this sound terribly harsh? i don’t mean for it to come across that way. i really enjoy the vast majority of your fics and i hate seeing you so down about the lack of interaction.

You are correct about the focus of my writing lately; I guess I got very burnt out writing emeto/sickfic. I know it's popular but it can feel very repetitive when you're writing it. I've been on more of a general angst kick, and I guess I'm just a bit disappointed overall that even though angst is the glue that holds all of my fics together, the people who follow me don't particularly want to see it.

As for fantasy whump - I started this blog because I wasn't seeing any of the supernatural elements I wanted to see in the context of emeto, kink, hurt/comfort etc. But you're probably also right; I might have gained followers who only stumbled across my blog because of a general illness fic, but who don't particularly want to read the fantasy stuff. Again, understandable and a valid point, but it still very much stings to know that the works I'm most proud of/excited about won't be as well-received because of genre (it's like my creative writing postgrad all over again aagghh lmao). It's an untapped market that's evidently untapped for a reason (or else I'm executing it terribly).

Thank you for your lovely comment about Shayne, I really appreciated that today. And I already specified this, but just in case you didn't see the other post, I do not think anything you've said has been harsh! Does it make me sad to know that my anxieties aren't just in my head? Yes. Is it useful information to have? Also, yes.

I truly hope you're having a lovely day, thank you for taking time out of it to chat with me 🖤

[ultradespairgay]

Talking About A Certain Hiyoko Headcanon:

Okay so there’s been a few things that have been on my mind lately. It’s about the headcanon {that’s often treated as fact from what I’ve seen} that Hiyoko is much younger than her classmates. I have a few questions about this:

1) Why does this headcanon exist?

2) Why are people treating this as if it’s canon to Hiyoko’s character?

There’s quite a bit about this that I really don’t understand, nor like. In this post, I want to debunk this headcanon and go over a few other things related to it.

Before I start, I want to put a disclaimer here. Firstly, there will be spoilers for almost the entire DR series {DR,DR2,DR3: Despair Arc & DRS specifically}. Secondly, I will be touching on a few heavy topics such as p*dophilia, so if this makes you uncomfortable please don’t force yourself to read this post. Finally, I’m not looking to start a fight and this isn’t targeted at anyone specifically. So please don’t come into my replies or my ask-box looking to start something. I don’t tolerate that nonsense here. With all of that out of the way, let’s begin {more will be under the cut}!!

So, the argument that I’m going to be making is that Hiyoko isn’t younger than her classmates, rather she’s the same age as them. The first piece of evidence that backs up my claim is that Hiyoko goes through a significant growth spurt at some point during her time at Hope’s Peak Academy. It’s first referenced in DR2 Chapter 6, where in a glitched version of the academy Hajime finds a news article that includes a picture of an older/more mature-esque Hiyoko.

Hajime is confused, as the Hiyoko he knew had a “child-like appearance” and had died. So there was no way she could’ve possibly went through a growth spurt… except he was wrong. During the trial, it’s revealed that the killing school trip was actually a simulation the entire time. Hajime then recalls the evidence he had found earlier and backs up the “everything was a simulation” claim.

Their time on Jabberwock was just a memory of when they all started at HPA. Everyone’s {including Hiyoko} avatars reflect this because in reality their bodies have actually matured approximately 2-3 years. It wasn’t recognizable to them at first because they had their school memories taken away from them.

DR2 Chapter 6 Trial {9:20-12:22}.

We also see Hiyoko’s growth spurt in DR3: Despair Arc Episode 5.

DR3: Despair Arc Hiyoko Saionji Compilation {2:08-2:21}.

Now some might say that “there are people who look older than they actually are”, which is true. However, the opposite can also be true as well. In Hiyoko’s case, before her growth spurt she looked much younger than she really was. A couple of the characters {Hajime in the prologue/Chp.6 & Kazuichi in Chp.6 for example} refer to Hiyoko as having a “child-like appearance/figure. In the prologue, Nagito brings up that Hiyoko’s dancing is popular amongst young audiences, but most of her fans are men. Hajime thinks that this is because Hiyoko looks so young, stating that they must all have the same “niche”.

DR2 Prologue Part 2 {26:56-27:14}.

The “niche” in question could also be referred to as Hiyoko’s fans being drawn to her “un-high school student-like” appearance. Would being described as having a child-like/un-high school student-like appearance apply to someone who’s supposedly younger than the rest of her class? No it doesn’t, so it doesn’t support the headcanon in question.

People have also referred to two screenshots from DR:S as evidence for their headcanon. However, it’s more likely they were misinterpreting what was shown on screen. First we have this screenshot featuring Hiyoko, Mahiru & Mondo.

Looking at the cutscene as a whole, it’s more likely that Mondo said this because Hiyoko neither looks nor acts like someone their own age. I’ve already covered her looks, but in terms of actions we see Hiyoko throwing a fit/crying because Mondo ruined her plans with Mahiru. When asking him to apologize, Hiyoko makes demands like “rubbing his pompadour into the dirt” which sounds very immature.

DRS Hiyoko Saionji Events {3:56-7:01}.

Then there’s the screenshot featuring Hiyoko, Mahiru & Himiko.

I’ve seen this being interpreted as “Hiyoko has no reason to refer to herself in such a way if she’s the same age as everyone else”. Now in DR:S, this takes place in an AU where the casts from the main 3 games are all the same age and are about to graduate. When they entered the simulated Jabberwock Island, Hiyoko was booted back to how she looked before her growth spurt {the growth spurt still happened during her time at HPA} and everyone knows this. Hiyoko had called Himiko a “little runt” because she felt like Himiko was trying to take her “big sis” Mahiru away from her. Himiko retorts that they’re actually around the same size… well at least in the simulation that’s the case. This then leads to what Hiyoko says in the screenshot.

DRS Hiyoko Saionji Events {26:00-28:16}.

Since everyone knows that Hiyoko’s gone through a growth spurt back in the real world, what’s more likely is that Hiyoko is saying that even though she looks like this in the simulation, at least she’ll get taller unlike Himiko who’ll probably stay that short forever.

Hiyoko isn’t a 500 year old entity that looks like a young child. She was just a teenager that didn’t look or act her age, that eventually went through a growth spurt. People like Hiyoko do exist in real life, it’s not that hard to believe.

Another point that I can make is that one of the two requirements to get into HPA is that you must already be attending a high school. You’d have to be at least 16 years old to even attend the academy. Some will probably say “what if Hiyoko skipped a few grades”, but this is never confirmed nor implied in any DR media that features Hiyoko. A character from DR1 Yasuhiro Hagakure outright states in his game’s prologue that he’s actually 21 years old and was held back a few times.

So if Hiyoko had skipped a couple of grades, then why wasn’t this ever brought up to her classmates or the player/viewer during DR2 or DR3: Despair Arc? Surely this would’ve been important enough information that the developers wouldn’t have just forgotten to include it, right? It just wouldn’t make any sense that this wasn’t brought up, if this was a part of Hiyoko’s character. Therefore, Hiyoko would’ve had to have been at least 16 years old and already attending a high school in order to get into HPA.

Hiyoko having a growth spurt & the requirements to get into HPA are the main pieces of evidence that goes against Hiyoko being much younger than the rest of her class. Now I want to cover a claim people have made using this headcanon that I really don’t agree with. It’s being claimed that M/ahiyoko {Mahiru + Hiyoko} is a gross/unhealthy relationship and that Mahiru is creepy for having feelings for Hiyoko. Essentially the ship is implied to be “p*dophilic… which none of this is even close to being true. Making accusations like this is incredibly bold/serious, especially when there’s nothing to back it up. Hiyoko & Mahiru are the same age and if anything Mahiru showing kindness to Hiyoko in DR2 would help inspire her to change. An example would be at the start of DR2 Chapter 3 when Hiyoko made a memorial for Mahiru in her honour. While it looked sinister, there was honest intent behind it. Hiyoko admits that she made it because she wanted Mahiru to know that she wasn’t alone, even if she’s in heaven. The others comment how this is unlike how Hiyoko usually is. I can’t picture Hiyoko in the previous chapters doing something like this, so I think this was thanks to Mahiru’s influence.

DR2 Chapter 3 Part 1 {9:30-11:58}.

So in what way does this make their relationship gross/unhealthy? Also, Mahiru isn’t a creep for having feelings for someone her own age. There’s a clear cut difference between Mahiru & Hiyoko’s fans who like her specifically because she looks “younger”. Mahiru isn’t a creep, the fans who objectify Hiyoko in such a way are. If you personally view Hiyoko & Mahiru’s relationship as purely platonic or familial, that’s fine. However, you can dislike a ship without making serious accusations without the proper evidence to back it up.

One last thing I want to mention in this post, is how people will outright treat this headcanon as if it’s canon information. I find this to be completely ridiculous, if something was canon it wouldn’t be a headcanon anymore. People can have their headcanons, however don’t treat them as if they’re 100% fact. At this point, all you’re doing is spreading misinformation around which isn’t really productive at all. What if someone who knew nothing about DR came across these posts about this headcanon? They’d be thinking that this is canon information, when it’s not. I find that the DR fandom in general has a problem with treating their headcanons as the truth when it’s not, and the people who headcanon Hiyoko as being younger are no exception.

These are the reasons why I think Hiyoko is the same age as the rest of her classmates.As well as M/ahiyoko isn’t a gross/unhealthy relationship and Mahiru isn’t a creep for liking Hiyoko as more than a friend. This headcanon doesn’t really make any sense and I wish the fandom would stop parading it around as if it’s canon. Please do your research and think before making very serious claims that can’t be backed up with proper evidence.

I want to once again reiterate to not go to my replies or my askbox looking to start something. I don’t care if you agree with me or not, however don’t be an ass about it.

But anyways, thanks to everyone who made it to the end of this post/heard me out with what I had to say. All the clips I’ve used for this post are from the YouTube channel justonegamr. The screenshots also were taken from their videos as well. I definitely want to make more analytical posts on this blog in the future, so be on the lookout for those!!