#i like it and it’s bad vs. it’s good and not for me vs. i don’t like it and i think it’s bad vs. it’s good and i love it? all valid!!

[pressurepoint221]

Disliking Caitlyn doesn't make you a good person

Liking or disliking fictional characters doesn't define you. It doesn't make you a good or bad person. It speaks about your preferences and interests. It gives me, a stranger, some information about a few parts of your personality but it doesn't tell me if you're a "good" or "bad guy".

Caitlyn Kiramman is a young female fictional character who enters traditionally male-dominated roles: the leader of her family and strike team and Commander of Piltover. Moreover, she's a lesbian, which makes her character even more groundbreaking for the audience in 2024.

It's up to you, to like, love, dislike, or hate her. Everyone has their own opinions about everything.

What tells me you're an unpleasant person or at least makes me block or avoid you in the digital space?

Systematic expression of your dislike or hate towards a fictional character. For example, I have questions for users who daily or weekly make posts about why Caitlyn is [a long list of bad words] and actively comment under neutral or positive posts about her.

Double standards. For example, when I see a person who likes Silco or Ambessa despite their actions but strongly dislikes Caitlyn for her actions. Also, ignoring the bad actions of their favorite characters (e.g., Jinx) while expressively pointing out the similar actions of another character (e.g., Caitlyn).

Systematic comparison of their favorite character towards others to justify their love towards this character. Another example of Jinx vs Caitlyn fans.

As a lesbian who escaped an authoritarian country with homophobic laws, I'm concerned:

Why are there quite a lot of members of Arcane fandom who constantly describe Caitlyn with the words "f*scist" or "n*zi"? I hope you're not from Italy, Germany, or post-soviet countries. Otherwise, you don't have any excuse to wrongly use these terms.

Why do users think that liking a fictional character (e.g., any character in power in any TV show or movie) is equal to supporting real-life figures like Vl*dimir P*tin (Russia), D*nal Tr*mp (the USA), V*ctor *rban (Hungary), K*m J*ng *n (North Korea), B*shar *l-*ssad (Siria), and others? Do you differentiate between the real and fictional world?

[glitter-stained]

Ngl it really peeves me when the debate about Jason's ethics regarding killing in the batfam mixes up the question of him being a moral character in regards to sticking to his own philosophy (aka compromising with what he thinks is right to salvage relationships, but also exploding trains to evade capture, killing random goons in a gang war, etc) and the question of him being a moral character in regards to whether his philosophy is right. And even with regards to his philosophy there is his philosophy on politics, crime control and harm reduction, and his ethical philosophy itself (utilitarianism, aka focusing on intended positive consequences of actions for the greater good rather than the action being fundamentally moral or immoral in itself). Those are different things. Those require different debates and should not be conflagrated together. I'm not even saying Jason is right! I think utilitarianism and deontology both suck and fail at providing sufficient guidelines for moral behaviour. ("Everybody still loses" like the nihilist clown says. The symbolism of that one scene is pretty cool on that regard.)

And I think some people at dc would very much like for you to make the connection that because Jason is harming civilians/killing unnamed goons, he is a bad person, and as such you don't need to examine the way his stance on moral philosophy (utilitarianism) opposes Batman's. But that's not right, they don't get to wiggle out of the fact that utilitarianism vs deontology is a complicated debate that has been going on for ages, that there is no clear-cut answer where Batman fundamentally comes out on top, they don't get to use the fact that Jason (in the era currently discussed) is a villain to saddle us with a false dichotomy of "well jason is wrong about stuff so batman has to be right" to avoid addressing the actual question. The traits of the people being tied on the tracks do not change the shape of the trolley problem. The traits of the person deciding to pull the lever do not change the shape of the trolley problem. It's still one lever, three people tied on one track, one on the other, do you pull the lever. That's it. Yes, bending the metaphor to address other questions (such as "who keeps tying people to the tracks" to question systemic violence or "how does my bias, my prejudice and empathy impact my decision to pull the lever depending on who is on the tracks") are interesting but that's not what the debate is about. If I wrote an essay about the trolley problem in high school and focused primarily on the nature of the people being tied on the tracks, I'd get a big fat zero with "off-topic" written in red all over my essay, so I'm not inclined to allow DC comics to get away with it.

[utilitycaster]

Inspired actually by me nonstop thinking about the Young Witch Solving The Disappearance Of Her Neighbor's Cat In The Alps tweet since last night and a number of other unrelated posts I have been thinking about the concept of maturity in media, because I think there's a lot of different dimensions to that. It's a series of spectra, rather than a binary, and if you use the terms "mature" or "immature" you can quickly realize that a lot of our societal metrics for what's adult-appropriate vs. child appropriate are very skewed in specific and in my opinion untrue and unhelpful directions. This could honestly be a 10 page essay and I may very well write that when I'm on break but just to give you my outline here:

Stimulation - is it grabbing your attention with bright lights and loud sounds and fast action, or do you have to actively focus? Action films can be just as "jangly keys" as children's animation despite being an "adult" work, whereas something like Mad Men can have vivid colors but would bore a child to tears in terms of pace and action. However, and this will be an ongoing theme, you can have a very choppy, fast-paced narrative that is complex and a very slow and dull one that is incredibly simple and childish.

"Ratings" Subject Matter: Sex/Violence/Profanity. This is the one I think is most misleading, because you can have an incredibly puerile R-rated film, and you can have an immensely complex narrative without any of the above. [note: I have zero patience for people who act like sex and violence are inherently unnecessary wastes of time; they are merely things within a narrative that can be executed well or poorly, but it is true that something can have a simple plot and constant bright lights and stimulation and essentially be big old jingling mobile for infants but there's a sex scene in it so it's Adult Now. Unfortunately a lot of people are like "and this is why YA is inherently better" which we shall see is not the case.]

Other Difficult Subject Matter (I don't have a good name for it, but to give examples, death, racism, genocide, abuse, serious or chronic illness, etc). This one is tricky because all of the above are topics present in works for quite young children, because they can experience all the above or have someone close to them experience them, and fiction is a powerful teaching tool. Obviously the nature of how this is presented varies, and later points will cover it, but while in my opinion the simple presence of these topics says nothing about the work's level of maturity on its own I'm including it because you do get people who think that children should be shielded from all the above and would consider the mere inclusion of those topics as inappropriate. They're wrong, but it's definitely an axis of judgement/categorization that exists.

Adult-level processing of information (probably a misnomer in that teens can do this but like, teens read adult books all the time, and as Tumblr has shown us, many adults cannot do this): does the narrative require you be able to pick up on subtext? Do you need to understand what is relevant to the story and what isn't? Do you need to be comfortable with or at least able to tolerate not knowing entirely what is going on right away? Do you need to have a sense of irony? Is there an unreliable narrator?

Adult-level processing of moral complexity (in my limited, not a parent or educator experience, I honestly think teens do better with the information processing than this, ie, this is one of the last things to develop; also Tumblr is even worse): does the narrative require you accept that sometimes things are unfair and will never be fair? Do you need to accept a story in which the Quote Unquote Bad Guys walk free without real consequence? Do you need to accept a story in which no one's actions are entirely defensible or in which no choices are easy and clean and harmless? Do you need to attempt to understand an alien perspective? Is there senseless tragedy? This incidentally is how you separate out the children's books from the adult books on topics like illness or catastrophic events; a lot of children's books end with a message of "it's hard and sad, but it will be okay eventually" and focus on very relatable POV characters which is understandable! But, to use an example as someone who went to a Jewish school with a robust Holocaust education, elementary schoolers read Number the Stars in which the (entirely fictional) Jewish family escapes to Sweden; middle schoolers read Night in which Wiesel's (real) father dies painfully in front of him.

None of this is to say that escapism/cozy fiction/whatever you want to call it is bad - I am not interested in a diet entirely made of thorny moral quandaries and no happy endings. I enjoy a stupid turn off your brain action movie, or a fluffy romantasy. But I do think that a demand that every ending be happy and that Justice Be Served in every story is no less immature than saying "ew, there's kissing in this???"

[toastling]

Maybe this is just me. But. When you step back and look at the last 20 years, isn't it a bit weird what, specifically, is still being censored, vs what isn't? It used to be that even in Saturday morning action cartoons based off superhero comics, like Superman TAS, you often couldn't show the specific frame of, say, a fist impacting someone in a fight. Now, this improved over time, but if you really pay attention, you'll notice a lot of the time instead of actually seeing an impact there's a white flash that conveys said impact without actually showing it.

The fear among censors was that any violence that could easily be replicated by kids wasn't safe to show, and gun violence also got thrown in there since so many American families own guns. Incidentally, the DCAU is one of the biggest reasons this changed over time, but it stood for decades regardless. The kind of violence you saw in Tom & Jerry and the kind of violence you see today wouldn't have flown in the 90s and 00s.

Similarly, there were certain things you just couldn't really animate for kids and families when it came to things like body horror or outright cruelty that involved bodily trauma. There were times and places, genres, where it was a little bit more acceptable and you had more leeway - gross-out humor has always been a thing and has allowed more freedom in form and disgust, and horror media, even when aimed at a younger audience, is allowed to get away with more because it is an inherent aspect of the genre by nature - but you usually wouldn't go into something like Spongebob expecting something truly gruesome or horrific to look at.

When body horror did occur outside of its native environments, it was always toned down or humorous in some way. Think pulling off a face but you just see a skull or some messed up computer parts, or the OG Spongebob Halloween episode where he gets shaved down to a brain and a nose. It was gross, but it wasn't quite horrific, because firstly it wouldn't really serve the intended purpose of comedy, but also because censorship about that sort of thing was a lot more strict, it was categorized under violence.

Meanwhile today you have episodes where Spongebob's face skin is peeled off to reveal the highly detailed musculature underneath in an image that is not in any way humorous, or Squidward's toenail trauma depicted in a way that is not disgusting for the sake of humor but gratuitous and horrific for its own sake, and nobody bats an eye. Not the kids watching, not the Christian adults, and certainly not the censors.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing! I have a low tolerance for body horror in general which is why I chose it as the topic here, but I can just. Not watch. Evidently times have changed and these sorts of things aren't as off-putting for newer generations, or maybe I'm just especially susceptible to it. I don't think it's inherently bad if the world moves on without me and I end up left behind in some aspects, that's part and parcel with progress, and all things considered, it's probably a good thing that censors aren't so up their own ass about this stuff anymore. It allows for more freedom, and not everybody's going to jump to the extremest of extremes now that they have it.

But when you step back and look at how censorship has loosened over the years with regards to violence, body horror, sexual innuendo, themes and topics... you ever notice that anything even remotely queer hasn't received that same sort of grace? If anything it feels like it's gotten even tighter restrictions, if only because it's so front and center in the cultural conversation these days, and the public is more okay with it than the censors are. But any mention of queerness, especially transgender queerness, and suddenly the Comics Code Authority is very real again and your show is poised to lose a sizable chunk of Christian and/or Conservative viewers.

Nobody cares anymore if Spongebob is dissected on screen with unnecessarily detailed human-like anatomy showing all his muscles and ligaments and various blood vessels, that's just health class. So it wouldn't have flown back in 1995, who cares? But god forbid you have a story that treats a transgirl like she's a human being! Oh no, no, no! That's not appropriate for children. That's not appropriate for anyone! And even with homosexuality - yeah, we get our gay couples now and then, but you ever notice how a lot of them are either at the very very end, or when they aren't, suddenly that show ends up cancelled early or facing production or promotional issues for some strange and definitely unrelated reason?

Violence is okay. Even sex is becoming more okay than it used to be. Being queer still isn't, though. We still get censored into the dirt.

It's been incredibly surreal watching it gradually unfold these past 10 or 15 years. The more things change, the more they stay the same. And it always goes on to reveal the inherent biases and flaws with the idea of censorship in the first place.

Maybe it's time we stop trying to classify media as being strictly for any one demographic, to stop censoring any content whatsoever in its entirety no matter who the "target audience" is, and force parents to actually do their job and vet what their kids watch themselves. Maybe we shouldn't leave it to some old white business major to decide what is or isn't suitable for who, as if they are the only thing standing between the human race and moral annihilation. Maybe people should just make up their own minds on what is or isn't okay instead of having it dictated to them by someone else. Maybe.

That video of Alex Hirsch reading S&P notes for Gravity Falls conveys a few things to me:

1) the U.S. entertainment industry (especially animation) is run by older conservative types who make up offensive terms and get really mad about them.

2) the people who run Disney would be the first to fall in line with a fascist regime.

3) most of the media we consume is tailor-made and watered-down to appeal to the tastes of older, deeply religious conservative audiences.

4) conservatism, not the left, is and always has been the biggest voice of censorship in American culture.

[wikipediette]

emotional motion sickness

General g/n headcanons; mentions of abuse dynamics in relationships, talks of physical, emotional, and mental abuse, if these topics trigger you please dont read

so I'll start with the idea of being on earth with Jimmy, I'd like to imagine that curly set you two up, hoping that you'd rub off on him

Your first date you meet and you're charmed by him, he's a sarcastic, flirty, handsome man with a sense of humor (albeit a dry sense of humor)

people like Jimmy are VERY charming and can pretend to be a certain person to draw you in. Then slowly up the ante until you feel trapped

He starts off cute, comes a little late to dates, clothes wrinkled, flowers bent. But hes apologetic and you cant help but feel bad for him

As you get deeper into the relationship the faults start to show.

Maybe a year or so in he starts asking about friends. Nothing too dramatic just an occasional "who's that?"

And at first its cute! He's just worried and protective. But it slowly gets more and more controlling.

One of the first things an abuser will do is isolate you to make it hard to leave them. so he asks you to stop talking to a few people, coworkers or group project friends.

if you question it he will get very intense very fast and uestion why your so hesitant to cut them off.

"is there something your not telling me?" He asks, he had both arms caging you down onto your armchair, his body leaned down to look at you closely. "No!" You exclaim sitting up as best you can with him so close, "I just think it's weird you suddenly aren't ok with me and danny talking anymore!" He laughs but it holds no humor if the look on his face is anything to go by "I know you probably didn't notice but he's constantly flirting with you, he obviously wants to fuck you." you begin to mentally look over your conversations in your head, had he? Was there something you missed? Something misinterpreted? "Really?" You ask, doubting if you really should be talking to a man who liked you while in a relationship. "yes! that's why I don't want you talking to him, he's trying to take advantage of you." you sigh before nodding "yeah, sorry I... didn't even realize" "its fine" he says softly holding the back of your head to lead you into a kiss "I just want to keep you safe".

so you bite and agree, you slowly begin to cut less important people out. As you do he'll pavlov you, with each friend you pick off he'll love bomb you. kisses, hugs, gifts, sex, sweet talk, pet names, bragging about you. He'll play into whatever you want as long as you follow his rules.

When it comes to the biggest hitters like family, close circle friends, and best friends he'll wait a few years to cut them out

He'll plant ideas of a us vs them mentality.

they just want to break us apart.

they're jealous of us.

your too good for them.

they don't treat you right.

they're the abusers.

i'm the only one who REALLY loves you

and after so many years with him, despite your ups and downs you cant help but do what he says because you just don't see him as this horrible monster everyone's making him out to be.

you love him and he loves you!

people just don't understand your dynamic,

they don't know him like you do.

when it's bad its bad but when it's good its so damn good.

and his lonely act works well too, besides curly he doesn't really have any friends.

he has acquaintances and coworkers, but friends? no.

if you broke up with him he'd have no one. and you've been together so long it'd be such a jump. going from deep conversations and intense love to asking about a person's favorite color? fuck that.

when he has you were he wants you that's when all hell breaks loose.

you barely go anywhere and if you do he either needs your location the whole time (probably makes you get life360) or has to be with you, hand on hip, glaring at anyone who talks to you.

when you two get invited to parties he'll play nice (after all he is in public) and let you roam.

you'll talk to people you haven't in a bit while he drinks and talks to curly.

and its times like that that makes the worst moments feel worth it.

speaking of the worst moments.....he's a very jealous person, he constantly is worried if you're cheating on him.

he'll argue with you and wont relent till your crying and exhausted.

then once he thinks you've proved yourself he'll scoop you up and let you cry on his shoulder. murmuring that he loves you and he sorry.

he'll open up, say he knows there's something wrong with him, and he's sorry hes like this, that you deserve better and he's trying.

"I'm sorry" Jimmy softly says into your ear. cradling you like a baby in his arms. your arms are around his neck, your eyes burn with drying tears and sleep, your nose is stuffy, your throat is dry from yelling and sobbing for hours. the rocking isn't helping your sleepiness. "I'm sorry, I know there's something wrong with me. Please don't leave me"

trying to leave in these situations is probably the worst thing you could do

now I'm not under the impression that Jimmy would be overly physically abusive given that his character is all about the subtleties of abuse.

BUT! I do believe he'd restrain you, push you, grab you harder than needed, ect. If you tried to leave him while arguing.

He doesn't like you taking control of the situation and it gets him very mad, as a result he'll force you to stay where he wants.

But he doesn't explicitly hit you as that would leave marks

he wouldn't want you to be bruised because that would bring suspicion to the safety of your relationship.

And most of the relationships abuse is kept to a level that could pass as normal to others.

I think having a friend like curly in these moments that always tries to smooth things over without any bridge burning would definitely lead to him unintentionally gaslighting you about it.

side note: ok this is the first time I've really written in this format, made a romantic x reader, AND this is also my first time posting x reader onto Tumblr lol. apologies if this is ooc I never refreshed myself on Jimmy's character simply bc I don't have the time for that lol. this is also based off of my general knowledge of abusive relationships. if anyone wants more plz let me know i really wanted to try writing fanfiction seriously for a while now lmao, bye :)

[ranticore]

So do tiercels just straight up get abducted to be in a harem? Can they say no? Was Cuinn abused by his king?

Kinda, Yes, and Depends On What You Mean By That

the degree of choice a tiercel has in the matter is culturally-dependent. in the eastern Ama plains region (where Cuinn is from) the 'abduction' itself is also slightly romanticised and has its own weird rituals and subconversations; someone who really wants to be a tiercel (very common thing to want tbh) can never just ask for it. they need to do a little "who, me??" coy act at times, and then wait and see how the king behaves - if he fulfils the ideal standards of kingship he should then """kidnap""" them and bring them to his bower which, if he is a good king, should be so impressive and full of treasures that nobody should ever WANT to leave. that's the fantasy of it - a tiercel is another piece of treasure for a king to decorate his nest with. if the king's offer sucks or isn't up to standard, the tiercel can just be like no thanks and fly away again and in this culture it is considered crass for a king to continue to pursue them. the tiercel point of view is "how are YOU going to serve ME". they're birds and their courtship rituals are very elaborate, and even though the tiercel is the one supposedly chosen for their beauty, the king is the equivalent of male birds of paradise doing a funky dance for a visibly bored dull-coloured potential mate.

tiercels in this scenario can leave at any time and they often do. greediness, ambition, and pride are valuable and romanticised traits in a harpy and they are quite accustomed to taking the 'if it sucks hit da bricks' method of combating the sunk cost fallacy. it's not uncommon for a very new or inexperienced king to not have a lot on offer, so a tiercel may choose to join him based on his future potential rather than his current standing, and if he doesn't live up to that potential he's as good as useless.

Cuinn was a fringe case. he was so unusual in appearance that he was basically earmarked to be chosen by a king from the moment of his hatching (should he survive infancy - he almost didn't). it was also known that unpigmented feathers are trash and lose condition easily, and his eyesight was bad, so his future hunting ability was in question. ppl were like ah he's lucky he'll never have to work a day in his life, he's the ultimate tiercel, etc etc. With his story i never wanted his king, Thunder Strike On The Ama, to come across as malicious or mean - he thinks he's doing everything right. he never sexually assaulted Cuinn if that's what you're asking but I think the power dynamic of not just Thunder Strike but the entire flock vs Cuinn was an abusive scenario for him to be in. it didn't matter how well he was treated within that cage. one might even say Cuinn was coercively gendered tiercel from birth (catab if u will)

in truth tiercels and kings get trapped in bad dynamics all the time. the fantasy rarely works out exactly as planned; often enough for it to be a cultural touchstone but look underneath and you'll often find tiercels and kings threatened, held against their will, or indeed assaulted. in much the same way u can't be like "and marriage is a great experience for everyone because it's about love!"

[afsosville]

I wonder how things would change if Shen Jiu had the ability to project his memories and emotions like The Giver, or Blue Diamond from Steven Universe by some artifact fuckery or if he was born with the power. Maybe a better way to describe it is Wei Wuxian's empathy.

If it's a one-time artifact mishap during a mission or smt, he's got everyone kneeling over, unable to move an inch because of how much physical pain they're in. And don't forget all the emotional pain they're hopelessly dealing with, too (the memories don't have to be included, just the emotional wreckage and physical pain is enough).

All the while, they expect their Shen Shixiong to roll over and scream in agony, coz obviously smn as spoiled as him who's never had any bit of hardship in his life would feel it the worst. Then, they're seeing him going on with the mission and fighting like he's not affected at all, and then it hits them-

Oh.

They're his emotions.

If it's an inate ability, then I imagine he's using it to make his life easier, even if it's just a bit.

Like just give QJL the pain of his beatings or whatnot. Every whip gets inflicted on to QJL until the whippings stop completely. This will probably make QJL make SJ suffer even more, but that also stops when he realizes SJ has the power to make QJL go thru the same shit and will do it with absolute glee. Maybe SJ manages to free himself earlier bc of this. But there's a possibility he'll still stay to wait for YQ. If he does, then he's constantly engaging in psychological warfare with QJL and winning. That would be interesting to write abt ejrgkdkf.

This ability will ofc makes things easier if QHT stays insistent that her family treated him well.

Or like when he's being confronted for the the first time for his brothel visits, he's making LQG feel what it's like to not feel safe in the place you're supposed to sleep. And he keeps doing this every night until LQG is almost never sleeping and the mountain anymore and understands.

During peak lord meetings, he's subtly giving everyone a bit of his paranoia/anxiety, so now he's got everyone agreeing with him, and are listening to him.

He's also torturing slavers and rich nobles with his memories as well bc of a sense of righteous retribution, or just for the fun of it.

This could make Shen Jiu development a Them vs. Me complex, he's already a pro at it as it is except he's differentiating himself from those rich nobles and the like and wants nothing to do with them. Ideally this will make him conscience of the way he's treating his disciples, bc he'd be manually giving his memories/trauma to his disciples, he's just doing it without the ability lol.

He hated being grouped with ppl who were like him in the book, so now I'm making him have that energy for nobles who push around their weight instead. And would despite ever acting that way.

For angst points>>

He's tries to soothe his disciples with the slightest scraps of the good memories he does have bc he has no idea what else to do, but doesn't work and he acidentally gives bad memories instead :/

[im-da-bronx]

That’s my bad, I should have clarified. I’m a fiber artist, so I spend a lot of time around people selling (gorgeous, beautiful, made with love) handspun and hand dyed yarns, hand knit and crocheted hats and scarves and sweaters, woven shawls and towels and blankets made on $3000 floor looms in their attic. That’s what I’m talking about.

If you buy a coat from an artisan that spun and dyed the thread, wove the fabric, and then sewed the coat, it’s going to be good quality and last a long time, because most people won’t put tens and hundreds of hours into a project that they’re going to half-ass. They’re going to put effort into doing it well, because they’re only getting one item out of it. Someone selling coasters made from red heart yarn that take 30 minutes to make while watching tv is going to have a different standard of quality than someone making a one-of-a-kind item.

(Please note I am not disparaging artisans that sell small items. Those smaller items are the ones that people buy, the items that keep the artist in the buyers head, the items that make people go “hey I really liked that hat they made. I want another, let me check their website. Ooh they do commissions!! Maybe I’ll commission them for a sweater…”

It’s more the difference between making lunch [“no mayo? Dry sandwich I guess”] vs making a family recipe that’s only brought out for the holidays [“I need to buy star anise for the cranberry sauce”])

I'm so pissed right now. I know that fabric has been declining in quality for a while but I just bought new pajamas from kmart and they are literally see through. Not just through one layer of fabric either; I can see through the leg, that is, through 2 layers of fabric. These aren't clothes. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have strained soup through cheesecloth thicker than these pants. These are men's flannel pajamas, the kind people wear in winter, and they are made if shittier thinner fabric than even the most bargain bin bullshit halloween costumes. This "flannel" feels like plastic and is thinner than a chux wipe. Why is this even for sale.

[the-mountain-flower]

Someone recommended to me the show Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld, and I figured it looked interesting so I watched it. And I have some thoughts.

It is the most obvious lesson on why not giving stories enough time to play out messes with the pacing so badly. In this day and age of "you'll get about eight episodes per season and there's no guarantee you'll even get renewed, and it's more than likely it'll just get dumped", if creators want their story to be for sure be told onscreen without cancellation cliffhangers, they gotta cram it into as little time onscreen as possible. And the art suffers for it.

In my opinion, Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld is a genuinely good and compelling show. But it's good, not great. And that's because of the pacing. Almost every single glaring flaw (mostly the character arcs and dynamics, and a ton of loose ends), boiled down to an issue of the story not being allowed to play out long enough. It feels rushed and cramped, and it's basically the perfect object lesson on why stories need to be given enough time to play out.

There are many stories I adore that get cut short, that despite having a loving and dedicated fanbase, were left on a cliffhanger with no resolution. A lot of that being because they were Netflix originals. Which Jentry Chau vs the Underworld is. And this is the result of that threat. And that's depressing.

Jentry Chau vs the Underworld is a good story, with many elements to it that I absolutely love. But it's so, so cramped, and the obvious result of trying to get a story told in a little time as possible, in order to try and get it finished at all.

The love for the project is obvious. There's so much there to be expanded upon and allowed to give their aspects of the story so much more weight. But they just don't have the time to make that impact.

:(

(Also I didn't watch the trailer, but after finishing the show I saw it out of curiosity. Now, I'm no expert, but IMO that's Bad Advertising. Honestly, if I had watched that before the show itself, I might've just dismissed it right then and there.)

(Fuck you, Netflix. For many reasons. One of them being this.)

[aliciavance4228]

I want to share this madness with you.I think it's obvious that a man did this.

Okay, uhmm... I'm currently trying to process what did I just read. Athena was bitchy because she was a virgin, There's an Oedipus in all of us, the entire dick Zeus vs. Good Hades dichotomy, Nyx is the mother of all evil, Abrahamic God is based on Chronos, Ananke is the reason for everything, Hope is the greatest evil, Chaos is order...

What the hell, dude?!

Like I would be more than glad to roast the shit out of this meme but it's so ridiculously stupid and inaccurate that the creator of it basically roasted himself the moment he made it public on the Internet.

Luckily the Christmas spirit makes me a kind person, therefore I won't say anything bad about it and allow people out there to get their hate food instead.

[heartofbusan]

"This story reveals a new playbook for waging a far-reaching and largely undetectable smear campaign in the digital age." Megan Twohey, NYT investagative reporting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/business/media/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-it-ends-with-us.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jE4.sYdZ.Ah3sVs-lnJ9z&smid=url-share

Being uninterested in current US celebrity gossip means that this story kind of whizzed past me this summer. I didn't sit up to take notice. Neither of these people is Jimin, so I tuned it out. Yesterday's court filing, however, finally caught my attention. That's revealed is fascinating if not outrightly horrifying.

The media has fully invested in our attention. It's become their biggest commodity and tool. Propaganda at its finest. We've seen cases like this before where two parties start up a smear campaign to tarnish someone's good reputation to sway public opinion. Oftentimes, these cases are a battle between a man and a woman. Think of Brad Pitt vs. Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard or, more recently, Trumpelstiltskin vs. Ms. Harris. Can we even go as far as to include MHJ and Hybe/Bang in this category? Or, the people vs. anyone they want to tarnish?

Public opinion is such a fickle thing. It's entirely malleable in the hands of the 'right' people. Anyone willing and unscrupulous enough to go the extra mile.

Park Jimin was just as recently as last week been the target of online hate campaigns. Helloo Min Yoongi? Kim Namjoon?!?! Basically, every Tannie has been wrung through the wringer like this to serve a voracious narrative. In their case, it was other fandoms fanning the flames of hate for the media to serve, but it's all meant to destroy a person's reputation.

I bring this article up because it's a good reminder of how much influence PR firms have when they want to change a narrative in order to suit their highest bidder. It makes me wonder how much of the bad press we hear (chatter online) is fully fabricated, maybe partly based on the public's incentive to dislike a certain person, and how important it is to read between the lines. To stay critical in your online interactions and in your dissemina of reports. Keep thinking for yourself. Your opinion can't become cement, in either direction.

Isn't it funny how PR playbooks have been exposed this year? Remember MHJ and her text exchanges about how best to go on the attack? Her confidence when talking to her co-conspirator as opposed to her demeanor during her presser? We are the ones being catered to! Our dumb minds are unwilling or unable to parse through to the truth. It's not surprising seeing as it's often very hard to figure out who's lying about whom.

I know some people love certainty, look at the nonsense questions most jikook bloggers get asked about, but it's better to stay flexible in how secure you feel about anything so as not to be surprised or dissapointed in the long run. Trust your gut when it comes to forming an opinion on someone or something and ask yourself, 'Why?' Why am I being asked to hate or voice my dislike on a celebrity whom I know nothing about? Why am I being driven towards a conclusion that serves but ONE narrative?

Come on, people, this happens to 'us' in this K-pop/ARMY fandom community as well..if not worse.

[quinloki]

What's Your Guilty Pleasure?

A little over a year ago I did a poll about what's your smut-centric guilty pleasure.

Purely out of curiosity.

Now I want to do a second poll, but I want to expand it a little bit.

See, the thing is, I appreciate the Separation of Socially Safe vs Kink, especially given the possible risks and ramifications of just whipping out hard core porn on your phone in the middle of the holidays and at work.

But for a little bit let's just indulge.

A Guilty Pleasure doesn't have to be mired in the debauched and delightful, it can also be that moment in the morning when you stretch and ignore the world around you for juuuuust a second longer.

It can be found deep in the pages of an easily predictable isekai story where you already know the ending before you've cleared the tutorial.

The point is, it brings you joy.

Maybe it's even hard to define as joy, but there's a deep satisfaction that scratches an itch you can't reach otherwise and that

✨Relief ✨

Just makes your muscles relax and you brain purr.

So, ditch the guilt, when it comes to fan fics:

You want to give me nuance, or maybe it's a combo-platter?

put it in the tags, hit my ask box, add into the replies \o/

Just be chill, and don't harsh anyone else's mellow. 🥰

[buff-electra-truther]

I've alluded to the concept a number of times, but here's my redesign for OLC Belle the Sleeping Car wildly roleswapped into a Momma/Poppa figure for Electra, as Belle the GG1. You could probably give her a better name, but Belle is passable enough since all locomotives in the US have bells, I mainly kept it to preserve the flow of her song (see below cut for her version!). Based on their status and appearance in their absolute final running days in 1984. They may look glossy and pretty (if a WILD time warp) but they were on their absolute last gasp physically at this point after running for nearly 50 years, due to a lack of suitable replacement. Her dress follows a similar logic to Greaseball's outfit in that it represents the streamlined cowl, which is why she's less mechanical than most.

Personality-wise, she's also oooooold and based on Ella Fitzgerald, even more heavily than OLC Belle since she's fits perfectly with the time/place/personality of the GG1s. Both started in the mid-30s in New York City, and were noted for being "effortless" and almost unparalleled in their field. I tend to imagine her playing more on the "cute, humble, and improvisational" side of Ella, entering the big race just to have one last good run before she retires, and forgetting lyrics and making up something that sounds natural. In my mind she wins because the tracks are rough and winding, which she's far more used to that the other Nationals, with how decrepit parts of her Northeast Corridor were in the 80s and still are now- experience is a quality that counts for a lot!

She toes the line between OC and AU since she's such a twist on the original but stays largely true to her general concept. I'll call her more of an AU and say anyone is free to use this interpretation if they want, I'm not possessive of it at all.

Realistically she'd be dead as a doornail after 1984 (GG1s will just never run in preservation, they were in such bad shape and would need so much work to function on modern systems you may as well build a new replica). But make a cheeky joke about Controls' mom "sticking the old shell on a new body and not telling the kid" and she can come back. I like to think she'd have a flirty, playful rivalry with Momma/Poppa, she'd make Light At The End Of The Tunnel a duet about how steam is great.... for power plants! The Pennsylvania Railroad just stopped getting more steam engines when it electrified lines vs axing them so she wouldn't have any historical antagonism with them.

Here's my rewrite of Belle's Song largely following the original format, but now about the real history of the GG1s

Speed and youth ain't everything

Experience is a quality that counts for a lot

The sad thing 'bout experience is

By the time you've got it

It's usually all you've got...

I'm Belle, Belle, Belle, the GG1

Had my fifty years of fun

My frame is cracked, I’m almost done

Though in my heart, I long to run

I hauled the folks, I hauled the freight

I made good time, no need to wait

Just couple up and ride with me

I’d get you where you want to be

Once I was the hope for the future, wires run from coast to coast

Service every hour, to everywhere, hauling the post!

Now it’s just tragic…

The war then came, it all fell down

Restriction made the new tech drown

Let autos win, pave over it all

Watched the railroads slowly fall

Still I was a real mainliner, they struggled to replace me

Ran commuter trains into the ground

Down by the sea…. At least it was scenic

Oh, Belle, Belle, Belle, the GG-LOST

I’m worn down, yet I’m still boss

I may not be first class, but I'm not yet worst class

I can still take you when the night is dark

I’m withered, but I ain’t lost my spark

[turtleblogatlast]

I love Raph and haven’t said that enough so to be more specific I love that Raph is a soft boy who loves bear plushies, a gross boy who eats an assortment of things that are definitely better left alone, a smart boy who is more than capable of taking down villains through planning and fortitude alike, a strong boy who is dedicated to training his muscles and fighting prowess, a teenage boy who loves his brothers but is more than happy to tease and roughhouse with them, an angry boy who sometimes lets his anger take a hold of him to cover the fear, a gentle boy who is generous with hugs and affirmations to those he loves, a capable boy who takes on more than should ever be expected of a teenager, a good boy who just wants to be a hero and slowly comes to realize the cost of that duty, a good boy who has no reservations about putting himself in the way of harm coming to his family, a good boy who’s a great brother and son and person and deserves only the best the world has to offer.

[deadlyflan]

Hey.

I'm old TMNT. Not the oldest. But definitely one of the older.

1. I'd love to talk. I'm Kyabetsu. I fell in love with TMNT back in 1987 as a kid. I found online TMNT fandom in 2001. I have TMNT friends who were writing TMNT fic in 1990. (That friend is a grandmother now!)

2. Back when the internet was new(er) & small(er), it was more likely that us turtles fans would meet up at one of the big forums (a website message board), one of the big mailing lists (an email chain), the web rings of personal TMNT websites (public), or on a fanfic archive (public). There were fewer silos of little ponds of fandom: private discords, or blocklisted-twitters, or private Facebook groups or dedicated hashtags. Just because of the old structure of the old internet and the options available to us, we were more likely to meet more different kinds of turtle fans.

Good and bad with that.

Bad:: Fewer privacy and filter options. Less ways to use your phone easily. More "we all *HAVE* to get along here because we are all sharing a public space."

Good:: You met more people! It was inevitable that you would be sharing space with folks into different aspects of the larger TMNT canon. You were gonna meet people of different ages, talents, and experiences. You would get more info (whether you were looking or not) about facets of TMNT that you didn't even know existed. All because we were in the same pot of soup together, and you just got exposed to new things... which, I think was pretty cool, and I kinda miss about our new app-centric internet communities.

3. My point, which may be off-topic of fanon vs canon, but is at least tangentially related (I'll pull it together in part 4). Is that my experience in fandom has been one of multi-generational community. It was a gift I treasured as a young person. It is a gift I feel like I should share with younger fans now that I'm not that young person anymore. There are traditions! And creators who have passed! Websites that have disappeared! And cool turtle facts!

And it would be a crime if all that turtle joy ended with me and other olds.

4. So. If you *are* interested in talking turtle stuff with older people (me or other people) that's awesome! But lemme tell ya... generally speaking... Old-fandom people generally do not give a toot about policing how fans enjoy turtles.

Like...

Ship and let ship.

Don't like, don't read.

Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That's Okay

It's Okay To Not Like Things (Just Don't Be A Dick About it.)

These are great rules for fandom life!!

Because if you know that no one is gonna be mean to you, you feel safer sharing your own cringe AU. You feel more secure sharing your bonkers headcanons. You are happier releasing your OCs, your plot twists, your self inserts. If there's a 'No Bullying' policy built into the fandom, it's easier to be yourself.

5. Kya... for real? "Built into the Fandom?" No way. There's thousands of us. Surely, if this was THE TMNT RULE, we'd all know that?

Haha, *this* is one of those traditions I desperately want to pass down.

WE'RE TMNT FANS, DARLINGS!! MULTI-VERSE IS CANON!! THERE IS NO WRONG WAY TO TURTLE!!

The very first TMNT Comics were drawn and written by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. They founded a publishing company called Mirage Comics in 1984 for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1. They would go on to publish 62 TMNT comics issues in that first series of comic books. All in black and white. All featuring our boys in green.

BUT EASTMAN AND LAIRD DIDN'T WRITE OR DRAW THEM ALL!

In that first set of 62 comics, they had TONS of guest artists and writers! Those creators made up their own turtle designs, their own turtle continuities, their own turtle mini-series and one shots!

YES. There is a 'Mirage Turtles' house style and some famous story arcs. But DOUBLE YES. Even in the original comics, alternate universes and timelines were *part of the fabric of the source material.*

Michelangelo is horribly injured and Splinter prays to animal gods to revive him? Canon.

Mini-alien-vampires kidnap Raphael and a cow while the other boys sleep in one big cartoon bed at the farm? Canon.

Leonardo is ambushed and nearly killed by The Foot? Of course, canon.

But so is the time a leech sucked out all of Raph's mutagen, turned him into a meeping baby turtle, and went on a rampage. And the time Donatello became a shaman. And the adventure when the boys weren't quite as intelligent as humans and couldn't speak, but Splinter commanded them in battle.

All this exists in the source material right next to the stories and characters that became the backbone of so many of the spin off cartoons.

We have had permission from the start. Multi-verse is canon. Anything goes. There's no rules. There's no need to 'measure up' to anyone else's ideas of what the turtles *should be.*

You're free.

It's okay.

Go nuts.

Be kind.

There's room for all of us here.

It's late. So I've gone on too long. But I'm around if y'all like talking turtles and all that.

Hope your winter is treating you kindly.

❤️💙🧡💜

--Kyabetsu

You know, I think a lot of us would benefit from talking with some of the older tmnt fans around here more, its eye opening and they've got some real wisdom. I don't even mean just 2012 folks, talk to people who were and are still into 2003, 87 and the old movies, etc etc. I mean this so for real you learn so so much.

[thebrainrotsreal]

EVIL MARK, EVIL MARK, EVIL MARK!!! I want to be coherent about this season but please picture me foaming at the mouth and running on the walls. S2 being what if Mark's just like his Dad? Insanity. I love this show. Anyways, AU where an Evil!Mark tries to make Our!Mark worse, and Our!Mark tries to make the other better. Something something confronting your idea of the worst version of oneself. Plus, tweaked black and yellow costume because I saw it and immediately went murder hornet lookin' ass and knew I had to draw it. Evil ass Mark. Horrible. I think he should be dragged kicking and screaming into redemption.