#meg critical

[laf-outloud]

https://www.cowboysindians.com/2022/09/live-from-atx-television-festival-katherine-mcnamara/

I know you posted and talked about this one today, but I was just reading it again and I just love hearing everyone involved with the show talk about it. They are so invested and speak so intelligently. I know Kat is a very smart and intellectual individual but it always really shows in her interviews. She seems to understand the character and the story so well and can speak about all of it and give us info without giving too much away. It just always makes the contrast with TW that much more stark. Not to drag Meg, but unfortunately to make comparisons she's the female lead of TW and Kat is the female lead of WIndy, and the way the speak in interviews could not be more different. The whole TW cast, they have zero clue how to talk about their characters or the show in general.... STILL. After filming however many eps they've done you'd think they'd at least have a basic grasp on the content. Every single interview I've read about TW is the exact same - Dean, Jensen, so dark, we have so much FUN!!, Jensen, supernatural love story/supernatural meet cute, scary and dark, the fans love it, Jensen, dark, cool lens, Jensen some more, throw in an Elta reference for good measure. Rinse. Repeat. I actually learn something new about WIndy with every article, whether it's about the characters, the plot, the time it takes place in general, literal actual facts and history about that time and the people who lived it, the cast interactions, etc. It's absolute day and night.

As much as I would like to compare the two, I'm not sure that's fair to Meg. Kat is extremely smart! She mentioned on the Inside of You podcast that she graduated from high school by age 14 (she was home-schooled), and graduated college by 17. She also wants to go back to Johns Hopkins and finish her Masters in Developmental Economics that she'd been working on.

Meg (and the whole TW cast) certainly have a lot of learning to do when it comes to talking with the press. Even if they're not allowed to talk about certain aspects of the show, they could certainly word their answers differently and offer insights into their character's motivations, interactions with other cast members, etc. There is so much that can be said without spoiling the show.

Regardless, I'm just glad to be a part of the Walker/WIndy fandom! It's fun, and engaging, and now I'm off to grab some more WIndy cast content!

[ariadne-mouse]

Grog would be fascinated by Essek floating.

And immediately try to fuck with it.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

Fjord, as the Nein head toward Aeor: Stop panicking, I am certain that we WILL make it out of this. We have the skill to succeed here. That's why we're the ones doing this.

Chetney, as the Hells head toward Ruidus: To be honest, it is my opinion that we are VERY expendable. It's our real advantage here. That's why we're the ones doing this.

[re-bee-key]

Critics dont like Meg 2: The Trench because they have no fucking whimsy

Can't a movie just be fun anymore? Cant you just sit and enjoy the action hero being silly and fighting sharks and evil corporations to save the planet? Isnt fun to watch a giant octopus grab people? Or sharks go nom nom? Dont you want to watch dinosaurs fight and then eat a billionaire?

Come on. Find your fucking whimsy and enjoy silly shark movie

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

Helluva Boss's Handling Of Stella and Stolas's Relationship Is Equivalent Of Family Guy's "Screams of Silence: Story of Brenda Q"

I think one of the most criticized elements of Helluva Boss is how the series handles Stolas and Stella's relationship. We see in the Circus that it's been abusive since they have been married and Stolas has been covering up the more unpleasant parts from his daughter. It has been praised by fans for showing male domestic violence, but in my opinion it's very hamfisted. It doesn't feel like it's domestic violence to show how accurate and disturbing it is. More like it's being used as an excuse to justify why Stolas belongs with Blitzo and how he was right to cheat on her. Their relationship reminds me of another badly execution of how to address domestic abuse is Family Guy's "Screams Of Silence: Story Of Brenda Q".

It first came out in 2011 where it was met with divisive reviews mostly because of the fact that it was going to handle domestic abuse seriously rather than as a joke. However, critics of the episode felt it was tone deaf due to how it was going along with the shift especially the episode before that "Seashell Seahorse Party" was encouraged to stay in an abusive relationship for her own family's sake and Brenda and Jeff's first depiction was portrayed as dark comedy like other situations before. There was also the fact that Jeff and Brenda's written as so over the top that you can't take it seriously and that they are very flat characters. Also we never see why Brenda stays with him or drew him to him in the first place. Or maybe even say he's threatened to kill her or even is financially dependent on him since he's a unemployed bum. In other words, they just exist to sell a message and not actually be interesting on their own.

The same thing can be said of Stella and Stolas' relationship since "Circus" there is nothing to her character except Stolas's bitchy ex wife. She never interacts with her daughter and everything we hear about them is through second hand accounts but never anything about how they both feel about each other. In other words, Stella feels like a male Jeff who is just defined by the fact that she's an abusive asshole who lives to torment Stolas and she even admits it. She's not even smart as shown in "Western Energy" she's shown to be instructed by her older brother in order to think anything through. As a result, we see less of a hated tormentor and more like a poorly executed hate sink made with tons of badly written fanfiction tropes found in yaoi fanfiction.

Most of all is the shows' hypocrisy in depictions of abuse. Both state that abuse is not funny, but then in another episode treat another character physically abusing someone as comedy. Again Family Guy's constant abuse of Meg made the episode hypocritical when you keep in mind the narrative tries to depict it as right she goes back to being a punching bag. The same thing with Helluva Boss it tries to depict Stella as despicable for abusing Stolas but allows Loona to do the same thing to her father who saved her from being aged out of the system and thrown on the streets. Again when you are trying to do comedy with serious moments don't get things muddled when it comes to the latter moments because then things can get confused.

[essektheylyss]

I am laughing imagining the Empire sibs back in the Empire sitting straight up like "THAT BASTARD IS UP TO SOMETHING" while their Xhorhasian partners don't even look up from what they're doing like "Of course he is, dear, come to bed please."

[perseas-wellyboots]

People are like Rick Riordan is such a great author who's not afraid to change status quo and ignore major flaws in his stories like JK Rowling and I'm like are you sure?

That sentiment might have worked if PJO was the only series in Riordanverse but with the addition of HOO and ToA it rings entirely false.

In PJO the major problem that needed to be tackled storytelling wise was Gods not claiming their children and their neglectful nature along with rise of Kronos.

Both those issues were ignored by Zeus and then in the end when they swore an oath on Styx, we assumed that it will be better.

However straight into HOO series from The Lost Hero, we see that Zeus did not change at all and instead made a bigger mess of events by closing Olympus and forbidding Gods from leaving Olympus. So we learn that not only does he ignores a problem that could potentially end the Gods twice???? but he's actively part of the problem.

The Gods could be better as a whole if they had someone competent in charge.

The Trials of Apollo series however changes the status quo entirely, the previous both series were from POV of demigods, so they and along with them we could only assume how Gods work and that the Gods neglecting demigods is a choice by them. But in ToA, Zeus goes from zero to hundred, not only is he a incompetent paranoid leader but he's also a tyrant and abuser. He abuses all his children and any disrespect results in huge punishment.

The Gods like a human family are stuck in a cycle of abuse but unlike in human family their abuser would not just die naturally one day. He is with them forever.

Apollo even identifies himself with Meg and thinks Zeus as a Beast for himself and yet no resolution is found at the end of the series and we just go on.

The Sun and the Star and The Chalice of Gods only continues the status quo.

True change of status quo and revolution would be Zeus being overthrown. In the root of both wars the major issue that causes high casualties is Zeus's carelessness.

I would love a book from Apollo's POV where he recruits his siblings and plans a revolution to overthrow Zeus because the immortal and mortal world and demigods, all of them would benefit being free of him.

TL;DR: Most of RR's writing has very similar problems as JKR's writing and even though I enjoy the PJO series more than HP series, I think RR fans should stop preaching holier than thou attitude.

JKR is problematic outside of her poor writing in HP (racism transphobia) and so is rick (with his neutral stance on genocide in palestine and playing both sides card, using this to promote his book, his islamophobic writing and not to forget how badly piper was wrote in TLH and she did not get much better until ToA)

[scoobydoodean]

I want to point out something in 1.16 “Shadow” regarding Dean’s resourcefulness and the derision with which his contributions are treated within the writing. In “Shadow”, multiple shots are taken at Dean’s methods of earning money and working cases as well as his intelligence level.

It starts with another small squabble about money that clearly frames Dean as still, at this point, the sole person supporting him and Sam financially through credit card scams, gambling, and hustling pool.

Yet again we have a jab at the ways Dean earns money. I wouldn’t make a big deal about this one at all if not for the outside context—the three previous episodes where Sam (while happy to benefit from Dean’s ill-gotten gains and provide no financial support to their two-man team) criticizes or is dismissive toward the work involved in how Dean earns money for them (1.01, 1.05, 1.08). Dean deserving to have his contributions dismissed is explicit in the text, but Sam's failure to actually assist with finances is implicit.

Next, it's how Dean gets information. He flirts with a cop and a bartender:

In the case of the cop, he gets information that is valuable to the case—unreleased details. In the case of the bartender, he doesn't, but he learns there's nothing to learn. But because Dean was also having fun, his actions are reduced down to him thinking with his dick, when he is actually intentionally using charm and even (see below) offering sexual favors in exchange for information:

Additionally, Sam (despite having seen Dean research just fine on his own multiple times) questions how Dean was able to do research on his own, which—you do you, Kripke, I guess? But we get "Haha name the last book you read" in a similar vein to 1.03 "Dead In the Water" (and just as Sam demands that Dean name one child he knows and Dean can't but it means nothing because Dean actually does like kids, Dean also does read—as established multiple times throughout the series.)

But also—if Dean called Caleb, why does that matter? Is talking to people to get the information you need, somehow inferior to finding some old tome and finding it in there? No. But it's treated that way in the framing of the episode. Weirdly like Dean took a shortcut or something and that's... "bad"...? When a shortcut in this context literally just means you're being efficient and resourceful and yeah—smart.

Then Meg jabs at Dean's intelligence as well:

What's also interesting, is that this is the first (I believe—I don't think I missed one at least) example of Dean's eye for visual patterns within the series.

So Dean, in this episode

Finances the suits Sam wanted to buy so they could sneak into the victim's apartment

Gets valuable information from a cop twice by charming her

Is able to recognize a symbol on the floor from blood spatter and is able to trace that symbol back to discover the monster they are dealing with using his hunting connections.

And all of this is treated in a dismissive way within the writing—like Dean's contributions don't matter or are earned in some way that causes them to deserve to be dismissed and even used as points against him. What's more, Dean doesn't fight back much. He leans into the very thinly-veiled suggestions of him just being dumb and horny and covers with jokes and a light jab about how the only thing valuable EITHER of them have gotten at the bar is the bartender's number (note that this is after he gets secret information from the cop and finds the symbol on the floor, which he could have pointed out but doesn't). He also leans into other narratives about himself suggested by Meg in the episode, but that's a separate post.

[elfdragon12]

The more I think about Megatron's involvement in "The One Where They Go To Earth", the more confused I am.

Yes, he spent time on Earth. However, you can't convince me that he spent any effort into gaining an actual understanding of human culture or biology beyond how to destroy cities and killing organics not even a fraction of his mass. There's no way he understood Earth culture anymore than Skids, Bluestreak (especially him), Rung, Cyclonus, or Tailgate. So why was he watching them fail to discuss Earth culture in exasperation with Rodimus?

Also, why did his holomatter avatar bleed? I get the idea of avatars getting damaged, but getting cut and bleeding like an actual human? (For that matter, how did the others sit down and actually *eat* takeout?) Honestly, it feels to me like a cheap way to say that Megatron has ~*~changed~*~ with the "I said fragile, not weak" bit despite the audience never seeing him have an actual interaction with a human in this series to challenge his view.

Really, why did he go at all? He doesn't understand Earth more than anyone else and it's not like he even really knew Swerve outside of the bar.

I guess to show he's changed... Without ever actually showing him changing.

[laf-outloud]

Tw can’t even tell if it’s “the real story of John & Mary” or “if Dean could go back and change things, what would that look like?” All will be revealed in ep 13. So, wait until that airs, get a semblance of what the show is actually about, and decide if you want to binge or not from there? For me, it’s a no, though.

No one knows what TW is really about. They've tried to promote the love story, but unless the two leads suddenly got their masters in Chemistry between the pilot and the 2nd episode, that love story is in trouble. But wait, if that doesn't get viewers, maybe their back-up promotion of Dean and what his presence could mean for Sam, will get people to watch. They're finally starting to get the clue that any SPN universe without Sam is DOA, but it's too little, too late.

[harryandmeghansussex]

One day people will be willing to acknowledge the style transformation a certain someone had after a certain someone else was brought into their World, and one day people will be willing to see how god damn awful it is to have seen the same things used as weapons to attack one, while used to praise and celebrate the other. It's not about one person "owning" something or who did it first, it's the patterns that keep appearing and that for one it equals criticism and one it is lauded as wonderful.

Some already see this, some are beginning to, and some never will...

[beaconfeels]

My Top Ten Movies (that I can think of at this moment)

The delightful @kikiroo tagged me in this. Just gonna go with the first ten movies I can think of off the top of my head that I’ve seen a minimum of four times (probably many more for some of them. I’m a big rewatcher)

1. Night at the Museum

2. Emma (2020)

3. Knives Out

4. You’ve Got Mail

5. The Fast and the Furious

6. Outbreak

7. Jurassic Park

8. While You Were Sleeping

9. Timeline

10. That Darn Cat (1965)

No pressure tags to @derpylittlenico @mirrorthoughts @nickcharleswife @stilesdemonbaby @violetfairydust @holyangelstudentuniverse @nogitzune

[tolerateit]

girl help the spreadsheet (halseys version) just dropped 😵‍💫

[essektheylyss]

It took me like two hours to process that Caleb's description of dunamis actually was somewhat new information and then go back to grab the transcription because, uh, both "form of magic that exists between the fabric of all of forces of power" and "one of the oldest and most fundamental forces" are far more confidently firm descriptions than we ever got in campaign 2.

Was I actually roughly correct about what dunamis was??? HELLO???

VINDICATION?!?!

[captainofthetidesbreath]

will say, now that it's over, the very real and legitimate anger about the results of many of polls in the wizard tournament is like... so many people really need to stop seeing fandom as something to be won and need to stop acting like not winning a poll is the character being failed or a massive grievance or an attack on the character.

it's a silly poll that is styled after WWE (wrestling) tournaments and ultimately means nothing beyond fun and games. it has says nothing about the characters in the end. this was a game we were all playing to let people make dumbass speeches and come up with silly reasons to vote. these polls have no objective truth.

like, some people are even directly stomping their feet into Aabria's activity feed in their reblogs about how dumb everyone else is as if covertly trying to make it up to her for the fandom's "idiocy". it's all a game! Aabria was prepared to concede to Veth for comedy (and big naturals) and directly reminded people the trash-talking is a bit because this is a wrestling joke we're working with. it's wild people have not recognized that Aabria, or OP, or myself, or many others writing silly grandiose speeches were doing a bit. the tournament's all a huge bit, but people didn't notice (despite literal jokes about Veth's boobs IN the final bracket) and took the game so seriously.

the tournament's been a really positive experience, but also so many people just... were plain mean and angry and bitter (and still are) because they take these dumb polls so seriously and are outright attacking others for literally having other preferences. like, maybe calm down and stop calling other people idiots and comparing this to Brexit and getting legitimately angry and accusing others of not being real fans and assuming that people didn't vote for your preferred character because they're stupid and uncultured.

generally, stop treating fandom as something to win.