#more like media critical

[eldest-of-katts]

I stopped bdubs' episode partway through, so spoilers for the first part of his episode.

I didn't like this task very much, first they didn't know what it was due to regional differences, which was a little cringe on behalf of whoever was assigning the tasks but it was probably a commenter and the review board probably all knew what it was so I get it.

But the nature of the task? You *have* to lose hearts? Or at least try to? It's basically just a task that very transparently tries to speed up the game. It's for drama, not to have fun!

The second bit, with all the cheating? Impulse, that's fine he didn't cheat all that much beside Skizz being biased, but Scar? Why did you do that Scar?

I get that he's a little impulsive, (no pun intended) but there's a difference between thinking something is going to take a while and punching your friend into a tunnel full of mobs and not helping him escape while the entity cramming keeps him from mining his way out.

He kept saying he thought he could mine out, but he's played Minecraft for years now, he knows you can't mine with something else in your space, let alone ninety mobs dealing damage to you while you get pushed by a water stream.

I get that Scar didn't intend for this, and I don't hold a grudge against him at all, I'm just sort of flabbergasted that he decided to do that at all.

Beyond just scar, some of the tasks this time feel mean. Just flat-out mean spirited more than fun.

I liked the rest of the game so far because it was a good balance between risk and reward and fun and danger. The tasks could be funny (the slang words one) or super risky (kill the dragon!) And each player was getting a good balance of each.

But now it feels less fun. I can see what's happening behind the curtain with the tasks, people are getting antsy that this series is going to last too long, and the tasks are changing to reflect that anxiety.

It makes it less fun.

This series was refreshing because, unlike the other death games, people were playing it more like Minigames than a UHC, and they got to chat and play!

Now the tasks look like they're trying to course-correct into being worse again. Kill your friends. Betray them. Cheat. Lie. Steal. Take damage. Lose hearts. Be meaner. Be nastier. Prepare for the worst. Hope for the worst. Be violent. Be cruel. You're not here to have fun, you're here to win! Play like it!

It just- it made me nauseous a little bit. The way we snapped from being chill to being suspicious of everyone.

Reds existing and yellows existing was fine before, the last few episodes the yellow names were cool, kind of funny, a little danger, but still friends!

But as the series goes on, people are being more and more cagey. I don't like it.

I get that this is how the series usually goes, but it doesn't feel like fun drama this time.

It feels like the kid at the playground that changes the rules while you play to make sure they win. Like we thought we were having fun, but because someone else wanted the game to be more dangerous, now it's not as fun.

The other series had cool groups, cool bonds of trust, epic storylines and mild rp to rely on when it started getting darker.

This series, it feels like the switch was too quick. They didn't have time to ease into those alliances and deeper characters (even if it's not 100% roleplay you do need to adopt a separate persona to kill your friends like that).

The tasks got darker too quickly, and now instead of being a complex web of alliances or a fight for survival, it just feels like people are kind of being dicks for no reason.

I don't know if this is going to continue, but if it does I'm going to quit watching I think, I just don't like to see people being mean when there doesn't seem like there's a reason.

[shorthaltsjester]

me when the campaign with characters i’ve praised for being essentially pawns/npcs in the greater world is ending by underserving the main characters by [checks notes] highlighting the role those characters have played as quasi-npcs who are nonetheless still the narrators of their destinies within the limits of a world beyond their control

[wardensantoineandevka]

I do have to admit that, like, all of the many posts trying to frame C3 as a radical work speaking truth to power and challenging status quo with direct references to queer theory and leftist political critiques come across to me as having the same energy as fandom criticizing Steven Universe and She-Ra through a postcolonial lens

[arcanegifs]

God, I'm (yet again) exhausted. What a show. I will say, flaws and all, it's still one of the best animated series I've watched. Ever. No, I don't think it deserves the vitriol it's getting on social media.

I have a LOT of emotions right now. I don't think I'm even thinking straight after watching through everything once. It definitely needs to be re-watched multiple times. No, I'm not offering any kind of insights or anything like that. I think I'm just too emotional seeing my favorite show end.

I really wanna thank the writers, directors, artists, animators, producers, and everyone else who worked on this show for this work of art. It was beautiful, and it's why I love making gifs of this show.

And just because this show has ended, doesn't mean I'll stop making things. There's two whole seasons to work with now. I hope I can have enough free time to post regularly. I still need to make some 8k wallpapers and a ton of gifs haha.

I'll take a break and sleep for now. I'll see what I can make when I wake up tomorrow. I have so many things I want to do, but I also feel like crap and I too, have a life LMAO.

Oh, and I'm still looking forward to the next stories that they tell us! Runeterra truly has amazing lore. Excited to see what's next!

Thank you for all the likes, reblogs, and support you guys give to my lil sideblog! I appreciate you guys so much <3

[countlessofvoids]

"Funny" how HTTYD went from a series where disability was an important part of the story and characters, to ignoring it or just being ableist.

Especially in THW; where Toothless can easily fly without Hiccup and what was symbolism of their relationship being thrown away, to completly ignoring the fact there are dragons with disabilities that they could never survive in The Hidden World without any human help, to the official artbook straight up calling Grimmel a "psychopath".

[littlefankingdom]

Tumblr already showed me twice a post where OP implies that Bruce made the choice to not help Jaybin when he was attacked by an angry mob in Legends, so I had to check, and look at that, they were lying.

Context: the general population has been turned against superheroes.

An angry mob does attack Robin, and what is Batman's reaction? To come to the rescue! He even immediately calls him "son", switching to an endearing term to reassure him. However, Batman is hit in the eyes with a bottle of perfume and blinded, as his attention was on his boy. Gordon tries to get him to leave, but he refuses because he can't leave his boy behind, and when Gordon tells him that his men will take care of Robin, Batman is like "I don't trust your men with my son". Batman is forced out of here, he is so pissef, and he is called "arrogant" by the cops there.

This man trusts ONE cop, and it's Jim Gordon, that's it. And people dare to tell me Bruce isn't an acab believer. He grew up in Gotham and his parents were murdered when he was 8, of course he believes in acab. That's why he was so against his son becoming one.

Anyway, later on, Jason is in the hospital (Bruce was right, Gordon's men didn't do shit), and Bruce is pissed at the situation. However, Jason feels guilty and ashamed, and Bruce immediately goes to comfort him, reminding him he isn't at fault for getting beat up, that Bruce is proud of him and that he is a great Robin. And when Jason compares himself to Dick, Bruce stops that too, bringing up that Dick also had less glorious moments like this. And again, Bruce switches to "son" and "Jay", which convey affection in the goal of comforting his boy.

In the end, Bruce leaves his son safe at the hospital, resolved to not obey the president and get to the bottom of this. Later, Jason decides he cannot stay there and must help, even if it kills him. And people dare say that he wasn't reckless.

Anyway, the other thing about this, apart from Bruce didn't walk away WILLINGLY from Jason being attacked by an angry mob, is that as awful this is, the writers never intended this to be a traumatic experience for Jason. Of course, it would be normally, but it's just a plot point here to get Robin away from Batman while he works with the other heroes. Damn, there isn't even a follow-up to Jason leaving the hospital, he doesn't show up in the next issues to help.

Sometimes, especially with older stories, comics' events don't matter as much as you think they do. If you want to re-imagine them as impacting for the characters, that's your choice, but let's not act as if they were intended to be. Because I saw that moment being used as a comparison to Under The Red Hood, to be like "see Bruce keeps abandoning Jason", and like, calm down with the shortcuts. Because you are making that up, on your own, with what was given to you by different writers over the decades that didn't communicate with each others or agree on the characters.

[vvitchllng]

Imogen Temult you will live in my brain forever what if You were born to parents who loved you but not enough and you grew up in a town that held you at arms length for the power you were cursed born with so you clutched at that power instead but it never filled you just made you ache with the emptiness they left you with.

And then you meet a woman just like you who’s been so lonely and empty and cold for so so long and you hold her hand and think maybe you’re enough for each other maybe this is what you’ve been searching for all along and then there’s a whole group of people who you grow to love and who love you but at the same time there’s still that storm inside you, a howling raging emptiness that only seems to grow as you get stronger and it’s calling you. It holds your mother in its grasp as bait and you know it’s a trap but you’ve been starving for her love all your life so you go to her over and over again, can’t help yourself from trying to gorge on the crumbs of affection she gives despite the warnings from your friends.

It works and you save her but now you’re confronted with that starving entity that lives inside you birthed you cursed you is you and it’s threatening your friends while still calling to you like it’s home so you take it into you. And at first its hunger is so much stronger than yours and you’re consumed instead but then. Well. You’re alone in a void with the remnants of a god and your friends are in danger and you’re powerless but maybe you don’t have to be. You’re a predator too as you consume the remnants of a god and tilt your head at the next one. You’re a predator too you think as you stare up at the gargantuan form of the hunger that raised you and claim it for your own, take it into you like maybe this will finally satisfy you.

Now you’re stumbling out from the battles that nearly killed you coming face to face with the people who are supposed to be on your side (you’re supposed to be One Of Them why can they never See That ) and they’re afraid of you. They look at you and see something Wrong in you but this time you’re strong enough. This time they have to listen to you because this time you’re finally full of enough power to make them understand.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

idk if i'm the only one who has noticed this, but i feel like a lot of movies and shows nowadays are, for the lack of a better word, “too cool for apologies”.

meaning that any time a character makes a mistake or hurts someone, they don't really apologize. they either do one good thing and everything is a-okay, or in slightly better cases, they make some effort to better themselves.

it's gotten to the point where i've genuinely been taken aback by apologies in movies, especially ones that aren't just “i'm sorry” “it's okay”. actual apologies that address the person's behavior, promise to do better and doesn't expect immediate forgiveness in return are so rare in media.

now i'm usually not a fan of telling instead of showing, but this is an exception for me. i do think that an apology is warranted along with a change of behaviour, especially in cases of more serious mistakes.

of course, a change of behaviour is more important than the apology but that doesn't mean you can just skip the apology entirely.

it takes a lot of courage to admit that you have made a mistake, especially for characters whose fatal flaw is their hubris or their stubbornness. a good apology can make for some really great character development, as well as provide some closure for both the characters as well as the audience.

idk it's just weird when two characters don't discuss the shit that went down between them at all and simply start working together again out of the blue. it never sits well with me, it always feels like the story is incomplete.

[ganondoodle]

got this reblog on one of my posts were i talked about being anxious about the future of the zelda series after totk and-

i even went back and unblocked them just to check my own post and check twice what they meant exactly- but i still dont know how they got to these conclusions

i never said i 'want a good uwu ganondorf' (bc that would mean hes aligned with hyrule bc thats how goodness works!!!!11!1!!!), i also dont think of any of the zeldas as 'whores' (seriously, where did that come from?? neither me nor the addition of someone agreeing with me said anything like that??? did they think bc the addition called tloz misogynistic means we think zelda is a whore????? huh???)

its also funny how they say they want zelda to stay a simple fairytale rather than have 'people like me' bc .. one point i talked about in the og post was how the evil arab thing VS good white people media likes to do so much is so normalized here that its simply seen as a simple harmless fairytale trope instead of a big underlying issue in general media and the writers might not even realize it (which is worse) bc the most 'generic' appeal is to people who dont think of it as a problem in the first place, because it is so normalized

(huh, i wonder about what kind of person that part was about .. hmmmm)

(ALSO funny they mention princess hilda as nuanced villain ... like ... wow they are so nuanced about purple haired people!!- like guess why we want a nuanced/less badly/less flat written ganondorf and what he, in particular, has not in common with other villains! its not his hair color! .... or was that point supposed to mean .. look we have one female character that is a villain, its not misogynistic! idk honestly)

(and the classic, "you just call it this/dont like it bc its not what you wanted !!!!!!!2!"1!112!!")

also funny how its 'never gonna be progressive enough' like asking for the franchise to maybe put a little more thought and nuance into their white divine right vs evil desert man simulator instead of making it worse is already asking too much

(i dont know what the last point has to do with anything??)

(also yes totk is racist, like most if not all of the franchise and a alot of other media as well, shocker- you can still like it though, i and plenty of other people are still fans of it, we just wish they did a little more with their stuff and maybe not make the racism problem WORSE)

(also yes the hyrule monarchy is also evil :))) )

(and also not so secretly so either :)) )

[fossilizedhysterics]

guess who finished tlok tonight and immediately had this come to him in a vision!!!!

[sapphic-boyfriend]

i rly wish i gave a fuck abt timebomb in S2 but i just don’t. that ship is so boring and uninteresting to me, and ep. 7 literally did absolutely nothing for me.

the entire time, i was just like “… so when is ekko going to go back to the main universe so we can actually continue the story instead of wasting it on this filler that doesn’t matter?” lmao. 😭

[starryalpacasstuff]

Fire (1996): A Mostly Spoiler Free Pitch Because You Should Watch It Immediately

It's time for "An Indian QL bulldozed past my expectations and I am reeling in awe", Part Two!

A few days ago, @neuroticbookworm told me about Fire, an old lesbian Indian movie she'd been wanting to watch. Me being me, I promptly tracked it down and settled in to watch it.

Very loosely based on the 1942 short story Lihaaf, the movie follows Sita, a newly wed bride who is settling in with her in-laws, which is how she meets Radha, who is married to her husband's brother. Both in unhappy marriages, they find solace and company with each other, quickly falling in love. Length: 1 Hour 40 Minutes TWs: Homophobia, C-word mentioned once, some depictions of domestic violence Release: 1996

The is almost entirely in English, and while one generally expects Bollywood movies to be in Hinglish, it's definitely a conscious choice here, which does make me wonder if the movie was supposed to be promoted to a greater international audience. You can find it here on Youtube, most of the (very few) Hindi dialogues have hard subtitles. I think it's also available on Prime? It wasn't available in India though, which is odd, but I didn't bother investigating. Let me know if anyone can figure anything out about this!

Going into this movie, I expected a melodramatic, emotional movie with a bittersweet tone. I did not expect a biting, incredibly engaging movie with excellent satire, symbolism, discussions of chastity culture, and an incredibly sweet, beautifully written romance. And I was certainly not prepared for how incredibly horny this movie is??? Both in subtle tension and overt sex scenes. There's also partial nudity, which again, completely unexpected. If you're going taboo, go taboo all the way I suppose. It's also very well directed, and while I'm not nearly as good at identifying details like that as some of the people on here, I did pick up on some colour coding and interesting framing. It's just overall packed with little details that I think a lot of us would have a field day analysing.

Honestly, I could talk about the cultural nuances in this movie for hours. Contrary to my assumption about the reasoning behind making the movie fully in English, the movie seems to rely on the viewer's understanding of North Indian customs to deliver a lot of it's messages, particularly with its satire, more on that below. While I don't think it's necessary to enjoy the movie, it definitely does add some meat to the story. Then again, I'm a biased party, so it'll be hard to determine just how many messages may be lost to someone from outside of India without someone to compare notes with (this is me shamelessly trying to get you to watch the movie). Honestly, I'd be 100% down to write a more detailed, spoiler-including post that goes into the implicit nuances if people are interested.

There's two main selling points for the movie; the incredible way it shuts down purity and chastity ideology and the absolutely adorable relationship between Radha and Sita. The movie is set on ruthlessly tearing down and emphasizing the ridiculousness of purity culture. A lot of the messaging is indirect and uses metaphors, but there's also several explicit scenes addressing the issue. It's one of the main themes of the movie and I'm almost convinced the real reason it's titled 'Fire' is the sheer number of burns it dishes out on this subject. The romance portion of this movie is one of the thing's that completely defied my expectations. It wasn't sad and dramatic, it was heartfelt and silly and adorable. There's several scenes of the two subtly flirting, laughing together and just being lowkey in love. But that's not to say there's no emotional depth—they're also there for each other and are quite vulnerable with each other.

The movie used a lot of metaphors, but my favourites were the almost satirical representation of mythological stories. In a religion as diverse as Hinduism, every holiday has two dozen stories behind it and each story has two dozen versions, so it's to be expected that you'll find a number of problematic or otherwise kind of ridiculous stories in the mix. The stories were told completely seriously, but the context of the movie highlights their absurd facets in a truly brilliant way. I'm not going to give too much away, but I will say, it was a delight to watch the juxtaposition of the myths and the storyline of the movie, particularly it's ties to the purity culture discussion. You'll understand when you watch it. I'm not turning this into a Hindu mythology lesson (yet) but one interesting tidbit is that Radha and Sita are both names of mythological figures; namely the partners of two of the most worshipped avatars of the god Vishnu: Krishna and Rama respectively. And I was overjoyed to find that their names do have relevance to the metaphors in the story, particularly Sita's.

When the movie was first released, there were massive protests against it, I'm talking hundreds of people storming into theatres to destroy them and drive away audiences. I don't know what to say here beyond this, but what I will say is that I think Fire is an amazing movie that absolutely does not deserve to be lost to the sands of time. I hope you give it a shot, and if you do, tag me in any posts you make about it!

Tagging people who seemed interested in recs from my last post, let me know if you'd rather I not tag you!

@lurkingshan @impala124 @bengiyo @letgomaggie @winnysatang

@watertightvines @nutcasewithaknife @blorbingqls @twig-tea

@waitmyturtles @cryingatships @benkaben @usertoxicyaoi

@befuddledcinnamonroll @flyingrosebeetle

[thr0wnawayy]

Has anyone else noticed this?

Does anyone ever think about how they watered down the sound effects during the flashbacks to Touya's past, in order to make it seem like the abuse the Himura's suffered wasn't as severe as it actually was?

When you compare Shoto's flashback and the intensity of the strike that Rei was hit with + the sound of her falling to the floor and compare it to when Enji is abusing her because he can't be bothered to interact with anyone other than his living weapon Shoto.

You realize how downplayed everything is. The SFX are softer, the motions less dramatic and even entire scenes are cut out (Rei is never shown hitting the floor in the retconned (falsified) version of events)

All this in an attempt to wash the severity of Enji's abuse. Honestly it's kind of disgusting.

[funhouse-mirror-barbie]

Alright I gotta talk about this one too.

I already went over the changes made from the storyboards of Octavia’s song, I Will Be Okay, to the show proper. Well, there were also storyboards of Octavia’s confrontation with Stolas at the palace.

I made the mistake of not crediting the storyboard artist in my first post—the sequence I’ll be taking about was boarded by Sophia Magallanes Morales, a phenomenal artist who also did I Will Be Okay’s storyboards.

I wanted to talk about Sophia’s storyboards for when Octavia goes no contact with Stolas because they are, in my opinion, leagues better than what was in the actual episode. I think a LOT was lost from the decision to cut parts of her storyboards, and to go over it, because I really think it’s shame.

We can actually see this change in quality within the first few seconds of the final scene in the show as opposed to the boards:

Right after the fight, Stolas runs to Via. He quickly catches up to her as she walks away, and tells her how proud he is of her and pulls her into a hug. We can tell Stolas is concerned about her and eager to get back in touch.

Now let’s look at Sophia’s boards (comparison continues below)

This scene has so, so much more tension and emotional weight to it. We see exactly how desperate Stolas is to get in contact with Octavia, how in this moment he needs to catch up with her, how urgently he needs to let her know how proud he is and how much he loves her.

He runs so fast that he almost stumbles and falls, so fast that once he does finally catch up to her he has to stop for a moment to catch his breath.

And then he pulls her into a tight hug and we actually get to see his joy at reconnecting with her. We see how proud he is of her. He’s so proud that he has a hard time expressing it first, staring with “I—“ and then just starts over telling her how brave she’s been.

These boards also give us Octavia’s reactions. We see her after the fight staring solemnly in her father’s direction, before she slowly turns away. She doesn’t react to Stolas calling out to her, ignoring him. Once Stolas finally catches her though, she turns back to him slowly, and we can see in her reaction that she is definitely dealing with a lot of feelings.

Sophia is excellent at conveying complex emotions through characters expressions. To me, Octavia expression shows her hurt at Stolas’ neglect, her disbelief that he actually came after her, her confusion as to why he suddenly acting like he cares about her now, her fear that he’ll lie to her again. I think it shows us SO MUCH about what she’s feeling in just a few frames, and that is amazing.

Compared to the final episode, I get so much more information about what Stolas and Octavia are feeling in this moment! The boards show their perspectives on what’s just happened, it shows their current states of mind given the events of the episode!

The direction and movement of the boards are also fantastic, I can tell that Octavia feels forlorn and is tired and done with waiting for Stolas to care about her. I can tell that Stolas is prioritizing Octavia above all else in this moment, that he may regret how long it’s taken him to get to her, how overjoyed and relieved he is to hug her again.

Of course these are only MY interpretations, but regardless there is so much more expression and emotional tension in the boards, as opposed to the final episode where Stolas catches up to Octavia quickly and immediately hugs her while saying he’s proud of her.

In both versions this scene is only a few seconds, but the boards just have so much more depth and in my opinion make for a much, much more impactful scene.

I have NO idea why they chose to cut these storyboards so the way they did. The only reasons that make sense to me would be due to time and budget, and if so it really sucks that we had to lose such a powerful scene.

I think I’ll be making more posts comparing this scene’s storyboards to the final episode because Spindlehorse cut so much of Sophia’s boards, and it not only makes me sad, but also makes me wonder what other emotionally engaging Helluva Boss scenes we’ve lost.

It’s just a real shame.

Again, I’m not saying the final animated episode looks bad. The animation is still stellar! The animators did a great job! I just think it’s a waste to have cut so much out of these scenes.

[lynxalon]

i've seen a fair bit of... pessimism about dorym lately, esp with the ep107, for example wondering if dorian's opposing views on the gods making orym fall out of love, and i have to say. i very highly doubt it, ur fr talking about the man who has held on to will for so long, holding onto will's family and affectionately calling this *his* family too because that didn't stop when will died. i dont think falling out of love is an option or even a thought to orym.

that said, we know that orym has contingencies for if anyone in bells hells crosses the line into being a version of themselves they would despise, for anyone who jeopardizes their mission. his mission. i think, for the first time since knowing dorian, orym finally has a contingency for him. the longer dorian is back, the more orym sees how scarred he is by what's happened (understandable so) and knows that dorian is with bells hells all the way. but if he isn't...

[scarletfasinera]

Like what's funny is that none of the people criticizing the categorization of Stardew/AC/other “cozy” games are saying that those games are Evil and Bad and you should Stop Playing Them, in fact many of the people commenting on it do actually Like those games, they're just critiquing how the entire concept that makes these games work is that they hinge on the ideology of imperialist and colonist “cottagecore”-type ideals in order to maintain that “coziness” or “wholesomeness.” Which is an entirely valid criticism to make, and is just a true statement to make about the marketing of those games.

It isn't even discourse. They're not saying to boycott the games or anything. It's saying "You can play these games and that doesn't make you a bad person, it doesn't even make the creator a bad person, but you should examine the biases you have that cause you to think this way, and consider that this type of marketing IS insidious to those of us who are directly affected by the very same 'marketing' (propaganda) that lead to the colonization of our homes."

But over and over again people will read posts about this, sometimes posts in which "no I'm not 'canceling' the game & I'm not saying you're a bad person & I'm not just discoursing; I am just pointing out a Fact because I want people to actually Think about it" is stated EXPLICITLY, and I will still see people responding or vaguing about it like "oh people are trying to cancel Stardew Valley & Animal Crossing now!" or "Are you saying I'm a bad person for playing those games? Are those games bad now???" like the point just completely going over their head despite it being right in front of them. And it's like please read posts entirely before commenting, and stop projecting your personal worldviews and thought processes and values onto other people.

Also remember that people on this website exist who do not live in North America or Europe, because we are actually not the center of the world and the only people on tumblr. People outside of the imperial core who are more directly affected by these things and are more likely to notice them BECAUSE of their own life experiences are active on tumblr and make posts you see every day, and they do not have the exact same worldview that you do. So you just really need to stop assuming things and putting words in people's mouths, and just take what they say in better faith without leaping to extremes and lecturing them.