#my tv review of

[poisondartlesbian]

[wormsdyke]

hey have you guys heard of that movie. yeah the obliterating masterpiece on trans identity

[lgbtpopcult]

Best WLW TV of 2023

The last of us

Harley Quinn the animated series

Lucky My Love

NCIS Hawaii

wtFock

Special ops lioness

The Morning Show

Station 19

Everything now

Love Senior

Las Pelotaris 1926

Fall of the house of Usher

Stupid Wife

Wheel of Time

XO Kitty

Yellowjackets

The Owl House

4 Estrellas

Deadloch

Disenchantment

[kcrabb88]

I feel like we really lost something when we started looking at writing as a reader-centric product meant to appeal to the desires of a specific audience rather than a writer-centric approach of someone writes whatever particular thing particular compels them/whatever weird thing the demons in their head want to talk about, and people out there who are also compelled, and/or relate, find that writing. A lot of discussions of writing really center around what readers want rather than a writer's exploration. Sometimes as a reader I don't know what I want. I click on a fic or pick up a book I'm not sure about but that looks interesting, and I love it. Reading what I expect to get is it's own joy, but we always need to expand our horizons and not get mad at creators for not always writing what we want/expect.

[spooksalotnoel]

The geek squad, and why MBAV had so much potential

For most of you this show hasn't been in your mind since you were 10-12. But for the ones who have rewatched this show recently, you will totally understand. I couldn't count on my fingers how many times I've seen this show. When I first watched this show I didn't even know there was a movie. Typically coming into shows like this, without context of the movie the show doesn't make sense. In this case, I watched the show 5 times before noticing the movie, yes, the added information of the movie really ties into the show, but it's still watchable without it. My Babysitter's a Vampire had so much potential it actually makes me sad. As far as rewatching it recently, that final episode is brutal without closure. I don't think I'd be able to watch a reboot if that was even a possibility. The original cast has such great chemistry and on top of that there's just the 2000's flare to it.

It sucks to see one of my favorite shows growing up lose everything. The fandom is also so extremely small due to its cancellation. But here's everything this show did right.

Casting, I think every actor incapsulates their characters greatly! They play their roles as 14–15-year-olds great and I think they display the awkward teen-age phase well. Every character is pretty likeable.

Soundtrack, the music directors/music compositors on this show put a lot of detail into their work. And mostly all of the songs were made exactly for this show.

Setting/environment, having the setting the way it is makes the show have such an amazing environment!

Overall, it's a bummer to see a show like this taken for granted. And it's also been taken off of Netflix, so I am especially hurt. I really hope there are still people who enjoy this show!

[georgeharrisonsmiling]

[soupy-sez]

Interview With The Vampire, S01E01

[sofiaruelle]

We did it yall!!! We beat seasonal depression and artblock~!!!! 😭😭😭😭

[cafecitoeddie]

🫣😂

[inspector-constable]

Aziraphale and the Gray Area: Why is he like that though

Good omens season 2 spoilers ahead

One of the things religious trauma gave me is a strong sense of right vs. wrong. The idea that there is always a right way to do things or a right course of action, and to not do things that way is simply wrong. This is more than just feeling afraid of being punished for doing the wrong thing; it feels like part of my identity. I think of myself as a good person, so I want to do good things and I want to do the right thing. If I choose to do the wrong thing, I lose myself and I lose what I value in myself. Sometimes it’s a good thing to feel like this, it’s what led me away from a religion that preached hate. Sometimes it’s not such a good thing, because I can hurt people by trying to do the right thing, or by trying to put my personal sense of morals onto other peoples’ situations. I have been picking through my beliefs for over a decade trying to confront and dismantle the harmful ones. It’s a painful process and it takes a long, long time.

How much longer must it take for a literal angel, a servant of God? We have the pleasure of seeing this process in Aziraphale through the ages, and it’s a lot slower than fans want it to be. I think people see Aziraphale in his moments in the gray area - lying, disobeying orders, being a bastard, enjoying human food, and loving and trusting a demon - and they think that he must be just fine with being in the middle: mostly right, a bit wrong, very human. But that characterization oversimplifies and misses Aziraphale’s true nature.

The sense of justice and good vs. evil is central to who Aziraphale is. He is not just another angel following commands; he is doing what he truly thinks is right no matter what the consequences may be. He ends up being quite a bit more good and loving than any of the other angels we meet, because he isn’t okay with doing what he knows is wrong. He knows it innately, but also he knows it because of what he was taught. When you’re taught that hate and violence and greed is wrong, but then you see hate and violence and greed being perpetuated by your teachers, you start to wonder where that dividing line really is.

That’s where the gray area comes in. When Aziraphale gives away his sword, he’s aware it’s not technically the right thing to do, but decides it is the actual right thing to do to protect Eve and Adam and their child. Same as when he lies to the angels about Job’s children, only this time instead of fudging the truth and avoiding the confrontation, he has to make a direct choice to do something that is technically wrong - lying - in order to avoid doing something he really, really knows is Wrong - murder. In this case, he’s not okay with lying despite it being wrong, he’s okay with lying because it is the right thing to do. It still causes a large amount of internal conflict when he thinks he will be sent to Hell for disobeying, but that fear of punishment didn’t stop him from doing what he thought was good.

For Aziraphale, the gray area is not about being a little bit evil, it’s about fudging the Rules and disobeying authority in order to remain completely good. Since Crowley is in the gray area with him, surely Crowley must be in the same boat of wanting to do the Right thing. Throughout thousands of years of history Aziraphale never stops arguing the side of Good, trying to convince Crowley to do the right thing. Sometimes he finds that Crowley was actually right all along, and then Aziraphale can feel safe to align himself with whatever the demon is doing. Sometimes Aziraphale even tries to convince Heaven to do the right thing with him. During Armageddon, Aziraphale avoids telling Crowley the truth because he thinks it would be better to get Heaven to stop doing the wrong thing. And he’s right, a lot of problems would be solved and life would be easier if Heaven would listen to Aziraphale and stop inflicting their harmful views on the world. 

It would be nice if Aziraphale would realize, at the end of the first season, that Heaven is not interested in being good or even being right; they just want to win. Aziraphale is too naive and pure to believe that of Heaven. After everything, he still wants to be an angel, and he still wants to be part of a Heaven that is doing good. What he did at the end of season 2 is not at all out of character for him. It makes perfect sense that he would want to take the opportunity to change Heaven for the better. Anyone can see what a delightful place it would be with Aziraphale making the decisions. Angels could drink hot chocolate and stack books in their offices or pop down to Earth to go to the theater. Humans could live without worrying about Armageddon or the Great Plan or having their lives destroyed over a bet. And demons (or at least one specific one) who were good and loving could be forgiven and become angels again so they don’t have to be forced to carry out evil acts and always be looking over their shoulders. 

Aziraphale didn’t do what he did because he doesn’t accept or love who Crowley is. He just genuinely believes that Crowley is still an angel deep down and that Heaven is where he belongs, where he could be the most happy. A better Heaven, where Crowley could create stars to last millions of years and put anything he wanted in the suggestion box. Aziraphale wanted to create a life for them to be together without any more worry of secret meetings, gray areas, and war. When Crowley rejected that life, it broke Aziraphale’s view of Crowley and his goodness. As ridiculous as it sounds, Aziraphale never expected that Crowley wouldn’t jump at the chance to be an angel with him again, and now his perception of their relationship is shaken. 

Ultimately, Aziraphale can’t be so selfish as to choose to run away with the being he loves, when he knows he can do so much more good if he returns to Heaven. And so in trying to do the right thing for everyone, Aziraphale does the wrong thing for Crowley and himself. This is what is so hard about Aziraphale’s gray area; it cuts both ways. He has so much learning and unpacking to do, and I’m afraid he’s going to find that he will have much less power to change Heaven than he thought. All we can do is beg for a third season and then Wait and See.

[aroaceleovaldez]

they girlbossed Sally Jackson

[iongsiyi]

我的阿勒泰 To The Wonder : An Analyzation of Humanity (Part 1)

哈薩克文化裡，人與人之間產生友情或者愛情，是由於被看見，所以在哈薩克語中，我喜歡你意思是我清楚地看見你。

In Kazakhstan culture, in order for individuals to develop a friendship or a relationship, they need to be seen, that is why, "i like you" means "i can see you clearly" in Kazakh.

"To The Wonder" is a Chinese show that tells the story of Li Wenxiu, a Han girl from Altay, whose dream is to become a writer in Beijing, thinking that with it's rich culture, she would be able to write good stories. She returns home after a failed job, decided to settle down and work at her mother's store, along the way, she met Kazakh boy Batay, and built friendships with other residents, as well as discovering the beauty of Altay.

As a fellow Chinese, I would like to take the opportunity to make not only an appreciation about this wonderful show that got an impressive score of 8.1/10 on IMDB, but specifically an analyzation of humanity as reflected by the characters (Zhang Fengxia, Gao Xiaoliang, Li Wenxiu, and Tuoken)

As the mother of Li Wenxiu, losing her husband is one of the only things that Zhang Fengxia truly cannot let go of. Numbing herself with alcohol every night, reminiscing the memories between her and her late husband, but whenever her daughter asks about it, she avoids the topic and claims that she does not miss her late husband. In reality, deep in her heart, she not only deeply misses him, but she longs for love, a deep connection with someone.

When Gao Xiaoliang came along one day, she was blinded by her longing, diving headfirst into a relationship with him, claiming that he was sent by her late husband. There is no wrong in that, as humans, we all have an innate longing and want for love. However, when she realized everything that Gao Xiaoliang did was only an act, she allowed herself to grief what they had, what she thought they had, and sat with her emotions, quickly picking herself up after and moving forward with life.

In my opinion, that was truly the most touching yet heartbreaking moment in the show. Unfolding the complexity of the human heart, as well as demonstrating the strong will that humans are capable of - to live, to move on, to move forward with life despite the amount of times our hearts have been trampled all over.

一個男人跑了就跑了嘛！我們離了婚也不丢人的，男人没了，再找一個嘛

Most audiences think Gao Xiaoliang is a bad person, lying to Zhang Fengxia about his true intentions, earning her trust and leaving her behind, and lying to Li Wenxiu when they were working together in Urumqi. But that's the thing about humanity, there is never an exact definition of what's good or bad. Just because someone did something doesn't make them a bad person. In order to understand him truly, we need to look at the character from their perspective.

Being robbed when he first got to Xinjiang, losing everything he's worked for and truly losing directions in life; decided to hold on to Zhang Fengxia as his last resort, but seizing the opportunity of earning money because that's his priority in life - to earn money.

Blinded by his want for an adequate life, for money, he lied to Zhang Fengxia and left her behind, he negotiated with his boss to get Li Wenxiu's severance pay, but only giving her the 1/3 that he actually received. Yes, he may seem like the villain to the protagonists, but that would be an unfair statement to his character as a whole. Did he want to settle down with Zhang Fengxia? Yes. Did he give Li Wenxiu some of the pay when he could've kept all of it to himself? Yes.

But at the end of the day, as humans, we all get blinded by certain things, we all have our own wants and may do anything in our power to "seize the moment". Actions that we commit don't define us, who we are, because we have to understand that humans are complex and there is no "black-and-white" to us. All these actions only added to the depth of the character and our sympathy for what he went through, and how he got to the point where he was mad.

我出人頭地了，你出人頭地了嗎？

[updatingranboo]

from ranboo!!!!!!

[dollerinna]

Very late to the conversation abt s4, but as a Noir girlie, I feel like this must be said 😤

(SPOILERS BELOW)

I did NOT like how there was little to no substantial development surrounding Noir this season. Instead, they reduced my mans into a comic relief character, which don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy sometimes, but don’t we already…. cough cough have the deep for that? cough

Like they could’ve done something so much more impactful with the og Noir, but noooOOO kripke just HAD to kill him off, and for what? Just for a few little scattered jokes here and there? Meanwhile this entire season has been an absolute uncoordinated mess???? ((Ik Kripke was planning to kill off Noir since the very beginning, but WHY?? 😭

I can see where they might be heading with a potential showdown between Noir II and Soldier Boy in S5, maybe mirroring the disfigurement of the og Noir or sth? But the way they've been building up to that so far just doesn't feel very compelling or efficient to me personally. it just feels they’ll land another lame “haha” moment for the audience and call it a day when it comes to that point

Impactful story arc? Nope- thrown straight outta the window

and yes I know Noir wasn’t even a primary character to the storyline in the first place, so it’s not like the end of the world or anything. Just take this as a nonsensical rant from a bitter Noir stan 🤠

[destinywillowleaf]

one of a kind living in a world gone plastic

baby you're so classic

@most-tragic-character-tournament

(all my thoughts in the tags)

[heliza24]

Being a physically disabled Dimension 20 fan breaks my heart sometimes

I’ve been thinking about this since last Wednesday’s episode when we finally got a real scene with Lydia, one of the few physically disabled characters in the entire canon of the show. It was nice, but it was really just a lore dump. An excuse for exposition. A moment for Kristen to look good by expending sympathy/pity. (I’m a little frustrated about how that interaction went down. Extending the help action was nice but patronizingly touching the neck of a full-ass adult without consent was not. It was weird and not something she would have done to a nondisabled character).

I have watched almost all of D20 (still missing a couple of seasons) and as far as I know here’s where our list of canon physically disabled characters stand: Lydia Barkrock, Jan de la Vega (who feels pretty problematic to me, maybe more on that in a later post), one of the Dwarven statues in the temple in The Seven (who is not given the dignity of being brought to life like Asha), and Pete’s coworker in TUC2 who is in exactly one episode and is so unimportant I have forgotten his name. I guess you could make an argument that Gunny is disabled, but I don't feel that Lou or Brennan really talk about him or play him through that lens. So in terms of canon physically disabled PCs-- that leaves us with 0.

We do a bit better with neurodivergent characters and characters with mental health problems; Ayda (my beloved) is very well developed and Adaine is a PC. There have been some openly neurodivergent players, like Omar and Surena, whose characters also read ND to me. But that isn’t labeled or discussed in canon, so it's hard for me to know where to class that. I am going to focus the rest of this post on physical disabilities, since that is my area of lived experience. If another fan wants to write about their perspective of neurodivergence rep in the show, I would love to hear that, and will happily amplify.

There has never been a character with a sensory disability or a limb difference or a chronic illness (not a fantasy one, a real one) on Dimension 20. The only NPCs we have are nondescript, similar wheelchair users. And there has never been a physically disabled player at the table. On the flagship show of Dropout, a company founded on diversity and inclusion. It feels extremely pointed to me.

In fact as far as I can tell there has only been one (1) physically disabled performer on any of Dropout’s shows. (Shout out to Brett, you were great on Dirty Laundry.) Obviously I haven’t seen every episode of everything they have produced. If I have missed someone, please do let me know in the comments/reblogs. But it’s a problem. And Sam Reich even agreed with this criticism when I asked him directly about.

I do really hope they’re working on it, as Sam says. But why has it taken so long?

Dimension 20 has had trans and nonbinary and queer players. It has had players of many different races. I’m not saying that the diversity here is perfect; there should always be more POC in the dome, more queer people. We should keep pushing for that. (And we should also push for performers at the intersections of these identities!) But we’ve seen the ways this diversity has expanded and improved the different seasons, because diverse players create sensitively drawn, diverse player characters. They add details to their PC’s experiences that make them feel rich and alive. I’m thinking about each of Ally’s PC’s incredible capital G gender and Aabria “all my characters (even the stoats) are Black” and how excellent they all are. D20 would not be the show it is without this input.

And yet. And yet.

There are 1,000 interesting and complicated themes to explore around disability. Dealing with access. Dealing with ableism. Dealing with compassion and community care. Dealing with none of it and just being a cool fantasy or sci fi character that happens to be disabled. We don’t get any of it.

I watch my favorite show and I see myself in the ace rep and the female characters. But I don’t see all of me. I see a silent but ever present message: you aren’t quite welcome here.

I have this fantasy that I play in my brain sometimes that someday I’ll get to talk to Brennan in person, like maybe if I buy a VIP ticket and risk Covid to go to a live show or we run into each other on the street or something. I am able to look him in the eye and articulate why he NEEDS to include a physically disabled player in an upcoming season. I reference the ways he’s talked about inclusion and writing diversely on Adventuring Party. Maybe I hand him a handwritten letter, or hell, a printout of this post. And because he really cares about diversity and his shows and his fans he would listen to me, and cast a physically disabled performer in the next season.

But I think that might be giving that nondisabled man (whose work I adore, who I respect so much) too much credit. Because he’s had Jennifer Kretchmer, a physically disabled actual play performer, on adventuring academy to talk about access in gaming. He’s hired disability consultants. He knows about physically disabled people, enough to give us shoutouts as inconsequential npcs. And he still hasn’t thought to include us at the table. In over 20 seasons. None of that other stuff matters if we aren't given a seat at the story telling table, and the agency to craft our own narratives equal to other participants in the game.

When Lydia was telling her story in the last episode, I kept wishing for a prequel, where she is more than a plot delivery device and a kind but unimportant parent. I want to know about her adventures with her adventuring party. I want to see a talented, wheelchair-using actor play out the scene when she decides to put the gem in her chest. I want to hear about what happened after. I want to know how she survived. I want it so badly it hurts.

I am in the process of trying to find new indie actual plays that feature more disabled talent. I am learning how to GM myself so I can tell these kinds of stories. But it’s not the same as being a fan of something. Sometimes I don’t want to have to make my own representation. Sometimes I just want to turn on my favorite tv show, the one that I have cosplayed from and written metas about and loved whole heartedly, and see myself included.

If you’re another disabled or neurodivergent fan I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you’re not, I’d love for you to reblog this. I would love for the absence of physical disability in this show to be a topic of fandom conversation, at the very least.