#rather than a fictional character representing a real person who doesn't want to show their face online

[technoxenoholic]

anyway if you know that the otherkin community exists and you still choose to ""kin for fun"", that does indeed make you an asshole.

you can literally just call a character your favorite, comfort character, muse, blorbo, or anything else. you literally don't have to steal our word and misuse it. you don't have to do that.

[teapetal44]

TW: ABUSE, CHILD ABUSE

“He wants to air this dirty laundry to the world does he…? Dabi, you fiend…you’ve been waiting for this moment…when they couldn’t prevent mass destruction…and faith in heroes is wavering.” - chapter 292

I truly, wholeheartedly, believe that MHA as a story upholds the myth of the perfect victim. I do not want to discuss if Horikoshi did that on purpose, or subconsciously because of inner bias – I find no meaning in doing so. For me the execution of an idea, in the grand scheme of the narrative, holds more value than the intention of the author. I’ve also had my fair share of people infantilizing Asian authors in the anime community for their poor writing decisions for one lifetime. It’s patronizing to both the author and the people reading it. Whether or not Horikoshi intended for his themes of abuse to paint the picture they did does not matter, because that’s how it reads as.

MHA puts victims of abuse in narrow boxes and softly dictates what’s an acceptable reaction to said abuse. Victims are continuously walking a tightrope between being deserving of compassion and sympathy and being unredeemable monsters who are too far gone and are only good for martyrdom after being put down.  

Eri fits the clean cut depiction of abuse victims that media usually gears towards. She is untouched by the cruelty around her - she preserves her innocence and kindness. She isn't assertive, but rather meek and passive. She doesn't fight back with force. And when offered help, she is receptive to it. That is not to say that Eri's depiction doesn't have a place in fiction, or that her portrayal can't be representative of the experiences of some - as we all deal with trauma and the inhumanity people throw at us differently. We see the same thing in the portrayal of Fuyumi, who shares many of the qualities discussed above. The same thing applies to her - i personally love the idea of all the siblings having different reaction to their childhood trauma and abuse. It shows that victims are not some type of monolith.

But the narrative treats the "forgiving" or "receptive to help/support" victims of abuse with more grace and with much more kindness. if you are willing to forgive, or the very least be quietly tolerant, the story grants you a happy ending. Forgiveness isn't a bad thing, it is an individual choice - but an abuse victim shouldn't have to do it for them to have a happy ending.

In a vacuum Eri and Fuyumi's character arcs and depictions of abuse are good but it becomes a problem when that's the only experience and type of victim we ever hold in high value or recognize as valid and deserving of compassion. Which the story reinforces.

Touya and Tenko's backstories aren't pretty nor comfortable or easy to sit through. Their responses to abuse aren't either. Reactive abuse is very much real.

[ladyloveandjustice]

I've seen people say this is proof that Marcille's not a lesbian, but this is definitely a character (or based on a character) from the romance novel she obsesses over. There is nothing more lesbian than obsessing over a fictional man and being like "yeah i'm down" but not being attracted to any real men. Only fictional men appeal to us because they don't feel the same as real men. This is very much a fictional ideal that Marcille had created for herself. It's her blorbo from her shows. The male character the lesbians claim as their own and relate to is a well known phenom.

(I also want to note this person is incredibly feminine looking even by elf standards)

We'll also see later that succubi don't exclusively operate as romantic fantasies. For Marcille, this person also represents her fantasy of being in this romance novel, which was something she really connected to because of [spoiler] reasons. It was her first experience of seeing herself in a story and feeling accepted as a result.

I don't think Falin is her fantasy ideal type, and she's never been. Marcille's expressed several times she thinks Falin is really cute and pretty, and we've also been shown that she considered Laios's appearance kind of gross because it was more masculine that Falin's and she expected him to look like her which...i mean... gay

But Falin was not someone she expected to fall for, and I think she fell for her based on who she is rather than her it being a specific type she has. It doesn't mean she doesn't love her. Anymore than Chilchuck's actual wife not appearing (based on their daughters she was probably not blonde) means he didn't love her.

(And I will also acknowledge you could read Marcille as bi, she's just one of those characters I relate so much to as a lesbian I just see her that way)

[eros-thanatos89]

meta/thoughts on BCS

Oh, man. I've never posted meta, or just thoughts on shows before, but I'm trying to give myself permission to be as cringe as I want and to ramble on the internet about the fictional things that I think way too much about. So here goes, my first meta post!

I just rewatched BCS S5E3 "The Guy For This" (let's be real: mostly for thirsty reasons, because I wanted to see Lalo and Nacho looking pretty in the garage scene with Saul) and Goddamn, it just smacked me in the face and reminded me what a pivotal episode it is in so many ways.

One of the many recurring themes that I love to see explored so well in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is the many ways that people deal with (or don't) the consequences of their actions, and this episode is just chock full of that, as well as setting up the first steps down the "bad choice road" or the road ahead for so many characters.

In that garage, Saul really steps into Saul as we know him in Breaking Bad. By taking Lalo's money (even if under duress) he's taking the first step into leaving Jimmy behind and becoming the *criminal lawyer* we all love/love to hate. Jimmy's pattern of avoiding the consequences of his actions or uncomfortable emotions like the guilt over Chuck's disgrace and death is running away: by escaping into his scams, and by literally running away from himself, choosing a new identity--he's not Jimmy anymore; he's Saul, so he doesn't have to lug around Jimmy's baggage. And even though he tries to backtrack from this first step onto the bad choice road leading to him becoming "un amigo del cartel", when he tries to suggest that Lalo find another lawyer, it's too late. As Nacho tells him, "When you're in, you're in."

And Nacho would know! Speaking of running away, Nacho has been trying to evade or escape his problems for so long: first by setting up Tuco to avoid having his side hustle with Pryce discovered, and in this episode, trying to convince his Papa to run away with him to Canada. The scene where Manuel confronts Nacho at his house never fails to break my heart. Nacho is so desperate for Manuel to escape with him to a new, safe life, and Manuel is so adamant that Nacho face up to the consequences of his choices. Which ultimately, he has no choice but to do. He has to confront what he's done and give himself up to save his Papa's life, just like Manuel encouraged him to do so long ago. But by giving up his life rather than turning himself in to the police. It's so damn tragic.

And then there's Kim. She's always running away from the poverty and instability of her past by so doggedly pursuing success as a lawyer. I love how this episode highlights her increasing dissatisfaction with Mesa Verde and her yearning to pursue more meaningful pro-bono work so she can use the law to help people like the little, powerless girl she used to be. The confrontation between her and Mr. Acker is stellar. Kim has this rare moment of vulnerability, letting down her walls to share a story of her childhood struggles with Mr. Acker in a genuine attempt to connect with him, only to have him scoff at her and accuse her of making it up to manipulate him. You can tell his tirade about her being ultimately a selfish person who tries to comfort herself with acts of charity really rankles her because it goes so strongly against her sense of self and represents everything it seems she's afraid of becoming, and so much of what she resents about Howard: the entitlement, the sense of ease and privilege, the self-congratulatory charity acts (don't get me wrong, I really like Howard, pompous as he can sometimes be, but I think this is how Kim views him). By the end of the episode, when she escalates Saul toying with a beer bottle on the balcony into throwing them into the parking lot, you can already see her pivoting and taking those first steps down the road that ultimately leads to the plot against Howard, which she justifies to herself in the name of using the Sandpiper money to fund her pro-bono work. And then in the end of the series, she both runs away AND atones for her actions by moving to Florida and living a life literally leeched of all color and joy, and is just doing penance by living a muted, mediocre life.

Domingo's arc in this episode is so crucial, too! Lalo and Nacho recruit Saul to feed him the information to undermine Fring, but when he meets Hank and Steve Gomez in prison, it starts him on the road to transforming from Domingo/Ocho Loco to Krazy 8. Ultimately leaving the cartel (I like to think because of the loss of his friend Nacho) and setting himself up as an independent dealer and even snitching on his own cousin, Emilio; which then leads to his collision with Walt and Jesse.

And the scene with Mike in the bar! The way he's barely holding it together as he tries (not very successfully) to drink away the pain and guilt caused by killing Werner just a few episodes before (S4E9) and is so triggered by the postcard that reminds him of their conversation is so powerful. I just love how he encounters the group of guys who try to intimidate and rob him and he defends himself in this episode, but we later see him intentionally return and seek them out in S5E5 "Dedicado a Max" in an act of self-loathing and roundabout self-harm via taking a beating and not even trying to defend himself.

I'm rambling, but these shows make me litcherally mentally unwell with how fantastically nuanced and textured the writing, acting, visual storytelling, music, everything is! I'm just going to be ruminating on all these many facets of accepting consequences, atoning, and/or running away affects these characters and the arc of both shows and the world they inhabit for the next long while....

[anonil88]

Epidode 7 was probably my favorite episode of Under the Bridge. Felt like we finally got to the thick center of this chowder before I start to skim the fat.

The fat: I get the sympathy "look at how these two characters relate and reflect" angle but the writers have shoved so many different dates and non irl instances into the same day it feels like time isn't passing the way it was before. Certain scenes i felt like someone was yelling out "okay and then next." Those and the odd likely time constraint fictional case changes aside i did enjoy a lot about this episode.

The stock; Its hard challenging your sense of justice in our society when you're not used to it and that is possibly easier when real life people are made fictional characters or more increasingly divorced from their real counterparts. It is difficult to rewire a brain that has already been wired via religion or socialization for crime = all good all bad human. But, thank God life is not so simple there's a lot of gray. As we the viewers reach closer and closer to the finale and trial more has been changed from the real reena virk case. Writers made certain changes in the beginning that now when any of the kids on trial say "we didn't know anything about her" it asks the viewer to think back to the first 4 episodes**. Does anyone here really know who Reena is? They know she was murdered, they are finding out how, but what about this girl. She is a vehicle for their ambitions, guilt, and anger but beyond that who really has found out about Reena or hell any of these kids. Cam? Us the audience? Rebecca? Very clearly not Rebecca (character) even though she has so much in common with Reena as well as Warren. But, she can identify herself with the boy because of their mistakes and race. Becca cannot see why Cam doesn't relate to Warren* despite their similarities because she doesn't understand why Cam doesn't sympathize with her.

That quote about Reena being seen as an animal and weaker than Warren sits in my head a little. Based on another tumblr users post this may have actually been said in court not to Rebecca directly, which was a good change for tv imo. But, it made me think of Warren in his drunken angry state went to his "primal human urge" to hurt something weaker or ignore rather than help. As did every other kid who was a bystander that night but they aren't seen as animals in the same way Reena was up until people saw she was in fact dead. Even now in death she is dehumanized and animalized on the internet because of one bad school picture day. A day we all have tried and failed to get the perfect photo. Still, the most animalistic rabid like behavior is coddled because of privilege. One thing the writers have not held back on us how much they personally do not like Kelly Ellard and offer her 0 remorse that she was given as a child. I dont feel bad for character or real life Kelly but I firmly believe she was failed because of her privilege long before she killed Reena Virk.

One thing i loved about this episode is that I felt Rebecca Godfrey (the writer) all over this episode and in Riley's portrayl. Especially when the character says "I will make sure they know your heart." I think that's what she set out to do with her book and by extension allowing this show, she wanted people to know who these humans are at their very human center. Complicit and redeemable? Complicit and capable? And she felt bad about what tragically happened. I hope wherever she is, if she believed in that sort of thing, that she is proud of her story.

* I think and that moment of his verdict in court shows Cam does care about Warren, Rebecca, and extension all of these kids. This is her home, no matter how small these writers have shrunk its vastness. She sees these kids as versions of her, Gabe, and Rebecca but she is a cop and she does have some standard to uphold. Even though her career and who it represents, her dad & brother her family, is starting to show themselves to be harder to stick by. Similar to Josephine and that false sense of family with CMC disintegrating. Will Cam even go ahead to Vancouver for her job by the end of this?

** Which is quite different from the real life accounts where genuinely it seems those kids and the main group imvolved did not know Reena outside from her extreme antics, the lesser teen cruelty one, and her face.

[marzipanandminutiae]

I think the line between representing gnc women in the past and interpreting the NLOG trope as applying to any gnc woman in fiction is difficult to chart—I don’t deny that authors do this, but the thing is that real historical women did feel like this for very legitimate reasons, even if they come off as condescending today (I’d be pissed too if I was told I Had to wear skirts and corsets, and I am someone who personally really enjoys wearing skirts and corsets). Representing women who did not conform to gender norms on various different ways is important, and I don’t think Cox’s critique of any of her chosen movies/shows is particularly convincing in part because she does not acknowledge this at all—and while not every YouTube video essay has to be all things to all people, this is a touchy topic and some effort on her part would’ve been really appreciated, because it very much comes off as “gnc women make me uncomfortable” more than anything else.

See, I really don't get where the whole "she doesn't talk about real GNC women!!" thing comes from

because I am literally watching the video right now and, direct quote, "while rejecting traditional gender norms of their era happened, that doesn't mean it can only be expressed in the rejection of distinctly feminine articles of clothing..."

"And while I'm not saying there's anything wrong with breaking gender norms in historical dramas...Gentleman Jack is a good example of this...I'm frustrated with the reliance on 'Girly Bad! Boy Good!' clothing defaults...without what seems to be a second thought on how problematic it can actually be."

"The idea of creating the bloomers and the trousers could have come from this very genuine place of like 'I want...to be able to run...without having to deal with all these skirts around my legs.' And that is fair..."

and the big part, prefacing AN ENTIRE SECTION OF THE VIDEO: "Now, all that being said, I want to acknowledge the historic reality of women who did dress in masculine clothing." She actually goes further than I would in using they/them pronouns for George Sand (I have a "pronouns they used in life" policy, personally), and discusses in detail some examples of women who presented masculine at various times, for various reasons. She also gets in-depth about Gentleman Jack, and why the show was more authentic to Anne Lister's life (as a distinctly butch woman in the 1830s) for showing her having to bend slightly to accepted feminine modes of dress rather than just...sticking her in anachronistic pants all the time.

I don't think the video is perfect- it's clear what presentation Abby herself prefers, and thus she can sometimes muddy her own message. For example, to me it's clear that she's not saying it would be BAD for a suffragist character to be GNC, but it would be UNREALISTIC due to the emphasis the actual suffrage movement had to place on conventionally feminine attire to avoid distracting the press from their own message. But I can see how it might come off as "feminine suffragist character good, masc suffragist character bad" to someone with less baseline knowledge of the speaker's general views.

(It could also be hard to get that she's not decrying the rejection of feminine attire wholesale in criticizing Anne W*th an E, but rather saying that it's unfaithful to the character as originally written. Also she could have been clearer that the issue with Miss Stacy is that she would be INSTA-FIRED if, as a small-town teacher in the 1890s, she showed up to a town hall meeting in trousers. Like. I cannot overstate how fired she would get from any position overseeing children's education, as an outsider and not even an "accepted local eccentric," in a backwater like Avonlea.)

In short, while it has its issues, I don't really see that it's as horrible and prescriptivist a video as everyone makes it out to be. But you're entitled to your opinions, just as I am to mine.

[writergamermom]

I think that discussions of censorship on Tumblr tend to have a rather singular focus on fan fiction and basically comes down to I want to read/write some perhaps fucked up shit and that upsets people. I think this does a disservice to the power of media including fan fiction and how ideas impact our actions.

Media of any form can have an impact on the audience and society at large. The black and white film Birth of A Nation is a great example. It was the first film screened at the White House. People who saw this film thought it was representing history. That this was what happened during the Civil War and Reconstruction Period. It had a direct impact on violence on Black people, belief by White people that Black people were raping monsters, and a huge enrollment in the KKK. In fact this film help legitimatize the clan and gave it a lot of the community support it needed to thrive.

Here is the thing, people protested. They tried to get the film canceled. Some cities demanded edits and others banded it all together.

But banning an idea doesn't make it go away. Birth of a Nation is still taught in film school. Wilson still watched in the White House and gave it a positive review. See Birth of Nation did not start racism, it didn't start hated against Black people, it didn't start the Klan. Those ideas already existed. Today film professors are trying to right a wrong. Many don't show the film and if they show clips it is with the full understanding of the hate and harm this film perpetrated. It is not a caveat, a cliff note, or something from long ago that can be ignored. It is baked into every cell of the film.

And this is not something that only happened 100 years ago. There are lots of articles about the power of Copaganda and our (especially white middle and upper class American) understanding of police. This had a real impact on how White America view police violence. I remember thinking when Micheal Brown was shot that it didn't matter he was unarmed because an unarmed person can take your weapon away (something that I was taught most of my life to discourage me from carrying a weapon). That police can shoot someone for fleeing a scene (after all all the cop shows had police with their guns drawn running through traffic and busy streets). My only interactions with police was for speeding tickets (that I often got out of) and cops I had met in my day to day life. My world was small and what I didn't know from my own lived experience or second hand from family or friends, I learned from media. Law and Order had a lot more impact on my understanding of the criminal justice system than all my years of education. Again banning Law and Order is not the answer.

OP asked about the importance of representation. Media doesn't care if the idea is about love or hate or accepting the status quo. It tells stories to spread ideas.

Back in the 90's there was a family drama called life goes on about nuclear family and the son had Downs Syndrome. This was the first show to feature a character with Downs Syndrome and dealt with a lot of challenges with love and respect. Second or third season they add a character named Jesse who had HIV. Again very sympathetic character who starts dating the female lead. First HIV+ on TV. This had impact on people. My mom loved this show. She also partly believed or least considered that HIV was God's punishment and came from Black people having sex with monkeys and you can see that because look at how people in Brazil dance and I am not making this up, people actually believed this shit. So in walks Jesse, a sweet, handsome, shy boy, we learn has HIV from unprotected sex with his ex-girlfriend. Church groups are calling for ABC to drop this show. There is letter writing campaigns, people were upset. My mom was upset. But she kept watching. It started to change the way she thought about HIV.

Media spreads ideas, good ones, bad ones, and just plain boring ones. Censorship does not stop the idea. What does is talking about. After Suicide Squad came out, my kid was obsessed with The Joker and Harley. They were true love. I didn't ban my kid from the movie or from Joker and Harley. Instead I broke down their relationship from Batman the Animated Series to present day and explained in detail how this was an abusive relationship and the only happiness Harley will every have comes from her liberation from the Joker.

When my son watches problematic YouTubers, I don't ban them. I sit and explain to him why making fun of people with disables or watching little kids fight and commenting on it is terrible.

If something is putting bad thoughts or feelings in your head disengage. Manny Patinkin left Criminal Minds because he didn't like what the show was doing to him.

If people are not tagging something, ask them to tag it. That could be using racist tropes, justifying rape, or condoning abuse.

If your worried media is leading people to accept a hateful or harmful idea, break it down. Explain how JK Rowling uses anti-trans tropes in her works. Help people to hear the dog whistle and ruin it.

TL:DR Media spreads ideas, good and bad, and those ideas impact actions people take. Censorship does not help. The only thing that has power over those ideas is new ideas.

references

So I'm slowly starting to come to understand that we shouldn't censor things but also I'm still a little uncomfortable with the site allowing things like pedophilia to be written in a way that's romanticized. I get it. Avoid it since I don't like it but at what point do we say, 'hmm this isn't okay.' I mean I get it, fiction doesn't hurt people but if that were truly the case then why are we lobbying for rep/realism/etc in media? Fiction, at some point, has to have some effect on real life.

Hello darling! I got your second ask too, please don’t worry, you’re definitely not coming across as unkind.

And you’re definitely not the only one to have similar thoughts or concerns.

But my answer’s going to be the same.

There is no such thing as a little censorship, and opening that particular can of pringles is not going to end happily for anyone. It’s better to not open it at all. And yes, that means people will create deeply fucked up things. But they should have the ability to do so, just like you should have the ability to avoid the hell out of it.

(Which, for AO3, is where I start in on my tag your shit appropriately/read the fucking tags!!! Rants. Learned the hard way a million years ago when I *thought* I was reading something very very different than I was, so when I got to ‘Character has sex with a dog’ I lost my mind, then realized I fucked up and hadn’t read the tags. If I had, I would have noped out of that fic immediately. So. That entire encounter was on me.)

“At what point is this not okay?” Well, that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Who would be in charge of deciding where the line goes? Who gets to decide what goes on which side of the line?

The last anon seemed to think writing was the same as doing, and thus writing shouldn’t be allowed at all.

And then got annoyed when I pointed out how often those unsavory themes happen in movies or TV without any warning at all, and generally, people move right past it.

Fiction doesn’t hurt people. People hurt people.

My favorite comparison is still my kitchen curtains, because my curtains are still weird: fairies, trees. Very witchy. I’ve seen people do literal double takes over my curtains. I can tell by the way they squint they can’t stand them or don’t understand why I would want something so *non-traditional* in such a public part of my house. They keep their damned mouths shut though, because they know its rude to tell me to change my curtains to fit their idea of a kitchen. (And also because I’d toss them out after laughing my ass off but that’s not relevant)

Person A has an idea of what ‘acceptable’ levels are, but that’s much much less than person B. Who wins? No one.

And no one should have the power to just decide things like that.

It’s stupid o’clock at night where I am, so I’m not about to go digging for studies, but I know we’ve got pretty solid proof that media doesn’t cause behaviors spontaneously. At the risk of sounding old, but this same argument once was applied to music, too. The weird compromise was slapping content warnings for language/sex/violence on CD’s. (Y’know. A significantly less useful form of tagging?) It didn’t… really do shit for anyone. Other than make those CD’s more attractive to teens, tbh. But. The argument at the time was rap and rock were violent and would make kids go insane and violent just by listening.

It… didn’t. It still doesn’t.

Reading dark fic isn’t going to cause someone to do something out of the blue.

Someone who’s debating doing the thing might seek out media about whatever their obsession is, yes. But their obsession was already there. Fic, music, movies, they’re not going to create it. I’d wager those girls who murdered their friend and blamed ‘slenderman’ had signs long before they went that far.

Part of the problem with this entire thought is that it’s thought policing. Folks assume the thought equals the sin. And as someone with pretty wonky intrusive thoughts and a long family history of mental issues— no. I have weird ass thoughts all the time. ‘Huh, I’m up high, I should jump, maybe I’ll float.’ I’m not gonna act on them. I know they’re weird thoughts. I’m not gonna float, I’d just die. Your brain just… says things sometimes. Some of us more than others. Therapy’s helpful for folks who struggle with that.

Fiction’s got nothing to do with it, though. Fiction just represents someone else working through their lives.

Melissa Etheridge wrote a song (scarecrow) about Matthew Sheppard’s murder. She didn’t cause anyone else to go torture another lonely gay boy to death. She was working through her grief at losing another one of us. And we worked through our grief when she sang.

Art is made for the making of it. Fiction—even the kind that squicks you— is still art.

As for the other part of your ask, the representation? I’m not sure I see the connection you’re trying to make. When people talk about rep, they’re talking about making the characters more authentic, more reflective of the beautiful range of humanity at large. Not seven brown haired white guys and one bitchy white woman and the unnamed not-white side character used for shit jokes. There should be a rainbow of humans in media, because little black girls deserve to know they’re strong and smart and beautiful. Because queer kids of all sizes and shapes deserve to know they’re loved. Because boys should get to be princesses. Because people with chronic illnesses, disabilities, they should get to be part of the stories. Because white folk need to see the rest of the world as human. Folks want to see themselves in the heroes, the happiness, the successes.

Too many kids never get to see themselves on the screen or read about people who look like them.

I loved belle as a kid because she looked like me and she loved reading. I loved Ariel because she wanted to be free. I cried over encanto because I know what it’s like to be excluded, what it’s like to be the big sister. I cried over reading red white and royal blue because the gays get to live and they’re happy. Everyone should have some way to connect.

The realism bit,though, I don’t think is the consumers as a whole. Yeah, some folks prefer it, but from what I’ve seen over the last 20 years, it’s more like the people who control most popular media have decided that’s what they wanna make. I don’t care for it, tbh. Media doesn’t need to be an exact copy of the real world.

Stories are meant as a place of solace, or at least a place that is different, than your day to day.

I like stories that have soft, happy ever afters. We’ve worked through the Big Bad Thing and come out stronger for it and now we get our well deserved rest. The real world doesn’t give me those things. Other people look at the state of the world, read seriously fucked up shit, and then go, well, at least my life isn’t that. It could be worse! And this is their happy place.

So. I’m not sure I’m much help here, but tl;dr: remember the tenets of fandom:

1) kinktomato: your kink is not my kink and that is okay. (You like this, I do not, I’m gonna leave it alone, the end.)

2) DLDR: Don’t like? Don’t read. Filtering and blocking are your besties.

3) ship and let ship (or sit down) — don’t press your dislike onto the people who do like. Let ‘em alone, go find what you do like.

4) tag appropriately, read the damn tags.

5) curate your own spaces. You alone are responsible for your online existence/experiences

6) have fun. Enjoy it. Be weird. Be silly. Be fucked up. Be unrepentantly yourself. Don’t let anyone else take that away from you.

[rainbowsky]

Hi!!! While I'm really happy with the successful completion of season 5 of SDC, but I came across the clips of 🐢 and 🏍️ fighting with each other & there were staffs removing the red lights from the crowd which kinda made me upset. I know that it's completely fair for the staffs to promote wyb & his team in a show where bjyx related stuff is irrelevant. Anyway I know I should stay away from Twitter it's just bloodbath out there.

A lot of people have written me about this incident, and @accio-victuuri did a post about it as well, which you can find here. I just have a few things to add on this topic.

The question that keeps coming up is, "Should BXG be showing up at GG and DD's events with BXG banners and fan materials?"

To me the question isn't, "Should BXG be there?" the question is, "How should we conduct ourselves in public?"

We have every right to go wherever we want, online or off. We have the right to show our support for GG and DD. What I don't think we have the right to do is make a big spectacle of ourselves, or escalate tense situations in public places or in online spaces.

Here's the thing that I think we always need to keep in mind: we are the fringe group. We are the group that is going to be targeted for bullying and hate. In the eyes of the world at large, we are pervs who ship together real people using crazy theories and tinfoil hat clues. The myths about who we are and what we are about are far more widespread than the realities.

It is the fact that GG and DD are real people that makes our fandom fall under greater scrutiny, and it is why we have to be extra careful about how we behave. These aren't a couple of fictional characters. Everything that we say and do reflects on and has a potential to impact two very real people.

And if we believe they are in a real relationship, that makes it doubly important that we conduct ourselves with extra caution.

Going to an event - even an event that only one of them is present at - with turtle light banners and cute little dolls is totally fine, what isn't fine in my view is to cross over into behavior that might be disruptive. I have said it a thousand times, we should always stay in our own lane.

Solos are going to attack, bully and harass us. It's just the way things are. You've heard me say this a lot in the past - we don't have any control over what other people say, do or think. The only thing we have any control over is how we respond to what other people say, do or think. And if we care about GGDD and the turtle fandom we should always be choosing the response that will lead to peace.

When solos attack us, it is better to take the high road and do what we can to de-escalate the situation. This goes for online or offline.

The friendlier someone is to somebody who is being cruel to them, the nastier the cruel person looks. But as soon as we start behaving nasty back, we start looking just as nasty as the person attacking us.

And let me guarantee you, this is one area where appearances do matter. As I stated before, we are a fringe group. We are going to be targeted. If we look like we are asking for it, we're only making matters worse for ourselves. We are only jeopardizing our own existence as turtles.

If our behavior escalates rather than de-escalates fan wars, then we are generating fan wars that can harm GG and DD, and can jeopardize the turtle fandom.

It's likely that some solos are fully aware of that, and try to actively bait us. Be well aware and simply block and ignore.

As for the claims being made about what happened, and who said what and who did what, and which light banners were removed and which were not - and why, none of it matters. What matters is putting a stop to the fan wars. Or, at the very least, putting a stop to our contribution to the fan wars.

It doesn't matter whether turtles or solos, they were all there representing DD and they embarrassed him, at an event that he was not even supposed to be the focus of. They should all be ashamed of themselves.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that both solos and turtles made a negative spectacle of themselves. No one here comes away with a clean face.

Everybody from both fandoms should be deeply ashamed and humbled right now, not trying to justify themselves.

I see a lot of hand-wringing from people about what so-and-so said or did, or what so-and-so posted on Twitter. We shouldn't be fooling ourselves. Anything posted on Twitter is going to have a high chance of generating conflict. Conflict is a core feature of the culture of Twitter.

Nothing posted about GGDD or about turtles, no matter how benign or even positive, ever fails to draw solo hate and personal attacks toward BXG. Anyone who thinks that kind of BS can be avoided is fooling themselves.

I've been on Twitter, I see the kind of things that solos flock to and attack. They are just as likely to freak out over a cute piece of fan art as they are to freak out over a video showing fans arguing.

As I said before, it doesn't matter what solos do, what matters is how we respond to what they do. We should be blocking, ignoring, and reporting where appropriate.

Their behavior is their own responsibility. Our only focus should be on our own behavior.

I will never understand why people freak out over the fact that solos are saying hateful things about us on Twitter. Their opinions simply don't matter.

Edit: Follow-up post here.

[fastrainbowdas]

Adding onto your recent meta about the Pregames, one line stuck out to me. Where you said for the pregames that are supposed to be 'real people' they sure feel a lot more like caricatures. I'm really glad you brought up this point, especially considering the Pregames are supposed to represent the Danganronpa fandom, which is us. I feel like the understand the Pregames better, you need to world-build a little bit as to what their 'outside world' is like. It's heavily dubious what Tsumugi said about the outside world being peaceful and non-violet. With how people people were willing to sign away their lives so easily, the pregames feel more like su//c//dal teens that need a fuck ton of therapy. Many people in the 'real' DR fandom (at least from whom I met) have many personal issues that cripple their mental health and make them turn to fiction as a escape from their harsh life. I mean.........who hasn't thought "I wish I could live in that fictional world?" before?

The Pregames are really supposed to represent us, the Danganronpa fandom. So it actually makes me greatly concerned that people would 'self-project' the 'accepted fanon' of Pregame Shuichi being a sadistic yandere, Pregame Kaede being a nihilistic bully, Pregame Kokichi being a uwu femboy cinnamon bun, etc. It really does come to show that people would put shipping characters into a trope rather than using these pregames as their self-projection canvases

And while everyone in the Danganronpa fandom isn't the same, no version of the pregames have to be either. There's many pregame stories on Ao3, which has probably influenced and encouraged the misconceptualizing of the pregames. I understand that none of them have a canon personality, and since Ingame Saimatsu and Saiouma can never happen canonically, people will turn to the pregame AU to make it happen the way they want it. Then again, it is totally okay to write whatever an author wants, but it does take away good character discussion when the Pregames are boiled down to *insert name's* love intersted

Anyways, sorry for rambling. But yeah, here is my two cents about your essay. Great thoughts and I appreciated reading that very much as a pregame V3 enthusiast

I'm so sorry but you sent this to the wrong person SNGJFDNSZFDJVFGNJDNVJS

@hello-kitty-shuichi-saihara This is for you

But ya I do agree that the pregame characters are supposed to represent us. And deciding the characters' personalities based on tropes and shipping only is really funny when you can just Go Replay The Prologue and see the character is Nothing Like That Trope

Like, in the prologue Kokichi asks reasonable questions very clearly which is very different from uwu stuttering "pwease dont huwt me" fanon pregame Kokichi (Who probably would've been silent tbh). Kaede has a bit of a temper (and so does ingame Kaede) but is still nice to people around her (Shuichi is the obvious one) which. Y'know, if she was the popular bully girl like in fanon she probably would've insulted absolutely everyone without hesitation right? But she doesn't. Yandere Shuichi (Like, unironically) straight up squicks me? Because the way I see it, people decided he's like that because of his audition tape. Like, good job guys, you took a guy ranting about his kinda fucked up interest and decided he's a homicidal maniac who obsesses over Danganronpa and his uwu soft boyfwiend who needs pwotection at all costs. I'm flabbergasted that people don't realize what picture they're painting of themselves, since they're also Danganronpa fans, but aside from that... As someone who also rants abt their interests like that it just. I hate it DJKSANKJDSNFANFDJS

These characters are a lot more similar to their ingame selves than people give them credit for haha

[makiruz]

So I watched the first 3 episodes of Andor and what I have to say is that the tone is weird; not bad, weird

Something doesn't feel right about this whole thing and I suspect that it's that it doesn't really feel like Star Wars. It's hard to explain what it is, my brother says is that it has the tone of cyberpunk, and that might be it, Andor feels too realistic. What I mean is that Star Wars is in reality fantasy, but Andor feels like science fiction, feels too down to earth, too much like an extrapolation of the real world, rather than a fantastical world.

This isn't to say the show is bad, it's good actually; I can see why people like it, it's more serious, which is what Star Wars fans want, but I don't think it's really Star Wars. There are aliens, despite what I'd been led to believe, but so far they have been extras, no significant character has been an alien; and there's no spirituality, which you might think is silly but spirituality is an integral part of Star Wars.

Also some story choices are weird, first off Andor's background; he comes from a tribal non-industrialized culture, but he's human; in Star Wars this kind of tribal people tend to be aliens, while humans represent the West, no everyone is the same of course, but a human group that doesn't speak basic? How did that happen? How did that people get there? In Star Wars lore there's the implication that in the past Humans expanded from their unknown homeplanet (sometimes believed to be Coruscant) into the rest of the Galaxy and with time evolved into different cultures; I suppose Kenari might have been isolated for a long time and that's why they developed their own unique tribal culture, but that just feels weird in this universe, again, this sort of people are usually aliens.

Second I don't get why would that guy would travel all the way to Ferrix to recruit Andor into the Rebellion; what's so special about Andor? He doesn't have the Force, he's not a former Imperial officer, he doesn't have a special McGuffin, he's a completely ordinary person, there's nothing about him worthy of the special attention. And if you want to say, "that's how the Rebellion operates" no it isn't; we've seen how the Rebellion recruits people: they're unhappy with the Empire, something push them off the edge, some Rebels are there, they join them; sending someone to pick up someone else needs a reason: they have specialized skills, they want to join the Rebellion but they can't leave their current location on their own, they have information; the Rebels don't go after random normal people in a different planet who don't want to join the Rebellion in the first place; when they're insistent is when the reluctant person is there, next to them and often partially involved in the Rebellion already. This scenario feels all wrong

Next the first two episodes are too long, it should've been only one episode leading to the confrontation in Ferrix

But I will say that I really like the cops; those guys are absolute clowns, they're all acting like they're going to war to protect the Universe when they're only going to pick up some guy. That part IS very Star Wars, I love it (uniforms could've been better though)

Final verdict of the first 3 episodes: This feels like a cool sci fi show, but not Star Wars; the problems I have (besides pacing) wouldn't exist if the show was original and was creating new rules; within Star Wars it feels weird and wrong

[cartoon-buffoon]

I usually don't reblog my own posts but in hopes to prove that fanfiction is a genuine type of writing and because I think a LOT about the stories I wish to tell here's an explanation/some extra details about this fic that I have kept in my mind because I love subtle world building and the implications rather than the downright explanations (why am I explaining this fic then? Because I can, shush). Anyways time for tonight's episode of:

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH TB!

Now for starters the inspirations for this fic is a clusterfuck of several different things I've pulled from. First and foremost and I suppose the main inspirations I explicitly mentioned were a song and a story. The story this is based on is my personal favorite fictional story EVER and the story that inspired me to write in the first place which is "The Inevitable End Of All But Me" by SCP illustrated [link to video here] . This story features the really hard to kill reptile SCP-682 effectively alone in a desolate cold world after humanity and all life has died, you could see the influence on this fic. With that outta the way the other inspiration was the FNF sonic.exe Lord X song "Trichael", which is a song of the sinister deity Lord X (which is a new version of the classic sonic.exe) who's body or vessel is at the end of its lifespan and the song is him accepting his death as he's basically a walking corpse. The link is [here] if you wanna listen to it (lyrics start half-way through) but I'll recount the main lyrics that makes me draw a connection CC to Lord X as characters:

"[I tore off my face

I don't want it back

do not let me see it

it will fade to black]

I'm waiting,

Still breathing,"

No longer worth deceiving

This flesh decaying but my,

heart's,

still,

bea-ting"

These verses has rewired my brain and gave me a hard cemented HC into my mind that whatever CC was/is under the mask he doesn't like that version of himself. His body is a lot more than a way to latch onto the world, it's a form he loves and cherishes which is why he chooses to remain as it. The idea of Lord X also inspired the dialogue/implied origins of CC in this fic which is a segway into my next topic—

THE THREE SURVIVORS/SYMBOLISM

The choice of CC, Long Horse, and The Man With The Upside Down Face (who will be abbreviated as UDF from here on out) was a sort of representation of past, present, and future. CC is the cause of the disaster showcasing what did happen with his body decaying, Long Horse is the representation of what is currently happening with humanity dead the patron saints all have no purpose and their crumbling which is exactly what happens to Long Horse. UDF finally is representative of the aftermath, unlike CC and Long Horse, UDF is untouched for one of two reasons, he shows no signs of rot despite it clearly stating his time is also up because he is the representation of everything will go back to how it is. Both for CC and the earth which will have nature reclaim it with a line directly stating this.

Now as for the individual characters themselves Long Horse and his presence was one I DEFINITELY wanted to be there for CC. In most fan projects and fan stuff CC and Long Horse are tied together with Long Horse (who will be abbreviated as LH from here on out) usually being a warning to CC's victims. Now while the same is true for this fic as it's explicitly stated that LH ruined some of CC's meals by warning them, I paint LH as a benevolent creature who's intentionally passive. It is dying with CC and while it did strive to protect humans UDF rightfully states that LH feels pity for CC, which it does. It doesn't hold any resentment or hatred as it just can't, it knows CC is something that holds no real morals or reason, it's not a human and doesn't really know what it feels like to have the same feelings as a mortal. That's kinda where the pity comes from, it feels bad for CC because it's a creature that was so caught up in its bloodlust it never for a second considered anything else.

On the opposite end of the spectrum there's UDF who comes out with the cold hard truth and although he doesn't hate CC he rightfully blames him. UDF I paint as a sort of grim reaper, it was there for the death of all the others and it intentionally tries to rile CC up just for a last meal because it feeds off that energy when something dies. An aspect of UDF I wrote in and personally love is the fact that it knows it's a force of nature far beyond the other creatures which is why It has nicknames for all of them and refuses to call them by their actual names. It calls CC "Smiley", LH as "Skelly", it refers to Big Charlie, Lil Nugget, and the Lamb as "The Big Fella and his spawn", The God of Roadkill as "Roady", the bridge worms as "maggots", Chicken God as "Beak-face", and finally Siren Head as "that ol' siren". It uses these nicknames because it sees itself as above them all and looks down at them, it's entire existence being just evil incarnate. It's also why he uses CC's name in a mocking fashion + why when LH injuries him his tone changes, he was humbled up and gets kinda pissy about that because something he considers below him hurt him. I also imagine UDF as a sort of omnipresent force which is why he's also not worried about his own demise either, like yeah his material existence is coming to an end yet he doesn't really care at all and is sort of happy he could witness such chaos be sown in the first place. All he wants to do is make sure CC knows what he did, although as I said he DID want to piss CC off that doesn't take away that all of his words held weight. He didn't sugarcoat or lie about anything and just stated the truth.

Now for the final character and one I attempted to keep as canon-accurate as possible: CC! CC's entire thing is its a cold hearted killer that shows no remorse for its actions. Which is why in this fic it doesn't really change, in fact this fic itself was created as an explanation as to why CC doesn't go on mass killing sprees and prefers to slowly take away the population for its own amusement. If it did just stroll around slaughter absolutely everything it would be board faster, it's why the section of CC contemplating his existence was so fun to write/read back on. At the end of the day he truly shows no remorse and he would learn NOTHING from an experience where he was faced with the thought of death, in fact arguably he's even worse now. I kinda wanted this to reflected during his actual death yet I feel like I didn't do a good enough job, one thing I did make sure to add was when he sees LH he still thinks about taking this opportunity to end LH then and there but he chooses not too because their all already dying. It's this part of the character that I absolutely love because even during death he's still the same Cartoon Cat, he thinks about different possibilities out of curiosity yet when he's given a second chance he IMMEDIATELY goes back to killing. It's in his blood and apart of him, did you really think he'd learn a moral? Nope! And that's why I absolutely loved to write this. Anyways moving on to:

WHATS NOT STATED/EXTRAS

For starters one thing that I guess is a heavy part is the existence of the void/abyss, the place where CC and likewise UDF come from. Now while CC and UDF's origins canonically are left up to be a mystery on a purpose (and IMO it makes them even more scarier) I decided to give a sort of implication where they come from. This was inspired by Lord X as well but the concept of the void to me is an abstract place of darkness, a place outside of time and space that's primordial. I still wanted to keep an air of mystery surrounding it though which is why both CC and UDF—despite coming from there—have no idea what the abyss truly is like. I love cosmic horror so something is scary to me that even the creatures birthed from it have no idea wtf it is as they only have a vague idea of what it is. Their basic understanding is demonstrated with UDF saying to CC "I look forward to seeing you in the abyss... If we don't forget ourselves that is", and why when CC dies and is suddenly thrust into an abyss he doubts it's THE abyss. As they understand it, the abyss and where they spawn from is a place of absolute nothingness, it's a place where the very memories and sense of who they were/are on earth is stripped away and they're reduced to the primordial nothingness that they spawned from. At least that's what they ASSUME, neither knows for sure and UDF hopes to see CC in the void just so he could laugh at it and it's why when CC is in the abyss he doesn't believe he's in the abyss he came from because it just doesn't feel right. The abyss and the void itself is kinda like the concept of a god, people have vastly different takes of who/what is god but they all have a vague idea or share similar beliefs, with all that being said it's possible they are all wrong because no one truly knows for sure.

Okay abyss covered, the other thing I wanna explain a bit is the death of the other cryptids/creations of Mr. Henderson. Although a passing comment with little importance idk but I find the death's of all the other cryptids either sad or actually somewhat happy. For starters the bridge worms are creatures that are kinda biological and not really supernatural, they are a species that lies in dark places and area to hunt animals and humans and it's fake face is a stunted and kinda useless form of mimicry. The bridge worm is kinda what a cryptid should be, a fucked up creature that has an air of mystery surrounding it but for the most part is pretty comprehensible on paper. With that being said it's death is explanatory, the bridge worm as a species all just died off without food, simple but logical. On the more positive side beak-face aka the chicken god/chicken ghost actually killed itself in order to save its poultry servants. It literally ripped off it's halo killing itself in the process so the surviving chickens could go somewhere else. While it is sad it died it the death of all humans meant the chickens didn't need a guardian anymore so he decided to sacrifice himself and take all the world's population of chickens (or at least the ones CC didn't consume in his massacre) to a better world for them. In a similar vain the death of all man meant the god of roadkill's purpose was also useless which is why his death is pretty simple. It walked off to an animal graveyard and passed, it fulfilled its job until the very end and because of that it got to finally take a well deserved rest surrounded by animals which it cared for. Something different happens with Big Charlie, Lil Nugget, and The Lamb (and void nugget I guess too) and I intentionally used the word "faded" there. I remember Mr. Henderson saying Big Charlie, Lil Nugget, and The Lamb is kinda like the holy Trinity of his universe being the father, the song, and the holy Spirit which is why they all "faded". I wanted to imply they all kinda ascended and went to a better place, idk I find the idea of big Charlie and all the Lil Nuggets and Lambs all huddling together before slowly fading into what I would hope is heaven is a sweet mental image, Charlie's life started off in a meat plant so to have it's "children" all there together in one big embrace before becoming something more is what I think he deserves. Stepping away from that though there's finally Siren Head who I like to think is equally part flesh as he is metal. With nothing to feast on I came up with the gnarly mental image of Siren Head's body physically rusting, the meat on its scrawny form peeling off until finally it stood stiff, it's skelton fully exposed being leaving a normal looking siren as a pile of meat lay at its feet. As you can tell the smallest of lines comes with the craziest amount of ideas from me on the writing standpoint and if I don't share these NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW OF MY IDEAS!

Anyways lemme check my last few notes and do a speed round of stuff.

—LH is stated to be a pacifist yet I imagine him to hold a great deal of power, his power demonstrated by him actually hurting UDF

—The world didn't reset but rather CC is in an entirely new world, the old one still existed and died off

—CC's rebirth in a new world is because of it latching onto the inherent nostalgia of others. As long as people exist who look back on how things used to be fondly it will forever be the same ol' Cartoon Cat no matter the world.

—The title of the fic + the ending is based on the picture Mr. Henderson made of CC T-posing in an empty street, the picture being named "reruns". The same man from that picture is the one in the fic who unfortunately stumbled across CC.

—This is a fuck up on my part but the ending should not have been in a mall because as the reruns picture clearly shows CC is in the middle of an empty street, NOT A MALL

Okay with that outta the way time for tonight's final segment:

CUT CONTENT!

Like all of my works many ideas don't fall through or gets changed in rewrites, I'll list some and briefly touch on why I didn't go through with it or altered it.

—originally this fic was going to be a lot closer to its inspiration with the world actually completely dying, didn't use this because I wanted to seperate it from The Inevitable End Of All But Me.

—the other cryptids were planned to be there for CC during the finale. Ultimately I felt like LH and UDF being there had more of an impact than just some cryptid apocalypse party on a roof, LH's outburst being the main deciding factor in this decision as the idea was too perfect not to use.

—LH was supposed to speak a lot more and in fact have an entire monologue expressing his sympathy and pity towards CC, once again this was inspired by the SCP-682 story and the new humans' eulogy for a murderer in that story taking on a double meaning and being indirectly for 682. Felt like LH being silent held more of an impact.

—likewise CC was also supposed to speak but once again, silence is sometimes better than dialogue in storytelling.

—CD or the Cartoon Dog was originally supposed to replace LH during the original idea of having all of Mr. Henderson's creations present, this was quickly scrapped

—CC was supposed to use the last bit of his powers to reset the world and creating it anew than dying and going to another. Felt like CC's "death" held more weight so this didn't go through

—The ending line was supposed to be different because of some dream metaphors I wanted to add in, with these metaphors the ending line would of been "this was all one bad dream, a bad dream everyone but him would wake up from". This was supposed to show that ultimately CC is trapped in an eternal loop of killing with his purpose forever being to end the world, ultimately this felt like I was trying to make CC a sympathetic villain when he's not. The ending was gonna be the kinda same though with CC not being discouraged by the eternal loop and in fact embracing his instincts so that part remained

—the cryptids death were supposed to get an entire paragraph dedicated to how they all died, cut this for the sake of length/time although this ramble details the detail of their death's so I suppose this wasn't completely scrapped as you get it here

—there was supposed to be a UDF and CC fight scene but once again LH's outburst stole the show and this had to be scrapped to make way for it, that and also length constraints

—extra detail of the man during the ending's death. It was supposed to show CC actually doing the savoring of the kill by having the man crying and begging while CC tore off bits of flesh and ate it. Ultimately removed due to length constraints.

Alright that's all I can think of, sorry for this super giant fucking ramble about this shitty fic. I'm in no way a good writer so if you think a lot of these ideas are too deep for a CC fanfic then—yeah you're right, I overthink too much. If you have anymore inquires about anything feel free to ask but until then thanks for reading if you came this far and until next time:

STAY TOONED!

Here's a Cartoon Cat' fanfic idk if I'll post on my AO3 so semi-exclusive story, btw this is inspired by my favorite stories of all time and a song. If you can somehow guess which story and which song you get a gold star for doing a goods.

TW for: gore and body horror

Reruns

Throughout all of time it had gone long undisturbed. What lurked behind a friendly cartoon cat's smile was a nothing more than sinister force that loved to indulge in the fear and havoc it could wreck. With powers beyond mortal comprehension it had no competition, it reigned supreme at the top of the food chain with not one to challenge it. Using these powers it was at first content with the simple disappearances that it would make, people here and there who went down dark alleys, abandoned crossroads, desolate malls, old warehouses, all of them suddenly vanishing without a trace. Picking people off, dragging them away screaming, and torturing them while it ripped them apart was fun but eventually that grew boring for the faux feline. It craved more, more and more which it consumed and caused chaos. Soon entire neighborhoods vanished, bloodstains and body parts laying in homes where the residents should be. From neighborhoods it advanced to entire towns, thousands gone just like that. Towns turned to cities, cities turned to counties, counties to states, states to regions, by the time an entire area suddenly went dead a mass hysteria infected the world. Mortals assumed the apocalypse was upon them and they'd be right, once its presence was known it need not hide anymore.

That was the fun part for it, once everybody knew of the Cartoon Cat as something more than just urban legend or myth it grew bold. Dashing through streets and populated areas it grew hands and arms out of its back in order to snatch man, women, child, animal, all that crossed its path in order to shove them down its gullet. At one point it even ceased to feed, it opted to just bite down on the skulls of its prey popping their heads sending skull fragments and blood across the pavement only to discard the rest of the bodies like trash. It didn't need food anymore, it merely killed for the sport and thrill of it, thrill of seeing the vain attempts to run or fight, it's absolute favorite was when it couldn't spot anybody out in the open. That's where the real game began. With the mortals getting smart they hid to the best of their abilities, trying not to be found and maybe outlast this entity posing as a black cat that made mincemeat out of the people they knew. One by one over the span of only a few years all their hopes and dreams were crushed though, each who hid was found with the Cartoon Cat spending extra time to make their deaths as painful as possible, a sort of reward for making the game just so entertaining. Like all things though the game had to come to an end, with no more mortals or animals the world fell into ruin. With the mortal's death soon the other cryptids who stalked the earth died out, without life to feed from they starved and perished. With no mortals left, no games to play, no fear to strike into people, the same too was happening to the Cartoon Cat. It was the very things it killed that kept it intact, its demented existence was kept alive by those who acknowledged its existence.

At the end of all there was naught to do but be consumed by the hollow rot and bloodlust that he used to consume the mortals.

It sat on where it originally called home, the abandoned mall which it used to lurk. With all humans gone nature had reclaimed it as well as most of the rest of earth. Vines creeped up the side and trees sprouted from the foundation, gazing at a setting sun the Cartoon Cat couldn't help but find irony in the one thing having the last laugh and outliving it was the very ground it walked on. The ground it smeared with the blood of billions. Alas it wasn't completely alone though, after all while most cryptids did rely on a food source there were creatures like it who either held a purpose or relied on belief to keep them alive. While not all of them were extra dimensional the mortals roughly classified those they deemed otherworldly or alien as "Patron Saints", while The Cartoon Cat itself was deprived of such a title for being "too evil" that didn't stop them from grouping it in with the rest. It was one of those who it was grouped in with which showed up as its time was nearing the end. The patron saint of guiding lost souls and a bearer of warning decided to pay the thing who ruined the lives of the mortals it tried to warn a visit, the Long Horse as it was aptly named. Its neverending infinite neck climbed up the building and it held its head up beside The Cartoon Cat, staring at it with its empty sockets.

This sure was a surprise to the cat, it was acquainted with the skull headed creature but it could hardly call it a friend. The Long Horse spent a good deal of its existence warning the mortals of The Cartoon Cat, but now there was no one left to warn. They were polar opposites but in the end it didn't really matter, nothing mattered considering they were both dying. The feline glanced at the creature out of the corner of its eye and saw this clear as day. Fractures and cracks had accumulated onto its skull, its spine that held up its skull looked brittle like the smallest bit of force could break the bone. The cat contemplated doing this, ending the thing that would ruin its meals here and now, but there would be no satisfaction in it, no fight to justify the kill, besides time would soon rapture them itself.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything"

The age old proverb of misery coming in 3s proved right. An uninvited guest made his presence known as he walked up to the two other cryptids, the individual in question being the patron saint of havoc and disaster. Negativity itself embodied into the form of a sharply dressed man with his face twisted upside down. His tone was smug and while the two showed signs of rot the man with the upside down face showed no signs of being affected, although his time on earth as it stood was too coming to an end. Despite this his tone was smug, seeing the two once powerful creatures weak before him made him absolutely giddy.

"Pardon my lateness I was checking up on the others, safe to say it's just us three left: the maggots lurking in underpasses all shriveled up and died, beak-face offed himself by ripping out his halo to open a gateway for his followers to only-he-knows, roady passed away in some animal graveyard, the big fella and his spawn huddled up before they faded, heck even that ol' siren's flesh rusted right off his bone" the man's twisted smile grew wider, the taste of their death's fresh on his tongue "oh you should of been there! I'm sure you would of loved to see it"

The Cartoon Cat remained silent, still staring out at the sunset. It didn't have words to spare, certainly none to that upside down headed bottom feeding leech.

This silence provoked the man to take another step forward, his shoes clacking against the mall's roof "oh come on, do you really got nothing for me smiley? Don't tell me you're scared of death now" the man's eyes fixated on the cat, trying to garner any sort of reaction as he spoke "I guess that's why they call you a pussycat for a reason"

If it was a reaction the man wanted it would be a reaction he would get. Even in its rotting state the Cartoon Cat held enough power to wipe that smile off the man's face. Turning to face him it bared stained teeth, its gums leaking blood from its maw.

It was at this point the Long Horse intervened, stretching in-between the two it acted as a barrier as both of its sockets on the side of its skull bore into the two cryptids.

"Oh come on skelly, don't you see this entire thing is his fault, what's he got to cry over?" The man with the upside down face brought a hand up to his mouth, trying to cover his mouth as he snickered "oh it just drives me WILD how much I can feel your pity for smiley over there! Even as you're about to die you hold no anger or rage towards the very thing that brought us all to our doom, it's comical really..."

The Cartoon Cat's flesh began to droop off its form as it stood and turned to face the man with his face upside down. The smell of burnt rubber filled the air and it hunched over, ready to strike at the patron saint who was trying to get a last meal out of both their emotions.

"Look at you" The man continued "Standing there with your sickly looking self, I do got to hand it to you though, I'm surprised your body hasn't caved in on itself yet, you using the last bit of power you have to stay awake?"

The Long Horse extended itself further into the air, its spine creaking and cracking in a way no bone should. Although it remained silent a strong gust of wind blew across the area making the man's tie flutter. It was a warning.

"hehehe...." The warning was met with laughter, the man was absolutely reveling in the moment and ignored Long Horse, looking over across towards the decaying cryptid "I thought you were stronger than this, are you really having the pacifist stand up for you? This is a new low for you truly-"

The wind picked up, the breeze growing stronger with each word the man said.

"Maybe if you used your brain instead of your stomach you'd realize this would be the end goal of your little massacre, but you didn't ever think of that did you? Instead all you thought about was satisfying that unquenchable thirst to kill but now you left yourself, and everyone high and dry, a desert without an oasis"

Gusts of air tried to drown out what the man with the upside down face was saying, but he knew all too well the cat could hear him. He continued, his tone more condescending by the second.

"Acting as if you deserve anything else other than this, you've reaped what you've sowed and that's the souls of all you saw, I may be throwing stones in a glass house here yet it takes one to know one which is why I can safely say you're nothing but a sad little speck from the void who wanted to hide behind some fake face in order to turn this world into your little playground"

"ENOUGH"

The Long Horse's voice echoed throughout the air, traveling on the wind as it fell onto the man and cat's ears. The deep, hoarse tone made the mall shake and the man go silent, although a pacifist and a creature of benevolence it had grown fed up with the mockery. What came around went around, karma physically manifesting as blood the man puked up.

Falling to his knees the man spoke through grit teeth, his smile morphing into a scowl "I see the truth isn't very welcome here, fine then" he stood up and fixed his tie "I'll be off now since I'm clearly unwanted, I hope that little stunt of yours was worth it skelly seeing as you don't got much life left in you" walking away the man couldn't help but get the last laugh in, taking a quick glance back at the rotting feline he uttered his words of departure "after everything is said and done I look forward to seeing you in the abyss... if we don't forget ourselves that is, until next time Cartoon Cat". The man's words were laced with venom, mocking the name that the cryptid chose for itself.

With that he was gone, vanishing into thin air leaving the only other two cryptids alive behind.

The two soon becoming one, The Long Horse's borrowed time was all spent up hurting the man with the upside down face. The cracks on it deepened and its spine turned to dust, its skull landing right in the hands of the Cartoon Cat.

The Cartoon Cat stared at the patron saint that lay in its palms, the horse's body and connection to the earth severed. It didn't know whether the creature was still alive or if the skull was merely the remains of that wish used to plague it, either way it couldn't help but embrace the skull. The cat's body was and time was coming to an end, the form it took destabilizing. Ovular pupils struggled to maintain their shape, they dilated growing wider and wider until the sclera was consumed by the pupil, eyes now pure white. With blurred vision the Cartoon Cat couldn't see the body it had made for itself, but maybe that was for the better because it sure could feel it. Blood and pus oozed out of every orifice on its body, mouth, eyes, even the pores that lined its body soon secreted a foul smelling combination of liquid that signified its decay. The skin it had started to sag off molded bones, its face particularly coming undone revealing the hideous visage of what truly lurked behind the mask. Not one would be left to view it though, instead all that there would be was silence. While it still had time left and the sounds of death dripped off his form it's mind began to ponder what it could of done differently.

It was too late now but it still wondered out of curiosity, perhaps the curiosity could have saved it if it ever considered the different options. Maybe it could have existed as a purely fear based entity, instead of downright killing mortals it could have given them a good scare, feed off that fear. Another idea was instead of killing humans directly it could have taken a page of that leech's book and be an omen that would cause disasters, toppling over skyscrapers or collapsing bridges, killing people that way. Maybe malice wasn't the road, maybe it could have avoided its current predicament if it was a bit more kind to the mortals it so eagerly killed. It could have been one of the few cryptids revered as something good, a savior to humanity, a patron saint which lived up to its name. Helping mortals advance, defending them against other entities that wished to feed off them. It could have gained just as much if not more attention by being kind to the mortals, instead of latching onto their nostalgia and using its form to harm it could have been a proper cartoon cat using their positive emotions rather than the negative ones to maintain on earth. All those ideas passed through its mind but it couldn't help but feel that no matter what it did the ending would be the same, even if given a second chance to repent it's body would still be melting into a putrid pile of meat. As its senses dulled and it could no longer feel the Long Horse's skull in its hands it knew death had come for it, or at least for its body that it inhabited.

Death or the death of its body was cold, not frigid but cold nonetheless, the feeling was almost familiar in a way. Despite its body finally rotting and its eyes closing for what would be the final time somehow it maintained its senses. It could still smell, hear, see, feel, taste, but all of them were numbed to the point it couldn't pick up on anything exact. What it could see though was an ever expanding black that stretched out for miles, a complete and utter void with nothing but itself alone in it, alone with a deafening silence. It wondered if this is truly where it came from, it had been so many years since it fashioned that form for itself that it had forgotten what the abyss was like, was this where it originated from? It doubted it strongly, although an abyss would be an apt description of what it saw it knew whatever it was in wasn't that. It still clung onto the memories of who it was instead of having all that stripped away, it was in a weird in-between. A limbo, a line where neither death nor life treaded, where time meant nothing and space was but a mere concept. Of course the only other thing was the silence, the silence which allowed it to be alone with its thoughts for what would be an eternity.

Or at least, that's what it assumed.

No, by some miracle it seemed this wouldn't be all that existence had in store for it. A voice broke through the silence and drew its attention, what would have been death was interrupted by the unsure words of man. A man who sounded confused and scared, an all to mortal emotion.

"Hello? Anybody here?"

Its eyes opened back up to find not its body rotten and diseased but instead perfectly intact. Yellow eyes glowed in the dark allowing it to see everything in clear view, the scenery was that of its mall before nature took over, before its global massacre. Down the hall shined what one could only assume was a flashlight of someone intruding on the space it took shelter in. It didn't know how, why, but it nonetheless knew that in some way it was brought back to either before its giant mistake or to a new world entirely. That didn't matter though, what mattered was doing something different this time around. Standing up and letting its long body graze the ceiling it emerged from its corner and towards the mortal. All those ideas that had ran through its head while it died were quickly forgotten, one idea prevailing among them.

"Huh? What's that?"

A grin formed across its face going from ear to ear. The end would be the same now matter what it did, so as it stepped into the light it knew what it would do instead.

"Wha-... What the fuck..."

With a newfound appreciation for the mortals it hunted it would take time this run around. After all this run wouldn't be that different, bones would break, skin ripped clean off, tears of those who begged for mercy would fall on the ground.

"Oh god... OH GOD!"

As it lunged forward ready to make the mortal suffer it knew the exact process this time around. It would savor each and every kill it came across, prolonging and allowing the mortals to eventually kill themselves off while it would take a singular one each time it pleased, drawing out their suffering as much as possible. It would savor the kill instead of letting greed force its hand to slaughter everything. After all, it was just one big rerun…

A rerun of its favorite episode.

[wenellyb]

Can I ask your opinion on the what if... series? I'm really hating the Captain Carter trailers. I feel like it's disrespectful to Sam's character who has only just taken up the mantle of Captain America and the shield. I get that this is an alternate timeline series but from the sounds of things they plan on launching these alternates into the main MCU via the multiverse. If rumours are true and Peggy appears in Doctor Strange 2, then that means Captain Carter will appear on the big screen as a supersoldier shield-weilding Cap before Sam appears. And that doesn't sit right with me. Not to mention the merchandise that's already everywhere. Feels like Sam's getting sidelined again before he's even had the chance to shine on his own. Anyway, I'd be interested to know your thoughts on it, if you've seen it. (Also, less related, the uniform being the British flag just reeks of WW2 British imperialism which is also just ugh. And I'm an Australian, our flag literally includes the British one! I just do not like any of this.)

Hi Anon!!! Thanks for the ask it's a very interesting question.

I haven't thought about it a lot because I have seen the trailers and I liked it, it looks like a very cool show and I llike Peggy Carter's character.

They have announced the What If... series since a long time ago and one of the scenario announced was indeed what if Peggy was "Captain America", so this isn't exactly a surprise.

I have seem some posts about the fact that there is much promotion and much more merchandise is done for Captain Cartet than for Captain America. And that are disappointed that Sam's character is sidelined and maybe it's too spon and I will changer my mind, but I personally don't feel that way for now.

I guess I would have more of a problem if:

-it weren't an animated series and there was a real show with Captain Carter. I didn't know about Peggy appearing in Doctor Strange 2, but I guess we'll have to wait and see what is the screntime, if she appears as Captain Carter or not. But for now, I personally don't see Captain Carter as a problem or as Sam's character being sidelined.

- if they brought back Chris Evans' Captain America on a different project, like those rumors said some ago. It would annoy me to no end if they used the excuse of the multiverse to bring back another version of Steve Rogers as Captain America, or as

Honestly, for me, there is a problem with Sam's character and how him being Captain America is handled, but it has nothing to do with the What if series. I think it's important to put the blame where it should be.

The problem isn't that there is more promotion or more merch available for the What If series or Captain Carter, because the show is about to air, so it's normal that it would get promoted, that's how it works.

To me, the problem is that we had a TV show with Sam as Captain America, and then... nothing???

The problem is that we had an announcement for a Cap 4 movie but with no realease date nothing? Not even a TBA date in 2024 or whatever? With all these MCU moves already lined up there should be at least an official announcement, even a vague date.

And I'm thinking maybe we'll get to Sam Wilson in other movies, before the Cap 4 movie, but it's not a certainty, and also what about the official dates for his own movie? Not even something like "confirmed" or "announced" with the Captain America logo.

That's what doesn't sit right with me, because for now it looks to me that Disney has no plan to follow up on Captain Sam Wilson... Just from the looks of it, I don't know what they will or will not do.

Am I the only one who remembers that we were supposed to have a Cyrborg solo movie in the DCEU? It was announced and it never happened? So that's what's really making worried regarding Captain America.

From where I'm standing, Disney wants the diversity points without putting in more work than necessary.

Another issue is that historically the fandom never stands up for the Black Superheroes and the Balck actors.

It happened woth Ray Fisher, it happened with John Boyega, and I think John's case it's even more disgustimg because the behavior of the fandom eventually led to his role beong reduced in the Saga...wtf. They preferred to run an incoherent story and make a mediocre movie rather than pay Fonn his due!

Just an example of what I mean when I say that the fandom doesn't support Black Actors: You see all what is happening with Scarlett Johansson right? The lawsuit etcetera.... I have seen dozens and dozens of posts supporting her and her lawsuit.... And this isn't coming from her fans... It's even coming from people who dislike her but understand the importance of what she's doing. I understand the importance of what she's doing... But I can't help and compare it to he support Ray Fisher had in the fandom, when he was calling out the abuse he received from Joss Whedon and from some Executives. Since the story with Scarlett started every 10th post on my dash is about it. And yes, it's still fresh, so it's normal people are talking about it. But when the whole story started with Ray Fisher, the reaction was just not the same.... People were amkong posts that wouldn't get more that a 100 notes, and for me it was easier supporting from Twitter because at least I could retweet Ray's tweets.... but let me tell you that he was bassically fight alone. ALONE.

I have seen so many posts saying.... "I hate Scarjo but..." "I can't stand Scarjo but..." So from where I'm sitting a problematic White actress will get more support than an unproblematic Black actor denouncing abuse. And just to be clear... I do think that the fandom should support Scarjo's lawsuit because Disney is never held accountable for the sh*t they do, I'm just making a comparison and saying they both deserved support but only one of them got it.

That's why I have absolutely no fate that the MCU fandom will stand up for Anthony Mackie or Sam Wilson if it's ever necessary seeing how they turned their back on Anthony Mackie the moment they thought he was against "Sambucky". They will turn their back on him and his character the minute a minor inconvience happen. And Disney/Marvel will love that because they will have a justification as to why they will not follow through with Sam Cap (His characyer is unpopular.... or whatever excuse they will find).

And about the interview thing, I guess I could understand if and only if they had a problem with some of the things he had said... But the fandom made it clear that they only cared about what they thought he said about Sambucky, not the rest, proving once again that the fandom is untrustworthy. Because they were ready to condemn hom for something as trivial as a fictional ship.

If push comes to shove, and for instance they brought back another Steve Rogers from another universe, I'm sure they would be quick to support THAT character instead of Sam.

To me the problem is Disney & Marvel Execs and also the fandom of course... Because the Execs go where the money is... If the fandom is hyping up anybody BUT Sam Wilson... the execs will do the same... because they will promote characters who are the most popular.

It's important to reward reprensation, and hype up movies and shows with reprensentation, but to me it is as important (if not more important) not to reward lack of representation.

That's why I have absolutely no intention to pay for a MCU movie other than Shang Chi, and Black Panther and also Cap 4 whenever it comes out! But other than that... I'm staying away from the movies with always the same group being represented.

TL:DR; in my opinion, there is indeed a problem but the problem isn't the What if series, far from it.

[flufffysocks]

let's talk about andi mack's worldbuilding

sorry this took forever to make! i've been pretty busy with school stuff and i kind of lost my inspiration for a bit, but i ultimately really enjoyed writing it! i wish i could've included more pics (tumblr has a max of 10 per post), and it kinda turned from less of a mini analysis to more of an extremely long rant... but i hope it's still a fun read!

i've been rewatching the show over the past few weeks (thanks again to @disneymack for the link!), and i’ve been noticing a lot that i never did the first time around. this is really the first time i’ve watched the show from start to finish since it aired, and it honestly feels so different this time - probably a combination of the fact that i’m not as focused on plot and can appreciate the show as a whole, and also that the fandom is much, much smaller now, so there’s a lot less noise. so the way i’m consuming this show feels super different than it did the first time, but the show itself doesn’t - it’s just as warm and comforting to me as it was the first time around, if not more so.

i think a lot of that can be attributed to andi mack’s “worldbuilding”. i’m not quite sure that this is the right word in this context, to be honest, because i mostly see it used in reference to fantasy and sci-fi universes, but it just sort of feels right to me for andi mack, because you can really tell how much love and care went into constructing this universe. for clarity, worldbuilding is “the process of creating an imaginary world” in its simplest sense. there’s two main types: hard worldbuilding, which involves inventing entire universes, languages, people, cultures, places, foods, etc. from scratch (think “lord of the rings” or “dune”), and soft worldbuilding, in which the creators don’t explicitly state or explain much about the fictional universe, but rather let it’s nature reveal itself as the story progresses (think studio ghibli films). andi mack to me falls in the soft worldbuilding category. even though it takes place in a realistic fiction universe, there’s a lot of aspects to it that are inexplicably novel in really subtle ways.

so watching the show now, i’ve noticed that the worldbuilding comes primarily from two things - setting and props, and oftentimes the both of them in tandem (because a big part of setting in filmmaking does depend on the props placed in it!).

one of the most obvious examples is the spoon. it really is a sort of quintessential, tropic setting in that it's the main gang's "spot", which automatically gives it a warm and homey feel to it. and its set design only amplifies this:

the choice to make it a very traditional 50s-style diner creates a very nostalgic, retro feel to it, which is something that's really consistent throughout the show, as you'll see. from the round stools at the bar, to the booths, to the staff uniforms, this is very obvious. the thing that i found especially interesting about it though is the choice of color. the typical 50s diner is outfitted with metallic surfaces and red accented furnishings, but the spoon is very distinctly not this.

instead, it's dressed in vibrant teal and orange, giving it a very fresh and modern take on a classic look. so it still maintains that feeling of being funky and retro, but that doesn't retract from the fact that the show is set distinctly in modern times.

of course, this could just be a one-off quirky set piece, but this idea of modernizing and novelizing "retro" things is a really common motif throughout the show. take red rooster records. i mean, it's a record shop - need i say more? it's obviously a very prominent store in shadyside, at least for the main characters, but there's no apparent reason why it is (until season 2 when bowie starts working there, and jonah starts performing there). a lot of the time, though, it functions solely as a record shop. vinyl obviously isn't the most practical or convenient way of listening to music, but it's had its resurgence in pop culture even in the real world, mostly due to its aesthetic value, so it's safe to say that it serves the same purpose in the andi mack universe.

the fringe seems to be nostalgic of a different era, specifically the Y2K/early 2000s period (because it's meant to be bex's territory and symbolic of who she used to be, and its later transformation into cloud 10 is representative of her character arc, but that's beside the point). to be honest, exactly what this store was supposed to be always confused me. it was kind of a combination party store/clothing store/makeup store/beauty parlor? i think that's sort of the point of it though, it's supposed to feel very grunge-y and chaotic (within the confines of a relatively mellow-toned show, of course), and it's supposed to act as a sort of treasure chest of little curios that both make the place interesting and allow the characters to interact with it.

and, of course, there's andi shack. this is really the cherry on top of all of andi mack's sets, just because it's so distinctly andi. it serves such amazing narrative purpose for her (ex. the storyline where cece and ham were going to move - i really loved this because it highlights its place in the andi mack universe so well, and i'm a sucker for the paper cranes shot + i'm still salty that sadie's cranes didn't make it into the finale) and it's the perfect reflection of andi's character development because of how dynamic it is (the crafts and art supplies can get moved around or switched out, and there's always new creations visible).

going back to the nostalgia motif though, the "shack" aspect of it always struck me as very treehouse-like. personally, whenever i think of treehouses, there's this very golden sheen of childhood about it, if that makes sense. i've always seen treehouses in media as a sort of shelter for characters' youthful innocence and idealistic memories. for example, the episode "up a tree" from good luck charlie, the episode "treehouse" from modern family, and "to all the boys 2" all use a treehouse setting as a device to explore the character's desire to hold onto their perfect image of their childhood (side note: this exact theme is actually explored in andi mack in the episode "perfect day 2.0"!). andi shack is no exception to this, but it harnesses this childhood idealism in the same way that it captures the nostalgia of the 50s in the spoon, or the early 2000s in the fringe. it's not some image of a distant past being reflected through that setting; it's very present, and very alive, because it reflects andi as she is in the given moment.

some honorable mentions of more one-off settings include the ferris wheel (from "the snorpion"), the alley art gallery (from "a walker to remember"), SAVA, the color factory (from "it's a dilemna"), and my personal favorite, the cake shop (from "that syncing feeling").

[every time i watch this episode i want to eat those cakes so bad]

these settings have less of a distinctly nostalgic feel (especially the color factory, which is a very late 2010s, instagram era setting), but they all definitely have an aura of perfection about them. andi mack is all about bright, colorful visuals, and these settings really play to that, making the andi mack universe seem really fun and inviting, and frankly very instagrammable (literally so, when it comes to the color factory!).

props, on the other hand, are probably a much less obvious tool of worldbuilding. they definitely take up less space in the frame and are generally not as noticeable (i'm sure i'll have missed a bunch that will be great examples, but i'm kind of coming up with all of this off the top of my head), but they really tie everything together.

for example, bex's box, bex's polaroid, and the old tv at the mack apartment (the tv is usually only visible in the periphery of some shots, so you might not catch it at first glance) all complement that very retro aesthetic established through the settings (especially the polaroid and the tv, because there's really no good reason that the characters would otherwise be using these).

besides this, andi's artistic nature provides the perfect excuse for plenty of colorful, crafty props to amplify the visuals and the tone. obviously, as i discussed before, andi shack is the best example of this because it's filled with interesting props. but you also see bits of andi's (and other people's) crafts popping up throughout the show (ex. the tape on the fridge in the mack apartment, andi's and libby's headbands in "the new girls", walker's shoes, andi's phone case, and of course, the bracelet). not only does doing this really solidify this talent as an essential tenet of andi's character, but it also just makes the entirety of shadyside feel like an extension of andi shack. the whole town is a canvas for her crafts (or art, depending on how you want to look at it. i say it's both), and it immensely adds to shadyside's idealism. because who wouldn't want to live in a world made of andi mack's creations?

and, while it's not exactly a prop, the characters' wardrobe is undoubtedly a major influence on the show's worldbuilding. true to it's nature as a disney channel show, all of the characters are always dressed in exceptionally curated outfits of whatever the current trends are, making the show that much more visually appealing. i won't elaborate too much on this, because i could honestly write a whole other analysis on andi mack's fashion (my favorites are andi's and bex's outfits! and kudos to the costume designer(s) for creating such wonderful and in-character wardrobes!). but, i think it's a really really important aspect of how the show's universe is perceived, so it had to be touched upon.

[^ some of my favorite outfits from the show! i am so obsessed with andi's jacket in the finale, and i aspire to be at bex's level of being a leather jacket bisexual]

and lastly, phones. this is a bit of an interesting case (pun intended), because the way they're used fluctuates a bit throughout the show, but i definitely noticed that at least in the first season terri minsky tried to avoid using them altogether. these efforts at distancing from modern tech really grounds the show in it's idealist, nostalgia-heavy roots, so even when the characters start using their phones more later in the show, they don't alter the viewer's impression of the andi mack universe very much.

so, what does all of this have to do with worldbuilding? in andi mack's case, because it's set in a realistic universe and not a fantasy one, a lot of what sets it apart from the real world comes down to tone. because, as much as this world is based on our own, it really does feel separate from it, like an alternate reality that's just slightly more perfect than ours, which makes all the difference. it's the idealism in color and composition in andi mack's settings that makes it so unmistakably andi mack. even the weather is always sunny and perfect (which is incredibly ironic because the town is called shadyside - yes, i am very proud of that observation).

the andi mack universe resides somewhere in this perfect medium that makes it feel like a small town in the middle of nowhere (almost like hill valley in 1955 from "back to the future"), but at the same time like an enclave within a big city (because of its proximity to so many modern, unique, and honestly very classy looking establishments). it is, essentially, an unattainable dream land that tricks you into believing it is attainable because it's just real enough.

all this to say, andi mack does an amazing job of creating of polished, perfect world for its characters. this is pretty common among disney channel and nickelodeon shows, but because most other shows tend to be filmed in a studio with three-wall sets, andi mack is really set apart from them in that it automatically feels more real and tangible. it has its quintessential recurring locations, but it has far more of them (most disney/nick shows usually only have 3-4 recurring settings), and it has a lot more one-off locations. it's also a lot more considerate when it comes to its props, so rather than the show just looking garish and aggressively trendy, it has a distinctive style that's actually appropriate to the characters and the story. overall this creates the effect of expanding the universe, making shadyside feel like it really is a part of a wider world, rather than an artificial bubble. it's idealism is, first and foremost, grounded in reality, and that provides a basis for its brilliant, creative, and relatable storytelling.

tl;dr: andi mack's sets and props give it a very retro and nostalgic tone which makes its whole universe seem super perfect and i want to live there so bad!!

[mothmoonle]

Hi anon! You've brought up some really interesting points that I want to add to, and also some I disagree with.

I don't understand what you mean by fantasy racism only appealing to "white" people. Personally, I find that fantasy racism and considering the more negative aspects of a fictional society contributes to the world building, setting, and exploration of characters. It's not just a "plotline" or arc (but some authors may choose to do this), it can be used to comment on society, like how dystopian literature with corrupt governments are used to criticise real world governments.

I get what you mean by white people being able to turn away from fictional discrimination against minorities, while real minorities cannot, and minority struggles being entertainment for white people. But literature tends to reflect reality in some way, aspects of real life will bleed into fiction, people write what they know, or know of.

There is a need in literature, in this case fiction, to incorporate things like racism and discrimination, as it spreads awareness of the subjects, and if handled correctly can be used to inform audiences. If the media doesn't show something, it most likely doesn't exist in people's minds, that's why minorities want (good) representation in modern media.

Also, people might want to write about their experiences of discrimination, through a fantasy lens, as it's easier to digest. It's easier to watch the fire nation keep water nation prisoners of war and kill them, than it is to watch something similar in a documentary of war. Writing about racism isn't a 'white person' thing, many, many POC authors write fiction or non fiction of their own experiences.

Any sensitive topic like discrimination needs to be treated with care in literature, as it is easy to send the wrong message, but that doesn't mean it's not worth writing about. Negative topics in literature aren't inherently bad, the inclusion of fantasy discrimination isn't a bad thing, rather how it is used, and what ends up being said about it (as that could reflect back onto racism in society). The picture of racism, or an equivalent of, that is painted in fiction comes back to how characters react to it, and of course how audiences receive it.

Zootopia was a shitshow, many think Detroit Become Human also is. We still see and know discrimination is bad, but these had some poor execution, and some concerning interpretations.

The Sapphires was a movie that depicted discrimination against Aboriginal people, following a vocal band of girls, there are many scenes of people being racist towards the protagonists. No one's meant to think its a good thing, aside from them antagonising our protagonists, the girls are not happy with their treatment. So it's obvious to the audience that the message about racism is that it's bad.

But you cannot NOT show things like discrimination in literature, cause then people's awareness of real issues goes down. Sometimes the only exposure to minority groups people get is the media, and without it there could be more ignorance and prejudice as a result.

That being said, Jess has not used fantasy racism in the best way. I haven't watched MCD, so most of this is based on my knowledge of MyStreet.

The use of slurs is very weird, and the slurs she chooses are terrible. Looking at the post @the-martyrfication-of-the-matron made on slurs Jess used: "dog", "mutt", and "furry”. If werewolves are meant to represent a minority species in universe (which isn't inherently bad in of itself) then it would be likely derogatory terms would be created against them in cannon. My issue is specifically with "furry". "Dog" and "mutt" are ok, it could be seen as dehumanising werewolves and maybe infantilising of, if you consider words like "pup". "Furry" has meanings: an adjective for something with fur, or the community of people who like anamorphic animals.

I highly doubt the term furry started as a name for werewolves, I think it was just Jess picking dog adjacent words that already exist and using them. If you were to think about it, it would either mean people use the existing term 'furry' as a slur, which is insulting to furries at that point, OR people named a community....a slur. Not good implications at all.

There are moments where discrimination is handled better, like in Starlight where Aaron and the group of werewolves get angry when they are denied entry at a restaurant, and they should be. The discrimination there is clearly meant to be viewed negatively, and I think season 5 is one of the only times Jess handled werewolves well. With characters realising their prejudices, infantilising, and attitudes towards werewolves.

Depicting oppressed people suffering isn't fantasization (necessarily, context could prove otherwise), it could be used to explore a theme, provide social commentary, and critique our world. Of course that's only if authors convey that we as an audience should not like the discrimination depicted.

Here is where Jess screwed up once again. With the very strange babying of werewolves with "fetch" and "sticks" and "balls" and we as an audience cannot tell if this is meant to be viewed positively, as it is very uncomfortable to watch, but no characters react negatively.

Jess' use of meif'wa is horrible. Asking people to nya?? That's on level to asking "you speak X? can you say--" Aphmau asked Kai that in PDH2, and neither Aphmau or Kai think this is weird, Kai nya's for fucks sake.

That's not even getting started on meif'wa being a walking Asian stereotype. I can name 5 with clearly Japanese inspired names, and... the existence of Kawaii-chan.... Similarly, werewolves can be seen as representations of African or Indigenous peoples, which isn't a bad thing by itself, if handled correctly. Jess absolutely did not.

I think that fantasy racism, and discrimination in general is something that can be explored in literature as it can be used to critique such things in our society. Fiction will ALWAYS reflect reality in some way, so fantasy racism will have elements drawn from real racism. What matters is what is being said about the racism, and how it's used in the media source.

Likewise, these are just my thoughts, I am not trying to offend you or invalidate your experiences/ opinion. I am mostly disagreeing with your generalisation of only white people writing and enjoying fantasy racism, and the depiction of such topics meaning the author/audience supports, or is glorifying racism. I would be willing to continue talking about this with you anon, and anyone else.

I want to give my two cents on the whole ‘werewolf racism’ and ‘werewolf slurs’ thing as someone who is indeed affected by real world racism and discrimination.

First of all, i think fantasy racism is so weird in general. The use of it is only appealing to white people who have never gone through it thus see it as a good plotline, plus since white people have never gone through it they can always just turn it off or stop reading it the moment they get bored of it, something minorities can’t do. Secondly, fantasy racism is more often than not, rooted in real world racism. An example i can use is actually Aphmaus Minecraft Diaries. The werewolfs in MCD are viewed by the general populas as dangerous savages who attack the villages, speak in broken in english and live in tribes…see the issue with that?

Secondly, seeing people discuss fantasy slurs is again, so weird to me. It feels odd to me to fantasize and imagine how a group of people are opressed and attacked on a day to day basis for the same reasons as to why i think fantasy racism is weird.

Anyways idk, these are just my thoughts. I don’t mean this ask in a hostile manner or as an attack against you as a person, i just wanted to share my thoughts on the matter.

^^^

Thank you for your thoughts. I always value the views and insights of others in discussions like these, especially about these topics. I’m not really in a position to act like I’m the authority on this kind of thing so I do really appreciate when people who actually know what they’re talking about get involved.

A small reminder to everyone to listen to the voices that matter in discussions like these. My voice may sometimes be the loudest, but it isn’t always the best one to listen to, clearly.

[gellyfishical]

Alas! Here I am; back to the posting board to finish showing you some designs I hadn't finished. I say designs plural despite this being just for one character because I have a couple of variations I was playing with and I wasn't really happy with any of them.

Let me start with some backstory; the concept came from the prompt 'lyrical' so I wanted to make a character from Aviator's 'Godhunter' song. So I was designing a godhunter. I decided to go a bit beyond the line than most people go with this prompt and rather than have them go after the Greek gods or anything like that I went straight for the Christian god. This decision was completely disparate from any angst or personal unhappiness Christianity has brought me and it's ridiculously that you would think otherwise. Please do not be offended :) I believe that you should believe and follow whatever god you like, however if it's so common to critique and turn other gods into some sort of fictional antagonist in other stories than I can do it too.

Anyways! Here are the designs:

I wasn't quite finalized on any of them yet. Basically, as I hope you can tell by looking at these, she is a disgraced nun repelled by the cruelties that many (not all, there are a lot of kindly Christians in the world, but there are just as many corrupt ones, I personally was involved with two, one where there was embezzling and the other where the minister was cheating on his wife with prostitutes) Christian churches have been responsible for. Rather than try to live her life with no job history and nothing to her name our protagonist decided to spite the god who allowed her to be hurt in such a way after learning it was possible for mortals to reach the realms of the gods.

If the storyline were to continue she would successfully kill god and go onto to kill other gods as well.

The first design here was created with only the rule of cool in mind and the idea that she sort of ripped off her nun costume to reveal who she is now. Her axe is a broken cross and her upside down rosary was the one she wore as a nun. Her prayer shawl is torn. She wanted to show she was a nun and now she's the greatest hunter. Sort of to show the injustices I suppose. This design I mostly liked but I thought it was a bit generic and I definitely wasn't sold on the broken shackles on her limbs (though they'd be such a cool weapon).

This design was less of her just tearing off her nun gear and more of and anime representation of a nun. I went more cyberpunk here since I think it congrats nicely to more traditional elements visually. She has a sort of lightning bolt blade that she holds with her hand that I quite liked. In total I thought the design was a tad to Hatsune Miku looking and I missed the cross axe.

This design I made even more nun like and I really love the gun and the total design but I thought it looked a bit too much like she was just a nun rather than someone actively trying to kill god.

I was very pleased with this design. Her lightning blade was much more defined and the broken chains being tattoos was much cooler and made more sense. The axe is back. The top had more nun references than the top one and was less generic. I still think it's missing a few things as a design so I decided not to use it either. I also could not decide if I wanted her to be white or not because nun(lol) of the designs were actually designed as white (we have Filipino and African American) but I wasn't sure if wanted to make them white to make fun of some churches' racism as one of the leading concepts was critiquing a church that doesn't tend to get criticism. However Filipino made a lot of sense to me since they are Roman Catholic and have some of the same flaws. Race was pretty important to design here since I think it added more depth to a storyline. I also considered making her African American to highlight some of the racism that has occured.

At some point in the story, after she has killed god I wanted her to run into a church that was kind since in this story (and in a way in real life) it was the gods who pulled people astray while people were intrinsically good.

•

Sorry for the edgy design and concept. The idea is fairly messed up and that's the main reason I didn't finish it. While I'm angry at quite a few churches for homophobia, corruption, racism, general outdated opinions that come with following ancient books, I also really love a lot of Christians and I don't think they deserve to be represented only by my anger towards them and not the whole situation. I still really love the idea of a godhunter being for more than just ancient gods and I do think that people's inability to critique the Christian Church in such a way is hypocritical since so many other religions are used so disgracefully in media (voodoo, paganism, Islaam, etc) but I don't truly want them to be hurt in the same way they have hurt others. I was just angry when I designed this character. And in such I created a negative character.

It's kind of awkward to still be here and I hope that I have not offended anyone though if this is the case it is rightfully so. Regardless, this closes out the character designs I did not finish for Swan's Oc-tober.

[adriennestar]

Loved Endgame but... I'm gonna be that b*tch

I loved everything except Steve's ending. I will never be able to accept it and according to social media, I'm not the only one.

It's a slap in the face (actually more like an axe to the spine) to everything that Stucky has been through together in the MCU. All of their chemistry and feelings for each other that have been established are undeniably romantic and still stand. The Russos can't "Thanos" away "I'm with you till the end of the line" (ie "till death do us part") or that the only person Steve repeatedly goes to the ends of the earth for is Bucky, or that Stucky's story arc falls into many romantic tropes in the CA trilogy.

Evans said that Bucky is Steve's home and everything he needs while Seb has said that Bucky's relationship with Steve is probably the only thing keeping Bucky from killing himself. So in short, Bucky is everything Steve could ever need and Steve is Bucky's literal reason for living. Sounds pretty romantic.

In TWS, Steve goes on about his love life and wanting someone with "shared life experience" minutes before Bucky (his genetically enhanced super soldier ex, who has been frozen for a majority of the past 70 years, fought in ww2, and grew up in 1920s/1930's Brooklyn) shows up with just that.

Thor gives up the throne for Jane in Thor 2, Tony gives up his suits for Pepper in Iron man 3, and Steve gives up his shield for Bucky in Cap 2 AND 3.

"You're keeping the outfit right?"

"He left me for a damsel dark" (From the tavern scene in TFA when Bucky visibly is sad about Steve and Peggy)

"It's Been a Long Long Time" is still Stucky's song. It get's introduced with Stucky during their reunion scene in TWS.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky"

"Your Bucky"

"Rumlow said Bucky and all of the sudden, I was a 16 year old kid again in Brooklyn". 16 is the stereotypical age (especially in fiction) people experience their first love and Steve without warning, reminisces about being that age upon hearing Bucky's name. He get's SO distracted that Rumlow is able to detonate a bomb in front on him.

Bucky is the only reason why Steve has EVER surrendered himself in battle.

In fiction, whenever a main character's love interest is captured, killed, etc, it becomes the main character's main motivation to save or avenge them. That is Stucky's entire story arc in Cap's trilogy.

1. Steve opposes 117 countries, for Bucky.

2. Steve fights half of his friends, the avengers, for Bucky.

3. Steve fights Tony practically to the death, for Bucky.

4. Steve would rather die by letting Bucky kill him than fight Bucky.

5. Steve single handedly storming that hydra base to save Bucky is the same energy as an old fashioned Disney prince, storming a castle and slaying a dragon to save the princess. (Not even joking)

6. Steve before he loses Bucky in TFA doesn't want to kill anyone but as soon he does lose Bucky he wants all of Hydra dead or captured.

Cap pulls a helicopter out of the sky with his bare hands to keep Bucky with him.

The images below are tweets by the writer for CA:CW

Did anyone else notice when Endgame Steve encountered his Avengers self, the 2012 Steve had the same reaction to seeing Steve's compass and hearing about Bucky still being alive? Because I did lol.

Picture either Steve or Bucky as a woman and then all of the sudden, even the most heteronormative minded people can acknowledge how immensely romantic Stucky's story arc is.

Over the years, Marvel sets up all of this romantic subtext/chemistry between Stucky, literally say Steve and Bucky are soul mates, then they shove a heteronormative end that goes against Steve's character/character growth down our throats.

They even add insult to injury by giving us a dry and lifeless Stucky scene before Steve goes back in time. The Ned/Peter and Tony/Peter reunion were 100 times more emotional than Stucky's. I feel like the Russo brother's intentionally drained the life out of Stucky's reunion scene while directing it by telling the actors to act as hollow and uninterested as possible because they're trying so hard to bury Stucky alive in a shallow grave.

Deep down I always knew they didn't have the spine to explicitly represent Stucky as the canon romantic couple they were in the MCU but Stucky is still real. They're just not OPENLY lgbt.

Speaking of the openly gay character in Endgame... thanks alot Russos 😧🙄. Thanks for throwing us some scraps on the floor when it comes to explicit representation while the cis/het's get to enjoy yet another banquet.

The MCU prior to Endgame has done nothing but heavily hint that Steve and Bucky are the love of each other's life and now they turn around and say "haha heteronormativity ftw". Stucky is a broken promise.

But I'm not giving up on Stucky. They are canonically lgbt just like Valkyrie(bi) and Loki(pan) even though they too didn't get explicit representation.

I guess I'm just going to stay mad about this forever. Someone has to. Stucky deserved better than to go out in such an insulting way.

PS

Peggy may be "the love of Steve's life" but Stucky were each other's first love back in the 1930's. "The first cut is always the deepest" is the notion that your first love will forever define your perception of love. Maybe that's why the very next person after Bucky Steve finds himself attracted to is essentially the female version of his first love.

Bucky and Peggy are virtually the same person, just of the opposite sex. They are both brave, intelligent, strong, capable, compassionate, good looking, sharp shooting, army brunettes, who hate bullies. They even get introduced by beating up a bully while sporting their army clothes. You just can't make this sh*t up!

You can have it both ways. Maybe one day Marvel will understand that.

My hopes are lower than the bottom of the Mariana trench when it comes to that though.

Rant over. Bye.