#sorry for getting personal at the end

[just-another-frender-blog]

Do you think that Futurama is marketed more toward men, or is it pretty neutral? I never thought about it before. I think people tend to see it as a "guy" show because of Bender's public perception (which is often inaccurate.)

I can't speak much about how Futurama was marketed because I wasn't born when season 1 came out. I was three when it ended its initial run on Fox, and I don't have many personal memories of the earliest years of the 2000s. I'm not the best person to speak on the marketing of this show, though I find a lot of the promotional art to be experimental and very creative. The promotional material for this show is quite fascinating to me because I don't think you see anything marketed the way Futurama was (same for other shows/movies that came out at the time).

I have read about the toll it took on Matt Groening to get this show made. I believe he called getting Futurama greenlit "the worst experience of his adult life." Fox wanted him to make The Simpsons 2.0, and he wanted the creative freedom to make a cool sci-fi cartoon. As a result, Fox treated this show like absolute shit; they let it tank on purpose, getting it canceled due to low ratings as a result. That being said, Futurama paved the way for niche television and riskier projects, just as The Simpsons changed the landscape of American sitcoms forever.

My point is that screenwriters, for television and movies, are heavily restricted by executives. This medium of writing is often one of the most restrictive in terms of creative freedom. This can be a good thing, as limitation breeds creativity, but it can also lead to writing problems. I suspect that Futurama stuck so heavily to certain aspects of the status quo because of executive pressure, even though they were able to develop the characters and maintain continuity within said status quo (which is impressive to me).

American media is heavily constrained by capitalism, which means that shows have to be marketed toward a demographic. There are exceptions to this rule, such as the show Infinity Train. Creator Owen Dennis stated that Infinity Train was never meant to be for any one demographic, but was more of a show all ages could enjoy. But shows that don't fit into hyperspecific boxes are kicked to the curb for daring to be risky, which is exactly what happened to Infinity Train, as well as Futurama.

I have no clue what exactly went into the making of Futurama, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say that it's likely Fox wouldn't greenlight the show unless it was geared toward adult men specifically. And that's likely how Matt Groening had to pitch the show in order to get it made. That being said, I know that Fox also came down on the show for being too adult (?) which is downright unfair. Another factor to consider was that the writing room was almost entirely male, and only one episode in the entire 140-episode run was credited to a woman.

There's also the fanservice aspect being exclusively for the "male gaze." There are sex jokes and episode concepts that are very outdated, but overall, I would consider the show to be progressive for the time it came out. It's definitely progressive for a show that was airing on Fox (like The Simpsons). As I said in another analysis post, I was very impressed by how well-written Leela was for the main female lead. Especially how she's allowed to outshine her male counterparts because she's far more talented and capable than them.

Then again, I'm stunned if a show has one or two female characters that aren't poorly written, so my standards are very low. I do get the impression that the writers had a lot of respect for Leela as a female character, especially how David X Cohen stated he initially didn't want her to be a love interest for Fry at first. This is a good thing; female characters shouldn't be created for the sole purpose of being a love interest. They gave her a very well-written and compelling character arc, which is also very rare for a female character (once again, the bar is on the ground, we need to do better).

I'm going to get personal toward the end of this post. I would say that the capitalistic obsession with marketing toward gendered demographics really hurt me when I was growing up, and I imagine it hurt many others. I started forming very intense hyperfixations before I could retain memories, and I don't have a lot of control over what my brain decides is a new obsession. I would fall in love with "things for boys" and "things for girls" without much discrimination. I really just wanted to connect to a story that resonated with me and I didn't care if I was meant to be a part of that audience or demographic.

People gave me a hard time for liking things like Nintendo games or Ninja Turtles instead of liking fashion, makeup, or whatever else was perceived to be normal for girls to like. And I did love many feminine things, but they were still considered weird I guess? This type of attitude harmed my perception of feminity and masculinity, as well as my relationship with my gender identity and sexuality. I have a healthier relationship with my gender/sexuality now, but I don't think I've completely recovered from the societal pressure to act a certain way based on my gender.

For Futurama, I have a hard time seeing it as a show for straight men, even if I logically know that's the case. I'm used to finding comfort in media that was not made for me, and I've been able to make peace with that (though I still get bitter from time to time). And I realize that most creators would rather not limit their work to a specific demographic. They're trying their best to game the system of capitalism, which is all you can do if you want your art to get seen by the public. It's a huge accomplishment when they're able to make wonderful art in such a stifling environment.

[bixels]

tarpit site.

[meamiki]

silly comic based on a time i struggled to read live on stream :thumbsup:

context clip compilation below ASDASDFASA

(cw for brief mention of hospitals/strokes)

[boringwomanwithabook]

all awkward angles

[starflungwaddledee]

happy birthday. you are so, so loved

[kittykatninja321]

My less popular opinion (and what I believe to be implied by the art in Lost Days) is that rather than waking up in a fully grown body Jason didn’t actually complete his puberty until after his Lazarus pit dip while he was on his murder tour. Imagine you’re tied up in a basement in Berlin getting interrogated by a teenager and his voice is cracking the entire time and if you laugh he’s going to shoot you

[formulanni]

Daniel Ricciardo as Judgement:

The Judgement tarot card symbolizes the arrival of absolution and the culmination of a significant undertaking, often related to past and life lessons.

Judgement indicates the cusp of rebirth.

In order to achieve that, you must look back upon your deeds and come to an honest evaluation of yourself. This leads to the awakening that signals a new way of life.

Tag list: @st-leclerc @rubywingsracing @saviour-of-lord @three-days-time @the-wall-is-my-goal @albonoooo @ch3rubd0lls

[lightnersdream]

i've been thinking about exactly why people portraying one of the other crew members successfully killing Jimmy as a "for what you did to Anya" kind of thing rubs me the wrong way a bit and it's because like..... this is just another form of taking agency away from Anya, in a way. it's kind of framing her as some meek, shivery woman-thing who's entirely at the mercy of the men around her, either to hurt her or save her.

(i understand these are mostly for wish fulfillment on the audience's behalf because everyone would like to see Jimmy pay for his crimes. whether or not this is the intention of the person writing it isn't really relevant, characterization happens with or without intent. i feel like it misses the point by portraying it as an 'ideal ending'.)

because... Anya is a capable person. she takes things into her own hands when she can. it was partially(?) her idea to get into the cargo,

(before he interrupts her.. remember when she interrupted Curly in the dead pixel segment?)

it was her idea to get the code scanner from the cockpit,

it was her idea to get the medication from behind the foam.

(the chance to do these things herself is not given to her.)

she'd been keeping Curly alive for months in a critical state somehow, her psych evaluations at the start are only so useless because Jimmy refuses to take it/her seriously and Curly is obviously biased when he puts it into his own hands. he's known him a long time, like he said. "I'll just put good for that one."

there's not a lot of material to work with because of how the game is framed, but it's there. we are working with two very biased perspectives and neither one lends Anya what she deserves

there's significant changes in how she speaks post- and pre- crash, and depending on who she happens to be talking to. i recommend re-reading her dialogue, because the difference is drastic

she acts the way she does around Jimmy because he has tangibly done horrible things to her, is actively hostile, and physically could not escape him by any means. she can't take away Curly's agency herself, in my eyes. you have to remember that Especially in the post-crash segments of the game, it's entirely from Jimmy's POV, and he obviously does not (and has never) thought very highly of her or treated her with a shred of respect

i've seen a general idea that she can't bear to hurt other people for any reason, but that doesn't really track to me. this is the real point of the post by the way

it seems based on the parts where she says she struggles to give Curly medication. "It just hurts him so much, I can't stand the noise." "It makes me nauseous."

it's not really the same thing as, say, hurting someone in self defense

this sounds like she did want the gun itself. this never felt worded like someone who would refuse to, at very least, threaten Jimmy with a gun, with violence. if she had been given the agency to make that decision on her own. she wasn't though

she still tries to reclaim some of it even as she's denied it

by the end she's still trying to keep that gun out of his hands

i think some people overly soften her, for similar reasons the game itself is trying to comment on. she's not a tender victim who couldn't cause pain to another out of the softness of her soul, she's a person who's had every last bit of agency ripped from her repeatedly until she couldn't take it anymore. that's the point. that's why framing her that way, "needing" someone to save her, is odd to me

she didn't need Curly to save her, she needed him to take responsibility

she didn't want to escalate things, but she's not an idiot. self defense was absolutely on her mind

but who knows im just saying shit *smiles serenely*

[egophiliac]

"IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A JOKE" As someone who's been playing TWST since march and stopped going out of my way to be spoilerfree after I got stuck at Overblott!Jamil? That's honestly been one of my favorite things about it - seeing something in fanart or a comment you think is just fans joking, only for it to be canon. "The economy!", "May I also throw a tantrum?", Malleus' gargoyle thing, and... everything about Rook being my top examples.

there's a whole bit in Trey's platinum birthday card where he goes on about how he became increasingly obsessed with mustard for like a week straight until the other students held an intervention. how are you supposed to talk about this. how can you bring up something like Trey's descent into mustard obsession to the point that the other characters are worried for him without it sounding like the most obvious lolrandom "he mentioned it once and now fandom acts like he puts mustard in everything" joke. also, how can I slip this into every Twst post from now on, because I need everyone in the world to know that this is a real canon fact about Trey "I'm just an average normal guy (who sticks my hands into people's mouths and owns 20 toothbrushes and used to eat flowers off the side of the road)" Clover.

for bonus points, 1) the punchline is that he still doesn't even like mustard that much, 2) he's saying all of this to Leona, and 3) Leona is actually kind of invested in Trey's mustard story for some reason, which is the most unbelievable part of all of this to be honest. (then Trey gets distracted by a painting of the Cheshire Cat and Leona takes the opportunity to powerwalk away to freedom before they can start talking about dijon versus spicy brown or whatever and extend this bit even longer)

[vaguely-concerned]

having seen at least the rough outlines of all the romances now I have to say that I think emmrich's is probably objectively the best in terms of coherence and completeness of story arc (with the understanding that ultimately the 'best' romance is whichever one makes YOUR heart sing anyway so objectivity is a silly thing to claim that way, it just felt like it's the arc with the most well-paced focused content and the least dangling threads)... but lucanis' is my favourite haha. just. the whole kneeling before your beloved full of reverence but without any of the distance that usually implies??? his complete undramatic certainty and calm in every scene with rook after this, having spent the whole game caught between fear and longing???? mr. lives in a pantry but it says nothing about my psyche don't worry about it it's purely for tactical reasons that I keep myself contained in a small dark room not entirely unlike a cell, love among the parsnips -- finally coming to rook in their room and it's so comfortable and comforting???? after all the times rook supports and comforts him through the game he's finally able to return the same to them when they need it while being so calm and steady and it's so fucking sweet and feels so effortless and with no price attached?????? he basically assigns himself the role of your bodyguard and he WILL stab a god over it??????????????? the turn to protector (which was in his heart all along longing to get out and find a place) of it all????? he sounds like he's found himself unexpectedly stumbling into such a soul-lightening state of revelatory existential relief, full on 'you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves' mary oliver style, and he goes and he shares that with rook and protectively envelops them in it when they're hurting??????????????????????????? hello for the maker's sake hello can anyone hear me?????

[louferrignojrofficial]

some funny and some cute moments from this extremely long podcast episode with lou. i watched this because i saw his post with this picture

and he said he’d talk about why he doesn’t have a girlfriend and i wanted to find out why. he didn’t actually do that, in fact, he basically said ‘i don’t need a girlfriend’. so that’s neat.

[renjunnipeikko]

dunno if this has been done yet but: airplane didn’t first become aware of peerless cucumber in the comments of pidw, he first saw peerless in the comments of a different web novel (that perhaps was one of airplane’s earlier works?) and so when initially drafting pidw he was inspired to write a villain just like cucumber bc “he’s MEAN MEAN for no reason, a literature snob, and pretends to be all high and mighty while looking down on others. also likes to kick down the little guy” and boom. sqq was born. cut to years later post-transmigration when sqh just casually drops this info with “lol i always did find it funny how much you hated the guy considering he’s literally based off you”

[shootingstareon]

meeting you

[sotiredmostnights]

i know everyone likes to put tharja in the "yandere goth girl" category but tbh i feel like pigeonholing her into one specific archetype does a huge disservice to her character. is she obsessed with curses and robin? yes. is she constantly shoved into a fanservice role by intsys? absolutely.

but i think a lot of people forget just how impactful a lot of her supports are...there's something about tharja that makes nearly everyone who interacts with her divulge their deepest secrets and points of anxiety with her. we see this with libra, who tells her of the abandonment he endured at the hands of his parents. we see it with nowi, whose cheerful demeanor slips off as she tells tharja of her missing parents. and although tharja is not the only one lon'qu confides in regarding ke'ri, their support is notably the only one in which lon'qu divulges that there was romantic involvement between he and his childhood friend.

and despite her antisocial exterior, she always listens mindfully and offers to help! she even goes out of her way to discreetly help the shepherds (getting virion to do odd jobs that benefit civilians, interrogating henry to make sure he bears no ill will towards ylisse, etc).

a big thing about tharja is that she IS kind. she IS considerate. she just also has a reputation to uphold as a dark mage and that (paired with her overall awkwardness ofc) makes her true nature hard to see at first glance

[ibrithir-was-here]

Sooo I wrote a…weird little thing, a certain comic by @mayhemchicken-artblog got my creative juices percolating and under the press of staying up far too late for several days this came to fruition, enjoy!

The Eye of the Beholder

Link to the Comic

[phantomoftheorpheum]

Julie and the Phantoms being one of the most heartwarming and feel good shows I've ever watched, while simultaneously having the most absurdly tragic premise will never not to be funny to me.