#surely a narrative choice

[danielsarmand]

ever since they introduced sparrow!ben and first mentioned jennifer i knew they were going to give me nightmares but him being both a crypto bro AND terminally straight is a little much like god. stick a knife in my gut next will ya

[talaricula]

Things I've seen tumblr memeing about James Somerton doing à la "How did no one see how bigoted he was!" as if those things haven't been a significant part of tumblr culture for over a decade :

Presenting untrue and bordering on conspiratorial versions of (queer or otherwise marginalised) history without any sources

Completely disregarding and disrespecting any expertise on socio-cultural topics/humanities and distrusting academics and historians (incl. acting as if no academics or historians could be queer or marginalised)

Downplaying the role misogyny played in the historical oppression of queer women and concluding that queer men must have been more oppressed than queer women

Bi women are, at best, not as queer as "real" queer ppl, and at worst, simply equivalent to straight women

Despite nominal trans inclusivity, transmasculine ppl are functionally women when convenient (combined with the above, bi transmascs are functionally straight women)

Despite nominal trans inclusivity (bis), shamelessly attacking, threatening and actively endangering any trans woman who questions them or smth they find important (often by unfairly presenting her as violent or as a threat)

Having absolutely fucking wild and reductive takes about ace ppl, the oppression they face and their place in the queer community

Stating that marriage equality is an assimilationist fight while completely ignoring its direct roots in the horrifying consequences of the AIDS crisis for partners of ppl who died of AIDS

Praising western media creators from the past for queer coding even under censure and in the same breath condemning current non western media creators for being homophobic bc their representation isn't explicit enough

Blaming China for all existing homophobic censoring in western media

Assuming all queer media would be better told by western creators and by western standards

Only out queer ppl get to tell queer stories

Heavily criticising almost all queer media created by women or ppl they see as such (see above points about trans ppl) or involving/starring a significant amount of women for any perceived or real amount of "problematicness", but fawning over and praising and negating criticism of queer media created by and starring mostly or even functionally exclusively men (even when it could be argued that, you know, not involving/seriously sidelining women is a pretty clear example of misogyny which should probably be considered "problematic")

And I'm probably forgetting stuff or there's stuff I have internalised myself and don't recognise as an issue

Like idk but I feel like the takeaway from Hbomberguy and Toddintheshadow's videos should maybe be "be aware of such patterns in your communities bc they definitely exist" and not "this guy is uniquely awful" and I feel like a lot of the discussion I've seen surrounding this has been severely failing at that. Most ppl who've spent any significant amount of time on tumblr prob either have internalised at least one of those thought patterns, have had to de-internalise them, or have had to be extremely vigilant to not internalise them (which is done by, you know, seeking out other sources, which also seemed like an important takeaway from the videos)

[heliomanteia]

I think Nico's ability to survive is less so about his will to live and more so about his refusal (less so personal and more so narrative-wise) to die. Nico, for the lack of a better word, is like a cockroach: you cannot kill him in a way that matters so he survives and keeps haunting the scene.

There was once a marvelous post on Nico's function as a narrative tool and it was so beautifully pointed out that he's a near-omniscient deus ex machina (to simplify) which cannot be overlooked when characterizing him. Nico carries so much narrative weight on his back (which arguably could be an example of either good or bad writing depending on your perspective) that he cannot just go and die.

His road towards healing (though definitely not walked alone/individually) is his own, that's his choice to make as a character, but his disposition as a guy that perseveres resides more within his function, in my opinion.

He's not the tragic prince doomed for self-destruction people often draw him out to be but his capacity for survival is also not a product of his continuous work as a character, at least not just that — but is rather a result of his narrative function. Simply saying, you cannot, narratively, kill off Nico di Angelo.

[tiredyke]

every time queer discourse surges on this site everyone is so quick to jump to “it was actually the evil lesbians who divided us” because y’all heard the term “political lesbian” and never bothered to figure out what that meant

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

The fans: Ugh Sonic was just so preachy. I mean obviously he's supposed to be the good guy, so any uncomfortableness I feel here and any way I feel like Sonic's choices are framed as being why some other people have shitty lives is just bad writing because he is obviously supposed to be right always, but this characterization makes no sense. Isn't he right for the things he did?

Ian Flynn, using Kitsunami to say the (barely even at this point) quiet part even louder: Hey it's almost like ever since the Mr. Tinker event we've been purposely running with the critique of Sonic as being more selfish than he appears. Sonic is upholding a system of Eggman v Sonic that currently benefits him and shuts down talk of how to improve the current system because he likes his own personal enjoyment and he's attached enough to Eggman that he'd rather Eggman pretend to be a good person than be stuck in prison for life. He doesn't even quite practice what he preaches. We are trying to show that the current hero v villain system and Sonic's recklessness currently affects some people poorly and that Sonic isn't a perfect hero.

[kelpshippingceo]

you ever think about how lloyd lost his childhood due to the tea, his teenage years to being a ninja + (gestures vaguely at harumi-induced trauma) and his early adult years to isolating himself from the world and grieving his friends? because I do

[twinstxrs]

the gorgug-porter conversation is interesting to me because like. yea for the overwhelming majority of the conversation porter’s being shitty & trying to fit gorgug into a box that gorgug just does not fit into by trying to make gorgug’s relationship with his rage more focused on the aggression aspect of it. but then there’s also this specific thing that brennan brought up again in the ap, which is that gorgug’s relationship with his rage is wholly “this is a tool i use to protect my friends.” which isn’t a bad thing! but that’s his Whole relationship with it, & gorgug seems to place next to no value on his rage in relationship to himself. which is problematic, because it’s first & foremost his rage.

being raised in a household with a sort of toxic positivity largely meant that, whether or not it was his parents’ intention, gorgug internalized the message that more traditionally “negative” emotions such as anger are the wrong response to something. part of the reason he prioritizes his artificing is probably because it’s “fixing” things. in comparison to being a barbarian, which gorgug associates with “breaking” things. good vs. bad behavior, in his eyes.

it’s a totally unacceptable bar to measure a 16 y/o by, but i do think part of porter’s reasoning for not letting gorgug multiclass is him recognizing that gorgug generally does not value anger as a valid emotional response to something, at the very least for himself. & that directly conflicts with what being a barbarian is, because whether you like it or not, that rage is what fuels you. but again, barring a kid from pursuing something they deeply care about in part (not entirely, porter has a lot of more bullshit reasons) because of their fundamental values & world outlook is crazy.

so yes, 98% of porter’s reasoning is pretty shitty, immature, rife with a toxic view that there’s only one proper way to access rage, & generally not a good thing to do as a teacher, but also within that reasoning is the 2% of ‘there is a fundamental part of yourself that you only value if you can use it to take care of other people & you need to accept that as something that can take care of you, too.’ but that’s something to discuss with a therapist or a guidance counselor, not something that should hugely impact gorgug’s academic future.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

This idea that the timeline wasn't a thing until overbearing fans made it matter too much and poor poor nintendo was made to yield* kind of annoys me, not gonna lie

(*I won't say there wasn't a huge focus on it by fans to a point where it must have become suffocating when it Wasn't The Point, but Nintendo 1000000% started it and continuity was *always* part of the way they either marketed or discussed the games prior to the Wild Era)

[gophergal]

TFTober 4 - Provision

[sophfandoms53]

Idk if production can rlly top the amount of vitriol that was in Cory’s whole bashing song zing from last year with anyone this season ngl even if Quinn was still there bc to a degree Quinn provided entertainment and his edit was decent. Cory’s edit did not have that luxury so

[tabithatwo]

—sophie thatcher

—sophie nelisse

[sebek-zigbolt]

gueh, its all igni

[kumakuma-circus]

y'know my friend pointed it out once and it is kinda weird to me: why is mitsuo's boss theme (revelations: mitsuo/shin mitsuo tensei) in golden based on i'll face myself -battle- and not a new world fool (or a more generic boss theme like reach out to the truth)?? only party members' shadows and marie/kusumi-no-okami use that theme- i guess you could argue it's just the theme for shadows as a whole since mitsuo's the only non-party member whose shadow you fight (ignoring adachi technically being his shadow also-) but. weird choice i feel like-

[vox-off]

i love how 99% of conversations with paarthurnax are had mostly with his nostrils

[bardicbird]

goddd emily’s performance as saccharina was amazing. she’s powerful. she’s intimidating. she’s broken by her own expectations. she’s noble. she’s a scared little kid. she’s so wrapped up in her own emotions and experiences that they affect everything she does. she’s sometimes insufferable to the viewer, who has been with the rocks family this entire time. she’s a sympathetic character. she’s a badass, because she needs to be. fuck, what a character.

[clonehub]

I've been trying my absolute hardest to say next to nothing about tbb as a series this year for both my own peace of mind and my own (and frankly my friends) safety but what i can't be quiet on is people of all kinds but especially the usual culprits blaming Saw for Techs death when Saw was there for an actual mission for the rebellion and The Bad Batch were there because Crosshair explicitly chose not to leave with them when they gave him the chance.

Because all this blaming shifting just looks racist. Some folks are foaming at the mouth to be able to condemn a Black character for hell for an event that, frankly, had nothing to do with him in the slightest. Seeing people first blame the bad batch for "abandoning" Crosshair as if they didn't try multiple times to save his life in the finale of season 1 only for him to refuse EVERY TIME. He nearly drowned on Kamino and told omega to leave him. They were walking through the tube and he stopped. They were on the platform and he refused to go with them. Omega tried. The marauder was right there. He turned his back on them.

Crosshair made his choice but I'm firmly of the opinion that because he's being largely perceived as an edgy and hurt white man, the audience is denying his culpability and removing his agency as a character in that moment in order to extend a level of forgiveness that they absolutely will not give to any characters of color. They're shifting the blame to every nearby character because of weird racism and colorism that i don't feel like expanding upon here.

And rather than just travel the obvious line the authors have laid out, up to and including the fact that he does not have his chip because Rau and Corbett said so 7 times in one interview, rather than see that actions often have greater consequences than people expect or intend, they want to shift all of the blame to a Black man who were there for all of 30 seconds and who had his own goals he had to take care of because he had his own people to take care of. At no point was Saw obligated to stop his entire mission for the bad batch. He was trying to fight the empire. They were trying to save their brother. It sucks but Saw really didnt need to stop. Why was Saw obligated to change his plans for them? Why couldn't they change their plans for the rebellion?

This fandom is too comfortable with racism and colorism but specifically Anti-Blackness. I was going to try and let this go because often times when I mention Crosshair especially in the past i get levied with false accusations and bad faith reads of what I'm saying but this is anti Blackness. There are people making jokes about hunting down, beating, and shooting a Black male character for something that was a whitewashed man's fault.

And shit like this is why this show either needs to change or go. I and others predicted this kind of thing like two years ago and we've only been proven right time and again. From me being racially harassed to people complaining of Blackwashing because they hate Black people so much that they think a person of color not passing for white makes them Black and therefore bad, to what I'm seeing now: largely white people daydreaming about being violent against a Black man. Because they refuse to see that the character they perceive as white is responsible for his own actions the way every other character in the series is responsible for theirs. It's just racism and anti Blackness all around.