#thats already an issue of censorship now

[autistic-demon]

we need to make using twitter in 2025 embarrassing

[magz]

The posts from 2022 when Maus was banned in government attempts to censor, are going around again.

About how you shouldn't pirate Maus, and instead buy it or get it from the library; because Art Spiegelman is still alive and it steals from artist. Because it's immoral to.

1. Art Spiegelman himself did not say to stop pirating because he's losing money. At most his *publisher* (Penguin Random House) wanted to put down the internet archive's copy of Maus thru forced request - then contributing as part of a lawsuit to shut down archiving efforts and Internet Archive as a whole (dangerous). Because publishers are greedy and realized the book was profitable again. The scans of his book online in GDrive and Online Archive are low quality - the same types that get printed at schools while having 1 or no copies. He did not lose money from this, he got more.

2. When Maus was (and is) banned n censored in specific states + districts in u.s. for inappropriateness (like Tennessee) -- in many places it barred minors from buying, being lent in library, getting Maus and other books. Getting it legally n by the books was not an option for the people most affected. This was why some stores tried to go around this by donating the books for free to them.

3. Maus isn't and wasn't available in many places, even as an option. Even if you want to get it. Even in places where it "can" be bought - it being banned made people buy more of it from fear of censorship, often always in demand in library and store supplies - always sold out in many places or with huge waiting list. It is less bad now, however there still issues exist. And thats assuming you even have a library, or that your library even has it.

4. Piracy doesn't "steal" income from artists. It is a symptom of inaccessibility and/or avoidance. When people want to support someone or something, they buy it after pirating when possible. The banning ended up being good marketing - going on 2022's best sellers list 40 years after it was published, even with inaccessibility. Especially with efforts to raise money by Tennessee comic book store, and even with California book store donating free books at deficit.

5. The actual logical conclusion to not pirate or archive banned stories, is for people without access to it - to not be able to read any version of it at all. Along with other less fortunate banned and censored books that are even harder to access. This does the intended result for censorship. Limiting information, limiting awareness and power of those that need it most.

We've already criticized the logic before.

If gonna cyclically be smug about "people needing critical thinking" and end up being reactionary about censorship and piracy, even years later... well. Am not gonna complete that thought.

[anony-mouse-writer]

“How are you doing?”

- cost of livings increasing

- everyone i know is miserable at their jobs, spanning at least 4 broad range fields (ie, retail/food service of any kind, engineering, and ‘works at computers in a capacity beyond microsoft word/excel’) largely due to managerial or company based incompetence or greed

- planets on fire and it looks like the ppl who have the power to change that dont want to cuz theyre greedy bitches

- theres like three social media platforms that arent teeny tiny and theyre all shit and actively getting worse in ways that are profoundly effecting and blindingly stupid

- multiple fights in the past half decade trying to convince people that my job is not something a computer should have

- the same people who tell me that my work is very good and i should monetize it (i am thanks) think that computer work is either just a fad that will pass soon or the just something i should accept and do not see how these conflicting messages might be frustrating

- theres a globally televised genocide happening and like half the ppl who are supposed to stop that are funding it

- KOSA and other internet censorship laws continue to get closer to passing

- “woke” is increasingly synonymous with “anyone who has basic human decency” according to several major governmentally active political parties

- casual and “just common sense” transphobia is now at an all time high as terfs are told that outright killing trans kids is frowned upon and they should try bullying instead

- food prices are so high but i have to eat

- increased social pressure to shun anyone who isn’t spending all their energy being loudly upset at the above issues and/or dying due to the above issues

- companies have more rights than we do and the government would save them first in a crisis. this is “normal” and “fine” and giving a fuck about it is also “woke liberal shit”

- our best hope for a new shitty fire hazard apartment building going up is that the rich bitches everyone hates for building their houses in ‘thats gonna fall down dumbass’’ zones decide to fight for their ‘view’

- pandemics still happening. they dont even stock masks at stores consistently anymore

- my landlord still hasnt responded to our request to fix the flickering kitchen light we have been told we are Not Allowed to try fixing ourselves

- kids are increasingly fucked over by a system that was already failing and is now failing worse due to covid-related fuck ups

- school districts are pushing to graduate kids on time despite the Actual Fucking Plague these kids had to live thru

- speaking of, kids are apparently largely not taught basic computer literacy because they can just teach apps instead

- or any kind of internet safety oh my god. i have had to personally teach every child ive met for the past two years under the age of 15 to not to tell strangers online their full government legal names. i was on roblox for 30 seconds and watched two separate children half dox themselves

- its february and i kinda miss the sun

“I’m doin’, thanks! Hope spring comes sooner than later tho haha.”

[koko-doodle]

Oh are we talking about AO3 vs Tumblr? Here we goooo

-censorship is not a thing on AO3, any tags you want to use, not only can you use them, you SHOULD use them, its important for both those that want to find your fic and those that want to avoid your fic, its like a consent thing, people cant fully consent to the stuff in your fic if its incorrectly tagged

-theres multiple ways to keep track of a fic. Bookmarks, subscriptions, the history and "mark for later" features, or just hoarding the links if you dont want any of that

-when you've written and posted multiple fics its easy to keep track of interaction, I personally like to keep all the comments on my fics unmarked in my inbox (you can mark and unmark whenever you want as much as you want, its not permanent) along with the author replies to my own comments on fics, right now my inbox is 794 comments big. Outside of the inbox there's also the statistics page for all of your fics both individually and together, where you can see the number of views (hits), comments, bookmarks, subscriptions, and likes (kudos)

-on Tumblr if you have a multichapter fic you have to link each chapter together via editing, on AO3 you just have to add a chapter and its there, even if you don't mark it as a multichapter fic you can go back and change that whenever you want, you can also mark down the number of expected chapters, even if they're not posted, so it'll look like "4/18", or "4/?" From the reader side of things, navigating multichapter fics is pretty easy on AO3 (it can be easy on Tumblr too if each individual chapter is linked, but that's from extra effort on the writer's part), there's a drop down list so you can select a specific chapter and jump to that no matter where you are in the fic. When something old is updated and I need a refresher on what happened I go to the chapter before the latest update and reread that, then go to the next chapter to see the new stuff, its a good system

-a series is easy to keep together, when you're posting or editing theres an option to mark it as part of a series, where you either select from the series you've already made in a drop down list, or just type in the title of a new series and boom, that title is a new series. Very easy, no fussing over links, if you ever want to change the order of fics its very easy to do, you just go into the "series" page of your profile and there's a "reorder series" button up the top

-a Tumblr specific issue is that when you edit something, it wont affect any reblogs that had already happened, your typos can haunt you to the end of eternity. Obviously thats not a problem on AO3 (thank god, because I go back to fix things frequently)

-since AO3 isn't a social media site where the algorithms have full control and old things are pushed to the back of the line, the only way time can ever affect the popularity of your fic is if someone is going through the tag with it sorted by the date it was updated/posted, which is the default, yes, but not the only option. There is also a cultural issue of people from social media treating it like social media, where its "inappropriate" to comment on something old, which is absolutely ridiculous to me, but its not an entirely universal belief so you will still occasionally get comments on something that is 5+ years old

There's a lot more benefits to AO3, but I think these are the big ones for me

Whoever you are I owe you BIG TIME.

Who has the time to sit and write out an ask like this for an artist who is literally just too lazy to google it (and prefers opinion over fact on this subject). Then has the AUDACITY to do it as an anon?!?!?! You are too nice!

This info is so helpful!!! This answers most of my questions, thank you!

I offer you a waffle as a thank you, you mysterious squish. 💕

🧇

[blueflipflops]

Thats exactly whats I've been trying to say to people.

(Warning: Long rant under the cut. Don't need to read. Just frustrated and had to write. You can scroll past this :) )

With Spiderverse becoming 'mainstream' media, it brings in new fans to the already established fandom on obscure Spider-man comics. New fans who are eitheron their first time interacting with a fandom or just someone who hasn't delved as deeply in the fandom culture as we [old fans] have.

A lot of new fans who have only interacted with newer more 'sanctioned' more 'censored' media without ever delving deep enough as we do or just not as obsessed with analyzing [meta] media for the fun of it while discussing it with fellow fans [as one of the social rituals of fandom culture]. Some of these people are kids. Others are adults. But new fans would always get culture shocked when they enter an already established fandom with only [one] source with them. Now this doesnt mean poeple should know [this] or [that] amount of stuff to be part of a fandom, but they had clearly came with expectations that what they have is enough to carry them thru and Some would just not Listen that that is not the only source of media that interacts with this fandom.

That being said, as new fans come with expectations and are still used to censorships from their usual sites they engage with, (e.g. twitter, tiktok, etc.) They would expect the same level of Censorship and a Weird Sense of Morality being pushed upon fictional characters without any media analysis. And with the Marvel/ Spider-man/ Comic Fandom already established before the big censorship thing happened to the new sites they currently use, the fandom has its own thing for a long time and [Also] weren't used to being 'Mainstream' Media.

This would then trickle down to small problems that cause a lot of issues that old fans brushed off at first. One of the big issues Spiderverse Fandom has continuously brought up since the start of ATSV [2nd movie] was Spider-Punk's age and wheter or not was it [Moral] to ship him with Miles Morales, an Afrolatino 15 yr old character. [on PunkFlower]. A lot would claim it as ['Proship'] and would relentlessly shame people who make content for it [the ship]. Going as far as senting hate anons and death threats online for it. I was seriously appalled with the whole negativity and the absolute close minded, emptybrained uncreativeness of these people. I was also baffled at the fact that age gap is enough to get them Clutch Their Pearls. As an old [Comic] fan in both DC and Marvel, this is... weird for me who have seen absolutely brain damaging worse the fandom can offer. Me who occasionally delve thru the [Dead Dove: Do Not Eat] tags that are often featured in Many Fandoms. I have seen Way Way Worse than the percieved age gap between the two when I also have read a fic once about one character dating his grandfather (and sleeping with him or whatever). Fandoms have shipped Way More Problematic ships than that. I saw that one [nsfw] fic in [ao3] where they Really Emphasized the age gap thing and made it incest (did not actually read it but wow) They made Miles 12 and Hobie 22ish? Can't remember. Anyways. I saw that and thought 'Wow. That is One Petty Asshole. Go for it dude.' And Moved On with my life. I saw that fic and remember that one other DC fic where the robins are in a sexual relationship with Batman with the tags 'writing this to show people what incest really is' 'and to show that i can write whatever i want' and it was downright Nasty.

Anyways, listen, what im trying to say is that if they really wanted to make the ship Problematic then they WILL make it Problematic as fuck. You thought age gap was problematic? They would amp that shit up to 1000. Y'all ain't seen nothing yet. Why are y'all flaming on a ship that people make cute headcanons and little art to? I promise you there are some people in the fandom that has balls of steel who would take that as a fucking challenge.

Then the other ships. SpiderBite(? I dunno what their ship name is. Dont usually engage in that) and ChaiPunk. Both with one character in an established relationship. People push Morals on stuff on 'Oh but he's married!' And 'Oh but he has a girlfriend!' My dude. Thats what shipping is for. We're not pushing to make it canon. We're not Miguel here or the directors of this movie. We're just fans. We can pick canon that we [like] but we CANNOT pick WHICH is [canon]. We can like peices of canon and not like others but we cannot change what canon is. Especially with so much 'canon' in comic book fandoms.

Honestly, the fandom hasn't even have that much media literacy to begin with yet more people are coming in without thought and pushing [censorships] and [Morals] on characters and sending death threats over them. Makes me sad really. Like comic fandom is already shit on their fellow fans sometimes but this just made a whole new wave of assholes coming in to shit on people who loves the same media as them but not in way they do. We're all just devolving into monkeys, are we?

Again, there is nothing wrong with joining a new fandom but please do not send death threats to people for fictional characters about a fictional story. Also, please tag your shit [Properly] for the [safety] of others.

The Spiderverse fandom is clearly some people’s first fandom.

“Why are you shipping Peter and Miguel? Peter’s married. That’s cheating.”

BITCH I KNOW YOURE NOT SERIOUS- THEY ARENT REAL. YOU WONT DIE IF YOU SEE FANART OF THEM KISSING. GROW TF UP

[letitrainathousandflames]

Hiya! I’ve seen you talking about ao3 a lot and up until recently I agreed with many of the posts you’ve been reblogging, but I think you have a little bit of a misinterpretation about why people r presently pissed off at ao3?

Sure, many people (perhaps even most) are angry for the usual puritanical reasons that you’ve been discussing, and I agree that for the most part fiction is fiction and idc what anyone does so long as I can filter it all out. You do you and all that.

But the most recent swell of criticism is bc ao3 has refused to take down rpf (real person fic) smut of minors—not fictional characters, real life children who happen to be particularly popular right now. The specific fic that spawned recent outrage is about a minecraft YouTuber/Twitch streamer who’s 16 years old, but obviously there’s many more which include his friends and other similar instances of rpf involving children.

I don’t think it’s a slippery slope to set the boundary at “don’t write about actual living children fucking” and to pretend as if this criticism of ao3 is equivalent those who want to wipe out all taboo topics or troubling fics involving fictional characters is just absurd. These are real people, real children, who are directly affected by people sexualizing them, especially if it’s left unchecked and allowed to happen more and more.

I hope you can understand where I’m coming from. Again, if this were just the same fandom bullshit over again, I’d fully agree with your opinion; I’m telling you this in the hopes of informing you more about the situation.

Ohh I didn’t know about this particular bit. First of all, let me just make it clear - that’s the most disgusting shit I’ve ever read - and I’m a die-hard “let people ship what they want” person. This sheds a new light on the whole thing.

Personally, i never liked the concept of real person fic. I see a lot of fics about bands like Rammstein where the members hook up and whatnot just as characters in fic do and not only it is not my cup of tea, it actually squicks me.

I wasn’t part of the Dan and Phil fandom generation but i do remember hearing about them being super uncomfortable with people shipping them, as I would be if I were a vlogging with my friend and people suddenly started writing stories about us falling in love/kissing/having sex ect etc.

The thing is, I don’t know if messing with the tags is even an effective form of protest - Ao3 already had a nearly finished, now released new skin that hides excessive tags. Anyway, that’s not the point.

It’s a complex situation. Older fandom people remember and dread events like the strikethrough - tons of stories lost forever because the “think of the children” crowd didn’t want anyone reading or writing smut fics about anne rice’s vampires or something, mainly driven by homophobia.

The Ao3 was built to be a space safe from censorship, and I, as an author of themes such as torture, abuse, gore, etc, am glad that my work won’t be suddenly pulled out thanks to their team of lawyers and their flexible terms of use. I believe that their issue with censoring these works is falling into a slippery slope of “ok so if you blocked rpf now you have to ban other ‘wrong’ content such as noncon/dubcon, abusive relationships, etc etc.” and then suddenly you can’t write anakin/padmé content anymore no matter how OOC bc he choked her to death in canon.

I have no answers for this particular conundrum. Like, me, personally, I would ban rpf. It’s in poor taste and there are actual living, breathing people whose lives could be affected by that. If I found a fic where someone had written my bff and I having raunchy, explicit sex, I would feel awkward being around them.

The whole ship-and-let-ship policy means - at least to me - “let people write what they want, these fictional characters are fictional and therefore they don’t care” and that argument just doesn’t hold up when it comes to rpf.

TL;DR (bullet points for easier reading):

Real Person Fiction is objectively harmful, character fanfic isn’t.

Yes, I get that being traumatized makes one want to write dark shit to process their pain. Been there, done - and still do - that. BUT if I write the billionth fic of Bucky Barnes getting tortured/maimed/raped there isn’t a real life Bucky who’s gonna read it and be grossed out of his mind or possibly traumatized. Thats the difference between fic and rpf

I don’t think fucking with the tags is an effective form of protest. No, I don’t know what is, but i have a few thoughts:

Maybe not giving reads, kudos or comments to this kind of fic is a start. Reporting these fics upon finding them outside of Ao3 (i.e: on twitter), too.

Report any and all attempts to send these fics to the kids themselves, they shouldn’t have to see/deal with this crap (seriously, have y’all learned nothing from the whole avengers mess, where ppl would send graphic porn art to the actors??), don’t do that shit! Aside from being abusive and gross, that’s a whole ass fucking CRIME. These are kids!!!

I guess it’s more or less this. I hope this gets sorted out soon. As I say, I would rather if Ao3 just removed the rpf option of their website. After all fanFICTION is supposed to be written about... well, fiction. Not real people, much less children. Yikes.

[nyerus]

now that the S1 donghua is over, what are your favorites scenes (top 5 maybe if there's a lot)? what's your fave song? and what's your overall opinion about it? did haoliners do a good job or it could be better? i love reading your thoughts!!! have a nice day and stay safe :D

Hi there!~ I’m definitely excited to talk about the donghua!!!

Okay so to start off, some of my fave scenes are: 1) THE FOREST WEDDING SCENE -- to no one’s surprise! 2) THE SINNER’S PIT CATCH -- also to no one’s surprise 3) The Banyue-General Hua-Pei Su flashbacks -- i.e. the part where XL gets killed and Banyue is left to mourn, and later where PS sees her strung up in the sinner’s pit ;u; 4) Puqi Shrine Domestic Housework -- to be fair thats like the whole episode but hey! 5) The communication array scene with XianLe Trio -- this one tugged at my heartstrings aaahh

These are just the first 5 that really came to mind, but I’m sure I’ll remember a lot more as soon as I publish this ask lol!

Overall, I have to say I’m really pleased with the donghua -- especially in terms of pacing and how they used the medium to its fullest effect. For the pacing, I predicted back in October it would end exactly at the “what would you like for dinner, Hua Cheng?” scene if they paced it well, and it DID, so I was pleasantly surprised lol. I didn’t feel like any parts were rushed, though interestingly I did feel some parts were a little slow. E.g. if they cut that random mini-subplot with Pei Su’s (Pei Xiu?!) jealous superior out, maybe they could have had Hualian return to Puqi Shrine for the actual zinger. (Though also animating Puqi Shrine and everything in it is a lot more work than a blank Desert bg lol so I get it.) I mainly wonder if they added that whole bit because of censorship reasons, to show that PS wasn’t as cold and calculating as he is in the novel--but rather that he was desperate and pushed to his limits. Moral greyness is often not looked upon favorably, with there having to be a clear hero/villain divide. It’s also probably why HC’s backstory was revealed in ep1 itself--to show that he is in love with XL, to soften his snark and Ghost King persona ahead of time.

As for how they used the animation medium, I think things like how they did the Banyue-XL-PS flashback was really well done. There wasn’t very much dialogue especially for the one where XL was “killed,” but the tone and significance were very clearly communicated to the audience. Same for when PS saw BY strung up in the sinner’s pit. You could see the anguish on his face, and understand why he might’ve done bad things in order to save her. There was still very little dialogue or exposition there, but there didn’t need to be.

Naturally I’m aware of the issues/controversies that have plagued the donghua and I really don’t wanna get too into them all over again lol! But I just hope that that’s the last of it, and we have an easy breezy season 2 and onwards! There also some animation errors and quirks here and there, but that’s kinda to be expected with like every animation, so I’m not holding it against them. I’ve watched a lot of currently-airing anime with goofs too, and they all get fixed eventually. Haoliners even went back to fix things already like the color of HongJin and such, so that’s good to see! Other than that, I hope the animation studio has ample time and resources given the commercial success of the first season, so they can make season 2 really good!

I also ADORED all the music, to bits. I think “红绝” (Hóng Jué; Red Supreme) was my favorite. I love the melody so much, and many have said it’s Hua Cheng’s character song, so it fits very well in my opinion. Of course my next favorite is “ 一花一劍” (Yī Huā Yī Jiàn; One Flower One Sword), which is Xie Lian’s. They’re both SO spot on. I think the reason Red Supreme is my favorite is simply because I really like that Lift (idk the exact term) that happens around 0:45 (ED ver)/1:10 (Full ver) and in a few other verses. I’m weird about small things like that in music, because it can take a song from 10 to an 11 for me in just a second lmfao! But otherwise, it’s actually very hard for me to choose because whoever the lyricists are for these songs absolutely know what they’re doing. The fact that every single song for the donghua is a love ballad is perfect. :^)

Also worth mentioning, I REALLY love the manhua song for Hualian! It’s a duet and it’s so lovely~

Thank you for sending in this ask! I had a lot of fun gushing about the donghua hahaha. 😘

[angelicgaming1007]

Okay other people have the issue apparently. Cinematic Nudity toggle is not working. Can I please ask everyone if you can spare some time to kindly report the issue for those

With kids that could stumble upon them playing

Repulsed Asexuals / Asexuals specifically who are uncomfortable with nudity or s*x scenes but want romance

Without privacy and have to be careful what they have visible

and streamers / youtubers

because while it doesn't effect most people it does to a percentage of the fanbase and a report can help go a long way on the bug. The more voices the more likely Larian will take notice of the bug and fix it. (And if it is not a bug then please suggest it as a feature because it was very helpful to quite a few content creators)

Edit: IF by the off chance its not a bug and this is intended I'm going to ask if everyone can please send feedback in for the censored options and either A. ask for cinematic nudity being off to include underwear or B. ask for a Cinematic underwear option. For the simple fact: 1. It has f*cked up my video editing since I can't post most places now 2. I have friends with kids who walk in on them all the time 3. I have friends who have already gotten in sh*t with twitch and youtube because of this when they didn't before. 4. Its not very friendly for part of the ace community 5. some of us a good chunk of people falling in these catagories bought the game (100$ CAD if you include the deluxe dlc) after being told about underwear being part of the censor, and have had it too long and played too much to be able to refund it and thats a lot of money lost on something you can't play a good chunk of the content in. Because as much as people want to argue that romance is optional. Romance is a good chunk of dialogue and game content. (Such as durge romance)

and before people come at me for wanting optional censorship this causes issues for CONTENT CREATORS. This doesn't do anything to or affect you to have options, it only does anything for other people.

and if people are worried about "it'll take time from development" no it really will not take much. Since your character is already wearing the underwear, its already being drawn on them before you enter the cutscene. If a bug put it on when you had nudity on, and if a cutscene can take clothes off. I doubt it'd be hard to keep something drawn on rather than take it off the model. But I do doubt this change was intentional I think while fixing the bug of underwear showing in "cinematic nudity" on. They borked it and took it off when cinematic nudity is off. Why do I think this? 1. Its not in ANY patch notes I have looked at patch 5 and all hotfixes after it. Any bugs they fix DO go into patchnotes. So shouldn't this be in one if it was intended?

2. Its been that way for a long time according to people who've been playing since the start. Even when the underwear came off for people who had Cinematic nudity checked on. Anyone with it off had underwear.

3. Given they stream the game themselves, they would know the rules of twitch, youtube and other platforms well. It makes no sense to take away something that LET streamers stream the game without a big ban hammer coming down on their heads. And even if one platform relaxes or relents on it in the future. All other platforms are still an issue.

Can anyone who has a save file in act 1 before Astarion's romance scene please do me a favor. Can you turn on no nudity and go to the scene for me? Let me know if you have underwear on or if its the leaf and weird pasty things. I need to know if a mod has borked my game or if hotfix 15 did it to me because before hotfix 15 I had underwear in the cutscenes which I highly prefer since I live with a very strict all about "Purity" mother So I kind of need the underwear or she goes ape sh*t.

[mouthtrashworld]

HEAR ME OUT: PARIS HILTON INSPIRED ME TO GO TO ART SCHOOL

HEAR ME OUT: PARIS HILTON INSPIRED ME TO GO TO ART SCHOOL AND BECOME A FILMMAKER.

My sister and I played it cool until my parents dark purple grand caravan left the driveway. We knew we had to conceal our excitement of being home alone for a few hours in order to not seem suspicious. It was our chance to watch whatever trash was on television that day without the normal censorship our parents had set on us. My mother strived to win the gold medal for being a helicopter parent and my dad just agreed with whatever she said. Somehow we were always a step ahead of them. There was a vast lack of communication within my household which lead me to crave answers and sneak around to get them.

We really made a day of it. We pulled our big fluffy comforters off our beds and brought them to the couch, gathered every unhealthy snack from our cabinet (which was difficult as my mother kept a strict, low carb, low sodium, no sugar menu to chose from in our house) and hung heavy blankets over the windows to block out the glare on the 30 inch Panasonic VHS combo unit. My older sister, Cate, had control over the remote, she knew which channel number MTV played on and she memorized the Parental Control Password that was set on various channels that aired the exact rubbish it was to protect us from, but quickly became our favorite shows. At the time I didn’t even really know how Cate found out these shows existed. Our amount of media consumption was little to none. Living in a tiny town in Pennsylvania, attending private Christian school and hardly having a social life; our only connection to whats out there

would be the local blockbuster that my mother skirted us in and then quickly out of after renting wholesome family movies. I remember slipping away from my moms watch just long enough to find the “1 Night in Paris” sex tape DVD that was made in 2004 with Rick Salomon (who by the way has been married to Pamela Anderson TWICE!) and Paris Hilton as the star. A few years later, The Simple Life, featuring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie became a huge success for Fox and was later taken over by E! network. The glimpse of the DVD cover was so scandalous I felt guilty just for looking at it. We were a few years late, really just catching the reruns of the show that E!, MTV or VH1 would play during the middle of the day, but we ate it up nonetheless.

The first episode I ever watched was on Season 5. The two girls become camp counselors and every week a different theme and set of campers come in to encounter their shenanigans. This episode was “Fat Camp” and the first order of business was for Paris and Nicole to give the campers enema’s before they start their week of dieting and exercise. It was absolutely ridiculous. I felt bad that these campers who fell victim to their bratty comments, yet my sister and I couldn’t take our eyes off it. Reality TV works in that way you know, where you feel bad, but not bad enough because its not your life.

Soon Cate and I started adding other reality shows to our pallet of rebellion. The Girls Next Door, a reality show about Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends living in the Playboy Mansion. Real World Cancun, AKA Jersey Shore before there was Jersey Shore. And of course The Hills where Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag live it up in Orange County, a place I

thought was made up until I visited there in 2014. But the Simple Life remained my favorite of them all. But Paris Hilton was my first glimpse of glamour, so she always remained my favorite. Granted, Kim Kardashian has seemed to surpass her on many levels after starting out as her intern. And sure maybe Paris is an heiress who will never run out of money or resources and people behind her, producing her, but Miss Hilton found a savvy way to brand herself right at the pinnicale of the internet and she still had to work for it. As a filmmaker I am hyper aware of the way we consume media, which is why I’ve taken such an interest to Paris and this manipulation she had turned into an art form.

Before we go on, in case you don’t know how Paris got famous, I’m here to give you a brief backstory. Paris Hilton, heiress to the Hilton Hotels empire, was actually raised a lot like me. Her parents were strict. She wasn’t allowed to wear makeup or have much of a social life. I believe her parents knew what kind of name she bared and the harsh reality that could come with it, so they kept her on a tight leash. Despite their efforts to keep her tame she slipped away, out into the world long enough to meet famous photographer David LaChapelle, who became enamored with Paris and her sister Nicky, and insisting he take their photo. She knew it was highly against her parents rules to engage in that kind of activity but she went for it. He designed an elaborate set and costumes for them and they went ahead naively thinking the photos would be just for them to admire in private but were later were published in a 2001 Vanity Fair issue, getting her in a whole lot of trouble. She later had to turn down and offer to do Playboy because her parents would disinherit her. By the time she was 18 her career as a model

and professional partier could really take off. Paris became absolutely obsessed with fame. She came up with a formulated routine on how to grab the paparazzi’s attention. She would find all the places photographers would be hanging out that day and go to every single location just to be seen and her plan really seemed to work. She was the bright and shining star of every tabloid in America. She describes in the documentary film, “American Meme” how desperate she was, spending hours searching for a place with someone, anyone to take her picture no matter what it took. Her paparazzi access seemed responsible for Paris to become a household name. — add on?

We have to remember that this time, 2007-2009, was a turning point, as smart phones and blackberries were now in almost every American’s pocket and we were craving the tea more than ever. Tabloids started working around the clock to deliver us the latest scoop at the now possible all hours of the day; i.e. the tragedies of Amy Whinehouse, LiLo and her drug escapades, Britney Spears and her hairless melt down, the list goes on. We asked for it, we got it and kept asking for more. After Paris sought out these outlets, the offers poured in. Her own show, movie roles, modeling for brand name designers, she became a DJ, became an author, a business woman, a fashion designer she owns hotels in Dubai and is currently carrying a hefty 10.5 million instagram follower count.

I know what you’re thinking, like okay so who cares about this rich “bimbo” (dubbed courtesy of a New York Post article circa 2007) but just hear me out. Most of us can relate to her story and if not, at least to some of her tactics. What I grew to realize after becoming social media obsessed (possibly because I was deprived as a child) is that

no matter how information changes or what new technology comes to pass it along to us, we will always be doing it in the same way. I watched Myspace come and pass, seeing thousands of singers, bands and actresses get discovered through that site, even some playmates in Playboy magazine. I saw Facebook allow us to put every single thing about our lives on blast at any minute of the day. Twitter allows us to barf our thoughts up in once 180, now 280 characters, Vine stars made 6 seconds videos and now make 6 figures from their fame and last but not least Instagram, and trust me when I say I cringe having to say this, “influencers” sell to us with every photo or video they post. Whether that be a lifestyle, a product or just themselves as a person. A vast majority of us have to admit that we are drinking the juice. We ourselves are partaking in marketing our “best life” being lived via Instagram. So ask yourself, what is the difference between what we are doing on the Gram versus what Paris was doing in 2006, showcasing her persona to the media in the only way it was accessible at the time? Why not manipulate it the same way it manipulates us? Find out where the quote on quote Paparazzi are and market yourself the same way reality stars did.

Not that I have the intention to come up in the same way some of these heiresses who’s names are already famous or these vine stars or twitter comedians did but I have the power to show a portion of the world who I am and what I can do to earn my career as a filmmaker and communicator via social media.

I realized that what I was doing as a little kid, waiting for my parents to leave to seek a world outside my own is exactly what Paris did. She took the risk and got the answers.

Her obsession with fame coincided with my obsession with social media, to communicate and or get my work out there. I’m just trying to work system to brand myself. My research shows that the reality show we down load from an app store and place in our pockets has led me to some big wins. Upon getting hired for shoots or my work recognized in some way, I see there is a formula to the entire thing. When to post, how to post, who to follow, etc. I have no producers behind me to curate my Instagram, I have no connection to someone with a big name. All I have is myself to show for what I can do and if I keep going back to the place with the most access to the loudest voices , like Paris did I may have a shot at getting my own voice out there and I will say more important things than “thats hot” I promise you.

In the end I think that the reason I clung to Paris and her story so deeply was because it was virtually first and foremost example I had and to as impressionable young woman, that kind of thing sticks. The definition of success and how to obtain it was taught to me was by sneaking her show on a Saturday afternoon while my parents when to Shop Rite without me. I’ve just stayed observing all the ways fame has developed via internet and can lead to success. But the beauty of the defying gravity factor is that this blond “bimbo” and many other “bimbos” like her have done the same thing, most without the Hilton name. All I did was think twice before I believed that reality television was just a trashy phase. Instead I realized that I, like many others, am still consuming similar content in 2009 now in 2019, the difference is its in the palm of my hand and I’m deciding to take advantage of it.

[vampirebiter]

I'm the mdzs anon, and I would love to see your wall of text! I'm already kind of confused after googling it

im gonna put it under a cut so i dont annoy anyone who doesnt wanna see it 

its kinda a romance/supernatural/mystery/horror/kinda tragedy story? 

13 years (or 16 if its the drama) before the start of the story one of the main characters, wei wuxian, died after getting real into necromancy and pissing off everyone in charge. he’s brought back from the dead and the story covers what happened leading up to him becoming probably the most hated man in the world and what happens after he comes back from the dead. it also shows his romance (or “friendship” if its the drama) with the second protagonist lan zhan. 

i’ve only gone through the drama and about half of the book so i don’t have all the details yet but ive got a general idea on most of it. 

theres the book which is 113 chapters long with 13 bonus chapters. this is what all the other versions are based on. it does have wei wuxian and lan zhan in a romantic relationship, but it is bl written by a straight woman thats very obviously fetishizing gay men so it has very very noticeable issues with how their relationship is written. if you want me to go into specifics lmk and i will. ive seen a lot of people recommend getting into a visual version of it first since these characters all have several names and it can get kinda confusing if you don’t have a face to put the name to but that’s up to you. 

edit since i’ve finished the book since i first wrote this: if you do read the book, do Not read the incense burner bonus chapters. the chapter between them (villainous friends) is perfectly fine, but those two are just nasty rape porn and not worth anyone’s time. the main book also has some consent issues with the romance but, from my understanding, is kinda par for the course with a lot of bl content and nowhere near as bad as those chapters. not to make it sound like thats ok, cuz like. it isnt, its just begrudgingly tolerable for me personally outside of those two chapters.

theres also an animated version (also officially on youtube), a comic (both of which are still ongoing), and two audio dramas (one in chinese and one in japanese but i think you can find them with english subtitles) that i’ve been told all stick to the book pretty well and also have the relationship being romantic. i haven’t gone through any of these yet so i’m not sure how they compare with the story or how they handle the relationship but im gonna assume based on the fact that everywhere ive found the animated version and comic lists them as yaoi that they’re in a similar position as the book but probably not as bad in some ways. 

the drama (also officially on netflix and youtube) has a different name (the untamed) and diverges from the original story kinda a lot and doesn’t have the relationship be explicitly romantic but it’s still pretty gay and i’d say still very much a romance even if it’s different and in some ways actually handles their relationship better than the book since it doesn’t have the bl tropes piled on or the consent issues that the book has. there’s a decent amount of structure and plot changes between book and show, most noticeably a whole new side storyline and changing who invented demonic cultivation and changing the order things happen in sometimes. it has two spin off movies that i haven’t seen yet and know very little about but they’re out there (the living dead and fatal journey). 

edit since ive seen the movies now: fatal journey was pretty good, living dead was not imo but idk you might like it. also the plot changes are mostly to streamline or for censorship and i think most of them are perfectly fine for the most part, but some things i for sure like better in the book. 

anyway thats the end of my ted talk thank u for listening and dont clown me for accidentally getting emotionally invested in bl 

[bettycrocker]

How can you defend shows like South Park?

because its not as black and white as "theyre trying to make people believe these sorts of things are okay" the reality quite literally is shock value with shows like south park, they are looking to offend you on some capacity and its been the primary goal of the show even when it was just some poorly made christmas special made to air once and only once on comedy central. in fact, south park creators matt and treys idea behind getting things through censorship is making one extremely awful joke that they are fully aware will offend people so that the other offensive things don't seem nearly as bad - while that works and it doesn't seem very ethical, it was their way of showing "hey you see these things? theyre bad and if you see people doing this stuff, know theyre bad people and feel free to treat them as shittily as possible." if you actually sit down and watch earlier seasons of both south park and family guy youll definitely see a stark different between older and newer seasons - however youll also notice that south park has always been out to show you offensive thing where as family guy was just supposed to be an easy parody of the simpsons.

anyone will tell you that family guy characters did have redeeming qualities in the beginning, they were actually slightly diverse characters rather than the unfunny, cynical cardboard cutouts they are now. however, later seasons were when things started to take a nasty turn - primarily starting with he blatant abuse and bullying of meg for no other reason than "we need to pick a character to be hated by the family how about the daughter" when that sort of dynamic was never actually in the show. both chris and meg were treated pretty much the same in early seasons (in fact, meg wasn't treated as the butt of jokes nearly as much as she is now) but as soon as they made that character dynamic shift everything started getting worse. it isn't character development its just they needed to 'spice things up' so they decided to dig more into the idea of shock value, taking notes off of south park whos main goal, again, was to shock people and offend them.

family guy could have been an endearing and enjoyable show, but seth funnymans shift in humor was to suddenly just be as offensive as possible to follow the south park formula. wanna know why? because seth doesn't know how to make anything original - his entire premise for family guy was to just copy the simpsons and when that started becoming stale he decided to steal the "be as disgusting as possible" from south park while also stroking his ego and pretending like hes making some sort of grand commentary on the world that south park OR the simpsons has already done. all of his other shows have the same formula as well, none of them actually stand out because he just chooses to not show any type of creativity - of the three hes had the only one thats even mildly enjoyable is the cleveland show and that was cancelled because nobody wants to watch his shit anymore. the only people who watch his shows anymore are frat boys and middle aged adult men while everyone else just keeps it on as background noise.

to assume a show molds you as a person and your personality is totally bogus - keep in mind a lot of people grew up watching both south park and family guy, even robot chicken, the simpsons, futurama, the boondocks, archer, frisky dingo, aqua teen hungerforce, the venture bros, squidbillies, and so many other shows with offensive and gross humor. i watched all of those shows as a kid and yes a lot of the time i was offended and i understood if other people were offended by them as well. i was also fully aware, even when i was like 13, that it wasn't okay to use those types of jokes in public. its more of an issue to do with maturity and self-awareness rather than the "snowflakes are too offended" syndrome. people lacking in self-awareness and maturity most of the time don't fucking understand why something is offensive so they assume everything MUST be offensive in some way and that theyre just being targeted for no reason. even seth funnyman has this sort of thought process because he himself cannot believe his creations are in any way untasteful.

yes im offended by a lot of the jokes and themes in shows but i still watch some of them because theres still some sort of entertainment in shows like south park. family guy, however, is on a whole different level for how mind-numbingly terrible it is. if thats the hill i die on im chill with it because i fucking hate family guy and its writers.

[hashtagloveloses]

much like treasure planet, it's not a musical and so that already is not in its favor. treasure planet has 1 or two SICK songs on the soundtrack, but it also doesn't have like a memorable heartpulling score like a pixar film, a full movie cinematic soundtrack like tarzan or spirit, or an iconic mixtape like into the spider-verse. music can really make or break a film in sticking in people's minds and helping with that word of mouth too (the soundtrack is marketing!).

that being said, strange world is already not doing that well in the box office because:

it was scheduled for a thanksgiving release at the same time as black panther, which was an already surefire hit and ALSO for a family audience. and with rising inflation and stagnating wages AND the triple COVID variants/RSV/flu smackdown happening especially to kids in the US, the market a Thanksgiving release matters most for, even for non-COVID conscious families, they don't have the money to bring a whole family to the theater, and if they do, only for one

the last disney animation thanksgiving release was encanto, and while that had a soundtrack to market it and build anticipation, it had kind of a soft opening in theaters (also because of COVID and kids' movies being hard to get parents to spend money), but then it BLEW UP when it hit disney+. i expect this movie will have a huge second wind when it hits d+ as well, although different because again, no songs

because the queerness of the main character cannot be cut out, disney didn't even try to sneak it past censors in the contentious censorship markets, and just isn't releasing them in theaters there, so they knew they were taking a hit. adjusting for not being in some countries, and also the fact that late november is a meaningless release time globally because thanksgiving doesn't matter for them, is important.

this is a movie about an outdoor adventure and nature, and the main market its being released for, US kids on break for thanksgiving, are in the cold right now. they tried to market it as a movie about family issues when family is gathering for the holidays, but thats too high concept for kids. this is a summer movie, and should've been released in the summer for the northern hemisphere!

a lot of people saying there wasn't enough marketing, and while i don't disagree, i think there's been marketing issues with the mouse behind the scenes for a bunch of the last few releases. because of shift to streaming, all the chapek fuckups, and layoffs throughout the industry, the decision of when this movie came out AND how it was marketed was probably put in the wrong hands or at least very understaffed.

all this being said - go see the movie if you can, or when you watch it on d+ later, talk about it online! i really liked it!

hey just an FYI, disney's new animated movie strange world, which they're saying has their first gay character, is not like, a joke. i just saw it and it's an ACTUAL first gay character. he's the protagonist. him being gay is not his entire character but it's also not like, a cameo, or a background thing, or one scene you can cut out. it's a multi-generational story about this kid and his father and grandpa, and him being gay comes up in adorable ways throughout the story (to the point where this movie is gay enough to immediately be banned in several countries). it's really well done and a very pleasant surprise from the mouse and people should go watch it!

[smokeman70]

My Rant, lol.

Still need to vent about Tumblrs new censorship guidelines, common knowledge already the real reason, anyways, there are more important issues/concerns in the world than a 15 year old seeing nudity or sex act online, hell most are googling it, true there are somethings that are questionable and cringe worthy but i wouldnt dream of trying or stopping them from such ( thats what parental controls are for.), if it offends, dont watch it, look at it, read it or listen to it but dont infringe on others rights to do so, if you try to appease the masses your fighting a losing battle, downside of living in free society, dont like it? Move to china and see how well you have it. On a parting note i still want to touch on the "female nipple" thing, this is such a sexist male thing!! I mentioned what happened here in canada and how women can go toplless now, no its not as often as you think or would like, lol. The point is a woman shouldnt be arrested and charged for something a man is allowed to do. SEX and NUDITY is not obscene, its human nature!! Peace!

[daisy-oreilly-fti]

An In Depth Analysis on Articles 13 and 11 - Part 2

Let me preface this post with a simple statement:

Automated Filtering Systems Are Shit.

Good. Now that I got that out of the way, I’m gonna warn y’all that this part of the series is going to be a fucking dumpsterfire. There’s so much wrong about what’s coming next that I don’t even know where to start. I’ll try to give you guys some short explanations with proper links for each one, because I already feel like throwing up just thinking about all of this.

I’m going to start this off with a good example. Youtube has in place one of the most complex such systems on the entire market, with thousands of dollars invested in it. On top of that, they have an army of actual humans combing through content and copyright claims.

And even with all of that, the systems fails, spectacularly, over and over.

Filtering machines are automatic. They work based on algorithms. Algorithms Do Not Distinguish between Copyright Violation and Fair Use. This means, point blank, that works will be taken down which shouldn’t.

Refer to that one time when the the chirping of birds in a video was identified as copyright material by youtube’s filters. Reassuring, I know, right?

Let me hit you with the sources right now.

https://boingboing.net/2018/06/14/six-days-left.html

https://boingboing.net/2018/06/15/contact-your-mep-3.html

Or do you want me to tell you about how memes, remixes (I’d bet AMVs fall under that cathegory), even Wikipedia, will all become basically illegal, because this law never bothered to make any sort of references to fair use or leave any grounds for exceptions?

Here you go:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/06/eus-copyright-proposal-extremely-bad-news-everyone-even-especially-wikipedia

(As well as the latter part of this lil thing I linked in the first post, too: https://gizmodo.com/the-end-of-all-thats-good-and-pure-about-the-internet-1826963763 )

I’ve been reading through all of these things as well as other sites, asking people who know about how law works to figure out just how much the scope of this law would cover, and so far, the answer seems to be ‘everything’.

The OTW’s legal department told us that fanfiction and fanart should remain legal and not fall under the scope of this law (which isn’t a certainty, actually, but I’ll expand on that in post number three). Even so, there’s no guarantee that systems as flawed as these ones won’t see a fanfic with some words similar to something copyrighted and take it down. Because filters can’t distinguish, and they don’t care.

So you see, fanfiction is far from being the thing that’s in the most danger here. Compared to what some people made it out to be, it isn’t that bad on this particular front. But we aren’t safe either, so please take precautions. Back up your works.

Now, maybe you want me to tell you about the thing that actually made me come this close to throwing up, which is how This System Seems to be Designed Specifically To Fail (refer to the first link I added on this post).

Let me quote you the actual law:

‘Information society service providers (...) shall, in cooperation with rightholders, take measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rightholders for the use of their works or other subject-matter’

Or, a translation:

“Cooperation with rightholders could mean negotiations with hundreds or even thousands of parties or collecting societies.”

This is the source, BTW. Page three, chapter two. That entire chapter is just as nauseating:

http://copyright4creativity.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DCDSM-Article13-C4CFactsheet.pdf 

Existing exceptions to copyright will be ignored, and websites are required to collaborate with every rightholder for any material that might be uploaded on their site, which is realistically speaking, impossible.

Let me say that again: This is not a system that was designed to function.

There are still several issues, but you can find details on all of those in the materials I’ve already linked. I’m going to focus on one more huge problem before ending this update.

This is designed in a way that allows corporations and governments to choose what content they want to be available online. If something they don’t agree with is picked up by the filtering machines, they can flag it as a copyright infringement, and nothing about that subject will ever be available online.

After all, the law has no clauses against people claiming fake ownership over others’ content. And I’m beginning to think that this, too, might be by design.

(once again refer to this article, under the headline ‘article 13’: https://gizmodo.com/the-end-of-all-thats-good-and-pure-about-the-internet-1826963763 )

If you’re still curious, this also puts a few of these things into eloquent words:

https://juliareda.eu/eu-copyright-reform/censorship-machines/

Hopefully this is enough for now. I’m willing to take any questions, and I’m currently reaching out to more qualified people for even more reliable information. Until then, if you’re still not convinced, study the links I gave you here. They give you some stuff to think about.

[dipulb3]

Netflix and Amazon gave daring Indian filmmakers hope. Now that's turning to fear

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/netflix-and-amazon-gave-daring-indian-filmmakers-hope-now-thats-turning-to-fear/

Netflix and Amazon gave daring Indian filmmakers hope. Now that's turning to fear

Even with two major, critically acclaimed films under her belt — “Kal: Yesterday and Tomorrow,” a thriller she wrote and directed, and “Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi,” a political drama that won Bollywood’s equivalent of an Academy Award — the work just wouldn’t come.

Since then, the Mumbai-based filmmaker says she has “been inundated with work.” Her film “Guilty” — a social issues drama about a rape investigation — was released by the streaming giant in 2020. In the same year, Disney+ Hotstar released her 8-part comedy series “Hundred.”

Now, increasing government scrutiny of these more provocative projects and other groundbreaking stories is worrying Narain and many other creators in Mumbai, the home of India’s film industry.

Original shows on Amazon Prime and Netflix have lately drawn ire from Indian politicians and regular citizens who consider these films and TV shows insensitive to cultural and religious beliefs.

Police complaints have also piled up against creators and company executives, and some of the offenses they have been accused of — including committing “deliberate or malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings” — carry prison terms of up to three years, a fine, or both. And, in recent months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has announced new rules and guidelines for streaming services, though no explicit bans on particular themes.

India’s creative community now fears that streaming services may buckle under the pressure, and refrain from touching stories that are even remotely controversial. It’s a troubling sign for an industry that had just begun experimenting with new forms of storytelling and producing shows capable of worldwide appeal. Just last year, Delhi Crime, a Netflix drama series based on the real rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in India’s capital, won an international Emmy.

Start of a new era

The arrival of Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix in India has been a boon to directors and writers like Narain, who had long languished on the fringes of Bollywood — an industry often accused of nepotism. Several filmmakers told Appradab Business they thought the international streaming services introduced a degree of professionalism.

“I co-directed a film called ‘House Arrest,’ which was released on Netflix in 2019, and everyone on set was thrilled just because they were getting paid on time,” said Samit Basu, novelist and filmmaker. He added that the culture changed to one where rigorous research and development were commonplace.

“A lot of book rights were auctioned and writers’ rooms started happening,” Basu added. “Earlier, people in the film industry hardly ever read books.”

More importantly, these companies made it possible for storytellers to explore subjects that had previously been untouched.

Bollywood films are hamstrung by the Central Board of Film Certification, which forces filmmakers to remove everything from kisses and swear words to shots of drug abuse — once even from a film about drug abuse. Indian TV, which is also regulated by the government, is dominated by often regressive stories about housewives and mothers-in-law.

Streaming content broke that mold because it was, until recently, unregulated by the government. “Sacred Games,” Netflix’s first original series in the country, shocked Indian viewers by casting well-known actors in a show that liberally made use of abusive language, violence and nudity. The program was compared to “Narcos,” Netflix’s hit American drama about Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Amazon’s first series in the country, meanwhile, was “Inside Edge” — a show about the dark underbelly of cricket, a sport that is worshipped in India. Both “Inside Edge and “Sacred Games” were nominated for International Emmy awards.

Several other shows on the platforms have also taken an unflinching look at subjects ranging from politics to female sexuality, which Bollywood and Indian TV have typically shied away from. “I am glad I did my film for Netflix because they did not dilute anything,” said Narain, referring to her project “Guilty.”

When a kiss offends

Politically-fueled uproar over shows on these international video platforms isn’t new. “Sacred Games,” which was released in 2018, managed to offend lawmakers from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress Party. In 2019, a politician from the BJP filed a police complaint against the creator of the show for a “scene which disrespects Sikh religious symbol Kada.”

But lately, the political and public outrage has reached a crescendo.

Netflix faced boycott calls in November over “A Suitable Boy,” an adaptation of the award-winning novel of the same name by author Vikram Seth. Some viewers and BJP politicians were angered by a scene that depicts a Hindu man and a Muslim woman kissing in a temple, which led to complaints against Netflix executives. The company did not respond to Appradab Business’s request for an update on these complaints.

In January, Amazon’s political drama “Tandav” — which has been likened to the Netflix series “House of Cards” — faced a backlash from politicians who said they complained to the police about the company and the show’s creators for depicting Hindu Gods in a derogatory way. Aparna Purohit, the Head of India Originals at Amazon Prime Video, was questioned by police for several hours.

Both Amazon and the show’s creators issued an apology. “We respect our viewers’ diverse beliefs and apologize unconditionally,” Amazon said in a statement.

That same month, an Indian journalist filed a police complaint against Amazon’s crime series “Mirzapur” for “showing the city of Mirzapur in a bad light,” according to media reports. And this month, the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights asked Netflix to stop streaming “Bombay Begums,” a drama about five ambitious women, because of its “inappropriate portrayal” of children, who were shown sniffing cocaine.

The government has also taken official action to rein in streaming services and the content they provide. Last November, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry brought the previously unregulated services within its scope.

Three months later, the government announced new rules for online content, including a requirement for video platforms to classify their content into age-based categories. They also have to appoint a “grievance redressal officer” in India who has to address every complaint made against the company within 15 days.

While activists have criticized these rules, the government said the video streaming services must be “responsible and accountable” for their content.

“India is tolerant and will remain tolerant,” India’s technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday. “But the limits of tolerance and standards of tolerance should not be judged on the creating freedom or abuse of a particular producer of an OTT platform.”

The new rules do not explicitly ban any type of content — but the vague scope of the regulations is also exactly why filmmakers who spoke to Appradab Business were troubled. A wide range of topics have already been targeted with complaints and outrage, leaving creators second-guessing and self-censoring.

“In India, anyone can have a problem with anything. In India, people confuse what a character is saying with what the writer believes,” said Sumit Purohit, who wrote for “Inside Edge” and “Scam 1992,” a web series on Sony’s streaming service SonyLiv. “How can you make a series like the ‘Mindhunter’ here?” he asked, referring to a Netflix show about serial killers.

Purohit also described the impact of self-censorship on a writer, saying that it “makes you angry, frustrated,” because “that is not how any art is created.”

The backlash from all sides — politicians, journalists, national agencies and even regular citizens — is hard for American services to fight in India, a key overseas market, as they are wary of getting on the wrong side of the government.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in 2018 his “next 100 million” users would come from India. In Dec 2019, he said his company would spend 30 billion rupees ($413 million) on original content over the next two years in India. And, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has said that “it [Prime Video] is doing well everywhere but there’s nowhere it is doing better than in India.”

A chilling effect

There are already some signs that the industry might be regressing. Earlier this month, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources, that “companies like Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix are inspecting planned shows and scripts, with some even deleting scenes that could be controversial.”

A few days later, the Indian financial newspaper Mint reported, citing anonymous sources, that Amazon had canceled the second season of the crime series “Paatal Lok,” which was praised for its portrayal of corruption and caste discrimination.

Amazon and Netflix declined to comment on the reports.

“Nothing that has politics in it is being touched [commissioned] right now,” said Josy Joseph, an investigative journalist whose media platform is collaborating with the creator of “Sacred Games” to make a series about Tihar Jail, India’s largest prison.

“There is a massive depression that has set into the creative minds of Mumbai,” he said. “They are scared and writers are winding down to mediocrity. They are going back to telling saas-bahu stories or conservative romance.” (Saas-bahu means “mother-in-law and daughter-in-law” in Hindi.)

While production isn’t slowing down — Netflix has announced 40 new shows and movies from India — Basu worries that production houses in the future may go for content that is “unambiguously safe” and “assumes that the audience’s intelligence is zero.”

Just weeks after Prime Video executive Purohit was questioned by police, the platform announced it would produce its first film in Bollywood, the stronghold of traditional Indian movie making. “Ram Setu” will “highlight our Indian heritage,” said Vijay Subramanium, the head of content at Amazon Prime Video India, in a statement.

Some filmmakers are less pessimistic about their creative freedom.

Karan Anshuman, one of the creators of “Mirzapur” and “Inside Edge,” said he felt it was “too early to react” to the heightened scrutiny, adding that he would rather “wait and watch.”

But film writer Arpita Chatterjee, said it is too late to rein in the Indian filmmaking community now.

“We can’t just go back 20 years,” Chatterjee said. “The world is at a different place and storytellers are at a different place. You can’t just put the genie back in the bottle.”

[dent-de-leon]

so vld is confirmed to run for 8 seasons right? if that's the case and say sheith will be end game, at what point in the series would you want them to be canon?

hmm thats tricky. i know a lot of people would probably prefer it sooner than later, but i would much rather have relationships that werent rushed or forced. also, i dont think either of them is in a good headspace for it right now. keith in particular with his abandonment issues and constantly “afraid that he’s gonna say or do something wrong and he’s gonna lose shiro” isn’t ready for a relationship. His immediate readiness to sacrifice everything for shiro without even questioning it is admirable, but i dont think shiro would ever want that. obviously shiro would still risk a lot for keith, still does things like trying to fight off everyone at the marmora base for his sake. but id argue bom proves that before shiro, keith had nobody (aside from his dad, who he already lost). And even after bonding with team voltron, he still doesnt think any of that matters if he loses shiro. 

also, if we still go by the fact that keith’s worst fear is feelings, i think it’ll be a while before he’s ready to confront them. particularly if doing so runs the risk of losing his friendship with shiro. 

Of course, we also know that keith is somewhat touch averse despite this craving for some kind of intimacy (you can see it in the way he immediately tenses up and then slowly relaxes anytime he’s hugged with the exception of shiro). In a way, this problem also extends to shiro. shiro, who thinks that the galra have twisted and warped him into a weapon, who feels that he can’t even trust his own body or memories, who struggles with this notion that he is both unworthy as a paladin and a leader. If you look at kuro and crystal venom, shiro’s worst fear seems to be turning into exactly what the galra tried to make him. and then he finds out that zarkon was the previous black paladin, that black saw the same fire in zarkon she saw in him, and all that fear and doubt is compounded. so i could imagine shiro would be very hesitant about having a partner now, not to mention how any physical contact he experienced during that year in prison always resulted in pain. ironically, the first gentle touch he receives on earth isn’t only human, but also galran. the fact that keith reaches out to him again outside the shack without hesitation is also notable, especially compared to when shiro holds out his galra hand to lance. 

you see lance’s hand stop and it flinches away, and he stares at shiro sadly before offering a smile and reaching back. just to be clear, i dont think there’s anything wrong about lance doing this. it shows he’s empathetic and its really crashing down on him what kind of hell shiro’s been through. and you see how choked up keith looks when he first sees shiro after all this time. but when he’s actually in front of shiro? he stays calm and grounding, tries his best to reach out and act like nothing’s changed. keith never hesitates, never shies away from shiro’s touch or startles from it the way he does around others. and after his time in space prison, i think shiro needs that honestly. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that shiro seems to hold people more at arm’s length after kerberos. With keith their easy, casual intimacy with one another certainly helps, but i imagine a romantic relationship would still be a big adjustment after everything they’ve both been through. 

ideally i could see them working up to something like flirting or dating around seasons 5-6. of course, then you also have to ask: what would cannon sheith look like? becuase honestly, i think the answer is: not very different. They already seem to be pretty open about their affection, and we already know shiro is keith’s most important person. I can see them maybe holding hands occasionally or being more into hugs. maybe going on “space dates” every now and again on more lowkey missions like the space mall. but voltron is also a sci-fi adventure, so romance wont be the focus. It’s also a matter of what they can and can’t get away with in terms of censorship (which is really shitty, i know) but thankfully staff already said netflix seems to allow for more opportunity with representation. and this is the same studio who said they wanted to make it expressly clear that korra and asami were together. im thinking the most romantic voltron will get though is like pining, the exchange of little physical reassurances (hugs, shoulder touches, pats on the back, ect), and a mutual confession. maybe a kiss good luck or goodbye during a really emotional scene. 

anyway, season 3 will be a lot of background info and flashbacks i think, which we really need. i feel like the direction of their relationship will end up depending on whatever they had going prekerberos, especially if either of them had feelings for the other that they never confronted before voltron. i think everyone would take some time off from their relationships for season 7 and most of 8 though, you know, put stuff on hold while they gear up for the final battle. a big emotional farewell before the last fight would be really good though. 

and see now, the thing about relationships that i think a lot of people forget when it comes to “cannon ships” for an action adventure series like this is that…well…if a ship becomes cannon at some point, it doesnt mean that they’ll stay together for the rest of the show. sometimes it happens fast and burns out, or people break up and make up a lot, or they try to work things out but just drift apart. so i think id much rather it happen later than sooner because, with show like this, i think that gives them a better chance of staying together? like, the thought of keith being in a relationship with allura and then shiro or vice versa seems to be treated like something impossible, but relationships dont work out and partners deicide to see other people all the time? its even possible keith will have the occasional one episode romantic interest that’s never revisited, like the mer-alien that kissed lance. so anyway, im not too worried if it takes them a bit longer to get together.