#the majority of the censorship happening is self censorship ship yes but also. you are responding extremely reactively to ppl who are

[toytulini]

hm. you know what. censorship culture bad, agree. but uh "if you say unalive in front of me im killing you with my bare hands" hinged response 👍 good job. thatll show em. be worse. while youre at it you should send some suicide baiting anons to them, another thing that only the most hinged, and reasonable, and cool people do

[hamliet]

What is your opinion on ships seen as problematic? For example, incest, minor x major, large age difference, abuser x victim etc. PS. Girls can be addressed as 'dude' :p My friends (both guys and girls) call me dude all the time

Bahaha okay, dude! :D

… are you trying to get me in trouble *cries* I’m kidding. I think you’re genuine but like, shipping is terrifying business on this site. So this is a question without a straight answer and I’ll answer under a cut because all hell can break loose.

*looks at my list of ships* WELP

I mean, it’s no secret that a lot of my ships are considered problematic or at least attract large quantities of haters of varying levels of logic.  Kurokura, for example, which is my new obsession because the angst and character development it offers are just delicious. Yes I know Chrollo killed Kurapika’s family and Kurapika killed some members of Chrollo’s surrogate family but within the context of Hunter x Hunter where like TG, like everyone is a murderer, it offers a potentially amazing and powerful story (not that it has a remote chance of canonicity because it does not). The best stories and often my favorite ships are often “problematic” or controversial because they provoke growth in the characters involved, and to do that, that means they can’t be perfect and imperfect people hurt each other. Life is problematic itself.

So, yeah, it’s fiction, and all fiction is problematic. I am very very VERY against any sort of “anti” culture. That’s just unhealthy and censorship and disgusting. You don’t have to morally justify liking or not liking anything in fiction, and the need to morally justify things sets off my alarm bells because I was raised in a cult.

That being said, of course there are ships I don’t like because they trigger me. The thing is, what someone considers problematic is affected by culture, by experience, etc., and just because you think x/y is problematic doesn’t mean someone else’s experiences are the same, and you don’t know how someone copes. The notion of judging someone for their fictional ships icks me out, with very few exceptions, and those exceptions are mentioned below.

Life isn’t black and white. Fiction is fiction, which means it is both part of reality since it was created within reality, and not a part of reality at the same time. Therefore “it’s fine they don’t exist” both is true but also not true. Paradoxes are how life works, lol! 

So I’ll break down your ask:

Personally, what do you define as incest? I loathe immediate family ships, all of them (Luke/Leia? WHY). But cousins… usually I hate, but I ship Tsukiyama and Karren (admittedly before I knew they were cousins but whatever). You know that like 80% of marriages ever were between second cousins or closer? I understand that the world as a whole of moving away from this and hell yeah that’s a good thing, I’d love it if it stopped happening as I find the idea of dating any kind of relative icky icky icky. That being said in quite a few countries around the world even today, people intermarry, and it’s honestly full of very racist implications to say that most marriages ever were objectively morally wrong just because modern western culture says so. (Like, sorry to break this to you, but we’re all products of incest probably.) Sooooo, meh, I don’t like generally, but I’m not going to scream at someone that they’re evil because of it. Also, AUs wherein they aren’t actually related can be a thing! Remember wherein I said fiction is not exactly reality? It can be changed, whereas IRL relation cannot be changed.

What’s a minor x major? For example, Ayato is 18. Hinami is 17. I ship it. But ships with large age differences when one is coded at a different life stage do freak me out. I don’t like Hinami x Banjou AT ALL, for example, but it’s not inherently wrong for people to write AUs wherein Hinami is older and in a different life stage and falls in love with Banjou. In Disney, Snow White is like literally 14 and Ariel is like 16 and Idk how old their respective princes are (probably also teenagers) but contextually that’s normal for fairy tales, so I don’t care.

Age differences are not inherently wrong either; power dynamics can be a problem and I personally don’t usually like ships with giant age differences, but it’s not inherently wrong. But like a prepubescent child and a 30 year old? That is my “we have a problem here” red line. Fuck no. In that kind of case I would judge because that’s just raising all kinds of red flags because WTF is wrong with humanity. I have nothing to do with Loli or whatever the boy version of that is. That is my “I hate this and I judge” exception because. That strikes me as messed up and frankly wrong. But like, if someone is shipping a character canonically a kid in an AU wherein they have actually grown up and then fall in love with someone else, that might not be my thing but I’m not like, inherently disgusted.

Abuser x victim…  so I notice a lot of people misdefine abuse on this site and cheapen its very meaning. Like Touka abusing Kaneki–no, that’s not how it’s coded in the story, and you can’t interpret stories without context or you’re misreading the text deliberately. I see a lot of whining about Kylo “abused” Rey by reading her mind–yeah, but she did the same thing back to him, and they weren’t in a relationship. Not that it’s in any way excusable or wasn’t wrong because it was (she wasn’t wrong to use it back as self-defense though), but it’s a story about space battles with phallic swords, look at it contextually, it’s not intended to be abuse. Honestly as an abuse survivor myself I find a lot of “X IS ABUSIVE” screaming on this site BEYOND offensive, and people who do that are actually harming survivors by not listening to us.

That being said, there are some ships that make me uncomfortable because of an abuser dynamic. Killgrave x Jessica Jones, for example, or Graves x Credence from Fantastic Beasts. I hate both those ships, but someone could write an AU wherein abuse never even occurs. For example I also ship Fururize AU despite the very clear abuse of Rize, but I like imagining AUs wherein Furuta and Rize get the chance to overcome their flaws and find happiness, wherein intervention occurred earlier so they never disintegrated to that point. In canon? NO. I do not want any Fururize in canon, please no.

Basically, to each their own. You’re in charge of your own fandom experience. Blacklist things your NOTPs to avoid being upset about them.

[scrawnydutchman]

When Should a Franchise be Revived?

So as the common fan of film and television has more then likely noticed by now, reboots, remakes and revisions are everywhere. Pandering towards our collective nostalgia has proven to be far more profitable and less risky then creating a whole new original classic for our mass consumption. The people have voted with their wallets on what they’d like to see, and now EVERYBODY is doing it. Cartoon Network rebooted Powerpuff Girls and will continue to bring back Ben 10. We’ve seen reboots of Fantastic Four and other superhero properties in recent years thanks to the everlasting boom of Marvel comics popularity. Power Rangers, Smurfs and other nostalgic franchises of old are coming back. Even the animation powerhouses of Disney and Pixar, who can earn a profit simply by slapping their name on a film, have decided it was more worthwhile to continuously remind everyone of how great and ambitious they used to be . . . . rather then continue to be great and ambitious.

Yeah, as anybody who has read an article I wrote previously about the Beauty and the Beast remake in particular and just knows me in general will have figured out by now that I am HIGHLY opposed to this phenomenon. I think it’s a discouragement of mold changing ideas, it tells our future generation that the great idea they had for a new movie or show will be supported by absolutely no one, and it generally makes our culture come to a grinding halt. It’s especially ironic because these franchises we want to come back so badly are so great in the first place BECAUSE they challenged our sensibilities when they first came out, rather then pandered to them. They redefined what could be expected from our entertainment, they changed the way we look at a medium, they made all encompassing shifts in our culture. Remaking Beauty and the Beast doesn’t shift our culture, or at least it doesn’t shift us forward. It just holds us back. We could have put that same money into creating a new spectacular film that was so jaw droppingly amazing it RIVALED the original Beauty and the Beast in it’s majesty, instead of just trying to live up to it. Now, I have to come clean; I have not seen the new Beauty and the Beast so upon seeing it my mind could VERY much change upon a viewing, but I’m personally really self conscious about putting my hard earned money towards a mentality I greatly oppose, and truthfully at this point I might go in with a bias of “ready to hate it” where I don’t go in expecting a movie, I go in being like “okay . . impress me”, which for any art completely changes your outlook. When I see it, if I see it, I’ll have to take time to change my mindset in the name of being fair. On the other hand the whole movies marketing strategy is “remember the first movie?” so I’ll likely know exactly what to expect.

All of that said, bringing back a franchise is not ALWAYS bad, in fact sometimes I too get incredibly hyped about the news of one returning. There are certain exceptions of the rules, and I’m here to create a distinction between when you SHOULD bring a franchise back, and when you should just leave good enough alone.

1. It should be something that didn’t have a satisfying conclusion

One of my absolute favorite shows growing up was Teen Titans. Action packed, suspenseful, heartwarming, sometimes scary, hilarious and overall dripping with charm, this show was a clever blend of western animation and anime tropes brought together to make a really thrilling colorful ride with the unforgettable main case of Robin, Beast Boy (my favorite as a kid), Cyborg, Raven and the lovely adorable Starfire (who is my new favorite after rewatching this great series). As wonderful as this show was, it has an infamously unsatisfying conclusion. Without giving too much away to people yet to see this show, basically a major character from a previous story arc comes back without remembering who they were, one of our main heroes tries to help them but then has to leave them to continue crimefighting. And that’s it. That’s all we got. No answers to why this character came back, no answers as to what this means for the team, nothing about why their memory is lost. The show just ended without warning. If this show came back and kept telling amazing stories featuring our favorite motley crew of teenage superheroes and had an entire arc about how this character came back, you bet your ass I’d watch it. I WANT ANSWERS DAMMIT. Besides, part of the ingeniousness of the Superhero genre is that it’s so broad and limitless you can tell an infinite amount of stories with it. It just lends itself to being an ongoing franchise. Which leads to my next point.

And before anyone brings it up, yes, I’m aware of Teen Titans Go. I just try my best to forget about it.

2. You have a premise with potential for more stories. 

Coming up with a timeless premise is a difficult task. How do you come up with a plotline that’s timelessly epic or intriguing and is easily accessible to fans from every generation? Well, more often then not the answer is to make your premise as simple as possible, and to play towards themes everybody can relate to. One Piece is a great example, being one of the longest going franchises EVER and being SO successful it beat Spider-Man for the number 3 spot of best selling comic book franchise of all time (and at the rate it’s going it’s not unlikely it will beat Batman and Superman in the next few years). That’s because the premise is very easy to understand: Guy wants to become king of the pirates, to do so he must find the thing everybody is looking for, hijinks ensues and he meets a bunch of new friends along the way. With a premise as broad as this you can go ANYWHERE with it, and as a result this series has some of the most expansive lore out there where even the smallest character has the most intriguing arc. They’re always going to new islands, they’re always finding new bad guys to beat up, they’re always overcoming new bizarre challenges, and because the story essentially ends when our main lead finds his treasure, which could be at anytime, it can be as long as it wants. It also means if it were ever to end randomly without Luffy finding the One Piece it wouldn’t be out of place to just bring it back a few years later.

3. The franchise has potential not fully realized

Now, after the recent success of the new Beauty and the Beast in the box office you’ve probably heard that Disney has a SHIT TON of remakes in the works for the near future. They’re basically remaking everything, regardless of how much sense it makes. Barf. But that said, there are a FEW Disney remake examples I wouldn’t mind seeing tbh. The biggest one for me is Treasure Planet, reason being that it was a passion project by originators of the Disney Renaissance John Musker and Ron Clements, that was held back since it’s inception (thanks Katzenburg) and once it FINALLY got released it essentially bombed in the low point of Disneys popularity at the time. Now it sits alongside it’s brother Atlantis: The Lost Empire as the nostalgic Disney films fans get to at the END of their marathon, if even that. It’s a shame because this really is a neat idea. Treasure Island in space with a steampunk vibe really lends itself towards incredible and imaginative visuals (even if this movie has sort of a weird style of not quite mesh between historical and futuristic). I’d like to see a live action remake of this because the first movie doesn’t get the respect it deserves, especially for being the passion project that it is (poor Musker and Clements) and live action CGI has potential for bringing this premise to life in a way that was limited for it’s time due to this idea being held back for years. Plus I’d like to see this movie fix the problems the old one had (and when I say fix, I mean ACTUALLY MAKE BETTER, not just address knitpicky bullshit like so many people who think they’re smarter then a 90s movie when they actually just demonstrate that they completely miss the point. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ISN’T ABOUT STOCKHOLM SYNDROME. okay, rant over). I for one would just blend the two styles a little closer together so it looks more like a steampunk mesh and less like .  . . regular pirate ships with rockets taped on. Also, get rid of the robot. Just cut him out entirely.

So yeah, those are the 3 reasons I think would make bringing a franchise back acceptable. If your franchise had an unsatisfying conclusion, has potential for more stories and perhaps was incredibly limited upon it’s initial release, I see no reason not to talk about it again. And if you can hit all 3 of them then man, at that point you have a DUTY to bring it back.

Now those of you who saw the top picture was probably wondering when the hell I was going to mention the new season of Samurai Jack. Well rest assured, I saw it. And it. Is. AMAZING!!!!!! Seriously, this is some of the most spectacular stuff I have ever seen in an animated series. You are doing yourself a disservice if you are not watching Samurai Jack right now. But incidentally, the franchise itself just so happens to fit all 3 of the criteria I mentioned. The Samurai Jack series DID have an unsatisfying conclusion; we never saw Jack return to the past. The simple yet ingenious premise of Samurai Warrior gets flung into bad past by arch enemy and has to get back to the past to undo the damage done by him lends itself a LOT to endless possibilities for storytelling. It’s beautifully broad and in a futuristic setting, so you can put Jack in any situation you want. A western? go ahead. A fairy tale? Absolutely. Scotland? Why not? An Alice in Wonderland homage? You bet your ass! Sometimes the premises just write themselves. And finally, this new season is the vision of Genndy Tartakovsky fully realized. It’s no longer held back by censorship towards children or a constraint in budget. It has complete permission to go all out. The scenery is more beautiful then ever before, the action is awe inspired, the suspense is intoxicating, the new use of gore is artistic beyond all hell, and it maintains everything great about the old series and improves upon them. THIS IS HOW YOU BRING A SERIES BACK.

Now, compare that to Beauty and the Beast. The original is also an awe inspired risk taking and breathtaking work of art that really challenges the conventions we used to know and love. But the facts are: it had a satisfying conclusion, there were no more stories to tell (despite the efforts of the terrible direct to DVD sequels) and it was it’s own potential fully realized. The remake has nothing to offer but nostalgia for a movie you can watch any time if you wanted and the promise that it will fix what was never broken. Beyond that, all it’s got is songs we’ve already heard, a cast of talented people, granted, but would frankly be better off putting their talent to a fresh idea that needs the exposure more, and cgi that’s nothing new from what we see every year.

BUT ALL OF THAT SAID . . . there is one factor that breaks all the previously stated rules and warrants the existence of a product no matter where it’s basis comes from . . . honest to God quality. If a movie is genuinely entertaining or enchanting or funny, for any reason at all, then it’s done it’s core job and that’s that. So maybe I will be pleasantly surprised by this new Beauty and the Beast, it’s totally plausible. I’ve heard friends of mine say it’s BETTER then the original . . . I can’t help but remain skeptical and a little pessimistic at the whole idea, but fun is fun so, if you enjoyed it, don’t let me stop you from doing so.

[nathjonesey-75]

Nine Years An Exile : The Dustbowl - Part Three

The nadir of the school experience which nearly finished me off would have had to have been the class assistant whom I only had for around two months towards the end of the school year – clearly without enough time in my classroom to know my habits and quirks. When I distributed subject or homework books to the class, I occasionally threw them lightly towards their tables – or for them to catch. The person in question reported me to the heads of department for throwing a book at a pupil, which at the time; having coped for 75% of the year without an assistant – made me think, I was fine without the new, excessive stress applied by the new addition. I wanted to walk out that day, but unfinished business is unfinished business. I had to finish the year, absurd humiliation or not – and thought I saw the end in sight.

Yet as personally demoralising as that was – the poison cream of a sour crop was the feeling of “we knew this was going to happen” around the city regarding its lack of care for safety. On a larger and more tragic scale than anyone would have wanted. Within touching distance of the finishing line – at the end of the final assessments, which were a new level of fatigue – the long end-of-May weekend brought events beyond heartache for so many. The Villaggio shopping mall disaster of Monday, May 28th, 2012. Inadequate exits in a criminally-managed venue with illegally constructed facilities - brought the deaths of nineteen individuals; thirteen children, three of which were our pupils. One of whom was my pupil, Almudena Fernandez-Travesedo and her little brothers Camilo and Alfonso, along with their friend Isabel Vela, whom I taught mathematics.

 I shall never forget the hurried memorial ceremony at the family’s catholic church. Held on the following Wednesday, nine days after the deaths. Naturally, there was a huge overflow of attendees in support. Having to take a large bouquet of flowers to the family after the service and hug both parents was one of the hardest moments of my time in Qatar. As harrowing - was the following media silence and censorship of any coverage or direct focus on the reasons for the tragedy. Completely below the law. But the togetherness and support of parents, teaching staff and assistants in the final month of the term was a proud moment.

 By then the experience of living in that land was more than tainted – I had already handed in my resignation (by February we had to indicate our plans for the following year) and had been offered a non-teaching job with my wife-to-be’s company, as a quality assessor, so my staying in the country was to only work as long as she wanted to stay. In another almost spooky twist of fate, on the penultimate week of the school year, on the home stretch – with my sponsorship apparently guaranteed for when I was to return, a married man – the job offer was withdrawn, due to lack of funds. This was a typical characteristic of Qatar – make plans before the financial guarantee, then a collapse of plans. This meant a final day scramble, asking the business manager to ensure the school’s owner would give me a pardon to return after the wedding, as my wife would be working – but I wouldn’t. Literally, five minutes before my final departure from the school, the owner agreed to allow me back into the country. Provided I did not work for another school. How kind. Almost like a Roman emperor, sparing the serfs. I had no plans to work for another school – my mind was as puddled with education as was the law forthright in Doha, so a break from teaching was an absolute must. I left school for the last time in the back of a taxi, thankful to Terry; the principal for ensuring I wasn’t going to live apart from my missus having just got hitched; but also flicking Vs at the school itself out of the back windscreen, against the faceless culture which had developed from my department’s management – and the way it had made me feel.

 On a lighter note – one of the demographic populous which was always smiling, always in big groups – probably because they were possibly shipped over together to work for less than I was paid – was the ultra-chipper Philippine retail legion. They were retail. From McDonalds, to expensive Timex watch retailers, to the bar staff at the Irish Bar at the Intercontinental. Always smiling, never really trained in their jobs – but who would have trained them in customer service when no-one knew any? Their almost tribal togetherness (apart from their godliness) was something to be admired. Anyway, waffle over. My last – very last fatty, greasy KFC was on my birthday weekend seven years ago. Two hours before my wife to be arrived. It was she who trained me – off the stuff.

 It was memorable because the one thing which had bothered me for the two years since moving there was why their spoken Ps were Fs – and their Fs and Vs - were Bs. Anyway, in my usual end-of-week exhausted “shove any old shite down my throat to fill me before beer o’clock” – I asked for the “Family Bucket”. I know – what a fat bastard. But, my logic was – after beer and for breakfast if needed, there would be relief food. The exchange rate was around £1 sterling to QAR 5.5 riyals. So - ten quid for a family bucket for the weekend. Thinking ahead.

 “That’ll be pipty-pibe, riyals sirrrrr.”

 I already had the grossly large bucket of Sprite in my hand and was sipping it when he asked me for the pipty-pibe. Except the straw was almost in my windpipe as I spluttered and choked with laughter.

 “Cough…cough…how much? ...cough”

“Pipty-pibe riyals, sirrrr.”

 Luckily, I handed him the notes from my shaking arm and limped out of KFC with the grease-bucket of chicken legs shuffling under one arm; Sprite bucket under the other. I’d only recently had an ACL reconstruction a week and a half earlier, so how I got out with any breath, or stability in me – I don’t know. I think I got home and was texting friends with my new favourite foreign phrase. Even today, the word fifty-five is often replaced by the pipty-pibe, in conversation (as is the equally-habitual Arabic swapping of verbs in simple questions – ‘how you are?’). Although now, having taught English as a second language – I am aware of the consonant complexities in East Asian languages – some don’t have Fs or Vs in their alphabets or pronunciation at all. For me, it was one of the golden moments of a bizarre few years of learning.

 From a mental health perspective, it was the start of a shift towards a more real, and necessary self-critical outlook for me (as if I wasn’t self-critical enough in the first place). Living in a sandy space station; an ether world where values, approach and priorities are constantly questioned due to everything you’ve ever thought or believed – being given new contexts and reasonability.  Then returning to your initial thoughts (such as “yes, the reason we have safety measures is because we’ve learned from past tragedies – and not to be total, lazy dickheads”); having been confirmed of their original validities. You see individuals in similar situations to mine, trying to avert the locked-down religious constitution and live, feeling any shade of normal which may be available.

 For the next eight months, with the help of my wife’s generous tax-free salary, being able to listen to BBC 6 Music for inspiration and having sun - I sat and wrote a book (no, it didn’t materialise into anything special, but the experience and idea was nice), but struggled with where I was in the world. It all felt morally wrong, unyielding, socially and career-wise – plus didn’t fill me with hope as far as people were concerned. Hence writing the poem and being pushed to post it online so soon. There was no work available – not for the want of trying – but I saw that correspondence via email response didn’t actually exist.  Almost as though it were a new phenomenon, with not everyone (outside major corporations) on board. Postal addresses had only just been created, so the circulation of mail was also in its infancy.

 If I can advise anyone with expatriate life and juggling with mental health in this part of the world, it is to do your homework before moving there. More and more people do move there now, mistakenly expecting an extensive busman’s holiday. Cater for your own interests – if you are adventurous and embrace all cultures, including those with undemocratic social inequalities and corruption (with a pinch of salt) – it may be a blast for you. It is unquestionably more of a family environment than for a single person. I saw plenty of people having the times of their lives there. Most of the time, these were mothers in comfortable positions, enjoying seeing their kids grow in mostly safe environments (compounds of villas, usually with swimming pools, subsidised by their husband’s employers) with many other mothers in the same position. But like Marmite, or Vegemite (as I was about to find out); it isn’t for everyone.