#the wilds discourse

[kcrabb88]

It's truly wild to me how many people out there don't understand that the Star Wars prequels are a tragedy or how tragedies work.

Posts like "these are the Jedi failed movies" truly just make me shake my head. They're actually the "fascism wears a smile until it strikes you down and then it's too late" movies. They're the "the senate became corrupt and clapped in the face of genocide" movies. They're the "make people scared enough of war until they accept authoritarianism" movies. They're the "fear and possessiveness will tear you up on the inside" movies. The Jedi were the heroes of lore, people loved and looked up to them, looked to them for safety, and then too much got put on their shoulders on purpose by Palpatine, and also by a senate that didn't want to act (not you Padme and Bail and Mon, you're perfect). They were drafted and used and scapegoated, which is, you know, a tenet of the vast majority of authoritarian governments (Hitler and Stalin, for instance, might be on different ends of the political spectrum, but they sure both did scapegoat specific groups and commit mass murder, just differently).

When some people say "these movies are about the fall of the Jedi" what they mean is "the Jedi failed" but that's not what "the fall of the Jedi means." It means they were wiped the fuck OUT. Like, Jesus, in Rogue One Tarkin is talking about burning out the final MEMORY of the Jedi by blowing up the holy city in Jedha. Palpatine had to get rid of the Jedi because to get rid of the Jedi was to get rid of the final people standing in his way after he had already worn them out. His intention was not only to kill them, but to alter the galaxy's entire perception of them. To rip away hope. People are always looking for the Jedi to be Bad or nitpick their mistakes (because while other people are allowed to make mistakes, the Jedi never are). Palpatine made himself look like a benevolent grandpa who would keep everyone safe. And that, more than anything, is what gave him SO much power. He stole the narrative.

It's just like. Of course WE know what was going to happen! We know from watching the OT that the PT can only end in tragedy. But the characters don't know that! They don't have all the info! That's how a tragic story structure works. We see it coming and they can't.

Anyway. The Jedi are laser-sword wielding monks with psychic powers who just wanted to do what they could to help. The world would be better if more folks remembered that.

[astrowarr]

every life series season has a villain, but not in the way you might think. it's always a symbol of some kind. it's not a person, but a concept, an ideal, an overarching force. that is, in every season except wild life

third life had circumstance. everything was new and hard to grasp, and no one knew what to do. the villain of third life was the world itself; think of the animal extinction, for example.

last life had brutality. both physically and mentally. it was rife with betrayal and isolation; reds had to abandon teams, and the boogeyman mechanic's paranoia forced everyone apart.

double life had love. love, and the fate it tangled itself in. it was a complex villain, but love killed them again and again, and rewarded the single person who didn't give in to it.

limited life had time. the passage of time itself was the enemy and everything was driven by that. they clawed their way to every last second, and time ate them all in the end.

secret life had the secret keeper. unyielding, unrelenting, unmoving, all-knowing. when the secret keeper forced them to do awful things, no one disobeyed, but hated it all the same.

wild life has grian. grian is representative of every wild card the world plays. he runs the command, and stops it at the end of the day. he is transparent about that. he accepts bribes for information, and unabashedly uses his knowledge to his advantage. he is Other. the players treat him the exact way they did the secret keeper; he's not a player like them this season, he's a symbol, and one of every awful thing that's happened to them at that

which is to say, wild life's villain is a symbol and an overarching force. it's just, for the first time, simultaneously a person, too. everyone else is realizing that too and are pointing their blades at grian, slowly but surely. it is SO fascinating

[huggywuggysuppy]

The whole wifeswap bit was incredible and especially how you can see the gears turning in Gem’s head where she doesn’t want to call Joel her husband (funnier because Lizzie is on the server) and so logically defaults to wife. And everyone rolls with it!!

[skyward-floored]

*steps up on stage*

*clears throat*

Wild is one of the most religious members of the chain, second or equal only to Sky

*I’m booed off the stage*

[roguedemonwatcher]

You know, as someone who did think Liliana was worth saving, it's really hard to justify Bell's Hells not saving the gods after doing so. Because what is this saying about Liliana's sins vs the gods supposed sins?

Is it that intent matters? Well, the gods (the prime’s specifically) have the intent to protect mortals, just as Liliana wanted to protect Imogen - that’s what caused the Schism in the first place and drove the Calamity. Is it that Liliana eventually helped BH? Well, the gods have aided mortals plenty, even from behind the divine gate, and specifically gave boons to Bell’s Hells to help them. Is it about the scale of harm? Mortals (notably Luidinus!) have the capacity for harm on just as grand of a scale (see Molaysmer!). Why does Liliana’s victimization give her a pass, but not the gods, who are the ones under threat here, who the audience knows (even if Bell’s Hells doesn’t) were refugees essentially, trapped in a moment of trauma? Why are the gods treated as tyrannical in absolute terms, despite the very explicit perspective that showed the struggle and tragedy of the decisions they made? 

It just strikes me as an incredibly similar situation and it's weird to see people praise Bell's Hells capacity for empathy and kindness, specifically about saving Liliana, and then assume the kind solution to all of this will be to violently remove the gods.

[devotion-disorder]

Am I the only one who only thinks of the Scooby Doo collar when looking at Asa's? Once I saw it I couldn't think of it any differently and now everyone shall suffer.

(PS, I accidentally failed in a conversation with someone and brought up Vaginal Yeast Anon)

💀💀💀💀💀💀bro

but you have a point...have we ever seen Asa and Scooby-doo in the same room together at the same time? much to think about...

[fiona-fififi]

"Eddie has to do so much work on himself before he'll be ready for a relationship, but Buck has grown so much and is ready for a serious relationship now, so they wouldn't make sense together."

Are you serious right now?

Buck dated a man for six months, they somehow barely knew one another in the end, he full body cringed at the idea of being in love with said man, then he basically called him a gay savior and asked him to move in.

If being perfectly mentally well is our measure, Buck is not ready for shit. Please.

That man wants to be in love so bad he is willing to sacrifice every part of himself to keep a partner he barely even knows and who clearly doesn't know him. He is terrified of dying alone and being left behind and that manifests as desperate clinging to any vague prospect that appears before him.

That is not healthy behavior.

They both need to work out their shit. But there is no reason they can't do that together.

Because even people who are not perfectly mentally healthy deserve love, actually.

[hermitcraftx]

One big problem with Scar's recent tweet (the one stating him and Grian have to avoid each other due to lots of negative feedback) is the sort of unawareness on this website. Yes, CCs certainly don't step foot here nearly as much as other websites, but acting like it's solely a YouTube and Reddit problem is driving me insane.

For the past year most of Trafficblr has been nothing but negativity and complaining towards folks that post Scar and Grian together, complaining that they're overrated and that they're sick of seeing them together. Almost all of the "hot takes" and "discourse" that people post are just whining about how annoying and popular Grian is, and how everything is desert duo, and how they want to see other things.

And I've pointed that out. Several times! Few people listened! Mcytblr confessions is almost entirely negativity, I see rancid takes about Grian alone (not even MENTIONING desert duo or scarian) on a damn near daily basis. I've gotten hate asks saying things along the lines of "of course you post about Grian and Scar" and "I followed you for Joel, not scar". Popular fan artists and bloggers hopping on the hate train, bullying popular fanon concepts and canon concepts, saying they hate the angst, or that it's overrated, or that there's too much shipping and they don't like it anymore. People that like other MCYTers like Zedaph, or Big B, or Tango, or anyone and everyone under the sun all blamed Grian and desert duo for their lack of content and accused Grian fans of not putting enough effort into fandom. Effort! Into fandom! Like it's a requirement and not a hobby you do for fun!

And those exact same people are shocked right now. I'm going to pull you all close when I say this: fandom is supposed to be fun. It is not a job. Nobody is required to like certain things, and that applies to your dislike of Grian and Scar together, true... But the wave of hate the past year or so has been ridiculous. If someone only watches Grian or Scar, that's fine. They don't have to watch anyone else. If they only post about desert duo or scarian it doesn't make them shallow or basic.

If you are genuinely upset by this, please, I beg of you: take a break from fandom. There have always been more popular characters and pairings in fandom. That is a fact of life. If you are genuinely, seething, furiously upset about all the Grian and Scar, or anything in fandom, take a break. You have to remember that the CCs don't have to do this, and they are friends and people too, and the negativity you have towards your fandom make them think you hate it. While it's true the bottom of the barrel dwell in YouTube comments and on Reddit, I see a lot of negativity on Twitter and Tumblr.

Frankly, I'm pissed. And grateful we even have a life series anymore, with all the negative feedback they get on every little aspect of the life series. Let friends be friends, for fuck's sake. And if you feel you MUST post negatively about anything in the life series or group, I suggest you make like the DSMP fandom and add CC! or C! indicators. Someone on Twitter bemoaned they weren't complaining about "fanon scarian, not canon scarian" which I think is a roundabout way of denying they're two separate things. But I digress as that's not what this post is about. The point is is that those same people that were so eager to complain about Scar and Grian being overrated are awfully, awfully quiet now. For shame, do better, and have fun. It's Minecraft YouTube, not a job.

TL;DR: Traffic Twitter and Trafficblr both have problems with hating on Scar and Grian disproportionately and now that it's rearing it's ugly head, they blame YouTube and Reddit to absolve themselves of responsibility. Fandom is supposed to be fun!

[heartless-aro]

There’s no tumblr experience more aspec than having to go to the search bar on someone’s blog and search “asexual” or “aromantic” before following to make sure they weren’t Like That about aspecs back in 2016

[fruitydiaz]

i don’t understand when people act like b***t***** breaking up would be bad for queer representation on screen…i want queer relationships to be treated more like non queer ones. i want a character to discover he’s bi and not end up with the first man he dates after that. i want him to explore more and discover more about himself. i don’t want queer characters for the sake of having queer characters i want queer characters with interesting in depth stories. i think that b*** dating one man and realizing that he does want something different is? good? actually? i think the exploration of what happens in someone’s first queer relationship and where they go afterwards and how they find what they really want is just as important and meaningful. the idea that wanting a specific queer relationship to end in favor of another one (let alone one with…years of history) is somehow homophobic or not appreciating queer representation or fetishizing or whatever is just very confusing to me.

[anetherealpoetess]

the way the incels and lorebores twisted themselves into absolute knots over charlie vickers being so tall. their complete agony at the unfairness of a world where a man on a show they hate looms over them at 6'2". their indignation festering in shadows where sexism and racism and toxic masculinity are clutched so tightly to their (tiny) chests. hilarious.

[yangscowlick]

Because the “shrodinger’s queerbait” nonsense will never go away, indulge me an analogy (and a long post).

wlw ships are the “made from scratch” cake in a world where we only ever expect cake mix from the box.

Say you have a show where, in the first interaction between a male and female character, there is a red box. It could be a Betty Crocker box of cake mix. Because all it takes is just one smile — one wink — one raised eyebrow— and the fans don’t question it. We’re clearly making a cake here. The box is red.

Meanwhile, you have two female characters building their own relationship that have elements that could build to romance. There are eggs in the fridge. A few more episodes, there’s flour in the pantry. Sugar. Baking powder. Queer fans start whispering…we could be making a cake here. Other fans scoff “you will read into anything. They’re just eggs! Everyone has eggs in their fridge!” Maybe so, maybe not. They are written off as discrete ingredients, nothing to see here.

That red box is still sitting in the pantry. Obviously we’re going with that one, and it’s definitely cake mix. That guy and girl stood next to each other again.

The wlw relationship is now full-on batter. It was a cake recipe all along, but it’s not baked yet. The crowd that wrote off every ingredient is now saying the writers are just going to “squander” that box that could be ready-made cake mix or that they’re being “forced” to bake a cake with the very ingredients the writers deliberately bought and put in their pantry.

Now it’s in the oven, the cake is baking. That crowd will still insist it’s forced, or maybe its actually something else, or it’s rushed, or it’s pandering. Whether the writers painstakingly built a pantry to make the cake they truly wanted or they were cultivating good ingredients and realized they had the fixings for a more decadent cake and went there, it doesn’t matter. It’s still a recipe. One that fans who always have to piece together ingredients had hoped for or saw from the get-go, despite being scoffed at and disparaged. Just because that crowd didn’t see (or refused to see) those ingredients as part of a whole, doesn’t make it any less of a recipe.

And wlw fans shouldn’t have to keep writing essays to demonstrate that the wlw “cake” has all the ingredients every cake mix does, or keep pointing out that fans were ready to believe a cake was being baked when they saw a nondescript box, but that they’ll do anything to discredit or doubt the cake from scratch that’s now cooling off on the counter.

It is partly a function of heteronormativity from the audience in immediately seeing romance in any whisper of interaction between m/f characters and passing off all charged interactions between female characters are sisterly or platonic. And it also comes from writers, who are either being cautious so as not to spook corporate overlords or audiences, or who are preserving plausible deniability.

To take the analogy further, box cake mix is fine! It works! It is, practically speaking, what a lot of folks know by default. I thought I was a Duncan Hines girl once myself. Vanilla cake mix has the ingredients measured out, it’s a safe bet, it tastes like cake.

But it doesn’t mean every red box is cake mix. And it doesn’t make the cake that had to be pieced together from scratch due to censorship, caution, time, narrative build-up, what-have-you, any less of a cake.

[valyrfia]

got bored at work today waiting for someone to send some files and coded up a quick simulation for the lando/max championship battle and I’m here to calm the rumours and say that according to my calculations, lando has a 4.33% chance of winning the WDC this year. don’t get me wrong that’s still a significant number and shouldn’t be fully discounted but i hope it calms down some of the sensationalism surrounding the “lando championship charge” I’m seeing across f1 social media

[tricksterkisses]

X

Since someone decided to tell me I was lying about one of my co-workers outing my trans status to my entire store to uphold some kind of weird complex they have about trans men being privileged, here is me discussing the incident over a year ago in November 2023:

The fact that they immediately jumped to accusing me of lying about transphobia/oppression I have faced in the real world in order to defend their transphobia against trans men is extremely gross and extremely telling.

It's also a great experience irt what it's like to try to discuss oppression online as someone who is in any way transmasc or transmale aligned, if you were oppressed or faced discrimination that your non-cis femme co-workers didn't face...No you didn't.

For further context management at my store is extremely weird about Men (except one of the femme trans people in question who happens to be a manager, who I am very close friends with), I was not told this to my face but one of my (femme) co-workers outed management in another HR scandal because management told them they avoid hiring men.

I work in a common retail location, I do not do a common retail job inside that location, but this isn't a niche location. One of my jobs, this one in question, is at one of the largest pet-store retail chains in the United States. If you've gone to a pet store, you've probably been to it.

The manager in question faced No repercussions despite the HR report I filed by the way, lol, lmao, rofl, whatever.

I think it speaks volumes that this person would rather accuse me of lying about workplace discrimination and lying about my managers preferring women in the workplace by their own admission so that they can upkeep this idea in their head that trans men don't face discrimination and aren't oppressed.

Transfemme people are oppressed and do face workplace hardships, but trans men

Don't have male privilege

Those who do pass (I'm read as Male or Female about 50/50) are actually affected by workplace discrimination when things like this happen, I don't have to 'lie' or 'exaggerate' my experiences, I'm a non-cis person in the USA, I experience plenty of discrimination without making that shit up.

If male privilege relies on stealth (like oh, I don't know, your sub-manager not creeping your background check/finding out you 'used to be a girl') then that male privilege is incidental at best and you do not have it.

Regardless, this behavior in and of itself is transphobic, I would put down money that if I were {Perisex} transfemme, and had claimed I was discriminated at work in a way that was not the same as transmasc co-workers, this person would have eaten it right up.

I've since blocked them (and my passive request to you is to leave them the fuck alone, this behavior is a symptom, they are not a disease) because quite frankly their response knocked me off my fuckin' feet and made me realize engaging with them was both pointless and ostensibly digital self harm, but I can't not talk about it because wow, truly incredible!

[joanofexys]

pssst friendly reminder that the only canon label we have for Neil's sexuality is demi (aspec) and that he's otherwise unlabeled. hc what you want but stop trying to push it as canon or putting it over his only canon label.

i'm tired of seeing y'all erase aspecness as a valid sexuality and always feeling the need to pair it with another identity as if aspec people aren't valid just identifying as aspec and also erasing us from the conversation entirely

[thecoolerliauditore]

I wasn't the biggest fan of the gimmick tbh, but it wasn't too intrusive and I liked how it gave objects or curses instead of giving and taking lives, so it was not too bad I guess, but a bit too meta for my taste. Still worth it for Martyn fucking Littlewood going around, gaslighting everyone about the awnsers and the curses and also casually killing 4 people, he's such a weirdo and I aspire to be him actually

Oh yeah I have mixed feelings on this one cus on one hand. Good fun! Well designed! Funny! Gave us a lot of good moments and introspection on how the characters look back on specific events!

On the other hand it's 1. very much not my thang and 2. idk something deeper in here about this being probably the biggest involvement of fandom in the series itself and blurring the lines of "being nice to your fellow fandom members" and "people should be able to express how they feel about the series openly" a bit too much for me to feel totally at ease.

I've already seen some very. bad-faith responses to people just venting about disliking the gimmick and at least one person involved who seemed to have taken a negative reaction more personally. Not to mention the forums version of the quiz ending with "did you like our trivia" (and "'no" being an incorrect answer) and the ongoing already on-edge fandom within fandom relationship the artimator guys have with the masses.

I want to clarify and reiterate that I did have fun and liked the gimmick and don't fault the artimators at all for their reactions and certainly not for the direction the series has gone as a whole but I just think catapulting a group of fans from being well-known contributors to fanon to contributors to canon who may not be completely ready for that sort of transition is. Maybe not the greatest thing in the world is all. Like it's just yet another level of muddying the waters in terms of the "they're just having fun why are you so mad about people having fun" stuff that keeps popping up. Toxic positivity so on and so forth.

ANYWAY that aside yes I'm glad we all love Martyn what a fucking freak.