#this is peak fucking content tbqh

[kindahoping4forever]

Michael scaring Luke on stage in Manchester 👻

[shrimpmandan]

Ngl with the amount of antis who interact with my works or end up following me on social media I’m REALLY losing my empathy for when they freak out about proshippers following/interacting with them. Like. Why the fuck am I putting in all this effort to unfollow and block antis, checking for DNIs and signs of discomfort so I can respect their boundaries, when 90% of the time they don’t do the same? I can understand not checking everyone who follows YOU, but following others? Not even a brief check? Does there need to be a giant neon glowing sign for them to take the hint?

I still tend to unfollow/unmutual antis, if not hardblock them depending on how bad they are, but it’s really fucking funny how quickly they’ll victimize themselves for being in the proximity of a proshipper that they themselves followed and who doesn’t really keep it a secret. In a weird way I’ve started taking pride in the antis who leave kudos on my AO3 and shit. I don’t owe ‘em shit, I don’t consider practically anyone on social media to be a friend outside of Discord, I lose nothing for them fucking off or sticking around at the end of the day. If they end up throwing a hissyfit over what other content I write in my own time that’s their problem lmao.

Though I really should write more problematic Cuphead fics. Might get some of them to take the hint. For as much as I love TCS, I’m really beginning to miss the Cuphead game era of fandom where seeing problematic content was pretty common place, even if 2016-2018 was the peak of stupid cringe culture content online. I think that was my first exposure to Cupmug/Cupcest actually lmfao. Adult YouTubers pointing and laughing at it and calling it ‘cringe’, blasting it in front of their knowingly underage fanbase because cringe content was majority consumed by dumb preteens. Funny how that works out eh?

Side note: Calamug, Devilcup, and Devilmug were all also decently popular ships back in 2017. Devildice was still easily the biggest, but do not fucking think there weren’t HEAPS of toxic fics about ‘em. Everyone knew they were at least a little fucked up and unhealthy. Boss and employee is a power dynamic. Hot power dynamic, yes, but one regardless. The hypocrisy in this fandom is hilaaarious.

Anyways. I’ll get around to Ch 2 of Don’t Stop Singing eventually. It’s still in the works. I’m just frankly exhausted with the current state of the Cuphead fandom, though I guess at the absolute least most of the cesspit is contained to Twitter. Not to say there aren’t antis on here, but there’s way less. I can deal with muting people on AO3 if it means I can enjoy myself in peace. Granted, after I post ch 2 of that fic, I’ll probably move on to another fandom for some time. Again: not that I don’t enjoy Cuphead still, just kind of tired. I’m still eager to hear more news, but if we don’t get a new season, then. Oh well I guess. At least I can take solace in the fact that none of the folks that worked on the show particularly care about this stupid internet shit-- Dave Wasson and Grey DeLisle interacting with/outright shipping Chadice respectively, DD also interacting with both proshippers and antis amicably. It’s just suffocating as an actual writer and fancreator being mostly unable to engage with the fandom (or most fandoms tbqh) without putting up a bunch of emotional barriers.

I didn’t even get hit with harassment as heavily as some other proshippers in the fandom. Won’t name anyone in particular of course, but I’ve watched people get bullied off the platform while antis gloated after the fact. I was harassed by a popular fanartist who STILL interacts with my works and the most amicable assumption is just that he doesn’t know it’s me. I got the LEAST bad harassment, but that required me putting up all these emotional barriers and blocking like half of the fandom.

All so I can not worry about possibly being harassed. Possibly. And it’s so fucking tiring to have to do all the time, but I refuse to abandon my values just because it’d be ‘easier’. No amount of not labeling myself as proship would change the fact that I like and have both written and consumed problematic content for well over a decade. And I would not give it up for the fucking world, because I think as someone who went through utter HELL in real life, that if nothing else I should GET to express what that did to my brain instead of censoring it for a bunch of internet nobodies who don’t truly care for someone like me to begin with. It’s a lot easier to burn out on fandom when you both can’t make friends, and also don’t want to, because the first time you tried you got harassed.

I’m eternally grateful for the other proshippers and neutrals in the fandom. Keep on chuggin’.

[notjanine]

tagged by @frankbelloriley​ for a top 5 of 2018 meme

i already covered a lot of this, but i’m always excited to talk about things i like!!

top five movies you watched in 2018

movies specifically not from 2018 that i watched for the first time last year-

the endless- love this kind of indie

the invitation- love this kind of indie and also lmg

elle- isabelle huppert went tf OFF

the girl with all the gifts- a good zombie movie

the take- always here for paternal energy idris elba

top five tv shows you watched in 2018

black sails- rewatch, still fantastic

killing eve- it’s so good and rich it kinda almost feels like fantasy the way it sucks you into its world? i actually watched the whole thing twice.

lodge 49- i ADORE this weird little show

detroiters- cute as shit

the great british baking show- delightful as shit. peak self-care tv. the entire reason i started baking bread tbqh

top five songs you listened to in 2018

(outside of the contents of the previously mentioned albums)

fitness- lizzo- we stan!

tell mama- unloved- thanks, killing eve

the thrill is gone- christone ingram- thanks, luke cage

opps- vince staples- thanks, black panther

warrior- chloe x halle- call me a dork but i sing this to my dog when i get home all the time

top five books you read in 2018

(hm, i guess i’ll just do the five books i added to my to-read stack that i haven’t gotten to yet but am most excited about?)

the kingdom of gods by nk jemisin

that’s disgusting by rachel herz

dawn by octavia butler

the soul of an octopus by sy montgomery

norse mythology by neil gaiman

top five good things that happened to you in 2018

oh man since i covered the big stuff in my other post, here are some little things that made me super happy!

casually eating fresh berries while out walking gus almost every day during the summer

exercise bests: rowing a mile and a half in a little over 15 minutes, 55 pushups in ~1 train by starcrawler

went to the theater almost 50 times (i had like five good months with moviepass, people like me are the reason they went broke) bonus: black panther in imax was WONDERFUL. (and fallout in imax was a PARTY)

petting a bunny for the first time in like 15 years

i decided to finally finish the unicorn chronicles- the first two are maybe the most beloved (pun intended) books from my youth (i read them SO MANY times. dozens, each). but coville took so long to finish the series, i was in my late teens by the time the last two came out, so i didn’t read them bc i thought i was ~too old~. but fuck that! so i started from the beginning last week and holy shit, have you ever gone back and read a childhood favorite that has remained untouched by adaptation? it’s exactly the same as i imagined it when i was eight, which shouldn’t be surprising, but it is, it’s like revisiting a place you haven’t been in so long and finding it untainted by the passage of time. so ANYWAY that was a nice way to end the year (and this week i’ll finish the last two and finally find out if this little girl lives or dies or gets magic powers or reunites with her parents and if these fuckin unicorns defeat their nemesis or whatever. it’s gonna be weird to finish a story like 18 years after i started it!)

i’ll tag @knee-uh too and also @ciao-knives and @undirheimar

[moonmothmama]

ok. so. The Princess Bride. i read it yesterday.

and right up front, before even a review, i’m gonna go ahead and list everything objectionable in the book that i can recall. please don’t take the length of the bullet pointed items to follow as an indication that the book was wildly problematic and offended me at every turn; it wasn’t and it didn’t. but there were some things that made me go: 😑 or 😒, and here it all is, presented with context, before anything else, because to be honest, i didn’t expect any of it. the film is relatively spotless, which is pretty rare for that era, and if any of you are thinking of reading it, you could do with being more prepared for this than i was.

first off, racism. two passing remarks. one isn’t even in the story proper; it’s in the first whole long intro bit from the author/narrator. that takes some explanation, i suppose: like in the film, the story is presented as a book having been written by “S. Morganstern,” except instead of a grandfather reading to his sick grandson, the narrator is interjecting with notes on the original text that he has abridged. the beginning is a whole long shpiel that, in my opinion, could have been significantly pared down with absolutely zero loss to the story (which! hey! the film did perfectly! go figure!). anyway, the first racist remark is an absolutely tasteless line in which the narrator pisses and moans about his fat son, making a crack about “painting him yellow” and making him a sumo wrestler. y i k e. the other passing remark is from Miracle Max (really, truly, the film version of this scene is miles better than the book version, but contains an important plot detail, so you should prob still read it, but i’ll give you the lowdown if you wanna skip). he refers to Iñigo as a sp*ck (rather bafflingly, i might add, bc Iñigo is a Spanish man... from Spain... not a Hispanic or Latino man from Latin America. so. i mean i’m certainly not an expert on slurs but... i have never in my life heard that term in reference to a person from Spain, and am virtually certain it was invented to refer to ppl from the americas) and in the same breath uses an objectionable term for a Polish person. sooo... again: y i k e. what gets me is that... these could’ve just been edited out? why weren’t they? i mean i know why but

fat shaming! see above. though to be honest, any true negativity about fatness is restricted to the author/narrator’s interjections; there are a few minor fat characters in the story and those depictions, without being too long-winded or spoilery, didn’t offend me (fyi: i’m fat). if you want the details, please feel free to message me about it.

if we can go back to the whole long beginning shpiel from the author/narrator, it’s just... eh. he comes off as kind of a jackass, tbh. not even halfway through it i found myself more than a little impatient for the story to begin, and that could be at least partly because the film spoiled me with a lovely, not annoying, not problematic scene of Granddad Columbo reading to Baby Fred Savage where no one made any racist remarks or ragged on fat kids. the basic gist, if you want to skip it, is that the author, as a kid, had this book read to HIM by his father, who was a Florinese immigrant, and nearly illiterate in English, but still labored over reading the English translation to his American-born son, who adored the book and requested it read to him dozens and dozens of times over the years, refusing to read it himself (though he read plenty of other books). as an adult, he buys his son the book, and is crushed when the son doesn’t like it. he then reads it for the first time, and realizes his father skipped over huge, boring blocks of text. he read his son only The Good Parts. so he decides to edit that shit out himself and release the abridged version he loves so much. add into that some complaining about his wife and some extra blah blah, and that’s pretty much it.

you remember the scene in the movie where The Man In Black/Westley almost slaps Buttercup for what he believes is lying? in the book he actually slaps her. not that his actions seem supported or endorsed by the text, but still, there you are. Buttercup does push him off a cliff soon after, though, so. i wouldn’t call that ‘even’ exactly but, shrug

Vizzini, in the book, has a fucky leg and his back isn’t quite straight, and he’s referred to repeatedly as a “humpback” or “hunchback” which needless to say is Not Kosher

that, as i recall, is it. i hope i’m not forgetting anything. now onto content/trigger warnings:

alcoholism. this shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve seen the movie: Iñigo has some, shall we say, issues

Fezzik’s parents were... terrible. CPS would be all over them. spoiler: basically they emotionally blackmailed their son into fighting professionally, which they knew he hated, by telling him they’d abandon him if he didn’t

Buttercup has some kinda messed up (read: unsettling but in no way graphic) nightmares after leaving Westley when they’re found by Prince Humperdinck at the Fire Swamp, mostly involving bearing children to the Prince who she once again is set to marry

the slurs and whatnot i mentioned above

violence, obviously. nothing worse than the film as i recall.

that’s it i think. 

okay. all that said. did i enjoy the book? yes i did. a lot.

now, you might be thinking: jesus, Kathleen, after all the shit you just listed? and to this i reply: listen. there is no Unproblematic Media, so you either enjoy some things that are flawed, or you enjoy nothing at all. there is plenty of objectionable shit in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit! fucking plenty! and i love those books! and so do plenty of other people! in my own humble opinion, the good story is worth the shitty bits, because the shitty bits aren’t like, fundamental to the plotline. the story isn’t built on offensive humor or nasty, bigoted attitudes. and they’re also not the most egregious examples of Objectionable Content i’ve come across- not by a longshot. there are levels to offense. there are tiers of bullshit. this is on a far lower tier than a whole host of other things i could mention. but if any of this stuff i’ve listed crosses a line for you, i totally understand and respect that. that’s why i’ve bothered to list it at all. imo, how you respond to objectionable content is important: you don’t ignore it or excuse it, you acknowledge and criticize it. and if you still enjoy whatever the thing is, you allow yourself to enjoy it, without getting hissy or defensive with people for whom the objectionable content ruined the book/movie/whatever. 

there you go, there’s my disclaimer for having enjoyed the book. your mileage may vary.

okay. so. review time.

Buttercup is a far more interesting character in the book than the movie, for which the movie can’t be faulted all that much, because you can’t easily translate a character’s inner monologue/unspoken thoughts to the screen, especially not with the time limit that comes with the medium of film. but watching her struggle with her feelings and life choices (and... lack thereof, since her choice is between marrying the prince and being put to death, which isn’t much of a choice, even if she tries to reason it out later by telling herself she COULD have said no... and initially did) creates far more of a bond between her and the reader in the book than, personally, i felt watching the movie. also she has a great line after Westley calls her beautiful at their reunion- she says something like, ‘everyone’s always calling me beautiful, i have a mind too, why don’t you talk about that’

Both Westley and Buttercup are immature, naive, and foolish in the beginning, and if Westley strikes you as Extra Dickish, a) rewatch the film! he did act like a bit of a dick, there, didn’t he? b) remember that in the story he’s a young man between the ages of eighteen and twenty five, which in my considerable experience is the age at which young men are generally at their peak of Asshole. sorry dudes

and not that Buttercup herself is a complete peach! she deals very poorly with her emotions in general and acts kinda shitty herself once or twice. i won’t say too much lest i spoil everything that’s different between the film and the book.

Prince Humperdinck is also a more three dimensional character; still a rat bastard tho.

onto Fezzik and Iñigo.

as i have said in other blog posts, these boys are... pretty much the whole reason i sought out the book. and... jesus. 

you get all the way into the tragic backstories that were only hinted at in the film. okay, Iñigo’s backstory was more than hinted- but of course you go so much deeper in the book- and Fezzik’s was less than hinted, reduced mostly to a peek at the insecurity that Vizzini exploits and preys upon to keep him in line. not that you’d have to expend a great effort to him to keep him in line; his personality is docile and non-confrontational. truly not the slightest bit aggressive by nature. he’s also kinda clingy and needy, which is a thousand percent understandable given his childhood, and tbqh doesn’t need to be browbeaten for Vizzini to keep him on his short, cruel leash. which makes it all the more painful! hurrah! 😭

also you actually get to meet Iñigo’s father, Domingo Montoya, in a flashback, aaaand... i kinda love him. probably predictable if you know me.

anyway. tragic backstories. which further illuminate the emotional and psychological issues that make them so dependent on Vizzini, and turn them to lives of crime in his employ. poor boys! oy gevalt. sympathy abounds; i honestly don’t know how you could go through the book and not fall at least a little bit in love with this duo, whose friendship is precious and adorable and a balm to the soul that is aching from their painful life stories and unhealthy coping mechanisms. they’re each, very plainly, the only friend the other has in the world, and are constantly helping and bolstering one another. it’s heartbreakingly sweet. i think those boys will be alright as long as they stick together.

and now, the repeated theme of the book, that is presented with far less intensity in the film: life isn’t fair. which, one supposes, is true. but while the narrator’s framing of that assertion may give you the same misgivings they gave me- bitching about his fat son and his less than ideal relationship with his wife- you can also step back and appreciate it as a wee pearl of wisdom. life is often unfair, but that doesn’t mean it’s altogether bad or that you can’t enjoy it. idk, that’s my attitude, man. 

i could talk about the ending here, but i won’t. at least not too much. not to spoiler-ish-ly. if you don’t want to know anything about the book’s ending at all, feel free to not read the last bit here, except for the very last lines which are bolded.

ready? yes? no?

...

the ending to the book is different than the movie. there is a more philosophical, open ended conclusion than you could really get away with in a movie. at least this movie.

just throwing it out there: i believe in happy endings. ones in real life. but i kind of disagree with the author a little bit, in that i don’t think happy endings necessarily have to be perfect and unblemished to qualify as happy endings. that may be the way “happily ever after” is generally presented, but to me, “happily ever after” means, maybe some shit happened, but none of it was completely devastating, and in the final analysis, life was satisfying. that’s the kind of real life happy ending i’m aiming (and hoping) for. this might sound vague but i hope it’ll make sense if you read the book.

if you wanna do that, btw, i read it for free online at allnovel dot net.

[trawpius]

Red vs Blue Seasons Ranking

Season 6/Reconstruction - I would die for this season. And I WILL.

Season 3 - Prime Blood Gulch. Church’s time antics will always be so fun. 

Season 7/Recreation - Top notch, again. Simmons emotional breakdown antics! Also, the scene where Sarge, Grif and Caboose drive directly into the water knocked me out.

Season 11 - Contact fuckin’ SLAPS. Good/cute character development?  Simmons emotional breakdown antics! Freckles, shake! No animated fight scenes, though.

Season 4 - “Simmons is a Blue” arc was Peak Comedy. Negative points for being the season where Tucker’s character becomes completely unlikable. Also fuck that one scene between Andy and Tex. Roosterteeth owes me big for forgiving them.

Season 13 - Decent comedy. Great plot! Doyle scene was weirdly heart-wrenching.  Love Kimball! Return of decent animated fight scenes. Could rewatch the Carolina/Wash vs Felix/Locus fight on loop. Ending had me in tears.

Season 10 - Present day plot was mediocre. Ending was cool. Freelancer plots was incredibly interesting, though. Connie did everything right. Tex also did everything right.

Season 5/Season 2 - Solid Blood Gulch. Iconique! Nothing more to say.

Season 8/Revelation - Introduction to the good, good Monty fight scenes! Kind of overly seriously. Final Showdown against The Meta was Good.

Season 1 - Pilot problems. Lacked a distinctive plot, lacked character voices. But, again, iconique! 

Season 9 - Comedy was actually pretty weak. Not even “Simmons emotional breakdown antics” could save it... BUT! The Freelancer plot was interesting. And had some of my favorite Freelancer scenes. [Carolina voice] Aaaah put the pussy in a sarcophagus!

Season 12 - Fight scenes were ugly as hell. Too many new characters. Season end was good.

Season 15 - Absolutely zero good fight scenes. Everything is back to looking stilted. The beginning was slow, took multiple episodes to reach moderately interesting characters. But the overall plot had some interesting concepts. It was just poorly executed. The only part that really emotionally resonated was the scene with Wash being delusional and getting shot.

Season 14 - Not story relevant. Arcs were split into parts. Nothing after the Immersion episode is really... worth a damn, to be honest.

The Triplets/The “Mission” - If I could, I’d rank these two episodes between Season 4 and Season 13. Bring them back! Bring them back! Shannon McCormick is a lesbian ally.

Red vs Blue: The Musical - The musical numbers were actually really good. I really liked Church’s? Also the disco number/vocaloid dance knocked me on my fucking ass.

Red vs Blue vs Roosterteeth - Joel reading the entirety of Fountainhead to Caboose.

Room Zero - 2D Animation is actually really fun! Decently funny.

Immersion: The Warthog Flip - I like Immersion! I Like Science!

The Meta vs Carolina - A few good goofs. The fight was lackluster, probably because a) not by Monty, and b) I had no emotional investment in it. Bogged down by recap.

Fight the Good Fight - Decently funny.

Caboose’s Guide to Making Friends - Cute and sad!

Mr. Red vs Mr. Blue - Funny, mostly because Sister rules. “End women’s suffrage! We have suffered enough!!”

The #1 Movie in the Galaxy: 3 - Not particularly funny, but the fake trailer was cool.

Club/Call/Consequences - Neat choice in style change. Not even slightly funny. Kinda misses what makes Locus and Felix interesting and compelling characters.

Head Cannon - Decent idea, mediocre execution.

Get Bent - Misogyny is funny! LOL! The “girl” Donut is, much like regular Donut, an offensive gay joke. But honestly? Big worm. From 

Stumbled Beginning/Fifty Shades of Red/Why They’re Here - The Sarge goof was hilarious. The rest was not. Age of consent joke and prostitute killing joke just... unforgivably bad. Just watch the Sarge scene, tbqh.

The Brick Gulch Chronicles - This is just The Lego Movie 

Orange is the New Red/Invaders from Another Mother - Unwatchably uninteresting.

Grey vs Gray - Disappointed this wasn’t about Dr. Grey. Unwatchable.

RvB Throwdown - I blacked out from how much I didn’t care.

POWER GAP!!!

Season 16 - I cannot even BEGIN to explain how completely unlikable this season is. I am perfectly content in pretending that the series ended after Season 13 or 15. The only interesting thing is Wash’s brain trauma, but like. God, this season is too garbage otherwise. What a crying shame.

[farklelucas]

top five lease favorite movies

ooooh this is actually really hard bc i like A Lot of movies. and no offense to people who like these, i just remember Not Liking them lol.

naomi and eli’s no kiss list - so….. i watched it for the gay (and tbqh i did get some quality gay content. like the love scenes were okay. however they were few and i uh struggle.) but idk… victoria justice’s acting/character makes me wanna….. idk…. scoop the memory of that movie out of my brain….. i actually dislike this movie so much that my brother and i have made it a meme between us how terrible it was.

the last witch hunter - i went to see this with a bunch of gals after we were denied entry to crimson peak (we were like 17 and our friend, 18, couldn’t get us in lol) and… we… did not Love It. it’s like the picture book of movies. like it’s there, it’s easy to watch, it’s kind of okay bc it has some nice drawings (or in this case, vin diesel) in it… it was Very Predictable and it sticks out in my mind (partially bc of the terrible experience we had with the other moviegoers ahjkflg)

1922 - i tried. i tried really hard. i watched it on halloween. i thought, ‘this will be My Scary Movie.’ i hated it. not even because it was super fucking gory (im not a big fan of gore lol) but it was just so long and dry and i just couldn’t stand it…. i watched it to the end bc i felt like i committed to it and had to keep going but…. honestly like why. why did i do that.

charlie st cloud - i don’t… watch sad movies on principle, but i had this plan to watch every movie dave franco had ever been in bc i fucking love dave franco. anyway i watched charlie st cloud for approximately half an hour and turned it off. not only was it sad but…. it was so… predictable like… i knew what was happening ten minutes before it happened (plus dave franco was only in it for like three minutes what a rip-off)

any fucking horse movie ever but specifically war horse - i fucking hated war horse. i slept through war horse. bye horse.

edit: i think im gonna go back and watch the gay scenes in naomi and eli’s no kiss list

send me a ‘top five anything’