#this season’s target audience is ME SPECIFICALLY

[thesapphicsoldier]

All I do is win

[deliciouskeys]

I gotta ask but how long has the butt anon been around? Like every once in a blue moon i will see this lad/lass post and wonder if they been like this since S1.

Kinda reminds me of the shitposters on some The Boys threads who spammed the thing with Maeve dirty feet... cuz i assume butt anon much like feet posters have a peculiar fetish-- yet more weird.

It only started in 2023, to my knowledge. It just feels unfair that this person remains anonymous, so I can’t reciprocate and spam their inbox with some of my stupid hyperfixations, like putting HL in an ever smaller box, letting HL go into a box and trapping him in there like you’d do to a cat then opening it and finding out the hard way that he was claustrophilic and liked being in there all along, and… idk, keeping butchlander as chibipets in a glass cage and observing their vie quotidienne. And wanting said anon to weigh in on all these important matters.

But to really replicate the effect, I’d have to write walls of text about it and imply anyone who doesn’t enjoy these niche things is just not seeing the light / fandom has overlooked the truth.

Personally was never a big fan of the diamond shit lore because it implies no one will ever enter there (which, tragic), and lands heavily on the side of bottom!billy (which isn’t my preference and I mostly only enjoy as noncon <- this is a very normal healthy sentence, don’t quibble with it). Plus, i hate to argue with this, but we have seen no evidence in the show that anything is coming out of his body at abnormal rates or abnormal compression pressures— at least not semen, nor tears. Unless anon is implying he’s been infertile because he’s been turning his sperm cells into sludge before exit. Oops I say I hate to argue but I started to anyway 😩

[oldtvandcomics]

Honestly, if there is just one advice I can give to people who have children: Look, if you can keep them away from screens as much as possible, that would be ideal, but if you do have to give them their own devices, please consider spending some time looking on the Internet for the actual good children’s content. Mostly older media, which you can easily find and it’s free. You just need to know where to look.

[greenvillainredemption]

I kinda worry sometimes that I’ll get into something and it’ll take over my Encanto hyperfixation/fandom motivation and momentum I’ve managed to keep up for almost a year now, but I think what really got me to create and interact with people in this fandom was the timing. I watched it on the second of January or something, and that was like a week or so after it had just dropped on Disney+ and at the point I watched it, it was trending on tumblr and everything. Idk there was just so much happening that it was super easy to just jump in and be a new person in the fandom because everyone was a new person in the fandom.

I talk about anime and horror sometimes on here which are other things I love, I’ve just never super duper analyzed any particular theme or character, or talked directly to people in the fandoms, or wrote fics, y’know? Like I’ll just casually scroll and rb, maybe make some fanart. But other than that it’s like I’m watching a community from outside. And yeah I’ll watch new anime as they’re airing and horror movies in the theatre and be super into them, but after years of just chillin from outside in both those communities I’m kinda comfy here.

That last part sounds kinda sad but it’s kinda me just realizing that I don’t have to be worried about some new thing taking over my life. I’m realizing also that a big reason I can let myself actually immerse myself and write fanfic too (which I’ve never done) is that it’s a kids movie. We’re all just here to have fun, the overall vibe of the fandom (at least my lil corner of it) is super supportive and wholesome and not taking anything super seriously.

[yandere-romanticaa]

I'm almost done with the 2nd season of Jujutsu Kaisen and something that I noticed is just how heavy the female gaze is in this show.

Feel free to take this post with a grain of salt as I could be overanalyzing this whole thing but I still think it's worth talking about because I don't think I've seen this much of an active fandom with so many horny women in it.

Jujutsu Kaisen is a shounen manga/show . That means that its main audience are young boys and men. But I've seen an endless sea of women go batshit insane for Gojo and Nanami (same goes for the other dorks too but that's not important right now) and I always wondered why. But after going through the show, I feel like the fan service here specifically targets this need that a lot of women seem to have and that is the feeling of being protected.

When Gojo is chasing after Jogo, it didn't feel to me like a traditional shounen power fantasy. Gojo's body didn't feel like the main focus but the camera angles itself to his feral looking face and we see every emotion and thought that's going through his head.

Or that one scene with Nanami that no one shuts up about - him pulling that blonde guy's hair, oh Lord. Yeah, that was hot, VERY hot. As he's pulling the hair, the main focus of the scene is Nanami's pissed off face while still giving us a slight tease of his buff shoulders. The reason I think he was so attractive there was because he was there to protect everyone, the audience could connect with him on an emotional level and we understood what he was going for.

Again - maybe I'm in the wrong here. I'm still not a Jujutsu Kaisen girlie but it's a fun show to watch. I just think that this show is trying to diversify its core audience a bit more.

[demilypyro]

been looking at random adventure time episodes and it really struck me how you can tell the shift in tone and the maturity of the story by how the humanoid characters like Marceline are drawn in early seasons vs later stories. they actively become more human-shaped as the target audience of the show ages. for Marceline specifically I think the shift first really hit me in I Remember You and then is further emphasized in episodes like Varmints and stories like Stakes and Obsidian

early marceline: goofy lollipop-shaped thing.

i remember you/varmints marceline: oh shit wait hang on

stakes/obsidian marceline: damn that's just a human person. she has thoughts and feelings and depth and stuff

[teambyler]

“Byler Endgame, One Episode at a Time” Part 0 - The issues it needs to address

I plan to post plot beats and scenes leading to a Byler endgame, one episode at a time, for Season 5 of Stranger Things. (This is just for fun! I have no insider knowledge!)

Before I do so, I just want to share what the showrunners would need to think about to make Byler happen:

Make the audience want Will to have a happy ending – CHECK. The world already wants that! Will likely go through hell again, as in past seasons. He loves Mike so much and it's hard to see him "moving on" from Mike as part of an ending that's satisfying given all the hell he's been through.

El makes a choice. Mike dumping her for Will would be unpopular. It would feel like a betrayal for Mike to date her stepbrother. The audience will accept the breakup more if she initiates it and it’s part of her personal journey.

Resolve El’s relationships with Mike and Will. El and Mike have a loving platonic friendship, and El is okay with Will and Mike being together.

The audience needs to be made to accept “the twist” that Mike is gay or bi. There need to be flashbacks to past seasons (Byler fans know them all!) and/or some conversations where his internal conflict is made clear. Specifically, how he was was once close to Will but then grew so distant out of fear that he was gay. s5 can't ignore the reality of homophobia in the 80s. Will might be targeted by school bullies for being gay. Will being in greater danger, putting others before himself, and being hotter this season (lol) make it impossible for Mike to avoid his feelings.

The audience needs to feel Will is the best person for Mike. Mike has been bullied and put down his whole life, including for being a nerd. Will is a fellow nerd and loves Mike for who he is. Make viewers understand that the relationship Mike is looking for is actually with Will. The painting miscommunication lays a roadmap. Will's love makes Mike feel "better because he's different." Mike felt romantic love for the first time because of what WILL said and did. (I have a post on my blog about this, "Mike was saying 'I love you' to Will"!)

What all this in mind, I have planned plot beats for each episode leading to a Byler endgame! FOLLOW ME to follow my “the essential Byler plot beats of season 5”!

Link to Episode 1

-teambyler

[lhazaar]

hey. i'm turning my chair around and sitting in it backwards now because i want to speak specifically to people with ocd. this is a targeted post and is not meant to apply to the userbase of this website at large or to serve as a policy decision.

hi. do you know what scrupulosity means? it is a strong, intense, often painful concern about morality or religion. it's very common for religious people with ocd, actually—the fear that you've sinned, that you will sin, that your thoughts themselves are sinful. you're afraid of being an evil person. every thought and feeling you have is scrutinized to exhaustion in case it's proof that you're evil. this also happens for non-religious people with ocd, it's just that ours will look different; it's often a preoccupation with social justice issues. you care a lot about being a good person, right! most people do. you want to be a good person, you want to be kind to others and to dismantle oppressive systems where you can. i'm making some assumptions here, but they're based on my specific audience base.

so, there's this thing that happens online, especially on tumblr and twitter—not because bluh bluh platforms bad, but because of the ways in which information is propagated on here. people used to tag for these posts sporadically but don't do so as much anymore. you know posts that exhort you, the reader, specifically, to take action? they tell you not to look away, not to bury your head in the sand. they tell you to give and to agitate and to donate time, money, resources.

those posts used to make me intensely, deeply anxious. i don't mean mild agitation, i mean life-ruining, day-occupying panic that seizes your entire body, and thoughts that don't leave your brain. guilt that paralzyes you because you, personally, cannot go kill the politicians responsible. you don't have enough money to do more than donate a few dollars, and sometimes you don't even have that. but because of where you live, because of the fact that you have internet access and you're literate enough to read these posts, you know that you have a level of privilege that most people never will. you're aware of that privilege because you're reasonably in-tune with social justice movements and you've probably spent some time dissecting your own privilege to examine your biases. (that's not a bad thing; i'm not here to condemn that. stay with me, if you can.)

there's a thing that can happen if you've lived with ocd like this for a long time where you become kind of incapable of telling what's addressed to you personally and what isn't. everything feels like a personal exhortation. you have trouble saying no, or knowing when you're overextended, because other people have it worse. how dare you enjoy relative comfort when people are being bombed or drowning in a climate change -induced flood or being crushed to death in a crowd panic. how dare you not be aware of it at all times, always, constantly. how dare you look away. don't look away.

i want to tell you about something i went through, if that's okay. a lot of people who follow me will already know this, but i haven't talked about this aspect of it very much publicly. in 2020, while visiting my partner in southern oregon, we had to evacuate from wildfires twice in under 24 hours. that was a really, really bad fire season, caused and perpetuated by a combination of global climate change and colonialization practices that destroyed traditional indigenous fire management strategies across the west coast of north america. fires stretched from bc to california. we wound up fleeing south, and then had to flee back north again, hemmed in on three sides. i flew back home to bc shortly afterwards, and i have this vivid, awful memory of seeing my home mountain range, the cascades, choked out with smoke from the window of an airplane. the woman in front of me sobbed the entire time until we touched down.

i remember thinking at that time that it was insane the entire world wasn't stopping. what i was experiencing was apocalyptic in scale—the fire we ran from the first time was part of a complex that chewed up entire towns. it wasn't the first fire season, nor the worst for the continent, nor the world. but all i could think in the moment was why aren't we doing anything, this is going to be all of us in a decade, why are people looking away.

if i had gone online and posted that, it would not have been morally wrong of me. there's no ascribing morality to a reaction like that. i mean, if i'd gone to someone who suffered in the years prior in australia or california and told them that ours was So Much Worse, that would have made me an asshole, but i didn't do that. i made some upset facebook posts targeted at the trump voters in my family, but i had no way to express at the time the sort of clawing panic of WHY AREN'T PEOPLE DOING ANYTHING??

the answer to that, which you probably know, is: what would they have done? we were sheltered by friends we evacuated with, but what power did a mutual in new york or wales or singapore have to affect a wildfire in oregon?

so, come back to the present day with me again, if you will. i said above that posts worded like this used to make me really, really anxious. in the span of time after the fire, i developed ptsd, and my ocd ruined my life. i took an extra year to graduate after i'd finished all my coursework because i could not send in the forms required. i was too busy spending 10-16 hours a day rearranging furniture in my room, or lying in bed, full-body tense, until it felt like my teeth would crack from the pressure. i'm medicated now. i'm grateful for it. i have more tolerance for these posts because i've been there. i know the op isn't doing anything wrong, because they're not wrong. why isn't the world stopping to look at a natural disaster, or a genocide? the world should not be like this.

you are not the world. you are someone with a brain that will torture you to death given the chance. you know how learning to reckon with your privileges, whatever they may be, requires you to not try and escape them? you need to be able to hold in your head that yes, you benefit from something that isn't fair; yes, other people should have that benefit, and that they don't is unjust. but you need to, for example, not try and weasel your way out of being white because you're uncomfortable with the guilt that it produces. you need to not go online and say well not ALL americans because you can't sit with the idea of being complicit in american imperialism. if you have ocd, you need to apply that to your own brain, too. you need to apply it to every post that you see. you need to know that people are not speaking directly to you, they are crying out in pain and fear. they are not doing anything wrong. they are scared and hurting.

they do not benefit from you taking on all the guilt of that fear and pain. i am not saying this to absolve you of the guilt. i am saying that you need to be able to exist with that level of guilt without allowing it to paralyze and destroy you. if you can't do that right now, i'm not here to cast judgement on you. blacklist phrases. i had "wildfire" blacklisted for a long time. i'm sure i missed aid posts because of it. the alternative was me being nonfunctional. for a long time, i had donation posts blacklisted across the board, because the way my ocd worked meant that i was neurologically incapable of knowing where my own limits were, and i would give money i did not have. if you need to do that, this is me giving you permission. doing this does not make you evil. it does not make you morally bankrupt. it makes you someone whose brain is trying to fucking kill them, and the world needs you to not let that happen.

this is not a post about how you're exempt from caring about the world if you're mentally ill, it's about how you cannot apply that care to anything useful if you're having massive panic spirals every other day about the guilt that you feel. your guilt should not rule your life. if it does, i say this kindly, but you very likely need medication. i'm sorry if you don't have access to that right now. you cannot think your way out of ocd. you cannot think your way into stopping neural activity. you cannot guilt your way into being a good person; you have to be able to exist with the guilt and not let it rule you in order to do that. nobody benefits from your brain trying to martyr you in the name of solving the world's suffering.

you need to be able to function, free of crushing and paralyzing guilt, before you can help anyone. you are not an effective ally like this just because your brain tells you that it's necessary.

[pinkeoni]

Bruh. The episode name is "the vanishing of holly wheeler". Not only did they copy Will's episode name and gave it to Holly but they also are intending to give the kidnapping plotline to her character. And we know that should follow up by the other wheelers trying to save her. It is basically making the wheelers byers.

First of all, that list of episode titles come from an unofficial source. Could be real, could be fake. And the name of the title was "The Vanishing of *BLANK* Wheeler with no real confirmation as to the number of letters in the first name since the leak was given verbally, which was then relayed over the internet with "*****" making people believe that it could be Holly.

Second of all, rehashing season one with Holly instead of Will doesn't make any sense and likely improbable and here's why:

I don't see the narrative reason to have Holly go missing. Sure, it could still happen, but I wouldn't see the necessity for it.

The purpose of Will going missing in season 1 was to act as an inciting incident to get all of the other characters involved. The story was driven by Will's disappearance, thus why it was one of the first things we saw happen in the show and why it was deserving of the first episode title.

What would be the purpose of Holly going missing in season 5? Everything has already been set up at the end of season 4. The Upside Down is coming into Hawkins and Vecna has plans to basically take over the world. Max is in a coma and Will can still feel Vecna's left nut. That's reason enough to get the characters involved. We don't need Holly to go missing for the characters to want to take action. Also, if you wanted to get Karen and Ted involved, they already have their two other children involved with the supernatural, so they can get into it that way tangentially.

I think that people are overestimating the reasoning for wanting to replace Holly with an older and more experienced actress, I don't necessarily believe that this recast means that something terrible will happen to her, I just think she was replaced because there is a time skip and Holly is going to need to say more lines than "Mommy, it's snowing!" The original twins cast to play Holly were cast as toddlers, and Nell has more experience actually performing and saying lines. But I don't think that the Duffers are going to end their final season with giving irreparable trauma to a young girl without the chance for that to be resolved in later seasons.

What purpose would Vecna have with taking Holly? What would he even want with her? Vecna targeted specific characters for a specific purpose last season, he doesn't just kidnap little girls for the hell of it. That would be a waste of his time.

He doesn't need to kidnap Holly to get to Will, and personally I hate hate HATE the idea of Will going into the Upside Down in order to get to Holly. Will already has ties to Vecna. Why would he need to kidnap someone to get to him? Also, why would it be Holly? Why not Joyce or Jonathan? What significant relationship does Will have with this little girl who I'm pretty sure he doesn't have any screen time with?

I think people outside of fandom forget that the show has not given the audience a reason to really care about Holly other than the fact that she is a little girl. She has had no significant lines, no significant screen presence, and no significant story line. And all of a sudden the final season of the show hinges on finding this girl that the audience doesn't give a shit about. Okay.

And before someone tries to straw man me and say "Oh, so you're saying that the Wheeler's doesn't have ANY connection to the supernatural and isn't important?" Of course I think they are important. They are as important any character is, they all have their own roles in the story. But the Wheeler's involvement with the supernatural has always been tangential. Barb was taken so Nancy got involved. Will was taken and Mike found El so Mike got involved. Karen is likely to now get involved since her children are now involved. I am making my assertion based on what I am seeing in the show. They are involved with the supernatural because they make themselves involved. Both Will and El are tied to the supernatural in a more direct way, and based on what the show has told me as well as what official sources (The Duffer's themselves), they are more integral to the supernatural plot than any Wheeler. Point blank.

[lemotmo]

Interesting question and super interesting answer. Spot on regarding lots of people's feelings towards Lou.

Q. I want to first say thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, I know many of them have not been nice. I'm glad you've started answering more nice ones, it's good for everyone to see. You've said you liked Tommy a lot in the beginning, is it possible that your changing opinions about Tommy are actually a result of you not liking Lou? More than the show changing Tommy? Does that make sense? I am genuinely curious, please tell me this is not coming across as rude!

A. Good morning, anon. No, your question did not come across rude at all. In fact it's a good question and one I am happy to answer. Before I get into the answer about Tommy though, I will address the Lou part. I have made no secret about my dislike for LFJ. I personally find him gross. And I will fully own that, as a result, loving Tommy would be rather difficult for me. But in my real life it's my job to sell shit to people and make them think they love or need something they don't (PR) so I could make my brain get there if I really needed it to get there for the sake of the show. But fortunately for me I won't need to do that.

A couple of things happened with regards to Lou that prior to him the show had never had to deal with before. Forgive me, but my public relations nerd brain is about to take over. Lou is the first guest star the show ever had that publicly and rapidly promoted themselves as a characters' love interest. None of the others have ever done that before. But he didn't market himself to the audience at large. He targeted a very specific portion of fandom to promote himself to, engage with, and profit from. I'm going to take this opportunity to point out that the minute Tim/ABC told him he could no longer do the cameo videos, thus removing his profiting capabilities, he ended all forms of engagement completely. That tells you all you need to know. For this next part I'm going to use Megan West (Taylor Kelly) as my counterpoint. Taylor was popular with the general audience. The fandom hated Taylor (and Oliver wasn't a fan either, bless him), but the general audience liked her. It's why the show kept trying to make her work for multiple seasons. The GA liked her dynamic with Buck. The GA didn't 'turn' on Taylor until the show started her exit storyline and they weren't supposed to like her anymore. Same thing with Tommy. I think my opinion of Tommy changed exactly when the show wanted it to change. I followed the canon change. The general audience doesn't care about Tommy. Having a small, yet rabid, fan base is good for minimal short term traction, but the GA is what extends contracts. He didn't promote himself to the GA because he already knew the shelf life of his character. He knew the storyline that his character is a part of wasn't going to change. As a result he promoted himself to a particular sect of fandom to maximize his character's minimal self life. And it worked, for a little bit.

The show was not promoting him. He did a couple of interviews right after episode 4, but any actor playing that character would have been given those interviews. That had zero to do with Lou. And, unfortunately for him, and those of us who had to read them, the man's a terrible interview. He has no filter, no self editing capabilities, and zero PR training. It was a disaster. Even the people responsible for editing them into something resembling coherence struggled to make them work. They sent him on one joint interview with Oliver, an actual PR unicorn (he should teach a class), and the only thing Lou was allowed to say about the show was that Tommy and Buck were 'thriving' (interesting word choice given his one scene in the finale, btw). It also cannot be ignored that Oliver chose not to speak at all about the onscreen duo. The rest of Lou's time was spent talking about his dad, which is what the two people interviewing him clearly wanted to talk more about anyway. Oliver was who the show sent to talk about the show. They weren't promoting the ship. The interviewers would have been given very specific questions to ask if it had been about the duo. ABC didn't want Lou talking about the show. He had already proven he wasn't capable of doing so with any kind of tact. It also became apparent that he and Oliver are not comfortable with one another. Oliver tried very briefly to sell it a bit, but he didn't try very long or very hard. I know Lou's fandom thought it was perfect, but based on everything non Lou biased we saw, they were in the minority. And the show clearly didn't think it worked either because you never saw them again. The show has been doing PR since the finale. If they wanted to drum up Buck/Tommy they would have been using at least part of this time to do so, and they haven't. The release of the deleted clip was the opposite of bigging him up and the reaction from the general audience as well as his own fans proves that. The off-season PR has been entirely Ryan/Eddie centered. Which also was when Ryan's gender neutral musings also began, but I digress. The show had never encountered the game Lou played before and as a result they had no rules and regulations in place regarding guest star behavior. They have clearly established some rules now and Lou has been instructed to follow them. I'm also certain somewhere in there he was informed of his final episode count so he knows exactly when he's leaving. And while the cameo videos were great for him personally, in the short term, that rabid devotion was going to change quickly once it becomes apparent on screen that Tommy's arc is nearing its end. And I don't think he will be around longer than 3 or 4 episodes. I think his arc will conclude around the same time Gerard's arc concludes. I do not think the two will necessarily be connected but I do think they will come to a conclusion around the same time.

I'm so sorry anon but he drives my professional brain insane. And now as a result of his own hubris the show is now trying to clean up a mess he had no right to ever start.

I don't know what to write underneath these glorious posts anymore. Each and every single OP post just slay. This one isn't the exception.

Thank you OP for so eloquently putting into words what all of us have been trying to explain for weeks now.

Remember, no hate in comments or reblogs. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of the anonymous OP’s posts, you can find all of their posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[mildlyfunctional]

It took over two years, but I finally finished watching the entirety of Supernatural. I took a week to process some thoughts before foisting them upon Tumblrland, so here we go!

I did not expect to like it. Specifically the ending.

The original reason this Supernatural rewatch began was to see Castiel's confession in context. I wanted to see what drove Tumblr's primary form of newscasting, what got the Supernatural fandom back from the depths of superhell, and thrust the bury your gays queerbaiting discussion to the forefront of every YouTube video essay—and to potentially seek justice for my first ever gay ship, good ol' Destiel. It is for this reason that I wholeheartly did not expect leave 15 seasons of this fucking show feeling content.

This was a hard task. I wanted to stop so badly. I don't think I could tell you a single season I liked the plot of. HOWEVER, it did teach a valuable lesson: if you're looking for good representation in Supernatural, you're looking in the wrong place. This applies to even to show's representations of itself.

Supernatural should have ended 11 seasons before it did, and yet, much like nearly every character in the show, it just keeps on coming. Season 12 nearly did me in, but oh? Season 13-15? It was worth it to get to the seasons where the target demographic was literally anyone who would watch the show. The main plot? Nope. The filler? Yes. I loved so many episodes from these seasons! Scoobynatural, Advanced Thanatology, Tombstone, The Scorpion and the Frog, Various & Sundry Villains, Optimism, Peace of Mind, Atomic Monsters, Golden Time, Last Call, The Heroes' Journey, The Gamblers, Last Holiday.

Cass's confession made me absolutely bawl my eyes out for the remaining episodes of Supernatural (I was a blubbering little ball, throwing in a good few mutterings about Our Flag Means Death along the way) However, in the end, it just felt right that it should end this way. Not in terms of good queer representation, not in terms of my love of Destiel, but this is what the characters each needed.

Death means nothing on Supernatural because of the ways characters need each other to keep going. Cass telling Dean how he feels means he can let go. Dean getting permission from Sam to stop fighting death means he can let go. Sam living out a full life away from hunting means he can let go. All the characters have what they need so we as an audience can let go.

As much as I will still very much struggle to sit through the main plot points of Supernatural, the characters will always have a place in my heart. They just couldn't die, couldn't fully fit the original format of the show, and just kept finding family (and trauma) in literally everything. I'm glad they're resting well.

I final note I absolutely had to include: DEAN IS SO BISEXUAL THE ENTIRE SHOW! I somehow thought "oh maybe we've been exaggerating this". No, no. I—I... I have problems now. Problems that can only be resolved with getting back into the Supernatural fandom.

Thank you for a wild ride Supernatural. Destiel forever

[seeminglyseph]

Every now and then I'll see a critique like "they sure just shout their feelings at each other"

And it's like... a shounen fight anime for teenagers.

Which is not to say that the genre is not *capable* of subtly but like. Also, sometimes, when your target audience is teenage boys who are specifically looking for punches, like... sometimes, you put the text in the text on purpose. Sometimes, you consciously choose to have the hero geadbutt the power of friendship into a guy, and they talk about loneliness and fun and leadership.

And also sometimes. Characters don't have the vocabulary to describe their emotions in a way that sounds "valid." Sometimes that's characterization in itself, the lack of vocabulary to describe emotions and motivation. Honestly, it's wild how often people will just take characters at their word when they describe their feelings in a shallow way when like... all the imagery is like... clearly depicting something else. Like, say.... Sometimes, a character just says their bored, but like... literally, all the imagery involved clearly depicts a pretty deep depression or personal crisis. But that character has no words or frame of reference for how to discuss those feelings, so he just says he's bored and lashes out in increasingly erratic ways?

Yeah I might be talking about Wind Breaker again Tomiyama Choji gets done so fucking dirty by people what the fuck is up with so many videos I have seen just fucking going "what he did all this because he was bored???"

Like. No. Did you pay attention??? He lost his purpose, and he lost his way, and none of his friends were willing to stand up to him or stand with him, so even though he was the leader and he had a gang, he was entirely alone. But he didn't have the ability to find what he was missing, or name what he was feeling. So he didn't know how to ask for help.

He's as much a feral child as Sakura and so works as a first arc foil for him, a character who seeks power and leadership without any goals or intentions behind it besides "Freedom." Especially since Choji is shown not fully knowing for himself what freedom is or would represent. But for the types of people who end up in feral street gangs? And for a character that is a foil to Sakura and is also... very speed based in his fighting style. Freedom makes sense for something that Choji would want.

But it seems like a promise he was given without much intention of him receiving it. I don't really think he was supposed to overthrow the boss of his gang and become the leader... though that's some rampant speculation.

I dunno man. I know part of it is like. O ly one season is out, so everyone is still not sure what to think about it. And that's fair. I'm still like... confused about multiple angles of the series. I've read... a decent chunk of the manga, and I'm still like. Pretty curious about how the universe works, honestly. Maybe the fact that I clocked how Choji held his chopsticks and like. Multiple puzzle pieces fell into place because I have been loving the weird little details Wind Breaker will throw in. Either this series tells a very intense story through background details and character designs, or one day, I will be made a very large fool of.

None of this is an organised enough thought to be worth anything but like. I know this is probably not controversial among Wind Breaker *fans*, but like. I keep like... seeing people with this opinion in videos and stuff talking about Wind Breaker that seemed to have not connected and not understood.

Which does make me feel a little like a "you just don't *understand* man." But like. If you really felt like Choji acted the way he acted because he was bored and wanted to have more fun you like... *didn't get it* or were being purposefully disingenuous because you personally disliked the portrayal.

[stinkytrashman]

I've been seeing a lot of hate for dragons rising and the later seasons of ninjago and I have my thoughts. As usual. Im a very thought filled person. So I'm gonna tell you all my very correct and right opinion on the matter. Also it's very long be warned now 🧙‍♂️ (little recap at the very end in case you dont wanna read the whole thingg)

The later seasons of Lego ninjago and the entirety of Dragons Rising is not bad. It's just different.

The first season of lego ninjago came out in 2011.

The expectations for a kids show in 2011 are different than the expectations in 2024. The humor kids like is going to change naturally over the years. The tropes in media that kids like is going to change over the years.

We were the target audience when the show first came out, because we were kids. It's a show aimed for a younger audience. Unfortunately, the intended audience did not change as we got older. The show is still aimed at a younger audience, but guess what? There's new kids. The age range is filled with new people. And to still have their target audience hit, they are obviously going to have to change a few things so the kids nowadays will want to watch the show.

The original seasons had more focus on the character vs character conflics. Of course it dabbled in characters having internal struggles and side plots related to building/destroying relationships, but those were more episode specific and he newer seasons just delve more into it for multiple episodes. There was a focus on the fighting, on the action, on the cool outfits and mech armor. The new seasons are still fighting bad guys, with all of the cool effects, but also fighting feelings. You can do both at once. Shocker, I know. Why is there more focus on emotions? Because that's the standard in well written shows these days.

The humor is less characters making fun of eachother, and more a dead silence filled with a silly sound effect. This is one of the things that irked me, but it's okay. My humor is not the humor of the intended audience. The space is intended for the audience to have the audible laughter/reaction. Quick reminder who the show is intended for. (I hold up a sign saying "new generation of young people with different humor then people my age".)

The characters are not annoying. The characters are not weak, or pitiful, or embarrassing. A character having emotions other than love or anger or happiness is okay. Arin not feeling worthy enough for his team? Guess what? That's an emotion lots of people feel. This character is allowed to have self doubt. Lloyd having panic attacks from his visions? Hey, his visions scared him! Characters are allowed to be scared, and have a reaction to being scared.

Characters are allowed to be replaced. I know, I loved the original elemental masters, and wish they could come back for a cameo now and then. Would love to see Griffin Turner once and a while. But you have to remember in the canon, it's been years. Time passes. Wanna know what happens when time passes? People die, people move on, people come into others lives. The new elemental master of air is fine. She's allowed to exist. Do you honestly expect Morro to show back up and be like "omg hiii >< I'm here I want my power back !!" Be honest with yourselves.

Final thought: who cares if characters are gay. A background character wears a nonbinary flag on their jacket?!?!?!? It must be armageddon!! Come on now. One or two flags in the background isn't the end of the world. Cole and Geo's relationship has no effect on the main plot. Geo could be replaced by any character, or even removed, and the plot would still go forward. Gay people aren't out to get you, or turn your show woke, or indoctrinate your kids. They're just there. Cole is still Cole, and Geo is cool. Another thing about Geo: I will not take Geo slander from lava shippers. He is very sweet and kind and just because Cole is not with Kai doesn't mean yall should hate on him. Also I don't even think Cole and Geo are 100% confirmed. So why is everyone going bananas over it? Very silly behavior if you ask me.

That's all I have to say thank you for coming to my tedtalk 🧙‍♂️

Recap: the target audience is young people, young people are different now then when we were young, they have different humor, it's fine for characters to be emotional, new characters aren't the end of the world, gay people are fine.

[ataraxiasflame]

Did Aemond want his brother dead?

(That scene from my pro-Aemond perspective.)

I’m still struggling to severe ties between the book-version and show-version of the characters, so I think that also influenced my interpretation of the scene (and I’ve tried my best to focus on the show-characters here).

Personally, I don’t think Aemond wants Aegon dead, necessarily. I actually think Aemond doesn’t really give a shit about what happens to him anymore.

Aemond was, however, clearly pissed that his brother showed up unannounced, especially given that Aegon has been portrayed as incredibly incapable in both strategy and battle.

But from a battle perspective, Aemond is warranted in his reaction because Aegon compromised the strategy they had to lure out a TB dragonrider and eliminate them while gaining control of Rook’s Rest. Aemond (just like Aegon) has his own motivations driving his need for glory, but at the very least, his brother was forcing Aemond into submission and obedience as the expected reaction would be to abandon the original strategy and save the King.

We see his frustration when he sights Aegon’s arrival. Though it does appear he delays joining the battle to let Aegon ‘suffer’, I personally interpreted that as Aemond deciding to stick to the original strategy and defy the expectation to go to Aegon’s aid. He doesn’t allow Aegon’s arrival to change the decisions they made (and when the signal is given, that’s when he and Vhagar finally take to the sky.)

Aemond doesn’t respond well to Aegon compromising his plan, and due to their brotherly-feud, he stubbornly disregards saving the King and instead focuses on what he came to do, making Aegon collateral damage.

Personally, I interpret this look as more “You should have stayed out of my way” rather than “now I can be King.” (But that’s just me.)

Is it stupid? YES. And that’s one of my several issues with the changes in the show. Book Aemond (even if he was feuding with Aegon) would not have eliminated one of their dragons when they were already specifically strategising how to eliminate TB dragons to gain some advantage. Aemond is should be smarter than this (thanks Ryan Condal).

However, I think his loyalty to Aegon is now non-existent and he has his own priorities, and Aegon was basically in the way of those priorities, which started with eliminating Rhaenys and Meleys. And given the way that the show is portraying Aegon, I wouldn’t be surprised if the narrative becomes that ‘he was pretty useless as a dragonrider anyway, so no real loss if it means the target was eliminated’. Collateral Damage.

Many people are convinced that Aemond was about to finish Aegon off but in fact he was actually sheathing a sword, not removing one. If you ask me, he was ready to have the same moment with Aegon that he had after killing Rhaenys, but in a more powerful and triumphant way because now Aegon has to live with knowing that even has King, Aemond was and is more powerful than him. To me, that is far more impactful for Aemond than killing his brother. He will relish that his brother will have to live with the truth of this outcome, especially given that he will now likely be named Prince Regent in his brother’s place.

I don’t really like it, tbh. It’s petty and theatrical and I personally feel like they could have gone several other ways which still left both these characters on the same path as they are now. I still feel that, had this feud been inevitable, it should at least have been done over the course of the entire season, not in the space of 3 minutes 3 episodes, and this should not have been the place for Aemond to exert his dominance and power over Aegon. As their first real battle with TB, it was vital that TG prove their power and unity (even if faked) in this battle and rise as a true threat to TB, but not even the audience sees them as a threat now.

Because the way Aemond looks on his dragon after killing Rhaenys is a clear sign that this side of him has been unleashed and his is now a potential liability to TG if not contained.

So where do they go with Aemond from here? If he is already appearing to be willing to sacrifice his brother for his own priorities, how does this arc continue? What does he do next that is even more shocking? I fear what the showrunners will have his character do to stay on this path they’ve only just started him on.

I’m obsessed with how Ewan Mitchell is portraying Aemond but unfortunately I’m just not sold of the rewrite of his character if the rest of his arc continues with this overt characterization.

[xerith-42]

Stop blaming characters for bad writers

Seriously, stop fucking doing this. While this is a post that could certainly be applicable to MANY fandoms, I'm mainly directing this whole rant at my target audience which is mentally ill minecraft obsessed freaks.

If a character is written badly, gets badly fumbled by the creator, or has the ball dropped in regards to their arc in some way, a lot of people will blame the character, as if they're a real conscious person making these decisions. When they aren't. They're a block man literally being controlled by two people who just aren't very good writers and one or both of them are incredibly sexist, kind of racist, ableist, and just bad writers in general.

Yeah, Laurance does some pretty shitty things through out Season 2 of MCD, actively crossing lines he wouldn't have previously crossed. We as fans can cope by saying something something calling, or just saying Laurance is a bad abusive person, but the reality is that the writers wanted to force the series to fit a specific vision and as a result were willing to do anything to get the series to that point. In order to make Aaron the most favorable suitor for Aphmau, her previous suitors need to be out of the picture, or clearly inferior options.

Garroth suffered the out of the picture, being mostly absent outside of a few cutscenes here and there until episode 81 of season 2, but episode 81 is the culmination of the writers goals to make Aarmau happen. By the time Garroth has returned to the series, the damage has already been done. He's not getting the life he wants. And Laurance is written out of the picture as well, but only after being shown to be inferior because Jesson were pushing an agenda.

Laurance didn't deteriorate as a person due to neglect of his physical and mental well being after a severely traumatic experience. He deteriorated as a character because the writers stopped giving as much of a shit about him and instead were using the series as self indulgent fanfiction of alternate versions of themselves. That's not Laurance's fault.

And this applies to any character who was completely fumbled in MyStreet due to this similar focus on wish fulfillment from the writers. Jess has stated that the relationship between Aphmau and Aaron in Phoenix Drop High is reflective of her relationship with Jason, we all know this. This means that any characters who come off as total fucking creeps in that series (namely Gene), are not actually acting on the whims of their own autonomy or desires as characters. They are acting in service of telling a predetermined story that they are retroactively being added into for author fulfillment.

In this regard I fully support fandom cope and say that you should rewrite your little guys to your hearts content. But if you're going to criticize these characters for their actions, don't criticize them. They didn't do anything wrong. All characters are just puppets in service of the story or themes a writer is trying to push. If a character acts in an objectively terrible way, especially a way that isn't in line with their previous characterizations, that is a failing of the writers, not the character.

And I feel like largely a lot of us can and frequently do this. We're actively criticizing Jesson for being terrible low-key bigoted writers all the god damn time, it's like half of the content here. But when we get into character discourse I feel like some people cling onto bad actions of the canon too closely and I've seen more than a few posts presume some pretty terrible interpretations of characters based on these actions. Obviously Laurance is a character I and a lot of others are fixated on so a lot of discourse revolves around him, and it was seeing some... interesting takes on him that prompted me to start writing this post.

But this happens to everyone. Quite personally based on the character I was shown in MyStreet, it feels really weird that Garroth would make an insensitive comment about his brother's weight. Yeah siblings poke fun at each other and often cross lines, but if that was something Zane was seriously insecure about (which it seems like he might be) then it does make Garroth come off as a really insensitive brother, which just doesn't gel with how hard he tries to bond with Zane despite their tense relationship. And I don't think Garroth should be criticized for making those comments.

Whoever wrote those lines (Jess and/or Jason) should be criticized for writing a scene where a character is mocked by their older sibling over a physical insecurity even if said sibling would not normally do that. It's not Travis' fault that Jesson never decided to give him more of a character beyond "funny pervy guy" that's not funny in every anime they've watched until Season 5 of MyStreet. It's unfair to try and say Travis should be scrutinized for his borderline sexual harassment of some characters when it's not his fault that happened, he was written by writers who don't think this sort of behavior isn't all that bad if they make it out for comedy and punch him in the face.

And god dammit it's not Laurance's fault that his jealousy became the most prevalent emotion he felt. Laurance has always been a character to give into his vices and yet fight against them at the same time, it's what makes him compelling. If they were going to pull on those vices in order to make him a less appealing love interest, he never had a chance to really be his own character after a certain point. Because at a certain point in Season 2, Jesson stopped caring about the character they had been writing for over a hundred episodes at that point. They just wanted to canonize their self insert ship and were willing to do anything to get it.

Laurance isn't an abusive angry person who would have killed Aphmau if they got together. He's a flawed character being handled by incredibly flawed writers who are prone to making some of the worst decisions you have ever seen a creator make in regards to their character writing. He was caught in the crossfire of the adoration he received from a very dedicated fanbase, and the creator who would rather pretend he and his previous arc didn't exist for the sake of her fun. It's not Laurance's fault his arc was stilted, jerked around, and ultimately ended with him completely face planting. And yet still reliably dragging his bloodied body up at just the slightest glimmer of hope (Void Paradox).

It's deeply poetic and tragic that I can describe his character in universe and in the meta-textual sense that way, but we should never blame Laurance, or Aaron, or any other characters for things being like this.

They didn't write the show. Jess and Jason did.

[noir-fem]

daisy's thoughts on *that* scene

SPOILER WARNING!! I'M ABOUT TO YAP ABOUT HOTD SEASON TWO, SPECIFICALLY BLOOD AND CHEESE!!

DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!!!

the scene itself

obviously, the show couldn't adapt B&C verbatim without traumatizing child actors in the process, so i'm happy that certain changes were made and that the actual murder happened off screen. i still think they could have kept small details that made it so horrific in the books without hurting child actors though.

the problem is mainly within the writing because there's really no build up. there's no scenes of Helaena being loving with her kids beforehand, no slaughtering of guards or bed maids to make Blood and Cheese look scarier, nothing that builds an impending sense of dread. also B&C being confused/low key cartoonish villains didn't help. these guys are supposed to know the Red Keep's secret pathways like the back of their hand; showing how intruders could get into the keep so easily definitely would have made the scene scarier.

also making B&C into a "misunderstanding " and having Aemond be the original target completely downplays the most evil thing the Blacks ever did and further shows that the writers are unashamedly biased towards the Blacks. the main message of the story is that both sides were war criminals who did awful things!! the senseless cruelty of targeting a toddler for something he had no role in was literally the point of B&C!!

i get that maelor doesn't exist yet, but they still could have done "a son for a son" and kept Helaena being forced to choose between her kids. one person on here suggested having her point to Jaehaera in order to spare Jaehaerys (the heir to the throne), but B&C killing Jaehaerys instead. i think something like that would have kept the psychological torture of having to choose and could still have been done without scaring child actors.

overall, if the writers were trying to out-do the Red Wedding in terms of horror, it didn't work. What made the Red Wedding so terrifying in the first place was the psychological aspects of it and all the tiny clues the audience was given beforehand, the small details telling the viewers that something bad is coming.

that being said, the show's adaptation of B&C still captured the horror of a child being murdered in front of his mother without showing it/being gratuitous. they did an amazing job with just letting you hear the sounds and leaving the rest to the imagination.

in conclusion: r.i.p. sweet baby jaehaerys. daemon targaryen, your days are numbered.

Helaena's reaction (or, rather, lack thereof)

i didn't properly understand/appreciate Helaena's reaction to B&C until i saw other people's takes and rewatched the scene for myself.

at first, i would have liked to see some sort of desperation like there was in the books (like Helaena begging and offering her life). HOWEVER, book!helaena and show!helaena are obviously gonna have some differences, especially with show!Helaena being a dreamer. and with her being coded as autistic/neurodivergent, her reaction makes total sense to something that i myself would do.

say it with me: there is no "right" or "wrong" way to react to trauma!! your brain is literally just doing whatever it has to do to get you out of that situation, and that looks different for everyone. a lot of people freeze or fawn! it doesn't mean that they're "emotionless" or unaffected by what's happening!!

now looking at it, Helaena's silent shock and horror were more gut wrenching to watch than any amount of screaming or begging imo. she's probably already seen this happen in her visions and knows that there's nothing she can do to stop it: all she can do is get herself and Jaehaera out of there. her resigned facial expression, her eyes, her quiet little pleas as she's carrying Jaehaera, her literally dissociating in order to get her and her daughter out of the situation and clinging onto her baby for dear life. Phia's acting was incredible and i believe she did her best with what the writers gave her.

now lastly....

the alicole scene

why???? just WHY????

look i'm all for alicent and criston being hypocrites and alicent finally getting to experience pleasure, but having helaena walk in on her and criston RIGHT after watching her son get brutally murdered.... i don't even need to say any more about this. nobody needs to explain why that is a bad writing choice.

my opinions on the show's take on B&C will likely change depending on how they handle helaena and alicent's reactions to it later on in the series. might even dabble in writing fics and drop my own take on this storyline sometimes hehe.

in conclusion, somebody PLEASE take Helaena's pain, quadruple it, and give it to daemon NOW.