#treating kids like human beings

[purplespacekitty]

so, like. idk if anyone else ever watched this show when they were younger, but way before Bluey there used to be this Australian kids show called The Upside Down Show and it was all live-action and it followed these two guys named Shane and David as they explored the world. i guess they were in their late twenties or early thirties?

anyway, each episode had brothers Shane and David encounter this new thing or something they didn't think that much about: bicycling, haircuts, ice cream, kites, birthdays, etc. and they'd go on these little journeys to learn about these things and what was cool about this show was that Shane and David were very open to learning and everything they learned, they learned from kids. the kids would teach them how puppets worked, how movie theaters work, how to take care of pets, etc. at the end of each episode, we see Shane and David try out the things they've learned about and the narrator announces something like "Shane and David go to the airport for the very first time!" in a very ringmaster-y tone of voice. ultimately, it positions kids as teachers and adults as learners, showing that adults have as much (if not more) to learn from kids as kids have to learn from adults. the world of The Upside Down Show also included some other recurring characters, like Puppet (a puppet, the brothers' roommate and friend), Fido the Fly (Shane's invisible pet fly who lives in a tiny house with a tiny door in the wall with tiny front steps), Mrs. Foil (Shane and David's friendly and outgoing tuba-playing neighbor who has a male calico cat named Elizabeth and whose spouse we never see, so i choose to believe her partner is either super shy [we love an opposites-attract kind of relationship] or she's divorced and living her best single life), Action Fingers (the action duo Knuckles and Pointy who are literally just played by Shane and David's middle and index fingers), the Narrator and the Schmuzzies (little fuzzy puff balls kind of like tribbles except they have eyes who say every word with the sound "schm-" before it).

also, the laws of physics and reality are different in this show: Shane and David own an invisible Remote that they give to their viewers at the start of each episode, which affects things in-universe with the Pause button, the Instant Replay button, the Stumble button and lots of other buttons. Shane and David, played by the Umbilical Brothers, produce a bunch of sound effects with just their mouths throughout the show and mime a lot of things like the Remote, Fido the Fly, the Snooglenook and other characters and gadgets. it's a very wholesome, wonky sketch comedy time and i highly recommend it.

all this to say, the most important part of my post: the greatest love story of all time.

the very first episode features Shane and David going to a movie theater and also, to the laundry room? in the laundry room, which they first mistake as a movie theater, they meet a blue sock named Lefty nestled in a pile of Mrs. Foil's as-yet-unfolded laundry. Lefty explains to them tearfully that they're in the laundry room, not a movie theater. when Shane and David ask why he's crying, Lefty recounts his tale of sorrow to them over the backdrop of sad violin music: the laundry room is where he lost his "socky partner", Barbara. saddened by his story and determined to help the sobbing sock out, Shane and David call upon their pals the Action Fingers. after a little kerfuffle with Mrs. Foil's laundry, which they fold neatly back into a stack for her, Knuckles and Pointy hear a voice calling for help: Barbara! she's caught in a narrow storage drawer below one of the dryers! Knuckles and Pointy rush to her side and manage to pull her out in a dazzling display of heroism.

"Barbara!"

"Lefty!"

Barbara and Lefty are reunited and they embrace, so ecstatic that they cling to each other for longer than intended through static charge. the pair united, the tender scene is cut as Mrs. Foil plucks them out of the laundry pile and Shane and David move on, leaving the laundry room behind them.

what i love about this story is that while it's short and sweet, it's also packed with all the angst and dramatic tension a good love story with a happy ending should have. Barbara and Lefty's tale is one of woe but also one of joy and yet...in the end, they are still socks. together, they become simply a pair, united, to be folded alongside each other as they should be. we can rest knowing they have found each other once again.

and sure, it's just a silly little snippet of a silly little kids' show, but it's cute and imaginative and it brings you into the world of your sock drawer and laundry room very effectively. it implies that socks have personality and thoughts and feelings and reminds you to treat them with care, to remember that socks almost always come in pairs.

the legend of Barbara and Lefty lives in the deepest nooks and crannies of my brain, burrowed there as a warm reminder of my childhood and a show that gave even the smallest of objects life.

[lorebird]

In which Ford struggles so badly to relate to other people that he wonders if he’s really human at all. The more isolated he becomes, the harder it is to reconcile with his own humanity.

[penofwildfire]

Riyu is literally training to be a ninja alongside the others and has been here since the beginning but people will group Euphrasia, Percival, Jordana, literally anyone else in with the kids before they include Riyu.

[abnomi]

fell in love with him the second he came on screen like HAAYYYY HAAYYYYYYYYY👋👋👋

[witchofthesouls]

Wait something funny just occurred to me. In the AU where the kids get cyber formed but remain on the edge of being adults, someone would have had to give them the Cybertonian version of The Sex Talk.

Would it be Ratchet, giving them the strictly medical side of things, or would it be some bot, talking about the experimental/exploring parts?

(I genuinely believe Ratchet would have an aneurysm of some kind at the prospect of it. But let's pretend)

I have to name this verse properly because Tarn isn't here, but it will eventually lead the D.J.D. to Earth. I'll keep the soulmate au tag until I can figure out something.

Ratchet does have an aneurysm because he has set ideas on what is and isn't 'appropriate' from Functionist-held Golden Age Cybertron, but he also carries a lot of guilt from out-surviving almost all his friends, cohorts, and students...

And it's all being dragged into the mud by the Jasper trio, who gives no quarter on crushing his prejudices and fears. Even Raf, his favorite, casually steamrolls over it with the draconian and American mindset of giving no fucks.

Team Prime had harmless thought exercises of what their charges' Cybertronian frames would be like... and none of them were remotely correct!

Because Miko is a Seeker femme, Raf may or may not be a type of Predacon, and Ratchet can't get proper readings on Jack's base-coding, Ratchet sits them all down because they're not sparklings or mechlings with sealed plates but full-framed mecha with total access. He gives them the reproductive talk, especially since Seekers and beastformers go into reproductive heats, but humans don't have that. He's trying to be mindful, and Ratchet is going through the different sexual methods and the variations of parts. Of course, Raf has to interrupt because the draconian mech has two spikes and no receptacle, and he would like to know about any necessary care.

All in all, it's really Ratchet having another fit because his weird humans are now weird Cybertronians of yore/throwbacks. And the ex-humans are taking it rather well, but Jack, Miko, and Raf had literally lifetimes to explore sexuality: as humans, human-hybirds by exploring their heritage as well as alchemical concoctions and very curious lovers.

This, however, did kickstart the path of Ratchet teaching Miko his medical knowledge as she doesn't want the results. She's burning to have the technical skills and knowledge of the processes. Ratchet does pass on his skills to Raf and Jack, but Raf prefers the science as Jack is more fascinated by procuring research material. Miko literally bullzoned her way to become his student. The howling matches they had shook the foundations of the base, but she got her way because she deliberately aimed at his vulnerable parts. ("You'll leave us one day to go back to Cybertron! And you're refusing to tell me how to properly care for myself!?") Ratchet is highly concerned about how voracious Miko's appetite is for that knowledge.

She yearns to become a Tsunade/Unohana terror among them because they have a strong suspicion that if their status is revealed, then they'll become targets. She'll become a Cybertronian Bloodbourne horror if it means she'll never be trapped like what happened to some of her kin.

[twinstxrs]

the gorgug-porter conversation is interesting to me because like. yea for the overwhelming majority of the conversation porter’s being shitty & trying to fit gorgug into a box that gorgug just does not fit into by trying to make gorgug’s relationship with his rage more focused on the aggression aspect of it. but then there’s also this specific thing that brennan brought up again in the ap, which is that gorgug’s relationship with his rage is wholly “this is a tool i use to protect my friends.” which isn’t a bad thing! but that’s his Whole relationship with it, & gorgug seems to place next to no value on his rage in relationship to himself. which is problematic, because it’s first & foremost his rage.

being raised in a household with a sort of toxic positivity largely meant that, whether or not it was his parents’ intention, gorgug internalized the message that more traditionally “negative” emotions such as anger are the wrong response to something. part of the reason he prioritizes his artificing is probably because it’s “fixing” things. in comparison to being a barbarian, which gorgug associates with “breaking” things. good vs. bad behavior, in his eyes.

it’s a totally unacceptable bar to measure a 16 y/o by, but i do think part of porter’s reasoning for not letting gorgug multiclass is him recognizing that gorgug generally does not value anger as a valid emotional response to something, at the very least for himself. & that directly conflicts with what being a barbarian is, because whether you like it or not, that rage is what fuels you. but again, barring a kid from pursuing something they deeply care about in part (not entirely, porter has a lot of more bullshit reasons) because of their fundamental values & world outlook is crazy.

so yes, 98% of porter’s reasoning is pretty shitty, immature, rife with a toxic view that there’s only one proper way to access rage, & generally not a good thing to do as a teacher, but also within that reasoning is the 2% of ‘there is a fundamental part of yourself that you only value if you can use it to take care of other people & you need to accept that as something that can take care of you, too.’ but that’s something to discuss with a therapist or a guidance counselor, not something that should hugely impact gorgug’s academic future.

[milevenstancyendgame]

Mike's Pep Talks & Sense Of Justice

So one thing I really love about Mike is that he always tries to act when he sees one of his friends suffering or injustice going on. It's an astute feeling of what's right and wrong, plus trying to give to others what he didn't receive himself from his parents (reassurance, praise, emotional availability, honesty, etc).

I think the first example we got of this, was in s1 when we first see the boys being bullied in school. The bullies specifically targeted Dustin here and directly after they leave, Mike tells him that he thinks his different anatomy (cleidocranial dysplasia) is like a superpower, that it makes him cool, like Mr Fantastic.

There's a nice reference to this at the other end of the seasons, when Will tells Mike in s4 that he makes him/El feel like they're better for being different.

In a similar vein, Mike tries to see the good in Will getting insight into the Mind-flayer's perception/feelings, calling him a super-spy.

He also is adamant about Lucas, Dustin, and Will being equally his best friends, reassuring Dustin (who wasn't even upset, but just assumed Lucas was Mike's best friend; and he visibly brightens up afterwards).

In s1, he also defends El when Lucas says she's a weirdo and not a superhero ("The X-men are weirdos!"). He tells her several times that she's a/his superhero when she doubts herself, and reassures her about her appearance.

He also tells the others several times not to exploit El's powers and to respect her boundaries ("Stop it, you're freaking her out! She's just scared and cold.", "She's not a dog.", "Stop it, you're scaring her!", "You're treating her like a machine, when she's not a machine.").

After the police questions the boys at school, Mike tells his family at dinner that he wants to go out and help search for Will, saying that they should be doing something. His mother forbids it, Nancy makes a condescending remark about Will, and his father patronises him, making Mike exclaim in righteous anger: "I'm the only one who's normal here! I'm the only one who cares about Will!"

There's a parallel to this in s2, after they escaped from the lab and gather at the Byers' house. Everyone is in a state of shock and feeling hopeless/like there's nothing they can or should do, but Mike talks about how Bob founded the AV Club and that they need to avenge him (because it's the right thing to do).

Of course jumping from the cliff in order to save Dustin from getting maimed is another example of him just finding it unbearable to see his friends suffer. The way he tries to protect El over the course of all seasons is another example (too many to list them all, but random ones are letting her stay at his house, although he knows it gets him into danger; trying to protect her from Brenner and the demogorgon, trying to keep her from over-using her powers in s3, saving her from Billy, etc).

These are all instances I can think of atm, though I'm sure there are more.

[triysn]

Y’all ever think about how Rex is like. An orphan. Of all his cartoon contemporaries, he’s the only one whose parents are just straight up, explicitly dead.

And like, yeah, you could argue that for some, their relationships with their LIVING parents are like equally traumatising as having dead ones (cough cough phantom cough). Plus Rex has holiday and six.

But like holiday and six are very much paid to take care of him. Like, no matter how good their intentions are, they are still very much people with jobs and their own agendas.

You think Holiday ever had to ignore how wrong it felt to experiment on Rex and take samples and reduce him to a bunch of numbers and test results but she HAS to because that’s her job and she needs to find a cure for Beverly, needs to figure out how he works.

Or Six having to train Rex to be a weapon, probably in the exact way he was trained. The dual motivation of “this is for his own good, to keep him alive” and “I’m literally being paid to manipulate this kid who trusts me with the goal of ensuring the outcome providence wants in battle” and wondering if one can ever cancel out the other.

Like they care. They care about him so much. But Holiday still does her tests and Six still trains him and doesn’t tell him about Noah. Neither of these things is for Rex’s own good. They’re trying, but they work for Providence. They are literally, undeniably complicit in Rex’s abuse. All they can do is control the extent of the abuse. They love him and they’re getting their paychecks from controlling him.

That’s so fucked up. That is so cool.

[uncanny-tranny]

The thing I hate most about "parental rights" is how it's used to actually mean "if I lose even one ounce of absolute control over my child, regardless of what they want or what's good for them, my rights are being violated!"

[chirpsythismorning]

Watching Wayward Pines for potential ST5 inspo bc the Duffers wrote a couple episodes in s1, and when I got to their second (last) episode and their name crossed the screen, I noticed a visual parallel that might already exist on the show…

Recognize it??

It instantly reminded me of that last shot for the opening of s3, with the landscape peaking out behind the Russian base. But when I went back and actually compared the two, holy shit it’s near identical, and not just the landscape.

I didn’t even remember the helicopter being there on the left, not to mention the pillar-esaue contraption at the center. Like… they’re the same picture.!

With them being credited right at that moment, it’s obvious this was an intentional nod to their previous work.

I just thought it was cool so I wanted to share, but in terms of my watch overall, there is a LOT going on that they could pull from. I’m only halfway through s1, though I’ve heard the show goes downhill in s2 so we’ll see how that goes 😂

[vounoura]

my special interest is death practices and I'm doing a dual diploma in funeral directing and embalming. and honestly once you start looking into the incredibly vast and fascinating subject of funerary customs you start to notice just how much of of what is considered weird and transgressive in stuff like fantasy is practiced by real actual people in ways that are significant

[chaos-in-one]

People who comment "gentle parenting at it's finest" on posts of kids having a meltdown in public and their parents not doing anything about it do not understand what gentle parenting means at all and it makes me want to put my head through a wall

[rhys-ravenfeather]

...you know, sometimes it feels like some people genuinely forget what it was like to be a kid once they hit a certain age.

Like, everyone, myself included, have talked about how the hypocrisy in how some people, including here on Tumblr, will go into full paragraphs talking about how horribly adults treated them when they were kids, then turn around and talk about how much they hate kids, and like...

Do you seriously not remember how horrible it was to have adults laugh at your problems when you were like ten? When no one took you seriously specifically because you were a kid? How terrifying it was to have adults, INCLUDING YOUR OWN PARENTS yell and scream at you over the tiniest things?

So please tell me why you think it's justified for you to turn around and treat kids now the way you were treated?

[irohsteaa]

the tawog episode where Gumball and Darwin get an existential crisis because of a bad trip from cereal they overdosed (using their eyes) because it was their last package ever because Nicole (their mom) finally read the ingredients end wanted to yeet it out of the house.

[bright-and-burning]

EYE do not want to have kids . i have NEVER wanted to have kids (source: three year old me who lived thru my mom's very unpleasant experience having my twin siblings and literally made up deep lore for every doll i ever had to ensure that everyone knew they were adopted and did NOT come from my tummy (the tummy thing is also a direct quote)). HOWEVERRRRRR. when people are good w kids i turn into a fucking puddle of goo.

[jrueships]

WHOEVER THE FUCK IS RECOMMENDING MED PPL TO GO INTO RADIOLOGY JUST CUS IF THE MONEY, IM GONNA FUCKING gET YOU