#what in hell is bad criticism
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People need to relearn tumblr etiquette so badly. You can’t reblog a gifset/edit/fic with complaints in the tags about how you didn’t like x, y, z about that media and then expect OP not to be mad.
Some of us have been in this site for years even though we get less and less notes everyday and you know why? Because we’re passionate about the stuff we’re creating fanart for and we want other people who are also into that stuff to have content to reblog.
I feel like non-creators don’t understand how discouraging it is to see that somebody has reblogged your art and it’s just full of negativity. You people need to learn how not to be weirdos and don’t be surprised when creators block your ass for being annoying in their creations.
And while we’re at it, y’all need to learn how to interact with media. If you hate something so much that you need to express your feelings towards it make! your! own! post! Us creators don’t care about your opinions and most importantly we don’t want to hear your opinions. If you feel the need to shit talk in strangers’ posts about how much you hate a piece of media maybe you need to take a step back.
#💭.txt#gifmaker tag#imagine going into somebody’s house and the first thing you say is ‘your rug is ugly’#that person will probably kick you out#and it’s something if people are complaining about the show/movie your giffing#but to say to OP ‘you should’ve done this differently’ oh boy that’s another kind of rage#‘but- but it’s constructive criticism’ and who the hell asked for it?#this post was inspired by me getting the weirdest fucking tags in the past week#it’s always bad but what have you guys been smoking lately jesus
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The world is frightening.
But you’ve seen it now.
And it’s filled with so much beauty.
And you’re part of that now.
You’re part of what makes it beautiful.
#hey what a surprise that this scene had me absolutely bawling my eyes out#I also listened to a lot of parent/kid tracks while drawing this which was def bad for my mental health#aka never grow up; you’ll be in my heart; funeral; my love my life and ofc I’ve been waiting for you#anyway little details in this drawing include#dorian’s mom is wearing a lute earring#she also has a shock of white in her eyebrow and her eyelash which is something I’ve done with every Dorian I’ve drawn#and last her dress has the same colors as the inside of dorian’s cape#my art#fanart#critical role#bells hells#cr3#critical role spoilers#dorian storm#dnd#dnd art#critical role fanart#please robbie drop her name so I don’t have to tage this ‘dorian’s unnamed mother’#AND NOW FINALLY#nephele wyvernwind
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Spotlight: Jazz is peak Prowl being able to comfort Jazz even though Jazz doesn't want to open up about how he's feeling and Prowl completely respects that
i love their dynamic so much here and in "all hail megatron", it's such a shame that their connection ended up being completely forgotten in the rest of idw series... reading "optimus prime" and coming across that one frame, observing what we have had and lost because the authors couldn't keep in mind how and who they were writing... it actually hurts



you guys. you guys! why are you doing this to us. why is it so hard for you to keep track on your story!! why do we have to see their relationship... fall apart?? without a decent look at it?? somewhere out there, in the background?? we're just left with the fact that they are over or maybe never even were there in the first place
prowl and jazz had so much potential at some point of idw history. the way how well they worked together despite all the difficulties, how sincerely prowl supported jazz even though he remained very closed off and aloof the whole time, how he really tried to be a good loyal friend, respected jazz's personal boundaries, didn't push, didn't go too far with his concern, didn't except anything in return and was just there to help... a rare bright moment for this version of my poor boy :'D
there were so many opportunities to develop this further, to show how they could exist in the new cybertronian future for which they had gone through so much hardship, how could they fight all the problems that were coming down on them, together, exactly as it was on earth. but, alas, we have to accept that they were quickly brushed aside and forgotten. a little time passes and they become strangers. forever. their entire bond is just erased. because that's how idw works with their characters...


#sorry for the negativity still love this universe just some of the moments make me angry#to write something so interesting with the characters and instantly forget about it - yep gorgeous work#my main problem with idw is the way how horribly inconsistent everything was written sometimes. like. critically bad. there are exceptions#mtmte and lost light for example where thanks primus everything is more or less okay with the logic and plot#(that's why these two comics will always remain the best here. peak idw. but many other stories and characters? gosh it's so bad at times)#prowl in one issue: oh jazz you are clearly my friend i will always support you in any situation! you can always count on me bro!!#prowl in the next story when jazz is going through hell after killing a human: hope this sucker won't get in my way lmao what a crybaby#okay yeah enough with negative let's just be happy that we still have these wonderful moments even if they don't lead anywhere in the futur#i cherish every moment where idw prowl acts like a sweet and kind guy instead of a monster with some head problems#but well because prowl here was on a break jazz had to suffer for the sake of the plot#they both can't be at peace with their minds at once lmao#jazzprowl#prowljazz#tf jazz#tf prowl#prowl#jazz#maccadam#transformers#tf
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Oh, I’m gonna be SICK
#Dorian and Orym are so me and my boyfriend coded I mean what who said that-#love is real!!!!!#love is real and these couples will get their happy endings tonight!!!!#source: Matt told me personally that nothing bad will happen to them. just trust me#critical role#bells hells#dorym#imodna
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Awful news about Horror’s creator, SourAppleStudios…
Yes, I will continue to draw and write about Horror. He is a great character that I’ve grown very attached to. No, I do not support SAS. What they did is kinda fucked to put it lightly. I don’t condone that type of stuff, and if you do, feel free to unfollow me now.
#sans au#undertale au#horrortale#horror sans#sans undertale#sans#artists on tumblr#drawing#utmv#undertale multiverse#murder time trio#bad sanses#nightmare sans#killer sans#dust sans#cross sans#art#why did they do that to my guy??#what the hell man 😭#leave him alone#horror sans was created by hatsune miku#i take no criticism
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What is the PR disaster in question that made Rick announce TSATS? I wasn’t active in the online fandom at that point
Of course! This was awhile ago so it figures people don't remember it/aren't familiar:
Basically a couple years back (2020) the fandom had some posts circulate discussing the ways different characters in the Riordanverse were written poorly or offensively. There was a masterpost that went around tumblr but the two major points people were particularly focusing on were Piper and Samirah (particularly because Piper had featured prominently again in Trials of Apollo recently and the third MCGA book had further emphasized and discussed Samirah being Muslim, since it was supposed to take place during Ramadan). Basically each had multiple posts breaking down the ways they were depicted incorrectly or offensively. The entire fandom for a little bit was VERY intensely discussing this (and it's around this time the "RR crit" tag got very popularized on tumblr - it did exist before, but suddenly was being used VERY frequently - cause it was that wide-spread - though the discussion took over basically every side of Riordaverse social media on different platforms). People really wanted Rick to respond to these criticisms, so he did!
He made two blog posts, one about Piper and one about Samirah. He has since deleted both so the links are to archived versions. The short version: he essentially tried to justify his poor research and double-down that he hadn't written them offensively, actually, people were just being mean to him. The fandom, of course, reacted poorly to this.
[Further elaborated events under the cut since this got a bit lengthy]
(Fun fact, this all happened within a month or so of the time i posted an open letter on aphobic tropes in the Riordanverse that Rick replied to, and then he immediately followed with announcing that Reyna was intended to be ace-coded [which cause a LOT of fandom debate] before Rick dipped for a couple of weeks, and then came back to post the blog posts in response to Piper and Sam stuff. So I like to jokingly refer to this as "The time I imploded the fandom/drove Rick off of twitter." Twas I that set the house ablaze.)
Rick fully left social media after this and the LT Musical social media manager became Rick's social media manager for the time being.
So this all happened June/July of 2020. Tower of Nero would end up being published in October of 2020 and a few months after that Rick would state that he was done with the series and wouldn't be writing any more series installments involving Percy, and also that he wouldn't be writing a Nico quest following Tower of Nero as it "wasn't his place to" and encouraged the community to write their own versions of Nico's story.
The community continued to circulate the tumblr posts and discuss the topics of Rick's offensive character depictions, and this is also where we see the dramatic shift in how the fandom depicts Piper in fanwork (though in most cases it is admittedly not an improvement 😬) because of all this discussion. This is also around the time when the fandom brought Viria under scrutiny claiming that she was whitewashing Piper as part of the same discussions, through the justification that she was drawing Annabeth as having tan skin (which she does canonically), and if Annabeth has tanner skin then Piper then that's whitewashing Piper? Except they were using completely separate images of not fully rendered Piper art versus Annabeth in dramatic lighting, so it's all very awkward and poor logic, and did actually get kind of racist. A lot of people were calling it "Tannabeth Blackchase" (yeah, i know) or similar and a common sentiment you'd see repeated is "Don't draw Annabeth as having darker skin than Piper, because that's offensive/racist/whitewashing." (Note: it was not phrased "don't draw Piper as having lighter skin than Annabeth" - we also won't get into certain offensive depictions of Native Americans, but I digress). But yeah, the Annabeth stuff in all that did not age well at all.
Anyways, in October of 2021 however Rick would announce that he was co-writing The Sun And The Star - with a lot of heavy emphasis on how Mark Oshiro works as a sensitivity reader, and some false advertising from the official social media that Mark Oshiro was the first time a non-Riordan author would be collaborating on the series (disregarding the ghostwriters completely). One of the big criticisms in the breaking down of issues in Rick's writing was his lack of ever seeking a sensitivity reader, and fans claiming that a sensitivity reader could solve a lot of the problems. This was basically Rick's "look! I totally listened!!!!" (though it did little to actually improve things, based on the book) and in TSATS as well Piper gets a large cameo at the end where the text very directly addresses a lot of points made in criticism of Rick's writing of her.
We also then of course got the CoTG trilogy later, explicitly stated to be for advertising purposes for the show.
So basically, short version: Rick came under scrutiny for a lot of offensive writing within the span of two months, made some bad blog posts doubling down about it, left social media. TOA ends. Rick says he wasn't going to continue the series/write what would become TSATS. Community celebrates the end of of the franchise but also continues to discuss Rick's poor writing and the blog posts at length. Rick suddenly announces TSATS and Mark Oshiro's involvement. Everybody gets distracted from being mad. Show announcement stuff also happens and the discussions peter out.
#pjo#riordanverse#fandom history#rick riordan#rr crit#ask#boywithskull#anonymous#long post //#fun times fun times#im always amused by the bit where i come in. like oh yeah i played a major part in the middle of all of this#i didnt mean to but i was the beginning of the end#maybe thats why this book is my personal hell. its in direct retribution#its really weird though because Rick did not usually reply to people on twitter but he responded to my open letter WITHIN HALF AN HOUR#within half an hour of me posting it he replied and then rapid-fire replied to like two or three other random tweet questions#at which point he confirmed he wrote Reyna with her being alloromantic ace-coded in mind (''but you dont have to agree'')#(i should note also - rick's reply plus the ensuing tweets HEAVILY implies he did NOT actually read my open letter. lmao.)#dipped off twitter for a couple of weeks. came back to post his blog posts responding to criticism about Piper and Sam#and then left social media completely. people kept talking. oh look new book pspspsp. look show pspspsp.#but so. yknow. i did that. it was ME!!!!!! and i will never let him forget. i know what he did.#i will never let him live down shitty PR move to try and sweep those bad blog posts under the rug
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Here is a shrimpy rambling about the Butler sprites for the April Fool's event 🦐
GAWD DAMN THEY BROUGHT OUT THE ENTIRE BAKERY WITH THOSE SPRITES
On a more serious(?) note, the sprites remind me of the Summer Raphael card. They're not L grade levels of rendering but they don't match the S grade card art style either. Naturally, I would assume they are S+ cards.
They will probably be acquired the same way as Summer Rara too: by purchasing a ticket with the code at the pop up venue. While I do get the marketing strat of lowkey forcing people to actually go to the venue to not only buy the code but also the physical merch, I hope PB wouldn't make much of a fuss about people reselling codes to people who really want the cards but aren't able to go to the pop up event.
So about the sprites! I don't think they are AI. That's just my opinion. Seeing the full body ones and looking through all of it from top to bottom (as respectfully as I could lol) they just suffer a bit of wonky-ness that all WHB sprites suffer. I don't wanna fault the artists since they've probably done the best they could. They gave us really good cakes after all. It could be from management's side of things or whoever is in charge of the art department.
Remember: the artists can give it their all but at the end of the day, management has the final say in things. Which sucks ass but that's the reality of things.
Besides, I think PB is smart enough to realise that using AI for their sprites would be like taking a shotgun to their own foot and ruin whatever's left of the players' goodwill. I hope.
MY BEEF!
The sprites are good but not perfect. There are glaring issues that we've seen and pointed out. Most of these are just stuff I personally have beef with.
1. Beel's skin tone.
Good god they massacred him. That is not Beel. Who the fuck is that man. I'm so happy the fandom agrees they fumbled this so bad. Putting up my edit beside it to preserve my sanity /hj

2. The poses and the proportions.
They're a hit or miss. Satan and Beel have the best poses imo. Mammon's is a bit fruity. Levi's and Belphie's is fine enough. Asmo's being a tease with the little butt grab. But Lucifer? Bro is your back alright???
And the butts...yeah idk how Beel's got the biggest and roundest. Oddly enough I think Belphie's got the most proportionate butt.
3. The difference in the rendering of their faces
Lookie at this:
Look how the rendering becomes more and more....simplified? as we go through the Kings in order of release. The main 4 is fine. Beel and Satan arguably have the better rendering with the lighting in their faces and hair. (i fucking hate using the unedited Beel sprite cuz of the skintone but im trying to make a point here)
Lucifer's is so-so but then we get to Belphie and Asmo....they got done dirty 💀 it's like the artist ran out of steam or smth.
I feel disappointed but not surprised kinda.
5. Asmo's hair
Just like Beel's skin tone, WHERE TF DID IT GO???? WDYM WE GET A LIMP ASS PONYTAIL FOR HIM???
Man where did all that hair go 💀 also did they make him paler??? like,,,how is that even possible
What in "Hell" is Bad's main selling point are the characters we simp and thirst over. PB should give great care when it comes to their art for them. I'm fine with average quality for the art but what I'm looking for is consistency. And for them to forget such a crucial feature like skintone, it really tilts me so bad. I can excuse the hair. You can argue that it's a different hairstyle but skintone??? I'm sure as fuck the artists have and can use a crap ton of references when they draw the character. So why the fuck did Beel's sprite turn out like that.
And then there's the inconsistency with the rendering. Idk what's going on during the art process but srsly....the difference is off putting, to me at least. Belphie's and Asmo's ass and clothes are more rendered than their faces.
At this point it's more of a Quality Assurance thing. Can PB get someone to review the art before it gets released or smth 💀 gotta make sure it's all yk, fucking consistent to all the art released so far
If you've made it this far, thank you for taking your time to listen/read to this shrimp's rambling about the demon porn game🙏
#what in hell is bad#prettybusy what in “hell” is bad?#whb#what in “hell” is bad?#🦐:ramblings#whb butler event#i am yapping and complaining because i want PB to be better#criticism is inevitable#how PB takes it will show us what they atcually stand for#i just hope they wont use ai#that's like shooting their own foot
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Me, going to Critical role tag to see Predathos arts and theories (and also parallelisms to the Collector):
Also me, finding only hatred and people complaining:
#predathos#like... can we chill a little?#i guess it's me but some comments sound pretty nasty#also they are playing a game and the fact that they are not heroes it's the entire plot of bell's hells#literally none of them wanted to be there#they were forced to and had to choose#and they didn't want to because there's no right choice this time#it's much more complex#it's not like Vecna#where there was only one possible good outcome#here there's none#every possibility is going to be bad for someone#and that's what makes it interesting in my opinion#they are acting as humans and humans hate taking decisions like this#and act recklessly and stupid#but try their best because that's the only think they can do#like if you don't like it#it's fine#however it doesn't mean they are bad at their game#they are acting in a stupid way because they are not heroes#and they are not powerful as VM or M9#my point is just stop being mean#it's not like you cannot dislike it just stop saying that your point is the only valid#because bell's hells journey is just as interesting as the others but it's different#like i would never expect them to act just as the other teams they are different people and if you don't like it okay#but they are not badly 'written' characters#critical role#critical role spoilers#cr 3x118#critical role 3x118
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It's so funny to me that they're trying to make Gamigin look all "are you lost, babygirl"
I'm sorry, no matter what the story says, Gamigin will always be my little autistic little guy. He's in his 20s, he can cook and he's the best doctor in Hell, but he still is my little booger. I love Gamigin too much to see him in a sexual scenario that isn't just "wawee, this make my senses tingle"
He (and Morax if I'm being perfectly honest) should just stick with being fucking weird
#whb#what in hell is bad#whb gamigin#whb morax#by all means this isn't a criticism#i love my little critters#gamigin is why I like this game#him and rhe paradise lost gang
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Jayce was handled so horrifically I can't get over it.
He breaks his promise to Viktor and uses the Hexcore to revive him. He makes more Hextech weapons, he doesn't apologize, Viktor leaves.
He goes to the dead future and goes insane in a hole, not knowing what caused the apocalypse, but assumes it has to do with the Hexgate anomaly and blames himself, reliving his mistakes over and over. For months. He is obviously agonizing about not knowing where exactly he went wrong, and that desire to know is his entire drive to climb with a busted leg out of there.
He had been carrying around his heavy, useless Hextech hammer, then he dismantles it and leaves it behind. Symbolism, etc.
AND THEN
He makes it to the top of the hexgate and learns that the mistake he made that ruined the world was using the Hexcore to revive Viktor. It wasn't his own decisions with Hextech that destroyed the world, it was VIKTOR'S.
Him breaking his promise to Viktor, to not let him die, causes the apocalypse. I'd bet he never once thought about Viktor ending the world the entire time he was in that hole.
He also learns that Viktor is the one who saved him as a kid for the sole reason that he is the only person ever who can SAVE the world. From Viktor.
Suddenly, everything he believed was flipped upside down and then exploded into little bits.
So how does Jayce react to learning all of this?
Dunno. We skip past ALL OF THAT. His first words apparently are "Send me back," and then he goes on a single-minded quest to murder Viktor.
Does he still blame himself? Does he blame Viktor? Does he believe himself to be a world-saving Messiah now? Who fucking knows.
Maybe he does blame Viktor, since he never once even bothers to APOLOGIZE to him before or after blasting a hole in his chest.
He then goes about making more Hextech weapons and repurposing existing Hextech into giant cannons. So we can have a cool final fight and Vi can get her gauntlets back.
Sooo... Hextech weapons are fine again, gotcha. I guess we don't need to see him come to the realization that he has to weaponize Hextech AGAIN after seemingly leaving it behind in that hole because it's the third. fucking. time. he's been through that same beat.
(Oh wait no actually Hextech is bad we gotta kill ourselves)
And he believed or pretended to believe Viktor was already dead... "My partner died in this room" after Viktor from the future was very much alive and HAD JUST confessed his undying, reality bending love for him?? Kay.
What on earth did future Viktor talk to him about that made Jayce do anything he did? Because what we got was nowhere near enough to justify any of it.
Anyway, it was such a great plot twist to reveal mage Viktor at the very end, so we didn't get a chance to understand a single fucking thing Jayce did for most of his screentime :)))
Like... Even if you don't like the direction they took the other main characters, at least they got to BE characters with some agency and an internal world... not whatever they did to this poor, poor man.
#arcane critical#jayce talis#viktor arcane#arcane season 2#mine#like i dunno how people could logically follow any of this#i have to assume they just havent taken the time to think about it yet?#just so so bad#he didnt get to be a character at all he just got to move the plot what the hell
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i've seen a fair bit of... pessimism about dorym lately, esp with the ep107, for example wondering if dorian's opposing views on the gods making orym fall out of love, and i have to say. i very highly doubt it, ur fr talking about the man who has held on to will for so long, holding onto will's family and affectionately calling this *his* family too because that didn't stop when will died. i dont think falling out of love is an option or even a thought to orym.
that said, we know that orym has contingencies for if anyone in bells hells crosses the line into being a version of themselves they would despise, for anyone who jeopardizes their mission. his mission. i think, for the first time since knowing dorian, orym finally has a contingency for him. the longer dorian is back, the more orym sees how scarred he is by what's happened (understandable so) and knows that dorian is with bells hells all the way. but if he isn't...
#lynx speaks#critical role spoilers#cr spoilers#dorym#dorian x orym#i'll be so fr i hardly interact with the cr fandom at large bc soooooo many people are deeply pessimistic#i want to have fun!!!!! i AM having fun#and then i come here and see the most bad faith takes in all of the world ever and its disheartening!#where's ur fucken JOY where's ur fucken WHIMSY#bells hells is one of the wackiest groups with crazy dynamics between them all and its enjoyable!#ur Allowed to enjoy the things u watch i prommy#and to that point! people keep complaining that bells hells r indecisive and there r too many opposing views muddying things etc etc#1. ofc there r a lot of views. the real world is like that too. opposing views is one of the best story elements to enrich ur made up world#2. whenever there is a Big Decisive moment many instantly go 'noooooo not like that!!! that's not what *i*wanted' (ex: the shard.)#the cast receiving backlash from fans every time they r decisive and do something objectively fucken cool and interesting#means that any time they Think about doing a Big Thing... it gets a little harder bc what if the fans hate it. again. should i even do this#separating fandom from cast is a bit more difficult for this form of media and the inherent close proximity or creators to audience#so. just. maybe some of us could chill and cool off just a little. and maybe examine why This Thing is so terrible to u. and remember.#it may be terrible to *u* but thats where it stops. the specific bad feelings u have r not always indicative of media being Bad.#sometimes it's just not ur cup of tea and i PROMMY that its okay if its not
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Sorry guys I gotta speak my truth on this one
I'm not kidding when I say that I think that blaming shit media literacy from fans on shipping/shippers avoids the actual root of the problem to throw people you can easily throw under the bus (simply because it's not unpopular to consider people who post about ships or ship characters in media as having lesser or derivative tastes by default)
And here's why.
I think when you blame people who are "shippers" or "consume media through shipping lenses", the true root of it all is a mindset problem.
In actually, putting on shipping lenses can be helpful when trying to analyze a piece of media. When analyzing media you're supposed to approach it through a number of mindsets and put on different lenses (both to deepen your personal understanding of the media, and to pick it apart and see what you can find there (whether intentional or not on the author's part)), and different ships can be some of those lenses
When it comes to ships between main characters (for those who are genuinely willing to see what the narrative is showing with their relationship and what it's doing), there are times when analyzing it from a shipping lens may be helpful. As someone from KH fandom, I have seen people come to deeper understandings and pick canon apart in the process of analyzing a relationship that is genuinely integral to the story (platonic or not). I've also seen people get into rarepairs of characters who barely interact or who just suffer little screen time, and I've seen them come to better understandings of those side characters and how they potentially fit into the world of the media simply because people are now focusing on these characters and how they fit into the narrative.
Frankly, I resent the idea that the only way to truly objectively analyze a piece of media is by turning off the part of your brain that gets excited over relationships and individual characters. Don't get me wrong, that is a way to approach a piece of media and a valid one at that, but the truth is that we cannot be free of bias.
For instance, I was watching House MD with my parents circa last year. At some point I started heavily tuning into what was going on with House and Wilson's relationship. My parents, on the other hand, were largely watching casually. They're not thinking of character relationships or getting heavily invested in most characters, they're watching because they like watching. One of them in particular did try to analyze things that were happening in the show as they happened. However, when it came to the scene late in the series where House threw out Dominika's letter approving her American citizenship, my parents could understand that he was doing that because he didn't want her to leave, but not much beyond that. I ended up explaining to them that House's fake marriage for Dominika was an explicit parallel to when Wilson was living with House in the early seasons. Both situations started with House being none too happy about it but ultimately letting them stay, spending a considerable amount of effort getting them to leave/getting this situation to be finally over so he didn't have to deal with it anymore, and then by the time a piece of news comes through that would mean the person in question actually leaves, House hides this news as long as he can. Because he doesn't actually want them to leave and has grown attached. And by doing this he became a self fulfilling prophecy. By reacting to the truth of Wilson and Dominika leaving him the way he does, he seals his fate and they ultimately leave anyways. Maybe I ship Hilson, but becoming open to how their relationship was handled allowed me to transition to doing character studies and recognizing patterns/parallels that I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't particularly care about the characters or their relationship.
Likewise, I've seen mutuals complain about how people who don't like or don't care about certain characters often overlook these characters (what they're actually like and their place in the narrative), while the mutuals in question (by default) are able to come to deeper understanding of what the writers/story is trying to do because they care about this funky guy
You can't eradicate bias when you're engaging in media analysis, but you can consciously put on a range of lenses and observe the media through different povs with the goal of understanding the media better or bolstering your reading of it. And those lenses/povs can include focusing on specific relationships or the perpective of certain characters
And this is why I say it's actually a mindset problem. Shippers and people who have this one blorbo they like a lot aren't inherently terrible "fandom brained individuals" who are the root of media analysis problems. The problem only arises when people's readings/analysis of a piece of media are inherently restrictive/narrow and self centered. Your problem is with people who view a piece of media through a ship they like but don't keep an open mind about it, and whose "media analysis"/views on canon cannot be split from fanon and their comfortability levels. These are the people whose "media analysis" starts and ends with justifying their fanon as canon, whose views on media revolve around sorting characters and relationships into categories they personally enjoy rather than trying to understand what's going on.
Here's another example.
Here we have a fictional ship we'll call uhhhh...Blanebin. this fictional ship I made up on the spot for characters that don't exist named Blane and Corbin
Person A is super into Blanebin. They're part of the main cast of characters and canonically childhood best friends, so person A (as much as they enjoy fanart and fic) is also enjoying analyzing how narratively important to each other they are. Recently, Corbin started dating another character in canon, but Person A is enjoying watching how Blane is reacting to this. "Is this potentially a tell that Blane is jealous or is having complicated feelings about this? What if he was, how would that contextualize his behavior this season? Here's what I think based on how Blane dealt with explicit jealousy last season in a different situation". It's not impossible that person A is still missing further understanding due to their obsession with Blanebin, but at the end of the day this obsession has allowed them to start picking through the characters both in and outside this relationship. It has allowed them to see potential subtext and theorize on what might happen next with these characters' relationship. Not to mention that with addition of Corbin dating someone else, instead of trying to erase this fact or state that Corbin canonically isn't into that person, Person A is trying to factor in how Corbin's current dating life affects his relationship with Blane (irregardless on personal views on the nature of Corbin's relationship with the person he's dating).
Person B is also super into Blanebin. They really enjoy fanart and fic of the characters, love obsessing over their moments together, and just feel like there's really something between the characters. To person B, every moment between them is just further proof that the writers are ship teasing them. But Corbin getting together with someone else this season? Oh that pissed person B off. They cannot believe that even though Corbin and Blane are CLEARLY gay for each other the writers had Corbin get with someone else this season. Perhaps, they think, it was even a decision specifically made to spite fans. How evil of the writers to tease a perfectly good ship and then have them not get together first? They must have been just doing those teases to get views from Blanebin shippers those scoundrels. To Person B, since Corbin started dating someone when he obviously has some chemistry with Blane (even though the series is far from over) means that Blanebin can never get together now and Corbin x person he's dating is ruining Blanebin by existing. In fact, they think, this is terrible writing for Corbin to be dating someone else because they don't like that relationship and don't see the point. Obviously if the writers were good then Corbin would have started dating Blane instead because this was supposed to be the Blanebin show.
Person C despises Blanebin. Don't get them wrong, they've always enjoyed the character's childhood friendship, but they actually have always thought Blane would have been better off with Victoria. They have a lot of moments too! But they're tired of seeing people ship Blanebin. Corbin just got together with someone else, so obviously that's not gonna work out. Plus Corbin and Blane totally has always given person C bro vibes. In fact, person C thinks, sure Corbin and Blane have a close friendship, but people shouldn't be shipping them. Person C likes Blanetoria and Blanetoria can't be canon if Corbin is in the way of it. So Person C likes to read Blanebin as siblings anyways. Sure they're canonically friends, but obviously their friendship turned into brotherhood. This means that nothing can be in the way of Blanetoria and Corbin can keep dating the person he's already canonically dating. Actually, now Blanebin just straight up makes Person C uncomfortable. Don't the pesky shippers understand that Blanebin are sibling coded because they're childhood best friends and that they're important to each other because they're brothers? It's obvious to anyone with eyes.
Sure, ships are involved here, but is the root of this problem shipping? Character A isn't as knowledgeable of other characters in the plot due to this lens they're using, but at the end of the day they're dedicated to analysis. Their love of the characters is pushing them beyond what they like or dislike to try to understand what might be happening through their lens. Not perfect, but they are slowly broadening their horizons. But Person B and C's problems here are their restrictiveness. What is or should be canon to them is tantamount to what they personally like or find comfortable. Is person C actually analyzing the this fake show when they decide to "read" Blanebin as basically canonically siblings (and this all of their moments are totally a bro thing) just because they don't like Blanebin and the idea of them getting together over Blanetoria makes them uncomfortable? Is person B actually analyzing this fake show when their "analysis" of Blanebin goes only as far as asserting it's being ship teased and deciding anything short of canonizing Blanebin is a targeted attack or "bad writing" because it's not what they wanted personally to happen?
This is what I'm talking about. This is the mindset. Shipping isn't the problem. The problem is when people marry fanon and canon to the point where they have a vested interest in superimposing their fanon over canon as "a reading" and trying to make "collective decisions" on what is canon (or what canon is trying to say) based on what does or doesn't make them uncomfortable. The problem is people being restrictive and centering their own likes and dislikes in the conversation, so they can only interact with canon "analysis" wise by deciding what is canon or should be canon "as obviously agreed on by everyone". You can't simply claim you like media analysis. To be able to analyze media and bolster your views on any given canon, you must be open to looking at it through multiple povs, to studying characters without trying to pretend things you don't like don't exist or do like do exist. There is a balance that must be kept between trying to keep objectivity and putting on specific focus/bias based upon the lenses you're putting on. You have to be willing to try to figure out what a media is doing or saying, not saying you're trying to figure out what it's saying while in actuality trying to define the narrative around what people believe it's saying in ways that suit you.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
#fandom wank#on the flip side it really just doesn't all happen with shipping#doesn't this go the same way when someone hates a character so they brand them with terrible terms and act like they're terrible without#actually taking a second to analyze them simply because they dislike that character?#Hell I've seen people get really invested in platonic relationships on the fanon side‚ start labeling them as siblings because the idea of#people shipping them makes them uncomfortable‚ and then when new canon doesn't fulfill their hopes they still act like those characters#being siblings to each other is canon because it makes them uncomfortable if that's not true#I've seen people watch a trailer for a piece of media before it comes out‚ build up an entire story in their head based on that trailer#that they've designated as their perfect idea of how to handle concepts presented in the trailer‚ and then when canon doesn't end up going#that way they decide that it's bad writing simply on the grounds that this wasn't the story they wanted. so they unironically act like#writers can only be good writers if the writers play into their specific wants as the audience or things they as an audience member thinks#would be great#genuinely even if people turn off the ship side of their brain or the side that gets obsessed with characters they can still be one of those#people who acts like they love media analysis but ultimately are shit at it#I didn't put this in the body of the post cause it didn't really fit but I have to say this too#I think that 'There are multiple readings one can glean from a text and no reading is the 'true' one‚ and this is okay' and 'not every#reading is a valid one or a good one' are statements that can and should coexist#There is a difference between genuinely reading into a piece of media based on what is happening in it and purposely miscontruing and#twisting canon in a direction that contradicts text so you can then quell all criticism by saying that it's just 'a reading' and#'all readings are valid'#What I'm saying is that if you see a blue car‚ the way you get 'valid readings is people who are determining what shade of blue it is or#what it being a blue car means or the author's intent making the car blue or even speculation as to why it's blue and not potentially other#color. A case of an 'invalid reading' in this case is if someone pointed at the blue car‚ said it's canonically red and the author obviously#intended it to be red and it's canonically red‚ and then when people point out that the car is very much not canonically red (that you#can see it is a very clear shade of blue) this person doubled down and started saying that the 'haters' are being rude by implying that#their personal reading of the text is invalid (in other words 'no you can't get mad at me for saying the blue car is red because it's my#reading of the text and all readings are valid no matter what!')#anyways sorry for going off there#it just pisses me off when people repeat the argument that people who like certain things as fans are inherently unable to perform good#media analysis and are the root of fandom media illiteracy.
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The writers or whoever is answering questions about The Good Timeline in Arcane should've really kept their mouth shut because they just keep giving more ways for this universe to make no sense
#the fuck do you mean Silco went to Pilltover to get his eye treated#what do you mean Pilltover just decided to stop oppression because some random 15yr old died#im gonna rewrite this whole universe with my bare hands and still have ep 6 exist with little to no changes just watch me#it's so easy to have a 'nothing bad happens everything is ok' au#where the hell did they go wrong#arcane#arcane s2#this is mostly about silco ok#arcane critical#in a way#arcane s2 spoilers
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They should've asked the Arch Heart about Molaesmyr.
#just TALKING to predathos wiped out molaesmyr and corrupted the savalirwood for centuries#even if a vessel can control it what would letting it out of containment do?#the arch heart's plan is bad and they should feel bad#critical role spoilers#cr spoilers#cr3#cr3e107#c3e107#bell's hells#the arch heart#molaesmyr#critical role
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in light of recent events
#vivs writing unironically reminds me of 'moralism'/centerism so bad.#the status quo must always be protected#for clarity--for peace of mind#classism must be upheld. what will make it better is interclass relationships! like the smoker n sunday friend. dont be alarmed by the power#imbalance and the shady optics. it's cute and sexy. everythibg must remain the same so we can have our cutes aesthetic power imbalance#romance#helluva boss will be exactly as it is now. stolas is in his palace. everything is right in hell.#disco elysium#i feel bad putting this in the tag lmao#hazbin hotel /hb is a half eaten chicken nugget and de is duck confit with concord grapes on the side#what i would give for stolas being portrayed like charlie boy..#hazbin critical#hazbin leaks#helluva critical#helluva boss critical
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we talk a lot about how before blaine, kurt had never met another gay teen (who was out, that is), and how isolated that made him feel. but what about how the only gay person that kurt knew in real life (as far as we know) was sandy ryerson, a self-proclaimed “predatory gay,” that we're introduced to for the first by seeing him touching a student inappropriately
thinking about how kurt's crush on finn is twisted into some form of harassment even though we only saw him... what? sign him a song? staring at him a bit? introduce their parents to each other, surely as some sort of evil stratagem to get closer to finn and seduce him??? how is that worse than, say, finn – in front of god and everyone –singing i want jessie's girl while circling rachel, or coming up with a scheme to make quinn feel pressured into kissing him?
well i don't think it's worse, but, according to burt, since kurt “wasn't afraid to show” his crush, it makes it more justifiable for finn to sling around slurs (for what will unfortunately not be the last time)
and then kurt's interest in sam and desire to sing a song with him is somehow distorted into him “not understanding that no means no,” even though sam said YES! he ACCEPTED! no means no but sam didn't say it!!!!! and then burt, the one person who's supposed to know kurt better than anyone, agrees with finn, that maybe kurt is being pushy and “taking advantage” of poor sam
“so a gay guy can't be friendly to a straight guy without being predatory?” yes, kurt was attracted to sam and wanted to spend some time with him. but he would never force himself on him in any way. that doesn't matter, though, because even the people who are supposed to be the closest to him, who are supposed to see him for who he is, still don't get him. kurt's treated as if he has some sort of disease or if he's a threat; he's treated as if he's sandy ryerson
similarly, when blaine reveals his crush on sam to tina he feels the need to say “i'm not some predatory gay, so nothing's gonna happen.” and this makes me wonder if blaine has also had previous experiences of crushing on straight boys in the past, and if he was also ostracized for it. even if he hasn't, he clearly knows how society perceives a gay guy crushing on a straight guy
i just hate to think of these two lonely boys being isolated and mistreated for feelings that they can't control, that they don't even plan to act on, and being treated like predators for it

#i'm bad at articulating my thoughts but like. you Get what i mean#hmm this is a bit burt+finn critical but i don't think it's enough for me to use anti tags 🤔#and by no means do i hate burt (my feelings regarding finn are more. Complicated) but just like everyone else he fucks up. and thats okay!!!#i just dislike that he never gets corrected on his assumption (finn does but sam doesn't sing with kurt so it's still a win for him)#i once saw someone (don't remember who SORRY) say that in a better version of the episode instead of the hummelberry duet#sam would be the one to ask kurt to sing with him. and that would have been soo good.#but we have to remember that early s2 is about making kurt as miserable as possible. so no duets with boys until 2x10!! merry christmas#okay i don't know what i'm even saying at this point#glee#kurt hummel#blaine anderson#klaine#meta#<- ehh what the hell Sure#bianca talks
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