#you don't exist in a vacuum

[louthestarspeaker]

There's like this one genre of post and video essay I keep seeing from people who say they aren't upset about the HTTYD casting for racist reasons, they're upset because they don't like the characters they love to change. They're attached to their appearance, and they'd be uncomfortable with any deviation.

I am going to give these people the benefit of the doubt and assume this is true. But, like, so? Why do you think your discomfort should be prioritized over representation?

You realize that's what you're saying right. They shouldn't have cast Astrid as a black girl to protect your comfort.

And you can say it's not about race and you'd be just as upset with any changes, but when you do that you're ignoring a larger context that I don't have the privilege to. This franchise (that I do love) has had a long acknowledged racism problem. People put the idea of a "faithful" adaptation on some kind of pedestal but HTTYD was not perfect, and I'm not interested in preserving that aspect of it.

And I can hear the original character defense coming from a mile and away and yes. Absolutely there should be original characters of color being written with intention from the very start. But if Dreamworks is going to thrust HTTYD right back into the center of the cultural zeitgeist again, then I am glad as hell they're doing it with POC included this time.

Do you know what it's like to be excluded so often you don't even think to look for yourself anymore? I grew up writing stories with only white protagonists because I, in the most literal sense possible, did not realize you could write stories a different way (and this wasn't a long time ago I'm young, you guys).

And the absolute joy that comes with seeing yourself represented in media you love? Do you know how much it changes you? I swear to God it alters your trajectory.

You don't get to put your comfort above others knowing they're accepted. Above little black girls all over the world watching this movie with a new kind of magic in their eyes because now black girls can ride dragons too.

It's not some great, egregious thing to you that Nico Parker is playing Astrid. It's not some mortal wound that you can never recover from. If you're so attached to one version of the character, then watch the version with her in it, it's not hard. The film isn't being force fed to you, if it makes you unhappy, act like a mature human being and don't interact with it.

But you don't get to exclude people of color again just because it makes you feel better that we're not there.

[hussyknee]

I'm really not a villain enjoyer. I love anti-heroes and anti-villains. But I can't see fictional evil separate from real evil. As in not that enjoying dark fiction means you condone it, but that all fiction holds up some kind of mirror to the world as it is. Killing innocent people doesn't make you an iconic lesbian girlboss it just makes you part of the mundane and stultifying black rot of the universe.

"But characters struggling with honour and goodness and the egoism of being good are so boring." Cool well some of us actually struggle with that stuff on the daily because being a good person is complicated and harder than being an edgelord.

Sure you can use fiction to explore the darkness of human nature and learn empathy, but the world doesn't actually suffer from a deficit of empathy for powerful and privileged people who do heinous stuff. You could literally kill a thousand babies in broad daylight and they'll find a way to blame your childhood trauma for it as long as you're white, cisgender, abled and attractive, and you'll be their poor little meow meow by the end of the week. Don't act like you're advocating for Quasimodo when you're just making Elon Musk hot, smart and gay.

[lovelessrage]

A lot of people are completely disinterested in creating a safe space for all aros and aces because that would require letting go of being allowed to publicly shame things like sex and romance. There is a stark difference between repulsion/aversion and negativity, and that line stands where you treat those things as disgusting or as a personal fault/flaw. While I'm romance repulsed, I'm never going to go on my blog and call romance disgusting or gross, because it isn't; it's a feeling, neutral in morality, and a way to live your life if you so choose.

I don't think a lot of people get this or what the difference is. Anybody can be negative and anyone can have harmful ideas, favourable or repulsed. It's about how you treat it, how you express about it, and if you seek to demonise or make those things out to be disgusting, perverse, or deviant.

Even small things or "jokes" add up over time; put yourself in the shoes of someone who has to see those "jokes" made about their lifestyle and what's important to them every day, or even every hour. Would you still feel like they're lighthearted after even one day of reading over and over again?

[Not to say anyone who's done this in the past is a horrible, terrible person. You can change and grow as you take in info; that's just the life experience. But, to grow, you need to actively want to, and that means addressing biases and asking yourself "should I say this? Could this affect my peers?"]

[dorianpavus]

people will be like thinking about shadowheart with a man makes me violently ill. i hate going into the astarion tag because there are people who don't seem gay enough for me in there romancing him and enjoying his character and i have to see their headcanons. the characters are all actually playersexual because they can always be romanced by the main character (conveniently making it impossible for me to have to regard any bisexual love interest as such), so it's okay to say they're whatever sexuality i want and it's actually fucked up of YOU to deny me this (so i will ignore blatant mechanical and narrative evidence of their bisexuality, while also demanding that you care about my desire for representation while i deny you yours).

and if you ever call them on it, they play the victim. whether the biphobia was obvious or subtle, they will always either pretend like they're being attacked, or play the "oh no the [insert insult here] people have found this" card, because... what. they think biphobia is just when people say "i hate bisexual people," and not the myriad ways in which people scorn, condemn, deny, and express their discomfort at bisexuality?

[uncanny-tranny]

Life got more interesting when I learned that everything is an argument, everything is political, and everything is deeper than it seems. Everything is the product of something, and it's up to us to figure out what that "something" is. We are interesting as fuck! We are deeper than you think!

It might seem really tedious, but recognizing this has made me so much less incurious. I now want to learn about us as people. Everything is deeper than it seems.

[apostate-in-an-alcove]

A white Christian trad wife demonizing the very movement that fought and won her the rights that she enjoys and takes for granted? Colour me surprised 🙄.

[primus-why]

I secretly hope B127 gets his throat ripped out in the movie cuz I just think making Bumblebee silent in such a brutal (but kinda sick/cool) way is just neat for his character... but alas they likely paid a lot for the VA to be there ahhshsjdjd

[that-foul-legacy-lover]

FL is basically like a ginger golden retriever, which means he. will. SHED.

His copper and lilac fuzz will get everywhere. In the corners. All in the carpet. Over ALL your clothes.

Give pets at your discretion. And have a lint roller on hand. AND be wary of wearing darker clothes during said moth cuddles.

hoho but you see, as someone who has a tabby cat AND wears dark clothing, i am used to having fur all over my clothes!!!!!

believe me when i say it gets worse in the winter and spring. winter because his fluff and hair become thicker due to the colder temperatures, and spring because he's shedding that warmer coat off! in the winter especially, he likes to curl up next to you and nestle his head into your lap, so your clothes are bound to be covered in fur by the end of it. but you don't mind, because getting to snuggle with Foul Legacy is completely worth getting some fluff on your clothes! you do have several lint rollers for when you leave the house, though- you like looking presentable!

Legacy, on the other hand, rather likes that his fur is everywhere. why? because it ensures that you smell like him, a scent too subtle for your human nose to pick up. he wants everyone to know that he's yours and you're his, since he fears that one day you'll realize that you deserve better than an Abyssal monster and leave him alone. he doesn't care that Zhongli often gives him amused glances or that monsters stray away from you- good! let them leave you to your peace! Legacy's there to protect you, but he'd prefer if neither of you had to fight. it can't always be avoided, of course, but for now he'll just cuddle closer to you, his claws laced delicately with your fingers as he lets out content purrs and trills at the feeling of you scritching behind his horns <3

[dogdenhoarde]

Sick to death of posts like "reminder that gaining new system members (specifically introjects) isn't a bad thing!!" - like. No shit. It's not about it being a bad thing, or shameful or embarassing or anything else. When we avoid interacting with media because we know we'll introject someone from it it's because it's fuckin' annoying to have a million fragments that take up all the brainspace associated with the media. It becomes about Them instead of just enjoying it on its own, stops being a fun fandom thing and turns into another exotrauma exploration. Do you have any idea how exhausting it is to have Every Interest of yours inevitably become someone else's identity that now you can't engage with without them breathing down your neck being awkward

[dennisboobs]

i think everyone on sunnytwt needs to be sat down so i can explain to them what basic human empathy is. and then maybe i put them in a blender until they agree to write meta about the characters instead of whether or not charlie day got facial reconstruction surgery.

[fromtheseventhhell]

The girlboss mockery (irl and in fiction) of the past few years, the rise of trad-caths/tiktok tradwives, the way it’s become supposedly progressive to make “white women” a bogeyman, along with the rise of ironic post-left misogyny have combined to create an environment where openly hating women is permissible, not to mention whacking the label “empowering” on any old random regressive decision and suddenly it’s somehow great for women. You can get away with the most vile and repugnant misogyny as long as you preface it with “girlboss”.

Genuinely we're living through one of the worst "feminist" waves in history. The most vile, violent misogynistic takes become acceptable as long as someone prefaces them with [insert faux-feminist take]. "Girlboss" is just one of the many, many covers people use to disguise their misogyny. We get viral misogynistic posts across all social media platforms daily. People have been able to build entire social platforms from their misogyny. It feels like these last few years have been a steep slide back into the 18th century with some of the takes I see from people. And what's even worse is that a lot of it is coming from other women! The whole trend of "tradwives" on TikTok, like you mentioned, makes me feel crazy whenever I see it. They genuinely want women to be "back in the kitchen" and fully dependent on men, as though that hasn't historically been a circumstance to further abuse women. The support for abusive men and the shaming of women also seems to be at an all-time high.

And it's not just talk; women's rights have been directly impacted by this entire shift in the perception and treatment of women. Sorry, but this kind of behavior is never inconsequential no matter how seemingly small, and being misogynistic for any reason is harmful. It's alarming how comfortable people have become with it.

[bootlegdvdmenu]

Btw if anyone's curious the last ask I got being super weird about me having OCD was just last week on my n.sfw blog wherein they more overtly tried to trigger me because I uh. *checks notes* said I didn't like inc*st.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Mordecai probably lives in an apartment or something, but my first thought when you brought up the Caves on that post was that he won’t tell us because he’s been living in the Caves the Whole Time. Even tho he’d hate the slime mold.

yeah a Whole Damn House would be a bit much, and probably not as useful for the nightly bootlegging related goings on: see, freckle needing to stand around waiting for a ride before he can go shoot people. whereas mordecai can show up to the maribel hotel on foot, or at least have started out somewhere he could get a cab or whatever....and this is probably the closest to any relevant Living Situation Glimpses

someplace with a bed, and one with an art deco headboard....a modern style, so it's neither Antique nor unfancy enough to have less identifiable stylings at all. like just by guessing surely he lives in some apartment that's unassuming enough to live unassumingly in, with whatever alias, so something large & fancy would be unhelpful....plus if he's gonna be fairly rigorous in his domestic upkeep, it wouldn't really help to have a huge place, even if for the same reasons it wouldn't be too small (or old or otherwise unpleasant; hard no to slime mold, slime, or mold....) and like re: the rotating aliases, maybe he moves places fairly regularly for good measure, been at this like, a decade....tl;dr probably has some apartment/s that's roomy but not huge, nice but not Fancy fancy, at the nexus of practicality, resources, and preferences

but it's important to think about "what if mordecai's been living in the caves the whole time" b/c that's funny lmao

[ant-diary]

I think I have maybe decided to tell someone I no longer want to be friends with them, but I'm wondering if I should give it a few more days before I commit to it

[ghost-roads]

i know it's going to anger a lot of people but i have to say it. separating the art from the artist, in the case of people like jk rowling, who are very much still kicking and actively hurting people, is quite simply impossible. investing your money and time in harry potter IS investing your money and time in jk rowling. as long as harry potter stays relevant she stays relevant, and can continue to influence politics. i know it's hard to give up something that for a lot of us was an integral part of our childhood and more (believe me, i was the biggest harry potter fan until not so long ago), but not giving it up is selfish. i'm sorry to say it but it's true. there are no neutral choices in politics--and this IS political. you either endorse her bullshit or you don't. you can't buy harry potter products and publicly engage with harry potter content and pretend like it doesn't have any repercussions. it does. it keeps her in power. and it sets a precedent, that we will let people say and do anything as long as they sell us shiny things to distract us.

i can't make any decisions for you, but i need you to be aware of what you're doing if you support jk rowling and anything she is associated with.

you are an active participant in a regime that seeks to eliminate trans people, and won't stop there, because the oppression of one marginalised group always leads to more. this is political. i won't allow you to cover your ears and pretend not to know it. you are making a political choice.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

That's so weird because my reaction to S4 finale is it was the moment that convinced me Buddie was going to be endgame. Now two seasons later and we could be heading back to that same ending for the season depending on the events of the finale leaves me doubting things ngl. The only things I'm clinging on to are the couch theory, Eddie saying that relationships with people you meet at a rescue never works, and the fact that we're being introduced to these women so late in the season. It just seems like the writers even know they're giving this the most superficial things so that they can fix what they did in early S7.

To put it bluntly it just sucks that you know if this was gonna be the final 2 episodes that instead of going towards a story they've been telling since S2 they decide to put Buck and Eddie with women we don't even know their last name or anything about them. But they got renewed and will be moving to ABC so they can do the story they wanted to tell and I imagine these women will be kicked to the curb early in S7.

Okay, I'm gonna be real honest with you. I've seen that you've sent asks to a few of my friends, all generally saying the same thing. So to see you send me this ask makes me feel like you don't really want to have a discussion and aren't looking for actual support or positivity, you just want to keep being upset and tell people until someone agrees with you and tells you that your opinion that the writers made a shitty choice etc is valid.

So, to repeat a few things my friends have said:

They have not been doing Buddie since season two. I don't know why people persist on claiming this. Buddie was never the original plan. They did not decide to have Eddie get with Buck in season two. In fact in season two they seemed kinda unsure what to do with Eddie since he wouldn't be with Maddie any longer, but they still wanted the character, and Ryan, on the show. For my money, they started exploring the possibility of Buddie and discussing it seriously in season three, and season four was when they locked that in.

Now, I don't know about you, since you're a stranger on the internet, but to me, as a writer, it is a much, much better choice for them to have taken the risk rather than cram Buddie together, for a few reasons.

One: They cannot walk it back once Buddie is together. You're telling me you wanted them to sacrifice their story's integrity to give us a rushed unsatisfying get-together? Get out of my house. Watching television is, inherently, a gamble because it means you might get your stories unfulfilled. If you can't take that risk, then leave the casino. I am willing to risk it because I want a truly satisfying get-together, not something that was rushed and therefore isn't worthy of the delicious slow burn they're building.

Two: How many times do I have to scream at everyone to consider the behind the scenes issues before people start actually listening to me? Oh, forever? Because everyone is operating in bad faith and nobody wants to actually listen? Good to know. This will be the last I say on the matter.

We do not know what behind the scenes was going on in addition to the cancellation. What if certain Fox executives weren't supportive of Buddie? You're telling me that the writers and cast and crew should have, right when they'll need new jobs, guaranteed that their last employers will talk shit about them for disobeying orders and putting two characters together that they were told not to put together?

This is purely conjecture on my part, but I have seen time after time in fandom certain cast members and certain crew members and certain writers want a ship to become canon, and others not, and I have seen the way that back and forth played out, and guess fucking what? NOBODY WANTS TO LOSE THEIR FUCKING JOB. NOBODY WANTS TO BE PREVENTED FROM HAVING ANOTHER JOB.

Now, again, that's pure conjecture, but Fox really hasn't treated OG well for a while in terms of renewal, marketing, etc. And I have never, EVER, seen a show snapped up by another network so quickly. It's always "we got cancelled!" and then a few days or weeks later it's "we were saved by another network!" ABC was ON it. This gives me hope for a lot of things, like perhaps a 22 episode season. But given Fox's lack of promotion and appreciation for OG, it wouldn't surprise me if the cast and crew wanted Buddie and some people in the network didn't, and that is why we've been delayed on Buddie going canon. And while YOU may cry viva la revolution, it's much easier to have your principles when you've got a belly full, and while it may suck creatively there is no reason to piss off your bosses right when you need them to write you a recommendation for a new job because your show got cancelled - and while I'm sure they were hopeful, given the cast's social media I do not think anyone knew until it was publicly announced that they had, indeed, been saved and gotten another season.

My point is, this is just one theory I'm pulling out of a hat like a rabbit. We do not know what other BTS stuff is going on that made them choose to delay Buddie until season seven.

Three: To go back to point one, I do not think you've seen the reactions when a ship goes canon poorly. I was there, Gandalf. I was there the day that Booth and Bones got together. I was in the trenches. It soured SO many people, including me, on the show. To quote MBMBAM: YOU DIDN'T STICK THE LANDING! YOU JUST FLIPPED IN THE AIR FOR TWENTY MINUTES!!!

Sticking the landing when getting a ship together is possibly the most important moment in the couple's story. You cannot fuck up that landing. The writers chose to take the chance on it never happening in order to stick the landing the way they wanted. If that pisses you off, FINE. But stop coming into our inboxes to say the same thing over and over again about it, because we do not agree and we are never going to agree. We are at an impasse.

Now, to move onto some other points, WHY IS EVERYONE CONVINCED THAT EDDIE WILL STILL BE WITH SOMEONE WHEN THE SEASON ENDS!? WHEN DID WE DECIDE THIS!? He could be! But holy shit he could just go on one date with her that fizzles out! We have no clue! If someone in this fandom can see into the future and knows for sure this is going to happen then give me the winning lotto numbers right this second!!! Give them to me!!!! I need to fund my world domination campaign!!!

And finally, I feel like you've answered your own concerns, here. Given that you have sent similar asks to my friends, I don't think you're actually interested in allaying those concerns, because you keep answering your own questions and repeating yourself ad naseum. I could be wrong. Again, I don't know you. But this sure seems to be the case given that you're saying to me similar stuff you've said to my friends in asks they've already answered.

But to look at your own ask, you just said why we shouldn't be worried. "It seems like the writers even know..." YES. YES, THEY DO KNOW. I would love to know who the hell decided that television shows are made by the Television Fairy who creeps into the studio at night and waves her magic wand to create all the good stuff we see on our screens while the writers sit around with their thumbs up their asses.

Let's imagine you are a showrunner and you are going into the second half of your season, and you learn that it is extremely likely this season is actually your last. You guys start negotiating quietly with other networks to move the show, while hoping against hope this is not, indeed, the end. But this means you now have, what, nine episodes? To put all your characters in a place that is, if not ideal, at least somewhat positive for your audience?

You can't start any too-major arcs. You can't end on too bad of an emotional cliffhanger. This means some things will wrap up faster. Other things will get pushed forward. And some things have to be delayed, because they might never happen, and you can't give people a third or a half of an arc. Which means that you're going to be throwing in some filler for those characters instead, and doing things differently than how you might have wanted.

I do not know how many times I have to explain this, but television is not fanfiction. When I sit down to write a fic, there's not a damn person in the world who can tell me what to do. I write the story that I want, and if someone doesn't like it, they can hit the bricks.

Television is not like that. Television is one of the biggest group projects there is. Picture the worst group project you had to do in school and then times it by ten. Welcome to the television and film industry. The fact that any film or show, even the truly awful ones, gets made is nothing short of a miracle given all the people involved and all the ways the ball can be dropped. As a show runner, you are answering to multiple executives, to the creators, to the executive producers, to your own writers' room, and to the fans. You are trying to balance what everyone tells you to do, what the fans want you to do, and what you and your (hopefully trusted) writing team want and plan to do. I could never be a show runner and while there are quite a few with whom I've got bones to pick, I cannot deny that they all do a job I would never, ever be capable of pulling off. I'd quit on day three.

So, yeah, they gave Buck a temporary girlfriend as filler, to kinda cap off his current arc if this was the end, or to provide more layers to his full arc if they got another season. If you don't like that, then that's okay. Nobody is telling you to like it. When you come into someone's inbox like this, the assumption is that you're looking to be reassured, and so that's why you're getting the responses that you are. The previous people who've answered you have been trying to reassure you and allay the concerns you seem to have.

But it seems to me like you want a more full conversation, and possibly, that you just want to rant and vent. That's fine, but find a friend for that. Join a discord server. Because when you send the same stuff over and over again to different people, all of whom give you basically the same reply, it just makes you look like a very obstinate stick in the mud who wants everyone else to join them in being upset, and people don't much like having the same conversation multiple times, or being pushed into being upset when they're not.

You might just have to agree to disagree, and move on. Find other ways to get this out of your system, because my inbox, and the inboxes of others, is not the place for your venting in circles.

Now, in spite of my firm tone, I hope you will believe me when I say that I hope you're taking care of yourself, and that you are staying safe in this scary world, and that you have a good rest of your day.