#first thinkpiece in a while lol

[yooniesim]

I'm sitting here thinking about a pretty age-old debate on simblr... the race of sims that have black hairstyles, particularly in cc preview pics.

I know it's been talked about repeatedly, but when it comes to cc previews for paid cc I think it's especially worth talking about. Some people say, well, the creator only uses a few different sim models each time, it's not like they're intending to be racist or something. It's just for convenience, because they're busy, they're hustling, they gotta pay their bills. They always use the same sim, so it's fine. But like... isn't that gross to y'all? Someone making money off of black hairstyles, but they can't even be assed to go in cas for 15 mins to make a black sim? Isn't that a prime example of appropriation of black culture for profit? Like the human aspect of us as a person is gone, it's just another part of us being advertised and sold. Black hair makes money, black hair cc is limited, it will sell and nothing else matters. It feels like black hairstyles are some kind of trend with them too, because none of these creators made them before it was possible to profit off of them... back then it was "too hard" just like now it's apparently "too hard" to make a different preview sim.

Also, it's not lost of me that when a creator does make a black sim for their previews, they're as light skinned and white looking as possible. Whether just by skintone, very eurocentric features (like they just gave a white sim slightly darker skin), vitiligo to make most of the skin light, or claiming the sim has albinism. And while some of this I'm sure is just finding that aesthetic more "pretty", I also think this has to do with potential sales. I'm going to be honest... besides engagement by black simblr itself, I've noticed a lot of posts I have get less engagement/reblogs if the sim in question has darker skin and darker hair. It's much more likely to pick up in the mainstream cc finds blogs/YouTube videos etc, if the content is for white sims or the sim has lighter skin and light hair. I don't care about engagement and simply make whatever sim I want to make, and since I do have that variety, it's how I noticed this strange trend. And with the volume of content paywall creators make, I think they noticed this too. Posts with lighter skinned sims get better engagement, and thus, make more money.

Have you ever noticed, even in paywalled cc packs, there will usually be a sort of token effect? One white sim, one ethnically ambiguous sim, one black sim. This is great if you're showing off something that will vary for different skintones- makeup and skin details, for example- but why is it always like this? And why is the variety usually only in previews for cc packs instead of solo items (like hairs)? It feels like it's all to sell better, to appeal to different demographics and say, hey, I didn't forget poc exist! Please pay for my content! It feels disgenuine, and since creators like this rarely engage with the community anymore besides paid content, it's hard to figure out whether they feel this way or not.

Personally, I don't care much what people do in their own games- I might look at them weird for a sec, but I move on, cos it's their issue not mine. But like many other aspects to this community, when it crosses over into paid content, it sparks my interest. It feels like everything, everything, is about maximizing profit now. And for the people that focus on that, that's their prerogative and all, I can't exactly stop them, but. It's just something I observed and wouldn't mind discussing with y'all.

(Note: I don't apply the "profiting off black culture" part to black creators, obviously. Also no hate to any creators that do this stuff. Be reasonable adults, please. I'm just discussing in a constructive criticism type of way.)

#ceci speaks #nonsims #text #the patreon issue #ceci speaks a lot more #negative #kinda? #just thinking #first thinkpiece in a while lol

[lsleofthelost]

desperately going to need you to elaborate on chad's dream being a racecar driver actually hdjkfdsfklsdfds

that’s actually from my mutual’s @thebluestbluewords tags!! also i think there was some tie in media where he said it?

but as someone who’s into formula 1 i will take this opportunity to talk about it.

it’s no secret that racing is a very expensive sport to get into. so like 99% of all the drivers come from wealthy backgrounds. and as fans, we all accept that as a reality of the sport. but like i said, what i’m picturing for Chad is something of a Lance Stroll situation.

if u don’t know who that is, Lance Stroll is a driver competing for Aston Martin at the moment. and well, he’s not a bad driver by any stretch of imagination (or he wouldn’t have made it all the way to formula 1), he even was the second youngest person to get a podium iirc. BUT he is the son of multi billionaire Lawrence Stroll who is a part owner of Aston Martin. so yeah i think his family would invest in a team to secure a spot for him lol

so like. there are a couple of ways we can go here.

one would be, if he is the oldest son, he probably wouldn’t be allowed to pursue something like f1, since it’s so time consuming. so, let’s say, he gets into karting, gets into an academy, and he could probably get to f3 or even f2 before getting pulled out for his duties. but he loves the sport, the feeling of adrenaline, the speed. he’d probably be able to go karting recreationally but it’s not the same. he probably goes to as many grand prix as he can, keeps in contact with the drivers from his grid, hangs out with them during the off season, and talks wistfully about it in his interviews. i think people make sad edits of him about it

the other way, if he’s not the heir apparent, he would move up to formula 1. i think he’d start with a middling team. as a rookie, his first race would be a bit of a disaster, maybe even dnf, which causes ALL the gossip sites to rag on him but eventually he does get himself together and even has a podium finish in that season. he spends a couple of seasons there while his parents prepare the team for him and goes there. first season there is a dip in his previous ratings as the team is still getting used to it all but after that i think he’d have a solid career and is generally well liked by the public because he proves himself as a driver. he’s also really funny.

ALSO important to me. i think he definitely has a bit of a one sided rivalry going on with another driver on the grid, dating back to their karting days.

also also. maybe down the line he even has a hamilton-rosberg-brocedes thing with a teammate (if u don’t know it don’t look it up the lore will consume u)

people definitely make thirst edits of him taking off the helmet/stretching in the suit/spraying celebratory champagne. there are constantly articles and thinkpieces on whether he deserves his place in the grid. there are videos on youtube titled “(actual prince) chad charming being dumb for 10 minutes” and “charming team radio but it gets more chaotic”

#EDIT: just rbd the tie in where he mentions his dream of being a race car driver #i COULD say logan sargeant but i like to think he’d genuinely be a good driver #sorry this is a bit chaotic lol i tried to keep it organised but idrk how much info a non fan has on formula1 lol #asks #chad charming #laila.txt

[morally-grey-girlbosses]

Homura Akemi Propaganda Post

she fucked with time itself and shot a weird little immortal evil aminal for her gf what else could you need

A thousand thinkpieces debating the morality of Homura already exist, you don’t have to look far to find them. She’s obsessive, she’s toxic, she’s brutal, she’s doomed to a downward spiral of tragedy. She’s literally the devil. She’s god’s specialist solider. She’s an optimist, holding onto hope with her teeth. She’s driven by love and grief. She’s radical change in the face of suffering. She perseveres in search of a better future even though it costs her everything. She’s a teenage girl. She’s an asian catholic lesbian. She’s got a gun.

Homura is a 14 year old girl stuck in a time loop of her own choosing in order to save her best friend from becoming a magical girl after having watched her succumb to becoming a witch over and over again. She uses time stopping and time traveling powers and also straight up weapons that she's stolen from shady organizations. In fandom she's usually headcanoned as being catholic due to her intense devotion to Madoka as well as having a lot of guilt and hatred towards herself. In the 3rd movie Rebellion she literally creates her own ideal world where madoka and their other magical girl friends are happy and alive but Homura still ends up spiralling after discovering that she was the one who made this too perfect world and she ends up succumbing to her own despair by becoming a witch. She's isolated herself from the other girls since she's the only one who knows the truth about the magical girl system and is committed to working by herself so she seems untrustworthy to some people but Madoka still chooses to see the good in her, so much so that she becomes basically god so that she can protect all magical girls. And then homura kinda becomes a demon in rebellion after madoka saves her from her witch form and she rewrites the whole world again. But yeah uh Homura ... she's got A Lot going on and is in desperate need of therapy but at least she has a gun and a goal.

Literally so in love with another girl that she unconsciously created a false reality where they were happy together, then discovered she was the one who created the false reality when the other girl broke her out of it. Proceeded to become the actual devil, kidnap the girl (who was also god), and make another false reality again. Queen of trying so hard and making everything worse

Efficient girlboss who cares so much. She restructed timelines and rewrote the universe(morally dubiously, not to spoil anyone) for her very best and only friend

In the movie Rebellion, Homura betrays and dethrones God, taking her place, claiming herself to be the Devil and bending reality to her will in order to create her ideal world, without Madoka’s consent on taking her godhood. Therefore trapping her and the quintet quartet into yet another false reality, something nobody but Homura wanted.

Both the narrative and Homura herself view this action as corrupt, and the narrative considers it wrong. However, it is not evil, because her intentions were to be able to save her best friend, Madoka, from the cruel fate she saw her in. Homura doesn’t base her actions in the greater good, only in what would give Madoka happiness, even if said choice would go against Madoka’s own wishes, (for example, in the series, there is a supposed murder attempt against Sayaka due to her choices “making Kaname suffer”) said mindset being created due to the mindfuck timeloop that Homura stuck herself in attempting to save her first friend.

And even if she doesn’t care as much about the other members of quintet (and basically tried to kill Sayaka lol) she still gives them a happy life in her creates reality. So while stripping Madoka of her godhood and, depending on how the world building develops, *possibly* dooming the world to continuing to have witches, it was done with good intentions and the fact that there are multiple debates on fandom about whether that was a good decision or not shows that this was something with complicated morals.

If I messed this up sorry, it’s been a while since I watched the movie, haha!

#propaganda #homura akemi

[taylortruther]

this is only partly related, but I actually think the thrown out speeches in the archer aren’t related to the thinkpieces at all. imo she was referring to arguments, perhaps irrational ones, that she wanted to say to joe to push him away or reveal his dark side. the first verse goes, ‘I’m ready for combat / they say I don’t want that / but what if I do? / cause cruelty wins in the movies / I’ve got a hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you.’ the way I see it, the first line has a double meaning (combat for her lover, but also combat with him - the first verse addresses the latter, but the song ends with a declaration of the former). she questions if she actually wants to fight, because she’s been taught that’s what she must do, and then she brings examples of the combat she has almost engaged in through the speeches she has thrown out.

sorry I don’t know why I started analyzing the archer in your inbox, but I haven’t looked at the lyrics in a while and found them interesting lol

i personally agree with you but i didn't want to discourage that anon and i understand why they thought it might have to do with the thinkpieces! so many of the joe love songs are wrapped up in her fear of being hurt by him but also the world and both things made her lash out (which she describes in different ways throughout her discography - labyrinth, the archer, daylight, renegade, etc all cover this in different ways.)

also never apologize for bringing lyric analysis into my inbox, i love it!

#the archer #edited for clarity

[fyeahnix]

okay I gotta talk about Cyberpunk 2077

I really really wanted to play this game on launch back in 2020 but it was just...not ready so I avoided it. I also know the game was criticized for some things and a bunch of people made thinkpieces about how you shouldn't play it and all that. and like...sure have your opinions about it, that's fine. I was disappointed at the launch, but content wise I wanted to play the game for myself. so I waited until it went on sale for 50% off this year and bought it on GOG (which, if you're interested, that sale happens at least like twice per month).

before I went on vacation to Europe at the end of June, I finally started it. and I was....kinda in shock????

(keep in mind this is pre-2.0 patch so some of this might be out of date when that comes out)

(major story spoilers below)

first off the character creation is......not amazing? like there's plenty of nice preset options but it's limiting. V's gender being tied to their voice is FUCKING AWFUL, and I do not agree with that direction in the slightest. tbh I think that might be the absolute worst part of the game, where it would have been much easier to just...give you an option for pronouns?? like why was that not the direction wtf. and also having your voice and body type be a prerequisite to romance options too?? I just....UGH there's work to be done here.

past that tho, I love how much personality V has and I love the acting. I went with female V with a Street Kid background. it was really nice seeing how she came back from Atlanta to start back up in Night City and how her relationship with Jackie quickly blossomed. and man these two together were so great. imagine getting close to killing someone and getting arrested and then being like "bruh that cop was a fucking asshole and I'm hungry, let's go get some food bruh" and then I saw The Montage.

man....man oh man that fucking Street Kid montage of V doing jobs with Jackie? with the music in the background? I ended up watching that like 2-3 times (because the game crashed) but i genuinely did like it a lot and it really set me up with for the overall vibe of Night City. I dunno maybe I'm easily entertained but it was...just so cool?? I think it really lends itself to the animation and acting in the game overall. while most basic NPCs are nothing special to talk about, the ones who are, who clearly have some mocap going on with their facial expressions, are a fucking treat to watch regarding body language and subtle facial changes.

I somehow avoided all spoilers of the game for nearly three years (also do not have experience in this IP) so I had no idea who Johnny Silverhand was and his significance to V. I wasn't a huge fan of him in the beginning but I quickly grew to like this asshole, especially as the game progresses and you learn more about him and his ideals and his very flawed perception of the world. I really really wanted there to be a solution where he and V live happily in the end, but ofc this genre does not allow happiness lol. It was very cool to hear his input during some jobs even if I thought they were ridiculous sometimes or he was jumping the gun a bit, and it was nice to get to know him better. I eventually came to see him as a bit of an older brother figure for my V. not perfect and offered "sage" advice when he felt warranted. obviously he has some self interest in keeping V alive because that means he stays alive, but it was very sweet to see him change over time to wanting to genuinely help V out.

by the end, I chose the route to storm Arasaka with Rogue because....why the fuck not, it's not my definitive playthrough. Aaaand I got The Sun ending. Rogue died. and I hated that. but more than that I wasn't happy with my V and her situation, but I'll get back to that in a bit. that brings me to the romance option.

again, I somehow avoided all spoilers for this game and while I vaguely remembered seeing Judy in one of the initial trailers from like...3+ years ago, I couldn't fully remember her role in the story or even what she looked like. all I can say is.....fucking love at first sight.

ok so like...I'm a bit of a simp for nerdy girls. and techy girls. and alt girls. and artsy girls. so to have her be nerdy and techy and alt and artsy and also have hobbies outside of that? man....the second I went to her apartment and learned more about her hobbies and interests, I was fucking smitten. it was super nice to be able to see regular people shit out of a romance option in a major game. and on top of that. her drive and interest in standing up to injustices is admirable. I love her, seriously. she's such a great character.

the romance. man.....I wish I had more words for it, but the way it progresses through the questline, the little hints you get about her own interest in you (Johnny mentioning the way she looks at you and you liking it), the way her texting towards you starts to change over time. I feel like it was paced extremely well within the confines of the game. and then....Pyramid Song happened.

at first, I approached this as any other romance in any other RPG. "oh yay, I can fuck the romance option yaaayyy" but nah. this quest fucking....ruined me in the best way possible. it was beautifully done. the acting, the emotional impact of the lake dive, V and Judy's minds melding into one, learning about Judy's past and hearing her memories... even writing this paragraph now I am near tears because that romance was so fucking well done. like yeah the eventual sex scene was great, but everything leading up to that was absolutely fantastic. to have seen this in a game, especially as a lesbian interacting with a character who ALSO is a lesbian, was just.....ugh it meant so much and I know there's no way a straight man wrote this lmfao.

I also love how after the relationship starts, Judy continuously texts you for A WHILE afterwards. She tells you random things, brings up her thoughts, and eventually tells you how much you mean to her. It is unbelievably cute and I couldn't stop smiling when I read every new text. I really hope they expand this in the update. And if not....well...I may consider doing this myself in a mod or something lmfao.

I also went through Panam's questline and tho it sucks that I couldn't romance her, I did develop a headcanon for V's interactions with her that I made a post about previously. like idk after seeing and meeting her in her quest, she was not at all who I thought she'd be. I was expecting some like....extremely femme prissy woman like...idk Loba from Apex Legends or something who couldn't break a nail or she'd fuss about it (remember I avoided all spoilers of this game lol). but NAH, def not her. she's more like "hey V, how many tons of dynamite do we need to wake up an entire Wraiths camp?" and you know what? I fucking love that shit.

which brings me back to the ending. I had a headcanon for my V that basically goes like this:

V is a Street Kid merc from Night City who comes back from Atlanta to restart her life. She meets Jackie and they quickly become best friends. All the shit about Arasaka happens and Jackie dies. V starts to have second questions about whether or not reaching the top of Night City and becoming the best merc is really what she wants. She's seen death plenty but Jackie's death has haunted her and now she herself dying. In the midst of doing jobs to survive and figuring out how to fix her situation with the Relic, she meets Panam and quickly becomes friends with her. She was a little interested at first but Panam was not. V respected that and did not persist, but they did become very close friends. V eventually meets Judy as well, and while they started off a little rocky, she ends up liking her and eventually they start a relationship. But having that conversation with Judy at the lake about Judy wanting to leave Night City really gets V thinking. But she carries on. Blah blah blah, story stuff, she becomes close to Johnny as well, but eventually I had it in my head that V really loves Judy as a partner and really loves Panam as her best friend so why not live out the rest of her life traveling with the Aldecaldos? She can leave her merc life in Night City and start fresh with her newfound family, best friend, and life partner.

And what do you fucking know, this is actually possible as an ending lmfao. I only just read the endings right after finishing my playthrough and this will be my ultimate goal the next time I play this V in my....prob 3 or 4 playthrough by then.

anyway, enough story. time for gameplay.

so I usually do stealth builds in these types of games. I chose to go with a stealthy throwing knife build (very fun!) after deciding pistols and bladed weapons that aren't knives weren't really for me this time around. I haven't played a ton of stealth-based games, but generally what I've noticed is that they tend to give you routes/pathways to follow if you pay enough attention. like NPCs will have predefined walking routes, the environment will have certain openings/paths available to navigate and either avoid or kill incapacitate these enemies quickly and quietly. I don't feel like I got that sense in this game here? I dunno if it was poor stealth design, but I do think it was this:

this game really REALLY wants you to utilize a cyberdeck, it feels like. interacting with the environment, whether it's creating distractions or blinding enemies or whatever, seems to be the goal with really working with stealth. I can't say that I hate it, esp since that's a part of the game world, but sometimes doing stealth feels more difficult than it should be because of this perceived expectation to...create your own routes and pathways so to speak. the last like...10-15 hours of my playthrough, I ditched the cyberdeck and went with a sandevistan but had invisibillity cloaking to make up for the lack of a deck. still fun but it did feel like I was using cloaking as a crutch to get out of LOS when spotted lol.

I have no opinions on guns and gunplay in this game as I haven't use them yet, but I'm sure I'll have thoughts for 2.0.

text messages were really cool lol. I know they are bascially just predefined messages but I still liked that and I loved how you can talk to characters on holo instead of visiting them in person. idk I'm a sucker for stuff like this.

the perk system is not great, I oftentimes felt confused on what perks to even get because a lot of them were underwhelming and felt more like Fallout 3's "numbers go up" options. the overhaul 2.0 patch will apparently give us more options to play with in terms of changing gameplay so I am hoping the changes will be reminiscent of going from Fallout 3 -> New Vegas in perk style.

Cyberware is great and this is where I feel the game really opens up in playstyle compared to the perks. I'm happy to see this is being extended and armor will be tied to cyberware instead of clothing in 2.0.

vehicles are cool. I like the variety in them but I feel like there could be more. additionally there's so many of them available for free that it almost makes no sense to buy them unless you're just doing completionist stuff. the handling is fucking awful and I hope that improves in the patch.

Night City is absolutely fucking gorgeous in a dirty and grungy kinda way. I've lived in a major city for most of my life and it def gave me that....really raw inner-city feel with people walking fucking everywhere, cars that nearly won't stop til they hit you, stores and shit everywhere, gang members hanging out on the corner or in front of stores, police stopping someone for questioning, etc. I just love it. a lot of it is window dressing. you can't go into like 99.99% of the stores and whatnot in the game. that might bother some folks, and that's understandable, but I'm completely fine that it's all for show. It helps the atmosphere.

I suppose I could talk about how well this game presents the genre as a whole but...I can't. I don't have the background history and knowledge of the IP itself or the genre to really talk about it in detail. If this game comes across as "baby's first cyberpunk experience" or doesn't go too hard in the punk direction then....fine, I guess? Whatever? I still enjoyed it lol. I would like to experience more cyberpunk as my experience so far has been limited to Shadowrun Returns and Dragonfall, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", and Blade Runner. But yeah I'm not an expert here so I mainly just wanted to talk about the gameplay and presentation.

anyway I think that's about all to talk about really. this was more just...stream of consciousness and rambling than anything lol. I had a really awesome time with the game and thought, despite the shitty launch and character creation thing about gender, that it's def worth checking out. can't wait for the DLC and 2.0 update because I will likely eventually talk about stuff that may or may not have changed. this is gonna be the game I focus on heavily for the next few months until I get sick of it. then I might start exploring with mods.

#Cyberpunk #Cyberpunk 2077 #Johnny Silverhand #V #Cyberpunk V #Panam Palmer #Judy Alvarez

[skaruresonic]

every once in a while my feed recommends thinkpieces on the Matrix films written by authors who miss the point of said films, so I guess it's time for yet another thrilling round of "watch the films"

Did. Did you see the part where Neo wakes up in his bed thinking the interrogation was just a dream. Because. Agents wiping people's memories is an established plot point.

Also, the Architect implies in Reloaded that most people plugged into the Matrix are aware deep down that they live in an artificial reality, but they agree to live in it at that near-subconscious level because they've been given the choice to accept or reject it. He says this was the most elegant solution the Oracle created to address the problem of people rejecting the dream world en masse. As long as people are made to believe they have a choice, even the illusion of choice will suffice. It paints a rather depressing portrait of humanity and its complacency, tbh.

---

No kidding.

The animated short detailing the history of the machines portrays scorching the sky as mankind's last-ditch effort to gain an advantage following a gruesome war. It wasn't something they approached lightly. Never mind the fact that mankind isn't exactly known for its long-term thinking and well-considered rationale in the face of terror (neither are the machines, for that matter; nuance whomst?). Morpheus furthermore claims that they don't know who struck first, machines or humans, but they do know humans "scorched the sky."

The original script specified the machines used human minds to boost the Matrix's processing power, but because that was a concept that would have flown over the audience's heads in the nineties, they changed it to "the machines harvest humans for energy."

---

To be fair, the sequels do take Morpheus somewhat to task for his dogma. His faith gets noticeably shaken by the events of Reloaded and Revolutions. Not everyone believes what he believes, but his beliefs do not require them to.

I won't argue that Morpheus is particularly righteous or even accurate most of the time, but I do think the notion that "anyone that hasn't been unplugged can turn into an Agent and kill you at any time" ought to be taken into account. Is it a little extreme that he calls every unplugged human "our enemy"? Yes. But… he kind of has good reason to, tbh. Agents can't exactly be reasoned with. The crew were fully prepared to pop a cap in Neo's ass "for [their] protection," as Trinity says, despite Morpheus' conviction that he was the man they were looking for.

---

Eh. Neo's muscle atrophy appears later, though I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for the sake of having a hard-hitting scene. Watch less CinemaSins, it's good for you. ironically enough, The Matrix is the narrator's favorite movie. lol and lmao

"Furthermore, there's an unresolved issue of why the spider-like machine simply doesn't kill him (and every other revived human) as they wake up."

Because you can't kill something you think is a corpse.

The maintenance machine removed Neo's cables because it registered him as dead… as a result of Neo taking the red pill. Morpheus says taking the red pill disrupts a person's input/output signals, meaning the connection between one's RSI and body has been severed, something that only happens if a podbound human dies. The signal disruption allows the rebels to pinpoint Neo's exact location in the real world.

While you could argue this technique potentially harbors its fair share of flaws - one can only assume human batteries die every so often, so how would they be able to pick Neo out from the unattended dead? - asking why the machine didn't kill him tells me you weren't exactly paying attention.

Things get a little more complicated in Reloaded when the Architect implies that the machines do willingly let a small portion of humans go as a sort of pressure valve to prevent the Matrix from collapsing under its own critical mass. Even then, the first film provides a coherent enough explanation that we don't need Reloaded's. You're assuming the machine believes Neo is alive when clearly it doesn't. It sees him struggle, yes, but because the red pill makes Neo emit the machine equivalent of an ant's death pheromones, the bot goes "welp, another one bit the dust" and proceeds to flush the "corpse" down the drain.

---

People always act like this is some fresh new take.

Well. That's kinda the whole point of his betrayal. To make you wonder what you would do in his situation. It's all well and good to speculate on what-ifs from the comfort of the fourth wall, but the film frames an otherwise abstract moral quandary in very clear terms. Is a life of hedonistic bliss better than one where you are painfully aware of the artifice of reality and constantly fighting for your life? It's not an accident---you're meant to ponder the question.

The Matrix franchise approaches the concept of freedom from a nihilistic lens. Nihilism often gets strawmanned in movies (Smith's own views function as a mouthpiece for such edgelord flanderizations) as a defeatist attitude of "Nothing matters, so why bother living?" Rather, a more accurate portrayal of nihilism contends that, because nothing has intrinsic meaning, you are free to create your own meaning. That it is dangerous to chase meaning as defined by premade structures like religion or philosophy, because these will dictate your thinking and keep you under another's control. In so doing, you surrender your freedom to truly discover for yourself what it is that makes life worth living to you. And indeed, Neo transcends Morpheus' and the Oracle's understandings of the Matrix and what it means to be The One in order to walk his own path.

The films ask you, "If freedom felt more like prison, would it still be worth striving for? What is the value of a freedom where you stand to lose more than you gain? Does freedom have inherent value, or is it hailed because of what it represents as yet another variable within these multi-tiered systems of control?"

Tbf, Cypher's resentment towards Morpheus was more understandable in earlier drafts of the script, where it's stated that Cypher was freed from an extremely young age and Morpheus had actually wound up killing five previous candidates he'd assumed to be The One. Some speculate that Cypher is jealous of Neo on the basis of having been a previous candidate, but I don't exactly think that's strictly necessary to understand his desire for a mindlessly hedonistic lifestyle.

---

Okay, I'll give you that one. Never really was sure how Cypher managed to catch the Agents' attention without getting shot on sight. Perhaps Smith recognized an offer he couldn't refuse, and, both characters being opportunists, he and Cypher leaped at the chance to strike a bargain.

It may also have something to do with Smith's ability to at least somewhat mimic human mannerisms on occasion. Agent Brown and Agent Jones are about as personable as cardboard, so it's my pet theory that Smith was designated to be the "human whisperer" of the trio. Hence why Cypher conducts his negotiations with Smith at a restaurant while the other two stand guard.

The scene where Neo sneaks up on Cypher implies Cypher had been doing some hacking in order to prepare for his meeting with Smith. He turns the screens off immediately afterwards.

Moreover, Enter the Matrix implies people are able to plug into simulations without help from others. I would assume Cypher used the same kind of equipment to plug himself into the Matrix.

During Morpheus' torture, the Agents manage to figure out that Cypher has been killed, thus implying that they were counting on disposing of him all along. Because Smith orders the others to continue as planned, it's kind of obvious they never really intended on giving Cypher what he wanted.

---

Petition to drop the phrase "hasn't aged well" from our collective lexicon. At best, it's a semantically null phrase. At worst, it's being deliberately obtuse towards media history as well as the creative process, a way for audiences to feel superior based on the fallacy of modernity. There have been tons of documentaries on the making of the first film, some of which are included as extras on the original DVD. I recommend you watch a few before you say stuff like this.

Admittedly, this one pisses me off a little because A.) yet again the "hasn't aged well" sentiment inevitably loops back around to overlooking the context and history in which the piece was made, and B.) fuck you, the crew worked incredibly hard on this shit.

"The most egregious offenders are scenes like the helicopter crash, where the building's windows warp unrealistically." - You can excuse people flying twenty feet through the air and dodging bullets, but draw the line at (flips through notes) glass exploding in a circle?

Imagine saying this about The Matrix of all films. The one movie that can handwave unrealistic elements through its premise alone. The film where the entire point is that unrealistic things are happening because you are not watching reality.

and then Neo was like "whoa.exe"

Secondly, the Wachowski sisters spent several months studying how glass explodes in order to achieve the ripple effect seen in the film. While CG was used to enhance the scene, the underlying framework rests on a foundation of practical effects. They made dummy rigs and ran through tons of tests to find the precise kind of glass that could accomplish what they envisioned.

The special effects director was pretty hard on himself during a watchthrough with Carrie-Anne Moss, actually. He thought some of the digital effects looked horrible, specifically Agent possessions, and said they could have done better. People saying stuff like this just makes me feel worse for him in retrospect.

Bullet-time looks unimpressive to you now because it's been parodied to death over the past twenty-five years. I fail to see how this is the film's fault.

Subjective perspective changes trying to pass themselves off as objective critique without taking any of a media's history or creative process into account are a part of the reason why I think "hasn't aged well" is a thought-terminating cliche and ultimately useless in discussions of this ilk. It doesn't effectively communicate anything of meaning. You might as well say "this film features moving pictures" or "this video game has controls" for all the information you're imparting.

---

I will concede that Resurrections was a glaringly obvious cash grab and a huge waste of potential. The first half of the film nearly rivals the the first act of M1 in terms of its psychological intrigue, building a slowburn of anticipation… Only to completely shit the bed, devolving into a cynical montage of fanservice and half-baked ideas that amount to nothing more than a shrug. I'm not a Neo/Trinity fan in the slightest, so the "hook" they hoped would reel me in didn't work on me.

However, I think there is more substance to Reloaded and Revolutions than people commonly give them credit for. Perhaps not as entertaining stories, but certainly there's a lot of cud to chew on in terms of the philosophical elements they offer. And this is coming from someone who thinks Reloaded is easily the most boring film of the quadrilogy narrative-wise. The sequels build coherently upon concepts established in the original, if you pay attention.

Reloaded's "We cannot see past the choices we don't understand" is a natural extension of the first film's mantra, "Know thyself." The inability or unwillingness to "know thyself" proves Smith's undoing in Revolutions, since during his "me, me, me" phase he does not do any of the self-actualization or self-reflection that Neo undertakes on his path to achieving peace.

Smith's fatal flaw is his self-myopia. He purports to know how the world works, but he remains blind to himself. And it is because he does not understand himself that he cannot understand others, and thus cannot see his own destruction beyond the brief moment of victory he glimpses with the Oracle's vision. Smith is painfully aware of every single thing except his own inner workings, and that creates in him a void that can never be sated. His myopia explains why he cannot conceive of why Neo fights out of choice. He cannot understand any choice because he does not understand the value of free will.

The inability to see how his character evolves throughout the "forgettable" sequels is what led to galaxy brains on Reddit concluding "Smith is actually The One huehuehuehue" based on the flimsiest of evidence (and a lot of pulling shit from the deepest sanctums of anus, since, let's be real, nobody in this Chili's particularly paid attention to what M1 had to say about him either) and it's like. bruh

#matrix #long post

[aghhtdraws]

ship name or not?

so I wanted to make a short post to get these thougs off my head but it'll get lost on my main so here it goes!

this doesn't really concern anyone who usually visits this blog for art, but it's more a thinkpiece related to the newer/younger tmnt Leo x Usagi ship (rottmnt x usagi chronicles respectively)

I’m seeing a lot of confusion (kinda) abt the tags to use and want to propose an alternative. How about “yuinardo” ? it sounds kind of funny (like the two characters), doesn’t sound like anything else (as far as my google search can reach), uses both their unique names and also capitalizes on how Rise!Leo is often called Nardo by his brothers as a nickname - among others, but that’s one of his most unique nicknames in the series and feels unique to Rise specifically. And Yui bc Yuichi - also just his name but a unique part of it.

I guess maybe the longer name could be something like "cityxfarm sword" bc those are the three consistent elements abt this younger ship. I know the latter is kind of uncreative but I can't think of anything better atm haha x'D

I was never around much for the 2003 leosagi ship bc- I was a baby on neopets and not online enough for that? 2003 tmnt was pretty new here and didn't air as often/quickly but also even in the later 00s, I did not really seek out fanfic relating to it bc - again, teen with not enough time lol, also social media and internet weren't really the thing they are now, so i wasn't really aware there could be fanfic of it. shipped and read other things. So maybe I don't know all my leosagi history. I kinda stayed away from the tmnt fandom in general bc it was mostly all angsty which I didn't really gel with anymore. alternatime ship names have always been a thing in all fandoms but I think right now we've been having the most versions of these two characters or this dynamic than ever before.

the 2018 Rise Leo x Usagi Chronicles has been getting more popular. ROTTMNT was a 2018 reiteration of the tmnt for animation that was really under-appreciated and has slowly become more appreciated as the fandom re-grew with the 2022 movie in august.

Usagi Chronicles is a spin-off/soft-reboot led by fans of Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai's original comic about Miyamoto Usagi, but this time he is a great ancestor of a new character, Yuichi Usagi! and this Usagi is a creation of Doug and Candie Langdale (exec producers) + Khang Le (who I think designed/developed Yuichi's look?). So basically this is like a canon-supported fan-AU with an original character cast thematically based on the og comic cast (Usagi and his friends match Miyamoto Usagi and *his* friends) + the "Senso" Usagi comic as a worldbuilding point.

His naming is a bit confusing bc in Japan, Yuichi is usually a first name, but here in the show it feels like it's treated like a surname. But apparently, there was an intentional marketing move to have this be the opposite? So his real surname is Usagi, while his given name is Yuichi? There was a whole post about it, but I can't remember where else I've heard it.

Anyway, this series is my fave right now and I think it's fun in both it's lightheartedness and it's more touching moments and I love all the character and family dynamics and themes that it has. I think it's fun that people ship him and Rise!Leo because they are actually really similar in some personality aspects. I saw this show, realized there was crossover potential with Rise and thought, "oh, it'll be fun to do actiony scenes and stories with this kind of friendship!" Anyway, I'll do a deep-dive on that later.

Everybody likes this young version of Leo and then I guess at some point before 2021, other fans started making ship art/fic with Usagi? Often their own versions of Miyamoto Usagi, fitted for the Rise TMNT world bc the two never managed to have a crossover with this iteration bc of Nickelodeon pausing the show abruptly in 2020. I wasn't very online in 2018 so idk when else the ship happened, maybe when the finale of the show aired and the "unpausing" was finalized and fans realized there wasn't going to be a crossover? but now with the movie, more ppl have discovered that there's also a cartoon series for Usagi! And more people are slowly understanding/remembering maybe that this Usagi character has had previous iterations, ppl make their own versions/AUs for fun based on the newer Usagi show, or they don't watch the Usagi show and just make their own modern/ROTTMNT versions of Miyamoto Usagi in general.

This ship is a bit unique bc they are stated to be exactly the same age and they have very similar vibes as characters (goofs on the team + faux confidence + showoffs). When I first found that other people shipped this too, I just called it "2020s Leosagi" bc again, just the main thing abt them is that they're younger characters for a younger audience in their respective shows. + it's funny that there's almost a Leosagi friendship for every decade. I've also heard the term "cringe naenae babies" from friends but i don't really know what this meme means lol xD

I don't have beef or anything with the Leoichi/Leochi tag+name but it's sorta confusing for me personally bc it sounds both too short vocally and also like Leo's alone or something (Leo+ichi) I'm not fluent in japanese so I might b wrong, but just a thought. Leochi sounds similarly short.

then there's also the Usagi's who are complete OCs (w new names) and where do you fit those ships? and idk, I guess I just wanted to think abt this YuiNardo ship name more in-depth, just to think abt it , a bit for fun, bc I really do think it's a fun name but also make a new umbrella term, so maybe people would find it easier to tag stuff! but I usually don't interact with other fans in larger fandoms and ship fandoms like this so idk, this could easily be more confusing x3

Anyway, I think as fandoms and shipping go, it would be more fun to have multiple tags for different experiences, +these are different ships/versions of the characters so it feels like it would make sense. Just my fandom experience from previous years + for organizing/better finding + I feel like shipping should be fun, cuz in the end, this is just based from the og TMNT and Usagi creators being friends and making smth fun with these characters!

TL;DR - YuiNardo sounds like a funny/fun leosagi ship name for this younger iteration of the Rise!Leo-Yuichi Usagi friendship/relationship, and I wanna use it as the ship name going forward bc ships should b about fun and creativity, right? anyway, u can also use it if u want to! no pressure, just sorta putting it out there. - Aghht out!

Addendum(1.03.23): apparently, the Katanashipping tag was specifically for the 2003 ship - as well as the og Leosagi tag, bc that Leo x Miyamoto Usagi started it all. That makes sense! Sorry that I mis-tagged it originally! I did not know until finding the tags on tumblr and going thru them to the start of the tag - bc I'd been keeping away from the tmnt fandom for a long time after the 12 show + never saw it during the 03 show's run bc I wasn't online as much + social media didn't exist in the way it does now. I think everyone used Leosagi for that bc it made sense. I'll keep the tags for this post specifically in the hopes that more ppl will find it then and it'll give food-for-thought about this. Katanashipping of course doesn't make as much sense for the newer ship bc the shows have not had crossovers + while both characters seem like they are a bit obsessed w swords in different teen boy ways (preferring swords bc they are big and flashy), they are not as centered about the swords or swordsmanship as much as the 03 characters.

I know it seemed more like Leosagi was a catchall for all the Leo x Usagi ships, but now it makes more sense that it's not bc it's made searching for content harder. I like the "younger version" but i like the og too bc that's what I shipped as a teen (when the 03 show characters all just looked like Really Old Teens to me). I suppose that's just how the internet's sorta become - there'd shorter memory abt stuff, but fandoms especially as folks move on from shows they like and some of the history of fandom becomes lost. I've been on social media for so long now, I totally forgot how specific ship names could get. I guess that's why I suggested YuiNardo for the "new" version - it sounds unique. If ppl already shipped Rise Leo with their own versions of a younger Miyamoto Usagi and original Usagis, the "youngest" ship with Yuichi x Rise Leo needed it's own tag and that became Leochi/Leoichi (and w the earlier Rise Leo x Usagi ships, everyone must have used the Leosagi tag then too? Further investigation must be made about this...) now this Yuichi Usagi x Rise Leo version seems unique bc Yuichi is basically a canon fancharacter in a sense, as a descendant he is like a homage. But I like the character and I see that a lot of ppl continue to make their own versions or borrow elements of the Y!Usagi from SRTUC... but this means that almost all versions of Usagi depicted by fans are ALL fanon versions... and that's fine, I like how creative fans can get! But also that means we almost never see thr "full" show version of Yuichi Usagi in fanart (altho fanfic is a different matter, if only slightly). But that makes me a bit sad bc I think this version deserves to exist in our fanon and headcanons too, y'know? I guess my flaw in all this is that I actually lile SRTUC and its own og depiction of Y!Usagi bc he is a fun character for me while not many other ppl seem to like him. Like with so many other rare shows I like where fanon is louder than canon 😂

So, yeah Yui x Nardo. cute ship. if only there was more of it ^^; But a lot of the fanworks are still really interesting in their own rights. I think I'll keep using Yuinardo for the show versions and then Leochi for any other fans' versions. That makes sense, right?

Anyway, non-serious discussion over! Just some silly fan-stuff to mull over during school breaks and other free time.

#yuinardo #sliderbunny #leoichi #leochi #leosagi #Leo x Yuichi #those are all the tags I remember #this is just an art blog and usually I post more art but tbh I just want to keep this post organized so I can actually find it. #aghhtpost #fanramble #only word i can use to describe this post #why do i write things at 4am /skullemoji #ppl mentioned this in my notes #fan stuff #edit: march15-removed some tags and moved more relevant ones to the top

[formulatrash]

hi! It’s totally fair if you don’t want to answer this question for whatever reason but, do you think there are any drivers in F1 that are part of the LGBTQ+ community? I don’t want to speculate on anyone’s sexuality, but it is a bit disheartening at times to see no representation whatsoever in the sport that I love so dearly... at the same time, it’s nobody’s duty to become a symbol for the community just because they’re a part of it, so I’d understand if they wanted to keep that low key, especially considering the amount of fans that would hate them for that only. It just makes me sad sometimes, not gonna lie.

I'm not gonna speculate publicly in any specific way, obviously. But statistically, it is impossible that there have never been LGBTQ+ F1 drivers - and actually there were two out ones, in Mike Beuttler (who sadly died of AIDS) and Lella Lombardi.

In other series, there are openly out drivers - in fact W Series seem to be basically incapable of stopping the drivers getting together, which is awesome and they should do it. And also kinda gives a lie to the idea rivals wouldn't.

There is a split between women's and men's sports in that basically sporting ladies seem to be like "wow, fit women time to openly drool over each other" and men being more pressured to keep it strictly no homo. It's nice that F1 drivers lately have been definitely more comfortable with being affectionate to each other and with deviating from very restrictive ideas of masculinity, although obviously that does not in any way imply their sexualities or gender status.

I think there are many reasons to be optimistic that an F1 driver could come out. Motorsport's landscape has changed - and the world, too - but of course, as you say, being the first is a sucky job and not, heh, one of the good kind.

Would they face some challenges? For sure. Some locations would be difficult - the UK, for instance, if a driver came out as trans. God, just imagining the thinkpieces from TERFs has made me nearly pass out.

I am sure there are LGBTQ+ people in the paddock beyond, whether that's in the media cohort (I mean, lmao, I am typing this why do I always exclude myself lol) or in the garages. And of course, the fans. As much as F1 talks about (even pre-pandemic) existing in its own bubble, of course it does not and while demographics are often skewed towards wealth and white western europeans, that doesn't affect the distribution of LGBTQ+ people.

Will it be godawful for the person who takes the first step? Yeah. You can't get away from the fact casual homophobia is pretty rife in F1, I'm regularly appalled by the sort of shitty jokes members of the media - who you'd think might be a bit less stuck in the jurassic period - will default to. Lots of people in F1 think they're a bit hardcore, that that's part of the image of the sport and it comes with both a strict conservatism and edgelord tendencies.

I think, with the right support, though, they'd be ok. Drivers generally have much better support systems now than ever before and god knows, it's cus they need 'em. From social media to the immediacy of reaction, everything from onboards to team radio to their Insta likes is under scrutiny and of course, that's gonna feel pretty oppressive in some ways.

(I know I hate it, as someone who gets a low-level version of it on Twitter)

But would their team or sponsors or the sport at large lose faith? No. And there would be, in the torrent of horrible stuff that's inevitable with any of these things, such support and inspiration.

It's a bit of a burden, being a figurehead and it's very easy to see why, for example, Lewis shrugged it off for a lot of his career because fuck knows, everyone's got enough to be getting on with with just the basic challenges of the career let alone having to be a representative. And it's why, with aspects you're not able to hide, people struggle - whether that's race, gender or whatever.

Living in the closet isn't a very satisfying option, though; which is the most convincing argument for how there might not have been any LGBTQ+ drivers other than the ones we know about. But it's more likely they grinned and bore it, of course. History's littered with people who never got to truly live as themselves.

It's very good having someone like Matt Bishop in a prominent role in F1. Because he can speak beyond the theoretical; that a team can welcome a gay head of communications and the paddock will have to and can work with them. That he's in a relative position of power is great because it means people can't chat shit and that means for someone without that relative power, they're protected by extension.

Who knows when more LGBTQ+ people will come along to the sport - but I think there's reason to be hopeful that they can be there.

#f1 asks

[halflingkima]

ok time for my rousing (baseless) defense of trent crimm the independent (tl;dr skip to last paragraph lol)

tbh i thought we were all on the same page til i went hunting for trent’s 1.03 article and ONLY found kneejerk thinkpieces abt trent being “the worst journalist ever.” I skimmed them to see what evidence they pulled, and there was nothing outside of 2.11. This did explain the trent-apologist fics that popped up immediately after 2.11 though.

Obv, i disagree w the thinkpieces. Completely. this doesn’t reflect upon trent nearly at all, let alone poorly. I don’t blame him for writing the article, for asking for comment after publication, or for ‘revealing’ his source.

first of all, it’s (fictional) sports journalism. the basic stakes are shuffling big money around in the form of professional athletes, already wildly wealthy themselves. the show directly implies that while the media may be a factor in industry choices, it is never the deciding one. (ex: the media builds up an ‘over the hill” reputation for roy, but the team’s decisions abt his value completely disregard that aspect.)

secondly, it’s a nuanced conversation, even in the direct text (no pun intended) of the scene: the wording of the messages, ted’s reaction to each, etc. The core of my argumment is this: we don’t know trent. we don’t know the extent of his friendship with ted, we don’t know how he feels about his job, we don’t even know if he’s a good journalist (when ted asks what trent loves, he agrees that it’s writing – not journalism, football, or richmond).

by my count, we see him out of the press room thrice in the whole series (with jaime in 1.02, episode 1.03, and in the pub in 2.03). Yet ted has his number under “Maybe: Trent Crimm” and bakes trents 3yo birthday cookies. All we know of their friendship is from Ted’s perspective, and the show set up such a stellar foundation that we don’t need to see these things to know that ted is steadily chipping away at trent’s walls - or rather, “hopping over fences.”

And this text thread – in context –  cements the concept. they’re slightly more familiar than “work acquaintances” but nowhere near “genuine friends.” Not close enough for trent to bury the story, or even meet in person, but close enough that trent doesn’t want to participate in the betrayal.

I don’t blame him for writing the article: it’s his job. I don’t fault him for asking ted for comment after the digital article went up – at the least he’s trying to maintain control over an awkward situation, and at most it can still be slipped into either digital or print copy. and despite it apparently being the cardinal sin of journalism, i don’t fault him for revealing his source to ted specifically.

The reason journalists protect anonymous sources is retaliation; vengeful slander of the source, physical confrontations, or economic consequences (losing jobs). But while Trent & Ted aren’t all that close, they’re close enough to stop for a chat in the local pub. Close enough that ted knows trent’s kid’s birthday. close enough that trent gives ted a personal (if belated) heads up abt the article.

if our model for the ted/trent relationship is ted’s other relationships, the ted that trent knows is unabashed, compassionate, and honest. therefore, it’s safe to assume that trent trusts ted. he not only trusts him not to act poorly upon this information shared in confidence, but he also trusts ted not to ruin trent’s journalistic reputation. whether he’s correct remains to be seen, but as of now, ted’s the only one who knows trent’s revealed his source.

and ultimately: it’s a tv show. ultimately, trent’s entire narrative function is the personification of the sports news media. the text message scene did exactly what the narrative needed in order to move forward in a tight, economic, and (imo) clever way. this is not the first time the show has bent logic a little (even aside from beard after hours): nate spontaeously became a coach, jamie goes back to richmond basically bc he wants to, no one tells ted about regulation, etc. The show, like all great narratives, skips past the red-tape practicalities to give us what we want. In both Doylist and Watsonian contexts, trent directly telling ted – and only ted – about Nate’s betrayal protects Nate from the vicious jaws of the outside press while avoiding the miscommunication trope and giving richmond staff the time, space, and safety to work through this internally.

#can't believe this show's got me writing like i'm in a media analysis course #anyway maybe if i get these lil informal think pieces out i'll build the confidence to write those 'essays' i always say i will #thoughts #ted lasso spoilers /

[beldaroot]

Do you have any unpopular opinions about IT? Or about the fandom

anon are you trying to set me up for hate?! lol jk, everyone knows i don't mind saying my thoughts lksdjflk i feel like i've been pretty vocal already with my many, many unpopular opinions... so here's like 2k words of them because i don't know how to shut up. again these are opinions and i’m answering an ask sent to me, so don't attack me if you don't agree with them lol if you want further explanation i’m happy to do so too!

we don't need a supercut. i also don't think we're getting a supercut (maybe if the pandemic didn't happen we might have). all the supercut would give us is solid proof that wb is homophobic and also more scenes of bad characterization.

i liked the actors they chose for both movies and i wouldn’t change them. i just think these actors were given bad scripts. i don’t blame the actors themselves for portraying the characters inaccurately, it really is all muschietti&co’s fault. like james ransone and bill hader didn’t reread the book while isaiah mustafa read it multiple times and all three of their characters were done horribly. the actors were just doing their job and it was under muschietti’s directions that we have these bad characterizations. (also this isn't me supporting the actors personally, some of them are shitty people, i'm just talking about their performances).

it movies were not scary at all. it's just a bunch of jumpscares with some decent cgi. and it really sucks that they played more with pennywise being fucking weird than actually showcasing the psychological fears and trauma.

the miniseries is good! yes it’s corny and definitely had a production budget of like $8, but it still kept pretty close to the story! it did such a better job showing the losers friendship: we got to see them hangout and be silly and not angry at each other or separated for dumb reasons.

i don’t think you need to read the book to enjoy the movies or the franchise in general. the book is long as hell and shitty and i wouldn’t want someone to succumb to reading it if they don’t want to. however, it’s frustrating when people who have read the book call out specific discrepancies between the book and the movies and others will ignore it or greatly defend the movies. it chapter two was objectively bad, i’m sorry! when people say the movies should have stayed closer to the source material, it’s not like we’re trying to push the book in your face. we’ve come to cherish the book characterizations and it just hurts to see beloved characters ruined over some shitty portrayals and bad directing and writing.

all the losers are shippable with each other (except bev and eddie), but there are just some ships that are more compatible with each other due to canon elements and interactions.

on that note, it isn't reddie's fault if your non-reddie ship isn't as popular. i know i'm biased but there is reason why people gravitate towards reddie in the first place, and if your non-reddie ship doesn't have that much content, there is no need to bash reddie for it. (though you can definitely bash reddie shippers for picking reddie over another ship if they’re not shipping a non-reddie ship due to racism or some other form of bigotry)

like eddie, i do not care about myra. lol, i don’t understand the discourse around her since she is just a 2d character that was meant to show how eddie is trapped in the toxic cycle his mother created. she is just a surrogate sonia, but she isn’t as a big of a threat to eddie as his mom was. the fact that eddie was able to leave her so easily, knowing that it might be the last time he sees her, is so telling that she was never really an obstacle for him. his biggest fear has always been his mother, myra played a small role in it but not enough for there to be all these thinkpieces about it lskdjfksf also, the fact that we don’t see eddie’s intro chapter in her POV but we saw stan’s and bev’s through their partners, just shows that myra's thoughts are not that important lol

i don’t hate benverly. i think they’re cute and as much as i didn’t really like the underwater kiss, it was shot amazingly looool. i will say i find it weird that people will call benverly “boring” especially given how many parallels they have with reddie. that being said, it is frustrating to see these similar stories between these two ships, but of course, the straight couple will get the happy ending while the gays are suffering. also, i wish that people would give more depth to benverly as a ship - they would definitely have a lot of issues to overcome, bev with her abuse and trauma, ben with his loneliness and inability to open up about his true feelings. and i think because they're a m/f couple, people just don't care about them or want to explore them. also, ben is a great character and some of the hate towards him is wildly unnecessary and at times very hypocritical. 

sandy was not a beard for richie. i'm assuming this got popular since chapter two made richie gay so now people read richie’s vasectomy story with sandy as a type of “performance” or a “bit” he’s practiced to appear straight. however, the way i perceived it is richie finally being open and taking a sad story of his love life and turning it into a grand retelling so the losers will still think of him as a jokester. it’s very apparent from how he talks about sandy that she was very important to him and that even though they separated mutually, the hurt he has is still present. also, i just don’t think you need to villainize a woman character who only appears for like 3 pages total lol.

bill is the best written character in the movies and that's because he's always the self-insert. in order from best to worst characterization i would say bill > ben > bev > richie > stan > eddie > mike. 

ok all the losers are queer in some fashion, but i think the loser who gives off the most straight energy is not ben, but stan. stan just never held any idolization or romantic interactions with the boy losers. he really only shows deep care and gentleness to bev and then later to patty. and he was just so in love with patty! like those two love birds can be bi, but if they’re straight, i don’t have any complaints either because they’re that cute!

richie is bisexual and straight passing. eddie is gay and not straight passing. really can’t believe these are unpopular opinions, but i’ve seen more than enough people say the opposite, so i have to say my piece! richie’s whole thing is about putting on a façade, there is always two sides of him. he wants to appear straight because he doesn’t want people to know his true self. eddie has always appeared “gay,” this is literally why people bullied him and called him slurs and “sissy,” but he doesn’t know/try to change his appearance into something more masculine.

people who feminize eddie and people who make him hypermasc are both evil and will not be seeing heaven! i genuinely hate both so much but if i had to choose i think "uwu softboy" eddie is more in character than mean aggressive asshole eddie who hates his friends. and it's just so funny because i think out of all the losers, eddie definitely blurs the lines of gender the most, he doesn’t conform to gender stereotypes and for that reason, he’s targeted for his appearance. anyway, some of y’all need to understand that gay men can be complex and have range!

chapter two eddie sucked and should absolutely be removed from existence. that’s is not my eddie kaspbrak. idon’tknowher.gif.

muschietti&co gave richie eddie’s storyline. this shouldn’t be unpopular or even controversial, like the dude literally said “eddie had a lot going on” while richie didn’t, so he “gave” richie more. and it’s weird that people try to defend andy on this, because richie does have a lot going on too!! he already had his own queer storyline that they could have explored!! it was an injustice to both richie and eddie that andy tried to switch their storylines/personalities. there can and should be more than one queer character in a media at a time, but andy was like “no, and i don't know what bisexuality is.” it’s just sad because out of the two, eddie’s queer subtext in the book is much more blatant than richie’s, and yet people came out of the movie saying eddie wasn’t gay or that his feelings weren’t mutual. the reason a lot of people sympathize with richie’s storyline in the movie is because it has elements of book eddie’s story in it!! both of them deserved to have their stories told properly and also independently – they are intertwined but they’re also separate. they aren’t interchangeable. richie was scared that people would see him as predatory; that’s what the werewolf symbolized to him. he felt he was a monster, that bisexuality made him dangerous. he's not some sad repressed gay. also!! eddie deserved to kill bowers and it makes me seethe with rage that he wasn’t given that. 

hated that richie didn’t write his own material in the movie. i understand that richie likes to keep facades, but book richie is very ambitious and wants to see himself prosper. the part in the book where he’s talking about reining in the “crazy man” with the line “but he had understood his potential not to be just good at the job but great at it, and just that knowledge had been enough to put him over the moon on a cloud of euphoria.” like richie is smart!! he wants to be in control and be accoladed for his talents! he wouldn't want someone else to make him funny. richie can be self-destructive but he wants recognition too. 

hated the arcade scene. was totally unnecessary to have this random bully (who everyone started to sympathize with and ship richie with????) confront richie like that. i didn't mind that richie's token wasn't related to eddie because again, i do think that they are separate, but i wish richie had some sort of confrontation with pennywise via eddie because that would have made r+e make actual sense.

the whole token storyline was dumb. trying to make the ritual of chud work with tokens instead of what it was intended to be - a game of wits and humor - was stupid. especially since the ritual was known to fail and mike lied to them to get them to find these useless tokens. it was also bad because we never got to see the flashback for mike and ben always had his token with him (which was also weird… like why would he keep that in his wallet for 27 years….??)  

that quarry scene in the movie where bev strips and then all the boys ogle at her was unnecessary and creepy and i hope andy muschietti goes to jail for it!

bev and eddie are the only two losers with abusive parents. the other losers have varying degrees of toxicity with their parents (the hanlons being zero), but not enough to be labeled as abusive.

stan was badly written in both movies. i can and have written an essay about this, but he was given scraps and it sucks that people will look at the second movie and say he was written well especially since andy romanticized his suicide by writing those letters like stan was a martyr sacrificing himself for the good of the group instead of being deeply traumatized and killing himself because he was so scared. also, that bar mitzvah scene does not make any sense chronologically and it felt more like a storyline for richie than for stan and i wish it remained a deleted scene. i like the idea of him rebelling and pointing out the illogic of things, but stan never had an issues with grownups… he liked his parents! anyway, stan was not a coward for killing himself and in general he deserves so much fucking better.

eddie is funnier than richie. i'm sorry, but i laughed so many times in the book while reading eddie's parts while i had to skim over richie's parts because i didn't even know what he was saying with those voices and half the time they were racist so....

mike was badly characterized in the movies and the reason for that is muschietti&co are racist. no ifs ands or buts about it! you can't just completely destroy someone's character that much if you don't have some sort of subconscious anti-blackness in you. mike literally has the most content in the book and you're going to portray his character in horrible racist stereotypes AND give him no screentime?! like stan, i have written a whole essay about this topic, so if you actually want me to share all the details, i can. it's just.... a lot, and this post is already so long.

in regards to race, i don't think it's harmful to headcanon the other losers as a different race or ethnicity. especially if you're poc (like i used to headcanon harry potter as a brown desi man as a desi myself because it gave me comfort). however!! i think it can be harmful if you start sidelining mike and his blackness because of these racial/ethnic headcanons. mike's story directly revolves around being black in a white town, his story is about the racism he faced and how he was accepted by the losers regardless of his race. i mean the reason he's qualified as a “loser” in the first place is because he's black lol. so just don't minimize his story for your own headcanons.

as for the fandom..... oof A LOT of y'all are racist, fatphobic, sexist, antisemitic, homophobic, and also biphobic. sometimes it does not feel like a safe place for marginalized communities, especially when they are discussing “controversial” yet important issues.

y'all also recycle the same discourse every few months and it's really annoying (though there hasn't been much discourse recently thank god)

some of y’all need to understand that platonic relationships are just as, if not, better than some romantic relationships. ship wars are overrated. 

y'all truly suck at engaging with content. you will say this fandom is dying is dead but i can go into the reddie tag or the it ao3 tag and find countless new content every day. yes, that content might not fit what you want, but if you do find something and enjoy it, you need to comment/leave a tag and let creators know that so they feel appreciated. don’t know who needs to tell you this, but when content creators receive positive feedback, they’re more motivated to create content! woah! 

i will say that even if this fandom has its bad moments, there are still a lot of great people here. i've made a lot of friends and the it fandom is probably one of the best fandom in regards to unique, rich, and wonderful content. it's 2021 and i'm still glad i'm here! <3

#obviously this is not a complete list of my unpopular thoughts #and it's not organized in any particular way #so sorry if this is hard or confusing to read #again don't attack me if you disagree #i'm always willing to elaborate on things! #it #Anonymous

[ohnomybreadsticks]

August AU Challenge 2k19 - Bonus Content

There was a lot of content that I made up for some of these stories that never made it in, just because of time/length constraints! But I still wanted to share, in case anyone wanted more of a particular story ;) Who knows if I’ll come back to any of these later, but for now that’s all folks! 

Under the cut because very long lol. Also cw for discussions of things like depression/suicide as they relate to certain stories.

Note: / denotes a pairing, & denotes platonic

1. RK Siblings Farmer’s Market AU

1.5 Reed900 Farmer’s Market AU

2. North & Nines National Park Rangers AU

As mentioned on the story itself, the tent situation is heavily based off a bon appetit video

3. Leo & Markus Wild West AU

Credit for the atmosphere and cowboy aesthetic goes to my convos with @sinclairsolutions and her fantastic cowboy fic that’s in the works

4. Conniel Reverse AU

Connor is a household android Hank hires to take care of Cole after the divorce, and Connor slowly becomes attached to both of them. When Cole dies, Hank becomes a depressed alcoholic, and tries to commit suicide. Connor deviates to save his life, and essentially takes him hostage in an attempt to keep him from trying again. After Daniel deactivates Connor post hostage-situation, Hank ends up…. ? either taking his own life or trying to turn it around

5. Kamski/Clyde Bakery AU

@minasnorma and I threw around ideas and realized that when they move in together, these two dorks have to have two separate fridges, one for vegan only and one for non-vegan food

6. Simarkus Alien Encounter/Abduction AU

The lovely @jordyn3130 wrote a super cute follow up ficlet of sorts where Markus is actually an alien “exchange student”

7. Echo/Ripple Merpeople AU

For the first few years, Ripple just visits the beach to see her girlfriend, but eventually the separation is too much, and Echo becomes a mermaid to be with her and become her wife

8. Hankvin Star Wars AU

@connorssock shook me by the collar until a happy ending popped out - after everything, Hank and Gavin finally try again, Gavin convincing Hank to come with him on his ship. They’re happy for a while, until Hank starts getting restless, he hates space after everything that’s happened...but instead of giving up this time, Gavin gives in, and gets Hank a little house on a tiny rim world. That way his Jedi can enjoy the solitude, and Gavin always has somewhere to come home to, no matter where the lure of space takes him

9. Leo/RK900 Surfer Bros AU

10. Josh/North Les Mis AU

In a Les Mis AU, Markus is probably off swanning over noble-born Simon and fighting with his sense of duty to his compatriots leading the revolution.

11. Hankcon Dog Walker + Dog Owner Meetcute AU

I almost wrote this one backwards because I forgot the exact prompt, so Connor was going to be the dog walker, and the chihuahua was a dog Hank got for Cole to make him happy after the divorce lmao. Also Princey is what a friend calls her cat. There IS an Allen60 part to this story in the works, I just gotta actually write it down lol

11.5 Reed900 Dog Walker AU

12. Chloe/Kamski Cinderella AU

Almost wrote this with Kamski as the prince, but then I wasn’t sure what my little twist would be...so Kamski as the fairy godfather emerged!

13. Connor & Hank Arthurian Legends AU

14. Tina/Polly Starving Artist AU

15. Allen60 Pilots/Flight Attendants AU

There were two possible endings I tossed around for Connor in this one - I imagine he either gets transferred onto flights captained by Mr. Anderson, who’s just getting back into work as a pilot after getting his life back together OR Connor meets Mr. Anderson on a long haul flight and they end up falling madly in love!!

16. Tina/Stacy Librarian + Patron Meetcute AU

17. Reed900 LotR/Silmarillion AU

I legit almost gave them dumb Tolkien names LOL. I also played around with the idea of pulling a dumb “Gavin son of Gareth” stunt but saved all of you at the last minute XD This was also, for the record, one of my personal favorites and also one of the most fun to write

18. Simon/North Angel and Demon AU

DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT WAS NOT TO JUST WRITE A GOOD OMENS RIP OFF?? It was very hard actually and I almost had it end with like ‘can I tempt you to get drinks with me?’ bit lol

19. Luthara Atlantis (Movie/Legend) AU

20. Polycho BE9/Elder Gods AU

Another personal favorite, mostly because I’m so excited to get to the Polycho part of BE9 lol

21. Jerralph Movie Stars AU

I almost had Ralph also as a costar on the set but then I wasn’t sure what the twist would be tbh

22. Gavin & Kamski Pirate AU

23. Kara & Alice Harry Potter AU

Someone smarter than me and better at HP houses should sort the Jericrew into their houses...but North is 100% a Slytherin in the best way don’t @ me

24. Gavin & Tina Victorian England (Steampunk) AU

I’d like to imagine that eventually they get the rocketboots working and fly all around the city lol

25. Chloe/North Beauty and the Beast AU

I worked really hard to try and subvert the usual Beauty and the Beast tropes, because I felt like the idea of keeping someone captive goes against EVERYTHING North stands for. 

26. North/Kara Grad Students AU

I flirted with the idea of having them fighting over Kara’s class running late over North’s, but I fell in love with the idea of them not knowing each other until the very end. Kara teaches English, btw, and is a big believer in alternate teaching styles and student-led learning 

27. Simon/Josh Shipwrecked on a Deserted Island AU

28. Convin Sherlock Holmes AU

29. Markus/Connor Vampire AU

This story almost went two directions: loaded comedic banter between Markus and Connor OR a darker more atmospheric thinkpiece about the nature of being a vampire hunter...instead we ended up with a mix of the two lol

30. North/Connor Vegan Restaurant Owner + Hapless Customer Meetcute AU

I wanted to subvert the ‘customer comes in and initiates contact with someone who’s on the clock’ trope, even though I’m always a fan of it in fictional contexts lol. 

31. Gavin/Tina Time Travel AU

I didn’t have time, but Gavin is jumping through time “to see if people are always terrible.” He had a pretty traumatic time growing up, and he wanted to see if humanity is always terrible or if it was just his lot to be treated poorly. The reason he’s so mean to anyone who tries to get to know him as he jumps from time to time is that he can’t let himself get attached to anyone in a different time period. Well, and he’s also just kind of a grump lol

#bready's fic #August AU challenge 2k19

[televinita]

Little Women: My Background

Hello and welcome to the prequel for my upcoming feature, “Little Women (2019) Film Review.” I can’t give any thoughts on this movie without explaining my history with the classic, which was such an important part of my childhood, and one of the stories I hold dearest in the world. Strap in for the 900 words about to come your way.

My first encounter with this book was when I received it as a gift, in this exact edition, inscribed to me by Mom & Dad on the occasion of my 9th birthday. I read it immediately and I loved it. 5 stars then, 5 stars now. The girls on this cover of the edition are the definitive picture of the March women.

(cover text: ”They were more than sisters...they were friends.”)

And because I can’t find a large enough image of that edition (photograph my own? lol), here’s an enhanced image of the painting from a slightly later edition:

I never read the sequels, because Young Me went from DELIGHTED to learn such things existed to going, aghast, "Little Men? Jo's Boys?? Gross, who wants that!" and never even bothered to open them.

I reread this book when I was 15 and loved it all over again, but I haven't read it since then, always so overwhelmed with love at the idea that I'm afraid to start, in case I accidentally read it when I'm in a bad mood and spoil the experience. Instead I’ve simply cherished the memory, tucked away, of it being a perfect book.

The 1994 Movie Experience

You should know that I loved this movie when I saw it, also at 9 years old, but then I didn't see it for over 10 years and by the time I was ready to rewatch it, I was GUTTED that I now recognized basically all the actors and the magic was broken. It's the weirdest thing, and this has never happened to me with any other film adaptation, but when I watched it as a child it WAS the book come to life. Those were really the characters. And now they aren't. I haven't watched it since because I can't bear to see all these famous people -- a few of whom I've grown to dislike -- just...PRETENDING to be my characters. I hate it and I mourn its loss but that's the way it is. I can never go back. So for that, at least, I am grateful a new adaptation exists -- it might become "mine." (Still holding out hope for the PBS miniseries to fill in that slot, though. I saw a short part on TV and I was excited by how faithful it was and how little I recognized people.)

Where I Stand On Shipping & Characters

+ Meg was always the kinda-boring, mom-like sister. I remember liking Jo a lot (because I also loved writing and had beautiful hair), though I couldn’t relate to the tomboy aspect. But my favorite was always Beth: she was quiet and shy and loved animals; she was me! She’s also why I wanted to learn piano.

(and like many people, I sobbed my eyes out when she died in the book and went crying to my mom about it, who of course knew what was going to happen and had known from the very beginning to prepare for my reaction)

+ Amy was a spoiled brat and I hated her. But in retrospect, I’ve come to think I will probably appreciate her character growth in rereads. I just had such disdain, as a child, for children who couldn’t be quiet and obey rules.

+ I do know that my heart broke as a kid when Jo didn't marry Laurie, but I don't remember how I originally felt about Bhaer. However, in the years since, I have become mostly okay with it because, well, how many other age-mismatched pairings have I fallen for like this, and student/teacher is kind of my thing (I know she's not actually his student, but the base of their connection is the same as WHY I like student/teacher pairings: a professional intellectual admiring the potential of a sharp mind, and vice versa. That they open a school together is the icing on the cake).

It still hurts that my two fave relationship tropes in the world go to war in the triangle from hell just because Louisa May got uppity, but I have to admit that keeping Laurie in the family by other means is really the closest it's possible to get to happiness by that point, so that’s kind of a genius maneuver there.

In Conclusion

This book is so important to me and my childhood joy that I frankly refuse to hear criticism about the story in any form, unless it’s being sassy at Alcott for her rudeness towards shippers (you just can’t go criticizing Professor Bhaer in the process, or I will physically fight you). I’ve looked at books of essays the library has about Little Women and I’m just like, nope. There will not even be critical analysis in my realm. No thinkpieces about gender/gender roles. This is an environment of welcoming, and you will love the story with the pure heart of a 9-year-old book lover or you will get the hell out.

And with that, are we ready to hear my movie thoughts?? Sit tight while I work on them.

#little women spiral

[all-pacas]

🔥Nott

HOO BOY

i feel like i could take this in two possible directions, because there are two competing views on her? i think? and i KINDA GET BUGGED BY BOTH. so let’s do this.

first you have Pet Nott, which i honestly rant about a fuckton because wow is it annoying. nott isn’t really a person, certainly not a grown adult woman: she’s the wacky fun sidekick, she’s caleb’s accessory and pet, she’s a mascot character you can pick up and set aside and shoo away, who has no feelings — or anyway, no feelings that really matter. people can be dismissive of her and in canon nott cannot fucking deal with being condescended to, it is a Thing with her that comes up again and again, but fandom nott? she doesn’t care! wheee, buttons! like how fjord was teasing her about buttons below the sea, and how nott went along with the joke – oh, captain buttonbeard? – and then fandom forgets how she finished with “lol fuck you fjord you fucking asshole.” 

or how in any caleb shipping fic, nott just vanishes entirely, even though they sleep together and are glued at the hip – but you know, that’s not convenient, his feelings for her aren’t convenient, and nott doesn’t matter so let’s just shoo her away, because she isn’t involved. or how her breakdown in felderwin ended up being all about however will she regain poor caleb’s forgiveness, not “wow, she has a husband who might be dead and her son doesn’t remember her and that’s FUCKING TRAGIC.” nott isn’t important! nott isn’t an actualized person!

there’s also the sort of side aspect of this, where nott is taken like, overly seriously – where her role as Caleb’s Mom is played up and overtakes her, until she’s still a pet, but a different kind of pet: one that exists to prop up and  support the others, when in fact nott can often be tetchy and passive and really isn’t interested in that. she’s best friends with caleb and jester. she likes and cares about the other nein. she has never once shown any interest in taking care of anyone but caleb, and even then she’s like… not his fucking pet. come on guys.

so that bugs me.

but there’s also the other side of this, where people are like NOTT IS SO SELFISH AND TERRIBLE AND RUINS EVERYTHING AND NEVER FACES CONSEQUENCES FOR HER ACTIONS AND REFUSES TO FACE THEM, which honestly to me feels like weird fucking sexism, like, … as opposed to who? to what? like how people go off on her for not being into the kryn (while being an empire citizen who probably grew up hearing all the propoganda) and for hating goblins (when until the last few episodes the only ones she had ever met MURDERED HER), and use it as the basis for thinkpieces on why nott is so stubborn and incapable of change and flawed and awful, instead of like… guys, caleb is planning on destroying the world due to his own stubborn fucking ideals. let’s chill out a tiny bit instead of reacting like anything nott does that isn’t “caleb, i will support you passively and completely” is a Fatal Flaw. how her thinking caleb is the group’s leader and literally saying it to him once caused like 50 thinkpieces on how terrible and insensitive she was to poor caleb, how awful she is, when she was … just … trying to get a rise out of fjord.

BUT THERE’S ALSO THE OTHER OTHER SIDE. where people are such fans of sam, i think, that it turns into – wow, nott! tactical genius nott! she’s so brave and daring and clutch! her kill count! badass and awesome! where it becomes much less about nott, all her weird quirks and gentler moments — just about NOTT THE BRAVE, NOTT THE BADASS, NOTT THE HERO. 

and she HAS HER MOMENTS, for sure, but again, that’s not all or most of her. she’s not a sweet sidekick pet or a badass self sacrificial hero. she’s an actual person. she has a weird sense of humor, she likes plans but sucks at execution, she’s twitchy and panicky and stubborn and tetchy and can be rude as fuck when she’s mad, which isn’t even that hard to do. she openly dislikes people! nott! she also openly likes people and cares about them! she is no less or more flawed than anyone else in the mighty nein, because she too is a functioning human with strengths (emotional intelligence/the ability to communicate her feelings/her kind nature/her sharp intelligence) and weaknesses (her stubbornness/quickness to make up her mind about someone/something/recklessness and putting others in danger – either by splash damage or by forcing a few close rescues from beau/her endless biases for and against people and things). nott is a not a pet! guys!

#excuse from a kind anon for me to tl;dr #nott the brave #ironically considering i talk about her so much i think this one is the messiest of my hot takes

[a-doq]

lion king thinkpiece under the cut:

hoo boy lmao. i honestly really wanted to enjoy it! i wanted to have a fun time! the lion king is one of my favorite movies of all time. one of my earliest memories is watching it obsessively at home. it was my family’s first VHS. i got the platinum edition dvd as a birthday gift from my family when i was younger. i’ve seen the broadway musical. i’ve seen the movie several times before in theaters during re-releases. i had a fucking lion king themed sleeping bag, sweater, tool bucket, watch, computer game, pajama set, and christmas ornament.

so anyway this movie sucked. and that really sucks because the lion king means so much to me! i tried to enjoy it as much as i could. but by the end i was honestly bored and sick of it and just wanted to leave the theater and do something else.

i’m going to go scene-by-scene here and explain my biggest thoughts (so “spoiler” warning i guess lmao):

circle of life: whatever it was fine. instead of starting out with a loud yell and then the screen fades in from black, in this version there’s a static shot of the landscape that holds for like ~5 seconds before the sun starts to rise and THEN the yell starts. the first thing that honestly popped into my mind was “this reminds me of the teletubbies opening sequence” LMAO

Scar’s intro: new scar is mostly fine. the actor is clearly trying his very best and i appreciate that. it’s tough to take it seriously because it’s basically an ugly-ass CGI lion walking around talking about being evil and it kills my suspension of disbelief a bit. john oliver is annoying as FUCK as zazu which is super disappointing. obviously zazu was supposed to be annoying in the original too but he was also formal, respectful, neurotic, and caring. in this version he’s given some more dialogue that makes him sound like a complete dickhead at all times. james earl jones constantly sounds like he’s out of breath and is going to keel over. THAT in particular is super jarring because i know all of mufasa’s lines and delivery by heart and it just emphasizes how inferior this version is.

young simba: voice is fine. definitely upped the cute factor. BUT they also changed his character to be... stupider? and it honestly makes his character annoying. simba shouldn’t be annyoing! in the original simba KNEW that the elephant graveyard was dangerous but explored it anyways because he was immature. in this one he doesn’t even know that the elephant graveyard is dangerous because he’s stupid. he ignores what people tell him straight to his face and just acts like a dipshit.

stampede: ya lol. ragdoll mufasa is unintentionally hilarious. idk if any of y’all have seen the leaked recording but yes it’s just as bad. also, the point of mufasa’s death scene is that it’s simba’s first experience with death. in the original, when simba is tugging on mufasa’s ear to get him to wake up, you get the sense that simba doesn’t really understand what death is. in this version, he just lightly taps mufasa’s forehead, then immediately assumes he’s dead, and just accepts it?? ALSO, the cinematography of the stampede scene is weird. in the animated film, as soon as the stampede starts, the lighting and background transform from bright and sunny into extremely dusty, so that you can’t discern left vs right. in this version it’s STILL LEFT BRIGHT AND SUNNY WHILE SIMBA AND MUFASA ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES which is like... fucking WHY. there’s a few jumpscare-esque action moments of mufasa getting the shit beaten out of him by the stampede which i actually liked and thought added to the tension of the scene.

timon and pumbaa: overstay their welcome, yet ironically are the only emotional magnets in the second half of the movie. i hope y’all enjoyed the hakuna matata excerpt that was released by disney, because that’s the only emotion you’re going to get out of donald glover in this entire movie. EXTREMELY important scenes to simba’s character are completely cut out and replaced with nothing:

-simba collapsing on a cliff in mourning after talking about his father living on in the stars

-simba pacing and talking to himself about why going back would be pointless, then screaming at the sky “you said you’d always be there for me” and crying

-rafiki whacking simba over the head, and teaching him that the past can hurt, but it’s important to learn from it.

-simba cornering scar, telling him that he’s a murderer and that he doesn’t deserve to live after what he’s done

also, all the emotional scenes that they DID leave intact feel hollow. not only do the characters not show any facial emotions (which has been bitched to death on the internet), but they literally DO NOT MOVE THEIR BODIES AT ALLLL. for the ENTIRE second half of the movie the characters are either just standing there or running in order to change scenes. the scene with mufasa’s ghost? simba just stood there THE ENTIRE TIME AND LITERALLY DID NOT MOVE. no shots of him gazing up at the sky, no shots of him running through the field after his father. the whole thing is just shot-reverse-shot. but because they didn’t bother to animate mufasa in the sky (it’s literally just james earl jones’s voice with a few shots of lightning), it just looks like simba is standing there, having a conversation with the fucking sky, like he’s having a schizophrenic episode. when simba returns to the pride lands, they didn’t even bother to animate his head looking around at the destruction. when mufasa dies, they didn’t even bother to animate his ears going back, or his body crouching, or his fur bristling, or his tail tucking under his legs... he just STANDS THERE while the voice actor is “crying” and it’s so awkward lmao. 

miscellaneous nitpicks:

-the movie is REALLY fucking quiet. it might’ve just been my theater, and i know that kid’s movies are played at a lower volume so as not to damage their hearing, but this was just abnormally low. i had a hard time even hearing the music half the time.

-the entire movie is very dark and unsaturated. “i just can’t wait to be king” is the most colorful the movie looks. everything after that is ugly

-pride rock looks extremely... short? and not tall at all? it looks like 10 feet tall at most. it doesn’t feel majestic at all. it just feels like some boulder.

-”he lives in you” wasn’t included in the movie even though it was released in the soundtrack... why? fucking why? the placement of that song in the musical is excellent and greatly enhances the story. but whatever i guess! gotta make room for a 30 second excerpt of beyonce’s song.

-there a weird scene included in the movie, where, instead of rafiki learning that simba’s alive through the wind, a literal tuft of simba’s mane falls out, is carried by the wind, GETS EATEN BY A GIRAFFE AND THEN COMES OUT IN A BALL OF SHIT, WHICH IS THEN ROLLED AROUND BY A DUNG BEETLE??? WHICH RAFIKI THEN USES TO LEARN THAT SIMBA IS ALIVE. and the whole thing lasts for like 4 minutes??? what the fuck??

-simba and rafiki exchange like 3 lines of dialogue max lol

-kids will be bored. by about 3/4 of the way through the movie all of the kids in my theater collectively stopped giving a shit and were just wrestling with each other on the floor

so yah. if you want to see a version of the lion king with all of the melodrama systematically stripped away for some reason, with all of the unique cinematography from the original replaced with shot-reverse-shot, watch this lazy remake.

at least my girlfriend’s seat was broken so the ticket guy gave us a free voucher to see another movie together in the future.

#i gave it a chance and tried to judge it fairly

[spelviin]

endgame thoughts, not because i think i have anything valuable to say abt it, more just bc i want to get my initial unsullied opinions out before various overly nitpicky or overly praisy internet thinkpieces come around

okay so. first of all, i’m tired to death of the way folks talk about the mcu. like, it’s either a godly feat of everything and the most important thing ever or the literal devil incarnate and the source of all evil in this world. i am literally so fucking bored of both these perspectives and have zero time for either of them. 

yes, the mcu is emblematic of a lot of problems in the current state of the film medium as a whole. yes, it is also a really cool feat of storytelling that a whole bunch of movies spanning a whole bunch of years could all come together and culminate in a big huge blowout finale. yes, it could have been far better, but yes, it also could have been far worse. 

i wasn’t a fan of thor being a punchline in this film. like, the whole “lol thor fat” thing was like, really tired and not cool. and the fact that his genuine moments of expressing grief and the significant trauma he’s been through were played off for laughs more often than not bc “lol thor supposed to be big many man but he’s crying like a wimpyboy instread.” like, fucking please. it’s 2019 and other male characters were allowed to be shown crying and processing their trauma but thor’s??? not allowed for some reason??? anyway they did him dirty in this movie and i’m not super pleased abt that. 

i didn’t like that they fridged natasha. i’m not a fan of scarjo so much these days, but i did like natasha. 2012 me adored her and was 100000% behind her as the Only Woman (despite being miffed that she was the Only Woman) and i really liked her character and redemption arc through the films that she appeared in. and like, i get the justification for fridging her. like i get that she was this assassin who killed a bunch of folks and in the end, not only wiped out the red in her ledger, but saved the whole damn universe in doing so. i get that. i’m just annoyed that they literally went and fridged the Only Woman to give the boys manpain before the third act. 

speaking of the ladies.... the One Scene Where Women Get To Do Things. my god. the critical feminist part of my mind greatly resented the obvious lip service of that scene, and the fact that the ladies only got the one shining moment before we got back to the sausage fest. but lord, the lesbian part of my mind hella enjoyed it. like i was legit bouncing in my seat like YESSSS FUCK EM UP LADIES i was just completely stoked. 

and my god. MY GOD CAN WE TALK ABOUT CAROL’S HAIRCUT AKA A GIFT TO THE LESBIANS. THIS MOVIE HAS MANY SINS BUT WE CAN ALL THANK IT FOR THAT HAIRCUT. (and again, feminist me is like, hey, dont focus on her appearance, focus on the important shit she did in singlehandedly turning the battle around for everyone, but lesbian lizard brain is hhhhhhhhhhhhh girl hot)

anyways. 2012 me was a month out of a major jaw surgery when i saw the first avengers, puffy faced, on heavy painkillers, and unable to eat any solid foods, and just generally weak and miserable. i dragged myself to the theatre and i smiled the whole way through that movie bc even though i was feeling super shitty, that 360 shot of the team made me so excited and happy. so happy that i watched and rewatched a bootleg download over what was probably the worst summer of my life, and it made me happy and gave me hope, dumb as that may sound. 

i havent watched the first avengers movie in a long time, and i’m not sure if i’d feel the same way seeing it now. remembering how it felt then still makes me happy, but seeing that same 360 shot repeated in endgame didnt stoke much emotion. tumblr fandom took a lot of my avengers joy away. the drama and character hate and constant complaining and cringe culture bullshit exhausted me. and the recent turns of the mcu also contributed to that. a lot of things contributed to it, i guess. but i dont feel as happy as i once did. so a lot of this movie rang a little bit hollow, needless to say. 

that being said, though, i did feel a little flicker of that joy. for all the movie’s and the franchise’s faults, of which there are many, i can say that the moment where all those portals opened up and the revived characters stepped though, i felt that happiness again. i legit almost cried when i saw shuri’s silhouette step out of that circle. that moment when the score came in with that booming version of the avengers theme, i was 2012 me again, just for a moment, and i think that’s worth something. to me, that’s worth something. so for all its sins, i thank the movie for that. 

this is rly rambly and im tired so im just gonna say 2 more things. things i’m not personally super invested in, but other people are, and so i feel i need to have an opinion on em.

first is bucky. i fucking adore him, and i am kinda miffed that he got like, no interactions with steve. i know steve/peggy is the canon ship, i knew it was always endgame (heh) and that stucky is just a fandom thing. but god damn it, even if they were never gonna have their relationship go there (which tbh i literally never even came close to expecting to happen) it still feels a little bit unfair to have steve basically ignore probably the most important person in his life. like, i know he wanted to live his happy straight life with peggy, and passing on the shield and identity of captain america to sam is super important, and i loved that moment and would never begrudge him that bc i adore sam. i was just... really sad that bucky had to get kinda shafted for that. (literally all i was saying in the last half hour was “but where’s bucky? but what about bucky?” our boy deserved better. 

second is tony. tony tony tony. i know folks have a lot of strong feelings about him, both ways. i know of folks who think he’s the scum of the earth for some dumb reason, and i personally know others who think the entire mcu should revolve around him, for equally dumb reasons. i’m more neutral. i think he’s a good character who made questionable decisions in the past. i feel for him and his struggles with PTSD. i respect him as a character in-universe and also for what he and RDJ accomplished. like, if he hadn’t hit it out of the park with that first movie like a fucking decade ago, none of this would have been possible, and i think that’s pretty damn cool, regardless of feelings on the monster juggernaut the mcu has turned into. basically, i know some folks are maliciously rejoicing at his death while complaining that he got a hero’s send-off when he is a Bad And Not Morally Pure Man, which is. boring. and other people (namely one who i know personally in my family) who are mad because he is an Angel and deserved the Best Happy Ending Because No Bad Things Are Allowed To Happen To This Perfect Boy. i’m not here for either opinion. i’m okay that he died (peter crying over him did get to me in a huge way, but i think tom holland just has a power that if he’s crying, i’m crying so idk). i think it’s cool that he got to save everyone and got a heroic and well deserved send off. this isnt a revolutionary opinion i just wanted to throw it out there bc im bored with the polarization. 

and... yeah? i think that’s it? sorry, im really tired and this probs doesn’t make sense but i just felt like i had to get the initial reactions and feelings down before the thinkpieces get to me lmao. 

oh, also nebula deserved better 2kforever i just love her a lot and want her to be happy and not suffer, kthxbye 

#og #a4 spoilers #spoilers #endgame spoilers #avengers spoilers #avengers endgame spoilers #do you think i've tagged this thoroughly enough yet? #this is legit just boring and nonsensical rambling sorry

[ginmo]

I’ve been sure since I read AFFC/ADWD that Jaime’s getting one of the better endings because House Lannister isn’t gonna be wiped out and both Cersei and Tyrion are now Too Dark To Live. But I’ve seen a lot of people rewatching bring up that awful sept fuck up and consensus is that it renders him irredeemable. The show is gonna have to WORK to avoid a million thinkpieces when he gets both power and a family. I’m not convinced they’ll pull it off.

That scene was gross af, but we’ve since learned that the intent of the scene was not for it to be rape. We also know that canon Jaime is not a rapist. So if the narrative intent was for it to NOT be rape (and ended up being just a really bad fuck up from writers, director, post production) then we can’t blame the non-rapist character for the shitty product. What’s gross is they didn’t realize they filmed a rape scene, so people need to shift their blame from Jaime to the filmmakers. If people are really stuck on Jaime being a rapist even though in canon he isn’t and wasn’t even meant to be on the show, then they’re going to really hate the outcome of this story, because there won’t be anything to revisit Jaime being a rapist in the narrative (such as redemption for that) because he isn’t supposed to be. This is why most of fandom acknowledges that scene was an oops from the production and don’t use it to judge the character.

In other words, since the show was doing a direct adaptation of a consensual canon sex scene from the books, thinking their adaption was also a consensual sex scene, then the narrative itself doesn’t need to, and will not, do anything to have Jaime redeem himself for something he didn’t do, but that the filmmakers stupidly did.

My friend Koops went off on this topic a while back, so I’m going to add a read more where I quote her posts. It’s way more than you asked about, and I already answered the question, but I just really love her rant over the sex scene lol. So for those who want cast, crew, and GRRM quotes, discussion of that D&D video people love to refer to, and a total take down of basically why using that scene against Jaime is completely moronic then here it is: 

In response to this D&D video:

I don’t think this video disproves anything. The girl is calling it “rape” but they are not once owning up to it. They’re calling it “this” and insisting that’s something Jaime would do in that moment, but it feels to me like what they were trying to do is avoid getting into a debate about whether it’s rape or not, because they know that can get them into all kinds of trouble. ETA: Also, notice how David rolls his eyes towards the end and the person who captioned the video interpreted it as him rolling his eyes at the girl who asked the question. I don’t think he is at all, that was 5 minutes earlier, talk about a delayed reaction. I think he’s rolling his eyes at KIT stepping in just as David had finished answering with that stupid comment calling it rape and saying how great it is that the show has rape scenes, when David had been so careful in avoiding using that word all along in order not to get into an argument. And they’re emphasizing how hard this was for Lena and so on (despite, IIRC, her always saying it wasn’t intended as rape), just to earn feminist points of “we know how tough this is for women, look at how distraught we all were filming it”.If that had been their intention, they would have followed up on it in subsequent scenes/interactions, which is something the show does with rape scenes (see Sansa). Yet it was never mentioned again and it’s like it never happened. I think D&D sometimes have a bit of a rape-style fetish when it comes to sex scenes because it makes them come across as “edgy”. See the way they wrote the broken tower sex scene in the original pilot script or the way they changed Dany and Drogo’s wedding night. But they refuse to admit it and hide behind nonsense like “this is something the character would do”. They want to see how far they can push it, basically.Even if we want to say they’re admitting to have it intended as rape, saying this is something Jaime would do is absolutely ridiculous since not only he saved Brienne from rape but in the books he even has one of his men executed for TRYING to rape Pia. It’s nothing to do about having a linear redemption arc or not, it’s about WHAT kind of “bad things” the character does and whether it’s consistent with its characterization or not. Rape, for Jaime, is absolutely NOT. Equating that scene to Jaime pushing Bran out of a window is completely insane since the two things are dramatically different in motivation and intention and while Jaime is a complex guy that can do horrible things for his family and for Cersei, he doesn’t do them out of his own selfishness, especially when it comes to sex when he even refuses women throwing himself at him. Not to mention the entire point of Jaime’s “bad deed(s)” is that he has to own up to them and deal with them and their consequences. If you just ignore that sept scene ever happened and never deal with it again then you either think it isn’t a big deal, or it wasn’t a bad deed in the first place. Otherwise it adds absolutely nothing to the character’s arc. It’s like they think that a “complex/not good guy” engages into all sorts of “bad behaviour” just by virtue of being complex/not good, which actually does precisely what they’re claiming they don’t want to do; i.e. making a clear cut distinction between good and bad guys, since they’re equating all possible bad actions as being equal and the same and stemming from the same psychological motivations, which is ridiculous. The bottom line to me always comes to the fact that, unlike most stuff post S5, we have the scene in the books, in written format, and we KNOW it’s not meant to be rape. It’s meant to be the kind of gross, rough, angry sex those two have. To change the intention of the scene just because you feel “that’s something the character would do”, to me is not really caring about really understanding the character’s intentions in the first place, since you have source material and an author you can check with. They simply didn’t care in order to get HBO points.

And for some quotes 

I find the idea that we are meant to read into Cersei’s actions after the sept encounter in the books as indicative of a woman who experienced rape, or that George did not come out to straight up say the words “I did not write it as rape” (he would never throw D&D under the bus that way, come on) as evidence that it was indeed intended to be rape all along in the books, even more of twisting oneself into a pretzel than trying to explain away the scene in the show as not rape. Neither D&D nor George have ever shied away from calling rape out for what it is in the show or the books. Why would they suddenly tiptoe around this one particular scene? I think it’s because the issue here is much more nuanced than just filming a rape scene; it’s about the grey lines of consent and it’s about changing something from the books to make it look much worse than it originally was intended to be, for a character they know it will be regarded as very controversial/OOC, which raises all sorts of uncomfortable questions about how far D&D are willing to go for shock value. This is what GRRM has to say on the issue (bolded and underlined for emphasis):

“I think the “butterfly effect” that I have spoken of so often was at work here. In the novels, Jaime is not present at Joffrey’s death, and indeed, Cersei has been fearful that he is dead himself, that she has lost both the son and the father/ lover/ brother. And then suddenly Jaime is there before her. Maimed and changed, but Jaime nonetheless. Though the time and place is wildly inappropriate and Cersei is fearful of discovery, she is as hungry for him as he is for her.The whole dynamic is different in the show, where Jaime has been back for weeks at the least, maybe longer, and he and Cersei have been in each other’s company on numerous occasions, often quarreling.The setting is the same, but neither character is in the same place as in the books, which may be why Dan & David played the sept out differently. But that’s just my surmise; we never discussed this scene, to the best of my recollection.Also, I was writing the scene from Jaime’s POV, so the reader is inside his head, hearing his thoughts. On the TV show, the camera is necessarily external. You don’t know what anyone is thinking or feeling, just what they are saying and doing. If the show had retained some of Cersei’s dialogue from the books, it might have left a somewhat different impression — but that dialogue was very much shaped by the circumstances of the books, delivered by a woman who is seeing her lover again for the first time after a long while apart during which she feared he was dead. I am not sure it would have worked with the new timeline.”

Nothing whatsoever of what GRRM is saying above in explaining how he wrote their sept encounter even remotely hints at the fact that he intended consent to be even a question in his original work. He is not pointing out that he is writing from Jaime’s POV to build a contrast with Cersei’s, he is pointing out that he is writing from Jaime’s POV to build a contrast between the books medium and the camera medium and what each does or does not allow. And he goes further by saying that Cersei’s dialogue from the books might have helped giving a different impression of the scene: i.e. that it was NOT rape. What is happening is George trying to distance himself from D&D’s choice while at the same time being a professional and not bashing their botched adaptation of his work, by explaining why perhaps they might have decided to approach it differently from the way HE wrote the original scene and how maybe some of his material might not have fit because of the timeline.We actually have Cersei’s own POV later in the books, where she reminisces about tons of events from her close and distant past, and not once does she ever think back upon that incident in the sept in a way so as to indicate it was in any way a “traumatic” experience for her, while she does plenty of reflecting back upon her unpleasant sexual experiences with Robert, for example. Meanwhile, Cersei being disgusted with Jaime’s loss of his hand, or the way his looks are changing and his personality is changing, is very much a plot point that she comes back to over and over. “How could I have ever loved such a wretched creature?”, or getting up naked from a bathtub in front of Jaime thinking he still wants her and even taunting him with “Pining what you lost?” and then getting annoyed that Jaime pretty much tells her she’s a fool for thinking that? Hardly dynamics one has with their rapist. And also GRRM also says: 

The scene was always intended to be disturbing, but I do regret if it has disturbed people for the wrong reasons.

“It has disturbed people FOR THE WRONG REASONS”, means that he wanted that scene to cause controversy because of how damn gross it all is, them having sex next to the corpse of their incestuous son, not because there was an issue of consent. So, no. The book scene was not intended to have consent be a central point, let alone rape. Yes, something happened in the adaptation to make it come across as significantly more forced, in a way that can very rightfully be interpreted as rape, while at the same time not being intended to be rape for plot point’s sake. But, when it comes to the filming of that scene, this is what the director had to say:

Of course Lena and Nikolaj laughed every time I would say, “You grab her by the hair, and Jack is right there,” or “You come around this way and Jack is right there.“ 

Yeah. Lena was SO distraught and it was so difficult for her to film that “rape” scene. They was totally totally totally directed to play it as such, and were so serious and affected by it. Give me a break, David. And also:

The consensual part of it was that she wraps her legs around him, and she’s holding on to the table, clearly not to escape but to get some grounding in what’s going on. And also, the other thing that I think is clear before they hit the ground is she starts to make out with him. The big things to us that were so important, and that hopefully were not missed, is that before he rips her undergarment, she’s way into kissing him back. She’s kissing him aplenty.

So there’s two possibilities here: either D&D intended it as rape from the start, but didn’t give clear instructions to the director, and, in turn, Nik and Lena, so that they didn’t set out to shoot it the way D&D intended, or nobody intended it as rape but something was messed up in the editing process (apparently after this scene, they made some changes to the editing process? Not sure how reliable this info is, but maybe someone can dig it out, if they remember). Regardless, what they ended up with is a scene that has some serious, serious issues of consent, and the comments afterwards, trying to downplay the consent in favour of highlighting the context or the way Cersei did give non-verbal consent, only ended up stirring more criticism of the director and actors being rape apologists. So, it doesn’t surprise me if they’ve just given up trying to defend their original intentions, since it only made things worse (and rightfully so), in favour of trying to explain it away the way GRRM did; by trying to make up explanations that the narrative required it and it made sense to be filmed that way.So, to conclude and link everything back to the reason why we are debating this (i.e. “NCW is a misogynist for disliking Dany when Jaime is a rapist and he excuses him”), while I can totally sympathize with a show-only person who watches that scene and sees it as rape, I also think this particular scene is not something we can use in the discourse about Jaime’s character and arc, given that not only there are huge question marks about what was intended with that scene in the first place, not only it is forgotten like it never happened to the point that you could skip it and nothing would change, but we know for a fact that it was NOT what was intended in the original source material by the original author. The one who decides where the characters’ arcs are supposed to go. You cannot say “it doesn’t make sense that Jaime does X and Y in his endgame because he’s a rapist” when that endgame is being decided by someone who never wrote Jaime as a rapist in the first place. All you can say is that D&D messed up big time with that scene because it literally does not line up or fit with anything else that is going on at the time or in the past or in the future when it comes to Jaime. 

- Koops (jaimetheexplorer)

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