Finally watching Stranger Things (I'm aware I'm late, alright) and right now going through season 3 and. The writing is... questionnable
Don't get me wrong, I still love the characters. But the whole russian thing is so dumb? Ooooh there are evil russians in the mall of a nice american city, and secret monsters are disguising themselves as normal american citizens. What kinda cold war propaganda bullshit...
Apparently the whole russian thing gets fixed in season 4 and they actually become a realistic threat, so there's that at least.
It just feels really ridiculous, which I could deal with if it was another show but Stranger Things isn't camp at all. It's clever and funny, while managing to be genuinely frightening. The dark and gritty feeling of season 1, the claustrophobic atmosphere of Hawkins, it's a huge part of why the show works, at least for me. Season 3 is so wildly different in tone, which isn't bad in itself, I like the colors! But let's hope next season, the commercial eighties nostalgia is made a bit more bearable by good writing, at least.
(Also : the whole Steve Harrington endangers a child thing bothered me, somehow. One of the things that struck me as really clever in the first two seasons was the way people of three different generations - young teens, teenagers, and adults - could relate to characters their age and the fact that it impacted the way you watched the show. When you are seventeen, you feel like Jonathan and Nancy both perfectly know what they are getting into, and them going monster hunting is exciting, right? But the D&D gang looks terribly young, so you feel a bit more protective towards them. And it's reflected in the way the characters act! In season 2, Steve tries to stop the kids from getting in the tunnels, and it makes sense! The fierce protectiveness the older characters feel towards the younger ones is one of the things that makes the show realistic, and reminds the viewers that the characters are facing genuine danger. So having Steve put a ten years old in danger is 1- Out of character, 2- Lessens the sense of danger surrounding the secret russian base)
(Also : Give Jonathan Byers the spotlight back you cowards. I love love his relationship with Nancy, but he deserves to have a bit more badass moments on his own)
All this aroace character shipcourse has proven to me that a majority of people that interact in fandom cannot actually interact with characters and media outside of shipping and genuinely I believe you need to learn how to interact with media outside of shipping.
okay, bear with me this requires a lot of context. imagine that you wake up on a space ship with an alien species capable of telepathic communication with you. they are also capable of instilling you with the knowledge that everything they say is completely true, there is not a hint of uncertainty in your mind. they have weapons capable of obliterating earth pointed at the planet, and are forcing you to do one of two things in order to not fire. within the fiction of the scenario you are not being given the choice, but you the real you is picking which one of these things you'd rather have happen.
you must eat an 8 ounce serving of human baby meat, by default prepared like a steak (different preparations can be requested). you do not have to keep the meat down once you're done, but you have to get all of it in your body at one point. they do not provide any information about where the baby came from or how it died. if you complete this, they will deposit you back on earth and you will be free from legal repercussions of cannibalism, and it is generally agreed that you are also free from moral blame as it was against your will.
you will be surgically impregnated with a human embryo and must carry it to term and give birth. the embryo does not contain your dna, but otherwise you don't know anything about its origins. the aliens have advanced medical technology that gives you sufficient anatomy to carry and birth the baby, and keeps you healthy throughout, with no risk of long term complications or death. you have the choice to keep or give away the baby once you have given birth, and will be deposited back on earth.
if you refuse to comply in either situation, they destroy the earth and you are forced to live the rest of your life aboard the space ship as a prisoner, until you die of natural causes.
when i get my hands on Liam O'Brien i'm making him pay all my therapy bills
like. LIKE. look at his face. the sudden surprise as jester invades his space and proceeds to RUTHLESSLY unravel and acknowledge his pain after the traumatic events of the day, the way he's so carefully tucked away all emotions and tried to move on without worrying the group. look how quickly the layers all crumble away, how emotional and vulnerable and small he looks, how for a second we see Caleb Widogast without all his layers. if i had any power at all to do so i would give this man a thousand oscars and then ask for a milion dollars to compensate for the emotional damage he has wrought me
edit: please read my additions at the bottom before reblogging this post. please do not reblog this post without also reblogging the others i've linked!
if you saw my reblog(s) of ahmed's donation posts in which he includes his crypto wallets (and my links to those posts), anyone else's posts explaining how to donate to him using those wallets, or any aid post that mentions his ability to accept cryptocurrency and decided to villianise him and accuse him of being hamas for it... you are repulsive. you are not welcome here.
people are dying. paypal and ko-fi take percentages. paypal has a monthly withdrawal limit. i'm the first to admit i know nothing about cryptocurrencies, but ahmed has said it goes directly to him without a service taking a cut. i assume there are fewer or no withdrawal limits. it is harder to track and less regulated, which, in this case, provides an additional layer of security for people being precision targeted. get over it.
anyway. donate to ahmed's ko-fi. donate to ahmed's paypal. follow ahmed @90-ghost for updates on how to help him, and check his ko-fi and tumblr posts for updates. send him a nice ask. reblog his posts depicting he and his family's life in gaza. read tumblr user neaeach (naoual sahe)'s interview with ahmed. bring hope. listen to palestinians, don't speak over them.
ahmed's reblog of his interview, with a link to it:
direct link to the interview:
edit: i don't need reblogs, but palestinians, muslims, arabs, and other people suffering directly due to zionism and islamophobia do! please reblog their posts!! @el-shab-hussein has also made a post about these accusations against ahmed, which @fairuzfan added onto. and please reblog this post with ahmed's latest ko-fi update and all the ways you can DIRECTLY donate to him! thank you
Don’t think I ever quite said what my LGBTQ+ headcanons are for the boys, so these are my current thoughts! Always changing of course but this is what I feel most strongly right now.