#essay post

[thestargayzingheroine]

Why A Better World is my favourite "Evil Superman" Story

So in the last two decades or so, there's been a notable amount of dark and edgy stories around superheroes turning evil and whatnot and most of them really love to do their own expies of Superman. I've never been the biggest fans of these kinds of stories.

And then there's the actual stories of Superman and other heroes being outright villains or at least just massive assholes. In recent years, this has been largely thanks to the influence of media like the Injustice Games or the Synderverse DC movies. It's... honestly become a trope I am tired of.

Because you know the damnest thing? There is a story that does all these ideas really damn well and arguably better. It is the two-parter from the Justice League cartoon "A Better World".

Now, I am aware how most people favouring the DCAU has become a bit of toxic nostalgia at times and it's something I myself am trying to work through a bit. But in this case, I do think it's the best idea of doing an evil DC story, much better and more interesting than the Crime Syndicate, who if you ask me are not very interesting, though I do remember liking the Crisis On Two Earths movie a lot, which funny enough, was originally going to be this two parter before various things led to it being canned and then later repurposed as a direct to DVD movie.

Anyway, my main crux of why I love this story is simple... The entire Justice League turns evil... and the reasons are very much in-character for all of them. You look at the scene with Justice Lord Batman for example.

As fucking evil as the Justice Lords are... Batman can't quite fully hate his alternate self for his reason for taking part in all this being basically one-step further than his own mission, that no child should ever go through what he did. Hell, I recall reading that the reason the writers had Batman drop his batarang at the end of this scene... was because he genuinely wouldn't be able to come up with an argument to that.

Superman likewise kills Lex Luthor because yeah, Luthor literally exploited the flaws in Democracy and became president of the US, threatening to kinda basically start world war 3. It's obviously horrible... but Superman is a character whose main motivation is making the world a better place. And if people who abuse the systems of power of the world are hurting people, why shouldn't Superman put a stop to that?

And yeah, Superman should obviously never kill, he's the most paragon of paragons of the DC universe, a man committed to always being better than the villains he fights... but this is him pushed to his most logical extreme. Hell, the main Superman knows this and its why Lex used his knowledge of this alternate universe as part of his plan in the season after this, to goad our Superman into crossing the line because yeah, there's a part of him that could go this far.

But right as Superman is about to apparently finish him, the big guy says this.

"I'm not the man who killed President Luthor. I wish to heaven that I were but I'm not."

Because Superman like everyone else, obviously would have those same thoughts and same urges. He's human.

I've kinda gone off Injustice a bit because to be honest... the injustice games were kinda just this but a bit too edgelordy. Hell, in A Better World, Lois Lane still lives and the whole genesis of it doesn't revolve around her getting fridged.

So yeah, A Better World is probably one of my favourite mirror universe stories because of the fact that well... it really is like looking in a mirror and seeing just how easy the greatest heroes can become evil and how they wouldn't be massively out of character doing so. But also it reminds us that as much as this darkness can tempt some of our finest, the ones who don't go down this dark path are stronger in heart than anyone else. Because when the world becomes a dark and horrible place, it becomes very easy to be just as dark. But even though it can be hard to still try and be a good person even in dark times, it's ultimately worth it. Because good always triumphs over evil.

#dc #superman #batman #dcau #justice league #justice lords #essay post #Youtube

[genericpuff]

yeah so let's talk about the scenes between hades and thanatos that went from being goofy "haha a boss being hard on an employee" 'jokes' to child abuse as soon as it was revealed that hades was thanatos' adoptive father

and yes i'm putting a content warning jump for ❗❗❗ child abuse and neglect ❗❗❗

so first off, before we even get into the Thanatos / Hades father son relationship thing, I wanna mention a sequence in Episode 39 and why I think Rachel included the scene of Hades reaming Thanatos for being bad at his job.

And it's simply because of what happens the episode before.

Persephone's ableism aside (seriously, I have legs, that doesn't mean I want to walk everywhere, I also own a car, that doesn't mean I have to drive everywhere, maybe flying is tiring? Maybe he's injured and shouldn't be flying? Maybe he has a disability that results in him having wings that can't fly? Check yourself Persephone 😒) this is one of the earliest signs of LO's "Revenge for Persephone" problem which is CONSTANT throughout the narrative - that anytime Persephone is slighted or inconvenienced in the slightest, then the narrative needs to ensure there's some kind of revenge, either directly for her sake or indirectly for the audience's, and it's often always facilitated through or by Hades.

And that leads us to Episode 39, which is when we get exactly that.

Moving onto the scene itself, this is what we call in the work environment a "dressing down". This is not how legitimate employee reviews are given. Hades is not planning on giving him any sort of formal review or constructive criticism. He's planning on tearing him a new asshole just for the fun of doing so. You can even see it written on his face. He's doing this just for the joy of tearing him down. As someone who's been subject to this kind of behavior in previous work environments, I can assure you that this is not normal behavior that's indicative of a functioning workplace, this is abuse.

Taking that train scene into account, it's a way to indirectly "avenge" Persephone. She was slighted by Thanatos, so now Hades is going to make his life hell. But here's the thing - this not revenge for Persephone's sake. Hades doesn't even know Persephone's in the building, and Persephone doesn't know that Thanatos is being berated by Hades. But the scene is here anyways because of course the audience needs to feel "better" about Persephone getting pushed by a stranger at the train stop.

Now, scenes like this have been done in other stories, often times to explain the behavior of bullies/aggressors/etc. because in many cases, textbook bullies, whether children or adults, are abusing others because they're being abused by a higher authority so they take it out on those "weaker" than them.

But this doesn't work in LO, for several reasons.

First off, it pretty much plays it off like a joke, especially when the scene continues after Persephone has walked into Tower 4.

But beyond that, the higher authority abusing Thanatos is someone we're expected to root for. He's the main love interest. While this could be written as a legitimate character flaw, we all know now, in the year 2023, that Rachel sees Hades' behavior as a feature, not a bug. While most scenes written like this would cast a new perspective on a bully and allow some room for understanding and empathy from the audience, in LO's case, we're still not expected to empathize with Thanatos here, they want us insulting him right alongside Hades.

And of course, that brings us to the big blue elephant in the room - the knowledge of Hades and Thanatos' relationship completely re-contextualizes these scenes in a way that's far too depressing and horrifying for a writer like Rachel to be able to wrap up confidently.

Of course, she tried, but her efforts... can't even really be called efforts. For starters, because a lot of it is played off as a joke, as if Rachel can't handle even a single moment of legitimate emotion, she has to "write off the awkward" by making things "funny".

But when she does try to seriously write these scenes of introspection, reflection, and communication, it just winds up turning into the main protagonists going "woe is me, I was the real victim!" and never actually suffering consequences for their actions as a result as they Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss their victims into apologizing to them. It still isn't asking us to empathize with or side with Thanatos, it wants us to end up right back at square one supporting Hades' side of the story.

Literally "well you weren't that bad, at least you were there!" bare minimum accountability, followed by "well I didn't make your life easy so I get it" from someone who was literally a child who was abandoned and left to live with an abusive asshole. It wasn't his fault that he was in the situation he was in, it wasn't his fault that he was a "handful" for Hades because he was a CHILD and Hades was the ADULT, but the comic paints it as Thanatos being at fault anyways for being "ungrateful".

But there are even more subtle signs that point to Thanatos' childhood with Hades that, while not specifically mentioning it, do paint a pretty nasty picture of how Thanatos views Hades and the people around him as a result of his childhood, in a very fridge horror "stop and think about it" kind of way.

First of all, the fact that Thanatos hasn't even been allowed to touch Hades' car. Obviously he's referring to specifically driving it but it makes me wonder what kind of bare minimum accommodations Hades made for his own adopted son. Again, played off for a joke.

And of course we have this one piece of concept art-

Now to be fair, this is concept art from before it was retconned that Thanatos was Hades' son, but it still casts an icky implication in hindsight both because of Hades' treatment towards Thanatos as well as the implication that Thanatos was getting "too close" to Persephone for Hades' liking. This sort of weird dynamic can be found in the actual comic when Hades admits he knows Thanatos was sleeping with Minthe.

And then there was this one scene, which prompted me to write this post in the first place, shared in the ULO Discord.

Thanatos has just met Daphne, so it's not necessarily weird for him to be suspicious of her asking for his phone, but the actual dialogue... doesn't line up with what you'd assume he would be suspicious of.

He doesn't say "you're not going to peek through it, are you?"

He specifically says "You're not going to smash it, are you?"

Now, if this line were intended to be anything more than some throwaway "haha funny" line (which, again, where's the punchline here) then maybe it could point more to something that happened between him and Minthe. But there's nothing that implies she was ever violent towards him, and the one time she IS violent towards anyone, it's implied that's the first and only time she's ever escalated things to that point and that even she's shocked and disgusted at her own behavior.

There is plenty to imply that Thanatos was abused by Hades, though.

So reading this line in hindsight... really just feels like further proof on a growing pile of evidence that Thanatos was constantly being berated, controlled, and abused by Hades, a guy who he never asked for as a father figure, but was still expected to apologize to anyways.

But there is one last thing I wanna mention before I wrap up. One thing that was mentioned by yet another user in the ULO community that really stood out to me because it just goes to show how horrible Hades has been towards Thanatos, both in the past pre-retcon and in the present well after it was established that they were father and (adopted) son.

And that's Hades' two dream sequences that involve him having children with Persephone.

One of these scenes is from before the retcon. The other is from after.

Neither one features Thanatos as a part of Hades' visions for the future.

Hades has been Thanatos' entire life. But Hades doesn't see Thanatos as even a part of his.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #antiloreolympus #anti lore olympus #essay post #long post #content warning #cw #child abuse #child neglect #tw child abuse #tw child neglect

[atomicradiogirl]

Son of a Coma Guy: Unconditional Love is Cutting Your Heart Out

Son of a Coma Guy is leading up to the climax of the Tritter arc of House season 3, only two episodes before Finding Judas, where Wilson betrays House and makes a deal with Tritter, an action that ultimately dissolves their relationship until Season 4. The episode starts with a unique structure, with no patient cold open. Just House having lunch with two patients in comas. Wilson barges in and yells at House for “forcing him to lie to the police” that House didn't steal Wilson’s prescription pad and forge his Vicodin prescriptions. This is all in the first minute of the episode, setting up the intricacies of House and Wilson’s relationship that will soon get pushed in the later events of the season. 

Wilson is characterized as a person who is selfless, giving, loves to be needed, and will do anything in his power to help people he cares about, especially House. House does something that should rightfully break this friendship: put Wilson’s career on the line and possibly send himself to prison. Wilson is mad at House for only thinking about himself and putting himself in jeopardy. Wilson isn’t mad at House for using him and his kindness. House always does this. Wilson likes being used. In reality, Wilson is scared for House, not himself. He lied to Tritter to protect House. House didn't force Wilson to lie for him. Wilson did it anyway. The ultimate act of loyalty and care, the ultimate sacrifice. This is all read between the lines, of course, and this important revelation in the opening of the episode sets up the actions and importance of Son of a Coma Guy. 

We are then introduced to the titular Son of a Coma Guy, Kyle Wozniak, who has a seizure when House induces one. Kyle discusses his medical history and his family history. He says that his dad never liked his mother’s side of the family, and he was raised by a guardian. He only visits his father, who is in a coma. House wakes up his comatose father, Gabriel Wozniak. The last thing he remembers is the fire that killed his wife, something that is revealed to have been caused by Kyle later in the episode. House and Wilson discuss Gabriel. House argues, “Maybe he just doesn’t like his son. The delusion that fathering a child installs a permanent geyser of unconditional love.” Wilson interjects with, “Maybe your father’s feelings were conditional. Not everyone-” House cuts him off, “Yes, of course, that would play into your romantic vision of-” Wilson says, “In terms you would understand, we have an evolutionary incentive to sacrifice for our offspring. Our tribe, our friends. Keep them safe.” To which House replies, “Except for all the people who don’t. Everything is conditional. You just can’t always anticipate the conditions.” Wilson’s argument here mirrors his actions at the start of the episode, sacrificing himself and keeping House safe from the consequences of his actions, even if he deserves them. House says that maybe Gabriel’s relationship with Kyle is conditional, that love and sacrifice can never be unconditional. Referencing his abusive relationship with his father and his perception of love. That it always has to have a catch. This is really important in understand House and Wilson as characters, and especially in their relationship. Wilson views love as being programmed, an innate thing you’re evolutionarily destined to have. House views love as something you earn, something you get, something that has conditions. Wilson might have a romantic vision of love, but his love life is just as unhealthy as House’s. Constantly putting people’s needs in front of his own, sacrificing himself for House, which is left unnoticed and unappreciated by House. Someone who views this sacrifice as conditional when, in reality, it isn’t. This is the dichotomy of House and Wilson. 

House fulfills Gabriel’s last-day request of getting a sandwich and needs Wilson’s car for a road trip to Atlantic City. Wilson of course, lets him have it but decides to come with them. House keeps questioning Gabriel so Gabriel makes a deal with him that for every question House asks, Gabriel asks him one too. Gabriel asks House if he’s ever been in love, House says yes. Says that they met when she shot him in paintball, talking about Stacy. Gabriel asks if House has ever loved anyone else and House deflects saying, “no more questions” but Wilson is of course in the car with them. House doesn’t want to admit that he 1. Either loves Wilson or 2. Is capable of loving Wilson since this would prove his conditional love theory, that he loves Wilson only because he selflessly gives House what he needs. 

In the hotel in Atlantic City, Wilson asks House why he used his pad, not Cameron’s Foreman's or Chase’s. Wilson says that it’s because his association with House is voluntary. That he chooses to be close to him. “Any relationship that involves choice you have to see how far you can push before it breaks. And one day our friendship will break and that’ll just prove your theory that relationships are conditional and you don’t need human connection or deserve it or whatever goes on in that rat maze of your brain.” House deflects this, of course. Incapable of being truly honest about his feelings at this stage. House, throughout the show has a deep insecurity about deserving love, deserving to live, and deserving to be happy. Wilson’s unconditional loyalty to him pushes against this. Yes, there are moments when their relationship wavers but it never truly fully breaks. He always comes back to House and in the end, he relies on House. House is all Wilson has, and Wilson is all House has. Son of a Coma Guy is the first proof that House can bend Wilson and his relationship and Wilson will bend with him. Their social contract of push and pull. Bending but never fully breaking. 

House questions Gabriel about his family history, eventually determining the illness that is inherited throughout their family. Gabriel asks House why he became a doctor, and he decides to be honest with him. Saying that when his father was stationed in Japan he went to one of the hospitals as a kid and he was inspired by a doctor, a buraku, one of Japan’s untouchables. Someone whose ancestors were slaughterers and gravediggers, he wasn’t accepted by his staff, but they needed him because he was right so nothing else mattered. Gabriel is asked about the fire that killed his wife, and he explains that Kyle when he was 12, knocked over the kindling which started the fire. He didn’t blame him because he was just a child and it was an accident. Gabriel isn’t with him because he blames himself for failing to keep his family safe. He couldn’t stop the fire and save his wife. He doesn’t want to see his son die too. This goes into Wilson’s evolutionary love argument. Gabriel loves his family so much that he can’t bear to lose them, to fail to protect them.

Gabriel decides to perform the ultimate sacrifice, to give Kyle his heart to save him. House decides to go along with it, telling Gabriel how to kill himself so that the heart can be saved, by hanging. Before he aids Gabriel, he asks Wilson to leave the room. Wilson says no, but House says, “You’ve lied to the cops enough for me. Maybe I don’t want to push this until it breaks.” To which Wilson leaves, accepting that House appreciates his sacrifice and is willing to put himself on the line for someone else. Something that House rarely does. Gabriel asks House if he could hear one thing from his father what would it be? To which House says “I’d want him to say You were right. You did the right thing.” What this is truly about we don’t know and never really find out but House’s abusive relationship with his father isn’t truly revealed until One Day One Room a few episodes later, which puts new context to this line. House has to kill a father who loves his son so much, even though he accidentally caused the death of his wife, that he is willing to sacrifice his heart for him. Gabriel unconditionally loves his son, but House’s father’s love was conditional. This is what Wilson argued previously. Gabriel is willing to sacrifice his heart, (do I have to mention Wilson’s Heart) also mirrors Wilson’s sacrifice at the beginning of the episode. Both Gabriel and Wilson prove their unconditional love. Wilson wordlessly sets up House’s alibi for him and they wait together for Gabriel to die. When Gabriel’s heart saves Kyle, Kyle asks House for any message from his father, something to give him closure. House tells him what he wishes his father would have told him. “Right about what? What does that mean?” Kyle asks. “How would I know? He’s your dad,” House tells him and leaves.

“You know what I learned about this case?” House asks Wilson at the end of the episode. “That it proved that people can love unconditionally and you can tell yourself it’s not true, but you’ll just end up in a hotel room in Atlantic City asking someone to cut your heart out?” Wilson says. 

Son of a Coma Guy is an episode about unconditional love and sacrifice. Gabriel and Wilson are the givers, those who sacrifice their hearts (literally and not literally) for the people they love. Kyle and House are the takers. Those who don’t think they deserve the love they receive but are forced to take it. Kyle, to live, House for growth. I adore this episode and it is a prime highlight of House and Wilson’s relationship and the peak of House’s writing.

#house md #house md season 3 #tritter arc #hilson #i'm essay posting again #essay post #this is a whole 1600 words long #i wish i was exaggerating #i adore this episode #s3e7 #son of a coma guy #such a goated underrated episode #gregory house #james wilson #wilson's heart #SYMBOLISM!!!!!! #i'm extremely normal about this #my thoughts #nat posting #please don't let this flop #chaining myself to the floor #meta

[trashiis]

Ok this is a bit of a wordy post but bear with me. I've been reading up on the tech literacy discourse and I thought I'd add my two cents, and how it connects to piracy. LONG post under the cut!

I was born in the year 2000, which puts me on the border of being a digital native. I was brought up on tech, but only in my later childhood and teens. I've always considered myself "tech literate," but no more than the usual kid my age.

The first time I ever truly experienced tech illiteracy with my peers was when I was 23, when in one of my college classes a MacOS update rendered the software we used for said class unusable. After a few days a temporary patch was released, which by that point an assignment that utilized the software was due the next day. I followed the patch instructions, which involved navigating to the software files and substituting a designated file with the provided patch. A bit more complicated than a simple update, but the instructions were clear and intuitive enough to easily understand where the file went. The next day, during a class study session, I overheard multiple people come up to the professor complaining that the software wasn't working. After the second person complained with the professor being clueless, I asked the student what MacOS version they were on. Sure enough they were on the latest version, which as we already know is incompatible with the software. I then walked the student through the patching process step-by-step, with them needing to essentially be hand held through the entire process (almost to the point of me doing everything for them). After the patch was implemented, the student thanked me and said "Wow! How did you figure all of this out?" and to me that question was stupid- I just googled "[software] [version] MacOS [version] fix", went to the first result (which was the company website), downloaded the patch zip file, and followed the instructions on the README.txt file. It was so easy, and I couldn't comprehend that this was somehow complicated for other people, especially those my age. I mean we literally grew up using computers. It wasn't until I started learning about tech literacy and learned helplessness that I finally started connecting the dots.

Tech in general is becoming extremely user friendly, almost to a fault. UI and UX simplicity is taking away any critical thinking needed to use any sort of tech. My peers are so used to one-click and/or automatic updates, so the fact that this required slightly more effort than a simple update triggered their learned helplessness. The professor was no help in this case either, since he just extended the due date for those affected with no penalty. I actually ended up making a very detailed (and I mean idiot proof detailed) step by step picture guide with screenshots on how to install the patch for the software for the class. Anyways, back to the main point- How can I blame my peers for not knowing how to install a "complicated" update when they're so used to being spoon-fed simplicity?

But hang on- how was I the exception? I'm just as used to tech simplicity as anyone else, it's not like I'm using anything differently or making things harder for myself on purpose (I'm looking at you, linux users). So why was I the only one who knew how to install this update? It wasn't until I had a discussion many months later with my mom about this tech illiteracy epidemic that I finally thought it through. I acquired problem solving skills through piracy. To start off: not piracy but adjacent- learning to install mods in Minecraft when I was 11 taught me file navigation and what a README.txt file was, as well as the importance of version specificity/compatibility. Figuring out how to play Pokemon roms on the family computer and my iPod touch when I was 12? That's piracy, and it also taught me how to work with different platforms and the art of jailbreaking. Installing custom firmware on my 3ds so I could pirate games when I was 16 taught me how to follow written tech instructions without any visual guidance. Pirating Adobe software on my MacBook in high school taught me about patching files on MacOS. All of this knowledge and inherent googling that came with it made installing the patch for my class software look like a tiny drop in the bucket in terms of complexity.

So why am I saying all of this? Am I suggesting people learn to pirate to become tech literate?

yes.

With everything becoming pay-walled, subscription services running rampant, the proliferation of closed-source "ecosystems" *cough* Apple *cough*, and (arguably) most importantly media preservation, piracy is a skill that will serve you well in the long term. It will teach you critical thinking in the tech sphere, and if enough people learn then we can solve this ever growing epidemic of tech illiteracy. I'm not really sure how to end this post, so if anyone has anything else they'd like to add please feel free to.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

#Tech literacy #media literacy #piracy #essay post #long post #my post #trashiis talks

[melodiousmyra]

My opinions on why I stop watching and reading rent a girlfriend and talking about self and body image

As you can observe on what I encircle, not only Kazuya only likes cute girls but also boys in the background in both anime and manga are always in every episode commented on the four main girls on having cute appearances, sexy body, etc.

This really pissed me off cause men prefer this kind of girls because of the outside and doesn't care about the inside of them. In reality, however, lots of men keep cheating on women who are not that attractive at all and fat shaming them as evidence in this one fanfic I found in wattpad (side note: this is not about rent a girlfriend):

And honestly, it really makes me rage because of this kind of behavior and look at these pictures I screenshot on why this series is excruciating:

1. Those boys in the background are refering to Chizuru

2. They comment on Sumi

3. These boys are eyeing on both Chizuru and Ruka ( and I am the girl in the background)

4. This manga panel makes me barf (plus they look on her boobs and legs and an older man too?! EWWWWWWW!)

5. You get my point 😑😑😑

And goes on and on and on. I can't like list them all cause this is going to be sooooo long.

The pictures I put is the reason why I don't like this anime anymore. The boys conpletely just care about the appearances and it is unfair and to make it worst, they just call Kazuya an unfitted boyfriend because of his appearance?!, HUH?!

I have never been this dissapointed in my life and I think I can wish that this anime is done.

The girls watching this anime are going to experience self image and body image issues which is I am going to talk about next

Self image is an “internal dictionary” that describes the characteristics of the self, including such things as intelligent, beautiful, ugly, talented, selfish, and kind while body image is a combination of the thoughts and feelings that you have about your body.

Btw this is the diagram before girls witnessed the boys crushing on cute and sexy girls in public:

And this is the diagram on girls after they witness the boys crushing on cute and sexy girls in public:

Studies show that negative thinking and feelings is that once people start to focus on shortcomings or problems in one area or one situation, it becomes very easy to only see problems in many other areas or situations. Negative thinking has a way of leading to more negative thinking.

When I saw the boys in the series focus on the four main girls, specifically Chizuru, I can't help but think on how girls watching this would be jealous cause she attracts lots and lots of men and going to think about their own appearances on how they look. Plus, the biggest is their characteristic. While boys care about their appearance on the outside and don't care about the inside

This series isn't the only one that has kinds of boys in the background crushing on cute girls. I did saw some reaction posts from that one episode of Yugioh Gx that the male students of duel academy (also Syrus) cheering on DMG cause she's cute and criticizing Jaden for letting her lose and the reaction of it is fantastic. I really like how he criticize the fans of their obssesion with her and also telling to shut up about it. But DMG told the boys that she IS having fun, even when she is about to lose. This undestand the boys and I'm glad at that.

Also, there is one horrible thing that girls have to do to get attention from the boys, Photoshop. Because of their insecurities, girls decided to picture themselves and photoshop into cute and sexy girls

One example is that one episode of south park in season 17 entitled " The Hobbit". The plot goes around Wendy Testaburger photoshopping Lisa Burger to spread the word about self and body image but unfortunately, it did not go well. Lisa is widely popular with the boys thanks to the photshopped photo and really angers Wendy cause she just did that for a good cause and many classmates and her friends called her a "jelly" (short term of jealous). Soon, the cheerleaders began photoshopping also and this angers Wendy more cause she wants them to accept their true self and I can't blame her. She did try to go to the news to explain on banning photoshop but the news anchors keeps saying that she is quote "Jelly". Kanye West tells her a story about the magic of photoshop and Wendy apologizes for her actions. In the end, Wendy photoshop herself while she's crying and I am shocked and saddened. Look at that tear she shred:

Honestly, the ending is awful. They literally make poor Wendy stop spreading the awareness of self and body image. She is just doing that for the good of the society and it really pissed me. I really wish Wendy could someday spread the word of self and body image in the future

Rent a girlfriend has really gotten disgusting and despicable over the chapters. We have Kazuya's pervertness, the girls fighting for Kazuya and mostly, the boys in the background crushing on Chizuru, Mami, Ruka and Sumi and calling Kazuya an ugly boyfriend

In conclusion, I can say that this shoujo anime is the worst. I stopped watching this anime in season 2 and decided to sell the only manga I have in the future for my college fees. If you are going to watch a shoujo anime, you can either watch this or not, its your opinion. When I saw videos on why this series is so bad, I can't blame them. So I hope I don't get hate and if you are a fan of this anime, I won't budge or judge you.

#hikari talks serious issues #kanojo okarishimasu #self image #body image #women's rights #girls are cute and beautiful the way they look #stop commenting on cute girls and fat shaming unattracting girl #south park #mental health #essay post #yugioh gx #gx

[gandalfthemorallygrey]

Hi unfortunately for you I was thinking tonight and got carried away so here's why Love From the Other Side by Fall Out Boy is Crowley to Aziraphale and Wasteland, Baby! by Hozier is Aziraphale to Crowley here's a super long post about it

GENRE

Love is alt rock, loud with guitars. I'm willing to believe Crowley is down for that sort of thing, even if he (might) prefer classic rock (or maybe that's just the Bentley). Wasteland isn't the classical that Aziraphale prefers but it is 10x softer than Love, with an acoustic guitar and soft vocals. Plus given Hozier's background and general themes it fits pretty well. I picked both of these songs a) because they were what I happened to be listening to but mostly b) because they're both about the apocalypse.

LYRICS FROM LOVE

We were a hammer to the statue of David / We were a painting you could never frame and / You were the sunshine of my lifetime

The sunshine bit is pretty obvious so I'm skipping over it but I really want to talk about the first line. Sources (the first few websites that popped up from my Google search) tell us that the statue of David by Michelangelo is widely thought to symbolize Florence's freedom and independence from Rome. David glares out in the direction of Rome daring it to try anything. Now, initially, I was like "well this doesn't fit at all my theory is ruined" but then I stopped looking at the "hammer" as a sledgehammer meant to destroy the statue and rather a hammer that might have been used in conjunction with a chisel to CREATE the statue of David. Aziraphale and Crowley created their own independent side (Florence) where they could be themselves without the interference or retribution of anyone from their respective former sides (Rome). They constructed a safe haven. The second line, the painting one, I take to mean the state of danger their relationship (in whatever form it existed in) was in while Heaven and Hell were still breathing down their necks. Their relationship was beautiful and worth saving, but could never be displayed or discussed openly for fear of retribution.

We're told we gotta get ahead, yeah / No matter what it takes / But there's no way off the hamster wheel on this rat race

This I take to be about the Arrangement, and Crowley's reasoning for beginning it. They're stuck in an unwinnable war against each other which each set of higher-ups is deadset on winning. Closer to the ground, though, Crowley and Aziraphale can see that the whole thing is inane and nothing much changes when the apparent "hereditary enemies" do each other's jobs for them, because the net effect is the same.

I'd never go, I just want to be invited, oh

Tbh this is just a Crowley thing to say

Generation sleep

HE LITERALLY DID THAT HE SLEPT THROUGH THE 19TH CENTURY

LYRICS FROM WASTELAND

All the fear and the fire / Of the end of the world / Happens each time a boy falls in love with a girl

Playing fast and loose with the gender in these lyrics but otherwise Aziraphale spends his apocalypse frightened and on fire (they both do, at different points). He also is by far the more anxious of the two about their relationship in whatever form it so happens to be in at that moment. He constantly worries about what Heaven would think about it or what would happen if they were caught--something tantamount to the end of the world, one might say.

All the things yet to come are the things that have passed / Like the holding of hands, like the breaking of glass / Like the bonfire that burns, that all words in the fight fell to

First things first: in the words of Neil Gaiman himself, they like holding hands. Then: the thing that burns when it comes to Aziraphale is his bookshop; all the words he's collected and hoarded throughout the years. They fell in what could generously be described as a fight with Shadwell. The time this all comes together in the past would be 1941. The church, glass included, breaks pretty thoroughly. Aziraphale thinks his books of prophecy are lost in the blaze of the Blitzkrieg. Again, and I cannot say this enough, they like holding hands.

Be still, my indelible friend / You are unbreaking / Though quaking / Though crazy / That's just wasteland, baby

I looked up the word "indelible" for this. It means unable to be forgotten or removed. Huh, kind of like an immortal demon that always has your back. Crazy. Crowley is both extremely fidgety and also has stopped time at Aziraphale's behest mid Satan-is-coming earthquake, so these lines could have double meaning within this interpretation.

And when the stench of the sea and the absence of green / Are the death of all things that are seen and unseen / Not an end, but the start of all things that are left to do

I have literally no idea where the stench of the sea factors into all this but both Heaven and Hell have a distinct absence of green when Aziraphale and Crowley make the switch. Not only are they meant to have died then and there, but their relations with Heaven and Hell actually did die, as well as the Usher (things seen and unseen). But this stunt isn't the end, rather the First Day of the Rest of Their Lives.

IN CONCLUSION,

This started out as me listening to music and quickly spiralled. Both Love and Wasteland can be interpreted through the lens of Good Omens to make sense and, as an additional benefit, have gay pining. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I'd love to hear your counterarguments/other songs you think are Aziraphale and Crowley coded.

#good omens #aziraphale and crowley #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands #ineffable partners #hozier #fall out boy #long post #essay post

[rurus-kadoo]

It is GoodTimesWithScar's birthday

and I'm going to tell you an abridged version of my life story because of it (aka: the many ways GoodTimesWithScar changed my life for the better)

Firstly, if it weren't for him, my MCYT phase would undoubtedly be over by now. I got into Hermitcraft in the same way as many other people probably did - a Mumbo "Building Your Redstone Ideas" video, lots of references to something called Hermitcraft Civil War, a spark of interest. I decided to watch Grian's perspective instead of Mumbo's for whatever reason, and I loved it. I zoomed through the Civil War, kept going through the rest of S6, hopped right into S7, and before I knew it, I was caught up to date, waiting for the next video to upload. So I decided I needed more. Grian had recently said a thing about how, despite the war and stuff, he and Scar were actually really good friends, so I decided to restart S7 from Scar's POV. And boy howdy, was that the right decision. The builds, the goofiness, the wholesome, chaotic energy, it was all just so amazing to me, and it still is! It hooked me in and hasn't released its grip since.

At some point, a couple months into watching him, I learned of his neuromuscular disease and was further awestruck by his resilience and how he manages to stay the most wholesome person on the internet despite it. Fast forward a few years, I've branched off into watching most every Hermit at some point, but Scar's stayed a constant for me. Then comes Update, and I learn he's been going through some horrible health-related stuff and my heart breaks for him. In between Update and Post-Surgery Update, I remember there was a time I was taking pictures for the school yearbook and all of a sudden I was overcome with this horrible sinking feeling and dread and terror that he might be dead. And I prayed and prayed and begged God to let him live and he did and, regardless of whether that panic was reasonable or not, I will never ever forget it, nor will I forget the incredible joy I felt upon seeing the Post-Surgery Update.

A couple of months later, I'm sitting on the school bus thinking about my future. My dad told me that, whatever I chose for my career path, I should make sure it has a balance between making me feel fulfilled, making me money, and making me happy. In the past, largely because of Scar and the other Hermits, I had had a dream to start a YouTube channel and someday, if not become a Hermit, at least meet them. This is still a dream of mine, but it's taken less precedence lately because of the realization I made that day. I love science, I love puzzles, I love reading and going down rabbit holes, I had considered going into the medical field a few times before, we don't know much about neuromuscular diseases, and I love watching Scar. And I remembered that sheer terror and I imagined the sheer joy if Scar no longer needed his wheelchair, if it was because of something I had done. And I know that's not likely, but I know in science every contribution helps, everything builds on each other, and it would certainly hit every mark on my dad's list.

In summary: Scar has defined a large portion of my childhood, and will define my adulthood (I am going into medical research (specifically neuromuscular diseases) because of him) and I wish him the happiest of happy birthdays- HANGON WAIT WHAT HE DID WHAT TO THE PERIMETER?????????? IS HE INSANE????????????????????????

#goodtimeswithscar #gtwscar #happy birthday gtwscar #happy birthday scar #hermitcraft #mcyt #L O N G post #oversharing probably #but like #he's made such a huge impact on my life and he's one of the best humans on the planet #essay post

[mixology-expert]

[I would love it if you wrote an essay. Yunno what? I’MA MAKE THIS ASK ESSAY-ABLE.]

Dusk laughs a bit. “It will take us where we want to go…Although, since we have no destination in mind, we will most likely end up somewhere down the river.”

…It is silent here. Silent and beautiful and yet Dusk somehow still stands out…

…Mix realizes that he has not stopped and had a moment to reflect in a long, long time.

Mix fiddles with his hands, not wanting to think about any of that.

…He feels obligated to, for some strange reason. So he does so anyway.

His bar… his bar is a nice place, sure– familiar. It gives him everything he needs. But nothing more. Everything he needs to survive, but not to live.

He sees a lot of miserable people there. Addicts and drunkies and people looking for a break from the circus. It’s dim there, warm, but not a summer sunbeam in a field and more of a dull imitation of comfort. Nothing that would really help someone- it would only numb the pain, just like the bottles of wine and whiskey that line the wooden shelves every single day.

Without even realizing it, Mix was moving his hands to shine a glass. It was all he ever did. Move. Pour. Mix. Sort. Shine. Clean. No breaks, not even to sleep– he hadn’t slept once in the entirety of his time in the circus. He woke up in his establishment and he hadn’t left.

But… even before all of that, what had happened?

Mix had always tried hard to remember what he was like before the circus, but all he knew was mixology. All he knew was the sharp scent of the bar and the ripped, rough remains of old stools and the weird texture of the broken tile floor and the small glint of glass after a thorough clean.

After a moment, he has a strange vision in his mind.

…A single child. Wide eyed, sweet, staring up at him with wonder and joy. He isn’t moving, yet he is, and he moves to pick the little child up…

A loud sound happens behind him, and when he whips around, and back again, the child is gone.

A wine glass had shattered on the floor behind him. He bites his lip and, turning back, he sees the shoes of someone storming off. And finally, he blinks, and there’s a bottle in his hand, marked with a label. Polmos Spirytus Rektyfikowany.

He suddenly turns back to the real world. His heart is beating hard. Fast pulses, over and over, unending. He takes deep breath after deep breath, but it’s hard for him to breathe, and each one comes out as more of a quiet wheeze. He finds Dusk’s hand and squeezes it, grounding himself and slowly coming back to his senses.

As he calms down, Mix stares up into the constellations above him. It makes him feel a bit small, seeing all of those gorgeous stars twinkling, billions of universes unfolding before him without him even knowing. He feels like he’s floating lighter than a feather.

Mix wakes from his daydream and realizes he was leaning his head onto Dusk’s shoulder. He immediately attempts to bring himself back upward before realizing Dusk was leaning her own head on his.

…Maybe it would be fine to just stay here for a little bit.

…

Or forever.

#have fun psychoanalyzing this please give me your theories #essay post #ordersup

[theladygazingatemptiness]

on the topic of early dA... see the reason why I’m so protective of young artists now is bc the overall culture of the art community as a whole during the late 2000s to early 2010s was so extremely hostile towards beginners and kids like.. when I first started posting traditional art online in 2009 it was not only socially acceptable to verbally attack (not critique, Verbally Attack) young artists it was lowkey encouraged and I saw Dozens of literal children get cursed out and called horrible names and told to stop drawing and to kill themselves and etc by adults bc they Drew Arms Weird or w/e and then being gaslit into thinking that They were the bullies and the bad guys for getting their feelings hurt and told that they just “”couldn’t take critique”” and sometimes it would escalate to the point where it would turn into a straight up harassment campaign against the 13 y/o who Dared to get upset about some 25 y/o loser with no actual desire to see them improve calling them names and the few people brave enough to actually go “hey um that’s kinda not ok and going too far actually??” would have a harassment campaign against Them too and I remember putting something like “feel free to be harsh and insult me/my art!!” in my bio even though I Knew I was extremely sensitive bc I wanted to seem like Someone Who Could Take Critique(TM)

and plus back then the “cringe culture is dead” mindset wasn’t really a thing yet (hell “cringe culture” wasn’t even a popularized term until maybe 2016) so Bad Art Blogs/Accounts were all the rage and the only Socially Acceptable reaction to having your art stolen and mocked behind your back to thousands of strangers on the internet was to just smile, force out a laugh, and nod; react in any way that’s Slightly more negative than that and you were labeled an Oversensitive Butthurt Killjoy and You would be blamed for having the audacity to post art that The Mods Didn’t Think Was Good or w/e bc how Dare that 12 y/o kid draw things that aren’t extremely photorealistic and detailed!!! how Dare that beginner artist not have a 100% perfect grasp on anatomy the very first time they pick up a pencil!! how Dare a young artist putting out free content for fun not be perfect!! if you don’t come out of the womb producing Van Gogh-quality artwork you deserve to be bullied and harassed, apparently!!

and so all of that made me incredibly insecure about my own art for Years and when I first started drawing digitally I wouldn’t post anything I drew online bc I was terrified of being dogpiled; I remember when I first made my art blog in 2013 and for over a year I was living in Constant paranoia that my art would be showcased on a Bad Art Blog and that everyone would hate me bc my anatomy wasn’t great or w/e. but now, looking back, posting art online is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and I’ve allowed myself to grow as an artist and I’m glad I didn’t suppress my hobby to appeal to people who don’t and will never have my best interest in their mind.

so basically: I’m here for young artists, I’m here for beginners, I’m here for people struggling to learn how to draw, bc nobody was there for them back then. my advice: Please keep drawing. Please keep sharing your art with the world. Please don’t be afraid of imperfections. despite what Art Snobs might have hammered into your brain, it is Not a fucking crime to not have a complete grasp on anatomy, or not to be well educated in color theory yet, or etc. you don’t deserve to be bullied or mistreated for it. you never did.

#wak #spice tag #this turned into a ramble but. I feel Very Strongly about this #vent / #art positivity #so others can see it I guess #long post #essay post

[raedshadowlegends]

Poker Face: The John-O Character

Omg hi howdy. Welcome back to a long essay featuring nothing groundbreaking whatsoever! Today we are going to be talking about Poker Face, the greatest show of all time. But more specifically, we're going to be talking about John-O.

For the uninformed-- John-O is a character featured briefly in the first episode of the series. He's only in two scenes but he sure is a silly little guy. Everyone loves John-O.

And upon my 17th rewatch, this time featuring my good friend @room215 , they pointed out that there seems to be a John-O-escue character in every single episode.

So we kept track of the John-O's. And now I'm going to be dissecting each one for no good reason.

Now there are no specific criteria for what makes a John-O. It's really just based on vibes. There are similar patterns between characters that are worth analyzing but for the most part you just know it when you see it.

I'll be talking about the first five episodes in this potentially very long post so grab yourself some popcorn and buckle up.

Oh and there will be spoilers. So go watch Poker Face if you haven't already, it's the best show ever actually.

Episode 1: Dead Man's Hand

John-O

BEHOLD! JOHN-O THE ORIGINAL!

There are definitely moments where I could get better pictures of him but I think this one is kinda perfect.

This is John-O. He is a silly little guy who has a history of stealing shit and breaking into places. He seems to be reformed because he states he "don't do this shit no more." So he is morally good. I trust him.

He's very silly and likes to add the suffix "-o" to the end of things he says. Like hey-o and good-o. He's just this goofy old man and his vibes are impeccable.

He's an ally to our friend Charlie Cale, helping her break into Nathalie's home despite his morals. He even offers to cut her in with his playboy sales. What a good guy.

Overall, John-O is a friend-o. He establishes our precedent of the "John-O character" being silly and the vibe that we're after.

Side Note: I love that Poker Face is an episodic show with a rotating cast of characters. It's seriously awesome and you don't see that shit often. However I am heartbroken at the loss of this man cause we probably won't see him again. It breaks my heart. I hope he's doing ok.

Episode 2: The Night Shift

"Meteor Shower" Trucker

Literally just this dude who is in one scene.

He is only here to tell Charlie about the meteor shower that evening. But he does it in the funniest fucking way imaginable. He literally gives Charlie a heart attack by just saying, "Meteor shower tonight." It's the funniest thing to me.

And I think about him way more often than I ought to. He's kinda skrunkly.

I said on the night during our analysis that he's cute in the same way on old man themed muppet is cute. Y'know? I feel like that makes some sense.

But yeah he's just here to be a jumpscare and tell Charlie about the Leonids. What a silly guy. I wish he was in more than one scene.

So far in our John-O analysis we have two quirky old dudes. The best kind of character imo.

Yeah I don't have much else to say on him </3

Episode 3: The Stall

Beto

Why does he look like that.

Anyways yeah, Beto is the John-O of episode 3. I do think he is pushing the amount of scenes a John-O can be in but it's ok cause he's kinda silly. He's just doing his job, man.

Poor guy is the one who found George's body. He's probably gonna have some issues for a while.

He's got some silly interactions with Charlie and even though they're brief, they're fun.

I actually don't have a lot to say about this guy. Whoops. My bad.

But you may have noticed he is not a skrunkly old man. That is true! He is not that.

I will be grouping this dude into the category of, "Guy who is just doing their job" under the broader "John-O" umbrella.

None of those words were in the Bible, I don't think.

Anyways, that's Beto for ya. Now we get to move on to my favorite guy!

Episode 4: Rest In Metal

Guy Who Threw The Stapler

Why the fuck would he do that.

I don't even know I can classify him as a John-O character but oh my god I think about him so much. Literally what is his deal, why the hell would he do this.

He is just here to throw a stapler at Gavin and whoop and holler. That's so fucking awesome.

That's all he does so I don't exactly know what else to say about him but I will add this:

My friends and I have been saying, "aREN'T YOU THE BAND THAT DOES STAPLEHEAD??? PLAY STAPLEHEAD!!!!!!!" to each other in the most man baby-escue voices possible for days now. It's the funniest thing on the planet.

*hits you with a stapler*

Episode 5: Time of the Monkey

Gino the Bull

This random guy in Howard Wolowitz's car.

He meets the flexible criteria of being a skrunkly old man so he gets points for that, for sure. ALSO HE'S KINDA SILLY?

He's just in the car being a silly goofy guy. These dissections are getting shorter and also worse. My bad guys, I'm really tired. Been staying up watching too much Poker Face B).

Anyways yeah, I don't know what his deal is. Very important to be a John-O, you just don't know what their fucking deal is.

I wanna say Gino the Bull is some kind of mafia/mob man? I dunno. I think it'd be funny if that were the case. That's my head canon at least.

So now we have three skrunkly old dudes, one man baby, and one Beto. Awesome.

Conclusion

I'm gonna cut this one of here before it gets too terribly long. Mainly so I can just get this posted. But also I imagine this shit is quite the long read.

My bad B).

BUT YEAH!!!

These are our first five John-O characters in Poker Face! Tune in soon to learn about the next five!

It's not gonna be as silly. Sorry. Episode 9 and 10 are major bummers and there's not much fun to be had there.

As always, thank you for reading <3

#I want to kiss Charlie Cale <3 #Poker Face is the only thing keeping me going #poker face #charlie cale #poker face show #essay #essay post

[genericpuff]

The Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Hiatus - Part 1

So Lore Olympus' return is right around the corner, and I realize I've never actually talked about the S3 midseason finale. I think I said I was going to, but then I just sorta didn't, probably because I was still reeling in the absolute absurdity of it for weeks afterwards. In hindsight, I should have written about it back when it was still fresh, but I feel like I can do it just as much - if not more - justice writing about them in hindsight, now that they've had time to sit and I've seen what Rachel and WT are clearly planning to do after the comic ends (whether or not they succeed... that's a different story).

CAUTION: THIS IS PART 1 OF A 3 PART SERIES IN WHICH I WILL BE SPOILING MUCH OF EPISODES 251-253. THIS EPISODE CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE INVOLVING STRANGULATION. THIS WILL BE A LONG POST. BRACE YOURSELF.

So one of the things that really motivated me to finally talk about this was a conversation that happened recently in the ULO Discord - the realization that there are many readers who still don't know what happened after the free to read finale cliffhanger.

Y'know, the one where Hades gets possessed by Kronos and attempts to choke Persephone-

Now, awful dark jokes aside about how Persephone frankly deserves to have her balloon head popped, this was a wild cliffhanger to leave on for free readers, but the strange thing this time around - unlike with the previous midseason hiatus - is that this is where the cliffhanger has stood for free readers for the past 3 months, and it will be 4 months by the time the series returns.

And frankly... this just highlights a huge problem with LO's writing, because this cliffhanger? Like all the others, it's literally resolved within the next episode. The one that's currently under the FP lock.

Man, isn't it a little fucked up that we only ever get trigger warnings when it's concerning Persephone? Where was the warning for when Minthe got turned into a plant? Where was the warning for the entire episode that depicted Hera's trauma from Kronos and how it's still affecting her in the present? It's always either the Persephone, Hades, or Apollo focused episodes that get the trigger warnings, they couldn't care less about the violence being done onto other people in the story.

Anyways. Episode 251 opens up by reminding us, oh yeah, Kassandra exists!

Remember back in Episode 227 when Psyche stole Apollo's USB drive (and by "stole", I mean she picked it up off the ground where Apollo had conveniently dropped it?) And they found a folder with a picture of Kassandra? Well, Episode 251 opens by reminding us of her... 24 episodes later. SEVEN MONTHS OF REAL LIFE TIME, LITERALLY THE LENGTH OF BOTH THE SEASON 2 AND SEASON 3 MIDSEASON HIATUSES COMBINED-

Anyways, I guess Rachel finally figured out what she was gonna do with Kassandra after all that time, and it's... really stupid.

But wait, don't worry about that yet, because only the comic's opening reminds us of Kassandra, we gotta establish the title first and get back to that cliffhanger from before, the one that free to read users have been waiting 4 months to see.

(pay attention to the episode titles here btw, it's probably one of Rachel's lamest 3 parter title sequences yet)

Turns out Kronos is still intent on getting his hands on Hera, even though we've literally already seen Kronos haunting Hera. Is he just a ghost? A hallucination of her traumatized mind? We don't know, it never really explains itself. So Kronos is still looking for Hera.

(kinda weird that we're getting all these redrawn fullbody angles of Hades-possessed-by-Kronos choking his noodle-bodied wife who is doing literally NOTHING to actually fight back besides yelling at him, but okay.)

Turns out Hades isn't really hyped about this choking game going on between his dad and his niece wife, so he goes full on "release the beast" Naruto mode on his ass.

And that's it. That's literally the conflict resolved. The cliffhanger that free to read users were left with over the 4 month hiatus is resolved literally within a handful of panels and Hades just "believing enough" to save his wife.

And then that's just it, it cuts away, and we get this sorta awkward conversation between Persephone and Hades (now himself again) over the fact that he just choked out his wife.

The scene transitions to Hades waking up in his bed (literally that last shot of him and Persephone was it, it transitions immediately). I'm trying not to use up Tumblr's 30 image posting limit so I'm not posting the 3 fucking copy pasted panels of this that just involves Hades waking up, use your imagination lmao

There's literally no actual conversation here, no amount of Hades asking "what happened", somehow despite his possessed state he remembers everything so succinctly that he jumps right to demanding Persephone to see her neck.

(literally removed the panel of Persephone saying "Hades..." because these types of "let me do the thing" "Hades :(((" "let me do the thing" exchanges are literally just Rachel trying to hit her panel limit, once you start seeing these '3 panel' exchanges that copy paste the same shit over and over again, you can't unsee them and you realize this is why so little happens in the comic as a whole, because it's just constant repetition of dialogue and reaction panels to pad out the episodes).

And then we get what I like to call "guy in a position of power manipulating his more vulnerable partner into pitying him without actually apologizing":

No for real, I didn't cut out a single thing from this exchange aside from a couple copy pasted reaction panels, this is the entire conversation. Hades doesn't apologize, he doesn't ask Persephone if she's okay, he just pulls the "you can leave if you want toooo :(((" baiting Persephone into further trapping herself with this jackass. SHE'S the one who's stuck with HIM.

Like, obviously Hades wasn't the one who choked her, that goes to Kronos, but he doesn't even ask her if she's okay. He just looks at her moldy ass bruises and immediately goes "YOU CAN LEAVE IF YOU WANT TO I'M A MONSTER OH GOD-" and then of course she's having to comfort him which is fine but where's the balance? It's always Persephone having to comfort him and listen to his trauma and we never get Hades doing the same for her - the times we do get Persephone talking about her trauma and struggles with him, he always finds a way to make it about him.

Hades proceeds to talk more about his childhood and more of the shit he's already talked about multiple times before, I don't even need to go over it at this point.

That said, Rachel does remember to bring his stutter back. When's the last time he stuttered? 200 episodes ago ?? (literally I don't remember, it's like when he used to twist his napkins, he doesn't have these character traits consistently anymore).

THERE we go, finally some semblance of an apology. It came after more trauma dumping, but at least it's something-

Oh for fuck's sakes.

This is literally such generic "you've come so far!" motivational jargon. And it's made even worse in LO because what has Hades overcome exactly? Just a reminder, here are the things we've seen in Hades' backstory since he was rescued by his brothers:

He started a business in the Underworld that he's been operating with slave labor and profiting off ever since as a tyrannical oligarch

He entered a multi-century-long affair with his brother's wife, his own sister in law

He cost Demeter - Persephone's own mother - the role of Queen of the Mortal Realm and Persephone still does not know this.

He abused and neglected his adopted son - who was literally abandoned on his doorstep - for hundreds of years and used his role as his adopted father to guilt trip his son for getting "special treatment".

He never took responsibility for the financially dependent relationship he created between himself and a lower class nymph and tried to bribe her out of his life as soon as he fell for a 19 year old intern

HE LITERALLY FELL FOR THE 19 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER OF A WOMAN WHO HE HAD SCREWED OVER AND PRETENDED LIKE THAT WOMAN WAS IN THE WRONG FOR NOT APPROACHING HIM DURING THE EVENTS OF THE ACT OF WRATH, AND THEN HE HAD THE GALL TO PROPOSE TO HER DAUGHTER RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER WHEN SHE BASICALLY HAD NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO SAY YES.

Everything he's legitimately had to overcome involving his trauma has gone completely ignored until pop in comes the pink cinnamon roll girl to solve all his problems and do for him what apparently even a therapist couldn't do (because haha he thinks his therapist is a hack.)

Persephone saying "look at all you've done" should be a reminder of all the crimes Hades has committed against people weaker than him, but instead it's used as a term of endearment, because Persephone literally got with him when she was 19 years old. And apparently the whole "eternally 19" thing applies to more than just her body, because even now, 10 years later, she's still lacking all the smarts and self-awareness and maturity to realize marrying this man was a mistake.

At this point Persephone isn't too naive or stupid to realize what she's gotten herself into, she's just a terrible person who's entirely complacent in Hades' bullshit and frankly, they deserve each other.

They literally keep talking about him for several more panels. Hades literally whines on and on about how much of a failure he is, how he feels like he failed the child who's trapped in Tartarus, and then of course Persephone tells him "no honey, you're the most important being in this process!" and she's LITERALLY STILL JUST TALKING ABOUT HIM, THIS WHOLE EPISODE IS PERSEPHONE TALKING ABOUT HOW WONDERFUL HADES IS, NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. HAVE YOU NOTICED WE HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN KASSANDRA YET ?? HAVE YOU NOTICED THE COLD OPEN FOR THE EPISODE HASN'T BECOME RELEVANT YET ?? I'VE ALREADY HIT THE 30 IMAGE LIMIT AND I HAVE TO START CUTTING STUFF OUT-

Persephone and Hades talk about how they should name the interloper, but they don't come up with anything before transitioning to Leuce and Thetis.

And y'all, this has gotta be one of Rachel's worst cases of backpedaling in the entire series. You thought how she turned Leuce - Hades' first wife - into a homewrecker was bad? You thought it was absurd the plot tried to turn Leuce into Minthe 2.0?

Remember those text messages that Leuce and Hades sent between each other? The ones we never saw but kept getting alluded to? Well of course we couldn't have Hades actually text Leuce during Persephone's banishment, because then that would mean he isn't 100% loyal to his little pink cinnamon roll "qween", so what was the next best thing? Kronos possessing Hades and texting Leuce like so many people - even fans - assumed? No. It's worse.

The text messages... weren't real.

This literally makes no sense. First of all, it's once again Rachel creating drama out of "haha woman delusional!" much like she did with Minthe. But second, it literally doesn't make sense after what we've seen leading up to this.

Leuce didn't just talk about Hades texting her. She went to his office, intent on seducing him, with the knowledge of these text messages being real. She even TALKS ABOUT THESE MESSAGES WITH HADES.

But of course, they were interrupted before Hades got a chance to respond, so this was convenient enough for Rachel to try and pull off some 'twist' where she could easily absolve Hades of "cheating" on Persephone (again, the girl he only knew for like 1-2 months) but also not have to deal with the weird logic of Kronos possessing Hades just to text some random nymph.

This is absolutely one of the most absurd retcons Rachel has ever tried to pull to get herself out of the corners she writes herself into.

Now the episode is still going and FINALLY, it gets to Kassandra, after teasing her at the beginning of the episode and proceeding to do a whole lot of nothing throughout the entire thing.

This has to be one of the funniest panels in the entire comic, bar none. Rachel's gotten worse at drawing men despite making this comic for 5 years and having plenty of opportunity to improve, and he literally just looks like the fucking Amazing Bulk, haunting this poor mortal woman with his very presence.

So yeah, it turns out that the "curse" Kassandra suffers from in this "retelling" is, rather than having prophecies no one believes (or at least, if she does, we don't see that), she sees Apollo and no one believes her. Again, Rachel takes these weird liberties with the original myths that don't make a whole lot of sense all for the sake of seeming original, but whatever, Rachel hit her panel limit for the week, because that's essentially where the episode ends, with Apollo greeting Kassandra. As quickly as it was shown at the beginning of the episode, the one part of the episode actually featuring Kassandra is wrapped up in literally 7 panels.

THOUGHT VOMIT TIME

So with Episode 251 now summarized and out of the way, I really wanna talk about how this episode operates as the first FP episode after the midseason finale for free readers.

Despite the fact that it was a 4 month break and despite the fact that WT has always still released these episodes for free on schedule - with the idea that every reader will be up to date with the current content and can start fresh with a new set of FP episodes when it returns - this time around Episodes 251-253 have remained locked.

And I say Webtoons specifically because as far as I know, the creators typically don't have control over this type of decision. From what I've heard from other Originals creators, it's often WT who decides shit like coin costs, FP release dates, etc. This is why during hiatuses the numbers on the episode unlocks never actually align with their real return dates, sometimes they completely undershoot and reset, sometimes they overshoot and tell people LO is coming back in January despite the fact it's been confirmed it's coming back in November. This isn't Rachel's doing. It's clearly Webtoons trying to squeeze as much money out of this series as they can so they think the 4 month hiatus will motivate people to pay... but even the newest episode is still only sitting at 17.9k likes, which is just slightly above the average amount the FP episodes normally wind up sitting at by the time they're unlocked after 3 weeks, but this has been after four months. The hiatus of the comic and its communities absolutely put LO out of sight, out of mind.

That said, I don't know what this means for the series' return, if it'll have 6 FP episode unlocks going forward or if it'll just return with one new FP episode and Episode 251 unlocking for free readers, but holy shit, if that's the case, this is gonna be a shitty way to return from 4 months of nothing. The cliffhanger from 250 implies so much more than what it ends up being and it's, again, highlighting a fundamental issue within LO - it operates purely on a week to week basis, producing episodes on the fly, and concerning itself more with filling up its panel quota so that it can get readers from beginning to end when they can drop some new cliffhanger that likely won't lead to anything or will be completely resolved within three swipes of the next episode. Season 3 has been especially egregious with this and it's clear Rachel has run out of track to run on.

There is speculation that perhaps the reason the timing of this cliffhanger is so off is because Rachel didn't know the hiatus was going to happen and WT forced her on it. That said, it's not something anyone can really confirm besides Rachel. I wouldn't blame her for taking the time she did considering she was attending both NYCC and SDCC this past summer, and it's hard enough for her to keep up with any sort of buffer to begin with, so those conventions would have definitely resulted in episodes getting postponed anyways.

What I'm really interested in seeing is the reception when the comic returns. Hiatuses like this are brutal for traffic, it's incredibly difficult to get every single person who you started the hiatus with to return after it's done. It's not uncommon for comics to come back to only a fraction of their readerbase - and that's where the marketing comes in.

S3's return has been incredibly undermarketed. I've talked about it already but I'll mention it again here - they have done nothing to hype up LO's remaining audience for the ending of LO. Not only has the fact that the comic is even entering its final part been mentioned on either Rachel's or WT's social media pages, but the fan groups have been shut down for almost the entirety of this hiatus, shutting fans away from discussing the comic, making predictions, and just participating in their most active and direct part of the fandom. This was an absolutely absurd decision on Rachel's part, I don't know if this was her trying to shield herself from criticism or if she genuinely just doesn't give a shit about her fanbase anymore, but it's not a good thing if the only active groups to be found online during a comic's hiatus - it's final hiatus before the series ends - are the critical ones. Fans of the comic should not have to find out about its ending from me. I know I've got a way with words, but it's not fair to the long-term fans of this comic that they're being shut out by the comic's own creator, simply because she either doesn't care or is just so afraid of the critics that she'd rather hurt her relationship with her fanbase by shutting them out just to maybe shut out any critics who are nearby.

I don't know what the reasoning is and I don't know how it could have been beneficial. But that leads us to the other theory, one that I can see as plausible-

I don't think Lore Olympus was supposed to end here.

We've talked about this theory before, but to reiterate - it's been speculated for a while (prior to the news at NYCC that the comic would be ending) that S3 of LO wasn't going to be the final season as so many people had been assuming based on past info. There was no indication or marketing implying this was the final season - meanwhile webtoons like City of Blank were marketing their final seasons from day 1 of the premiere - and there were loads of new plot threads being established in S3 that we knew couldn't possibly be wrapped up by the end of the season. Case in point, it took Rachel seven months to get back to Kassandra, and while during that time she's rushed plotlines that shouldn't have been rushed (the wedding) other plotlines have proceeded to drag at a snail's pace or been dropped altogether. The speculation that S3 wasn't going to be the final season was plausible.

But now, suddenly, LO is coming to an end, likely within the next 20-30 episodes, and neither Rachel or Webtoons have said a word about it. No announcement post, no hype, no promotional art, no statement from the Webtoons VP of what to be excited for (which he's done before). It seems like they're either intentionally trying to bury it to keep people from panicking while Rachel retreats into the shadows to hide from the crimes she's committed, or they're intentionally keeping the ending of the comic unannounced so they can backpedal on it later to generate hype over it "deciding to stick around". Chances are, it'll be based on how the return of the series goes, and whether or not it's able to get the performance numbers back in the green.

I do not think it will. As I said already, hiatuses are already notorious for destroying built up traffic, especially on Webtoons where people (many of whom are teenagers and children) are conditioned to expect regular content on a schedule. But there's one other thing that's been bugging me - there hasn't been a shred of promotional art. We're currently less than a month away from the return of LO and not only are Rachel and WT being incredibly hush hush about it, but all the art Rachel has put out has been largely on her Blue Sky, where she has the smallest following, and none of it is exactly indicative of being "promotional art", rather just random sketches and doodles that she's doing on her downtime. Everything else has been promos for her books, SDCC/NYCC, of course, Rachel Smythe Presents, her next venture which she has been hyping up more than the actual return or ending of the comic that made her famous in the first place.

At this point, I'm not even fully convinced she's even started working on the next episode yet, let alone any sort of buffer. If anything, she knows that she's coming back to the series with 3 episodes still locked under FastPass, so all she'll need to technically have ready for launch is one new episode. Rachel has never been good at building buffers, not even in the beginning when she apparently started off with 2-3 episodes of buffer. Even when her comic is nearing its end, she's not learning any lessons, she's not setting herself up for success. And I'm not setting myself up for the hope that the series could possibly come back any better than it was when it left - if anything, I think we're about to see Rachel and the comic outdo itself once again on how bad it can possibly be.

And we still have two more episodes to talk about, which includes the cliffhanger for FP readers that we've been waiting four months on. Part 2 and 3 of these FP episode analyses will be going up as soon as I can get them done, ideally I'll have all three parts done before it returns so we can start off fresh with the newest episode.

Buckle up folks. Pour yourself a drink. We're gonna need it.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus #long post #essay post #tw violence #tw assault

[atomicradiogirl]

okay so i just finished watching ‘chance’ and i joked that i would treat it as post canon house md/house 2.0 but like it is practically just post canon house. buckle up for my “but that’s just a theory, a house theory” essay post. spoilers for chance ahead!

chance follows dr. eldon chance (played by hugh laurie) who is a psychiatrist in san francisco and has one teenage daughter from a divorced marriage. he ends up becoming attached to one of his patients who is being abused and develops a scheme to save her. through this he gets caught up in a vigilante plot to kill his other patient’s abusers but it’s for the “greater good.” meanwhile a detective is suspicious of him and long story short he gets away with murder and moves to mexico with his sidekick D who helps him with the murders and continues to practice medicine there and it’s a pretty optimistic ending.

how does this fit into house you ask? disregarding the fact that the show isn’t a medical procedural and that it has completely different source material (it is literally based off a book) except for the fact that hugh laurie just so happens to also coincidentally play an american doctor, there is almost no connection to house. there are little things like chance also wearing leather jackets or that house becoming a murderer for the benefit of his patients isn’t that inconceivable that makes chance interesting if you consider it in a post canon house lens.

chance isn’t disabled in the show unlike house which makes it a pretty glaring difference but overall you could insert house in chance’s position and have it work. chance (in this theory) is house’s post canon post faking his death post wilson dying persona. he switched from diagnostics to psychiatry probably because he has experience with it and also because he didn’t want to be connected to his old life. house post wilson dying would get married to cope have a child, have it fall through and all this would cause him to form an unhealthy attachment with one of his patients which causes him to go down that dark path, pretty much like the house we know just more vigilante than vicodin.

overall chance is a pretty decent show. not on the levels of house by any means but hugh laurie’s acting is pretty great as usual he definitely carries it but i found the show to be a little too slow paced. it is a quick watch if you want to check it out though and if you watch it in the house 2.0 lens maybe it’ll also be pretty cool. murder house is cool. but that’s just a theory, a house theory.

#house md #chance #hugh laurie #gregory house #eldon chance #does chance even have a fandom #probably not lmao #nurse help she’s out again #essay post #house theory is the new film theory #lets do this again sometime

[elfdragon12]

Does anyone else think about how one of the themes of Jumanji starring Robin Williams is breaking the cycle of generational male trauma?

Like, Mr. Parrish is in his late 40s-early 50s in 1969. His father was a man that more than likely fought in WWI. And, rather that having a present father figure that could express love and care for him, he and his brother were sent away to a boys' school. And then WWII happened. He more than likely fought in that war.

And now Mr. Parrish has his own son, Alan. Mr. Parrish has no idea how to connect with his son. Alan has a problem with bullies and, rather than really helping, his father just tells him to stand up and be a man. Later that same day, when he has a black eye and a bloody lip, his father tells him "hey! We're sending you away to the same boys' school I and my brother went to that helped me become the emotionally distant man I am today".

Not only that, but, after Alan is released from inside the board game, there are little snippets of the kind of father that Mr. Parrish was.

Sarah tells him that "no, you can't be here and alive, you were murdered and your father cut you up into little pieces" to which Alan laughs and says "please, my father couldn't even hug me".

After things start going further and further downhill, Alan starts reflecting his father in how he treats Peter. He criticizes the boy for not grabbing the game (the kid is, like, 10 or 11?). After Peter puts himself in danger to save the game board, all Alan can do is give the boy a quick pat and a weak "good job". Later, after Peter turns into a monkey boy, Sarah encourages Alan to talk to him. At first, Alan tries the "be a man, don't cry, and keep your chin up" thing that his father would tell him. Then he stops. He realizes that he's doing to Peter what his father did to him. Then he leans down and chooses to actually listen to Peter. Then he learns that Peter isn't so much upset, but he's in pain because of the tail he grew is stuck in his pants. After that, he helps Peter in a way that's actually beneficial to him.

After the game is won and Alan and Sarah return to being kids in 1969, Alan sees his father again and, rather than holding on to the pain and resentment, he rushes up to his father and hugs him. There is the turning point in the relationship of father and son.

Instead of being haunted by a man hardened by society (Mr. Parrish and Van Pelt having the same actor wasn't done to save money), Alan and his father have a more caring relationship and we overhear that Alan is excited to pick him up from the airport so they can spend Christmas together.

#Jumanji #I watched it for the first time in years last night #As an aside the CGI holds up amazingly well! #I think because it's used sparingly #largely for the monkeys and the stampede #The lion and the vine pods and flowers were practical effects #essay post

[monarch-sparrowhawk]

Sam Alexander - Legacy Characters and Their Development

Been wanting to do a mini-essay about my thoughts on Sam Alexander Nova for a long time, so here we go. Put it under the cut so as not to clog up the tag feed. Warning there will be lots of tangents as I am ADHD and cannot help it.

Alrighty, so as we know Sam is a relatively newer character in terms of comic books. His first debut was in Marvel Point One #1 in the Avengers vs X-Men crossover. This was back in November 2011. This would make him around 11 years old. In this short span of time(because yeah, compared to other characters Sam is still pretty young) he has had three volumes( Nova Vol 5-7), been apart of at least three team books (New Warriors 2014, All New All Different Avengers, and most recently Champions), and has had a variety of cameos and one-offs and specials, and that's not even getting into the animated stuff he's been in. While his appearances have thinned out over the years, we still see him pop in things every now and then despite not being very popular at all(this is unfortunate, but he's still my favorite at least). A good question to explore, perhaps, why is this character still keeping up appearances? Why is he being kept around?

The answer I believe lies with his creator, Jeph Loeb. He is one of the original writers for Sam, basing him off of his own son he lost to cancer back in 2006.

*moment of respectful silence*

After that, it was probably not much more than 1 or 2 years after that that Jeph was pulled into the creation of the Ultimate Spiderman Tv show. It was originally announced in 2010, which means it was definitely worked on before then, and then debuted in 2012. Jeph was one of the main creators, and he decided to pull together some admittedly underrated and kind of unknown characters for the show. But when it came to Nova, he decided to start completely from scratch. Instead of going with the original, Richard Rider, he went with his own creation, Sam. This could have been for a variety of reasons such as: Richard Rider being too similar to Peter Parker(just take a look at his origin issue and you'll see what I mean), he was just killed off in the comic books which would lead to a natural opening for a new character, etc.

These are all substantial factors to take into consideration, but combined I think Jeph saw the opportunity to honor his late son. Legacy characters happen quite frequently in comic books(pretty much the entirety of Young Avengers for example), but Sam Alexander definitely feels a bit more... personal. He not only represents a connection to another beloved comic book character, but to a real person as well. Even though Loeb didn't stay on as a writer for Sam very long, you can see in his beginning issues where he added the info about the conception of Sam as a character that this was very important to him. And Sam being important to Loeb I think is what initially drew some people in, because the kind of dedication and love that goes into a character like that doesn't go unnoticed.

So people gave Sam a shot(ignoring the anal Rich Rider fans that cropped up in the beginning, FYI you can't be a fan of Rich if you hate Sam, thems the rules) and so it went. I remember reading all the issues of Volume 5-7 as they were coming out, and when Gerry Duggan took over for quite a large portion of the original run it was magnificent. He gave Sam interesting storylines, endearing character development, and overall I think did a superb job handling the character. His writing of Sam is most definitely what made me grow fond of the character, I don't know if I would have become a fan otherwise. Unfortunately the whole Marvel Comic Universe was being rebooted so they had to wrap things up quickly with a cap at 31 issues, but he ended Volume 5 on a good note with Sam reuniting with his dad.

Then enters my least favorite volume, Volume 6. If you thought the white-washing with Sam in Volume 5 was bad, it got so much worse. Not to mention the complete 180 in personality. In the beginning(Vol 5), Sam was an asshole. There's no sugarcoating that part about his character. But I liked that. Because when you start out a character like that, the room for development is immense. And honestly, I love watching characters grow. I love watching Sam grow. Volume 6 felt like a slap in the face because I wasn't reading about Sam. I was reading the generic teenage superhero Peter Parker clone. Sam went from being impulsive and reckless to boring and dull. Not to mention the whole 'evil clone' cliche with his dad made the ending of the previous volume feel so hollow and cheap. His original supporting cast was gone(and my ship was exiled from canon, so long Carrie), and the hinted at storyline of Sam possibly being half-alien was long since buried under the rug. It was not enjoyable for me to read at all.

Moving on before I seethe in rage, let's talk a bit about Volume 7. Never have I felt more robbed that a series was canceled too early. We had some major wins. Beautiful artwork(big points for not white-washing Sam), the dynamic between Sam and Rich(they're like squabbling siblings, I love it), and the writing was heading in a promising direction. My only complaint is Carrie and Principal Philbin not returning, along with Sam being in the chess club. Sam becoming a proficient chess player is so important to me, you have no idea. The comedy potential is golden. Imagine him beating Amadeus Cho in a game. That nerd would die from the shock. Anyways, I did like Sam's personality in this. I felt like he had developed into a jerk with a heart of gold. The jerk part is more toned down from Volume 5, and he isn't the goody two shoes he was in Volume 6, we reached a good mixture. Because that is what Sam is. He's a kid with a good heart, he just doesn't always go the best way about it. Which is understandable, given that most teenagers are not very mature in the slightest. This series would have been good development for him, and I'm forever heartbroken that I will never see where it would have gone.

But circling back around to the question, even though his character isn't that popular, the right people care about him and that's what keeps him relatively in the loop. And perhaps when he gets adapted to the MCU we will see a surge in popularity, but hopefully not at the expense of destroying what was so special about Sam in the first place. Let's hope that Feige and them don't forget what Sam was originally meant to be:

A grieving father holding onto his son in the most loving and familiar way he knew how.

By doing so will keep him in some ways alive forever. It's beautiful. To any and all future MCU adaptations, please keep this in mind when it comes to Sam. Sam's a character created from grief and love, and should not be taken lightly. If you managed to read all of this, I would love to have an open discussion about Sam and the Nova comics. It's been a bit quiet around here.

#sam alexander #nova #nova comics #essay post #character analysis

[nat-without-a-g]

Long post about fandom, specifically STs, on other socials. I’m just not happy with the recent fandom containment breaches rn and am ranting, just scroll if that sounds annoying. I’m intentionally not tagging any fandoms or characters i mention, LMK if this post is in your tag and I’ll fix it.

It’s not even the usual kind, like when fandoms start invading other fandoms or when a piece of content made by the fans becomes popularized without context or people realizing it’s fandom (… idk if this counts but I love the “shut up terf” meme being printed and shown to UK Parliament as an example.)— it’s the surface level fans sinking into the actual fandom and not realizing that their thrashing is making them sink faster.

It’s not a native-to-tumblr issue wildly enough (woo! No algorithm!), but on other socials that fandom is big in, the algorithm keeps pushing fandom stuff toward people who usually don’t interact with fandom but like certain popular games and shows. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, and to be honest it really wasn’t when this happened with FN@F, but with ST non-fandom fans it’s so bizarre. Maybe FN@F is a different case, fandom is what made the game popular, and creators with large followings and fandoms put it on the map. ST, however, is a Netflix show, and you don’t need to have an association with fandom to watch a show on Netflix. On top of that, if you don’t already want to end up in a fandom space, you wouldn’t see stuff from deep in the fandom unless you interacted with progressively more and more actual fandom things, even if it’s just to hate comment and bicker. However, the surface level fans and ST fandom have stayed separate for years, and while i blame algorithms for overstepping and the surface-level fans for not knowing how algorithms work, Iiiiiii think we all know it was Eddie specifically that caused the breach to happen.

Like. Those of us who have been in fandoms for awhile know there’s going to be a character the fandom latches onto more than others, and therefore gets more theories, content, fanart, AUs, and cosplays then others. It’s not a problem, it’s just the fandom blorbo. This usually aligns with sexymen— (sans undertale, the onceler the lorax, bill cipher gravity falls, tony the clock from dhmis— junko danganronpa if you count her?) and sometimes there’s a split (like from Resident Evil Village, Heisenberg verses Lady Dimitrescu, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!) Normally what winds up happening is that a character blows up in fandom and people on the outside don’t notice until Months later and only if it breaches containment. (I think this happened with Bill Cipher?) And during these months we do what fandom does best; we create stuff! We make art, comics, songs, fics, theories, alternate universes, crossovers, cosplays— this has ALWAYS been a thing. What happened now is that the first properly centralized fandom-favorite blorbo for ST? He was heavily merchandised, a huge focus on the show was his survival, and he was a weird nerd. Maybe he’s hot or something too I dunno I can’t actually recognize that stuff.

People who aren’t in fandom but are fans buy merchandise, they express interests in characters well-beings, they’re sympathetic toward characters who the narrative are sympathetic to, and maybe they like hot characters— I don’t actually know about that last one— on top of all that, they could be just as avid watchers as people who are in fandoms. It doesn’t seem like a surprise to me that most people cringing at Eddie cosplay today also say “I tried to find a H/llfire c/ub shirt when season 4 came out and now I’m glad I didn’t”. Or that they found the Eddie Memoriam fan song that several actors from the show referenced, reacted to, and one of whom did an interpretive dance to. Or they jumped past the character and expressed interest in the actor like you would a band or something. They didn’t realize their apps tracked their interests and searches. Also. After using TT for awhile, it listens to you. I know it SHOULDN’T, but it listens to the words you say and will adjust your FYP to learn more toward things you talk about a lot. Despite not interacting with Danganronpa anything, after talking about it for a long time with a friend who Does enjoy it, it became my FYP. And it was predominantly cosplayers.

Not to mention unlike security breach, it’s convention season this year! Conventions are wicked popular during the summer and early fall, Comicon happens in July, and with COVID over, so many people are/were bustling to go to one. The new STs season came out in late May, and the character with the most exciting storyline has an easy look to replicate that doesn’t change over the series. Not to mention unlike other STs characters, he’s a young adult with a style that is very specific and recognizable even with massive changes while also being easy to thrift. With emotions high about this character, conventions coming soon, and interests in the show and characters running high, of COURSE fandom, specifically cosplayers, flocked to this man! This is not an unnatural thing that happened! I knew this was coming as soon as I saw him in the TRAILERS.

Like. It’s not even our fault this time, we’re just minding our business and having fun, right? And then a metric Ton of people who seem to have never looked up a show they liked on social media before start bullying cosplays for… cosplaying… Y’know, that thing a lot of them put backbreaking amounts of work into just so they can have fun and sometimes even get paid? Like. Do they know about fanart? Fanfiction? Years-spanning fancomics? Webcomics that started as fan works? Have they ever read a fic? Do they know what the concept of shipping is? Do they know how horrific some popular ships are?? Have they ever read a fic that combined fandoms or ones that decided canon was dead and we killed it??? The entire fantasy genre? Do they know the simple joys of watching podcast fanartists interpretation of the characters become canon? Do they know the more excited joy of watching an artist’s interpretation of characters with a visual medium become accepted as fact by the fandom? Where WERE these people during the past seven or so years when there was a raving fandom for every show meant for teens??? Do they not know what a body pillow is??? Do they know what rule 34 is??? Do they have any idea what conventions are and what happens at them??? What do these people know and why do they hate it before they even know it???

I don’t think people in fandom are better than people who aren’t, there are a Lot of things in fandom I’m not happy with either (including rule 34 tbh). However, I’m not upset with people who don’t interact with fandom. I’m exhausted by the people who accidentally fell into fandom like quicksand and is just thrashing around and getting mad at people yelling at them to stop moving. So instead of rolling their eyes and scrolling, they put cosplayers who are just cosplaying on blast with the intention of having their audience chase them like wild animals. “Wow I’ve been seeing that on my FYP too!!!” You moron, algorithms push the things people you follow interact with toward you. It’s probably BECAUSE of this person picking a fight with the fandom that you’re seeing the same posts as them. “They won’t shut up, why are new fans like this, this has never happened before!” This happens in EVERY FANDOM. Don’t believe me? Look one up and start scrolling. Especially if it’s a tv series, book series, game series, or podcast that’s appeared as a popular hashtag in the past 10 years.

It makes sense that this isn’t happening on Tumblr tbh, we know why we’re here.

Also the app doesn’t stalk us, thanks Tumblr.

#nat rants #fandom culture #tiktok is a curse #long post #super long post #essay post #fandoms invading other smaller fandoms happens too #and that’s annoying #fanfiction culture annoys me to no end too. #like even outside of discourse #BUT. #THIS? THIS RIGHT HERE? #people who have never interacted with a fandom in their life trying to single-handledly bring back cringe culture? #the ones trying to bully cosplayers— literal fandom staples— off the internet #It’s disgusting. they haven’t even done anything. #They do realize some TT cosplayers have got away with murder and still have a platform? #these people are exhausting. #ask to tag #covid mention

[throesofincreasingwonder]

"A story doesn't need a theme in order to be good" I'm only saying this once but a theme isn't some secret coded message an author weaves into a piece so that your English teacher can talk about Death or Family. A theme is a summary of an idea in the work. If the story is "Susan went grocery shopping and saw a weird bird" then it might have themes like 'birds don't belong in grocery stores' or 'nature is interesting and worth paying attention to' or 'small things can be worth hearing about.' Those could be the themes of the work. It doesn't matter if the author intended them or not, because reading is collaborative and the text gets its meaning from the reader (this is what "death of the author" means).

Every work has themes in it, and not just the ones your teachers made you read in high school. Stories that are bad or clearly not intended to have deep messages still have themes. It is inherent in being a story. All stories have themes, even if those themes are shallow, because stories are sentences connected together for the purpose of expressing ideas, and ideas are all that themes are.

#original post #text post #500 #1k #2k #btw i know my definition of death of the author is loosey goosey here #it wasn't the main point so i went informal with it! as ppl in the tags have pointed out it isn't exact #and i do recommend reading the wikipedia article or similar (possibly even the essay itself if you're narsty) if you want to learn more! #wasn't expecting this to take off so my apologies to my barthes-heads out there #love you mwah #5k #10k #15k #20k