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moonybadger · 2 years

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Fascinated by some of the recent P4 discourse I’ve been seeing on twitter... I both agree and disagree with it I guess? I really recommend “Need’s More Gay”’s review of this game on Youtube, it talks about it in a really good way. Persona 4 is definitely not as actively progressive with it’s writing of queer coded characters as I’d like, but it’s also a game that came out in Japan in 2008. For a lot of people, this might have been the first time they saw a video game actually trying to tackle the idea of sexuality and gender, and how society views those who aren’t presenting in an acceptable way. The character dungeons are easily where the strongest parts of the arcs are, where the characters are dealing with these pressures at their most emotionally vulnerable. Unfortunately yeah, it does fumble a lot of these characters in the long game; it knows enough to ask the questions, but doesn’t really have an answer for them yet. While ostensibly the game encourages Kanji’s love of sewing, it still takes almost every opportunity available to belittle him for it; this is a well known, and heavily criticized flaw in the game’s storytelling. I think it is good to be critical of these older works, while not outright demonizing them as well. Sure, we can find better games talking about this stuff NOW but then? Options were a lot more limited, and none of them nearly to the same level of polish and popularity that P4 had.

I think Rent is also a good example of this. I don’t like Rent, but I know it’s very very important to a lot of young LGBT folks. With Persona 4, I kind of view it as growing pains, baby steps towards better writing and exploring REALLY interesting ideas for the first time even if it doesn’t have a proper conclusion for them.

That’s actually why I feel a little harsher towards Persona 5′s decisions honestly lmao, it doesn’t have nearly the same excuse while on top of that having way less even partially queer content. It does get FARTHER in it’s questions about society, breaking from conformity and distrusting authority, only to the drop the ball right after the big climactic boss fight and force its heroes to work within the system. To me a lot of Persona 5 has higher highs and lower lows; when it lets me down, it stings a lot more because of how good the good parts are.

Persona 5 good: the entire system is completely fucked besides a few lone holdouts (and even they need to be talked around initially and are hindered by how bad the system already is), the importance of Found Family, ALL of the characters being abused in different ways by the various social hierarchies they’ve been forced into, final boss is God aka the Ultimate Authority

Persona 5 bad: Even though the heroes have won all their major victories by fighting battles their own way, they are ultimately forced to play along with the rules in order to get even a bittersweet ending. It’s bad when male teachers try to date female students but totally fine for a female teacher to date one of her male students. Found Family Gets Unfamilied at the end of the game. Makoto STILL wants to be a cop for some dumbass reason. Persona 5 ultimately talks a big game about fighting the system but doesn’t seem to actually understand how to do so in real life.

I’m really interested to see where Persona 6 goes with its writing, since I believe the main director for the majority of the series is retiring/stepping down; ideally I’d like to see a continuation of their “pushing back against society’s expectations” themes, but REALLY dig into it and actually include more explicitly LGBT themes and characters without also being kinda horrified by them.

TL;DR: I have mixed feelings! And ultimately don’t disagree with anyone who comes away disliking P4 because of the character decisions they make. But I would also encourage everyone to try and not be so black and white with their viewing of things; stories doesn’t so easily fit into a “good” or a “bad” category.

#I'm still dealing with covid so idk how comprehensible this is #interesting discussions #bored badgering #mostly trying to get my own thoughts down in writing #don't throw the baby out with the bathwater kinda discussion etc etc #I also don't really like Persona 5 Royal's extended ending I don't think it adds to or helps Persona 5's themes

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kingofmyborrowedheart · 9 days

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The thing that is striking me the most about this album is just how messy and human it is. She’s not holding anything back or trying to appear one way or another. She’s just letting it all out regardless of what anyone might say. She found that trying to be polished and keep all the ugly, imperfect, human stuff in to be stifling and just said fuck it I need to do this for me. This album was an exorcism for her.

#taylor swift #ttpd #the tortured poets department #very interesting to consider her whole good girl mindset she discusses in MA #like I get the critique that it needs some editing because 31 songs is a lot! however that would be undermining the point of it all #like the only way to move forward is to get it all out and free yourself from it

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langernameohnebedeutung · 1 year

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ngl, I'm beginning to take issue with how in conversations about anti-intellectualism almost automatically, the face of girls and women will be slapped on the problem.

#'all those tiktok girls who only like marvel films and' - why do you always say girls and women? are the guys filling opera halls instead?#'women in their mid 20s who still only read YA novels' okay sure that's an example and relevant discussions can be had #but it reminds me of the mocking tone in which people speak of 'chick-lit' to use women's interest as an indicator of lower value #while in fact women are reading more than men in EVERY single genre of fiction. Women are doing a lot of (often unpaid) labour #supporting libaries supporting theatres supporting cultural events #meanwhile there is a pretty big overlap between toxic masculinity and anti-intellectualism #(especially misogyny and homophobia)#especially when it comes to things like ballet or opera or musical or generally dance #in fact it is often the female investment in specific things that makes them less 'valuable' in general consciousness #for thousands of years the theatre was well-respected and a high form of art - and now it's a 'wife-thing'#the father who will teach his son that theatre and dance are for girls - how is that never an example for anti-intellectualism

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bixels · 2 months

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Just gonna have to wait and see, right? Just wait and see! Just gotta wait and see! Who knows, we'll just have to wait and see! It's anybody's guess, we'll just have to wait and see! The future is exciting, we just gotta wait and see!

#personal #my art #Fuck your fake ass 'i am very smart!' intellectualizing “observations” and open your god damn ears.#do something for fucks sake. it's sickening seeing videos of ai crap and seeing rows and rows of repliers using their one brain synapse #to type “wow! very exciting!” “haha this is kind of scary! but in a really interesting way!”#and then they go about their day without a second thought while creative industries burn around them #i go to one of america's top tech schools too and it's enough to make you wanna tear our your hair #every day it's seminars and talks about “the potential consequences of ai!” when the consequences are happening NOW #NO MORE DISCUSSING NO MORE INTELLECTUALIZING NO MORE SOCRATIC SEMINARS NO MORE DEBATING. ACT YOU COWARDS #people are getting hurt RIGHT NOW. stop pretending to care when you clearly don't! just be honest and say you wanna make money #my time here has really made me hate academic spaces. you people are so god damn useless and cowardly.

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yelenadelova · 5 months

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TBOSAS has me thinking about how Finnick was likely one of the only people alive who knew even some of the story of what happened in the 10th Hunger Games and after. It’s apparent that Snow or the Capitol in general buried any record of the 10th games and Lucy Gray to save face.

However, who knew all of Snow’s darkest secrets and dirty laundry? Finnick. It’s reasonable to assume he probably learned at least part of the story. Not only that but Mags won the 11th games, directly after Lucy Gray’s Games. It is canon that there wasn’t much coverage of the games in the districts but I’m sure even if she didn’t watch them there were likely rumors about it during the next game. And when Snow reappeared as the president she likely remembered his role. And as Finnick’s mentor and mother figure she probably told him a lot.

There’s no real point to this information but I just think it’s very interesting that despite how hard Snow worked to bury his past it probably still lived on. And despite his efforts to control, oppress, and abuse the victors, it was one of these victors who knew his dark past. It was one of the people he tried to control that eventually gained an upper hand over him and helped play a big role in his downfall.

#el rambles #tbosas #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #finnick odair #coriolanus snow #thg #the hunger games #obviously i’m obsessed with the way katniss basically haunted him and brought his past/worst fears to life #but that’s been well discussed #and i think it’s interesting that a tribute who he viewed as less than human and he treated so horribly #also played a part in bringing his worst fears to life

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bugflies00 · 2 months

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OKAY so what ive been thinking about for ages is ctommy and being soft vs quiet . because i feel like it's one of those things in his fandom characterisation that sparks the most debate and in my opinion theres a huge difference between the two but i keep seeing people mix them together.

ctommy is soft but he's not quiet, and to disregard either of those things is what makes him less believable in fanworks imo

because on one hand, of course he's not quiet, that's the most obvious and i think one of the most commonly accepted qualms that we have with general fan interpretations of him. he doesn't just lie down and take shit, he's always committed to being an annoying shit, he's straight up rude so often, and even just. vocally. man's loud as fuck. i think that's pretty easy to establish .

but then what i find is that sometimes we veer into the other opposite, by completely denying that ctommy is also very soft sometimes. and by this i don't mean he turns into strawberry shortcake or starts being polite or whatever, but it's the fact that he's not just crass and rude. he's very considerate a lot of the time, he just shows it. uh. in his Own Way let's say. he cares for animals so so much, he's always so apologetic when he thinks he's hurt one of them, for fuck's sake he sung to the FLOWERS. he's very soft with nature, with things he's attached to, with things he perceives as weaker than him and needing protection.

the complexity of ctommy and what makes him so hard to grasp is that he's loud, he's brash, he is NOT a perfect quiet victim who suffers in silence, he asks for help, he's rude, he steals stuff, he's annoying as shit; but he's also soft, and incredibly empathetic, and he has no shame in showing that softness for animals or nature or his friends.

ctommy, and this is very much because cctommy himself acts like that a lot, is constantly vacillating between someone with the maturity of a thirteen year old boy who shouts and swears and pretends not to give a shit, and a boy who will stop everything he's doing to look at the sky or a flower or an animal (which does contrast his stereotypical rude teenager persona, because lots of aforementioned thirteen year old boys Would be embarrassed or whatever to do that).

he does BOTH. he's not just quiet and nice and sad and lonely; but he's not just rude and loud and """uncaring""" (if there is one thing ctommy is not i think we can all agree its UNCARING).

and i think this is why a lot of debates around "woobifying" ctommy (who remembers the july 2021 trenches . the butterfly clips.) tend to point any ctommy design that portrays him as soft, cozy, or even leaning into his feminine side as the be-all end-all of reducing his character.

in reality i think that misses the mark a bit because while there IS something to be said for sure about people turning ctommy into Blonde Anime Child #249824 and stripping him of his Very Vibrant character, i don't think that putting him in butterfly clips and skirts erases him in the same way. i think he could very much lean into that kind of thing . as long as he's still flipping off the camera we're all good

TLDR : fans strip ctommy of his loud-and-annoying persona but in avoiding that some forget that he's a character who's not afraid to be soft

#this isn't like. angry or anything btw. there are lots of things that make me angry about fan characterisations but not this #this is more like a general discussion of what i find interesting PLEASE add on!!!#like this is not discourse Lets not get mad peace and love we are all subjects to mischaracterisation and me the first like everyone else❤️#tommyinnit #c!tommy #mcyt #alex.rambles.txt

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rustedhills · 4 months

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Disney, releasing Wish: "so it's all about legacy--the new generation surpassing the old, overcoming the evils perpetuated by them, relinquishing singular power... and there's an old man in a tower, uh... animal sidekick, i guess..., ah... magic...?

Miyazaki, just out of frame, sledgehammer raised:

#the boy and the heron #not tagging wish 'cause i'm being a little acidic #this isn't to be negative in the slightest--I really respect both films--but it's interesting to see how visceral boy+H gets with its story #what evils have to be rejected and what they represent--and how characters and the world suffer from those evils--as well as how the whole #'rejecting' part goes. in terms of animation powerhouses discussing their legacies - disney and miyazaki both - I find it interesting that #one makes a pretty safe and nostalgic movie about imagination and dreams; the other is a long trudge through the land of the dead.#b+h is a hard watch - and a look at the legacy of a man questioning his whole purpose in the world - after his cultural touchstones #have long passed by. Mahito needs to understand his grief to keep living--but if he drowns in it he'll just continue the cannibalistic and #violent world of his granduncle. how the hell do you make art when the trauma of your entire life has colored it forever? How can anyone?#maybe after a while... it's time to detonate that damn tower and keep living.#this is to say #if you have enough money to make whatever you want #Make It Fucking Count

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magnaflourious-nerdity · 5 months

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Am I obsessed with their narrative parallels? Who can say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#my friend and i were discussing the book being a split narrative between two perspectives and we both agreed #that jgy would have the most thematically resonant and narrativly interesting contributions #jgy #jin guangyao #cql #the untamed #wei wuxian #as always sorry if its been done before #i have the memory of a thing that cant remember anythign

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fellthemarvelous · 4 months

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Holy forking shirtballs

I'm choosing violence today. I started this on Twitter, but I'm going to finish my thoughts here like I always do.

But what really blows my mind the most is the way that people look at Aziraphale's "choice" at the end, as if he had one to fucking begin with.

I'm sorry, but Aziraphale knows how messed up Heaven is. He told The Metatron, more than once, that he did not want to go back to Heaven! We can debate what each of us means by "choice" all night because my "choice" and your "choice" might be two different concepts. He could have been strong armed by The Metatron or he could have looked at where things were headed and realized he had no choice but to intervene himself.

You need to ask yourself what Aziraphale has a moral imperative to do.

What do we owe to each other?

Seriously, if you have not watched The Good Place, I recommend you go and watch it, because it absolutely shaped how I've viewed Good Omens 2 since its release.

My levels of frustration with the bad faith mischaracterizations of Aziraphale are off the charts. If you are blaming him for everything, implying that he should have to grovel and that Crowley has a right to hurt him back, you have missed the point of Good Omens entirely.

I defend Aziraphale, but I don't think one of them is more right or wrong than the other. They're equals. They're a group of the two of them, acting and reacting to each other throughout history. They're Alpha Centauri.

I cannot even begin to explain how fucking devastated I felt when Crowley said these words, knowing he was fighting a losing battle. What he said took a lot of courage because he's finally admitting something they've both been too scared to publicly define for 6,000 years. Crowley has had to spend so long with a rough outer shell because he fell and had to hide all of his softness.

The look on his face was one of pure joy when he created that nebula, but I think the fact that he got to share that moment with Aziraphale is what has always stuck with him.

So yeah, seeing Crowley with a broken heart at the end of "Every Day" was sad for me as well.

My brain still lives here!!

But Neil has said that Good Omens 3 is not quiet, gentle, or romantic. I imagine it's going to be more like the the first season in which they are not central to the plot. GO2 will help us make sense of how they ended up where they are when we see the bigger picture with all the other major players involved with GO3.

Aziraphale was still a soldier and accidentally got himself discorporated in his own magic circle in season one. He had a platoon waiting on him to start Armageddon, and he deserted them to go save the world with Crowley instead. Aziraphale is a deserter. I need everyone to remember that. He yeeted himself out of Heaven and sought out Crowley before even locating a body just to warn him about what was happening so they could try to save the world together.

I can't help but think of 1941 and that magician who had been arrested for being a deserter.

Aziraphale disobeyed orders. That took courage but it branded him as a traitor against Heaven. They tried to destroy him for it the same way Hell tried to destroy Crowley for his part in stopping the war.

Aziraphale and Job are the only characters we have seen interacting with God directly. Aziraphale has spoken to God before and he is determined to do so again.

Aziraphale knows Heaven is flawed, but he also knows it's supposed to be good. He wants it to be good. He does not like the way the system works and he wants to make a difference. (And I'm pretty sure he's also determined to talk to God without being intercepted by The Metatron.)

Since when is that a bad thing? I don't get it. And I've had this discussion before.

If you need to change the system by burning the old one to the ground, it's still change, and we don't know what Aziraphale has planned.

It seems to me that people just want to see Aziraphale fail because it would punish him for returning to Heaven instead of running off with Crowley.

Some of y'all take everything Aziraphale says or does and twist those things into malicious anti-Crowley actions because you think the only reason Aziraphale exists is to make Crowley happy, and if he isn't thinking only about Crowley then he's doing something wrong.

Aziraphale does not exist as a plot device to further Crowley's character. They come as a pair. They've been learning from each other for 6,000 years. Crowley challenges Aziraphale just as much as Aziraphale challenges him.

You can be mad at Aziraphale all you want, but villainizing him is gross. Defending Crowley does not mean you have to tear down and mischaracterize Aziraphale anymore than defending Aziraphale means you have to tear down Crowley (but I don't see that happen on nearly the same level it happens to Aziraphale). Stop painting Aziraphale as an abusive partner, for fuck sake.

Aziraphale knows there are flaws in the system. He wants to make a difference, and since he has seen that Gabriel can change, then maybe the whole system can. He has to at least try, and if he can succeed then maybe he and Crowley can stop hiding and finally be together without having to look over their shoulders all the time.

Why is that a bad thing? He's just as protective of Crowley as Crowley is of him!

But don't forget that Aziraphale's wing was covering Adam and Eve too. As much as a wants to protect Crowley, he has a moral imperative to keep humanity safe as well.

He sent Adam and Eve into the unknown with a flaming sword so they could protect themselves.

As much as he wants to be with Crowley, there are 8 billion people on Earth heading toward the Second Coming and Judgment Day. They'll work together to fight alongside humanity in the end. Aziraphale should not have to humiliate himself just to earn Crowley's forgiveness. That's a rancid notion.

The Resurrectionist was a whole ass moral dilemma for Aziraphale, which is why I brought up The Good Place earlier, but that's a post for a different time.

Aziraphale has his own motivations and they're just as important as Crowley's, and they don't have to be chalked up to Aziraphale being the bad guy. Weird, I know, but shades of grey.

"To the world."

#good omens #good omens 2 #aziraphale #crowley #aziraphale defense squad #yeah i'm being bitchy #no i don't care if you're offended #no i'm not interested in your aziraphale hate #i'm not interested in hearing takes about aziraphale being toxic from people who can't even be objective #some of y'all need to watch the good place because you need a lesson in moral philosophy #we should be able to have discussions about the characters without gross takes calling aziraphale abusive #az and crowley approach everything from wildly different perspectives because of where they are #just admit y'all shit on az because he doesn't look or act like crowley #I'm so done with the shitty aziraphale takes #they aren't even interesting enough to debate #they're just annoying

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the-modern-typewriter · 4 months

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I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: I hate villain stans.

I hate them because they're like the media when a white or male person rapes or kills someone; constantly justifying, humazing and excusing them from any consequences.

I hate them because they're unwilling to do that for anyone nonwhite or a woman.

I hate them because they clog up discussions with bullshit like "if you hate villains then you think they don't deserve love" And they're right. They don't

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: you're on the wrong blog.

#but we both know you're not actually interested in a discussion or engaging with other perspectives compassionately.

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turtleblogatlast · 1 month

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No but like every time I think about Splinter and what he had to go through just to keep the boys alive, my heart hurts for him so badly. Is he perfect? No not at all, but none of them are and by god does he love his sons.

The fact that all of them are alive, and grew to thrive despite the circumstances surrounding them is a testament of how much Splinter loves his boys. He raised four babies following the most traumatic time of his life, all alone with nothing but the sewers to house them (to hide them.) I feel like he’s not given the credit he deserves for all he’s done.

And I get that it’s easy to hold up his flaws and faults when it comes to parenting, I myself like looking into them because flawed characters are super interesting and said flaws make them more realistic and engaging, but he tries, and again, so many others would have given up on the boys or failed along the way but Splinter didn’t.

He’s their father, for all his faults he did his damndest to make sure they survived.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt splinter #rise splinter #he’s not perfect as I’ve said #and he’s got a whole slew of flaws and faults #but he’s a person - we are all flawed #he loves his sons dearly dearly dearly even if he struggles along the way to show that #parenting is not easy! especially as a traumatized mutant who is forced to do it alone #side note but I think this is one of the reasons why it kiiiiiinda ruffles my feathers to see so many people assign parentification to Raph #and in turn make Splinter out to be way worse and way more distant than he is in canon?#like idk I just don’t see what so many others see ig but maybe that’s just me #i guess my thoughts are like- let parents have flaws without villainizing them?#they’re still parents even if they mess up?#we can discuss the repercussions of a parents actions on a child while not casting that parent as an awful person #parents are peopleeee #I could go on but yeahhh #idk it bothers me seeing splinter’s efforts undermined when he’s been through so much #idk if ppl realized this by now but I love me some flawed characters #tho I do think in this fandom the ones whose faults are discussed the most are like #Splinter mostly then Draxum then Leo #of the main cast #and in Splinters case in particular his faults are made to cover his good qualities which makes me sad #because he is SO INTERESTING #they’re all flawed characters and tbh so interesting because their flaws are ALSO their strengths in many aspects

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lgbtlunaverse · 5 days

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Most annoying NMJ or JC take is when someone that dislikes them is like "oh you're a fan of him? *scoff* Well obviously you've only seen cql, where he was super watered down. In the novel he's a dislikable asshole and that's the objectively superior canon I'm working from instead of your woobified fanfic." Meanwhile your main canon is novel canon and you genuinely find novel Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue complex sympathetic characters.