#likes the problematic characters to spite the fanbase

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the Asshole for trying to rewrite a group of problematic characters that are a part of a culture I know little about/want to learn more about?

I've been a fan of a small group of characters from a game with a notoriously toxic fanbase since I started playing it about 3 years ago. About 2 years ago, I learned that they are a victim of orientalist caricatures of the middle east. Sort of a Disney's Aladdin type deal. I had a pretty bad reaction to that information at the time bc I have a very bad reflexive "please don't label me as a bad person for the things I enjoy" personality, but have grown a bit and distanced myself from the fandom since then, and want to reclaim these characters since I feel the creators don't care that much about the stereotypes they're perpetuating.

Problem is, I have no idea what I'm doing. I understand what orientalism is and have done small amounts of looking into what that culture is actually like, but I'm not the best at research and don't want to accidentally slip into my pre-baked internalized biases and end up getting hounded on for it. I do plan on doing some more reading before finalizing plans and doing anything with the concepts, but that fear in the back of my mind is still holding me back from fully embracing this project of mine. It doesn't quite feel like this is my battle to fight, but I hold these characters close to my heart in spite of their less than savory origins.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

[1/?] Sorry for venting. I just saw some bad takes that gave me a lot of feelings. Personally, JC stresses me out every time he comes on screen, but I don't mind it when JC fans say fan-typical things like how they like JC because he wears purple, or is grumpy, or they think he's hot, or that they ship x*ch*ng because the cql actors have nice jawlines. They're harmless, fun takes, and while I don't agree with some of them, I see where they're coming from

Hello there anon, vent away as that is what my blog is open for as I love/hate on Jiang Cheng as he is in the plot, as well as all of my beef with what has been done to him for the EN side of the fanbase! I am more than fine listening and engaging with the unsavory "unpopular" discussions of his canon behavior and this goes for anyone of course that needs an open play area. I'll try to engage with what you have sent point by point as succinctly as I can.

[2/?] (some of these are obviously crack, and I am a fan of a few problematic faves). But then there are stans that just have to put other characters down to make JC look good. Like, I think some fans take their freedom of interpretation for granted because most of these takes aren't even labeled 'headcanon,' 'ooc,' or 'crack' anymore. Stans feel that their interpretations are valid, and while they are, valid =/= canon, and they're treating these takes as canon, which becomes popular fanon.

I enjoy Jiang Cheng for what he is, however as I had said it took me another reread to get to my stance of him being the negative mirror to Lan Wangji's positive and my comfort with that for the story once I realized what purpose he served. He is only insofar tragic in regards to his circumstances, but it does not absolve him for what he is at his core (no pun, but I can make a very nice metaphor that even with a piece of Wei Wuxian in him he is still forever unable and unwilling to stand by him equally all while stagnating where as Lan Wangji is able to flourish, grow and mature with nothing of import left from Wei Wuxian in a technical sense). As for ships, I am a little dirty Xicheng whore for fun and can say there is a sense of entertainment for me making it work with two people where one is wildly ignorant and the other wildly rabid. But that is outside of what is established as canon in the work and I always try to keep the two strictly separate due to the skew fanon perpetuates.

3/?] And now, it's not clear what part of the fanon references canon JC or the canon events of mdzs. JC is an asshole; I don't like him as a person, but I do think that he's a complex character motivated by many issues (sup, YeeZY), which makes him fascinating to explore. Unfortunately, erasing his culpability also removes his agency. JC should be allowed to be an asshole character who makes his own decisions even if they're the wrong ones. He has made his own tragedy by constantly casting Wei Wuxian as the villain of his life.

Now thanks to you I will be using YeeZY to forever and now to acknowledge Madam Yu (this is your fault for the new tag). From a standing from storytelling I agree that he is complex in the Jianghu for MDZS. Where in the usual political intrigue of Wuxia, he would be the mustache twirling villain that is outright unforgivable in narration, it is by favor of Wei Wuxian's narration that has an early steeping of empathy for him. And he is not meant to be seen as ultimately sympathetic, the work builds up his hate against Wei Wuxian who tries to rationalize it all several times until he is finally unable to. Jiang Cheng is the antithesis to Lan Wangji and the false bait to get attached to in Wei Wuxian's first life. I will make the note their meeting in Yiling is lukewarm between both as they exchange nothing really in terms of conversation and all pleasantries are left in terms of Jiang Yanli for Wei Wuxian. By this point Wei Wuxian has already switched his yearnings of platonically wanting a part of Jiang Cheng's life, to subconscious romantic inclinations about Lan Wangji and the perceived loss of being in the other's life.

The very point of Jiang Cheng as the deconstruction, is that he has no passion in life despite his apparent exploits because he put a shadow to hang over himself as an excuse to say others think he is not good enough. He has no deeper motivations than pure selfishness by the end of the work and is pure frivolity that he has built up losing the meaning of his sect as a tradition. He had his agency (more than anyone I might add in the work due to his social position) that he used to build his reputation as a passive rich sect leader that has little to do with civilian problems.

4/?] And I think a JC, somehow, that realizes that he did something wrong and is working hard to change for the better and gain self-actualization to become that UWU best jiujiu the stans want him to be, who is ready to talk (not yell at) with WWX, apologize to him, and create a better, healthier relationship with him is a much more powerful reconciliation and happy ending than 'everyone is wrong and mean and they all apologize to JC, which magically gets rid of all his issues'.

He is forced out of culpability in reconciliation because simply put, his audience do not like the reality that relationships fray and dissolve with no further resolution other than we as adults both need to move on for safety and good health. It is not acceptable in real life and fiction is allowed to place that also in it's thematic relationships. He has a small, small spark of recognition at the end of the main story, however he himself seems to choose to ignore it, as change is hard and he has never taken to that well as was foreshadowed with his dogs and the idea of sharing a space with Wei Wuxian. To write this is an awful lot of work into his psyche which is not a nice place, he is a terrible being and downplaying that to make a sugar sweet person does not work instantaneously. He is the one responsible for the entire fallout with Wei Wuxian and he hysterically realizes that even as he tries to continue to blame Wei Wuxian.

The issue that I have with his current stan culture, is that they already view him as something he is not. They play at bicycle with all of the other protagonists that have positive traits that they strip as they see fit; Good affirming loving to children adult Lan Wangji, Self-sacrificing ultimately did it all for love and care Wei Wuxian, Hard exterior but softened to who they consider an annoyance Wen Qing, Loyal as partners in their exploits on the field and always have each others back Wen Ning. They even take Jin Guangyao's persona of playing damsel and using that as a positive to soften up Jiang Cheng into something he has never been for anyone for ships.

[5/5] Also, making WWX/WN/LWJ apologize just makes them look better than JC. Like, stans supposedly love JC, so they ahouldn't be lazy and work hard to give him actual character development. Again, I'm sorry for spamming your ask. It just really baffles me about where they get these 'hot' takes (All I'm going to say is that JC was ungrateful, and WN had a reason verbally dismantle him).

They see this, but, they will spin it in any way to excuse Jiang Cheng due to the story itself showing that he was in the wrong to everyone he flung accusations at and his hate. No one but him is at fault for his spite as he had gotten his revenge on the ones that had ruined Lotus Pier and killed his parents. His own resentment pitted him against good and well meaning people that he refused to help as he mimicked his mother's words about raising their heads higher out of goodness instead of keeping low and staying self-centered. There is the underlying criticism of taking individual arrogance as self-care at the cost of others. Each point that Wen Ning makes is exactly what Jiang Cheng himself knows as he hated Wei Wuxian for being something he could not be or even wanted to be. Jiang Cheng wants kindness but does not understand that kindness to others needs to be selfless and accept the hurt that can come with that in life. He encompasses the fall from the path of buddhist lifestyle, "The Three Poisons" to Wangxian's "Without Envy" at the stories end.

[6/5] P.S. I'm not saying I want reconciliation fics, but I just feel that if stans want JC to have a happy ending, then I think that he should actively work for it. I think it would be interesting to see what force of nature would push him through a character development because throwing a therapist at him would result in a murder.

"I'm not saying I want reconciliation fics, but I just feel that if stans want JC to have a happy ending, then I think that he should actively work for it."

They do not think he has to work for it, they say his tragedy is enough, while heaping accusations against Wei Wuxian and saying his own are not enough to absolve him. Something Wei Wuxian has never denied and told all present they are allowed to forever hate him for what he had done in the past, but that they need to find a way to live in a life that is always moving on. He learned that grudges do nothing once they are absolved and it leaves you with hate with nothing else to do with it once that object is gone. In terms of reconciliation, I do not ever think that either want anything other than a distant peaceful out of each other's life set up. Jiang Cheng does not need Wei Wuxian in his life to be satisfied and never has since he used him as the handicap to hide behind to stay angry and miserable. Being without that fallback opens the world far more for him to change than him ever interacting like an old friend with Wei Wuxian ever again, if he ever had the guts to do that.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jiang cheng #yeah I am using that tag block me if it upsets you #pokes this sorry for the length I tried #listen... only i am his trash queen

[nuisancehelicopter]

@DailyHitouji from twitter posted this and I just got so many Baka Pair feels this morning

even though KT made baka pair out of spite, they still came through as canon lgbta+ couple in tenipuri, a japanese shonen anime about middle school boys playing magic tennis. I think it's still wonderful how the fandom treasure them and how tenirabi keep making glorious content (and respectable content, i believe) of them.

Looking at baka pair makes me really happy yknow? problematic beginnings and characterization aside, they're still in a committed relationship and they're kind and good senpais to Kintarou, Zaizen and even extending to Kaido.

Like..Baka Pair may not be the ideal face of the lgbta+ fight in japan but it's still smh symbolic of the lgbta+ fight.

Japanese creators are constantly trying to make more diverse content only for their series to just ..end abruptly, due to fan reception or the higher powers that be (ie conservative executives running animation and manga businesse).

Sure there are lots of newer stuff with more "respectable" portrayals but they never last long or like.. they get pushed to this Josei, Seinen, BL shelf that only the bravest would dare explore.

Tenipuri on the other hand has just this insane fanbase and huge platform and whether conservatives like it or not..it's a mainstay in the culture. It's one of Shonen Jump's best sellers ffs.

Tenipuri's portrayal of them was almost homophobic, ngl. However, Konomi did smth no one ever dared for a long time, they made these two gay boys a frking power couple. Like sure some of the other characters in canon acted awkward towards them, but bottom line is, they had somebody to love and be boyfriends with in each other.

Not only that, Konomi made the femgay chracter (idk the right term) into the smartest person in canon, with high impossible IQ and memory skills. His partner's mimicry capabilities is awesome too. They were formidable opponents even in the original series. Their teammates freakin adore them and treat them just normal. Like holyfk has that even happened in other shows?? Hell, Tezuka, one of the series's most serious characters, absolutely enjoys their gag routines? come on.

It's just mirrors how mainstream jp media look at these people. It's a sad reality but we know it is changing for the better. 3rd Season Tenimyu's Baka Pair so far had the best non-cringey relationship for me. Tenpuri Rising Beat has had several events with Baka Pair being actual boyfriends and not in a jokey way (i think).

What's more Tenipuri has not ended yet. There's still no sign of an ending. Konomi still trying to turn to other kinds of media to expand his universe (THE 3D MOVIE). Not to mention the seiyuus still guest in rajipuri, Koharu is still part of Megane 7 songs.

To think that Baka Pair is in all of that. is just. so Overwhelming to me? Also the fact that they belong to this Nationals level powerhouse school (no offense to fudomine, rokkaku, yamabuki, st. rudolph) but that means they get more exposure than most sports anime lgbta+ characters.

Konomi's attitude to ships in his creation has seemed to be more mellow too. The man has changed. Like ofc we should not forget his faults when he was younger but he is proof that he could read how the fandom based on his series, have grown up and matured.

I think the treatment of Baka Pair through 2 decades of various Tenipuri media reflect the changing attitudes toward LGBTA+ in Japan. It will continue to do so, as long as people keep loving The Prince of Tennis.

and that's beautiful.

#prince of tennis #tenipuri #koharu konjiki #hitouji yuuji #tenipuri thoughts #I HAD FEELINGS TODAY OKAY

[mc-critical]

I really don’t understand the amount of people who apparently dislike Mihrimah for not giving Rüstem a chance/not having Rüstem grow on her. I don’t know entirely how I feel about Mihrimah as a character but I feel like if you were to dislike her that’d be a silly reason. It was a opportunistic marriage, one she never wanted and to a man she never loved. Not to mention he was also borderline pedophilic (when he said to her on her wedding night that he had been “waiting for this moment for years” when she was 17..okay) and then coercing her into consumating the marriage through the threat of suicide. Sure, the circumstances of Rüstem’s life were sad, but I don’t understand how that entails him being *entitled* to Mihrimah’s love or affection. And if anything I found Rüstem to be misogynistic and possibly even abusive, which likely made marriage to him all the worse. Mihrimah’s definitely not perfect or above criticism, but that doesn’t mean she owed any man love, sex or affection, royal borne woman or not.

I don't understand them, either. Because this is the last thing Mihrimah should be disliked for.

Rüstem is a very odious character with minimal redeeming qualities. His supposed love for Mihrimah is established disturbingly early on and while that may have fled over the audience's heads (it sure did fly over my head when I first watched the show!) because their marriage is a historical fact and as such, is automatically considered the normal course of things - the questionable pedophilic implications are definitely there and send off the alarming signs of utterly problematic behavior. Sure, he's done his duty by saving her after she fell off a horse and (little!) Mihrimah thanked him for it, but it is clearly seen in his eyes by the second episode he's on-screen that there's something more and something baffling when the girl is so young. And it only escalated from there.

Obviously, most of his fanbase ignores or flat out misses this aspect of his character, but I also find people that think that his attitude to Mihrimah is the only bad thing about Rüstem when I find most of his negative traits to be present outside of Mihrimah, but with her witnessing them. I feel the connection to Iskender Çelebi and the way he bacame the stable-man of the castle are his most important character establishing moments: they shine a light into his sneakiness and ability to play dirty, but also reveal his immediate prejudice against Ibrahim. The ambition, similar to Hürrem's, but not for the same reasons, is set up from the get-go. He's seemingly following Iskender, just like he comes to seemigly follow Hürrem, but he always forges his own path for his own gain. His alleged "loyalty" is the thing that Rüstem usually gets the most credit for, but while he begins to look like Hürrem's loyal companion that shall fulfill her every order, this whole facade is deconstructed and ultimately, totally broken apart in S04. His character establishing moments recontextualize all the decisions he makes in that season and show the true nature of his ambition: he followed Hürrem when she prevailed over everyone, he followed her when she seemingly gave him the world and all the desired power and when she and the one she wanted for the throne were put into a disadvantaged position and Selim got the upper hand, he ran straight for the opportunity, despite of him making an oath in front of the Quran not to do that. He turns out to be simply an opportunist hyena who works only for his own gain. Nothing more. Just like he saw the opportunity to get rid of the stable-man before him in the past, now he sees the opportunity to be on the winning side again with Selim. He doesn't care who is he in front of and who he promised what, as long as they're of no use to him, he bails. His "loyalty" immediately disappears from his positive traits, because it turns out he never had it in the first place. People praise him for his loyalty for Mihrimah, but that "loyalty" also lasted so long - when he found out that she wouldn't ever come to love him, he began to bang with Gracia Mendez, in conjunction with the betrayal of what Hürrem stood up for. Now, tell me, how can Mihrimah love such a guy? That was one of the only reasons she tolerated him and when even that was lost, how can she still keep her ties with him?

[His backstory is sad indeed, but the only thing it does is put his actions into perspective, not justify them or make him likeable somehow. Especially when what that "character lore dump" specifically explains is his refusal to tell Nigar where her daughter is - the backstory makes that action logical for his character, but it's still framed as nothing short of spiteful. That said, he still does have some soft sides and the arc with his brother is where I found him the most sympathetic - this is the time Rüstem actually showed vulnerability without false alarms or disguise and his brother was probably the only thing that was precious to him and stayed precious after all these years, consistently throughout his screentime. What helps even more, is the brother's role as a moral compass and the last bridge between the past/his loyalties and the future/the victories he would achieve through opportunism. That was the last gasp of what was left of his possible humanity and after his brother was killed, he let it go almost instantly, because... well, after he willingly chose his own life in the saray, he might as well continue to live it, right? Him saving a boy in S03 without any hesitation whatsoever, was also respectable. But these demonstrations of a softer side of his being are also taking place outside of Mihrimah, but with her not witnessing them altogether. And they do little in changing the general impression of Rüstem's character and his relationship with Mihrimah.]

We have to keep in mind that Mihrimah's whole S03 arc was finding purpose in her life and finding true love. She had many love stories throughout the series with different people, different personalities and different motives to try to make it work with them. No matter what they've went through together and despite of them all having the same outcomes due to different outside (and inside) factors, there is a reason she fell for these people in the first place. Okay, while for Bali Bey it was a bizarre, puppy, immature, childish love, for Taşlicalı something truly genuine began to flourish with all the glances, poems, dedication (Mahidevran succeeded to break them up, but it's not to be denied that Taşlicalı was very hard to convince and he was still thinking of her afterwards) and sweet words. She got a call for a new adventure with him. Bali Bey, on the other hand, was adored by her mostly for his handsomeness, I feel, but even when he tore all her dreams apart, he showed tact and respect. What I mean to say is, if Rüstem has qualities that are "worthy of Mihrimah", wouldn't she see them? Wouldn't she see all these virtues? Because all she sees before the marriage are his words that she will marry him, that she will be his and that's it. The best she sees of him is his good manners when he asks her whether she wants something or stuff, but he could do that with everyone else, knowing his post, and the previous implications make even that alone head scratching. Why would she want a man like that? I agree with all your points. Are you, people, denying Mihrimah her feelings? She realized the potential advantages of this marriage and agreed to do it regardless, why does she have to come to love him when he truly gives her no real reasons to, even before she married him?

I believe Rüstem cares about Mihrimah, albeit in his own distorted, toxic way, but in reality, he didn't do her any good. His relationship with Mihrimah revels in manipulation and facades for her to keep, because she has to "protect" her brothers. Rüstem never actually took account of her own feelings or opinions on matters, especially when what she proposed wasn't an opportunistic enough option for him to afford. Their interactions are mostly focused on the survival of the game and the actions that have to be taken to achieve that. He often puts an unbelievable amount of pressure on her, which while given because of the system they live in, hurt more than it helped. Their relationship was never allowed to flourish in a healthy manner and Mihrimah could never be truly herself in it, not even for a moment. The castle she lived in, her home, was merely full of tension every day, not a source of comfort. His stoic, serious cunning contrasts with her own spirit. Not to mention that it always seemed he considered his marriage to Mihrimah as a price, a goal he had finally achieved and I doubt that she wasn't aware of it to some extent. The root of the marriage is only political opportunism and no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot force a person to love someone they're with only out of sheer necessity, only for a purpose for "the greater good". Rüstem never did anything to earn Mihrimah's love and she shouldn't be hated for not loving him. This is what MC Rüstem is as a character, whether we like it or not, and he isn't a healthy person for Mihrimah. If she couldn't warm up to him when she fully got to know him in their alone time, that means something is missing. That means he just isn't for her and. that's. OKAY.

But there may be reasons why some people could dislike Mihrimah because of it. I offer my experience with cases I've encountered in forums: these people are usually very invested in Hürrem's character to the point they view everything she does as excusable, at the least, so of course they would want to justify Hürrem marrying Mihrimah to Rüstem. But plainly selfish political gain is no justification and that may leave cracks in their view of Hürrem and it all may disturb them to a great amount. That's why they channel this ire on Mihrimah and perhaps demand for her to warm up to Rüstem, so they get the justification Hürrem supposedly deserves, especially paralleled with Valide and Mahidevran's previous attempt to marry Aybige and Mustafa, who.. surprise, surprise (but not really), didn't love each other. There's another facet to this, with people seeing or wanting to see Mihri only as "her mother's daughter" and not wanting to marry, not loving Rüstem destroys that picture, because there's a "crack in the system", she doesn't listen to her mother, who obviously knows better and that could be disappointing or demotivating, given the expectations she has set when she defended her in E84. Or maybe they dislike Mihrimah for not loving Rüstem, because they do find something in him. They love "bad boys" and genuinely don't know why Mihrimah doesn't, either and that could make them see her as an annoyance. Or maybe they just anticipate more juicy scenes between her and Rüstem because of the probable chemistry between the two actors and if they watch it only for the spectacle (believe me, such people really exist!), they may insist that Mihrimah is only spoiled and ruined everything for them. Or maybe, again, people may find this insulting to the historical facts or whatnot and if Mihrimah didn't not stand him, this "mess" of writing could be fixed a little. The writers have ruined her character along with the history, according to them. It's absurd, I know and I don't get it, either, but the reasons are there, as far as I'm concerned. That still doesn't take away from the fact that this is the weirdest accusation you could throw at Mihrimah, with how Rüstem himself is.

You're right that Mihrimah has many other, vastly more offputting traits that she could be disliked for. Little Mihrimah is very brash and spoiled and entitled, to the point she gave her own mother a run for her money. That was gone when she grew up, but it would be understandable if some didn't actually believe the change, especially when she shows this side of hers again every now and then. She could be perceptive, but could also be prone to influence at the same time, sometimes to an annoying degree. There have been times where she has let her own bias lead her and that clouded her judgement in several occasions. She came to idealize her mother too much sometimes, as well. She was terribly insistent on her infatuation with Bali Bey and letting go of it took her very long. She didn't want to listen much to the enemies of her own mother. Her huge love for Bayezid prevented her from viewing Selim as objectively. She could be vengeful. She could be bossy. She couldn't fully face someone calling her out on her mistakes. (the confrontation with Selim in E139) She became so engrained to her castle life that when she was offered a way out, she didn't follow it. All these are very interesting character flaws for me, but I get why they might be a dealbreaker. But disliking or hating her for not loving Rüstem? Heck, hating her for her contribution to Mustafa's death alone is more valid than that! Disliking her for all these flaws piling up together is perfectly reasonable. But for this? It's strange.

#magnificent century #muhteşem yüzyıl #muhtesem yuzyil #mihrimah sultan #rustem pasha #ask #stuffandthangs

[redrascal1]

The Jedi Council Forums....once a decent SW forum where fans discussed the films is increasingly becoming the ‘We hate Kylo Ren/Adam Driver’ forum.

Not just Kylo Ren. Adam Driver.

Chief amongst them are three particular individuals I’ve called G, A and J. 

Let’s take a look at some of what they’ve said:

G, on a Rey Skywalker thread discussing Daisy’s performance:

TLJ, in contrast, is a thankless job for an actor, where it required her to marshal most of her skills… but for the benefit of other characters and not her own. Her work on creating a personality and believable POV are not only ignored but often counteracted, and her primary job be aimed to direct the audience into the POV Johnson wants them to have rather than flesh out a real one. That’s part of the reason why even most TLJ fans don’t usually praise her work as an actress - because her acting is being used to sell Kylo Ren more than Adam Driver’s performance is, so your attention is on him, not her.

‘Adam Driver’s performance’....nice.

They have also in the past dissed Adam’s performance as inferior to that of John Boyega.

And meanwhile...here they are with the Kylo hate, and completely choosing to ignore how the character was actually coded as

J, on a possible Rey/Kylo romance...

Frankly I find any scenario that replaces the first black lead for no legitimate narrative reason to be problematic.

Here she goes again.

The choices were never “heroic Ben Solo or Rey fixing Kylo.” That was certainly not JJ’s plan so clearly it wasn’t a binary option. I also find the idea of demoting Finn to make room for good boi Ben to be rather repugnant. Not to mention the setup of two white leads supported by their devoted BIPOC supporting characters…

This particular individual chooses to ignore that John Boyega is rumoured to be one of the influencers on the erasure of the Finn/Rose relationship....and the sidelining of Loan Tran herself. Apparently JB is a saintly victim who can’t be a racist, bigoted, fatheaded a**hole himself.

This is a particular delightful comment;

Pretty sure most “Ben Solo” fans are either in love with Adam or can only identify with white male characters. In contrast with Kylo fans.

What the f*** are you talking about, J? I’ve seen other posters moderated for saying less, but this person is on very good terms with A, who is a mod...and says things like this:

LFL should have also not tried to pretend that he had never really been evil in the first place, that he was “conflicted” through the entire trilogy or that it was “complicated,” because every play on that narrative reduces the impact of his redemption. People who are not really evil and whose evil behavior is all other people’s fault do not need to be redeemed.

And here is G again;

And ultimately, it’s not just that I think that Driver’s performance doesn’t lie at the heart of Kylo’s fanbase - it’s that I think that Kylo’s fanbase exists almost entirely because of the cinematography and “acting assignments” in spite of Driver’s performance. Drive kept on going “crazed and delusional serial killer,” but Daisy Ridley was assigned “bow down and worship Ben Solo as a complex and sympathetic character” while the camera crew made sure to shoot Driver as a sad boi model. Heck, even when Williams catches onto Driver’s performance and scores creepy music, Johnson steps in to order it changed.

Okay...I’m salty today, but what pisses me off about this little unholy trio is that they are exactly the type of people DLF catered to with DROSS.

And I have honestly no idea why.

But..I’ll finish with this, by another poster who genuinely made me smile:

I’m only interested in post ST stories if we see Rey, Finn and Poe killed off in quick succession

My sentiments exactly...

[valkyrieelysia18]

My Thoughts on Reboots, Remakes, Sequels, and Spinoffs

Hey there everybody! I know that everyone and their mother have an opinion on this topic, but I just wanted to added my two cents on to to something that wasn’t going to be that long.

Part of the reason I’m doing this post is because two series I loved dearly when I was younger, Winx Club and Inuyasha, have gotten a live action remake series and a sequel series. Now I’m not here to talk on the many MANY wrongs of Fate The Winx Saga or the issues of Yashahime because other people have already went into detail on that stuff. Instead I’m going to talk about what I feel like adapting old properties as whole.

As we fully know and acknowledge, nostalgia is a powerful force with an iron grip and Hollywood and other film/tv makers are doing their best to exploit our nostalgia for as much cash as they can get from us. It’s considered less work and less risky to adapt an older project with a ready fanbase than it is come up with an original property. Most of the time these things aren’t made because there is more to expand on in either the work’s world or characters or bring a new fresh take to it, but because it would make money. Manipulative as it is, its sound business logic.

That being said: remakes, reboots, spinoffs, and sequels aren’t inherently bad. When done well, they don’t just keep to the heart and soul of the original work, they SURPASS it. There’s nothing wrong with changing things from the source material, especially if it’s to add more diversity to the line up or correct a problematic element found in the original series. Even if an interpretation doesn’t hold a candle to the original, it’s still fun to see what creators can dream up for a franchise. For example, Batman the Animated Series will always be the definitive Batman experience for me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy Batman Beyond, Batman the Brave and the Bold, the Dark Knight, Arkham Asylum, or other adaptations of the character.

The problem is more often than not, these projects are not handled well. As I said before, it’s more to make money than to actually be a good and/or faithful adaptation. I think everyone remembers the fiasco that was the live action Jem and the Holograms film from a couple years ago. That movie did the worse thing an adaptation can do for fans: used the the name for brand recognition and threw just about everything out from the original series to appeal to the modern crowd (by the way the makers of this movie didn’t even seem to understand THAT demographic), spitting in the face of the original fans. It honestly wasn’t that surprising the film was pulled from theaters so quickly. As a Winx Club fan, I can relate to Jem fans now in a way that I wasn’t able to back then.

Now some would say fans can be extremely judgmental and toxic when it comes to any changes to their beloved franchises. To an extent, I do agree. For example, I was almost five years old when the Star Wars Prequels came out and thus didn’t really get the hate for it because I didn’t have the nostalgia the older fans did. Now that I am older and have watched both trilogies, I can acknowledge that the original trilogy was better in terms of story and characters, but those films are far from perfect. And you got to give the prequel trilogy credit in that had a distinct definite vision and that it was telling its own story, not just relying on what came before. 

But in my honest opinion, I think a lot of the hate from fans of these series comes from the fact that these adaptations more often than not seem to spite the fans and butcher the things they used to love. And considering this is where the original buzz and money come from for these projects, it feels like those behind these projects are going for short term cash rather than long term gain.

I think sequel series in particular can come as off very problematic if their continuation seems to retcon or destroy a very good and satisfying ending. Part of why I can’t really get behind Yashahime is because it feels like the series kind of invalidates the really good ending of the original series and how poorly it has treated the og characters. A series’ ending is arguably the hardest thing to pull off well, it’s one thing to start strong but its another thing to carry that quality to end of the story. And even if a finale isn’t bad, it can still be controversial or divisive among fans. Ducktales 2017 is a great series, but even it stumbled in its finale. Anyone who’s seen it can probably guess what I’m talking about. 

So, how should we approach these projects? I think the best mindset to going into these continuations is cautious optimism. That way you’ll be surprised if it turns out to be good, but not too disappointed if it turns out to be the opposite.

And if nothing else there is this comfort for us who live in this time: where canon fails, there is fan fiction. Seriously, I see more passion, creativity, and quality from things I read and view for free on the internet than things that have huge production teams and tons of money poured into them.

Sorry if this just seems like a ramble to you guys, but you know sometimes that there are things you just need to get out there. And hey it turns out this my 100th post on tumblr. So yay to me.

Don’t worry for those who are here for my Rewrite post. Next time we’re going to get to Cinder....AND I HAVE THOUGHTS.

See you soon!

#reboots #remakes #sequels #spinoffs #yashahime #fate the winx saga #batman the animated series #ducktales 2017 #jem and the holograms #star wars #rwby rewrite is coming up next

[psyga315]

The problem of "I Watch RWBY For The Fight Scenes" and how to account for when that logic fails.

“I watch RWBY for the fight scenes.”

You heard these words before at some point in the RWBY community. Ever since the Red Trailer back in 2012, there was a huge emphasis on fights as shown with the titular “Red” doing nothing but battling proto-typical Beowolves. No huge emphasis was put on story bits like how she was visiting her mother’s grave or on the music (Red Like Roses pt. 1 has only 4 verses and most of it’s instrumental), and Ruby isn’t even voiced in the trailer. Hell, for a good chunk of RWBY’s pre-production stage, fans perceived Ruby as a stoic girl. RWBY’s core has been the fight scenes… Right?

Well, it doesn’t really take a rocket scientist to figure out that isn’t true. While an argument can be made of how RWBY’s fights are what makes the show, the case can’t be held true for its quantity and quality. Volume 3 is the only Volume in RWBY where there’s at least a fight scene per episode (the sole exception being Episode 8, Destiny), some even having two or three packed into one episode, making the Volume more of a roller coaster, especially in the last quarter. Conversely, Volumes 4 & 5 are the volumes with the fewest amount of fights, both totalling to 5 spread out across their 12 and 14 episode run, respectively, with Volume 5’s feature fight, the Battle of Haven, being the subject of massive ridicule to the point where a two-hour video was made to detail all the errors made, among them being that the core climax of that fight occurs off screen.

However, the reverse can be held true. Some criticisms for Volume 3 include that the fight scenes were either extraneous or had poor quality to them while the highlights of Volumes 4 & 5 were things that they made up for in spite of having the fewest amount of fight scenes. So, this begs quite a few questions towards RWBY.

Most of them, however, can be summed up into one: “What feature of RWBY can match or even rival its alleged selling point in case the viewer encounters a drought or lack of quality in fight scenes?” For these, we’ll break them down into some categories. I will try to be as fair as possible for this.

The first, obvious thing, would be:

Plot, Setting and Theme

Can a viewer enjoy RWBY for its plot when the fights prove lacking, evocative themes or even its rich environment? It depends. One of the biggest things that fans enjoyed about Volume 3 was its development of the plot. Suddenly, the world expanded and there’s tons of depth and lore to an otherwise standard “wake up, go to school, save the world” deal.

However, later complaints of RWBY involve the plot in some way. One of the biggest conflicts between fans in RWBY’s 7th Volume was the execution of its cliffhanger which involves the main villain flying in with her army of monsters, many arguing that at that point, the plot has entered a phase known as “only the author can save them now”, which causes some fans to even beg for an explanation as to why Salem never did something like what she did before.

While the setting in RWBY has been interesting, at times, they end up with the short end of the stick. No case is this more truer than when Mistral, reputed as a two-faced Kingdom which had both a cultured surface and a seedy underworld, was reduced to a few paintings and a couch and only now have the people at Rooster Teeth decided to shed more light on it as a setting for their Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

The themes are extremely interesting to dissect, especially since there’s a meta layer to some of them with the passing of Monty Oum leaking into some of the plot developments and even music decisions. This, too, however, is subjective to taste, though due to the nature of themes themselves and not because of execution. One person could have a completely different interpretation of what RWBY’s core theme is compared to another’s, and that leads to their opinions. For instance, a common theme that critics picked up on in RWBY is “Kids vs. Adults” as they end up reading the conflicts that occur in RWBY and Ruby’s wording in her speech to Qrow as “kids rule, adults drool”, something they took contention with.

While plot, setting, and theme are there, it isn’t enough to supplant fights should they fail too… So, what about…

Characters and Relationships

Can a viewer enjoy RWBY for its characters and relationships? I feel like this would be a strong case to make, but at the same time, this is also a bit of an oxymoron. While the characters can sometimes feel interesting and their relationships even more, the problem is that the characters sometimes lack the focus necessary to be fleshed out and their relationships even less.

You might heard these complaint before: “Bumblebee came out of nowhere”, “Black Sun/Fair Game was bait”, or even “RWBY has too many characters!” and that is, in of itself, a bit of a problem with RWBY. When it takes the time to do character arcs and relationship progression, it is pulled off masterfully, though whose arc it was is also subjective. A key contributor to the problem is how RWBY’s focus is spread too thin.

There’s, on average, 13 characters that make their first appearance in each Volume of RWBY, about half to three quarters of them go on to make reappearances in other Volumes and even a few of them become major characters. This becomes a balancing act for RWBY to juggle all the characters and developments, leading to two characters getting a massive shaft: Ruby, the main character of RWBY, and Oscar Pine, a plot important character.

Ruby has the criticism of being a flat character. While there’s no inherit problem in of itself, the fact that the plot has been shifting and stakes become raised while the most we got out of Ruby before Volume 6 is that, sometimes she expresses sadness, was concerning. Even after Volume 5, a common complaint is that her “character development” consists of her delivering speeches.

Oscar’s problem is that the most pivotal moments of his character are relegated to the background, to the point where his nickname is “Offscreen Pine”, as every Volume since his first in Volume 4, there has always been some moment of his story that happened off screen and, often, it was that moment that makes his character arcs of those Volumes incomplete.

That is also a bit of a problem with relationships as well. Sometimes they end up being complete without any actual set up or they do have set up, but it’s either a red herring for the actual ship or, most infamously, it was never intended to be a ship to begin with. Now, there are ships that have been well-developed, but, again, it’s subjective. One such example is Bumblebee, which, to this day, has been hotly debated as whether it’s the best ship RWBY’s done, a rushjob of a ship that was only made to appease the fans after a lackluster Volume, or, at worst, a ship so polarizing, that merely criticizing it would have you accused of being a homophobe.

In fact, some characters develop at different rates, to the point where it is almost whiplash and requires a fan to actively point out how the development was foreshadowed from the start of RWBY (which, itself, leads to a common criticism). Two infamous examples of this are Adam Taurus, who only appeared in a short trailer before making his full debut appearance three years later and showing a completely different side to him, and General Ironwood, whose status as an antagonist is still being debated to this day.

So, these two fields are also wild cards in terms of enjoying RWBY… So, what then? Perhaps we could turn to…

The Community

Watching RWBY is one thing, but talking about RWBY with other people might make it worth it, right? … Yeah, depends. RWBY has become a rather… interesting subject matter. Trawl around the internet enough and you’ll find people in a fight about whether RWBY was good or not… though it’s more often one side calling the other side names and insults nowadays.

No example is truer than Youtube, which if you ask a RWBY fan, is a minefield and that, if you watch just one video of a person saying how they dislike even one aspect of RWBY, you’re suddenly swarmed with videos on “RWBY sucks and here’s why” essays… Even though that’s not how the Youtube algorithm works.

Even RWBY’s Reddit isn’t safe from this. Since the end of Volume 6, it had fractured into a smaller subreddit, RWBY Critics, where people freely share their opinions of RWBY that they would otherwise be judged harshly on the main Reddit. It feels like, when you traverse through the RWBY community and interact with it, you either love it or hate it and your first impressions could mean the difference between getting welcomed or rejected.

It doesn’t help that, with every hiatus in RWBY, the fanbase becomes more and more unstable, to the point where a contest made in good fun with the purpose to help Rooster Teeth with designs for Grimm (a win-win) was eventually turned into a toxic environment simply because one of the artists chose to base a Grimm off something that people found culturally insensitive and made even worse when endorsements were made in favor of and against this aforementioned Grimm, eventually forcing Rooster Teeth’s hand in removing the public’s ability to vote and judging on the three remaining Grimm designs (two of them ended up being removed for different reasons).

I know that was a very specific example, but it highlights just how broken the community has become. It bears repeating: a fan contest where Rooster Teeth would use the winning design in RWBY ended up becoming a flame war because one of the designs was determined to be problematic and a couple of people promoted/denounced the design, effectively rigging the contest to be centered around this one design. I will not be surprised if, years down the line, when someone else chronicles the worst dramas in RWBY, this would at the very least get an honorable mention.

And then there are where you stand on certain characters or plots. Should you ever find that your opinion differs from the majority’s opinion on a certain matter, prepare for a world of hurt or even being asked “why do you even watch RWBY?” That said, I doubt the entire community is as dark as I put it. I think there’s parts of the fandom you can enjoy, like fanmade content or even just a simple conversation with a close-knit group, especially if you enjoy RWBY…. Which, I guess leads to…

So… What do you watch RWBY for?

The point of this article was to see what part of RWBY one can find enjoyable when fight scenes prove to not work and, given what I said, you might expect me to say that there’s nothing enjoyable… Though, surprisingly, my conclusion is a lot more optimistic than that.

If you watch RWBY solely for the fight scenes, then prepare for droughts or lack of quality, or even just watch fight compilations. However, if you watch RWBY solely for the plot, setting, themes, characters, relationships, or even the community itself, then you’ll need to be prepared for similar problems.

There’s two keys to enjoying RWBY: having tolerance or patience, and having more than one thing to watch RWBY for. I think a major reason why you usually have a bunch of people drop RWBY after a volume is because they were disappointed with how RWBY did something or how RWBY lacked in something and decided to quit while they were ahead. For the most part, it might be that they took all they could get from RWBY and decided they had enough.

That said, I’ve seen people sing praises for RWBY’s story, setting, theme, characters, relationships, and even community. It’s led me to think of this struggle to find enjoyment in RWBY to be similar to a theme found in the show: the theme of persevering in the face of despair. Several characters in the show have become bitter, cynical, or even evil because they had enough of the hardships that the world threw at them while the heroes are those who try desperately to keep moving forward in spite of that.

And it’s not easy, I will admit that. It’s not easy to come back to enjoying RWBY once you begin to feel contempt for it. After the finale of Volume 5, I felt confused. Before, I had wanted to enjoy every episode of the Volume, but this one felt so rushed and so incomplete that I found myself thinking “that’s it?”. While I started to become cynical about RWBY after Volume 4 and had temporarily dropped RWBY in between “The First Step Pt. 1”’s release and sometime after “Breach”’s premiere, it was Volume 5 that made me begin to lose enjoyment. Just knowing that Rooster Teeth could do something like Volume 5 again had me lose faith.

However, there are moments that made RWBY enjoyable for me. Certain episodes were hailed as being good watches, there were a few plots, characters, and relationships I enjoyed (even ones I normally wouldn’t got some delights), settings I wished would be better explored, and I’m always going to examine themes of RWBY since that’s one thing I enjoy about it.

And, true enough, RT has done stuff that even the more hardened of critics enjoy. It’s all about patience, tolerance, and perseverance.

I know this isn’t a straight and narrow answer, but there are no easy answers. The major takeaway from this is that “I watch RWBY for the fight scenes” has the potential to backfire and you need backup reasons to enjoy RWBY and a little bit of patience in order to appreciate RWBY.

#RWBY #RWDE

[izzyovercoffee]

I know there’s always a nuanced discussion to be had about consuming “problematic media” and so on, but a large part of why I cannot enjoy TLJ is because of how miserable everyone on the cast looked and was throughout the lead-up to that film

say what you want about how it succeeded or failed at whatever it set out to do, but from a purely “how excited / happy / fulfilled do the cast seem about this movie” perspective, everyone was clearly unhappy in the lead up, even while trying to hide / disguise that fact

and that plays into a huge part of why I simply cannot enjoy TLJ. I, personally, cannot enjoy movies that play a toll on the cast. If the cast is unhappy, I can’t support the director, and i can’t support the movie.

which isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with enjoying TLJ in spite of that, but like ... there is a very stark contrast here between TLJ’s lead up and the cast mood to TRoS’s cast’s presence across social media, in interviews, in today’s reveal at celebration

and that mood is really important to me, particularly when it comes to the nonwhite actors (John, Naomi, Oscar, Marie, Billy), and to see that they are excited, that they are happy, that they seem genuinely fulfilled by their experiences on the set, is indicative that they were listened to during filming, and supported in the ways they needed.

this is kind of rambly but like, this all circles back to racism, and sexism, and a chunk of TLJ’s fanbase being incapable of empathizing with the characters of color or their actors, and not really understanding the difference between JJ’s approach versus RJ’s approach, and why that difference is important from a perspective of racism, and how that reflects in their respective movies.

and mostly if I have to listen to another white man tell me about how TLJ was actually good and actually equally racist as TFA, I’m gonna ... idk, take a nap. an angry nap. 

#izzy talks star wars #racism

[battlestar-royco]

Youre acting like everyone on this site loves Daenerys but hates Sansa which just isnt true. Sansas currently the most popular got character, while literally almost everyone hates Daenerys. Personally Ive gotten alot of shit and have to defend myself constantly on why I like Daenerys, so to act like Dany stans are villains while Sansa stans are poor victims is a lie. Both sides have their problems

And this is the exact kind of drama I do not care for, never wanted to get into, and was speaking out against in my last post about this dumbass fight between Dany and Sansa fans. I don’t know what to tell you, dude. I tried to be as fair as I could in MY analysis from MY social position in the fandom as a person who identifies with Sansa’s arc. I never tried to deny that Sansa stans can be problematic, or portray myself or the Sansa fandom as the victim, and I never claimed that my perspective is all-knowing. I did not intend for my answers to come across that way, but I thought I was pretty clear.

To quote myself, from yesterday:

There are definitely bad eggs in every fandom, which is why I don’t follow any Sansa blogs or go through her tags much either. […] The only place I’ve seen where Sansa really has a strong fanbase is Tumblr […] Does [Danielle] get unreasonable misogynistic hate because she is a woman? Absolutely. Do I think anyone’s entitled to like Danielle in spite of all her flaws? Absolutely. But I also think the Sansa hate is unfair. x

Okay, fair point: the main players on the show are no longer [Jon/Dany/Tyrion] […] I also believe the way [Sansa and Dany] have both been treated by the writers is incredibly unfair, especially starting in season 5 with that nightmarish Winterfell plot and the way they dumbed down Danielle in Meereen […] So I’m not arguing that Sansa is an unpopular character in the show fandom, but more that the narrative is actively against her. x

Read this to see a more thorough analysis of that last claim.

From today:

To be completely fair to Danielle stans, it’s not just them who hate Sansa, and some of them do like both characters. And before s6, Danielles were probably more likely to be indifferent to Sansa, but the T/yrion and general Lannister fandoms (and probably a minority of the Arya fandom) were more likely to hate Sansa. I think a lot of Sansa fans pre-s6 felt the same indifference toward Danielle, and that may be because in my perception these two characters simply attract different fans. […]

I absolutely hate that we’ve come to this point in the fandom where liking one automatically means you dislike the other, and a few bad eggs constantly put down one or the other when both characters often have either nothing to do with each other or they could accomplish a lot more by working together. The true takeaway for me is that we should all just stop taking D&D’s shitty fanfic seriously because they really have no idea how to write women or how to interpret/translate the themes Martin put in both Sansa and Danielle’s stories. The way they and the fandoms have been turned against one another by two talentless men is more important and annoying to me than anything else in this entire situation. x

So to repeat my main points: yes, the Danielle fandom has turned me off from the character, but that doesn’t cancel out the wrongs that Sansa stans have done to Danielles. Of course Sansa has become much more popular in recent seasons, but that doesn’t mean she is being done justice in the story. Her popularity is at the very least irrelevant to me and at most bothersome because she became popular for all the wrong reasons. Both fandoms have polarized due to J0nsa/J0nerys discourse that I really could not care less about. Sansa and Dany fans are attacking each other for the deeds of cardboard caricatures in a narrative with so many holes in it that if it were a block of Swiss cheese it would taste like air. D&D’s utter lack of writing ability is more to blame than any Dany or Sansa fan, and we should all be able to enjoy our favorite characters in peace without coming into each other’s inboxes or making fun of the other characters like this.

#anti got #fouebfeoioagrionrg i LITERALLY only started answering asks about sansa and danielle like 2 days ago

[laufire]

Some things I’ve received during my hiatus, and that it’s related to some worrying patterns I’ve seen recently on tumblr, have made me want to clarify a point. I’ve debated whether to put some of it behind a cut, since +1000 is on the longish-side, but fuck it. I think it’s important --or at least, important that you know this about me--, it makes me angry, and you’ll just have to scroll past it. And it’s a topic I’ll probably talk more about in the future, since it genuinely concerns me, even if not specifically in the same way or focusing on the same things I do here, so you might wanna be mindful of that *shrugs*.

I do not give a single fuck about whether B*llarke is “problematic”, or toxic, or abusive, or “immoral to ship” in any way. And the same can be said about literally every pairing. And if you ever try to harass anyone with those arguments (or any other, but I hope that goes without saying) --including shippers of my NOTPs--, I guarantee you, you won’t have me on your side.

Sure, I don’t like seeing it (and plenty of other ships) on my dash; that’s what filters are for. There are ships whose existence I prefer to ignore in its entirety, and I plan on forgetting them for the rest of my life.

In BC’s case, in particular, I –obviously, if you’ve read this blog– don’t want it to become canon. The way I see it, it’s a crack-ship (and not a very interesting one, AFAIC) between a character I like and a character I dislike, that’s entirely based on misrepresenting canon. Why would I care? But IMO the writers dislike the ship itself, so why would I worry either?

On top of that, I’m rooting for Bellamy’s narrative to be the dominant narrative (not as much for Bellamy himself –thought that’s a nice bonus–, but because it inevitably benefits my favourite characters: Raven, Murphy, Emori, Echo and Octavia), and the show has proven that’s antithetical to Clarke’s narrative prevailing (there’s a reason why every single season has put them at odds, in ways that effectively risk each other’s happiness, health and life). Historically speaking, things don’t end well for male leads that are put in romantic situations with women they haven’t chosen and put moves on by their own accord, and there’s plenty of evidence in canon that Bellamy doesn’t see Clarke in a romantic light –and it’s telling that, in fact, the writers CHOSE to cut out the one moment that could’ve hinted at it, back in season one.

Lastly, as I said, I think the writers themselves dislike the ship; not just aren’t interest in writing it, but actively dislike it. The first piece of evidence (if you plan on ignoring everything they’ve said about it, which already backs this opinion) is, frankly, that it hasn’t happened. Ships well-liked by the writers and supported by the narrative happen fast; lightning-fast in some cases. They likely don’t stay together, because narratives tend to follow a path of separation before the last-minute endgame (which might not happen; endgames aren’t a guarantee, even if there clearly are ships with better odds than others; BC, IMO, is the LEAST likely endgame possible out of all of them), but you better bet that dude is making his interest known ASAP.

Of course, writers in all of history of TV have written ships that they disliked, or at least ships that they only saw as filler and not “endgame material” (though I’m struggling with remembering another one that has the writers feeling so apathetic tbh). So yeah, there’s a very, very small chance of it happening, sure.

But have you ever tried to write a romance for a ship you hate? You probably haven’t, because the very idea it’s ridiculous. But imagine if you had. You would have hated every minute, I bet. And I don’t think any fans of that ship would find your story even remotely satisfying. Professional writers are exactly the same.

Even if the writers felt so worn down that they decided to go for your ship (which, IMO, would be a giant warning sign on itself; it’d be a mere symptom of their disinterest on their own story, and the show would be on its lasts breaths), what makes you think it’d make for a good story? They would half-ass it at best (and probably use it to troll you, out of spite), it would never get the genuine ~feeling that their preferred ships enjoy because, well. They don’t want it. They don’t believe in it. You can’t write with passion about something you don’t believe in, and passionless writing sucks literally every damn time.

And even all that? All that play-by-play essay I just gave you about why I don’t like the idea of canon BC? That still isn’t enough to make me hate on the ship. This can be said about plenty of ships across shows, books, etc., and I don’t talk about any of them because I don’t even remember them after I’ve moved on to the next thing.

But you know what I hate about BC? ITS FUCKING FANDOM.

They’ve proven to be one of the most dishonest ship-doms I’ve ever encountered, and probably one of the most numerous at that, which obviously only makes them worse (one day I’m going to talk about how these type of ships seem to attract assholes that know they can get away with shit due to the numbers and the attitude of those fanbases, but that’s another story).

Their numbers allow them to control the narrative within the fandom (and since canon doesn’t support them, they’ll outright lie about it), to the point were dissenting voices are ignored, disbelieved, and actively ridiculed and silenced, even when we’re pointing out actual scenes that support OUR reading and contradict THEIRS. They routinely act like characters like Echo or Raven don’t matter, while in fact feeling threatened by their relationship with Bellamy, and go into their tags full of condescending concern-trolling or outright hate. They harass other fans that dare to disagree with them, and they harass the actors and the creators of the show on a semi-regular basis.

A.K.A., they’re hurting real, living human beings.

There are hundreds of “toxic” ship out there (and am I the only one who, thanks to fandom, feel like many of these words have completely lost meaning? I truly hope that I am) that I never think or talk about, even if *I* personally didn’t care for or disliked them. By virtue of their small numbers (since a lot of those ships tend to be fringe interests in the already fringe medium that is fandom), most of the shippers usually mind their own business and simply go on with their lives, which I find to be the right attitude. Shipping (and character/show-stanning) isn’t activism, it’s born out of the fucking opposite impulses, IMO. Fiction is a place to explore anything and everything we wouldn’t even imagine doing in real life; there’s a reason why horror is such a popular genre, ffs. (and that’s mainstream, which means it has a bigger outreach and potential real life consequences (even if they don’t happen the way people think they do; fiction mostly reflects and maybe reinforces reality; it can’t create anything out of thin air). I cannot stress how few people read fanworks and how little they impact the real world).

If anything, those shippers have all my sympathy, because 9 times out of 10, THEY are the ones getting the brunt of the harassment. Like, I don’t give a single fuck about Reylo in one way or the other, to name one example (I’ve only watched TFA, which means I’ve missed the ~meaty part of their relationship, for one; but even if I remedied that, I thought both characters were deeply uninteresting, and I find KR painfully unattractive inside and out, so it’s likely I still wouldn’t ship it); but I’ve seen how its shippers got sent anti-Semitic slurs and gore pictures and were compared to school-shooters, and how its antis have effectively shielded a confessed rapist in their midst (and all that without getting into the general pattern of harassment/violent threats/suicide baiting that plagues the purity culture movement in this site; I can send you sources, if you don’t believe me), so those antis can go fuck themselves, tbh.

THAT shit is what I take issue with: hurting actual people. That’s ALWAYS going to matter more than the feelings of some fucking fictional construct, and I can’t believe that somehow became a controversial opinion. Bellamy or Rey or whom-the-fuck-ever doesn’t exist, they can’t get hurt, and the idea of their “feelings” taking precedence over the well-being or real people is fucking insulting.

(btw, don’t bother with any “but what about THIS gross ship/type of ships? you support THAT too?“ I’m not going to answer that and make myself a target for that bullshit, and I think this post proves this situation goes a little beyond something as clear-cut as “support” or “condemn” --among other issues, who am I to “aproove” or not any ship wtf--, but if you mean “are you against people who like it being attacked because their interests in fiction somehow prove they have ~nasty morals?”, then the answer is a resounding “yes”. What the fuck do you know about their life anyway)

#fandom policing #purity culture #anti culture #fandom #shipping #my thoughts #talking to the void #t100 thoughts #the 100 #long post for ts #antibellarke for ts #(... whenever I write a long post i become Very Aware of my attention & processing issues but like. how do you write otherwise lol) #bitter lau tag #fandom vs. activism

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

ASM vol 5 #9/810 Thoughts

I wrote this before the arc had finished so please bare that in mind if you read on because I recognize some of it might seem weird or redundant in the wake of the conclusion tot he arc.

Kinda sorta mixed feelings for this issue.

 Okay so here are the aspects I DIDN’T like.

 The recap page implies that the general public is starting to forget Peter ran Parker industries and that the heroes all think Spider-Man is in the pocket of the Kingpin.

 Now recap pages aren’t actually part of a story so they don’t exactly count per se.

 But if that is the intention of the author then the series has done a poor job of conveying the former. It’s just ignored the elephant in the room that was Parker Industry.

 And whilst Spencer was saddled with that mess a mess it was nevertheless and he’s cleaned up a lot of other things. Whilst I didn’t consider it a mess necessitating any cleaning up nevertheless when Steven Moffat took over Doctor Who in 2010 (technically 2009 but that’s not important) very early on he established that the massive global Dalek invasion everyone on Earth knew about had been erased from everyone’s memories (mostly) meaning that now alien invasions could happen and new characters would react as though they were sceptical of the existence of wider alien life.

 Again, this wasn’t necessary but the point being was that Moffat put the work in to fix something he perceived as a big problem that resulted from the prior regime. Spencer has been doing some of the same here but not addressed that biggest of elephants in the room that from it’s mere announcement the fanbase was collectively calling out as something that would fuck over the series going forward. Because absolutely not would the general public just forget who Peter Parker was in regards to PI, let alone the company itself.

 As for the Kingpin thing, I never thought about it until just this issue but I kind of have issues with it now. Because even if the other heroes do not know Peter’s identity surely they DO know Spider-Man and/or Kingpin well enough by this point that they’d not presume Kingpin and Spider-Man to be buddies.

 I mean there ARE ways to explain their feelings, like if they presume Spider-Man to be an imposter or something but him being on the outs with the other heroes merely because Fisk put on an appearance of them being friends in spite of their years of animosity shouldn’t make the heroes automatically resentful towards Spider-Man.

 Again, it can work but Spencer needs to better elaborate upon it.

 Moving in I did have a few issues with Felicia here. At first Spencer seemed to have her acting vindictive akin to stupidity of Slott’s run after SpOck sent her to jail. But then he explained why she was actually miffed at him and it made more sense.

 Well sorta.

 On the one hand Felicia has always been in love with Spider-Man and so if in character Felicia should jump at the chance to sleep with him if he propositions her. On the other hand though she does say Spider-Man was being creepy which and we get a mere snippet of what he was doing, so presumably he might’ve gone further than that.

 The other thing I didn’t like was Peter’s attitude to Felicia. Hey I’m all for ignoring stupid continuity if you are trying to fix things, but here...that isn’t happening. Peter is treating Felicia as an old friend but she hasn’t been that since 2009 and he’s still lying to her. Maybe that will be fixed next issue and their old relationship established but right now it is problematic.

 Oh and also the issue seemed to treat their old relationship as being messed up due to Felicia’s criminal tendencies when that wasn’t it. They hooked up in a monogamous relationship 3 times and whilst that was why they broke up the first time that wasn’t what happened on the second or third occasions.

  Finally I wish Spencer wasn’t maintaining Felicia’s tendency to be evil. Being a Robin Hood style character okay sure. But here she is basically what she was like in 2009 (except not made into a vessel for Joe Kelly’s midlife crisis sexual fantasies) but if she’s still like that her character is still in need of repair.

 Now this isn’t to say I hated every moment they interacted. Far from it. it was more on point than it’s been in a long time and much improved over BND and Slott’s run. So within the context of post-OMD Spider-Man it was good but within a wider context there are still problems. It is at least written better than before, I especially loved the acknowledgment of them making for a good team.

 Finally I disliked the art. Common criticism by this point but it stands.

 That’s everything I disliked but on the more positive side of things I felt that the general plot of the Thieves Guild is still a fun idea.

 The Thieves Guild are an X-Men/Gambit concept but Spencer has put enough distance between them that this NYC chapter of them can be played enough as a ‘Spider-Man thing’. And the notion of them swiping all the paraphernalia of superheroes through the power of super thievery is a fun superhero plot.

 I also don’t mind Felicia being a member of their ranks. I mean I feel like if she always had that tattoo Peter would’ve noticed by now, but there are numerous ways to explain that. If nothing else I love the scene between Felicia and her Dad, because it humanizes her, touches on her origin and allows her to be more her own character. I feel there is so much potential to be exploited from exploring Felicia’s relationship.

 Now in spite of all those complaints I actually loved this issue because of the Mary Jane subplot. There are some feelings I’m wrestling with in regards to it though but on balance I think this was ingenious on Spencer’s part.

 Okay first thing’s first. The artwork by Michele Bandini looked really nice. If you are going to have two artists work on the same story dividing them up based upon the subplot and the main plot is actually a pretty clever idea. I didn’t know there was going to be two artists actually and so when I checked out the preview pages before the issue’s release I was confused as to why Ramos’ style looked so much better from one page into the next. I wish Bandini had done the whole story to be honest.

 But onto the subplot itself.

 To begin with it’s just lovely seeing Spencer actually give MJ a subplot of her own and focus upon her. And it’s good focus too. So far he’s not really mishandled her in this story at all so Spencer seems to be a decent MJ writer. I hope this trend continues and the relative lack of Mj/his use of MJ within his first two arcs was more about building up Peter and also paying tribute to Superior Foes which landed him this job in the first place.

 I didn’t see the Carlie twist coming. Honest of all characters that reveal could have been she was the farthest from my mind. For some reason my mind was fixated upon Bobby CCarr or Jonathan Caesar somehow.

 Now Carlie is...controversial of course.

 Carlie was one of the many lame Brand New Day era characters with her status made worse than many of the other ones because

 a)      She was at times a Mary Sue

b)      She was pushed hard as the new love interest. I mean really, really, really pushed hard

c)       She had an inconsistent character design

d)      She was at times bland and at other times just...not nice. See her considering getting a Green Goblin tattoo to piss Peter off. Yes she was drunk but I don’t care how drunk or angry you are that’s like considering getting a Nazi tattoo to piss off your Jewish boyfriend. You are just nasty at that point

e)      She was an idiot during Superior despite being the most sceptical person of Otto

 Carlie to say the least was HATED by the fandom.

 Now look let’s not sit here and pretend the fandom hate went beyond what was warranted by the character. She was treated as an 11 on the ‘this character sucks’ scale.

 But that doesn’t mean she didn’t score a very solid 7 or 8 if you catch my drift.

 Here though she is arguably written better than ever before, not in the least because most of those problems listed above are being avoided or addressed.

 Rather than being an overcritical and judgemental asshole like in her last appearance who either attributes blame to Peter for the horrible things happening to her or else makes it clear the nature of who he is means he’s doomed to misery because no one could put up with that, here she acknowledges none of it is his fault and he deserves happiness.

 Spencer does drop his continuity ball though by listing off the wrong reason for why Peter and Calrie broke up. According to him Carlie couldn’t handle dating Spider-Man but in reality it was the fact that he was lying to her that was the problem.

 Whatever though, nobody cares why Peter and Carlie broke up, so long as they did.

 Similarly, if Spencer wants to try and rehabilitate the character who neglected to inform her ‘friend’ and roommate that she might be dating a villain without realizing it, okay let’s give him and this character a second chance. If Carlie wants to say she always liked MJ in spite of her douche actions lets draw a line under it and try again.

 Now we move onto the meat of the subplot. The support group for superhero supporting cast members.

 This idea gives me some mixed feelings and it somewhat depends upon how it  is handled going forward.

 On the negative side, I do not want this to turn into a subtextually critical evaluation of how MJ handled life with a hero in a past or how older runs did. Also the story is somewhat ignoring how MJ DID have people she could talk to about this in the past, like Felicia and Aunt May. But currently neither character knows his secret, might not be finding out anytime soon so okay I guess I understand why Spencer is treating it this way.

 I think Spencer’s putting in little lines of dialogue and presents a resistance within MJ to joining the group which makes it clear to us that, whilst Carlie felt alone and unsafe keeping Peter’s secret, MJ doesn’t feel quite like that even though it might be a struggle all the same.

 Which is in character, remember she kept his secret for years beginning with AF #15. Similarly MJ has had issues opening up to people in the past and has seen first hand the cost of exposing Peter’s secret.

 Now in spite of all I’ve said, I cannot tell you how much I ADORE the idea of a support group for super hero friends and family.

 If Spencer plays this right it could wind up as one of the mainstays of the Marvel Universe’s architecture, like Night Nurse or what have you.

 It just makes sense as a piece of world building for the Marvel Universe and is an emotionally engaging idea that ANY comic book series can pick up.

 Moreover it highlights the innate quiet awesomeness that is Jarvis. Jarvis is like Alfred but to the whole Avengers and one of the most bad ass bad ass normals in the whole Marvel Universe so highlighting him as this proactive, helping and caring individual is appreciated.

 This idea is a great addition to Peter and MJ’s relationship too as it gives Mj something to do aside from wait by a window and counters one of the most frequent weapons in the anti-MJ/marriage brigade’s arsenal.

 “MJ can’t be with Peter because it’s worse than being with a cop because they get to talk to other cop’s families. It’s just so toxic for her!!!!11!!!”

 See Fred Van Lente’s piece of shit MJ story in ASM #605 for proof of this.

 But right here Spencer finds a solution to that complaint (which I’m sure the anti-MJ brigade just love  him for) and one that makes justifying breaking them up again a lot harder.

 Also guessing who all the people in the meeting was turned out to be really fun.

 Over all I loved this issue because in spite of my problems with the Felicia end of things the MJ end was brilliant.

p.s. Isn’t it a little weird for Spider-Man to not remember what ‘Spider-Man’ did when they were separate people?

I guess you could argue that his memories from ‘Peter’ might be hazy too. Or that this weird science comes with ‘rules’ like that, e.g. one side has to dominate the other.

#Spider-Man #Black Cat #Mary Jane Watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #mj watson #mjwatsonedit #Felicia Hardy #peter parker #Nick Spencer #Michele Bandini #Humberto Ramos #Marvel #Marvel Comics #Marvel Universe #X-Men #the Black Cat #Amazing Spider-Man

[scope-dogg]

The Voltron fandom boggles my damn mind! Its so different to the rest of the mecha fandom! Its like someone took the stock cookie-cutter Tumblr Fandom and lathered it onto a random mecha show for no conceivable reason! ITS SO WEIRD! What do you think? (Also, is the new Voltron worth watching in spite of the people who watch it?)

Honestly the most simple explanation for that is that it was done by the same animation studio as the Last Airbender / Korra, so the people who were fans of that are by and large the fans of this show now. When you look at it from that perspective this behaviour isn’t so strange, although I don’t think that the old Avatar / Korra fandoms were anywhere near this bad.

As for the show, I only ever really watched the first season. It was alright, I guess. The characters are decent enough but there’s a snarkiness overload in the writing which I don’t overly care for. Also, Voltron itself didn’t get enough screentime, which is kind of a shame because they did enough to make the design not look too dated while still preserving the character of the original. After that the show itself just got overshadowed by its cancerous fanbase so I didn’t care enough to bother watching season 2 and 3. I was kind of hoping that its popularity would make it a gateway drug to other mecha shows for its fans, but no dice with that. That might actually be a blessing in disguise though, I don’t want to run the risk of having to interact with some of these people while browsing the content I actually like. I don’t want to be browsing the Gundam tags and have to witness arguments about whether shipping Char and Amuro is or isn’t problematic, or  if I go to check out Mazinger Z stuff and have to read a twenty paragraph screed about how the character Baron Ashura is transphobic.

#Anonymous

[ramajmedia]

The Simpsons: 10 Storylines That Have Aged Poorly | ScreenRant

No other animated sitcom can beat The Simpsons. Now with more than 600 episodes and 30 seasons (plus 2 more that were just ordered by Fox) to its name, the fun and sometimes touching escapades of the dysfunctional Simpsons family is more than just a pop culture mainstay. So with its ongoing longevity in mind, it shouldn’t be too surprising to find out that some of the show’s storylines didn’t age well.

RELATED: The Simpsons: 10 Bart And Marge Moments That Broke Our Hearts

None of these make the show unwatchable today, but they do show how far The Simpsons has come from its meager beginnings in 1989. With each old problematic storyline, a new one emerged and audiences get to see the show address these in real time. Here are 10 storylines from The Simpsons that didn’t age well.

10 The Treehouse of Horror Anthology

The Simpsons loves to riff on pop culture, with one of its most celebrated roasts being the Treehouse of Horror episodes. As the title implies, these episodes are jabs aimed explicitly at horror trends and some contemporary issues.

But like any joke comedy that relies on references, The Treehouse of Horror didn’t age well. This doesn’t mean the episodes are bad, but some of the older shout-outs will fly over newcomers’ heads. With some exceptions, this dated anthology is better viewed as a fun time capsule to occasionally revisit rather than classic must-see episodes.

9 The Celebrity and Crossover Episodes

There’s a section of The Simpsons fanbase that bemoans the newer seasons, demanding that the show return to its roots. Their case is made strong by newer episodes like Lisa Goes Gaga and The Simpsons Guy, which feature Lady Gaga and the cast of Family Guy respectively

The Simpsons may not be a stranger to celebrity cameos but recent celebrity-centric episodes and crossover adventures feel more like advertisements and puff pieces for big-named stars and other shows. Elon Musk’s episode aged the worst, with his almost messianic depiction clashing with his actual arrogant public persona.

8 Nuclear Power As A Punchline

When The Simpsons first aired in 1989, nuclear energy was a relatively new concept that people didn’t know what to make of. But thanks to Homer’s buffoonery and Mr. Burns pettily evil brand of management, people’s view of nuclear power plants grew negative.

RELATED: Chernobyl: 5 Things That Are Historically Accurate (& 5 That Are Completely Fabricated)

Obviously this was a joke, but the accidental damage caused gave the real nuclear industry a headache. The showrunners were even given a tour of a power plant, but the public’s image of a nuclear energy plant as an unsafe toxic environment run by idiots persisted, sullying the reputation of a potential renewable energy source.

7 The Holidays of Future Passed Timeline

For all the flak that modern Simpsons gets, the holiday episode of the 23rd season proved to be one of the show’s greatest. Set 30 years later, Holidays of Future Passed shows what life is like for the Simpsons in what was supposed to be a series finale.

RELATED: Bob's Burgers: 10 Best Holiday-Themed Episodes, Ranked

The critically acclaimed episode wrapped things up in a touching way, so of course the showrunners revisited the timeline in Days of Future Future. As a result, the original episode’s emotional impact was nullified since Homer could beat death via cloning and the future was basically Futurama starring Bart.

6 Homer and Marge’s Hook Up

The episode The Way We Was shows how Homer and Marge got together in a lovingly and appropriately humorous way. According to this episode, the two fell in love during the ‘70s but then this is changed to the ‘90s in That ‘90s Show.

This confusing creative decision wasn’t even properly justified and is instead used to throw cheap shots at ‘90s trends, specifically the rise of grunge music. Following mass criticism, The Simpsons returned to its original timeline and effectively erased an episode that even a Weird Al Yankovic cameo couldn’t save.

5 Homer and Marge’s Divorce

The controversial Every Man’s Dream is rightfully deemed as one of the worst Simpsons episodes because of how bad its writing is. Not only does it destroy the show’s beloved fundamental relationship (i.e. Homer and Marge), but it does so for a dumb punchline.

RELATED: Girls: 5 Best (And 5 Worst) Relationships

There was a lot of media coverage for the supposedly momentous split, only for the divorce and the events that led to it being a dream with a dream within a dream within a tattoo of someone on HBO’s Girls. To say that the episode is insulting is an understatement.

4 Ned Flanders’ Fundamentalism

Originally, Ned Flanders – a devout Christian and family man whose life just seemed too perfect for Homer – was just Homer’s comically virtuous foil. But as seasons progressed, Ned devolved from a Mr. Rogers-like figure into a self-righteous religious bigot.

This wasn’t accidental, as the writers addressed contemporary religious controversies and their own gripes with conservatism by taking it out on Ned. In fact, Ned’s drastic degradation inspired the term “Flanderization” on TV Tropes. Recent episodes rectified this, toning down the spite he embodied with corrections seen in The Simpsons Movie where Bart views Ned as a father figure.

3 Anything To Do With Apu

While he may be an irreplaceable resident in Springfield, Apu Nahaspeemapetilon was and still is a character born out of a racial stereotype. Credit should be given to The Simpsons writers for fleshing him out over the years, but the fact remains that Apu’s mere existence was a lightning rod for controversy.

The backlash hit a crescendo with the documentary The Problem with Apu, where comedian Hari Kondabolu called out the showrunners for perpetuating demeaning stereotypes of those with Indian and South Asian descent. In response, Apu was removed from the show, much to Matt Groening’s annoyance.

2 Homer the Sitcom Dad

He may not be the first, but Homer Simpson is the definitive sitcom dad that other cartoons and series look to for inspiration. But as seen in many modern sitcoms that still play by the old rules, the stereotypical sitcom dad didn’t age well – especially not Homer.

When he’s not an incompetent idiot who lucks his way into getting what he wants, Homer can be a mean-spirited bully who lashes out on his kids. This has been somewhat addressed as of late, with Homer being more self-aware and sensitive but his old ways spring up every now and then.

1 Lisa’s Mistreatment

Ever since The Simpsons began, Lisa – a young intellectual – was shown as the only person in Springfield’s generally mediocre populace who could amount to something. And yet, the show goes through great lengths to punish her for her intelligence.

More often than not, Lisa is shown as an annoying know-it-all who everyone just begrudgingly tolerates. The argument could be made that Lisa is the writers’ avatar and they embody their struggles in hers. And yet, her episodic arcs almost always end with her submitting to the status quo and settling instead of finding something better.

NEXT: The Simpsons: 5 Reasons It Should Be Canceled (& 5 Why It Should Stay On The Air)

source https://screenrant.com/simpsons-storylines-aged-poorly/

#screenrant

[doozerror]

But when that person literally made me kill my lover, left me and my remaining family and a few close friends to die, kidnapped me and held me hostage - I wouldn't ever love them!

Blarke Broken Record Lexa Hate volume #61

And yet... you all expect Bellarke to be a thing even though hes done the same repetitive shit over 4 SEASONS with even worse motivations.   Jesus Christ, How are you all clinging to this nonsense still?  HOW are you not seeing the hypocrisy in your own ship when making dumbarsed claims like that to demonize the lesbian that threatens your precious “unhealthy M/F trumps respectful F/F” trope “relationship”. Did you all seriously miss:      --Bellamy handcuffing clarke in S3 and dragging her to pikes cells/audience against her will where she would more than likely face obvious judgment, interrogation, and imprisonment for her support of the grounders and collusion with Commander Lexa - the leader of them all.       -- Clarke had bellamy drugged in S4, dragged into a bunker, held via handcuffs at gunpoint against his will (while his sister was condemned to death outside), and when he escaped got shot at by Clarke because he was endangering what mattered most to clarke which is and always has been the survival of her people and she was threatening what mattered (at this point in time) the most to him, his sister - such a constant and healthy respect to what matters to each other; especially after four seasons of “development” eh?  They still dont really care or understand each other on a personal level to go out of their way to respect each others feelings when making leadership decisions. They never go beyond the usefulness of a work camaraderie that frequently in itself doesnt make any sense due to the repeated breaking of trust between the two.   -- Bellamy goes out to get the water device in S4 to save 500+ people with the end of the world fast approaching, but idiotically chooses 25 over that 500 (25 that are going to die anyways, without that water device) - then lets clarkes make the list while he snoozes;  A heavily reduced number he was a direct cause of and dumps the now even more difficult list of responsibility on her, while also forcing her name on the list and never questioning if his should be on there - he shouldve crossed his own out - hes not a good leader, and he has no valuable skillset beyond idiotically murdering people.  Dont get me started on clarke putting bellamys name on there after all the lives he’s ended that WOULDNT make it onto that list because of yet another one of his dumb decisions clarke just lets go.  Seriously, clarke is an unhealthy enabler of bellamys problems - hes not learning because shes there to do it all (and take all the shit it develops) for him while he sits and stagnates in problematic territory with his pathetic angst and blames others for his problems, like clarke and octavia.  Like a parent doing her kids homework, or never addressing her own kids bullying of other students and instead just praises him with no discipline.  Now give that kid a gun.  Now imagine that kid is 7-8 years older than you.  Yeah, fucking stupid.    -- Bellamy condemns Lincoln in S3 and his fellow grounders and allies (INCLUDING ENDANGERING KANE, MILLER, SINCLAIR, OCTAVIA, AND ABBY - as well as the whole of Arkadia, CLARKES FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND CLARKE HERSELF) to a jail cell and execution while also being denied basic medical care, threatens and disrespects his own sisters choices to associate with and also be a grounder; bell rather sides with a man who has no qualms in killing such folk and their supporters.  WHere in the hell does bellamy think this road is gonna go?  How stupid can you be?  Basically ignores clarkes power of influence in polis to keep an eye on lexa and does his own recklessly shortsighted and dangerously over emotional shit within his own ignorant bubble - shit that could've very likely put clarkes and HIS PEOPLE’S lives in a whole lot of danger.     -- Bellamys whole “DEATH TO THE GROUNDERS!” alongside pikes regime of shortsighted xenophobic prattle basically led to the buildup and uprising in polis that got lexa CLARKES LOVER killed (yes titus shot the gun, but WHY was he so nervous to begin with, what pushed him into that extreme? Arkadia’s xenophobia and grounder slaughter, correct!) - not to mention the whole descending into chaos because lexa wasnt there to play mediator with the well respected commander chip.      --  Lets go back to season 1, when the ship started to build iteself - where bellamy condemned the ark to cover up his cowardice of facing justice for shooting Jaha, he was willing to let AN ENTIRE ARK die INCLUDING CLARKES MOM, to save his own ass.  But yes, lexa is the evil one - got it. (This is just a small handful, i can find more if you still dont see how irrational youre being in regards to this spite for C/Lexa on this level.) And yet...with ALL THAT SELFISH SHIT surrounding both characters OVER 4 SEASONS (no development really, how dumb is that!?), ALL OF THESE MATCH THE CRITERIA TO A GREATER (if not repeated) EXTREME IN WHICH YOU DESPISE LEXA - Be||arke still seems to be strongly supported by you hypocritical lot while lexa gets shit on. Crazy... At least lexa had Clarke’s interests in mind (her peoples survival, clarkes mental health and importance of her survival for arkadia\grounder relations, and her own peoples adjustments to coexist with skaikru - if ice nation got their hands on clarke, its a safe bet skaikru AND clarke, as well as her mission for peace were all royally screwed) when she “Kidnapped” her (clarkes presence was necessary for a bigger purpose; one lexa knew she would care about at her core, also clarke was being self destructive - lexa cared for clarke, can you sit and watch someone you care about self destruct without intervention?  Communication is necessary for either party to address problems before moving forward.)  and “held her hostage” (yes, holding her in a lavish guest bedroom with free reign of the grounds temporarily until her own people got there to take her home so ice nation wouldn't have the opportunity to kill her was totally monstrous, EVIL!!) and then so obviously devolved into this weird stockholms syndrome bullshit you all cling to without any real understanding of the condition or evidence of it in the show to base it on.  NONE of that has been supported by writers, showrunner, or actresses.  Seriously, go find your common sense guys - you seemed to have dropped it in your senseless hardcore shipping of a heavily problematic to downright abusive crackship that Jroth has been spending 4 seasons hopelessly butchering to horribly railroaded and nonsensical extremes. And lexa didnt force clarke to kill Finn, that was entirely finns doing - Clarke chose to mercy kill because face it, there was no other way out of the situation for him.  Dont erase finns deeds and pin it on the lesbian who was as much a victim of the circumstances HE put into motion with needless slaughter.  He captured and murdered innocent people without provocation, raided their village; a crime he stepped forward to face their justice for to not only atone but also ensure an alliance could exist between the two peoples - something finn had attempted back in s1 before suffering a nonsensical jroth 180 for shock value.  They have a 100 yr old culture based on “blood must have blood” - you saw what happened when lexa decided to change that, what did her people do? Titus was reflection of the anger, betrayal, and scorn of the grounder population.  And what happened to Lexa?  Yeah thats exactly why you dont rush big changes like that into an entire friggan culture.  It HAS to be gradual so an understanding can be grasped.  Something lexa was attempting to do, as we saw when instead of annihilating the ark decided only to barricade until a prisoner bargain could be reached, but then got rushed because she “Had to die” for nonsensical shock value.  Lincoln himself told you all WHY she couldnt just let finn live, but like always youre all willing to ignore large chunks of the show to demonize the lesbian that threatens your ship.  Your motivations are so disgustingly shallow its pathetic...

But yeah, sure, Lexa was the despicably evil one.  No wonder youre the only fanbase left watching jroths garbage.  No brain needed for the shit he peddles out these days due to how nonsensical and inconsistent it all is so you can hope that bellamy will one day force himself onto clarke.  All the racist undertones, the colonist narrative, all those offensive creative decisions you berate the clexas for supporting but then continue supporting the show itself that perpetuates them...  Lets face it, Thats really what this show is all about to you lot, right?  Bellamy giving clarke what the stupid bitch deserves right? Nothing more. His dick and repeat abuses that clarke should condone and cater endlessly to in this heavily one sided ship of douchebaggery.  So romantic.  Shits not even healthy on a platonic level... but yeah sure, the 1oo is all about bellamy and clarke.. its too bad its turned into poorly written shit to prop up bellamy while turning clarke into a meek subservient woman catering to his mass murdering shitstorm causing feelings...

#Be||arke shit

[fereldanwench]

Kind Anon : I gotta admit Andromeda is somewhat of a disappointment for me. It's not even the animations. With the patch I guess its kinda ok. It's the bad writing and not memorable characters. I fell in love with everyone on in ME 1 right away. It was love at first sight. The only characters I actually like are Drack and Kallo. That's so sad to me. I was rooting for Bioware to make it happen and make it happen good, but they just didn't. Am I the only one that feels something is majorly off? :(

Ah, no. If you go to any Facebook post made the BioWare or Mass Effect page, whether it’s related to Andromeda or not, you’ll see plenty of people who feel the way you do. Although probably with a lot more profanity and hostility. 

Honestly, I feel like enjoying it as much as I have is the minority opinion.

Spoilers below:

I had low expectations for Andromeda. I like the original trilogy well enough–I’d put ME2 in my top 10, maybe top 5 all-time favorite games–But there was a lot of cliched writing and straight use of bad sci-fi tropes and themes that always made it harder for me to turn off a critical eye towards the series. The fact that it always seemed like BW and/or EA was catering to a certain demographic that I am not a part of that made it even harder for me to unconditionally love. I did love my Shepard, I liked all my crews, and I like the overall progression of the story, but I liked a lot of that in spite of feeling like the trilogy wasn’t meant for me. 

I also knew that the open-world model in Inquisition was going to be the foundation for Andromeda’s exploration, and Inquisition is my least favorite Dragon Age game. Given how tedious Inquisition eventually felt and that the original trilogy only got a couple of PTs from me, I was expecting Andromeda to be a one-time playthrough and then I’d go back to obsessing over DA and eagerly awaiting DA4′s announcement.

Instead, Andromeda surprised me. 

I still feel a little like I did with the original trilogy; there is definitely problematic writing. Gil’s personal story and path to fatherhood is insensitive at best. The lack of romance options for mlm Ryders is appalling. The way straight characters turn down same sex Ryders is not the best. I think it’s been patched now, but the way they went about including a trans character lacked sensitivity and seemed void of any research about dead names. I know she’s not really dead, at least not yet, but I’m still kind of on the fence about how Ellen Ryder was handled.  

But on the whole, especially as a female player who plays female characters, I found it to be a much more pleasant experience. I didn’t have random NPCs hitting on my character or calling me condescending names based on my character’s gender. Female characters were on the whole reasonably dressed. There was no sexy robot body. The rampant sexualization of Asari was toned down a lot, and it was so lovely to see more female Turians, Krogans, and Salarians. Little things, like the note Lexi sends out about coping with stress and anxiety, make me feel like they were more aware of the diverse fanbase (to an extent: again, see shunning mlm romances.)

It usually takes me a couple of passes to get a full opinion on the main story, but on the whole, I don’t see Andromeda substantially better or worse than most BW games. It was hard for me to wrap my head around what it would be like to sleep for 600 years and wake up in a new galaxy; I think the writing in that regard often felt kind of shallow. There’s also some stuff that didn’t really feel resolved, like Jien Garson’s murder (I’m guessing we’ll get more answers in DLC, but that’s weak). BW also still needs to work out a better way to pace a story, especially one with urgency, if they’re going to keep doing the open-world format like this. 

But, I also think they did a much better job with big maps in Andromeda than in Inquisition. Some worlds still feel big just for the sake of being big (Elaaden), but the Nomad and a lot of companion banter made it far less sluggish to explore. I never found myself zoning out at any points of the main story, like I did with Inquisition (the ancient elves thing totally lost me, but that’s a post for another day). I also really liked how they organized the codex to easily reflect story progression and character development.

I liked Shepard as a protagonist, but the emphasis on the military aspect of her role always put me at a little distance. Ryder, on the other hand, is so relatable to me. And I love the Tempest crew. All of them. I have never loved a set of companions this much before. There’s usually one or two that I don’t really care for, but that’s not the case with Andromeda. Even characters I was kind of on the fence about, like Cora, grew on me in a way I did not anticipate at all. I got a little misty-eyed when I got the update that she valued my friendship and leadership.

Really the things that are affecting my personal enjoyment the most are the glitches, bad animations, and a weak CC. It feels very unpolished, and it’s just one more example of an AAA dev/pub team taking advantage of consumer’s interest by not being fully finished on release. I’m glad to see they’re actively listening to fans’ suggestions and criticisms, but a lot of this is shit that should have been addressed before it was launched. 

Anyway, I feel like my perspective on both iterations of the series is more at odds with the general reception of the game than yours. Talking with people outside of Tumblr, I almost get a sense of shame from anyone who has a more positive view on it. “You know, I don’t think it’s that bad? I think I actually… like… Andromeda?” 

It’s flawed but fun. I’d happily play another Mass Effect title in the same vein.

#t: wench replies #s: mass effect #g: mea #anonymous #t: wench games

[rainblow-load]

Steven Universe

It seems like the fanbase has been turning on the show recently. So I wanted to throw my 2 cents in on what the show’s been doing right and what they’ve been ruining. (I haven’t seen the latest bomb yet. So no spoilers there.) I’ll be going from season 2 all the way to 4.

Please keep in mind that I’m not bashing anyone who might enjoy the show, I still think it’s pretty alright.

What the newer episodes have done right:

The atmosphere of the show is just perfect. The locations, the tension, the lighting, the music, the backgrounds are so fantastic. Character models are a different story though.

When she’s not a carbon copy of Zim, Peridot is a joy to have on screen. Earlier into her arc, you could see her learning about the way the Crystal Gems live, and she would frequently say something out of line. It served as a learning experience for her and mostly felt very natural. ESPECIALLY in episodes like “It Could Have been Great”

A bunch of other episodes have been great too. I’ll go through them quickly

“Gem Drill” wrapped up the cluster arc brilliantly.

“Know Your Fusion” had brilliant humor.

“Monster Reunion” has amazing tear jerking visual storytelling, and its somehow done in crayons.

“Mr. Greg” had catchy music and was animated beautifully.

The fusion experiment episodes

Mindful Education

Amethyst and Pearl’s arcs were longer than just a few episodes. It shows a better sense of growth

We finally learn more about corruption.

Greg gets $10M and doesn’t blow it all in one episode like most shows would do

What the show has been doing wrong:

Everything is off model, which might not be a problem to exaggerate expressions better, but it happens in normal conversations with no dynamic movement whatsoever.

L A P I S

Let me explain myself

The problem with her character is that she’s an overpowered monster being portrayed as an innocent cinnamon roll.

Yes, characters doing “problematic” things is how you drive a story, but the characters never acknowledge that she’s being awful unless it’s followed with her playing the victim.

Jasper is the one that the fandom demonizes for being abusive, but Lapis:

Tried to drown children

Stole the fucking ocean, and probably killed a lot of people when it crashed down.

Trapped another gem in her own subconscious and planned on doing so forever

None of these are ever seen as that bad because she’s been through worse than Jasper has. That’s the same excuse people use to silence people with depression. Stop.

Immediately after being super badass and standing up to Yellow Diamond, Peridot becomes Invader Zim.

They establish that Peridot has no powers, then give her powers 5 minutes later????

The pacing

Either nothing is happening, or everything is happening, spread out the filler and plot relevant episodes a bit.

The Cluster arc and the Malachite arc conveniently wrapped up at the same time

Don’t establish that Garnet can extend her arms and then let Jasper fall like that.

Speaking of Jasper, she shows up on opposite ends of the globe over the span of a few days without any indication that she was alive, knew where to find Steven, or that she knew where to find a warp pad.

Ruby and Sapphire have a whole one personality trait each.

11 minutes isn’t enough time for a show like this.

Was Uzo Aduba just too expensive to get back? Bismuth was built up as a new team member and then thrown under the bus.

Corrupted gems just stopped showing up for a long time.

In season 3, the filler has gone from pretty entertaining, to plain bad. (Zoltron was alright though.)

Why is Steven so spiteful to Kevin of all people? After befriending the cluster, Peridot, Lapis, Jasper, and Centipeetle, it just seems out of character.

Also, The New Lars was the worst possible way to introduce a new power.

Keeps giving ominous names less than amazing episodes.

Stuff that I can’t blame the crew for, but still ruins the experience:

CN’s scheduling

Leaks.

I should hope I don’t have to explain what’s so bad about the fandom’s art policing.

#this will be the last time i really talk about this #su critical #steven universe #lapis lazuli #lapis #peridot #bismuth #ruby #sapphire