#media critical

[raviosprovidence]

I already told some friends this but it makes me extremely mad seeing Lucifer's design in Hazbin because...vivzie already designed lucifer for zoophobia and he's *so much better*

Look at him! Like yeah it is all red but at least it's a nice muted red with lighter accents in the eyes and eyebrows. He's not 50 shades of blood.

The big horns that reference a broken halo are a wonderful touch. I love the grizzled face and hunched back that show he's Old and Has Seen Things. I like the cloak that adds an air of mystery as to what's behind it.

Compared to this...

This is just a White Onceler. He doesn't convey anything lucifer to me other than the snake and the apple on his top hat. He's just another generic triangle tooth twink.

Going back a bit, It also helps for zoophobia that he was supposed to be in a world of characters who WERE bright and colorful so he actually stood out in a good way

Look at these guys! Sure, it's busy, but I can actually tell which characters are what. They all feel like they have their own identity and aesthetic due to their different colors. It's what a cartoon cast is SUPPOSED to look like.

Old lucifer would have stood out in that cast because not everyone is fucking red. New lucifer barely stands out, only because he looks so much like Charlie. And even THEN, they look like siblings!

this isn't official art done by Vivienne but I couldn't find any other good screencaps showing them side by side. If someone didn't know shit about hazbin they'd think charlie and lucifer were twins. Nothing about new lucifer's design suggests that he's a father or even older than 25.

It's sad, honestly. I used to look up to vivienne when I was younger. Now, she's a shadow of her former self as an artist.

#anti hazbin hotel #anti hazbin #anti viviziepop #media critical #fandom talk #character design #hazbin critical #hazbin critique

[whowhatifs]

Pixelberry: "We don't use AI art"

Also Pixelberry:

#playchoices #pixelberry #make that date #ah yes the rare 'stands of hair that attach on both ends' 🙄 #literally this is like the first thing i saw when i looked at that cover before i even started looking for it #theyre not even trying #media critical

[do-you-know-this-queer-character]

hey i noticed an anon mentioned submitting a lot of arcana characters and i wanted to pop in to say that that game is a racist, fetishizing mess. not only do they have a brown character who is kept literally in chains and is a vessel for one of the writers’ thinly veiled bucky barnes slavery kink, one of the bad endings features their fantasy-jewish-coded character turning into a literal bird, not to mention his numerous bird motifs.

between asra, nadia, and julian, asra and nadia are clearly more sexualized throughout the course of the game, even when fans have asked them to tone it down and stop fetishizing their “exotic” brown characters.

the fandom is and has been historically overwhelmingly hostile to fans/people of color who try to mention these problems. fans of color trying to dissuade people from writing nadia as a step on me dommy mommy queen have been shut down by elle trying to spin it into a “women can be dommes too!” issue, when the problem is that nobody would be treating nadia like this if she was white. asra gets his paid scenes hijacked by the white LI and then is painted as the toxic one in his and julian’s relationship (of which is only there due to elle’s mlm abuse fetishization) because god forbid their favorite white boy isn’t a perpetual victim.

outside of the game itself, dana rune has run a fanzine about an incestuous fire emblem fates ship (corrin/ryoma/xander) and further information can be found at the relations_zine handle on twitter. she may have scrubbed her name from it but it’s clearly her art style lmfao, and iirc she’s still in the followers/following list on that account. elle has a long history of fetishizing mlm abuse/slavery/“yaoi” on their tumblr that they’ve since deleted, but like. i googled “elle thalassiq fetishizing mlm” and immediately found posts with thorough screenshots so it existed lmfao. and even if it didn’t, it’s very evident with how they treat asra/julian/muriel.

this is heated and not thorough, but i’d like to end this by saying that this is coming from a former fan who eventually had to leave the game and fandom altogether because of the compounded issues that were never addressed, brushed under the rug, or actively encouraged time and time again. do not play the arcana. there are better games out there. and the last i was in it, the fandom was a toxic cesspool that would attack anyone, especially fans of color, who ever voiced a dissenting opinion about anything in the game. i hold my queer media to better standards and you should too. this game does not treat dark, heavy topics with respect, it treats them as fetish fodder.

Okay, I figured something like this would hit this blog eventually. The point of this blog is not for me take a stance and say what media is good and what media is bad. I am not brushing off your concerns - that’s a whole lot of awful information, and from me posting your ask, people can make their own choice about wether they want to engage with the game or the fandom. But I am just one person, and I don’t know anything about 90% of the media that is submitted here. If I excluded every piece of media that someone said was below a standard, I wouldn’t have any media left. This blog is simply a recognition game, I’m not trying to promote these pieces of media. I’m not saying that because they have queer characters that they’re fantastic or anything like that. I’m not taking any stance on any of it, actually.

This isn’t about the quality of a media, the quality of a fandom, or the quality of the representation that a character represents. It’s just a recognition game.

I am not going to get into any of these debates myself, since I know almost nothing about most fandoms here, but if you have serious concerns with a particular media posted here, send in an ask like this detailing the problems and I will post it, so that people looking at this blog can see valid criticisms before diving into a new piece of media.

As a further note, racist and antisemetic comments or tags on any post will be blocked on sight.

I will tag all asks like this with “media critical”.

#the arcana #racism #antisemitism #homophobia #Media critical #asks #not a poll #Important update in the comments

[phantasm-masquerade]

what are media criticals and why do you hate them?

A loose movement of media criticism characterized by hyper-Doylist analysis used to insult the creators of the shows, flip-flopping between massive bigotry and pseudo-progressive diatribes about what makes "good representation", and misinterpreting the source material deliberately in order to spend as much time (and make as much content) as possible complaining about said media.

Archetypical examples of Media Critical thought are the four video essays "Steven Universe Sucks and Here's Why" and "Legend of Korra Sucks and Here's Why" both by Lily Orchard, and "Sherlock Sucks and Here's Why" and "RWBY Sucks and Here's Why" both by Hbomberguy. (Do you notice a pattern?)

The specific types of bad arguments and bigotry a specific group of Media Criticals uses is tailored to both the fandom they spend time harassing and the source material, but they all share the commonality of bigotry and horrible rhetoric.

#hibiki//discourse #anti media criticals #anti rwde #hbomberguy #lily orchard #media critical

[julianobungus]

Simon is infinitely more sympathetic and deserving of a redemption than Amelia, and I mean that fully.

Simon was a young kid who was ripped from his family at a young age, forced to survive on a train which he had no idea was meant to work. Amelia was a grown women surrounded by friends, who made everything about her because she couldn't handle her partner's death. She's also directly responsible for the disruption of the train, as well as the potential deaths caused by this. And she's *especially* responsible for Simon's death, even if indirectly.

I really, really dislike the narrative the show was going for, where Amelia was being set-up for a redemption, but the man who could have been considered a teen not too long back was condemned to death. I hate it so much.

#infinity train simon #media critical

[cleopatrachampagne]

i will always stan this quote from mark hamill. i’ve always felt that when i release a piece of art, i may have the copyright, but it no longer belongs to me. it belongs to the reader/viewer and their own interpretations are as valid as mine, which is how i personally perceive the media i consume and i love seeing someone with such a huge platform not only encourage that attitude but support gay star wars fans in a way that the majority of the sw community and disney simply don’t. i’ve never been into celebrity worship but if i had to name one famous person i think is utterly rad, it’s him.

#star wars #mark hamill #lgbt #gay rights #media critical #social commentary #luke skywalker #gay luke skywalker #disney

[dasakuryo]

I couldn’t agree more with op. The sheer audacity.

#the fact very few people are actually talking about this bs irks me to no end #and the show has STILL not delivered on the explaining any of the retcons front #I was half expecting they focused on the trauma maarva inflicted upon him to do so but so far crickets #yes I know we still have seven eps left and YET I absolutely loathe they have gringues explaining rebellion and resistance #to a character played by a Latin American man #media critical

[fandoms-and-salt]

A character that's severely ignored/underused by the fandom compared to their actual role in the story: *exists*

A character that's treated as a butt of the joke and always mistreated in the source material: *exists*

A character that's plain fuckin written poorly: *exists*

Me:

My blorbo now.

#fandom problems #media critical #id in alt text #willow park #gus porter #bow #spop kyle #adora #honestly there is a lot of them

[vespulagermanica]

so many times people critical of pieces of media are dismissed as ‘haters’ rather than people who see potential and good ideas in the work they are critiquing, and want it to be even better…

#critical #fandom critical #media critical

[1im-perfect1]

We don’t consume media, media consumes us “The lost art of the sitcom”:

The way What we do in the shadows is perceived especially with this latest season has made me consider the way we watch media in the past few years. Wwdits is a sitcom and its structure reminds me a lot of the ones I watched when I was younger: The Big bang theory, Mom, Modern family, How I met your mother, Friends and so on, there was a dedicated timeslot for them after lunch until around 4 pm my mom watched them while going about her day laughing while not paying that much attention and I remember when I needed a book or I wanted something to eat I would go in the living room to greet her and I would have a look at the tv and before I knew I had been glued to it for the last hour, it didn’t matter which episode it was or how much I knew about characters or the plot (or the quality of the jokes) it was entertaining it was fun, I didn’t really care about what was happening or how it impacted the overall lore of the show and that’s what Shadows does, you can show a new viewer any episode and you won’t need to explain an hour of lore for them to even begin to get what’s going on; yes for a fan of the show Guillermo yelling back at Nandor in 4x6 displays a tremendous character/relationship growth (in season 1 he couldn’t even talk) but for a casual viewer it’s 2 men yelling about dodo birds...IT’S JUST FUNNY, fans and more devoted viewers get rewarded for sticking with the show with callbacks and a masterful character writing that doesn’t remove the characters’ edges or complexities but it doesn’t gatekeep new people from just sitting back and laughing along at the absurdity of, for example, a vampire who is pretty much a burnt torso trying out clothes for a wedding.

Viewers now have expectations of what media is and should be, with the popularity of binge watching and entire seasons being dropped on streaming sites in one day shows like What we do in the shadows have lost their format, shows are supposed to have season long arcs that impact every character’s decision, you’re supposed to have an essay long on every character’s motivation and goals and if you try to watch an episode of a new season you’ll be completely lost, as a watcher you’re required to engage with it to keep up with what everyone you know is talking about and if the show isn’t astronomically popular it gets cancelled because not enough people have watched in the first 2 weeks it was out, Shadows doesn’t reward you for binging it I would say quite the opposite, it often reintroduces concepts: Nandor explaining that he’s getting married...yes we know it’s your plotline, Nadja having a nightclub...yes you were talking about it an episode ago, all the characters calling Colin “the small creature that crawled its way out of the dead body of Colin Robinson” is a funny gag but also a clever way to explain what the fuck is that abomination, every character having a title card for who they are multiple time in an episode is to remind us who they are (Guillermo in particular because of how much his role in the house changes).

Like with Our flag means death and people commenting on how the first 3 episodes don’t have that much plot (a situational half hour comedy) and how people (me too) kept their buttcheecks clenched to see if Ed and Stede were gonna be canon...in the second half...of the FIRST season and how people had to FIGHT for season 2. 

We don’t have time anymore, we want now and a lot and fast, we don’t want to sit around for a couple hours for mindless fun because we can’t afford it instead of watching a sitcom we could have used that time to: clean the house, take care of our skincare, work or study, produce something just doing something, instead of doing nothing (the worst thing that can happen).

And it’s reflected by our media and the shows themselves: the characters need to be involved into something they can’t just laze about that’s just wasting time, shows are a lot shorter in number of episodes (filler isn’t allowed anymore) and seasons (a show getting to season 6 is almost unthinkable whereas 7 seasons was a regular occurrence in the 2000′s and 2010′s) and how we consume it, we have to work for it if we want more, it’s not just watching it’s working for that product if we don’t work enough it’s gonna be cancelled beacuse we failed it and we didn’t work hard enough to produce more product that we already PAY for.

#sitcom is dead #slowburn now lasts a season...at best #media criticism #media critical #What We Do in the Shadows #consumerism #wwdits #wwdits spoilers #OFMD spoilers #this is really personal so

[raviosprovidence]

i got blocked by someone over this but critiquing media that has sex in it/critiquing the sex itself is not automatically puritan. Sex negativity is not pointing out that most popular pieces of media that have sex in it are overwhelmingly white, straight, cis, and able bodied. Sex negativity is not pointing out that it is a problem that swathes of people (usually younger women) cannot read fictional books without there being some sort of ~spicy~ scene in it. What IS puritan is someone saying all sex is bad INHERENTLY/there shouldn't be sex depicted anywhere in media at ALL.

#anti booktok #booktok #booktube #media talk #media critical #media criticism #purity culture #purity wank #might expose them for being unable to read my argument after they accused me of not being able to read #and go off about what my actual argument is #but i need to keep to the art of being an ethical hater

[meerawrites]

On the importance of diversity of opinion and critical thinking

Read on Wordpress

#meerawrites #media #media critique #media analysis #media critical #media criticism #Youtube #Wordpress

[moontheoretist]

“Sokovia Accords were repealed! Team Cap was right! Team Iron Man must feel really stupid just about now!”

Actually no. We do not feel stupid at all. Because we actually did research about law that MCU writers did not for a TV show that is supposedly all about law, and know that the statement that Matt made was bullshit at best and ridiculous lack of knowledge at worst. Sadly, characters in MCU are written by people. If Matt and Jen were actual living, breathing lawyers specialized in international laws and international treaties, they would know that making such a claim would make them sound as if they slept through the law school and impact their carrier negatively, simply because Sokovia Accords were a multilateral international treaty signed by 117+ countries. So no, we do not feel stupid.  We are trying to not laugh about your naivety, and we also are horrified that MCU once again bullshitted something about law that is completely untrue, because they just cannot sit and do research. As if it would kill them if they did.

I did that research for them, and it looks like that for multilateral treaties (that Sokovia Accords are) “termination” would mean that the treaty ceases to exist for all States parties. There was no mention of repealing, but there was mention of withdrawal in the sources I found. So USA could only withdraw from Sokovia Accords, not repeal it as it would be then a case of termination, and it would mean that all countries who signed them would have to agree to that and the Accords would then cease to exist for all of them. I only saw the word “repealed” used in context of bilateral treaties, which are between two parties, usually two countries. And I do not think UN is considered a side with whom the repeal could be processed. So yeah, USA could only withdraw from it, which would then also mean that Sokovia Accords still exist. Team Cap was not right. Team Cap was stupidly not realizing the imperialist implication of their own actions, and everybody who doesn’t live in America and knows how America can fuck up foreign countries  “for reasons” knows that.

Sokovia Accords are portrayed in a way that is not true in regard to real life law and the version of our universe that MCU uses as its background. And it is not the only example of such gross disregard for international law representation in the media. It was done many times before in many other shows. Accords are just another example of how entertaining the audience seems to be more important than accuracy and quality of the worldbuilding in American mass media.

#pro sokovia accords #sokovia accords #mcu critical #media critical #pro team iron man #fandom critical #seriously i am thinking of tagging it anti team cap

[do-you-know-this-queer-character]

Hi! If anyone is interested in reading Yuureitou, please be aware there's a LOT of uncomfortable sexualizing of Tetsuo. I'm talking TONS of it, starting with his birth sex being revealed while he's shown in the bath. While a good story, it absolutely does not give him the respect he should get as a trans male character and overall felt gross (speaking as a trans person).

For anyone considering reading Yuureitou!

#Media critical #tw sex mention #Asks #not a poll

[laf-outloud]

I'm really happy about Justin's news with Walker but can the media please for the love of God stop using the word mothership? If I hear that word one more time, I'm going to commit atrocities.

They seem to like to use it for all franchises. But yes, it's particularly annoying. Perhaps one of those atrocities could be trending #banmothership on Twitter? LOL!

#ask box #anti mothership #media critical

[julianobungus]

I don't know, but when Grace said, "I don't know," to Simon, I beyond mad at her. Like girl, you know him, and you know what he's going through, and you say that to him. The guy who's has trust issues and abandonment issues, who was probably changing himself to you happy, and all you have to say is, "I don't know." I'm not forgetting what Simon did, but geez, the fandom seems to glorify Grace like she's a Saint but treats Simon like he's the devil, forgetting that Grace was the leader of apex and did just as many awful things. Sorry for the rant. It's just some of the stories and forms about Simon and Grace. Get disturbing about how happy they were when Simon kicked the bucket. And this is the only place I know where I won't get hounded for saying this.

No no, don't apologise. Like I get it. The treatment Simon gets from the fandom can be pretty infuriating, especially in how unrelenting some of the fans are in hating him.

Grace is a good character, but we shouldn't forget that she's just as flawed as Simon in many ways, so seeing people take the moral high ground by ignoring all the bad stuff she did is annoying. "But she changed!"

Aye, she did, and it's an important part of her character. But the narrative of Book 3 is so fixated on elevating Grace to levels of pure good and Simon to those of irredeemable sin that it stops making sense in some ways. Especially that one last line: "I don't know."

... What did the writers mean by that? That Simon - a literal young adult who's been separated from his family and normal society for his formative years - doesn't deserve a proper explanation or reassurance that he's cared for? You can just tell the writers hated Simon with a passion, especially with how they talk about him online.

Another thing I wanna add, even if it's a bit of a tangent.

Grace goes off on Simon for grabbing her and trying to control her - this is a good message to convey, since victimisation of women and patriarchal toxicity is a real problem IRL. That being said, I think Simon and Grace are one of the worst examples to use for that - because we see Grace manhandle and touch Simon all the time prior to this. Grace has no sense of personal space; touching and grabbing Simon and Jesse, albeit playfully and without malicious intent. I might be misremembering, but don't you think Simon would have picked that up from her?

This is largely why a toxic masculinity storyline doesn't work with these two. At least, IMO. If anything, Grace is the toxic one initially, whereas Simon becomes toxic as a result of their relationship.

I know this seems like I'm blaming Grace for all of Simon's problems, I'm just calling it how I see it.

#gsimon laurent #simon infinity train #infinity train simon #media critical #media analysis