#that's all I want from media

[artsekey]

Thinking about the time I lost a game of Overwatch and I was so mad about it that I genuinely considered getting into shit with the other team in chat and then realized that it was a colossal waste of my living breathing Human Time and uninstalled Overwatch instead because it was only making me angry.

And then thought about the OTHER time when I was on TikTok and realized I was Not Enjoying Myself and was, in fact, seeing so many sad videos and fake influencer ads that I felt Truly Despondent and then just…Deleted it.

Imo I want my social media /general media experience to be a pleasant break from real world and I get to decide what I get to cull to make that a reality for myself. I highly reccomended it! Life has improved considerably!

#look not having social medias is not My Personality #however like. no twitter. no insta. no tiktok. #do I know anything???? no. #am I up to date on literally anything pop-culture????? also no #and if that stuff’s important to you absolutely stick with it! #maybe this is a direct reaction to growing up terminally online from 2012 onward but i am freeeeee #it’s honestly made a huge difference in my life! i CAN just say no to these apps that want to suck all my time away!!!!

[wasyago]

the brainrot won

#GUY S i know i haven't posted anything in a while and thats because im working on a big cool project that i really want to finish without- #distractions. but uh. as you can see. ive been distracted 😔. still working on it tho!!!! and im very happy with it turns out its just- #super time and energy consuming so ive tried to limit my intake of other media to not make myself want to draw other stuff #i also haven't read the last two (two already?????) chapters of RnS and im very sad about it and i want to read it but you know that if i- #read it ill want to make fanart and then ill never finish my project :( #SO. sorrey for the lack of art itll be coming when im free to draw!!!!!!! #but also. yes ive watched new life because i dont want to go insane with nothing but this project on my mind and umm. had to take a little- #break to do a couple designs for fun... and to switch it up a bit because for real im going insane i think #ALSO. friend got me into zelda botw and i haven't played a whole lot yet (because project) but ive tried to take some inspiration for- #designs from there. at least for joel and scott. everyone else not so much... #WELL ANYWAYS this is getting long. i should really stop rambling in the tags and just make separate posts for all this but i dont want to #umm. tags. #new life smp #smallishbeans #mythical sausage #geminitay #pearlescentmoon #smajor1995 #inthelittlewood #my art #sketch

[communistkenobi]

The deeply moralist tone that a lot of discussions about media representation take on here are primarily neoliberal before they are anything else. Like the shouting matches people get into about “purity culture” “pro/anti” etc nonsense (even if I think it’s true that some people have a deeply christian worldview about what art ought to say and represent about the world) are downstream of the basic neoliberal assumption that we can and must educate the public by being consumers in a market. “Bad representation” is often framed as a writer’s/developer’s/director’s/etc’s failure to properly educate their audience, or to educate them the wrong way with bad information about the world (which will compel their audience to act, behave, internalise or otherwise believe these bad representations about some social issue). Likewise, to “consume” or give money to a piece of media with Bad Representation is to legitimate and make stronger these bad representations in the world, an act which will cause more people to believe or internalise bad things about themselves or other people. And at the heart of both of those claims is, again, the assumption that mass public education should be undertaken by artists in a private market, who are responsible for creating moral fables and political allegories that they will instil in their audiences by selling it to them. These conversations often become pure nonsense if you don’t accept that the moral and political education of the world should be directed by like, studio executives or tv actors or authors on twitter. There is no horizon of possibility being imagined beyond purchasing, as an individual consumer in a market, your way into good beliefs about the world, instilled in you by Media Product 

#just saw a very stupid post. but I will endure #these discussions also remind me of anti-vaxxer discourse #which in North America for Covid is framed as simply wanting to make the best informed choice as a consumer in a market* #ideas about public goods or civic responsibility towards others are incompatible with this consumer-citizen view of the world #like legitimately the idea of the consumer as the base civic unit of north american society is catastrophic for public health #and produces these interminable discourses about ‘media consumption’ #which itself is a neoliberal framing! I think ‘media’ as a catchall term is neoliberal because it links all art with the commonality of #being a good sold in a market #*outside of outright fascist anti-vax beliefs I should say. Although from my research so far these things seem to overlap heavily lol #which is not surprising but the distinction is worth teasing out #.txt

[foolishlovers]

anything can be a good omens au if you’re unhinged enough

#share ur wildest au ideas in the reblogs/comments if u want to pls #i’m still stuck on my h2o just add water au #crowley as rapunzel? gut-wrenching the hunger games au? superstore au with all the found family vibes? #riverdale au but they’re the parents oblivious to their kids establishing new time lines left and right #jurassic park au and they’re both dinosaurs just trying to munch on some grass #ineffable wives in a the wilds au making out on the beach while everyone else is fighting for their lives #glee au they’re teachers from another school reporting mr shue for being creepy af #crowley knows all the dances to high school musical in a modern family au #desperate housewives au but they don’t have any annoying husbands #barbie fairytopia au with rainbow wings do i need to say anything more #love island au they have a fake dating arrangement to get social media famous but they fall for each other anyways #claire’s au aziraphale gets his first piercing crowley shoots it #durex au crowley and aziraphale meet filming an ad for- [gunshot] #ok lemme stop here #good omens #aziracrow #gomens #good omens fics #good omens au #foolish talks #to write

[swampthingking]

andrew’s definitely gotten in trouble with his pr manager for tweeting things along the lines of:

“no mania inducing medication will compare to the euphoria i will feel the day donald trump drops dead”

#pr manager is like: andrew… this is the last time i’m gonna tell you #andrew: whats the point of democracy if i can’t exercise freedom of speech #pr manager: andrew it’s no longer about your image #at this point we are concerned the fbi is going to show up #andrew: neil has connections. i’m fine #they thought marketing andrew on social media would be good #they were sooooo wrong #because now andrew has a place to share every insane thing he’s ever thought #for instance—a tweet that just says ‘an alien googling: human clothes’ #he’s on there advocating for lgbtq+ youth you KNOW HE IS #he’s cursing and mildly threatening members of congress for imposing these disgusting bills #one day he tweeted ‘does mitch mcconnell know he’s dead yet’ #when mitch mcconnell stepped down from senate andrew tweeted ‘hopefully next he steps down from life’ #unsurprisingly: this endears him to some people and makes others fucking hate him #and he’s such a shit. he does not care either way #he’s kind of just like: pr manager. you gave me a twitter and told me to tweet. i’m just doing what you asked me #they’ve threatened to change his password so many times #they actually did once but andrew reported the account so many times for defamation and fraud that it got suspended #and he made a new account out of pure spite #his pr manager is like: andrew nobody is going to want to sign you because of your public image #and andrew is like: ?? ok. they can lose every game then #(he knows he’s the best goalie) #ok i think that’s enough for now. however i will probably be back #andrew minyard #aftg #tfc #trk #tkm #the foxhole court #all for the game

[wriochilde]

a redraw of something from 2020

the original version + the 2022 version

#sigh. no i am not a dsmp fan anymore this is just a redraw #my art #dsmp #c!tommy #c!techno #bedrock bros #ANYWAYS. time to get sentimental #i almost didnt want to post this because of that weird shame i have from enjoying this...specific piece of media #but i cant help but be appreciative to the series that kept me from killing myself lol #it felt so weird drawing tommy without all my post revival headcanons and i had to stop myself from adding all the white streaks in his hai #i never draw techno so this was tough #CLICK FOR BETTER QUALITY AUUUGGGHHG

[astralzeraphias]

“You would place Cybertron at the center of the universe.”

“Cybertron is the center of my universe. How is it not at the heart of yours?”

#optimus prime #megatron #transformers #maccadam #transformers devastation #hey why do i draw op from behind so often???? whats with that #that axe isnt in the game i just didnt want to have to spend time trying to look one up #this was fun! can you tell i tossed random colors around until i was satisfied with it akdhsjbdjxnd #tfdevastation my favorite tf media of all time <3 i adore u #im not fully satisfied with everything in this but i cant keep working on it otherwise i’ll explode so

[iswearimahuman]

y’know you could do a lot with Edwin’s age. And I’m not just talking about gay repression. I mean like dude died before women were even aloud to vote. You could come up with some fun stuff with that. I’m sure he’s partially up to date with modern times but like there’s probably a lot he doesn’t know about. Like he missed out on 70 years of pop culture.

#Listen all I’m saying is that when ever there’s a character from another time period we never utilize it enough #which like fair #cause I don’t really want to get into politics when I’m writing about 17 yo gay ghost from 1916 #but like think about how much media or big events he’s missed #like does Edwin know we landed on the moon? #edwin payne #dead boy detectives #charles rowland #niko sasaki #crystal palace

[wakeupthemembersofbylernation]

Where did this idea that aggressive harassment, sending death threats, bullying, doxxing, telling people to kill themselves, using homophobic and antisemitic slurs, attacking people’s looks, encouraging hate crimes, threatening to release sex videos, and engaging in a wide range of genuinely psychotic behaviors from behind a screen is reasonable and acceptable and even necessary “progressive” activism come from?

Yes, this is about the Noah Schnapp situation, but it’s about more than that, cause I’ve noticed this kind of mindset becoming more and more normalized, and I’ll never agree with it. How does this kind of behavior help the Palestinian people (or any other cause you’re being an “activist” for?) How does this kind of behavior encourage Noah or anyone else to change their views? How does wishing for Hamas to brutally murder the entire Schnapp family lead to peace and justice? How does saying Noah should dig up his dead dog and eat it stop bombs from dropping on Gaza???

I think all of us can agree that what’s happening in Israel/Palestine is horrible and stomach-churning. And I think most of us can agree that Noah wielding “Zionism is sexy” stickers when children are dying is tone-deaf and extraordinarily foolish at best. Please don’t mistake my words for saying that no one should ever be criticized or an endorsement of Noah’s reckless actions. But if you don’t have ANY compassion for the anxieties Jewish people face at a time when antisemitism is skyrocketing, that’s very concerning to me. Why can’t two things be true at once?

There’s this insidious notion that cruelty/calls for suicide/bullying are tools to weaponize against “bad” people, as if human decency, kindness, and empathy are food items to be snatched away whenever folks are deemed problematic (whether the reason is valid or not). People fancy themselves radicals, as if they are fighting in the French Revolution, when they are… not. I promise you that tweeting like this all day doesn’t make you a hero. It makes you look foolish:

#noah schnapp #byler #I know this is a controversial post but please know that it comes from a place of love and compassion and kindness #I know emotions are at an all time high and I debated whether I should post this but I believe it’s important #I just want there to be peace #in our world and in our fandom #the best way to be an activist is NOT by sending death threats on social media #the best way to be an activist is to be an activist

[its-your-mind]

*deep breath in*

the fears 👏 have always 👏 been (in one way or another) 👏 parallel 👏 to 👏 desire 👏

let me explain.

so many of the statements given by actual avatars center around some sort of need that was met by their entity. Lots of them even had a positive relationship with the fear that drove them.

Jane Prentiss is an excellent example - the Corruption has always been about a form of toxic and possessive love, but she personally has a deep desire to be “fully consumed by what loves her,” and finds a perverse joy and relief at allowing herself to be a home

Jude Perry is another - she fucking loved watching people’s lives be utterly destroyed. The Desolation only offered her a power of destruction on a grander scale, and then gave her a more intense rush of joy as she did its work. When she tells Jon that he needs to feed the Eye before it feeds on him, it’s almost as an afterthought; she was happily feeding the Desolation long before it burned her into a new existence.

Simon Fairchild. Every time that old loose bag of bones wanders into the picture, he is having a fucking EXCELLENT time playing with the Vast. He loves showing people their own insignificance, and he loves luring them into situations where he can throw them into the void as he smiles and waves.

Peter Lukas (hell, the whole Lukas family (except Evan. RIP Evan.)) hated. people. all he wanted was for them all to go away, to leave him alone. The Lonely only fulfilled that desire.

Daisy, Trevor, and Julia, all devoted to hunting those things they deemed monstrous.

Melanie, holding tight to that bullet in her leg because on some level, she wanted it. It felt good, it felt right, it felt like it fit right alongside the anger and spite that drove her to success.

Annabelle Cane first encountered the Web when she was a child, running away from home in order to tug on her parents’ heartstrings in just the right way to have them wrapped around her little finger. Later on she volunteered to be the subject of an ESP study. Hell, she’s the one who dangled the “Is it really You that wants this?” question over Jon’s head in S4.

And that brings us to Jon, beloved Jarchivist, the Voice that Opened the Door. Ever since he was a child targeted by the Web, he was looking for answers. He joined the Magnus Institute’s Research Department looking for them, he stalked his coworkers in search for them, he broke into Gertrude’s flat and laptop out of desperation for them. And when he realized that all he had to do was Ask to get truthful answers to his questions? It was only natural for him to jump at that opportunity.

Elias told S3 Jon that he did want this, that he chose it, that at every crossroads he kept pushing onwards, and the inner turmoil that caused was one of the focal points for Jon’s character through the rest of the podcast.

There’s a certain line of thinking in many circles about the power of the Devil: he’s not able to create anything new. All he’s able to do is twist and warp that which was already present, making it something ugly and profane while still maintaining the facade of something desirable.

Jon didn’t choose the Eye. But he did wander into its realm of power, exhibiting exactly the qualities it was most capable of hijacking and warping to its own ends. Jon didn’t choose the Apocalypse. But Jonah picked at him little by little, pointing him towards each Fear individually. Jon didn’t want to release the Fears. But the Web tugged on his strings just so and laid a pretty trail for him to follow until he reached its desired conclusion.

Jon didn’t choose ultimate power, or omniscience, or even his own role as Head Archivist. But he said “yes” to the right (wrong?) orders and kept on pushing for the right (wrong?) answers. He wanted to succeed at the work he had been assigned. He wanted to protect his friends. He wanted to rescue them when they were lost. He wanted to prevent the apocalypse, to save the world. He wanted to know why he was still alive, when so many had died right in front of him.

The Great Wheel of Evil Color that is the Entities might not fit as neatly into categories in this universe - maybe there was no Robert Smirke trying to impose strict categories on emotional experiences, or maybe the ways they manifest in the world has turned on its head (goodness knows many of them have been showcased and blended in some very fun and new and horrifying ways so far) - but their fundamental foundations seem to be the same. Hell, in episode one we learned that there had been enough individual incidents to create a distinction between “dolls, watching” and “dolls, human skin.”

Smirke’s Fourteen isn’t going to be relevant as common parlance, RQ said that already, but I don’t think that means the Fears themselves (and their Dream Logic-based rules) are different - I think it means that the levels of understanding, language used, and personal connections among people “in the know” are going to be entirely unfamiliar

#tma #tmagp #the magnus protocol #tmagp meta #tmagp analysis #the entities #robert smirke #smirke's fourteen #mind write a meta post that doesn’t turn into a fucking essay challenge #I literally thought about citing my episode sources here but decided that would get too FUCKING long. #anyway I’m pulling mostly from Gerry’s statement (111) and #and the Big Elias Group Confrontation (92) #and Annabelle’s statement (147) #and then finale - 196 / 197 / 200 #there are other little lines that I grabbed - tbh feel free to ask about anything I’ve said bc I feel like I’m ready to defend a thesis #I’ve been thinking about this on and off for a few weeks since the desire thing started going around #I have an obsession with Themes as they relate to Worldbuilding and now I have subjected you all to it as well #I am serious tho if anyone wants me to pull the specific parts I’m talking about (whether cuz you have Questions or you wanna ref them too) #lmk #my hyperfocus on silly media brain might as well come in useful somehow #aight peace ✌️

[sarcastic-clapping]

already seeing people who clearly don’t understand that a lot of us who are upset about what happened to marwa in this episode aren’t upset about the characters’ in-universe morality but the real life misogyny and racism in the way that this plot was handled lol

#seeing some very smooth brained takes here #’what so you’re mad that the vampire serial killer is a bad guy that made his serial killer familiar sad??? 🙄’ #nope! #i’m mad the writers stripped a female character of color of all her agency to make her subservient to a man #who she presumably (and canonically as freddie) continued to have sex with #despite the very very yucky implications about her ability to consent #only for him to forcibly remove everything about her that makes her an individual with her own thoughts and feelings #transforming her from a woman of color into a white british man #feel free to laugh if you want humor is subjective #it just makes me deeply uncomfortable! #wwdits spoilers #wwdits #anyway it’s ok to be critical of media you like guys #i love wwdits but imo they fucked up on this plot. it was a miss for me. #EDIT: shout out to this post for helping me curate my experience on this site by acting as a fly trap for assholes to block

[pariaritzia]

Queerness in Indian Media

↳Film: RRR (2022, Telugu), dir. S.S. RAJAMOULI

RRR is a historical fantasy action drama that follows Bheem (NTR Jr), a Gond warrior who is in search of a Gond girl who was taken away from their home, and Ram (Ram Charan), the British Army officer assigned to catch him. Ram and Bheem meet under false identities and quickly grow closer, but everything is thrown into chaos once the truth is revealed and Ram is forced to choose between his ambitions and his attachment to Bheem.

Long before any white person had ever heard of RRR, queer Indians were cautiously optimistic that there would be something for us in this movie. There was the song Dosti, which felt more romantic than the average song about friendship; Bheem's intense declaration toward Ram in the trailer; Rajamouli explaining that there is no boy-girl romantic song (a staple of masala Indian cinema in any language) because "the romance angle is between these two guys only...bromance...they are the heroes, they are the hero and heroine, and they are the hero and villain"; the lead actors repeatedly questioning interviewers who referred to Jenny and Seetha as Bheem and Ram's love interests; and the writer, V. Vijayendra Prasad, being a huge fan of Salim-Javed movies, particularly Sholay, whose homosocial pairing has been read as queer by queer Indians for decades.

The movie itself gave us more than we could have hoped for from a project made on such a huge scale. Ram and Bheem mimic many of the "hero and heroine" pairings in so many masala movies, doing everything from the "slow-mo staring" for the first meeting, to getting a whole montage song for the progression of their bond, to dressing each other up, to dancing together at a party, to carrying each other, to rescuing each other.

The final rescue scene is perhaps the most telling, as it twists a well-known myth from the Ramayana by putting Ram and Bheem in the position of heroine and hero. It is not Hanuman who tells Rama where to find Sita in Lanka, but instead Seetha who tells Bheem where to find Ram. Bheem, upon finding him, promises to get him out 'even if [he has] to burn this Lanka down to do it'--then promptly carries him on his shoulders the way Hanuman carried Rama, to do away with any suspicions from homophobic audiences.

Those homophobic audiences still made their complaints--a glance at the oldest comments on any clip or behind the scenes video for RRR will make that clear--but they were drowned out by the many fans of the movie. Ultimately, like with any coded movie, the interpretation is up to the individual, but it is undeniable that a number of queer Indians felt that there was a romantic bond between Ram and Bheem. To dismiss that would do a disservice to the many queer people who have, are, and always will work quietly behind the scenes to write our stories, even if they can never say so directly.

#rrr #tollywood #rambheem #this was the hardest post to make simply bc every time I talk about rrr I feel very #'this article contains excessive information' dot wikipedia warning. #thank you to my beloved ivy who has heard all my Excessive Information. ur a real one. #anyway I really had to restrain myself with this one and still it is the longest post for this series. rip. #anyway. wanted to do this one before pride month ends and before I take a break from this series #to make other gifs for a while bc quite frankly these take a long time to put together and I need. a break. #queerness in indian media #long post

[darkwood-sleddog]

once again i am asking tumblr to hold public polls for users to vote on potential changes. imagine if you were the 'respect our users opinion website'. like that could be us but apparently not.

#not dogs #tumblr #not all change is bad but i think the new desktop changes are actually terrible? #i want less clutter not more #staff SAYS they want to give us options #okay so develop some options and have us vote for them before release #as an actual real life election official i want this #bc i think most physical changes to websites are entirely useless and redundant #also why would you copy a social media site that is FAILING #@staff you made polls. please fucking use them #and release the results publicaly i swear to fuck #like if you want users to spend money on this website you kinda need to uh. listen to them? #i also think TELLING people they are testing a new feature that may or may not be permanent would be good #so that people don't come in to change they think is potentially permanent #not that i think the desktop stuff isn't going to be #tumblr has shown time and time again that they value only new users coming in from twitter

[scificrows]

The feed ID doesn’t need to say anything other than what everyone else’s says, just name, gender, and…” She trailed off. She was looking at me and I was looking at her. - Martha Wells, Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot art I used is the official cover art from the French edition of ASR)

#murderbot #the murderbot diaries #yeah i'm playing around with the murderbot cover art again :) #this murderbot is from the french edition of ASR! i think it's one of my favorite cover armor designs! i love that spine #i only wanted to make a cute pink aesthetically pleasing edit with murderbot's feed id but then i was thinking #about how murderbot's feed ID is super minimalistic and doesn't tell people anything about it really #(and how it actually would have preferred a null feed ID??? #remember?? 'here on preservation it meant 'please don’t interact with me.' it was perfect' sgdhhjsgdjhsd ily murderbot) #vs. what i can only imagine is going in murderbot's private feed gsdhjgsdhfg #idk. i might be projecting but mb seems like a 254 tabs open at all times kinda person to me #also idk this seems kinda analogous to #mb opaquing its helmet in ASR vs. all the emotions and expressions that are happening underneath the helmet :) #(oh and this is not really how i envision the feed it's more of a visualization of how i imagine the feed works) #(and stylized in a way that was easiest for me to edit together sdhfgjhfg) #(also i KNOW that they don't have ao3 and youtube and spotify and wikihow etc etc but. i was having fun with this okay) #(and this already took an embarrassingly long time to put together as it is without me trying to design new forms of media welp) #ANYWAYS #more pink murderbot aesthetics from me because i'm a simple creature and pink is fun #𓄿

[aardvaark]

i think hardison would be in lost media recovery communities online but he’d also be trying his hardest to make all recordings of a certain country singer named "kenneth crane" become lost media, and feel really kinda bad about it

#alec hardison #leverage #wren speaks #leverageposting #a lot of lost media exists in random archives of tv studios or recording studios or whatever & well. he is uh… uniquely qualified to #‘liberate’ those pieces of media. either by hacking or by grifting & stealing etc. #i think he’d be emotional about the loss of art that people put lots of work into & which other people love and want to find #he has to prevent any copies of eliot’s singing from being publicly available tho bc it’s a major safety concern #oh and all the baseball games that roy harper played in. and that news report of eliot playing w dogs in san lorenzo #actually perhaps…. a lot of news programs in san lorenzo that featured the murdered first lady #i mean sophie is meant to be dead as of season 2. #and while shutting down eliot/kenneth crane fansites was mainly important while they were there bc location being given away #it’s also important that ppl can’t figure out who he’s working with now or the fact he’s definitely alive or that he’s working for a #good cause now etc etc. just makes him more vulnerable & there’s a lot of ppl who want him dead or want revenge

[sableeira]

Out of all the changes bones has done to bsd I can tolerate most. I can tolerate the fish eye lenses, I can tolerate the turtle smiles, I can even reluctantly tolerate that they didn’t adapt important panels 1:1. What I cannot tolerate is how Yosano’s ability was sexualized for no reason at all in that one scene.

#this will be my only bones negative post all bsd rewatch #if I post something else negative you can kick my ass because I want to stop my own bones negativity #not because I think they do everything right but social media during s4/s5 was a bit too intense #and while I think there are quite a few things to criticize it really wasn’t productive at all and my own negativity didn’t make me happy #so I try to stay away from it #however WTF was the reason for that?!?!?!?!? #I’m so happy they left that to only one scene because that was already enough #but seriously 😭😭😭 get my girl out of that scene #bsd #bsdrewatch2023 #bsd yosano #yosano akiko #bungou stray dogs