#you don't have to moralize your taste in media

[grayve-mistake]

this is just kind of a big tangent but like I fucking hate when nerd ass losers see a game with even vague similarities to another game and go "ERMMM. HOW ORIGINALL (SARCASTIC). THIS IS JUST ANOTHER GAME IN THE STUPID TREND OF-" and then they list every genre/label under the sun to try and discredit the game as unoriginal by comparing it to other games. 90% of the time they haven't even played the game they're complaining about. they just see pixel art and get angry ig.

like look at this image. look at this and tell me it's not just alphabet soup. what do half of these words even mean. congrats on discovering what a genre is I guess?????????? good for you?????? do you want a fuckin award or something???? a little handclap??? shall I pour you a little glass of wine for being oh so smart and sophisticated for figuring out that Things Can Have Little Similarities Sometimes?????? just say that 7 years later you're still bitter that undertale got popular and leave oh my god "quirky dialogue" oh I'm sorry did you want your dialogue boring and soulless yeah let me just remove the personality from the game. here's your Nothing Burger I hope you're happy. "pixel art" oh so i guess like almost every game that came out in the 80s and 90s is actually just part of a so-called "2010s-2020s trend". These people genuinely think earthbound and celeste are "Basically The Same". it's not even an rpg. You had to throw in platformers in your disgusting word smoothie because otherwise you couldn't even find any real similarities besides "has a story and contains pixels". they think the psychological horror game Omori is just Undertale 2. yeah sorry guys Super Fuckin Mario Brothers is part of the quirky rpg metroidvania fjhksdgjhlkfgsdhkfgh-like diarrhea trend. cant play it now or you're cringe and bad. do you people ever get TIIIRRREEDDDDD. DO YOU EVER ENJOY THINGS. ON THEIR OWN MERIT. DO YOU EVEN GIVE THINGS A CHANCE. YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL FOR NOT LIKING THINGS YOU'RE BORING AND ANNOYING AS FUCK. I'm so fucking done

#im not gonna even unpack the meme format it's literally just “haha fat person said the thing so it's bad and cringe” like grow the fuck up #rant #this is just the notlikeothergirls thing except it's mostly grown ass men doing it so it's seen as more acceptable somehow #like “ERMMM I DONT LIKE POPULAR GAMESSSS... IM TOO COOL FOR THAT...” no one likes you #if they played the games and decided they weren't for them that'd be one thing. I can understand that. #not everyone is going to like the same things I like and I can live with that. that's fine. #but when you look at a game you so obviously haven't even touched #and decide it's terrible based on Nothing (aka Because It's Marginally Successful/Popular) #and then try to excuse that by somehow connecting it back to every other game you don't like no matter how big of a stretch it takes #that's shitty! #just say you don't wanna play it and leave people who like it alone #you don't have to moralize your taste in media #omori #celeste #earthbound #undertale #metroid #rpg #rpgmaker #indie game #indie games #indie rpg #games #gaming #video games

[moralesluvr]

so i have a few really close guy friends like we’re close to the point where they call me any time of day just to talk and I feel like 42!miles isn’t exactly the jealous type but if his girl had friends like that he would definitely side eye them and be kinda bitchy with his girl if she picks up the phone while they’re together

mine & only mine ft. miles morales

♡ pairings & aus: earth42!miles morales x black!fem!reader ♡ summary: after your boyfriend goes to get food, he walks in your room to see you on the phone with some dudes he's never seen before, and he acts out. ♡ warnings: banter-like arguing, suggestiveness maybe? one use of the n word ♡ a/n: thanks for your request!! ♡ got a request? | masterlist ♡

"I'M STARVING." You complained as you rested your head on your boyfriend, who was scrolling through TikTok while you relaxed in his lap. One of his hands was fidgeting with your coils, twisting them around his ringed fingers as he looked down at you. He cocked his head to the side as you pouted, "Me too, mami. What'chu got a taste for? I'll go pick it up."

"I was thinking wings, boneless lemon pepper?" You asked him, looking up at him with warm eyes. He gives you a nod and stretches, the hem of his white T-shirt slightly riding up, exposing his toned stomach. Smiling, you sit up as your boyfriend climbs out of bed and grabs a pair of shoes, "Bring some lemonade too, please."

He nods, grabbing his wallet before quickly giving you a placement of affection on your cheek, warmth sprouting on your skin as he told you that he would quickly be back with the food.

In the meantime, you sat on your boyfriend's bed as you scrolled aimlessly through social media. You were continuously clicking on 'Copy Link' and sending all the funny or romantic ones that you saw to your boyfriend, knowing that he'd probably end up watching them with you when he got home.

You were happily scrolling until your screen illuminated with one of your friend's names flashing on top. When your eyes scanned the letters that spelled out 'Amari', you found yourself grinning at the device as you clicked the green accept button.

Your friend's face lit up the screen as he waved at you, "Y/N! What's good? Haven't seen you in a hot minute!"

"Dude, I know, it's crazy," a laugh sounded from your throat as you propped yourself up on the bed, conversing with your old friend as he caught you up on the things that have occurred since you left your hometown to move to Brooklyn. He even gives the phone to his mom for a brief moment as you catch up with her, telling her how much you missed them and promising that you would visit in no time.

Although your conversation felt much shorter, it had to be at leas an hour long because you were still on the phone, giggling and laughing when your boyfriend got home. He called you twice to come down and eat with him, but he didn't understand why you weren't answering until he entered his bedroom.

You were propped up on the bed with your phone leaning against the TV, the TV that you were gaming on, Miles' purple controller in between both of your palms. You were laughing about something, violently clicking buttons as you won against whoever you were playing. Until Miles realized the boy that was on your phone screen, a controller also in his hand.

His jaw clenched.

He walked over to you, close enough to where he was in the frame, Amari's vision drifting to Miles and you. You looked up at your boyfriend as he gave you a sloppy kiss, tongue grazing over your lips as he grasped at your waist. A shaky breath left you as you hummed against his lips, before he pulled away from you with a 'pop'. He turned his attention to the screen, "Who the hell are you?"

"Amari?" Your friend questioned, almost as if he was assuming that your boyfriend should know who he was. Miles picked up on that tone and he immediately settled the phone in between his fingers, face all in the camera. He gave him a slick smile, "Ion know how you don't know me, 'cause I'm your friend's boyfriend," he gave you a hard look before looking back at your phone, "You can go now, 'lil nigga. Byeeeee!" He dragged out, waving sassily to Amari before hanging up the phone.

He then turned around to you, "Y/N, who the hell is that and why he don't know who I am? You just out here actin' single now?"

You rubbed your temples, preparing for the argument that was bound to bubble up from your lover. You looked at him with glossy eyes, "Baby, that's my friend. I haven't seen him since I moved so he called. He doesn't know you 'cause we haven't talked in forever."

"He like you?"

"No."

"How you know?"

"He has a girlfriend."

"Oh."

Miles gave you an apologetic face as you flattened your lips at him for acting out. He gave you a kiss on your forehead before murmuring an apology, swearing up and down that he just didn't want you being friendly with boys that probably liked you. He then took your hand and led you downstairs, where your meals were on opposites sides of your dining table, a small candle lit and the lights lower than usual. You giggled, "What's this?"

"An unexpected apology gift," he chuckled, arms snaking around your waist as one of his hands caressed your cheek, leaning into you as his soft lips connected with yours.

𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 ☻ thank you for reading!

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @enj4i // @chrissytalia // @chaoticevilbakugo // @motheroffae

𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐑-𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓🕷️: @queenesther996 //@sukunas-slutty-bitch // @c3f21 // @wydney // @rinnyisnothere // @brieryann // @moisttowllet // @Dee-m-cee // @liliummz // @starhrtz // @daisydark // @randomhoex // @solanawrld // @whore4hobie // @tanakaslastbraincell // @simp4miguell // @nyrovi3 // @my3tumbles // @aziulsworld // @enchantingfoxsparkles // @mancerseedu // @cafehyunji // @personofyou // @mcdvsr // @kopiivie // @ellatienesuscosas // @venuswash3re // @calliarlerte // @pr0wlerpunk // @tzuyuzzs // @wisepoetrycheesecake // @clearskiiiess // @d3atht3hek1d // @vienreina // @pixqlsin // @caulifloweron // @aizawassimpblog // @stvrgrl // @zerosinterweb // @ishqani // @mookiebut

𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 ✎: @Dee-m-cee // @euphorichappiness10 // @adoree-kaelynn // @mhadnirb // @mmst4rz // @iris-theflower // @fleurrieerecs // @kenlani // @kala2022 // @ilyless // @milesmolasses // @laylasbunbunny // @all444miles // @thecoloredpages // @bl00dsuccker // @evacowan // @popeheywardssecretgf

#spiderman across the spiderverse #spiderman: across the spiderverse #miles morales x black!reader #earth 42 miles morales x reader #miles morales x you #earth 42 miles morales fluff #miles morales #miles morales x y/n #miles morales earth 42 x reader #miles x reader #miles morales x reader #prowler miles #atsv miles morales #miles morales x black reader #‧₊˚✩ — 𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒! #‧₊˚✩ — 𝐑𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐒!

[ponett]

Whenever I complain about graphic or dark content in media I watch, I keep hearing people retort with this apparently very popular opinion that people who enjoy comfy, wholesome things are actually more likely to be raging assholes than people who love things like death metal and gore. As someone who seems to enjoy comfy, wholesome things yourself and likely met many others who enjoy similar such things, do you agree with this opinion? If so, why do you think this happens?

So I've been sitting on this ask for like a week, not knowing whether or not I wanted to touch it because it kind of feels like being handed a live grenade

For one, I don't like being pigeonholed as someone who just likes "comfy" or "wholesome" things. Yeah, I enjoy My Little Pony and Animal Crossing. I made a game with cute furry characters and lots of bright colors. I also enjoy things like Berserk and Chainsaw Man and Doom and violent crime dramas and punk rock with vulgar lyrics and porn. Variety is the spice of life

Anyway: I generally don't think it's a good idea to make sweeping statements about peoples' moral or intellectual character based on what genres of story they enjoy, regardless of what direction you're coming at it from. But this is a very leading question that kind of skirts around the root problems

There's frequent (perhaps a bit exaggerated) pushback these days against people who prefer their fiction to be a warm blanket, a form of escapism meant to distract you from the real world. In particular, the dreaded "person who only watches kids' cartoons" is a form of this that gets brought up a lot. I don't think the root problem here is what media people enjoy or don't personally enjoy - taste is subjective, and I don't think it's a moral obligation for everyone to have diverse tastes in TV shows - but I do think some folks should try to get out of their comfort zone a bit more. Sometimes stuff that seems like it won't be for you on a surface level will really end up speaking to you, but you won't know until you give it a shot. Trust me, I've been there many times

It becomes a problem when people demand that media ONLY cater to that "warm blanket" attitude. And I think that's part of the reason why that stereotype you mentioned about fans of ""wholesome""" media being assholes exists. People who view dark or violent content as an inherent flaw because it's not what they like. People who yell at creators when they make bad things happen in their stories, because how dare you do this to my comfort characters? People who say movies should never have sex scenes. People who want "problematic" moral complexity stripped out in favor of black and white moral instruction. People who seem to hate any sort of interpersonal conflict in fiction at all

These attitudes can be the result of many different cultural factors, factors that can't all be traced back to Tumblr or what shows you like, but sometimes it's definitely because of that lack of broader perspective on media. You can tell when someone's opinions on The Right And Wrong Ways To Write Fiction were shaped almost entirely by, like, Steven Universe discourse. (Yes, this is a jab at Lily Orchard.) And when these people are very loud about their opinions, well, it becomes a trend people notice

Like. I don't know you. You sent this anonymously. But when you say you "complain about graphic or dark content in media you watch"... that could mean a few wildly different things! Maybe you're just venting about something that unexpectedly triggered you, and that's totally fine. But the wording could also imply that, like, you take issue with these things being present at all, and that you expect a person who likes "death metal and gore" to be more of a "raging asshole" than someone who likes the "wholesome" things you like. So... well, maybe you're more dismissive or judgmental of things outside your comfort zone than you realize?

Unfortunately, in case it's not already obvious, on the internet this shit quickly becomes a proxy battle over dozens of intersecting cultural issues at once where everyone is kinda just talking past each other. So it gets messy

For example, I have no reason to believe that the people who run the "Wholesome Games" showcases have anything against games that are dark or violent or contain adult themes. (They've outright said they don't. Many times!) But when you see people going "why is Spiritfarer allowed in the showcase? That's a game about DEATH and that's NOT WHOLESOME, why would you make me think about death?" or "Ugh, why does Disco Elysium have to be about a cop? Why can't we apply these systems to a game about a young witch who's trying to find a lost cat in an idyllic village instead?" it... Well, it makes me sympathetic towards the indies who don't feel comfortable with the "Wholesome Games" label and consider it limiting. But it also doesn't make me think that devs catering to a demand for more chill, nonviolent video games are categorically facilitating fascist censorship from the Christian right

It's complicated! The written word is imprecise and the internet is a nightmare

I've kind of gone off on multiple tangents here. Basically: I do think that people can kinda turn fans of "comfy" media or "adults who only watch Bluey" into an overblown boogeyman these days. I think people online generally have a habit of swinging too hard in one direction or another in their stances on certain things, overcompensating based on what group of people online are currently annoying them the most and turning said group into like The Main Problem With Society Today. But I also think that boogeyman only exists because of very real examples of people demanding that everything cater to their narrow comfort zone. Go like what you like, but also, y'know. Don't be that person

#anon #ask

[ao3commentoftheday]

competence and cringe

Have you ever heard of the 4 stages (or quadrants) of competence? They're a useful way of looking at your skills on a spectrum.

unconscious incompetence - you don't know what you don't know. You lack a skill, but you also lack any information about what that skill requires and so you don't know that you're bad at it because you don't know what good looks like. Ignorance is bliss.

conscious incompetence - you know what you don't know. You've learned enough about the skill now to be able to identify all of the pieces you lack. You can see all of the places were you need to work and improve. Knowledge is pain.

conscious competence - you know, but you need to think. You have the skill now, but you still need to think about it in order to do it well. You've improved to the point where all of the pieces work well together, but you still need to concentrace to make it all smooth. Mindfulness is key.

unconscious competence - you forget how much you know. The skill is so solid and practiced that it feels natural to you now. You don't even notice anymore all of the different pieces that make up the skill because they all work together so well that it feels like one action. There is no thought, only do.

I was thinking of this model today with respect to cringe and I think a lot of the same concepts apply.

unconscious enjoyment - You like a thing wholeheartedly and uncritically. It is wonderful and you love it and you can't get enough of it.

conscious dissatisfaction- You've been introduced to concepts of critically engaging with media. You've learned harmful tropes and stereotypes. You see the kinds of media that get praised by your peer group or by others you look up to. You want to "enjoy better" and like things that others find valuable. You are ashamed of your earlier, uncritical self. You cringe looking back at them or others who are like them.

conscious satisfaction - You feel that you still like something even though other people say it's problematic, and you still give yourself permission to enjoy it as long as you acknowledge all of its faults while you do. You miss the days of being able to like things without thinking about them so much or feeling guilty. You cringe now at how black and white you thought things were during your conscious dissatisfaction stage.

conscious enjoyment - You realize that interest and enjoyment are not moral compasses. You know that all media has its faults, that no creators are without their issues. You learn more about your own tastes and what you actually like, as opposted to what you think you should like. Looking back at yourself, the cringe is fainter. You have sympathy for past-you and maybe even a fondness. You don't enjoy unconsciously anymore, but you don't always feel the need to analyze every aspect anymore.

As always, I'm working my way through these concepts as I type them out into a tumblr post. I'd love to hear your thoughts on them!

#thinky thoughts #why is my brain like this? #who knows lol

[renthony]

I haven't enjoyed a Marvel movie since I stopped bothering to keep up with the MCU in 2014. I don't care for most Marvel movies. I think Marvel Studios is a case study in things that are shitty in the entertainment industry. But holy shit, pretentious posts along the lines of "haha, I don't watch Marvel films, I have real taste, go watch another movie!" are so fucking annoying.

Like, go put up your middle finger at some preps or something. People are allowed to watch whatever they want and enjoy whatever movies they want and make whatever fandom stuff they want, and that doesn't say anything about their intelligence or morals or character. It doesn't mean they are somehow bad at watching movies, or are too stupid to realize whatever nugget of wisdom ye high-and-mighty Marvel Haters think you're the only ones to understand.

Again, not personally a Marvel fan, but this whole "haha, I'm better than Marvel fans" relates to something I've been musing on about media analysis as a whole. There is a persistent idea that mass entertainment is inherently lower quality or less artistic because it's made for a wide audience, and that bad art isn't worth analyzing or engaging with just because it's low quality. In this mindset, the only art that has the possibility to be any good at all is 100% independent projects made by amateurs, and anything produced by a studio or with wide appeal is inherently poser art with absolutely nothing meaningful to say. In this mindset, you can't possibly learn anything or take anything from bad art, and if you find meaning in bad art, you're clearly just stupid and uneducated and have bad taste.

The thing is? Liking bad art is not a sin. Having a different opinion about what constitutes "bad art" is not a sin. Finding something entertaining despite its flaws is not a sin. Studying bad art is not a sin. You can learn a lot from bad art, you can learn a lot from interpreting propaganda, you can learn a lot from engaging with things even if you don't think they're very "good."

My vaudeville research keeps turning up author after author who talks about vaudeville as some sort of "point of no return," like the performing arts all turned to shit the second things were intended to be seen by more than a single audience for a single show. Popularity gets equated with lack of skill or quality, because all the performers were "just pandering to the audience" instead of relying on "real skill."

For one, what the fuck does that even mean, but for two, the theatrical quality of vaudeville isn't what makes it interesting and worth engaging with. Every single thing that ever came out of vaudeville could be 100% total utter garbage, but vaudeville would still be worth studying because of how influential it still is on arts and entertainment today. It has significant historical and educational merit. And some of it is still genuinely fun and entertaining, once you pick out all the things that didn't age well or were just plain bigoted. There's artistic merit in those old sketches and songs, and there's meaning to be drawn from plenty of it even here in 2023.

You want to learn about the Hays Code? Well, let's talk about how early films were shown on projectors on vaudeville stages, so vaudeville censorship went on to influence American film censorship. Let's talk about how we still use slang to this day that originated on vaudeville, such as "skit" or "one night stand" or "ad lib" or "the big time." Vaudeville is still in the bones of the modern American entertainment industry and pop culture, and you can't really escape that influence.

People in modern day use Marvel movies as proof that big studio films are singlehandedly responsible for the decline of art, and there is nothing to learn from them or see in them at all, ever. But to me, "Marvel movies are bad" is such a flat, uninteresting observation, because when it comes to media analysis, it doesn't really matter if Marvel films are good or entertaining. If you want to actually dig into the problems with big-budget summer Hollywood blockbusters, and the way they're impacting the industry as a whole, you have to go deeper than "pop culture is all stupid stuff for stupid people, unlike me, who isn't like other girls actually has good taste in media!"

There are so many more factors at play than "mass entertainment = bad art." Let's look at the ways capitalism screws over small creators and forces them to seek funding from the very same studios that fuck them over. Let's talk about how the actual workers in the industry are fighting tooth and fucking nail against the exact same things all the Marvel haters harp on about. Let's talk about studios that accept funding from the United States Government to turn superhero comics into propaganda films, and then threaten the actual workers with never having a career again if they complain or quit. Let's talk about how the actors are regularly abused and treated to hostile work environments.

Let's talk about the people who made the films, because the films were not made by a CEO pressing the "make movie" button. The workers made those films. The workers were exploited by those studios. Let's try giving a shit about them, instead of taking the "haha, Marvel fans are stupid and cringe" route.

There is so much more fucking nuance and detail and conversation about mass media as a topic, and boiling it down to, "art made for a wide audience is inherently shitty and has nothing to say."

You're not a better, more intelligent, more educated person just because you don't like Marvel movies. Making posts about how much better you are than Marvel fans does nothing to either explain or tackle the issues in the entertainment industry.

It just makes you look like a dickhead.

#original post

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

You are not ACAB. You're an asshole

SO this post has been a long time coming and I have sent a rant to several people to look over it for me just so I could get opinions. And most agreed with what I had to say. However it was mean, callous, and too "I'm ok being an shithead" for my taste.

If I am being 100% honest, people hate cops just to hate cops. It's not because there are cops that do wrong. It's just because they are told to/programmed to hate cops. Ok, so why do I say that?

Well a few reasons.

For the past 40 years *minimum* it has been a point of the media to showcase any time a cop does anything bad. Because what better way to "Reach the people" than to assuage them with a "Hello fellow Americans. Doesn't it suck with cops get on our ass about stuff".

Social media has been using bait for years in order to get more traffic to more links and articles. This alone has made rage baiting as an entirety more of an issue.

Because of both of the above, there was a time when alt media *at the time* and social media worked in tandem to constantly show off instances of cops being assholes or outright doing things that were illegal.

So what does this mean. Well it means that you are under a notion that is already provided to you. "Cops are ruthless bad guys that don't do anything for anyone at all".

Except that's not even remotely true. What is true is that often, any positive stories involving cops is buried or glossed over and only ever talked about in very local reports. What's more a cops job is to do the right thing. So when a cop does do the right thing, the understanding is that they are not meant to receive praise. However, that is lopsided in how it works. It more or less means that you are under the LARGEST of microscopes, and if you fuck up at ALL, then you end up as a youtube video that reinforces that "Cops are bad guys" or "Cops are stupid and annoying". Rather than the truth which is that cops themselves are human beings.

Now. I can already see the comment from the shitheads. "ACAB EXISTS BECAUSE-" Shut it. I don't care. Unlike most of you I understand nuance. And more than that, I've had poor run-in's with cops. I have also had to work along side them as private security as well. And my mother, who's not shy about telling people they fucked up, worked as Dispatch and as a Secretary for the PD in the small city we lived in. "Oh well then your brainwashed", you can say that but it does not make you right.

Unlike you, clearly I'm able to think critically about subjects where as you are not. Am I a "Back the Blue" cultist? Absolutely not. I'm solely in the camp of Abolish Unions and hold officers to account for what they do wrong.

However, having said that, Cops duty to uphold the law sometimes manifests in ways that we don't like. Like Uvalde. The cops were in their rights to stop the shooter, but the top brass would have decimated any officer that decided to not follow his order of standing down. I don't think that's ok. Hell that entire chain of command should have faced a lawsuit. But where they DID properly enforce the law, is stopping parents from going in. Because had a parent gone by cops in order to stop the shooter, at that point, it legally could have been considered vigilantism.

Regardless of the moral implications of that, fact is, that's the truth.

So why am I making this post? Mostly because ignorant people exist in this world and their only reason for living at all is just to hate. "All cops are bastards"? Are you so sure? I wonder how many people in the US over the past 100+ years have been saved by cops. I wonder how many kids have been rescued from abuse. I wonder how many women have been saved from rape. I wonder how many kids have been save from gang violence or drug dealing.

Saying, "All cops are bastards" is no different than saying, "Yes all men". Functionally you are saying the same thing. And while you may say, "Hey that's not the same one is an immutable trait and the other is a job", to which I'll say, sure. Except you are making a gross generalization. Which IS the same. And ignores every single decent, good, great cop that exists out there. And every single good cop that has ever existed.

In my last post talking about this, I stated that people that are ACAB don't really hate cops. They just hate that they can't break the law without consequences. And I still believe that, but let me add a bit of nuance to that.

Most of the people that hate cops are programmed to hate cops. Because, like the media does, it picks something that will engage you, and will put it in front of you any way it knows how to. There are also a lot of people out there that hate cops because they can't break the law. That's also very true.

However there is another group that exists and it's Anarchists. Now, I have followers and people that I follow that are Anarchists. And while I view them as different from Tankies, Fundamentally they share the same, "Ideal Utopia" idea. Which is that, "Under my ideals, the world would be better". Except it won't be. It will be warlords and dictators forming groups. Assuming that we don't get taken over by Islamic Extremists, China, or the UN. Their ideals aside, they hate "The State" in all it's forms. And if you are fine with any form of "State" they will quite literally go off on a tirade of why you are a bootlicker. *Sigh*

Now, the last of these groups is just people that either 1) Do not understand what goes into being a cop and just hates them based on baseless notions, or 2) People that have had bad run-in's with cops and take that notion out on ALL cops.

So for these last two sets, things are difficult to deal with. Because they will go out of their way often to not care about how hard it is to be a cop. What do I mean?

Well for starters, cops are expected to be perfect at all times.

Perfect Aim

Perfect knowledge of all laws both federal and local

Perfect judgement at all times

Perfect execution of force at all times

Perfect response at all times

Perfect awareness of surroundings at all times

Perfect ability to listen to the law but also not piss off people breaking the law

And I could go on. Humans are fundamentally imperfect. They always will be. So expecting a cop to be perfect is like asking your SO where they want to eat every day for a month and them knowing right away. Unless you're a LIAR it's not going to happen. Same such, cops can't be perfect. Combine that with having to both uphold the law AND be sure to follow the law at the same time, then combine that with the dangers of the job, the fact that human beings are ANIMALS that are violent by nature, and unpredictable on top of which, with use of force laws. And yeah. You don't have a good time. It becomes a huge issue of people that are like, "Why didn't just just tase him?" or "Why didn't you just shot the gun out of his hand" or better yet, "He only had a knife and was threatening to kill someone. Why'd did you have to shoot him, you are not judge jury and executioner."

And that's where you are both right and wrong.

Right in the fact that they are not a Jury. Wrong about the fact that they are not acting in their capacity to judge a situation, and execute those that are too great a risk to subdue. And if you ever talk to a person that does MMA, subduing a person is not as easy as you think. More over, Tasers are not considered, "non-lethal". In a lot of cases they are considered lethal because you are delivering a shock, meant to incapacitate someone. Meaning that you have the risk of permanently injuring them, OR killing them if their heart stops. Hell you could also in theory turn them into a vegetable.

But sadly no one considers all of these things. And only people familiar with cops and how their jobs work, know any of this.

Am I justifying bad, or even evil cops with this post? No. I think cops fundamentally need more training. I also think that they need frequent psychological evaluations to see the effect of the work on them. Because some of the things you see in your capacity as an officer can be gruesome. Dead bodies. People that have been mutilated. Dead kids from drugs or gang shootings. And the list goes on and on and on.

Recently I made a post talking about how since the summer of 2020, there have been less good cops. And fact is, because of the 2020 riots, a lot of good cops did quit their jobs. That's a fact. Many actually put in for early retirement. And not because "They were being held to account". No. It was because they were told, "If you do your job, we will riot outside your station. Firebomb your cars and homes, and we will find a way to railroad you into prison".

So what do we see in NY and LA? Car break ins. Looting. Beatings in the streets. Cops that will literally stand down while people are being hurt. Why? Because why the hell would anyone be a cop when you are under a microscope SO LARGE, that even the SMALLEST twitch in the wrong direction could end your career and possibly your life.

It's easy to say, "Yeah I'd stop those looters and assaulters". Sure. Right up until the are a protected class. Then enjoy your media crucifixion, loss of work and likely stint in jail. As well as your family getting death threats for years to come. So given all this, I made a point that a lot of hires over the last 3 years have probably been scraping the bottom of the barrel. Because in truth, knowing all the above, why WOULD anyone be a cop? Certainly there are still good cops. But a lot of the good ones quit.

What's more, Now a days it's better as a cop to just NOT enforce the law. Because why risk everything I mentioned. You protect the law and you make the conservatives happy but piss off the woke. And the woke currently more or less control law and media. Good luck getting shanked in jail. If you don't uphold the law, you piss off people who want you to enforce it but you probably get to live another day.

At that point you may say, "OK so why be a cop at all then", and the answer is easy. It's a job. And it pays. Why excel at all when you are expected to be a bastion of perfection? What's that? Didn't use the PERFECT amount of force? Death Penalty. Oh? You shot a guy that pulled a gun on you and you didn't just take the shots to the chest? Well clearly you deserve to be put in jail for the rest of your life.

Cops are treated like they are supposed to be absolutely perfect at all times and it's stupid. I HATE police unions mind you. But you know what I hate more. People that have no idea the risk to their lives that cops are put through day to day just for putting on the badge. The fact that cops NEED wiggle room within the law in order to enforce it.

Remember "Hands up don't shoot"? Yeah. So do I. I also remember that it was a fucking lie, and that there are people to this day that still believe that lie. And if not for Police Unions, he might have rotted in jail for the rest of his life. There is no PEFECT in this life. Not for cops, not for anyone. Cops are not superheroes. They don't swing in on a web shooter and punch the bad guy JUST hard enough to knock him out without killing him. And with morality as fucked up as it is in the west, even just in the US, Law enforcement is in a no win situation. At all times.

But I want to find every person that has ever been saved by cops, and force you to tell those people that all cops are bad. And tell them about how whatever they were saved from doesn't matter because "ALL cops are bad". Tell the women that were possibly saved from rape, "You should have just been raped. Cops are all evil." Or tell the kid that was saved from the person that kidnapped them, "Yeah no, you should have just been a sex slave. Cops are bastards and clearly they didn't WANT to help you". Stop making assessments about ALL of any group of people. Because the likelihood that you'll be right is near zero.

There are good cops. And there are bad cops. Police Unions need heavy reformation. Accountability needs to actually be able to happen. And people need to understand how hard cops actually have it. All of these things can be true at the same time. And none of it is justifying evil or bad cops or even ones that don't enforce the law. It's a nuanced topic. And as such, it should be treated so.

#discourse #discussion

[saintsenara]

How are you able to enjoy toxic/unhealthy/“problematic” ships/characters without feeling weird (for lack of a better word) about it?

I ask this because I want to be able to do this myself as it seems like a much more enjoyable way of engaging with fiction to me. I can get over some ships just being toxic and the characters not being good together and still enjoy their dynamic but I have trouble with the other ships that feel morally wrong. I know it’s just fiction but I can’t seem to get over the ick feeling I have when I think about those ships/characters. I feel like I’m being too puritanical about these things but I don’t know how to stop feeling like something is gross when I feel it’s gross…

Do you have any tips to stop jumping to moralizing ships/characters?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

i'm going to be upfront that this reflexive gross feeling isn't something i've ever really struggled with - both in fic and more broadly. this is due to various personal idiosyncrasies, above all the fact that i've got disengaged boomer parents who didn't police our media consumption [my favourite book when i was eleven? lolita...] and that i'm a doctor, which is a profession which requires you to develop a very high threshold for what you find disgusting. the human body - at all stages of its life-cycle and its cycle of decomposition - produces a lot of different fluids... and it's also the case that [just as if you can think of it, there's porn for it] if an inanimate object exists, somebody somewhere has got it stuck inside them...

and so the situation that i find myself in is that i consider it infinitely less weird that i enjoy the odd bit of hot tomarrymort action than that i actively enjoy cutting through bone with a saw...

but, obviously, "get a medical degree" isn't particularly helpful advice...

i am a ride-or-die fan of the concept of stepping outside of your comfort zone. this is why i'm such an avowed multishipper - i think it's good for us as fandom citizens to examine the potential of our faves in relationships [romantic or otherwise] which are either not their canon endgames or which aren't our preferred pairings, and in situations which don't align with their canon experiences [whether that means making them suffer or giving them full-on fluff]. it draws out the multiple aspects of a character to consider them from these different angles - and it prevents us from getting so stuck in one interpretation of a character or configuration of a ship which means that it puts our backs up to stumble across stories which approach things differently.

but stepping outside of your comfort zone doesn't mean that you have to go enormously far. it may be that a reader decides - having only ever read teen-rated fics where characters' sex lives don't extend beyond hand-holding and forehead kisses - to take the plunge into an explicit piece filled to the brim with watersports and age play. it may be that a reader decides - having only ever read teen-rated fics for one canon pairing - to read a teen-rated fic for a non-canon alternative. both of these are entirely valid approaches.

by which i mean, our comfort levels and our thresholds for discomfort are subjective, they're personal. if there are ships or themes or characters you don't want to read about because they don't feel good... you're not doing something wrong if you avoid them. exposing yourself to fics you expect to make you uncomfortable can be useful - and fiction is certainly a way to explore discomfort which gives you much more control over the experience than encountering it in real life - but it's not something you're obliged to do to be active in fandom.

the thing you are obliged to do to be active in fandom is to be nice to other people, no matter what their tastes in fiction. this means, at its fundamental level, that when you see people who ship pairings or like themes which make you think "ew"... you keep it to yourself/the group chat rather than putting it on the timeline.

but, once this is something you've got the hang of [which takes a bit of time! but practice makes perfect!], something i feel can be a really useful way of overcoming a tendency towards knee-jerk moralising reactions is to just vibe in the vicinity of people you know like the content you instinctively feel is gross.

this doesn't mean you have to read any of this content - but you'll learn just by hanging out near them that the people who do are just... normal. one minute they might reblog a rec for a pairing you think "absolutely not" about, the next they might reblog a cat picture which makes you squeal with delight. you'll like some of their content, but not all. you'll agree with some of it, but not all. you might like progressively more of it as you spend time in their orbit - maybe they'll explain why they like the pairing or character in question and you'll think "huh, i've never looked at it like that" - or you might not. this is absolutely fine.

all of us - at one time or other - have made a black-and-white moralising pronouncement: people who think x are gross; people who like y are fucked-up, you'd never catch me doing z. and these pronouncements are different from our wider, societally-influenced moral codes - which are good things, otherwise we'd live in the purge - in that they're fundamentally ways for us to feel good about ourselves and our families and our friends by defining ourselves as better than a faceless other. we say "you'd never catch me reading that, it's foul" when we know [or think we know] that the friend we're talking to would agree with the statement. we are far less likely to say it if we know that the friend - whom we see as a human being who is beautiful in their imperfection and inherently worthy of love simply by virtue of being alive - was reading and enjoying that just the other day.

and so the best way to train yourself out of reflexively moralising ships or characters or tropes is to put a face to the faceless other who likes them. be intentional in sharing a space with fans of the stuff you feel uncomfortable with and, eventually, it just becomes background noise. you'll scroll on tumblr, say "well there we are, jane's written some more of her sirius/harry piss kink fic - although i'm not interested in clicking on it" and go on with your day.

because the other thing i think it's really useful to do is to train yourself into reframing your disgust as disinterest. there are plenty of things which i don't seek out to read - and some of these topics are completely benign and some are darker [i don't enjoy reading explicit non-con, for example] - but this is because i try to frame it as that i don't think these things would interest me.

this is still the maintenance of a personal comfort zone, but thinking of the content outside this zone as something you are disinterested in turns it into something neutral. when you think of it as something to be disgusted or grossed out by, it naturally provokes a visceral response which makes you look through a moral lens. thinking in terms of disinterest, instead, gives you sufficient detachment from this visceral response to recognise, interrogate, contextualise, and control it.

and - in time - this neutral reframing may result in you feeling more interested in taking the plunge into the ships and characters and stories you currently don't vibe with, once you don't have an instinctive disgust response as a barrier.

or it may not. and this is absolutely fine.

#asks answered #on fandom

[animentality]

It's tough because I hate the Astarion haters on Reddit, who are just misogynistic and homophobic and dismissive of the character because they hate how gay he acts and also how many women love him.

but I also hate BookTok Astarion fangirls who feel the need to assert how superior Astarion is on every fucking Gale, Wyll, Halsin, Shadowheart, Minthara, Lae'zel, Karlach or pretty much any BG3 video at all. Like we get it. He's white.

And then I'm ambivalent on the Tumblr Astarion fans because there are the people who simply like him and make fun art and fun meta analysis about him, and then there are the people in my inbox currently telling me that Astarion's Ascended ending is morally correct and it's not a bad ending for the character, and if I disagree, then I hate women.

You're correct that I hate women, but it has nothing to do with Astarion.

Also, I once again point out, that your own husbando literally tells you outright in both endings that being Ascended ruins/ruined who he used to be and also your love for one another.

Your man literally says that your love would have been corrupted by becoming his spawn, and you still cling to the idea that your character is living happily ever after.

He's not making you a vampire queen, he's making you a vampire pet. And it's fine to like that ending. I don't care if you LIKE bad, unhappy endings. That is your prerogative. But you are simply incorrect if you say that it's the "happy" ending for the character, when it clearly is not.

No one ever said you had to use your skull for anything other than cold cut storage, I just don't see why it's even necessary to argue your point to me.

Stay in your Astarion echo chamber, and block me. I don't have time or energy to block all of you.

Anyway.

It sucks because I really like Astarion, he's my favorite love interest.

I really enjoy his storyline and his growth as a person and how sweet he is. He's also very funny. All the companions have great voice acting behind them, but Neil really knocked it out of the park, and I honestly think the character would be far less popular if they'd picked any other actor.

But the fandom around him is just...awful.

It's a mixed bag of normal, unnormal in a fun way, and unnormal in a "you need to fucking step off in this Walmart bitch" way.

It's why I'd rather interact with Dark Urge and Gortash fans.

Much smaller subset of the fandom, so I don't have to deal with the generic crazies, and we're all such freaks that we don't feel the need to go around acting like Gortash is a good person.

I also only ever see people saying these two are fucking disgusting and horrible and I'd murder them in real life and honestly, true and based.

No happy endings for those two, and that's fine for me. In fact, it's great.

See, Astarion girlies, this is called...knowing your ship doesn't deserve a happy ending after all they have done, and knowing it wouldn't be a happy ending if they got together, but being able to acknowledge that and not get bent out of shape trying to justify it.

Stop tying your irl morality to your tastes in fiction.

I never said that liking the ascended ending made you a bad person in real life.

I just said that pretending it's good and happy and great and not continuing the cycle of abuse, is factually incorrect.

And it is.

Every single bad ending for all the love interests is literally continuing the cycle of abuse. Why would Astarion's be any different?

But maybe I'm being bold in assuming you even know the other love interests exist or have stories. Maybe you don't even know the general story of baldur's gate 3, because it is, as you say, the vampire dating sim, and it's definitely not about anything other than banging the sexy vampire.

Media literacy weeps.

Anyway.

Not ruining my enjoyment of the game.

Just my general tolerance for the fandom that is not Durge and Gortash obsessed.

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #astarion #dark urge #enver gortash

[thermodynamic-comedian]

ever wanted to rant to someone about your hyperfixations? now's your shot!

hi, i'm frey. and i'm interested in YOUR hyperfixations!

so, due to recent events, i will no longer be posting or reblogging our flag means death content. i'm trying to distance myself from the show in general, but i'm the kinda guy who can't survive without at least one hyperfixation. i decided that the best way to get over all this shit is to find something new to obsess over.

that's where you come in. yes, you. i know that a lot of my wonderful lovely dear mutuals have several hyperfixations that i don't. and i am interested in adopting your hyperfixations as my own.

reblog this post with an info-dump about your current hyperfixation!

information i need:

the name of your hyperfixation

what form of media it is

where i can find it

information i don't need, but would love to hear anyways:

your favourite character(s)

music you associate with your hyperfixation

headcanons

anything else you wanna say, i wanna hear all of it

sharing some of my own interests and preferences under the cut, if you wanna get a better idea of my tastes/make sure i don't already know about your hyperfixation :3

already interested in: good omens, the locked tomb, camp here & there, nevermoor, adventure time.

my preferred forms of media to consume are tv shows, book series, and fiction podcasts. i'm not interested in real life related hyperfixations, sorry :(

i have no genre preference, but i like a bit of humor mixed with mystery, horror, fantazy, sci-fi, all that good stuff.

shortcuts to grabbing my interest:

philosophy! does your hyperfixation include a bit of debate about morality and/or reality? tell me more!!!!

music! is music significant to the story? hell. yes.

queer stuff! bonus points for trans stuff!

pathetic little guy(s)! my favourite type of fictional guys!!

absurdism! i love when shit makes no sense!!!!

go forth, my beautiful mutuals and others who might or might not find this post. tell me everything.

#hyperfixation #adhd #autism #interests

[olderthannetfic]

I think something just clicked for me about the whole Anti vs. Proship debacle.

Both sides view "media consumption" as an expression. Antis say that reading or watching or playing something is an expression of a person's innate moral compass. According to them, when you read Black Butler fanfic you are expressing your approval of child being in a romantic relationship with a demon in real life.

And proshippers rebutt that with the fact that reading, watching, and playing things is an expression of your trauma or sexuality. They get a lot more nuanced, but to them if you read Black Butler fanfic, you're expressing your own anxieties about or experiences with a type of relationshp that you know is wrong in real life, or maybe you're expressing that you think it's kinda hot in fiction (but mostly the trauma, they're *really* keen on trauma as a an excuse for liking things).

But I don't consider being a passive audience member as an expression. Writing fic or drawing fan art is an expression of what I think is hot or interesting in canon, kicking headcanons back and forth on Tumblr is an expression of how I feel and think about canon, sharing recs is an expression of what I like and what I think my friends will like, leaving comments on a fic is how I express my thoughts to the author, even a kudos or Tumblr like is an expression of the fact that I appreciated something. But simply reading fic is not how I express anything. The bare fact that I enjoyed a fic or canon is not a social interaction or an expression of any kind.

Having thoughts or feelings about what I read and watch and play is not how I express things about myself, I have to share those thoughts on Tumblr or through fanworks to express them.

And thoughts and feelings shouldn't be counted as expressions of something deeper. Your thoughts and tastes are the things you express (if you choose to), they are not themselves public expressions of deeper traumas or moralities. No one knows what you're thinking unless you tell them, and going through life as if everyone can read your mind is a pretty horrible way to live.

--

Eh. A lot of the "proship" side just thinks antis are idiots, not that anything is necessarily about your sexuality or trauma. Those are just things you say to rebut "You have no right to like this" if you don't have the balls to say "I do what I want!"

[may0tuna]

Part 2 High Society | Prowler!Miles Morales x Reader

Writer's notes: I guess I have to also include this but read this lil PSA. Make sure to also read my writer's notes in Part 1, Part 3.

It's been a few days since your dinner party, and you couldn't quite get Miles Morales out of your head. You were attending business school at Columbia University and decided to head on over to the library to do some studying. Books on one hand and phone on the other, you mindlessly scrolled through your friends' social media posts, that is until you bumped into someone just outside the library entrace.

"Sorry, it was my fault, I-," you started to apologize when you realized it was Miles. You blinked once, twice, to make sure it was really him.

"Careful," he responded. His half lidded eyes and smirk made you catch your breath.

"Miles?"

"Y/N, I didn't know you go here."

"Uhm yes, I do. What about you?"

"Helping out in the library is another job to make ends meet," Miles said as he slowly eyed you up and down. You couldn't quite put your finger on him, and it doesn't really help you're in denial about the fact that you're physically attracted to him.

This week was particularly stressful. You were a year behind and all of your friends had graduated already, doing things they're passionate about. As for you, business school was you parents' idea, and since you don't know what you want, you went along with it.

You weren't aware that you were in deep thought until Miles spoke, "Seems like you have a lot going on," he paused. "Wanna grab something to eat?"

The walk to where this eatery Miles had told you about was quite far but still walkable. He said it was a "hole in the wall" type of place, and that they had the best Puerto Rican food.

When you reached the place, the first thing you noticed was the aroma that filled the entire place. It was like being transported to another world where people float when they smell pie being cooled off on a window sill. You haven't realized it until you've gotten to the place that you were famished. Miles greeted some of the customers, including the cook, and led you to a corner booth.

"This place smells like heaven. Well, I don't know what heaven smells like but if it's nothing like this, I'd rather go to hell."

"I assumed you had tasted better food considering you're a L/N."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your family is one of the richest and most powerful in the city," he paused and looked at you with a deadpanned look before continuing, "I had the idea that you had professional chefs cooking you anything you want, whenever you want." He said as he picked up the menu and started to flip through the pages.

"Don't lump me in with the rest of them," you said pointing a fork at him. "And I know what you're insinuating, Miles. You're telling me that my family's business is evil, I agree. I'm against them using people and treating them like cash cows. I'm on your side." You noticed how your voice hinted a bit of frustration towards the end.

Miles lifted a brow and said, "Is that why you're in a very prestigious business school?"

"Maybe I want to learn how to turn the company into something more ethical," you said proudly, maybe you were convincing yourself more than you were trying to convince Miles. Miles didn't say anything. Instead, he ordered for the two of you. You waited until the waiter walked away. Miles had interlocked his fingers and was eyeing you carefully. You started to become uncomfortable.

After some thought, you decided to speak up, "I should go." Miles did not speak. You decided to stand up, and that's when he stood up, walked over to your side of the booth, and sat down beside you before you could walk away.

"I'd like to leave, Miles," you said meekly.

"No," Miles said as he placed an arm on the back rest of your chair. He leaned in and placed his other hand on yours, which was visibly shaking. You realized that it was true, you are indeed spoiled, privileged, and you know nothing about the real world. If something was to happen to you now, you wouldn't know what to do. Your heart started to beat even faster when Miles leaned even closer to whisper something, "I'm not gonna hurt you, Y/N." You looked up at Miles and gave him a half smile.

When your food had arrived, he moved the hand that was at the back rest of your chair and placed them gently on your thigh. He picked up a fork with his other hand that was previously holding yours and started eating. When he noticed that you weren't eating the food, he softly squeezed your thigh and said, "Eat, mi princesa." You weren't sure if he was being condescending about it but it made your heart flutter a bit.

First bite was indeed heaven. You let out a half moan as you closed your eyes and savor the food in front of you. You saw Miles smirked from your peripheral vision. You're both halfway through your food and you started to relax. You were impressed Miles was able to eat his food with his one hand still on your thigh. Disregard the fact that you were scared shitless a few minutes ago, you decided to test his limits.

"So, Miles," you said as you moved closer to him so that his hands go just a bit further up your thighs. You were wearing a light blue satin skirt with a simple button down shirt. "What other jobs do you have?"

Miles had looked down on his hand and couldn't help but give your thighs another squeeze. He swallowed the food he was chewing before speaking, "Wouldn't you like to know, mamí."

"Yes, I would like to know that's why I asked." You said in your most bratty voice ever just to see how he would react. You have been prim and proper your whole life that this moment right here is giving you some kind of excitement you can't really explain. You would definitely be caught dead if you spoke like this in high society.

"Keep talking to me like that and I'll show you what else I can do." Miles had leaned in so close your lips were inches away from one another. Without breaking eye contact, you feel his hands move up and started rubbing your clit through the fabric. You quickly turned to see if anyone was watching. Thankfully, everyone was busy eating.

Miles continued to rub you and you let out a sigh. You had not realized it but your whole body was leaning into his touch. You felt warm all of a sudden as you let out a breathy "Please, Miles."

All of a sudden, Miles had stopped and picked up a glass of water with the hands that were on you. You pouted at him and he smirked.

"Finish your food, and let's get out of here."

#miles morales prowler #earth 42 miles x reader #high society prowler miles #earth 8 miles morales #across the spiderverse #sony spiderverse #miles morales #prowler miles morales #spiderman #earth 8 miles x reader #earth 42 miles x you #earth 8 miles x you #miles morales smut #prowler miles smut #miles g morales

[zoobus]

I apologize in advance because I'm taking a tag way too seriously and this isn't even YA novel navalgazing, this is literally about a series written for 3rd graders.

I'm realizing "fucked up that the moral of this story was" is a minor trigger for me. It drives me insane in a way obviously unequal to whatever the original context is. But this is my blog so.

The American Girl series was not a moral-driven set of stories! They weren't Animorphs or anything but they were absolutely a kid's introduction to the intrinsic unfairness of life and a solid chunk of the stories ended with the """"moral"""" of the main character left to uncomfortably ponder why something so clearly not right could be allowed to continue before they clunkily skipped to the next story like the previous didn't happen.

I used to own several sets and I skimmed through a few before selling them some years back. The sudden harsh reality of whatever historical ills going on were part of the appeal! It was fucked up and scary and that's why they were good (to an elementary schooler to be clear, these aren't good books)

Like the "moral" of Nellie's story was that it was fucked up to be a child factory worker. It was fucked up that her response to "oh your hair is so pretty, you should grow it longer" was to recount the time she witnessed one of her elementary age coworker get scalped by one of the child labor machines. It was fucked up that she's 8 with PTSD. Of course Nellie got a happy end but like... abused little puppies getting cleaned up and spoiled is a popular media trope. It's not a lesson. Even though it works out for her, you're still left with the knowledge that the girl who's hair was ripped off her skull and untold number of fingerless kids were not adopted by Samantha's rich grandpa.

I'm rarely comfortable saying there's one specific point that a story is objectively going for and you're a fool if you don't see it, but I do think the American Girl series was intentional in showcasing period-specific suffering might have looked like in a way a little kid could conceptualize. And it worked! For example:

Molly, the WW2 American Girl (AG). Her family takes in a little Bri'ish girl and Molly's soooo excited wow imagine having a fancy English girl in your own house. She is irritated when the 9yo lass is very quiet and not into being her doll. After weeks of molly snipping at her, British girl goes off like sorry I'm not fucking prancing around you dumb bitch but I'm not here as a foreign exchange student, I'm here because my house got bombed and my friends and family are probably fucking dead

Samantha, the Victorian AG. We already know Nellie who, as explained before, had a very different life than the wealthy Samantha. But Samantha also had a black nanny she adored up until she disappears without warning. After a lot of snooping, she uncovers that nanny had a baby! So of course she sneaks out at night to find the little man for herself🤫

Her mischievous giggling starts to get more nervous as she gets closer to nanny's address. It's getting dirtier and shittier and there's only black people around and they're openly gawking but not approaching. People live here? Nanny lives here? With a baby? She eventually finds her and the baby who is cute but Samantha is left at the end like. Hm. So. I guess my life is not universal? Much to think about. There's no happy resolution to this. Nanny never returns, segregation continues.

Last one, Addy, the escaped slave (apparently a controversial opinion, but I liked Addy). The other stories take a bit to get to wham aspect, but with her? Right from the start we have Overseer catch Addy slacking while picking cotton. She's just not debugging fast enough. This grown adult man, so infuriated an eight year old child isn't picking cotton tobacco fast enough, forces her to eat one of the fat, green worms she missed. They describe Addy holding back tears, the worm bursting in her mouth, the bitter taste, the humiliation. I feel like this was the first time I like...*got* slavery. You learn about it in school, sure, but owning people, beating people, it sounded bad but unconnected to anything I knew. Like maybe it's because at the time of reading, I too was a daydreamy 8yo black girl, making it hit a little too close. How could anyone do that and feel justified? Or feel nothing at all? An adult made a little kid eat a bug and it didn't hurt his conscious? This guy probably goes to church and doesn't even remember this. He doesn't think he needs forgiveness. This is nothing to him. This is normal. He died thinking he did nothing wrong, probably. Those were my thoughts then. Very good.

These aren't morals. Of course you shouldn't expect a refugee to perform for their host family. Of course you shouldn't make a child eat a worm. Child labor is bad. Didactic American Girl was not.

#niche effortposts #American girl #if i had to say they went for a particular lesson it might be #8yo girls have been surviving the most insane shit since the dawn of time. we're not saying it was good. it was horrible. #nevertheless many made it out alive. believe in yourself👍

[hermajestyimher]

The Trap of Materialism: Why the Endless Rat-Race to the Top Will Only Make You Miserable:

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Part of the reason why I'm so vocal against the wave of New Money extravagance and excessive material boasting stems from how much it is ruining our perception of what a truly successful person looks like, and how success is actually measured. Social media is inundated with content that encourages us and makes us believe that the only path to true success, happiness, and a levelled-up life is through the constant, never-ending pursuit of material wealth, oftentimes at the cost of our own integrity, morals, and well-being. Material wealth that is not based on quality and tasteful inclinations, but on the excessive consumerism and tacky, insecure-driven flexing of expensive items for the sake of the brand and price tag solely.

We are being told by the algorithm that our lives are insufficient if they do not measure up to the curated standards that influencers portray on their social media accounts. We are constantly being bombarded with an onslaught of stimuli from flex-culture that makes us feel inadequate if we happen to not compare in our real lives, creating a need in us to want to achieve that same level of material wealth in an attempt to gain a sense of validation we would otherwise not be able to receive from the masses.

This rat race to the top of the consumerism and materialistic pyramid is killing us. It's making us feel anxious, depressed, and unappreciative of the things we have in life, making us lose sight of the things that are actually important, making us fall for online scams, skewing our live perspectives and goal settings, and making us worship people based on their perceived status and online persona. This is not a healthy way to live, and most people in our society are trapped in this cycle without even realizing it.

We are being told that pursuing a meaningful career and building wealth the correct way through secure long-term investments and education is not worthy, instead, we are being sold a fantasy of instant gratification and get-rich-quick schemes that appeal to the most immature and easily impressionable of our society: the youth. Chasing after things like fame, money by any means necessary, and hedonism will only leave you depressed. Living a life that has no real, tangible fulfillment or peace, where the opinions and perceptions of others towards you keep you in a constant state of worry is not a life worth living.

As a society and generation, we need to learn to break free from this insidious and toxic cycle of worshipping material wealth, online personas, and fast pleasures that don't deliver any lasting fulfillment. What truly matters in this world are our connections to people, how much good we can impart to others, and our accomplishments through hard work and dedication (e.g. achieving an education, building long-term financial stability, creating a name for yourself).

Take some time to reassess your life and ask yourself if the goals that you have set forward are truly yours, or if you have been influenced by the society around you to want to achieve something just to be perceived in a certain kind of way. Ask yourself, are the activities I engage in truly satisfying me as a person, or am I simply complying with the world around me to fit in, despite making me unhappy? The quicker you are able to assess the things that are and aren't helping you live a good life, the less time you will waste chasing after things that will only keep you from it.

#blog piece #things ive learned #materialism #consumerism #capitalism

[lurkingshan]

Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

Thank you for the ask, I don't mind a bit! Though I will say that this particular question sent me into a minor existential crisis, because how on earth could I ever pick just 10 things that I love across all media. I don't know if y'all have picked this up about me yet, but I consume vast amounts of media, like...unbelievable amounts of media, it is my great joy in life. I consulted @bengiyo about how to approach this question, and he suggested a frame to help narrow it down: what are my favorites that someone else recommended to me, that I then felt compelled to recommend to others? Hope you don't mind the tweak! As always, keeping this in the realm of Asian media for this blog, here is what I got:

What Did You Eat Yesterday?

When I met @bengiyo and @waitmyturtles I learned very quickly that this was their all-time favorite, and if I didn't like it we were gonna have a problem (jk but not really). I hadn't watched it on my own because until recently (shoutout to our savior Gagaoolala) it was quite inaccessible and I hadn't yet stumbled onto @isaksbestpillow and found her amazing subs. Luckily, I have impeccable taste and WDYEY is in fact a masterpiece, so they watched me watch it, I lost my mind over how unique and brilliant and technically flawless it was, and we are now all bonded for life over our love for this show, which just returned for a second season and will hopefully continue forever. I love it so much I have even started reading the manga, and I am not a manga girlie by nature (I prefer reading prose), so you can be assured I absolutely will not be shutting up about it anytime soon.

Go Ahead

Credit for this one goes to @ginnymoonbeam for watching it first and then sending up a flare for me as a fellow cdrama enjoyer that this one was worth prioritizing immediately. I love big sprawling family stories that unfold over time, I love digging into intergenerational family trauma, I love good dad characters, I love found family dynamics, and I love a well done romance subplot embedded in a much bigger story, so this show hit so many of my sweet spots. It's #1 on my list of modern cdramas and I would recommend it to anyone.

Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed

Speaking of cdramas, I must give a shoutout to @dangermousie who wrote this post summarizing their favorite danmei novels, which I found when I went looking for recommendations and was trying to figure out a way into this segment of Asian media. I admit I am a bit bougie about my reading material and modality, so I really can't deal with machine translations or reading on html pages, and thus I still have not read some of these as I am patiently waiting for official English translations to become available (me and 2HA are gonna have a party in 2024 I tell you what). I had already heard of The Untamed, of course, because I am a human person who lurks in online spaces, but reading the novel got me significantly more interested, and I quickly fell down a months long rabbit hole that included consuming the novel, the show, and copious amounts of fanfiction. This story is so complex and layered and full of fun mysteries and meaty moral quandaries and interesting family relationships and has an A+ second chance romance and one of my all time favorite characters to boot; it really took over my brain for a minute. And while it hardly needs me to recommend it given how popular it already is, I'm still gonna do it whenever I get the chance.

Mo Du/Silent Reading

And while we're on the subject of danmei, let me give a shoutout to my favorite modern danmei novel, which was recommended to me by an IRL friend who is not on tumblr. Mo Du is a sprawling mystery novel that spans five major interconnected cases, and it centers on an exceedingly competent police captain, Luo Wenzhou, and a young business heir/super genius, Fei Du, who start out with an adversarial relationship (but I bet you can guess what happens next!). The crime stories in this are almost shockingly intricate and every detail comes together in the end without a single loose end, which is impressive enough on its own, but somehow the author (Priest, who some of you will know as the writer of Faraway Wanderers aka Word of Honor) manages to also write a perfectly paced, incredibly compelling love story between the two leads that is layered with complex trauma and psychological hot buttons and secrets and lies that unfold organically alongside the mystery. I am in the middle of re-reading it right now and my love for it only grows stronger. The gif above is from a recent attempt to adapt this into a live-action drama that got quickly canceled, but honestly, the less said about that, the better (though Zhang Xin Cheng will absolutely remain the Fei Du of my heart). With China's censorship laws, there will be no faithful live action version of this story, so I highly recommend reading the novel.

Pachinko

While we're on the subject of novels, I must mention another IRL friend recommendation: Pachinko. This one is a sprawling multi-generational family historical fiction epic that tracks the lives of a Korean family that is forced to migrate to Japan during Japanese occupation in the early 20th Century. Y'all, this book is amazing, and it has now been turned into a television show airing on Hulu that is also quite good (though structured quite differently, but that's another post). I learned a ton of real history in the course of reading this, and I found the journey of Sunja and her family so compelling. The book has a real intersectional lens and digs deep into themes of oppression, racism, class disparity, and sexism, and is rooted in Korean values around filial piety, respect for hard work, religion, moral condemnation, and of course, the importance of food to communicate.

The Great Indian Kitchen

Switching gears, let me give a shoutout to this Indian film that my bestie @neuroticbookworm recently recommended to me and @waitmyturtles. This film is about a modern young woman who enters an arranged marriage with a family of high status (though maybe not of the kind you think) and explores her experience of oppression as a woman in a very patriarchal religious setting. The story is really compelling, I learned about a common experience for women in India, the narrative ended in an unexpected place (in a good way), and I really enjoyed the watch. And this film is on YouTube with good subs which I linked above, so it's quite accessible.

Be Melodramatic

Let's get back to dramas, shall we? I credit this one to @kdramaxoxo, who recommends Be Melodramatic constantly, and thank goodness because otherwise this under appreciated gem would have never landed on my radar. This is a beautiful story about a group of friends who move in together in the wake of personal tragedy and tracks their progress as they heal and move on from their hardships. The themes of grief and growth and change are quite poignant, the relationships, both platonic and romantic, are all very compelling, and the music is beautiful. If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for (@nieves-de-sugui this is definitely a good one to add to your list).

Make it Right

Time for @bengiyo to get another shoutout. This is a Thai bl classic that doesn't get the love it deserves, and he is its number one promoter. I don't know when I would have gotten around to watching this if he hadn't recommended it so highly, and I'm so glad I did. I wrote about this one, why I loved it, and why I think it's under appreciated, and I highly encourage others to give it a try.

Coffee Prince

We will end on an OG kdrama classic, which I watched early on in my kdrama journey thanks to a recommendation from an IRL friend who said it was the best version of the well worn Asian drama genderbend trope that they had ever seen, and my god were they right. Not only was this my first Gong Yoo drama (a life changing experience in and of itself) but this one really took me by surprise for how sharp and progressive it was about gender fluidity, sexual identity, and the struggle toward self-acceptance way back when it aired in 2007. I recommend this one to everyone, and its a great entry point for people who prefer queer media and have (justified) suspicion of mainstream kdrama's treatment of queer narratives.

#what did you eat yesterday? #go ahead #the untamed #mo du #pachinko #the great indian kitchen #be melodramatic #make it right #coffee prince #drama recs #danmei #shan answers

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hello! I've been reading through all your posts so far and even though I am personally an ML fan and not a salter, I love media analysis and I'm sad that there isn't much of them in the fandom. There are directions in the show that I'm not satisfied with and I'm currently working on a rewrite for a future comic.

I'm curious about your ideas and takes on how you would personally rewrite ML, right now one of my issues is figuring out how the Peacock Miraculous works bcuz of sentimonsters. How would you write them?

I'm glad that you're enjoying my stuff! I label it all as salt because - as best I can tell - this fandom defines that as anything even slightly negative, but my goal is more analysis and discussion than angry ranting. Talking about what a piece of media did wrong and how you would improve it is a fantastic way to improve your own writing. It's why I got into media analysis in the first place!

Funnily enough, I do have a massive rewrite out there somewhere on AO3, so I DO have thought about how to handle sentimonsters. Or, more specifically, I've thought about how to handle the peacock. I'll give those first, then circle back to sentis.

In my humble opinion, the idea of sentimonsters should be scrapped for the following reasons, all of which existed long before the sentitheory was even on my radar:

Sentimonsters are too derivative. They feel like akuma clones and not a unique power. You can tell that the power was only created because they wanted/needed a power that would let the peacock be used at a distance the same way the butterfly is even though no other miraculous works this way.

If you want to do a slavery plot, the kwamis are right there being enslaved. You don't need to add human-looking slaves to the mix. Especially given that many of those human-looking slaves are apparently fine to kill off? Just, the ethics around the way the show does sentimonsters will always make me feel icky. Meanwhile the kwamis don't have the awkward element of being magical constructs that were made to serve. They were a free people before the miraculous. The one way I've played with using Felix is as a kwamis freedom fighter instead of a senti one.

Sentimonsters have too nebulous of a lore. In what way are they emotions brought to life? Outside of Feast, emotions don't seem to effect them at all. Nooroo's powers feel far more emotion based than Dusuu's and it bothers me.

There's also the fact that one of the show's biggest problems is character bloat. No writer alive can write a satisfying story that features a team of 36 characters! (18 humans + 18 kwamis) This is why the kwamis act as a hive mind once Marinette becomes the Guardian. You just can't write that many characters into a scene and keep their personalities straight, so they're now a single unit even though it makes Sass and Wayzz feel out of character.

Give all of that and the way the miracle box is kinda... well, it feels a little too cultural appropriation-ish for my tastes. I won't go on a full rant here, but to give two highlights: the zodiac miraculous don't seem to have a thing to do with the real Chinese zodiac and a box based on Chinese lore would NOT use a black cat for the symbol of bad luck. Black cats being bad luck is relatively modern European lore. In other words, the Chinese stuff is just there for ascetics and not actually representative of Chinese culture, so I had no moral issues scrapping the miracle box and making a much smaller version and neither should you if you're so inclined!

The thing about lore is that it only matters as much as the show makes it matter and, outside of a few key miraculous, I really do think you can change them without most readers caring because of how little the powers actually matter to the show's lore. Like they have completely scrapped the idea of making a person match their miraculous even though that was supposedly a big thing back in season two. This is extra true because it took us so long to learn all the powers in canon, so there are a lot of fics that pre-date the canon reveal and do different things.

But if you want to keep sentimonsters to be more canon accurate, I would consider all of the following as options or things to keep in mind. Feel free to use all or none of them as I'm probably never touching this plot and, if I do, it will doubtless be different from whatever you do:

Doing something to make the difference between valid and non-valid sentimonsters abundantly clear and not just "the creator decides who is valid" OR just don't make any sentimonster valid and have Emilie have used the miraculous out of a desire to help people because she didn't know it would kill her

Have Gabriel be more conflicted about the use of sentimonsters since, you know, his kid is one and Adrien, Felix, and Kagami are the only sentimonsters he dealt with for many, many years

Consider having Nathalie make one sentimonster (maybe even present it as her own child) in order to help Gabriel so it's not a slew of akuma 2.0 on the battlefield. Instead its someone at the school looking for Ladybug and Chat Noir after the villains realize that they're teenagers. (This could be a good way to use Lila and make her powers make sense)

Redo Dusuu's Force or make the tie between sentimonsters and emotions more clear. Like Felix is made from jealousy and Adrien is made from love so that's the source of their conflict

Use Felix as a third, morally neutral party who only cares about sentimonsters and have him act toward those goals like we all thought he was going to after season five. Magneto from X-men should be your template for him not whatever canon did.

Consider letting Kagami know from the start and let her know that she and Adrien are meant to be, but she's not allowed to tell him the truth or something. If you don't go that route then, at the very least, have her finding out be a big deal for her relationship with her mother.

Go all in with Adrien's commands. Gabriel wants Adrien to date Kagami? He's going to date Kagami. None of this Y-7 undo button BS. Go big or go home.

Give the sentimonsters a way to break free. That's what the power of love is supposed to be about. You could go super cheesy with this if you combined it with Adrien's source emotion being love. The literal love child using the thing that made him to overcome what he was made to be to be what he wants to be sounds very fun to me.

Consider giving the senti kids superpowers. It's honestly kinda weird how relatively normal they are. Like, sure, Felix is supposed to be super smart, but we only know that from his Wikipedia and that's about it.

I could go on, but that's a lot, so we'll stop here. Feel free to send additional asks or message me. I have many, many thoughts about how to fix canon while trying to stay true to the core ideas of the story. Or, at least, the things I consider to be the core. I legitimately enjoy the adaption process and think the fun of fanfiction is largely trying to fit alternate takes on canon into the base framework so it still appeals to fans of the source.

#ml writing salt #ml writing critical

[phereinnike]

D&d vampiric lore and Astarion.

I see a lot of people commenting on Astarion's good & bad ending (this is your chance to run from a spoiler) and if they're truly in-character or canon or make narrative sense.

And while there is a lot to say about his personal narrative and the motif of the cycle of abuse, the influence those around us have on us, not being able to see kindness as an option if it's never been shown to you, etc... One of the things I've seen very few people mention is that because of the setting, he really never stood a chance.

Vampires in dungeons and dragons aren't like those in other media. They're not twillight vampires or even anne rice vampires. It is well established in the lore and it has been for years, that true vampires in d&d aren't fully autonomous people with their own nuanced moral codes. Vampires in d&d are completely obsessed with power, paranoid and greedy, to the point that it erases who they were in their mortal life. They are fully evil and fully corrupt. No matter what they were like in life. You could be the goodest aligned person on Faerun, a true hero and defender of the powerless. And if you got turned into a true vampire, that goodness would still completely cease to exist.

That is not to say that vampires don't have personalities. Obviously they are all unique and have their own tastes, personalities and agendas. They retain knowledge and attachment to what was important to them in life (be it people, goals, places, etc.) but those bonds are as corrupt as they are. They don't get to keep the same feelings and ideas they had in life.

We can't argue about what makes narrative sense for a character without taking into account the setting he exists in. And because of the very setting we play in, there was never any possibility of Astarion becoming a true vampire (ascendant through the ritual or a regular one), turning the player into a true vampire as well and living happily ever after, be it in a good campaign or in an evil one. The setting just doesn't allow for it, because the moment he becomes a true vampire, the Astarion we know is truly dead and gone.

#bg3 spoilers #astarion #astarion ancunin #i understand why people are hurt by what they perceive as a betrayal after 'helping him' so much #in this setting no ammount of good influence can turn the fact that in that end Astarion is dead and that is an evil construct with his fac #no matter how much he loves the player and how much they have helped him be better the moment he ascends that bond and ideals get corrupted #so of course he wants to tie them to him forever as a spawn but why would he give them to power to leave and hurt him?