#and were less afraid

[toxicrants]

Hot Take: Big Mouth is a good fucking show and is actually super educational and inclusive about a wide range of topics, practically becoming the Sex Ed people never had.

It was mainly pearl clutching tumblr libs with right-wing evangelical christian ideas about sex who hated it. On top of that, most of the people who hated it never even watched it. The show supports trans people, openly talked about consent, was informative about genital hygiene, was super supportive of girls sexual development and insisted on kids taking responsibility for their actions as well as seeing sexual partners as people - not just objects. It's quite literally some of the most radical sex ed ever.

But some of you dunked on it cause it had an 'ugly' art style - as though that wasn't on purpose to stop actual creeps from being able to ruin this genuinely informative show with scores of underage internet fap.

I'm 31 years old and Big Mouth was one of the first shows I watched that talked about girls being horny without suggesting it was weird, hyper focusing on virginity or having one of the girls be sexually assaulted. As someone whose sex ed was in the early 2000's - that's fucking revolutionary.

[shouyuus]

was thinking about it this morning as i was making tea and i think there's a fundamental gap in the advice we give to writers/creators to "first and foremost create for ourselves", bc yes. in the beginning, i am almost always writing for myself. i write all the time, and im sure that artists doodle and paint all the time too. there are things i've written that will never see the light of day and are truly just for me.

and then there are things that i choose to share, because i want to share them. because i'm proud of a story, and want to put it into the world. the act of sharing it is, above all, an invitation.

its me inviting you into a corner of my mind/heart/soul, opening the window and throwing open the curtains and waving, holding up a sign that says "hi! do you like this too? let's talk about it!"

what im asking for is a connection, a conversation. a shared space. digital or otherwise. and the so-called "harm" of "ghost consumption" is not that artists will stop creating art or that writers will stop writing -- no, that's not quite how creativity works (thankfully, and sometimes unfortunately). we will always create.

we just might not be inspired to share it anymore.

[mensahbots]

noma dumezweni (who plays mensah in the tv show) had an interview where she described her character in ways that helped me recontextualize mensah's actions in episode 3 a bit

[PreservationAux] come from a place that values emotional connection and humanity. We have chosen to be on this planet for research. She's holding the team together. She's very warm, she's very open. She listens to each individual as she's running the crew. But she's not supposed to be a fighter. She's not supposed to be in danger. Yet danger arrives. So she covers her panic attacks. She covers the stress. To be a leader, you don't put your fears onto the people that you're looking after. That's what I love about Dr. Ayda, and I loved playing her because she likes people. She likes to see the essence of the person she's talking to.

in particular, the bolded sentence, which i think a) is very mensah (and as different as book and tv mensah feel to me, i like the idea that her motivations and interiority could be very similar, particularly with respect to the character's integrity) and b) suggests mensah may have been speaking to murderbot as a perceived co-leader or equal/fellow on the team— that to her, it was someone she thought was appropriate to share those feelings with compared to characters like bharadwaj, gurathin, or pin-lee.

so maybe in mensah's mind, she isn't "looking after" secunit, it's ranked above and apart from the others. i like this angle because i think it implies mensah feels no sense of paternalism or superiority, and she also likely wasn't viewing murderbot as a mere thing to dump her feelings on either. not to mention, by episode 3, murderbot was the only person on the team who had witnessed her panicking in private. to her, the disclosures may have felt like an explanation more than putting her feelings onto it, especially after all that it had seen of her vulnerabilities already. yes i am coping, but is this not plausible?

also, in episode 4 when she's telling herself it's a machine while panicking, she might be thinking of its reaction to what she shared—that maybe her impulse to treat it as an equal and teammate was inappropriate—in her anxiety-fueled attempted justification not to help it. eg, "i don't need to save it, it's just a machine, i'm being foolish for thinking otherwise." pin-lee saying it wasn't on their team was what pushed mensah to respond and know without a doubt that she did need to help murderbot and that fear was trivial compared to the moral failure of not helping it. because i think to her, it's unquestionably a person, and she couldn't convince herself otherwise, nor could pin-lee. to mensah, it's her teammate.

the rest of the interview was also lovely. i loved hearing dumezweni reflect on her experiences on set and how positive a thing the show was for her. here are some more of her thoughts about the characters and story:

I do actually [see similarities between herself and the character]. I like people. I like saying hello. I like trying to figure out how people are feeling in a space. When I was younger, it was more about being a people pleaser. But that was a part of me, which I've now said “let's not do that.” But my curiosity about people is still there and I love that. In terms of Ayda, she has a strong sense of herself, but not of the world she's suddenly in. And that's what's so beautiful about the writing: these warm, emotionally connected people are suddenly confronted with real danger. And that’s where the tension happens. They need Murderbot, beautifully played by Alexander [Skarsgärd], to look after them. Murderbot comes into our lives and we are affected by it. And it is affected by us.

[chewyhanniebug]

baby emo hamster and t-kitty ♡

[mohntilyet]

Personal headcanon about the "you picked the wrong dellamorte" line, I don't think illario actually likes rook outside the context of them being someone close to lucanis. Like rook on their own isn't much to him, but when they meet it's yet another person talking about his cousin (why isn't he good enough for whatever job they're hiring for?) and on top of that they somehow bring him back from the dead (another whole can of worms for illario). Now he starts turning on the charm, but whether he's actually interested or this is just one more thing his cousin has that he doesn't and it gets under his skin, who knows. Either way, rook ignores illario, the guy who lives off his charm, and is instead interested in the guy who's never even dated before and thinks giving someone a knife is how to flirt. Infuriating

NO THANK YOU !! i am genuinely sorry if i have ever implied illario is into rook like i see some takes about it and unless it like ties into your rook's personal backstory i don't seriously think he's romantically jealous. at all. my enjoyment of that line stems from illario's pathological need to make it about himself and not see his strengths but what lucanis has, and therefore what he doesn't. he's annoyed enough to try and goad you in the middle of a fight about the 'wrong' dellamorte and completely blind to the fact that the venatori are at best, a stupid fucking alliance, and at worst, a cult that will devour the crows from the inside out and illario would have been the one to give them the keys. he sees lucanis make allies, needs his own, and instead of charming the other talons/houses as he should, he (probably spitefully) picks the venatori. or maybe he just thought it would be easier. ugh he makes me want to telekenetically throw him around

[newvegascowboy]

Also can i be for real. "Unlearn shame!!!" "Get more freaky!!!" Being said by the same people who make fun of xReader stuff? Embarrassing. You're allowed not to like it, you dont have to read it, you're allowed to be annoyed when it clutters tags and isn't under a readmore, but crying about unlearning shame and then making fun of people for the crime of liking/shipping themselves with a character is embarrassing.

Same goes for self shipping. Same goes for oc x canon shipping. If you make fun of these people i do not trust you.

[peachfolk]

This is the most compelled I've ever been by a love triangle and I'm not even rooting for any of the couples. Just rooting for the characters to be happy individually.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

can someone who knows how to analyse tv shows explain to me why jessica jones s1 is just as good as i remember it being, s2 is more disappointing with every episode, and s3 is so forgettable i didnt even remember it existed and thought i must not have seen it

[itscuntingseason]

i've read the wotakoi manga about 20 times and watched the anime only twice in its entirety (excluding reaction channels), so every time i remember a wotakoi anime scene that wasn't actually in the manga it feels like a glitch in the multiverse

[clowningcrows]

it’s crazy how much having a safe place to be yourself and express your identity and personality and interests, both online and irl, can change your will to live. honestly.

[ashmp3]

i am afraid my standards for a relationship were always so high to begin with and then my parents just set the bar even higher but i am so grateful i grew up surrounded by so much love respect and affection at least LMFAO but even when i was 17 i did nawt take shit from anyone which is why i acted like female future and #ihatemybf personalized

[indooroutdoorboyfriend]

AWOOOOGGAAA!!!!! IT'S YAP O'CLOCK!!!!!!!

trying to decide if my inquisitor will be a transfem butch or a transmasc butch is truly agonizing

[irohsteaa]

the curtains are sometimes just blue, yes, but goddamnit. the moment someone notices the shades of blue you carefully chose? priceless.

[liquidstar]

This is such a tangent btw but on the topic of guilt tripping and reblogs... I remember a few years back there were some terrible fires in Greece (and again this year, entire island villages are gone now) and at that time I had family who were caught in them. I can't describe the desperation I felt with these horrible things happening to my family and loved ones in my country. And I remember being frustrated and desperate with how no one around me in America really seemed to give a shit. I remember blogging asking people to PLEASE care please share something please reblog this link for mutual aid please think about the stories and fires etc etc etc. And the thing is I was very much in a state of grief myself, maybe not every word or action was perfectly reasonable, because I don't realistically expect everyone everywhere to care about every tragedy in the world. You can't. Emotionally it's just not possible, especially with all the stuff going on in the states rn too. Yeah it's a lot. It's not like I blog about every tragedy that ever happens either. I understand.

HOWEVER what I also remember was at this time there were a couple mutuals very clearly making vagueposts along the lines of "remember not everyone has the energy to care about everything in the world uwu" while I was posting about family who died and family who were drifting in the ocean for hours as their homes and loved ones burned. Listen. You have to understand sometimes that when a person in grief and frustration with things going on in their countries and communities impacts them very personally beg you to care... It's coming from a place of needing to see that care in the world in general. They're not holding a gun to your head Specifically saying you have to reblog the posts, if you don't have the energy just ignore it.

You don't have to go out of your way saying "um actually I can't care about the horrible stuff you and your family and your country are experiencing rn. I'm too busy focusing on my own stuff so can you be quiet or more reasonable with your grief thanks." Like. Just keep it to yourself then??? Have some fucking sympathy for other people and understand that maybe it's not always logical. The same way you don't have the emotional energy to think about every tragedy in the world, people who've been impacted by them often don't have the emotional energy to handle that alone and may seek somekinda community or solidarity. Idk. It's not about forcing shit on you sometimes it's not about you

[ganondoodle]

saw a bit of the one piece fan letter (?) animation thingy and god that style, the way it was animated and the different perspective (it was the bit with the marine guy ar marineford, possibly not even the full part) felt so .. different and refreshing, and i didnt even watch it with the sound

one piece has long lost me, it was my fandom before i got into zelda but around whole cake island i stopped reading/watching and with the reveal about luffys fruit it was the last nail in the coffin for me- still that animation is somethign else ....... almost makes me sad bc it looked so much more interesting than the actual thing is (to me)