#maybe I should make video essays...

[i-eat-large-amounts-of-pasta]

I don't understand why I never hear people talking about Wreck-it Ralph. Maybe it's because it's not something that adults nowadays are nostalgic about or something, but I loved that movie. I still do. It's one of those movies that nobody talked about because it wasn't awful and wasn't perfect. It was just really good.

But it's SUCH A GOOD MOVIE. It's a movie about being a fish out of water, about coming to terms with the consequences of your actions, and making friends who love you for all your flaws. But most of all, it's about coming to love yourself for all of your flaws. Self-acceptance is a core theme especially in the climax of the film. Ralph is only able to beat King Candy by accepting himself and using his unique skills to help in spite of his label as a "bad guy". He is not defined by the label he was given. He doesn't need other people to tell him who he is anymore.

The one quote that I'll never forget, one which helps me to know myself, is said once at the beginning of the film and once at the end, with both having completely different context

"I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There is no one I'd rather be Than me."

This is significant to me in ways I don't have the words to describe sometimes. I am broken. The way I see the world is fundamentally different to most other people. There are others who are also warped in similar ways, who see the same bent shapes as me. Ralph is not alone, and neither am I. Neither are you. Don't let other people tell you who you are. Life isn't binary. Make friends with people who understand and love you for exactly who you are, and remember to extend them the same courtesy to them. Don't treat people differently based on what labels society has given them.

All these lessons from an animated comedy movie for kids that's rated 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.

If you haven't watched this movie, I highly encourage it. It's still my favorite Disney film (followed closely by Treasure Planet) and still watch it from time to time. It's just called Wreck-It Ralph and it's on Disney Plus. Or pirate it. I don't really care. I hold an immense amount of disdain for Disney, sooooooo...

[squuote]

i wish more people made video essays talking about things they love. i love hearing people talk in depth about things they love, especially if its something new to me. like cool sure yeah you can talk about the history of something but like, maybe i wanna know your personal connection to it. maybe i wanna know what fascinated you to talk about it in the first place. many such wonders in the world, let me know why it tugs you to speak of it

[doomdoomofdoom]

Apparently there's currently discussion in science (humanities in particular) about whether video essays could be accepted as academic writing on par with the academic papers we currently have

I think that's awesome as fuck tbh

[fruitsofhell]

I used to be one of those guys when I first joined the Kirby fandom, but everytime I hear a discussion of the series writing that starts with "So the Lore is InSaNe-" and not like, "Kirby has a fun writing style that takes advantage of its cute exterior to tell cool stories that reward player's curiosity and leave lots of room for imagination-" I cringe so goddamn hard.

I kinda just hate that people approach things that encourage investment when they don't expect it as inherently absurd. Like it is fun to joke about how absurd Kirby lore can be, but it really often comes with an air of disrespect or exhaustion rather than like, appreciation that these games are made by people who want to tell interesting stories when they could easily make as much money just making polished enough fluffy kiddy platformers. And when it's not met with exhaustion, it's met with - like I said before - that tone that it's stupid for a series like this TO have devs who care about writing stuff for it. Which is a whole other thing about people not respecting things made to appeal to kiddie aesthetic or tone.

Maybe the state of low-stakes YouTube video essays just blows cause people play up ignorance and disbelief for engagement, but like I STG I hear people use this tone for like actual narrative based games sometimes. Some people don't like... appreciate when a game is made by people who care a shitton in ways that aren't direct gameplay feedback. And they especially don't appreciate it when it comes from something with any sense of tonal dissonance intentional or not.

Anyways, I love games made by insane people. I love games made by teams who feel like they wanna make something work or say something so bad. I love that energy, especially when invested into something that could easily rest on its laurels or which obviously won't be taken seriously. I love this in a lot of classic campy 2000s games, I love this in insanely niche yet passionate fanworks, and I love it in the Kirby series and its writing. Can we please stop talking about it like it's an annoyance or complete joke?

[bmpmp3]

sorry to be a bit of a hater but i do wish youtubers weren't so scared of making their videos just like, "reviews", whys everything gotta be a "video essay" all the time. every day my recommendations are filled with 40 minute videos titled "_____: An Underrated Masterpiece" where the first like five minutes are reading the wikipedia definition of "masterpiece" in a somber voice with dramatic themed text on screen. please just tell me how good or bad you think something is and use the rest of the runtime to explain why. you dont need to put on all these airs

[marshmallowgoop]

About Lip Flap...

So, Ending 72 of Detective Conan got me thinking about lip flap:

What do I mean by that? Well, in some circles of the AMV-making world, it's maybe viewed as a "sin" to leave lip flaps unedited when there are no audible words. You either cut out the movements entirely, or you sync up the movements to match the lyrics of the song. Lip flap is distracting and immersion breaking.

Yet... this Detective Conan ending—mixing anime and music just like an AMV!—has lots of lip flap. Characters are talking and living and spouting out conversations, and there's no effort at all to hide or remove that. In fact, this sequence was deliberately animated that way.

And it's far from the only Detective Conan example in this vein. Which brings me to my next thought: early episodes of Detective Conan include instances of montages or characters otherwise moving their mouths without sound, but the FUNimation English dub seemingly found this so uncomfortable that words were added in:

Sometimes, I really love this choice! Conan's voice fading into Shinichi's in Episode 39 is one of my all-time favorite moments in the dub. Similarly, Conan's added little "but"s in Episode 32 are adorable.

But I feel like the montage in Episode 37 is weakened by the added dialogue because we didn't need any words to understand the story, and while Episode 42 might be argued to be more compelling and "show don't tell" without Conan's narration, we do miss a fair amount of information from that narration.

Overall, though, I think the changes indicate a cultural difference. Lip flap without audible words is fine for Japanese audiences, but overseas, it's seen as awkward and jarring.

So, is it a "sin" to include unedited lip flap in your AMVs? Well, it probably depends on who you ask!

But personally, my mindset has changed to not at all. I think there are moments where the indication of words can be quite powerful, just like in Detective Conan Ending 72 or the montage in Episode 37. While I mostly try to remove or sync lip flap in my own AMVs, there are also definitely times where I leave it. What's wrong with showing that there was a conversation?

That said... I gotta come clean. One of my first reactions to Ending 72 was to almost cringe at all the lip flap! But then I thought about it some more. While I'm rather inexperienced with making MMVs (Manga Music Videos), ever since I started, I've been a fan of leaving the speech bubbles unedited, text and all—despite the fact that this, similarly, seems to be somewhat of a "sin." I liked providing context, I liked that there were creative things you could do with the dialogue... and hey, is that really so different from leaving in some lip flap from time to time?

In the end, AMV editing is very subjective. Everyone has their own preferences and styles that speak to them, and that's part of what makes the art form so beautiful to me. But Ending 72 made me step back and reconsider some of the "rules" that I'd drilled into my head. Maybe what I've become so used to seeing as a "flaw" can actually be quite powerful in its own right!

[vermillioncrown]

lover boy sleeping on a heart

[waltz-in-code]

Not sure if anyones interested but i just wrote an analysis on thorfinn and gudrid's romantic development and the role they play in each other's personal growth, specially in thorfinn's redemption...

[tangents-within-tangents]

Aspec ✨Icons✨ part 2: Dana Scully (X-files)

(Missed ace week bc I overcomplicated things and it took me a hot sec to finish the sticker but whatever lol)

Listen, Special Agent Dana Catherine Scully is an icon as she is! She's badass, our Women in Stem queen, canonically immortal, and she is totally demi!

Mulder and Scully, the ultimate will-they-won't-they, right? Is it just coworkers respecting boundaries? Friends to lovers? The slowest of slow burns? Idk man listen to this speech:

Scully: Well it seems to me, that the best relationships, the ones that last, are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with.

Come on, tell me that isn't the most demi thing you've ever heard!

I've seen fans read this as her just realizing or admitting that she has always loved Mulder but that's literally not what she says! And this is in 6.08, so after 6 years of working with Agent Foxy SMulder over here! And then they still don't even kiss until 7.04 and the first time it is implied they had sex is in 7.17 (which can I just say? is also followed directly by a scene of Mulder being heartbroken that Scully isn't interested in his crop circle slideshow, not exactly the peak of their relationship).

(As a demiromantic myself, also relate to this sentiment of "the best relationships." Like yeah we all have our preferences but I've always had this feeling of like a 'I actually understand real love better bc it's not sexual for me' type of a thing, which might be self-aggrandizing, but it's also the complete opposite of the allonormative 'sex is the ultimate goal of a relationship and the deepest act of love' bs)

A few episodes before (6.04) we also have this iconic moment:

Mulder: Hey Scully? Scully: Yes? Mulder: …I love you Scully: Oh brother *sigh*

Another main thing I think of is in season one when we have this whole 'you have to have a life outside of work and obviously that means dating' thing

But then the arc of the episode is that actually that ideal is clearly not her thing

She goes on the date (pretty sure the only one we ever see in the series?) and is bored and uncomfortable and happily leaves to go hunt the Jersey Devil with her loser coworker instead

Also fun fact I learned when researching all this, there was originally a boyfriend character for Scully in the pilot (added by the executives) who was completely cut. And when you look at how the creator talks about it, I think it's clear this ^ episode was a direct response to that

Chris Carter: There was some pressure early on in the development of the show to establish that the characters had personal lives outside of the FBI, and we wanted to see who they were dating, and I felt that was all wrong. I felt the stories needed to drive the characters, and their work needed to drive them. That their work was all-consuming and that they had no personal lives, that this was a quest. A romantic quest, in the literary sense.

And that's def reflected in the writing throughout the whole show lol

Mulder: So Scully, what are you doing tonight, any big plans? Scully: Well seeing as how it’s Friday I was thinking I could get some work in on that monograph I’m writing for the penology review.

Just some beautiful career-driven nerds who find fulfillment in life in other ways!

Which as demonstrated in the above clip, clearly applies to Mulder as well

Mulder: whAT'S a GIRL?

(aka one of my favorite lines lol and for the record he was going to meet his informant for alieum info)

Same episode as Scully's epic demi speech also gives us these gems:

Scully: Dating advice? From whom? Mulder: Yours truly. Scully: … Mulder: Hello? Scully you there? Scully: I heard you… Mulder, when was the last time you went on a date? Mulder: I will talk to you later *hangs up* Scully: The blind leading the blind.

Holman: I’ve been envious of men like you my whole life. Based on your physical bearing I assumed you were more experienced. I mean, you spend everyday with Agent Scully! A beautiful, enchanting woman! You mean you two have never uh…?

(yeah you and every allo fan, buddy)

Mulder: I’m perfectly happy with my friendship with Agent Scully.

So yeah, I'd def say Mulder is somewhere on the aro/ace spectrum too, even if on paper it's in the "obsessed with his work" kinda way. He's a bit more complicated, and I haven't seen the show recently enough to confidently be more specific, but friendly reminder that making dirty jokes and watching porn and such are not mutually exclusive with aspec identities (I'd even argue that it's further evidence for rather than against, since the show does specifically include references to porn activity, and not actual dating subplots or shots of one-night-stands like others shows would, so he's satisfying those things without someone else (we DON'T talk about that one vampire episode! fr so much of that was OOC I almost dropped the show lol)). And he also falls victim to the, ah... 'SA a man but play it for laughs and like it's his own personal failing somehow' trope ("trust me the man knows how to kiss" ma'am he was literally pushing you away -_-), the one in 'Syzygy' is far worse (link if you wanna subject yourself to it) but also so very ace:

Detective White: So what are you doing at my house? Mulder: I was hoping you could help me solve the mystery of the horny beast. *cuts to Mulder talking to an astrologer about satanic symbols*

Mulder: *panics trying to get her to leave* White: *literally shoves him onto the bed and pins him* maybe we can solve the mystery of the horny beast! Mulder: Maybe we should just watch some television (:

(poor guy just wanted to netflix and chill lit.)

And kinda random but one of my favorite things about Mulder and Scully's relationship is that Mulder so clearly appreciates her intelligence and who she is. Like these moments when he jokingly and respectfully flirts with her come at such specific moments, best demonstrated by this crack edit lol:

(credit to the creator, I just needed the specific clip)

Ignoring Bambi and Sheriff Hartwell la la la la! Except also I mean it can easily be aesthetic attraction, it happens, and neither of those actually went anywhere (Mulder literally sleeps on his couch and uses his bed as a storage room, he wasn't bringing anyone home). They both also have weird exes that show up (tho rarely) but demi means they can totally have had connections with others in the past (and since Scully is still so attached to that guy in 'All Things' after all these years I say it checks out).

(also available in demiro and demiaroace:)

For the record, there are 11 seasons and 2 movies of The X-Files, and while I have watched all of them, that was like 5 years ago (wow I'm old), so I'm not taking responsibility for every single line or scene that ever took place. But the overall vibe is very clear, and random stuff like 'Never Again' or whatever the heck was going on with Fowley (ugggh) are clearly the outliers.

No matter how you frame it, Mulder and Scully's relationship is clearly one based in connection, not attraction. There are actually lines in S1 that indicate both of them see the aesthetic appeal in the other ("I think it's remotely plausible that someone might think you're hot") that prove that's not what it's about for them. It's about mutual respect and admiration. About trust and being there for each other through hardship.

Their relationship is one with years of emotional intimacy before anything physical. I'd even say they dip into QPR territory for a few seasons

And the thing is! It's kinda actually canon. It's literally intentional! It may not be direct representation by name, but honestly now I'm pretty convinced that Chris Carter would have loved to have been aware of these terms/concepts! It may be unwitting, but it is pretty deliberate, which is so evident if you listen to how the creators and actors talk about their relationship in the bts featurettes:

Chris: I was adamant from the beginning that Mulder and Scully should not be romantically involved. (s1)

(this poor man fighting the amatonormativity in media since day one!)

Gillian: Their relationship is platonic and there is so much respect and so much trust and they will risk their lives for each other. (s4)

Sheila Larken: It sounds cliché to say that they're best friends. But they're best friends beyond what lovers could ever be.

Chris: Scully loves Mulder, and Mulder loves Scully. It's a wonderful romance, it's just not a sexual romance, it's not a physical romance. It is a caring, tender, respectful relationship. It's an ideal, I would never want to do anything to threaten it, to change it. (s5)

(oh my gosh do you hear this! ^ I'm not making this up, even Scully would believe me!)

Gillian: Those moments where there is that intimacy, where even just the touch of a hand can be the same as, you know, making love in another series.

They were meant to be platonic and then they slowly and naturally developed into something more (hopefully not just bc of outside pressure but we'll get to that), and for that it's not just your everyday slow burn, but a relationship that is so much more.

Even early on they are allowed to be so openly sweet and affectionate with each other and it's just so chill. In general, the show is just written so different. Like in literally the first episode we have this scene where Scully comes to Mulder's hotel room in the middle of the night and takes off her bathrobe in just her underwear (so Mulder can check the marks on her back) and Mulder does not react at all. He (and the cinematography) is 100% respectful and normal about it, and then is just worried about her. Like how many other shows wouldn't dangle that as bait or make some unfunny comments of like 'man can't control himself' or whatever?

They are allowed to genuinely care about each other and be so tender, to be there for each other without any romantic or sexual implications (for a long long canonical time).

(will never shut up bc this is the sweetest most heart wrenching comfort hug in television history and it's in s2)

(So many more not pictured bc it's like the whole show and you get the idea) And this is a dynamic that continues into their relationship even when it has become romantic (this is the scene for the cuddle moment above and just ahh). And like check out this screen time ratio:

And 4 minutes of the kissing video is actually bts or deleted scenes stuff that wasn't in the show (another fun fact, Gillian and David did an unscripted kiss on the lips in 4.17 that the writers intentionally cut to save for the right moment) and the majority of the on screen kisses are just adorable cheek and forehead kisses (my HEART!)

All this plus the way the show gives these big ol poetic monologues about human nature and the meaning of life (that never have anything to do with sex) all the time. Like in the very least, if you're aspec there's a good chance you'll enjoy watching the show.

Perfect segue @im-a-goddamn-cat because you know what is so funny about all of this? All this amazing ace love? The allos HATE it! They cannot handle it! They cannot fathom that Mulder and Scully were platonic and nothing more for so long. They see all those amazing platonically intimate moments as proof there must be sex. The word "ship" was literally invented for Mulder and Scully. They were the original (and oh boy turns out shipping was implicitly aphobic from the beginning!). Like it's seemingly so universal, it is everywhere:

(spoiler alert, none of those are valid, it literally included their first meeting!)

(like I love you xfiles abridged but...)

Scully's canonical reaction to watching allos' sexualized interpretation of her (horrified):

(It's okay babe, just NEVER go on ao3!)

It's one thing to ship or want them to be together, but it is always about the sex specifically and it so often dips into this aphobia. I swear people treat it like it's a crime that they didn't have sex for so long (or more often/explicitly). Like why bro? Why is that so important to you? Why does love have to equal sex, huh? Why is this the only possible option?

People literally hate Chris Carter for that amazing quote about their romance not being physical! They say he is delusional or doesn't understand his own characters, or was gaslighting fans, just read this article or these ridiculous comments on this reddit post (like reddit is it's own warning but someone even said he "doesn't know how babies are made") Like I may not agree with all of the man's writing choices, but he deserves better than that! Esp since it is clearly intentional and well thought out. He knew what he was doing, it just didn't fit the allotypical standards.

The world just wants them to have sex so bad and us aces are so content.

🖤💜 Mulder and Scully: baffling and frustrating allos since 1993 💜🖤

[realsmileysundae]

Why is it that whenever I get an idea for an art project, my brain decides that yup! This is the time for a behind the eyes headache that painkillers won't solve! Like come on man read the room...

[lunarrosette]

First nark fanart redraw !!!

I’ve been a nark fan since at least September 2022 (bc that’s when the original was made but I think I liked it well before then)

Original drawing under the cut

[quibbs126]

I know maybe this sounds a bit pedantic, but can there be another term for female Transformers? Because personally, I really don’t like the term “femme”

Because I mean it’s like, male bots get “mech”, which can be another term for robots, and also starts with the same letter, meanwhile “femme” is just “woman” basically. Like I know female Transformers have issues of being more “gendered” than the male ones outside of this, but this does not help the situation. And personally I just don’t like how the term has nothing to do with being robots, it just has to do with them being women

I’m aware Animated maybe coined the terms, or at least used them officially, but I mean it’s not like we can’t change it, it’s not like these terms get used often in official media, as far as I know

And I know in part because of that, like how it only really gets used in fanfics and such, it’s not that important, but I just don’t like it, I want something else for them

What would be a better term? I don’t really know, best my brain can come up with is “droid”. Yeah it doesn’t really sound like “female”, but I mean it is another term used for robots, and it’s like what all robots in Star Wars are called, so it’s not like, more dehumanizing like maybe the term “drone” would be; as far as I know, “droid” doesn’t have connotations in the Transformers mythos. Maybe it’s not the best term, but at least it’s something

I don’t know, I just have to complain about this, it really bothers me when I read fanfics

[svtskneecaps]

friends and fiends if this truly spells the Over for the qsmp i may let the brainworms that have been festering in me for MONTHS--A YEAR, EVEN--win.

i may summarize the goddamn fucking lore.

[six-demon-bag]

me, staring at my 700 hobbies: boredboredboredboredboredboredbor-

[bornetoblood]

Watching BRBA again I’m on the Grey Matter episode and having so many thoughts about it. Holy moly.

[littlemuppetmonsters]

James cameron is actually so lucky that no one really gave a fuck about avatar because if more people played this game he would be getting bomb threats to his house