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I was watching The OC with my mom and our reactions to the situation with Ryan’s mom (in season 1) was very different. So early on, Ryan’s mom kicked him out and when he tried to come back, she had moved out and only left a note. The family he’s staying with—the Cohen’s—managed to track her down. (She’s also an alcoholic).

So she comes to stay at the Cohen’s for a little bit and makes promises to Ryan that things are going to be different and better than before. At this point there’s enough subtext to get that this is a pattern, so I’m skeptical. (On a personal note, my mom belittled me/ called me weak and dramatic a lot when I was severely depressed, and whenever I called her on it, she always said the past was in the past and people can change. But she never did). That’s not to say that people can’t do better/ change, but more often than not people tend stick to the same patterns and behaviors.

My mom disagreed, though. She thought Ryan’s mom really meant to do better because people can change. And maybe the mom really meant it. But (at least in early season 1, I haven’t watched far enough to know if they bring her back) the mom got drunk again. And then in the morning, when she was obviously ashamed and sorry for her behavior, she left Ryan again (because she believed the Cohen’s could look after Ryan better).

Anyway this is sort of a ranting/ ramble on perspective I guess. Mine was based partially off my own experiences of being let down by my parents as a (former) child and adult, and the show itself. And my mom’s was the perspective of a mother.

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Local Writer Shocked As She Realises Planned 'Short Fanfic' Is Turning Into Multi Chapters Plot Oriented Slow Burn Fanfic

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I might be watching too much sitcoms, but I really want a superhero x sitcom fusion. (And maybe there is one somewhere). Maybe not as a long term series, but sometimes the superhero genre gets too gritty/ takes itself too seriously. Or maybe in a set of 5 or 6 characters, only one or two of them just happen to be vigilantes/ superheroes and one running gag is just them trying to hide it. (Also could be a way to comment on self identifying as a superhero—because isn’t that just a tad arrogant?)

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I actually do feel like the "unemployed friend on a Tuesday" meme actually helps de-stigmatize unemployment because it frequently affirms that when you don't have a job you're more likely to be getting up to some weird shit rather than just lazing around. But I also feel like the unemployed friend is frequently up to some random shit because there's a whole pile of miscellaneous life tasks that full-time employment keeps people from. The unemployed friend is helping their cousin move, or babysitting, or checking in with a neighbor with mobility issues. The unemployed friend is a walking thesis on the inflexibility of our current labor landscape and just how much work exists outside of work.

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Can I just say something honestly and very seriously to all you writers?

With the Internet going down the "nothing adult, no death, no nothing. Make it kid friendly" route,

Please don't ever stop making art or writing wips that are gruesome, horror, other things like that. Don't let the Internet sanitize how you wanna tell a story. Channel your rage into your art and keep going and don't give up

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The hardest parts are the little things that Joel got wrong. Not just Salt Lake City, but the small parenting details.

He heard that she burned herself on purpose and said he understood, because he was suicidal once and took it to mean that she was in a dark place, too. He based what she did on his own experience. Only that wasn't what happened.

He caught her getting a tattoo, smoking weed, and making out with Cat, and he panicked. He figured she was rebelling, because that's what he imagined teenagers are supposed do. He tried to do the "my house, my rules" routine, because that's how parents are supposed to respond. She was doing too much at once, and he freaked out, and that seemed like the right response. When he shock wore off, he softened about it, and asked to see her tattoo. He tried to be supportive, even when she was doing things he wasn't ready for.

He thought she liked Jesse and was just experimenting with Cat, because that's how older GenX understood sexuality. When she pushed back, he brushed it aside as her just being high, because she was, and he was older and new better. He scolded Cat for being with a seventeen-year-old, because in his mind she's still a kid. He asked her about the birds and the bees, because that's how parents talk, and she responded with dicks and vaginas.

He let her move into the garage, because he figured, maybe they just needed some space. She was right when she said he didn't own anything, so he figured the correct response was to put distance between them. Instead of talking it out or giving her more freedom, he let her leave the house entirely.

He lied to her about Eugene to protect her. He didn't want her to see that, so he lied and sent her away. Even though she was nineteen. She'd seen death enough times to handle it, but he was still trying to protect her innocence, which she'd lost long ago.

He thought the moth meant rebirth, because that's sweet. It's cute. It's a perfectly healthy symbol for a teen to attach to. He didn't expect it to mean death, and it scared him to know that was the case.

This episode is special to me because it knows better than to portray him as a perfect parent and pretend that their only conflict was over Salt Lake City. Joel wasn't perfect, but he did his best. He did what he could with what he knew. It was the best anyone could expect from him.

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So I read an interview with the Merlin writers discussing why they revealed Merlin’s magic so late. One, they felt it would change the tone of the show since it was so centered around keeping Merlin’s secret(s). Which is a fair point, I guess, but the thing about the narrative is that it wanted to change—the golden age of Albion. That’s part of what made it so compelling. (And probably why the fandom hasn’t really ‘died’ because we, as the audience, never really had that closure. What if Arthur had found out Merlin’s magic earlier and then accepted it? What if Merlin didn’t have to hide anymore?)

The other part is that, I think, the writers felt it would undermine Arthur’s agency as a character. Which, well…wouldn’t it be the opposite? There were so many times that Arthur himself could’ve started to accept magic into the Kingdom on his own accord, but show backtracked into the status quo. And in some cases, it was Merlin in the shadows making the decision for him. Like in S2, when Morgause had the spirit of Ygraine tell Arthur about his birth but Merlin ultimately told Arthur that it was all a lie so that he [Arthur] wouldn’t kill Uther. Or in S5 with the Disir when Merlin told Arthur that magic shouldn’t be allowed in Camelot to attempt to save Arthur from being killed by Mordred. It was great for showing how far Merlin would go to protect Arthur, even sacrificing their destiny because he was so loyal to Arthur—but Arthur never had agency in this destiny because he never knew about it.

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ok, because i just saw a terrible take, i feel compelled to say that there is no "fic market" to "oversaturate" in fandom. good gravy.

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thank you osha thank you shift limits thank you mandatory breaks thank you overtime pay thank you labour laws thank you workers rights thank you unions thank you protesters thank you advocates thank you workers!!!!!!!

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"I asked ChatGPT--"

Yeah well, I asked Wiggog Y'rath, the Lord of Despair, and he said he was your bestest fwendy-wend and to tickle his belly-well or else you're a stupid bitchy-witch who's going to get eaten

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*pulls up to Sonic Drive-In* HEY *honks la cucuracha horn* YO DOES KNUCKLES WORK HERE

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“There are no trigger warnings in real life”

“The real world is cruel, get over it.”

My boyfriend is triggered by Christmas and Christmas music. We were in a restaurant, and Christmas music was playing, and he started panicking so he went outside for a cigarette. The manager of the restaurant overheard him saying he had to get out, and changed the music over for the rest of the time we were there. There are safe spaces in the real world. People are nicer than you think. And bullshit people who try to tell you to get over your triggers, ain’t shit.

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it's crazy how many super duper patriarchal things get retroactively justified in the name of being about love. yeah I'm sure women taking their husbands surname has always 100% been about recovering from trauma and distancing yourself from abusive family or whatever and has absolutely nothing at all to do with women being seen as property. great work here everyone, marriage as a concept has been redeemed through the power of pop psychology

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"Why not make female heroes more feminine so girls know you don't have to be masculine to save the world" is misguided. The target audience of heroic adventure genre is not children who actually save the world in a literal sense, it's children who want a cathartic outlet for the struggles and injustice they face. And one of the most common types of injustice that many girls and children assumed to be girls are subjected to is forced feminization.

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i have another bomb to throw, girls who hated pink and femininity in childhood were not experiencing internalized misogyny; it was a rejection of the conditioning pushed on us from birth which we never felt passion for and grew resentful towards because of adults’ insistence on us following the rules of being a girl. when you hit middle-high school and get more say in how you look it feels fucking incredible to reject and be openly hostile to the things you were forced to embrace your whole life. you people just don’t know what internalized misogyny is and tumblr choice feminism lied to you