#I just feel like they’re shoehorned in so often

[brawnie]

*grabbing mlm shippers by the shoulders* guys nobody needs to be the twink. nobody needs to be the sub. nobody needs to be the femboy. they can both be big fat hairy men who bask in each others masculinity or they can both be unspeakable monstrous creatures with inhuman genitalia it’s okay I’m holding your hand. Let me show you the way

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you think all the characters are assholes?

Because i think they are despite their tragic backstories and i also don't think they appreciate Yuu enough, except for maybe the first years

I mean, the TWST characters are (mostly) inspired by Disney villains... Plus, they’re immature high schoolers still in the process of emotionally maturing. Of course they're not going to be perfect balls of sunshine. They're all going to be rude or have faults in their own ways, but they also have their strengths and charm points. I do call them assholes (lovingly), but I would hesitate to slap a singular label on any of the characters when they're all very well-rounded and morally ambiguous.

On the topic of Yuu, I think it makes sense that most of the cast doesn't really "appreciate" them. To begin with, most of the characters are not the openly sentimental types; they wouldn’t overtly express that gratitude even if it were present. Then we have to consider that Yuu isn't directly involved in their character growth or arcs in most cases; it's often the other characters who are confronting the OB boys or instigating, physically battling them to snap them out of it, and then comforting them afterwards.

As early as book 1, that pattern holds true. Ace is the one that initially pissed Riddle off. Adeuce are dueling Riddle. Ace decks Riddle and claims his last straw. Trey is the one calling out to Riddle as he's losing it. It's the members of Heartslabyul who gather around Riddle when he reawakens following the OB. (I'm not going to go through and list off what happens in every single book, but I'm sure you can think of many other instances... Lilia insulting Leona, Deuce and Epel having the heart-to-heart on the beach, Octavinelle's plot against Jamil, the twins checking up on Azul post-OB, etc.) To me, it feels like it is the boys and their bonds with one another responsible for the change, not Yuu's involvement. Yuu is usually along for the ride and actually does and says very little despite all the fandom jokes about "being the school's unpaid but overworked therapist" or Crowley's shallow claim that Yuu can help the boys learn to cooperate (which feels more like a vague ruse only shown in the prologue to shoehorn Yuu into the plot). There's actually very little in-game that shows them being active in helping the students change for the better. Much of the time, the boys can resolve their own struggles to get along without Yuu being there (like all those pair-ups in book 6–sure, it may have taken a while, but the fact remains that they did eventually resolve their own issues and cooperate without Yuu having to orchestrate for them; this also happens many times in events like Port Fest, Wish Upon a Star, Ghost Marriage, the Halloween events, etc). A very common complaint (at least among English speaking players) is that Yuu isn’t “involved enough” or that they don’t have a big impact on the events of the story. Therefore, most of the boys not feeling close or indebted to Yuu makes sense from their POV. What has Yuu actually and explicitly done to help them? Not much. It’s mainly in individual fan interpretations where Yuu/a Yuusona/an OC in Yuu’s role is actually able to play a more substantial part in each characters’ life and growth. In general, the standard in-game Yuu is more of a "fly on the wall" character that witnesses events unfold rather than someone who plays a large role in each book. The boys are seemingly the main characters, not Yuu. It's just convenient to have Yuu/a blank slate in the story because they, as an outsider, need TWST concepts explained to them (thus making it easier to give exposition to the players who may also be unfamiliar with the information). The first years, by comparison, are closer to Yuu simply because 1) Yuu is implied to be in the same year level as them (so they're more likely to be exposed to one another) and 2) their preestablished relationships with Grim, Ace, and Deuce opens them up more to first year interactions. "Friends of friends", if you will. It makes more sense than Yuu being appreciated and loved by everyone/most people in the main cast of 22ish. (How many people do you know irl that have 22ish significant friends?) They spend the most time together. Everyone else tends to stick to their own groups (with maybe the exception of Heartslabyul, since Yuu is already close with Adeuce). They’re just... not as intimate with Yuu, and therefore not as inclined to find much appreciation for them.

I want to clarify that this doesn’t mean there are zero instances of the characters outside of the first years expressing gratitude toward Yuu. Like, of the OB boys, it’s only Vil who consistently apologizes for the trouble he caused (note though: it’s not specifically to Yuu, but to everyone in the VDC/SDC squad. Yuu is then given prize money from most of the other boys as thanks for letting them crash at Ramshackle… Of those, only Kalim cites being grateful that he was able to stay and have fun with everyone because of Yuu green lighting the decision. This makes sense, as Kalim’s one of the few who wears his heart on his sleeve and is friendly to most. It just isn’t true for the majority of the cast, and we shouldn’t expect it to be.

As late as book 5, you can see characters like Leona not being so happy to be called out to or for Grim to act all buddy-buddy with him. That indicates to me that the rest of the cast is not that close to Yuu + related parties and doesn't have a real reason to be. (Note: I'm not counting character voice lines here as proof of friendliness with Yuu, as it can be argued that the relationships and events explored in the cards don't run in tandem with the main story and are meant more as fanservice for the players.)

Again, while it's not that fun to read in a narrative, it does leave things open-ended for anyone who wants to self-insert or to expand on those blank relationships for their own characters. I believe this is by design to appeal on an individual level to players. You get out of it what you put into it!

[olderthannetfic]

Hi ONTF, sorry to vent in your inbox but I’ve just stumbled into 3 different posts in rapid succession that had me boggling. I don’t know, they were probably just vent-y tumblr hyperbolic posts but is this really how a lot of people on here are about the media they consume?

One was about how another show ended in a queerbaiting mess (did it? Really? Does queerbaiting mean what you think it does?), the second one was about how people should boycott any show with even a hint of queerbaiting (which, in context, seems to mean with any shippy dynamic that doesn’t become canon in 2 episodes!) and the third one was about people insisting that a show is actual representation when, as much as I liked Good Omens, it just isn’t.

I was left staring at my screen with the impression that these people are either looking at meh shows they don’t actually think much of with their slash goggles firmly on and basing their opinion of the show’s worth on weather their ship becomes canon or trying to shoehorn representation in shows that they did enjoy because otherwise they wouldn’t feel as good about liking them? Idk, I guess what I’m asking is was it just 3 badly worded posts or is this an attitude you’ve noticed on this hellsite?

And at the same time if representation, no, let’s be honest: if the canonical status of their specific ship is so important to them that they can’t enjoy a show unless it’s there why do they seem to mainly be watching mainstream stuff with low chances of an actual payoff? I keep rewriting this part, I keep getting sidetracked. Basically I agree with you that people on here seem to put way too much faith in the idea that mainstream shows are writing things a certain way to bait queer audience when I think they’re just doing what mainstream shows have always done and most just don’t much care. But I wonder what has caused this idea, what gave people the expectation that their queer ship, often between well known main characters, has a chance in hell of becoming canon? Is it because roughly ten years ago a couple of shows went “actually yes, this infamous cannibal is in love with the fbi agent! Straightbait! Our main pirate is queer!”? But Hannibal and Black Sails were both pretty niche, not super popular shows. They were, and remain, exceptions. Sherlock and, idk, Got, were whole other beasts popularity wise. The fact that it is still unusual is why people where so happy and excited about ofmd! But statistically? Either a show is clearly marketed to a queer audience or the chances of a queer main character/ship are abysmally low and I don’t get why people keep doing this to themselves. Sorry, I’m rambling and confused at that absurd boycott idea and I’m curious to hear what you and others think.

--

Well... when you mostly read books by AO3y people and hang around in fanfic space, reality does cater to you. One forgets how different the rest of the world is.

And in many ways, that's a good thing.

But I spend a lot of my time on original m/m rather than big name shows, and it definitely helps.

When one swims in the AO3/Tumblr/Tiktok/whatever waters all day long and then goes back to really big media, expecting the same status quo, one is disappointed.

[elendsessor]

so uh me and my family went to go see ghost busters world iceborne today and it was fine kinda??

i do want to talk about it since i have a lot of feelings about it despite only seeing this and the original

but first actual thing that genuinely is awful that i do want to make known: if you’ve seen trailers you might know that the movie got sponsored by booking.com and yes they do shoehorn it in the movie. booking.com has very positive ties to israel because y’know travel agency and is one of several companies the bds suggests pressure boycotting so please please please do not ignore that fact about the movie please please please please do not support booking.com. do boycott booking.com.

uh spoilers below the cut i guess?

ok actual positives because i fucjing loved the ghost designs. cgi wasn’t great at points (main bad guy ghost dude i forget the name of looked best when obscured in shadows and not actually shown in detail) but the designs were at least done well. and phoebe and melody’s relationship was cute yet was done so fucking dirty. the movie did have good jokes and the acting was really solid, the world building is cool, and yeah if you turn your brain off for most of the film it’s fun. only when there’s action and ghosts is it actually compelling i noticed and it’s really sad since a good chunk of the movie is not that.

there’s too much plot ok. it’s your run of the mill family drama with ghosts sometimes there. i’m tired of the family is forever shit when it isn’t found family or paints the parents as “flawed but well meaning” and having the dad be lovingly stupid (gary’s technically not the biological dad but he does do dumb dad—pretty much flanderized homer simpson you know the trope), the mom strict to a fault but is right in the end, and incompetent brother who’s trying his best but needs a little help. most families are not like this. most families are dysfunctional in their own ways. you don’t have to have physically abusive parents or unsupportive parents to have shitty parents. painting families in this very generic way sets a really really unhealthy expectation that if your parents aren’t openly pieces of shit you aren’t allowed to hate them or if you defy them you’re automatically in the wrong.

but then there���s phoebe. oh is there phoebe.

i hate how in movies now to get across female empowerment is just make the girl super smart and be shoved in the spotlight too often. she is not interesting at all i’m sorry. you can tell she’s the smart one because she wears glasses and likes science isn’t that quirky? seriously when are we going to just get a strong female lead who has interests that aren’t tomboyish or *insert school subject here*? filmmakers do know that girls and women are also human beings with a wide range of individual likes and dislikes that can’t be reduced to tropes right??? again creating the unrealistic expectation that women cannot be treated like normal people unless they’re uber smart or uber strong. this is a problem for all minoritized group representation and i really cannot hate anyone who doesn’t like how the film industry is trying to bend over backwards for groups to force in representations that only hurt them.

biggest sin is she is not interesting on her own. she is so tropey it’s a fucking travesty. melody the ghost girl was the only compelling person—the only one who made phoebe somewhat interesting to watch—and of course she’s not safe from being a trope. i don’t like how melody has to have direct ties to bad guy mcbad and the sudden turnaround that, while it paid off for her, was rushed to hell and back for the drama.

and worst of all, there was homoerotic tension between phoebe and melody and nothing ever happens.

please just let them hold hands.

i know this is a mainstream movie so two people of the same sex even brushing up against one another is a crime but.

they were cute together and fueled several ghost au fanfic ideas.

damn you film industry.

[teabreaking]

itto is one of my favorite characters but sometimes i wish shinobu was allowed to be her own character outside of the arataki gang more often… i understand that they mean a lot to her and they’re pretty much her found family, but idk… whenever itto is present in an event or hangout i feel like shinobu (along with the other gang members) are just kind of… shoehorned in. but shinobu herself *rarely* gets the spotlight (or even the chance to be more of an individual character), even though there are so many things about her that could be expanded upon.

[tinarannosaurus]

finally got around to watching the s13 premiere and—truly I don’t know if this is just reflective of all fox animated comedies, because bob’s is the only one I watch—but why is the show so afraid of change?

not to use archer as my go-to example (though they are both adult animated comedies in their 13th season with leads voiced by h jon benjamin) but it feels a) much more reflective of a traditional show structure (in that there’s often a vague, overarching plot for the season, though archer being archer, usually likes to cut the legs out from under it at the last minute) and b) a willingness to reinvent itself or try going in new directions. it definitely doesn’t always work, but it at least gives the overarching characterizations (loose as they might be) something to latch onto and use as a direction.

but then you’ve got bob’s, and sure, there are all sorts of logistic reasons for things to stay mostly the same (the kids ages, for example), but watching the premiere talk itself into the restaurant expanding (even just for a month!) only to back down from that slightest of steps forward at the last minute was so disappointing. it’s been thirteen seasons and (setting aside the weird tonal shift of s1) effectively everything is exactly the same. granted, I have watched archer a lot, but even so, you can figure out roughly what episodes belong to what seasons based on the various overarching plots and background storylines. they’re selling drugs? archer vice. we’re in space? archer 1999. has aj been born? is she a baby or a kid? what number of robotic limbs does ray have? etc.

for bob’s though, what is there to distinguish one season from the next? sure, there are running gags throughout. alright, louise is riding a bike instead of a tricycle. bob has the beginnings of an equestranaut tattoo on his back. but big picture? like, no shit the show feels like it’s stagnating when every episode is a one-off with nothing to really anchor its continuity so, at this point, after thirteen seasons (and most of them a full 24 episodes) every episode where louise fucks up and has to learn a lesson feels repetitive. the musical numbers feel formulaic and uninspired. the plot lines feel like they have no stakes. if nothing changes, what does anything really matter? it’s just tv! and you’ve been doing the same shit for thirteen seasons!!

yes, part of the underlying premise is that the restaurant is a failure, but what would happen if you let it be just a little successful and so the bulk of their problems stop being financial? what about bob trying to confront that success and not really believing it? yes, it’s much harder to shoehorn all the kids into one plotline if they’re not at the same school, but god, what about tina as a high school freshman? what if louise didn’t always wear her ears like the movie hinted at? I want to keep watching this show, I want to keep enjoying it, but like, come on, you guys have gotta be willing to do something different.

[cooking-with-hailstones]

For a moment, when I’m dancing,

“All these expectations on me.” Zelda sighed, “It’s just so...  heavy . Every day, it’s go there, do this, say that, not this, pray harder. It’s so much, knowing I’m such a colossal failure. It eats at me all the time. Sometimes, it’s nice to just pretend to be someone else.”

“You’re not a colossal failure,” Link said with a frown. Apparently the alcohol he had drunk was stronger than he thought, because suddenly he couldn’t stop himself. “You’re... you’re one of the kindest and cleverest people I’ve ever known.

“Well it's not like being clever has ever gotten me very far,” she said with dry self deprecation.

“How can you say that?” he blurted out. For Farore’s sake, how bad had his alcohol tolerance gotten? He was completely losing it. The next sentence was out of his mouth before he could stop himself. “You’re brilliant, you know so much about everything! I don’t understand half of what you’re talking about with all the Sheikah tech stuff but even Robbie and Purah think you’re amazing, and they’re the smartest people I know.”

She smiled ruefully. He plowed on, not sure if it was the spirit of courage moving through him or just his own inebriated lack of self control. All he knew was that he wanted to see her smiling again.

“You work so hard all the time to prove yourself and I wish you didn’t have to. I wish... I wish neither of us had to.” And  finally , with that last blasphemous thought, he manages to shut himself up.

She looked at him, and he met her gaze, that piercing green that made his heart stop beating.

“Thank you, Link. Really."

She turned away, looking out at the street, lost in thought. Tears started welling up in the corners of her eyes, but she wiped them away surreptitiously.

“Is this how it is? Is this how it has always been?” She gestured to the troubadours and the dancers back inside the pub. A sweet slow song echoed into the street around them.

“What do you mean?” She was doing that thing she so often did, where she talked in fragments  and expected him to keep up with her silent train of thought.

“Existing in the face of suffering and death, and somehow we still keep singing.”

His breath caught in his throat. He knew the calamity was never far from either of their minds. Even when they were doing their best to escape it. But she rarely ever talked about it.

“We sacrifice ourselves, lifetime after lifetime, again and again and again. Hylia picks us up and puts us down, over and over. And for what? For these people? For the land? Don’t you ever want to stop? Don’t you wish you could just call it all off, and say no?”

They both fell silent. Apparently they were both feeling a little blasphemous tonight.

After a moment, he asked, “What would you do instead?”

She sighed, leaning against his shoulder. He stiffened at the sudden contact.

“I just want to be a scholar. I would be in the research labs and out doing field studies every day, and I’d never spend another minute with those priestesses ever again.”

He reached out, grazing his thumb across her knuckles in what he hoped was a sympathetic gesture. She didn’t pull away.

“And you?” she asked. “Is there anything else you would rather do?”

Images flashed through his mind. Cooking dinner with his mother, evenings spent helping his sister with her schoolwork, trailing after Mipha in the healing wards in Zora’s domain. None of it had ever felt as right as when he had first held the master sword in his hands.

“There is nothing else I know  how  to do. All I've ever known is to give all of myself to you.” And that was true. It was one of the truest things he had ever spoken. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, he had known that he would give everything and more to her, whatever she might ask.

She looked at him silently, before once again taking his hand in hers.

“Come inside. Dance with me.”

OR, Zelda sneaks out to a pub to go dancing, and Link just so happens to be there on his night off. Em tries to shoehorn in as many Florence and the Machine Lyrics as narratively possible. Shenanigans ensue.

Thank you to @zeldaelmo for beta-ing, and the @zelinkcommunity for being so lovely and supportive to a new writer.

Read the whole thing on ao3!

[stargazeraldroth]

You can’t hear it but I let out the most disgusted sound at the thought of… Eugh. MATH. Just the thought leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Anyways, nothing wrong with laziness! It’s good to take some time to yourself to relax and decompress, if you need to- And hell, sometimes the executive dysfunction just gets to you. I know it gets to me.

Error sees Ink having a good time and decides that it can’t fucking stand while he’s around to Cause Problems and Wreck Shit. It’s definitely angst central for Ink either way, though- Never even got to confess, the poor guy. And hey, don’t we all need a little bit of therapy?

As you should have! Gin is a soft boy and a good guy, and I, for one, think even his visual chemistry alone with Ink is incredible… I love the two of them a lot, haha.

Mutually supportive Cross and Ink is my everything… I imagine that it really hit them that they’re healing from everything once Ink lends Cross his scarf (which is deeply important to him, what with all the things he’s written on it), or maybe even Broomie, and Cross let’s him wear his coat or his scarf and bundles him up like a lil burrito. Just. Soft Oreo bros owns my heeeaaart-

Oh, he definitely won’t be the best- Glitchy boy is awkward at best and wildly unqualified to provide comfort in this scenario at worst- But I’d like to think he gets an A for effort or something, you know? Even if he. Uh. Accidentally upsets Ink with Blue and Dream puppets.

Corrupted or Fallen Stars can be great… In theory. But sooo often they’re just flipped with the Bad Sans, and! That can be a fun idea in and off itself, if it’s in the concept of something that it blatantly a roleswap AU! But it normally isn’t, and it just ends up grating on me- Hell, off the top of my head, I can tell you semi-passable reasons for Secretly Evil Stars would be leaning so hard into positivity it becomes addiction and delusion (Dream), being tired of having his emotions invalidated and giving people the “real him” they apparently want (Ink), and being tired of being underestimated and desperate to stay with some of the only people who seem to take him seriously (Blue). That! Is literally just, I came up with it in five seconds! People don’t even give them the dignity of that, though, it’s just “They’re evil and my poor misunderstood murder babies are angels.” But like you said! How are they secretly misunderstood angels! If you’re going with “oh, they don’t WANT to hurt people,” why are they doing it- They aren’t necessary for the Balance, like you said. Is Nightmare forcing them so he can cause negativity? Is Error? Is something else going on??. And that’s not even getting into how all of that would wildly unbalance another set of Guardians- Reaper and Life. The excess death is their problem, now, the Bad Sans certainly ain’t sticking around to deal with the aftermath! Am I too passionate about this? Mayhaps. Shall I stop? Absolutely not.

And yeah, you’re definitely right about that- Outside pressure isn’t guaranteed to justify mass murder to the people you’ve affected with it. People have still lost their homes, and their loved ones, and so many other things- Why, exactly, does the alleged agony of being “forced” to do awful things negate the pain of the victims of those things? It doesn’t make sense at best, and it feels callous at worst. It feels… Really, really shoehorned in, for lack of a better term, just to make the “misunderstood favs” loved and adored by the masses, if that makes sense.

No issue with the ranting here! I quite agree with you, after all. And as for Ink… Well, it just makes sense! Like you said, he adores the Multiverse, so him writing off or ignoring something so, so vital for its survival just… Doesn’t make sense? Like, if you really don’t want him to know, it should be for angsty purposes- Fate, shielding his eyes and ears from it, completely cutting off anyone trying to tell him. Can you imagine how horrible to would feel, once someone was finally able to tell him? That would be a much better story arc, in my opinion- Someone prevents the Protector from doing what he’s dedicated his existence to, and the realization and healing that stems from that as they all work together to heal the Balance… Oh, and also- I see so many people calling him “Fate’s Favorite,” which, like. People. People know being the favorite of an abuser isn’t really a good thing, right? Even if there isn’t physical abuse, being the favorite can lead to some horrific things… Ahem. Moving on from my own rant- Yeah, Error definitely seems the most likely to not know or ignore the Balance, I think. Like you said, ignoring it even benefits him!

Hhh if you’re sure I’ll send a separate ask!!! Might take a bit, since I’ll have to write it all out… I should probably come up with a name, too. Just call me… Rainy Anon! Or Rain, heh.

Let’s be real, saving the brush is what Ink would want. And besides, if we save the brush, maybe we can use it to save Ink! Provided he hasn’t. You know. Gone insane from isolation and emotional overload. God only knows what having the emotional consequences of his entire existence hitting him at once would feel like. Quite frankly, I’m… Not sure he’d be able to process it. And would he even be Ink, once he got out? Would he start thinking it was all a dream he made up to comfort himself in an unfinished world???

I mean, to be fair, it could be seen as a response to everything in the AU. Ink is running, and the other Stars don’t know why!

He gives some much needed snark and sarcasm to some rather bleak situations. Also, he’d definitely be the sort to sarcastically narrate his brother’s fuckups.

🌧️ Rainy Anon 🌧️

AM HERE!

I believe I based his character off the mask I've seen him with, but I also kinda did it from memory?? Anyway, I made him "Kitsune Udon". He and Ink do have a connection, uh- they were like best friends until Ink got kidnapped/abducted LMFAO

If you wanna take the full Oreo bros into consideration, then we need to bring Reaper into the mix. I'm honestly kinda surprised no one talks about him in an Underverse setting. Being the God of Death means nothing to people these days smh. From X-Tale's destruction to Error committing a massacre against the AUs, Reaper's probably working overtime. He's definitely pissed about the situation. I think he would be interested in investigating the situation, which can then lead to him finding out about everything.

Error's trying! If anyone says anything about it, he gets defensive and says that they should be grateful he's doing anything for Ink in the first place! How ungrateful of them!

I remember once reading about how if we were to be realistic with the characters, Dream most likely wouldn't be as optimistic and friendly as he canonically is. But you're right, it's hardly ever as simple as being a roleswap AU; if anything, a personality swap AU might be more fitting of a description. I really don't mean to nitpick people's writing and stuff like this, I try to more encouraging when I can be, but these are things we need to consider when we want to make a story like this. Yes, characters who are evil and don't have the reason revealed CAN be interesting... but this isn't one of those cases, I don't think. I think I especially hate how they always make Ink the primarily evil one, the "root of it all", and the reason for it? He's soulless. Like... is that really the best you can do? You can use many reasons to make Ink the villain of the story if you really want to, and you target a condition he has? A condition he has no control over? Erm... kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I vaguely remember seeing some posts that discussed this exact thing, and how using his soullessness as a source of evil for his character has tones of ableism. I only vaguely remember because I glossed over the posts, didn't feel like reading at the time, so I could be getting that wrong. If anyone has read posts like that and wants to give their opinion, feel free to do so.

And you're right about that- I NEVER, EVER see any of these stories address Life and Reaper's roles in the Balance. They're easily getting the most screwed over in this situation because the Gang's causing unnecessary death with their murder sprees, which is tipping the Balance... which is what they're against the Stars for??? They only focus on Error and/or Nightmare for some reason... stop leaving my Circle of Life babies out of stuff-

It's because even though they preach about how negativity is essential to the Multiverse and "Dream needs to understand that", they don't actually WANT negativity there. For example, they always question why Ink allows negative AUs or AUs with tragic stories to exist, such as Horrortale. Aside from the fact that Ink has zero control over what AUs are made, those AUs are basically counters to positivity-oriented AUs such as Haventale. They preach about how negativity has just as much of a right to exist freely... and then condemn its existence in ways they don't like. The thing is, Horrortale and Dusttale happened as a consequence of events; the CORE shutting down led to the disastrous conditions in the Underground, the constant RESETs and Genocides led Sans to become Dust, etc. These are all examples of NATURAL negativity and how life works; it isn't meant to be pretty. And if you think about it, isn't this exactly how they make Dream think in these stories? Negative AUs shouldn't exist. BUT WAIT! Dream's in the wrong, don't forget that! Just ignore the fact that the Gang antagonizes Ink for the existence of these AUs! Dream's the bad guy, the Gang has no faults! And you wanna know the most fucked up part about expecting everyone to forgive Error and the Gang? The ones who don't are frowned upon and treated as unreasonable, in my experience. Which makes zero sense??? It's like being asked to forgive someone who murdered your best friend, family, and/or pet because they were forced to... like that doesn't change anything??? Like maybe you'll get some pity, but you sure as hell aren't getting forgiveness anytime soon!

Ngl I keep forgetting Fate and Destiny are in these AUs because I don't use them. I don't really like the concept of them, I just stick with the Creators... they pretty much have the same role. But that one's just a personal preference, it doesn't really change much about the contents of the story. And you are absolutely right, being an abuser's "favorite" isn't a good thing. That mindset is concerning. That's like saying it's a good thing to be a groomer's "favorite", like... no it isn't. Oh, but by their logic, it's okay because it's Ink! Any possible negatives of being Fate's favorite are ignored because Ink just can't be a sympathic, dimensional character! Nope, nope, nope! He's evil, through and through, and anyone who tries to look deeper than the surface is blind and being manipulated by him! Like... did the Gang hire y'all to spew this propaganda? This feels like propaganda. This reminds me of something I saw where someone listed what Sans AUs are green flags, and they put Error there. Like... do y'all know anything about Error's character? This is the genuine question.

I'm so sorry if I sound kinda bitchy in this rant, but I just can't find the logic. I try not to nitpick at individual writing styles, but literally everything I have read that deals with FGOD and this roleswap dynamic has been one-dimensional and lacked depth. Again, that probably sounds ignorant, and I don't mean for it to, but the sheer amount of "Gang good, Stars bad" and nothing more has essentially ruined the entire concept for me. This is probably why I prefer FGOC, because the characters at least have some depth beneath the surface. Dream is like one of the nicest and most compassionate characters in canon, why you gotta vandalize him like this?

Alright! You shall be the Rainy Anon!

Long live Broomie! The worst part about Ink's situation is that he's surrounded by people who are... blank. Just like when he doesn't have his vials. And he hates when he gets like that. He's probably overthinking and everything. Love that for him, you know?

Nightmare's absolutely RELISHING in the negativity! It's just so, so good! And it's even better because Dream- goody-two-shoes, wouldn't-hurt-a-fly Dream- is the one who caused it. I can picture Nightmare laughing evilly and kicking his feet while stuff goes down.

[erinlindsayy]

controversial opinion here but I really love hailey

HOWEVER

her character development has always been in the context of her relationships—specifically with jay.

I feel like we don’t really get to see just HAILEY that often, and rather, it’s always Hailey and jay… I want more about just HAILEY.

I feel like they shoehorned her into Erin’s position—abusive parents/traumatic upbringing, they both see Voight as a stand in/father figure, Voight tries to take care of them, etc. Both dated Jay, and it’s just frustrating, because I LOVE Hailey! I think she’s awesome, but I just wish she was developed more outside of upstead, outside of upzek, outside of her relationships with all of the other men on the show.

I enjoy upstead. I think they’re cute. But I don’t like that it’s felt like the only focus on the show.

and why did they have to write Hailey to be so similar to Erin? Let Hailey be her own god damned person—if you don’t want her to be a ‘replacement’ for Erin, maybe don’t write her to be so similar? I love both of them, but I feel like there were so many different things they could’ve done with her character.

anyways.

we love women on this blog and I won’t bash someone for liking something different :)

I just really wish things were written differently in many ways, but oh well!

[spudcity]

KP

For me, that moment is about how far people are willing to go to see each other, which is an idea that comes up throughout. At one point, Lot mentions a journalist who has written about him. He feels like the journalist has shuffled him into their theory about how the world works. Do you worry about that when you’re writing?

WA

I do worry about it, especially because as a playwright you’re literally putting words in people’s mouths. That’s literally the job description. You’re also deciding what their deepest pain is and quite often putting them in situations where that pain comes to light and is heightened. I do feel very complicated about it, like I kind of just trapped these people in this world. So I always instinctively work in this feeling that they’re talking back to the confines of the play, sort of pushing against it and breaking it open. I think how that manifests is that there are always things in my plays that surprise me, and I keep that surprise in there. I don’t try to shape it into something I can understand. I keep things in plays that I don’t understand, or that I might never understand, or that I understand very slowly, sometimes long after the plays have closed. I try to trust my gut in terms of what feels true, and oftentimes a really scary thing is the truest thing.

KP

Is there a moment in this play that really scares you?

WA

The ending really scares me. I was worried about audiences walking away feeling like everything had been tied up. I don’t want to leave the audience with easily articulated takeaways. I also don’t want to leave them with easily articulated questions. I want to leave them with a feeling that they can’t shake easily. I was really worried with this play because it ends in a way that I thought might resolve things too neatly, and it’s only after a week and a half of performances that I’m realizing it doesn’t do that, hopefully. But it’s still very scary, and it remains very vulnerable for me.

...

Words are imperfect, not just because they can’t capture the fullness of what you’re feeling but also because each word in itself is a potential landmine that contains inside of it so many layers of meaning. In a way, words are fossils. They’re these things that have traveled through the centuries to reach this moment, and they’re haunted. So we have to use these imperfect, haunted things to say something scary. I think that’s all throughout the play, and something that I only could really access or think about because of my sister. She taught me so much about language. I have a big family, so I’ve had a lot of voices swirling around in my head throughout my life, but the way Julia uses language is so delightful, specific, and profound. She taught me from a young age to pay close attention to it, to every single syllable.

KP

You mentioned earlier that you mostly write for ensembles, which is this structure that diffuses attention across a group of people. What do you think draws you to that way of writing?

WA

When playwrights are getting taught, they’re usually getting taught the Aristotelian formula for what a play is. There’s a protagonist with a tragic flaw who discovers something that leads them to have a super objective. At the end, they either succeed or fail, and their tragic flaw plays some part in that success or failure. That formula is so ingrained in us as audience members that we’ve gotten really skilled at picking up the moral of the story, and I just think it’s a little stale. Focusing on one-protagonist problems makes it too easy to shoehorn art into simple questions of identity and social value. It has taken a lot of the mystery and unpredictability away from art. So I like having multiple voices, discovering play structures that are almost taking place within the dynamic of the Greek chorus rather than focusing on the protagonist over there. It’s much more interesting. That polyphony is mysterious and beautiful, and I just feel myself pulled in that direction.

KP

For me, the Greek chorus is totally inscrutable. They seem like they’re giving you a moral, and then they splinter in all these different directions.

WA

I’m always going to be more tuned into a play that feels like it surprised the author; there’s a sort of untamable force at work, and something unknowable informing everything. That way you really can hang onto every word. Even if you don’t have a grasp on the plot or you can’t pinpoint the structure, you’re still invested because you feel like there’s that active search for meaning, and that it’s coming from multiple directions. I think it’s possible to get an audience breathing and thinking in new rhythms. There’s a monologue that Justice has near the beginning of the play about this ghost that she’s been seeing. She talks about the nature of prayer being this cave or this bubble that you get into, and you can’t remember how you got out, but you know you were in there; and you can’t remember how you felt in there, but you know you feel differently now. That’s what I’m striving for.

–Excerpts from this interview with Will Arbery in BOMB

[thirteene42]

Thoughts after finishing Priory of the Orange Tree

Now, I think this might be an unpopular opinion, but I didn’t much care for this book.

It might be my inexperience with true epic fantasy, or maybe just plain personal preference, but I feel it fell short.

It took six chapters for me to understand what was going on, and was woefully confused most of t5he time about where things were. I only got invested about 100 pages in.

I felt that Eadaz had very little personality as well - I could name some traits, but she’s easier described by what she does, rather than who she is, which I dislike.

I’m getting into spoiler territory now, so if you don’t want spoilers, please stop reading this now.

I think that the parallels drawn between sterren and siden were mishandled - it doesn’t feel like a balance was acheived, just an imbalane in favor of the characters. The tree IS the imbalance - I thought a solution would be to cut it down, to have the eastern and western dragons having to reach some sort fo balance, but now it feels like they’re just using siden as an overburden. And Tane (forgive me, I don’t have special characters on my keyboard) having Siden feels like the Nameless one was not destroyed with a balance of siden and sterren, but with siden and then sterren as almost an afterthought. The theme of balance was extremely off.

The story of Cleolind and the house of Bethernet was very unsatisfying too, personally. It felt shoehorned with Kalyba being both the queen and the mother of the Saint, and then her turning to the drakes was... odd. I don’t see why she did it, other than hatred of the Priory, but she, too, should have hated the Nameless One more than the Priory - everything leading up to it was upended in favor of shock.

The fact that Kalyba was also the only sterren user bothers me as well, on the balance front. So many siden users, but the only sterren user can die and that’s fine? That doesn’t strike me as balance at all.

I also take great issue with the Six Virtues being an obvious parallel to Christianity and then being villainized the entire time, essentially villainizing a real-world faith. I am not Christian, but I still see an issue with the real-world implications of this. I see often people treating all Christians like heartless bigots, and it’s just as prejudice towards any other minority religion. Just because they’re the majority doesn’t mean they should be attacked.

All in all, I found the book narratively and symbolically to fall short. It was a shame, too, as I looked forward to reading it for months before I did. It wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, by any means, but also, I will not be reading it again or recommending it to anyone.

[sleepysnails]

I think the 3 lives system on the dsmp needs to be done away with because it’s no longer effective in serving the plot and rarely ever has been with ccs feeling more like they’re working around than with it.

First of all, the 3 lives system feels like a disservice to their choice of storytelling medium: Minecraft. Respawns are such a core aspect of the game it feels cheap to just say 3 strikes and you’re out. Doing this kills a lot of what could’ve made the medium unique, there’s plenty of unexplored possibility there!!

It hasn’t been here since the start either- making things that worked back then not work as well now. Like the disc plot- the sentimental value behind the discs mattered a lot back then because a person would just come back but your items would not. Now with the limited respawn it has some plot points like that feeling a bit insensitive or idiotic.

Furthermore it not being here since the beginning has made it confusing. What exactly counts as a canon death? Although some deaths are easy to say whether or not they’re canon, some deaths that feel like they should be aren’t and vice versa. The definition for canon death seems to change as the ccs demand without solid definition the audience needs to go all detective holmes to figure it out.

The limited respawns also often feel pretty limiting. Deaths that should count and have some form of importance simply don’t. Big events can have little to no tension with the audience being sure characters are going to come out alive and well because the plot demands they live. What cc wants their character to completely be killed off and not be able to rp anymore? Yet it seems big events always follow with some kinda death to really drive home how the event matters- with only so many lives they can’t keep up this pattern. For example Doomsday and even though Jack died, his death there was not treated by any other characters with the weight the usual death would have and had little lasting effect on the plot like many others.

While they may have added it to give deaths some sort of weight- the issue is they’ve already proved they don’t need limited respawns to give their deaths weight. The button room and Tubbo’s execution which were both events pre-dating the canonization of the 3 lives system are perfect examples. It wasn’t just the act of dying that gave it death- it was the characters reactions. Their feelings surrounding the event and actions after- with the characters treating it like it had weight it naturally did even without the added restriction of limited lives. Even Quackity’s death during the butcher army works in favor of this because despite the fact it’s after the implementation of the 3 lives system, he respawns afterwards and the death clearly affects him. Take away the “you only have 3 lives” and it could still work perfectly well.

They’ve already proved they didn’t need death to be permanent for it to have weight so why add it?

If they were looking for ways to permanently kill off characters why choose one that has become more a hinderance than a help? There’s plenty of other ways to incorporate permanent death- maybe everyone has certain conditions to it like Phil with his single but extremely long life or Bad and Skeppy’s lives being connected, maybe respawning is something you have to chose to do. Either way there’s plenty of possibilities, why adopt one that doesn’t work? It’s not as though stuff hasn’t been retconned before and if the 3 lives system holds them back this much it should be done away with entirely.

The revival book basically makes the entire thing null anyways. Why have a 3 lives system if you specifically need to write in a way to get around it? If the point is to give Dream power and prevent his death you could replace it with some other thing that gives him power and without the limit on respawns they couldn’t have killed him anyways- thus the prison.

Point is the 3 lives system has been shoehorned in and really isn’t working- forcing things to work around rather than with it and I think they should retcon it entirely.

[radiosandrecordings]

I would love to try and take a stock of the types of diegesis used in audio fiction and how it’s changed over time. It feels in more recent stuff like it’s fallen out of trend to have an in-universe reasoning for the story like “It’s a radio station you’re listening to” or “It’s old recordings you found!” just because that was such a saturated market towards the start of the AD boom that I feel like if you do that now people are going to presume you’re just trying to ride on the coat tails of one of them now (To the point where Night Vale and King Falls AM crew got in a twitter spat about similar themes). I think another reason it’s often passed over these days is just how much it confines your story, to the point where classic AD’s that had schtick’s for How We’re Hearing This like The Bright Sessions or Wolf 359 just gave up halfway through because it became too much of an inconvenience to justify the diegetic formula while still maintaining a good story and not having to shoehorn recording devices in, and this is something newer ones have learned from. 

Giving an in-universe explanation really shapes your story for that reason if you commit to it. Night Vale always stuck to it to my knowledge in some form or another, wheras TMA made the tapes not just a fun layer of meta but crucial to the plot itself. Wheras you might have Zoo or Jar of Rebuke be tape recordings but the reasoning for them seems to be to justify the narrative style of having the main character sharing their inner thoughts diary-style, which creates engagement that you wouldn’t get if they weren’t airing their thoughts to something rather than just having us observe them living their life. 

This can also play into sound design because if you have A Device That Is Recording, your whole soundscape is gonna be based around that. How close are people standing to it. Do they move closer or further away? Does the recording device itself move? Can you use panning here? Does the recording device itself emit a noise? 

BUT these things do also come into play in something without an in-universe recording device, where often one character will be chosen as the POV and audio will be centred around them. This can be especially cool in something like Juno Steel or Kane & Feels where they lean into the noir genre and have a character monologuing for reasons that aren’t actually explained, you’re just expected to run with the non-naturalism because it allows you an insight into the character’s mindset. This can even involve panning and stuff such as the opening of Kane & Feels episode 2 where one character is monologuing to the listener and the other cuts in, interrupting their train of thought because, and they’ve recorded further away from the mic than the close up of the one monologuing because the character is on the other side of the room from the first, giving a sense of spatial proximity and immersion by letting us experience things how the POV character does. 

Then you have things that sort of straddle the line of diegesis because they won’t have a reason they’re being recorded, but they’ll often have fourth-wall breaking elements like The Silt Verses being primarily read as if it’s a story being told to the listener by the character, even if there isn’t an explanation for this, it just is how the story is structured. It leans into being first person and supplements it with actual scenes scattered between. Or Paired, where it’s never stated but from the fact that we move with the character, and you hear bits of static and glitching when needed you’re lead to assume you’re hearing whatever is picked up by the recording device that is the character, but weirdly that’s never a confirmed thing because despite some scenes that mess with the formula and go for second person adressal to whoever is listening, it’s still a bit unexplained and not directly To An Audience 

But of course these are just my personal insights from the AD’s I’ve consumed so I’d love to map it all out and see what the trends are for these sort of things, if creators give specifics reasonings for why they chose a justification or not. Because it’s not something that’s common in film or TV? At least to the extent of prevalence that it is/was in podcasts, and it’s not even really a holdover from radio dramas so I want to know what caused this surge when it came to podcasting. Was it just a case of looking at what everyone else was doing and copying a trend? Found footage was by no means a new genre when podcasts were starting to get big (Using 2012, Night Vale’s start date for lack of a better timeframe) but it did seem to have an uptick in popularity in 2013 in film according to wikipedia. It seems to be a technique almost always used for horror so the fact that a lot of AD is horror could contribute to it, but I think it might share a reason with why movies started to be made like that around the time, and it’s that it was cheap. It was a low budget way to frame things because it excused other production values. Your camera could be shaky, and your sound could be shoddy, and it was fine because you were supposed to believe it was recorded on a handheld camera or phone, it was all part of the framing. Most AD’s started recorded in someone’s bedroom on a tiny budget so they were gonna be poor quality, if you say “well it’s supposed to be, the character could only afford a £10 recording device (I could only afford a £10 recording device)”, or better yet you slap a tape whurring or radio static filter over it to mask the background fuzzy from an uninsulated room and you’re good to go. 

.... Oh, what you thought there was going to be a summary or conclusion for this? Yeah so did I when I started writing it but genuinely I went down so many research rabbit holes I’ve forgotten what it was, so now it’s just an infodump <3

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

How Bad is Sia’s “Music” really?

I watched it illegally (because there was no way I was paying for that bullshit) and found out. It’s not as bad as we thought... It’s worse.

TW for ableism, Sia, drugs, alcohol, just in general a terrible movie, meltdowns, blackface

Literally the first thing you hear while they’re showing the production companies is THOSE stereotypical noises. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll know what I mean.

And yes, she does this for the WHOLE fucking movie

What was the need to show her in her underwear? Maddie Ziegler was 14 when this was made, so what was the need??? And why did Sia prolong the scene by having her hitting herself?

Less than a minute in and my reaction was already “what the fuck is this shit?”

So the opening number not only had stereotypical exaggerated facial expression, it has Maddie in BLACKFACE?!? And with culturally appropriated hair?!?

The exaggerated facial expressions are literally constant and I took photos during the film to show it, more later, but I’ll keep mentioning it

ITS LITERALLY THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME SHE IS ON SCREEN

Even her way of walking is fucking offensive, Jesus Christ

The vocalisations just had me cringing so hard, I cannot describe how awful it made me feel

Why do all the neighbours need to be paid off and help her when she goes for a walk? I don’t-

Yes, by about the five minute mark I was already seriously debating all my life decisions. It was that bad.

Kate Hudson really didn’t give a fuck that her grandma died

I will keep saying it but WHY are the facial expressions/vocalisations CONSTANT?!! Literally they do not stop at all. I work with a child who is actually similar to this in that he’s nonverbal and he makes similar noises/faces, but the way they’re in this movie is so over-exaggerated?!? And even the kid I work with doesn’t do it 24/7?!?

Sia, calling your characters Zu and Music doesn’t make them interesting in the slightest. They’re still painfully terrible and one dimensional

Literally ONE minute after being left alone with her autistic sister, Zu calls the mental health service asking if they could “theoretically” “pick up” her sister?!? Like she wants to get rid of her already?!?

“A magical little girl” - autism isn’t a magical power?!? And Music is a young woman, not a little girl?!? Why are you infantilising her?!?

Okay I’m not being funny but this choreography is NOT hard. ANYONE can do it, so claiming that you needed to hire a dancer to be Music because of the numbers is literally bullshit (and even so, there are so many amazing autistic actors and dancers?!?)

20 minutes in and I wanted to give up

So she had her first meltdown because her hair didn’t get braided immediately and that’s... certainly interesting??

The fact that Leslie Odom’s character says “I’m going to crush you now”?!?

AND THEN HE FUCKING PICKS HER UP AND FULL-BODILY PINS HER DOWN ONTO THE FLOOR

“I’m crushing her with my love” - oh fuck you, just fuck you

So Sia lied, the restraint scenes were NOT removed and there was no warning. She’s a fucking POS liar

I have no idea why he’s called Ebo or why he has such a cliche African accent?!? I might have missed out on why because I was busy trying not to bang my head into the table while I watched this film but just... yikes

“He (his brother) liked to be held” - YEAH, HELD. NOT FUCKING CRUSHED

“He is dead now” - IM NOT FUCKING SURPRISED IF YOU CRUSHED HIM LIKE THAT

The constant babying and patronizing of the autistic character is so exhausting to watch. I’m so tired

“Planning on sending her to the people pound but I guess I’ll keep her a little longer” - SHE WAS JOKING BUT THAT WAS NOT EVEN REMOTELY A FUNNY JOKE. NOT EVEN IN AN AWKWARD WAY

STOP THE FACES IM-

^ YEAH, Sia, totally a fucking love letter to the autistic community here ^

So Zu finds this necklace she made as a kid that had a little dog on it, and she says to Music, “He had seizures too, just like you”... MELTDOWNS AND SEIZURES ARE NOT EVEN REMOTELY THE SAME FUCK THIS MOVIE-

It’s like Sia is trying to make the movie funny but it’s really not at all

Is Zu implying that Music is autistic because the mum was a junkie?!?

For real though, the dialogue in general is so fucking awful and cringey. Whoever wrote this should never be allowed to write again

Did she seriously leave her autistic sister alone to talk to who I’m presuming was her dealer or loan shark?!?

Also why is he - a white dude - wearing cornrows?!?

So who is the film really about? The autistic girl or the older sister saviour? I think we all know the answer to that one

WHY IS SHE WALKING AROUND WITH HER TEETH JUTTING OUT LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME

The musical numbers are literally so painful to watch. The overly bright colours, the flashing... my eyes were hurting and so was my brain

Autism representation aside for a second, the musical numbers/choreography are all fucking atrocious. Ditto for the costumes

LIKE WHAT THE FUCK WERE THE PINK OOMPA LOOMPA FRUIT THINGS?!? THEY LOOK LIKE THE PINK VERSIONS OF VIOLET BEAUREGARDE THE BLUEBERRY

I wanted to cry by this point, this movie is far more awful than I thought

“I’m not saying she doesn’t want to change, I’m saying she can’t” - FUCK YOU. Why is it okay for him to assume what she can or can’t do

Can I just say that autistic people aren’t constantly in a coked up wonderland state?!! We don’t see the world as a wonderland fantasy world 24/7?!!

“She can hear you from two rooms away” / *shows her listening through two brick walls to a conversation* — Also, we don’t have super fucking sonic hearing?? WE CANT HEAR THROUGH FUCKING BRICK WALLS?!?

“She can understand everything you’re saying to her” - she’s autistic not fucking deaf

Less than 45 minutes in, there’s another meltdown in the park

“I’m not climbing on top of a small screaming white girl in public” - yeah please fucking don’t

So Zu fucking pins her down with her weight 🤦‍♀️

“She doesn’t know who she’s hitting” - IM SORRY WHAT

EBO LITERALLY SAID “TREAT HER LIKE A BEAR” when talking her through the prone restraint, I fucking CANNOT

“Tell her she’s safe” - NOT IF YOU FUCKING RESTRAIN HER LIKE THAT SHE IS NOT

The fact that she gets up, smiling and happy after a meltdown and immediately is excited to get a snow cone... I can honestly say that after a meltdown, I am in no way happy or smiling. I am often not very verbal and I’m withdrawn/not myself for at least several hours, usually the rest of the day. Fuck this film

This film is literally just about Zu, and Music is there for a plot device to give her character development. That’s all she’s there for.

Love how Sia shoehorned Zu being suicidal in there. You know, just to try and make her more easy to sympathize with (it doesn’t work)

This film is literally just a 1 hour 47 minute Sia music video with ZERO plot

WHY WERE THEY WEARING PILLOW DIAPERS IN ONE NUMBER-

I really did not feel into the side plot with that guy who was fighting but it was still better than the actual movie so...

I am SO DONE with the NON STOP CONSTANT vocal shit. So tired.

LOJ’s only role in this film is to be the stereotypical wise black guy who assists a white woman’s story. There’s like hardly any other depth there

The Ebo/Zu romance is so fucking stupid and pointless and out of NOWHERE. I couldn’t even tell if they were into each other or not

I was already so bored of the musical numbers by this point. They added NOTHING to the plot but they pretended they did, and I was so over it. And it’s not because I’m not “creative enough” or anything to understand, I love musicals and I think it could have been cool if done right... but it wasn’t. They were a mess. It’s just bad.

Sia really tried to pretend her movie was deep but really it’s a shallow mess

So Zu is meeting rich drug clients and says to Music “try not to have one of your freak outs up there” and “if you could try to get it out now”... FUCKING YIKES. It’s not an on/off button, shut the fuck up

YEP THIS WAS THE SIA CAMEO FUCK THAT BITCH

The fact that she just calls “DRUG DEALER?!? DRUG DEALER IS THAT YOU”, fucking end this please-

I fucking hate this bitch I’m dead serious

“We’re gonna send them to Haiti cause there’s been an earthquake. All these buildings fell down, children’s bones were dislocated” - WHY WAS SHE SO CHEERFUL ABOUT IT

“Gonna buy a shit load of pain meds, gonna but them on my private plane” - FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

“Pop stars without borders” - Sia thinks she’s so clever but I would give anything to punch her I swear-

ANOTHER MUSICAL NUMBER JUST STOP IM BEGGING YOU

There’s this awkward conversation/bit with Zu and her drug dealer/loanshark about his outfit that was clearly meant to be funny but was just flat and painful

Yep, Sia really showed Music eating chewing gum off the underside of a park bench. Of course.

Look, the kid I work with does similar stuff by putting literally anything and everything in his mouth but like... why would you put that in your movie?

And there’s no indication before this that Music puts everything and anything in her mouth, she just randomly decides to get on her knees, under the bench and eat chewing gum, like she calculates that it’s there and gets it???

She has a THIRD meltdown after an allergic reaction to a bee sting and her sister just yells at her before realizing... I’m not here for this movie, I feel like I drifted off and was not really there

So Zu got angry because she left the drugs at the park but she’s not that upset that her sister had an allergic reaction???

Zu gets absolutely drunk because a) she lost Sia’s drugs and b) she’s stressed out by her autistic sister... wow, great message, Sia!

She really fucked off and left her sister alone to go clubbing/on a bender

The less said about the musical number here the better

Sia’s movie also checks the box of having stereotypical Asian parents, specifically stereotypical Asian dad being harsh/angry and hitting his wife!

ALSO HE PUSHED AND KILLED HIS SON WTF IS HAPPENING

Less than 3 minutes after the last, there’s a musical number that I think was about this side character going to heaven... another shitty Sia-esque number

The patterns during the number made my brain hurt.

Also there are so many autistic actors who can also dance, and yet Sia chose the neurotypical one because ✨ N E P O T I S M ✨

I just want to know how it was deemed necessary to show the fact the autistic character peed/wet herself? I mean... ??? It’s just so undignified and not at all necessary to the plot. Nothing happens after that, it just moves onto the next scene and it didn’t do anything

“I have no one” - 1) YOUR FUCKING SISTER. 2) GEE I FUCKING WONDER WHY, couldn’t be that you’re a shitty human being?!?

There’s a scene where Music is walking and she does ALL the stereotypical behaviours at once... just YIKES

Zu somehow stopped another meltdown just by grabbing Music by the shoulders and sitting her down???

Aaand yep. Another shitty musical number

Zu really goes to put her sister in a fucking facility and claims it’ll be “better for her” - BULLSHIT. Better for Zu, maybe, not Music.

Ah yes - the girl who the characters have said has problems with routines being changed/change in general... you’re now going to fuck up her routine by dumping her in a facility. Perfect Plan.

The nonverbal autistic girl suddenly speaking to say “don’t go” - you can just predict it from the off, can’t you?

Love that as soon as Music starts talking, Zu is like “fuck it, I’ll keep her!”

Zu really went and crashed Ebo’s brothers wedding... in a fucking bralette... YIKES

“I almost gave Music away” - SHE IS NOT A DOG YOU DONT GIVE PEOPLE AWAY

“We should sing a song” - PLEASE DO FUCKING NOT

Also that kiss/romance montage between Zu and Ebo was the CRINGIEST fucking shit ever

This movie seems to be implying that Music has locked in syndrome or something, like she’s locked in her own head or whatever it’s called, and I just... *sigh*

Oh and now Music magically fucking sings in a room FULL of strangers... this is literally embarrassing, please let this end

I mean it, this movie was fucking painful to watch on ever level

She got a service dog puppy which... okay?

Oh look, it’s the only decent song on the soundtrack but with an absolutely shitty over-stimulatory music video with the credits!

I can only name 5 characters in this film. Maybe 7 at a push, but even then I would be guessing

AND YEP SHE THANKED AUTISM SPEAKS OVER THE CREDITS. FUCK YOU SIA 🖕🏻

Let me reiterate: this is a movie about a neurotypical former drug addict whose character development comes from the autistic character, from having an autistic sister she has to take care of. I’m so tired.

We are NOT plot devices or tools for character development. Not once does anyone in this film treat Music like a human being - she’s treated as a burden, a problem, and then like a pet that they decide to keep. Not once is the film focused on how she is feeling - it’s always about Zu or Ebo. The performance itself was so over exaggerated and it made me want to cry when I watched it because this is how the world sees us, and this movie will make it ten times worse. It’s stuff like this that made me think “I don’t want to be labelled as autistic because people will think I’m a certain way”, that made me wait so long before going to the GP to get a referral.

As I said, poor autistic representation aside, the movie is just so appallingly bad. It truly is one of the worst films I’ve watched. If you’re going to watch it, please don’t - or, if you want to because you want to see how bad it is/to raise awareness/critical posts, at least do it illegally. Do not give Sia your money.