#I’m sorry it’s kind of anti

[glowyjellyfish]

October Halloween Movie Fest Day 26:

Today I watched Friday the 13th for the first time! …and found it weirdly boring, to be honest. Just about any movie would have had a hard time following The Thing, but this movie just did not work for me at all. I don’t know if it’s me, or the slasher genre, or what. The only things I found compelling about any of the teens was that one of them was Kevin Bacon, and that they were getting murdered. The effects were fine, nothing spectacular. The killer-cam was kinda cool, but I would have liked it more if it wasn’t half the movie. I was genuinely surprised at the identity of the killer—I was aware this character existed, but I was really really expecting to see the iconic fellow, he was on the store image for this thing! …but it wasn’t really enough to make the whole movie interesting for me. Glad I tried it, but I am probably going to go with my gut and stay away from basic slashers from now on.

What I expected:

What I got:

Treehouse of Horror 26 (Wanted: Dead then Alive/Homerzilla/Telepaths of Glory)

I find the Sideshow Bob THOH highly memorable and unsettling. It’s a culmination of two and a half decades of Sideshow Bob episodes, and although the events aren’t canon, what Bob wants to do to Bart… is. And it gets more horrifying the more you think about it. Like, I don’t always care for the more cartoonish villainy they did with him off and on in the post-classic era, but this isn’t that. Sideshow Bob at one point disembowels Bart’s corpse, something he was planning to do as early as Cape Feare. This episode really hammers home the point that oh yeah, this beloved charming antagonist wants to murder a ten year old boy. And play with his corpse. And would like to be able to murder him again any time he’s feeling frustrated or bored. Like, geez, I know continuity barely matters on Simpsons and he was only allowed to accomplish this outside of canon, but watching his behavior when he succeeds somehow retroactively makes his near-misses more alarming. I could write an entire essay or two about Sideshow Bob, but this is all that’s relevant.

The other two segments are pretty lackluster, though. The designs in Homerzilla are neat, but the story started out a little weak and then apparently the writers got bored and went with a spoof on remakes that just sucked all life out of it, although I found the scientist scene pretty funny. And Telepaths of Glory had a cool set up that took too long, and thus the story ended as soon as it was getting interesting. Really, this THOH is all about the Sideshow Bob, but it’s a shame it wasn’t paired with more solid partners. My list is now 1, 5, 4, 7, 6, 3, 2, 20, 9, 8, 17, 23, 16, 15, 25, 26, 19, 13, 24, 21, 12, 14, 10, 18, 22, 11. And 26 would be several places lower if not for Sideshow Bob.

[sarafangirlart]

Y’know what no I won’t shut up about how stupid it that the PJO show has Athena abandoning her own daughter for not being “perfect” when she’s a ride or die and she’d support her heroes breaking all Geneva Conventions and the only time she actively abandoned a hero it was bc he committed cannibalism.

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

When I see stuff like this I kinda want to bash my head into a wall:

To start off, I’m not sure whether this person was commenting on book or show Cersei, but honestly, it doesn’t even matter because she’s so much more than the ‘ambitious villain’ or the ‘murderous girlboss’ tropes in both the book and show.

(Of course, I do have my issues with the way Cersei was written in the show like most people but this is simply a rant post so I’m not going to go through the differences of Show vs Book Cersei)

Cersei is a female character who was shaped by her environment, who’s insecurities were created by her environment, and she’s a woman who’s idiotic mistakes can be traced back to how her environment shaped her. She’s much more than a murderous girlboss, she’s both a victim of the system and also a beneficiary of it, while also acting as an agent of it to keep the status quo while also desiring what the system denied her.

Cersei is NUANCED and complicated and even now people hate that about her and want her to have been a purely evil woman handcrafted in a vacuum, ignoring the context of her life because readers would rather not engage with Cersei’s victimhood and nuances because that ruins their idea of: She Was The Problem and Always The Problem. (People would rather say that she deserved her walk of shame instead of interacting meaningfully with the theme of systematic gender-based violence that is so prevalent in Cersei’s story. The exploration of patriarchal violence in Show Alicent’s story is done so horribly in comparison.)

And what really pissed me off about these tags is that this person has clearly decided that they don’t care to interact with the nuance of Cersei and are fine with flattening her, and yet they shit on others for not liking Alicent.

Because of the way Alicent is written in this show, she almost always has a ‘woe is me I can do no wrong’ attitude, which of course drives people away from the character (woe is me I deserve to take a child’s eye 🥺). However, what actually annoys me is how she’s made out to be stupid, foolish, ignorant, and inconsistent due to the horrible writing of this show, all of which are deviations from her book characterization. Also, I despise it when people want me to support writing decisions and changes made in adaptations that are downright misogynistic and are meant to attract the male gaze.

But what pisses many people, including myself, off is how the changes made negatively impacted many other characters. Alicent’s terrible characterization is like a black hole that distorts and warps the whole story! It’s annoying af!

So when people like this say: ‘She’s nuanced and people just can’t handle it 🙄;’ I say: No. She’s horribly written and a different character from the book and people have a right to be critical about these changes that stripped a female character of 1) her agency and 2) her intelligence!

And the thing is, there was little reason for the writers to have made all these changes to Alicent’s characterization! In the book she is an interesting character with clear motives and understandable reactions. She’s cunning and ambitious and acts the way a noble lady who became queen would. And despite her clear ambitions and dislike of Rhaenyra, she still makes a comment wondering about who would protect the Princess from Ser Criston, and yet she then takes Cole into her service after his falling out with Rhaenyra. That’s a perfect example of nuance! Show Alicent could never compare to book Alicent’s clear moral values and consistent disregard of said moral values in pursuit of power.

And because of this, Book Alicent isn’t easy to stomach. It’s hard for most people to come to terms with a character like her and it’s even harder for people to feel sympathetic for her at the end when she went mad with grief.

On the other hand, Show Alicent was designed in a way to garner pity, and when the writers felt like her current arc wouldn’t be enough to garner the specific reaction they wanted they would then throw in a time skip and suddenly she’s completely different and yet still Thee victim. She’s designed to be as sympathetic as fucking possible! The camera angles, the background music, and the lighting is set up in a way to make sure you the viewer feels pity or sympathy for her! Cause that’s her role in this series! She’s thee Ultimate Victim!

But too bad for the writers as many people are fed up with this kind of inconsistent writing. Even when the writers created a whole new challenge for Alicent where she’s shitted on by the green council and forced to face the beast she helped to raise, I and many others could never feel any satisfaction as it was clear that once again Alicent was being made to be Thee Ultimate Victim who was just led astray by the patriarchy and was a victim of it and was only just realizing it so don’t you pity her don’t you feel sad for her and now she’s trying to do the right thing so pls pls pls pity her 🥺~ So it shouldn’t be surprising that many people are annoyed by these eNLiGhtEnEd changes that have led to a complete deviation from the source material.

To summarize: Cersei is an excellent fucking character who’s by no means easy to stomach, and because she’s not easy to stomach she’s often reduced to annoying ass tropes by dumbasses who are reading above their comprehension level. But when you actually try to understand her, you can easily see why she turned out the way she did and you can feel sympathy for her while understanding that she’s both victim and perpetrator! On the other hand, Show Alicent is a mess and HOTD is trying to make her serve a different narrative role than she did in the books so ofc people are going to be unhappy with the changes as book readers are once again faced with the annoying reality that the writers don’t give a fuck about the source material.

[angelsdean]

seeing ppl reblog a “shitpost” where dean homophobically rejects Cas in the confession not realizing it’s literally from w* / destiel haters who think dean doesn’t give af abt Cas and would actually do that. like yea I don’t expect ppl to vet blogs but like, I saw it and immediately got a Vibe from it and was right

[bleached-socks]

I really need to just watch TYBW because I want to see Uryu and the Bambies and Shinji’s bankai and whatnot, but if I want to get to them, then I have to sit through Squad Zero being complete manipulative assholes to everyone, which is why I stopped the first time I tried to watch it. I want to watch it, I swear, I just cannot stand Squad Zero

[nakamurareia]

I can accept annabeth going to new rome bc this girl literally ran away at 7 years old and then got raised by a 12 and 14 year old for a couple months and then an immortal half horse and said 14 year old. she probably can’t conceptualize how fucked up new rome is bc adults aren’t real to her (she’d def go to an ivy if we’re being fr tho. maybe yale? like her family has money too). but percy? percy who sally has loved and diligently protected at every turn? percy who knows what proper adults are like bc his mum has always been there for him? percy who lives in mortal society and knows normal life (tangentially)? that percy? rr is genuinely such a joke like it’s so clear he has no memory of his own characterizations it’s frankly baffling

[chantryexplosion]

can i be so real i’m kinda sick of people getting immediately labeled as “antis” or whatever for having boundaries or expressing that some type of content makes them uncomfortable

[starboysbrainrot]

hey,

i know that you don’t talk interact with character metas a lot in the atla fandom, but i’ve seen lately that you’re very defensive of characters like Zuko & Jet, which is unusual in this fandom because Zuko/Jet stans tend to demonise eachothers all the time, so it’s a bit surprising to see your blog

so if i may ask, what’s you honest thought on these two characters ?

read under cut cuz it’s pretty damn long

hey anon

first, thank you for your ask ! it’s always a pleasure to discuss things about atla :)

as you rightfully pointed out, I tend to avoid interacting with most atla metas. but I don’t mind responding to some of them.

now to answer your question, I wouldn’t say that it’s particularly a rare thing to be fond of both Jet & Zuko as characters… and I sure as hell wouldn’t call me a stan. I like them, yes, but I like them as characters who are both traumatised war teenagers stuck in their violent & toxic behaviour and who try to be better at the end of their character arc. I certainly don’t like them because I think they did nothing wrong or idk what else.

and tbh, some Zuko stans have a way of demonising Jet that I absolutely hate, while Jet stans rarely openly hate him, they can be critical of Zuko’s character, yes, but they’re often way more nuanced and levelheaded. although I’ve seen some big ass bullshit coming from both stans but what’s new, we’re in the atla fandom after all…

now if I had to be honest : they’ve both terribly written in the second half of their character arcs. and don’t shoot me down before I finish talking, I swear I don’t completely hate the way they’re written, only a part of it.

like Jet ? BSS redemption arc ? him helping the gaang ? working actively on his traumas after his brainwash ? great idea, love it, but terrible execution. his death is tragic but the aftermath is a fucking joke. the gaang only mentions him again two times, first in the TSR, to point out that he was a lunatic that killed innocent people (….ok) and in EIP (probably the one episode I hate the most in the whole show) to mock his death with the most apathetic “you know, it was really unclear” from Sokka ?? fucking hated every second of it. but on paper ? love the character, he’s literally my comfort character alongside with Zuko and I cherish him deeply. I really wished that his character arc would have been written differently but now what’s done is done. and don’t get me started on how mf imperialist warlord Iroh is painted in a golden light in opposition to the 16 yo orphan boy from the mf oppressed side of the war that died under a mf lake. how so many people are painted in a better light than Jet. Jet being canonically demonised in show pisses me off. what’s the point of concluding his redemption arc in season 2 only to compare him to a killer lunatic in season 3. make it make sense please.

now if I had to be honest about Zuko… I’m a book 1 & 2 Zuko enjoyer. he was at his peak at that time and although there are some episode I genuinely like in book 3 that handle Zuko’s character, I genuinely hate a handful of them. (like The Firelord & The Avatar) his redemption arc was working until book 3. it was meaningful, logical, COHERENT, until book 3. and I think his arc’s weakest point is mf Iroh. cuz I may not be a Iroh anti but boy do I have beef with him. yes Iroh, maybe not only giving tea but actively deconstructing your nephew propagandist ideas about the world imprinted in him by years of living under the roof of the mf firelord COULD BE A GOOD IDEA. yk, being on sea with a 13 yo and not trying to work on his imperialistic mindset baffles me. ignoring his internal turmoil in BSS instead of confronting him about it baffles me. it’s not only that Iroh is a shitty uncle, it’s also bad writing. because the show praises the hell out of Iroh for something he didn’t really do (helping Zuko’s redemption arc). book 3 Zuko has such a shitty way of portraying his redemption because of Iroh’s omnipresence. like no, Iroh is not part of the redemption. also, the show painting Zuko as a character having to repair the damage of his forefathers, the show painting azula as an unredeemable monster, while mf Iroh is adored by the gaang and lives his best life in Ba Sing Se after the war is absolutely stupid and downright ridiculous.

now that being said… I love both characters, like I said. I also love to imagine possible scenarios about how the arc could have been handled differently. (Jet joining the gaang, Jet never being left by the Freedom Fighters, Zuko joining the gang in season 2, Zuko trying to bond with his sister, etc)

I’ll always hate the missed opportunity of finalising Zuko’s redemption arc after meeting Jet, cuz that would have been a possibility. that after meeting Song, Lee, Jin, Jet, after seeing all the pain in the EK, all the pain in the world, he finally turns his back on his father. Jet would have been kind of the last part to push Zuko to choose the right path. instead we got “I betrayed uncle” and okay I’m just going to forget Zuko Alone, and Zuko’s whole ass BSS arc, where apparently I was suppose to understand that IROH… had been such a prominent part of the redemption arc.

anyways, both Jet & Zuko deserve better from the show & the writers.

(side note but also I hate the fandom depiction of both characters !!! y’all can’t actually be serious cuz if you can’t choose between either demonising/babying mf 16 yo (as if… a middle ground didn’t exist, yk, as if… characters had… layers…) then idk what I can do for y’all.)

[winnie-the-monster]

“What if what the game was trying to teach me was that, something will always come between me and Landon? Like some impossible choice I’m gonna have to make.”

“Then choose him.”

“You know if I have to kill Malivore, there’s a chance that everything inside him does too. If I have to do this….”

“Hope. Whatever you choose, I’ll find a way to understand it.”

[captain-lovelace]

feels increasingly like measuring progress by media representation is just people shutting their eyes to like. The world we live in. It’s also always people older than me being like “you guys have no idea how good you have it now with all these trans and gay characters, WE didn’t have that” like ok. Great, thanks for your input. Hey have you heard about the number of trans people fleeing their fucking homes because they can no longer safely live in their state

[bioshzrd]

Bro why the hate for Wesker simps??? We’re just out here simping for a FICTIONAL CHARACTER who hasn’t done any actual harm in the real world, what’s wrong with that??????? /genuine because I don’t get it, we’re literally just existing and having fun

because people “simping” for a character who references real life nazi propaganda (in the games where the main central issue is eugenics but that seems to be lost on 90% of the people who consume resident evil) has super uncomfortable connotations for me as a jewish person.

have your fun I genuinely don’t care enough but it’s my blog and I will post/say whatever I want and if you don’t like it you can block me.

[hopecomesbacktolife]

hey, just. friendly reminder that fanfiction is morally neutral.

yes, that includes smutty fics. yes, that includes self-insert fics. yes, that includes the fics you consider Problematic TM and the fics you don’t think are Smart or New. in fact that’s kind of why I’m writing this post.

I know we all love to talk about Themes And Narratives, but—and please listen to me very carefully here—you are not earning Good Place Points for only reading the kinds of fan fiction you feel are Smart or Only Focuses On The Important Things Like Themes.

fan fiction is morally neutral.

what I mean is this: no one is harming you, themselves, or anyone, by writing a fic about two characters having sex. (are you uncomfortable with the fact that I typed the word “sex”? hi, this post is about you. people have sex. and they write and talk about it. it’s seriously fine.)

no one is being harmed by self insert fics, by smutty fics, by anything not exclusively Smart TM about the fandom or analytically adding to it.

(and that’s not to say these two types of fics, that any type of fic, can’t have those elements— some of my favorite fic authors, my mutuals, my tumblr friends, write fic in these genres, and they also explore Themes and Emotions and analyze character traits and histories and write brilliant plots and incredible character arcs and yknow what, it’s amazing! it’s fantastic to examine what makes two characters react a certain way to x situation while also having them fuck nasty about it!) (and yes, I did just type ‘fuck nasty about it’ and I promise, that’s fine, too.)

what I’m saying, though, is that it doesn’t NEED that to, I dunno, somehow validate it into existing. it just Is. it just Exists. it doesn’t need an aspect you Approve Of TM in order to earn the right to be shared, to be written, to be published and commended and interacted with and read. it just. Is.

and I think a lot of especially younger, or newer, tumblr users especially get uncomfortable with that, and they unintentionally veer right (..ha) into self-censoring, puritanical behavior which is exactly what every person trying to ban books and generally kill art, wants. (and we’re not even going to examine in depth here, beyond mentioning it, the fact that policing, censuring, and banning art has historically and still today is being used to silence marginalized voices, so, I ask you to keep that in mind as you think on this, too, please.)

what I’m trying to say is this—if you personally don’t enjoy smut, don’t enjoy self insert fics, don’t enjoy a certain genre, that’s great, you do you! but, you must, must understand that this is not a moral stance. You are not objecting to a problematic practice, exploited workers, consent issues, labor crises… none of that applies, because no one in these stories is a real person. a story written about two Star Trek characters kissing on the bridge of the Enterprise is just that, a story. there is no actor for whose rights to fight, no wages to dispute fairness of, no ethical ramifications of scenes to discuss. these are Fictional People in Fictional Situations.

fan fiction is morally neutral.

and the moment you try to make yourself feel Better TM, More Correct TM, or—one of the ones I encounter the most—Smarter TM, by saying oh, I don’t read that kind of fic, I read the good kind, with thought in it—

you’re not only causing harm, you’re actively employing art censoring behavior. is that something that you want to do? I hope not. I certainly don’t.

next time you see a fic or a genre you don’t Approve Of TM, please remember the easiest way of exhibiting that— simply scrolling by or blocking a tag! If you’re on ao3, their system is incredible for niche content searches, and blocking a tag even here on tumblr will (most of the time) work.

I just., there’s so many better options out there for you than to… act like this. I believe you, we, all of us, can be better than this.

fanfiction. is. morally. neutral.

[emblazons]

me: *pulls 1500 blatant moments of Mike mirroring/paralleling Hopper, Brenner, Jonathan and even (her confirmed gay brother) Will from the show, all relationships that are (for better or worse) familial in El’s life in the plain text, subtext, music, cinematography, scripts and even the pitch* “I think they’re saying something very specific about the nature of their relationship. It recontextualizes a lot of stuff that may have been interpreted less clearly before”

My asks: “You’re ignoring these 2 pieces of evidence from scripts, one parallel look from what is about to be 3-4 seasons ago & my headcanons! Stop trying to make the point you’re making, it’s really uncomfortable”

Me, still staring at “will you be like my brother” and the one way (into the closet) sign he has as room decor:

[bereft-of-frogs]

I'm back to 'I would be able to have so much more fun with the acolyte if I wasn't so chronically online' because the spoilers (still haven't watched the episode) have just filled me with a sinking sense of dread

rip our ability to be able to talk about anything else

[sammygender]

‘they didn’t have the concept of mental illness back in the day so that’s why so many people claimed they could talk to god/had life altering visions/believed in witchcraft’ have you considered that maybe the lack of current magic in our world is due to the psychiatric system’s well-meaning inability to differentiate between life-threatening delusions & whimsy/possible spiritual insight

[wldcat23]

FW’s cute face + good lighting + “[Hawkins isn’t] the same without you” have collectively conned ppl (Will included) into forgeting that Mike. Never actually apologizes in Dear Billy lmfao. And then he continues to fixate on El and ignore Will(’s cries for help lol) for the next 5 episodes.