#I'm largely indifferent to a lot of ships and don't really care as long as the overall story is interesting

[glitterinlowgravity]

ffnet's bad on so many levels but the one thing I really miss from ao3 is consistent fucking genre labels

[rexismycopilot]

I saw an anti-obikin post and I thought it was like satire so I checked out the tag and boy was I wrong. People really, really care about what other people ship. Now me 5 years ago would be defensive/angry/and probably hurt about what they say about "people like me". Now I feel mostly indifferent and genuinely a little sad for the more aggressive ones. In as a non-condescending way as possible to say it, I hope they have the opportunity to go to therapy, because there just has to be something deeper there going on. Are there ships I don't want to read, hell yeah, but I don't give a flying fuck if someone else does. Like sometimes I barely have the mental energy to brush my hair if I don't have to leave the house. I'm exhausted just thinking about being so obsessed with something fictional.

I hope people don't send you hate. You seem like such a nice person and are so sweet here on your page, plus you write amazing content. You deserve only kindness and not their anger.

Oh and if you don't want to respond to this because of possible anti bullshit, please don't. Just wanted you to know, your stories make my days better. I hope you keep writing obikin for as long as you want to. And if that happens to be for a really long time, you won't see me complaining lol

I think the thing that hurts me the most with this kind of thing is that they can't even be on the same discord server/chat/etc with me. I shouldn't say that it really hurts me, but I would be lying if I said that it didn't bother me a little. That my ship of two fictional characters means that I'm so morally destitute that interacting with me is somehow wrong in and of itself.

I genuinely truly hope that the people who are overtly anti-obikin (or anti in general) are able to grow and see the world for the nuance that it has. Like you, I don't mean that at all in a condescending way. I just really hope they can find a little bit of peace because that's a lot of mental exertion to hate something that much!

I am with you that there are ships I don't care for but I give absolutely zero fucks about those ships and I'm really glad that the people who do like them have a space to talk about them!

There's at least one anti-obikin list I've ended up on. I've gotten a couple of weird anons, but nothing blatantly hateful which I am very thankful for!

I think it helps that I don't really do anything with my blog except obikin stuff. That's really all my blog is and if someone comes to it, they're not coming to it for anything else lol. I feel really bad for other obikin creators who have a blog that deals with a wider variety of things because I imagine they are probably more exposed to the fanbase at large.

Your message was super sweet and thank you so much!! I have no intention of stopping yet! The ideas just keep flowing...

[tobe-sogolden]

I love that you speak out on the absurdity of the fandom. Do you know what happens from being passive? Larries happen. People thought it was funny/cute that they shipped H and L, and the other more normal fans went along with the amusing ship and tweets until everything got completely out of hand. And here we are in 2022 still dealing with them. Styloff blog reblogs you, imo that's a huge indication that you are of a logical, supportive, kind, fan and definitely running a great blog. She's been here a long time, really knows the fandom. I'm happy to have found your blog.

Thank you! Yeah that's how I see it as well. And to be clear, I don't think it's a bad thing if you're not someone who wants to speak up whether it's bc you don't care or don't want to summon the discourse & hate or just find it too exhausting - that's all valid. But I think that kind of indifference on a large scale definitely allowed a lot of bad behavior to slide in this fandom and contributed to the toxicity we see now. And I think because there are so many new fans who are easily swayed and don't have that behavior fully ingrained in them yet, we could have an opportunity to prevent the issue from getting worse by pushing back against it instead of allowing them to think that behavior is fine and no one will call them out on it. It's definitely too late for the people who've been here for years but for the new fans I feel like something can be done 😭 may still be wishful thinking but it's what I tell myself 😅

[tea-mew96]

Transformers Prime

Oooooo!

The first character I first fell in love with: I first watched the show back in 2011 so it's really hard to recall for sure whom was the first, I think it might've been Megatron though.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Arcee. Back when I was watching the show in the early 2010s I really didn't care for her. But her entire character arc-especially the trauma aspect of it all-really stuck out to me as an adult.

Also Ratchet, adore him way more now than I did back then too.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: Optimus Prime. Maybe he's not as popular as I think he is, but both back then and still today I see a fair share of people praising this version of Optimus. For me, he's one of my least favorite Optimuses. The short version of why is that I find him to a boring cardboard cutout of Optimuses prior and his advice to Arcee doesn't sit well with me.

The character I love that everyone else hates: Probably Airachnid, although "like" is more accurate. I thought that she was a creepy, dangerous antagonist and things like her killing Tailgate and Decepeticon teammate Breakdown solidified what her role was in the story: a threatening rogue Decepticon. Still doesn't make her likeable per say and I am still disappointed how her danger/creepy factor seemed to diminish over the course of the series (or at least it wasn't as strong like in her debut episode).

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Megatron. I'll give him credit for the clever plans he has, but I recall liking him a lot more when I was younger than I do now, where my feelings towards him are indifferent/neutral.

The character I would totally smooch: Arcee needs a kiss on the cheek. And hugs. And therapy.

The character I’d want to be like: I strive to have that kind of courage and persistence to keep fighting despite the internal struggles like Arcee does.

The character I’d slap: Silas, but he's dead now so I guess maybe I don't need to. Maybe just for good measure anyway...

A pairing that I love: Cliffjumper x Arcee, Breakdown x Knockout, and Optimus Prime x Ratchet.

A pairing that I despise: There's quite a few, but the big ones for me are Optimus Prime x Smokescreen, Airachnid x Arcee, Megop, and Megastar.

I don't like Optimus x Bumblebee either, but unlike that ship Optimus Prime x Smokescreen was a ship I used to like when I was younger (like, 13 or 14 I think). It didn't take long for me to make some realizations and have a change of perspective. Nowadays the ship brings bad flashbacks to my younger self and makes me cringe. And yes, everyone is allowed to make fun of and criticize younger me for liking this pairing (in hindsight, I kinda wish someone did so at the time).

Considering that Airachnid is a largely responsible for the trauma Arcee has and the way I've come to love Arcee in recent years, you can probably guess why Airachnid x Arcee doesn't sit well with me.

TFP Megop is the other Megop pairing that I've soured to over the years. You can blame shitty fanfics and bad takes I read in the past for making me lose interest in this pairing.

There's only a couple versions of Megastar I can like to some extent, but TFP is one of two that activates my fight or flight. I'm sure fans have come up with good AUs for this ship and ways to write about their relationship turning for the better, but 1.) I am just as suspect of Megastar fans as I am of Megop fans and 2.) the bad relationship Megatron and Starscream have in canon negatively impacts my views on TFP Megastar. And when that happens, that means I’m less willing to consider getting invested in AU ideas.

Ask prompt here!

[movienotesbyzawmer]

April 6: Rocky

I have learned that the six Rocky movies (so all of the Rocky ones but not the Creed movies) are available on HBO Max. I was looking for a new watch-and-take-notes-and-post-the-notes project, so yo. Check it.

I've seen all six of these movies. I saw most of this one in the theater, like, back then! I was terribly terribly young! Maybe 7. I remember my friend Greg really wanted to see it, but our parents wouldn't let us. So we had them drop us off to see Capricorn One, but Greg made us sneak in to watch Rocky instead. He was so excited about it he wanted to play-punch afterward, but it hurt and I didn't like play-punch. I also didn't care about the movie. You know what movie is decent, though? Capricorn One. Although the supporting performance from O.J. Simpson might throw ya.

Anyway, since its release the reputation of this movie has remained very strong. It won Best Picture in an extremely competitive year. It is very much the Rocky Balboa of that year's awards contenders! But I'm pretty sure I'm going to be watching this first movie and admiring its scrappiness, then watching the subsequent ones and rolling my eyes at their formulaic-ness.

The opening fanfare sets the atmosphere really awesomely actually.

Oh also I don't care at all for boxing. And yet it seems like the idea of it is good drama fodder, I mean the idea of a sport of just two people punching each other until one of them is the winner at that.

So the first scene is a boxing match in a little church somewhere. Some people are in attendance who apparently like to pass the time watching punching. Rocky is bloody and hangdog. After the fight, which Rocky won, both fighters convalesce next to each other in a back room, kind of indifferently. But we have learned that punch-sport is a part of Christian life.

Rocky walks home through the gritty streets, past his friends who sing rudimentary a capella music on a street corner. They should work on the complexity of their harmonies.

Rocky is home and his home is gritty also. Atmosphere. He has a tank with animals in it. I cannot tell what the animals are. He talks to them. Personality.

He has a mirror he looks at and the mirror is decorated with pictures of Young Sylvester Stallone. They are totally pictures of him as a boy and young man. But Sylvester Stallone was not in character as Rocky Balboa when he took those pictures. It is a little jarring.

At the pet store the next day we are introduced to Adrian. That is the spelling, I checked. She is very very very shy-acting. The director told her to act shy, and she was like OH I'M GOING TO MEET AND EXCEED THOSE EXPECTATIONS.

Rocky's next stop is The Docks. I am surprised that Philadelphia has a dock area with such large ships, but I guess that's real. But I'm also surprised that he's there on the business of being the muscle for a loan shark. I didn't remember about that side of Rocky's complex, complex personality.

That scene just ended with a very 80s-teen-movie moment; a fellow thug rolled down his window and bullyingly yelled, "so long, meatbag!" We feel so bad that Rocky doesn't have the respect of his coworkers in the loan shark gang.

After getting dressed down by his gangster colleagues, he then goes to his gym and there's this whole thing about how the coach guy is so sick of Rocky's boxing mediocrity that they gave someone else his locker. It seems like that wouldn't happen. On his way out, the other boxer taunts him by saying he's pumped to be in receipt of Rocky's locker which is a very fine locker. We saw it, though. It was just a locker.

Adrian again. Broad caricature of an introverted person. I don't buy it maybe. Then a scene in a bar and the conversation with the bartender is also dumb fakey acting.

He later came upon a bunch of jerks on a corner, but among them was an awkward teenage girl that he knows. He makes her leave with him and tries to give him avuncular advice, but that scene ends with her telling him, "screw you creepo!" The exposition of this movie has a very opaque strategy.

0:30:00 - A scene with Apollo Creed does some more very unnatural exposition, setting up the premise that some local underdog is going to get a chance to fight him. This doesn't seem like an acclaimed movie. This seems like a scene in a cheap romance movie where the Handsome Man confesses to his best friend that what he's really looking for in a woman is someone not so pretty.

AC is flipping through a straight-up book, looking for a good boxer to fight on January 1, 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial. I'm a little "wha?" about some of this. He chooses Rocky Balboa because of his catchy "Italian Stallion" nickname and remember because Columbus was Italian so

Rocky and Adrian go on a date. It's Thanksgiving but that happens anyway. It does not bristle with romantic energy. It reeks of social obligations. It seems like the beginning of the kind of loveless relationship your grandparents began in the 1940s in their dustbowl-decimated agrarian community.

They are back at his little shithole apartment and he is a persistent man and I do not root for this relationship.

Things escalated kind of quickly. Rocky got invited to an agent guy's fancy office and offered a chance to fight for the World Heavyweight Championship. The next scene, everyone knows about it and he's on TV. He seems like a dumb lug. How can he possibly succeed. Good job contrasting his character with the big celebrity, though.

Burges Meredith is oddly appealing as this surly, pirate-talking boxer-coach-manager guy. He comes to Rocky's apartment sucking up, and Rocky isn't receptive, I'm pretty much buying BM's different emotions, and Rocky's.

1:11:24 - Pretty sure my friend and I talked a lot about this scene when we saw it back then, he fills a glass with raw eggs and drinks it up. All one shot, baby.

This scene with Paulie, Adrian's brother who is Rocky's friend, I don't like. Paulie is a bad friend. That scene ends with Rocky beating up pig carcasses. They should have just had that part.

His hands are bloody when he punches the meat things. That's his blood, right? That's not like animal flesh?

We just had a very melodramatic scene with Rocky and Adrian and Pauly, and Pauly just went nuts. This time, at least, Rocky and Adrian react to him the way you'd think people normally would.

1:30:55 - Famous training montage. I think as this movie series progresses these montages get more stylish. As it is, it's going for just a rousing moment of "he seems confident as he trains", as the music pumps you up with the profound lyrics, "trying hard now" and "getting strong now".

They have actually explained almost nothing about the specifics of boxing. I realize that now as Rocky says "no one has ever gone the distance with Creed". Which I think means something about going all 15 rounds, right? But the point is that I haven't had to hear much about stuff like that, and I honestly don't mind that.

1:44:30 - Ew, some actually kind of bad stock footage of the crowd at the fight. Oh, but then a cameo by actual Joe Frazier, probably.

As the fight begins I gotta say I have been effectively made to root for this underdog hero. I've been indifferent to most of the movie so far, and I'm indifferent to boxing, but ferrealz I'm excited to watch this fight.

It's cinematic with lots of angles that you don't see when you're watching actual fights (I assume), but also the actual fight-acting by Stallone and Carl Weathers seems like they're getting it right. That can't be easy, right? I mean, it's punching! Faces!

1:54:11 - Oh shit I remember this ahhhhhh his eye his eye, his EYE is swollen shut and he tells them to cut it open! That, like, what? He's going to go back out and fight with his eyelid literally slashed open WHAT

They weren't even that careful doing that slice

I thought they would be relying more on the commentators as narrators to tell us what to feel, but it's really all the cinematic storytelling that is getting it done.

But the aftermath of the fight is like opera, everyone is passionate and yelling and it doesn't work on me as well as it must for most people. I don't even exactly get what the outcome of the fight is (partly because I don't understand boxing). But that's the point, at least a little bit; in the heat of passion he just wants to tell Adrian that he loves her. That works well for this movie. And the way it just ends in that swirl of excitement, no denouement, it's really effective.

So overall there are lots of things about this movie that I don't care for, but there are some things to appreciate. It's not a fancy movie, but it seems like they did a particularly good job with the final boxing match feeling like exciting movie drama while also seeming like authentic boxing. As if I know anything about authentic boxing.

I don't agree that it should have won Best Picture over Network, All the President's Men, and Taxi Driver.

One last observation: looking back, I'm pretty sure that scene with the teenage girl is a result of the observation that the movie greatly lacks females.

(next: Rocky II)