for anyone too young to know this: watching The Truman Show is a vastly different experience now, compared to how it was before youtube and social media influencers became normal
before it was like, "what a horrifying thing to do to a human being! to take away their autonomy and privacy, all for the sake of profits! to create fake scenarios for them to react to, just to retain viewership! to ruin their happiness just so some corporate entity could harvest money from their very humanity! how could anyone do something so evil?"
and now it's like, "ah, yeah. this is still deeply fucked up, but it's pretty much what every influencer has been doing to their kids for a decade now. probably bad that we've normalized this experience"
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The reason Animorphs works as a deconstruction of the kid hero archetype is that it comes at it from a place of respect for the genre, and for the children reading it.
It never denies the kids agency, because it is a book for children, who want to read about children being given agency. Animorphs doesn't treat its child soldiers as victims the way a story aimed at adults would. They are full agents within the story who make moral choices. The fact that they are children is treated as a tragedy, but it's not treated as something that absolves them of any responsibility.
It plays by the rules. These kids are the only people who can save the world. They cannot trust the adults in their lives. It just takes that story—the story it's telling—seriously.
The message of animorphs isn't actually of "isn't it fucked up that this book I read when I was a kid sent a twelve year old on an adventure" it just uses its take on the kid hero genre to get across the actual message, which is War Is Hell
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[Image ID: Screenshot of the caption on one of Stove's early DeadpoolxSpider-ManxDanny Phantom comics that reads: "Deadpool: It's a teenage boy with black hair and blue eyes. I am legally required to pull a Batman." /. End ID]
I think... this post may have caused some irreparable changes to the Phandom....
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"you know, my therapist says everyone needs a safe space, a place where you can fully be yourself"
[image description: 2 large gifs of evan buckley and eddie diaz from 9-1-1.
gif 1: from season 6 episode 12. in the diaz home, eddie (out of frame) watches buck sleep on his couch, his arm draped across the sofa.
gif 2: from season 7 episode 5. at buck's apartment, the camera pans as eddie, holding his phone, turns to face buck as buck rounds the corner of his kitchen island.
/end ID]
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did you see te pati maori declared independence??
I DID NOT! Holy shit! Thanks for the news!
Okay, now reporting back from one research deep-dive, the recent context as I understand it is this:
Last November, a conservative right-wing Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, assumed office. He's got a lot of less than stellar right-wing policies, and that includes making cuts to the Ministry of Social Development and opposing co-governance with the Waitangi Tribunal and other Māori leadership organisations over the administering of public services such as education, health, and infrastructure. He's been openly critical of Māori seats in Parliament, though he hasn't (yet) opposed them. Over the course of his administration, there's been an initiative to omit or cut mentions of the Treaty of Waitangi, the foundational document of New Zealand that forms the basis of arguments for Māori protections, from official language.
Which brings us to yesterday, May 30th. Budget Day. The day the new administration would announce their first budget and a day of mass action for supporters of te Pāti Māori protesting the treatment of Māori under the new government. I don't have any concrete numbers, but RNZ reports thousands of protestors, while the NZ Herald estimates "tens of thousands" turning out nation-wide, and a walking protest that delayed rush-hour traffic in Auckland for hours.
You may have already guessed that the budget was Bad. As I understand it, the budget effectively cut any kind of targeted funding for Māori health or education, and decreased funding for Māori cultural festivals and celebrations. And again, I cannot stress enough how much I am not an expert on this topic, so there's probably a lot more in there I don't know about.
In response to the new budget, Māori Party MP Rawiri Waititi issued a Declaration of Independence to the New Zealand Parliament, (video of his speech in link) with the support of his fellow te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
There doesn't seem to be any concrete plan in place yet for the organisation of the new Māori parliament, but MPs Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer met with protestors to collect signatures for the Declaration, which they plan to bring to a hui taumata (meeting of congress) today, Friday, May 31st. The text of the Declaration can be found on te Pāti Māori website, in the form of a petition. You do not have to be Māori to sign, but I believe you do have to be kiwi.
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Lots of fanon concepts haunt me but none do it more like "no metas in Gotham" bc this is not only 1.) false 2.) it was a concept for an elseworld's comic 3.) Bruce didn't say it 4.) do you really really think Batman has the authority to outright BAN an entire people from a city? and 5.) Duke.
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Since book 7 part 5 (the part where we meet Meleanor/Maleanor 👀) is coming to EN this month, i would love to see your take on lilia’s proposal to meleanor! i mean they were like little kids right? it couldn’t have been that serious…i think the only reason she even brought it up again is because she could tell lilia still genuinely loved her…(even if he didn’t realize it himself?) but, oh well! Let’s think about silly childhood shenanigans to numb the pain! ^_^ (orz)
oh shit?! get ready for a doozy guys, it's comiiiiiing ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
I chickened out of posting the whole thing (look, I get VERY carried away when it comes to these wacky kids and their Tragedy), but I do believe that it probably ended with Lilia getting embarrassed and just shoving the first thing he sees into his mouth to try and cover for it.
(we're just lucky it wasn't a frog this time)
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🗡️ “Do not stray far from me.”
I don’t want you to get hurt 🗡️ protective dialogue prompts
“What in the gods’ holy names was that?! I–We could’ve lost you.”
“At the party C sort of kept cornering me…” “What? Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?”
“Stay back.”
“Who did this to you? I just want to talk to them.” (that’s a LIE AND THEY KNOW IT)
“The idea of you getting hurt doesn’t sit well with me.”
“I don’t like the things they said about you. You’re nothing like what they think you are.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I know you’re okay.”
“My duty is to ensure your safety at all times, no matter the cost to my life.”
“If you dare lay a finger on their head, I will have yours served on a silver platter.”
“These walls are meant to protect you, the world out there is far too dangerous for someone like you.” (villain arc??? 👀)
“I’m right here. You’re safe.”
“Say my name and I will be there. I promise.” (thank you daredevil for inspiring this one)
“I’ll take a sword through the heart before they ever reach you.”
“I should’ve been there. This shouldn’t have happened to you.”
“Will you let me know when you’re back safely?”
“I will kill you and everyone you love if it’s the last thing I do.” “It’ll be the last thing you try.”
“You’re worth saving.”
“My house is a safe haven. Go there if you’re ever in danger and we will take care of you.”
“Get away from them!”
“You don’t need to protect me.” “I want to.”
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