#also 'i'm just asking for a kiss' i can't entirely extrapolate what i'm thinking into coherent thoughts but!

[deiscension]

Isn't it crazy how M.itski's Nobody is a deep dive on SQX's character development.... 'I just want somebody near me / Guess I'm a coward / I just want to feel alright'. 'And I know no one will save me.'

The heartache of realizing you never knew what it was like to be wanted, you didn't even know what it was like to be needed, and it wouldn't have mattered anyway because what you had wasn't yours and you still took it. You still took it and you couldn't give it back even when you tried because you weren't strong enough to say the right name when it mattered the most and you weren't brave or just enough to understand and condemn the one who poured blood all over your hands when he handed you a fate you were undeserving of. And really what does it say about you that you mourn what was despite the fact it never should have been? What does it say about you that even when you had it all there were pieces missing? Of course you'd never turn to resentment. That's not who you are, it never has been. It's not your right either. You'll find a way to die happy but that's not really the same as peace or contentment. Are you allowed to want after you've had? Hard to say.

[rupertgayes]

How would you pitch watching Due South to someone who doesn't know it?

THE PREMISE: mountie from the northern reaches of canada goes to chicago to avenge dead dad (also a mountie), gets into buddy-cop shenanigans with a detective. said detective leaves the show in season 3 and gets replaced by another detective, shenanigans continue to ensue. there's also a dog. he's very cute.

THE PITCH: honestly, after being in the spn fandom and having most of popular culture awash with prestige shows (that are not spn, but like spn are typically dark and gritty and like killing characters off too) and having most of the popular media landscape try to cover their collective asses by having an aloof, 'you-can't-make-fun-of-this-because-we're-not-taking-it-seriously-ourselves' air, it was truly refreshing to sit down with a close friend of mine and check out this show.

i'm being completely serious when i say there's a certain je ne sais quoi about this show. is it because it's from the 90s? perhaps. is it because it's canadian? maybe. i wasn't even alive when this show first started airing and i'm not a media analyst. it basically takes the premise of the dudeley do-right cartoon and asks 'okay, but what if that was like, a real guy?' and fucking runs with it to the wildest heights. it's a comedy, but it's also so bizarre in some ways that it makes it a truly unique treat to watch. i love psych and brooklyn 99 for having a comedic procedural aspect, and neither of them are comparable in whatever it is that due south is doing.

there's honestly a lot of heart and soul in the entire show, and it has the ability to shift from just being comedic to having drama, mystery, and moments that pull at your heartstrings. it's a show that you can enjoy on the surface as a fun episodic show with fun characters and fun moments, but it also lends itself quite well to extrapolating on the characters, their motivations, etc. (and by etc i'm also including any shipping you might want to do).

i won't say it's a paragon of DEI, but again, i think it has a level of earnestness which makes any slip-ups it does have something i can kinda view with indulgence, versus shows that are making the same (or worse) mistakes 20+ years after this show already ended. these characters are treated with a level of dignity and respect, and i think overall the characterization is pretty consistent - there are some shifts happening between seasons 1-2 and 3-4, but i feel like it has more to do with budgets, a change in creative team, etc., versus writers not 'getting' certain characters.

there's also a lot of memorable episodes, scenes, bits. i think the latter seasons are more campy (my favorite) and some eps from s1 and 2 make for legitimately some great television. even the more mid episodes have something worthwhile, too. some of my fave moments in no order:

fraser (the mountie) saving and talking to? a rat in a strip club

also him going to a leather club

twice

and meeting a mountie in a latex version of his red serge uniform

using a tarp as a parachute

mafia egg conspiracy

aliens??

due south but make it silence of the lambs a little bit

performance arsonist

lake pirates? ghost ship?

also why are most of the major bad guys here doing some form of environmental crime? get your captain planet on ig, i'm into it

also fellow cops can also be bad guys. acab ig??

sick muscle cars eric kripke himself would've enjoyed. sometimes they get set on fire tho

due south but make it to wong foo thanks for everything

fraser running away from women so he doesn't have to kiss or interact with them

way too much time in closets, in general.

fellas is it gay to ask your new partner of one week maybe to pretend he's a woman so he can decide if he finds you attractive

there are red ships and green ships but no ships like partnerships :)

and to reiterate about the dog: there's a dog who's half wolf and all deaf and fraser can talk to him 'because he (the dog) reads lips'

his dead dad shows up too sometimes

anyway, it was really nice to watch this show for the first time, there are still moment i scream-laugh at because they're just so ridiculous and i'd never catch any other moments like that in any other show. i definitely see why there's still active fans for it thirty years later. there's also some wild shipping fodder here, which is at least partially why there are still fics getting written for these guys today. destiel if the cw weren't cowards etc etc. when i watched the finale, i cried tears of joy because while i'd miss the characters, they got an ending that actually seemed to fit, instead of it being a rush job, which is not unique to spn but, you know.

also you can watch it for free on youtube rn.

[bcbdrums]

Why are there so many Drakgo-antis and KimxRon-antis lately?

bruh all i can think is people aren't watching the show.

maybe they're pulling opinions out of memory, out of fanfic/fanart, headcanon... the things i've been hearing don't make sense to me if you actually put the show on and watch it. so generally i'll say...ppl are relying on their decade-old memories instead of actually watching the show.

like, i even asked one anti person to cite examples of things and they just spout the same generic rhetoric without hard evidence. and their rhetoric sounds like interpretation more than fact.

however, another point, people can like/dislike whatever they want. what's bugging me more is the seeming...insistence of some folks that "my opinion is the only correct opinion." and then they defend that point of view by saying their interpretation is canon.

well... kinda yes, but also kinda no? i'll give an example. Shego says she has a teaching credential. this is canon. meanwhile, my very dear friend's headcanon is that Shego's credential is a fake. which, for a villain...totally plausible! there's literally no reason a person couldn't choose to interpret that. but there's folks who would cry foul because it's not "canon." well imo it could fit into canon, but...even if it can't, who cares!?

there's things one can't argue. like, Kim and Ron kiss at prom and begin dating after So the Drama. these are irrefutable, stated canon facts. no room for interpretation around these events occurring. but in fanfic/headcanon, people can extrapolate Kim's and Ron's feelings/emotions/thoughts about the entire sitch...however the heck they want. feelings of twitterpated teens, or feelings of awkward uncertainty about shifting from friendship into romance...as two possibilities. some ideas are more readily believable than others based on how closely they adhere to canon, imo. regardless, a good writer will convince a reader of their viewpoint, whatever it may be.

but, to get mad and say that a person's view is invalid cuz someone doesn't agree with it.... no. and, and! a person has a right to dislike something! that's equally fine. going out of their way to bash a viewpoint though, i see no productive purpose in that. and i think Anon that's what you're referring to... i've seen it too, where ppl seem to be going out of their way to leave negative comments cuz they disagree with someone's pov.

like, ultimately i'm a canon purist. canon adherence makes my brain happy. but seriously, let people interpret how they wanna interpret... it's fandom. why do folks gotta insist on their way being the only way?

[ollierachnid]

Agent 47 being autistic coded; a post ( that ive tried to write about seven times ). And yes I am autistic, so this comes from a desire for representation and my own experiences and isn't just a NT extrapolating a headcanon based upon a list of vague traits found online. I'm a fan of lists so I'm gonna use one to explain my reasoning and why people who claim it's Bad Representation or that it can't be canon are wrong.

Generally huge chunks of 47's development and arc as a character revolve heavily about the deconstruction of Ort-Meyers hypothesis that he created a human being that did not feel emotions or form connections or have autonomy. Because he didn't, as Ort-Meyer based his presumptions on; a) his own biased perspective, research and his clones' upbringing, b) an extrapolation from 47's -- largely autistic coded -- traits, which he misinterpreted as a luck of humanity. I doubt it was intentional, but this is a surprisingly apt tackling of the perception of autistic people as the "heartless genius with completely no feelings" type. As while 47 has traits that make him seem this way, his personal growth displays that he is far from that.

47 having so many autistic traits, a comprehensive list of one's I came up with off the top of my head:

Finding it hard to make friends or preferring to be on own; this is a very obvious trait in 47's character. He has very few friends and actively avoids other people, particularly those who seem to irritate him despite their friendliness ( Smith being a key example or this ).

Seeming blunt, rude or not interested in others; Smith and 47's handshake scene. It could very well just be an inability to read " obvious social rules " as Smith does little aside hold his hand out to indicate the action he wants, 47 simply may have not read well and walked off ( hey man, it happens ).

Finding it hard to express emotions; 47 doesn't express emotions verbally very well. He experiences numerous, has flashbacks due to his childhood trauma and more, but even when confronted by someone close to him who is asking about his emotions in concern he does not actually rely how is feeling, and instead describes what he is experiencing ( in his usual fashion ) instead. "Are you alright?" "-It comes back in flashes" and then a very basic list of names for feelings. It is often easier for autistic people, myself very much included, to explain emotion via the narrative events resulting in them instead of the feelings in of themselves or just using one word descriptors to get by. 47's couples with his dissociation from his childhood emotions, due to forced repression.

Stronger attachment to animals; all you have to look at is 47's desire to have pets when possible and how he engages with them in comparison to his attitude with other people. As a child, despite his trauma, he manages to establish an attachment to a lab rabbit ( multiple rabbits in the comics ) and maintain these affectionate connections until they die.

Monotonous speech and lack of inflection; 47 can convey emotions when actively putting on a character or attitude on missions, but so can quite a lot of autistic people. It's often called "masking" and it's a phenomenon where an autistic person consciouslly acts "more neurotypically" to fit in. And it is evident by 47's awkwardly, forced sarcastic humour that this is not his natural dictation. When speaking amongst allies, 47's delivery is equally as monotonous as to enemies, his natural manner of speech is "bland".

Getting very upset or uncomfortable if someone touches or gets too close; 47 seems willing to let a couple of people max touch him -- that being Diana and Victoria, plus Lucas to a slightly lesser extent, all of these people are those who he knows and is comfortable with. Whilst on the other hand the likes of Lei/Mei Ling, who after kissing/hugging 47 abruptly has him immediately reel back, despite his sympathy for her. He does not like touch from people, even those who he has a substantial amount of positive emotions for. This also includes Smith, who 47 reluctantly rescues, but develops into actively saving him even when unnecessary; he is not keen on contact even as mild as handshake.

Preferably to plan things carefully before doing them; the overachievers short story essentially establishes that, canonically, 47's modus operandi is extravagant, expertly pre planned hits. He seems to ( according to Soders and Diana ) favour these, especially in comparison to other agents, to which it does not come naturally. (NT trying to understand a ND's thinking)

Having a lack off or little empathy; I want to preface that a lack of empathy is not a lack of sympathy or an inability to feel compassion, empathy is an entirely different sensation that some autistic people don't have, 47 is one of them. A key example of this is 47's lack of empathy for other clones with similar experiences: specifically agent 17 ( his biological brother ) and Mark Parchezzi, both of who he murders. While both of these men were bred by malevolent groups and raised to kill; Mark in a more extreme sense than even 47. He seems to be unable to conjure up empathy for people who he does not have an established connection or a need to keep them alive long enough to form the sympathetic connections that he is capable of. This is true to quite a lot of people with autism, it is hard to empathise to someone you don't know, regardless of how intertwined your situations are.

Debunking one of the reasons why 47 would "not make good autistic rep"

"47 doesn't have emotions, which creates a bad stereotype". This isn't even a problem with the reasoning, if 47 was an emotionless being I'd actually agree with you. But instead this criticism is more so a fundamental misunderstanding of 47 as a character, because he is not emotionless by any extent of the definition, he lacks empathy but that doesn't reduce his ability to have sympathy or show compassion, nor does it really reduce any other emotion that he posses. 47 gets visibly angry ( blood money after diana injects him, absolution at travis, damnation.. throughout just that whole book ), he shows compassion towards people that he doesn't have to regularly ( victoria, emilio, smith ) and that extends to animals too. If 47's character was more reminiscent of this "human robot" trope - say, he bore more resemblance to one of his brothers: 17, then I would understand. But he doesn't. He's just a monotonous autistic coded man.