#and yeah i think the hbomberguy video is kind of bad

[sparrowlucero]

Even if a creator is a bad person it's still okay to like their work. People need to mind their own business.

Honestly it's not really that sort of situation. I'll actively defend Steven Moffat here.

There was a huge hate movement for him back in the early 2010s - which, in retrospect, formed largely because he was running 2 of the superwholock shows at once, one of which went through extremely long hiatuses* and the other of which was functionally an adaptation of an already well regarded show**, making him subject to a sort of double ire in the eyes of a lot of fandom people. Notably, his co-showrunner, Mark Gatiss, is rarely mentioned and much of his work is still attributed to Moffat (and yes, this includes that Hbomberguy video. Several of "Steven Moffat's bad writing choices" were not actually written by him, they were Gatiss.)

People caricatured the dude into a sort of malicious, arrogant figure who hated women and was deliberately mismanaging these shows to spite fans, to the point where people who never watched them believe this via cultural osmosis. It became very common to take quotes from him out of context to make them look bad***, to cite him as an example of a showrunner who hated his fans, someone who sabotaged his own work just to get at said fans, someone who was too arrogant to take criticism, despite all of this being basically a collective "headcanon" formed on tumblr. Some if it got especially terrible, like lying about sexual assault (I don't mean people accused him of sexual assault and I think they're making it up, I mean people would say things like "many of his actresses have accused him of sexual assault on set" when no such accusations exist in the first place. This gets passed around en masse and is, in my opinion, absolutely rancid.)

On top of that a ton of the criticism directed at the shows themselves is, personally, just terrible media criticism. So much of it came from assuming a very hostile intent from the writer and just refusing to engage with the text at all past that.

Like some really common threads you see with critique of this writer's work, especially in regards to Doctor Who since that's the one I'm most familiar with:

A general belief that his lead characters were meant to be ever perfect self inserts, and so therefore when they act shitty or arrogant or flawed in any way, that's both reflective of the author and meant to be viewed as positive or aspirational.

An overarching thesis that his characters are "too important" in the narrative due to the writer's arrogance and self obsession

A lot of focus on the writer personally "attacking" the fans or making choices primarily out of spite.

A tendency to treat the show being different to what it's adapting as inherently bad and hostile towards the original

Just generally very little consideration of the themes, intent, etc.

This one's a little more nebulous and doesn't apply to all critique but a lot of it, especially recently, is clearly by people who haven't seen the show in like 10 years and their opinion is largely formed secondhand through like, "discourse nostalgia". Which. you know. bad.

I think these are just weird and nonsensical ways to engage with a work of fiction. I also think it's really sad to see the show boiled down to this because that era of who is, in my opinion, very thematically rich and unique among similar shows, and I hate that it's often dismissed in such a paltry way.

This isn't to say people aren't allowed to critique Steven Moffat or anything, but the context in which he basically became The Devil™ to a large portion of fandom and is still remembered in a poor light is very tied to this perfect storm of fan culture and I just don't agree with a ton of it.

* I'm sure most people have seen the way long running shows and hiatuses will cause people to fall out with a show, with some former fans turning around and joining a sort of "anti fandom" for it while it's still airing. That happened with both these shows. ** Doctor Who will change it's entire writing staff, crew, and cast every few years, and with that comes a change in style, tone, theme - the old show basically ends and is replaced by a new show under the same title. As Steven Moffat's era was the first of these handovers for the majority of audiences, you can imagine this wasn't a well loved move for many fans. *** I know for a fact most people have not sought out the sources for a lot of these quotes to check that they read the same in context because 1) most of them were deleted years ago and are very difficult to find now and 2) many of them do actually make sense in the context of their respective interviews

[olderthannetfic]

Sometimes I think about that time when I found a fic that clearly followed the plot of a fic written by astolat. A fic she written over 10 years ago, but still.

I made a comment saying, hey, this seems super similar to another fic I’ve read. did you get inspired by astolat?

And they said, ok yeah. Sorry, forgot to mark it as a remix. My bad, it’s fixed.

But I wonder if that author really did make a mistake, or were they trying to plagiarize astolat before getting caught? I’m not a fic writer, so I’m asking is forgetting to mark a fic as a remix actually an easy mistake to make?

Ps The notes says the fic is self-indulgent and written in just an hour, which makes me suspicious. “Self-indulgent” has the connotation that it came from only you, “written in an hour” makes me think you read it and rewrote it on an hour.

Do I have something, or am I just reading too much into this?

--

I think you have something, but I also wouldn't worry about it. Ideas are cheap. Execution is what matters.

I periodically run across fics where it looks like torture, but really, the characters are just undercover and it's a BDSM thing (little do the bad guys know). And one of them demands the other as payment at the end to get them out of there. I've written something more or less like this myself, though not pre-negotiated.

And if I know the author, I'll be like "So... that one QuiObi fic?" and they'll be like "Fuck yes!"

Unless I actually dug up what the hell the name of that fic was, reread it, and copied it a lot more closely, I'd never bother crediting it for such a basic trope any more than I'd credit the trope where one hero is like "What monster came up with this villain's trap???" and it turns out to be from the other hero's trashy novels.

(It's The Jewel of the Nile. It's always The Jewel of the Nile. In my fic. In every other Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty fic. Seriously, it's always this movie. An entire generation of viewers imprinted on that damn joke.)

Granted, this sounds like it was a lot more than just one trope, but even whole plots are a dime a dozen.

It wouldn't be surprising if they didn't think credit mattered that much or if they thought everyone would notice anyway because astolat is popular. Or maybe they were trying to get away with some shit. But even then, I can't work up much emotion over it because it's not the facts of astolat's plots that make people like her fic: it's the sum total of how she writes them.

I'm trying to think about why I don't usually care about this when I do care about the kind of nonfiction idea theft Hbomberguy did that video about. I think it's because most cases of the latter involve significantly more research to come up with the nonfiction idea, so there's a lot more pretense of intellectual work and originality. The plagiarist is citing the original researcher's sources as though they found them on their own.

For fiction, unless it's a barely-rephrased version of the original, it feels like much of the work was the actual writing of the prose, and the second author did do that themselves. They might have first encountered the tropes in a particular fic... but they weren't exactly very original there either.

I might feel differently if I read the actual fic in question though.

[iamafanofcartoons]

Rabbit aka PhonyMangaka Debunks Hbomberguy’s “RWBY is Disappointing Video” and explains why the Critics are wrong about RWBY.  Part 2 of 2

Insert Monty Fight Here Spends a bit talking about how the animation and the writing of the show is set up between Monty, Miles, and Kerry.

Kind of hard to tell if he likes the general idea of it, because he's using an example of Ruby vs Roman and the Club thugs.

Seems positive

Alright so a problem he listed out was how disjointed the scene of the two teams getting the relics and "Running to live another day towards the cliffs"

But it just cuts to another fight were the teams have to engage with the Deathstalker and Nevermore.

And he got it very wrong

He claims it doesnt connect, but Ruby clearly says "make it back to the cliffs" and you can obviously see that's what they're going to do.

It's the deathstalker and the nevermore that are clearly chasing them that they are forced to fight. Just didnt pay attention?

"Character arcs tend to start and stop...  Weiss was annoyed at Ruby being made a leader...  During the test Weiss said she was going to be nicer."

I do agree with this somewhat.

The Weiss racism plot was mostly offscreen, and I would have liked for the friction between Ruby and Weiss to have lasted an extra episode, but I'm not too hung up on it.

However, this reading can be a bit surface level.

Yes, Weiss agreed to be nicer to Ruby however that was done bc SHE thought she'd be made leader bc she believes she is better than Ruby both bc of her age and her status as the heiress of the SDC.

So no, it makes perfect sense why she's annoyed, it's just dishonest of you to really paint that picture when all it takes is just watching episodes that aren't even 15 minutes long.

And another thing is. It's not that Prof Port told- her to just "stop it" as he puts it.

He basically dresses her down and shows her how childish and unreasonable she is.

Weiss does let her feeling's and headstrong way of thinking get in the way of her, but it's not like she WOULDN'T reconsider her ideals/values. This is the same- person that was okay with Blake being a former terrorist in the end despite the things that the White Fang did to her family and her social life growing up.

"All Weiss needed was a man in a position of authority to tell her off"

If Glynda did the same, the same thing happens??

Like yeah...

This is the same person that wanted to call the police and trusts them to do their jobs, of course Weiss listens to authorities and values their opinions moreso over her peers.

"Her character arc is about her dealing with her abusive and controlling father so it- comes across as gross that they would let this happen."

.......................

Are you seriously comparing Professor Port to her Father??

Is that what we're doing?

That makes literally 0 sense lol?

Miles and Kerry talk about how they view RWBY as cool kids and not just female- mcs.

And the reason why he brings up those clips is to basically... idk call them a hypocrite because they made jokes about Yang?

He mentions the time Miles tweeted the Yang vs Tifa fight and says "My money's on the hot one" and also Kerry saying "Yang is the happy joyful on  Everything you want in a girl."

So basically using those two instances were they

1. Promote a Deathbattle video so they can get more views.

2. Have to explain who each character is on the team RWBY

Also please credit who you use for fact checking!

https://youtu.be/EmHM_0Mfe3g

That video was from  @NerdCaliber  from way back in 2013, not a bad interview and even if it was from way back then, i suggest giving it a like!

He now goes into Jaune and the Jaune arc. Which ok, once again I admit that a lot of people do have it's gripes with it. Gripes I can-

Very much understand.

If this volume was longer, and the episodes were too, I very much do believe that so many people wouldn't be so upset by it as they are.

The writing for Jaundice isn't bad either.

It's about a kid who gets bullied because he's weak but tries to deal with it on his own, despite the fact that he very much DOES need help.

We get to see his struggles and with the pep talk from Ruby and with him ACTUALLY standing up for himself in the end, it isn't as simple as "kill a monster that's threatening the bully and that's how you solve it"

As hbomberguy puts it.

It's

"You have to find the inner strength within yourself to stop being a doormat and stand your ground."

Jaune stands his ground, he gains that confidence, and he tells Cardin to never mess with his friends ever again.

He was determined and the facial expressions really hammered home to Cardin that Jaune isn't going to fold to him or his team anymore.

For the last time, I agree that it's weird to put it in the middle of an already short volume with very small run time.

Honestly RWBY SHOULD have had more to do in this Volume-

That I think could have been spent with Weiss's racism and her preconceived notions about the White Fang and those in it as well as just Faunus in general be explored in seeing how she deals with it.

That WOULD have been better and I admit to that fully.

"Penny and Sun just appear... Nothing you could have cut to establish these characters."

Tbcf, Their introduction is fine.

Sun hopping off of a boat that he illegally boarded?

Just Sun things.

Penny getting knocked over for standing in the middle of an alleyway?

Just Penny things

Like he said. it's the last two episodes.

They can be built upon more in the next few volumes.

It's like saying "Why is Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury are in the last episode.

Surely you couldn't have cut an episode or two to introduce them" those are ACTUAL side characters.

JNPR actually has importance over any of the tertiary cast.

Says things I agree with, like production being disjointed.

Don't really agree with the sentiment that the show isn't cohesive.

If anything, I feel like the volume is just too short. If CRWBY were to redo it today Most of the complaints would be nonexistent, obviously of course.

But that's what happens when you have more than when you first started out with.

"Lets not assume this is author self insert wish fulfillment... It's just really weird you picked Neptune... gets into love-triangles with female characters that you write... Just feels weird."

Like... Just say you think it's author self insert wish fulfillment.

That's obviously the picture you're painting.

You're literally not doing ANY amount of nuance to even dictate that you think differently.

The pussyfooting is just lame.

Like also implying Kerry is a creep because "Neptune hangs out with Yang" going back to that old interview were he calls Yang "anything everybody would want in a girl" with then a cut of him saying "she's 17".

Bro just stand your ground and call him a creep.

Because that's LITERALLY what you're trying to get at, at worse or Calling in his behavior as questionable at best.

Both of which, is so demented.

Considering it was Monty (the guy you're dedicating this video too btw) told them which character they'd voice.

Raises points about naturalistic exposition in regards to the prom and how it's all about prom (ignoring the B plot with Yang and Blake too I might add).

Major complaint though is that he feels like there's no plot going on... Which is the actual point?

The "plot" is being halted because Yang basically getting Blake to stop overextending herself with the White Fang and to chill out.

They're still KIDS, much like how Ozpin told Glynda.

They can have a moment where they're embroiled in small scale drama of love triangles and prom.

Besides, the end of the episode is still a thing, where the CCT is broken into and Ruby discovers a certain shadowy figure in that room.

Things are still happening.

The prom was a great excuse for the protagonists to chill for ONE night before a mission and the antagoinsts-  to do some dastardly devious machinations.

Claims Ruby fell into the plot, ie Mount Glenn, but also conveniently ignoring the worldbuilding (the same thing he harps on about earlier in the video) that explains Elder Grimm and what happened to the people of the settlement.

And the narrative reasons is that it's an old decrepit settlement, so of course their would be sinkholes.

Though, it's moreso a flimsy defense so yeah I could see why he wouldn't like how that happens.

But it also bugs me that he never mentions what happens BEFORE Ruby fell.

I don't really see the need to really complain about "it has a working rail system?!?!?!"

I mean yeah?

We don't know how long they've been planning this sort of invasion, but with all the material they gathered and the helping hands around them.

It's not farfetched to think- They could get it working.

Especially since the railroads weren't really messed up.

It's just, a nothing complaint imo.

And it definitely is organic??

Like what's more natural than

"Hey uh theres a bunch of terrorists and Roman Torchwick getting on a train leading to Who knows where. How about we board it and try to stop them?"

I mean that's a pretty damn good reason to get on the train.

One thing I can say about hbomberguy.

He will praise the ever living fuck out of Monty and Shane's animation.

(deserved mind you).

But will leave no room- for Miles and Kerry to even BREATHE.

This man has his foot on both of their necks and just keeps applying pressure like, damn dude

"It's objectively an awful song."

YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH THERE WILL BE NO CAFFEINE SLANDER AT ALL YOU VILE BEING!!

IT'S ONE OF THE BEST RWBY TRACKS AND I WILL NOT STAND FOR YOUR NEEDLESS MUDSLINGING!!!!!!

Also, if we REALLY wanna talk about side casts...

CFVY, depsite how fucking cool they are, are the literal definition of a side cast.

They came in, kicked ass and took names like fucking bosses.

They didn't need a whole biography before they came and what is it with people- mainly critics and youtubers, who believe every single person in the universe needs whole entire episodes and dialogues to understand every single character in existence.

Like damn maybe we should give Tock a backstory too

"Who is this guy, what are his-"

Bruh it's not THAT deep

"That's the story????"

Huh???

The... The story is that they "stopped" whatever plans that the White Fang and Roman have cooked up.

Like, this is all a set up for the end of Volume 3 where the complaints you're bringing up DO have consequences.

Because of the Grimm invasion- Atlas is allowed to bring in it's robots and even more of it's warships...

Know what happens next???

Exactly.

It's bread crumbs.

A domino effect.

Where things are leading up to the bigger picture.

"There is no build up for Velvet to put away her weapon at Coco's request bc-we haven't seen it".

No it's to keep the audience in suspense/garnering hype to what exactly Velvet's weapon could be. It's not supposed to be revealed just yet, but later on in the story.

It wasn't meant to be a joke or a play on OF a joke.

It's just a story beat/reveal.

"It doesn't feel right to speculate."

But spends a minute and a half speculating that Coco and Velvet were supposed to have bigger roles in the story because of how long and how much effort it took to rig her and fan submissions too.

Uhhh... Maybe that's just... How rigging- goes???

I'm pretty sure there were efforts similar that went into RWBY, JNPR, Sun and Neptune, Neo, etc.

Not everything has to be this big/large grandiose purpose you're trying to place on these characters.

And even if they were, ideas and plotlines DO get scrapped many times   Through production, either because it doesn't fit, or because they wanted to do something else entirely.

But this is ALL speculation.  You and me both are doing that.

He ends off this segment by saying that this was all production and execution angle and how the fights are great and everything else sucks and how it's mismanaged and poorly connected.

Even though I've gone through his "connections" and just found that he wasnt paying attention to most of the scenes and the dialouges is both funny and frustrating.

"Two full seasons of teething problems" yeah that's true.

I mean yeah lol, not gonna fight that there.

Are... We really comparing this too Jojo's??

Oh.. We are?? Aight then

And now we're comparing it to Cowboy Bebop.

just about the first robbery scene and characterization and things like that...

But... Have you ever considered that... maybe, just maybe, they were doing two different scene. If you're going to sit here and try to rag on- RWBY for "not understanding how the robbery scene works."

Then that sort of point can be used across every single piece of media that has a robbery scene in it. And even then you still were able to get basic things out of her "it's not much" and??

You still have about, 9-   volumes worth of content to get to know more about her.

"It's all coincidence driven story."

There isn't just one way to write a story bomber. literally, if you want to watch Cowboy Bebop so much then go rewatch it.

These shows set out two different types of vibes.

Not- Everything is 1 to 1. Just a lot of nitpicks mainly.

Nothing really substantial is said here besides just ranting about Ruby's lack of characterization. Blank Slate, making a stab at her for liking books.

Like, I dunno man, it's just cumbersome at this point.

So remember when I said it's going to be a 2 parter. I lied.

I only got through 27 minutes today and I'm already tired of this video.

SO part 3 tomorrow and that should be the end.

Goodnight Night City!!

https://twitter.com/PhonyMangaka/status/1654286207021457410

[weaselbeaselpants]

How and why Lily is a bad fan and an even worse critic

I want to get this rant thing over and done with as it's not about Lily Orchard being an actual depolorable person, just more rants about her bad takes and bad criticisms;

In case you didn't know, Poppy and Zena of TransGirlTherapy have interviewed Lily's sibling Courtney and a few other victims; I saw someone in their chat for the stream of it try and post about Lily's infamous writing tips and I just really REALLY want to put a big divider up right now between mine and other people's comparatively lowstakes beef w her and these very serious allegations. I'd be horrified by them even if they were of a creator I loved; these are not funny and ranting ontop of Lily's rants should be a few steps down from the really important stuff that needs to be addressed w her. So with all that being said:

I think her outdated "SU is Garbage and here’s Why" video is a great encapsulation of everything wrong with Lily Orchard’s critical theory, attitude, and brand. 

The whole video lacks a real thesis statement for an essaybreakdown. It feels really just like a woman having a giant fan rant at a show she used to like but now doesn’t-- because, that is what it is. BUT, that isn’t easy to listen to. Lefttuber or not, other essayist/watchalongs/media analysis-channels who talk about a thing for five hours will at least try and make their feelings actually collected. Hbomberguy’s Sherlock vid, YMS’s Kimbaspiracy debacle, Lindsay Ellis’ Hobbit three parter; all these vids are glorified fan rants extended to hours long and flowered with essay reasoning and research. They work because they're self-aware that they're taking the thing they are looking at too seriously but are committing anyway and preferably having some kind of fun or skill doing so, which is why I love to watch these kinds of videos. Lily Orchard’s thoughts all feel way too sporadic and focused on being spicy rather than coming together, and that hurts her point because it makes even her most serious call out against SU feel petty. 

She gets stuff wrong. Concrete was designed by black artist Lamar Abrams, not Rebecca Sugar who is white. Ftr I’m not pointing that out as some kind of “got you/can’t complain/Sugar never did anything wrong”-clap back; It’s just a fact. AND a missed oppertunity on Lily's part bcuz she could have pointed out how, even if Concrete wasn’t designed by Sugar, it was her in control of the artbook+ Rebecca’s drawn questionable depictions of black people before w she herself is not black and doesn’t get a ‘my friend is-’ clearance just because, and finally just the fact that +the white SU fandom dismissing this problem because they don’t want to be critical about their show.

That Lily doesn’t go into this counter-counter argument whatsoever tells me Lily’s true intentions: and that’s not to point out potential racism in the show, but to dunk on Sugar even more. Lily’s entire point about Concrete, as well as her handling of the poorly handled subjects in the show like the Human Zoo, which other critics, fans and critical fans have done a much better job at breaking down, all of it feels less like a beatdown of how problematic something is but her trying to spin Sugar into the worst fucking person because she wants to hate her. Nowhere is that more clear than in her now infamous ending shade abt Sugar being a fascist.

No, Lily did not literally call Sugar an actual Nazi. Her exact words on screen were a joking “do I think she is one, nah; would I think she is one w/o context? Yeah”.

In an alt timeline I wouldn’t think anything of this take. I get that Lily was trying to hyperbolic and relishing in her self aware pettiness -kinda like how Hbomber is with his over-the-top hatred of Steven Moffat- The issue is we don’t live in an alt timeline. Lily didn’t see how people were taking her too seriously and/or acting like Sugar was a nezi on her behalf +care that her edgy joke at the end of her rant could do some real damage, or even care that it just didn’t look good on her. She didn’t reupload the vid with a disclaimer tacked on, she didn’t tack on a pinned comment; she didn't write down a longer video disc to explain herself.

Instead she threw everyone who might have gotten perturbed by this comment under the bus, said it was all our own faults, and made it very clear she was not going to apologize for it.

Do u dislike ppl treating Sugar like she’s a Nazi and want to discourage that behavior, even in small ways? Fuck you. You’re a stan cuz Lily said so.

Are you Jewish and maybe think implying those exact words are uncalled for? Eat shit! Lily knows better than you and can talk about your life and issues better than you can because other gentiles who aren’t her have failed to do so….which means she’s actually speaking truth????

Lily Orchard could never eat a slice of humble pie and admit that she made a mistake because the only people who’ve ever criticized her and gotten real attention for it are part of the problem (i.e. 4chan, ED). Vaush type commentary bros who keep fucking misgendering her and taking more issue w her leftism that her authoritarianism.

'If obviously she has nothing to apologize for and she is totally over the accusations or her making accusations…which is why she keeps alluding to SU being fascist as a “joke”. The 'joke is on Sugar and all the people who could possibly be offended by Lily’s coining of what’s fascist so…it’s not really a self aware joke at all. She’s still going “harr harr, it’s YOUR fault that you read my comment that way and also who cares it’s not serious. RSugar is tumblr famous which means she’s a millionaire and can’t face harassment.” Tl;dr : Lily got flaq for going too far with a point and rather than just apologizing like a grown up, doubled down.

The reason Natalie (who doesn’t even cover media why is Lily so invested in Contrapoints???wv) and Lindsay will always be better yts than Lily is because they at least try to take some ownership of what they say. Does that always excuse them? No. Are they maybe still a little too apologetic of those on their side? Maybe. But all that is leagues above what Lily doesn't even attempt to do.

Fandoms, people, creators, ships and characters are punching bags to Lily Orchard. She can’t just dislike Rebecca Sugar because for the valid reasons ppl have w Sugar, which there are a LOT of- Lily has to make Sugar, and anyone who doesn’t find her joke at Sugar’s expense, into the worst possible thing. 

Lily can not make a joke or a real criticism to save her life. She is only venom and she has to double down on her points until they have no meaning. Lily Orchard’s activism and analysis aren’t about the things she says she’s fighting against; they’re about her and how everyone who dislikes her is the same kind of awful person and deserving of scorn for disagreeing with her. Lily’s the kind of person who abuses selfcare that good people get from watching Monica Lewinski’s Tedtalk, and basically came out the other end with an “I’m right and shouldn’t apologize for anything EVER”.

[feddy-fagbear]

apparently he had writers and stuff and stuck to fnaf videos for his own writing but the fact that he never thought to correct the writers for calling (example) kris or frisk or hell chara "she" instead of "they" is a little :/

id have to rewatch the ut vids to see if he Did but its ehhh uhhhhhhhh

yknow that vid hbomberguy did that had like a whole 20 minute section cut out about lazy video making and the issues that arise from it? yeah i think- i think this might, in some ways, be connected. like i kinda knew he was lazy with his research, that's the risk you run when you step into a niche your viewers might be super into, but i brushed it off as "well thats the art of ARGs, whatevs, he missed something, cringe but I won't crucify him, im just not gonna bother"

but like- finding out he had writers who did the, yknow, writing for him and then not bothering to like edit the script himself when it came to shit like that or for gods sake at least read a couple words differently is absolutely insane to me? like, again, that's lazy right? that feels lazy? or at the very least he needed to like produce less videos so these kind of issues were less prevalent?

idk, i dont make videos, i make art, but i do know because of that sometimes it is better to just go "fuck the algorithm" and make shit at your own pace for better returns. plus like, he's famous, he could afford to do that, but idk idk, its just- weird??? its not my place to critique anything beyond a lack of an apology or at least attempted one without needing to be called out on bad behavior because i dont have the knowledge to fully critique his video making process

[yangsbandana]

so

i’m not sure what day it was exactly, but it was around this time last year that i watched hbomberguy’s video ‘why rwby is disappointing.’ i’d seen some things about rwby cross over my feed every now and then over the years--usually when it did it was some screen shot or art of some bitch with bright yellow hair, huge tits, and an ugly brown outfit and/or a girl wearing either a giant, annoying bow or cat ears on what i assumed had to be a headband. without really thinking about it, i started associating rwby with character designs i just kind of hated. but every now and then i’d see red riding hood with a massive grim reaper scythe, and i thought that was cool as hell. mostly whenever anything about rwby showed up wherever i was on the internet at the time, i’d generally kind of go ‘what the fuck is happening over there????’ and scroll past. so when i saw a youtuber i’d enjoyed in the past make a video about it and why it was ‘disappointing,’ i was like, ‘oh cool. i’ll find out why i don’t need to watch the red white black yellow show.’

(gonna put this under a cut because it basically turned into a public journal entry lmao)

so i watched his video and was like,,,, ‘okay,,,,,, this seems,,,,,, pretty bad,,,,,,, but also,,,, i cannot deny,,,,, i,,,,,, am,,,,,, i n t e r e s t e d.’ like,,,, the catgirl racism seemed really stupid and bad, and i definitely laughed along at several of his jabs about the writing, but at the same time,,,, he argued that a lot of the show’s elements were poorly communicated, but they were also really intriguing to me? and he’d also mentioned that volume three takes an interesting turn, but his video only covered through volume three and so i was also like,,,, what is that about? is the rest of it also that bad? i definitely noticed a significant shift in the animation quality when he did use some clips from later in the show, so i was also curious about that aspect.

in the end, instead of dissuading me from watching rwby, his video actually piqued my interest in a big way. enough that i started looking up how to watch the show. i was definitely kind of on the fence about watching it still,,,, like,,, i thought it might be a huge waste of time, but i was also kind of hoping it would be a so-bad-it’s-good kind of experience--i enjoy those every now and then. i don’t think i really would have watched it, though, if i hadn’t seen another youtuber i liked, @doubleca5t​, post a rwby podcast around the same time. i figured that i’d watch it and see how her takes differed from hbomberguy’s because she actually seemed to like the show. (side-note, but i’d still really recommend min’s podcast if you’re looking for rwby content that isn’t terrible. min and her guests don’t shy away from criticism of the show, but it’s criticism in good faith from people who (mostly) seem to enjoy the show and appreciate what it tries to do even when it falls short). but yeah, not going to lie, when i listened to the first podcast it didn’t make a ton of sense to me given that i hadn’t watched more than a few clips at that point, but it did motivate me to watch the show with a more open mind than i would have if i had just watched hbomberguy’s video before going in.

so i started watching rwby. i almost didn’t make it through volume one, but i was determined to at least hit volume three. on the way, i did find moments i actually enjoyed. the emerald forest scenes from volume one really stood out to me. the nevermore fight. and then in volume two there was burning the candle. the paladin fight. mountain glenn. and then i found that i really liked most of volume three--it actually engaged me in a big way. and, god, the way it ENDS. you all know, but GOD it got me GOOD. ESPECIALLY the bees. like this should surprise none of you, but the way they framed the encounter with adam just blew my gay mind. ‘everything you love??? starting with her?????’ it was just so blatant??? it just really leaned into classic narrative tropes i tend to enjoy but that i’d mostly only seen applied to heterosexual couples in media? i was hooked to the show in general at this point--i was legitimately invested! but the bees in particular hit me hard.

and then they just kept hitting. but if you’re following my blog you already know how i feel about that.

i’m not going to go into my whole experience of watching rwby and the bees through the volumes, but in short, the more i watched rwby the more i enjoyed it. and yeah, it’s not even close to a perfect show,,,, but i kept remembering a part of hbomberguy’s video where he goes through a bunch of things rwby tries to do but other shows do more successfully? and the more i watched the more annoyed i got that he spent time on that? because even though i might agree that some of those shows have better execution of certain individual elements, none of them offers exactly the combination of elements that rwby offers. and it turned out that i liked that combination. i really, really liked it.

turns out that i liked it so much that i just found myself,,, thinking about the bees and rwby a fair amount? like they got into my brain! and it was fun! and that’s how i started engaging with rwby fan content. i figured out really quickly to avoid youtube, but i started lurking on twitter and on some blogs here to look at art. i started reading fic and meta-commentary. and then late in august 2020 i was on a long drive, listening to the broadway cast recording of hadestown and then just,,,, bumbleby hadestown au. the thought hit me so hard that i just,,,, had to say it publicly somewhere. so later that night i made this blog (originally titled yangpheus but shortly thereafter changed to yangsbandana) and made a brief original post about it. and then after that i posted some more,,,,? just some,,,, weird dumb posts? and i kept doing that,,,,,, now there are more than 800 of you here????? it’s just been such a weird cool turn for my life???? and now i’m actually friends with some of the people i’ve met here???? i’m playin’ dnd with some of you?????? i’m writing again????? i just never would have imagined that clicking on a youtube video about a show i thought i’d never watch would affect my life like this?

anyway,,,, just reflecting on all of that this morning. all in all, i’m really glad i’ve found myself in this corner of the internet. i plan to stick around for a while! thank you guys for hanging out!

and also,,,,,

bees kiss v9 let’s go baybee!!!!!

[itsclydebitches]

There's something really strange about how certain parts of the RWBY react so negatively to criticism of the show. There is a complete denial of the criticism, especially if its in good faith, for reasons only tangentially related to the critique. For example, the Youtuber hbomberguy made a really good faith critique of RWBY and I saw fans utterly dismissing it because he says he was a life long fan of Monty's work and they found screenshots from 2008 where he said he didn't like Monty. (1/2)

Yeah, outside of that primary point — that disliking an author/the author's work more generally doesn't automatically invalidate critique; there might be bias at play, yes, but it's not a foregone conclusion — there are a lot of complications there. One that I've actually been thinking about lately is this idea that opinions are not allowed to change over the course of our relationship with a text. There's this assumption that if you said you didn't like Monty in 2008 (whatever "didn't like Monty" even means in that instance — the person? The authorial persona? His company? Some works? All his works?) then you'd better either dislike his work the exact same amount now, or love it without question. No developing new or complicated opinions across twelve-odd years allowed. Which becomes the core of the, "Why are you watching if you hate it?" question that is constantly leveled at those who post critique. "Hate it" is an incredibly narrow approach to not at all easy to define feelings about a show and "hate" means something very different for every fan. For many, the knee-jerk response is simply, "I don't hate it. If I truly hated it I wouldn't still be watching." It's ouroboros eating its own tail: if you hate RWBY you shouldn't watch RWBY, but we watch it, so we must not hate it. Now what? The conversation often stalls when someone refuses to acknowledge that there's more to interacting with a text than the two neat boxes "I love it completely" and "I hate it completely."

But I'm getting off base here. The point is that changing opinions crops up a lot when discussing the critical side of the fandom, with some assuming that if you're critical now then you've always been critical and you're nothing but critical. The idea that you once loved RWBY and are now negotiating a different kind of interest in it, or that you're frustrated by the show while also enjoying other aspects is, it seems, not on the table. It's presented as that either/or situation: you like it, or you don't, and if you've got any gripes with the story, the author(s), or the company at any point... then you're in the "don't" category.

But beyond all that, I also mean that opinions aren't allowed to change in the sense of fans not acknowledging that online spaces are a kind of Wild West where opinions as a whole are incredibly malleable. To use myself as an example, I've posted A LOT of stuff about RWBY. That means I've said a lot of stuff and given how humans work... a lot of that stuff contradicts! Sometimes it's for easily explainable reasons — I got a new piece of information and changed my tune accordingly, a new Volume warmed me to a character or topic that I wasn't previously interested in, etc. — but other times it's just... a mess. Because our relationships with texts can be a mess. I've got posts where I'm criticizing Sun when talking about RWBY. I've got posts where I'm defending Sun when talking about Before the Dawn. I've got posts where I'm 100% backing Ozpin's choices. I've got posts where I acknowledge he really fucked up. I've got posts where I gush about how much I love Ruby's optimistic outlook. I've got posts where I express how much I can't stand her naive outlook. This stuff isn't static and it's certainly not neat and tidy. Not only do our opinions about texts and their creators often change over time, they don't always change across a set number of years for easy consumption by an outside observer. Sometimes your opinion changes daily. Hourly. Sometimes that occurs through conversations followers never see, posts that are later deleted, nothing but your own thoughts because we're not posting every hour of every day. And then you're back saying Thing #1 again because it's all just messy, repetitive conversation expressed via quickly written tweets and the like as an informal hobby. No one is double-checking our work here, demanding to know if we really, truly back what we're saying 100% because someone might one day drag it back out into the light and try to hold you accountable for it. Presenting any one, quickly expressed opinion from over a decade ago as some sort of 'gotcha' is in far more bad faith, imo, than the critique that's getting dismissed.

All of which is, of course, far from just a RWBY issue. We see this kind of behavior everywhere online, where past opinions, mistakes, or just casual responses are dredged up with the intention of erasing any and all present credibility. Pay no attention to what the person is saying now, instead form your opinion of them solely by what they said years ago, with no possible wiggle room allowed. Fans dismissing RWBY critique? That's fine. No one needs to engage with criticism of a favorite show — if anything, I highly encourage those who dislike critique to steer clear of it — so as frustrating as it can be on our end, it's the cleaner side of a very ugly coin. If the worst our community ever did was go, "Your critique is invalid because you said once in 2008 that you don't like Monty's stuff" and left it at that... said community would be a far kinder, gentler, safer place. As it stands, that urge to go digging for a 'gotcha' post generally leads to full-blown harassment (which, frankly, I'm sure hbomberguy got anyway). It is weird that fans are so eager to use an old screenshot to "disprove" a two and a half hour video... I just wish that's as far as that kind of behavior ever went.

[kob131]

Looks like Hbomberguy's hours long crap is up(publicly).

“Made a legendary animator, his most trusted colleage (shows Shane) and two-”

People he outright went to and he acknowledged were better writers, thanks for admitting that HBomberguy and not be an insulting jackass right?

“RWBY’s failures matter because it could have been something-”

So could Twilight- That means nothing at this point other than ‘I made a bunch of headcanons and the show dared to not follow them.’

‘It’s easy to see why this show has such a devote fanbase because it frequently threatens to become good-”

So did Fairy tail (except for real) and that died out. Also you are really chipping away at my goodwill

‘People say what it promised!”

You mean this?

‘Weaken REAL criticism by being given too much attention-”

Hypocritical much douchebag?

“*insert a bunch of sarcastic bullshit mocking critics of RWBY*”

*rolls eyes* You say as you mimick them down to using the DEAD.

‘It’s separated into two eras with issues that don’t necessarily overlap-”

Bull. Fucking. Shit. Most of RWBY’s problems now ORIGINATED in the early Volumes. 

“If you’re a fan of the show you’re probably gonna dread what I’m about to say and if you’re a fan of the second half then you’ll probably agree with what I’m about to say-”

Considering you’re stupid sarcasm is just a less smug version of what I do, pretty clear ‘agreement’ and ‘actual good point’ are very different here.

“If you love RWBY and are still gonna watch, thank you and I love you for joining me on this journey.”

Less a journey and more a Seven Page Muda but sure.

“My goal isn’t to make people think less of the show-”

Which is why you openly insult it in the beginning.

“-but to think more about it.”

So far you’ve shown about as much understanding of the show as FloofArtist, complete with hypocrisy. And considering what I’ve heard about your video, you’re not getting better.

“I hope to give credit where credit is due-/It’s said failure is the best teacher-”

Which is why you openly insult people.

“’Rooster Teeth is starting game development!’ *insert insulting Steam Statistics*’

Fucking wonderful. Like you haven’t already tested my patience.

“*gushes about the Red Trailer after about eight minutes of recaping*”

Cool, eight minutes wasted on knowledge that EVERY RWBY fan knows. Literally every RWBY fan knows the origins of RT and Monty and the bitch basic knowledge of how they came together. You seem to have targeted this to RWBY fans and yet to blab about shit that you get after looking at the fandom for 2 seconds.

To say nothing of how you prove something was wrong with the Red Trailer. Namely, you never mention a plot, a personal conflict, a display of character or anything other than ‘cool music!’ and ‘animation!’ despite the show being pretty plot dependent.

*Gushes about the White Trailer*

Yet another bitch basic gushing with nothing of substance to it. For a guy who says he wants people to think critically about RWBY, you sure don’t do that for what is considered the basis of the show. It’s just talking about shit you like instead of anything worthwhile.

*Yet more gushing with the Black Trailer.*

... You know, I watch these kinds of videos searching for some kind of intellectual stimulation. Something to make me think and engage with. Right now, I get more stimulation and engagement from RWBY itself than a supposedly critical video that doesn’t even have to bother with anything original.

“The show already has generic monsters who just want to destroy humanity and yet you have written your characters to act exactly the same-”

And within your own bitching, you discovered the counter. The Grimm have nothing really to explore about them outside giving them variations and powers whereas the human characters can have these things called ‘motives’ and ‘reasons’. Not to mention even you would say people act like that in real life *cough* anyone NOT of your political alignment *cough*.

“And the audience is left with one lingering though...he can make that jump.”

How does it feel that Family Guy did a better version of your joke?

“She’s written like two adult men who have never written anything professional before except Red Vs. Blue wrote a Teenage girl-”

.... Monty wrote her based off her voice actress.  You’ve also made me regret ever using this same insult against Miles and Kerry so congrats on that.

*Even more gushing...*

You know, I am legitimately considering rewatching the Persona episode of Game Theory because at least MatPat’s faffing about is short and he has more content in his first eighteen minutes than this.

“More people have gone back to watch the trailers than watch actual episodes of the show!”

The trailers are the first thing people would watch to know about the series- no shit they’d be higher in view count.

“It’s so hard to not be onboard with the trailers!”

It’s actually very easy, especially in their release.

Why? Simple, a lot of the depth in the trailers only exists with context from the show itself. The White Trailer is cool and all but it’s symbolism and deeper meaning comes from Weiss’ backstory and the truth depth of Blake leaving Adam and what it causes is found in the show, the two best trailers while Red is just mindless fun that you can get better from other places and Yellow is just kind of neat.

How the fuck am I the more critical of the two of us so far?

“Then the show actually came out and it was terrible-”

Piece of advice, don’t follow this up with a super janky, uncanny valley 3D animation that makes Volume 1 look appealing.

“RWBY isn’t just a bad show, it’s a bad show that could have been something-”

*cracks neck*

The idea that RWBY or any show ‘had potential’ is most often used when a person once had a fondness for the property in question but has long since lost the goodwill to see it in a positive light, trying to make up for the cognitive dissonance of the conflict between liking what it once was and disliking what it is now. The issue here is that these so called ‘issues’ are born of the original creator who either founded the show or helped found it which means that it was pretty much DESTINED to be this way as the creator’s specific interpretation of their own work is what resonated with you in the first place and was likely built up to in the subtle inner workings of the show, thus making the big changes you want so badly would cause a ripple effect that would have affected your past impression of the show because everything in a show is connected. And in all likelyhood, your impression would have soured no matter what.

Tl;Dr- ‘It had potential!’ is self defeating and stupid.

‘The creators are receptive to criticism!...well, they try to be.-”

Oh boy I can’t wait for Mr. ‘kill half of all babies’ to try and speak about THIS topic.

“You don’t engage with any of the good faith criticism and just reward shitty people with attention. And I hope to show them that as a lifelong fan of RT and Monty Oum, that I’m saying this thinking RWBY could have been good...and still could be.”

Says the man who when referencing Miles for the first time, actively SEPERATED him from being a ‘treasured college’ of his friend and insulted him with Yang even though the fault lied with MONTY. 

All while referencing a tweet where he chews someone out for saying EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE SAYING ( ‘God this is why i hate this fandom. You miss the point. If I critise the show I'm a hater because you worship it. I'M OFFERING CRITISM U IDIOT SO THE SHOW SEES ITS FAULTS AND FIXES THEM. HOW THE FUCK CAN U KEEP MOVING FORWARD IF YOU DON'T IDENTIFY YOUR OWN FAULTS AND LEARN’). Yeah great job there jackass- How exactly are you any different from this fucker?

So that’s my thoughts on the first twenty or so minutes. Can already tell it’s gonna be shit.

[tumblingxelian]

Hbomberguy & RWBY

So I am loathed to bring this up again and likely won't bother after this point, but today Hbomberguy releases the first 20 minutes of his video on RWBY to his Patrons of which I was apart.

I left a review of t that did get a touch caustic, but no more than his own review I feel, which can be read in the spoilers below. I feel this is morally OK as I am spoilering it and am not actually sharing any of the content just my in the moment reaction, so if interested here you go, unedited:

Suffice to say not impressed.

To be honest not exactly loving it even at the intro, I’ll give it a watch out of obligation but I found it condescending and disrespectful just to the fans alone along with the writers. (Seriously dude, acting like you aren’t trying to make us feel bad for liking the show while talking as though we don’t think critically about it and only hang around out of desperate hope sounds more like an insult or projection.

Like you frame it as though I need someone to come in and go “Think critically about this piece of media” when I do that constantly, I have written literal essay, critical think pieces and spent hours on end debating its good and negative qualities.

What’s more the point you keep coming back to is “What it could have been” which so far seems more like code for “What I wanted it to be” rather than an indictment on quality. Also if you have to draw lines to alert someone to an animation error in a minor scene, my goodness, I can’t imagine how much you must hate literally any show produced in the 80s for their animation.

Also taking inspiration from a fight scene or weapon design doesn’t translate to actually trying to borrow a shows themes or story elements but you frame it like it is, am I just misunderstanding your intent here? Cos if not then that argument hurts my brain and not in an educational way.

This is in the first three minutes.

Oh also RWBY has abridged series and reacts, so maybe its cos you are trying to upload something longer than entire volumes and so the Youtube gods assume you’re basically placing up whole episodes.

Yeah I knew about the later seasons, they’re fun, seem to tell pretty intriguing and complicated stories while still being funny. I don’t keep a close eye on it as I used too but that’s more reflective of my changing priorities than a lack of interest. Also kinda irked at how irrelevant this is and seemingly designed to go “Sellouts!” it is without any kind of argument behind it beyond vague speculation about them.

… OK but you cheer on Monty Oum referencing the Matrix but chastise RWBY for doing the same, what? So what you know about RVB season, what was that 10? But not 17? The whole RVB digressions sounds more and more like a gag now :/ & you just acknowledged RT has skills despite dismissing the writers with silence earlier.

On the drop off, oh my gosh this whole thing just reeks of intentional mis-representation. Lookie, if I go back to the first episode of most popular series, its gonna have more views than anything else, because that is the one that people watch to decide whether they want to keep watching. If you were only lured in by the action which it seems you like many others were and had no interest in a story (There were literally comments that read “No fights this episode, skip it”) Then yeah the audience will drop off. The intro having more views is about as informative as saying “People saw the advertisement” but ignoring whether or not they bought the product, goodness, you didn’t even use the likes ration >:[

Jeff William’s music is great, though I think the question of best is down to personal opinion. I loathe to bring up Monty Oum in a debate but suffice to say he had an opinion on people who gave his just starting out friends shit for their voice acting and it wasn’t a charitable one.

Honestly given how you seemed meh on even the White Trailer and even more bored by the Black Trailer it really kinda gives the impression you just got an endorphin rush from Red and clung to it after that even though that specific thing is what you liked. Also I have no idea how one can have a go at the camera work on the Black Trailer. Also its a ribbon holding Blake’s weapons together, not a string, not sure if this was a joke but its not exactly confidence boosting to see this level of not understanding what you are watching or relying on gags like “Anime run” as a shorthand fro criticism.

Oh my gosh I was actually hopeful for a moment when you noted Adam was an obvious villain and then you go and ruin it. Tell me, why exactly would people cease being people just because there’s monsters around? We see clearly civilization is thriving and functional so naturally you’re gonna get evil shit heads. What’s more, blowing up civilians s kind of a thing military’s or certain brands of extremists do, though its obvious he wasn’t meant to be doing that given he hid the details of the mission from Blake & we later find out he was meant to rob the train not blow it up.

Oh hey, good catch there on Blake being upset by the civilian killing, gee, its almost like she’s a victim of child grooming, gaslighting and abuse. Along with the fact Adam worked to obscure and excuse his worst traits from her until he felt he had her under his thumb and was then proven wrong. Are you just complaining because the entire story wasn’t told in a singular trailer? We literally know who Blake was based on, she is the beauty and the beast, often switching that role with Yang and with the beast aspect rooted in people’s perception of Faunus.

The club manager is also a gangster and info broker and given Yang never behaves like this again, the theme outlined at the end of the trailer and literally spelled out, I think it should be painfully obvious she was putting on an act, an act she literally used to lure an enemy into a trap yet you frame this as… What? I am legit confused at this point. The goons are an axe gang reference. Photoshop filter?

Oooh I was right, you are just annoyed you preconceptions about the characters didn’t bear out, like a lot of people who assumed the girl grinning and chuckling in the red trailer would be a broody angst machine.

Your conclusion really fails to line up with your summary of the trailers. In your opinion, the fact its still going 7 seasons in says otherwise.

[liria10]

My opinion on Hbomberguy video is that it's very biased, sometime to the point of contradicting itself. It tries so hard to paint Miles & Kerry as "evil assholes who stole poor ol' Monty's project" that it constantly redirect problems that were in the show because of Monty. Like, after acknowledging that Monty did the fight scene first and M&K had to write the plot around, Harris shift gears and blame M&K for what happen in fight scenes.

Oh, he goes for that angle? Then yeah I’m definitely not going to watch it, because the show & its writers aren’t perfect, and there’s lots I feel could be done better (but then again, which show isn’t flawed?) but i really, really hate that line of criticism, cause it does feel really rude & disrespectful to all involved tbh.

I think there’s a lot you could criticize rwby about, both plot wise & fight wise, but the angle of insulting the writers & painting a sort of “us vs them” narrative that has been constructed by fans out of nowhere is... frankly just bad criticism imo.

But then again, not a huge fan of online criticisms that tries to polarize everything & put the blame on one or two person as the bad guys, when like, 99% of the time? it’s a lot more complex & nuanced, and good people fuck up, and it’s a team effort to make any kind of show, and you really can’t make any grand statement such as “this person good, this person bad & that’s it”

[afriendtokilltime]

Okay, fine. Let’s talk about parasocial relationships.

The term “parasocial” has been making the rounds as a very very smart sounding thing to say. It not only establishes that you know an unusual and complex word, but also that you are too smart to fall for marketing tactics, and that you are much too cool to show enthusiasm for anything!

So, what’s a parasocial relationship? It’s a one-sided relationship with a celebrity or fictional character--the entire relationship takes place in your head. You’re reading this on tumblr, which means you have lots of parasocial relationships. You’re very parasocially popular! Maybe you even have one with me. (Probably not, I stopped posting for a long time, so we probably don’t parasocially know one another at all.)

I first encountered this term being used as an inherently bad thing, something to avoid, as though the term referred to the negative version of itself. What I saw was not people explaining why it can be harmful, but speaking as if we all know it is (the way you’d use “alcoholism”).

I see people carefully watching themselves to make sure they aren’t engaging in a “parasocial relationship,” or referring to a behavior they don’t like as “borderline parasocial relationship behavior.” But, there is no such thing as “relationship behavior” other than closing the psychological distance between yourself and another person. “Parasocial relationship behavior” is doing this, but it’s one-sided. You get closer, and they do not. That’s it. That’s the only thing. Does that mean building a shrine to Kristen Stewart? Does it mean crying with joy at Hbomberguy’s Mermaids/Donkey Kong stream? Does it mean writing a 100k fanfiction about Hermione Granger, Vampire Slayer? Does it mean buying a David Bowie CD? Does it mean begging the show writers to finally make that queerbaity relationship canon? Does it mean killing the president? You decide! 

Becoming psychologically closer to people and characters is not inherently unhealthy, whether they know who you are or not. How you treat them and respond to that closeness, and how they choose to cultivate closeness, can of course be unhealthy...but so can reciprocal relationships.

What’s weird to me is that we generally seem to be aware that there are bad and good (healthy and unhealthy) relationships. I have a good relationship with @randomshoes because we support each other, are interested in each others’ success, spend quality time together, and communicate well. If I was to stalk her or kill a president for her, or if she was to abuse my trust and take all my money while falsely assuring me she loved me, our relationship would be somewhat less healthy. 

So, what’s so bad about parasocial relationships?

They don’t actually care about you and they are taking your money.

If a marketing team/a celebrity uses these relationships to prey on vulnerable people, that might be an abusive relationship...in the other direction. If I manipulate a friend I know out of her money, I’m the bad guy, right? But if I’m famous, and she’s 16, and I knowingly manipulate her out of her money, then she’s the bad guy, because teenage girls are dumb and they should feel bad for ever liking anything, forming identities, feeling attraction, or basically being uncool and childish in any way.

It is definitely a good idea to remember that transactions are a part of how art is usually consumed, and not to express your affection or deep identification with an art/artist by spending lots of money on tee shirts that depict them. However, even this type of interaction can be encouraged in a healthy, positive way.  Patreon seems to really make people mad, but it’s not the worst system for artists who Live in A Society and don’t happen to have any lembas laying around. “I’ll pretend to love you so you can make me a millionaire” seems kinda gross but “I appreciate that your support helps me continue making the art you love” kinda sorta does not.

Some people go too far and commit heinous crimes because they expect their parasocial affections to be reciprocated.

Those crimes would be heinous even in an already reciprocal relationship. (I  already mentioned this, but if I committed terrorism for my very real girlfriend who knows exactly who I am, that would probably make me no better or worse than Hinkley.)

You’re an isolated loser and need real friends.

Okay. Anybody pouring all their energy into one relationship is probably not doing life correctly, regardless of how parasocial that relationship is. But this is a point on which I simply do not agree. People engage in these behaviors regardless of how wide their friend circle is. If not with celebrities, then with fictional characters, or even historical or political figures (think more “little father” than “senator” though what you do with that Bernie Sanders picture in your room is between you and God). Oh speaking of God, relationships with religious figures might arguably have some similarities and speak to the same human tendency, but there is of course the difference that Justin Bieber doesn’t know who TF you are, but God does.

Uh, sorry, you didn’t address my point. Forming parasocial relationships stops you developing real relationships.

I actually think it encourages reciprocal socialization. I didn’t have many friends growing up. When I met two other kids who were obsessed with Harry Potter, we bonded over that, making up our own characters (next generation type of BS...still better than the book 7 epilogue), and this formed the basis of a friendship that lasted basically my entire pubescence. These parasocial relationships are generally part of a broader interest, and interests and hobbies help you meet people, break the ice, and uhm...form real relationships.

It’s not just interests, though. I was hardcore into dinosaurs as a kid. Literally every child likes dinosaurs, but that didn’t help me form any new friendships. The other reason I think parasocial relationships lead to better real relationships is...practice. You are engaging in social behaviors, whether or not you’re any good at them, whether or not you succeed. This is what’s required to learn any new skill, but it’s generally discouraged.

You don’t just learn about how to socialize, you also learn about yourself. You develop a sense of identity and learn what you like and dislike by associating yourself with favorite characters.

Children and teens often imitate their behaviors, and though that can be a bit annoying (why yes I do have the Spanish Inquisition sketch memorized but thanks for repeating it to make sure I got it), it also helps them figure out what kind of people they want to be (maybe you want to be funny, so you over time learn that what made Monty Python so funny was surprise, surprise and fear, and you develop comedic timing). Knowing what kind of person you want to be is important.

Right, but it’s selfish. You keep calling it “one sided” which it literally is. There’s no checks on your behavior.

Right. I think that’s good, though? I think it’s good for people to sometimes do selfish things. I think it’s good to cultivate parasocial relationships because they are a way to self-soothe, and get your own needs met, without burdening others. We are social creatures, and we absolutely need relationships, but nobody owes you a relationship. Nobody owes you affection or love. Having a way to cultivate that for yourself is actually incredibly valuable.

It’s worth commenting here that I think my strongest parasocial relationships are probably with characters I’ve made up myself. They are “a part of me” in that they are always there in my life, but unlike some writers, I do not base characters on myself or see them as reflecting specific parts of me. I relate to them in the same way I relate to Harry Potter, except that I was the one who made them up initially, and books I write about them can be published and I can make money off them. (On some theoretical plane of existence.) It’s pretty clear that I am the one doing all the work on both sides of this particular parasocial relationship, but it doesn’t feel super different to me than the fact I very intensely relate to certain characters not made up by me. I don’t conceive myself dating one of them, like I don’t have a Dorothy L. Sayers thing going on, but I don’t really think it would be wrong if I did.

What do you mean not being a burden on others? What about toxic fans putting pressure on creators?

Yeah...that’ll be in the “unhealthy relationship” category. But, okay, I guess where I am ending up here is I do think it’s good to recognize parasocial relationships exist and talk about them, because it reminds you that even if a relationship is not reciprocal, you do have responsibilities. If the other person is real, that means they are only human, and even if you have no choice but to stan, you should give them some breathing space. The Shinji Ikari ContraPoints in my head can be my super close friend, but if I expect the real Natalie Wynn to give me any more energy than she already does to her entire audience by making the awesome videos I enjoy so much, I’d be really rude, demanding, and honestly not worthy of her friendship if it was “real.”

Parasocial relationships are relationships which means, just like with reciprocal ones, you have to not be a dick. You have to respect the other person and recognize they are a human being separate from you. Even with characters, Harry Potter can’t be hurt by anything weird and demanding you do, but Rowling could, and so could other HP fans, so respect is still important. If it’s not already clear, I strongly disagree with people who suggest fanfiction is disrespectful, so.

If you understand that your relationship is abstracted, and that you do not deserve any kind of reward for all the energy and love that you pour into it...then enjoy your parasocial relationship, because it is absolutely normative, human, and can bring great joy and meaning into your life. In fact, almost all of what I just said applies to reciprocal relationships, too.

[goosegoblin]

I think it's nice that a company is acknowledging trans people. Yeah it's small and probably a publicity stunt, but the marketing itself isn't harmful. I do wish people would be chill with it though, not just the same old "trans people are evil" and "all trans problems are solved now" and "let's spread the argument so even more people can be bothered". Small victory, big battle.

Oh yeah, it’s not a bad thing by any means. It’s just... kind of transparent (ha, pun!)? Like, they still have mostly male directors and a huge pay gap between their CEOs and their workers and a website filled with nothing but references to women, girls, female-ness and femininity. Like you, I also hate how much hateful transphobic bullshit this stuff stirs up, but that’s always going to happen with trans-related topics, isn’t it? 

I’m glad the symbol is going, but I think branding it as purely ‘woke brand does good thing for everyone’ is a bit dangerous, y’know? It’s hard to put into words. Hbomberguy phrases it really well in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06yy88tLWlg

[cookingwithroxy]

I can see where snowfox is coming from when he claims mauler takes too long to get the point. But considering the information is actually relevant to Mauler's points. I dont see it as padding.

It really comes down to two things. Snowfox doesn’t like the idea of Mauler’s things and thinks the videos are padded (they’re really not, but as he also kinda got burned out just watching 12 minutes of the longest video thingie Mauler did… Yeah.) And with his responses it’s…

No matter what his critiques of Mauler’s videos are, a lot of them come down to ‘I don’t enjoy this, so it’s bad’. I mean, yeah I could make short and pointed rebuttals of HBomberguy’s points, but the man’s a smarmy fuck and he’s shown to deflect things. OFTEN. Sometimes you have to hammer a nail DOWN.

Sometimes infodumping is actually required.

But at the same time, Spidey’s obviously biased in this situation as well, what with her being the kind of woman who also makes infodump posts.

And SOMEONE really should have just said ‘Obviously this is just a point we won’t agree on’ and stopped the whole thing early because this whole nonsense is based on entirely subjective criteria.

[vodcar]

hey. i wanna ask you about something we talked about before. do you think its bad that i feel... really alienated from "left tube" in general now because of contra? it sits really badly with me that absolutely no one in that circle addresses what she's done. every comment section on philosophytube, hbomberguy, lindsay ellis, ect always mention contra as this "cute group thing" and knowing that most ofthem are cis and don't care just reinforces that dehumanizing trans folk is no big deal to folks

i dont think its bad u feel alienated from left tube tbh. i do a bit too, there’s a certain kind of politics that I tend to engage most with and its more and more hardline marxist/communist lol, and historical materialist.if ur asking me I think much of this ‘left tube’ stuff is a good place for leftists to begin to engage with thinking critically about a wide range of topics, but i don’t think its necessarily developing discourse along the particular lines of revolutionary tradition and actual praxis in the real world. I also dont think its particularly helpful that there doesn’t seem to be much space between the left tube thinkers to disagree with each other, especially not where contra is concerned; i don’t really see any one of the major left tube crowd, since they’re all cis, turning around and saying actually contra thats not on. and outside of that, not having much space to disagree with each other kind of lets down their discourse on having nuance, and a platform for that nuance to take hold. i think left tube although its doing good work in combatting right wing views on youtube, doesn’t really establish an accountable dialogue within itself. criticisms of contra on youtube are overwhelmingly going to come from a right wing and transphobic perspective. a lot of being a leftist is having these discussions with your comrades who do think differently, and its about how we best move forward with our mutual goal but different ideas of how to get there. u can be a good leftie and not agree with popular leftist media and argument. its good u dont.also the inability to have this dialogue within ur leftist communities isn’t very marxist of u in the first place. part of the practice of marxism, both in theory and praxis is to do it on a basis of scientific socialism: do things as a science. to hold each other to account and to challenge arguments to better them is all part of that process and left tube should be pushing for that imo. ?

i also think that yeah a lot of contra’s conceptions of gender have a place where she doesn’t account at all for race in a meaningful way, which as a white woman is troubling especially as one of the most prominent voices on the left on youtube. I hope some lefties rise in popularity and take on contra’s bad stuff and start a discourse and push left tube and its fandom towards better more accountable politics.

I think for me, although im put out by contra’s remarks etc i don’t really care too much because i’ve purposefully not been too invested. my focus is on the communities i have to hand and my comrades in my city, rather than fandoms of left tubers etc. this isnt to say u have to go away and forget everything about them, because a lot of these youtubers will come up in those contexts, but in those context, you’re more able to have a chat and move through reasons why such and such a video doesn’t work or this other stuff contra’s said etc. etc..

idk really what i’m trying to say tbh. basically just go read watch or listen to alyson escalante.

[radramblog]

Retro Games WTB

So for reference, this and the last two posts were written on the same night. We went from serious discussion about sensitive and graphic material in media, to silliness about shooty mans, to this. The thing is, I’m going away on a weekend camping trip (Melbourne got delayed again but at least getting to go on this is a silver lining?), and when this post goes up (assuming I figure out how to schedule it right) is the one day where I’m just never at home. The Saturday of a weekend trip. I don’t know if the place is going to have cell signal, and I’m not letting that of all things get in the way of me posting more bullshit.

It’s been a long night.

I was originally going to do, like, a tierlist thing, but staring at the list of these was just depressing. Motherfuckers put Homestuck in the Video Games section multiple times, and I had to stare at the fact that someone went out of their way to make a FNAF shipping tier list. And lots of people played it. Fuck, man.

I don’t know if me talking about a bunch of games I want to buy is actually more interesting, but I’ll be damned if I can’t do that easily and for a lot of words. Plus, it’ll force me to actually come up with a complete list.

(editors note this is ridiculously absurdly long and it has no images it’s just 2.5K words of jack shit and me tiredly trying to make jokes about old games you probably haven’t heard of you’ve been waaaarned)

N64

The prospect of collecting all the N64 games I want is somewhat daunting, especially considering my region-based issues. But I’ve made some solid progress since that one time I talked about my collection (and I cannot be fucked dragging that post up at the moment). I’ve acquired Banjo-Kazooie and a Kirby 64 cart that I sure didn’t know was coming in fucking box.

Anyway. I’d like to pick up Smash 64 at some point, if only for the novelty of it. I’ve played it, like, once? And that was a very long time ago, the first time I ever played an N64 (possibly the only time I even touched a controller before I bought my own), and I wasn’t as mediocre to functional at Smash as I am now. 64 is kind of a whole different animal, though- no competitively viable maps by modern standards and the engine is fucky- every character combos so well that they run 5-stock matches instead of 3.

(From this point on, I’m literally looking at a Wikipedia list of games and picking ones to comment on, so it’s alphabetical)

Banjo-Tooie would be nice, I suppose, but I’ve barely played the first one- let’s maybe do that before I start thinking sequels. I didn’t realise until I actually picked up the game that Kazooie is like, a massive asshole? Extremely rude? Apparently that’s their character trait and I just didn’t know. Banjo seems like such a cool bloke, why does he hang out with them?

Even though I’d never be able to play it, the Australian version of Beetle Adventure Racing actually replaces the titular cars with Holdens, which is fucking hilarious and I need to see it.

I’ve heard a lot about Conker’s Bad Fur Day, that it’s basically Banjo/DK but M rated. I…don’t imagine it’s aged particularly well. Man, remember when he showed up for Project Spark, though? Yeah, me neither.

Donkey Kong 64 is another classic, and I’m sure it’s really good. I have managed to pick up an Expansion Pak, so there’s half the cost of it gone, too. I’ve never actually finished any of the Country games, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t play like one, so. I also never watched the HBomberguy charity marathon, so I am pure and unspoiled as to the grisly details of this jungle bash.

On the one hand, Goldeneye is arguably one of the most iconic FPS games of all time. On the other, it’s not aged particularly well, and I don’t have a cadre of people to hang around being nostalgic for it, because we’re all either younger than this game or barely out-age it. I hope someone reading this feels old now. (sorry)

Even as a Pokemon fanatic, I’m not buying Hey You, Pikachu. That game barely worked with people in the USA, imagine that shitty microphone trying to decipher my accent on fucking N64 hardware. Also it’s pretty lame even if you can get it to work, so.

Majora’s Mask is currently my White Whale, because I want nothing more than to play that game. I’ve heard so much, it sounds and looks so fucking incredible, and as I said I have the Expansion Pak now so I can actually run it. One day, man, one day. Once again I should probably finish Ocarina of Time first, but like, I know I’m going to play this one, so.

I guess Mario Kart 64 would be worth picking up, apparently it’s one of the better ones. I reckon if people showed up to play fucking Beetle Adventure Racing before knowing the game was actually really good, they’ll show up for Mario Kart. I’d rather buy 64 than 8, frankly.

I could barely get any interest in my bootleg-ass copy of Mario Party 3, I’m not going to spend stupid money on the other ones.

Oh, apparently Mega Man Legends came out on the 64 as well? I thought that was just on the Playstation. I mean, people really seem to like that sub-series, but then people also liked Star Force, so I don’t know if I can trust the Mega Man fandom on anything. (MMBN legacy collection when, Capcom)

Yo so there was a Neon Genesis Evangelion game for the N64, and apparently it’s a fighting game? Japan-only, of course, but my console can run those anyway. And like, that sounds funny and cool, I’ll punch Sachiel to death, why the fuck not? Who needs a progressive knife. Congratulations joke.

God Paper Mario is so fucking expensive god damnit

Perfect Dark rounds out the trio of “hey I have the expansion pak now”, but I know substantially less about it. So, maybe?

The Pokemon games I’m missing (and care about) are Snap, Puzzle League, and Stadium 2. I’ll consider Snap if I can find a cheap copy, as I know it’s pretty limited (and the new one just came out), Puzzle League is probably meh, and Stadium 2 sounds fun but I’d need to then buy a GSC cart to get the most out of it and they aren’t cheap. Unless I get a Japanese one, but apparently, they’re only compatible with Japanese Stadium 2 (er, Stadium GS), so I’d have to double down on illegibility.

Oh fuck, right, Star Fox. Man I thought I was going to get away with just talking about Star Wars here (I’ve already got the good ones), but I forgot about fuckin Star Fox 64, aka The Good One. Shit I gotta get that don’t I? Fuck me. At least searching for one will be slightly easier because the PAL version has a different name.

Oh, and Yoshi’s Story looks like a trip and I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Like, this just looks worse than Yoshi’s Island if I’m being honest.

 GBA

I haven’t actually talked about by GBA collection on here have I? TL;DR- it’s a console I’m very nostalgic for, but my collection is lacking because all the carts in Malaysia were bootlegs.

Jesus there’s so many more GBA games than N64 ones. Like, in general, not just on this list.

Advance Wars is a solid maybe, because the carts are super fucking expensive, I’ve never played the series, and the remaster is coming soon. But apparently they’re good? Big shrug energy.

Wow, they made two whole Banjo games for the GBA. Both of these look like shit, though, so fuck it. No wonder I never hear anyone talk about them.

Boktai is an interesting series I’d like to maybe give a shot. It’s a JRPG made by fucking Hideo Kojima, where the cartridge had a light sensor in it to encourage you to play outside by buffing the main character. Which was an interesting choice on the notably not backlit GBA. It also has crossover stuff with something we’ll get into later.

I’ve played Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow to death, and as a result I’d love to pick up a copy of it’s GBA prequel, Aria of Sorrow- it’s apparently almost just as good. I’ve not heard much about the other two GBA Castlevanias, but they’re apparently similarly excellent- a stark comparison to the mediocre to bad N64 ones.

If someone buys me a cartridge of Crazy Frog Racer I will play it and that is a fucking promise.

There are like three whole Fire Emblem games on the GBA, though only two came out in English. I actually have a bootleg of one of them. It’s another one of those ones that are unreasonably expensive because it didn’t sell well and they didn’t make that many as a result, though. So probably not worth getting a real one unless I fall super head over heels for the series- I don’t see that happening soon.

Oh right, Golden Sun. Another JRPG franchise for the GBA. There were a lot of those, huh? Anyway there’s like no way this guy is getting into Smash, don’t get your hopes up.

Harvest Moon is basically Stardew Valley, but older. Two games of it came out on the GBA, and I’m probably not about to commit to buying one of those rather than Stardew. And that game has yet to successfully appeal to me, soooooooo

I have a bootleg of Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, and that’s one of the ones where it probably doesn’t matter at all that it’s a bootleg, so I’m satisfied with it. Don’t have Nightmare in Dream Land, which I’ve played before on emulator and wouldn’t mind retrying, so maybe. I’ve never been massive on remakes if the original is viable, but I don’t have an NES so I’m sure not buying Kirby’s Adventure.

There are two Zelda games on GBA- a port of A Link to the Past which I have, and Minish Cap which I don’t. Minish Cap is very expensive!!! Aah!!!

Yo they ported The Lost Vikings to GBA? Wack. I guess Blizzard gets a shoe in this console’s door, then.

Yeah okay so there are like a million Mario games here, huh. Superstar Saga was the first Mario and Luigi game, and the one of those I’ve played (Partners in Time) was good enough that I’d bite for the original. Or I’d just go buy Bowser’s Inside Story. Mario Kart and Golf on the GBA don’t appeal super hard, and I’ve played Mario Pinball Land (long before that Alpharad Deluxe series), to the point where I don’t feel the need to actually buy it.

Speaking of Alpharad, I played Mario Party Advance on one of my Malaysian Bootlegs long, long before he made that video reminding people it existed. That game actually kind of fucks, for what it’s worth, and since my copy can’t save, I’d consider buying a real one. Assuming that Alpha’s video didn’t lead to a mass buyout or price spike.

Okay, so Mega Man Battle Network is kind of the big one on this list- definitely the White Whale so far, since to my understanding the series had extremely limited release in Australia. I do have a Japanese copy of 4 (Blue Moon) that I picked up because it was like 5 bucks, but A. 4 is godawful relative to the others and B. it’s a JRPG and I can’t read Japanese. But I would Do Things to get copies of 2, 3, or 6. Not so much 1 (because it’s not great), or 5 because I’ve nearly 100%’d the DS version on my flashcart.

Seriously, I’ve considered writing multiple blog posts on this series, I think it’s a super underrated gem. It’s an eSport on GBA for fucks sake! It’s also the series that crossed over with Boktai from earlier- apparently Kojima’s kid was a huge fan, so he got in touch to get some cross-promo content going. Funny how that works.

It’s not like they’re ever going to release Mother 3 anyway. Y’all aren’t even going to let me pay for this game, so you can’t complain if I buy a Chinese bootleg with the fan translation on it. I paid five whole bucks, and if they released it in English for real, I’d easily drop more on it. It’s a 10/10 game.

Oh alright, there’s Pokemon. I’m actually 4/7 on the GBA Pokemon games, which is pretty good considering the price just keeps going up and up. I’ve actually considered making a Living Dex solely in Gen 3- however that would either require all the ones I don’t have (save Pinball) a Gamecube with Colosseum/XD (which I have thought about), or maybe both. A long-term project, for sure, but one I’d enjoy doing.

Apparently the Sonic GBA games are pretty good, save for the infamous remake of the first Sonic game- Sonic Genesis. That is, however, the only one of them I’ve actually played. And for a long time was the only Sonic game I’d ever played. Great first impression, huh? The Marble Zone OST unironically slaps, though.

Yeah okay so there’s like over a hundred games still on this list and I care about, like, none of them. Except maybe some of the Wario games and Yu-Gi-Oh games- and I know some of the latter are complete and utter garbage. Like, I’ve played The Sacred Cards, and that game is genuine shite. I’ve still only played one Yu-Gi-Oh game I’ve liked.

I guess I can close off this wall of text by saying I want to get a GBA flashcart so I can run romhacks on console, but there’s a bunch of different types and it doesn’t seem like anyone can agree on which one is the best, so I guess I’m in limbo a bit on that one. Still, it’s worth a look at some point- I’ve gotten so much mileage out of my DS one after all.

And that’s a full-ass list. Perhaps a little daunting, but something like this is a long-term project, and there’s plenty of time to adjust, or make trades rather than buy, et cetera. I don’t ever expect to like, complete a collection, but I’m happy getting things bit by bit.

Anyway it’s like 2AM now I need to be up in 5 hours oops if I’m late then sorry james lmao except you won’t possibly be able to read this until Saturday and it’ll be too late then ha HA

[tiberelechat]

And once again, I don’t dislike Hbomberguy and there’s good in his video. I think the central premise - “Sherlock is a bad detective show” - is pants, but still, some cool bits.

- All the stuff on “Jekyll” is really interesting and I love the way he talks about the editing of that show.

- I do think he has a point on Moffat’s love of unresolved, long-going mysterious threads. He kind of over-emphasizes how much it was done (I mean, the Silence arc is entierly dropped for series 7), but I do agree that it can be a little bit of a problem, especially when Sherlock is concerned. It was justified with the Fall, ‘cause that’s a really important part of the Sherlock mythos they sort of had to tackle, but stuff like the reappearance of Moriarty added very, very little in the end. Plus - and that is definitely, hands down, the best part of the video - he is spot-on on the way that kind of plot devices generates a craving for answer that turns into wild, kind of out-of-control theorizing.

- Some good bits on the direction, too. The specific exemple he tackles, from “Power of Three” is one that always had me a little bit baffled, gotta admit. Sherlock definitely can be over-directed - really, sometimes it just feels like Moffat’s private experimental facility for visual storytelling (yes that’s kind of a HoB reference). It’s self-indulgent and over-the-top - I do absolutely think Moffat and Gatiss are in on the joke, though.

(oh, and yeah, a thing that always bugs me about Sherlock criticism - why is Mark Gatiss so secondary to the proceedings? ‘Cause Hbomb doesn’t mention him much, and yet blames stuff like Mary’s death on Moffat entierly, even though it happens in a Gatiss episode. I mean, I don’t want to put all that I dislike in Sherlock on Gatiss, that’d be just unfair, but I do think he can have sort of problematic views from time to time and his influence is definitely felt in the show)