#and yeah there are some people who are bad at it or exploitive or assholes but there are also good people

[valiantroeagleangel]

Take care.

Jolly Karlsson x female reader.

Hurt/ comfort, shower sex, oral, unprotected sex, fluff.

Mama's tag list: @circle-with-me @somewhere-diamond @malice-ov-mercy @smokeynaomi @darkhallcorner @loeytuan98 @sthnog @cookiesupplier

Had this idea for a while, finally posting it now. Hope I'm doing my boy some honour. You'll tell me. 🫠

Saying that your day sucked was an understatement. It was horrible. You had this important project that got you worked up for weeks and when you finally presented the final version to your boss and colleagues everybody pushed you down saying that it wasn't good enough, that your work was useless and bad. Yeah, today sucked. You thought that after your presentation your day would be better but now that it happened you were just depressed and disappointed. Your heart ached excruciatingly and you wished you could just shush it down.

When you reached your home at the end of the day you were just a mop, ready to drag yourself on the floor without any kind of will. Jolly quickly spotted you as he was scrolling on his phone, sat on the couch. Without a word, you immediately dropped your coat and bag away and jumped into his arms. Your head nestling on the crook of his neck you let out a pathetic whimper.

His hands quickly found your back and your nape, scratching the roots of your hair softly as he cuddled you. "What's wrong baby?" Is all he asked in a low voice, aware that it might have something to do with your stressful project. Still, he didn't want to open the wound directly by talking about it.

"They hated it." Your voice was breaking and muffled by his body. With your strained tone you weren't sure that he could properly hear you but he hugged you closer, his head moving to kiss your hair.

"What happened exactly?"

Slowly you got your head out of his neck to look at him in the eyes.

"They said it wasn't enough, that they gave me this project because they thought I was doing better work than that but that now they realised it was an error." You started to get overwhelmed, vomiting all your stress and anxiety on him because it was all you were able to do. Now that you started to unleash you couldn't stop yourself. "How could I thought that I was capable of doing it?" Your voice cracked. "Now they're going to fire me. I swear Joakim, they were so disappointed and harsh towards me that tomorrow I'm good to be replaced." Tears started to roll down your face, you got up really early this morning and the fatigue was talking for you, no strength left for you to rationalize it. "What am I going to do? I can't lose my job.."

When you finally paused long enough for him to respond he gently cupped one of your cheeks with his hand, brushing some tears that were rolling down it.

"They won't fire you, baby. Maybe it's not you who is incompetent, maybe they were expecting something that isn't achievable." Slowly, to not scare you, he approached your face and left a soft kiss on your other cheek, stopping the tears from falling. "You worked day and night on that project I'm sure it was brilliant. They're just a bunch of assholes that like to exploit people. I would like to see them work like you do. I'm sure none of them is capable of doing it."

His words were a bit soothing to your heart. Jolly was always so kind and tender with you that it was enough to make you cry again. Ashamed and desperate you threw your face against his chest, your hands surrounding his waist. He hugged you back, letting you rest on his chest for as long as you needed.

But after some minutes without moving at all, Jolly started to consider the fact that maybe you were falling asleep on him. Shifting a bit he made you groan, not happy with how he was pushing himself off the couch. "I'm sorry baby but I have no blood left in my legs I need to move a little."

You groaned again, getting off his lap as you sat next to him on the cushion. Jolly sighed in relief, shaking his legs in the air but you were still pouting, the sad expression not leaving your face.

"Do you want to take a shower? It could relax you."

You shook your head, not deciding to move as you would rather rot on your couch forever. You did not want to do anything or to feel anything. You just wanted to numb your heart and emotions down.

"Come on. I'll help you if you want." He got up and held out his hand to you. "Let's go."

You didn't even have the will to protest that, giving in you took his hand and he stood you up. Gently he pulled you with him towards the bathroom.

Still not very determined you sat on the washing machine, watching Jolly desperately trying to get some reaction out of you. Coming closer to you he grabbed the bottom of your shirt, unbuttoning every button one by one before pushing the fabric away from your shoulders. You didn't move a bit, letting him do as he pleased. Once the piece of clothing completely off, he caressed your shoulders, approaching his lips so that he could leave some kisses on one of them.

Your bra quickly followed the path of your shirt, soon meeting the ground as he unclasped it in a mastered motion and threw it away. His lips didn't leave your skin as he kept kissing your chest, one of his hands encountering your waist to push you towards him. At some point you tilted your head back, your fingers finding his hair to tangle themselves in it and you felt him smile against your stomach, happy with your reaction when he pushed away.

He got you out of the washing machine, unbuttoning your pants and taking them down. Less obstructed by your thoughts you tug at his t-shirt, passing your hand under it to caress his happy trail and stomach.

Smirking he quickly grabbed it and tossed it over his head, letting it join the rest of your clothing. His jeans and underwear followed shortly before he passed his hands on your hips, kneading them with his large hands.

"Get them off for me, will you?" He asked, passing his hands under the sides of your underwear as he left you to go and turn the shower on, the cold water running aground the empty cabin.

You obeyed in silence, getting rid of your panties to join him under the shower head. Jolly immediately attached himself to you, his hands surrounding you from behind as he started to caress your belly. His lips couldn't handle being left alone as he pressed them on your wet shoulder, slowly rising to your neck.

You titled your head on the other side for him to have more room to operate. His hands rambled on your hot and wet body, cupping your breasts as he brushed over them with his thumbs, his lips still sucking on your skin.

"Let me take care of you, baby." He breathed out, the hot air echoing on your skin, giving you goosebumps. "Let me wash all those worries away."

This time you definitely gave up. Even if you weren't convinced at the beginning you just wanted to feel Jolly's embrace, as close as he could be. You only nodded, too focused on the heat growing in your stomach as his hands continued their ministrations and he, once again, smiled in your neck at your response as he turned you so that you could face him.

Still letting you under the hot water his lips captured yours for the first time, finally allowing you to relax in the kiss. A small grunt escaped you as you surrounded his neck with your arms to push his body into yours. His hands on your back, they lowered themselves on your ass, cupping it to massage your cheeks.

Breaking the kiss he started to kneel in front of you, forcing your body to stick to the wall, both of your hands reaching the tiles to have better support.

Jolly didn't waste time and pushed your hips on his face in a second. His hands wandered on the back of your thighs, joining their interior. Assured he started to nib on the skin there, leaving red marks darkening because of the water's hot temperature.

One of your hands left the wall to grab his hair, pushing his face away from your legs as you looked down, your eyes meeting. He looked at you with his pupils dilated, breathing a little louder than before. He didn't say a thing as he caught one of your legs, putting him on his shoulder before dipping his head deeper into your intimacy.

You couldn't help but let a small whimper out, your grasp on his hair tightening as he furtively lapped at your clit. Unsteady you leaned more on his face, looking for more friction but he kept cat licking you teasingly. His fingers didn't stop to draw closer to your core each time they caressed your inner thigh.

Already on an emotional thread, you didn't want to deal with his teasing tonight and pushed his face down your folds, forcing his tongue to flatten against your intimacy.

Jolly raised his eyes at you only to meet with your throat, your head tilted back as you breathed with your mouth half-opened, water hitting your chest.

"Fuck", you heard him curse at your feet when his fingers finally left your lap, instantly joining your core while he pushed one into you. This time he put a little more enthusiasm, eating you out with more force as he added a second finger, pumping it inside of you until he reached your sweet spot.

Defining a pace that he considered good enough he caressed you like he never did, focused on every little moan you could make, every little sound that was escaping you or with what intensity you were tugging at his hair. Your legs trembling he kept you in place with his other hand, alternating between his sucking and lapping on your clit, the sound of it making all of the act extremely obscene.

The heat of his breath on you got your stomach tightening, your orgasm growing stronger and stronger at each one of his motions.

"Shit Joakim." You could feel all of your strength leaving your legs as you approached the edge, your moans getting louder, making you bite your lower lips.

"You're doing so good for me." He moaned out to you without stopping himself. Each one of your whimpers encouraging him to keep his pace until he had you crying his name, your vision whitening as you spasmed under his touch.

Out of breath, you looked down, stroking at his hair gently until he got up, still holding your body in his strong arms so you would not puddle down the floor.

"Thank you." You said with a dumb smile, trying to fall down from your high. But it wasn't enough for him. He wanted you to forget all of your worries, to be fucked until your mind would go blank. All he needed you to think about was him, he needed you to feel only him, nothing else. And even if you considered that you were good enough now, you were not. At least that's what he decided.

You tried to stand by yourself to pull him under the water with you but he flipped you down, making you squeak as you faced the wall.

"We are so not done, baby." He pressed his hot body in your back, his hands deepening on the fat of your hips as his member hit your lower back.

You whimpered again when his hand passed to your front, pressing on your belly to rub you on his hard cock. He ground on your ass for a few seconds until he got you impatient, your core pulsing for his presence.

"We're done when I say we're done." His lips approached your ears as he leaned more on you, whispering "You're not getting out of here."

You nodded, your lower lip stuck between your teeth. A small grin settled on your face as his severe tone worked so good on you. A little more eager you moved your ass on him, letting his cock brush between your ass cheeks.

His grasp not loosening itself he kissed your temple before pulling away. His fingers drew to your folds, brushing them as he made you clench over nothing. Your head fell forward, your forehead hitting the cold wall as you pushed your ass up to his body.

"Yeah, show me your pretty ass like that." He groaned enjoying the view you were offering him. Teasingly he rubbed his tip on your clit before thrusting into you. You both moaned at the feeling of his cock filling you up, making your head spin. Jolly didn't move for a while, enjoying how hard you were contracting your walls around him to get him thrust around. The so little pleasure you were getting from this was already overwhelming. Your mind was foggy, these sensations being the only thing you could think about, almost drooling for the pleasure.

"Please move." You sighed, leaning on even more on the wall so you could wriggle your hips against his crotch, desperately working by yourself.

"Should I?" One of his hands fell on your ass, smacking it softly on the way. Timidly he moved inside of you, enough to make you want more but not enough to unravel your hunger. The only thing you did was whimper, your pussy clenching over him again and again until he finally decided that the play was over, pushing his hips firmly against yours.

Still weak on your knees you rested on your forearms, trying to stand up a little to encounter Jolly's hips halfway, enhancing your sensations and the way he was hitting deeper inside of you each time.

Jolly tried his best to support you while he fucked you like a starved man. The pouring water was still so hot, your skin slipping through his fingers. Jolly's hair was dripping all over his face, some cold drops hitting your back when he was leaning on you. The more he was approaching his climax the more he attached himself to you. Straightening your body with one hand he held you against his chest, his fingers caressing your lower belly, trying to feel himself inside of you. His lips found the crook of your neck again, travelling between your nape and your shoulder restlessly.

You threw one of your arms back, trying to reach for his head, to hold something to keep you from going insane. All he was doing was grunting in your ear as he overstimulated you. His fingers now lowering until they found your clit, rubbing circles in rhythm with his motions.

"More. Please more." You wished to say something else but that was the only thing you could think about, repeating it like a mantra in case Jolly decided to be an asshole and tease you through the night. But he didn't, he only fucked you harder and harder like a beast, satisfied with your words, satisfied that he got you dumb and begging for more already.

For an instant, he pushed you down only to make you face him again before he trusted back into you. Kissing you, his cock pumped in and out of you at the same pace as before but this time he fully carried you against the wall, letting you completely lean on him as your body was getting so weak already. His head at your chest height he lost him, moaning against your collarbone while pushing his forehead on it.

Maybe it was his lips on your skin, the way his dick was pounding into you or his fingers on your clit, you couldn't recall what made you lose it but your second climax hit sooner than you expected it to, blowing your mind as your body gave up on you, convulsing between his arms. He continued to fuck you through it, only pulling out when he felt like he was about to come, finishing against the small of your back in a last grunt.

This time you were completely worn out, only breathing as you let your body limp on his. After some time passed Jolly got you both cleaned, rolling you in a cozy robe before he went to look for some clothes. Lending you one of his shirts and a pair of sweatpants he dressed you up in silence, letting you mutter yourself in it.

Once you got out of the bathroom you jumped into his arms again, giving him a hug as you rubbed your face in his chest. His hands immediately found your hair out of habit and he cuddled you a bit more.

"How are you feeling?" He asked softly, not to scare you up as he was afraid you would start to perish again. But you were so gone that you didn't even think about it, all you could feel was his scent and your sore muscles relaxing you completely. All you wanted to do was snuggle yourself into the covers of your bed, Jolly's body hugging you tightly.

"Away." You responded and he nodded, kissing the top of your head.

Jolly had special methods to take care of you and your worries but it worked quite efficiently, wasn't that all that mattered?

At the end of the evening, when you nestled yourself in his body, surrounded by all the covers of your bed, he gently stroked your hair praising you as you succumbed to sleep.

"You're doing your best in the world, don't ever let anyone take you down." You only hummed at him, not even listening to what he was saying. His deep voice was enough to lull you as you gave up to Morpheus.

[thenameisgul]

The thing with Castiel is that he had a lot of storylines that had potential to develop, but were cut short for whatever reason I don't understand: like Godtiel, humancas. For example, with humancas, an entire season could be devoted to exploiting that, it could be a separate storyline unrelated to Sam or Dean, he could meet other angels and have to solve problems himself. etc. But no, they abandoned it after a few episodes, for what? to make Dean not look like an asshole for abandoning Cas when he was most vulnerable, so as not to divert the audience's attention away from two brothers? I have a feeling the writers kept Cas/Misha around because of his popularity with fans, but never gave him the status he deserved for a character with so much potential and importance to the story line. I'm only in ss10 and heard that Cas is treated even worse in the later seasons, I don't know if I should continue watching or not.

if there's one thing I realized pretty early on when I was finally watching season 7 after a decade long break, was that in the Supernatural universe, there was no other character that was as interesting and multifaceted as Castiel.

The second thing I realized was that it was not a very good thing for the showrunners to have a supporting character be like that when your entire show revolves around two brothers.

The reason they killed off Castiel in early season 7 was because they wanted the show to go back to being about Sam and Dean and with Apocalypse over, they didn't know what to do with Castiel. But clearly, he was too popular and they brought him back because the network itself told them to bring him back.

Now, a good writer would've been able to find a balance to keep Cas' story relevant and entangled with the Winchesters, as they did in season 6 but with Kripke leaving the show and new management in the writer's room, that didn't happen.

I almost, almost get it? Like, you have your story, you have your lead characters and people love them but suddenly you bring a supporting character who becomes an instant fan favorite, who's, debatably, a lot more interesting because of the history you gave him but never intended to explore and now he's sticking around so you just don't know what to do to make him not take over the narrative? You make him weak.

Cas couldn't have stayed the badass, powerful angel who's lived for a millennia because then that'll require the show to have villians even more powerful than that to be any competition and that leaves the Winchesters irrelevant.

So they tamed him down alot, which in itself wouldn't have been such a bad thing, especially if they went with the human!cas arc for longer like you said but to do that would've meant they couldn't use Cas as an easy way out of all winchester's problems and they needed that too so 🤷‍♀️

My main problem with all of that, mostly comes from the fact that, and I may be wrong here, but it seemed like the writers actively resented misha/castiel for being popular. Like he was, in misha's words "a foil to the boys" and while the writers couldn't let him go because the show would lose ratings, they actively diminished him. The random demeaning comments about Castiel from other characters, especially, from dean seemed a little too pointed. Not to mention how the producers actually publicly said 'misha wasnt a good actor' when he's literally one of the best actors on the show!

So yeah, if supernatural had better writers, or atleast if they kept hold of the good ones (because there were some good ones) they could've given Cas and the show a better story.

I hate to say it but they did it to Sam too. Sam was such an complex character but they just stopped trying after a while with his character. So I guess it was a theme with these writers.

And as a Castiel fan, its frustrating, I gotta say that. But you know what the best part is? that no matter what they did, how dumb the storyline they gave him he still came out as the most interesting character every time. So there you go.

So I'd say watch the show, its really good when it gets good or maybe just open Misha's page on Supernatural wiki and only watch his episodes if that's your thing because tbh, you wouldn't miss much if you left the rest. lol

[gaykarstaagforever]

Well! Second DMing session ended with the guy who made me do it, who was going to "help" me, hanging up on me mid-session and texting

So much for "I don't care if you don't know how to do it, I'll walk you through it," I guess.

I was very clear from the outset that I think most ttrpgs, and ALL DnD rules, are arbitrary math nonsense that you need a college course to understand, specifically created by terrible people to force everyone else to put up with their infantile, unintuitive view of the universe. I told him I hate this crap. He manipulated me into trying it anyway. Guess who hasn't changed his mind, and guess who is now throwing a temper-tantrum about it? I TOLD YOU this was a bad idea.

I read the book. The 8 books. It doesn't matter. They're math textbooks written by bad writers and my eyes kept glazing over. I don't understand why any of these rules exist. I'm just forced to memorize formulas. That I don't respect.

There is no space for reputation, or politics, or combat scenario realities, or random accidents and diseases, or genuine surprises, or living in an apathetic, living, breathing world that doesn't give a fuck about your Chosen One status. It is wizards casting fire balls, because the guy doing that hates his mom, and made up a rule set where he can play his weird stupid power fantasies. His weird, stupid, RACIST power fantasies, if this last group's predilections is any indication.

I don't have patience for this. It's arcane and unrealistic and sucks the joy out of everything and it ISN'T FUN.

If you love it, great. I'll get out of your way. But it runs counter to how my brain works and I fucking hate it. I love the idea of using dice to RP events and see what happens. But at some point of complexity you are just obeying someones precious little rule-book so obnoxious math nerds who memorized it can be smug about exploiting loopholes.

Go play a video game for that. That's not a healthy social interaction. That's yet another version of a group of fucked-up people being whiney and dogmatic about random shit they made up, specifically so they can be cool in a world they specifically designed for that purpose. And what the fuck is that? I hate them, and I hate that.

My old mantra was "nerds with math ruin everything." I was always half-joking, but only half. I have zero respect for everything this is, and what people are apparently looking for from it. It is frustrating and boring and limiting and stupid to me. I don't enjoy it. And I don't even want to ever play it again, because I dread being doomed to waste my brain power sorting out weird meta game math shit that doesn't seem to take into account any defensible simulation of actual reality.

I have spent 120+ hours over the last 5 months trying to get into this. Trying to get a handle on why people like it, to figure out the secret I am missing. I have spent stupid amounts of money on stuff, to that end.

And I either lack the 3000 IQ space brain to get it, or I absolutely get it, and I just absolutely hate it. Either way, I've had enough.

I want to do a D6 system that is just "roll against opponent, bigger number wins, DM RPs what that means." That's loose and interesting and feels like real life. The rest can go jump in the river.

"YEAH BUT THAT'S UNFAIR TO PLAYERS!"

The world is unfair to life. You're not 12 anymore. I don't get anything out of playing around in a baby world made for babies. You're just mad because it isn't going to work in your favor the way I'm proposing it.

It's like Tim Cain said about programming RNG. You give them real RNG, everyone gets mad because "it's not fair." Because RNG isn't fair. They don't want RNG, they want to be autocrats of reality, then soothe themselves that they're not in fact cheating assholes by claiming "the numbers worked out in my favor."

When the reality is that the system was specifically designed over 50+ years to give them an advantage. And that isn't RNG. That isn't playing a role. That isn't being a real hero by self-sacrificing and being randomly lucky and muddling through. It's just egotistical self-delusional nothingness.

Like, maybe these kinds of games are STILL niche things for a reason? Maybe the only really popular and profitable entries are video game and movie versions where you don't see the math, BECAUSE you don't see the math? Like I don't think I'm alone in not giving a shit about this byzantine, nerfed crap.

That doesn't make me better. Do whatever you want. But if THAT'S what you're doing, count me the fuck out.

I did my time, and I'm sick of this shit.

[utilitycaster]

This feels like a weird thing to ask someone but I greatly respect your ability to speak your honest critical opinion (and in such well spoken terms) in an internet atmosphere where you can get crucified for saying anything less than full-throated praise--and that's exactly my issue. I run a small, fandom-oriented Youtube channel and despite knowing that I'm entitled to critical opinions, that I don't even want the attention of delusional reactionaries anyway, etc etc I'm finding it incredibly difficult to share what I really think of some shows + aspects of fandom and shipping. I've become weirdly terrified of saying one perfectly logical thing that does not align with the elaborate fantasy some people have built in their heads and getting canceled/losing the small base of followers I've managed to cobble together. The real nightmare is sharing something harmless like a shipping opinion and having purity culture come for me and call me a p*dophile for absolutely no reason. But at the same time I feel like a spineless coward for letting the toxic side of fandom win by scaring me into silence, especially when one of my goals for the channel from the beginning was to create a place where level headed critical opinion could be shared without fear of gross overreaction and slander. So I guess my questions are: is it as easy for you to speak honestly as it seems? Have you ever flinched before? Is it just about not caring what irrational people think or is there something else to it I'm missing? Sometimes it feels like my fears are valid and sometimes it feels like I just need to grow a backbone and get over it already.

Hey anon,

So I think there is one really big factor here: I am posting anonymously and facelessly and I don’t mind if I alienate people on the basis of an opinion I genuinely hold. If you’re actively trying to build a following and/or if you’ve made yourself identifiable, then I do in fact understand holding back more for reasons of trying to keep that following, or for reasons of personal safety.

But yeah: it’s mostly just that strangers who send anon hate don’t know jack shit about my life or me as a person; they just see an opinion that, as you said, challenges the elaborate fantasy in their head and attack the person who said it. I have, genuinely, been told things that I know for myself to be demonstrably false about my life (not even opinions about me I reject - demonstrably false things) by people who are ultimately just mad that I don’t like their characters or ships. I would obviously feel terrible if a person I knew in real life accused me of something terrible, and I’d still feel bad if it were someone I interacted with online with any sort of regularity, but someone hiding behind complete anonymity? They’re not calling me names because they genuinely think I’m bigoted. They’re calling me names because they are willing to use tools to try to drag me down because they cannot accept I don’t feel the same way they do about a character. They’re like when conservatives claim that denying service to queer people is religious freedom - they are using what appears to be a legitimate appeal to ostensible shared values, but really they’re exploiting the system and people's desire to take things in good faith because they can't stand not getting their way.

The other thing, and I recognize how much I sound like my parents here, is that your bullies are thinking about you more than you think about them. Anyone who sends hate desperately wants you to agree with them. Show them you are not thinking of them.

And finally, some of the hate I’ve gotten has genuinely been about the most anodyne things, which ironically helps because once you realize that no matter how bland an opinion is, some asshole will foam at the mouth about it.  Like, again, I definitely talk plenty of shit about ships or characters or choices I don’t like, but I got some wildly out of pocket shit from people who apparently could not tolerate the completely random example I used to illustrate a fairly uncontroversial and popular opinion re: ship tagging on ao3. And once something like that happens you realize that there’s no point in avoiding the spicier stuff.

I don’t know if this helps, and I recognize that I happen to have a particularly contrarian and not remotely conflict-averse personality. I respect the many people who are not willing to put up with hate and I don’t blame you if you’re one of them; at points in my life I have not been in a place to put up with it and was much less outspoken. But in the end, the thing about people who harass you is that they care so, so much about you agreeing with them, and if you tell them a flat firm no while also making it clear you don’t give a shit if they ever agree with you, they do tend to eventually give up upon realizing how one-sided their obsession is.

[rubra-wav]

I really hope that people get that even tho he's a pathetic whiny bitch (affectionate) who's absolutely desperate for attention - especially attention of a genuinely romantic long-term supportive nature, Vox is still not a good person and I hope I'm not portraying him too much as such in my work. 😭

While the above is true, he will still exploit, lie, and cheat anything and everything if it gives him personal gain in some way.

He's everything that's awful about capitalism personified. He's an enabler for Val (and is literally jealous of the person he ABUSES). He definitely abuses his work staff, and he absolutely reeks of unregulated maladaptive traits and internalised bullshit, etc. Etc.

Idk man. I feel like in my work, I haven't shown it enough, but I wanna keep things as accurate as possible. When part 2 of Snap comes out, I'm definitely gonna be showing that a bit more in that lmao (yeah I'll say it, it's gonna be fuckin infuriating for most of it rip.)

I've seen people portraying him like an angel in fanfic, and it bothers me because he's straight-up scum even though I absolutely love him.

Compared to what Val has got going on he's a lot better, but he's still an absolute cunt and I see so many people forgetting that lmao. He's not an innocent baby in a bad relationship, he's an evil cunt in a bad relationship (AND his hands are certainly not clean in that either. He's also a bastard too - just to a much less noticeable extent)

If reader ever actually dated this man, they would find the most high maintenance asshole on earth who would need to be taught basic respect and boundaries from scratch and taught real consequences for his actions AND hed probably actively be fighting doing that as well. (There's a post i have planned about what it would be like actually dating him that will go into that more)

ANYWHO, he is not some innocent baby in need of protecting who would suddenly forego all of his bad behaviours at once, he'd need a fuckton of checking, behaviour management, etc or he'd be a horrendous asshole to be with.

[lastoneout]

Didn't wanna add this to that last post cuz it was very positive and I'm being rather negative, but like god the real tragedy of smart home tech is that the majority of it is so incredibly useful for disabled people that it's life-changing, but it's all made by the devil himself, programmed to harvest your data and sell it to anyone who asks before breaking and forcing you to buy a new one, and so easy to exploit that some of it is actively dangerous, so a lot of us are forced to choose between having something that makes our lives WAY easier and keeping our data and private lives safe from corporations, the cops, and any asshole with an internet connection who feels like causing problems on purpose.

Being able to make sure my doors are locked from anywhere using an app on my phone would do wonders for my anxiety, as would having cameras around my house so I can check on things without being home/getting out of bed. I have friends with ADHD who rely on their Google Home or Amazon Alexa to function, and that's not even mentioning how useful hands-free stuff is for people with mobility issues or folks who are visually impaired. AirTags sound like they'd be a great way to deal with losing things bcs of my memory issues. A fridge with a door that lets you see inside would help with my ADHD issues too, not being able to see what food I have means I forget about it and stuff goes bad which wastes money and so on.

So yeah, as much as I rag on the security and safety issues with these sorts of products I cannot deny how useful they are for people like me and my loved ones, and I think honestly if using them changes your life for the better you should absolutely use them and not feel bad. I just also wish using them didn't come with so much goddamn capitalist surveillance state baggage. Disabled people NEED these technologies, but it's a deal with the devil every time and that fucking sucks.

[stannyramirez]

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝟎𝟑𝟎𝟏

❝Y'all know I don't like to cuss, but what in the hell is this horseshit I'm looking at right now?❞ ❝I can’t believe y’all let him pull this Hot Wheels mess.❞ ❝Money ain’t everything, baby.❞ ❝You think I’d just live with it, what you done to my family?❞ ❝Admit it, you can’t stay out of the spotlight.❞ ❝You better believe I’m gonna be fishin’ and sippin’.❞ ❝I had a fucking thing planned!❞ ❝Take it like a man, if you can.❞ ❝Sugar cookies ain’t real, bitch! That’s a detail I made up to sniff out the rat.❞ ❝You’re the only one I told sugar cooks to, you fucking snitch.❞ ❝Dammit, you brought me all the way to Florida just to fire me?❞ ❝When your family asks you how you broke your nose, tell them it was a kite surfing accident.❞ ❝I’m tired. Cut me some friggin’ slack.❞ ❝No smut, no lust, no coconuts.❞ ❝Hopefully, maybe you could help out, seeing as how I do every other goddamn thing around here lately.❞ ❝Man, shut the fuck up, you ain’t the boss of us.❞ ❝I’m the main decider.❞ ❝Well, I’m glad that truck drivers won’t be able to buy dick pills anymore.❞ ❝Unfortunately, I have some not-so-peaceful news.❞ ❝You’re colder than a fucking ice cube shoved up a polar bear’s asshole.❞ ❝Maybe if y’all stopped henpecking at one another and started trying to fix what isn’t working, you wouldn’t be in this situation.❞ ❝Bunch of rednecks, racing around, seeing who can go nowhere fastest.❞ ❝Somebody’s been acting mysterious.❞ ❝We’re young and up to the task, dude.❞ ❝I don’t feel the love in this current configuration.❞ ❝Not a damn one of you looking as fine as me.❞ ❝Come on. My car at home is fast as fuck. How can this be any different?❞ ❝Do the gas! Do the gas, boy!❞ ❝That’s embarrassing, dude.❞ ❝I guess I lived longer than I thought, and I still have a little more to say.❞ ❝You got a lot of nerve coming here.❞ ❝Figures you have to pay money to get a little face time.❞ ❝I wish I had some traumatic event that happened to me that I can exploit and make people like me.❞ ❝I mean, my origin story sucks compared to yours.❞ ❝Baby, that energy makes you look desperate.❞ ❝Look, baby, I know you’re upset, but please don’t take it out on me, okay?❞ ❝What if we’re not Leno? What if we’re just Conan?❞ ❝God dang, why do you gotta kick my gift horse in the mouth right now?❞ ❝Why are you reading stuff into things?❞ ❝Don’t emotionally disappoint me now.❞ ❝Goddamn, what the hell are you cooking out there?❞ ❝The smoke was green from some of the butt plugs, and it smelled like pool toys.❞ ❝Get a little rest, and get you a Coke or whatever.❞ ❝Being bad like some bitch in an ‘80s movie.❞ ❝And now it’s time to nut up, because road head is road head. That’s just the rules of tour, okay? We can’t be bringing this shit home.❞ ❝You’re just going to have to suffer through the pain.❞ ❝Y’all a bunch of dirtbags!❞ ❝I’m trying to tell you, you fucking dork...❞ ❝Yeah, enchante, motherfucker.❞ ❝You come back here again, I’ll send your ass straight to hell!❞ ❝As main decider, the motherfucker is fired.❞ ❝Sugar Ray-looking motherfucker.❞ ❝Get the fuck out of here.❞ ❝You think we can handle this kind of scandalous bullshit right now?❞ ❝Like you ain’t done your fair share of illicit shit.❞ ❝What the fuck are you even here for anyway?❞ ❝You got more piss and vinegar than you did when you were begging for help.❞ ❝After all this time, why should I help you?❞

[blarrghe]

Some stray thoughts

I watched the hbomberguy video despite having never heard of him, James Somerton, illuminaughtii, Filip, AVGN, OR internet historian. I'd only heard of a few of the people plagiarized -- mainly the academics. I basically don't use YouTube for anything but trailers and videos about quantum physics 🤷‍♀️

Watching the video informed me that these people talk about things I like and care about, and that they have collectively *millions* of subscribers making them lots of money. So I dont feel particularly compelled to be like "ok but I don't know who any of these people are" in that dismissive too-cool-for-it tone. It's clearly a big deal. Idk who the fuck juice world is either but he must be a big deal bc my high school students mention him like every day. Sometimes very big things lie outsude your small circle of influence.

Hbombguy made really good, well defended, entertaining points. In particular I'd love to show just the first hour breaking down what plagairism is and why it's bad to my students, bc he used a video game journalist as an example and laid out the point that this shit still matters even when it's something like YouTube channels about video games, and not just in school. I probably can't because of the swearing and humor but I do think it would resonate with exactly the audience that needs it (oh my God do teens need it) so I hope enough teens were watching.

I'd also really like to share some of the last bit about the value of creativity and the profoundly sad phenomenon of content creation for the sake of vain self fulfillment and empty moneymaking schemes. Those points hit something really key to the state of content creation and analysis right now.

Whether or not you care about ruining some guys career is irrelevant. Hbombguy even wants you to know that's not the point. He says so multiple times

The point is many people don't fully know what plagiarism means, which makes it easier for lazy assholes to exploit passionate hard working creatives and academics

And the point is that there is a good, defensible, collaborative and productive way to share, source, and build off others ideas, and that this is a skill we should all be learning to use and identify

Critical thinking skills and knowing the rules of engagement are essential in the internet information era. You are not immune to misinformation. You need to know what a reputable source looks like.

Ok that's it. Just getting real tired of the immediate response becoming "he DESTROYED his career" "yeah ok so? Idk who any of these people are"

Also it was funny.

[crossguild]

quick disclaimer: ppl are welcome to headcanon eiffel however they want regardless of the weird racial baggage in treating race or skin color like a palette-swap that has no bearing on anyone's life, i'm no one's parent. i do immediately, internally, mark down white ppl who are weirdly insistent on that headcanon as a Woke Liberal Racist tho

but personally, i'm fully incapable of seeing eiffel as anything other than the Whitest Guy You Know, and it's partly because he was written specifically for zach valenti to act, but also because he's not ever really malicious. the vast majority of the time, he's just a well-meaning but ignorant asshole. men of color who make fun of others' accents and names absolutely know that it's a hurtful thing to do; they'd have experienced it directed at themselves or loved ones constantly. it would never take a moc by surprise that mocking someone's name or accent is truly hurtful.

and dudes like doug "weaponized incompetence" eiffel are a dime a dozen. man who gets away with doing less than the bare minimum at work so that everyone else (mostly women and immigrants!) have to pick up his slack? dude who needs to be handheld through the most basic 'microaggressing people = bad' conversation? dude who immediately defends himself with the assertion that he's 'not a bad guy' and 'it was just a joke' instead of trying to deflect with 'well i experience it too and it doesn't bother me'? guy who repeatedly drops the ball and gets opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to redeem himself??? he's a fun character because he eventually gets there but hoo boy

like his basic personality, that of a funny slacker dude who exploits women and anyone more marginalized than him, happens everywhere. that's not an exclusively white guy thing. what codes him as white is how other people treat him, including like. the police who arrested him without incident after he disabled at least two children in a DUI. the court that gave him a reasonable sentence for the crime he actually committed.

there's plenty of poc and even some white people who hc him as a moc who aren't doing it because they think it makes them look more progressive, and i'm not talking about u guys. like i don't get it but do you. even they are like 'no yeah, it would make perfect sense for eiffel to be white, i just have a different image of him in my head'

idk why some of yall are so insistent that the absentee father who is a felon and struggling with addiction cannot be white tho. or even asian? i've never seen an asian eiffel hc? like tell me what u really think of black n latino men 🙃

[thatone-churro]

i was gonna make this addition to someone else’s post but it got longer than expected and i really didn’t wanna do that to them after they said they were done talking about it in regards to their own work.

i don’t know if “bugs” or “irks” are quite the right words for how i feel, but this take certainly does something of the sort to me.

i hate that the concept of “bury your gays” and its related discourses are so quickly applied to ALL queer media. it’s completely stripped of its original context/meaning and i know THAT irks me to no end.

personally, i’m of a mind that queers deserve media about them, about queers, and also about tragedy, death, murder, action and suspense, or whatever the occasion is. it can be about the queer cast while not having a happy ending, or without the cast being perfect.

“casually queer” is how i used to describe my personal project. yes, it’s blatantly and unapologetically queer, and that queerness is important, but it’s not the focus of the story. it’s not the point of the story. there’s still action, still adventure, still death, still tragedy. the cast isn’t perfect, some die, some are awful, some are “problematic,” even the queer cast. most things happen to the queer cast, because most of the major cast is queer.

i don’t understand the idea of condemning a work for “problematic queer characters” if it’s just a primarily queer work. you can’t have a queer story with no conflict or have realistic characters that are perfect. you want a queer story, but no, no, the queer characters can’t be problematic. and the problematic trait they describe is simply just. a character flaw exploited for the sake of the narrative. i don’t get it.

a queer story written for queers shouldn’t be perfect and pure. there should be “problematic” things. there should be tragedy. they shouldn’t have to be pure. they shouldn’t have to be perfect. they shouldn’t be shunned by the community they were created for because they told an otherwise typical story, except now it’s queer. queer stories, or any story, should be allowed to be complex. there should be nuance. not everything in it should be likable. that’s how a story works.

using my story as an example, again, my all-time favorite character and one of my main protagonists for a good chunk of it is a nonbinary lesbian on ace-spectrum. okay. cool. lots of rep there. but they’re heavily flawed. they kill. they have regrets. they make stupid decisions. they’re self-righteous. they’re terrified of being the bad guy yet end up the bad guy in many people’s views. they have one very violent motive. they love their family to such an extent that they’ll destroy anyone who lays a hand on them. they’re complex. they’re nuanced. they’re not always the good guy. that’s how a story is. if they were a perfect, pure, “perfect” character, there would be no story. no enjoyable story, at least.

what baffles me the most is when queer creators make these queer stories and suddenly they’re a bad queer because they killed one of their many queer characters, for instance. i’ll use my project once more for an example. say, remember that nonbinary ace lesbian from less than a paragraph ago? yeah, i ended up killing them at one point. their story was over and while it hurt me, too, it was a necessary step for the story. their story was over and i needed them to start the next chapter of the next protagonists’ story. but as a nonbinary ace lesbian myself, does that make me a “bad queer?” am i suddenly evil if i killed off my sapphic couple that got marrie in the first part because their story was over and there was no other way to move on their daughter’s story with them there? am i the asshole for killing one of my ace characters for a narrative purpose? am i not allowed to do certain things to my queer characters anymore if i don’t want to be a “bad queer?”

i guess these feelings boil down more to how strictly puritan culture and/or cancel culture and/or “problematic” culture has invaded the literary scene and how that impacts me, a queer writer. how are we supposed to tell these stories that people beg for if they are torn down and torn apart for the exact nuances they want? how are we supposed to create anything without relentless scorn or fear of being “cancelled” for thematic complexities? i don’t understand it.

in conclusion:

i realize my opinion on the subject is probably HEAVILY swayed by my own tastes and preferences and i have no idea where i’m going with this anymore and there’s not really an argument here anymore so really this whole thing can be taken with a grain of salt.

anyway, that’s my angry rant for the day. please don’t witch hunt me for it, thanks 🤞

[fvckw4d]

Having a long string of shitty roommates, almost all who happened to be trans and/or intersex and have used a wide variety of exuses to treat me like shit, made me realize that oh yeah, sometimes people will use whatever excuse they can find to be assholes. They'll say you're an abusive bigot while being an abusive bigot to you. They'll say you're too fucking stupid to make rational decisions and then claim that they couldn't have known any better because they were so scared or abused or because of how bad their childhood was. They will creep on you and accuse you of creeping on them.

The unfortunate reality is that there's are a lot of assholes out there and every straw man you can think of exists in the form of some selfish loser who thinks they're changing the world by being a selfish loser. It doesn't mean systems of oppression don't exist, it means there are a thousand exploits and versions of it that you didn't even imagine existing but assholes sit around and dream up every day so they don't have to confront why they suck as a person. Your experiences aren't universal. Deal with it.

[dreadfutures]

Sorry but all the "fuck bioware" stuff is real e_e to me

being in the UC at this moment in time, with PI's not being able to afford postdoc raises and having to let people go. It's the UC's fault. It's not your advisor's. And your advisor should also not be upset at you. The UC not helping PIs and blaming the postdocs for demanding a living wage and being unionized--this is UC unionbusting.

Even advisors who are pro-union and want to pay their postdocs more are in this tough position and have to let people go. Unfortunately, at some point, we are owned by a larger corporation and that is where the buck falls.

AFAIK the leadership at bioware changed a lot over the last 5-10 years and has been pro union and pro worker. A lot of these decisions seem wildly inconsistent with that, doesn't it?

There are bad bosses everywhere, I hear the PI's who are falling for the union busting bullshit or they themselves are truly exploitative assholes. Assholes, yeah, but still: the problem is the UC.

Idk I mean we'll see right in a few years when all the exposes come out. And of course I think severed workers should sue and get their due absolutely even if it bankrupts the lil studio but. Idk I'd rather say fuck capitalism and fuck EA than just blanket fuck bioware. \o/

[flukewarm]

still on black paladin allura

and also i will never leave her behind. i know the production timeline of this show was a mess and whatever but it still annoys me that a show with 70% poc in the main cast managed to be. That Way.

you are going to look me in the eyes, and tell me that this character, whose father poured his soul into building these machines, whose father was taken advantage of by someone he trusted, whose people were exploited and wiped out because of the Big Bad’s Greed, DOESN’T get to take the lead on taking the oppressor down?

was there no greater message in allura inheriting zarkon’s old lion, inheriting her father’s title, his creations and his fight to reclaim and/or revenge literally everything else that once belonged to her, that some asshole who Thought He Had The Right took away. to stop that from happening to anyone else. over “hmm big brother told me i was destined for More”

the shows over now yeah but my point is (for me and everyone who didn’t like how it went) fiction is important, especially if it tackles the topic of rebellion, ESPECIALLY if that rebellion is against an Empire. regardless of whether it is a children’s show, you AS SOMEONE TELLING A STORY, should be aware of how these narratives can unavoidably be contextualised in real life. you Are making a statement, whether you think anyone will catch it or not.

having a story about an oppressive empire featuring characters who are explicitly from REAL cultures that are still dealing with colonialism, white supremacy and their effects, and then shunting them off to the side in favour of their lighter counterparts’ stories Says Something. in voltron’s case, they (at best) didn’t have time to properly say anything worthwile about any of these topics or, (at worst) were too scared to do so.

if you (as an audience, or as a creator) are going to engage with fictional narratives of decolonisation, narratives of fighting the oppressor, don’t be scared to Apply the story, that’s what its there for. fiction is an escape from reality. it can be gripe water, it can be a tool to send messages under the guise of make-believe.

[rubra-wav]

YOU HAVE AN OC?? 😱😱 so yk..sharing is caring 😋.... lemme see..ykyk..

I LOVE YOU ANON OMFG <3

(I believe you've repeatedly asked stuff and I'd absolutely love it if you signed off with a name or an emoji kr sumn so ik its you for sure 🙏)

So, he's the persona/OC for this blog's aesthetic, header and alias; Atlas.

This is the current most up to date art I have of him that's not low effort like the response I had earlier today to that other thing i think you may have also sent?

He's what I've classed as a 'tech demon' (which is how I categorise Vox as well). Tech demons as i define them are sinners which are either robotic or AI in physical nature, and they usually have a particular affinity to do with technology, machinery, electricity, metals, etc. His main ability is Ferrokinesis (metal manipulation), however he does also have a particular affinity with technology as well.

As the art says, he's known as The Dealbreaking Demon/The Dealbreaker. This is because he essentially contacts seemingly random people out of the blue - some of them being fairly famous people - and then works with them to break their soul contracts.

Dealbreakers aren't unheard of in hell, but their reputations are always bad as they are usually trying to exploit their clients in some way or the other, and the ones with good intentions who actually deliver get taken out. This doesn't happen with Atlas however, as he doesn't physically go see his clients and is relatively anonymous.

He gets exposed however as he begins to take on the clients of current overlords, and they obviously begin investigating closer then others.

Due to this, his way of contacting people (online through targeted popups) is discovered even with all his efforts to hide the evidence, and he quickly becomes notable and seen as a fairly big threat to the control of many overlords as he's suddenly showing up and is very skilfully breaking contracts of souls they have owned for centuries in a few weeks or even as little as a few hours.

Atlas also doesn't use his powers for bad, per se, however he does use them to be a menace and is essentially a giant troll to people who he believes deserves it.

He's very vexing to many overlords as his intentions are so unclear, it's greatly troubling for several as it doesn't really seem that he's trying to gain power and rather wants to genuinely help people which is foreign.

He especially gains the attention of Vox as he's of course the one most effected by online trolling from another demon who can connect in with technology, and Atlas very quickly falls in love with making Vox's day worse and just being an asshole to him because his reactions are always so funny and over the top. (I am totally not enemies to lovers trash about them at all down the line no not at all 🙏)

When I properly make the OC reference sheets for him I'll set out a more solid thingy of him but yeah, thanks so much for letting me lore dump a bit on him omg <3

[inflammatoryfandomblog]

Tbh that Aaravos being responsible for every conflict in the last millenia gives me major degenerate cospiracy theory vibes and of this quote of a show that I am not a fan of https://youtu.be/Mq1EphvZGMg

I like how the greatest danger coming from him is implied to continue rickrolling and "trust me bro" some mages (which he already does?) rather than possessing magnificent cosmic powers?

The main characters get dragged along with the plot of stopping him without stopping and reflecting for a moment, you could literally ask them why he needs to be stopped and it'll be something like, "because he is making stoopid humans do war against xadia, duh"

And Apparently Ezran's ancestor/dynasty founder from 300 years ago betrayed him? And humans, elves and drakes worked together to imprison him? Yet their relationship still didn't improve at all??

Yeah I prefer reading dnd's filled to the brim complicated lore over what that is, a villain whose motives you do not know until this point isn't interesting and I yet haven't seen anything morally gray about him and I don't think he should be near women for some reason. His ruthless actions make sense in the situation he is in, I guess, but he is still an asshole?

Like what does he want? Become an Archon with his mindslave mages?

Lmfao the Diamonds from Steven Universe were more menacing

i wouldn't lob that at the showrunners; i mean obviously conspiracy theories like the illuminati have been pretty far-right in recent years, which has made some plots that involve them a bit uncomfortable in retrospect. but the far-right aren't the only people to fall for them, and for fiction they're an attractive way to have the focus on the characters rather than writing a societal treatise or whatever. dealing with Issues that require consideration is hard, writing wise; it's much simpler to have a final boss.

i think it's just sort of easy to show that a character is an mastermind by having them be responsible for literally everything. aaravos is more like lucifer than an expy of any group of people, i mean he's a fallen star and seems to have heavenly brothers/people, you can't really get more on the nose than that.

which like, the concept isn't *inherently* bad even if i hate it, like aaravos could just be successful because maybe he exploits faults that were already there in society in the first place or he's a metaphor for something, or whatever. it could work in theory, but this sort of plotline is so botched like a good 99.99% of the time (so much so that just the use of this trope is a pretty big red flag) and without a lot of work it really DOES undermine the "cycle of violence" theme completely if everything is the fault of one guy.

the dragon prince is just not good at showing the different sides of any issue with any depth of consideration, especially when it comes to the human side, so i'm not really holding my breath.

as for his motivation, idk the fact that the dragons are so afraid of him and that he could solo them means that he has a lot of power, he just wants to fuck about for some other issue other than just to gain power, like maybe revenge against somebody else (or to gain power over bigger fish than the dragons/elves and fucking about lets him do that), probably because he wants to stick it to his former star-people or whatever. who knows, there are literally no hints in the show as to why he might do this. it doesn't really matter to our characters or literally any other conflict that has emotional weight behind it, so i don't really care.

yeah the fact that a human was the one to bring to light aaravos's deception is... kind of weird, that the relations didn't improve at all. on one hand it probably explains why the dragons have been more ambivalent about humans than the "kill on sight" border patrolling policy they have would suggest (though at least one, rex igeneous, seems to disagree with it.) on the other hand... there's that "kill on sight" border patrolling policy they have, and also you'd think the existence of a primal human mage wouldn't be unknown for the first few season if she was literally buddies with a queen pivotal to the history of katolis. but the whole “callum is the only person ever to have wanted to be a primal mage badly enough” is not as compelling as the writers think it is.

"i don't think he should be near women for some reason." yeah. in his interactions with the female characters there's this very harass-y element to how he's portrayed (for example, khessa's death--not the obliteration itself, how he handles it just before). he also uses the word "ravishing" unironically, which... lmao. tryhard reddit vocabulary.

[da-manta-ray]

I watched Mitchells vs The Machines last Friday and it was… fine I guess? Don’t know how old this movie is but I guess I will use a cut just in case. Here are some more movie hot takes, I guess!

I feel like the movie wanted me to feel bad for Boomer Dad at the end of the movie but tbh I didn’t. Like the guy can barely feign interest in his kid’s art that he just has to sit and watch! I know they try and explain it like “oh he’s not good with technology” but like, most of the time, she’s loading it up for him! And the poor mom is trying to be like “hey don’t be an asshole” when Katie shows the family her latest project but he still can’t help himself and continues to be like “but what if you fail” and “I don’t get it”. Like yeah, I don’t blame Katie for wanting to get away and go to college as soon as possible. Like this girl has to deal with constant artistic rejection from her dad but he hears her say one mean thing that gets recorded and shown to him by the bad guy during a high stakes scene and it’s like “oh no how devastating” and I’m just like, “get it together dad! This is no time to nurse your ego! Also you kind of deserve it ngl”.

Also like if my dad cancelled my flight to college and pulled me out of orientation week, I too would be very pissed and uncharitable towards him. I made a good number of my university friends during that week and if the robot apocalypse hadn’t happened, she would probably have missed out on a good bonding experience with her fellow classmates. Is it the end of the world? No, but still incredibly shitty. Also I fully cringed when I heard the phrase “your eyes are nature’s camera”… this was something I’ve actually heard before, so uh, thanks for that bit I guess.

There were also a bunch of obvious quips about social media and tech, like “who would have thought that big tech companies wouldn’t have our best interests at heart” and other similar things from various characters in the movie. It felt like it wanted to make some sort of statement about tech, and while I don’t disagree with the little quips, I honestly think it doesn’t work very well in the story. As someone who has worked at similar tech companies, the portrayal of the PAL CEO as this guy who was callous about how he treated the AI antagonist but ultimately good hearted is pretty laughable. Usually what happens is that a bunch of people voice their concerns about some feature or product, and then those concerns are ignored or put on some backlog to be *addressed later* (and then languishes in some poor employee’s list of backlog tasks) and the feature/product gets launched anyway. Unless it harms the money or ~metrics~, or has the potential to turn into a big news story (even then that might not be a deterrent), good luck getting it prioritized. So I don’t think the whole “ooops how was I supposed to know that this would happen” framing of the robot uprising was a little dumb.

I guess it is a kids movie so it’s not going to be that realistic but I think it would have served the main story better if they just didn’t try and make any grand statements about technology. While the main bad guy is literally an AI, the main emotional conflicts of the story are largely about bridging the generational divide between Katie and Boomer dad, and about PAL feeling exploited by the CEO (which can happen to people too, not just AI). They didn’t need to shoehorn in the “tech can be bad, but also good sometimes” stuff, like no shit! The only half-good moment about tech in this movie is when the dad is like “wow people actually are watching my daughters movies on YouTube” or whatever but even then, it’s not so much about the technology, but about the impact of Katie’s art on others.

I liked the brother. He gave me neurodivergent vibes, and I really liked his interactions with Katie. I’m not neurodivergent so I can’t really comment on whether it was good rep or not but he felt like a fully fleshed out character.

Katie has a girlfriend at the end of the movie, which is nice but only really comes up in like the last 5 minutes afaik unless I missed some other reference. One day I hope that there will be more lgbtq rep in kids movies that isn’t just like an “oh by the way…” . Maybe I should have paid more attention to the texting/video call scenes, maybe there were hints (or more obvious things) I missed.

The mom was one of my favourite characters (alongside the dog), truly just trying her best to mediate and support her family, while trying to kick Boomer Dad into giving more of a shit. That woman deserves a nice beach holiday somewhere where she can take a break from carrying this family on her back.