#at least in Western media

[mzminola]

I think it's fun, and consistent with the rest of his character, that while Tim has no faith in the existence (or perhaps simply benevolence) of any sort of divine higher power, he does believe in the existence of souls.

I think that fits really well with Tim having faith in people. That all individual people are important, that they have amazing capabilities for both good and evil, and that they need support from each other to keep doing good. It fits with his continuing balancing act with both faith in and criticism towards Bruce.

Tim finds it totally believable that Greta is both a ghost & connected to some kind of afterlife pathway. He rolls with Anita's parents souls whooshing into the fetal clones. When Kon is worried he doesn't have a soul, Tim is confident that Kon does have one. He gets pissed when Red Tornado is dismissed as "just" a machine.

When Dick fights against Tim using or sampling the Lazarus Pit to bring back some loved ones, asking "What about their souls?" Tim just retorts that "The Pit brings that back too."

Which leads to one of my headcanons: that some time before she died, Janet expressed either belief in or hope for reincarnation. Tim describes his parents as "My mom was a little religious. My Dad not at all." in the Judgment on Gotham crossover arc. In Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, when thinking of dead loved ones to bring back, he pictures Kon, Steph, and his dad. Not his mom.

Combined with all the above, I'm headcanoning that Tim has reason to think the Lazarus Pit can't bring back Janet Drake. That Tim believes her soul is neither lingering on this plane nor moved on to an afterlife from which it can be summoned, but willingly reincarnated already, and is therefore actually out of reach.

[blaiddfailcam]

i feel like creature design is on such a downward trend

[zvaigzdelasas]

I mean. I literally do???

[heritageposts]

Podcast w/Rania Khalek and Nima Shirazi, link + transcript above ↑

[yuriinadress]

Remember when yuri on ice was canon in steven universe

Yeah me too

Steven Universe (2017-2020) #4

[dwreader]

i think its so cool that iwtv uses visual & cultural shorthand to say something without really saying it (except they kind of do say it as well cause louis is called a houeswife) and its kind of sad ppl aren't even appreciating it like if you remember all the old sitcoms you watched growing up when the kid needed to learn how to drive who was teaching them? probably the dad. we've spent our whole lives watching brides get carried into the house after marriage. we watched lucille ball clean the house while ricky came home in a suit and tie. we've seen a million courtships where the boy gets invited to dinner at the girl's family and they grill him on his intentions, as well as proposals by men getting down on their knees. we've also seen countless romantic comedies where the man uses a song to woo back the girl he lost. does this mean all relationships or marriages have this exact dynamic??? obviously not!! are there also examples of the reverse?? duh. but storytelling is not just about what's in front of you but also the culmination of what you've seen before.

[sailforvalinor]

It’s probably been said already, but I think the reason I find myself gravitating away from modern western media and towards anime/k-drama/what have you is that I would so much rather watch something that’s maybe a little cheesy and overdone, but fundamentally earnest and heartfelt that knows what it is and isn’t ashamed of it, than something flashy, glossy, and manicured trying to appeal to every possible demographic and above all trying so so desperately not to be *shudders* cringy that it somehow manages to be so in every possible manner

[c0rpsedemon]

the thing about the queer media tournament that really gets me is that last i checked there wasn't a single mxtx work on it. like not even the untamed made it in and don't get me wrong the og mo dao zu shi books are huge but cql is def more popular among tumblr circles. idk it just really rubs me the wrong way how every single piece of western media that ppl have ever gotten a lil bit aggressive abt shipping with is there and then for east asian media there's utena and madoka magica and the handmaiden and last i checked that was pretty much it. and then for the rest of the world there's next to/nothing but idk enough to really make judgements there.

[choccy-zefirka]

So. I am Old TM, particularly in the eyes of teenagers, and have no interest in getting entangled in ship wars involving literal child characters. If someone asked me if I am Team Kataang or Team Zutara, I’d reply that I am Team Iroh. But I will say this.

I grew up on Harry Potter, and the only characters there that looked like me were the Dursleys, and Umbridge, and Slughorn, and Crabbe and Goyle. So while Willow Park is not a fat character reaaally, her model is somewhat rounder than those of the other kids in The Owl House, and I know for a fact that teen me would have latched on to her. And teen me would have been absolutely mindblown to have a Tragic Boy With A Dark Past Now On A Redemption Arc, like the ultimate HEART-THROB from teenage romance media, get visibly flustered and blushy around a girl like this.

So if you are a fat teen shipping Huntlow, I am so so happy you get to have this, and if I were 15 years younger, I’d have been out there with you having a field day.

[nonokoko13]

If I see someone else trying to defend Kalim/Jamil by attacking the other or their enjoyers and misreading and boiling down their characters by saying Kalim is stupid or how Jamil is the only one at fault in their situation I'll be the one overblotting. Why you pit two victims of an awful hierarchy system they weren't asked to be stuck with. Why you have to treat people who respectfully disagrees with you in something like a series or a character interpretation like they're criminals who must be shamed or punished with death. How do you play a game that relies on narrative without actually reading. Why can't you use the block/mute button instead of engaging in a conversation you know it will be unpleasant for all parts to make it a fight you want to win. And why I see so many mysoginy/misandry in a game that it's about a lot of male characters with a main character who can be the gender you imagine them to be

[shrekyaoi]

I think a big part why there's such an issue with mischaracterization and what not in cod is because a huge part of the fandom are teenage girls who have not played the game and who got into cod through edits of ghost or könig they saw on tiktok. Kind of mean but I digress. I don't think there's anything wrong with not playing the games though, they are military propaganda and a part of the proceeds do go to the us military so if you've got a strong moral stance against that I can see why people wouldn't buy them. They are also overpriced as fuck too. Pirating is very much a thing thought but I think it's a little beyond the know how of the average person in the cod fandom

believe me if you think i’ve dropped a single penny on any property activision has ever handled you’d be dead wrong. i’m not sure i’d target lock on the “teenage girls” because ultimately there’s a lot of misogyny buried in that belief, but it is because people do not want to engage with the games on any level deeper than character appearances and a few voicelines. people don’t want to read ghost’s comic (which. considering the content, i cannot blame them too much but they won’t even read a synopsis), they don’t want to watch playthroughs, they don’t want to read/watch analyses. it’s a little embarassing that there’s such a clean cut between the people that have and haven’t played the games. i saw it back a few months after mw2 2022 came out and the fanbase that HAD played the game thought it fucking sucked dick and balls but the part of the fanbase that hadn’t didn’t know/didn’t care. the contrast is wild. it’s kinda funny that the people that have played the games love yuri to a frankly offputting degree but the majority of the fanbase that haven’t don’t even know who this guy is. it’s weird! but it’s not unique. i did my time in the dc fandom and when i tell you not a single person wants to pick up a comic and read it i would still be understating it. people don’t really like doing the work if the only thing that compels them is designs plus what i shall here refer to politely as “baggage”

this is getting long so i’m cutting it

another thing is that it’s extremely easy to write cod off as propaganda because it is, but i don’t think a lot of people realise what that actually means. i don’t think they want to actually dig in and pick apart the parts that are very clearly the writers going, “hey, you see these guys? we should hate these guys because they’re different” or “you see this shit? this is why we should have a bigger military” or “wow wasn’t that horrible. don’t google it btw since it’s not the russians that actually did that irl but the americans 🖤.” it’s almost overwhelming but people don’t want to talk about it.

and i can kinda understand why, right. because people want to “just enjoy things.” they want to be able to turn their brain off and let it all wash over them so they don’t have to think too hard. this sounds a little condescending, i realise, and i’m sorry for that because there’s nothing wrong with it. that’s why we’ve got blockbusters. but, it’s also why we’ve got marvel movies, and marvel movies have been military propaganda since the very first iron man movie.

i can’t personally ever turn off the critical lens when i engage with art. it’s a problem of mine. so, this is that haunting third component to me writing the roach fic, the component i never really bring up except in the author’s note of the first chapter: call of duty is the crowning jewel of western imperialism and if i do not talk about it somewhere at some point my head will explode

if me actually digging into it here puts anyone off of the fic now from me saying it, i’m really sorry you’ve been sold something different than what you had anticipated. think of it as a plot twist. an explicitely-stated plot twist, but one nonetheless. it’s only been implied in the fic so far, but here it is in all its ugly glory.

anyway. while i have you here. watch this video for me

[shiawasekai]

i'm sorry to people who follow me because they have to suffer all my incredibly niche interests. Like, man can i get obsessed with something mainstream for once?????

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

If there is at least one thing I can credit FE for doing better than Tales in localization, it's not trying to actively go out of their way for an entire game to avoid subtext or direct text between two men that is romantic or implied romantic. Funny when it's so present that the attempt doesn't even work; infuriating that it was attempted to begin with.

So as much as I often have issues with some of FE's localizations, at least they have a leg up on loc Tales for that.

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

ok see when i say luz and hunter are siblings i don't just mean like they hang out and make fun of each other sometimes. i also dont just mean they have parent-child connections with the same adults making them "found family siblings technically" or however people describe it. they can do that sometimes but what i mean is that they are blood brothers (east asian concept)

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

imma be controversial

the hate on Taylor for being times most influential person is very politically based and in my opinion it’s wrong.

I find it weird as an adult people wait for celebrities and influencers to talk on political topics because? Well they aren’t really qualified and it doesn’t really change anything but please fans.

the people that we should listen to are politicians. Yes Palestine needs help but like? Taylor swift speaking out won’t change what’s happening there because they need a person in POWER to speak up.

in my mind the hate centered on her winning is crazy. Men are saying she should get ra*ed getting THOUSANDS of likes, people slut shaming her wishing she’d die… it’s horrible.

One of my biggest issues with that critique is that the Person of The Year is picked months in advance and parts of the interview for the profile were done prior to October 7. I didn’t see anything about people wanting Palestinian journalists being to be named when the shortlist was released on Monday. It’s like people are asking for the TIME journalists and editor board to time travel and make their decision. Even if they did pick something dealing with Palestine, they’d probably choose the IDF or Netanyahu given how Western media is still primarily supporting Israel even though they’re blatantly committing genocide. The work that Palestinian journalists are doing is brave, courageous and devastating, and unfortunately most of western media is refusing to show their work and bring attention to it when they should be.

I don’t know when or why we decided that we need to hear and know every single celebrity’s stance on every big political issue, especially when they most likely know nothing about it and are making a statement for the sake of optics. I agree with you anon and that the people we should care about knowing their stance is the elected officials who actually make decisions and have influence over these situations. I literally don’t think Taylor Swift making an Instagram story or post is going to change any politician’s minds or actually end any of the conflict; it won’t have any actual effect beside being a statement. Have the statements from any of the other hundreds of celebrities done anything to change the minds of politicians or impact policy?

People getting annoyed or mad at Taylor for something that isn’t in her control is seemingly becoming common place. I’m not sure there would be as much backlash if the title had gone to one of the world leaders on the shortlist, I’m sure there would be different kinds of backlash though. TIME picks the person or group based on the influence, positive or negative, that they had around the world during the year and as I said earlier, the western media only started paying attention to what was happening to the Palestinian people on October 7th and the days following.

[hotshotriot]

thinking about the western comics industry again and can i just say i'm Shocked there has yet to be a major equivalent to manga magazines here. like i would kill to be able to pump out comic chapters to a big crowd without having to worry about 1. coloring 2. the publisher imploding on itself before i'm done