#choices have been made by the writers

[evil-ot3]

I know I’ve been begging for ben to see a therapist for a LONG time but y’all kurt boggs is NOT the fucking therapist you go to fr 😭 I don’t care if he’s the most well-informed on their whole ordeal but it’s not worth it

[paldogangsaan]

the most frustrating part abt the scene with alicent and rhaenyra (other than it being ridiculous) is the attempt at portraying alicent as a passive victim with zero agency (TO BE CLEAR she's a victim of both otto and viserys, that's not a question, she had no choice there. she did, however, have a choice in other moments and those are what i'm talking abt in this post). the writers essentially made her go "oh i thought he was talking about MY aegon. well, it's too late. i am a tragic figure who never wanted war. oh no" like ?? some of us have eyes and can see that alicent has been actively trying to gain power, undermine rhaenyra, and divide the family even before the time skip. she shows up to rhaenyra's wedding late and wearing green, she sows discord between their kids, spreads rumors of rhaenyra's children being bastards despite knowing it could get them killed (+ in the book the only ppl yapping abt them being bastards were alicent and criston cole bc the point of spreading rumors was to undermine and hurt both them and rhaenyra, if it was true or not was irrelevant), and she literally hits aegon and insists that rhaenyra will kill him to cement her claim to the throne even when there's been no indication that she would. alicent did not have to do any of those things, she actively chose to

and rhaenyra was willing to leave all that in the past by marrying helaena and jace thus ending the (then metaphorical) war between their sides of the family, but alicent refused bc she wanted power and for rhaenyra to not have any, so she made active choices to ensure that, and didn't care for the consequences. now her son is the king, she never prepared him for it so he's shit at it, she can't control him, she has no power, and the only person surprised is her (and otto). but again, these are choices SHE made or helped make. making an enemy of rhaenyra, and everything that came bc of that, was a choice. she would've helped put aegon on the throne whether viserys quoted the prophecy to her or not, be it usurpation (which it was) or not. that was a choice alicent made. stop portraying her as a passive victim of the dance when that role belongs to helaena

[mlchaelwheeler]

once again, i'd like to point out that stranger things is a tv show. the characters are not real. why is this important? all scenes and narratives are written a specific way, they don't just happen by themselves. for example, this means:

in 1x03, the writers chose to emphasize mike's reaction to will's "body" being found in comparison to lucas and dustin's reactions. they easily could've shown all three of the boys' reactions, but instead mike was the focus and got multiple scenes of his shock and anger over will's "body" being found.

in 1x04, the writers chose to focus on mike being depressed over will's death. they didn't do this for dustin or lucas, even though all four of the boys are introduced as a group at the beginning of the season.

in 1x04, the writers chose to have mike shove troy in the gym for making homophobic comments about will. any one of the boys could've taken offense to that, but instead, mike is the focus while lucas and dustin stand off to the side.

in 1x04, the writers chose mike to be the one who recognized will's voice over the radio. they could've easily had the entire party there for that scene, but instead it was just mike who immediately knew will's voice.

in 2x01, the writers chose mike as the one to follow will out of the arcade and bring him back inside. it could've been any of the party members, but instead mike was singled out as having noticed will disappeared.

in 2x02, the writers chose to have mike be the one to comfort will after his "episode," even though the whole party is trick-or-treating together. it could've easily been written as group bonding where will tells everyone about his visions, but instead the writers gave us the crazy together scene.

in 2x03, the writers chose to focus on mike at school when will is acting weird. it was specifically chosen that mike was the only one to notice will was "quiet today" and that it was weird he missed class, while the rest of the party didn't notice anything was wrong.

in 2x08, the writers chose to have mike be in the shed with the rest of will's family. there could've been a cute scene of the whole party trying to reach will with stories of their dnd campaigns, but instead mike is the only non-family member present (not counting hopper because he didn't share any memories).

in 3x01, the writers chose to make the movie theater full enough that mike/will and lucas/max couldn't all sit together. this was directly after lucas implied going to the movies was the equivalent of "spending romantic time" together.

in 3x03, the writers chose to have mike and will get into an argument at the wheeler's house, even though lucas was also there. lucas didn't just happen to stay behind in the basement. it was a clear choice that mike and will got into a fight, just the two of them.

in 3x08, the writers chose to give will and mike an individual goodbye scene, even though the only other individual scenes were jancy and mlvn (two couples). there could've been a scene of the whole party saying goodbye but instead the writers specifically had a (flirty) goodbye scene between mike and will, directly contrasting the (extremely) awkward mlvn goodbye.

in 4x09, the writers chose to give mike and will another heart-to-heart in hopper's cabin right at the end of the season. will could've easily told everyone there that he still knows vecna is alive (this is probably what should've happened honestly), but instead only told mike-- when el was right there! the clear choice to give them a special talk right at the end of the season was very telling.

[masked-alien-lesbian]

You know it still burns my ass up that Gabe gets a cg when we first meet him (a character that's race customizable mind you) while Aislinn doesn't get a cg until book 2...which Gabe gets a 2nd one at the same damn time!

[avale-reves]

sometimes you do have to remember that kh is a videogame designed to be played first and foremost. so many 'odd' seeming decisions make a lot more sense when you take this into consideration. that and just the realities of game dev and having a budget and resource constraints lol

like do people know that the biggest reasons for worlds to be included or excluded from a game has nothing to do with its story or disney or popularity and often just has to do with the game environment/setting being different enough from the other worlds they've chosen lol.

like this is why jungle book keeps getting cut, because they pick other (better) worlds with jungle environments over it every time for the final roster, as an example.

[simptasia]

antisemitic trekkies have a staggering amount of gall

[sonknuxadow]

potential sonic 3 spoilers incoming if anyone cares. anyway . apparently there was an official survey about the knuckles show/scu in general and one of the questions was about what name you would use for an eggman/shadow/gerald teamup. which is a weirdly specific question. and also one of the name options was team dark …….. ?? even though rouge isnt mentioned in the question and theres no sign of her being in the next movie in general ? i was willing to accept amy being introduced a little after knuckles and tails but between there still being no sign of her being in the next movie and now this if they actually have gerald time travel or something and have him be the third member of the dark story trio instead of rouge then i will be fully convinced that theyre going out of their way to exclude as many already existing girl characters as possible. like i get cgi is expensive which could be part of the reason rouge might not have made the cut. but damn . assuming this is real anyway it could just be another fake leak but idk

[absentlyabbie]

"the binge model for shows is bad, fuck bingeing"

the problem isn't the show dropping all at once or some folks enjoying being able to gobble down the entire plot at once or in sizable chunks at the pace of their choice

as usual, the problem is shitty corporations mining any and every form of enjoyment and entertainment for profit and manipulating viewer preferences in service of that goal until they break them, then continuing to beat that poor, rotted horse like a gory pinata

[harpieisthecarpie]

Mildly important fanwork/fandom interaction questions! Anyone can feel free to answer!

Thinking about fandom interactions, I'm wondering about how we as fan communities can create fun environments and engage with other fans more!

You can answer (or not answer) however many of these questions as you want! The questions bolded with their number in purple are the ones I'm most curious about.

Feel free to reply in the reblogs, tags, or comments!

If you can, please reblog so we can get more answers :)

Questions below!

(There's sections for fans that make fanworks, fans that interact with fanworks, and fans that enjoy fanworks but don't interact.)

Fans that create fanworks (fanart, fanfic, edits, etc):

A1. What are your favorite kinds of interactions/comments? Ex. Long rambles, analyses and theories, strings of incoherent garbled yelling

A2. Where do you like to get them? Ex. Ao3 vs Tumblr, reblogs vs tags vs comments, in DMs?

A3. Do you want or enjoy people creating stuff inspired by or modifying yours? (Creating as in art of your fic, fic of your art, etc. Modifying as in translations, podfics, etc)

A4. Do you want or enjoy people promoting your stuff? Ex. fic rec lists, sharing in groupchats, posting about your stuff with links to it

A5. How do you feel when you get nice comments or have good interactions?

A6. Most importantly, what would you say to people who are scared to or or don't know how to start interacting with fanworks?

Fans that enjoy fanworks and interact with them:

B1. What kind of comments do you like leaving and where do you leave them? Ex. Ao3 vs Tumblr, reblogs vs tags vs comments

B2. What makes you more likely to interact?

B3. What made you start interacting?

B4. Have you made any friends or mutuals by commenting and interacting?

B5. Has leaving comments and talking with creatives changed how you feel about or approach your own fanworks?

B6. How has interacting with fanworks and the guys who make them improved your fan experience?

People that enjoy fanworks but don't interact (no judgment! We're all different 💛):

C1. Do you want to interact more? If you do, what makes you want to comment or interact?

C2. Is there anything holding you back? Ex. nerves, unsure how, bad past experiences, etc.

C3. Do you make your own fanworks? Has that affected (or been affected by) your choice not to interact?

C4. Are there ways other fans could help or encourage you to interact or get involved? Are there any ways you want to encourage yourself?

THANKS FOR ANSWERING IF YOU DO :D

PS. Add a 💛 or <3 to your response/reblog if you want me to make an anonymous survey focusing on this topic!

I'd compile and post the results so we can see how our fellow fans think :)

[wifeguycyclonus]

they describe Breakdown as “an opportunist beyond any redemption” like he wasn’t going to let Bulkhead go before Starscream turned up (iirc; i swear he was thinking abt it). Like a redemption is going to be an easy about-face and not something he would have to struggle with and inevitably butt heads with both his allies and his enemies about. Like they didn’t let Knock Out have a bit of a redemption >:(

they should have done it together! Let Breakdown realize that the Decepticons are wasting away and being needlessly violent and cruel and let him join the Autobots! Let Bulkhead struggle with coming to terms with his enemy now being on his team; let Optimus welcome Breakdown with open arms like he never got to welcome any other Cons (i dont think he ever got to acknowledge knock out). Let Knock Out then struggle with the choice to stay or go, let Breakdown try to convince him and let Knock Out be conflicted.

Let ‘Cons be redeemed! Let them learn to be better people! And also I think Breakdown would be friends with Miko and it’d be funny

(idk what the page is from, nabbed it from this forum thread: https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/does-anyone-feel-sorry-for-prime-breakdown-he-deserved-better.1236414/)

[glompcat]

ngl the most disgusting thing Yellowjackets has ever had on the show is a character who deeply wanted to have an abortion last season and went so far as to hand a friend of hers bra underwire and asked her to end it right until the stark reality of how likely she was to die hit her, state that she is sooooo happy she was forced to carry to term and loves the baby more than anything. The fact it was part of a hallucination she had while miscarrying actually does not improve on it for me tbh, nor does the episode ending on her sobbing over the stillbirth. Not giving a pass to any of that at this current political moment, thanks.

[robotrightsactivist]

Alien Romulus was cool but I have to say the dynamic between the white girl main character and her Black synthetic brother was like. Idk. That was definitely a choice the writers made

[wolfienation]

until i see the full season i won't be jumping to character assassination conclusions. 2 episodes isn't enough to claim total destruction. by the end of ep 8, all these earlier actions could have entirely different meanings so, i withhold judgement.

[bombshellsandbluebells]

now that I’m dragging my mental health back to a semi-decent place and feel like I might have the energy to like....write literally anything again, at some point I’m going to write about the importance of critiquing within the context of a written story

as in, critiquing narrative points completely without any consideration of how they are contextualized in the story is a bit unfair.

as in, I continue to see things about the Ted Lasso finale that annoy me. not because people had a different read of the finale or disliked different things than I did - or that they’re critiquing it at all; there’s plenty I will critique or would have done differently - but like, saying things like “Ted going back home to Kansas is bad because he’s clearly miserable about it” is an unfair reading when, within the CONTEXT of the story, it’s not framed that way. regardless of whether it was a choice you liked or how you would have wanted things to end, it’s not framed in the story as a) a bad thing, b) a miserable sacrifice, or c) a thing that Ted is upset about. so there’s a difference between saying “I don’t like Ted going back home to Kansas at the end because to me that doesn’t read as a happy ending’ and “the finale objectively frames Ted going back as a bad thing because it makes him unhappy” 

and this isn’t JUST a critique on criticism in regards to Ted Lasso. it’s the nature of fandom criticism in general. “I didn’t like this thing” becoming “this thing is objectively bad in the story” or even “this thing is portrayed as objectively bad bc of this, this, and this” despite that contradicting how the story actually frames it.

[welcometogrouchland]

I think the disconnect between canon Belos and (a certain genre of) fanon Belos is that in canon he is pathetic (in the dramatic sense) not sympathetic.

[yourqueenb]

Girl are you really concerned about his lil baby ass threat 😒 I would’ve laughed in his face