#disney the corporation not disney the creators

[thechaseofspades]

I always thought “DuckTales” ended too soon. We could’ve seen more of Violet’s dad. Whatever they had planned for Negaduck, and they could’ve bought Poe (Magica’s brother) into the mix making him and Magica co-big bads of a hypothetical S4

Hey so I accidentally did the thing again where I wrote like 500 words. Apparently I have strong feelings about this, so bare with me. Or don't. Either way works. But big thanks for the inbox! I really do appreciate it.

I really try to be happy with what we have, because Ducktales is my absolute favorite show and nothing's gonna ruin that for me.

But, yeah, being critical for a moment, the show ending early really messed with everything. Suddenly the large cast was fighting for a rapidly shrinking amount of screen time, and arcs had to be rushed or minimized to fit the overarching plot. It wasn't a great situation.

Like, it's not Owl House bad, where entire concepts need to be squeezed down into one or two scenes, or even montages. But the difference is that the Owl House seems to be managing that crunch a lot better than Ducktales did.

Again, the cast being as big and fleshed out as it is, it's hard to divvy up a 22-episode season where everybody gets adequate time and also wraps up their story in a satisfying way. But the DT crew decided to just keep adding and adding and adding. This was supposed to be their biggest season ever. Several ideas were thrown onto the screen and then not followed up on because there just wasn't time for it.

"Astro B.O.Y.D." is my favorite episode of Season 3. And not to diminish that fact, but does any of it get followed up on? I don't think we saw Boyd once until the finale. We just didn't have any time for that.

Bringing Poe in for "Life and Crimes" is an interesting concept. But why are you introducing that A WEEK BEFORE THE SHOW ENDS, especially if it will have pretty much zero impact on anything else.

May and June didn't even get to exist for longer than an episode. You're bringing in pivotal characters in the series finale?

Negaduck! Where was he? Oh, they couldn't fit him in the show! My point exactly.

*deep breath in* *deep breath out*

I have no doubt that the DT crew put these elements in as a love letter to the past. It's very neat that they would do that, and it introduces a younger person like me to these great characters. But it just leaves us asking these sorts of questions. Leaves us wishing we had more than just one episode, or even just one scene.

I get that Disney is weird about shows having three seasons, but I still to this day don't understand why Ducktales couldn't be an exception to that. It's a reboot of the show that made DTVA, but better. It introduced so many legacy Disney characters to a modern audience and was well-received pretty much anywhere you looked. Everyone involved loved working on it and probably would have kept doing so for as long as possible. Not only did they have more stories to tell, but they clearly wanted to tell them. I just... I don't understand it.

Amphibia ended because the story being told was over. The Owl House is ending because it's too gay. But Ducktales ended... just because.

If Disney green lights six DT17 spinoffs for D+ covering each team's post-canon adventures, I will upgrade to ad-free Hulu.

[majoresca]

📝✍️Petition for Disney to make Sofia the First in classic style, 2D animation by hand right here!✍️📝

Let's see if the power and will of the people prevails on social media. 🤝

Sofia The First fandom, join here!

Signal your presence in this petition. Flaging your username in the reblog.

To show in quantity how much we are!

@majoresca here! 🫡

PR*SHIPPER DO NOT INTERACT!

[northern-passage]

very interested to know if anyone would ever leave a review like this on a game that had all cishet characters... is that pandering to the "cisgender" narrative? or is it only pandering when it's the "transgenders"? 🤔 what makes it pandering? just because it's for an audience that's not you? because it's for a group of people you don't personally like? what makes you so special that only your stories are the ones you deem worthy of being told?

[wheeloffortune-design]

Seriously, I think one of the worst things we did to ourselves is to adopt the mindset of

"Yeah, but they're doing representation wrong."

[jessiarts]

I hate that corporations hoard many of the world's stories.

I hate that corporations make all this money from the stories they hoard, yet will work the artists they employ to create their movies and shows to the bone, forcing long hours and insufficient pay.

I also hate that those same corporations will see fit to come for everything a fan owns if that fan decides to produce fan content for sale or commission when whatever money that fan might have made will come to but a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what that corporation will rake-in during a month from their hoard of stories. What makes it more upsetting is that fan content is often better too, made from the heart of someone who loved the story and wanted to share, as opposed to cheap mass produced stuff thought up only for it's ability to make sales. And I hate that the workers who mass produce those products also aren't likely paid or treated fairly.

I also hate that these corporations can decide to just... wipe any story from the face of the earth for a tax break and the creators of those stories can't do anything about it, and I hate more that the rights to those stories don't return to them.

I hate that certain platforms, which allow smaller creators of content or stories to host said content for free on a monetized platform, only give those creators pennies on the dollar of every ad, when the platform literally could not exist without all the content all those creators make- and while the CEOs make millions. And I hate how said platforms force the creators to censor themselves to death, and often remove or demonetize their content for unclear reasons that they refuse to explain, all to be "Advertiser Friendly."

I hate that if content isn't consumed immediately, the content dies, that shows get cancelled for stuff like "completion rates." I hate how we're not allowed to just enjoy our stories at own own pace anymore if we want them to survive. I hate that we must consume more and more to "prove" the story's worthiness to producers or stakeholders or whoever, or risk losing it.

I hate how capitalism has woven into our storytelling, and I hate how capitalism has bled into fandom.

I hate how fandom has become less about community and sharing what we love- even years after a story has ended, and more about who can finish a series fast enough to produce enough content before they have to move onto the next thing everyone else is watching. And I hate how the fan content is thanklessly consumed and more is demanded as if the creators themselves are vending machines meant only to serve instead of members of the community with thoughts and feelings and their own love for the story.

And I hate how we all now call things like art, stories, music, etc: "content."

And I hate that capitalism has made it so that if you are a creator of any such media, you must participate in capitalism in order to share it to a wider audience, and I hate how capitalism has also made us believe that if our work doesn't reach a massive audience then we've failed or our creation was meaningless/not good.

And I wonder how many wonderful stories none of us will experience because the game of capitalism choked them out before we could hear them.

[tvheadfalls]

hey you. indie creator. get rid of the corporate execs and the imaginary writers room in your brain. the cynical youtube reviewers and disney fans who want sanitized uwu gays probably are never even gonna be even slightly aware of your existence. write those unrelatable blorbos and those messy themes and that weirdly sexy violence. you have no one to answer to but yourself. give yourself what you want and maybe some day, some 3 random lesbians from the internet whose interests you have somehow exactly hit will look at your thing and think its pretty cool, and in the end thats all you ever needed

[systembroadcasting]

If everyone could collectively agree to do things together we could kill so many corporations.

[hollowwish]

You guys do realize a lot of watcher fans complaining about the six dollars don't just need to "cancel their disney+ or hulu subscriptions." They're the people who ALREADY can't afford streaming services. It's not that they should be supporting independent creators over big corporations, it's that they literally cannot afford to do either.

[renthony]

Weird trend I've noticed:

When it comes to Disney-owned television shows, people seem much more willing to recognize that Disney just owns it, Disney didn't make it. The creators, writers, and actors are more likely to be credited and celebrated within fandom spaces, and even people who dislike it will acknowledge that it was made by the individual artists.

Disney movies, though? They don't seem to get that as often. The movies are much more likely to be treated as if the vague entity of "Disney" made it. Fans will say "Disney made a great movie," and critics will say that "Disney made a piece of crap." The directors and writers get mentioned much more rarely.

For example, people know that Dana Terrace created The Owl House and Alex Hirsch created Gravity Falls and Matt Braly created Amphibia, but far fewer people seem aware that Turning Red was directed and co-written by Domee Shi, Encanto was directed by Jarded Bush and Byron Howard, and Moana was Musker & Clements.

I'm sure a decent amount of that is due to the way Disney itself markets the films as part of their brand. Show title cards will list the title and the "created by" credit, but you never see that in film title cards (if the film even has a title card). The company wants you to look at the movies and only see the corporate branding. They want the movies to lead to new theme park attractions and merch deals, where they just don't put that level of marketing into their television productions nine times out of ten.

I do often think fandom spaces could be more diligent in learning the names of the artists behind the films, though. Disney didn't make them, the workers did, and it's the workers who get exploited in the process. At least give them the credit instead of the studio.

[nowlander]

What is your opinion on MGA Cleopatra doll, it does look a little similar to Mattel cleo de nile, it represent the historical queen Cleopatra, maybe in the future they will release more dolls of historical woman.

I didn't know about her. It ceratinly resembles Cleo, which forces me to aknowledge that I know too little about Queen Cleopatra. I wonder if that color palette is described in historical accounts, or a pop culture thing after Shakespeare's play or something, OR if they just took the colors from Cleo like that time disney launched rides themed dolls and the one based on the tea cups ride had the same hair colors than mattel's Maddie Hatter.

Anyway, I always love when media, including toys, depict real historical figures, so it's a thumbs up from my part. I hope you are rigth and they release more historical women

[jess-the-vampire]

You know what we should be doing as fans? We should be getting excited, making countdowns, analyzing the heck outta the new posters and promos for the episode coming out.

We should be making theories, getting hyped up, having watch parties and rewatching the show for the new episode.

But no.

Screenshot leaks of the ending is one thing, leaking the ENTIRE EPISODE is ANOTHER. its bad enough ITunes fucked up THIS bad, but the fans spreading it everywhere with no care in the world? TheOwlClub, a place Dana PROMOTED to people to watch the show on and trusted?

You know why its important to watch the corporate uploads and premiere dates? Because it shows the crew how much you care, because it shows DISNEY how much you care.

Disney has already treated the show poorly as is and if anyone wants a CHANCE of Disney approving of new content for this series and NOT throwing it in the trash you better goddamn support this episode when it premieres.

These are our final episodes, these are episodes we should CHERISH getting to see after everything the crew had to go through and the fact after this the show will be over.

ITunes and Disney are guilty of uploading it for some godamm reason but all of YOU are JUST as guilty for ruining it for everyone else and letting it get even WORSE.

As for TheOwlClub, way to lose everyone's respect for the sake of clout instead of being grateful for the show that brought you to existence. Every mod who agreed to uploading it should be ashamed.

If you participated in the spreading of this mess, don't bother following me, you clearly have shown no respect for creators or artists.

[hansoeii]

Someone stop me from convincing myself that lokius is gonna be canon

LISTEN the thing that drives me insane is that it's so incredibly obvious how whipped they are for each other. It's not delusions, the love is there! Their story is a love story! If this wasn't disney I'd be CONVINCED they were gonna kiss at the end. The only thing holding them back is corporate homophobia.

The possibility that we get a kiss or a proper love confession is still totally there, though.

Because never in a million years did I expect to get a season like this that is fully focused on mobius and loki's love for each other. I never expected to get loki to confess that mobius changed him in the same way jane changed his brother. I never expected to see mobius willingly sacrificing himself for loki. I never expected all those touches and constant close proximity. I never expected an almost love confession. I never expected loki to choose mobius every. single. time. when given a choice. I never expected loki to so openly care for him. I never expected loki's timeslipping to be connected to his feelings and then seeing him timeslip to wherever mobius is, every time. I never expected loki fixing his hair and stuttering like a schoolboy with a crush while talking to single-dad jetski salesman mobius. I never expected loki to be the one who gave him the name mobius. I never expected loki to say "you saved my life when I first got here. you saw something. you saw something in me I hadn't seen in myself." I never expected loki to stare at mobius for an eternity before saying "it's about who". I never expected them to show us so clearly that loki and mobius each are only complete when the other is around.

Before every single episode aired I was telling myself "this is the one where they make it clear that loki and mobius are only best buddies" but then every new episodes upped the romance level between them instead.

What I expected to get from season two was a beautiful friendship between them that I would then complete on my own by opening ao3, but instead, I'm faced with one of the most beautiful queer romances I've ever seen.

And at this point, I don't care what creators have to say about them in case they don't go through with it because I have eyes and ears, after all. Don't write the most beautiful romance story ever if you don't want people to see it that way, then.

[sigmaleph]

my opinions on copyright change over time but nowadays i think i am falling on the side of a better copyright regime should offer much weaker protections against someone making a derivative work (as opposed to literally just copying your work outright), and this should be a clearly established list of requirements saying 'if you do X, Y, & Z and avoid A, B, & C, your work is Fine' as opposed to the current 'balancing test' that is fair use in the US.

but there's been a discourse strain lately that goes 'actually copyright does nothing for you unless you are a major corporation' and while this is sort of approximately true it is not literally true and I think if copyright looked more like I want it to we would in fact have a greater rate of Disney or Whomstever just deciding to adapt a work without paying the original creator a cent.

which i think is worth it but maybe y'all don't, and it seems, idk, intellectually dishonest to advocate for that sort of thing in this space without clarifying that disagreement.

[hamliet]

Indie Creators and Critique

I'm working on a post about the new RWBY finale and some details I noticed, but I wanted to bring this up because I think it's getting out of hand:

What the hell is with all the hatedoms for indie series? Yeah, I'm looking at you YouTube Critics.

Y'all complain the heck out of the corporate schlock you get from Disney these days and whine about the lack of creativity. And then you get indie stuff and you rip it apart with the reading comprehension of a snail attempting to study pharmacology.

I LOVE critique. In fact I love it so much I've been called a hater in many fandoms for picking apart things that I don't think work very well in stories I otherwise adore.

I'm furious for what you did to RWBY. To Lore Olympus. Now trying to do to Hazbin Hotel.

On the Lord Olympus aspect, it is HILARIOUS to me that y'all think that myths have been preserved in perpetuity at the moment of their creation. Nah. In fact, much like Shakespeare's adaptations of stories (no, the man never created a story from thin air) myths have gone through revisions and syncretism and cultural contextualizations to become the myths we know today. They shift with the times an d the cultures. That's anthropology 101, baby.

For example, did you know that Greek myths adapt a lot of Sumerian/Babylonian ones? Did you know Aphrodite/Venus is likely an adaptation of Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, and she also likely influenced Hindu stories? (This relates to the RWBY post I'm working on actually...) So by retelling any of the Greek myths you're actually misrepresenting Sumerian ones, according to your logic.

Criticism is supposed to be a conversation, not a shut down.

YouTube critics are, by and large on the whole, terrible at what they do and ignorant. If your criticism isn't a conversation, then you should maybe reconsider whether you'll do anything good or whether you'll actually just contribute to all of us having to eat bland, uninspired corporate mush. And maybe also look into why you're harsher on indie stories.

[jessiarts]

You ever have an idea that you feel is good and and you feel people would like/want it and you want to do it, but thinking about how much effort it would take to execute, and the resources you might need, and finding people to help because you can't do it alone, and about legality, and safety, and just... thinking about it zaps all your energy because you're just... you. And how could you possibly do it, let alone do it right?

I don't know. I'm having feelings.

[sometimes-they-come-back-237]

If you want to praise DuckTales 2017, please give credit to where the credit is due.

Not the Disney corporation as a whole.

But to the creators and the crew behind the show. Francisco Angones, Matt Youngberg, Sam King, the voice cast, etc.