#have to do my doesthedogdie warning

[buddydacote]

Undertale and Deltarune

Escape from New York and Escape from LA

Weird how there are two separate times someone told the same story just a little to the left bc ppl didn't fully get it the first time

[marc--chilton]

Providing enrichment to your enclosure by asking you what Saw is about, where to watch it, and any major trigger warnings in it (obviously violence, but like needles? sa? etc) (please and thank you)

oh thank god i needed this

saw is about human perseverance and flawed philosophy (it gets overshadowed by sensationalism that comes with creative traps that have the explicit purpose of Fucking People Up). jigsaw, the killer, does what he does because "people don't appreciate their lives until it hangs in the balance", hence the catchphrase at the end of nearly all tapes given to the victims at the start of their torment, "live or die, make your choice." you could lay down and die, or you could fight to survive.

it's INCREDIBLY flawed, of course, because jigsaw can justify putting anyone in a trap. "not appreciating your life" can mean anything from being a rapist, to a drug addict, to lying to your boss that you're sick so you won't be coming in to work today.

i don't want to spoil anything in case you DO want to watch it so i'll just leave it there for now. you can find them all on 9movies dot top, i recommend just watching them in order of release (movies 1 to 6 are listed in roman numerals, saw the final chapter/3D is 7, jigsaw is 8, spiral is 9, then X for 10)

as for trigger warnings...... fuck dude uh. uhhhhh. well there's definitely needles in 2, i think 4? has a rapist for a victim but his crimes aren't explicitly shown, 10 has an attempted assault (foiled).... actually i think nearly all of them sort of have needles since when someone is chosen to be put into the torment nexus they're typically drugged with a syringe to the neck.

and wrt to violence i'd put the gore about level with final destination personally (though saw has much more of it, of course) so if you can handle final destination you can probably handle saw in that regard!

there is as far as i can remember no explicit nudity of female characters though. which fucking rocks if you know anything about women in horror movies

if you have any other questions plsplsplspls ask i love talking about sawww

[misscammiedawn]

I Am Also A We - Integration and Functional Multiplicity in sense8

CW: sense8 depicts suicide, transphobia, medical trauma, deadnaming, chronic alcoholism, drug abuse, homophobia, homophobic slurs, intense sexual themes, plays sexual assault towards men for humor. Check DoesTheDogDie for more information.

If you watch the show be warned the first episodes involve a family forcefully trying to (allegorically) detransition a transgender woman and circumvent her agency in a medical setting. This may be more than most can handle.

"I've been thinking about my life, and all of the mistakes that I've made. The ones that stay with me, the ones that I regret, are the ones that I made because of fear. For a long time, I was afraid to be who I am because I was taught by my parents that there's something wrong with someone like me. Something offensive, something you would avoid, maybe even pity. Something that you could never love. My mom, she's a fan of St. Thomas Aquinas. She calls pride a sin. And of all the venal and mortal sins, St. Thomas saw pride as the queen of the seven deadlies. He saw it as the ultimate gateway sin that would turn you quickly into a sinaholic. But hating isn't a sin on that list. Neither is shame. I was afraid of this parade because I wanted it so badly to be a part of it. So today, I'm marching for that part of me that was once afraid to march and for all the people who can't march - the people who living lives like I did. Today, I march to remember that I'm not just a me but I'm also a we. And we march with pride." Nomi Marks (sense8 - Season 1, Episode 2)

Humans are fascinating and varied creatures.

Imagine for a moment, a transgender hactivist in San Francisco, a closeted homosexual movie star in Mexico City, a cop in Chicago, a Nordic expat DJ living in London, an orphaned gangster in Berlin, a bus driver in Nairobi who has never lived in a home with running water, a Hindu bio-chemist in Mumbai and a kickboxer in Seoul whose father owns a powerful investment firm.

Lives so disparate that it would be simple to create walls of division to keep them wholly separate and incapable of acting as a whole...

And yet the show is all about erasing the division between people and as the show goes on these 8 people with all their unique and individual perspectives and backgrounds, will become one and many. A collective as one.

That seems like something I may want to talk a little about.

sense8 is a Netflix drama that ran for 2 seasons (and had 2 specials) between 2015-2018. Created by the Wachowski Sisters of Matrix fame and J Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame.

It is a show about radical empathy, the full spectrum of the human experience and the virtues of living openly and connected in the face of a world that pressures the marginalized to hide and remain divided.

Yet in listening to our contributors, especially those with Indigenous ties or who identify as people of color and/or not bound by the ties of Western medicine, dissociation as it’s been described so far [...] can mean many things that are not helpful. A general consensus from these contributors is that trauma survivors ought never be shamed for doing what they have to do in order to survive, especially because so many of the contexts into which people are born promote division, disconnection, and marginalization. Usually this context is shaped by a dominant culture that relies on separation in its most unhelpful and wounding sense to uphold the power that the dominant culture so readily craves. (Dissociation Made Simple - Jamie Marich)

To acknowledge the flaws in both shows and creators, The Wachowski's tend to have a lens of privilege and blind spots to their works that undermine their messages of radical empathy, most famously their fumble in the diversity of Cloud Atlas' cast and the use of white actors in Asian roles (Natalie Portman was originally offered the role that went to Bae Doona).

sense8 is not immune to this and does have issues with connecting the 8 main characters without consideration to certain biases. Some mild examples are that the Christmas special having all 8 unanimously celebrating the Christian holiday (including a Hindu and a character with religious trauma centered on Christianity specifically) to the unchecked Copaganda and the show completely erases asexuality as a valid lifestyle with dialogue even going as far to say that sex is why we exist and to deny it is to deny being human.

Also as someone with an extreme aversion to depictions of suicide... this show does like to offer suicide as The Only Way Out a lot. The show opens on a suicide and the final episode involves no fewer than 3 attempts by various characters when they are cornered. One even succeeds. Lana's experience with her suicide attempt was important to her coming out as a trans woman. A version of that moment is even depicted in the 4th Matrix movie with Neo (allegorically Lana herself) helping someone else wake to their own identity in a suicide attempt. I do not want to rob her of the transformative power of that event and memory. It's clearly important to her and her work, but it's troublesome that averted suicide attempts are always depicted virtuously in her work. Again... it's a matter of blind spots and biases.

I acknowledge the show is flawed in these and many more respects but it does speak to empathy and connection in a way that though not perfectly placed upon the screen, is a message worth internalizing. Though it's okay to be uncomfortable with how it is presented and opt out.

Regardless of imperfect execution and the early cancellation, it is still a miracle of a show. In many ways it is a show that shouldn't exist. It cost $9 million per episode and its filming schedule required flying between 11 cities for 3 weeks of shooting a piece. It features full nudity, multiple sex scenes involving huge swaths of the cast at once.

To put all of that in perspective, the entire experience is literally bookended by a rainbow strap-on glistening from use.

But... this is not a show about dissociative disorders. Mental illness is only represented in that characters briefly question their sanity. So why am I talking about it in my Media, Myself and I essay series on positive representation of dissociative disorders in fiction?

Well... it just so happens to also feature the best depiction of Functional Multiplicity in all of television.

Functional Multiplicity or "Integration" is a goal in treating complex dissociative disorders where the dissociative system are able to function as a single person with minimal division between parts.

It is important to note that intergration and fusion are two separate concepts and are both valid outcomes for treatment within CDD therapy. Where fusion is the concept of merging all dissociated personalities into a single unified personality, integration allows the system to communicate and cooperate with full access to memories and skills with no inner-conflict exacerbating symptoms.

The final approach in Fraser’s article addresses the issue of fusion or integration, a strong area of potential controversy for those diagnosed with or identifying as DID. Many individuals with DID strongly resist or oppose a psychiatrist or any other provider’s insistence that they integrate the various aspects of their personality into a cohesive whole. This process can feel disrespectful to the members of a system, and if you are reading this passage and have ever felt triggered at the suggestion that you need to integrate, you are not alone. (Dissociation Made Simple - Jamie Marich)

The terms “dissociation” and “integration” have long been synonymous with one another—meant to signify that the only reasonable goal in working with splitting and compartmentalization must be the fusing together of dissociated parts to create one single “homogenized” adult. Daniel Siegel, however, makes a strong case against defining integration as fusion. He asserts (2010a) a different view: “Integration requires differentiation and linkage.” Before we can integrate two phenomena, we have to differentiate them and “own” them as separate entities. We can’t simply “act as if” they are connected without noticing their separateness. But, having clearly differentiated them so they can be studied and befriended, we then have to link them together in a way that fosters a transformed sense of the client’s experience, facilitating healing and reconnection. - (Healing the Fragmented Selves - Janina Fischer)

Acknowledging the separateness and clearly differentiating people to befriend, link and foster a transformed sense of experience, facilitating healing and connection.

Now that sounds like sense8 to me.

As mentioned above the shows protagonists are from different walks of life. Nomi, Lito, Will, Riley, Wolfgang, Capheus, Kala and Sun are all "born" into a "cluster", a nest of 8 connected minds who share their every thought and experience with one another.

The core 8 are able to share control of one another's bodies as well as speak telepathically in one another's heads. "Sharing" and "Visiting" respectively, if we are to play the YA Novel game of naming every single concept in a fictional world.

Each character has their strengths and weaknesses and connections that make up for their weaknesses.

To give an example Lito is an actor who has a little bit of a diva streak. He's good at lying under pressure, he can flirt with women effortlessly, he is deeply in touch with his emotions and he lives in absolute terror of his homosexual lifestyle being discovered for fear it will ruin his career and the comfort he has earned in life.

Wolfgang is ruthless and blunt and so leans on Lito's ability to lie under pressure, something that he is typically incapable of doing because he does not value roundabout methods of deception when he can just brute force his way to solutions. Lito helps him lie when the situation calls for it.

Sun is emotionally repressed, choosing to work her emotions through her fists, though she is one of the most privileged members of the cluster she has more than enough reason to be sad with a father who refused to show her love, the worst brother on the planet, a dead mother and a plot that involves her being wrongfully imprisoned and subject to multiple assassination attempts. She can offer the rest of the cluster her fighting skills but it is Lito who helps her to be able to cry when she needs it. In a beautiful scene late in season 2 a depressed Lito is crying in Sun's hotel room and Sun admonishes him saying that she is the one with reason to cry and Lito responds plainly "But you never would. Maybe that is why I am here."

On the flipside whenever Lito is in conflict about his life in the closet he pulls up Nomi, a transgender woman who has been through the entire coming out process, and leans heavily on her.

Though it takes much of the first season for the characters to understand what is happening to them we eventually get to see all 8 of them completely at home with one another's thoughts and perspectives.

They are separate, yes. But they are of one mind.

This is akin to the end result of trauma focused parts work in therapy. When a person is not yet treated for trauma based dissociation their inability to integrate their experiences creates a fracture and a disharmony that breeds emotional volatility and a breakdown in inner experience.

Disowning requires selective attention, a focusing away from whatever is “not me.” The senses fail to register what is taking place around us; we don’t feel our emotional responses, good or bad; we are in a zone. We can’t “own” our anger or dependence or fear when we don’t feel them. We can’t “own” traumatic events that we haven’t witnessed. We can’t know ourselves as whole human beings because only those qualities valued in a traumatic environment are accessible to consciousness. Segregating intense feelings, though, results in affect intolerance: if we can escape our emotions by automatically and involuntarily shifting into a different part of the self or different feeling state, we never get the opportunity to exercise our “emotional muscles,” and all feelings gradually become more and more intolerable. Inner conflicts are never resolved, just distanced. When that happens, acting out (self-destructively or addictively) and “acting in” (through self-hatred, self-judgment, punitive introspection) become the only avenues for regulating emotions and autonomic arousal. Splitting or fragmentation must become more complex and creative. - (Healing the Fragmented Selves - Janina Fischer)

As the main cluster of the show are able to expand their horizons via empathy and connection to one another they are able to challenge their blind spots and achieve a level of comfort in their world that was not accessible before. From our above example Sun can process her emotions thanks to Lito.

In a similar fashion, in Season 2 Kala becomes guilty about her lifestyle because she discovers that the company she works for is sending inferior medication to Capheus' region of the world and through experiencing life through Capheus' eyes she is aware of her position of privilege and uses her power to make positive change.

Had the show have been able to continue on this empathy would have been the center of the show with Capheus running for political office, Lito embracing his role as a queer icon who can inspire others and Riley risking exposure by touring her music and making contact with other sensates.

Alas. We'll never get the promised potential of the show's premise.

Another factor that was promised but was not fully paid off on was the concept of blockers.

In the show other sensates could visit (but not share) with a single member of a cluster if they make eye contact (Cloud Atlas which shared 3 directors and 3 writers with this show also included this concept of eye contact creating a human connection) and the only way to prevent their intrusion was to take blockers. A medication that cut off their empathetic connections and turned off their psychic ability.

The blocker allegory was about masking and hiding and working to blend in with the dominant culture without standing out. Part of the show's humanity was the characters wishing to go against the narrative that they needed to hide and to live loud and proud and inspire others to do the same.

It would have been interesting to see each of the sensates on blockers learning to act in ways their cluster would without being able to let them take control of their body. Show that the integration of the system is not a matter of separate parts in their own boxes but a cluster that is fully connected and capable of sharing their sole life.

To go back to my discussion on functional multiplicity, the concept of being able to share memories and skills is emphasized as a part of both integration and fusion models.

Sharing roles, responsibilities or tasks also enables other parts to help the System’s successful functioning in the outside world. Then, these parts can grow and mature individually. It also gives the System the opportunity to feel first-hand appreciation for what parts have done and contributed to the System’s survival and success, as well as better understanding of what it takes to keep the System functioning well today. (Got Parts? - ATW)

We are all in this together.

A beautiful thing that the show displays outside of the core cluster is the radical empathy and acceptance that exist within the side characters.

In the final episode of the show Wolfgang's surrogate brother and only true family Felix arrives to the help the cluster Capheus rushes over to him and embraces him exclaiming "MY BROTHER, FELIX!" and laughing with joy. This was Capheus' first time meeting Felix but the empathetic connection travels between them.

The same connection causes Kala's love for her husband to be felt by Wolfgang and allow the three of them to engage in a polyamorous relationship. The final orgy scene of the show literally climaxes with Kala's non-psychic husband exclaiming "My god, I didn't think such things were possible" after a threesome with his wife and Wolfgang who share the same love for him. This is the very last line of the show.

In a dissociative system conflict can breed between parts that are not integrated when their needs, desires and drives are not in alignment.

To give an example from our own life, Wynn is a part that is capable of turning off our empathy. When she perceives a threat to us from the idea of someone emotionally manipulating us (a parent trying to shame/guilt us into ceding to their demands or a partner threatening suicide) she will lock out the rest of the system who may be swayed and force us to act with hostility and coldness. More than once this has ended with us in further danger or emotional turmoil and it leads other parts to over compensate to try and "fix" the damage done when we were "emotionally compromised" by the part acting in our interests of survival over the harmony of the system and our relationships. Especially because the dangerous situations that necessitated her existence are not part of our present and her reactions may no longer be appropriate.

This kind of divide is natural in a dissociative system early in their healing journey.

The range of emotional experience, including both positive (e.g., joy, love) and negative (e.g., anger, fear, grief) affects, plays a vital role in human adaptation by promoting closeness in relationships. Relational distortions result when emotions repeatedly fail to achieve their purpose, when they are persistently activated, or when their expression is blocked or punished. Distortions in emotional regulation (and associated defensive distortions of behavior) refl ect distortions in care (Bowlby, 1969/1982) that manifest as dysynchronies between caregiving behavior and child emotional experience and needs (Sameroff & Emde, 1989) [...] A lasting split between self-preservation and integrative self-regulation leads to a vicious cycle. Extreme affective states become infused into the person’s selfand other-representations (“bad objects,” Benatar, 2003), producing disorganized and unstable mental representations, which further destabilize and fragment affect, perception, and behavior. Thus, dissociation results when extreme stressors necessitate a lasting split of the integrated relationship between self-preservation and selfregulation. (Dissociation and Dissociative Disorders, DSM-V and Beyond - Paul F Dell)

But towards the end of therapy parts, even when activated, are able to act in a way that benefits the stability of the shared life, preventing further dissociation and division between parts.

It is when one part, who wants to deny our condition to prevent thinking about our trauma, accepts that our multiple nature is integral to who we are and how one of our closest relationships function and in accepting this allows for us to carve spaces in our life to exist as a system. To take off the mask. To stop hiding.

To march and state boldly I Am Also A We.

There are times where we worry about using the term "Plural". We view our condition through a lens of psychopathology and constantly try to justify our existence through reading psychology textbooks and working with our therapist and constantly justifying.

We play by the rule books written for us and about us but not by us. Not by others like us. Well... mostly.

One of the quoted books in this essay is from Jamie Marich who is openly a diagnosed dissociative system. Her book is written from an insiders perspective there to promote love and acceptance. I selected her quote at the top of this post with care. She does get it. Got Parts? Is also written by collaborators with DID sharing lived experience.

There are so many things which divide us as people who experience plurality. There is syscourse raging in Tumblr inboxes Just Asking Questions about whether a person should be diagnosed to openly present as a system, there is fakeclaiming trying to witch hunt those who really have a CDD and those who are "roleplaying", the tone policing in support communities that admonish anyone who glorifies or fetishizes that which is a hard to live with disorder...

Over the years we internalized many of these narratives ourselves. We lived in fear of scrutiny, worried for the day we were exposed as Not Traumatized Enough, Not Performing Our Disability Correctly, Not Divided Enough or a number of other accusations.

We still are. It's terrifying to think that at any point someone could just deny all of our truth and no amount of paperwork, testimony or evidence would be able to make us any more legitimate than we already are.

In some regards we shouldn't be proud of being who and what we are. The fact that there is always going to be a part of us stuck in London reliving the worst experiences of our life is not a source of pride.

But we survived.

We survived. We kept one another alive. The part that needed to be an adult when we were a child kept us safe. The part that needed to seal off our heart kept us safe. The part that kept our emotions alive kept us safe. The part that pretended to be what our abuser wanted us to be kept us safe... and yes. The part that handled erotic concepts kept us safe.

We survived and we protected one another and we are the only Family who have been here the whole time. Experienced everything. Shared in all the pleasures and all the joys. We survived. And we will continue to... but not we're not surviving anymore. We're living. And we choose to live together. We choose to be 5 and 1. We are an I.

I am proud of that and this show helped us feel just a little bit more confident in saying that outloud. We are plural... and there is no shame in that. None at all.

-

Forgive me for the less than stellar work on this one. This essay was more a vehicle to talk about positive integration and use the show as a framing device for the topic. Plus I just wanted to be a bit Plural Pride because the show made a compelling argument as to why I should be.

The promised Act 6 of In Stars and Time essay and the Umineko follow-up essay are both in the research phase. Act 6 of ISaT is looking at characters who share a common history and I want to make sure I have some good examples without treading on other creators I respect's toes and the Umineko follow-up requires replaying all of Chapter 7 of that game and it's a long one.

Media, Myself and I is a series of Tumblr Essays for positive depictions of dissociative disorders.

Other essays include:

Time Loops and Dissociation (In Stars and Time) A History of Murder Alters Discworld and Plurality Incidental, intentional and accidental representation Gender, Dissociation and Clinical Stigma in The Third Person Recontextualized Memories in Umineko Derealization in Night in the Woods and Metal Gear Solid The Dangers of Hypnotic Personality Play in Penlight System Origins in The Incredible Hulk Relationships with Systems in The Incredible Hulk The Healing Journey in Mr. Robot

[wutheringheightsfilm]

alright everybody.... the ranked lists are out...

wuthering heights adaptations ranked by successfulness:

and wuthering heights ranked by my personal preference:

conclusions:

if you are looking for a version that tells the complete story and is 1 to 1 scene for scene the book because you have to pass some sort of exam, watch the 1978 version (#1 on the successful list). be aware this version is boring as shit hence why it barely makes it in the top 5 of my personal rankings

if you are looking for a version that tells the complete story but is not as boring (but still has its myriad issues), watch the 1998 version (#2 on the successful list).

if you are a looking for a version that 1) finally doesn't whitewash heathcliff and 2) very accurately captures the atmosphere of what reading the book is like, but can sacrifice missing half the story (as the entire second gen of children are not truly present), watch the 2011 version (#1 on my personal list). i will say, though, it is the most complete telling of the 1st generation story, and the one i believe portrays heathcliff and catherine's dynamic the most accurately. (though do look up warnings on doesthedogdie for this one as there are multiple scenes of animal cruelty, and be aware that there will be a myriad of racial slurs that do not appear in the book directed at heathcliff)

if you're looking to watch a version where you get the complete story but it's not quite right (sacrifices were made here, and the romance is way too overdone for my liking) but the chemistry between heathcliff and catherine is incredible (and the soundtrack is excellent), and you like to notice small details with costume design and storytelling, watch the 2009 version (#2 on my personal list)

you're welcome. i'm still going to be making the video essay though

[genderqueer-miharu]

Cpuld u tell me a bit a Caligula effect? I keep seeing u talk abt it and I'm intrigued .. also music ? It's a music media (?)

Hi! I'm glad i got you interested in this series ^^ The Caligula Effect is a videogame series, written by Takuya Yamanaka, who's more famous for also being the writer behind Milgram. The plot, at least in the first game is that it's about this virtual reality called Mobius where people can go to fulfill their deepest wishes, this world was created by the virtuadolls µ and Aria to make humans happy. Virutadolls are basically in universe vocaloids. In this world everyone is turned into high school students and they will never age and will repeat high school for as long as they're here. A group of students realizes this world is fake and decide to escape and go back to reality, hence why they call themselves the Go-Home Club. At the same time there's the Ostinato Musicians, a group of people who are aware of Mobius being fake but they want to stay and keep Mobius as it is for their own reasons so they work with µ to stop the Go-Home Club.

That's how the main story goes. But the games also have something called Character Scenarios. These work like the social links in persona though less complicated to unlock. These are important because this is pretty much where you'll learn everything about the characters, something that both games do is that you don't actually get to learn much from them during the mains story. Like you do learn mostly about their views and personalities but you never truly learn about their backstories or why they're here in the first place. That's reserved for the scenarios, this is where you truly learn about these characters and what their problems are. And these are honestly the best part of the game imo.

Another important thing to clarify is that the first game has a remake Caligula Effect Overdose, which adds four new characters, two in each group and also has the musician route. This is a new path in the main story where you get to play as a musician, so after every two dungeons or so there will be segments where you play as a one with the other musicians as your party members, this also gives the musicians their own character scenarios which is great to fully flesh them out and make you sympathize better with them. The remake is the one you should go for since is the most complete.

Some warnings about it tho, the second and third dungeons can be pretty uncomfortable and hard to get through. The second one because the musician here is canonically a trans woman and she's not exactly treated super well during the main story since she's constantly misgendered, deadnamed and experiences fatphobic comments even after her dungeon's done. This wouldn't be so bad since you know it shows how even the people you're sided with can be assholes and be terrible. But after a certain point it becomes tiring and annoying and many of the scenes depicting this have an almost mocking tone. Her character is great though and i love her scenario and the things it discusses, but again the way she's treated in the main story makes the first part of the game hard to get through. As for the third musician he uhh is a creep, and you see him trying and succeeding at peeping on other women during the game. Yeah, it's not good obviously. These two asoects really make the first part of the game hard to get through and honestly a lot of my problems with the game come from these two. I do think everything afterwards is good though. If you want some further warnings you can check out the doesthedogdie page.

Now that was all for the first game, but there's also a second game, and honestly i'm gonna be honest i have a lot of problems with the first game but if there's any reason why i'd recommend it is so you can play the second game, because imo it's better than the first one but i don't think you should jump straight into that one because a lot of the game's plot is built on the first one's and it's just better if you understand all the things they're referencing, a character from the first game even returns. Kinda follows the same formula as the first one, virtual reality, group of people trying to escape, musicians trying to stop them, but i think it pulls it off a lot better. But again you do need to know the events in the first game to understand it better.

Oh yeah you mentioned music, it's not a music based series as like, let's say Milgram is but music is a big part of it because virtuadolls are a big part in the series and again they're just vocaloids. The soundtrack is awesome and the game uses it in a very creative way. Each dungeon has it's own theme, written in universe by the musician in that dungeon, and all the songs are sung by the the main virtuadoll in each game (µ in the first one and Regret in the second one), with the lyrics being personal to each musician. The way it works in gameplay is that when exploring the dungeon, an instrumental version of the song plays, when entering a battle the vocals start playing, and when facing against the boss a remix version of the song plays. It's so good to hear during gameplay and it never gets tiring, and again all the songs are bangers. AND to keep up with the vocaloid feel, each song in both games was composed by a vocaloid producer. And if you're curious yes, Deco27 also worked here, and this is how he and Yamanaka met.

If you're interested in getting into it, let me know so i can send you the playthroughs i watched if you can't or don't feel playing it.

[mumpsetc]

Hey Harmie! <:) I was thinking and I wanted to ask, since y9u talk a little bit about the curious things you watch on here, what kind of movies/shows/various media do you like and/or would recommend? The only thing that I ask is for warnings on the stuff that you recommend in case they're on the more upsetting side ( ex: heavily gorey/dealing with heavily upsetting themes [ex: suicide])-

I'm Just Gonna Post a General Array of Stuff With No Theme or Coherency So Pick N Choose if You Want :]. I'll Try n CW Everything I Remember But if Something Sounds Esp Troubling Check It On Does the Dog Die

TOSSING EVERYTHING UNDER A READMORE SO I DON'T CLOG THE FUCKIN... Dash

It's Such a Beautiful Day (Upsetting Depiction of Mental Health, Could Possible Trigger Someone Whos Psychotic, Idk Watch This One When You're in a Good Spot)- An Animated Film By Don Hertzfeldt About a Man Named Bill and His Mental Decline

Tatami Galaxy - A Charming 13ish Episode Anime About a College Student Musing About the Variety of Ways He Could Achieve His "Rose Coloured Campus Life". Its Sorta an Anthology Where Every Episode is a Different Version of the Same Events Its Fun.

Funny Games (Extreme Violence, Home Invasion, Child Death) - This Movie is One of My All Time Favorites, Theres a 1997 and a 2007 Version, They're Both the Same Movie though Just With Different Actors and Languages So Pick if Youre In a Subtitle Mood or Not. DEFINITELY Check Doesthedogdie for This One If Youre Sensitive, Theres Something I'm 100% Forgetting

Melancholia (Death, Grief, Big Scary Planet) - Lars Von Trier Kinda Sucks But This Movie is His Best. It's About Two Sisters Struggling to Live Together After One Has an Episode and Also a Huge Planet is Going to Smash Directly Into Earth. A Really Strong Emotional Story.

Dogville (Lots of Tasteless Sexual Assault, Death, Extreme Classism) - Not Actually Sure If I'm Recommending This or Not I Just Think Its Important Sometimes to Watch a Very Artfully Made Movie That Fucking Sucks (I Like This Movie Also So Egg on My Face). Lars Von Trier is the Worst.

Ingrid Goes West (Suicide, Stalking) - One of the More Conventional Movies on Here, Ingrid Goes West is About a Woman Moving to California to Insert Herself Into the Life of an Influencer She's Obsessed With

Swing Girls - DELIGHTFUL Japanese Film About School Girls Starting an American Style Jazz Band. Feel Good Stuff All Around in This One.

We're All Going to the World's Fair (Grooming, Mental Decline) - One of the Most Accurate Depictions of Growing Up Online, This Movie is About a Teenager Named Casey Participating in an ARG.

Wasteland (Cults, Mental Decline) - This One is Free on Youtube, It is an Anthology About a Bunch of People Living In a Valley and The Lives They Lead. Its Hard to Explain This One But the Last Segment, the Final Exit of the Disciples of Ascensia, is One of the Most Lasting Things Ive Ever Seen

Drop-Out Comic (Suicide, Gender Dysphoria, Drug Use, Abuse) - A Free-to-Read Webcomic About Two Girlfriends Driving to the Grand Canyon to Kill Themselves. I'm Gonna Recc This One the Hardest Its Phenomenal, Though Chunks are Currently Down/Being Rewritten But Those Don't Change the Story Much

Sooo Yeah I Hope You Have Fun :] Don't Feel Like You Do or Dont Have to Watch Any of This I Was Just Kinda Spitballing, Sorry if This is a Downer List I Was Typing This Up and Halfway Thru Realized I Had 2.5 Feel Good Picks

[lakesparkles]

Scavengers Reign anon again, there is a woman a bit like them yus, her name is Fiona! (I don't want to spoil anything should warn you the show is not a comedy and if you have any triggers related to gore it might not be the show for you) (check the doesthedogdie website if you want too have a list of specifics)

Love your art btw! It's super cute!

Hello again!! I googled Fiona and you're so right, she's exactly my type of character and this makes me excited!! Thank you about the warnings too, usually I don't mind gore (I'm a big horror fan, I mean), but some kinds I do so it will be nice to check

It means so much that you like my art, thank you so much!!!

[submalevolentgrace]

Hey, just fyi ESRB & PEGI don't screen specifically for medical abuse so media isn't required give warnings for it, you could try to petition ESRB/PEGI to add that to their rating system, but currently you won't get any warnings for that content from official sites. It may sometimes fall under violence/fantasy violence/gore so if a piece of media has any of those warnings it might mean theres medical abuse

For now I really recommend doesthedogdie.com to get specific trigger warnings for media, usually you have to wait a week or two after something comes out for the warnings (its based on votes by users), but they include warnings for ableism, amputation, & body horror, along with like 100 other things

Sorry people are being shitty to you, hope you're doing okay <3

honestly fascinated by why you decided to send me this

i never even mentioned ratings boards because i know they're useless when it comes to actually codifying or describing what's in media that might be upsetting. there were a bunch of people in the notes arguing about ratings boards though, maybe that's what made you think to say this to me, except i am not those people

i also don't trust any aggregate site like doesthedogdie or unconsentingmedia, because honestly, ableism is baked so deep into every aspect of culture that the only people who know how to recognise what might be triggering for medical abuse are people that have experienced it or inflicted it... everyone else is, at best, obliviously desensitised to it

i can't pull up the original text of my post now since i've deleted all my branches of it to stop the notes, but i'm certain that i framed it as making a trigger warning known for other disabled people that have experienced forced treatment or surgery, and any reference to it happening 'without warning' is in the sense that, it's extreme body horror in a context that doesn't prepare the audience for it; ie, going into a horror game franchise like resident evil, dead space, soulsbornesekiroring etc, the audience can be reasonably assumed to be prepared for horror elements including fucked up body shit... i don't think any reasonable person could be expected to start up the latest installment of 'the legend of brightly coloured elf boy saves the magical princess from a big demon pig with a laser shooting sword' and be met with mummified cross species unconsenting arm transplant - and i say that as someone that was bracing for the worst possible outcome since the first trailers, based on my own arm issues. it never once occurred to me that they would go that batshit insanely horrifying with it, because it's a zelda game.

and also like - i really don't actually want to pile on you personally kind stranger, i can see that you're making a gesture you believe is helpful from a place of compassion and that's a positive even if it lands poorly - but i'm absolutely fascinated by the schema, the mental and perceptual framework, that has to be in place to see this kind thing, to see someone implying their direct experience with the hospital system willfully inflicting graphic body horror on them in violation of their autonomy, and to think in response: "well, you could petition industry groups to put more specific warning labels on games"

like, doctors are out there right now doing horrific surgical abuse on disabled people because society at large doesn't view us as human, abled people are in denial that it's happening or supporting the "mercy" and "compassion" of the doctors that do it, and that dehumanisation and denial runs so deep that it casually makes its way into family entertainment without a second thought of the authors.... the problem isn't "ratings boards aren't specific enough" and i cannot fathom the chain of thoughts that led you to that idea

so, incase it isn't obvious, no i am not doing okay, and i never will be again because of what was done to me..... but... i do appreciate that you hope i am doing okay all the same

[lavendorii]

what are some tips to a vampire potentially wanting to get into persona 5...? (me)

ok first! if you're going to play persona 5, you definitely want to play persona 5 royal, as it not only adds an entirely new arc in the end game but it also remasters and makes the user experience much more enjoyable.

it's always a good rule of thumb to read the doesthedogdie page before getting into something as immersive as a video game, in my opinion! you do of course run the risk of seeing spoilers, but if you have triggers that you're very sensitive of then I think it's better to prioritize them. The game itself is far from perfect, it's over all very good until the scattered moments of anime fan service bullshit. I'll provide some prominent results from doesthedogdie and elaborate on what they mean in the alt text so I don't make a wall of text.

I also reccomend using a gifting guide to get closer to the npcs of your choosing, as well as using a guide for the multiple choice questions that decide how well hanging out with said npc goes. The latter is less necessary, but! when you reach rank 9 with most female confidants, you are given the choice to date them or not. Sometimes the accept and decline options aren't very clear.

one last thing, the final section does get kind of weird about reality. No fourth wall breaking, but it very much is around reality being. wrong. for a while

that being said! I highly, highly recommend the game. It has its weird and degenerate moments, but they are far fewer and far outshone by the story strengths. It's really no worse than danganronpa in terms of tastelessness, in my eyes it's better. The concept is strong, the characters are easy to get attatched to, and the gameplay is fun. I just only focused on the downsides of it the game because I think the warnings are very important.

[butchsophiewalten]

What is your view on the web series Harmony and Horror from Battington? Recently, the third episode of Season 2 was released and it was quite a banger for how the creator put out his characters, story, and horror aspects. While I get that all of us are patiently waiting for the new episode of the Walten Files (especially the Jophie content) it wouldn't hurt to take a look for Analogue Horror content.

Well. To be fair to Harmony and Horror, I've never truly given it a fair chance, but from what I've seen it is DEFINITELY not for me, but that's honestly the case for the majority of analog horror anyway. It's not really a genre i care for inherently in any respect. I'm not an analog horror fan, I'm a The Walten Files fan.

I mean I'm also absolutely a horror fan, like in general. Horror is like the foundation of my whole life I don't know who I would be without it. I also really do not need help with occupying my time while we wait for TWF4, I have that perfectly covered thank you.

(under this readmore is just me talking about things i felt like talking about. click it if you want)

Have spent a lot of time recently binging horror movies, which is an avenue of horror art that I am sorely under-versed in. I really liked the movie Ginger Snaps (2000) that one honestly surprised me with how incredible it ended up being. Definitely check sites like Unconsenting Media and Doesthedogdie before going into this one, though.

Other fun more 'internet horror' things i can always recommend is Diminish, a 'This Game I Found' webseries with a deeply personal and touching twist on the genre I really enjoy. It's honestly probably one of my favorite pieces of art, like, ever. It's currently on something of an indefinite hiatus but its creator definitely wants to get back to it and soon. MASSIVE warnings for loss/grief, particularly surrounding the loss of a sibling/family member. Also lots of self-deprecation with an obvious undertone of suicidal ideation, as well as at least one direct reference to a suicide attempt and/or a suicide. Episode 14 contains what I personally think are some pretty unjustified references to real-world murder and genocide, but to be fair that is more of a personal opinion on its depiction rather than an objective analysis of its content and inclusion.

Another thing I'd love to recommend is Ivan Zanotti's My Madness Works' IMSCARED, which is probably my single favorite video game of all time. You've probably heard of this one if you like indie horror games or watched youtube videos in 2012 because this thing is an absolute darling of indie horror and was a huge hit in the horror letsplay scene on youtube when the demo came out. It just had a 10 year anniversary update that remastered the whole game that i've.been meaning to play. Huge warning for jumpscares and for imagery relating to suicide. That's the bread and butter of this thing and it makes up its most striking and impactful iconography. Its 4 dollars you should absolutely buy and play this game if you can and want to.

[queenofbaws]

Top five horror movies and/or books?

of COURSE you'd ask me one of the HARDEST questions in the WORLD!!!!!!!!

for real though, picking favs when it comes to horror is always so hard for me 😭 (AS ALWAYS WITH ANYTHING HORROR - please be sure to check a site like doesthedogdie for trigger warnings before picking any of these up!!!!!! lots of upsetting stuff in pretty much anything i recommend ever, lol)

house of leaves by mark z. danielewski (book). this one always makes the list because it just...it's just so good. it's a story within a story within a story within a story within a story, and i stg every time i read it i come away with something different. it's influenced my own writing so much, and just...it's literally the ONLY book i've EVER read that scared me so bad while i was reading it the first time that i had to like. find people to sit with to keep reading it lmao

the thing (1982; movie). this one ALSO always makes the list. oh. oh it's so worthy of it too. the thing is just like...my ideal horror movie. it's got everything a good horror movie should have: atmosphere, isolation, slow-growing dread, practical effects, a decapitated spider head monster thing that screams at you. i've probably watched this more than any other horror movie. and speaking of number of watches...........

hereditary (2018; movie). i've seen hereditary once. once. i'm not sure i intend on watching it a second time. maybe someday. there's a lot of horror out there these days that's centered on grief, but in my oh so humble opinion, hereditary is the granddaddy of all those. i cannot explain the emotions i experienced while watching this movie, lmfao. it was like...all of them. i'm pretty desensitized to most horror, and i'm very aware of that, but this movie? this movie right here? i was on the edge of my goddamn seat the whole way through, i watched parts of it through my fingers, and i was squeezing a pillow pretty much from the start to the end. it's so, SO fucking good. but it's also so, SO much.

the ruins by scott smith (book). i read this after watching the movie, and since the movie was kind of ehhh, i expected the book to be kind of ehhh too. it...it is not. BOYYYYY it is not ehhh at all. this book is fucking...terrifying. if you can't stomach body horror, don't even think about reaching for this, it is not FOR you. i LOVE body horror and there were some scenes that felt like they weren't even for ME sdklfjsdklfjd if you haven't seen the movie, or are unfamiliar with the premise, a group of american tourists and one very unfortunate german man find themselves at an old mayan ruin where a bunch of archeologists have recently gone missing. when they get there, uh...well, they find themselves stuck without any way of getting home, but they DON'T find any of the missing people. at first. then they do. then something finds them. it's. intense.

i'm thinking of ending things by iain reid (book). again, i decided to read this after watching the movie. the difference is...i really, really liked the movie, and so had very high expectations for the book. GOD DID IT DELIVER. this one is horror in a...different sort of way, and i'm not even sure everyone out there would classify it AS horror, but for me, it feels appropriate. it's a very personal kind of horror, the horror that comes with loneliness and regret, and a lot of it just really REALLY hit very close to home for me personally. it's absolutely beautifully written, and i think i've probably read it like...three times this past year alone. it's a short read, you can probably do it in one sitting if you've got a lazy day planned, and it's...GOD it's good. you'll probably cry, though, so be warned.

ask me my top 5 anything!

[vonlipvig]

so what the hell is succession about?

i can’t look most anything up because of major spoilers, and checking doesthedogdie for content warnings leaves me more confused. like, what do you *mean* one of the main characters has a stroke in the series premiere??? lmao

succession is about, uhm...well...

no, but for real, succession is a drama/dark comedy series that focuses on the roy family, the richest family you could possibly imagine (but like, filthy rich, murdoch family type of rich). the patriarch, logan, is basically the head of this huge media conglomerate, and the show very much starts with his health taking a turn for the worse, which leaves shareholders everywhere wondering who's gonna take over. enter the kids--kendall, roman, shiv...huh, i could swear there was another one--, who are all, in their own ways, trying to get to the top and basically impress dad. add some more characters to the mix-- like shiv's husband-to-be tom, and good ole cousin greg--and you've got a show that's a lot about business, yes, but a lot more about family.

it's an amazing show with incredible performances and really great characters, don't be put off by the business side of things--you'll get the hang of it really easily--, the real meat of it to me is in the fucked up relationships all the characters have with each other...truly a delight to see unfold.

also it's about my babygirl kendall who's the prettiest most perfect princess of all

[transmasc-wizard]

[very excitedly jumps up] okay i come bearing horror recs!! if you're not looking for super gorey media (understandable, i also don't tend to like gorier horror, which is funny considering my fixation on Saw), i have some to offer!!! there is some gore in some of them, but i avoided ones that i know have A Lot Of It

Paranormal Activity (the first one--i haven't seen the latter ones but i can and will vouch for the first one) (summary: a couple begins documenting paranormal occurrences happening in their home, which become worse as time passes)

The Conjuring (once again the first one SADFJKL; this is one of my favorite horror franchises, but imo the first is the strongest) (summary: a pair of renowned ghost hunters are called to exorcise a demon from a family's new home)

Before I Sleep (been a while since i watched this one, but it's super sad and interesting) (summary: a young boy is adopted by a pair of new parents after the unfortunate death of their first child, who quickly start to realize that this boy's dreams bleed into reality--including his nightmares.)

The Ritual (this one has some more gore than the other ones but it is INTENSELY psychological and i think you would really enjoy that, and it doesn't involve like... cutting off limbs or gunshots or anything, and it doesn't focus on the gore) (summary: a group of friends, following the unfortunate murder of one of their group, goes on a trip in the mountains in Sweden, where they realize very quickly that something is hunting them.)

okay i had more but those are the ones i'll rec for now!!!! i also definitely recommend checking out the website doesthedogdie, because that's a really good place to check for trigger warnings relating to movies and shows!!

WAIT i think i got a title wrong whoops- Before I Sleep is actually called Before I Wake

thank you !!!!!!!!!! the ritual and before i wake in particular have me going Eyes Emoji (i cannot do it for real, i am on desktop). i will try and check some of these out!!

[piplupod]

sandman is SPECTACULAR if you havent watched it yet! i will warn you there are some Disturbing parts and maybe steer clear of "24/7" bc its just. oh god. but other than that GOD its so good lol

i want to watch it DESPERATELY but i looked at the doesthedogdie page for it and i think its too much gore for me to stomach rn :''') i also have a friend who watched it and they know me really well and they said that i should probably wait until i'm in a more stable mental spot but i am WAILING because it is SUCH a cool looking show and i think i'd absolutely love the plot and characters OUGH

i might microdose it by watching like ten mins at a time but. i know i won't be able to stop myself from watching more so dsghjkl i think i just have to avoid it rn until i'm doing a bit better

BUT IT IS ABSOLUTELY ON MY RADAR AND LIST!!! rest assured i WILL watch it at some point, i just have to keep myself safe as best i can unfortunately fsdgjkl

[gayvampcentral]

feels weird to say this bc i don't think it's relevant enough to warrant a post specifically to say it but i also REALLY don't wanna put this in just tags on a reblog of someone else's content so just as a heads up since I've been reblogging some reanimator content and on the off chance that anyone was at all thinking of watching that bc of me bringing it up: please know that you shouldn't

[multifandomwritings]

If anyone is interested, both Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) are now on Netflix :) (aka where you can find Thomas Hewitt) However! I personally prefer the unrated version of the 2006 one as they cut some Thomas scenes from the regular one that's on Netflix :/

Another great and underrated streaming app is 'Tubi'. I'm not sure if it's available everywhere though, but it's free, and they have a surprisingly good variety of horror movies. I can't really say much about other genres though as I mostly watch horror (at least as far as movies go). You can find both 'The Collector' and 'The Collection' there, Repo the Genetic Opera, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), some of the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' movies including the original, RZ's Halloween/Halloween 2, House of 1000 Corpses, Black Christmas, etc. They add and remove movies fast though so idk if these will even be on there for long. (There's also a lot of non-slasher horror that's pretty good. I doubt anyone would be interested but it might be fun to do a post of my favorite horror on different streaming services? Asdlkfj I love talking about movies and it would be so fun to eventually muster up the courage to make videos about them, but)

As always I recommend searching movies in advance to check if there's anything uncomfortable for you. IMDb has a parents guide that usually details what exactly is in a movie in terms of substance use, violence, sexual stuff, etc. I actually use it just to check in advance for myself for certain things. However it's lacking and if you're looking for more specific warnings, maybe try the website 'doesthedogdie', there's a lot of warnings there. (Although they aren't always 100% accurate, it's usually pretty helpful)

I know a lot of people criticize people for checking warnings in advance for whatever reason, but yeah, I highly recommend it! Yes, horror is supposed to make you uncomfortable and scared, but only to the extent that it's fun/intriguing, and you're not too uncomfortable to even pay attention to the story. I can't always remember things though so I don't always put warnings, so I *really* encourage you to do so if you're at all squeamish or have certain things you'd like to avoid.