#i don't know their ship name which is a TRAVESTY

[the-music-maniac]

It is so rare for me to genuinely enjoy the way a cdrama straight romance is being written, so I'm holding onto these two and never letting go - y'all I'm only on episode 9 rn and I'm writing this based on what I've seen of 9 episodes but if Tantai Jin and Ye Xiwu don't get a happy ending I will actually be SO fucking upset.

And I've been sitting here and thinking about why these two hit so different for me, when I've sat through countless other heterosexual cdramas with my mom and have been unable to get invested in any of them (I got invested in danmei shows but never straight romances purely because of the way they were written) and I have a couple reasons. And because this show has eaten my brain I'm gonna talk about it and write a fucking love letter to the one show that has made me FEEL SOMETHING ABOUT THE MAIN COUPLE SINCE FOREVER.

1. This is a legitimate enemies to lovers plotline:

Like I've noticed with cdramas that are not danmei - when they write "enemies to lovers"? It's never legitimately enemies to lovers. Either the reason for being enemies is really shallow and easily solved, or only one side hates the other, or - my least favourite - they start off as genuinely enemies for a legit reason but then the guy falls in love super damn quickly at the first sign of the girl being nice and the rest of the drama is spent with the guy desperately chasing the girl while the girl is ambiguous to him before slowly falling in love. Hah? Ey why did he fall in love so quickly, huh? I thought the reasons he hated her were real and legitimate (I'm looking at you Romance of Tiger and Rose)?

This drama is genuinely attempting an enemies to lovers relationship. Like Ye Xiwu has a super legit reason to despise Tantai Jin and the same vice versa. Ye Xiwu knows Tantai Jin kills all the people she loves in the future - and yet this man is not quite that person yet, hasn't done much wrong at this point. And meanwhile Tantai Jin knows Ye Xiwu as just another one of his abusers, one he's married to - but little does he know that this Ye Xiwu isn't that person anymore. Basically, they have legitimate dislike for each other in the beginning. They don't fall in love at the first sign of the other person being not like they thought they were - as they SHOULDN'T, it wouldn't make sense. Instead they're slowly getting to know each other. And they repeatedly look out for each other in the beginning but it's clear that the motivation is not love. And even as we go, you can see that they're starting to realize that the other person might be someone worth knowing but they still don't TRUST each other. And fuck that slow burn is SO GOOD and is what's missing in so many cdramas. Even when Ye Xiwu makes up that excuse for why she keeps saving Tantai Jin, that she "likes him" - you can see that Tantai Jin is taken aback in a good way but still doesn't trust it. And meanwhile Ye Xiwu is fully aware of her real goal. Like that?? That's my fucking shit. It doesn't make sense for them to trust each other that quickly and the slow development of it is what I live for.

2. Minimal fanservice scenes that make no sense - maximal scenes that progress the relationship.

I'm gonna use the scene in episode 3 as an example - that moment when Ye Xiwu touches the flowers and gets blasted in the face with the powder and Tantai Jin runs forward to steady her. They were standing next to each other, so the show totally could've gotten away with one of them landing on the other, and another fanservice cdrama would have done that and used it as a way for them to wake up in a romantic situation. But no, in this one they someone landed APART despite the fact that one of them had his arms around the other, and the resulting camera shot was sO DAMN COOL. And the moment when Ye Xiwu fell back, it wasn't some dramatic swooning into Tantai Jin's arms. And then they both faceplanted. We love gender equality LMAO. But that's what I'm talking about, this show knows to pick it's moments. It's aware that now is not the time for a scene like that, and the lack of jarring fanservice scenes that don't fit with the vibe and tension of the moment is so refreshing. And the short fanservice romantic moments that do happen?? Goosebumps. Like for example when the flower demon realized Ye Xiwu was trying to rescue Tantai Jin and said "together then" and pulled Ye Xiwu up into the swirling thing - and they were face to face with the soundtrack swelling. Short and sweet, and both of them look suitably surprised - y'all I loved it.

3. The respect this show affords the female characters.

This shouldn't be a rare thing. IT REALLY SHOULDN'T. But the amount of cdramas where the main female lead acts all dumb and cute to endear herself to the "bad boy" male lead, and y'know what I shouldn't say act because half the time the female lead is GENUINELY DUMB - and keeps getting into deep shit so the man has to go rescue her.

Or THE ONE I HATE THE MOST, the main female lead is a competent, intelligent character that's super powerful, and then somehow loses all her braincells and ability the minute she meets the male lead because the plot needs a way for the male lead to repeatedly save her as a romantic trope. The shows that think that they can't write a romance when the female lead is on equal or higher standing then the male lead in terms of skill or intelligence. Leave. Leave immediately.

This show?? Nah. No Ye Xiwu is just as smart as she was at the beginning of the show, and even though her magic is greatly diminished she's still able to strategize and use it effectively. She's a match for Tantai Jin in terms of intelligence and ability and WHY IS THAT SO RARE TO SEE IS IT SO MUCH TO ASK FOR. And just - this is such a small nitpicky detail but the way Ye Xiwu doesn't shy away from nudity or the implication of taking off clothes - WHICH MAKES SENSE CAUSE SHE'S LITERALLY A DEITY like WHY would she be worried about shit like that? The amount of times I've seen female characters who really shouldn't be iffy about nudity shriek and yell when that stuff comes up *screams in frustration*. No but fuck I love Ye Xiwu so much, Tantai Jin went "you wanna search me? Why not get me to take off all my clothes" expecting her to chicken out and this queen looked him dead in the eyeballs and went "do you think that's a hardship" and then sat down on the bed and waited like "bet". AMAZING.

Not only that, the other female characters are afforded a lot of that same respect in the way they're written - the female assistant isn't treated as dumb comedic relief, the kind sister isn't treated as frail even though her initial scenes was about her getting sick from falling in a lake - honestly so far, up to the amount of episodes I've seen there isn't a single female character that's airheaded in that cutesy way I absolutely hate. They're different personalities, different ability levels, different intelligence levels but they're all afforded the same amount of agency as any male character in the show. And fuck, the scene in the flashback with Tantai Jin's mother? First off, I'm weary anytime they touch on tribal stuff in cdramas because sometimes it's some racist bullshit about them being brutes blah blah blah, but while I don't know if this show was accurate in the clothing or demeanor, they depict them in a very positive way - two, there's something so powerful and freeing about seeing her stride down that aisle on her own, head held high, raising her arms up to greet the emperor. They're meeting on equal terms. It was beautifully done. Basically I'm in love with the way they wrote these female characters.

4. The romantic tropes that do occur don't shove gender roles down my throat.

I feel like this is self explanatory, but one thing I've noticed is that cdrama romantic tropes seem to enforce gender roles, to the point where it no longer makes sense in the plot. Like oh this girl is super powerful? Irrelevant she still has to swoon into the man's arms. Man is the breadwinner, is the protective one, the one who gets jealous. Woman is the mediator, is the kind one, the one to be admired for beauty. I am tired. I'm BORED actually? Like I have nothing against people liking those tropes because yeah, they exist for a reason people obviously like them and it's so valid. It's not like I don't get the appeal of swooning into your partners arms. But if it's the ONLY THING you ever see? If the tropes start piling up so that the female character can only ever be soft and feminine and the male character can only ever be strong and masculine, I stop seeing them as individuals, as characters. They're now a caricature of what society thinks men and women should be. They stop having a face. And once they cease being individual characters in my mind, I lose interest.

I like the way this show handles the romantic tropes, because at the beginning it really doesn't make sense for Ye Xiwu to need saving - she's in a safe home and she has more power then Tantai Jin in terms of social standing - and even if she did need saving Tantai Jin for sure wouldn't do it LMAO AS WE SEE WITH THE LAKE THING PFFT 🤣🤣

No but because it doesn't make sense for plot - Tantai Jin is the one being repeatedly rescued even though it's not a role the male lead usually takes in these tropes. And Ye Xiwu does it in a very "swooping in like a cool male lead" type of way. Like when she shoved her brother back after he slashed Tantai Jin's robes? Damn. I'm so gay wtf. Also buying new robes for Tantai Jin *cough* sugar daddy *cough*.

And meanwhile Tantai Jin is allowed to be withdrawn and soft and quiet and still vicious and super competent but in a sassy, bitchy way. My god I love him. He's my babygirl. His little smirk after he roasts someone. I'm so bisexual actually, fuck. Both of them can just step on me But basically neither of them are 100% one or the other - not 100% masculine or feminine gender roles, it's a changing dynamic and it makes them seem like real people.

????. What number is this??? Uh

5. I think. I'm not gonna scroll up. Anyways um.

The SHOTS. The SOUNDTRACK. The CINEMATOGRAPHY.

Beyond the fact that the CGI in this show actually looks passable cause i'm sure they had a bigger budget then some danmei shows i've seen, but HOW did they inject so much bittersweet nostalgia and loss into the flashback wedding scene? That moment when Ye Xiwu runs for Tantai Jin with a sword in hand to kill the birds, her robes flowing out behind her? The demon's garden??? Tantai Jin's bitchy glittery sparkly murder hanfu??? The winter scenery, the winter cloaks, i'm just. THE HIGH PONYTAILS. MAN ARE THEY INCONVENIENT WHEN THEY SWISH AROUND BUT I STILL LOVE THEM.

Also Ye Xiwu's headdress is beautiful and fully INDESTRUCTIBLE 🤣🤣 and I love it.

I, no joke, rewatched that flashback wedding scene no less then seven times, cause I just find it that well done.

Anyways I don't have much to say here everything is just gorgeous.

6. NO FUCKING LOVE TRIANGLES (SO FAR)

Let's hope it stays that way. That is all

This is getting way too long so Imma end it here. Thanks for reading!

[fourseasonsfigs]

A Basket of Gardenias

This free-spirited fig looks like the embodiment of Springtime!

The inspiration for this fig is from Zhang Zhehan's June 2021 photo shoot. Unfortunately, the rainbow Pride message of his Vetements Think Differently t-shirt he wore was photoshopped out of the final shoot to turn it into a plain white t-shirt. In order to see the actual shirt, you'll want to check out this BTS video, which is short (too short!) and well worth checking out.

Here's a still from the shoot. It's this shirt:

I'm not a huge fan of Vetements in general myself - not quite my speed, but I do love this t-shirt. It's bright and joyous with a great message, and Zhehan looks great in it.

The flowers Zhehan holds in this photo shoot are actually plumerias, not gardenias. But the flowers he has here in his basket are pure white, with no yellow interior, and of course gardenias have the same initials as his name - zhi zi hua.

Our basket-holding cutie arrived perfectly in his little polystyrene box!

Oh, he's so cute! Carrying his little woven basket full of flowers, skipping along!

His shorts have the Junzhe CP number on them, just as cute as can be! I really love the deep green the fig maker picked for his eyes - not only is it a nice contrast to the lightness of his clothes, but echo the rich green of flower stems.

He came with the base, thankfully. I would have had to glue him down anyway if he hadn't - there's no way he could have stood upright with this adorable pose.

You may have noticed I've gone back to photographing figs on my bar countertop. I was feeling like the white paper background wasn't enough of a contrast and was fading the figs out.

That being said, we'll see how long this lasts, as apparently the new challenge is keeping my phone level while taking pictures. I'd like to blame my phone's side buttons, but let's be real, we all know who's responsible for this travesty of off-kilter lines.

I think I must have a special place in my heart for figs that have one foot kicked up like this. I find it so carefree and charming! I'm trying to think how many figs I have like this - there's Kick Leg (super cute), Beach Jun (positively perfect!), Zhehan leaning back during his performance of Huan Rao in Hemisphere (delightful, and the matching Gong Jun Hemisphere fig is shipping now!). And then a bunch of figs with a foot just above the ground for sure. I might be missing some! If I see some more I'll come back and update this.

Look at these fig proportions - the perfectly round head with the waves of hair, the adorably chubby and blushy feet and hands, and of course the big sparkly eyes which we're going to see more of soon. What a great fig. Just about as charming as can be!

I've noticed this particular fig angle is the absolute best for showing off the fig 92.3% of the time (you can't argue with exact numbers!). This fig contributes to the highly scientific calculations by being ridiculously cute from this angle. You get his cute kicked up leg, a nice shot of the Vetements shirt, and a fabulous shot of the basket of flowers. Plus, you get to see his happy face with big open mouthed smile! A smile, or as I like to think, singing!

What a great fig. You can see the fig maker decided to go with just a black line for the very small lettering of Think Different under the rainbow logo, which is no double an excellent call. Hard to get lettering at this tiny scale.

A little difficult to get a bottoms-up view with the stand, but here we have the best one I can get. You can see the string ties on his shorts from this angle, which is actually a detail I had not seen before this!

Not too much to see here - just of course his hair, his foot, and the little curl of his hand with his arm under the basket.

I'm sorry I don't have the box card to show off here - it was an unfortunate casualty of the warehouse-to-shipping grand tour, and slipped through the literal cracks and was lost somewhere out there. There's no art on the box either, as this fig maker ships all her figs in plain white boxes. But that's ok - I can't complain when there's this cute of a fig smiling (and singing!) out at me from my shelf.

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 368

Scene Count: 25

Rating: Prettier than any flower!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[spinningbuster98]

Honest opinion on every Sonic adaptation you know :)

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog:Admittedly I've never flully watched (same goes for the other 90's shows). Not too interesting, has jack shit to do with the games, but I guess it's fairly entertaining

Sonic Satam: Again, never watched it but like a lot of people have said it's basically your typical 90's environmental cartoon with a dash of Sonic kinda sorta. I don't even want to critisize it too much for not being very Sonic-y since....honestly have you seen the kinds of cartoon video game adaptations that were coming out at those times? Captain N? Ruby Spears Megaman? Faithfulness to the source material just wasn't a thing back then so I don't wanna be too harsh on Satam for this. I also refuse to critisize it for the effects it's had on the fandom in the long run (y'know Archie, people wanting the Freedom Fighters in the games etc) mainly because I personally believe it's unfair to judge a product by the effect it's had years later, especially if it's due to the actions of later developers and or fans. By this logic then SA1 should be demonized as an absolute travesty, because without it many of the issues that would plague the games in the 2000's would not have existed and 06 especially would not have been a thing.

Sonic Underground: I know next to nothing about it except the premise is so stupid I kinda love it and the theme song....I actually kinda like it!

Sonic OVA: I understand why people love it, especially in comparison to the american adaptations...but personally it's almost as guilty as them for their lack of faithfulness (Knuckles being "Sonic's best friend"? Sonic being a bit of a dick to Tails? Whatever the fuck Eggman has for Sarah?), in fact I kinda hold it against the OVA a bit more, since it was made by Japanese developers, so the usual excuse of the american manuals being extremely simplified therefore not giving american writers enough material to work with (which I never even bought fully, because look at the differences between game and satam Eggman even at a glance c'mon) couldn't apply here. It does have my favourite version of Metal though, and the animation is great from what I remember.

Sonic X: I have some fond memories as it technically was my introduction to the series, but looking back it sorta introduced a good chunk of characterization issues that would plague the 2000's, mainly Amy. I don't even have much to say about Chris honestly.

Archie Sonic: Never read it fully but man was it a hilarious mess from all that I've seen. Though I gotta admit I really liked the character of Nicole and how the series evolved her past her Satam origins. If there's one character I kinda miss after Archie's cancellation that's her.

IDW: I don't read it since it's never grabbed my attention. I guess I agree with most of the criticisms thrown at it, though I don't necessarily have an issue with it basically being Archie 2.0 since it's pretty obvious that a big chunk of its reader base used to be from Archie. I mean think about it: if Sega were to can Sonic as a game series but then someone were to make a spiritual successor that is 100% identical to it (more so than the likes of Freedom Planet) except for names and characters we'd all jump ship and see it's being almost identical to its predecessor as a positive. IDW is basically aimed at former Archie fans and that's okay, though that doesn't exempt it from criticism. Other than that I don't have a whole lot to say, I find it to be pretty small potatoes when it comes to bad game adaptations.

Sonic Boom: Very random and unnecessary adaptation, never been too big on the redesigns and even the show's whole comedy shtick never gelled. Honestly from what little I remember Amy was kind of insufferable and Sticks wasn't much better. I do like some of the memes that have spawned from it (mainly the Knuckles approves meme).

Sonic Movie: Ehh... I wasn't big on the whole "Sonic gets isekaie'd" into our world premise since day 1 and that hasn't changed for me. My main issue is that Sonic....is not really Sonic to me. To me what makes Sonic as a character stand out is his carefree, adventurous attitude, his purity mixed with a bit of cockiness and occasional aggressiveness, and his independence. Movie Sonic has very little of these qualities, especially the last, as the whole "Snic is a little kid who wants a family" shtick just isn't Sonic to me. To me that's your typical kid character dressed in a Sonic suit. Even Pontaff Sonic, for as jokey as he was, still held those key qualities for me. And I just don't like Knuckles' whole "super honorable warrior" thing he's got going, can't even explain why, it just rubs me the wrong way I guess.

The humans are boring. Yeah yeah Tom and Maddie are this and that and they're better than other human char-listen: wanna know what's my problem with some human characters in the series? Human characters are inherently "normal", and "normal" is not what you wanna be in a series that's about anthropomorphic animals going on fun adventures. Eggman works because he's a character who was created to fit into this series. Guys like the president in SA2 or the Gun Commander were not. Unless they're background characters, or secondary, you wanna give your human characters some form of whimsy or quirky personality, or hell make them more action/adventure oriented, like an Indiana Jones type of character, otherwise all the screentime they have is gonna feel like a huge waste of space to me as I'll just want to go back to the fun animal characters.

Speaking of Eggman, while Carrey turns out a great performance since....he's Jim Carrey, I can't help but feel even his Eggman's a bit lacking. Yeah he' goofy and funny and all that, but a good part of what I like about game Eggman is how much of a manchild he is, and not just with his design and overall attitude: when things stop going his way he loses his shit, throws tantrums, stomps his feet. It's both a source of entertainment...but it's also what makes him dangerous because due to his childish personality he may just decide to launch a nuke at a city...with HIMSELF still in it just because he's that much of a sore loser! I don't get these vibes from jimbotnik, to me he seems a bit too calm and collected, and that, in turn, makes him less entertaining than he could be.

Maybe I should give the movies proper watches? Because i admit I haven't watched them fully, just tons of clips on YT, enough to cover the most important bits, so maybe I'm being unfair...but honestly even the humor of some of those scenes is just not up my alley, yeah Colors' humor is also very hit and miss and in many ways not appropriate to the series, but at least in that case I still have a game to enjoy that's separated from the humor.

Call my cynical but I'm convinced that, in a few years, people will start looking at these movies in a not so positive light, because once the hype about it being "the best game movie adaptations ever" dies down people will start analyzing them further....and I have this feeling they won't hold up.

[thatmexisaurusrex]

Headcanons I Have About Sam and Bucky

Hey people!

I thought I'd talk about some headcanons I have for Sam and Bucky that I always keep in mind when I write them, so here they are!

SAM HEADCANONS:

1. If Sam ever gained the ability of avian telepathy, he would own that shit. He would be so obnoxious about how hyped he was about the fact that he could talk to birds that everyone would both hate him and somehow envy him for the ability (also, it is a continual travesty that they took away his avian telepathy in the MCU and I'll never not be bummed about that).

2. Sam is actually an anxious person who doesn't like giving huge speeches or going on camera. He can talk to people one on one well, he can empathize with people, yes, but he tenses up at the idea of having so many eyes on him and isn't a fan of interviews.

3. Sam is bad at fishing. He just can't. His parents were ecstatic when they learned that he wanted to become a pilot. There's a reason why Sarah didn't want him messing with the boat's engine and why so much got done with Bucky around to help with the boat.

4. Sam is a private person. He only talks about his past if he needs to. He only talks about his family when he's close enough to a person. He just likes having privacy and while he does like boasting about himself sometimes, talking himself up, he doesn't like talking about himself.

5. Sam's always been an early riser. He woke up early to help his parents on the boat, he wakes up early now to jog/train.

BUCKY HEADCANONS:

1. Bucky is Jewish. This is mostly because Marvel took the entire backstory of Arnie Roth, one of the first openly gay Marvel characters, and gave it to MCU Bucky and Roth is a very Jewish last name. Also, I'm Jewish and I like the representation.

3. Bucky has terrible taste in fashion. I'm sorry, I just love the idea of Bucky just wearing the dumbest things because the future has stupid t-shirts he can wear or just trash taste that's fun. He'd totally wear crocs and rock dad shirts and wear the tackiest shit or even the most incomprehensible fashion as he experiments with what he likes.

2. Bucky is an artist. He and Steve were in an art class when they first learned that the United States was entering World War II.

3. Bucky is a huge nerd and has always been a huge nerd. There's a reason why he read the children's book the Hobbit when it first came out despite having to ship it all the way from England.

4. Bucky had always dreamed of the future and distant lands, probably because he never felt like he belonged in his own time period. He took Steve to the Stark Expo, which was essentially a play on Tomorrowland and the World's Fair.

5. Bucky helped take care of his family during the Depression. He did what he could to pick up any slack at home, helped raise his sister, started work as soon as he was able to add to rent money.

COMMON SAM AND BUCKY HEADCANONS:

1. They're both actually introverts. Both Sam and Bucky are good at playing the extrovert, they're people who revert into "being the host" mode, make people comfortable when they can, but it's also draining for them to hang out with people for too long.

2. They both have an overachiever mentality. They have to do better than everyone else expects them to, have to not only exceed expectations, but blow them out of the water, and that can be a huge double-edged sword in terms of their own mental and physical health, especially if they forget to take care of themselves.

3. Vampires are a step too far. They will take the existence of wizards, robots, and aliens, but vampires, werewolves, and anything of that level of supernatural are just too much.

4. They both look fantastic with their nails done. I just love the idea of them having painted nails, I don't know why.

5. They'd both be amazing dads. They'd be loving, caring dads who'd do well for their kids.

[needs-to-stop-looking-at-valves]

Character review! (12/12)

Colossus Rhodes!!;

Im...not gonna lie i didn't even know this bitch had a name. I mean, name me a bitch who could remember his name? I mean hes a one trick pony. First time he surprised us, then...eh. hes just boring.

Verdict:1/10. Hes just...so fucking boring. Take him home if you want?? All i gotta say is why?? Name ONE bitch who's horny for him. I'll wait.

Meltdown's dumb fucking oc's!!;

I don't care what you guys say, this is what they should be called. They fucking suck. God i hate them. They can get fucked by Fanzone's damn feet but can take on Grimlock? Bullshit.

Verdict:0/10. Just...don't. Dont.

Nanosec!!;

I?? Think he was my favorite human villian? He wasn't too complicated. He was just some guy who needed money, and Megatron made something out of it. He's kinda funny, he's a dumbfuck, hes US if we got super speed. Plus i kinda REALLY ship him with Slow-mo? And honestly? His simplicity makes him a GOOD character. I appreciate him.

Verdict:7/10. Take him home if you want?? Your parents are gonna think hes some punk. But he's just a guy. Probably lives off fucking ramen noodles and wants enough cash for a tv and some pizza.

Professor Princess!!;

She's such a 'feminist'. Shes the bitch who'd have a bake sale for equality, charge boys $1 and girls 75 cents. Shes annoying. They never explain HOW shes a professor?? Shes like 5?? What are you professor of? Fucking potty training?? Whatever powdered sugar can do better.

Verdict:3/10. Itd be 0, but...the voice actress kept bringing me back. Im not gonna comment on taking her home because thats FUCKED and anyone who complains about it is gonna get blocked. Seriously.

Headmaster!!;

Ugh god. Hes the guy on call of duty telling you he fucked your mom last night. He's just...annoying. weird buff goth, and his invention wasn't that creative in my book, and it DID make Dirtboss. But at least thanks to him Optimus got to punch Sentinel.

Verdict:4/10. Don't take him home. You guys deserve more than this.

Master diaster!!;

Was available for only one episode. Ill say one thing, dudes got good colors. Red is such a magical color. He works with it. He's also got a neato role, which was interesting enough for a one time baddie. I think i just....really don't like his face.

Verdict:6/10. Chances are he doesn't wanna meet your folks, since he's doing illegal shit. Plus lets face it you'd only hit that for money.

Slowmo!!;

This dame is EVERYTHING! The bee's knees, the cats pajamas! From the way she talks, to her looks, to how she interacted with Nanosec. Shes got a nice dialect, a pleasant speech, talking fit for the papers (im trying shut up) and is overall just a neato character? I liked having her around. It was a shame they didn't bring her in more. A disappointment, a travesty, unfair.

Verdict:7/10. Bring her home, shes a catch, the top fish, a total dame who takes things slow.

Powel!!;

He proves you can't trust a bitch with a Mullet. He just...sucks. its his clear intentions though, so hes...good? At sucking?? He's just that bitch in class that deserves nothing but has EVERYTHING. It sucks.

Verdict:2/10. Don't take him home. He'll just take your house and build a sweat shop on it.

[motorcyclegirlfriends]

Sense the SDCC thing, I've been seeing a lot of art and fics that are dragging Kara/Supergirl. Like I get that some people are upset at the actors but the characters have nothing to do with any of this. I started watching the show because I read the comics when I was a kid, I just loved Supergirl as a hero. It's really kind of upsetting. They're treating a character like shit because they don't like something the person who portrays them did.

So this is a long dissection of the current Supergirl fan behavior, but if you’ve been wondering what the hell is going on, you might be interested in reading these concepts.

I understand why you’re upset. I am too, because Kara is such a wonderful character. I don’t think I’ve ever liked a character as much as her.

But there are two things you should realize when seeing this:

1. They never really cared about Kara to being with. Your loved Kara-focused content isn’t changing or leaving, because these people were not making the Kara content. They were likely initially making Supercorp Lena-focused content.

2. It’s not even about her.

I think what a lot of people who are newly joining this SDCC homophobia discussion are missing is that a lot of the most vicious backlash is not from people who are uniquely upset over this issue (though there are certainly people who are- and understandably) but from people who have had consistently overzealous reactions of hate toward actors and characters alike, save their fave (pretty much Katie Mcgrath/Lena Luthor).

On tumblr, and very noticeably in this fandom, there are sections of fans who seem to genuinely enjoy hating things. It’s a sport.

They’re having fun sending the most hurtful things they can think of to actors, and are the quickest to begin making vicious memes and jokes surrounding a negative event, before there has been a consensus within the community of how bad the “sin” was.

The “punishment” begins before the jury is out, and trying to defend those in the situation feels like trying to put a bullet back into a gun after it’s been fired. 

(Maybe it’s more like stepping in front of a bullet, because once these few have decided that the target is guilty, they won’t stop, and anyone who disagrees with them is guilty, too. Blogs and actors alike.)

This is partially why my discussion of the SDCC event had a “are they homophobic” slant (other then that I believe the nature of the event itself- if it was homophobic- hinges on the feeling behind the words, unlike most other instances of homophobia. It’s complicated and some people understandably disagree so far, but it’s really how I see it and I’ll be talking more about it a little later in different posts).

People started calling Melissa and Jeremy homophobic right away. Started targeting Kara as a character. Started “spite shipping” Lena and Reign. 

Or alternative to these options- immediately fan re-casted Kara as someone else to still be able to ship Supercorp. 

From where I stand, if you can so easily let go of this characterization of Kara, you never really cared about her as a character to begin with. If you don’t know that this was The™ person to play Kara Danvers, you’re likely more invested in the role she plays for Lena than for her as herself. 

And regardless of gender, I am uninterested in ships in which one character exists for the sake of another. (Lena existing purely for the sake of Kara’s development squicks me, too)

Recasting a woc as Kara doesn’t sit well with me either, for that reason. It’s a similar concept to how Maggie must exist as her own complex and valued person, apart from Alex, because she is a character of color.

I can’t really read the minds of these people, and I guess I could be wrong, but it’s hard for me to imagine actual Kara fans recasting her in this way.

Essentially, a lot of these people, or at least a very vocal minority, are so quick to accept that something horrible has happened because they want an excuse to hate them. 

They like it. 

Maybe it’s because they’re upset with the way society is and want someone to suffer for it. Maybe it’s because they have unresolved anger in their lives. 

But as it stands, it appears as if these people are using moral rightness and social activism as an excuse to be as mean as they want.

And like @youngbloodbuzz said in the link above, you start to look at their past behaviors in a new light. Were they genuinely upset at characters? Actors? Did they really feel like a travesty was occurring? That someone needed protecting?

Or were they just looking for reasons to call someone a “stupid cunt”?

It’s like they’re genuinely thinking, “It’s okay for me to make fun of someone’s physical appearance, call them intense names, make memes about how horrible they are innately, and send them death threats because they said something problematic once that a lot of people will hear.”

Sometimes they’ll call it “coping”, and maybe some people truly believe that makes it okay. But coping mechanisms are not above reproach.

If I hurt someone because I’m upset about something- even if I hurt someone because they did something wrong- it doesn’t erase the fact that I hurt them. We are still responsible to how we react to bad situations. We are still responsible for not reacting in an overly inflated way. 

Sometimes people will focus on how those that they’re attacking have more of a responsibility to be good people. That they are but mere bloggers, screaming into the void. They can’t possibly be accountable for how they behave. 

“I’m tired of talking about how bad the fans are, we should be focusing on what they did wrong!”

It creates an atmosphere in which an honest mistake from a well known person is much more crucifiable than the purposeful cruelty of the fans. We’re discouraged from criticizing popular blogs because the person they’re attacking has a wider audience and larger consequences for mistakes, as if popular bloggers don’t reach and influence thousands of people and as if we aren’t allowed to shape the way our own community functions.

Meanwhile, people who genuinely value morality and social activism fall prey to this thinking. They’ll even join in on the action, because they think it’s a moral act. 

Rebellion, somehow. Righteous fire. 

It’s a twisted mindset that spreads because people are afraid to be on the wrong side of morality.

Even people who really think the reaction is “too far” are quiet about it because they agree with the fact that what the offending celebrity did was wrong, and see that the level of vitriol for them now is overwhelming.

This is how I imagine that people who believe Melissa and Jeremy’s words to be homophobic but who do not think a couple of mistakes makes someone pure evil are relating to the current tumblr dialogue: 

“Wow this thing was homophobic!”

“Huh, yeah, I agree. Maybe not intentionally, but yeah.”

“That means this person is homophobic!”

“Uh, well, not sure I’d go that far-”

“Oh and look at this other somewhat problematic thing they did a while ago”

“Hmm well that’s bad, but not everyone outside of social activism gets that that’s a bad thing, so I can see-”

“Wow did you hear that this person also has an opinion about the show that I disagree with! What the fuck is wrong with them?”

“Oh. Well I actually agree with them in that situation but-”

“Omg they think that their character is like this! Do they know them at all??? What kind of terrible actor doesn’t know their character?”

“Well that’s a pretty common way that people are reading this character. Just because you-”

“Here’s some conjecture about their personal life that I imagine happened that paints them in a bad light.”

“Well, you don’t know that, but either way you shouldn’t be diving into their personal-”

“Oh and here’s a totally real story from an anon about someone they know who knew this person in the past and says they were a jerk at this one point-”

And it becomes too much. If you don’t really love the actor, really love their character, you either extract yourself from the group or you ignore the opinions you disagree with. 

It becomes quite clear that these people want to feel this way and won’t be changing any time soon.

And the more there seems to be a consensus about the issue, the less willing people are to speak out, for fear of rejection.

The Spiral of Silence theory is a good way to explain it:

To avoid isolation, people tend to refrain from publicly stating their views on controversial matters when they perceive that doing so would attract criticism, scorn, laughter, or other signs of disapproval. 

Conversely, those who sense that their opinions will meet with approval tend to voice them fearlessly and at times vociferously. 

Indeed, speaking out in such a way tends to enhance the threat of isolation faced by supporters of the opposing position, reinforcing their sense of being alone. 

Thus a spiraling process begins, the dominant camp becoming ever louder and more self-confident while the other camp becomes increasingly silent.

Importantly, the spiral of silence occurs only in connection with controversial issues that have a strong moral component. What triggers a person’s fear of isolation is the belief that others will consider him or her not merely mistaken but morally bad. Accordingly, issues that lack a moral component or on which there is general consensus leave no room for a spiral of silence.

Additionally, I believe that if someone does speak out against the (perceived) majority, it is most likely to be someone who is very strongly opposing of it.

A person who believes “It isn’t homophobic at all! They are innocent!” is more likely to voice their disagreements than “Okay I agree with your assessment of the situation but I think maybe we’re being too harsh…”

So the “minority”- who could technically very well be the quiet majority (people with middle-ground opinions just don’t get as many followers)- stays quiet. 

They might even change their minds to agree with the “majority”, over time. 

Believing that the mindset of the group that you belong to is wrong is psychologically uncomfortable, so it is not uncommon for someone to try to adjust their thinking to fit those they feel connected to.

So, eventually, the only people who are speaking at all are those “majorities” who hate these people. Or those who act like they do for notes.

And then this thinking escalates amongst those still talking about it (remember: because it’s fun for them and they want to milk it for as long as possible) and it quickly translates to hating their character, once they’ve temporarily run out of material to be angry with the actor for.

So, back to your concern, how long until, “it’s hard to look at Melissa as Kara right now, because of how I fear she might feel about gay people” becomes something like “Mon-El is abusive, but Kara can choke so whatever” ?

(And on that note, one should consider how much they really wanted to protect Kara Danvers’ characterization from Mon-El’s influence, and how much was just a part of their hate-hobby.)

Maybe it won’t go that far. I hope it doesn’t. I hope people come to their senses about this.

But it’s escalated even since yesterday, when I started making this post. The language being used to describe Melissa when she is speaking normally, about normal things that some people have a difference of opinion on, is abhorrent. 

So if you’re just trying to enjoy fandom in a peaceful and creative way, I encourage you to watch how the people you interact with react when something negative happens.

Are they disheartened? Crushed? Are they considering leaving the show and it’s fandom? Writing serious essays about how they’re hurt?

…Or do they come alive?

Are they incredibly angry, and then making jokes immediately? Memes and edits and creative content more so than they do on a peaceful day? Do you get the sense that they aren’t going anywhere, for a long time, even though they don’t seem to enjoy anything about the show?

Then you might be better off unfollowing them.

Of course, not everyone who makes a joke about negative things is thus enjoying it. It makes people feel better to make light of situations as well as to express anger, and doing so doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re drama-seeking.

And sometimes people slip into the mob more than they would like to have, retrospectively. Say cruel things that they regret later. 

It happens, and tumblr can be a persuasive and pervasive place. 

If you follow someone who initially reblogs some slightly overly hateful things, but who then backs off after the first wave, they probably aren’t the kind of person who is fueled by anger. 

I’ve seen a lot of people I considered to be level-headed get wrapped up in overly aggressive, black and white thinking during the initial reaction to events.

But then sometimes, a couple of weeks later, they’ll post a tentative “Anyone else still wanna kinda like this thing, even though we said it was bad before?” and they’ll get enough approval via reblogs to feel like it’s okay to go back to normal.

Some blogs quietly sort themselves out, in the end.

And if you’re one of those people who goes overboard occasionally, I get it. 

You’re hurt and you didn’t realize that the basis for the fan reaction that you were involved in was morally shallow. That the people you were supporting were not righteously furious, but using righteousness as an excuse to be furious.

But remember the message here: people make mistakes. It’s the patterns that really tell you who they are.

And I think we can be better. Have better patterns, as a group.

In the end, I encourage you to point out when a reaction is too harsh, toward anyone. Even if it’s difficult. Even if you agree that what the person did was pretty bad.

Agreeing that “black and white thinking” is bad can feel like you’re lowering your standards for morality. But I promise, you can still value the things that you value and loathe the things that go against it, without condemning someone’s entire personhood based on a mistake or a handful of mistakes regarding those things.

Even big mistakes.

People are complicated. We are all made up of really good things and really bad things.

It’s easy to believe that someone is wholly bad when they screw up.

The hard part, the part that will ultimately ground you and help you mature, is realizing that someone can have some really bad parts within them and still be good people. (I encourage you to remember that when thinking about yourself, as well.)

The trick is recognizing the difference between when people are making honest mistakes that unintentionally hurt people, and when they’re willfully behaving a certain way because they want to hurt people (or don’t care that they will). 

And further, between when people are lashing out because they’re hurt and when people are inventing hurt to be able to lash out.

These distinctions will help you realize who you can guide or trust to work their issues out on their own when they slip up, and who you should distance yourself from.

Some very vocal portions of the fandom are, unfortunately, the latter.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Different anon here. I don't see the passive handling of the Hiccstrid relationship as a minor thing, "Hiccstrid is the biggest thing on the show that is directly connected to httyd 2" - Art/Doug (radio interview). I also think people's problem with the timeline isn't just inconsisties but the substebtial stuff too. Hiccstrid were supposed to be this strong, solid "power-couple" by now and have silent and honest understanding.

From this.

Hey there and hope you’re doing well!

As nice and enjoyable of an element as Hiccstrid is to the HTTYD franchise, what I mean by “minor” is that Hiccstrid is not the central element of HTTYD’s long-term storytelling arc. The central themes of the movie trilogy (which is the foundational element of the entire franchise) are about several other key relationships: namely, Hiccup with his parents and Hiccup with his dragon, Toothless. Those are the core of How to Train Your Dragon.

The television series, as Art and Doug have themselves commented, is meant to be an embellishment on top of the movies, providing us time to interact more with secondary characters like Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs. This is one reason why Hiccstrid’s approach in RTTE is not a critical, make-or-break element of the longterm trajectory of HTTYD’s core. It has certainly been hyped up and advertised in promotional materials to attract shippers, but it is not the main theme of How to Train Your Dragon.

The fact that Hiccstrid might not feel like seamless between the end of RTTE to the start of HTTYD 2 is also just a transitional blip. Things like that are fairly minor. We still get the information that Hiccup and Astrid grow into a relationship with all the official content we receive from DreamWorks. That their relationship doesn’t grow earlier is at its core a slight characterization timing issue. Also, with all friendliness intended, the idea that Hiccstrid were supposed to be a strong, solid “power couple” with a silent and honest understanding “at this point”… is your own personal evaluation of how you would like the relationship to have headed, not anything that had to be guaranteed and solidified by DreamWorks. Earlier development and bonding might make more sense given things Dean DeBlois said back in 2010, and given how Hiccstrid acted in GOTNF, but the slight skew in timeline between what you imagined and what RTTE did is not an irreconcilable, major, plot-breaking travesty that Makes Utterly No Sense. Timeliness and rate of growth of relationship is all something that can be smoothed over when we understand the long-term arc of where we know they started and where they ended up. We can still logically connect the dots through all the points of what we see with Hiccstrid without any problem. This does make Hiccstrid’s handling in RTTE a minor challenge.

The reason people do not consider this a minor issue is because of how much people love Hiccstrid and connect to the couple, and how much people envision and relate to the couple when it is at its strongest. I am very glad you enjoy the ship! Please keep on enjoying it and loving it. I also do love Hiccup and Astrid the most when they are at their closest, as we see them in HTTYD 2. My “minor” comment is simply talking through the analytical storytelling aspect of it. From the storytelling aspect of both the long-term arcs in the HTTYD trilogy, and from the storytelling aspect of being able to understand that Hiccup and Astrid got from A to B, there are no maaaajor kinks or klunks or problems. Imperfect, yes, but not a major issue that breaks logical possibility.

I know this isn’t what you envision with Hiccstrid, but, for what it’s worth: relationships can become silent, powerful, and honest in surprisingly short times! There was one time where I went from being extremely nervous even mentioning I was in love with someone… to being informally engaged with that person in the course of a few months. Ehehehe. Not joking. XD My sister met a young man and got engaged to him in less than a year, they’re married, and they have one of the best, most solid, supportive, and perfect relationships I’ve seen between couples. It’s an amazing relationship from the silly to the serious. 

And I don’t think that Hiccstrid is a sudden, “quick forming” couple either, with what ROB, DOB, and RTTE combined has shown us. Hiccstrid have even shown how much they silently understood and cared for one another far before they became an “official couple” according to RTTE’s storytelling arc… Hiccup and Astrid have been able to understand one another since even before the start of RTTE with notable moments in ROB and DOB. They’ve been bonding over a very long time, to the point that even in the first season of RTTE, Heather can see their connection right off the bat!

You don’t have to enjoy Race to the Edge’s handling of Hiccstrid. That’s fine! That’s totally fine! If I may kindly ask, though: I don’t want to talk about complaints about Hiccstrid on my blog, so I please ask people to respect that and not send me anti-RTTE-Hiccstrid to me. Let us just come together and imagine and enjoy Hiccstrid for what we love about it. Let us find the commonalities of what we do enjoy and go with that. That, I am much more happy to talk about than this. Let’s end this conversation here if that’s okay! :)