Imagine if you were a gay or bi man who tried a certain firefighter show because of all the attention it was getting for one of its mains having a later in life bi awakening.....and between seasons you ventured into its fandom in search of material to tide you over til the next one. And you're greeted by a deluge of posts and fics that are just cheerfully homophobic towards one half of the newly out bi character's canon relationship on the basis of 'well he's not the RIGHT gay guy' and pushing the idea that actually its fine to cheat on him because Reasons and he's sexually predacious based on......behind the scenes implications people have divined like they're reading fucking tea leaves.
But don't get it twisted....this fandom, like all fandoms, really cares about representation!
Sorry not sorry, but we really need to kill this idea that fandoms are welcoming and inviting and inherently progressive when they're frequently insular and reductive as fuck. Every single fandom I've been in has had major trends of people doubling down on their own headcanons and fanon interpretations of the characters and willfully enacting trends aimed at running off people who like the 'wrong' characters (usually characters marginalized along one or multiple axes), like the characters in the 'wrong ways' or other bullshit.
Scott is a Bad Friend fics overtaking Teen Wolf fandom was not incidental, it was a FEATURE of the fandom, because the vast majority of that fandom did not want to share its space with anyone who had the nerve to like its main character. Survivors complaining about or criticizing the prevalance of rape fics in a certain fandom has in my experience always led to a reactionary UPTICK in those fics, with gems like 'this character can, will, must be raped' in the tags making it crystal clear that some of these fics exist because how fucking DARE anyone try and push forth a narrative not agreed upon by Fandom Main.
I could cite examples for so many other fandoms, with the commonalities always being that vast majorities in these fandoms are explicitly reacting defensively to being asked to be more mindful of fandom trends revolving around or exacerbating racism, homophobia, transphobia, rape or abuse apologia, ableism, etc....
With the most prolific fucking rallying cry across countless fandoms being "No the fuck we will NOT be doing that," because lolololol.....
Fandom is an inherently progressive space, didn't you hear?
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wait pls expand on lalo being a yassified chuck!!!!!
Sure thing! Cut just for those who don't wanna read a post about Chuck and Lalo
I was mostly being a bit jokey about it, but I honestly think that Lalo and Chuck have a lot in common when it comes down to the details. It's really no coincidence that as soon as Chuck leaves the show, we're presented with Lalo, who ends up bullying Jimmy into the exact opposite direction Chuck was. They're both incredibly selfish, they're the main man in charge, and they both seem to act like they can't stand not getting their way. They're one-track minded and stubborn to reach their goals, even to the point of their own destruction. They both have this level of emotional coldness, like they feel nothing, even though they have quick tempers. Kinda like nothing matters, except for the stuff that they want to matter.
In my opinion, Lalo is much more extreme in this way, just due to the fact that he actually kills people and puts others' lives at risk without even thinking twice. When he sees Nacho run into the building that's about to be taken down by the DEA, Lalo is just amused and entirely neutral to whether Nacho is going to make it or not. He's happy when Nacho makes it back, but I doubt he'd have cared at all if he hadn't, even though it's a dangerous situation and Nacho is way too high up to be risked at all like that. It's a genuinely high-stakes moment and Lalo is just sitting there humming and whistling, which reminds me a lot of Walt right after Drew Sharpe was murdered tbh. And similarly, I think Chuck used Howard as Jimmy's punching bag for years in this way, completely ignoring any pain or stress it would have caused Howard because that's what Howard was "supposed to be" doing, exactly what Chuck told him to. They both have such callous natures when it comes to playing with other people's lives, right down to casually disrespecting others. Like, they both devalue everyone around them just by the casual nature of their refusal to give a shit about anyone else.
It makes sense that Lalo wouldn't really see the value of other people's lives, given the world he's always lived in, but I always saw the two of them as having similar levels of entitlement, pettiness, spitefulness, and callousness. But Lalo has a lot more likeable traits than Chuck does. He's cooler, he's more composed, the people around him treat him with utmost respect, he's suave and a funny character... Whereas Chuck is genuinely needy and annoying and nagging and "lame." Lalo is a hot guy with blood splattered on his face and Chuck is basically like if a crazy old cat lady was a guy obsessed with his charismatic younger brother that everyone else likes more. This is what I mean by "yassified," like he's more conventionally attractive and ideal even to straight guys, he's what they want to be like, even if his actions are usually considered more monstrous.
The only major difference other than personality traits is that Lalo willingly breaks the law and Chuck refuses to, meaning that all of Chuck's actions are more within reality to viewers, which I think makes him seem more like a real asshole and less like a badass evil cool guy. I think this is a major factor as to why people like Lalo but not Chuck. You can easily view yourself as Jimmy, being berated by a holier-than-thou asshole who thinks you're scum, but how easily can you picture yourself as Fred from Travel Wire, innocently trying to help some stranger and being murdered during your shift at your job that doesn't pay you enough? It's like a classic example of the idea that characters killing people is okay because fictional lives are made up, but characters being annoying is bad because the audience's annoyance is real. Lalo could gruesomely skin someone alive on screen, but people would still hate Chuck more because he's mean and annoying and sucks to the average viewer. It doesn't really matter that his actions never reach the moral lows that most people would agree Lalo's do. Lalo is kinda like the anti-Chuck in the sense that even if Chuck did something great, everyone kinda already made their mind up about him and would still hate him anyways. You know, the sort of behavior that the show advocates against via it happening to Jimmy his entire life.
I hope this makes sense and isn't too rambly lol. TLDR: Lalo is more conventionally ideal and Chuck has too few redeeming qualities, so even though they're both awful, people like Lalo more, thus making him "basically yassified Chuck"
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I think it's sad that most people always think of bottlenoses as the "classic dolphin" since its the one that's always used for shows, and always think of dolphins as just straight grey when in reality there's so many varieties with so many different amazing patterns
Look at the common dolphin! They have a gorgeous X pattern and even some dull yellow/gold!!
Hourglass dolphins have gorgeous white streaks
Spinner dolphins have really pretty banding as well, AND they have a really sleek cute silhouette!
The atlantic spotted dolphin!!! Theyre spotted!!!!!!
and the pantropical spotted too!!
Dusky dolphins have a gorgeous airbrush look going on like straight out of a 2000s fantasy illustration
Striped dolphins sure have stripes!! How cool!!
And these I've shown you aren't even all of them at all, there are so many of them:
There's so so so many different types of dolphins people dont know about this isnt even all of them and some are SO gorgeous and underrated because people just dont know they exist so I'm here to fix that
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Controversial opinion among Dune book fans maybe, but I loved the changes they made to Chani's character. Making her a fedaykin who is already an experienced fighter before Paul arrives was a brilliant choice. Dune Part Two is a war movie, and this puts her at the center of the action, side by side with Paul, and gives her a much more active role than she has in the book.
We got a hint of where things were going in the beginning of Dune Part One. The first thing we ever know about movie Chani is that she's a fighter. She serves as a voice for the Fremen, telling us the story of their struggle from her point of view. I wrote here about the difference this change makes compared to other adaptations of Dune, what a perspective shift it is to have the world of Arrakis introduced not by an outsider, describing it as a dangerous but valuable colonial prize, but by one of its native inhabitants, who tells us before all else that it's beautiful, her home that she's fighting to liberate. I am so, so glad that the second movie followed up on this characterization.
I never found Chani and Paul's love story in the book particularly convincing, because why would this woman, who already has a prominent and respected place in Fremen society, even give the time of day to her deposed would-be colonizer, let alone fall in love and have children with him? Without a compelling reason for Chani to love Paul, she ends up feeling like a prize to be won, and "indigenous culture personified as a woman to be wooed (or conquered) by the colonizing man" is a trope we've seen and don't need to repeat.
But as soon as you tell me it's a barricade romance I get it. Cool cool cool, I know exactly what this relationship is now and it makes sense. Movie Chani doesn't respect or even particularly like Paul when she first meets him, and she doesn't think he's the fulfillment of any prophecy. She comes to respect him, and eventually love him, through his actions. He's brave--sometimes recklessly so. He fights well. He's willing to stick his neck out on the front lines with the other Fremen fighters. He can (after a little help) hack surviving in the harsh desert environment. He's not too proud to learn from others. He seems to genuinely want to be her equal in a common political struggle. All these qualities make sense as things she values.
Fighting side by side as equals is just about the only way I can see movie Chani falling for Paul. And it fits perfectly with the film's pattern of reversals that Paul's capacity for violence would initially be one of the things Chani likes about him, only for her to be repelled later when she sees what he becomes.
And as for Paul, well, he's had people deferring to him his entire life. Someone who doesn't take any shit from him is probably refreshing. He seems to like people (Duncan, Gurney) who challenge him and engage in a little friendly teasing--and aren't afraid to go a few rounds in the sparring ring.
It's easy to speedrun a romance when you're spending all your time together in mortal danger fighting for a shared political cause. Especially if you then start winning in a war your people have been fighting for decades. Are you kidding me? That is the perfect environment for intense battle camaraderie to turn into romantic love, and lust.
It makes sense that this version of Chani never believes Paul is any kind of messiah. Of course a character like movie Chani wouldn't believe in or trust some outside savior to liberate them. She's been working to liberate her own people for years. The more Paul invokes the messianic myth, the more he starts sounding once again like someone who plans to rule over them, and the more uncomfortable Chani becomes. In this way she becomes a foil to Jessica, the two of them representing the choices Paul is pulled between. It's a great way of externalizing the political and philosophical debates that often happen within characters' heads in the book.
And of course this version of Chani would leave Paul at the end of the film. It's not just the personal, emotional betrayal--although that stings. What common cause does she have with someone who just declared himself emperor and is sending her own people off in a war of conquest against others? Given the important role she plays in Dune Messiah, I am super curious to see how they get her back into the story, but girl was so valid for being willing to just gtfo. Given that she has the last shot of the whole movie, I'm sure she'll be back somehow, and I can't wait to see what they do with her character in any future installments.
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