#i'm not watching the videos to be clear

[zmediaoutlet]

for the music meme if you wanna - dessa and/or the who and/or meat loaf

bud <333

Here we run into one that I know decently well, one I've kinda heard of, and one that I primarily think of as Bitch Tits. So!

The Who(m)

Favourite Song: Love Reign O'er Me (although, disloyally, I prefer it as covered by Pearl Jam...!)

Least Favourite Song: My Generation (just -- eh! and they play it so much! stoppp)

Favourite Album: big fight here btw Tommy and Who's Next but I think Who's Next has to take it. Absolutely crashing out of the gates with Baba O'Reilly? Fuck yeah.

Least Favourite Album: It's Hard. Which is too bad, bc what a title.

Song that got me into them: Boris The Spider (my dad used to sing it to me when I was lil <3)

Seen Live?: um no. bc of a lack of time travel.

Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Dessa

First song youtube took me to: Call Off Your Ghost First Impression: the synthesizery thing and the monotone style made me apprehensive tbh, but in the time it's taken me to type it's become more of like a Song song and it's nice! I can see this being the kind of thing someone would want to work to. Do I like it?: Yeah, it's dece! idk if this is representative of the Full Body of Work as opposed to popular, but this is totally listenable. Would I listen to more from them?: I should! I checked my spotify: the two songs I have saved from her are 551 and Dixon's Girl, neither of which I could call to mind at all but clearly dug! Rate (from what I heard): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Meatloaf

First song youtube took me to: I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) First Impression: god, I forgot this song. I always took it to be about anal tbh. Do I like it?: I think this is the kind of music that you could get very into but I'm mostly giggling. Would I listen to more from them?: ...um? I switched to Paradise by the Dashboard Light, which I do like better! The rockabilly thing is super fun. Also Dean obviously loves this song, so that's sweet. I should check out more from the 'loaf! Rate (from what I heard): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

(share a band with me!)

[high-voltage-rat]

Actually I'm still thinking about it. Another interesting way in which RvB is anti-war is the way that the Director fills the role of a villain and antagonist (especially in the Recollections trilogy, where he's a faceless villain we never see but is responsible for everything that happens).

In his memos to the Chairman, the Director emphasizes his sense of duty and obligation to the military- he becomes irate for the first time when he feels that it's being implied that he was derelict in his duty... or that the work he did out of that duty is being criticized for being against the military's interests. He also talks about Allison's death in a way I find... interesting.

"You see; I never had the chance to serve in battle. Nor did fate provide me the opportunity to sacrifice myself for humanity as it did for so many others in the Great War. Someone extremely dear to me was lost very early in my life. My mind has always plagued me with the question: If the choice had been placed in my hands, could I have saved her? [...] But, given the events of these past few weeks, I feel confident that had I been given the chance, I would have made those sacrifices myself... Had I only the chance."

The idea of sacrifice is central to the way he talks about his wife's loss, to the way he talks about the war in general. He talks of sacrifice with a sense of veneration- that it's something he aspires to do, that he longs for. There's a few ways we can interpret "I would have made those sacrifices myself"...

-That in Allison's place, he thinks he would have laid down his life too.

-That if given the chance, he would have given his life to save hers.

But most interestingly...

-That he would have sacrificed Allison's life for the continued survival of humanity, if that was what duty called for.

...And personally, I think all 3 are true.

In most war media, the Director's perspective on sacrifice is very common. Sacrifice is glorious and heroic- to die in battle is an honour- and it's the only way to ensure the group you serve survives. This is a tool of propaganda- nobody wants to go to war just for the sake of it, you have to give them a reason that the risk of dying or being permanently disabled isn't just acceptable, but desirable. Beyond that, most people don't want to do things they think are immoral- you have to convince them it's important, a necessary lesser evil. You teach them to sacrifice their morals, too.

The way they train soldiers to follow orders and to kill, is to convince them that they, and the people around them, and the people they care about, will all die if they don't. It's drilled into your head from day one. It's the way they ensure their commanding officers won't shy away from sending their men off to die. The message is constant- sacrifice is your duty, and duty ensures your people's survival.

In the Director's eyes, the damage Project Freelancer caused was his sacrifice. He never got the opportunity to sacrifice himself during the war- so he sacrificed others, as military brass do. The Freelancers- including his daughter. The countless sim troopers. Any people he considered "collateral damage" on missions. And when the opportunity to do so presented itself, he sacrificed a copy of himself- Alpha- and he sacrificed a copy of Allison- Tex.

The very thing that derailed his life- the loss of his wife- he made it happen again. He put her copy in dangerous situations, let her exist in the position of constant repeated failure, created the circumstances that would eventually lead to her death. He put their daughter in deadly situations that nearly killed her repeatedly, provided her with impossible expectations leading to self-destructive behaviours in the name of duty, implanted her with two AI knowing they could cause her permanent harm. He was confident he "would have made those sacrifices himself" because he did.

The Director is the embodiment of the military war machine. As an antagonist, he is a warning against buying into the glorification of sacrifice. He's a condemnation of the idea that one should be willing to do anything to win a war- that duty to the military is the thing that ensures survival... All the messages that are pushed to ensure recruitment and obedience of soldiers.

He's a reminder that swallowing the propaganda leads to you doing terrible things... and in the end, you're a broken man left mourning the losses that you suffered even as you repeated them, convinced that it was all necessary.

[psychomusic]

so. I've been reading some posts on the jedi order tag AND i won't talk about my opinion on "are jedi good or bad discourse" BUT i wanna point out some lore to everyone who's complaining about the jedi taking kids into their order: (in the EU) it wasn't always like this.

if you take swtor era (more than 3000 years before the prequels) there were many jedi who joined at an older age. like, for example there was a guy who broke his engagement to become one. most jedi remember their families because they were old enough when they decided to go.

THEN in darth bane's book trilogy (circa 1000 yesrs before the prequels) there is a passage where two sith lords are talking about taking bane, already an adult, to study at korriban. one doubted him because he was too old, ans the other told him he sounded like a jedi, and that ONE DAY jedi will have to accept only kids into their ranks if they really want to find "pure" people that can learn their lessons quicker.

one day!! so it wasn't always like that!! the ongoing wars with the sith, who corrupted and killed many of them, had pressured them into taking always younger people into their ranks.

also, consider a thing that this video explains super well: training to become a jedi is not like exercising, because there is a transformative lesson at the end of the training that changes everything. you can't just do as much as you can, but not finish.

the transformative lesson, as the video explains, is that through the force, everything is the same - from rocks and ships to life and death. at the end of the training you have to understand this fundamental truth.

yoda says "you have to unlearn what you have learned". during times where they were constantly killed off or corrupted by the dark side (and if you haven't learned this lesson you are more susceptible to this corrupting), younger people were taken in to actually finish their training (a training that was ultimately about being a good person AND that you could leave at any point if you weren't sold on that, too)

(remember that for the sith failure = death. like. that was the alternative for force sensitive kids. it's not like sith had any moral problem with taking kids away without consent. sith don't have moral problems: they believe that them being stronger in the force means they can do whatever they want as long as their strong enough to go and do it. there are MANY passages in many different star wars stories, even in different mediums, that say this out loud)

AND (this is more of a critical thought than just stating the lore) the fact that they started doing it out of necessity doesn't mean it's 100% good BUT you know. the whole set up of the prequels is that we're starting off the story in a period of crisis and decadence all around. most of the systems of the times were about to fall. OF COURSE they had problems. if they didn't, we wouldn't have the story to begin with.

that doesn't automatically mean jedi = bad and sith are better, tho. you wouldn't take the last, chaotic and decadent period to jugde something, would you? it's like deciding that the athenian democracy sucked because people at the times of Demosthenes failed at recognizing the new schemes in which the world was evolving into, and still believed that their city would be important as it had been in the previous century. They just didn't fucking expect the Macedons would conquer half the world known and more, and have the subsequent political power. Still, their experiences in the 5th century with democracy were very good, even better than ours on many fronts, if you contextualize a little. the jedi had flaws, and most importantly, they didn't fucking know the future and everything that ever happened, ever, so they made mistakes. that doesn't automatically make the system ill, or bad, or not-working. systems can have setbacks when the world changes. (just like athenian democracy had one when they lost the empire that was funding the democracy. they even had a tyranny for a while and then fixed the problems. that doesn't diminish retrospectively their democracy)

[kindaorangey]

does anybody remember how in 'sherlock is garbage', one of the core arguments is that the show doesn't do its mystery element justice, because the audience isn't actually given the necessary information to solve the mystery, sherlock just gives a convoluted explanation at the end that viewers never could have guessed? that same thing happens in house md all the damn time and it's a nitpick of mine that house is held up as an example of a good mystery show in that same video

[bougiebutchbitch]

seeing 'dead dove & proship dni' on a blog is a first for me. like. i've seen 'proship dni' - and even if I think it's stupid, because you're basically saying 'I believe it's okay to harass people who create fictional situations I disapprove of', it doesn't surprise me anymore. But 'dni dead dove'??? you hate properly tagged fics and want that nasty stuff just floating around in the ecosystem where anyone can accidentally stumble across it? Like turds in a river?? okayyyyyy

I know, I know, they think fiction = reality. They want to eradicate any and all darkfic altogether, regardless of if you're a survivor exploring your feelings/trying to understand your abuser's pov, or digging into the nitty gritty awfulness of trauma recovery, or just putting fictional characters in a horrific situation to see what they do, like a fictional saw trap that is hurting literally no one. Y'know, like TV writers do all the time. I know they buy into the idea that video games cause violence. But like. ???

[kindahoping4forever]

Cashton @ The 5SOS Show Tour Chicago - 23 August 2023

[maxwelljacobfriedman]

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Highlights of MJF and Cody’s unhinged relationship

[muzzlemouths]

hey. hey. has anybody made a They Are Just Animatronics au. like......... theme park/disneyland/state fair adjacent but they don't walk around the park. they stand at positions in rides and say lines or make poses as the ride goes past and then when the ride closes they just do whatever. has anybody done that yet. they're literally animatronics. Hello. is this thing on—

[iwanttobepersephone]

Y'all ever get obsessed with a fandom despite never interacting with the original thing and basing your understanding of it purely off of what the common consensus among the fandom is?

And then, years later, your brain decides to briefly get obsessed with it again, but instead of going and watching the original content, you just base everything off of your now even more vague understanding of canon? And then, eventually, you end up just creating your own thing that's slightly based on the original concept?

Yeah, that's me with Sanders Sides right now

Anyways, here's some doodles

[candidsoup]

me watching the Spirealm episode 20

what the fuckwhat the fuckwhat the fuck

somehow the horror elements became way more effective and scary as soon as they were applied to the "real world" in the show rather than the game world

but ALSO wtf bc i'm not a fan of "violence in video games bad" messaging and RLZ is like "i'm gonna purify the game" .... lol?????? i highly doubt violence in video games is some american invention and chinese made video games don't have violence.... (once again, that's something that's not in the book right???) idk man i mean the issue w Spirealm the game isn't violence IN THE GAME it's the fact that it actually hurts or kills the literal real world players. (i know, that's, the point. it's just a clumsy and inaccurate point bc games don't make people more violent irl. violent content in media is a way more complicated issue than that.)

BUT ALSO back to good feelings bc omg not LJS saying "I DO" and RLZ saying "I"ll protect you forever until your life comes to an end or my life comes to an end." while their song plays. BROoo????

[mariocki]

The Aftermath (1982)

"What happens when you die?"

"I don't know, son. No one does."

"It's sad to die."

"No. Death isn't sad. We all have to die. What's sad is having to go on without someone you love. Just as we have to go on now."

[britneyshakespeare]

i feel bad for raquel lee bolleau and i feel like what she's saying about the lack of transparency behind quiet on set is a bigger issue that the consumers of this type of content don't want to talk about or criticize. social media has led to a huge boom in tragedy porn and trauma porn about the entertainment industry but especially the children's entertainment industry, especially especially from the eras when the largest demographic in that audience were consuming it themselves.

it's already been problematic in itself that there is an oversaturation of unresearched and repetitive videos on the exploitation of former child stars. it seems like the creators and audience don't often ask themselves "have we gotten enough of this? do we need another take on it? is another video full of dan schneider rumors and gossipy forum posts really adding to the public discourse?" i don't know quite at what point it becomes exploitative that this content continues to be made, and be evergreen in social media algorithms. the volume, the reach, and the general lack of quality control are the evil triad. because we are far past the point where i really believe everyone consuming this stuff cares about exploited children. there's far too many people gawking and not reevaluating the systems of power involved. or, to put it more concretely: how many times do we all need to watch those clips of ariana grande squeezing the potato and spilling water on her neck? at what point is this just personally disrespectful and retraumatizing for the victims that for the most part we, the consumers of internet content, are claiming to advocate for?

quiet on set is the first time traditional media got involved in this niche. there is still a lot of value in some of the discoveries made by the series. but it does not have completely clean hands in this either. it does not feel like everyone involved in making the executive decisions cared nearly enough about the vulnerability of former child stars they recruited to share their stories, or hell, whose stories were told without their involvement, such as amanda bynes and racquel in episode 5. these people did not even give statements.

the focus of this docuseries was far too broad and not coherent enough at the end of the day. and they did not give enough support to all of the people they roped in to tell their stories about childhood trauma. i have a hard time trying not to be completely cynical about its whole production, because i really want to believe that many of the people who worked on it do care. not every individual involved knew or had control over the injustices that happened in its own production. but the executives? fuck em. they greenlit this thing, and probably incentivized the creators to make these episodes as fast as possible, because they knew it would be a cash cow. something as sensitive as THIS series should not be so poorly produced just because it will be a guaranteed smash.

[shuffleoflove]

rip to colleen ballinger but you will never be a billion sorrys by elton john caswell 🥱🥱

[caterpillarinacave]

so... does the electronic steering thing on tesla cybertrucks mean that you can't turn the wheels towards a certain direction when you've stopped the car? you know, the way you're supposed to when youre parked on a hill so if your car starts rolling it just goes into the curb instead of into the street???

[giantkillerjack]

12 hours after the amazing digital circus episode 2 airs, I see a video on youtube entitled "THEY RUINED JAX!!! 😡"

Like, chill! They literally haven't even finished SHOWING US Jax!! 😂 He's still only had a few dozen lines! I'm sorry about the Jax in your headcanon that you've been growing in the space between episodes, but I don't think there's been enough time to ruin that rabbit yet! 😅

[butterflieswhisper]

hhelp wait this is so funny. didnt you follow me forever ago after a scott themed october song analysis . sorry if you dont remember that and this ask doesnt make sense but this is still funny to me

hi!!!! yeah. it was the cherri crane lives art i think and also where you made your flower husbands tag! I have never really interacted with fh outside of you (and like, seeing pretty fanart) but i am nonetheless deeply invested in your interpretation specifically!!! I honestly haven't watched jimmy outside of rats and the beginning of empires2 either i genuinely have no clue what they get up to you just seem to have a lot of fun with it