#media critique?

[anneapocalypse]

So, just curious how many writers and creators will have to be forcibly outed by relentless harassment before we acknowledge that "This queer characters was written by a cishet person and that's why they're bad" is not good criticism.

[emeryleewho]

At some point, you gotta stop asking yourself "why does everyone prefer bad books over mine" and start asking yourself "what are these badly written books doing to connect with people that mine aren't?"

Every time I hear an author lament the fact that people only like "bad" books and no one appreciates their artistry anymore, all I hear is "I never take the time to evaluate what makes something interesting to people who aren't me, and I value the rules of craft and other arbitrary elements I've posited as the crux of good writing over the art of actually meeting people where they are and giving them something that holds value to their lives."

[tinkerbitch69]

My favourite part of dot and bubble (besides ncuti’s performance in the last scene my god!!!) is that the episode kinda misleads you into thinking Lindy is so dismissive of the doctor and the disappearance of others because of the social media echo chamber she has isolated herself in. That she is scared to leave it and that she could be a better more empathetic person if given the chance to leave.

But then the final scene happens!

All of her actions, from putting Ricky in the firing line before her to lying about it to refusing the help of the doctor because of her thinly veiled racist beliefs, reveal that this refusal to acknowledge the reality around her to the point of putting people in danger and inevitably allowing the problem to become worse was a choice. She was not some innocent victim of media manipulation but had complete agency in her denial of the danger others were and just didn’t care about them.

The reveal is an important part of the episodes critique of social media echo chambers, I think. Their danger isn’t that they obscure information that challenges the users but that they allow people to choose not to be confronted with information that challenges their worldview or their behaviour. Which is an experience vital to developing critical thinking skills and being a compassionate, empathetic human being. But by removing the agency of people who choose not to break from their bubble, we also enable the insularity of these echo chambers!

God I love this episode so much <3_<3

[biggesthomuradefender]

kinda long homura rant/analysis

“homura doesn’t care about anybody but madoka !!!!”

literally homura:

originally tried to save all of the girls before she eventually gave up bc it was literally impossible,

literally ran like hell to get sayaka’s soul gem back after madoka chucked it off the bridge and even closely inspected it w such care to make sure it wasn’t damaged at all,

admitted that she has hurt people (most likely the magica quartet, aka all of her friends, bc who else?) and feels immense guilt abt it and wishes she could erase it all (she literally says that hurting mami hurt HER),

can’t bare to kill mami (she looks so conflicted and sad when pointing the gun at her) and can’t even look at her when she shoots her in the leg bc she rly doesn’t want to hurt her,

subconsciously created a desired reality that she brought all of her friends (even kyosuke and hitomi, implying that she even cares for them as well) into where alive, happy, and together (ppl seem to forget that homura’s labyrinth was literally what she’s wanted deep down before it started to fall apart as she realized it was fake; sayaka literally points out how a witch who just wants to keep everyone happy and out of harm can’t be that bad, and kyuubey points out how homura would have most likely preferred to stay in this fake, happy world instead of realizing the horrible truth),

apologizes to kyoko for “getting her involved in this” after she realizes that she herself is the witch, aka most likely apologizing for wasting kyoko’s time when she asked her to go to kazamino city w her and for calling her,

rewrote reality in order to bring sayaka and bebe back to life and give everyone the happy life they always desired and deserved (she is literally willing to proclaim herself as “evil” and “the devil” and be unhappy if it means that madoka and everyone else gets to be happy and alive, safe from all the pain and the incubators who are still trying to prey on them and all magical girls)

… but she only cares abt madoka?

[yourfavouritemotherlyanti]

Nah doing your DeviantArt original character rp sesh in what is supposed to be a professional business email and telling your customer to "fuck off" whilst waiting for their playbill is crazy lmao/Neg.

[funhouse-mirror-barbie]

So, I’d initially made a post that said something along the lines of “it’s weird that they had Stolas say this”—

“Only to remind the audience like 9 min later of a specific time where Stolas talked down to Blitzø”

And I also included the original scene for context/comparison:

But after posting someone DID point out that in the song’s lyrics during that sequence, Stolas was questioning his past choices and coming to the realization that his actions had affected Blitz—They stated that initial scene of him saying he doesn’t look down on Blitz was a set up for this later self-reflection on his behavior in “All 2 U”, and potentially realizing how harmful his actions have been.

And I think this is a very fair interpretation and observation—as well as something I missed, and that’s on me.

I like talking about these things openly, because I think it is really nice to get other people’s perspectives and interpretations of stuff like this, and I’m also susceptible to missing things on a watch-through.

I decided to delete the original post, b/c I realized I agreed partially with their assessment of the scene, and because there was another comment that was a little spicier, and I didn’t want people to start arguing back in forth in the comments. That’s happened before and it’s always kind of annoying.

With all of that said, I do still think those lines were a weird choice, and I want to go over why the song “All 2 U” fell really flat to me in regards to Stolas’ self reflection. (More below + TLDR @ the end)

There is, so far, a really consistent pattern in Helluva Boss’ writing, where every time Stolas comes close to reflecting on the way his actions could have negatively affected Blitz, the focus almost immediately shifts back to Stolas’ own feelings and situation.

It’s kind of become the status-quo for HB—Stolas will have a brief moment of questioning himself, before the story continues to frame Blitzø as being in the wrong.

We see this really blatantly in “All 2 U”—where anytime Stolas DOES begin to question his own actions, Verosika and Vortex chime in and immediately assure him that it’s Blitz who’s in the wrong:

And then even after, these lines where he questions himself further

The song just CONTINUES to focus only on Stolas’ feelings, and prioritize them above all else. He has a brief moment where he wonders if he’s in the wrong, before brushing those concerns away and continuing to refer to Blitz as “the motherfucker”.

The montage during this also goes to great lengths to show how regretful Blitzø is hearing all of this.

He feels terrible that Stolas is hurt—even though Blitz does NOT owe Stolas anything. You can disagree with me, but based on the arrangement that STOLAS created, their relationship is entirely transactional (and coercive, but I don’t have time to get into that mess right now).

Blitzø is in no way obligated to treat their “relationship” as something that holds meaning because of this—if Stolas is hurt by Blitz’s not reciprocating his feelings, that is ENTIRELY on Stolas. Blitz has not wronged Stolas in any way by not reciprocating those feelings.

But it’s so very clear that the WHOLE PURPOSE of this song—and this entire episode, even if there is a moment where Stolas questions himself—is to portray Blitz as the one in the wrong.

Even in the scene where Stolas questions what he’s done to Blitz and wonders if he’s in the wrong, his flashbacks include these scenes, which are framed as Blitzø being uncaring/blowing Stolas off after their arrangement:

This is probably one of my biggest issues with Stolitz as a ship, and with Stolas as a character. That the writing explicitly caters to Stolas’ feelings and beliefs, and (so far) refuses to hold him accountable for anything he does that negatively affects others. His actions have consequences just as much as Blitz’s do, but the narrative constantly frames him as being a victim.

You can say that both characters are in the wrong all you want, you can say to the audience point blank “this is what I intended with this scene”, but you still have to actually. write. the developing relationships and action of the story. Telling the audience about development after the fact is just poor storytelling.

I’ve already gone over how the narrative rarely holds Stolas accountable in the conflicts he has with Octavia, but it’s very much the same with Blitzø.

So much so that Autistic Swag on YouTube was able to make a Stolas Hypocrisy compilation video:

And because I know there’s a chance of people reacting to my criticisms this way, no, recognizing a character’s hypocrisy in the narrative is not “media illiteracy”.

Media analysis is still derived from the actual text of the story. I see fans (not just of HB, this is a general problem in a lot of fandom spaces) making wild leaps and jumps about story’s character developments, world building, plot-points, etc. and then claim that people who disagree with their interpretations are “media illiterate” and like.

Those are headcanons. Those are just personal headcanons that you made based on what you wanted to happen in the story.

Which is fine!!! Which is something that is very fun to do!!! I do it a lot actually!

Like, I could say that the green light in “The Great Gatsby” actually represents envy and that Gatsby is always staring at it because he’s actually jealous of Daisy and wants to transition from male to female and live as a transgender woman.

And that would be a really interesting concept to explore! But it would also be a headcanon because in the context of how the text is written, is clearly not the case.

Pointing out that Stolas’ actions are morally dubious at best, and that he is flawed and has done wrong and has very clearly hurt Blitzø by coercing him into a sexual relationship so Blitz can keep his livelihood isn’t media illiteracy. It’s literally. It’s just the text. Audiences aren’t media-illiterate for seeing that.

Final note time— I want this post to age poorly. I want so badly for there to be a future episode where Stolas is really truly held accountable for the ways in which he has hurt Blitzø, the ways in which he’s been classist and racist toward imps, the times that he’s neglected Octavia, and yes! Even for cheating on Stella!!

And I want this NOT because I want to see Stolas completely villainized or beat down, I want this because I want Stolas to develop and grow and change as a character. I want Stolas to actually have the nuance that the writers say he has!!

Again, as always, please know that if you love Stolas and Stolitz that I am REALLY not trying to rain on your parade. I’m not trying to convince you that you’re not allowed to like the story as is, or that your opinions are wrong. That would be really silly. You are allowed to interpret all of this literally however you want, even if we disagree.

The only, only thing I would ask you to please consider, is if you are doing the work of writing these characters development outside of the story, or are you building on what the writers have already shown you. I am not asking this to be condescending or elitist.

This is something I have to actively ask myself when reading and analyzing text and stories, and when analyzing and editing my own writing and work.

That’s all. Thanks for making it to the end of this long ass post. If you’d like to have a polite discussion about your thoughts on all of this I would genuinely like to hear it. I will delete any arguments or fights in the comments tho. Thanks again.

——————————

TLDR:

-“All 2 U” falls very flat as a song where Stolas re-examines his actions because even tho this self-reflection is set up, nothing ultimately comes of it and things immediately go back to the status quo

-This is a very consistent pattern with Stolas as a character, due to this he is severely under-developed, and feels like a completely different character from his season 1 appearances.

-People realizing that he has not had active development between seasons 1 and 2 and pointing that out is not “media illiteracy”.

-Final side note—I think the “both sides are wrong/fucked up” angle really COULD have worked, if after the bridge where Stolas questions his actions, he acknowledged that HE was also “a motherfucker”. But. Nah. Oh well.

[bloominglegumes]

im.hunting for secrets in the tf one trailer because i'm normal

there are markings on this guy's chest and shoulder that seem too deliberately designed to not be some kind of writing, but comparing it to cybertronian alphabets that have been presented before, i cannot for the life of me make out what it could be

bottom right purple text only has "MINE" visible in the shot

top middle text says "HA'LS" in gold (or at least i'm assuming it does, i'm not sure what the little dash in the middle is meant to be) and "BAR" in green

i hope they get in a bar fight. i love bar fight scenes

just thought it was funny that "IACON 5000" is written in english,, i assume it's because this setting is more important to the story and other text is mainly easter egg purposes

the clearest frames i could pick out showing megsy's first alt mode. just for fun

alpha trion is some kind of mossy mystical cave unicorn creature

alpha trion is some kind of mossy cave creature who plucks organs out of rusting bodies and shoves them into people no hesitation

note alpha trion is also huge. (comparable size to the very creature-type bodies all around this cave area?)

this shot was deliberately chosen to highlight this dead guy for some reason

gold and blue, claws, big feathered wings ringing bells for anyone??

if they're an existing character, i don't know who it could be

the way baby megs is kneeling, gently placing his hand on the face and talking to it seems reverent or like he's confiding in it, so like duh showing that he feels connected to it in some kind of intimate, emotional way

(dead bodies don't turn grey in this universe, judging from the winged blue+gold guy, so.is little megs hanging out with a giant head is that what's going on)

note d-16 has the decepticon insignia already on his left shoulder throughout the whole trailer, and it seems about as beat-up and grimy as the rest of him, so it has to have been there for a good while

[raviosprovidence]

I already told some friends this but it makes me extremely mad seeing Lucifer's design in Hazbin because...vivzie already designed lucifer for zoophobia and he's *so much better*

Look at him! Like yeah it is all red but at least it's a nice muted red with lighter accents in the eyes and eyebrows. He's not 50 shades of blood.

The big horns that reference a broken halo are a wonderful touch. I love the grizzled face and hunched back that show he's Old and Has Seen Things. I like the cloak that adds an air of mystery as to what's behind it.

Compared to this...

This is just a White Onceler. He doesn't convey anything lucifer to me other than the snake and the apple on his top hat. He's just another generic triangle tooth twink.

Going back a bit, It also helps for zoophobia that he was supposed to be in a world of characters who WERE bright and colorful so he actually stood out in a good way

Look at these guys! Sure, it's busy, but I can actually tell which characters are what. They all feel like they have their own identity and aesthetic due to their different colors. It's what a cartoon cast is SUPPOSED to look like.

Old lucifer would have stood out in that cast because not everyone is fucking red. New lucifer barely stands out, only because he looks so much like Charlie. And even THEN, they look like siblings!

this isn't official art done by Vivienne but I couldn't find any other good screencaps showing them side by side. If someone didn't know shit about hazbin they'd think charlie and lucifer were twins. Nothing about new lucifer's design suggests that he's a father or even older than 25.

It's sad, honestly. I used to look up to vivienne when I was younger. Now, she's a shadow of her former self as an artist.

[astralleywright]

lots of people interpreting Ashton's "i want the gods to pray to us" devoid of the context of the lines directly before and after it, so here's the full quote: "in my darker moments, that's what i want, is i want to see them pray to us. i want to see them ask what we want." it was not intended to be a statement, but an admission, and it wasn't about worship at all; its about the fact that Ashton spent his whole life praying to any and all gods for some safety or healing or comfort and got nothing, only for them to finally bother to show up when he and the Hells became useful or inconvenient.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

one character trope that i really don't like is what i call the "shipper friend".

basically imagine any piece of media with two love interests. the shipper friend is another character who may be a friend or an acquaintance or someone who knows one or both of these characters, and constantly gushes about how compatible these two are and how they should just kiss already.

i don't know why but this trope pisses me off so much. even when the couple in question is actually compatible and have a good relationship, i still find it so stupid to make the other characters fangirl over the couple, just to make the viewers aware that these two characters are indeed going to be a couple and that you SHOULD ship them.

take Across The Spiderverse, for example. amazing movie, i loved it, and i think Miles and Gwen were pretty cute. they're not like my OTP or anything, but they've got good chemistry and they care about each other, and that's all i need.

i also really liked Pavitr (as a desi person myself, i think he was fantastic representation) but what i didn't like was Pavitr being the shipper friend and constantly using ship lingo to gush about how Miles and Gwen have sooo much chemistry and romantic tension.

it just takes away from the chemistry and compatibility that's already there, and comes off as the writers desperately trying to convince you that this ship is so good, you guys, even the other characters ship it!

it's even worse when the couple isn't compatible or cute. i've mentioned this before but spop has a LOT of instances of this - Scorpia talking about how Adora and Catra have a history and a special connection, Horde Prime saying that Catra cares about Adora, Glimmer and Bow being reduced to the c//a wingmen, etc.

is it not insulting enough to do a piss poor job of writing a good relationship? do you also have to shoehorn in a shit ton of ship fodder in order to convince fans that they should be shipping the adoptive sisters?

[ambrosia-ghostie]

ok, so one more thing:

they butchered what i think they were attempting with the ending. adaptations of greek myths like hadestown, epic narratives like lord of the rings, etc. understand the art of storytelling in itself. they conclude with tragedy, but remind the audience that the story will live on and will continue to be told whether it be through written texts within the world of the story, adaptations/retellings, or - on a grander scale - as an imprint on popular culture. "...the great stories, mr. frodo, the ones that really mattered." we tell these stories and we learn to love and to grieve and to forgive. we return to them - even though we know they will end the same way each time - because they are stories worth telling and the characters are worthy of being remembered.

but if you erase the story and the characters from ever existing - while mischaracterizing them along the way, mind you - it doesn't work. it just doesn't. for me, that's why the umbrella academy ending is so upsetting. they erased the lessons, the love, the legacy.

[chaos0pikachu]

man some of y'all have never learned the home training of "keep your hate/critique out the main tags and on your own blog or in critical tags" and then wonder why ppl be vagueblogging or reblogging with disagreements like you didn't show up to the crochet lovers group telling everybody how crocheting was actually Not Fun At All and really hard and doesn't make sense to enjoy, or Problematic, actually instead of keeping it in the group chat with the haterella besties

[biggesthomuradefender]

me losing my mind after everything abt rebellion gets misinterpreted a million thousandth times 💀

so, here are a few misconceptions that i want to rant abt bc they aggravate me !! lol.

“the madoka that talked to homura in the flower field isn’t the real madoka/is only saying what homura wants to here !!”

it was literally confirmed MULTIPLE times that that was the real madoka, by multiple characters 😭 homura, bebe, sayaka, kyuubey, even madoka herself after she regains her memories… that isn’t even media literacy, the movie fucking TELLS you directly.

even one of the fucking creators, shinbo, confirmed that the words madoka spoke in the flower field was literally her true feelings.

also… no, that’s the last thing homura wanted to hear. why would she want to hear that she failed at her one reason to live, that her beloved wasn’t happy and was actually suffering all alone, and it was all her fault? that she lied to herself in an attempt to convince herself that madoka was rly okay? hello???

“madoka was happy/fine as a god”

no, no she wasn’t. she didn’t even WANT to be a god, she was just willing to be one bc she felt that her wish was more important than her life, her very existence and humanity (devil homura parallel…)

homura realized that she wasn’t happy, that’s a large reason as to why she did what she did at the very end of the movie.

“homura could have just gone w madoka to ‘heaven’ at the end”

no, no she couldn’t have. did you forget that the incubators were literally planning to use madoka and her powers in order to bring back the witch system again in order to turn ALL magical girls into witches?? when the girls freed homura from the incubator’s seal and madokami came to take homura’s soul gem away, madoka and all of the magical girls were still in DANGER bc kyuubey was still going to do it, and homura knew that.

“homura never accepted madoka being a god”

this has got to be one of the dumbest ones i’ve ever heard… homura quite literally DID except it, her resolve only started to deter when she learned that madoka wasn’t happy as a god, and then completely broke apart when she didn’t succeed in killing herself (over and over again, might i add) in her own soul gem before all the girls saved her.

[bellasophies]

Inara is such a misrepresentation of prostitution, she is shown as having choice over her clients, buying nice clothing and respect for her “job”. This is far from the reality of prostitution. The other women on the ship are being shown as envious of her and her ability to apparently live lavishly and buy herself nice dresses. Firefly is propaganda promoting how great prostitution is, even when nearly all of Inara’s “clients” end up insulting her in some way. She is even trained to be a prostitute, which is the ultimate male fantasy: institutionalised prostitution. Skills to please men is just disgusting.

No matter if she is a high class call girl or a street walking prostitute, she has to sexually please men for money. She would otherwise not sleep with them. This is sexual and gender inequality.

[pet-shop-of-horror-fan]

Most of the self-proclaimed anti-censorship crowd does not talk about censorship, they talk about criticism. Which they do because criticism hurts their little fee-fees and they can't deal with that so they need to make it your problem by pretending you are a book burner.

You think a work mishandled or had bad ideas about a sensitive topic? "That's censorship!" You believe that art can be bigoted? "You are personally limiting artistic freedom!" You say that people should think twice about how they interact with a fandom based on a children's series? "That is the definition of puritanical!"

These people would honestly be hilarious if they were not so prevalent.

[hussyknee]

I'm really not a villain enjoyer. I love anti-heroes and anti-villains. But I can't see fictional evil separate from real evil. As in not that enjoying dark fiction means you condone it, but that all fiction holds up some kind of mirror to the world as it is. Killing innocent people doesn't make you an iconic lesbian girlboss it just makes you part of the mundane and stultifying black rot of the universe.

"But characters struggling with honour and goodness and the egoism of being good are so boring." Cool well some of us actually struggle with that stuff on the daily because being a good person is complicated and harder than being an edgelord.

Sure you can use fiction to explore the darkness of human nature and learn empathy, but the world doesn't actually suffer from a deficit of empathy for powerful and privileged people who do heinous stuff. You could literally kill a thousand babies in broad daylight and they'll find a way to blame your childhood trauma for it as long as you're white, cisgender, abled and attractive, and you'll be their poor little meow meow by the end of the week. Don't act like you're advocating for Quasimodo when you're just making Elon Musk hot, smart and gay.