#media literacy isn’t alive and well clearly

[messiahzzz]

i’m growing progressively more irritated with how a good majority of the fandom and overall player base has decided to write gale off as “desperate dude who is immediately in love with the player for merely breathing next to him and can’t take a no.” all due to a launch date bug that has long since been patched. gale loves and feels deeply. and when his budding relationship with tav progresses further, it shows just how deprived of genuine affection he is and how much he craves for it to be returned with the same intensity and dedication, but i wouldn’t ever call him desperate. he has been voluntarily celibate and isolated from society for a long time before he met tav and even when they meet and their relationship slowly develops, he has no intention to immediately jump their bones.

his romance is a slow-burn, that is filled with mutual pining until at least ACT 2, because there are simply too many reasons why it can’t happen before that. gale is also rather adamant regarding his boundaries, if the player decides to pursue a romance with another character while with him, brings up the idea of a poly relationship with halsin or cheats on him with mizora. it’s literally a simple: “these are my boundaries, either you’re with me or not.” he doesn’t stay with them nor is he willing to compromise just to please them. he doesn’t try to deflect how hurt he is either. he explicitly states that he misjudged you and that broken trust is something he’s not willing to tolerate in a relationship.

gale will give his entire heart to you and he wants the same in return.

[umabitchiguess]

So I have some thoughts on writing for television and the concept of “pandering”

It makes my blood boil when tv writers and networks disdain the idea of “pandering” to fans and act like network television is too sophisticated an art for the masses to understand, and treat fans like an enemy to their art.

Yes I am talking about Supernatural

Now, I don’t know the intimate details of the network or authors or actors previous words on destiel so maybe I’m exaggerating something here, but these are just my observations from what’ve I’ve seen this week. I do know that Spn fandom is not perfect, and some people definitely go too far. The writers have a right to creative license that isn’t required to align exactly with audiences’ wishes. That said, I’m seeing a problem here that has nothing to do with fans just “disliking” the fate of a single character or ship. I haven’t watched past season 11 and I haven’t been in the fandom for years but I’ve been dragged back in in the past month because Of Course. And the fact that some people COUGH the C*W COUGH see cannon destiel as “pandering” is just upsetting, but also deeply ironic.

The only reason, I repeat, the ONLY REASON that supernatural ran for fifteen seasons instead of five -an extra TEN SEASONS- is because of fans. The first five seasons of the show have a clear, cohesive arc with a satisfying ending. It came back for more because of its popularity.

For anyone who doesn’t know what popularity means (sarcastic) it means that the show has high enough ratings and enough of a dedicated fanbase to justify renewing the story, because you know you will have an audience. Fans are the reason that the show ran for as long as it did, and characters like Cas and Bobby stuck around because they were beloved by fans. Calling Destiel “pandering” is ridiculuous, because by the very same logic, ALL of the show is formed by “pandering”.

Which brings me to my next point

I think that the disdainful use of the word “pandering” when it comes to television is kinda hilarous when you think about it in a historical context. Television is arguably the most viewed art form in the modern-day west. It has the least intellectual pretentiousness, and network can be viewed by people of most any economic class. Television is the entertainment “for the masses” if you want to get Shakespearean. It’s (broadly speaking) the most accessible for a number of reasons.

Speaking of Shakespeare

Shakespeare is considered by the US to be fairly highbrow literature, and by the rest of the affluent west to be one of the greatest writers ever. That was NOT the case during his lifetime. Theater was not considered high brow literature at the time, and it was the most accessible form of media. It was the entertainment for the masses. Literally. Anyone could see a Shakespeare play, they just stood on the floor and maybe payed the equivalent of a single cent if that. And you know what Shakespeare did all the fucking time?

He “pandered” to his audience

Oh sorry I meant “he understood that his work would be put onstage and he would get paid and his theater would stay open if he wrote what his audience- the source of his income- wanted to see.” He wrote his plays with enough layers to them so that anyone from any economic class with any level of literacy could enjoy them. Deep overarching themes about love and mortality and humanity drew in the educated upper class people who would buy real tickets , and in the very same play, swordfights, dick jokes, and a coherent plotline entertained the less educated audience. (I’ll write a whole thing about the extensive queer history of Shakespeare plays later). He tailored his art to what he knew the audience would respond well to.

How does this relate back to Supernatural of all things? Well, I’m glad you asked!

I’m not here to compare supernatural to Shakespeare because there is a clear difference in writing quality, but neither of them were considered highbrow in their heyday, and were written for public entertainment. But Shakespeare knew how to play to his audience, and the C*W clearly doesn’t. They disdain “pandering” when that’s exactly what they should be doing. But instead of writing for their people that have been the reason for the show’s continuance, they aim to appease a bigoted audience instead.

In general conclusion,

There is no part of the show that has not been influenced by fans one way or another, save MAYBE the very first season. Yielding to the fans that so ardently support Destiel is not a weakeness on the part of the writers, but actually a strong choice from a business perspective. Supernatural has its issues, but an ending where the two of them are alive and in a cannon relationship would be an incredibly powerful form of representation, and would be narratively satisfying, and I bet would have an amazingly positive reception that could serve as an example for future television shows. Instead, we get whatever half baked censored mess we got. This is why disdain for fans instead of just going with the flow gets you nowhere.

It’s late where I am but I wanted to get this all out of my system while the craze was still happening, I’ll probably edit tomorrow

[artsy-hobbitses]

Because I'm not done yelling about Gargoyles yet, strap the fuck in because we're about to head to A Lighthouse In The Sea Of Time.

This is one of those "Hey reading is cool!" specials cartoons used to have maybe one episode dedicated to in their run way back and for Gargoyles whose narrative is absolutely loaded with Shakespearean references, world myths and everything in between, obviously this would be something in their interest to tackle! Like Deadly Force though, their way of going around is is subtle and a lot richer than it had to be and becomes part of the show's tapestry in the end rather than being a one-off special.

The two illiterates concerned are Hudson; The old soldier who believes he's beyond learning how to read at this point and doesn't want to bother with it and Broadway, who deadass don't give a shit because why read when you have movie????

The two called in to explain the situation to them/drive the message are of major significance:

The first is Jeffrey Robbins, a writer. Which seems all and well, this IS an episode about reading, except Jeffrey Robbins is a Vietnam veteran, an old soldier just like Hudson and is blind. Dude writes books in Braille which is remarkable because you have the messenger of this specific, normally text-heavy lesson unable to read or write in a 'conventional' way, but that doesn't stop him from doing so. Just because he can't work with 'words' in a conventional manner doesn't mean he stops trying, and he even says that if Braille was no longer an option for him, then he'd find a new way to read and write which is fucking deep for a child's show because the written word alone is not what the lesson is about. Literacy isn't as rigid as knowing how to read or write in just one system---it can evolve. It's about keeping those stories and histories alive whether it's through scrolls or books, words or Braille or even something else. In the ending they straight up show him recording the monologue to his next book on a tape recorder to keep to that message (Which is likely the actual process to making a book he way he does, but it's starkly different from how it's portrayed in other media where you just 'get writing').

The other is an enemy (yes!) in MacBeth who actually takes the time out of his nefarious deeds to explain King Arthur to a captive Broadway who find himself entranced by words rather than moving images on TV this time and quietly remarks "You were there (during Arthur's time)." To which MacBeth is like "Ha! I'm old, but I'm not that old! Obviously I read about it." Then the wham line from Broadway who's suddenly intrigued by all this: "But...you described it like you were there." 

And if that isn't just a fucking mood in a single sentence? Like everyone who's picked up a book can ascribe to? Good books that transport you somewhere else, make you feel things you never expect it to, deliver new concepts and make you fall in love with characters who aren't real but seem so alive? It's like you're 'there', wherever 'there' is. And there's nothing magical or ethereal about this entire exchange which is even more surprising----It's a villain taking time to talk about ancient myth with a Gargoyle (in that superb John Rhys-Davis voiceover), because it clearly meant something to the villain and because his delivery was was that eye-opening, Broadway starts to pick up the importance of written history/accounts without even touching a book, even before he himself learns to read. Presumably he's heard stories recounted by word of mouth before but stories told only that way can only encapsulate so much depth over so many centuries and or/lose something in translation along the way

This particular episode is interesting because is so easily could be getting heavy-handed with the lesson it wants to portray, but the vessels through which they are portrayed makes it stand out among other similar episodes across different properties.

Also, the lesson actually sticks (because this entire writing team is Continuity Or Die) in the narrative for episodes to come.

“The written word is all that stands between memory and oblivion. Without books as our anchors, we are cast adrift, neither teaching nor learning. They are windows on the past, mirrors on the present and prisms reflecting all possible futures. Books are lighthouses erected in the dark sea of time.”