#rant :

[frownyalfred]

here friend, I'll help you: when you realize the characterization isn't to your liking, go ahead and do me a favor -- scroll up to the top right of your screen and hit that big red X button. there, problem solved.

also don't bookmark it. I'm so freaking tired of having this conversation.

[peepeepy]

a lot of people who've watched gravity falls think that stanford is unsympathetic or a bad character, and most of the people who dont think that think stanford is at least selfish and flawed, which i can't really refute, but it always made me feel so awful, and i never realized why until now.

if you look at stanford pines as an allegory for a child with a developmental disability like autism or a "gifted kid", then a lot of the pieces start to fall together.

⚠️spoilers for gravity falls, the website, and maybe a bit of the book of bill⚠️

stanford pines was born with an "extra finger", a symbol for a disability. for a while, everyone thought it was a flaw. he was teased and shunned by his peers,

but then, people began to notice his genius. it even says on thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com, when you enter "sixer" or "stanford", that he has a "hyper-ability", something many people will say about "gifted" autistic people.

as soon as people started to point this out, everything felt like it made sense to ford. as a person who grew up with autism, i can relate to feeling alienated from my peers, and wondering "why? why, in a world made for normal people, was i made wrong?"

that kind of thought can lead to a sort of delusion.. that maybe you were destined for something great. maybe you were different because one day you would use it to change the world. i believe this is the way ford felt when he was approached by bill

bill came to ford and told him everything he'd ever wanted to hear.. that this feeling was real. that he was destined for greatness. that he was better, smarter, more special than the ones who had shunned him.

bill told ford that building the portal would make him a hero, make people finally see him as more than an extra finger. the one problem?

bill was a liar.

he used ford's selfish thoughts to trick him into making a gateway that would end the world. he used the years of mockery, the alienation, the loneliness, and he came to ford when he was alone, trapped, with nowhere to go.

he offered ford the opportunity to get back at a world that was built to knock him down at every turn, a world full of people who would never understand him. he offered to make ford a god.

and ford refused

he refused, even in a world that had done nothing but tear him down, to hurt others just to feel better about himself. he only had a few people who had ever cared for him, and yet, he was willing to destroy his life's work to save everyone who had made him miserable.

remember, he fully intended to stay trapped in the portal for all of eternity. that's why he was so frustrated when stanley brought him back. what we saw as a heroic act from stanley, ford saw as stanley refusing the sacrifice he had made to save him. he didn't thank stanley because nobody thanked him. no one thanked him for his hard work or sacrifice or his years of suffering just to protect stanley.

that, of course, led to this scene, which many people saw as stanford's most frustrating moment.

i think this post sums up really well why stanford, in this dire moment, would choose to insult his brother. because stanley was being selfish, too. stanley refused to help save the world, save his brother, all because ford never said "thank you."

they were both selfish. everyone is. they didn't fight because they were bad people, but because they both saw things from their own perspective. they were each hopelessly lonely without each other, but both too prideful to admit it.

in the end, they make up, and both follow their true dream. not money, not fame, just staying together.

stanford pines is not a bad, unsympathetic character. he is a complex, misdirected, "gifted" child. his only flaw was not seeing that he wasn't alone. his family was right there to support him the whole time.

[qsycomplainsalot]

So as a good NB bisexual trad wife married to a Jewish trans person I was in church this morning trying my hardest not to fall asleep on the good lord's shittiest seating arrangement, as is custom. Cutting right to it, the sermon was weird. What I listened to was a French translation of a text by one Gary Heinz, whom I've been told is a Canadian pastor but the only one I could find online is from the Carolinas, with a degree from Charleston, so for the purpose of this post I'll just say he's American in the same vague way as his tomato-based namesake.

The sermon was talking about the tale of the good Samaritan, which most people know about, and was composed thuszthly. First it goes over the tale again, then it helps define the elements of it and how they're relevant to the point made by our boy Jesus. The priest sees a naked beat-up man on the side of the rode, presumably from a mount, and decides not to get involved even though if he had any way to know the man had been Jewish he would have been bound to help him. The second man is a Levite, traditionally someone who helps priests and knows the law just as well, but decides not to get involved either. The third guy of course is a Samaritan. The Samaritans are a distinct but very closely related ethnoreligious group to the Hebrews/Jews, who we are often told hate them. The Samaritan helps the person, provides first aid, props him up on his horse and walks him to an inn where he houses him by giving the innkeeper two pieces of silver and promising to pay any extra cost on his next trip back. This according to the preacher is a symbol of limitless charity, we'll get back to that. The context of the tale was a smartass asking Jesus what to do to be saved and when being told to do unto thy neighbor as you would doeth unto thineselfe (in Middle English, which was very confusing at the time), follows up by asking who his neighbor was, aka who he should apply the law to. The point being made is that although the law could be read and almost bent into only applying to people you care about, only people you're explicitly meant to treat well and even then only once you're absolutely sure they're marked as such, it's more important to follow the spirit of the law which is to be kind to everyone. Which is a good message.

So why am I kvetching ? That was only the first part of the sermon, and if you thought the second part would be about linking that message to current event you'd unfortunately be wrong. It's instead focused on finding, or making up really, symbolism in the story that foretells the passion of Jesus. You see the Samaritan was really a stand-in for anyone you might hate, including, and I quote, "a Nazi or a member of ISIS", because even they can be saved and be your neighbor for the purpose of doing unto them like unto thyself. And the two silver coins well you see they would pay for two nights and on the third one Jesus comes back from the dead. Now I'm not an expert on the cost of living in Ancient Judea. But Gary Heinz isn't either so I'm gonna say it, he pulled that number out of his ass. Also a little confused about the same storytelling element being earlier compared to limitless charity, only now to be quantified as worth two nights at a B&B. But that's just nitpicking, what I'm really tired of is every reading of the holy texts [cut to meme] by Christian preachers devolving into improv rapping about Jesus and how he died for us. The lessons in the Bible stop being broadly applicable to daily life and are instead contrived into fifty different ways to say "he is risen" like it's isn't the sole fucking reason we're in church to begin with. That's usually bad enough, but when a pastor says that the Samaritan in the tale of the good Samaritan was here for shock value and could be "a Nazi or a member of ISIS", this changes the meaning of the tale to "be kind to everyone regardless of who they are, including Nazis apparently", from the original condemnation of prejudices. The Samaritan didn't chose to be a Samaritan, he's not doing any harm being a Samaritan, and the tale shows that his religion being slightly removed from orthodox Judaism isn't as important as his doing good and helping his fellow man. I don't think someone who joined a political party predicated on the extermination of minorities would fit that message, and I think changing said message to a more broad declaration of love from Jesus is ignoring what people need to hear these days where prejudice against minorities makes up 90% of the news.

And you might say it's not really a preacher's job to raise awareness for current events, but I'll ask you this: is hearing about how Jesus totally died for you every week supposed to make me a better Christian ? Or is learning that he told us pretty much in clear text not to hate minorities based on prejudice gonna do that. Cause I think most Christians need to hear the later more.

[burningvelvet]

jacob elordi and margot robbie starring in yet another whitewashed wuthering heights adaptation which is going to further destroy the public perception of this classic literary work by misleading people into interpreting it as a common bodice ripper bc no one cares about nuance or meaning and all anyone cares about is profit... crying shaking throwing up!!!

it's also really ironic to imagine what heathcliff himself would think about how he's portrayed in media. he hates everyone and would hate more than anyone the fans who romanticize him, just as he canonically hates isabella for adoring him and wanting to believe that he's better than he is — that he is the romantic hero she's made him out to be. how ironic is it that most fans of the work embody isabella? and on that note, how much do you want to bet that isabella will be written out of the story along with most of the other characters plotlines, like how the colonial rhetoric is written out by the fact of elordi's mere presence?

heathcliff is such a wonderfully written character and one of the most iconic in all literary history. he doesn't deserve this chronic mistreatment and neither do any of the other characters. least deserving of all is emily brontë herself who would be continuously disappointed if she were misfortunate enough to have to bear witness to these adaptations. she's actively rolling in her grave as we speak and the producers are parodying heathcliff digging her up so that she can share in the torment they insist upon...

[thesourspirit]

I want a relationship where I can cuddle, love, cook for, basically just do what people would consider couple stuff with a person, but it's completely platonic. Like I love you, we hug we love, but there's no romantic attraction involved. Pls tell me I'm not the only one who feels this way.

[kiirotoao]

An argument I see against Byler that irks me, specifically about Will’s storyline, is that some people think that Will’s story is about him accepting himself. Acceptation is absolutely not part of his storyline, and here’s why.

Will has been established as a queer character. Quick as it was, Joyce mentioned Lonnie’s remarks about Will in the very first episode of season 1. Will has also been drafted as a kid dealing with his sexuality. Will knows about what people say about him, and he doesn’t seem to outwardly fight it, alongside much other forms of confrontation towards himself.

Will deals more with the struggle of being different, not of misunderstanding, not of doubting, being.

A great contrast in another series that shows a character learning to accept himself is none other than Nick Nelson in Heartstopper (Webtoon or Netflix - but for the sake of finding scene packs more easily, though, I will be quoting from the Netflix adaptation).

Nick outwardly deals with uncertainty regarding his sexuality. He’s covered in doubtful characters’ judgements, clearly a jock of whom are stereotypically straight, and as Elle would say it, he’s “the straightest person I have ever seen.”

He’s not established with a queer lens. In fact, for a very long time, Charlie thinks that he has no chance with Nick because he doesn’t think that Nick could ever like him like that. But then, in comes Nick’s perspective. He realizes that he’s getting really close to Charlie, and his mom tells him that he’s “much more himself” around Charlie. Then, of course, the meme of Nick taking the “am I gay?” quiz and crying over his result. And then in comes the day after his and Charlie’s first kiss when Nick expresses that he’s “so confused,” not that he didn’t like it, it’s just difficult for him when he’s only ever seemed to like girls before.

That is how you explore an arc of discovering one’s sexuality: show confusion from other characters, self-doubt, and how the character feels working through it. Will Byers has received no such treatment.

He’s not confused, self-doubtful, nor shown working through his sexuality. It’s just always been, and the other characters around him reinforce that. The fact that other characters make remarks. The fact that other characters know without Will telling them anything. The fact that Will has never continued returning any affection to a girl who showed interest in him. The fact that Will never gets a girlfriend. The fact that we know that Will was making that painting for Mike alone.

Plus, if being accepted is Will’s whole storyline culmination, where does he go now that Jonathan in season 4 has accepted him and promises to love him no matter what? That’s it? He’s going to have nothing greater happen to him in season 5 and/or they’re going to reinforce a point they already did so sweetly? Yeah. I mean, I’m not a writer, but, yeah. Sure.

Byler is endgame because Will is going to learn that he no longer needs to just accept himself but see himself in who he is.

[tiredtourettic]

Hot take:

I, as a person part of the LGBTQ+ community, don't feel safe in it.

I'm a (genderfluid) trans man, amongst other things. But in the community I get ostracized, because I'm a man. Yes, a lot of (cis) men have privilege. But I'm not a cis man. My community's oppression is being swiped under the rug because we're men, people are claiming we have privilege because of our gender. But being men doesn't take away our oppression.

It hurts me seeing other queer people, especially other trans people, claiming we don't face oppression unique to us. You're supposed to get it, you face the same kind of thing, and then you turn around and say we're exaggerating. That we have privilege over trans women and nonbinary folk. You're siding with the transphobes here.

We, as trans people, are supposed to stick together and fight for all of our rights. We're supposed to support each other.

Transmascs are no less oppressed just because we're men. This is not the oppression Olympics.

Let me repeat:

This is not the oppression Olympics.

[greenapplebling]

Fuck it, I'm gonna say it

I can't believe there's people 20+ years later that don't understand why Katara didn't kill the guy who murdered her mom. So you're telling me that there are people defending Batman's choice not to kill non-stop, even though his villains are world-wide menaces, yet there is another group of people who can't fathom why a 14 (maybe 15 at that point) yo girl who was traumatized by war and forced to participate in it doesn't want to live with the fact that she killed someone?? The same girl that broke down bc Hama told her she's now "like her" (a monster) now that Katara has learned bloodbending?? The same girl that stopped Aang while on Avatar state from potentially killing the sandbenders who stole Appa?? That girl???

I'm all for revenge fantasies, but this one isn't it fam

[youwerethedefeated]

I honestly don't get it when people say Hinata has to "beg" for tosses from Kageyama - as if he's constantly being denied when that happens, what, twice in the whole series?

Like, the first time doesn't even count because they don't know each other. It's literally the very first arc of the story and it gets solved in a couple episodes. The one other time Kageyama ever refuses to toss to Hinata is when they're both working individually to improve their quick, and it's less of a "You don't deserve my toss" and more of a "I'm still perfecting it so just wait"

(And even before that, right when they get into their big fight, Kageyama still spends a long time tossing to Hinata even though it's obviously not working. He said "I won't toss to someone I know will miss" at the training camp, but as soon as they're back in Karasuno he gives Hinata a chance anyway.)

Kageyama may put up a tough front - "I'll toss to you if your bumps are good enough " - but he doesn't actually deprive Hinata of tosses. In fact, we see them training together constantly, even outside of club hours. I don't get how anyone thinks he'd ever deny Hinata, the one person who matches his hunger for volleyball, when he used to spend so much time training on his own.

To be fully honest, I don't think he can deny Hinata anything - multiple times Kageyama sends him the ball without meaning to. Even when he knows the timing isn't right. Even when Hinata is not there.

He tosses to Hinata at the most critical moment of every game, like the final point of both matches against Seijoh: even though they failed the first time, kageyama still puts the ball up for Hinata again, in the exact same conditions, trusting that they've both evolved enough to be able to overcome that triple block this time.

And then again during the Dumpster Battle, when Nekoma has Hinata completely shut down, Kageyama also feels caged in. Still, he doesn't stop tossing to Hinata like Kenma predicts, which would be the most logical thing to do. Instead he finds a way to let Hinata fly higher, to break out of the cage. In a match with no rematch, at the national stage, Kageyama insists on trying something completely new, something they'd never trained before, an incredibly risky move, just because he's not willing to give up on Hinata. And he puts the ball up again and again even though Hinata hits it clumsily the first time, until it works.

Tldr; he may put up a tough front, but Kageyama still gives Hinata all the tosses he could possibly want, and just the way he wants them.

[sepublic]

Hunter is NOT Luz’s brother, he’s not a Noceda, he’s not even that important to her compared to many other relationships Luz has and vice-versa. Like genuinely, go rewatch the show with this consideration in mind, cleanse the fanon for a fresh slate.

People just latched onto them as siblings because they found their Hunting Palismen dynamic funny, but also because they wanted to ward off Lunter. And they couldn’t articulate their dislike for Lunter as stemming from Luz’s longstanding dynamic with another female character being immediately replaced by fans for some white boy who just showed up, so they said they’re actually more siblings. It wasn’t an issue of biphobia it’s just people being tired of fandom thinking everything would be better if a woman was replaced by a guy. It’s the same reason Huntric also sucks because people replace a female character with some dude, it has nothing to do with bi/homophobia.

And FTR I hate Lunter, for the same reason I now hate the Luz & Hunter as Siblings take; It’s the fandom’s obsession with making Hunter more important than he actually is, to the point of replacing Luz’s actual important relationships with him. And hell even replacing Luz herself in her dynamics with her loved ones, because people portray Hunter as more Camila’s child than Luz when Darius is right there.

This fandom has a massive White Favoritism problem with Hunter, and he’s not even a female character he’s another White Boy, the most bland and milquetoast choice to raise as the fandom darling. He’s not THAT interesting and while him and Luz have their parallels and shared trauma and are still friends, what about Hunter and Gus? Or Luz and King, the latter explicitly calls Luz his sister but Hunter sure as hell didn’t! What about explicit on-screen dynamics huh???

ISTFG this fandom is overrun by Hunter content everywhere, he drowns out everyone except the literal main character and even she struggles sometimes! It’s because he’s a White Boy, that’s it. It’s not illegal to like Hunter, but you need to actually appreciate and engage with other characters accordingly instead of acting like that’s illegal. Hunter does the bare minimum and is lauded meanwhile everyone else goes above and beyond and is still overlooked for him.

Stop inserting him into everything we do not need Luz and Hunter angst we can just settle for Luz angst. She has other relationships and priorities you know and there’s so much more to this show than Hunter suffering. Sometimes you’ll even take Luz’s canon angst and give it to Hunter even! And try to make him more of a main character by inserting him into everything but he’s a side character.

So yes, your AU where Hunter is the main protagonist is racist. Especially if it doesn’t even explore Darius as his mentor, and has Eda take his place despite her barely interacting with him. And constantly praising Hunter for being a weird passionate nerd gets aggravating when Luz does the exact same thing but with greater emphasis, but gets ignored in favor of Hunter as she’s relegated to just Lumity.

And all of her additional depth and angst is just ignored for Hunter’s instead, sometimes they’ll even make up angst for him when other characters actually have it; I’ve seen popular fanart of a Luz moment where Hunter is in her place. Because fandom will sooner micro-analyze Hunter’s hands for nothing, than Luz going on a suicidal rant.

They’ll cradle Hunter’s trauma and suffering in their hands as a sacred and delicate subject, gnash at Darius for not being nice; But then sweep over Luz’s trauma and not realize how much certain things affected her, and why it’s fucked up to just ignore that in favor of bad AUs where Luz is a friend to Belos, who prompted a lot of her suicidal depression and scarred her face too.

They’ll insist Hunter should’ve been a bigger part of the finale and that Luz’s nightmare should’ve been her guilt for hurting him, as if it wasn’t already about Flapjack’s death and just her guilt towards ALL of her friends. So you know what, in addition to Hunter not even needing to kill Belos, I’m glad he wasn’t in that final battle and that the show reminded fandom who the actual main characters are (Luz, Eda, and King), which obviously pissed off a lotta people. Because it’s not like Hunter didn’t have major focus in the last two specials and S2B!!!!!!

[orchideous-nox]

You guys push lily aside to have your mlm ship that doesn’t even have them interacting even ONCE in the books or movies and for what?

Oh, so you only like canon ships? So you only ship jily and xenodora and fralice, right? .........right? You must looooove remadora too because you're so concerned about canon ships. And you're also this passionate about lucissa and belladolphus, because they're also canon and happen in the books.

And you send this to wolfstar shippers and nobleflower shippers and pandalily shippers and quillkiller shippers, right? I'm sure you do. I'm sure this is out of real concern for the source material.

I'm sorry that my gay agenda and lack of respect for canon which was created by a transphobic terf piece of shit is getting in the way of you mysoginistically reducing women to being incubators "because that's what the books say".

"No, Katie, I didn't say that I want Lily to only be a wife and mother." Okay, cool. Tell me about Lily CANONICALLY without mentioning James or Harry or Snape. In fact, tell me about Lily without mentioning men using quotes and page numbers from the books. I'll wait.

[megantheestallion-ismypresident]

Why are the actors who played lyle and erik menendez so fine a little bit too fine. omg bruh, I wanna talk about a few things about the show. If u don't know who lyle and erik menendez are, they basically killed their parents. They live in a ver Rich lifestyle and home the dad Jose menendez mol*ested the boys at a very young age to teens he would touch them very inappropriately the mom knew about it and she didn't approach or care and she also was apart of the abuse too, so the brothers killed there parents, honestly the case is so sad and the fact that they'll never be free when there's so much evidence makes it even sadder. #justice for the menendez brothers!!!

Ryan Murphy is so incredibly selfish that he exploited not one but two cases he did that show dahmer, and it caused a lot of backlash for the victims the fact that Netflix allowed it to happen. He didn't do anything but made money off there trauma and exploited them for money, I watch a few episodes of dahmer and stopped because it made it seem like dahmer was the victim, and it was so trifling to the victims and families.

I'm watching the lyle and erik menendez show, and it's so disrespectful asf to the brothers it spread so many lies and false information. In the end, it made it seem like the parents were victims and the brothers as monsters. Also, wtf is wrong with Ryan Murphy? He made it seem like the brothers had something going on romantically, like really incest? Also made erik gay which he was not by the way and the way he made lyle's character in the show, he made lyle this snobby, typical Rich guy, who's loud, angry, aggressive when in reality he was not.

It's so sad that the brothers and other families are being exploited through their trauma and pain. Fuck Ryan Murphy🖕 but I will say the actors did an amazing job and acted there asses of I will give them that and they put on and amazing performance 👏

[orangeunicorn-of-freedom]

omfg, stop using AI (especially BAD AI) for creating fandom art. for fuck's sakes! i just saw a very bad haladriel art where Galadriel has THREE fingers!!! and I saw several more really bad AI arts this morning. WTF is wrong with you people??!!! your worst pencil doodle is 10000 times better than fucking AI generated trash. and if you can't make your own art PAY REAL ARTISTS!!! ORDER A COMMISSION!! SUPPORT ART COMMUNITY!!!

just please please please stop using AI for art, just...stop

(i'm gonna cry)

[gogoodomen]

I genuinely hate adam stanheight like with all my heart why does he look so pathetic distressed why does he look like a wet kitten or a wet rat why are his lips so pink and

[mysteryofvampires]

I love writing fanfiction but what really bothers me is the massive comments per kudos rate.

Like a fic of mine has 11 kudos and three comments (that aren't my answers or a "conversation"). I get it not everyone has time or passion to write a well thought of comment, but atleast a keysmash or like a emojie is enough to make me, and surely other writers as well, happy.

[onceuponanavatar]

I'm not trying to be negative here, but I just want to get this off my chest. Obligatory "not all kat/aangers", because I know it's not all of them. So if this doesn't apply, then it's not about you.

When season 1 of netflix atla came out, it got a lot of criticism from all sides. Fair enough; I can see where people would have some issues. But as someone who did like it, scrolling online, it seemed like some of the harshest critics were kat/aangers. They were livid at the very idea that netflix could maybe—just maybe—entertain the thought of doing something different with zutara. Mind you, nothing was confirmed ever, but zutaras had (finally) gotten some positive interactions with people involved in the show, and yeah, we have a bad habit of getting our hopes up (silly us). And now, with the Toph casting announcement, I already see those same kat/aangers being loud online about how netflix better not *dare* to ruin her platonic friendship with Aang, but oh they already screwed up season 1 and are interacting positively with zutaras online (how dare they) so obviously they will ruin Toph too. And I'm just like??? No one at netflix has made any hint toward changing the Toph/Aang relationship as far as I know, but you're already getting heated over nothing. And even if they did? You guys have done nothing but bad mouth the show and try to ruin things for everyone who does like it. So why do you care what the show will do? You will either not watch it at all or watch it and complain anyway! Why would the showrunners want to cater to people who have been rude to them online, as opposed to fans that have been more positive and supportive? All that complaining, and they may not even change anything anyway! And even if they do and make taang or zutara canon, who cares? Let them do something different and explore new ideas! It doesn't change what happened in the original show! We will always have that.

Anyways, rant over. I hope that I was able to articulate clearly the point I wanted to make. I just get tired of the negativity and the closed-mindedness. We can never get anything new or different without a herd of people complaining, and it is exhausting.