#subculture thoughts

[4seasonsofart]

Why people love S1 Vinland Saga and hate S2 (A Theory)

There's something special about War Arc Thorfinn for so many people. I've heard a lot of discourse about Season 2 and how it doesn't have enough action. About how Thorfinn is lame now because he's only farming. (etc... etc...) I still think you're a loser and lack media literacy if you hate Season 2 just because it doesn't have 'enough action'. Although, I think there is a deeper reason why the transition between Arcs and Seasons feels so monumental here.

Change, life and death, and the passing of time are all bittersweet things for many people. A lot of people fear these things, and the transition between Season 1 and Season 2 has a lot of them. Thorfinn becomes empty, Canute is now a king, and so many of the major characters that we grew up with are now dead for the sake of Thorfinn's development.

We also have the passing of generational trauma and how our characters deal with it. It felt like Thorfinn was an angry little kitten, and now he is a depressed and then enlightened man. It can cause whiplash. A sense of loss. A sense of sadness within us. Many people regress when faced with such things. Which is why Season 2 can feel jarring to most.

We once had something full of action, and now we have nothing. There are a lot of people on their journey to healing. So many people still have their internalized hatred and emotions within them. Which is why they connect with how broken and conflicted Thorfinn is in Season 1. So many people can relate to him. That anger. That pain. That wanting to hurt everyone who hurt you.

It's relatable. It's healing in a way.

Then we have Thorfinn in Season 2, who is beginning to heal. Who is depressed. Who learns to love and gains a friend. For a lot of people, that causes a conflicting feeling inside. Why am I not there? Why can't that be me? Why does that cause me to feel this way? It can trigger a bad reaction or a need to regress to how things used to be.

People are so used to being broken... that they are scared to heal. The anger and pain is the only thing they've ever known. So they relate and love Season 1 Thorfinn. 'He's so me fr fr.'

It's different, and it hurts to see people (even fictional characters) grow and change so drastically. We also have a sub-culture of anime enthusiasts who just like themeless fighting and large explosions of color. So people who like just seeing dramatic fights and bland storylines won't like this. They are used to the 'main character being angry, then defeating a monster, then winning, and then getting angry again.' This is the cycle that continues through many (in my opinion) poorly written manga and books.

Manga like Vinland Saga, Vagabond, and Berserk (etc...) offer a deeper and more gut-wrenching approach to this. They focus on the characters and the themes more than baseline action and intrigue. That's why treasured pieces of literature have such small fanbases. We live in a society that prioritizes 'fast food' intake of content with little substance or meaning. People just want to see something pretty and not think about it. Which is a side effect of many people's addiction to TikTok.

Which pains me but also makes me happy. I like the Vinland Saga fan base; I like that it's small. I can't help but feel a little protective over fictional characters because this story has meant so much to me and my own personal growth. We've seen what happens when themeless and quite bland animes get really large fan bases. (My Hero Academia, for example.) I don't want the message of this story to be lost because people so easily write it off for not filling their dopamine hits.

So from people's own trauma and connections to Season 1 Thorfinn to substanceless media being popularized, it isn't a surprise that many people just write off Season 2. No, it isn't the same as Season 1, but that isn't a bad thing. Want more Season 1 Thorfinn? Intake fanfiction or art created by fans, or make some of your own. You are not limited to only what is shown on your screen or in the manga. That's the great thing about fan bases and fan-made things. It's your interpretation of the character. It's both the original creators and yours.

Just be decent and try to have some media literacy. To all of the 'Incels', 'beta males', and rage baiters who try to hate on this masterpiece- go back to your fanservice animes with poorly written female characters and unneeded nudity.

I didn't know how to really get my thoughts out correctly while writing this, so I hope everyone who reads it understands what I am trying to say.

[bumblingbabooshka]

Vulcan teen on Vulcan [tiktok] saying "I have just lost track of my father in the grocery store." The camera turns to show the viewers the grocery store in which almost every single older middle-aged man has a bowlcut and long robes. Camera turns back to show the teen's face which is expressionless and yet communicates all it needs to.

[draculiza]

but what if I'm goth and mall goth? the original and the 'poser', the real and the fake, the one with both sides of the coin. the one who's in love with nu metal and goth music, intertwined together. my two demons, dancing and bopping to the beat.

[madeleinethevampire]

Some goths are written by tim burton, some goths are written by bram stoker, and some goths are written by rob zombie

[emo-ish]

ITS MY BIRTHDAY

But i wanna cry cuz its july 6th which means Ryan Ross left panic </3

He left panic the day and YEAR i was born, july 6th 2009.

[verminvamp]

SomE oF thE arT I’vE donE foR thaT cringY fuckinG dancestoR interneT dramA humanstucK aU I mentioneS iN thE DamarA post>,..,<

[gonzos-audacity]

i dont really consider myself to be punk or grunge or goth or whatever. just a vague alternative soup. but ive never felt myself more comfortable or fitting into subculture than when i started realizing i did not have to spend a ton of money to 'look the part.'

a good 85% of my wardrobe is shit i got at thrift stores. i've started making my own jewelry. the base of my battle jacket (a sturdy, oversized denim jacket) i got for free cuz it was (accidentally) stolen. the only time i really shell out any decent money is for good shoes and handmade patches/jewelry from people on etsy.

diy can take time and resources but i guarantee the stuff you make will look far more "punk" than any pre-patched $200 jacket you buy on torrid. also its fun.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

The accomplishment of one of the kids in shul: Reading the haftarah completely in hebrew with little hesitation and in a pretty timely manner

My accomplishment (whole adult): Being able to follow along without getting lost (first time I have been able to do this)

Honestly, though, I'm not complaining. My method of acquiring knowledge was to do full immersion in my community, and I've been seeing how much I've been able to learn. In terms of Doing Judaism, I'm younger than these kids at shul 💀💪

[eggbagelz]

They invented a subculture for me it's called loserpunk

[gothiccharmschool]

Hey I want to dress more goth (or punk), because

It looks cool

I want to scare Christians

Is that cool

:: sighs, rubs brows ::

If you want to explore the subculture and the aesthetic, by all means! I encourage everyone to do that.

As for the "I want to scare Christians" part ... you realize that's rude, right? And unhelpful to the goth subculture, because you'll be confirming their suspicious fears that anyone who is outside their definition of "normal" is frightening and deserves to be harassed. So no, that is not cool. Don't do that. Don't fall into y2k edgelord behavior, because that is not what goth or punk is about.

Dress more goth or punk if it interests you. Be icily polite to Christians who interact with you. Do not be a rude jerk.

[beneathsilverstars]

one of my irl besties i follow on twitter and i do NOT get her posting style. irl our senses of humor play so well together that we have been complimented by strangers at the store on how funny our idle conversations are, but i look at her posts and feel nothing but confusion. i can't figure out what it means OR what's funny about it. i don't know if i'm misreading the tone, or if her online circles just have a totally different posting style than mine, or what, but her posts are incomprehensible to me!

anyway i think this is what following loop on socmed would be like.

[thelemonsnek]

visuals i made for a real actual paper i wrote for my sociology class that my professor will be reading

[image ids: the first image is a black and white drawing of Ingo and Emmet, from some time after Ingo disappeared. They both look neutrally forwards. Ingo is bedraggled per usual in Hisui, and Emmet looks tired. To either side of them are triangles emphasizing what shape their goatee is.

The second image is a photo of a salt and pepper shaker. The Submas Sideburns are drawn on top of them.

The third image is an edit of Shrek. He gestures at Donkey, saying, "submas fandom is like onions. submas fandom has layers, onions have layers... you get it? we both have layers."

The final image is an edit of the Marge potato meme. She holds Ingo and Emmet up, saying "I just think they're neat!" End id]

[terror-punk]

be openly scary bro nobody is scared people just get second hand embarrassment , id tell you to go outside but i dont want more innocents smelling your unwashed ass from 3 miles away

Okay, let's see that post you're talking about here and ignore your attempt at an insult that proves you know nothing about us and what our offline life is like.

The post talks about highly stigmatised mental illnesses such as personality disorders and psychotic disorders. People "just" get "second hand embarrassment" from them? Please explain to the people who have had their friends shy away from them the moment they mention they're mentally ill in any capacity. Please explain that to people who end up forcefully institutionalised. Please explain that to the people who couldn't fathom even being friends with someone with such a stigmatised, scary disorder.

The post talks about trans and queer identities. Do you really think people just get second hand embarrassment from that? Is the fearmongering of "protect our kids" all second hand embarrassment? Is the "trans women want access to spaces they make others unsafe in" just.... a reaction to internally cringing?

The post talks about nonhumanity and alterhumanity at large, which even if it's seen as "cringe" or "embarrassing", alterhumans are lumped in with psychotics and commonly treated similarly.

People are scared of the mentally ill, people are scared of those who are queer, people are scared of alterhumans--that's the reason for a good chunk of the hate. In fact, it would be so much safer for us to be us if they were just embarrassed for us and nothing else. If people weren't scared of anything remotely different, maybe people would even cringe less, because we would be normalised and allowed to be more open.

I'm responding to this because you're almost an example of my point. You may truthfully not be "scared" (though if you weren't scared of something, even if it's just a block, why exactly are you on anon?), but if society were better, people wouldn't feel the need to send anons like this to people trying simply to exist. You likely wouldn't even bat an eye. We simply want as much of a right to exist as possible, and if people are scared, that's solely a them problem. It might not be safe for everyone to be "scary" or "cringe" right now, but we should be allowed to. That's the point.

Thank you for being an example of what ideas we're aiming to dispel.

[pzyii]

Santanas that definitely for sure aren’t totally self Indulgent….. closeups under cut

Santana also gets to dress up as Chappel roan (I don’t remeber specifically when she wore this outfit but it felt fitting) also just . The guy.

(Comphet) Lesbian catchphrase tm (or that’s what I call it ) plus another example of. The guy

Hmmm alt Santana, yall will get more of her (I have experimented with a lot of dif hairstyles traditionally, I just had the idea of this with this one so yeah)

[oshidorifuufu]

i’m depressed but in the funky ‘haha i wanna die’ way

[gotbeanz]

ok I have two major problems with the goth poser “looks like a goth but listens to taylor swift” discourse I’ve been seeing a lot of recently which are:

1. Why are you assuming the “poser” in question never listens to goth music?? “all their top songs are tswift” ok and? I listen to a lot of genres with varying frequency, recently I’ve been listening to a lot more hozier than the birthday massacre. I bet if you looked at my top songs from the last month you’d be saying those things about me but here’s the crazy thing, next month could and probably will be completely different. It’s the same thing as not dressing goth all the time. humans aren’t always consistent! interest isn’t always consistent! it’s weird to assume you know this person based on such a minute snapshot of their personality and interests and perhaps you should consider withholding judgement until you’ve at least had a conversation with the person you’re judging.

2. Believe it or not, subcultures evolve and branch out over time. Maybe they’re not what we’ve established as goth, but maybe they’re using the word goth because they just haven’t found one for themselves yet. maybe instead of being nasty you could give them a chance to figure out what they’re doing and even explain why they don’t necessarily belong to the current goth subculture to help them figure out where they do belong.

I don’t know I think I’m just tired of listing to people being mean for no good reason. and just to hedge any bad faith readings I’m not talking about the bully gave you shit for being goth in high school and never apologized who’s “goth” now because it gets them likes on tiktok. I’m talking people who genuinely enjoy and feel comfortable in goth fashion but maybe just aren’t as into the music. moral of the story is that there’s space for everyone in the metaphorical goth boarding house and if there isn’t, it’s pretty damn easy to make a new space for the people who don’t fit yet because the goth boarding house doesn’t actually exist in physical space and can therefore expand infinitely. also stop being an exclusionary dick for no reason :P