#the whole show was about how shitty modern culture is

[ssaltlicker]

Man aggretsukos ending was underwhelming.

[bulbabutt]

okay. lets bite the bullet and talk about 2012. lets talk about child abuse, familial abuse, generational abuse, toxic family units, whatever you wanna call it. lets talk about it and whether it exists in this show. i actually encourage you to read this no matter what your take is, just to hear it out. let me be FUCKING clear: i love this show, but i get scared to talk about it seriously. everyone on every side is defensive all the time but i love every turtles show to no end.

this post is going to go over so well and not controversially at all.

precursor: every splinter is some level of shitty dad. he always has been. the fucking bare bones of the character is that he raised his children to kill the man who killed his own father. thats inherently fucked up. every splinter has some level of fucked up about him. maybe hes inattentive, or neglectful, or strict, or secretive, maybe hes just not very good at dealing with his kids. splinter is supposed to be far from perfect. thats what makes him splinter. maybe he grows over the course of a series, maybe he doesnt. maybe hes supposed to be shitty his whole life, maybe hes not. thats just splinter. each is adapted differently depending on the story being told.

and 2012 has a very interesting tone to its story.

lets start at the beginning, back in japan. this is season 3, was this story what they intended when they started writing the show back in season 1? probably not, theres probably things they would have written differently had they known this was where splinter's story started. thats kind of the way tv works, you add the details later. but for our sake of analyzing the character of splinter as a whole, it seems best to start here as if its all intentional.

hamato yoshi is a member of the hamato clan. theyre a very traditional old ninja clan in the modern world, they have old feuds and theyre trying to keep their culture alive. they're literally the last of a clan of ninjas like this, having (supposedly) defeated the foot clan (their generational enemies) back when yoshi was a baby. hes set out to lead next, and its very important to him. and yet hes married to a woman who works in the city, a modern woman who doesnt live the life he does. she even moved to be with him. i feel the need to compare this to how men in the real world who want traditional wives never go for women who are willing to be their housewives, always try to break down the independent ones. splinter seems unconcerned with how his wife wants to live. with how she wants their daughter to be raised.

im not necessarily saying this is how this comes off in the show, but i find it interesting to think about. this is absolutely the most rounded version of tang shen as a character (thus far) it stops her being just a name on a page "hamato yoshi's love and the object of his enemies affections who died" and turns her into a woman who has a stake in the story. gives her more agency.

its very interesting that this show implies an actual relationship between tang shen and oroku saki, albeit a one-sided one that didnt work out, but they do seem to have parted on equal ground. the pair of them discuss yoshi's inattentive duties as a husband and father, that he's too obsessed with the tradition and lineage of his clan. honestly, if this woman just took her baby and left no one would blame her! he has his priorities set, and it leaves no room for her and their newborn baby. if she ran away with saki at this point, the story would make just as much sense.

but then disaster strikes, saki learns the truth about his family, that he was actually a child of the foot clan (honestly i wish we saw this play out instead of jumping ahead in the story but thats not what this post is about) and he kills he and yoshi's father. revenge for him having killed his. cycles of abuse and revenge that never end. the pair of them were raised in this society that values lineage like this, that would kill for it. its no wonder they both grew up this way.

anyway, tang shen is killed by a blow meant for yoshi, and saki takes their child and raises her. based on splinter's lack of desire to be a father so far in the story, its honestly not one you can blame him for. its fucked up, but it makes sense. saki does to miwa exactly what his father did to him. cycles of abuse and revenge.

yoshi loses everything, and moves to america. he's turned into splinter the mutant rat, and gains four turtle sons.

so as established, he's not exactly grown up with a stable family life. he obviously, while human, wasnt acting as a stable father for the child he intended to have. so how good is he at this?

ive talked before about how the 2003 show treats the turtles as kind of one whole unit. they don't have individual relationship arcs, they dont have overarching storylines where they grow apart or closer, they're always in each other's corner.

2012 makes this more dynamic. here we see that 15 years seeing no one but each other, growing under this splinter has come with its own quirks. these brothers dont understand each other that well. they get jealous of each others treatment, some are left out, some are misunderstood. raph resents leo, none of them appreciate what donnie does, mikey bothers everyone else for attention, etc. it creates a really good starting place for this show.

(the issue i have with this show is more that they never really open or close any of these beats, at least not in ways that last. but boy does it make for some good dramatic scenes)

we see over the course of this first season that splinter treats his children just as he was, as little ninjas more so than sons. he raises them to follow his traditions, the ones tang shen never cared for. but this is all he knows how to be! you cant really blame him.

most people bring up mikey as the quintessential example when they talk about this, i dont want to do that cuz i know you've all heard it. while i think his father does disrespect him and i think it is paid forward and his brothers do too, i'd rather talk about raph for a change.

in one episode, raph loses his temper. to teach him a lesson, splinter makes his brothers pelt him in training while insulting him any way they can, and tells him to just... not lose his temper. this is a terrible lesson in general. instead of trying to coax out why he might be angry, it just plays up that if he loses his temper bad things happen.

splinter in this episode basically encourages bullying. this comes up a lot when it comes to raph. to compare, in 2003 when raph loses his temper, hes told to blow off steam which he does. his brothers don't blame him for having emotional outbursts, they know thats just how he is so they know how he needs to cope with it. he's given the physical space to let it out.

im not saying this show needs to be like that show, im just saying thats a version of this story where the outcome is better for raph as a whole. since this outcome is not as good for him emotionally, you can tell why he's still got these emotional issues. splinter never helps him more than that. thats more why this raph differs from that one, if that makes sense. one has his family in his corner more than the other.

speaking of. raph has a pet turtle. this turtle is the only one he can talk to about how he feels. why might that be? it's the only thing hes kind and gentle to, and he refuses to let his brothers make him feel weak for being kind to it. where did he learn to be ashamed of being kind and gentle? thats a learned behaviour. in a house full of other men... yeah, that would happen. but whos values start that?

when this turtle gets some mutagen spilled on it, it tries to get revenge on his family. there is such a resentment going on here, its extremely juicy. the show chalks this up to "post mutation insanity", but its just as easy to think that everything raph has experienced has made him seem angry and resentful and perhaps scared to his pet, and that former pet wants raph to himself so they can be free. the frustrated venting of a child complaining about how no one understands him in such a big way turns slash into a vengeful monster, cuz thats all he's ever heard. it makes sense, he went from a little turtle to a fully cognizant adult aged being in an instant. emotionally no one would handle that well, and definitely not someone whos only ever heard the worst about people.

he comes around later. notably by being on his own, away from the hamatos.

again, im not saying the show is writing this intentionally, but i think tonally its in the zone where you could see this analysis as being canon. that these little pieces of narrative fit the worldview of a toxic family unit that isnt dealing with its problems in a healthy way.

there's other small aspects. leo slaps mikey early on, having seen it on his favourite show be used as a way of getting someone to calm down. mikey questions this behaviour, leo seems to feel bad about it when questioned. if we know that that behaviour was bad, what other things might he emulate in a similar way?

there's things like donnie's predatory behaviour towards april. in a world where all they ever knew was splinter's stories of the outside world (and perhaps television from decades earlier), hearing splinter's story of his love for tang shen, his rivalry with his own brother over her, you could actually see why he would behave the way he does, why he claims her the way he does. not as an excuse, but as a reason he learned the behaviour. and there's multiple opportunities for his father to tell him off. he never does. why would he? he knows no better.

this splinter, unlike every other, is not old or disabled. he doesnt require a cane (at the start, but also was never a good cane) and its interesting that despite being like... a 40 year old man in the peak of his life he does not accompany his sons on missions. he sits around doing nothing and disproves of his sons heroic actions. april literally calls him out for this at one point. the show is actually telling us some of this man's behaviour is wrong.

one of the more upsetting things that happens in this household is a lot of physical hitting. "theyre training" you might say. understandable. but when you see a lot of hitting come from the father in this show, played for a laugh, when you see splinter play the "drunk master" bit it makes you think. is that okay? isnt that a bit much?

the end of the muckman episode is a freeze frame of splinter (after having knocked out all of his sons to punish them for leaving while grounded) turning his anger on april and her running away. idk thats just not funny to me. this is a bit of the dating of the show, 2012 was a time where character's in shows were meaner, less affectionate, more bullying in nature. that was the sense of humour at the time. that isnt me making a judgment, it's just kind of the era. a pre steven universe world, if that makes sense. so many of the jokes that end in a hit aren't funny in 2024. especially not when they come from a parent.

when this splinter speaks about his kids to their brothers he often ends up insulting them. "you should be like mikey, he never overthinks because he doesn't think", this would be a big reason the boys speak about each other the way they do to their faces. puts forward a bit more of that bullying thing i mentioned earlier. if their own father talks about them like this, of course their brothers do too. so of course they join in and give payback.

again. splinter wasnt raised in a normal family. he was raised in a ninja commune with a bunch of murderers. he wasn't great with his wife and baby daughter. its not surprising that he's bad at this.

so, ive just said a bunch of things about what's wrong with this household as a whole. i think ive explained why the family unit behaves the way it does: generational teachings of feuds and traditional values. i dont think this makes the show bad! i, in fact, wish there was more of it. i think theres so much low hanging fruit that the show kind of wants to play with, but cant fully bring itself to.

specific example: during the space arc on a planet thats driving all the characters emotions against each other we get this amazing scene where raph screams at leo for being splinter's favourite. leo responds by hugging him. its really well done!

however its never brought up again, never actually getting into the nitty gritty of why raph feels like that is exactly what i think makes this show resonate with so many people

its dark! it pulls at your heart strings! it makes people feel seen! we go in mikey's head at one point and see such splintered (lol) personalities in his head. he has a huge anger problem (much like raph) in there. he retreats into imagination land when stressed. the show kind of toys with "these kids are fucked up!" but never lets those character moments go anywhere. i love how fucked up this family is. its so complex, it feels real. at least real to me. i wish it went that little step further and let the characters talk about these things a little more.

maybe you have a different experience, and thats fine! but i wouldnt brush off people like me who look at 2012 and say "these dynamics make me uncomfortable". to excuse it by saying "my family is like that and we're fine" sometimes i just wanna say... <:/ are you? have you talked about that? and if that's your read on it is that its fine, thats great. but some people notice patterns and those patterns can make them uncomfortable. i hope ive explained the patterns here.

i think thats why the fandom is as big as it is. this show would lead to the most amazing deep introspective fan-works youve ever seen, it lays the pieces out so perfectly for you to draw your own conclusions about why they are this way. you cant really blame people for talking about it as if its got a way higher rating than it does. it feels like it does.

i should say, i dont even know if i blame the show on its own for leaving those pieces laying there, it was on nickelodeon. i sense studio meddling in the tone. i mean, given that the show wanted to end with the big mutant apocalypse storyline, and yet the network wanted to end it with the big 87 crossover..... yeah i think its safe to say nick would rather they keep it light.

which is funny, because i think the most controversial thing i can say is i personally love the finale arc as the mutant apocalypse. it so encapsulates my favorite part of this show. to end this show in the darkest timeline and say "even though these characters are so far removed from who they used to be and even though the entire world is over they still have each other in the end" and i find that so perfect.

so. i understand that this is always a touchy topic. i know people want to brush it off as "people say the 12 brothers are abusive to mikey but mikey is fine", and i think thats a really skewed version of it from both sides. first of all. mikey is not fine, look in that boys head. look how he copes. he's not. but also, mikey is not the only victim. they all are. these turtles are victims of their upbringing, victims of generational war. of men who didnt know how to be good fathers in the first place. and thats good writing! it feels deep! it connects!

for more context: any fucked up way you can think of karai being raised by shredder? its probably the same way here. splinter and shredder were raised the same way.

i guess i think about this a lot, cuz i always see things like "oh, rise fans write crossovers where the rise boys love each other and have to teach the 12 boys how to be nice cuz they dont like 2012!" and i just think to myself:

guys. do you understand why a person might do that? why would someone (likely a teenager) want 2012 mikey to be treated nicely by a kinder more openly affectionate version of his own family? do i need to spell that out for you? why do we connect with media at all, why do we write our own stories about it?

if you genuinely dont. i mean, im glad for you. but sometimes you wanna imagine a world in which your own family is more openly affectionate with you. where they hug and tell you theyre proud and love you and you never have to question it, never have to look elsewhere for that kind of approval. its less that they're idolizing rise, and more that they're looking at the two families and saying "this one is emotionally mature and in touch with their feelings more than that one. how would that play out?"

doctor feelings ass response.

look, im not saying everyone understands 2012, that everyone likes or needs to like it. im just trying to say that i think these fucked up parts of 2012 are all around my favourite parts of the show. its an inspiring story about this fucked up little family that has no one but each other, and they're not great about it. they try, but they don't always get it right. i just wish the show would have talked about that part more. but i think that since it doesnt people get to fill in those blanks themselves, and they do it so beautifully. and i really wish people on the internet would be more kind to one another when they wanted to discuss these darker themes they find in it.

these are the reasons i love this show. i think its so very interesting that splinter dies this fucked up father figure who never really apologized for his behaviour. i like that raph needs to be held to stop punching his brothers. that leo doesnt have a good grip on what it is to be a leader, that he tries bad ways of doing it. i like that no one copes well! i like that their relationships are so complex! this show is messy! its good! i wish it was more messy!

and id love if we could be more honest about these things and how they make us feel instead of just brushing each other off as "likes the show" or "doesnt like the show". the things that make me uncomfortable are why i love this show and i'm pretty sure i'm not alone there.

[renthony]

I haven't enjoyed a Marvel movie since I stopped bothering to keep up with the MCU in 2014. I don't care for most Marvel movies. I think Marvel Studios is a case study in things that are shitty in the entertainment industry. But holy shit, pretentious posts along the lines of "haha, I don't watch Marvel films, I have real taste, go watch another movie!" are so fucking annoying.

Like, go put up your middle finger at some preps or something. People are allowed to watch whatever they want and enjoy whatever movies they want and make whatever fandom stuff they want, and that doesn't say anything about their intelligence or morals or character. It doesn't mean they are somehow bad at watching movies, or are too stupid to realize whatever nugget of wisdom ye high-and-mighty Marvel Haters think you're the only ones to understand.

Again, not personally a Marvel fan, but this whole "haha, I'm better than Marvel fans" relates to something I've been musing on about media analysis as a whole. There is a persistent idea that mass entertainment is inherently lower quality or less artistic because it's made for a wide audience, and that bad art isn't worth analyzing or engaging with just because it's low quality. In this mindset, the only art that has the possibility to be any good at all is 100% independent projects made by amateurs, and anything produced by a studio or with wide appeal is inherently poser art with absolutely nothing meaningful to say. In this mindset, you can't possibly learn anything or take anything from bad art, and if you find meaning in bad art, you're clearly just stupid and uneducated and have bad taste.

The thing is? Liking bad art is not a sin. Having a different opinion about what constitutes "bad art" is not a sin. Finding something entertaining despite its flaws is not a sin. Studying bad art is not a sin. You can learn a lot from bad art, you can learn a lot from interpreting propaganda, you can learn a lot from engaging with things even if you don't think they're very "good."

My vaudeville research keeps turning up author after author who talks about vaudeville as some sort of "point of no return," like the performing arts all turned to shit the second things were intended to be seen by more than a single audience for a single show. Popularity gets equated with lack of skill or quality, because all the performers were "just pandering to the audience" instead of relying on "real skill."

For one, what the fuck does that even mean, but for two, the theatrical quality of vaudeville isn't what makes it interesting and worth engaging with. Every single thing that ever came out of vaudeville could be 100% total utter garbage, but vaudeville would still be worth studying because of how influential it still is on arts and entertainment today. It has significant historical and educational merit. And some of it is still genuinely fun and entertaining, once you pick out all the things that didn't age well or were just plain bigoted. There's artistic merit in those old sketches and songs, and there's meaning to be drawn from plenty of it even here in 2023.

You want to learn about the Hays Code? Well, let's talk about how early films were shown on projectors on vaudeville stages, so vaudeville censorship went on to influence American film censorship. Let's talk about how we still use slang to this day that originated on vaudeville, such as "skit" or "one night stand" or "ad lib" or "the big time." Vaudeville is still in the bones of the modern American entertainment industry and pop culture, and you can't really escape that influence.

People in modern day use Marvel movies as proof that big studio films are singlehandedly responsible for the decline of art, and there is nothing to learn from them or see in them at all, ever. But to me, "Marvel movies are bad" is such a flat, uninteresting observation, because when it comes to media analysis, it doesn't really matter if Marvel films are good or entertaining. If you want to actually dig into the problems with big-budget summer Hollywood blockbusters, and the way they're impacting the industry as a whole, you have to go deeper than "pop culture is all stupid stuff for stupid people, unlike me, who isn't like other girls actually has good taste in media!"

There are so many more factors at play than "mass entertainment = bad art." Let's look at the ways capitalism screws over small creators and forces them to seek funding from the very same studios that fuck them over. Let's talk about how the actual workers in the industry are fighting tooth and fucking nail against the exact same things all the Marvel haters harp on about. Let's talk about studios that accept funding from the United States Government to turn superhero comics into propaganda films, and then threaten the actual workers with never having a career again if they complain or quit. Let's talk about how the actors are regularly abused and treated to hostile work environments.

Let's talk about the people who made the films, because the films were not made by a CEO pressing the "make movie" button. The workers made those films. The workers were exploited by those studios. Let's try giving a shit about them, instead of taking the "haha, Marvel fans are stupid and cringe" route.

There is so much more fucking nuance and detail and conversation about mass media as a topic, and boiling it down to, "art made for a wide audience is inherently shitty and has nothing to say."

You're not a better, more intelligent, more educated person just because you don't like Marvel movies. Making posts about how much better you are than Marvel fans does nothing to either explain or tackle the issues in the entertainment industry.

It just makes you look like a dickhead.

[moxielynx]

𝙰𝚞𝚝𝚞𝚖𝚗 𝙻𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚜 [𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚢𝚂𝚑𝚒𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙵𝚒𝚌]

lmao quick fic i wrote last night. ive been sleep deprived for a whole week sorry this is kinda bad

ao3 version (i need to find a better site than the shitty proship filled one but whatever)

If you were to ask the ninja what their favorite season was, most of them would say autumn. “Not too hot, not too cold” Nya would say, and Lloyd would agree. “It has Halloween” was Cole’s reason. Morro never gave a proper reason, but for him he liked the mood autumn came with. It was always oddly calm during the season, so he enjoyed being outside more during fall.

Although one thing he never liked about autumn was raking leaves.

Master Wu always had Morro raking the leaves as a chore when autumn came around, and apparently almost 50 years and a revival later Wu still had Morro raking leaves. Morro sighed as he moved the rake, flinching for a moment when he accidentally dragged it against rock.

“Wow, I didn’t think you could try any harder to make my ears bleed.”

Morro paused for a moment, looking up at the view tiredly. He turned around, staring at his boyfriend with a grimace on his face. Kai was leaning against his own rake, visibly as uninterested as he could be.

 “I think we both know I can do worse.” Morro said to him, turning back to the small pile of leaves in front of him. Kai sighed and rolled his eyes, continuing to tediously rake the leaves near him.

“Can’t you just, I dunno, use your powers to pile them all up?” Kai complained. “Or we could use spinjitzu, just anything to get this over with.” Morro sighed at the whines. “You know how Master Wu feels about us using our powers for chores.” He said, making Kai groan. “Don’t remind me.”

After a couple minutes Kai yawned, looking over at Morro. “Wanna grab a coffee after this?” He asked, setting his hands on the top of the rake and then resting his head. Morro glanced at him, raising an eyebrow.

 “We have coffee here.” He simply stated, making Kai roll his eyes again. “It’s not the same, I wanna grab an unreasonably priced seasonal coffee, it’s like, tradition or something like that.” Morro just gave him a strange look. “You want… to waste money?” He asked, completely pausing his work.

Kai smiled, holding back a chuckle. It had been a few years since Morro was revived, and despite having learned a lot of modern day culture he still clearly had a ways to go. 

“Calm down, I wasn’t being serious,” Kai replied. Then his face fell a bit. “At least I hope I wasn’t. They’re not gonna charge too much for seasonal coffee, right?” Kai set a hand on his chin, pretending to think. Morro just shook his head, going back to work. “Just hurry up and rake the leaves, I wanna finish that show Jay told me about.” Kai pouted.

 “So no coffee?” Kai swiftly moved out of the way when Morro suddenly threw a rock at him, the fire ninja letting out a loud laugh. “I’m joking!”

Despite the cool winds blowing up on the mountains Morro had to shrug off his jacket at some point, promptly ignoring Kai with a blush on his face when the man whistled. Morro was almost done with his side of the grass while Kai wasn’t nearly as finished, and Morro chalked it up to the man goofing around most of the time rather than taking the chore seriously.

Morro was deep into thought when Kai suddenly startled him, placing a hand on his shoulder. The green-haired boy glared at him, immediately noting the smirk on the brunette’s face. 

“Hey, we never jumped in leaves together before, have we?” Kai asked, and Morro cocked an eyebrow in confusion. Kai just smiled at him wider, and suddenly went to a nearby pile of leaves that Morro had raked not too long ago. “Bring another pile into this one, trust me on this.”

Despite Morro’s gut instinct to immediately shove Kai away and in fact not trust him, he instead just sighed, and listened. Soon enough there was a large pile of leaves in front of the two, and Morro set his hands on his hips. 

“There, are you happy?” Morro looked down at the pile, muttering about how it would take longer to put the leaves in bags now. Kai just handed Morro his own rake, taking a few steps back. Morro, slightly concerned with Kai’s actions, also took a few steps back, and before he realized it Kai sprinted back towards the pile, jumping straight into it.

Morro gasped as leaves flew everywhere, and he glared at Kai, who was giggling deep into the now slightly smaller pile. “Are you trying to give me more work?!” The man scolded, dropping both rakes out of spite. “I’m not raking those again! That’s your job now.” Morro finished by crossing his arms, and Kai chuckled.

“Yeah yeah, I’m a terrible boyfriend and I give you such a headache” Kai mocked, making Morro scoff. “You do, for the record.” It was a lie, but Morro would sooner jump off the mountain than admit it. Kai just shifted his hand a bit and patted the leaves next to him.

“Jump in! It’s comfy.” Morro shook his head. “Kai, I’m almost certain there are bugs in there, I’m not doing that.” Kai smirked.

 “What, is the big bad Morro scared of a couple bugs?” Morro glared at him before walking right up to him, setting a foot on the man’s stomach. Kai’s eyes widened, looking up at Morro concerned. “Uh, babe? What are you-“ but before Kai could finish he let out a loud huff as Morro shoved him deeper into the pile, his face getting mostly covered by the leaves now. 

Morro stood proudly with a smirk as Kai spat out the leaves, shaking his head trying to remove as many as possible. “You dick! What the hell was that for?!” Kai yelled, wiping dirt off his face. Morro simply placed a hand over his chest, a fake evil expression on his face. 

“Oh, I thought I was the big bad Morro, are you surprised that I’m being bad?” He mocked, his grin widening when Kai glared at him. “We should’ve left you in the departed realm.” He said, sitting up. Morro rolled his eyes, and held his hand out for Kai to grab. “We have to finish raking these leaves, come on.”

Kai looked down at Morro’s hand, then back up at him. Morro’s eyes widened, but before he could pull away Kai quickly grabbed his arm with both hands, yanking the man down into the pile of leaves next to him. Morro’s vision was a blur for a moment, and for a second everything was soft around him, before the itching feeling of leaves was on his skin, and he immediately sat up, eyes wide.

Morro could hear Kai laugh loudly next to him, and Morro could only imagine his boyfriend was doubling over. The former ghost quickly began wiping the leaves off his arms, shifting uncomfortably on the ground.

 “I’m never helping you up ever again.” Morro threatened, and all he got was more leaves falling over his head. Morro paused, turning to face Kai with an unamused expression. Kai was giggling, one of his arms almost completely hidden from the way he leaned into the pile of leaves. Morro almost felt frozen as he stared at Kai, analyzing his face. The scar over his eye, the bandage next to his eyebrow, the small wrinkles Kai so desperately denies having. Morro never forgot just how beautiful Kai was, but whenever he took moments to just look at him, he was absolutely floored.

And Kai could only do the same. Kai stared at the markings left by Morro’s years spent as a ghost, left by the preeminent when she dragged Morro into the sea with her. He analyzed every scar, noting the ones he had as a child and the ones he gained during his time as a ninja. Morro hated his face, he was ashamed of the markings, to him they were a reminder of the foolish boy he once was.

To Kai they were like scars, reminders that Morro had survived. Despite all that he went through, he survived, and he changed for the better. Kai was proud of Morro, and he would always remind Morro of that.

Kai leaned over and rested a hand on Morro’s cheek, and almost instantly the man leaned into it, setting his own hand over Kai’s. They laid in silence for a few minutes, simply enjoying each other’s company.

Soon enough Morro realized they both needed to get up, and sighed softly. “C’mon, let’s just finish up here and we can grab that coffee you wanted.” Morro spoke up, sitting up a bit. Kai smirked. “Oh? Had a change of heart?” Morro shook his head, smiling softly. “You have a way of changing people’s minds.”

Kai laughed softly, and before Morro could get up Kai suddenly pulled him forward, making him yelp. Morro fell on top of Kai, and the ninja wrapped his arms around him. Morro looked down at Kai, a blush clear as day on his face. Kai looked back up at him, smiling, before leaning in to steal a kiss.

Morro practically melted in Kai’s arms, moving his hands to cup the brunette’s face. They refused to pull away until they couldn’t hold their breaths anymore, and even then they couldn’t stay separated for long, almost immediately leaning back in.

Eventually Morro pulled away, just a bit. Their breathing was heavy, unable to break eye contact. Kai’s fingers scratched Morro’s head lightly, his hand having found its way into his hair.

Morro glanced down at Kai’s lips, momentarily distracted from his thoughts. “We need to get up.. these leaves are itchy.” He complained softly, and Kai chuckled. “In a minute,” he responded. “Just stay here another minute..” Morro didn’t complain as he leaned back in, his lips connecting with Kai’s.

If Wu asked why they took so long raking leaves he could just blame Kai for distracting him.

[johaerys-writes]

The Troy movie kills off Menelaus. Agree or disagree with the script change?

There is literally NO script change in the Troy movie that I agree with lmao, and Menelaus dying is no exception. Like where do I even begin? From the fact that it is blatantly incorrect? That it completely disregards and throws in the trash Menelaus' later role in the Iliad? That he is supposed to protect and carry Patroclus' body back to the camp (hello??) That he is supposed to survive the war and take Helen back to Sparta (an important detail of the Epic Cycle), and then also appear in the Odyssey to welcome Telemachus and his crew in his home? Like who is supposed to do all those things if Menelaus is dead?

And, okay, let's say that the directors of a shitty Hollywood movie don't give a shit about all that. You have Menelaus of Sparta, the owner of the finest thighs in the Achaean army, be killed by Hector?? Fucking-- Hector? Like I'm willing to forgive a lot but this is just irredeemable. First of all, Hector would never. To have him intercept the duel that is meant to decide the course of the war and which was agreed upon by both sides, to save his bro from supposedly ruthless, bloodthirsty Menelaus? That's just such nonsense characterisation and something unthinkable in the world of the Iliad, a transgression permissible only to a god-- which is what actually happens in the story. Like, I really don't know if Hector or Paris would have been able to go back to Troy and face the Trojan soldiers after having done something like that. The fact that Paris violated Menelaus' hospitality and took off with Helen is a huge thing all by itself, but the fact that Aphrodite had a hand in it is what makes it somewhat acceptable; to have their princes disgrace and humiliate themselves and Troy as a whole like that I think would be a step too far. How the directors even thought of changing something so basic is beyond me.

Second of all, the Troy movie's obsession with framing Hector as the ultimate, most noblest heroic hero PISSES ME OFF like nothing else. As I've said in a previous ask, there are no "heroes" in the modern sense in the Iliad. "Hero" in the Iliad simply means a warrior, a person who does things. The Trojans and the Greeks are similar in customs, battle prowess, culture and refinement despite the infighting and constant bickering of both sides, and despite the fact that the Achaeans are in an imperialistic war against the Trojans. I've heard the argument that the Achaeans are the "barbaric invaders" and the Trojans the "noble invaded" far too often and I simply disagree, this has never been my takeaway while reading the Iliad. Hector, although he's Troy's most powerful, illustrious, loyal defender, a god-honouring person who is kind to his wife, his child, his aging father and mother (there's a lot to sympathise with when it comes to his character), is just as foolhardy, self-important, stubborn, opportunistic and human as any of the Achaeans he interacts with, he isn’t portrayed as being "morally superior" than them in any way because such a thing is irrelevant in the Iliad. It's just not the point of the Iliad to put anyone on a pedestal and elevate them above the others, the humans in the story take a lot of risks and initiatives and their personal struggles matter, but at the end of the day they are all ultimately powerless against the forces of fate and the will of the gods.

TL;DR: to have Menelaus die in the film, and die in such an idiotic way, is a weak-ass, pathetic move that shows no respect for the source material whatsoever, or any of the central characters.

Thanks for the ask! 💙

[frasier-crane-style]

What I hate about modern-day comic book writing is that it's so jokey. The Riddler can break out of Arkham, kill twelve people, and threaten to blow up a subway car, and everyone will act like they're just LARPing? There'll be random hook-ups and a bunch of pop culture references and the whole situation will be treated with these knowing kid gloves, like everyone involved is Ralph and Sam clocking into work.

And you can't even say that it's lighthearted irreverence or dark humor, because the moment one of the writer's pet causes come up, THEN everyone gets all serious and solemn. So you get these scenes where the characters are treating gentrification like it's the worst thing imaginable, then playing grabass with Mr. Serial Killer like he's just their wacky neighbor.

It completely takes me out of the story, because it's clear the writer is only going to invest actual pathos and engagement into this world when it can be spun to some social justice angle.

I mean, even the shipping... the shipping is arguably bad on its own, but the way straight couples are treated like a retarded soap opera, pairing up at random and then breaking up for no reason, while gay couples are always treated like the second coming of romance and they're forever endgame... how does anyone take this stuff seriously?

Why is marriage this terrible thing that ages the characters and makes them boring, unless it's a gay couple, in which case them getting married is some long overdue triumph over adversity and the best possible direction the story could take and you're just supposed to marinate in how much sex these two characters are having with each other. It's not even porn. I could respect porn. It has a purpose. This is just like... there is a literally published Harley Quinn high school AU comic.

And you know, I watch a Mission: Impossible movie, it has real stakes. Tom Cruise is going "we have to stop this guy before he sets off the nuke!" That's all I'm asking for. That they treat the situation like it's a real thing that's happening to them and not a game show they're on. But these are such shitty writers that they can't put themselves into the headspace of "how would I feel if this were happening to me?"

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

I feel like maybe someone needs to say it and I figure it's probably best coming from the guy with the Calico Jack pfp who has been very open about not being the biggest Stede fan (he reminds me of my shitty ex hope this helps), because then this comes off less like unhinged blorbo apologia. I just. I'm gonna walk through a minefield with this meta, but I want to talk about the whole Stede abandoning his kids thing. I understand that many people feel all types of things about this and it's valid I get it, but I think we need a bit of perspective.

So basically, recap from discomfort in a married state, which is where we get 90% of Stede's tragic backstory from. I know a lot of stuff with this show is anachronistic, but Stede's marriage really does not seem like one of those things. I say that because in the modern day in the US, which is the audience that OFMD is geared towards and the culture which all the other historical anachronisms seem to favor, it's an American show, arranged marriage is basically unheard of. But it was relatively common among the aristocracy of 1717. Based on this I think we can assume a few things about Stede's marriage. 1) Divorce is not an option, and 2) You have to have kids to carry on the family name and have somebody to pass your money down to. Sure nobody's forcing you at gunpoint to have kids, but culturally back then the expectation is that you get married in order to have legitimate children. If they didn't have kids Mary would have been socially ostracized and seen as a failure of a woman, there would have been social consequences for Stede as well though less harsh. It's informative that Stede and Mary have the classic heir and a spare, i.e. one child to inherit the fortune and one child just in case something happens to that first kid, it's also informative that the younger child is male, since at the time the fortune would either go to the son or the daughter's husband if there was no son to pass it onto.

This is the context we have to understand Stede in. He's a gay man who was forced to be a husband to a woman and who was forced to be a father. The being Mary's husband and being a father are inextricably linked for Stede, because remember the whole point of getting married was to have an heir and you cannot get divorced it's illegal and pretty much unheard of. Stede is so miserable in this state that he literally fucks off to sea to become an outlaw where he'll probably die tomorrow. He's so fucking desperate that instead of going on a rich people cruise like a normal rich guy trying to get away from the family he's doing fucking crimes that could get him hanged to death if he gets caught and could get him killed while he carries them out. This is Stede's last ditch effort to leave his old life behind before he kills himself. This is a borderline suicide attempt from our boy. He's too chicken to do it for real but he can't live like this anymore and he needs to do something.

So like, yeah. Stede's abandonment was probably traumatic for his kids. He was put in a situation where he didn't have many other options, and most of those options are in fact more traumatic for Alma and Louis than Stede just disappearing one day. Because like, staying miserable like that for another... decade minimum I'm gonna guess based on how old Louis looks and acts, is an incredible fucking ask, and having two miserable parents will probably fuck those kids up in a whole host of ways. I know people who have parents who didn't love each other but stayed together for the kids and those people do have issues. Alma herself says that it's probably best he leave because Mary was happier when he was gone. He could just kill himself like normal, which is also pretty goddamn traumatic for his kids I shouldn't have to explain that one. Or he could fuck off in the middle of the night leaving them with Mary and the nanny that almost certainly exists, this isn't child neglect it's child abandonment, Stede can be sure Alma and Louis will be taken care of if he leaves. Even if Mary falls into the worst tropes about widowdom and becomes unable to care for them herself, they're very rich they have people who will care for them. That will fuck them up to, but not significantly more than him sticking around would and at a certain point you have to take care of yourself. The best options are not having the kids in the first place or getting a no fault divorce and being a weekends and holidays dad, but oops, he was forced into having the kids in the first place and he can't get divorced. There's no good options left, those kids are getting traumatized one way or another. The option that hurts himself the least is hitting the bricks.

So like, yeah, dunk on him for being an absent father. I love dunking on him for being an absent father it's very funny. I'll take any opportunity to dunk on Stede. But treating Stede's abandonment with the same lens you would examine modern child abandonment or acting like it's akin to child abuse (I have seen both takes on this wretched website, I'm far more sympathetic to the first than I am to the second) seems kinda unfair. Just like, idk remember the context of him never having asked to be a father and him not having any good options left. Walking out wasn't the right move because there was no right move. I think Stede probably should have had a conversation with Mary about how the only way for him to be happy was for him to leave and made sure that his leaving wasn't a surprise to his kids, but sometimes I think the way that people take it so damn serious is a little unfair

[bougiebutchbinch]

o ok i just asked bc i always thought ed torturing the crew and traumatizing the crew was more emotional/psychological than physical. like the overworking the crew and running them ragged was sort of a joke abt toxic workplace environments where the joke is that instead of a modern office job their toxic workplace is Being Pirates. like the whole joke abt the first episode where stede is like "piracy is a culture of abuse but what if it weren't like that" and trying to encourage his staff to take care of their mental health, i thought the first episode of s2 was what piracy usually looks like on every other pirate ship that isn't stede's and that's why archie (who never met stede) thinks everything is normal. like the joke to me was that ed was making his employees work overtime for no paycheck and only compensating them with a pizza party, only instead of overtime its 80+ raids in a row and instead of no paycheck it's telling the crew to throw all the treasure overboard and instead of a pizza party it's wedding cake and drugs. and obviously all of this sucks and ed is a terrible boss but during the kraken era he's clearly not worse than ur average pirate captain or else the crew would've mutinied, this crew tried to mutiny against stede and izzy rlly quickly like they’re not gonna put up with a uniquely shitty boss. not that that makes ed's shitty captaining ok but it explains why archie thinks everything is normal and why the rest of the crew is miserable but still doesn't try to like, do anything about it.

and then w making archie and jim fight to the death. i mean i guess that's physical but i thought the real source of trauma there was more on the emotional turmoil of making this new couple fight each other vs the physical violence of just. fighting and getting hurt, which they do every day as part of their job anyway. and then ESPECIALLY i thought the biggest part of the psychological torture is the fact that ed did all of this only bc he wanted them to kill him and then they did, which the show is pretty explicit about. like he wasn't hurting ppl be he was just lashing out angrily, he was hurting them specifically so they would hurt him back. obviously again this does not make any of ed's actions ok but it's a much more complicated motivation i think.

like ig u can read it as "the crew was traumatized be ed was so scary and violent towards them" but i think it's way more interesting to focus on how the crew was scrubbing out an invisible bloodstain like they were lady macbeth. like there's obviously a lot of guilt there! which is crazy be the crew aren't ppl who are usually guilty abt killing pp|-they're pirates, for one, and then jim was rlly proud of killing alfeo. so i always thought abt it like, the guilt of when someone u know commits suicide and ur wondering if there's anything u could've done, but compounded be the crew are the tool ed used to commit suicide. like ed did not leave them a choice and they were 100% justified in killing him in self-defense but clearly they have very complicated feelings abt it or else they wouldn't be so focused on scrubbing out ed's blood from the deck. and they're also justified in their anger towards him be they didn't deserve this, they were all looking forward to doing a talent show w him and then suddenly he snapped and they didn't know why and he overworked them for months and steered them into a storm and put them in a situation where they had no choice but to kill him in self defense.

sorry i didn’t mean to leave this huge rant lol i just rlly love talking abt the crew’s trauma and how bad ed messed them up lol. when u mentioned physical torture i thought maybe there was something i missed and like i guess the physical torture is there, but i don’t think it’s really portrayed as anything more physically violent than what other pirate captains do (like making them eat live crabs) which again does not make it ok but it does explain why archie’s cool with it and nobody tries to mutiny. and like the really dark part of the kraken era to me is in the emotional and psychological torture of ed trying to make the crew kill him. like that's way more fucked up than any of the physical violence ed put them through

This is a very interesting theory!

With that being said, we're splitting hairs. Torture is torture. Psychological, emotional and physical elements overlap. I'm not sure whether arguing that we should focus on the psychological and emotional elements has any worth, when the physical elements are inherently woven into that?

Depriving someone of sleep and forcing them into a constant state of hypervigilance, as well as physically threatening to kill them and making them fight each other to the death.... the lines between psychological and physical torture are blurred, but I really don't think they matter all that much? There is a psychological, emotional, and physical element to all of these actions that Ed took against his crew? I'm not quite sure what you think the worth is in these specific categorisations.

Also, while I like your interpretation of the crew 'scrubbing out an invisible bloodstain like they were lady macbeth' (and absolutely think there's some merit to it!) I also think you need some nuance in there.

Focusing wholly on that kinda..... ignores the fact that they clearly were shown to be traumatised? Like that's not just my interpretation? That's canon! We see their hypervigilance and freaking out over tiny things - even if it's played for laughs. We see the way they cling together and form a tight-knit little group, and if we include Lucius in this, they struggle to reintegrate with 'Stede's' crew specifically because of the trauma that Ed caused them.

As for Ed 'just acting like a normal pirate captain'... Hm. There are some definite issues in your interpretation, as far as I see it.

Fang's reaction acts as a litmus test there. Ed previously threatened Fang with knives for fun and forced him to kill his dog. But Fang's constant crying and horror at Ed's actions during the Kraken era really suggests to me that during this time frame, he went far beyond the 'norm'?

If 'the joke is that instead of a modern office job their toxic workplace is Being Pirates', then why, in S1 was Izzy so upset about the possibility of Ed getting the lot of them killed? When we meet them again in S2, the majority of the crew have been killed, specifically because of Ed's actions, including Ivan. If this was 'the norm', piracy would be laughably inefficient to the point of being entirely non-functional! This, plus Izzy's earlier reaction to the threat of Ed getting all of them killed shows this really isn't 'normal' in my opinion.

Again, I think it really helps to divide this argument into 'are we looking at the characters as characters, or are we looking at them as people?' I can see that the writers introduced Archie and her horrific traumas with other captains, and therefore her acceptance of Ed, to try and downplay his fun atrocities. But I don't think that was enough. I just don't think it worked as well as they wanted it to! If it was enough for you, that's great, but I think there are enough discrepancies between the hints we get of how Ed acted pre-S1 and how he acted in S2 that I just don't see your vision here, sorry.

A lot of the arguing on this subject comes down to 'Izzy was the real bad guy!' 'no, Ed was the real bad guy!' and I'm glad you're not dipping your toes in that. But I will say, just to nip any of this in the bud, as I've seen this argument play out way too many times.... If people are going to say that everything Ed does was within the bounds of 'normal' piracy, and thus Not A Big Deal, the same goes for how Izzy spoke to Ed during S1! You can't damn one and praise the other!

With all of that being said.... I freaking love your entire thought process about the 'Lady Macbeth' thing. Being used as a tool in someone else's suicide is fucking horrific, psychologically speaking - especially when it was someone you genuinely liked, before he started in on the abuse! There's such a complex clash there between feeling genuine pity and empathy for someone who's going through a horrific time, and rightful hurt and anger that they would force you to be the one to kill them. I would love to see more fics that dig into that aspect of the crew's relationship with Ed!

[zombieprowl]

Tiktoks and their multiple AI generated batshit stuffs about greek deities that also get reposted as YT shorts, definitely warped the "geneeal knowledge" about many gods. And two I cannot stand are the Ares "was the protector of women" and "Ares ended the age of mythology." And don't get me started on the "babification" of the Aphrodite and Ephaestus marriage where he even gets a glow up to "pretty boy with a mild disability" cause if he needs to be made pretty to justify their love story, I can't even.

Anyway, I think Ares, by his mere dominion was often portrayed much more negatively because popular culture and media teaches us that war = bad. But that same media somehow tells us Athena's take on the same concept is not bad often at the expense of justifying strategic war as somehow being less horrific than "non strategic" war. Both will end up with a body count.

That's not to say I hate Athena and absolutely adore Ares. Both are complex because at the end of the day Greek gods are a myriad of collective "someone said" with both positive and negative aspects and contradictions to make sense of things. Considering, for example, how Ephaestus appears in versions of myths that theoretically predate him and basically he seems to pop up whenever is convenient and it's unclear how that accounts for his birth and age, gods are maleable concepts that come up as needed.

Gods in greek mythology aren't characters in a novel or creative universe. They could behave one way one moment and then in a completely different way the next. If we were to look at the deities in other cultures, we'd find some greek gods mild and vanilla in their most "controversial" actions.

But I digress. The things that do bother me about the whole feminist-juice drinker Ares is that applying the term as we know it and exercise it today to a deity from ages ago is not exactly going to go well because we're applying our modern sensibilities to the anthropomorphic representation of an idea/concept/thing-that-happens. And for his feminist take to fly in today's unrealistic expectations of unproblematicness, the sanitization of the "character" is going to be extreme and often at the expense of vilifying others (like Athena or Ephaestus). And the second One stain shows up, the people who take issue with this will make sure it is known to the world Ares feminist icon isn't so perfect. (Because perfection is totally attainable).

This is one of the reasons Hades got the short end of the stick in popular media until his most recent iterations. Hades was turned into a villanous character (emphasis in the word Character) by merely being the King of the Underworld and then-modern sensibilities making the Underworld the equivalent of a Christian hell, therefore the ruler had to be the equivalent of the devil. (Disney's version actually gives him many atributes that enhance a more demonic appearance)

And likewise we often see Ares depicted as the shitties jock to ever jocked because the bloodthirsty god of war cannot possibly be anything other than a brute because war is bad. Sure, Ares wasn't particularly loved as a god because his dominion was likely seen as necessary if unpleasant. (He'd probably be a lot more popular with Aztecs since warfare was extremely important in the political and religious fields) But like every other deity, he was nuanced and had positive and negative aspects. His having decent relationships to the women in his life doesn't automatically make him a feminist icon by today's standards. Though it doesn't mean he was a certified misogynistic asshole either. The pendulum doesn't have to swing the whole other way.

The whataboutism regarding the fact he had feasts women were forbidden to attend in response to his epithet of being Feasted by women is also kinda meh as if that justifies the misogynistic brutish character are about as Meh as the Protector of mistreated women title.

Ares didn't go down and said "Ok chums, time to feast. Oh and ladies need not attend." The feasts were organized by mortals in his honor and those mortals decided who attended.

His being honored in a feast by women who fought and won a battle was merely a celebration of their victory dedicated to Ares. I guess because they felt their victory was influenced by his aid/favor. This, again, has little to do with him favoring women in some extraordinary capacity, war doesn't necessarily favor men over women or NBs in the battlefield when it comes down to it, whoever stabs the other in the vitals first wins that battle and can choose whether to eat a burger in Ares' honor.

One can choose to hold the belief Ares does look upon the weak and mistreated with hot headed compassion and empowers them with anger and fury to face their circumstances. But that is a personal belief and nothing that should be passed around as a fact about the deity cause, again, they aren't characters with a factual source of "this is how he was 2000%".

Interpretations are not facts. Even I make fun of the whole "Ares and his daddy issues" cause while there is only one source of Zeus telling Ares he's most disliked, I've yet to find anything about Zeus ever showing the littlest bit of parental affection towards Ares (other than agreeing to have him healed and his being his son the only reason why he's not in Tartarus with granpa Kronos). And that is mostly cause I can get away with dumbass videos of Ares singing Linking Park songs.

Then there is the whole "Ares ended the age of mythogy" goddness... no. Let me repeat that one: No. That didn't happen and certaiy not the way Tik tok and YT shorts have popularized in recent years.

Some sources cited that Zeus swallowed Metis because of a prophesized son that would become king of the gods, in other words, repeating the pattern of son defeating and claiming the throne of the father. Yet he went on to have many sons, but Ares is the one born to both him and Hera, his now wife and queen. (Hephaestus and his birth are again a source of headscratches. Was he born before Athena or was he conceived by Hera on her own to spite Zeus for Athena's birth?)

So, going from there, a case could be made that Ares could be the son to overthrow Zeus. Aaaaand that's more or less what DC Comics did. You see, Ares in DC comics is a very powerful being, often times a villanous character cause, again, War incarnate yada yada. But the thing is, he IS powerful and he has even rebranded his dominion to that of Strife because peaceful times meant an absence of large scale war weakens him but strife remains even in peaceful times. Not only that, at some point he kills Hades and claims the throne of the Underworld too.

In the many iterations of the DC Universe and events, there was one time where Wonder Woman asked about why the Olympians had abandoned the world of man, and it was revealed Ares allied himself with other gods (often times the ones depicted as more villanous in modern media such as Sekhmet) from different pantheons and he led them in waging war against the Olympians and won, forcing them from the world of man.

And thus the telephone game of how Ares ended the age of mythology began. Some changes were made to erase the gods of the other pantheons and replaced with some of Ares sons and other supposed allies. And now people are learning that Ares, in defence of humankind, decided to fight the Olympians and force them to stop messing with the human world and ruin their virgins or whatever.

Hades and Ares just can't catch a break from either extreme of the good vs bad gods. No god (other than Hestia probably) was entirely good or bad, and specially not for today's puritanical ways of "unproblematic".

One can enjoy making characterizations of them and adjust them if they want, I mean Lore Olympus and Percy Jackson exist, but getting into the high and mighty "my head cannon is totally a fact" with large amounts of sanitization and therefore vilifying others is like... yeah that's inviting unnecessary trouble.

[duhragonball]

Were you aware of/do you have an opinion on the Dragonball theme park that is starting construction soon? On the one hand it seems like that Harry Potter theme park (which was a dumb idea, nobody serious cares about HP anymore), but Dragonball also isn't shitty, and Akria Toriyama didn't spend the last years of his life making sure everyone knew he was a transphobe (which J.K. Rowling is doing her best to do). Do you have a take?

I was not aware of any of this, so I don't think I have much to contribute to the conversation.

The article I just found was published only a few hours ago, so I guess this is a HOTTT scoop? Also, it looks like the thing is being built in Saudi Arabia, so I guess that's why this got announced in the middle of the night where I live. It's 3am here and I'm up early because I went to bed at 7pm and woke up around 1am.

Okay, so the Saudi connection is something I can talk about, because this sounds a lot like the same agenda that led to the WWE's infamous deal with Saudi Arabia. For those of you who aren't into pro wrestling, in 2018 WWE started putting on events in Jeddah and Riyadh. This has been controversial for several reasons, but the main sticking point is that the Saudi assassination of dissident journalist James Khashoggi took place in October 2018, a few weeks before WWE's second-ever Saudi show, Crown Jewel. The U.S. condemned the assassination, and politicians pressured WWE to call off the show, but the Kingdom paid a lot of money for the deal, and Vince McMahon only cares about himself, so they just went ahead and did the show anyway. There's other issues, but that one especially stuck in my craw, and it's why I canceled my WWE Network subscription and haven't watched their product ever since.

Basically, the Saudi government has been trying to revamp their economy to reduce dependence on the petroleum industry. The WWE deal is part of the "Saudi Vision 2030" project, which aims to increase the economic, social, and cultural diversification of the country by the end of this decade. Tourism is a big part of that plan, which is why they're paying big money for sporting events, live shows, and so on. Their plans also include a lot of political and social reforms, but this feels like an afterthought, especially to a lot of critics. For example, they announced a "Red Sea Film Festival" in 2019, but in order to put on such an event, they first had to lift a 35-year moratorium on building new movie theaters. They started allowing women to enter the King Fahd International Stadium for the first time, but that's probably just because they really wanted a packed house for these shows and concerts they're putting on.

The whole thing smacks of propaganda designed to distract the public from KSA's lousy record on human rights. When WWE was promoting their first Jeddah show, they ran a lot of video packages about Saudi Vision 2030 and talked up how cool it was that the country was seeking to modernize. Meanwhile, a lot of their roster couldn't even go to these shows for various reasons. Sami Zayn's a Syrian by descent, Noam Dar is an Israeli, and Montel Vontavious Porter is a former Muslim, so he might get executed for apostasy if he entered the country. The women's roster was a whole other thing. I think they were just left at home for the first couple of shows, and then they gradually started allowing more women to participate. And all those slick Saudi Vision video packages looked pretty hollow when James Khashoggi got murdered.

My take has been that KSA is just throwing money at their problems and trying to distract their critics. Saudi Arabia is practically synonymous with oil, and that's what made the country rich. I watched a video on this a while back, and if I remember right, they discovered oil in the 1930s and wanted to avoid getting exploited by the British and French, so they partnered with the United States. That prosperous relationship allowed Saudi Arabia to become a regional power and basically have things their way. The human rights problems were allowed to persist because they knew the U.S. would always back them up to protect their oil interests.

But over the last fifty years or so, U.S. dependence on Saudi oil has declined. See, it's not that Saudi Arabia has more crude oil than other countries. What made it so important in the petroleum industry is that Saudi crude is much easier to refine than other sources. So Saudi refineries can produce more fuel in a short span of time, which gave them a lot of leverage in that sector. But there's been a big push in the U.S. to seek out and refine more crude oil domestically, and that's cut into Saudi Arabia's prestige. Now, when rival powers like Iran start bothering Saudi Arabia, the U.S. isn't as quick to offer support, and that's why KSA is trying to figure out how to adapt to the changing times.

To be blunt, I don't know how the hell a Dragon Ball theme park helps solve any of this. If the oil revenue is on the decline, then it makes sense for a country to invest in other industries while the coffers are fuil, but now Saudi Arabia has to backtrack a lot of their draconian laws and authoritative policies to improve their public image. And they need to do it quickly, but not so quickly as to upset the conservative elements in the country.

Like, all right, let's say they open this park, and they really want people to fly in from all over the world. I know a lot of women in the Dragon Ball fandom. What kind of restrictions would they have to deal with in the park? Is there a stringent dress code? They made a big deal out of the historic first-ever women's match at one of those Crown Jewel shows, but the wrestlers had to wear black unitards under their usual ring gear. So they eased up on some rules, but you watch the show and you can tell there's still some rules in place.

I've met a lot of LBGTQ+ people in this fandom. Can they go to the Saudi Dragon Ball theme park? Can a same-sex couple hold hands as they wait in line to ride the Ginyu Force Log Flume? And I'm sure there's a guy at the General Entertainment Authority office who would assure me that it's all good, nothing to worry about, everyone is welcome, please come to the theme park and spend lots of money. But once you get there? Remember, James Khashoggi was a citizen of Saudi Arabia, and he walked into that consulate assured that everything would be cool, and then it wasn't.

You mentioned the Harry Potter theme park, and yeah, that whole franchise is a PR hot mess, but at least I don't have to ask these kinds of questions about who can go to the park without getting detained. That's the public relations mess Saudi Arabia has to clean up. At least with Harry Potter, they just have to distract people from one hateful, cranky billionaire. For most casual fans, "J.K. Rowling" is a name they barely notice in the credits. But Saudi Arabia's issues are baked into the government, laws, and history of the whole country. Reform is possible, but it isn't as simple as the propaganda makes it sound. There's a lot of damage that needs to be repaired.

I'm sorry, I kind of turned this into a rambling essay about Saudi Arabia's pivot to tourism, but for me that's the main issue here. The park might get completed and it may even do big business, but I don't think there's a lot of transparency with these projects. From what I've heard, the WWE shows in Jeddah and Riyadh don't actually make a lot of money. Much of the live crowd attends for free just to make the shows look more popular than they are, and WWE only plays along because they're getting paid handsomely for the effort. It just comes across like the country is spending lots of money to imitate a tourist destination without actually becoming one. So the Dragon Ball park looks like it's also going to be a means to an end. Someone in charge liked the idea enough to push it through, but that doesn't translate into success.

Oh, wait, I just realized: What if the park opens, then fails, and it gets abandoned? I really don't have any interest in theme parks, but abandoned theme parks kick ass. Imagine Dogpatch U.S.A, except it's Dragon Ball themed. That would be amazing. I hope I live long enough to see photos of it when it gets all old and decrepit.

[cholatey]

The Julie thing has made me so sad. Just lost so much hope honestly. Like it showed me that for as much as black women (and others) claim solidarity, it only comes when you look a certain (light, long soft textured hair or are darkskin but beyond beautiful with ‘polite’ black features). If you’re normal (like the majority of black girls/women) you’re payed dust and seen as lowering the standard when you’re out in the spotlight. You can’t just exist as an individual, you have to represent every single black woman and be perfect while doing it. Forget the fact that racists will shit on us regardless of what we do and how we look and that they should be the ones ashamed and cowering, no it’s up to us to appeal to their humanity. Idk I’m just so sad and sick of seeing people disparaging her and everyone who looks like her. It’s genuinely made me lose respect for a lot of people and realize that white supremacy has a firmer grip on our community than I thought. Because a lot of the people that are dissing her could be her twins and instead of acknowledging that there’s nothing wrong with how she and they look, they embarrassed and lashing out. Super shitty.

I have a lot of thoughts on the whole situation ngl

1. I think it’s just a very shitty situation to on for black women overall. We are put in a place where we have to raise awareness to people who don’t care, or fight a hoard of people (who’s grievances don’t start or end with Francesca) or we capitulate and try to join in lest we become the next target. There is no winning here.

Black people don’t care, feminists don’t care, I mean… there is nothing you can do.

2. There is a conversation to be had about how the modern era of the net incentivizes ragebait and racebait. I think that for a long long long time, black women have tried to verbally reason with these people and it doesn’t work bc we give them engagement. Like a LOT of engagement.

Tbh I do believe that whether black women act in support or against Francesca doesn’t necessarily matter in the grand scheme of things bc she’s going to get. A barrage of hate regardless that we cannot control.

2a. If I had a large enough platform I’d tell everyone who cared to start reporting accounts and posts en mass. I think that’s the only way anything could change is if there is no economic or clout incentive to post this kind of shit.

I’m going to be very honest here and say I think it’s less about black women do and more about what so called “allies” or “feminists” or whatever do. I don’t think black women are really put in a. Reasonable situation here. Public black women support doesn’t do anything it might have worked before but it sure as hell doesn’t. Now.

I’m at a point where deconstructing internalized white supremacy is less important (because how do you do that in this political cultural climate) and more about deincentivizing and deplatforming.

[beardedmrbean]

Oooh a another black media thing I’m going to loathe

https://x.com/copicsquiddo/status/1779351205728153939?s=46

And y’all excited for Yasuke in red

Also the Huey freeman comparison

The thing is that Huey is named after a black panther party

And he radical but toned down

Also the ititis thing the girl referenced, ooooh shitty good times writers

THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A METAPHOR OF THE CRACK EPIDEMIC AS THE FAT WHITE GUY IN BOONDOCKS WAS A STAND IN FOR REGEAN

Also another gag was that black peoples complain white people be killing us…why we eat some of the most unhealthy shit possibly as well

Getting better, my depress ass unfortunately gave my ass diabetes

Also I learn that Boondocks creator got kicked out of the entertainment industry which explains season 4 of boondocks

https://x.com/copicsquiddo/status/1779385348277100948?s=46

But here running gag, you guys complain how white people and the government attack us…while keeping in the crab in the bucket mentality where you guys cling onto the godforsaken projects and inner city culture?

Tbh I think Asians became enemy #1 because despite them (especially the Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese) having a lot of significant discrimination especially with the culture shock/clashes we had with them. They are able to thrive in America

But blacks are still fucked in a post Obama world?

There a reason why plenty of whites (and blacks) like me avoid modern black media

Also the Huey freeman comparison The thing is that Huey is named after a black panther party And he radical but toned down

Huey was a drag at times, but he was also a great vehicle for driving points home as a result of that.

Flipping out on the community for letting r kelly slide is one of my fav moments.

Also the ititis thing the girl referenced, ooooh shitty good times writers THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A METAPHOR OF THE CRACK EPIDEMIC AS THE FAT WHITE GUY IN BOONDOCKS WAS A STAND IN FOR REGEAN

That I did not know, but I never watched the show so that's my excuse there.

Also another gag was that black peoples complain white people be killing us…why we eat some of the most unhealthy shit possibly as well Getting better, my depress ass unfortunately gave my ass diabetes

Like I said, vehicle for uncomfortable truths.

Also I learn that Boondocks creator got kicked out of the entertainment industry which explains season 4 of boondocks

Did not know that one either, on top of the smugness if you complain about the issues with some of these shows you get called racist or if you're black 'anti black' or any of a multitude of other insults that add up to you being called white.

But here running gag, you guys complain how white people and the government attack us…while keeping in the crab in the bucket mentality where you guys cling onto the godforsaken projects and inner city culture?

Ya, be why one of my pet peeves is the whole you'll need to work 3 times as hard as these other people to attain their level of success, it's self defeating and just serve to make people not try.

Tbh I think Asians became enemy #1 because despite them (especially the Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese) having a lot of significant discrimination especially with the culture shock/clashes we had with them. They are able to thrive in America

They kept pushing on even if there was discrimination, be one of the reasons as a demographic they're doing as well in the US as they are at least.

But blacks are still fucked in a post Obama world? There a reason why plenty of whites (and blacks) like me avoid modern black media

I avoid it because I don't like being blamed for problems I had nothing to do with and that's what a lot of it boils down to these days.

It gets really old really fast and the constant push has finally gone far enough to generate a response, which would be why if you look around different programs that benefit specific demographics are getting sued for violating the civil rights act.

Federal program for farmers that pretty much excluded white people got sued and some scholarship programs got the same treatment, bunch of other stuff too.

A lot of these things have been round for a while and nobody bothered with them till someone got fed up and decided to actually do something.

[abbinurmel]

I spent the past couple hours tailoring this aimless rant on YT, in response to a person merely saying how much they'd love for a reboot of 'Cow & Chicken' on adult swim, cos they could say whatever they like on there. I posted it here, cos YT doesn't wanna allow me to post anything right now, which is probably for the best.

This is gonna be a dumb rant. I got sucked down a rabbit hole, cos this is a favorite topic of mine to talk about and I'm procrastinating horribly on purpose on a lot of dull paperwork. So strap in before reading my garbage. You're warned now, don't hafta TLDR or whatever, thanks, I already know. …Anyways. For those who care about irrelevant, shitty opinions:…I love Cow & Chicken. A lot. On paper I know exactly why it seems like a great idea to reboot on 'adultswim', purely on the merit they do things more outrageously. I'm certain many would watch this. It's actually kinda weird there hasn't been one yet, when you think about it, given this age of rehashes. It already has the raunchy humor and gross art down, seems like a match made in heaven, right?- It'd be easy too, "Cow & Chicken" wasn't exactly lavishly drawn or had a big cast. Well… Much as I think there could be a slim possibility of it happening, for it to be good, and IF they do good, to be wildly entertaining…I don't think "Cow & Chicken" is going to ever get actually rebooted. And I don't think it benefits from being rebooted, either, which is really the only reason you should try to reboot things ever in the first place. The lore of an IP needs to benefit in being revisited, somehow, and ESPECIALLY, SPECIFICALLY, if brought back for adults. It is very unlikely gonna be executed right, ironically BECAUSE of this show's already semi-adult nature. And the reasons why, is endemic to why a whole lot of current modern shows, and movie/live action series remakes, are suffering too. -And no, it is NOT due to the reasons some of you're likely thinking of. It is NOT cos of any tired old: "things are just too safe and WOKE /PC culture now!" theories. (That sort of affair is highly subjective/means basically nothing or very different things to different people. Pretty impossible to gauge due to how all over the place/ludicrously out of touch with general fans censors and networks can be, no matter what their political leanings or personality is. Which can and do range all over the place. So I won't go into that topic as it's an entirely different problem to what I am talking about. Plus I was there for the 80s and 90s, its pretty silly to say we can not get away with any wild things these days, cos let me assure you, by comparison, there is a LOT technically more we CAN do and say now, in both kid's and adult shows, that would never get by in a million years 30 years ago. You couldn't even just say the word 'kill', 'poop' or 'die' then, most the time. Let that sink in.)

…See to me, if it ironically hadn't ever been restrained by censors/made for kids, C&C might've been NOWHERE as good. Like. At all. It might've actually been one of the worst CN shows aired. Just 100% annoying gross-out show laziness, like a lot of shows of its era. The main reason it didn't flop was cuz 1) duh, Charles Adler, the main voice, and 2) it did its 'thing' the way original 'Ren & Stimpy' did. It didn't beat for beat copy them. Their writing/visuals just simply knew how to cross the line JUST enough, keeping the raunchy humor tucked in JUST as far as they could push it, but knew also on the whole how to always stay utterly light hearted, simple and goofy. That's where its core identity is. It's the dumb blithe enthusiastic Innocence of pretty much the entire cast, and the goofy simplicity of the plots/gags, while they get to say out the side of the mouth much more 'mature' sinister things….It works purely b/c of that contrast; sometimes with innuendo being camoflauged extremely subtly, sometimes NOT subtly at all. -But it would always go ping-ponging gracefully between the two. Never too much Idiotically Innocent, or too Smugly Adult and Crass. It would do this, with actual wit. It didn't JUST have gross visuals or say dirty jokes. It did all this with a theatrical, self-known flair. Shows like C&C and its fellow Golden Age shows basically are very good at doing what franchises like Monty Python were known for, and what Regular Show and Gravity Falls and similar would do later on, just with more visual ugliness.

…Meanwhile, a lot of other 1990's/current shows DO NOT have this memo. They do not have that balance, they lack the awareness of what is the difference between 'sneaking in occasional very dirty jokes with wit' and "throwing every and any kinda joke at a wall and not even bothering to look at what sticks." A LOT of 'gritty comedy parody reboot' things are doing this, and also doing this same idea just with the "dramatic tropes" instead of comedic tropes too. ….Including Ren & Stimpy itself. -Once 'The Ren & Stimpy Show' moved to SpikeTV, they went fully 'adult', and by direct result went 1000% downhill. I don't ascribe that to just poor writing(the original has flat stupid writing too), or ugly looking animation (so is the original). Not even John K.'s…ahem, history. If you fixed his behavior, and abusive attitude; made all his notoriously horrible bad jokes tamer, I still think 'Adult Party' would've tanked, because doing this concept in of itself is a fool's errand. It's not just rebooting nostalgic childhood IPs that's the problem, but specifically attempting to repackage something that was already a mild bit 'tawdry', so now that it is INTENTIONALLY for adults only. Whenever the entertainment industry does that 'gritty effect', be it games or movies or Netflix or comic books, it's 8/10 doomed, because you essentially neutered the core joke or appeal. You've taken away the cool 'taboo' point of saying hidden naughty/clever things, in a story you're not SUPPOSED to. You're able to state and do whatever you want, and so there's not only no leash to hold down any of the weaker ideas, there's almost no "rebellious challenge" to its bite whatsoever, even when those jokes/story ideas succeed. Noone is gonna be shocked or laugh nearly as much when a Red Guy says "KISS MY ASS!" unironically in an adultswim show, as they would if he says "KISS MY ASS!!!!!!….-Her name is GERTRUDE! :D" -and then happily pulls onstage a donkey wearing a big bowtie in on a rope, because this renders it now a pun and technically 'child safe' to flaunt now. (This isn't a real joke from the show btw, I'm only making this up for convenience. But you get the idea. It's the precise sort of silly thing you know he'll do. :P )

Neither the audience nor execs are 'prey' anymore for the writers to be creatively poking the boundaries with, when you remove that expectation. It's different if your IP started with an already adult geared story to begin with, but, when it's a full on polar opposite shift in tone and/or age demographics like that, it's almost always pulled off in a confused messy way, because even the original work's creators themselves, (IF they're even kept around, or are familiar with the source material if they are new), are trapped now in completely unfamiliar territory. Without a deeply wild reinventing of the show's lore or main tenets(a thing which nobody has ever been upset by on the internet!), it usually doesn't have anything else to stand on, especially with a purely episodic comedy show, like Cow and Chicken is. Once you take out this 'vulnerability' in our dynamic, between child/censor guardians, and writers, this main core joke of not knowing what the writers are and are NOT actually going to get away with is gone, and so much of the stakes now is irreversibly lost. Sometimes being hidden from the details is what makes a gag all the more funnier, or a scary scene all the scarier, or a cringe scene all the cringier. If we take away this, things lack a lot more of the colorful shock & ridiculousness. The main DNA in these classic "deranged shows", like Ed, Edd n Eddy, Ren&Stimpy, Rocko and C&C, that a lot of nostalgic fans, and current show-runners often alike forget; is the simple fact that such shows had to weigh the balance of: 'being a sincere kid show' and 'trying to get away with something they're not supposed to'. …With very deep emphasis on the words: "GET AWAY WITH". To me, a show is not getting "away" with something good, be it a message, a joke, a deeper sense of drama, if you constantly always spell it out for us, and we know you lose nothing and have to take no creative risk by displaying it for the audience. You're not really earning a prize, if someone just right at the start, hands you a medal. In other words….Every good memorable/subversive classic cartoon show, is not beloved just because they got to have crazy visuals, or say and do unhinged jokes. …You needed to be MEMORABLY STRANGER for having those qualities, in the first place. If you do something unhinged and bizarre, but coming in I expect to see it, is it really an unhinged show?

See, there's a reason why most of the frequent reboots of Scooby Doo like 'Velma' atrociously fail. And it's not because they changed someone that was formerly white, or made someone like Shaggy have a different name, or backstory. Or even because they overhauled an old wholesome character into a rude, toxically mean, judgemental unpleasant character. Yes this does affect some tastes, but on the whole, that wasn't the core problem for most watchers. LOADS of shows have a morally awful, pompous, or an incompetent, chaotic mess for a central protagonist, or reinvent them in some way if they come from an old property. Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast did more or less exactly what "Velma" does, where they took an old IP and completely transformed their roles/upgraded their style of humor for a more adult audience. Rick & Morty has a toxic main protagonist. South Park has four of them. Family Guy and American Dad has them, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, the list goes on. Even kid shows do this, and sometimes get away with it well too: Dan Versus did it well so did Ren and Stimpy, again, back when it understood how it worked. Having a mean protag or changed fundamentals, isn't why so many reboots don't work. …What happens with bad modern remakes of Scooby Doo, (and not just in shows like Velma), is often that they forget how to make things have that beautiful sense of contrast, that Cow and Chicken does, in its writing. They do not know how to both show this is a show rooted in something sincere, WHILE ALSO saying outrageously dirty/surreal/mean/pompous or dark things inside that vessel. The appreciation for the context of its background, is what makes shows like 'Mystery Inc.' and 'Zombie Island' work, while Velma and other SBs, do not. If we took Cow & Chicken, stripped it of it's irony, what else do we have except yet another dime a dozen weaker show, constantly going 'haha, me say the rude words!/do the gross bad thing again!' adult oriented show, with no fangs? Another exhausting reboot, which takes yet another unoriginal idea, robs its reputation, and wastes our time? …There's a way to do this kind of thing right. I just do not think most people, not even some of the most talented in the business, have the freedom or ability to do so. Not even Samurai Jack, a legend of an animated program, escaped this 'update it for adults!' treatment unscathed. If you're gonna update something for adults, you really have to think about WHY it was good in the first place. Not take just what you had, and stamp lots of expletetives or flashes of red to indicate actual blood on there. You need either to actually SAY something, completely useful and different, or, just stick to your guns with the old formula, and do it so well it exceeds the hype for the original. Which is also near being impossible to do. Hence, it begs the question, why do it at all?

…Sorry for this TEDTalk, I just love being an absurd mess at 2AM when I have better more boring adult things to do.

[zevranunderstander]

i think the esc is so... hm. because on the one hand it's a shitty colonialist and imperialist festival that is trying to rebrand colonizers into quirky modern nations and is so performative in all political messages and their collaboration with israel is literally unforgivable and its literally just nations giving each other points bc they want to politically appeal to them in the weirdest and most pathetic way ever etc.

but also. a lot of the culture of the organizers is in direct opposition to what the fans really watch for? like, macron or whomever isnt watching and personally taking notes on which of his neighboring countries voted for france, but the juries act like all politicians do this, and they use their time hosting as this massive branding and propaganda campaign, and they try to come across as kind of "modern and relatable", but don't want to be the "weird" entry, like. for westerners, this is kind of about "prestige", while at the same time they are refusing to send any compelling candidates?

and i think to the countries and organizers and the politics behind the esc this event is about showing a politically favorable image of their country that seems modern and prestigious, while the actual appeal of the show is to find artists that usually arent found on the international market and give a stage for more camp and artsy performances, and the people watching want an entertaining time, where they see songs that actually stand out and are fun to watch and listen to, whereas the juries just vote for an entirely different set of entries.

so like, a lot of people are watching it for the camp and queer and "unique" entries, while it's actually a show made for the boring ballads and shitty pop songs, because all the jury and the esc care about is, what is gonna sell and what isnt (this might take a new interesting turn, now that tiktok also has a big say in which songs become popular and which ones dont, but right now they know that generic pop has more sales than "too quirky" entries)

this is all ignoring that the thing was soooo obviously rigged this year so that they can do the "50th anniversary of ABBA" next year in Sweden, and that the jury almost always seems to tend to give points based on politics and not on music, and that i genuinely think that they are even manipulating the audience votes occasionally so that certain entries that win arent "ridiculed" because they got like, 21 points from the audience and 360 points from the jury.

and its like. probably 60% of the audience are queer people or people who are watching to see fun & campy and queer entertainment, and the showrunners know this, so all their bits are queer, they have queer hosts, they use their show break for drag performances and talk about "the first gay kiss of eurovision" and there's pride flags, and the iconic "quirky" entries make reappearances with new songs, while the boring ones almost never get a big re-invite. but they do all of this as a sort of fake promise, like, "yes our show is so gay and so camp and so fun and legendary for the fun entries hahahaha, anyways the jury vote goes to some guy pretending to be Imagine Dragons and none of the interesting entries because we cannot widely market homosexuality", and only when the audience vote is so truly overwhelmingly for one entry that they can overpower the juries, it promises marketability.

they will never abolish the juries because the juries exist so that marketable songs win that bring the ESC a lot of money, the type of hosting and their internal politics will never change because this is a contest that they can use to generate sympathies to a country. this whole thing is a fucking colonialist's PR campaign, like, "yeah, israel has a bad rep, but look at how cool all of these places in israel look and how fun and modern and #feminist and #gay our entries are! how could we possibly be an imperialist force who is actively commiting genocide?"

the esc is inherity tied to nationalism and imperialist propaganda, and while it pretends to care about international music in people's native tongue and artists that usually wouldnt be on a international stage and queer entries of all kinds, it really only cares about money and promoting one's own image as a country and that is never going to change.

and i don't think you can't at all watch the event, but it is literally insane how few people who watch it are aware of any of the politics happening within the event and who call it the "gay event of the year" or whatever with no idea that they are being sold and pandered to so that they spend more money on a product (votes and tickets), and give their undivided viewing time to a program that you can only call a continent-wide propaganda event. i hope i make sense

[crimsonxe]

Alright let’s get some fucking shit correct here @ashelyskies

a) I didn’t say K/din’s case wasn’t problematic, you fucking jackass. I did say that K/din’s case was 8 (EIGHT) fucking years ago with more of a case of ignorant views vs. bigotry. Which my sentiment is backed up by her response to one of the parties where she herself states not holding present people to the guillotine for their past shit. Anyway setting that aside: That whole thing was apologized for by one of the parties involved in it before anything was mentioned to the public (so wasn’t for brownie points) w/ said apology being accepted by her with a statement about not going after people for their past (cause really want to make sure this part gets across); yet this was still brought up and said party was still thrown to the damn wolves regardless of them doing every damn thing right. Mostly because this part wasn’t part of the initial post and was only brought up in said reply to the other party.

Now this ignorance issue is something that can be applied to multiple people, especially with ones raised in certain areas and in a pre-LGBT+ mainstreaming era where someone doesn’t fucking know better. Someone 9 years prior uses a slur, then as they get older realize how bad it is and is horrified at using it in the past. Do I categorize that person as bigoted? No I don’t. Now take that person and have them in present continuing to use the term with full knowledge of its offensive nature? Yeah, that person is a bigot. Though this distinction eludes outrage culture types (usually of the far-left variety) that think the person deserves to be considered a bigot regardless of growth or change. You grew up in a place that was forward thinking and/or in more modern times? Good for your ass, not everyone fucking got that (this will be elaborated on further down).

b) The medical side of things: corps dodge any expense they fucking can and that has nothing to do with LGBT+ status. They’re just shitty and cheap. There’s nothing I’ve seen that goes towards it being at all tied to trans status. That’s not defending RT, its seeing them as what they are a corp; hell it doesn’t even paint them in a particularly good light cause still shitty.

c) Mi/ca presented a case where she walked in to see a white board with a slur on it, as if that was just a thing at RT and/or was meant for her to see it. The full context however: People were doing a damn South Park reference, the slur wasn’t fully there as per the reference, and it wasn’t meant to be seen by anyone but them. If anything it fits the idea of two 20-something idiot SP fans  latching onto distasteful SP “jokes”. Still shitty, but context puts more onus on SP that is being referenced and the parties being idiotic 20-somethings. NOT an intentional racist attack on Mi/ca and/or other PoC that’d come across it. It was also from years ago (a recurring theme), considering that episode of SP was from 2007 (yes I googled it) on top of that. It’s called being a dumbass 20-something fan that watched a show that leans on edgy distasteful “humor”. Not only does it only go towards what RT/AH was, “dudebro edgy humor”, but doesn’t reflect current RT/AH attitudes.

Now for anyone that follows me and wants anything to do with this person? Do whatever the fuck you want, I don’t care and I’m not your parent. I’m someone that grew up in a southern state that has experience with let’s say complicated/ nuanced views as a result of it. I used to watch South Park and know the mindset of a 20-something year old in regards to it. Also while I’ve never used certain slurs, I have in my ignorance used the G slur till I ran across information that corrected how to refer to Romani cause the G slur is the only word ever used in reference to them. I have used the r word and honestly still have to fight my own ingrained response towards it, when heated; because it was something that I grew up with and had to learn to not resort to. People are not fucking born perfect or even taught how to be perfect, there’s a growth period and an intent element. Which is exactly what my point is. I’m an LGBT+ center-leftist that grew up surrounded by the right wing ignorant people including friends and family. I’ve seen some evolve from as the times have as well as their ignorance being removed who deserve to be allowed to not be called fucking bigots for past bullshit. ftr that isn’t about RT either, that’s about irl; so yeah miss my fucking ass with the outrage culture bullshit that takes a “forever damaged/tainted”/”irredeemable” approach to the subject. Now in regards to RT: shitty things were said and perpetuated in the past by ignorant younger people of the time and corps are shitty penny-pinchers that care about expenses or hell with RT management’s impression just completely inept at remembering what they agreed to pay for. I won’t get swept into the outrage culture bullshit and have my own views on things.

Now I will say to definitely go fuck your damn self for trying to frame my post in the light that your fucking ass did. I guess if someone doesn’t line up perfectly in-step with your ass, then you have to try to smear them where you can. Unfortunately for you, I ran out of “giving a shit about others’ views of me” a long ass time ago; probably around the time I got tired of burying my LGBT+ status and started using my voice as I wished. In the past meant clashing against incels and right wingers; recently its meant clashing against far-leftists who both use similar ass tactics. I have disgust towards right-wingers and just anger towards the far-leftists that more times than not shoot the overall left’s causes in the foot.  “Go woke, go broke (right wing) = outrage culture (far-left).

[thephantomcasebook]

Daisy Jones and The Six

THE GOOD

The Music

The Directing

The Portrayal of a group of friends

Sam Claflin

The Premise

The Framing

Camila Morrone

Family

Portrayal of addiction

THE BAD

No Compelling or flawed Female Characters

The Lesbian Subplot that has nothing to do with story

Checkbox writing

Daisy Jones not being a 3 dimensional character

Consequence free drinking/sex/drug use by female characters

Girl Bossing > Crippling Addiction and hazardous substance abuse

Suki Waterhouse

My overall criticism is that all the female characters are not shown the same depth and respect as the male characters. Daisy Jones is snorting, dropping acid, drinking, and fucking, just as much as Billy and yet she doesn't have any appreciable consequences or breakdowns that he does. Suki Waterhouse's character while mysterious and interesting at her introduction, doesn't have any substance. She just smokes, drinks, and fucks, without any character or background.

Every female character seems to have guardrails that keep them from getting any depth. The writer was either too scared or prideful to give the female characters actual flaws that help develop and humanize their character. Daisy Jones starts off interesting and relatable with having confidence problems and a shitty mom. But by the end of Episode 2 everything is just given to her while you see Billy and fam grinding their way to the top and then falling off because of a tangible and well established personal flaw of Billy fueled by real and human fears.

By contrast, Daisy is basically a Liberal White Female Disney Princess who comes from money, does all the "Empowered" things, has a black lesbian best friend, and everyone fauns over her. There is no substance to her, there's no struggle with personal demons nor appreciable character traits. Then, she just magically shows up to her first recording session and nails it ... becomes best friends with Suki Waterhouse through the glass window, and swoons everyone. Where as you saw The Six struggle and learn how to record and come together before nailing their album.

I really hope that down the line we get actual characters for the female characters.

Also, the Lesbian Storyline has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the show. This isn't the 90s, there's nothing ground breaking about it. Gay Romance is over represented in modern media as it is. Its tired and old trope at this point. What the fuck was the point of it other than to check a box for Amazon's insane fucking Authoritarian corporate guidelines. If this was a show about Motown and Disco, and the very real and continued anti-gay culture in Black Communities than it might have been relevant. But its not. It's about a fictional "Fleetwood Mac" inspired rock group. The whole character and subplot feels completely out of place.

If you don't have a viable or relevant story that contributes to the plot, than cut that shit out.