#world issues reflection

[maingh0st]

i know i'm not the first to say this, but the acolyte's cancellation has confirmed how tired i am of disney's decision-making when it comes to their content. i know nostalgia is the easiest way to a big payout, but we can only take so many spinoffs before the universe starts to feel too small. but then fresh content—content that's building on the canon by looking to old star wars lore while asking new questions—fizzles out.

it's the sequel trilogy all over again. we're promised something new, something that actually expands the canon rather than just recycling it, even bringing in concepts from legends, and then the rug is ripped out from underneath us & we're punished for ever caring about any of it. silly babygirl! palpatine was always the big bad (don't worry about the fact that this is thematically nonsense and not foreshadowed in any way), and rey isn't a nobody ("your parents sold you because they loved you"), and this isn't a story about how the force transcends human categories and dynasties (represented by a grey jedi force dyad between a legacy skywalker and a nobody orphan from a backwater planet, fulfilling not only balance between light and dark but also transcending the old to become something new). silly idiot!!! rey's a palpatine by birth and a skywalker by self-adoption and god forbid she create her own identity outside of these names our fans recognize. watch as she stands alone on a sand planet that has no personal significance to her, ending her arc almost exactly as she began. but look!! two suns! neat

i don't even know if fanservice is the right word. at a certain point, it just starts to feel like they're quaking in their boots at the thought of doing anything new. i had my gripes with some of the choices in the acolyte, but at least it was unique. it explored a new era and asked questions that star wars has only ever flirted with. like: what happens to the children who are uprooted from their homes at such a young age, yet can't find their place in the jedi order? how does one survive in a supposedly honorable system that nevertheless relies on the repression of some of humanity's most fundamental emotions? is it possible that an organization dictating exactly how one ought to interact with the very life force of the universe... could perhaps be faulty and shortsighted? what happens when the ways of that order clash with other cultures and worldviews? (spoilers: space colonialism). and that's not even to mention the ideas they play with re: the force itself (vergences! plagueis! force witches!)

i know not everyone loved the show, but a lot of people really did care about it. a lot of people, like me, were excited to see these new questions being raised. but forget it—the disney gods have decreed that it didn't hit some magical threshold of streaming hours or reach a "broad enough" audience in the two months it's been out. but don't worry guys. turn your brains off and tune in for the next spinoff 2 chewy 2 bacca

[bluegarners]

i guess the key, in my opinion, to writing a young dick grayson and bruce interaction is to make them gut-wrenchingly sincere. that's what gets me in fics, is the sincerity in their interactions, their every word. they have banter, and they have arguments, and they don't always say the right things to each other, but, to me, a well written dick and bruce interaction is one that is so tooth-rottingly sincere that it sticks out from all the chaos going around them. it is a beacon in the dark. they are each other's light, hope, and heart, wrapped up into one person. if they can't be sincere with each other, what is even the point?

[eddiegettingshot]

😭😭😭😭😭

[petr1kov]

i've been thinking more and more about the way people react to depictions of dark ('problematic') topics in media, and how often something can be immediately dismissed as exploitative or cheap not necessarily due of how well or not the topic is actually handled in the story itself, and more as a knee-jerk reaction to seeing something genuinely uncomfortable get openly addressed at all

[bumblingbabooshka]

Stonn x T'Pring and Sybok x Angel are the only SNW ships I like. Honestly, with the way the show is written, I'm rooting more for the Gorn than the Enterprise at this point.

With how that show's writing Vulcans I'm like 70% sure they're gonna make Stonn a bad guy or make T'Pring cheat on Spock so their relationship ends with "They both cheated!" or so that Christine can comfort Spock as if he hasn't been cheating on T'Pring pretty much the entire time he's been on screen. I watched a 'short trek' I think they're called? Because I heard T'Pring was in it but it was REAAALLY bad like humor I might have laughed at in middle school...anyway T'Pring was only in it so they could make a joke where the premise was "T'Pring keeps breaking up with Spock because she falls in love with other people and Spock is SOO sad about it" and I was like Hey. Are you even WATCHING your show???? You're taking potshots at the WRONG CHARACTER. Like, even if you wanna make that joke - Christine'd make more sense because Christine and Spock ARE actually 'keeping it casual' and Christine DOES actually date around whereas T'Pring is committed to Spock in SNW and trying at every turn to make their relationship work. It still wouldn't be funny if the girl constantly breaking up with Spock was Christine but having it be T'Pring literally doesn't even make sense. You can say "it's just a funny little joke" (as people say about a lot of SNW'S issues) but T'Pring is a female character who's been viciously maligned for YEARS and if their 'jokes' or 'comedy' come at the expense of their characters or the message of ultimate togetherness and hope in the galaxy then I don't find it funny. SNW isn't supposed to be a comedy I don't know why they keep trying to be 'funny' at the price of being earnest. This isn't a marvel movie. The pro-eugenics trial, killing the disabled character, killing the chronically ill character (and framing this as a beautiful relief), 'being disabled is worse than death' messaging, turning the Gorn into horror movie killer monsters (especially when they could have just made up another species), the bioessentialism, constantly maligning Vulcans as racist bullies (with Spock's half Human blood saving him) <- Which I hate ESPECIALLY when Spock has always been a symbol for mixed people in which he struggled equally with feeling belonging in BOTH cultures whereas in SNW it feels like "If he could only be released from Vulcan's evil clutches he could be happy!" + The laziness of cheating being a plot point in so many main characters' romance stories so far. [La'an wants to be with Kirk but that'd be cheating, Spock is cheating on T'Pring with Christine, Pike sleeps with another woman in 'Lift Us Where Suffering' despite having a girlfriend <- They COULD be open but I don't think this is explained. That's Five or Six characters involved in potential cheating and more if you count M'Benga wink-nudging Spock and Christine's relationship when he most likely knows Spock is engaged to T'Pring.] I just have no faith in SNW. It doesn't feel earnest, and it doesn't feel kind and I don't want to watch a show where they'll sacrifice someone's character at any time for an ultimately meanspirited joke.

[arolesbianism]

Welcome to the “they’re just like me fr (derogatory)” club featuring no color because I would rather die than draw Sif with color

[rockethorse]

My 10-year-old computer died, my new one finally arrived, and you'd best believe the first thing I did is install TS2. I still need to get my old files off my old hard drive but I'm finally biting the bullet and installing the Ultimate Collection rather than trying to reinstall from disks on Windows 11 and ... I wanted to weep lmao. Everything loads so FAST it almost scares me. I thought I was used to the game loading fast when I took out all my CC, but that's NOTHING compared to this. Fully optimised TS2 on a modern computer is frightening

It's also a good opportunity to start my DL folder from scratch with a better organisational system and being stricter about what I know I will/won't use. Challenging myself to CC-free builds has pushed me even further into a MM-game and now I'm embracing it. Like, I'm flirting with the idea of not having reflective pond water? Just changing the colour, but keeping the slab-o-blue vibe? Who am I? Beach lots would look ugly as hell but maybe I can make it work.

Anyway, a very exciting new development in my Sims career :)

[constantvariations]

Occasionally a post crosses my dash that discusses white americans' lack of cultural identity being the price for attaining Whiteness, and I have to wonder how much of that loss of identity factors into the lack of culture in RWBY

[glistennglimmer]

hey glisten… why dont you turn that frown upside down and take this water to cool you down or smt!! ^^

-🦖🎀

{Glisten grabbed whatever container the water was in. He chugged it.}

“..If that wasn’t fully water, or if it had bad side effects to those who drank it, I might just beat the everloving crap out of you.”

[spicedfink]

Break down of Lemongrab (or something):

Lemongrab has similarities to PB the way her made up family members (Uncle Gumbald, Aunt Lolly and Cousin Chicle) did but he struggles unlike them. I think PB was trying to make an intelligent candy person and used part of Neddy to make him and when Lemongrab didn't act the way she had hoped she assumed his needs matched up with Neddy's

PB thought Lemongrab needed space, she felt she had failed him because he didn't find comfort in things she thought should be comforting and she couldn't understand him.

PB gave up on making intelligent candy people after Lemongrab because it seemed any candy person who wasn't dumb downed was going to be miserable no matter what

Also parallels can be drawn to Goliad - where Goliad was just doing what she was taught, when she was reprimanded and told she misunderstood/was wrong Goliad decided her way is best and that she must be right (driven by the mixed messages and contradicting information she received). PB deals with her by putting her into a standstill against her new brother

PB, Uncle Gumbald and Lemongrab all have a need for control, it takes different forms and reaches different degrees but the key difference is their motivations: PB wants love, Gumbald wants power and Lemongrab wants order. Though unlike Gumblad the other two have further motivations: PB feels she wants to protect people and Lemongrab wants to understand/be understood by people (there isn't enough time with Goliad to understand her motivations/desires even though she's also shown to be controlling)

Lemongrab was hurt when PB sent him away to live in a castle away from the rest of the Candy Kingdom, she saw him as a failure so he made a point to strictly follow rules - but no matter what he did he was told he was doing it wrong. He bent himself as much as he could just to still be called inflexible and unreasonable. Others couldn't see how much effort he put forward and thus he was treated as if he wasn't trying when he put himself into physical distress just trying to play along with PB's candy ways. So he became resentful

Since Lemongrab 1 was seeking connection with someone who wasn't even there (PB) the joy he felt towards the lemon people was short lived as apposed to Lemongrab 2 who was happy with being connected to the lemon people

The reason the lemon people are different from the Lemongrabs is because they don't have access to the exact ingredients

PB does care for Lemongrab on some level but she has no idea how to express it (and perhaps even fears that if she does he'll see her as weak and try to take her out like Uncle Gumbald did)

While Lemongrab sees PB as a mother figure I don't think PB sees herself as his mother, she created him sure but she assigns roles to her creations that don't always reflect that status

PB disliked whenever Lemongrab acted like her because of her own trauma with Gumbald which leads to some of Lemongrab's confusion (such as when she criticized him for watching her people sleep despite having cameras not just in her citizens homes but also cross boundaries by spying on other kingdoms)

Lemongrab 3 being a mix of the first two felt a struggle against himself, he ignored his conflict by focusing on order because order makes sense. He makes his kingdom into somewhat of a factory as he used rules, order and logic as a distraction from the overwhelming thoughts and feelings he had - similarly to how Lemongrab 1 did before him

When Lemongrab 3 is shown himself via Mathew's vision he is able to finally understand how he is himself, not just PB's creation. It's the first time he really saw himself and that allowed him to accept it (reading him as neurodivergent this could be aligned with getting a diagnoses)

After seeing himself and finding nothing wrong with him Lemongrab 3 starts to feel comfortable exploring more aspects of life instead of just being static and self contained the way Lg1 and Lg2 were (this also reflects how he's no longer letting PB dictate his life)

That exploring new things and actually living his life is what leads to him making a dating profile and meeting LSP (I'm honestly so confused on what the Adventure Time version of dating apps/online dating is since they don't explain if it was via tech or paper or magic or what but LSP does say "on your profile")

Either way Lemongrab is more calm about exploring new things but he also needs order so he is extremally put off by something seemingly small: food on a blanket. (As someone who's cried about a cup being in the "wrong place" I can relate to this intense feeling from something not being done "correctly")

Despite the discomfort and the fact they seemingly only started the date he still tells LSP that it had been nice

LSP thinks he's running away because he can't face his own feelings because she doesn't actually know him yet, they continue going on dates and LSP finds that Lemongrab says what he means. He would have told her if he disliked her without hesitation. LSP is so used to people ignoring her, placating her or lecturing her that she didn't expect someone to communicate in a way she could understand/wasn't condescending towards her

LSP is also pretty straight forward, she isn't great at hiding intention and she clearly states what she's thinking so after she realized she doesn't have to guess what Lemongrab is thinking they actually are able to communicate better then most couples in Ooo

Though LSP and Lemongrab wouldn't have worked out if they met before, they both needed to grow as people - neither of them were actually ready for a relationship before that point. Lemongrab needed to accept and become comfortable being himself/his own person while LSP needed to find out she didn't need to choose weather she wanted to love herself or others, that those things aren't mutually exclusive (if they interacted before it would have turned into the nastiest fight in all of the history of Ooo)

To summarize the 3 versions: Lemongrab 1 longs for PB's approval, he's aggressive and overwhelmed easily and is unable to handle the world being unfair. He is unwilling to take responsibility for himself/his actions and sees himself only as Princess Bubblegum's creation Lemongrab 2 doesn't care about PB's approval, he was made to make Lemongrab happy and he is Lemongrab. After making the lemon people and later Lemongrab 1's abuse he takes on the world view of people need to sacrifice themselves for the survival/greater good of others Lemongrab 3 is able to acknowledge being wrong easier then the other Lemongrabs since he has their residual (if not fully intact) memories. When he sees himself as not just the two before him he's able to start healing. He is now living for himself while realizing the impact he has on others, allowing him to not just be the calmest Lemongrab but the happiest. Unlike the other two he doesn't feel he has to fulfil a purpose

[eldragon-x]

wait what trauma does bill have?

smiles. I'm so glad you ask, I'm pulling out the extra-canon lore.

We have a few points to get an idea of what Bill's old home world was like, mostly from the AMA and Journal 3.

Edwin Abbott Abbott is the author of "Flatland" a novella about a 2D world of the same name. Flatland is an incredibly bleak world where not only the world itself it a simple plane with no depth, but the dystopia of a social system depends on a hierarchy and the heads of society surpress any information about other dimensions through imprisonment at best and execution at worst and anything that deviates from the norm is shunned and shut down and at worst killed off.

Journal 3 references Flatland with Exwhylia, implying Bill may be from a similar dimension as it.

And looking at all that, it's easy to see how Bill "hates restrictions and loves outsiders and is a weirdo" Cipher grew to hate it all enough so to burn it down, especially considering triangles were low on the social ladder. And suddenly this scene

holds more weight doesn't it.

Additionally, it seems to be implied that Bill had a rather bad upbringing based on Hirsch saying his relationship with his family was "worse than Stan's" on the NYCC 2015 and Journal 3 specifying that Bill killed his parents alongside everyone else in his dimension:

Also maybe not neccessarily trauma but defenetly falls under "Bill has massive issues": The Axololt implying that Bill, despite all this, regrets destroying his dimension so much that he's deeply unhappy about it and his happy over the top jokester personality is somewhat of a persona:

Hope this helps 👍

[aroacewxs]

i've been rewatching amphibia again this past week and agh. i love this show so much it has my entire heart it's my everything i can't start new shows because of it

[thatgirlonstage]

You’ve got to be very careful with doing a deliberate misinformation on your fantasy lore bc it’s easy to just end up confusing your readers — give people too many layers of lies or wrong information to peel back and they’ll simply stop keeping track, whether because they got lost or because any revelations were so often later refuted that they stopped caring — however if you do have the skill to strike that balance it’s both enriching and very funny to have guys in your world who are Just Wrong about how stuff works.

[sun-marie]

It's been a while since I last thought seriously about Dr*gon A*e (even prior to falling in love with BG3) and I think a big part of that is I'm not as big a fan of the setting and the worldbuilding as I used to be. Like to me it really does feel like BW looked at typical fantasy settings and went "hmm okay but what if there was Catholic-enforced racism and abelism". And like. Cool thought experiment bro. Do we really need three games made by primarily white guys about that.

[sskk-manifesto]

:)

[merrysithmas]

tw eating disorder

jtk headcanon that after tarsus jim struggles with an eating disorder resulting from his guilt over food/where it comes from/its sustainability/survivor's guilt.