#you may disagree with me

[taolaoo]

There are a lot of things that make me despise dudebros. One of them is when Abigail and Arthur's relationship becomes the object of their stupid jokes.

So, Abigail and Arthur's relationship. If you ask me, I really don't think Arthur was head over heels in love with her. Absolutely not. The way he describes her and Jack in the journal is more like grieving for what was taken from him. It's so painfully obvious that he's comparing them to Eliza and Isaac in his mind. It's not love, it's just a glimpse of a lost feeling. But even if it is love, it's not in a healthy way.

An important clarification, but I also don't think Arthur ever slept with her. How could he if he had women of his own at that time? (Eliza and Mary, we don't know for sure which one he got into a relationship with first). Arthur doesn't seem to me like a man who can sleep with someone when he's already in a relationship, you know.

Bill's words in rdr1 about Abigail sleeping with everyone sound very funny coming out of his mouth in my opinion. Because first of all, it's Bill; secondly, he's a bastard who always likes to say things to piss others off; thirdly, why do you expect me to take him seriously after he said he slept with her too? I'd rather believe in flat earth than that Abigail, strong woman that she is, would let this smelly boykisser too close to breathe next to her.

What is certain between Arthur and Abigail is trust. From the way Jack is very friendly with him and not afraid to ask for his help, you could tell that Arthur has always been there for him and Abigail, especially after John left. And that's totally understandable. Because Arthur is the only man in the camp who seems normal, kind, and good enough to look after a child. (Hosea too, I'm sure he and Arthur were that strong support for Abigail when she was having a hard time, but that's a bit beside the point right now).

Because Abigail is careful and smart, maybe she even saw something in Arthur that he didn't want to tell anybody (you always know that a man can only be gentle and caring to a child when he has one of his own). That's why they have such a strong friendship, that's why Abigail can ask Arthur to take Jack fishing without a problem.

And yeah, it may be hard for Arthur because he sees ghosts of his past around them, but he doesn't say no. Because he's kind, selflessly kind to those he cares about no matter how hard he tries to deny it.

Their friendship is so underrated, I wish for once it was talked about in terms of strong friendship and trust, not some dumb pseudo romance that doesn't exist.

[theminecraftbee]

it's fun because the things that appeal to me most about the three canonical evil clones/twins of hermitcraft are similar, but they're all different.

evil x appeals to me because he is very much Just Some Guy, for all that he's an evil force of nature; when he's sympathetic, it's because he's Just Some Guy who's been shackled to the terrible fate of being "evil", but when he's a villain (like in season eight!), the things that make him villainous also aren't the supernatural aesthetics, but the ways he is also the evil of being just some guy. for all the lightning and thunder and echo of xisuma's appearance, he isn't anyone special. (xisuma is.)

helsknight appeals to me for almost the opposite reason: this isn't just some guy, this is you, explicitly, a demon that possessed your clone and possesses all the things that are bad about you, magnified. he's a mirror, inherently, in his very creation. in the stories where he's a threat, he's menacing because he's a mirror of someone we should like; in the stories where he's sympathetic, we must confront how much of ourselves are also mirrors. (what happens if you don't like what you see in those mirrors, anyway?)

empires!false is somewhere in-between; she's not a mirror but she is the result. she's learning something you'd rather have forgotten about your past, and at her most sympathetic, we feel for the way she's been cast aside so false can 'fix her', the things done to her memory. at her least sympathetic, though, she's reflecting these pains onto others; violence begets violence, and even with it missing, the past begets her. there's no looking at empires!false without seeing the echoes of what false did to her. (there's no looking at false without it either.)

............then they also all appeal to me by being ridiculous failguys but like if you want to be DRAMATIC ABOUT IT, the ways they appeal to me are like the above,

[tautozhone]

never will there be a better genre of media than “you can only get anything close to a fresh impression of this once when you first encounter it because knowing what happens next gives you entirely new understanding of what happened before”

like anything that you need an actual mind wipe to enjoy the same way as you did the first time. for it to be just as emotionally devastating. for every twist and turn to make you feel the same.

[lunarriviera]

Big Dumb Hot Cop & Effete Possibly Sociopathic Genius Consultant: A Manifesto

So it has recently come to my attention that this, my archetypal pairing formulation, has broken containment, probably because I've been flinging these terms around like a deranged person wielding a blunt instrument. Therefore it behooves me to explain what the hell I mean by all these adjectives, and who are some classic and contemporary examples of the idiots under discussion—who are by the way extremely in love with one another whether they realize it or not. (Don't you say "bromance." Don't you dare SAY that word to me.) I will use blorbo from my shows to illustrate.

I first realized that I am in fact a Big Dumb Hot Cop whisperer thanks to Chinese police procedural 猎罪图鉴 | Under the Skin (2022). Right away, it's very important to note that Big Dumb Hot Cop is NOT in fact all that dumb. He's only less intelligent IN COMPARISON to his Effete Slightly Sociopathic Genius Consultant, who is, as already stated, a genius. Big Dumb Hot Cop is in fact ruthlessly good at his job. He's driven, he obsesses about cases, he can walk into a crime scene and pick up on the one thing everyone else has missed. There is no suspect he cannot intimidate upon investigation. And he's even better when he's working with (or against, depending on what stage they're at) the genius consultant. They need each other, whether they're fighting or collaborating. They can only clear cases together.

Here are, then, police captain Du Cheng and his genius consultant, sketch artist Shen Yi, eyeing each other significantly as some witness is, I think, lying his face off? Honestly I can't even remember what's happening because the important thing here is their nonverbal communication. This is crucial for this pairing. They can think circles around each other without saying a word. Love that for them.

Effete Possibly Sociopathic Genius Consultant has two levels of Possibly Sociopathic. Most maddeningly of all, he has secrets. Sometimes many secrets. So at first, Big Dumb Hot Cop is going to think he's the criminal, or in some way involved in the wrongdoing. The second level is that he'll find Genius Consultant just worryingly, disturbingly good at predicting criminal behavior. And he will continue to be suspicious of him for exactly one or at most two episodes, until he's then swept off his big dumb feet by the rapidity and correctness of Effete Genius's deductions. There's nothing Big Dumb Hot Cop loves more than solving cases. Well, maybe beer. He also loves beer. Once he sees that Effete Consultant is useful, he'll do a 180º and stop complaining to his chief of police, and instead start demanding that Effete Consultant be his forever. He'll start hanging out in his office. He'll literally drag him to crime scenes by the wrist.

(And did I mention Effete Consultant must be very pretty? Did I mention that? He is lovely. Long, thin fingers to steeple while he thinks. Delicate features. Haunted dark eyes. Never sleeps. Shocking self-neglect. You may see where I am going with this.)

Another important attribute of Big Dumb Hot Cop: he's big. Or anyway strong, or a gifted fighter. Let's face it, he has to be, because Genius Consultant is going to be reckless with his own personal safety to the point of stupidity (now who's dumb, huh?). For example, consider another Chinese procedural, S.C.I. 谜案集 | S.C.I. Mystery (2018). Captain Bai Yutong is sort of impossibly physically talented (former fighter pilot! national sandu champion! runs over moving cars and then shoots at them, like some kind of weird urban biathlon!) and, like all good Big Dumb Hot Cops, his entire life is thrown upside down because he now has to drop everything to protect his effete consultant, criminal psychologist Dr. Zhan Yao, who's so careless with himself that in any another drama he would probably be driving Bai Yutong to drink. Thanks to the danmei on which SCI Mystery is based, however, we can safely assume Bai Yutong is taking it out on Zhan Yao in blow jobs.

Note that Bai Yutong is the cook, even though he's the gong, and that he moves in with Zhao Yan to "protect" him from...something, I can't ever remember what, and then just sort of forgets to move out again. For the length of the entire series.

I would argue that 镇魂 | Guardian (2018) is a procedural, even if it also has ghosts, a talking cat, snake lady, eerie dark energy that gets flung around like paintball splatters, and a whole bunch of other supernatural stuff that was not approved of by Big Red (it's based on a danmei of the same title by Priest, a novel which has been pulled from circulation for censorship). Further confusing matters, Zhao Yunlan isn't particularly Big or Dumb, nor is he even really a Cop, technically; but I'm claiming him for this genre not least because of his Effete (drop-dead gorgeous) Possibly Sociopathic (Chief Zhao thinks he's a suspect for a good third of the story) and Definitely Genius, Later Gangpressed into being a Consultant, chock-full of secrets Professor Shen Wei.

Once they finally team up, though, they do this genre/pairing proud. Why, there's nothing they can't solve except how to stay alive. Look at them here enjoying some fine nonverbal communication: "Oh my god, you're just like me—you too will fling yourself directly into bodily harm in order to save a clueless civilian. Okay this could be inconvenient for both of us. Also wow for a genetics professor you're really fucking built, do you lift my bro." (Yes. Yes he does lift.)

A final example: the cruelly short-lived 光渊 | Justice in the Dark (2023), which like Guardian is based on a danmei by Priest, 默读 | Silent Reading. I got baited into watching the eight (8) existing episodes by seeing a cut of Captain Luo Wenzhou taking on like forty guys with a champagne bottle, a pair of curtains, an axe handle, and a birthday cake, like some kind of cultivator. He's so big and hot, and he's so very dumb. He's also a cop, and ACAB (which is sort of the plot of Silent Reading); and Fei Du is possibly using him for his own nefarious ends (cf. possibly sociopathic and secretive). But underneath all of Fei Du's "I am the abyss, fear me, rawr!" scary posturing, like a puffed-up kitten, he's just a very pretty tender-hearted effete genius, and you can watch Luo Wenzhou melting, and practically pinpoint the exact moment when his whole heart flies out of his eyes and he decides: Yeah, okay, that's it for me. That one. The annoying little traumatized fuerdai with some kind of a death wish that I do not understand. I'll be throwing myself in front of bullets for him and/or cooking him dinner for the foreseeable future, thanks.

Priest is gonna mess with this dynamic of gong/shou caregiving and safeguarding, because that's what she does; but the fundamental beats are still there. Look at these ninnyhammers, just this second figuring out they're actually kind people who belong to each other.

Here they are confronting a suspect together. (You will notice the large butcher knife wavering in the foreground.) Luo Wenzhou, highly trained, nonetheless cannot de-escalate the situation. It takes a pretty playboy in an arm sling to come wandering into the room, and then, using his superb personal knowledge of what it's like to be traumatized to the point of insanity, getting the suspect to disarm. I just love the way they look at each other, incredulous (Luo Wenzhou) and mock-fascinated (Fei Du). If I ever meet the person who directed this scene I'm going to need to kiss them on the mouth.

Once you accept the gospel of Big Dumb Hot Cop and Effete Possibly Sociopathic Genius Consultant into your media-based life, you'll find it has many applications, not all of which have to be procedurals. Consider: characters from the Daomu Biji franchise, possibly (Hei Xiazi is the biggest dumbest hottest not-a-cop I've ever met). Leverage, in a weird OT3 way. Assorted combinations of Avengers. Teen Wolf fic, absolutely. Various Stargate incarnations. Several other Priest danmei, not only procedurals. Definitely Mysterious Lotus Casebook. Et cetera. (You're on your own with MXTX, though.)

This has gotten long and there are still so many nuances and features and wrinkles and problems with the theory that should be ironed out, but it'll have to do for now. I'll simply close by saying: yes, there is also a classic example and you already know exactly who it is.

[daily-hanamura]

[hypnotic-kink]

Toxic people ….”Just get your shit … and go”

You’re dismissed ~~ now go.

[art-is-kayos]

Wailing Coffin Hong Lu and Gregor

[turtleblogatlast]

Thinking about the Don Suave scene and what it means in terms of LGBTQ+ representation because my brain does nothing if not torment me with random topics to ramble about on the regular.

Anyway, I just wanted to ramble about why I like the scene but to get it out of the way - the scene can very easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and all of them are valid. I personally see it as Leo having at least some attraction to a man. And the following is an explanation of my own interpretation and thoughts on it and what it means especially for Leo’s portrayal in the grand scheme of things.

Long-winded interpretation under the cut!

Now, to start with, it’s important to me that in the scene Leo looks at Don Suave in the very beginning and then for the entirety of the rest of the time the man is on screen, Leo’s eyes are closed. Yet, in the end, he is still visibly enamored with Don Suave, happily cuddling up to him as he’s being carried away.

You can very easily interpret this as Leo being spellbound and that’s honestly super valid and I believe he likely was at least somewhat in the beginning, but considering how fast he looked away and how he never looked again, I personally think it makes more sense to read it as Leo just finding the man attractive, at least somewhat. (For the record, I personally headcanon Rise Leo as bisexual with a heavy preference for men, but I want to be blunt when I say that any interpretation is valid. Literally any. Ace, pan, gay, bi, none of the above or a mixture of something new literally all of it is more than okay and fair. Hell you could even interpret this entire scene as more romantic attraction than physical and it would still work. Anything goes!! Don’t bother people, guys, really.)

The main reason I take this scene to be at the very least LGBTQ+ adjacent isn’t just because of how it’s portrayed, but because of who Leonardo is. Not in terms of Rise of the TMNT, but in terms of the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™️ franchise.

Leo’s a character who, while changing with each iteration, has still at his core been around for decades upon decades as “the blue one”. One fourth of the team. He’s the one most are going to look at as the Leader, and oftentimes he is the one closest to having the title of Main Character. Not to say the others aren’t just as important, but Leo’s presence in the A plots of basically all TMNT media is often something very main character-esque.

And that’s very, very important to note. Here we have a Main Character of a prolific and decades long-running franchise distributed by a children’s television network. You can play around with his and his brothers’ characters all you like, but there is always going to be challenges to dodge around, especially since this was still in 2018-2019.

For example, you can play around with their designs so long as they’re color coded turtles, but their sexualities? Now that’s tricky.

“But what about Hypno and Warren?” Not main characters and also they’re Rise originals. They have a lot more room to play around with than a character like Leo does. But even talking about main characters in the franchise, you could arguably have an easier time playing around with Donnie or Mikey’s sexualities than Leo or even Raph, as (unfortunately) the former two tend to get more B plots, so they’d likely have had a little more leeway (still not a lot though.)

So, where does this leave us?

It leaves us in a place where outright stating and/or showing undeniable proof of Leo’s attraction to men is very, very difficult. So, workarounds!

Workarounds like the entire Don Suave situation.

To be honest, as left up to interpretation and lowkey and deniable as it is, this whole scene means a lot to me because of who Leo is as a character. It’s just nice when we get so see even the bare bones of representation with characters that have been such a large part of pop culture for decades, y’know? Even if more would be so much nicer, this is better than I thought we’d ever get for these boys.

And, again, literally nothing I’ve said is the only way to interpret it, I’m more than happy when people interpret media on their own honestly, it’s just something I’ve been thinking of lately and I was wondering if others felt the same way.

Whatever you think when you interpret this scene or Rise Leo as a whole, I just thought this would be interesting to think about, even if it was ramble-y, haha.

[blindingliqhts]

things i want to see in TSC/TSC2!!

(PS this is not the same as a predictions list)

substantial andreil cameo- here’s some things that would suffice:

jeremy/jean speaking to one or both of them

lotssss more observation from either/both povs from the way they are with each other

kevin mentioning them (hopefully giving us some worthwhile information)

talk about how they play when the trojans face them on the court

andreil from jean’s pov (stuff with the same vibe as that quote we already have about him noticing that they move like they’re caught in each other’s orbit)

jean not really understanding their dynamic but then BY THE END HE GETS IT BECAUSE HE HAS THAT KIND OF THING WITH JEREMY

andreil from jeremy’s pov- maybe even him noting that he’d like to have something like they do

jean mental breakdown… sad but a necessary step in his journey as where we saw him in TKM at abby’s he just didn’t seem able to come to terms w his situation and everything that was wrong with the way he was treated SOOO i think there should come a point where he’s exhausted with adjusting to the trojans’ routines and his new freedom to do as he likes that he has a breakdown and needs some time alone before anyone’s able to console him

i NEED to see jeremy & any other friends take jean for a night out because i seriously seriously doubt he was allowed to drink much (or anything at all tbh) much less go out clubbing or whatever so that is essential i have to see him have fun (AND admit that fun is not just for children)

during said night out maybe it gets a bit much for jean at one point so he sneaks away from the others to go and sit on the steps outside and about 20 minutes later jeremy comes outside having been looking for him and then they have a little heart-to-heart alone out there

renee and jean trying to date then it not working and agreeing to stay friends?

jean having siblings he doesn’t know about- i could be wrong but i don’t think we know how old he was when he was sold to the moriyamas so like maybe he has a couple of memories of a younger sister or whatever or maybe his parents have had other children since then who he’s never met??

jean going for a shopping trip (with jeremy/renee/any other friends he makes) because he probably doesn’t have many clothes or possessions of any sort tbh

jeremy getting jean to help him bleach his roots (bc going to the salon is expensive and effort)

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

"Nine is homophobic" this and "Classic is homophobic" that

WRONG

They're literally both gay

[roseworth]

honestly i don't think any jason after his death seems to really match the one before it? hard to say he's in character at any point then. they might as well have introduced some new guy and told his story through flashbacks. at least the new guy would presumably have someone that cared enough about their oc to give them consistency

can i say something controversial. i disagree with this

i think you have a great point about how robin jason is a lot different than red hood jason, bc a lot of robin stories have him as just an average happy kid so the whiplash from barr tec jason -> utrh jason is insane

on the other hand,, that adds to it for me. this was not winick's intention but i love the idea that jason was just a happy robin that loved his dad & loved being robin then immediately gets crushed because he was living his happy life and thought everything was great, then went through an insane trauma and realized that everything was not as great as he thought so he decided to start killing people. in my head theres a great narrative where he basically becomes unrecognizable to who he was before because thats how bad his death & resurrection fucked him up

but also heres where im gonna get even more controversial! i dont think hes that different!

i loooove barr tec but i think barr has specifically said that he wanted to be writing dick so he just pretended he was. a lot of robin jason writers didnt bother to give him any character of his own, he was just dick 2.0 until starlin

i dont love how starlin wrote jason because his only reason for writing jason like that was that he hated him and wanted to kill him. but. starlin's jason was so distinct from dick that its one of the only times that it feels like jason. honestly if you take early post-crisis robin jason and compare it to starlin jason, its not that different. hes a little aggressive & angry but does it for a good reason, he fights with batman and can be impulsive but has strong morals even if his morals arent always what batman believes, which is very similar to who he was when he first became robin post-crisis

and because starlin jason is one of the only times that jason is distinct from dick (not to mention, in terms of general robin jason knowledge, most of jason's iconic robin stories come from starlin), it makes sense that that version of jason was used in utrh. and the version of jason that had empathy for victims to the point that he wanted to kill the perpetrators makes so much sense for red hood jason. he believed that the best way to get vengeance for the victims was to kill the person who did it, which is why he was so mad that bruce wouldnt do that for him after he died

in my mind there is a very clear progression from the version of jason that died and the version that comes back to life. he had a lot of empathy for the victims when he was robin (to the point that bruce told him that he should sit out the garzonas case bc he got too emotionally invested in it) so it makes sense that when he is the victim of a gruesome murder from someone like the joker, who has killed and done horrible things and isnt going to stop, that he would be extremely pissed that bruce wouldnt let his morals go just to kill the person that killed jason, since thats what jason, even as robin, believed was the best way to get vengeance for the victims

[kenobers]

What kind of music do you think the other Batboys listen to? (If you're interested in them ofc)

okay, first of all this is my first ask!! hello!! and it's about music, so extra bonus points to you!! 🌟

second of all, of course i'm interested in the other batboys! i'm working on their spotify wrappeds right now. for anyone’s who interested, here is my spotify!!

these are what i personally think each of them lean towards music wise based on canon and my own headcanons, please don’t stomp on me if you disagree :-)

Dick listens to clown music i really only found one panel of Dick listening to music and it was mostly Original Pilipino Music and mostly ballads, which i love. it also lends itself to Dick being a fan of indie and soft rock, as well very much being a child of the 90s. The Cure and Billy Joel are artists i see him enjoying. i know a lot of people envision him as a pop fan and i think he specifically listens to early rock-pop music from the 70s; think ABBA, the Carpenters, Donna Summer, artists who would mix well with his affection for balladeers. My self indulgent headcanon is that he's a huge Fleetwood Mac and Mavis Staples fan. i think it's a legal obligation to have an appreciation for grunge to be part of the batfam, but i think he sticks with the basics.

Jason canonically likes Slipknot, Lacuna Coil and Poison Idea (which i forgot to include on his spotify wrapped, oops). however, given his background, his continued interest in being connected to the streets of a large east coast city and the fact that we know he loves good writing, he's definitely a 90s east coast hip-hop guy. i really envision him being a huge Wu-Tang Clan fan (as we should all be) and DMX wrote his theme song Where The Hood At. both the metal/punk and hip-hop genres have heavily political roots and the flaws of political systems are a common theme, which is something he’d appreciate. however, i think Jason's criteria for adding a song to his spotify is if it's good. he's not a snob, he just likes his music to be loud and have good lyricism. he likes to be able to relate to it, whereas Dick would be more about the vibe. i love the idea that he's into Jack Johnson when he wants a softer sound. he also gives me major Artic Monkeys vibes.

Tim canonically likes The Clash, Green Day (i think this is another one they all have in common) and i believe Oasis. so one could comfortably deduce that he's into punk rock, early alternative and brit pop (which makes sense, these all tend to go hand-in-hand). i think he would be fond of alternative and indie, like i think he would dig Steve Lacy and Frank Ocean (he's also a bisexual man in his late teens/early twenties who's heavily online, so i feel like it's also a fairly safe bet that he listens to Frank and probably Tyler too). i think he goes through strong phases of certain artists/genres. i think, like Jason, he likes to be able to relate to his music, but he’s also a bit of a music snob.

Steph's most streamed artist is Mucous Membrane. i get strong punk rock, punk pop vibes from her. she likes anything she can scream along to. My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Avril Lavigne, Pierce The Veil, Hollywood Undead. she definitely had a very strong Panic! At The Disco era. she's got a soft spot for Megadeath too. but i think she’s also more than capable (and willing) to scream along to some bubbly pop music too.

Duke has been seen singing The Man on The Flying Trapeze by Spike Jones. granted, this is a fairly well known song and it had a specific context, but i also kind of love the idea that Duke listens to jazz, like also has a lot of Chet Baker and Billie Holiday saved. that’s his time-to-lock-in music. then i could also see him digging a genre that samples a lot of these artists, like r&b and hip-hop. i see Kendrick Lamar pop up on a lot of Duke playlists and i’m inclined to agree. i’d also add Jay-Z to the mix. a good chunk of his spotify wrapped is stuff he plays to get hyped up, which can vary quite a bit. there’s some Fall Out Boy, Chase Atlantic, Rihanna and some classic rock. i think he also daydreams to Holding Out for A Hero quite a bit as well.

honestly, i feel like Cass pulls the most from everyone else’s playlists. i would say that she’s family spotify stalker, but frankly i feel like she uses youtube music. anyways, her personal tastes would lean more towards the sad girl side; Halsey, Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, Mazzy Star. maybe Penelope Scott and Grimes - i could see her vibing with the combination of the sad girl feel and a unique sort of sound. thanks to Jason, she also digs System of A Down. for Cass especially music is an emotional outlet, so i think she’d be drawn to more emotional stuff. that said, she’s definitely an ABBA girl.

i see people try to argue that Jason would listen to musicals, but if anyone is the secret theater kid, it’s for sure Damian. he likes the drama and the flair of a megamusical and as such, a couple of songs from The Phantom of The Opera make their way onto his playlist (he secretly relates to certain aspects of the storyline but he won’t say that part out loud). he’s a musician himself so it’s not hard to imagine him enjoying someone as genius as Sondheim, although i imagine he’s very picky about which cast albums/recordings he spins. he listens to a lot of classic music, with a special appreciation for Bach as he’s more or less the violin king. but Beethoven’s got a little more flair. i think he also has a playlist of songs he picked up from his siblings and Superboy

i think they all share an appreciation for Nirvana, The Pixies, The Spice Girls and A Tribe Called Quest.

and i do think The Spice Girls comes strongly from Dick’s influence.

what do y’all think they listen to?

[epickiya722]

You know what, I expected that they would have Chloe not mention Chad at all. We already know they do not care about continuity.

But I'm going to tell you my problem with not having Chloe mentioning Chad.

Just throwing it out there, it's not that the fandom really cares about Chad like that. I don't really care about Chad like that. (They could have done better with his writing. As for a lot of other characters.)

It's not that the fandom is like "oh, how dare they take away our favorite white boy". It's not that. No, scratch that. It's part of this following reason.

It's that the OG VKs and AKs were done dirty before and it continues. Oh, but it's not just that. See, them leaving most of them out is an "excuse" for something else that I'll talk about later.

Just follow with me here.

Not too long ago they released the Red version of Uma's song, What's My Name. In the song there is this part...

This is Red's part, just so we're clear. They had her make remarks that the VKs are "middle-aged". Mind you while on a song belonging to UMA. The VKs would just be reaching their 20s at this time. Just their 20s!! If you're including Celia, Dizzy and the Smee Twins as VKs (because technically they are) they would probably still be in school.

What's makes this part worse is the "cradle to the grave" lyrics. The songwriters obviously were not thinking when they put that in. They didn't register what fans might they think when hearing those lyrics. Do I have to say it? Like, really think about it.

With this part of the song and no mention of Chad in Chloe's video, it's them saying "well, it's not like the AKs and rest of the VKs are important anyways!"

That's the problem right there. And that's a problem that leads into a bigger problem.

Let's think about the Sea Three. It's like they're already trying to replace them with Uliana, Hook and Morgie.

"But Uma is there!" They knew damn well that Uma would bring in more fans to watch that movie. Uma is a beloved character, why wouldn't they include her? It's the same reason Brandy and Paolo are back playing as Cinderella and Charming.

See, Disney will market off Black and other people of color. They'll be like "oh, we can give this character this, but not this". They can have some good traits, but they still have to get some bad. (Example, Tiana could be a princess!! But she had to spend most of her movie as a damn frog!)

Let me start with Uliana.

What sucks about Uliana and her crew to me is that it seems this time they really want fans to hate on a Black girl... again.

See, I bet in 2017 they didn't anticipate on fans adoring Uma and actually sympathizing with her. And it helps that China is a damn good actress and singer.

They made Uma the "big bad" in the second movie, continuing the "let's make the Black girls and women antagonistic" (Audrey, being played by Sarah Jeffery who is half Black, being mean to Mal and Cruella being played by a Black woman, Wendy Raquel Robinson).

Again, though, that shit didn't work so they're trying it again.

Don't believe me?

Here's the thing. If they wanted Bridget to have this sad backstory who was bullied... why did they make it a Black girl? And why is this character just so happen to be Uma's aunt and Ursula's sister? They couldn't have made another villain character be her bully? To be the reason as to why Bridget aka Queen of Hearts hates Cinderella? In fact, how about Maleficent? She's right there!!

From the looks of the trailer, it may be Uliana did something that made Bridget hate Cinderella. So they couldn't have Maleficent be manipulative and do that then? Why come up with a whole original character related to one of the most other notorious Disney villains (who is Black in the Descendants universe, by the way, Whoopi Goldberg) for just that? Hm?

No, Disney said "let's make trick the fans, make them think that Dara will be playing a sweet, innocent princess and then reveal she'll be playing this bully who we made up".

See, they couldn't use Morgana from the second Little Mermaid movie because one, there's her name. We have Morgie in the movie and his mother's name is Morgana. Two, when the first Descendants movie came out, Disney made it a point to make it seem that the first films of the animated films were canon. Meaning that, yeah, sequels were ignored.

In the case of Chloe and Chad!

As I mentioned before, it comes off that the AKs and VKs are being brushed aside. And yes, it's a problem.

The problem isn't having a new generation. I personally am not upset seeing these new characters, let alone new actors. I hate how they (not the actors, not them) went about this.

They could have easily announced Malia Baker playing Chloe from the start. But no, they didn't do that. On top of that, no mention of Chad??

Disney didn't have Chloe mention Chad because they want to play off him being an OG AK and white and have the fandom feel some kind of way towards Chloe who is of color. They want people to be antagonistic towards and annoyed at Chloe. See, they let this Black girl be a princess... but they'll probably have her be annoying in the movie, some perfectionist, oh and no mention of her supposed brother.

When you think about it... while Uilanna is the Uma here, Chloe is the Audrey.

Hm, a girly princess who wears blue, who is the daughter of a beloved Disney princess whose race was changed for the Descendants, played by an actress who looks racially ambiguous but happens to be Black, who has some connection to Chad (or lack of), who also comes off as some perfectionist, an often annoying character trait.

Now, don't that seem like Chloe is the Audrey here? Just this time, our princess is nicer.

Like with Uma, Audrey was meant to be disliked, but come the third movie fans grew to like and sympathize her.

This time around with Chloe, it's like Disney is trying to be sneakier about getting the fans to hate her.

Again, it's the "they can have this but they can't have this" with their Black and other characters of color.

"It's not about race." Disney made it about race. If it wasn't, they wouldn't have done previous antics with the other characters. If wasn't, Disney would have easily kept Cinderella and her family white from the animated films, if they still wanted fans to dislike her, just as they could have with Aurora and her family, but they didn't. They made fans believe Dara was going to play a princess and just knew fans would be like "Brandy could be Cinderella" because of that, and once they had Brandy be Cinderella? Well, you see what happened.

Simply, just my opinion, Disney has the intentions to make Chloe hated or at least less popular. They're just not trying make it not racist, but still still are racist about.

Now, I'm not saying the movie is going to be oh so terrible. The thing is, a fourth movie could have been a more excitable thing for fans if Disney stopped doing most of these characters dirty with their racism and favoritism.

[slyandthefamilybook]

I think we need to have a serious re-evaluation of what "leftist" means bc there ain't no fuckin way authcoms are on the same left as me lmao

[eyewyrm]

noel and identity loss...

trying to articulate why it feels wrong to call him charlie, because thats still him but at the same time not.

he's changed and things cant go back to the way they were, noel took up a new name one to remember but also to move on

i don't think noel is a fake name to him more so just a new identity he's taken up as an extension of himself. or at least someone he's rebuilt himself as after the dreamlands. i don't think he's discarded charlie as an identity but that he just has two names that are both very real to him, however just one of them is more in the forefront than the other so he'd be unused to his old name being used.

but i also think that he'd feel extremely disconnected to his old life and name that it would be uncomfortable and feel wrong for him, might feel that his past is catching up to him or maybe he'd be afraid that if he stops using noels name he'd be abandoning him in some way

or just using the name as an escape from the king in yellow who likely would've called him by his original name

i recognise this is like probably nothing at all but it is rotating in my brain and i need to get it out, i love saying shit and being completely incoherent

[musicalmoritz]

I really don’t understand how people can ship the Meis together when they’ve been explicitly depicted as sisters in HKOM. I know they aren’t sisters in the canon universe but the fact that AidaIro thought to compare their dynamic to one of siblings makes the romantic ship weird to me