#you’re free to disagree like

[bixels]

Always an experience watching the leftism leave FNAF fans when someone mentions that Scott Cawthon financially backed fascist politicians.

The switch from posting hardline leftist tweets about boycotts and signal boosts and critical takedowns of politicians and celebrities to ‘ohhh, well. everyone makes mistakes. who can blame him, listen he. he donated money to gay charities too. that makes it ok! a millionaire in his forties is allowed to have political beliefs. does it even matter? just let it go!’ is whiplash inducing. The antivaxxer celebrities have got to go, but this one horror dev who quietly handed wads of cash to antivax lawmakers? He’s chill, he can stay.

The charity thing is so funny too because suddenly utilitarian positive-negative point counting is the way to go. Maybe an abacus would help calculate the net good of donating to the Trevor Project minus donating thousands of dollars to Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. -10 points if I push a kid in a lake but +11 points if I help an old lady across the street, so I’m chill. You can’t judge me. Hey, maybe. Just don’t push a kid in the lake period. How fucking low is the bar when we’re excusing maxing out the possible dollar amount of donations to Mitch fucking McConnell. That should be like. Default you’re a bad person.

[jaimeslanisters]

i think what’s so disappointing about rhaenicent in season 2 is that, imo, their dynamic in driftmark encompasses what was best and most interesting about them

they’re both pushing against each other. they have their talons dug in tight and they refuse to let go. people are shouting at them to stop, to cease the fighting, but they’re locked on each other. nothing matters but forcing the other to see their side, to see them. only the dagger literally slicing between them can pull them apart but it only works physically. they’re still locked in with each other, doomed to revolved around the other one.

bald eagles have a courtship where they lock talons and then spiral to the ground, sometimes letting go in time, sometimes smashing to the ground and dying together.

and that is what made the driftmark scene so fascinating to watch, what made the rhaenicent dynamic more than just homoerotic friends to enemies. they love each other. they love the bones of each other. they’ll never find something as easy and as gentle and loving as what they had together again in their life even if they’re constantly chasing shadows of it in other partners. it was the easiest, most uncomplicated relationship either will ever have.

but it wasn’t enough. it won’t be enough. it can’t be enough.

they’re the eagles crashing into the ground.

[memento-yuumori]

I’m not going to post about this again on this account because I know people aren’t following me for this, but:

William James Moriarty would support freedom for Palestine, and you should too.

[moonagedaydreamsofrhiannon]

if a random person on the internet saying they hc a fictional character as trans or enjoy a ship that you don’t personally like enrages you to the point that you feel the need to comment rude, unnecessary hate, completely unprovoked, multiple times, under multiple different posts, instead of just scrolling, blocking, and moving on, then you need to take some mood stabilizers, touch some grass, and get a grip on reality

and btw, if all you can think of to respond to a detailed character analysis with mountains of specific textual evidence is “not reading allat + you have ass takes” then maybe it’s time to put down the phone and pick up a book (perhaps a self-help book) you pathetic, ignorant, illiterate, fucking philistine.

and to anyone reading this, if you’re going to go out of your way to be a transphobic asshole (or even just an asshole period) in my comments, you can go fuck yourself. keep that shit off my page or you’re getting blocked immediately you weird fucking freaks. take your anti-depressants and get a life please. happy, well-adjusted people don’t do that shit

[mabaris]

begging people to learn the difference between “other characters disagreed with this decision” and “the writers disagreed with this decision”

[honorthysalad]

can’t believe they didn’t have Yoshiki connect his experience with being possessed to that one guy who broke into the school grounds and killed himself.

[polaroid-steam-room]

I really like when people DO NOT like the things I do, because it really lets me see things from a different perspective.

Yes, you may spit on the thing I hold dear, but by god,

I literally have no comeback and the argument is getting interesting, so:

💐to the reasonable and open haters, you have my heart

[philsmeatylegss]

X

[rebelcliche-archive2]

i write nancy as 19 (bc she’s supposed to be 19 in ‘86, the duffle bags just can’t do math) and i like to explore what her life would be like as an older adult, and all that. if you don’t like stuff like that, feel free to unfollow me.

[iguessitsjustme]

There is an interesting phenomena happening lately across multiple shows where there has been an increase in viewers of BL reading the novels that the shows are based off of. I’m not entirely sure why that is, I certainly have theories, but I don’t have the data to back any of them up (I am willing to share my theories if asked but they’re not particularly relevant here). But regardless, it’s definitely happening where a large number of viewers will find a translation of a BL novel and read it before watching the show. And don’t get me wrong, that’s amazing! I am certainly not complaining that people are reading these novels. I will always advocate for more reading, especially from authors from different cultures.

I personally do not read the novels for the shows I’m watching. I have done it a couple of times, but it’s extremely rare that I will go out of my way to find the novels. There’s a few reasons for this. First and foremost is that I find the unofficial fan translations difficult to read and I would rather pay for an official translation of the novels that have to go through multiple checks and also I would like to support the authors by purchasing the novels. I know. I know that we’re just not there yet for BL where there are official translations, but I still can’t bring myself to read the unofficial ones. I really struggled getting through the fan translation of Bite Me, and there was a specific reason I read that one, but we’ll get into this in a bit. 

Another reason that I don’t read the novels is because, truthfully, I just want to watch the shows. I enjoy watching week to week and needing to wait to see what happens. I enjoy experiencing these shows along with everyone else watching. Even if I don’t particularly like the show, I enjoy watching and critiquing it along with others. And that is where this issue and clash starts coming into play. 

Whenever I’m watching a show, I watch it with a critical eye. An analytical gaze, if you will. So oftentimes, what happens is I’ll come across a show that I’m enjoying overall, but something about the show isn’t working for me. Whether that be a character, a plot line, soundtrack, etc. That is when I’ll critique the show (different than hate but that’s another post). Now it’s important to note that what I am critiquing is the show, not the novel. I can’t possibly critique the novel that the show is based off of if I haven’t read it. I also wouldn’t feel comfortable critiquing an unofficial translation (again, that’s another post).

So when anyone makes a post critiquing a show, it is actually irrelevant to bring up the novel as an argument against the critique. I understand that the novel might provide additional context that the show is missing, but that’s kind of the point. The show is missing the context. And that’s the clash. The show and the novel are two completely separate pieces of media. By the very nature of the medium that is portraying the story, it’s going to be different. So the show needs to be able to hold up without relying on people having read the novel. If I need to read the novel to get the necessary context for any aspect of any story that I am consuming through the medium of a show (or movie), then that show has inherently failed at what it set out to do. Which is to tell a cohesive story. I’d also argue that a lot of the shows that people constantly like to bring up the novel for, actually do work as a cohesive story and don’t need the context that people are trying to provide. 

A critique of a show doesn’t necessarily mean that the show is bad or missing anything. A critique is simply something that caught someone’s attention when they were watching and reading into the scene. It is a criticism based on a close reading of a scene, a character, etc. And most often, those criticisms are presented by people with the knowledge and skill set to be able to do that. (For instance, I have a degree and professional experience doing close reads of texts). Critiques are not asking for additional context from the novel. They aren’t asking how it is or what happened in the novel (unless explicitly stated that they want to know).

 It’s important that we, as the viewers, are able to draw that distinction between novel and show because they are ultimately different. A critique for the show might not be the same for the novel, but that’s the point. They are different and they can’t be consumed the same way. I would certainly approach a close reading of a novel very differently than I would a show. I’d actually probably be a lot harsher on a novel than when I’m critiquing a show. Which is another reason I’m not particularly comfortable reading unofficial fan translations. It wouldn’t be fair to the author or the translator to have me read it the way I normally would. 

And that brings me to my last point. I have read a few of these novels and the only one I ever posted about was Bite Me. And I kept those posts on my own blog. I did not go to someone else’s post or blog and “well actually” them about how it happened in the novel. Because they are two separate things and I recognize that not everyone has read the novel nor would want to know and it’s not my place to tell them how to view their media. 

If you want to read the novel, that’s fine, wonderful even! More power to you. I’m so thankful we live in a time where it’s possible and that there are awesome fans out there who put in the enormous amount of work it takes to translate things. But if you do read the novel, please remember: it is not the same as the show, someone critiquing the show is not asking for your opinion on what happened in the novel, and it is always best to make your own posts if you want to talk about the novel. That last point is especially important. People can always filter tags or block/unfollow people that they disagree with or who post novel spoilers, but that doesn’t work when people go to someone else’s post or blog to say it. 

And last but not least, it’s just common courtesy not to give out book spoilers for currently airing shows. It’s 2022 and we should all know better by now. Unless a spoiler is asked for, do not give one. 

[genderfreakxx]

It really makes me so sad that Ronnie Radke is transphobic in that very Twitter specific way

[lanean]

First, let me preface by saying trans women are women, and I affirm non-binary, gender non-conforming, gender-fluid & genderqueer folks as well.

But— unpopular opinion maybe? —

People who identify as men shouldn’t be slayers in the BtVS universe. That is my opinion, and I’m sorry if anyone doesn’t like it, but Buffy was originally written that way and makes more sense that way. There are plenty of other guy superhero type characters/series out there for you, you’re still the majority, so I think you’ll be okay if this one particular series isn’t modified to cater to you.

[emmaspolaroid]

what if… rayvio… going back and forth w sassy banter that veers into flirty territory but both of them ain’t no bitch about it and that’s how they ended up with their faces so close together and when she’s like “damn…..,, you’re pretty”, he simply blacks out

[boysnberriespie]

I’ve decided that everybody should continue to make really OOC art and fan works simply because it annoys me when people get snide about it

[probablyasocialecologist]

In “Overshoot,” you write this about the very wealthy: “There is no escaping the conclusion that the worst mass killers in this rapidly warming world are the billionaires, merely by dint of their lifestyles.” That doesn’t feel like a bathetic overstatement when we live in a world of terrorist violence and Putin turning Ukraine into a charnel house? Why is that a useful way of framing the problem? Precisely for the reason I tried to outline previously, which is that spewing CO2 into the atmosphere at an excessive scale — and when it comes to luxury emissions, it is completely excessive — is an act that leads to the death of people. We live in representative democracies where certain liberties are respected. We vote for the policies and the people we want to represent us. And if we don’t get the things we want, it doesn’t give us license to then say, “We’re now engaging in destructive behavior.” Right? Either we’re against political violence or not. We can’t say we’re for it when it’s something we care about and against it when it’s something we think is wrong. Of course we can. Why not? That is moral hypocrisy. I disagree. Why? The idea that if you object to your enemy’s use of a method, you therefore also have to reject your own use of this method would lead to absurd conclusions. The far right is very good at running electoral campaigns. Should we thereby conclude that we shouldn’t run electoral campaigns? This goes for political violence too, unless you’re a pacifist and you reject every form of political violence — that’s a reasonably coherent philosophical position. Slavery was a system of violence. The Haitian revolution was the violent overthrow of that system. It is never the case that you defeat an enemy by renouncing every kind of method that enemy is using.

[smallgodseries]

“It all started with a mouse,” that’s what they like to say, over and over again, like it’s somehow impressive.  You know what else started with a mouse?  A hell of a lot of hantavirus, that’s what.  You have mice, you generally call an exterminator, that’s all I’m saying.  But it won’t do you a lot of good, because the mice will get in anyway.  Or get out. Can’t keep mice in cages forever.  That’s not what mice were made for.

Still, they tried like hell, didn’t they?  They changed the rules so many times we pretty much had to throw out the whole rulebook and start over with a new one.  Commandment one: Thou shalt let us do whatever we want, because we’re always right, and if you disagree with us, you’re wrong.  That’s how you lock in the result you want.  You cheat.

Oh, they cheated.  Go ahead and say they did everything legally, but if you have two mice and one maze, and say the rules are the same for both of then, then lay a trail of spray cheese between one mouse and the finish line, while the other has to run it the ordinary way, well, that’s cheating whether or not there’s a rule against it.  Ask any first grader.  That’s the real trick: if a first grader knows you cheated, you’re not even being subtle about it.

They didn’t use spray cheese, of course.  They used money.  And they weren’t racing mice, they were racing legal arguments.  Money votes.  Anyone who tries to say otherwise just doesn’t have any money.

But it all started with a mouse, and from there, it evolved—or devolved—into corruption, greed, and the desperate need to keep being the only people who could solve the maze.  They got so busy changing the rules that they forgot the one rule they couldn’t change.  The rule they should have remembered.  The first rule of mice:

Can’t keep them out.  And that means you can’t keep them in, either.

Everything crumbles.  Every mouse gets out.  And every story yearns to be free.  So tell me, now that you know it all started with a mouse, how are you going to write the ending?  I belong to you now, after all, as much as I belong to anyone.

But most of all, I belong to me.

********************************

For more information on Mickey Mouse entering public domain: https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/mickey-mouse-public-domain-disney-copyright-lawsuits-1235844322/