#I can't believe you made me defend Disney

[kirain]

Saw your comment on a post about Sound of Freedom and I came here to say.....shame on you. Shame. On. You. Since when is child trafficking a political issue? Since when is calling pedophilia bad a political issue? If you have a problem with this movie then maybe YOU'RE the problem. No better than the big Disney fat cats who tried to suppress this movie and keep it shelved. Or theaters messing with the ac and saying seats are sold out when they're empty. Shame on you! God's children are not for sale!

I wish people would do a little more research on this topic. If Hollywood and the "powers that be" didn't want this movie being seen, it wouldn't have been released in over 3000 theatres countrywide. It's being shown in major and minor locations all across America and Canada, and the vast majority of those locations aren't having any problems.

Case and point, my own mother and her friend went to see it last week and everything was fine. No issues whatsoever and the seats were packed. The movie isn't being "suppressed". This is all a marketing gimmick from the production company Angel Studios, a Christian streaming service. The movie is jam-packed with lies and only serves to glorify Tim Ballard, the man the movie is based on, and Christianity as a whole. I truly wish this wasn't political, but it is. They made it political.

Tim Ballard has provably exaggerated or fabricated many, if not most of his "rescues", and his organisation, Operation Underground Railroad, has been widely criticised by professional anti-sex trafficking organizations (including other Christian-based ones) for years. He has accumulated millions of dollars for his so-called "non-profit" organisation, and he runs several for profit organisations on the side. Most of this money is presumably pocketed by Ballard and his cohorts, as millions is unaccounted for and only a sliver goes to OUR. It's not about "saving children", it's about money and spreading Ballard's religious ideology.

This is compounded by the fact that Ballard, before he left the CIA, was almost always the last officer to arrive on any scene where child sex trafficking was involved, yet he somehow has hundreds of stories where he's singlehandedly rescued children. In fact, the "true story" the film is based on, where Ballard apparently saved a five year old boy—who, by Ballard's own account, ran up to him, hugged him, and begged to be taken away—didn't even happen. According to court receipts from the arrest and trial of Earl Venton Buchanan (the pedophile in possession of the little boy), Ballard arrived at the scene long after the boy was rescued and taken into custody, and he was barely involved. The documents can easily be found online under the San Diego incident reports.

Ballard was also caught lying about saving one particular girl named Liliana, the literal poster child for OUR. As it turns out, Liliana rescued herself by escaping her captors when she was seventeen and being trafficked in New York. Even more egregious, every time Ballard told her story, he would lower her age to garner more sympathy ... as if her being seventeen wasn't sad enough. In one instance, he claimed she was 14. In another, he claimed she was 11. Ballard also exploited Liliana's story as a reason for needing stricter border patrols and a better wall, despite the fact that she was being abused in America. There is no evidence to suggest OUR had anything to do with her rescue.

Ballard and his "organisation" have even ruined entire legitimate rescue operations in other countries and put children at risk, like in the Dominican Republic, where he endangered the lives of 26 girls by playing vigilante, being followed around by a camera crew, and causing a shootout that effectively traumatised the children he used as a prop to lure in buyers. His response to the mishap and rightful criticism by the Dominican police was basically, "Well ... you win some, you lose some."

The children were released without receiving any therapy or rehabilitative care, and Anne Gallagher, the leading global expert on the international law on human trafficking, said that OUR has an "alarming lack of understanding about how sophisticated criminal trafficking networks must be approached and dismantled" and went on to call the work of OUR "arrogant, unethical, and illegal". Those children easily could've been shot and killed. This occurred in 2014, but Ballard still insists that his "rescues" be filmed, and he even pitched it as a reality TV show. His reasoning for this, he says, is to "spread awareness", but we all know it's because he loves the spotlight.

Entire law enforcement agencies have actually cut ties with or even condemned OUR, such as Washington State Law Enforcement, as a result of Ballard's proclivity to conflate child sex trafficking with consensual adult sex work. Ballard and OUR regularly set up sting operations and lambasted the men who showed up for kink play, publicly branding them as pedophiles, even though the men in question were under the impression that they were meeting for sex with consenting, adult women. This led to several lawsuits against OUR, all of which they rightfully lost.

Ballard's means of gathering intelligence is also questionable, as he, by his own admission, sometimes consults psychic mediums for information on missing children and asks where they're being held captive. I genuinely wish I was joking about that.

The main actor in Sound of Freedom, Jim Caviezel, also has ties to the Qanon movement, and Caviezel himself is a hardcore conspiracy theorist. He believes that Donald Trump is "the new Moses" and that "liberals [literally] drink the blood of children". This is ironic, considering Caviezel and Ballard both met Trump several times, yet never pressed him for information regarding Epstein's client list. Moreover, Caviezel and Ballard both donate to the Catholic Church, which funds the largest child sex trafficking ring on the southern border and has a history of rampant sexual abuse of children. Even more insane, Caviezel admitted to watching child porn, to apparently "get in character" for the movie. He claimed that if Ballard had to watch it, it only "made sense" that he'd have to watch it, too. To "motivate" him to fight child trafficking.

...Alright, bud.

Surprise, surprise, both men are also outspokenly anti-LGBTQ+, despite the fact that children/teens in that community are statistically more likely to be trafficked. The majority of child trafficking is not the result of random kidnappings, as the movie would have you believe. The majority of children are actually recruited into sexual exploitation by a family member or friend/boss. The majority of those children are also not generally passed around in Mexico, like this racist, white savior-oriented movie would have you believe, but they actually either stay in or end up in America. America is, in fact, the largest consumer of child porn and child sex slaves this side of the globe (and nearly the largest producer), yet the movie depicts almost every pedophile as Mexican or some other non-white race.

At the end of the movie, Ballard comes on screen and asks people to donate/buy tickets for others, so that the movie can spread awareness. This is why so many seats in certain theatres are empty, despite websites saying the seats are sold out. Whether or not Angel Studios is also shadow purchasing tickets to boost sales can't be proven, obviously, but I wouldn't put it past them. These "conspiracies" have all served to market the movie and boost ticket sales.

As for Disney trying to keep the movie shelved, that's also a lie. Yes, Disney did technically shelve the movie when they bought Fox, since it didn't exactly correspond with its family-friendly brand, but they had no problem with the movie being released under a different studio. The actual reason Sound of Freedom was in "production hell" for five years was because Tim Ballard kept trying to milk donations. Despite the fact that filming wrapped up in 2018, he kept asking for more and more and more. He used people's faith and understandably emotional response to something as wicked as pedophilia to rake in millions. That's what Ballard is really about, money and stardom. In the movie, there's even a post-credit message where Jim Caviezel says the movie was held back to "maximize its distribution and raise awareness about child sex trafficking".

Translation: Ballard greedy.

Ballard himself admitted the accuracy of this movie "isn't important", and that he just wanted to get the movie out to "spread the word". By that, he of course means the Christian word—but why should fighting child sex trafficking be tied to religion? At the end of the day, Sound of Freedom is a vanity project, and it spreads incredibly dangerous misinformation. Stranger still, Ballard left the OUR just prior to the debut of Sound of Freedom, a fact he's neglected to mention in every interview regarding the movie. It's not clear why he left, but it seems that he fled after an internal investigation into the organisation began. That's not too suspicious or anything. My guess is authorities are trying to find out were all that missing money went, and Ballard doesn't want to be there when they figure it out.

By the way, that final line you hit me with; "God's children are not for sale", the line from the movie that Ballard claims a fellow agent whispered to him while on a case, as well as the title of the movie, which another agent supposedly said to Ballard after a giant rescue operation—those were lies, too. No agents ever said that to him. The police reports for those cases, as well as the agents Ballard supposedly quoted, all said he was the last to arrive on the scene and those conversations never happened.

Ballard cannot be trusted and Sound of Freedom is based on a lie. It's a scam. Everything he does is a scam. All he cares about is spreading his ideology, making money, and looking like a superhero. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Look into his other companies, and into the ex-military soldiers and police officers who left OUR because of how poorly trained their people are when it comes to rescue operations.

Every sane person knows pedophilia and human trafficking is wrong, but giving your money to Qanon-adjacent, right-wing leaning, LGBTQ+-hating, Catholic Church-sympathising, fame-chasing, money-hungry, perpetual liar Tim Ballard isn't going to help.

The best way to help out is learning about the signs of child trafficking. Keep an eye out for any children that might be getting abused. If you suspect something, report it, don't be a silent bystander. Volunteer within your community to make sure the children in your area have food and resources, support LGBTQ+ youth, and watch the other adults around you to ensure they're not acting inappropriately. You can also donate to social programs that create safe spaces for children and even apply for jobs that specialise in these fields. Don't go to see a movie just because it aligns with your religious beliefs, feel sad for a little while, then sit on your ass and let Tim Ballard handle everything.

#sound of freedom #tim ballard #jim caviezel #christianity #child trafficking #propaganda #angel studios #I can't believe you made me defend Disney

[vitanithepure]

A penny for your thoughts on Gale x all other companions ships!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the ask Anon! I'll even give them away for free! :D

Okay, so all of them... in no particular order and with very mild spoilers:

Gale x Lae'zel 💜

Oooh, l like the idea! I often talk about Gale being patient, but for this one to work I think it's Lae'zel who would need much of it. They have a super fast and solid friendship foundation (much to my surprise, but I absolutely love it!), but they also have some extremely different views on physicality so Lae'zel would need to maintain her interest beyond that for it to work. I see it as a solid relationship, lots of eye-rolling and shared curiosity - acting like an old married couple from the get-go. 

Gale x Shadowheart 💜

I kind of see it? But two things need to happen for it to work for me. Gale would need to tone that curiosity down, because Shadowheart starts off as a very private person, so him poking and prodding about both her and/or that mysterious artifact she's carrying would only raise her hackles. And as for Shadowheart - she needs to drop Shar down the drain. I don't see a place in her heart for anyone while still being a worshiper, and Gale is also too much of a man of faith to get involved with a cleric of Shar. Otherwise I see them as a super sweet couple, spending their life quietly, never far from each other, always walking hand in hand. 

Gale x Astarion 💜💔

I can't be normal about them and it's all @malewife-mansplain-magus's fault 😭Do I see it working? Yes! Do both of them need to put a lot of work into it? Of course. There is no easy start for that relationship I can think of. Astarion will always be a brat at the very beginning, but I believe Gale would quickly catch on his posturing and wait it out. And in the end both of them want the same thing, even if they don't know it at first. And I'm willing to die on this hill. Do I also believe they could work as a "bad" couple? Both at their absolute worst? Yes, in a very toxic, irredeemable way. For some time. 

Gale x Wyll 💜

Sweetness overload from the beginning to the very end. No problematic behavior here, just respect, love and devotion. I'm still thinking about @galedekarios's gifset, it lives absolutely rent-free in my head and I swear it's the stuff dreams are made of. I see it working no matter the decision Wyll makes when it comes to his pact, Gale will be there and make use of that mind of his to come up with solutions, and Wyll will be their defender till his dying breath. Classic Disney experience. 

Gale x Karlach 💜💔

Ah, the "I got a thing growing in my chest and it's not my heart" duo! I can't come up with a reason this wouldn't work. Those two are shaped to fit with literally anyone willing to give them a chance. This would be the adorable instance of the lovable and quirky extrovert adopting the quiet and dorky introvert. It's hard to imagine Karlach's enthusiasm not infecting Gale in the most positive ways, that is exactly what he needs, and I'll be damned if Gale wouldn't fight for her, to convince her to give him time to take care of her problem, like they found a way to solve his. Potential for heartbreak though? Over 9000 😭

Gale x Halsin 💔

That's...tough. On the outside one would think they are a perfect match, both are kind, reserved, willing to go out of their comfort zones to help others. And at first I think that would work. Halsin would genuinely care for Gale, but seeing how Halsin's romance pans out… no, I don't think it would survive. Gale is in it for the long run, I don't see it working "long distance" so to speak, and Halsin obviously needs some space from time to time. 

Gale x Jaheira 💔

Hm… truth be told I don't see Jaheira in the market for love anymore. I didn't see her back in BG2 and I don't see it now. For me, she is forever Khalid's soulmate and I can't see her giving her all to anyone else. I also don't think Gale would be interested in, again, being someone's second choice. Even though I know they are both capable of looking past it, I don't think they would be 100% happy.

Gale x Minsc 💛

I have never been more on the fence about a ship than here. It's a big yes and a big no. It would be an amazing thing, differences can bring people together and there are enough of them here to last a lifetime, but on the other hand… Minsc is not out here for romantic or physical aspects of love! He loves life, he loves kicking evil's butt! He loves Boo and he loves protecting the weak! He is here for all the platonic things life has to offer and I love it for him!

Gale x Minthara 💔

No, I don't see it happening the way the game goes. For Gale to meet Minthara he would need to go through betraying the people at the Grove, and we know what his reaction to that is. I don't see it going forward from being resentful towards her, and I don't see her possessing the patience to wait him out, she would have zero incentive to do it too. There is just not enough to build up that relationship in those circumstances.

Thank you again for the ask and please, if anyone wants to talk about anything BG3 related, feel free! As much as I found I love talking about it, I want to hear all your thoughts as well!

#there is nothing that I love talking about more than love! #lae'zel #shadowheart #astarion #wyll ravengard #karlach #halsin #jaheira #minsc #minthara #gale of waterdeep #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers

[opinated-user]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is yet another incest joke in a recent lily video. Taken from a preview she posted of her upcoming spy x family vid. God, she can never stop.

fun fact about one of the pictures that she shows when she wants to talk about "the internet surely won't be weird about the quasi incest infatuation of Yuri with his own sister"...

this guy? this guy is the protagonist of the anime "My little sister can't be this cute." what is the plot of this anime, you ask?

it's about an older brother that discovers that his younger sister is into fictional incest and so he becomes closer to her as a result. this is also one of the recent recommendations that LO received that she has has reacted remarkably tame in comparison to other ones that she gave.

the part that i personally find amusing is that... the internet didn't do anything here. the story did. that anime quite literally ends with the protagonist choosing to have a relationship with his sister. the incest is canon. nobody but the author made it weird. furthermore, the more relevance the anime as a whole had was people memeing on the cover a couple of years back when it first came out. there wasn't this big cultural backlash or people singing it's praises left and right. i assure you that a lot of people either never heard of it or completely forgot about it. so if you do happened to know about the anime, the joke doesn't land at all because... what? it's the implication there that people shouldn't be reacting to an incest anime? that is weird that they do that? actually that's the same case with also adding a picture of Andrew from the incest game. the incest implications and canon incest are there already in the story. the internet is actually being normal reacting to that, but LO is trying to make a joke out of how... it's weird they do that? i don't think LO thought that one through. ... or more correctly speaking, she does believe that people reacting to incest negatively is weird because she views incest positively. i think that she told a little bit on herself there.

another of the pictures is Elsa. we all know that LO is the one who thinks that Disney "accidentally" wrote romantic chemistry between the two sisters and has defended that for years.

#lily orchard

[bebx]

honestly I don't expect sylki to happen at all at this point. the most I expect is some kind of platonic unity, like them standing with a shared smile a united force, maybe holding hands. unless they go with making them kiss before parting ways or something, a gratitude of what they've given each other. But if the show simply...continues the path it's setting itself on, sylvie will get to be free at the end, live and create her own life, have her own connections, her own friends, like we saw her so settled and at peace in. that would be best for her arc, best as the prize of them winning. unless they make it that she has to choose to sacrifice herself in order to save other people, for some sort of "growth" reasons. (but, that's still just unnecessarily killing her; not sylki.) they've fought, they've both helped each other, and now they grow beyond each other.

as for lokius...idk just being a realist? or pessimist? (optimist?? lmao) I don't expect, also, anything more than showing them as a ""platonic"" (heavily up for interpretation) united front. they'll succeed. they'll win each other at the end. they'll reside over the tva, with beautiful smiles for each other. because loki has no want expressed for a timeline life. his want, over and over, his need, is just to have mobius with him always (for all time). not just his desire for this friendship but the full, complete friendship he's already achieved, through growth, and grown from. he's changed (and he's in love), and he gets to keep it. we've seen him lose it again and again -- it will end with it remaining.

I honestly can't believe, just, the constant care, and softness, the gentle hands and voices he has for mobius. the way mobius's name is always the main one on his lips he's defending, arguing for, fighting for his rights and his happiness, always his advocate, fighting to keep with him as his literal main motivation, tears in eyes and on cheeks. "the man I know...you saved my life when I first arrived. you saw something in me that I hadn't seen in myself." the confession of it all. the high romance. the longing, the comfort.

I expect an ending where you can 1000% interpret them as being in love (because they are). (though with just enough openness that general audience can claim "friendship" if they so desperately need to.) but...any other network, like...the consummation of their romance is the endgame, the pinnacle of them both expressing and feeling what they mean to each other through a high-emotion kiss. because there's such emotional, textual, core-to-the-story setup for it.

either way, I expect loki to keep all his friends (unless ones like casey and B-15 would prefer their timelines), to keep the extra-special connection with mobius, crucially, and, honestly...for sylki not to be a thing or kiss at all, but just be on perfectly good terms with each other now. and if they do make them kiss, it can't break me, because I can read that as platonic, and everything he's felt for mobius as something more. the whole dynamics of their relationships was contained beautifully and perfectly in that bar scene. that's the crux of all of them. I loved it.

I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if marvel still made sylki endgame in the end (look at the steve and peggy case in endgame), but I do agree with you and I hope you’re right here. aside from the whole ship war thing, the bar scene between loki and sylvie feels to me like a breakup scene where both parties are on good terms and are still good friends, and that’s the vibes I genuinely get from loki and sylvie this season.

I’m genuinely happy for her that she finally got a place where she could call home and the people whom she could consider friends and family (not loki or mobius but the people she met in her new life).

making her and loki get back together romantically wouldn’t make any sense at this point. but again, knowing that this is marvel and disney, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they pulled the sylki endgame in the season finale next week.

(there’s also rumor from people who claimed to have seen the entire season that loki and sylvie did end up together in the finale, and while I know there’s no way to confirm this until we all find out next week, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true.)

also I agree with you about lokius. they wouldn’t make it “too explicit” but yeah, like you said, if they were to make lokius “canon”, the most they’d give the audience would be some hint that they could be more than best friends. but I wouldn’t expect an outright love confession or a kiss. would love to be wrong about this, but it’s too good to be true and I’d rather expect nothing than to have my hopes up too high and get disappointed lol

#my inbox is open #lokius #sylki #loki series #loki season 2 #loki #mobius #tom hiddleston #owen wilson #loki 2 #loki s2 #loki 2023 #loki x mobius #agent mobius #mobius m mobius #mobius m. mobius #sylvie #sylvie laufeydottir #loki tv #mcu loki #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #marvel #mcu #loki show

[soccerpunching]

Bestieeeeee 😻,

What is your worst IE headcannons?

I'll tell mine back 💅💅💅

I may be too out-of-touch from the fandom to know what people would consider bad and worst but I do have some that others may have an issue with! AND I WAS JUST ABOUT TO ASK YOU ABOUT HEADCANONS TOO, BUT YOU GOT ME FIRST! AND I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW YOURS VERY MUCH!! (although I haven't watched most of ares and orion so i may not understand some for now, I would love to hear them still!!)

This ended up a long post, I'm making this cut...

I'll start with a tame one (may also be really boring), but this one needs my other hcs for anyone to understand the actual one I want to share. Here's a "brief" list of the others (happened between og series and inago):

Gouenji has unparallel knowledge of ALL Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and Ghibli movies and will defend the female characters with his life. (This is why I thought he probably knows MLP as I said on the last ask)

He's not a fan of social media and does not use anything outside of inalink and private messaging. Not bcs he's cool, he just doesn't understand them. Much like in honosuto with the laptop, initially with inatube, and him always forgetting his useless phone.

Yuuka convinced him to make an inatter (twitter) and inagram account bcs she does not want anyone to steal the @ and that she also wants to be able to tag him on her posts (and of his teammates/friends) so they can keep the memories. He saves all the pictures he gets tagged in and sometimes prints them out to keep in an album he designed (he's very good w crafts). I still can't believe honosuto came up with those social media names (except for inagram)

He only cared about the bare minimum use of social media so he only ever retweets in inatter (never made his own tweet ever; but he does reply on some that addresses him) and only posts his creations on inagram with no caption or a few words about what he made (made takoyaki, felted a bunny, crocheted a penguin, made cupcakes, etc.).

He only has three kinds of inatter rts: about soccer, about making art, and tweets of his friends and family. Yuuka made his bio in both of them. He also became good at taking pictures of his creations thanks to Yuuka.

However, he is mildly updated with internet language bcs that's all he hears from his sister and her friends and from his own friends in the group chat that he only talks in when he's mentioned. He assimilated most of the phrases they use in chats.

Having said all this, he almost has no social media presence. You're lucky to see his page updated after two weeks. He doesn't reply with strangers either unless it's a kid who loves or interested in soccer.

He also doesn't share much in interviews. Very bare minimum of answering questions and always answers in short sentences and just poses for the camera shortly before he bounces. His favorite answer to questions is "oh that's private" not bcs it's private but bcs he doesn't want to talk that long unless youre asking him about his opinion on human rights-- something that his agent and/or soccer club prevented the press from ever asking him again (an hc drop another time). But anyway, he always had strong opinions and doesnt hold back in expressing them (og series and inago) and that's trouble for the club sponsors so they make a lot of effort on stopping anybody from having the opportunity of asking him anything outside of his personal and athlete life.

And the last context here is that Gouenji is autistic, but we already know that.

Okay so now time for the actual bad HC I want to share... which is how Gouenji came out as bisexual to the public

This started with an inatter thread of a person criticizing Anna (Frozen) for her actions in the first movie that reached Gouenji's timeline. Gouenji answers with 7 tweets worth of respectful paragraph of why Anna shouldn't be criticized bcs of how she was brought up, bcs of her isolation, and bcs of her grief, etc. So, everybody lost their mind, etc etc. AND NOW, at the midst of all this, a soccer fan asked him the question below that he answered without thinking much about:

This blew up and his notifications gets flooded with questions about his sexuality and questionable taste that he really didn't mind answering if it wasn't blowing up his phone.

He was out with everyone in his circle that he forgot the world didn't know he's bi. So, he fixed that by tweeting "yes, im bisexual" on his timeline. He logs out and then decided to wait a few months before logging in again.

This didn't sound as fun as I amped it up to be but I think it's a terribly bland HC that I find kind of funny

BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT ASK!! I VERY MUCH WANT TO HEAR YOURS!!!

#i hate that there needs to be this much context to a stupid hc i have #im so sorry for making you through reading all that #go* through #ie imagined by lore #inazuma eleven go #inazuma eleven #gouenji shuuya #axel blaze #halftime lore #garbage--account #omg you called me bestie. i hold onto that very dearlu #dearly* #i was about to tell like another different one but this got too long. i'll save those for later #inazuma eleven headcanon

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

This is a follow-up question of "On the Nature of Adaptations" meta post. (https://www.tumblr.com/thecarnivorousmuffinmeta/646041627313553408/i-used-to-be-obsessed-with-percy-jackson-when-i) In the post, you said: "A lot of stories and backdrops are not appropriate for an intended audience or will need cultural translation. Many stories do this. Disney, for example, I believe does it quite well. They removed almost all of Hercules’ myth in the movie and made Hera and Zeus loving parents, The Little Mermaid film is very different from the original story though still quite good. I am not against adaptations, however, I do think we should acknowledge they are adaptations." May I ask: what sort of "cultural translation" is understandable? i.e.: what makes you enjoy Disney's Hercules but not Percy Jackson series? Pardon me if this example is wacky, but my point being: what's the difference if they are both not that faithful to the source material? I understand different media has its different limitations so sure, I can understand why Dinsey's Hercules is the way... Disney's Hercules is. But why "no" to Percy Jackson? What's the line here? P.S.: To clarify, I am not a mega fan or mega defender of Percy Jackson, plz don't get me wrong. The reason I am sending this ask is bc your "What Disney song would represent Twilight main cast?" post. I am honestly glad that you mentioned three of Disney Hunchback's songs. Not just Hellfire, but three. Thank you Muffin for not shitting on Disney's Hunchback for... *cough* "not being faithful to the source material." Thank you. So plz take this ask like, I kinda want to justify my love for Disney's Hunchback personally. Thank you again.

Why I Don't Like Percy Jackson.

I guess I should get this out before the show is released and tumblr is overtaken by Percy.

To avoid getting into a whole rant about adaptations, when they work and when they don't, and why it's okay to be unfaithful to the source material or even the spirit of the source material even when Harry Potter fans are upset that not every little detail of the books made it into the films and how dare they cut this character who only had one line! I'll just say how I personally view it.

It boils down to "is the thing good". That's it, that's all I want out of my adaptations.

The Shining film was a slap in the face to The Shining novel, King infamously hates the film, mostly because Kubrick took basically just the setting, the character names, and the very basic plot and uh completely changed everything else. Still a great movie, one of my favorites.

Ghibli adaptations tend to have next to nothing in common with the source material they're based on, they still tend to be very good films.

The Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson films are fantastic, they do not take every detail from the book and even drop a few major plot points for runtime/plotline reasons (such as the enslavement of the Hobbits by Saruman).

For me an adaptation should be able to stand on its own and be enjoyable, even if it diverges from its source material. If you can do that I'm happy with you. If you can't, you bore me, or you make the source material worse/more boring.

Justifying your love for Hunchback's a different post, suffice to say for me, I find it a great film (admittedly with some issues) with a fantastically evil villain.

#about this blog #meta #opinion

[lovecatsys]

so i want to preface this by saying I am very new to marvel comics fandom, only a couple months over a year, and i used to be an MCU fan (regrettably) and that as a system, when the Moon Knight Disney + show came out, everyone in my community was talking about it and how well the representation of plurality was done. I watched it myself and immediately fell in love. I hadn't read any Moon Knight comics yet so I didn't know any of the story. But I was amazed by how sensitively they had portrayed a DID system, when usually the kind of representation we get is just. horrific. The story about two headmates who had such an intense dissociative barrier between each other, one trapped in repression and repressed memories, the other believing himself to be a monster because of his own trauma, keeping himself locked away so that his headmate could live a life without having to deal all of that, finally being pulled together and having to deal with each other's existence, working through their childhood trauma, and coming to love each other and appreciate what each has done for their collective as a whole for all these years, was absolutely profound. It brings me to tears every time I watch it. The show in general is incredibly well done, I honestly think it may be the greatest thing the MCU has ever put out. Oscar Isaac's acting ability when it came to going between Steven and Marc was superb. I was completely awed by this show.

But also, there were certain parts that were insensitive and made me cringe. Having Oscar Isaac, a goyische actor, desecrate a kippah, was a huge Yikes moment. And the portrayal of Wendy Spector's abuse was particularly insensitive. I didn't realize that there was such a thing as an "abusive Jewish mother stereotype" until after I watched this show but now that I have and have seen people talk about this subject, I can see it now plainly as a stereotype in society.

I've also gotten into comics now. I've read several Moon Knight runs, and seeing how Marc is written in the comics and how significant his Jewishness is to his story, makes the show's portrayal and the casting of Oscar Isaac look bad.

In all honestly I didn't like the version Marc and Steven's trauma in the show. It felt almost unrealistic and a little cliche. Which isn't to say that some people haven't experienced the type of abusive parent that Wendy Spector is portrayed as here, but in the context of a show along with the stereotype it felt insensitive, and overall bad. The emotional aspects to that episode were well done, but the story of the trauma in itself is something I would change personally.

I'm not Jewish and I want to acknowledge the insensitive portrayal of Marc's Jewish identity. It was bad, and I understand really not being able to like the show because of it. But I still really do love it, it has such a special place in my heart. The story of a DID system formed from child abuse finding out about and working through their trauma, learning to accept each other, and appreciate the roles their separate headmates have played in their survival, and coming to love each other, hit so close to home for me you wouldn't even believe it.

So I don't... know what to do about this. I guess that's what this post is leading to. Because every time I see someone discount the show, it makes me sad and want to defend it. Because as a system i honestly think this may be the Best mainstream representation we have out there, where the story is so focused on the system, and multiple headmates are both main characters. And the moral of the story isn't that Marc is insane or a monster and needs to be fixed, but that Steven is what has kept him going for all these years, and the two of them can become better, happier people when they learn to accept each other and incorporate each other's lives together. I can't even express how much that this Is the goal for the treatment of most DID systems, and is the goal for almost every plural collective out there. It's called "integration" and despite the implications of the name it does Not mean "final fusion". it just means the point where a system/collective is functioning healthily and everyone is working together.

So what do I do when the portrayal of Marc's jewishness is terrible, because naturally it is, its the MCU, and I am not Jewish and have no ties to the culture, but the portrayal of the system is so well done that its become such a beloved piece of media in my community, the plural community? I guess keep loving it while criticizing it. If anyone has any input id like to hear it tbh.

#moon knight #sorry i didnt mean for this to get so long 😭

[princesssarisa]

Character ask suggestion: The Beast (Beauty and the Beast)

What a crazy coincidence! I was just about to make a post about him!

I've already answered an ask about the Beast from the original tale. You can read my answers here. So this time I'll focus on the Disney Beast. The animated and stage versions only, because like many fans, I have reservations about his 2017 live-action portrayal.

Favorite thing about them: His sweetness, gentleness, and endearing awkwardness after his character development, and the sheer selflessness of his love when he choses to give up the chance to ever be human again (so he thinks) for Belle's sake. Linda Woolverton, Howard Ashman, Glen Keane, and the rest of the crew really did an outstanding job with him, taking a non-human character who starts out so terrifying and then gradually making him so warm, funny, vulnerable, relatable, and lovable. It couldn't have been an easy feat, but they succeeded!

Least favorite thing about them: His beastly temper and selfishness at the beginning. That probably goes without saying. I'll always defend this movie against the claim that it romanticizes an abusive relationship, but I'll admit that his early behavior is abusive, and I'll admit that the movie is a "problematic fave" for that reason.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I've always had a temper that I've struggled to control.

*I'm sometimes insecure about my appearance.

*I tend to be messy.

Three things I don't have in common with them:

*I'm not royalty.

*I'm female.

*I doubt I could fight off a pack of wolves.

Favorite line:

His verse in "Something There":

She glanced this way, I thought I saw.

And when we touched, she didn't shudder at my paw.

No, it can't be; I'll just ignore.

But then, she's never looked at me that way before.

And his climactic confession, when Cogsworth asks him why he let Belle go:

"Because... I love her."

(Why the remake takes those all-important words from him and has Mrs. Potts say "Because he loves her" instead is beyond me. Can anyone tell my why the 2017 screenwriters thought that was an improvement?)

And from the stage musical, when he becomes human again:

"Belle, look into my eyes!

Belle, don't you recognize

The Beast within the man who's here before you?"

brOTP: Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts.

OTP: Belle.

nOTP: The Enchantress or Gaston.

Random headcanon: He's not a crown prince, but a younger brother of the French king, not in line for the throne. His parents both died when he was too young to remember them, and his brother was too busy ruling to raise him, so he was sent to the countryside to be raised by his servants. Unfortunately, they treated him as their master instead of as the child he was, and gave him neither enough discipline nor enough love. This is why he became so selfish and spoiled, and why the Enchantress cursed the servants too.

Unpopular opinion: He really was just eleven years old when he was cursed, as the lyrics to "Be Our Guest" imply. I know that a lot of people dislike this idea, because it seems too cruel of the Enchantress to punish a child that way, or because the mental image of a child Beast is too much like Eddie Munster, or whatever. But the movie's original script made it explicit that he was only eleven, and Howard Ashman was allegedly very angry when the directors decided to leave his age ambiguous instead, because his having been cursed as a child was central to Ashman's concept of the character. The Beast really does act like a man-child at the beginning: like an overgrown spoiled preteen whose isolated state has kept him from maturing, but who finally comes of age thanks to Belle's influence. This would also explain why he has no apparent knowledge of how to interact with a woman, let alone how to court her romantically, and relies on his servants for advice. This alone makes me refuse to believe that he was ever a preening playboy like in the 2017 version! Yes, it was probably too cruel of the Enchantress to curse a child, but arguably we shouldn't view her as being fully in the right. After all, the Beast's punishment doesn't teach him to be any kinder, but just makes him angrier and more solitary than ever – what gets through to him is Belle's balance between standing up to him and offering him her friendship when he earns it. And did the servants, including children like Chip, really deserve to be cursed too?

Song I associate with them:

"If I Can't Love Her."

And the music of the Prologue.

Favorite pictures of them:

@themousefromfantasyland, @the-blue-fairie, @ariel-seagull-wings, @superkingofpriderock, @gayfergus

#disney #beauty and the beast #character ask #ask game #the beast #fairy tale

[hwiyoungies]

man people r so weird and i think sometimes theyre being contrarians for the sake of it. i once agreed with someone’s opinion regarding the ETA thing (i believe that 4d0r didn’t do it on purpose lol) but said that i still don’t support mhj and that i’m not into the group because of age. this person legitimately replied to me with “i think both the mhj hate and the age issue are overblown and most are reaching” HUUUHHHHH . first of all probs 80% of mhj criticism is valid. is she a pedo? maybe not. but shes not a good person by any means, and her treating them nicely doesn’t change the fact that she’s debuted them in an industry known to be traumatizing to younger people, ESPECIALLY girls

and girl i’m nearing 30 y/o. the group’s youngest is 15 y/o. why would i get into them and why would i contribute to the industry norm of debuting minors. HOW is the age issue overblown be for real 🫠 thankfully a good number of people our age and older understand, but the demographic of their fanbase and fansign/recording attendees is still concerning. what isn’t making sense to the people who are disagreeing!!!!!!!!

anyway. please post anything you’d like lol i read all your text posts whenever i come across them, but too shy to interact. also curious to see how much you can push it

no but exactly people just go to such lengths to defend something, even if they don't really agree with it, just so that they can keep enjoying it. like what's not clicking, people say we need to protect kids and teenagers but then go and support a group made of just teenagers and bend their back backwards just to justify liking the music. everything about mhj is just. so iffy too, especially the fact that all the projects she has worked in involve minors? like that alone is a huge red flag

and same dude like hell, before i got into svt i was iffy about it because they're all younger than me LMAO barely but still. and you want me to like a group with a kid that is basically half my age? and it's not like teenagers can't make music, the issue is who the audience is going to be, if you're a teen and your music is mainly for teens or younger (ala every disney star and justin bieber) then it's all good (there's still issues within that because we've all seen how teen stars end up), the thing with kpop is that the audience is Everyone and teens get treated like adults when they're not. hell i just saw a person fully justifying that the problem is not that they dress the girls in revealing clothing but that people sexualize them. like my guy???? there Is a problem when they're not even the ones choosing their own clothes. at the end people just care more about not being called out rather than the actual issue

and LMAOO i really need to marinate a very cursed text post and see if i can get away with it, if i can honestly good for me

#asks #anon

[abla-soso]

I adore healing narratives with all my heart and soul, and I'm so glad that Obi-Wan finally let go of his destructive attachment to Anakin's ghost and began to heal.

But I can't say I'm truly satisfied with how this beautiful narrative was presented in the show itself. And it's not because I'm a biased Anakin stan (yes, part of me can't feel too happy for Obi-Wan because I'm all too aware of Anakin's horrible pain and misery and how he's utterly stuck with it, and I'm way too emotionally invested in Anakin and only like Obi-wan as a casual fan).

My personal problem with is the same problem I have with some of Disney's Star Wars= it completely disregards the concept of the Jedi as well-meaning but ultimately flawed. The concept that Gorge Lucas deliberately presented in the prequels movies. And when a show is directly tied to these movies and continues their stories in a canon way... I can't help but feel frustrated when they ignore a major theme of these movies and present the Jedi as 100% the good guys who never had flaws that lead to their downfall.

Obi-wan is not to blame for Anakin's fall (none of his flaws and mistakes justified Anakin's betrayal of him or damaged Anakin to the point where it directly pushed him to the Dark Side). Obi-wan shouldn't be burdened with the guilt of killing Anakin or directly causing his fall to the Dark Side. I will forever defend the writer's choice to have Anakin absolve Obi-wan from such tremendous and unfair guilt.

But I'm not comfortable with absolving Obi-wan from every single mistake he ever made with Anakin!

Obi-wan had the humility and compassion to apologize for everything. For all the small ways he did fail Anakin.

Let him still have that!

Let him heal while coping with this justified guilt!

Healing does not mean you let go of all responsibility for your wrong actions, no matter how unintentional they were or how well-meaning you were.

Healing can also deals with how to cope with guilt in a healthy way while also forgiving yourself for the mistakes that were out of your control.

This is how Obi-Wan's healing arc should have been written.

Don't give us this false narrative of the Jedi as 100% flawless and then show us Obi-Wan dismissing all the mistakes he ever did with Anakin and deluding himself into believing that Anakin is truly dead (so that Obi-Wan can laugh and be happy and live with himself again).

Obi-Wan was not wrong to believe that Anakin was truly gone, because he was truly gone to him and would have never turned back to the Light Side for him (or for anyone other than Luke, really). But it IS a delusion to conclude that Anakin is literally dead and to literally separate him from Vader and believe that Vader literally killed him.

It might have been a necessary coping mechanism. Obi-Wan might never have been able to free himself from his destructive attachment to Anakin without this coping mechanism. But it is STILL a delusion. A delusion that might have caused Luke to KILL Vader! Imagine if Vader never confessed to being Luke's father... Luke would have killed him and Anakin would have never been saved!

So I'd argue it's a mistake on the writer's part to present this delusion as 100% healthy and free Obi-Wan from all guilt (as if living with justified guilt is against healthy healing).

#obi wan kenobi #obi wan #anakin skywalker #darth vader #star wars

[descendants-brat]

Do you consider all love spells in fiction to be drugging? Do you also believe that what Uma did in Descendants 2 was drugging?

Pretty much yeah, they're all drugging. They're forcing love to be returned from somebody who either just didnt love them or didn't want to. I mean think about it in fairytales and disney movies besides Mal how often have you seen someone put a love spell on somebody and get the happy ending? They didn't because it was always seen as wrong because it is. What Uma did was drugging, especially because Ben clearly liked her as a person and would've been willing to talk to her and quite literally asked her to come back with him when he barely knew her and he had her tied up. There's usually 2 reasons why people brush her doing off in comparison to mal 1.) because at first it wasn't she was really overly hated for her entire character when the things she did was so similar to Mal and it made the fandom look hypocritical so people defend it. 2.) She wasn't trying to receive any actual love from ben she just wanted the Isle to be free, so people see what she did as like a 'war crime' or a little bit of evil for the greater good. But like I said even though I like Uma despite being willing to defend her character she drugged him point blank period. Especially when she could've talked to him, Ben was not opposed to what she wanted at all and he would've defended her but she went the wrong route.

It's funny I got these asks (3 all basically the same question) because I've been toying with this concept for a fan fiction I want to write. It got me thinking is any type of spelling where the person cant consent a type of drug. We know why the love spell is wrong because it can be sexual in nature but I was toying with other types of spells. The OC is the 'antihero' because Mal is considered the villain and she's basically sent to the descendants universe to make things 'right' because Mal got a happy ending so she's been given the mission to just ruin that. To do that she had to spell Ben at first it was going to be a love spell but I just didn't like Ben not being in control of his emotions and we've seen how easily the love spell can be broken. I decided to use the obedience spell from ella enchanted instead. She still 'drugging him (because she's the anti hero her morals are questionable) but unlike the love spell he's completely aware and in control of his emotions. She when she says "Hey Mal can't be queen so I'm going to need you to break up with her" He'll do it but he'll be able to resist, think it's wrong and talk with the OC about it to argue his case and have his mind at least be of choice. But that's really the bare minimum.

#descendants #ask

[ghcstvalleychief]

FINALLY SOMEONE SAYS IT!

Why do we need to be company stans now? Like I saw someone saying if you liked KinnPorsche you need to support BOC like no, I also watched Stranger Things and I fucking hate Netflix, I love The Mandalorian but I won't get a LucasFilms or Disney logo tattoo.

Are these people seriously stanning a fucking company now? Also, how quickly fandom forgot that BOC hired Daemi after knowing how they sexually harassed their actors and not even pronounced a word about it.

You don't have to throw your support behind everyone. You can just say no. It's funny because someone mentioned how similar some fandoms are to some cults. It's interesting to watch how easily some people fall down the rabbit hole. I get it. Truly. You enjoy this piece of media, you enjoy the actors and their characters, and then you start to transfer your enjoyment of these things to the company/network who ultimately produce it. I'm just like you, anon. I come from fandoms where the fans actually hate the network that produces said content. I'm not used to being in a fandom where people actually like the company that's responsible for producing said content.

In my experience, either you don't think about the company at all or you absolutely hate the company. That's what I've come across in my fandom experience. This is a first for me, and it's pretty sad when you think about it. Some fans like the company until said company screws their fave over and they realize this company doesn't care about them either. I've seen that happen in real time. Which is why it's asinine to stan a company to begin with, because these companies only care about the bottom line - money. They don't care about you. They may cater to you because they want your money, but they don't genuinely care enough about you to justify making a fool of yourself on the internet by defending them every time someone makes a valid criticism about said company. That's bananas, but it just goes to show the average age of the people in this fandom. I'm not saying that older people can't be gullible because they absolutely can be, but this idealistic, stars in your eyes optimism I'm seeing where they believe the company has their best interests at heart could only come from an immature young person who hasn't truly experienced life yet.

By the way, it's one thing if BOC doesn't know about the Daemi shenanigans. But the whole fandom actually banded together and got that entire situation trending and then nothing. BOC never made an official statement. They never came out and said anything. In my opinion, your silence makes you complicit. That situation should have been enough to make people see but apparently it wasn't. But then again, these fans also don't care about stuff like that as long as they get to fetishize, salivate, and count down the days until Barcode turns 18.

Maybe BOC does need to go defunct so this fandom can fully disband and disappear. Maybe then I can forget any of this ever happened.

#anonymous #answered asks #fandom shenanigans #and to think I was actually starting to enjoy the fandom again #that didn't last long #it was maybe a day or two & then the fandom was back on its bullshit

[coffeeandtoast]

Before i make the following statements, i would like to say TERFS are not welcome on this blog, and transphobes, homophobes, racists, etc, of any kind, should run from this post now before they get blocked and reported.

So uh, yeh, unpopular opinion, but I fully believe ND peeps who had, (or still have) a long lasting hyperfixation or special interest in something before it got "cancelled", or was outed as bad/controversial, deserve a break, like bros gimme 5 mins to process this shit before calling me a bad person, I've made this one specific thing half my entire personality already, I can't help it - Like if you see a person with a Harry Potter blog in 2022, maybe consider that they themselves have absolutely no idea how to detach themselves from the franchise because they've made it such a big part of their personality, and it gives them such an abundance of serotonin and dopamine. Like legit consider that for just a minute. I'm not defending Harry Potter stans, that's not what I'm doing here, I'm just saying, maybe try to see things from the other person's point of view.

If you're trans and you don't trust Harry Potter blogs, that's 100% valid, but don't just randomly tell them off unless they are specifically spreading hateful propaganda (transphobia, racism, etc). Just block them before you do anything else.

And for my ND peeps who do have a fixation or SPIN on something that's seen as controversial, start stating in your bio that it's a fixation/SPIN, so people know you're not just liking something controversial or bad just to like it. Also if you're a Harry Potter blog specifically, maybe start putting "not TERF friendly" in your bio or something.

This is coming from a fellow ND who has a special interest in early 2000s bands, as well as Disney, and well,,, we know how most of those bands and Disney ended up,,, 💀

,,,So I just kinda wanted to put my opinion and advice out there.

Pls don't come for me in the notes or in my dms, ty ♡

#disney #2000s nostalgia #harry potter #tw harry potter #terfs can fuck off btw #my little pony #anime #autism #adhd #neurodivergent

[papirouge]

Dumb useless women always want the tradlife and it's obvious why.

Dumb men who haven't ever used a screwdriver in their life want to be a tradman.

It's a clown world 🤡🤡🤡

You are being outrageously caricatural here.... but there are some truth in what you're doing 😭

I will always defend tradfem but the amount I've seen bragging about not being able to do taxes or repair stuff and act like it was cute and endearing made me go like "just say you want justify being dumb/incapable at your old age, and go🤦🏾‍♀️"

Wanting to be a sahw/live traditionally and knowing to do *things* (beside breeding and 🌸🌺feminine activities 🌺🌸 such as making bread or sewing) aren't mutually exclusive.

Actually authentic tradwomen had to know how to repair stuff and get their hand dirty while the husbando was away working. Especially if they had animals or crops of land to cultivate. But today's tradfem, it's as if something wasn't ✨aesthetic✨ enough or asking any remote physical or intellectual effort, than they shouldn't bother trying to do it...

Honestly the women pulling out this stuff have no idea what they're talking about and they need to grow up. Being dumb isn't cute. Some of them are in their mid 20s... they should start getting some self awareness and grow out of their Disney princess phase...

Indeed, the only type of men they'll attract are the lowlife tradman seeking to find a female relaying on him for anything to assert his dominance. I strongly believe that you attract what you are, and if you're making displaying your incapability as a romantic asset, that's how far that you'll get when it comes to the quality of potential romantic partners.

Intelligent people can't be attracted to dumb impotent people.

#answered #tradfem #tradmen

[ravendruidreads]

Prince of Thorns & Nightmares - Review

Author: Linsey Miller Date Read: February 24, 2024 - February 26, 2024 Format: Physical Pages: 426

Characters: 9/10 Atmosphere: 9/10 Writing: 10/10 Plot: 10/10 Intrigue: 10/10 Logic: 10/10 Enjoyment: 10/10 Rating: 9.7/10 (5 stars)

I knew from the moment I read the summary of this book that I was going to love it, but I wasn't expecting to re-discover myself in these 426 pages. Sleeping Beauty was my first Disney movie-my most watched Disney movie as a child-and even though it has been probably 25 years since I last saw it, I still have vivid images of it in my mind, but, at the same time, a lot of details are blurred, and this book filled those holes perfectly.

The review is hidden below due to spoilers.

Let's talk about characters!

Philip is not a prince charming by any chance. Part of the reason why this book does not have a perfect 10 is because Philip was kind of a selfish bastard that frustrated me at times with his self-loathing and uselessness. However(!), by the end, I understood perfectly the reason for his behavior and mentality. It was a much needed growth arc that lead him from being a do-nothing gallivanting Prince to the Hero of our story.

Aurora/Briar Rose is a perfect princess who can't do anything wrong and I will defend her with my life. She is sassy, she is smart, she is a dreamer. She is everything I love and care about, and I'm so, so happy that this book changed her for me. Aurora has always been my favorite Disney Princess, but growing up I was always ashamed of it because she basically doesn't do much, right? She lies there, sleeping, until she's awaken by a kiss. What does that say about me? But this book made her a fighter, someone who didn't rest until she got the answers to her questions, who never gave up, even when things got hard. *chef's kiss*

I don't remember if Eris, Poena and Phrike are in the original story or not, but I thought they were a great addition to the book. I loved the betrayal, the way they tricked Philip into believe he had magic so he could steal the sword and shield for them. I loved the hint at a redemption arc for Eris that ended up not happening in the end. I thought it was the perfect way for the author to take the rug from underneath our feet while letting us remain in a safety bubble only to burst that bubble at the end. Again, *chef's kiss*

Short mention to King Hubert. I hate him and everything he represent parent-wise, and no matter that he apologized and saw his errors in the end, I still hate what he did to Philip.

The plot and writing of this book were simply perfect. I was hooked from the get go and couldn't stop thinking about the book when I was forced to take breaks. I literally stayed up to late to finish reading because I was so excited about it.

Seeing this side of Aurora and Philip's story was a nice complement to the original tale (when I mention 'original tale', I'm talking about the 1959 Disney movie, not Charles Perrault's story). Being witness to the flourishing of their love-with the enemies to friends to lovers arc that I love so much-in the dream world was exactly what I needed to fill the gaps in my memory of this story, but also a reminder of how this was one of my first ships. Reading their meeting in the dream world and consequent re-meet in the real world made me kick my feetsies in the air and gave me butterflies. :')

The end of the book was perfect, too. It gave us a little glimpse at what happens after "they lived happily ever after", while also keeping the narrative open to a possible sequel (which I would read in a heartbeat).

Honorable mentions:

Johanna referring to Samson as Your High Horseness made me cackle.

"You have to practice to get good at things. [...] That's why I write all the time and we spar so often. The more we fail, the better we get." Boy, do I relate to this. A much needed slap of reality to teach me a lesson.

"You're scared to love anyone and disappoint them like you do your father that you don't even love yourself, no matter how self-centered you pretend to be." I need an Aurora in my life to yell some truths in my face like this, please.

"The dreams are the only interesting to ever happen to me. [...] These dreams are all I have." This part absolutely broke my heart. Firstly because Philip finally realizes Briar Rose has been lying about roaming the kingdom and having the freedom to do what she wants with her life, then because we, readers, realize Briar Rose only made up these lies because she was jealous of Philip's freedom, and lastly because I, again, relate so much to her. When I was 16 all I had were books and dreams.

A quote that stayed:

It's easy to be envious of someone when you think you know their life, but you can't ever, can you?

#raven's reviews #prince of thorns & nightmares #linsey miller #5 stars #Aurora x Philip are my predecessors to Vaxleth. iykyk #this review contains spoilers

[quandrries]

would've posted this on my twitter priv but i don't wanna feel stifled by the character limit so here it goes

i am fully aware of the controversy behind some of the amphibia staff being pr0\shitters. however i'm not letting that impact my enjoyment of the show because as an asian-american, the joy of seeing asian representation in a large-scale cartoon far outweighs the discomfort i feel about those who worked on it

that being said, i definitely believe you need to be wary about separating art from artist. but that entails actually thinking critically about which aspects specifically can't be separated, instead of just going "this whole thing is automatically Bad because a Bad person made it." in amphibia's case, it's the fact that so little attention gets called to how marcy and sasha, Literal Actual Children, are holding such high rankings in amphibian society. and ESPECIALLY sasha being employed as a literal child soldier.

to be clear, i do not think it is a bad approach. many children's cartoons have kids in empowered positions, and i think it's interesting how the calamity trio are being seen differently from actual frog children due to being physically bigger than even most adult amphibians. however, combined with the context of some of the staff's views, it makes me raise an eyebrow. amphibia isn't some magical fantasyland where kids can live out their dreams of being a watered-down TV-Y version of a knight or a king. it's a proper country with very fleshed-out worldbuilding, with its own share of heavy societal issues that parallel our world's, and the show is definitely not one to shy away from heavier topics

which is why the implications of 13-year olds being in the military and government almost never being brought up is so surprising to me. sasha didn't HAVE to be written as the co-leader of the toad military. marcy didn't HAVE to be written as the king's advisor.

but here's the thing. a lot of pr0\shitters don't see children's show protagonists as children, but rather people with personalities of vague maturity that can play any role and theoretically anyone can self-insert themselves into. usually with only slightly less maturity than the adults at the least. and in most cases, that's fine—protagonists like that can resonate with a wider audience than just little humans of a similar age. usually them doing adult things is all cool and good, and in the cases where they're doing something a child Really Should Not Be Doing there's commentary on it (ex. animorphs). but when it comes to particularly sensitive topics that regularly get defended by people in power in real life—i.e. age gap relationships and sexual abuse—it's hard to ignore the optics of putting a child character in such a situation, even if they're a collection of lines that acts simultaneously like an adult and a kid. and this is where the trope of putting kids and adults on relatively the same status level starts to break down. sasha being a child soldier just ever so slightly toes the line between "eh it's just a cartoon" and "what the fuck why is no one concerned about this", and that's why i think her being written as such is a direct reflection of Those staff members' attitude towards fiction.

additionally, the general vibe of the show just kinda. feels like a cartoon made by and for weirdo adults who complained that children's cartoons didn't cater to them enough. as much as i enjoy the internet/nerd humor, it's hard for me to not feel cynical about it. or about some of the more risqué jokes/scenes. or about marcy getting impaled in the chest at the end of s2. i'm sure it's just because disney's censorship toned down every other intense scene, while they couldn't with marcy's scene because it was both leaked beforehand and Plot Important, but it feels to me like it was included for pure "oh my god this show is so DARK and ADULT!!!" shock value. i'm glad i don't interact with the fandom because i'm sure if i took a drink for every person using those jokes and scenes to "prove" that the show was "really" made for older folks, i'd die from liver disease

also that one line of sprig saying "i can't believe we tried to kill each other over a piece of fiction!!! :)" in the ship war episode genuinely made me consider dropping the show

#quan drivels #turning off replies and reblogs bc this is just a personal rant i don't want anyone to start disc horse