#TO MAKE IT A MORAL PROBLEM

[dearedwardteach]

twitter and tiktok lgbts seriously need to learn to shut their fucking mouth and get educated on shit before they open it I am dead serious queer theory is not a fucking toy you can pull out as you please everytime something doesn't agree with you personally godddddd

#yes this is about the bury your gay/queerbaiting drama surrounding the ofmd season finale #but its also about what happened to that poor boy who plays in heartbreaker #ppl dont owe you shit #tv shows dont we you shit except for a good storyline and characters staying true to themselves and/or their character arc #just because you dont like something doesn't mean it has to be morally wrong / made into something that's not safe and needs to be cancelle #or whatever other dumbshit idea your social media riddled brains are producing #queer theory is not a toy for you to play with #why do you think we have medias with so many queer characters today huh? not bc u were on twitter 20 years ago cancelling medias that didnt #BUT BECAUSE QUEER AUTHORS THEORISED HOW OPPRESSION TRANSLATED INTO MEDIAS WE HAD ACCESS TO! #BECAUSE THEY PUT FORWARD CONCEPTS THAT ALLOWED US TO SEE QUEERPHOBIC PATTERNS AND BRING THEM TO LIGHT! #EVERYTIME YOU USE THOSE CONCEPTS JUST BC YOUR SORRY ASS WASNT HAPPY WITH THE DIRECTION A SHOW TOOK #TO MAKE IT A MORAL PROBLEM #YOU UNDERMINE THEM! YOU UNDERMINE THE TOOLS WE HAVE TO ACTUALLY BRING TO LIGHT QUEERPHOBIC PATTERNS IN MEDIA! #GOD WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND YOU DUMB BRAINWASHED MORONS #our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd discourse #izzy hands #idk how to tag this for ppl who dont want to see the drama so i hope this is enough #bury your gays #queerbaiting #queer theory #god i am pissed off. #heartstopper #sorry my bad

[lord-squiggletits]

One of my favorite parts of phase 2 (and indeed one of the few moments I resonated with IDW Prowl) was when the neutrals were coming back to Cybertron and Prowl said that he refused to let Autobots be pushed aside and overruled after they were the ones who fought for freedom for 4 million years (the exact wording escapes me atm).

And I mean, that resentment still holds true even once the colonists come on bc like. As much as it's true that Cybertron's culture is fucked up, and as funny as it can be to paint Cybertronians as a bunch of weirdos who consider trying to kill someone as a common greeting not important enough to hold a grudge over.... The colonists POV kind of pissed me off a lot of times, as did the narrative tone/implications that Cybertronians are forever warlike and doomed to die by their own hands bc it just strikes me as an extremely judgemental and unsympathetic way to deal with a huge group of people with massive war PTSD and political/social tensions that were rampant even before the war?

Like, imagine living in a society rife with bigotry and discrimination where you get locked into certain occupations and social strata based on how you were born. The political tension is so bad there's a string of assassinations of politicians and leaders. The whole planet erupts into an outright war that leads (even unintentionally) to famine and chemical/biological warfare that destroys your planet. Both sides of the war are so entrenched in their pre-war sides and resentment for each other that this war lasts 4 million years and you don't even have a home planet any more. Then your home planet gets restored and a bunch of sheltered fucks come home and go "ewww why are you so violent?? You're a bunch of freaks just go live in the wilderness so that our home can belong to The Pure People Who Weren't Stupid And Evil Enough To Be Trapped In War" and then a bunch of colonists from places that know nothing about your history go "lol you people are so weird?? 🤣🤣 I don't get why y'all are fighting can't you just like, stop??? Oh okay you people are just fucked up and evil and stupid then" ((their planets are based on colonialism where their Primes wiped out the native populations btw whereas the Autobots and OP in particular fought to save organics. But that never gets brought up as a point in their favor)) as if the damage of a lifetime of war and a society that was broken even before the war can just magically go away now that the war is over.

Prowl fucking sucks but he was basically the only person that pointed out the injustice of that.

And then from then on out most of the characters from other colonies like Caminus and wherever else are going "i fucking hate you and your conflicts" w/ people like literal-nobody Slide and various Camiens getting to just sit there lecturing Optimus about how Cybertronians are too violent for their own good and how their conflicts are stupid, with only brief sympathetic moments where the Cybertronians get to be recognized as their own ppl who deserve sympathy before going right back to being lambasted.

Like I literally struggled to enjoy the story at multiple points because there was only so much I could take of the characters I knew and loved being raked over coals constantly while barely getting to defend themselves or be defended by the narrative so like. It was just fucking depressing and a little infuriating to read exRID/OP

#squiggposting #and like dont get me wrong barber wasnt trying to make cybertronians the bad guys or whatever #it's just a problem with his writing where like. he has A Message he wants to send #and so he uses the entire story literally just for The Message even if it involves bullshit plotlines #or familiar characters ppl were reading about for the past decade being shit on by OCs made up to fill a new roster #like barber's writing tends to lean way too much on a sort of lecturing tone #without giving proper care towards including moments where characters get to like. fucking express themselves and share their side #sort of like how barber couldnt be bothered to write pyra magna and optimus actually talking to each other during exrid #and instead during OP ongoing pyra is suddenly screaming about how OP is unteachable #even tho she never even tried to teach him bc she and OP never interacted bc i guess barber couldnt be bothered #he just needed someone to lecture OP so fuck making the story make sense or like letting OP get to say anything in defense #this is the infuriating part of barber's writing bc i think he has incredible IDEAS and was in charge of the lore i was most interested in #but most of the time his execution sucks and he's basically just mid with a few brilliant moments occasionally #or like he has a message about the cycle of violence he wants to convey #but his narrative choices trying to convey that theme made his story come off as super unsympathetic to the ppl who suffered #to the point where barber actively kneecapped some scenes that couldve been super fucking intense and emotional #in favor of the characters lecturing each other or some stupid plot to criticize OP #that time in unicron where windblade screamed about how this is their fault and then arcee replied that her planet is build on coloniation #shouldve happened more often than literally the last series of the ocntinuity. like goddamn stfu about your moral superiority #when your own sins are right fhere lol

[tiredyke]

i cant stand feminist discourse on this site because its like 90% "feminism means equality which means you can't say anything bad about men and you have to criticize women just as much as men because misandry is just as bad as misogyny" and these posts always get thousands of notes from other people who call themselves feminists likeee

#the problem isn’t that women are immune to criticism it’s that they get overly criticized and judged to a much harsher degree than men #and to hear people say that we need to criticize women more or ‘stop pretending they’re all innocent angels’ is fucking infuriating #considering women actually get burned at the stake for expressing negativity toward men while men get to make misogynistic remarks and jokes #and get crowned for being so brave and having such a strong moral compass that they aren’t afraid to stomp down on women #like the shit with amber heard. everyone is so quickly to turn on women and demonize them when they’re literal victims and uplift men who #abuse them #but sure men are demonized in society and don’t feel cherished enough and that’s a problem! /s #neon talks #misogyny

[wizardnaturalist]

reading the three musketeers for the first time and I now understand why Ive yet to see a faithful adaptation. it's bcs these guys fucking suck

#not good dudes!! #opposite of thw dracula problem. where all adaptations make all the characters evil and sexy #all musketeers adaptations turn the morally bankrupt sexy guys into noble gentlemen #the three musketeers #alexandre dumas

[swamp-cats-den]

Is it just me, or have the western leftists become especially bold when talking about the war against Ukraine in the last couple of months? It used to be 'yeah, I understand you're going through the war, but... (have you thought that America also bad/what about Azov/the russian culture is the real victim here etc.)'. Now it seems like only the 'but' part is left. I'm talking about the kind of leftists who've reblogged a couple of photos of Palestine from the safety of their peaceful homes, and got the feeling that they are a part of the ongoing events in the same way as the people actually affected by the atrocities committed. In the end, it comes down to making it all about themselves, doesn't it.

#of course you can and should talk about things you've never experienced #the problem is that such people talk about those things as if they've experienced them #it's the condescension towards Ukrainians who are supposedly having it 'not as bad' (it is as bad) #it is about making the suffering of both countries into a point in discussing moral superiority #Ukraine

[shorthaltsjester]

honestly as someone who has been in various fandoms for a long time now and who also watched campaigns 1 and 2 without really getting into cr fandom it isn’t Shocking but it is annoying how often people will look at the stories that cr tells and make absolute claims about the goodness of characters (goodness here meaning Moral goodness, not I Like This character and think it’s well made goodness, which is a separate post entirely). particularly regarding the gods and pc parents. and honestly like, typically in fandom i get annoyed by people bending over backwards to woobify characters who are active in their choice to be unkind and generally horrible but in the cr fandom it’s tended to be the opposite where like. a character is just. a human being (in the sense of being Average not in the sense of Fantasy Races) and huge swaths of the fandom act like that’s the most unforgivable thing someone can be. and maybe it is, but one of the most powerful things about fiction is that it tends to encourage people to expand their empathy and exercise their ability to forgive. because fictional characters, no matter how much people like to project onto them, tend not to cause anyone harm, so it’s easier to learn how to forgive and accept things you don’t understand without also villainizing them.

this is mostly prompted by the recent 4sd and the fact that matt’s response to what’s up with the dawnfather was a very insistent “He’s not bad!” and also seeing the online reaction to the mention that the matron would punish vax for saving keyleth that has taken the as usual completely bonkers tune that the raven queen (Who When Met With A Brother Asking A God To Kill Him In Favour Of His Sister, Gave Him A Job, and Later Extended His Natural Life To Help Protect The World And Have More Time With His Family And Allowed Him To Visit His Sister On Her Wedding Day) is a horrible evil abusive bitch of a god. like. can we grow up? can we understand the world and fiction that represents the multitudes of experiences found in it in shades of grey? is that too much to ask (i know it is).

but also specifically the like Extremely Adamant way that both matt and laura were like no no no no relvin isn’t Horirble he’s average. he’s not good he’s just. he’s A father, not a good or bad one. and on the surface it’s hilarious that they’re both so like. enthused to point out that he’s Average because typically when people respond to a claim of a characters badness with the level of immediacy they both did it’s a rebuttal of “no, this character is good actually.” but it was just to affirm that relvin did harm imogen, but not because there’s some aspect of his character that is inherently cruel or especially Bad. and like. yeah actually. yeah you should react like that to a claim that this average person who Has hurt someone, the way that nearly every single person has hurt someone in a way they cannot repair, with immediacy to say this person is a Person and thus imperfect and capable of great harm, but that isn’t some all encompassing judgment on their morality or capability to also do good or be fine.

anyway this is kinda just a rant post but also is just me saying i’m very grateful that when surrounded by a fandom that tends to paint characters as Good or Bad and even while using a game that can encourage that with its alignment system, cr has always told stories that see goodness as a persistent choice that might sometimes falter and that can be chosen even after a lifetime of Badness. i can’t remember exactly what the quote was so forgive me if it’s incorrect but when jester is talking to caleb after he claims he’s not a very good person and she says “good people do bad things sometimes. even bad people do good things.” that’s it! that’s one of the most consistent themes across campaigns. and yet.

#on fandom #cr tag #i just. maybe it’s the philosophy major in me but. good grief the shit some of y’all say about morality and then turn around and ignore #what you’ve just said. good grief #lately it’s specifically been the people who support liliana (i too love evil women) and act like she tripped and fell into her current #position. and then turn around and call relvin an abusive devil #like. sorry which one has been manipulating imogen. which one abonded her? #that’s besides the point. my point is. the words good and bad are meaningless. #the good placeism. is this character trying to be better today than they were yesterday #this is the imogen temult problem actually. like yes she Chooses to be good. but that is only a choice because we have Seen her be selfish #and cruel and manipulative. if i had to choose to call imogen good or bad i’d of course choose good. but that undermines so much of #what makes her ‘goodness’ actually compelling. #honestly same with fjord. like his character as a charismatic paladin who fights for Good™ is comtextualised by having seen his journey #like. otherwise he’d be boring. #like. if any cr main character was just Good or just Bad. i promise it would not be as popular as it is #critical role

[shima-draws]

Someone ACTUALLY just tried to tell me that it’s more “morally acceptable” to ship Luffy and Hancock than it is to ship Sanlu. Are you for REALLLLLL

#AGAIN!!! FUCKING INSTAGRAM. It’s ALWAYS people on Instagram!!! #Hi please tell me how it’s more ‘morally acceptable’ to ship a 31 year old woman with a 19 year old boy than it is to ship two boys #Who are only 2 years apart. #WHO HAVE WAYYYY MORE ONSCREEN CHEMISTRY THAN LUFFY/BOA HAS EVER HAD PERIOD #THE BLATANT HOMOPHOBIA. GET OUT. #Listen age gaps are fine. Whatever. Lots of people ship Boa and Luffy #I don’t bc it makes me uncomfy. That’s fine too! #It’s fiction but I can draw the line somewhere if I want!! #Anyway if your excuse is just ‘Bc they’re both boys’ then that’s a YOU problem buddy. Not mine. #Homophobes? In MY Instagram comments? In MY 2024? #Unfortunately it’s more common than you think!!! #One Piece #Shima speaks #This one’s got me in a tizzy. Sorry. Lol I need to get angry for two seconds and then I’ll be over it

[coockie8]

"You can't create fiction about X problematic thing without explicitly condemning it otherwise your readers/viewers will think it's okay to do irl!"

Okay see well I was under the impression that since I'm not creating fiction for literal 5-year-olds that my readers/viewers would already be aware of the fact it's not okay to rape, torture, and murder people in real life without me spoon-feeding that to them like they're toddlers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you're over the age of 10 and still don't know that it's bad to hurt people in real life without a fairy tale telling you so, then that is 100% a you problem, like I don't know what to tell you here :/

#just anti things #anti bs #proship #proshipper #proship safe #tw: rape mention #literally every time an anti tries the ''this could make someone think this is okay irl'' argument on me #all I can think is ''K? Literally not my problem if some stranger needs to be told by fiction not to rape people in order to not do that.'' #like if you need your morals spoon-fed to you by fictional media #then might I suggest you avoid horror and other ''taboo'' genres and stick to Dora the Explorer huh? #but we don't just eradicate things from existence because 0.1% of the people who *might* see it *might* try to act it out irl #like if that's the case the bible makes a grating vocal minority act like complete assholes #so are we banning religious texts now because some religious people get a little too into it and make people's lives difficult?

[y-rhywbeth2]

I feel like this part of the novels is relevant to a character or two in the various Baldur's Gate games:

“You desired godhood, control over your destiny, and great power,” Ao said. “You will have only two of these - godhood and power - to exercise as you will in the Realm of the Dead. And all of the suffering in Toril will be yours as well, to cause and inflict as you wish. But you will never know contentment or happiness again.” “But the thing you have desired most, Lord Cyric, will never come to pass. I am your master now. You serve me… and your worshipers. I believe you will find that you now have less freedom than you had as a child in the alleys of Zhentil Keep.”

That and the thing where everybody's getting mad at the gods, and the mortals think they'd be better and care... No: the rules fundamentally don't allow it, because that isn't how this works or what gods are. You are a cog in the cosmic machine of the universe, or a line of computer script or whatever analogy: do your damn job.

#The problem is that the gods tend to forget this part too #“Why don't the good gods do anything?” They can't even if they want to. Next. #Mystra: You think Ao will make YOU a god? #Cyric: Yes? What YOU thought Ao cared about MORALITY?? #Ao: I will but you do realise that by becoming the embodiment of strife you're going to be eternally miserable right #babbling #Who wants to be a god? #Gale Astarion Sarevok Charname Irenicus... #Well stop that #Also: BANE

[llamagoddessofficial]

My theory it was Sans because Red is consistently a good boi who prefers no killing in AUs and Skull wouldn't want some trashy human in MCs diet could cause a tummy ache.

Also MC deserved to fulfill her murder siren instincts, as a treat

Sans: hey babe. i'm not sure if you know, but it's our one month today! i know things have been a little rough for you lately, being stuck in this tank and everything. so i thought i'd get you something nice- your favourite.

Mc: ?

Sans: [shoves a whole dude into her tank]

#zoo siren mc au #also u are so right in saying skull wouldn't want to give her tumbly problems #honestly his only reason for not killing #morals? empathy? no #might make girlfriend stummy hurt

[ixorahh]

[sniffs] this is all i got.. this all i got

#spiderverse #across the spiderverse #atsv #spiderverse fanart #atsv fanart #hobie brown #pavitr prabhakar #gwen stacy #miles morales #spider punk #spiderman india #spider gwen #ixoras art stuff #this movie broke into my house and punched me in the face #and im making it everyones problem

[ilynpilled]

i can fully understand the gripes with certain misogynistic tropes/writing issues that are present in the execution of some of cersei’s writing, but i will never understand the “she should have a redemption arc” or “she should be more likeable/less morally dark” perspective. that is not what her character is or has to be to make it great. wanting more female anti-heroes or “redemption arcs” with moral greyness and complexity of the level that asoiaf gives to primarily male characters is entirely understandable, but do some of you people even like cersei as a character, like at its core? like this is not about criticising the execution of certain things when it comes to this character, this is about taking issue with her as a villain fundamentally, which i just do not agree with at all

#i also do not understand why she is juxtaposed only w her brothers #in this respect #like if u wanna take issue w not as many female anti heroes that r allowed the level of true moral greyness of j theon etc i get that #but thats a whole text problem like a family isnt a monolith they r different characters with different drives its not a competition between #them #all three r dealing w some very very diff things too like they r distinct characters #and i honestly dont think cersei’s character set up works with a redemption story like she specifically is way more interesting as she is #she is a discussion of tropes when it comes the ‘female villain’ and u can take issue w the execution but i like the concept a lot #like she is written the way she is for a reason why do u want her to be a different character entirely #like if u want this why not advocate for george making a female character whose story would actually work with the redemption trope instead #of making their writing weaker and less trope busting #ig i just really like with cersei the idea that her being an evil perpetrator doesnt erase her being a victim of misogyny and vice versa #like i like that challenge that she is deserving of sympathy for these things without the need to redeem her or make her ‘likeable’ #patriarchal violence will affect all women #and the story deserves to work just as well with someone u r not supposed to root for #its about the humanization of these people #evil doesnt exist in a vacuum #and it makes perfect sense that these specific systemic conditions create it #and then perpetuate it

[bethanydelleman]

Here is another science fact that I love:

If you put rats in a bare cage with no companionship, plain food and water, and a bottle of cocaine, 100% of them will become addicted to cocaine.

If you put rats in a cage full of entertainment and friends, with exciting food, and a bottle of cocaine, only about 30% of rats will touch the drug after their first attempt.

For most creatures, it is only when nothing else in their life is stimulating that drugs are an attractive option.

(And yes, the cocaine was inside those hamster sippy bottles)

citation

#science facts #rat park #drugs usually are used when people's lives have serious problems #it's not a moral failing it's a social one #the question is actually how can you make their lives so awesome that they don't want to take drugs #addiction

[kiwisandpearls]

I am tired of people who are unironically woobifying homura and saying all of her actions were completely justified and she has done nothing wrong or made any bad choices in her life ever and cannot possibly be a morally gray character doing nuanced actions

I am also tired of people who unironically see her as the literal devil and act all of her actions were done with malicious intent and that she’s super obsessed with madoka and has never done a single good thing in her life and also cannot grasp that she might be a morally gray character doing nuanced actions

For the love of god the statements “Homura isn’t a horrible person she just wants to protect the people she loves” and “Homura has done some morally dubious actions and that should not be over-looked” aren’t two mutually exclusive statements and I’m tired of some people pretending that they are

#talk away ⌞🍵🍋 ⌝ #I feel like I seem angry #I’m not lol #I’m just passionate about this #tbf there was a point in time that I was definitely somewhat anti-homura so I’m not exempt from this #but even then that was more of a response to people who unironically really coddle homura #but yeah nowadays I just really wish people would see Homura for who she actually is #a morally gray character who has done some morally questionable actions #that doesn’t immediately make her a bad person #and I wish people would understand this #a character being morally gray doesn’t instantly make them a bad person #idk these are my thoughts #I think as a whole this just generally a problem morally gray characters #where people see them as either black or white when they’re really shades of gray #homura akemi #akemi homura #madoka magica #pmmm #madoka magica spoilers #kinda

[virtualcarrot]

[DE] musing abt the limits of superficial acab discourse and the way fandom deals with moral discomfort, I guess

“ACAB”, “the only happy ending should be leaving the RCM”, “you’re a terrible person if you draw/write these characters enjoying the sort of corrupt cop stuff that they canonically do in-game” discourse is killing meeee

God forbid you don’t performatively remind everyone that you do hate cops, actually; and god forbid that you don’t find that True Healing and Happiness for Disco Elysium’s characters can only be achieved by leaving the force.

Metas could be written about how Kim and Harry are actually deeply flawed people who enjoy wielding some form of authority in a way that they actually feel best working as cops

(is it healthy? no. is it Good™? no. Is it true to their character? this is where media interpretation comes in)

Metas could be written about how that doesn’t mean ACAB isn’t real, that just means they’re the kind of shitheads (that we, the players, still love) who enjoy being cops

Metas could be written questioning the amount they’d have to change to adapt to a life as civilians, how much and what kind of a push they’d need to go for it,  if it’s change they could even manage, if they could financially survive it, if they could find fulfillment in any other career, at their age

But no. Why waste time on that instead of easy slogans. I mean, we like them, these characters, and we don’t want to feel guilty for liking them, because what does it say about us, then, that we like flawed cops?

(nothing it says nothing it says we played a good nuanced extremely well-written game that skillfully made us like the sort of character whose past actions include sequestering some woman and beating a dude into disability. that’s what it says. i’d even argue that discomfort is part of the point)

#fandom #disco elysium #spoilers #meta : disco elysium #And hey! #I'm not saying that there aren't people out there writing corrupt cop content without realizing just how disturbing those behaviors are #either because of normalization #copaganda #privilege #or just deciding that they don't care enough to over analyze amateur works of fiction #(which while not ideal an argument can be made for to some extent) #what I'm saying is that the vast majority of ACAB discussion/content I've seen in this fandom is based on morality #and the search for an ideal more hopeful solution #more than character psychology #and while the hope for better is perfectly understandable and A-ok #and is where everyone should find a place to pitch their headcanons #the use of morality and politics as a blunt weapon to bludgeon people with and beat them into silence is exhausting #in general not even in this specific situation/fandom #especially since usually it amounts to: this UPSET ME (maybe even for good reason) so I'm going to make it YOUR PROBLEM #and RESPONSIBILITY

[undercat-overdog]

Most characters in the Silmarillion aren't bad people and neither is everyone morally grey. It's not the war crimes fandom. It's pretty black and white, actually!

#black and white doesn't mean simple or sophomoric or childish either #it is possible for characters to make bad decisions for not the best reasons and still remain heroes; good guys can make mistakes #and then you come to a character like feanor - is he morally grey? who cares. it's really not the point of his character #(i have some major problems with how the term war crime is used in the fandom too) #(but mostly - 'war crimes fandom'? morally grey? besties there are characters other than the sons of feanor) #meta