#and again i don't think the people doing this are necessarily bad actors or having a huge negative social impact
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I'm seeing some frustration over fandom creatives expressing anger or distress over people feeding their work into ChatGPT. I'm not responding to OP directly because I don't want to derail their post (their intent was to provide perspective on how these models actually work, and reduce undue panic, which is all coming from a good place!), but reassurances that the addition of our work will have a negligible impact on the model (which is true at this point) does kind of miss the point? Speaking for myself, my distress is less about the practical ramifications of feeding my fic into ChatGPT, and more about the principle of someone taking my work and deliberately adding it to the dataset.
Like, I fully realize that my work is a drop in the bucket of ChatGPT's several-billion-token training set! It will not make a demonstrable practical difference in the output of the model! That doesn't change the fact that I do not want my work to be part of the set of data that the ChatGPT devs use for training.
According to their FAQ, ChatGPT can and will use user input to train itself. The terms and conditions explicitly state that they save your chats to help train and improve their models. (You can opt-out, but sharing is the default.) So if you're feeding a fic into ChatGPT, unless you've explicitly opted out, you are handing it to the ChatGPT team and giving them permission to use it for training, whether or not that was your intent.
Now, will one fic make a demonstrable difference in the output of the model? No! But as the person who spent a year and a handful of months laboring over my fic, it makes a difference to me whether my fic, specifically, is being used in the dataset. If authors are allowed to have a problem with the ChatGPT devs for scraping millions of fics without permission, they're also allowed to have a problem with folks handing their individual fics over via the chat interface.
I do want to add that if you've done this to a fic, please don't take this as me being upset with you personally! Folks are still learning new information and puzzling out what "good" vs. "bad" use is, from an ethical standpoint. (Heck, my own perspective on this is deeply based on my own subjective feelings!) And we certainly shouldn't act like one person feeding a fic into ChatGPT has the same practical negative impact, on a broad societal scale, as a team using a web crawler to scrape five billion pieces of artwork for Stable Diffusion.
The point is that fundamentally, an ethical dataset should be obtained with the consent of those providing the data. Just because it's normalized for our data to be scraped without consent doesn't make it ethical, and this is why ChatGPT gives users the option to not share data— there is actually a standardized way (robots.txt) for website servers to set policies for how bots/crawlers can interact with them, for exactly this reason— and I think fandom artists and authors are well within their rights to express a desire for opting out to be the socially-respected default within the fandom community.
#maybe this is an ice cold take but i've been meaning to go off about datasets for a while so here we are i guess#i can respect what op's frustrations were and what they were trying to get at! but also i do not want my fic in chatgpt's dataset#regardless of whether it will make a practical difference#and again i don't think the people doing this are necessarily bad actors or having a huge negative social impact#chatgpt#chat gpt#ai#fandom#negative#(possibly! i'm trying not to be!! especially because this is very feelings-based and there are many things i am not considering)#the model may not demonstrably change because of your fic. but it does have your fic now and that does matter maybe idk
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My two cents on the story some Nick fans hate Taylor:
From what I've seen around they are mainly people who have been following him since before rwrb and if you look carefully they are often huge purple heart fans (and have a slight obsession with the "relationship" between Nick and Sofia) therefore I think that this hatred for Taylor derives from 2 things:
1. They hate that so many people have gotten closer to him because of rwrb but they share the support and love with someone else. That's why they always have to specify that for them Taylor is unemployed (unlike Nick), Taylor is not a good actor (unlike Nick who is the best around for the next 100 years), Taylor is loved only for his hot body and we are all envious that Nick is mentioned around as an actor etc etc. It's impossible for them to accept that people can appreciate both and one must necessarily be better and more loved than the other and they are better fans because they have been following him since before rwrb and they don't want him to still be associated with this film because he will never be "the sole star" but has to share everything with Taylor.
2. Racism. From certain comments they make it is undeniable that this has great relevance in this situation and I don't even want to delve into it because it's not even crazy it's simply disgusting and this is definitely the worst part.
They hate rwrb (but praise Nick as Henry and think he's the only one who did well in the movie) and keep making up this bullshit about how Nick hates the project, hates the cast, his body language says he was uncomfortable on that set, this is the only cast he hasn't remained friends with, Taylor tries hard for have his attention to be relevant but Nick just proves they have no contact and they need it to be true because that's the only thing which they can cling to to hope he doesn't make the sequel. Oh, plus Nick is too busy to accept the sequel and it would be a downgrade for him to do the sequel given the career that awaits him, unlike Taylor who only has rwrb to work and be relevant (all read with my own eyes unfortunately)
In short, I don't know how they can think this is good for Nick and how they can think this is the type of support he deserves and would like. As another blog said, we can't stop them, there are moments they become more vocal and mean and the more we respond the meaner they become saying things like "you get angry because you know it's the truth"
They treat Taylor like a monster, like he's a really bad person, they've done bad things towards him like doxxing and spreading false information about him to convince everyone what an evil person he is.
They say he uses Nick, before Nick's response when he signed the book they said Taylor bullied him with those drawings on his face all because they have this unhealthy relationship with an actor and they think they have some right over his life.
You've explained their (ridiculous) mentality really well, and frankly, it drives me insane that there are people in the world who think they understand one person's career/relationship/life when he doesn't know them
On the note of purple hearts, I didn't watch the movie and I don't plan to, but when I just got into the RWRB fandom and started learning about Nick and Taylor, and I kinda saw some comments from us, that's kind of... something like Purple hearts fans are mad at RWRB because of... opposing political beliefs?
Oh, also agree on the racism thing. Fuck racism man.
My one hope is this bullshit doesn't affect Taylor and Nick. I have faith in their relationship not to turn sour or blame each other because 1, it's not each other's fault 2, they're grown ass adults who understand how this industry, parasocial relationships and fan culture work, but if any of these shitty comments reaches either one of them it must hurt, and arguably hurts Nick more than Taylor, because these people are hurting your friend in your name. That's fucked up.
Again I think the best thing we can do is ignore them, block them and remember that we hold the actual truth: Nick loves RWRB, and Taylor, and Henry. And he and Taylor, on both sides, plus Matthew and a couple editorial writers, stated and showed that they are genuine friends with genuine chemistry.
#rwrb#red white and royal blue#rwrb movie#alex claremont diaz#henry fox mountchristen windsor#henry hanover stuart fox#firstprince#taylor zakhar perez#nicholas galitzine#rwrb thoughts#anon ask#answered#this happened to my other otp from woh and jesus christ I hate this mess
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Alright, I'mma give my opinion again. This time with Hazbin Hotel..
So I saw the trailer for Hazbin Hotel a few days ago and honestly, I am so disappointed. Like, you're telling me I waited years for them to release a trailer for the series, and this is all we get??
I'm not saying it wasn't enough, no, on the contrary, I think they revealed way too much. But what I mean is, I was expecting something else, because this ain't it, chief.
***
Alright so first off, we have the voices. I'mma be hella honest with y'all, this shit sounds unfinished, as in, it sounds like Viv got confused and published the behind the scenes instead of the finished product because omfg, the voices sound bad.
I genuinely don't understand the weird obsession Viv has with hiring celebrities or broadway actors into her shitty shows, it's not like she's rich enough to afford that- plus she does this often, doesn't that mean it affects the budget of the show? (I don't know much about that stuff so bear with me).
It's funny cuz, she hires these super famous celebrities to voice characters in her shows, but she doesn't need to, like, you can be a professional, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're a great VA. It almost feels like she does that because she wants to feel important, she wants to show off like "Oh look at me, I have celebrities voicing my characters! Aren't I cool?"
But anyway, going back to the voices, I have to say this, my least favorite are Alastor and Angel Dust. I just think it's absolutely ridiculous that Viv got rid of the pilot VAs just to replace them with broadway actors, only for them to make the characters sound flat and emotionless.
Like, it's funny because she makes these broadway actors imitate the voices from the pilot, however it doesn't come naturally for these actors and it shows. It almost feels like they have no idea what they're doing. It legit sounds like they're reading the script but not putting any effort into it. (Y'know how people shit on anime dubs because they don't sound good or whatever? That's exactly how I feel about this-).
The next thing I wanna talk about is the animation. Don't get me wrong from what I've seen, in some moments the animation looks alright, but other times it looks choppy as hell. I thought this show was supposed to be more 'professional' since they literally got A24 and Bento Box ent. for this. But yeah, all I can say is, the animation hasn't changed at all, the only thing that is slightly different is the art style but aside from that, the animation still sucks.
And finally, the last thing I wanted to discuss is the plot of the series. So as we all know, in the Pilot, it was established that Charlie (along with Vaggie) opened the Happy Hotel in hopes of redeeming sinners so that they can go to heaven because Hell was too overpopulated (plus the whole extermination thing). But the whole point of the plot was that she wasn't entirely sure she could actually do it or if it was even possible, and that's what made the plot more interesting back then. But here? It's absolute garbage. Not only did the trailer basically reveal way too much information already (before the series could even come out yet), but the plot was changed entirely!
Like I mentioned, Charlie's motives were to redeem sinners, but here she's more focused on having some kind of war with heaven/the angels. And that's the thing, now that we know that heaven is a thing in this series, plus the inclusion of Adam, it just makes the series feel so predictable, because now we know that the sinners can be redeemed, which beats the entire purpose of the show. It's like, "Hell bad, but heaven is worse" and "Good VS. Bad!!", cliche type of thing. You think a series 'made for adults' would have a more interesting plot than a kids show, but nah, we get these basic ass levels of writing. I swear a fucking five year old could come up with something better and far more creative than this nonsense-
***
So yeah, I'm honestly hella disappointed that this is what the series has turned into. I had high hopes for Hazbin Hotel (since Helluva ain't shit-), but nope, it turns out, Viv is capable of making herself look even more stupid by completely butchering her own series. Hell, I actually have Amazon Prime, but I am probably not even gonna watch this shit, I'll just wait till some dumbass on YouTube uploads the first episode or something stupid like that (so that I can watch it and critique it later). Because I know that someone definitely will.
Anyway, that's all for today, thank you for reading my dumb post- alright bye!
#anti vivziepop#vivziepop critical#vivziepop criticism#vivziepop critique#hazbin hotel critical#hazbin hotel criticism#hazbin hotel critique#spindlehorse criticism#spindlehorse critical#///#by neko loogi#do not repost#neko loogi rambles 😬#neko loogi rants😔
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how to get a grip and write soap non cringeworthy (by a glaswegian lass)
this may or may not be half a rant. but. okay. okay. i made a post like this before, but i kinda wanted to detail it a little more as i've seen posts like these popping up, but made by english people.
so i'm gonna make one about being scottish for non scots and how to more accurately portray soap as scottish. this is probably mostly aimed at people from tiktok, so feel free to share it around. this is also educational as well as light-hearted and is meant to be taken as such, don't get offended or just be fr
1.) okay, i'm gonna start off by saying... some of these unintentional(or intentional) stereotypes are fucking mind blowing. i'm not one to necessarily get offended by things like this, but i think it's worth mentioning. not all of us play bagpipes, or run around wearing kilts... or - for the love of god - RUN AROUND SCREAMING "SCOTLAND FOREVER." honestly..... it's so odd? i know you would be heavily offended if i called you a fat american, but really what's the difference?
(also the scotland forever is so cringe. i've never in my entire life heard anyone from this country say that)
2.) since i don't think there's any canon of where soap was specifically brought up in scotland(city-wise), i'll have to go off accents and his voice actor for this point. which is alright with me, because scottish accents can be very easily identified.
a lot like the english, scottish people can have MANY varying accents, and a lot of varying phrases. for example, someone down in ayrshire might say "i ken" instead of "i know" whereas people from glasgow usually wouldn't. you catch me?
...now, soap. soap would not go around saying certain phrases. from what i hear, he sounds glaswegian/edinburgh, which is east/west of scotland. the tiniest... TINIEST... bit of research will unveil a plethora of things that people from there would actually say.
aye/yes, naw/no, cannae/cant, could'nae/couldn't, fizzy drink/soda, how/why(this one is weird)..... that's an extremely small portion but you get the point. the scots talk EXTREMELY different than americans do, we have new words for almost everything.
and, before i lose my mind, PLEASE STOP HAVING SOAP REFER TO HIS MOTHER AS MOM. thank you.
3.) the general cringe. i've literally seen people say he would refer to himself as a big scotty boy. no one in scottish history has ever referred to themselves as that unironically. ever. again, circling back to the similarities between the english and scottish, we both have very sarcastic/edgy/cynical humour. ours won't be the same as the americans. our definition of sarcasm differs from yours. headcanons are fine, sometimes, but it's so out of character most of the time if you aren't from the country. bro would NOT spend his free time listening to lana del rey but don't let that stop you from saying he would LMAO
4.) we don't call ourselves british. i mean, some of us do(if yer a bastartin tory x), but most of us will literally get offended if you call us british. we'd all just much rather call ourselves scottish. don't ask me why.
5.) also! please educate yourself on how to properly use scottish slang. the amount of things that just genuinely do not make sense is appalling. it takes two seconds. also my dms are always open... feel free to ask a literal glaswegian lass. context also matters. if you don't know what you mean, just shut the fuck up x
6.) ...he wouldn't be a tory. none of them would be fucking tories. none of them would be sad about the queen. i know americans can't comprehend we don't actually worship the queen in britain, but considering they all probably grew up in some form of poverty or just a bad household, they just wouldn't be tories. or they literally wouldn't care.
7.) props to codie for this point. circling back to the stereotypes, i think it's MENTAL to see what you guys think are "funny" and "relatable" when really, you're absolutely perpetrating harmful scottish stereotypes. ha ha you are so funny when you make jokes about soap being really aggressive and a "gremlin" and an alcoholic and ahahha scotland forever and ahahahha he has bagpipes as his alarm clock... sorry but it's really not as funny as you think it is. like, there's a line and a lot of the time all you cunts online love crossing it with your poorly written headcanons and tiktok videos. i think a lot of you deserve to be told that it's not okay. i know you would all cry if we done the same and also it's just kinda embarrassing
8.) learn our culture but don't forget theres so much more to it. this isn't even primarily about scotland culture but more so british culture as a whole. it's completely different from any other culture and it's also not super hard to do your research. kinda hard to explain if you're not part of it but yk what i mean. sometimes it's obvious to me that you guys don't care to educate yourself and don't care to understand different cultures but i appreciate those that do lol
9.) where soap is from, he wouldn't speak gaelic either. i'm sorry, he just wouldn't. not really a thing in big cities. it's scots he would speak, and there's a difference. don't say they're the same things or you """prefer""" to call gaelic scots. yes someone actually said that LMFAOO. scottish gaelic isn't just saying aye and naw either. jesus fuckign christ x if you don't understand the difference or what you're even saying then just don't say anything LMAO
that's all for now. i'll probably randomly think of other stuff to add, but for now it's currently 5am and i cba. sorry if theres mistakes/typos, again, cba x
also if u get offended u need to get a grip and this is obvs aimed at u. ok have a good day pookie bears xx
(i promise i don't have a problem with americans but it's funny how it's always you guys)
#soap mactavish#soap mactavish fanfic#soap mactavish x reader#soapghost#soapghost fic#soap mactavish headcanons#soap mactavish hcs#soapghost hcs#soapghost headcanons#johnny mactavish#call of duty#call of duty modern warfare 2#codmw2#cod mw ghost#cod mw fanfiction#cod mw x reader#konig x soap#graves x soap#ghostsoap fanfic#rant#cry#L#sorry
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I haven't seen chibnall but I have a hard time imagining being worse than moffat. I'm sure it's possible but that man... he was bad. also out of curiosity what's the problem with eccleston? or did you just use his name as a reference for which era was rtd. feel free to ignore this if you like, I hope you have a good day!
hellooo!
look, you won't hear me arguing moffat wasn't bad but believe me Chibnall was worse. He wrote an entire sequence where the Doctor tricks the Master (then played by British-Indian actor Sacha Dhawan) into being caught by the Nazis, knowing what the Nazis would do to him. Like, the Doctor, presenting as a white woman, handed over the Master, her best friend presenting as a Brown man to the most notorious white supremacist regimes in history. And that moment was framed as a successful ploy!! As a "win" for the Doctor.
I'm sorry but, to me, Moffats fucking decrepit cringe Gen X Misogyny did nowhere near as much damage as thoughtlessly portraying the Doctor as someone who will literally use Nazism against a poc and framing it as clever girlboss behaviour. Like, it's not fun that these are the people we have to choose from but one of these things is not like the other.
As for the Eccleston stuff, I was referring to Christopher Eccleston's conflict with the BBC and by extension implied conflict with RTD. The full details of the conflict have never been fully made public but Eccleston has always maintained he quit the show due to the culture created by the show runners and producers. He's said he'd never work with RTD again. Eccleston implied that one of the reasons the relationship between himself and RTD broke down was Eccleston's desire for the Doctor to be a role model whose intellect wasn't inherently tied to being upper class English and had to really fight to use his natural accent. It's worth noting that the we wouldn't have a Doctor without an RP (received pronunciation) accent again until Capaldi. David even mentioned Russell's "enthusiasm" for DT to speak in RP not his natural accent in his interview with Jodie in 2020.
I want to believe that RTD has grown since the mid 00s, and perhaps this time around things will be different. But I think a lot of people point to Moffat as the worst because his bigotry is the most visible and easiest to critique. It's more popular and acceptable to critique sexism against white women than it is to critique racism and classism. But in reality all of these showrunners are white British men who have pulled white British bullshit and I won't stand for Chibnall and Davies shortcomings being scapegoated via Moffat.
Also, this is not a defense necessarily but a lot of people who hate moffat era who did NOT watch Capaldi's seasons and did not watch season 10 with Bill Potts. So their critique often lacks the perspective of Moffat's best season that proves he's capable of writing something genuinely compelling that's not gross and sexiest. Like it genuinely infuriates me when people talk about "moffat who" but they're only really talking about Matt Smiths seasons. Again none of that is a defence but it's just to say that most people who say Moffat is the worst are people who a) are really talking about Sherlock, which, fair enough that was shit b) people who just think 10th Doctor best Doctor and don't actually care about anything after that era in any meaningful way. Or c) people who have a pretty incomplete view of the series was and where it currently is.
omg this is long sorry I hope I don't sound rude I'm not trying to be I just have so many thoughts about this. I hope this answers your question, please let me know if I need to clarify anything <3
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I know it's probably illogical and most likely somewhat of a trauma response from Disney's Willow betrayal but I don't think I can keep Netflix if they cancel Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows.
Netflix has already canceled so many series that were unique and important to people in terms of diversity and representation. They have been especially bad about canceling series with Lesbian representation. The erasure of Tamar and Nadia would be another example of that. SAB is also one of the few fantasy series with a WOC lead. And while the actor portraying him is not (as far as I know), Kaz is a character with a disability that is not treated as a liability or a victim. As I pointed out in my Willow posts, it's rare to see this type of inclusion in fantasy series without it seeming forced or false.
While these things alone do not necessarily make a series worthy of continuation, fans have proven time and again that there is a growing interest in this series. This is largely due to the amazing cast and their continuous support of and friendships with one another. The found family dynamic they display both on and off camera creates a richer viewing experience not just in the series but their interviews and appearances around it.
Added to all of that, the story changes mean the cliffhangers of season two would go largely unexplained even to book readers. Considering that the books' author is a producer on the series this leads me to worry about Netflix's ability to deliver complete and cohesive stories that they adapt.
To me that shows that series like Bridgerton, or even One Piece could be treated just as callously in regards to any canon divergences and completion of the story.
I genuinely hope my worries will be unnecessary and the series will continue. Shadow and Bone has not yet been canceled but it has also not been renewed and as we near the eight month mark with no news I can't help but speculate. I realize that it has not been long since the end of the WGA strike and the SAG strike is ongoing, but in that time Netflix has renewed and released updates on several other series so it is unlikely that would be the only reason for the delay.
I still look forward to the success of SAG and hope answers swiftly follow. In this time of price spikes and story erasures, I cannot continue to financially support any service that seems blatantly discriminatory. When fans are begging daily for a series to return and continuously ignored I can't see it as anything else.
#shadow and bone#six of crows#sab#soc#alina starkov#malyen oretsev#nikolai lantsov#zoya nazyalensky#kaz brekker#inej ghafa#jesper fahey#wylan van eck#nina zenik#mattias helvar#tamar kir bataar#tolya yul bataar#nadia zhabin#adrik zhabin#genya safin#david kostyk#alexander kirigan
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So, I rewatched the trailer over and over again, I stepped back, organised my thoughts, and I think I get it.
So first the Bad, then the GOOD, because there's actually a lot to like here.
The Bad:
So, the trend of companies kicking actual voice actors onto the curb and replacing them with celebrities continues. I remember being really angry when they first announced the voice cast, and I still am. It's quite literally the most boring, generic casting possible. You can not get much more white bread, milk toast than a Chris and Scar - I want to play an Asian woman and trans man - jo. Also, why is Chris Hemsworth here? Do he really need the money? Did Thor 4 damage his pockets that bad? There are so many talented voice actors that could've been Orion, David Kaye is a prime example Animated Optimus and Beats Wars/Unicron Trilogy Megatron, beloved by fans, if he was announced people would've been over joyed. I love Brian Tyree Henry, and he actually has some experience with va work as he voiced Jeff Morales in Spider-Verse, my original criticism still stands.... And Kegan, oh Kegan, I love you so much, Key and Peele was my childhood, and the Toad performance was perfectly fine, endearing even. But as Bee? I'm sorry, but no, that's not BumbleBee that's just actor/comedian Kegan Michael Key, I can't hear anything else. And it doesn't help that he's handed the worst lines.
Which brings us to the comedy. First impressions are EVERYTHING. And if you fumble that that hurts your film, and the perception of your film. I think that's really the problem here, it's a bad trailer not necessarily bad content. Packing the trailer with jokes for the sake of jokes and having that samey Hollywood liscensed music cringey feel to it. Like the guitar riff that played when the 'This Fall' card came up just made me turn off the video immediately. That's why I recommend watching the trailer without sound. Bee's jokes don't really land for me, I'm sure kids with love it tho, and that's good. But I'm sure all the jokes won't be bad, the final door gag is actually really funny. So I think it was just a bad joke that soured out feel of the tone at the beginning, which is unfortunate because like I said first impressions are everything. Because this is Josh Cooly, of Up, Inside Out, Toy Story 4 fame, I'm sure the film will have an emotional core to it.
A minor thing I don't much care for is having Bee be in the same age range as Orion, in my mind he's always constructed during the war at like the half way mark or near the end, he's the little brother of the group, and now he's old enough to remember Op and Megs before the war. Also he sounds way too old.
Oh, also I don't like Orion's personality.
Good:
Now for the good; I think the animations style is gorgeous. Would have I liked something Spider-Verse/Mutant Mayhem-esk, of course, but what are you gonna do? The stand out here is the environments, a visual feast. This might already be my favourite Cybertron, it's so different yet reminisant of the Cybertron we know. The fact that the surface transformers and shifts and changes is genius, very IDW Phase 2 inspired. And the fact that Cybertron is a techno-organic hybrid world ala Beast Machines is crazy! I love that, and wildlife! I bet that's how we get the cassettes. The character models are great too, you can actually tell what emotion is happening on a person's face. Gone are the days of faces being made up of razor blades and mandibles BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT INSECTS FUCK YOU MICHAEL BAY. THEY'RE PEOPLE! There's the nose, the lips, the eyes, and I can tell where one begins and ends. The eyes are gorgeous and detailed, and the face surface detail has smuges, wear, specs of dirt, metallic texture. Like, you nailed it! It's a person but a robot, you got it!
We see what we assume are the 13 Primes, Alpha Trion being the only survivor, maybe they were killed by the Quintessons and they took over. D-16, a ref to IDW and his toys designation in the toy catalogue, he'll obviously name himself after Megatronus ala TF Prime. He seems to have the Decepticon insignia before meeting The Fallen so maybe Megatronus' face is some sort of religious iconography, the Primes are a religion on Cybertron after all. It's all so fascinating, I can't remember the last time I was so excited to learn more about a new TF continuity.
Orion and D-16 are both miners and or workers, that's a refreshing take, no coptimus here. They've suffered the same way together, I bet story will be about dealing with that pain, what justice means, how far one is willing to take it and where justice stops and injustice begins. I know people are mad that the origins are a little different, but I ask you, different from what? Which continuity are you talking about? TF has never had a consistent singular timeline, and that's what I love about this franchise! It builds on itself with each new continuity! Take a bit of the old, mix it with new ideas and create something fresh, then that old guard leaves and a new team takes over and does the same and the franchise continues to evolve or should I say transform. Like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get, and new incarnations always give second chances to improve apon what came before. No Reboots, no risks means no Skybite, or Nemesis Prime, no Stasis Pods, Sparks, Protoforms, Energon ore, no Star Saber, Hot Shot, Knock Out, Airachnid, no All Spark, no Sari, no Bulkhead, no old grumpy Ratchet, none of that. Reboots are a part of this franchise's DNA. I sense the people that are complaining are the people who only value one continuity and discard all others.
It's really neat this universe's version of The Cast System is lower class worker protoforms being denied a Transformation Cog, it seems like it's reserved for the higher classes, the very thing that makes their species special and unique is denied to them. Also I didn't notice it the first time, but Alpha actually pulls the t-cogs out of the dead Primes which kind of signifies a passing of the guard, the old Primes failed, now it's your turn, and of course history repeats itself with the downfall of Megatron.
I like how Trion is covered and intertwined with moss and vines and has a beast mode, showcasing that he's of an older era now gone and forgotten.
Some other smaller stuff:
The sun looks like a holographic simulation, which makes me wonder, Cybertron doesn't usually have a sun, but there's plant life now, so what's up?
The cave that the dead Primes and Trion are in kinda looks like a Dweller.
Megatron's black helmet is a ref to Marvel G1.
That spin kick where Elita twirls her entire waist around is sooo satisfying. I love it.
AIRACHNID!!?!!!! MY QUEEN HAS RETURNED!!!!!!!
I think that's a good point to end on. So, yeah, v excited.
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Hello there, I have been going around asking a few media analysts/theorists the same (albiet kinda contreversial??) question.
soooo i think the likelyhood of Sebas eating o!ciel's soul is hella likely towards the end of the series.
and although i think this isn't a bad ending, i am TERREFIED over how it will play out visually.
In the black butler live-action movie, Sebas kisses our earl in order to eat his soul, and in the end of the season 1 anime, a similar implication was shown.
I mean, I know we can't exactly conclude what scene Yana will draw out for us or even the solid conclusion in general, but do you believe that visually, a "kiss" between both characters will be shown in the manga?
Personally, I would be utterly dissapointed to follow a manga for so long for it to show a whole minor and adult kissing, even if it isn't romantic, because people will interpret it the wrong way (s*baciel shippers) or just be justifably uncomfortable by it (normal kuro fans).
have a nice day!
How will/would Sebastian collect our earl's soul?
Well, keep in mind that the live action movie doesn't even have "Ciel" in it. It's Sebastian brought back to the human realm by a female direct descendant of "Ciel", suggesting that "Ciel" lives to be old enough to have kids. It's implied that Undertaker is out of the picture by now, as the somewhat steampunk reaper is no one we've met before.
In the downright horrible adaptation, everyone in the future, by then, is now Japanese. The girl has to deal with situations that are ridiculously similar to her ancestor's ordeals. Basically, it was like... a way to have that kiss without both characters (or actors) being male, as if that made the age difference no longer relevant. Age of consent in Japan is rather low (like 13?), but still. And they work-in the idea that she has to dress as a boy to be taken seriously by others (and get her inheritance?), just like our earl thinks he has to pretend to be his older twin. This gives those shippers something to work with, despite the fact it's a female actor and a female character.
However, in s1 of the anime, Sebastian does look like he's about to go in for the kiss of death. That's not necessarily what he's about to do -- he might just get close to our earl's face and literally (and not sexually) suck out his soul. Like... we might see his soul physically ripped from his body and passing through the air from one to the other. But, again, fan service prevails in the anime, so they stop right before Sebastian begins to feed... leaving the intended next move to the imaginations of the viewers.
What worries me is the fact the manga series is also chock full of fan service for shippers. I'm hoping it's a "rip his soul out" scene without locked lips, though I expect their faces to get close, as they have before several times throughout the series.
Chronologically, we have this scene (drawn twice) from ch138 and ch139, depicting when they first made the contract. He gets right into his face (and upside down) when discussing payment.
Then ch62, the infamous bath scene shortly after Phantomhive Manor is restored.
And ch147, just after our earl destroys a roast duck.
There have been other occasions, I'm sure, but these are three very memorable ones... and two are about eating.
It's interesting to note that the only time we've seen Sebastian approach our earl's face upside down (so far) is when clarifying the terms of his payment once the contract is completed.
I would like to see something similarly creepy (like upside down) when it's time to collect that payment... if their faces even have to get close. Reapers collect souls without getting close to faces. Then again, they use special tools and don't eat the souls. However, I imagine that demons don't necessarily have to remove souls through the mouth/nose, either, if they don't want to.
Sebastian, being the "perverted gourmet" that Yana-san calls him, is likely to choose a method that adds some garnishing touch to his meal. I honestly can't say what that might be, other than doing something that brings forth certain emotions (from the master) that enhance the flavors he seeks.
I sure hope that's not kissing.
#black butler#kuroshitsuji#sebastian michaelis#earl phantomhive#our earl#soul devouring#soul development#manga vs anime#manga vs live action#end of the series#series end#series ending#ch138#ch139#ch62#ch147#anon asks#i answer#answered asks#jul 14 2023
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I do think it's worth pointing out that the crowd of people who talk about transandrophobia has a noticeable (definitely a minority, but unfortunately not so small that it can go completely ignored) subset of people who regularly engage in transmisogynistc rhetoric and cultivate an "us vs them" mentality between transfems and transmascs.
I say this as someone who believes in trans men's right (and necessity) to be able to speak on their own experiences with discrimination without feeling dismissed or ignored: I think it's important we point out when this behavior happens within the community and shut it down immediately. I don't trust anyone who talks about transandrophobia while diminishing the impact of transmisogyny in the same sentence, and I don't blame trans women who don't either.
"I don't trust anyone who talks about transandrophobia while diminishing the impact of transmisogyny in the same sentence, and I don't blame trans women who don't either."
So you are perpetuating, or at the very least enabling, in the exact same "us vs them" rhetoric by proxy then. You are legitimizing those people and their transmisogyny by treating the minority of shitheads as a reflection of the broader theory and the discussion on it - and those trans women are as well - instead of attempting to deplatform those people while also uplifting the people who aren't inflammatory and transmisogynist, and that, frankly, sucks.
I very firmly believe in not directly engaging with people like that if we are being completely honest. I'm personally very picky and choosey about who I engage with and how I engage with them because of that. I've been on the laterally transphobic end of these kinds of discussions, I'm very open about my transmedicalist history and how I've come out of it, and I speak from experience when I say engagement often makes people buckle down even more and get worse if we are being completely honest. Especially here on Tumblr. I think that was pretty evident with the transmed anon I got awhile back.
Those people who are transmisogynist are often lashing out and being laterally violent because something in their life offline is causing extreme distress. Be that dysphoria, home life, financial issues, trauma, etc. etc. there is usually something happening to make their life worse than they are open about and this conversation can be a form of digital self harm for them in many ways. Conversations on oppression usually poke open and bleeding wounds for people who aren't in stable places to begin with.
That's not an excuse for their actions, but hurt people hurt people and hurting caged animal will bite the closest, most convenient hand. That's something that can be addressed without platforming those people and encouraging others to not directly engage as well, because often? You're genuinely only making things worse for everyone by doing so.
Again, like I said earlier, in most cases, it is best to just block and move on - especially if you're not invested in having a blog of resources or discussion and you're just like... an average Tumblr user. It's not worth it to get sucked into those kinds of folks because genuinely - most of the time they need to get out on their own and that often comes with building offline community, not online theoretical discourse. Like, I have a decent number of people blocked specifically from my main but not from this blog because while I don't necessarily want to see their posts or engage with them myself, I think it's important my posts here are still seen by those people.
Like I said earlier as well, I don't necessarily blame the average person for not wanting to engage with communities they've had poor experiences with because of bad actors or people projecting pain, but I also hope the average person has enough internet literacy to understand what a bad actor or person bleeding out looks like in the first place so they simply block and move on.
Tumblr is full of vulnerable, hurting queer people who've been taking it out on each other for over a decade. It sucks but that's how this site is and will probably continue to be. It's best to acknowledge that and learn to recognize its manifestations so you can choose how you personally want to engage (or, hopefully, not engage) for your own sake.
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had a similar feeling about that photoshoot. i can understand how it is attractive, and i am certainly not about to moralise what one finds appealing. still, upon first sight i did think 1. hmm, this seems to hinge upon stewart being a thin woman, and 2. i do not like that when a queer woman becomes popular enough she begins to be photographed in more misogynistic settings, i.e. the fuckboy, woman pictured only on her back as a body to have sex with, etc? these are neutral if weary observations that i am only sharing as you have mentioned it, but again: i do not want to do the tumblr finding-of-problematics to make some one guilty about enjoying a photoshoot.
Yeah, for me it's like...I don't want to make this deeper than it is. I'm fully aware that, as a feminine queer woman who's more into other feminine women, no part of this is For Me. And that's perfectly fine! It doesn't have to be! I am one of 7 billion people in the world; expecting everything to be What I Like would be selfish and absurd. God knows, in my own beloved Murder Incest MovieTM fandom, I get annoyed enough with people not knowing the difference between "this is not my thing" and "this is morally terrible and if you like it you're a monster who should be pelted with bricks." I am NOT, EVER saying that about the KStew gym photoshoot.
Rather say that, I suppose, parts of it don't sit right with me? Her body type doesn't bother me so much as I was acknowledging that only certain types of women get to have their masculinity seen as desirable in any context, but the shot where she's looming above a faceless, splay-legged feminine woman (while presented like a stereotypical gym bro But Female) did leave a bad taste in my mouth. If that would be cringed at in a photoshoot with a male actor, why is it suddenly super-hot when a female actor does it? Not in the context of individuals' personal fantasies in which they're a consenting participant- good luck policing that; I'm not here to -but in the public eye. There's not necessarily a right answer; it's more a conversation worth having, IMO.
My reaction still isn't moral outrage, any more than yours is. More a mixture of "oh wow this thing that a lot of other sapphists find sexy is WILDLY unattractive to me; I will vent about that on my private blog" and "some aspects of this seem mildly distasteful to me."
I am extremely not saying "this photoshoot is Problematique and the actress and anyone who like it should be Cancelled; all public images of sexuality must be 100% morally correct." Do not willfully misinterpret my meaning, readers.
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Maja hi! I have some thoughts about marriage stunt but nobody agrees with me because other mods never posted my ask. I just believe it was selling her show (wn) just before its end date of selling. I mean they tried to get a better buyer of it but they couldn’t and gave up. I thought it was because of his tiff movie but yesterday its trailer was released however they didn’t do any stunt. I also want to remind that he never used this stunt to sell his works(tgm, ghosted…) ghosted had bad reviews as well. He didn’t try to cover them. Every actor can have bad reviews, these movies are not his dream jobs. We all know this. Also remember how they tried to wrap up on june. He did alone sightings. He did podcast. But then suddenly they went to bermuda. Just before Simon’s timer and netflix is releasing wn’s rights news. And the marriage rumors, only bad pr to him. But it brought more fame to her. It only works for her again. I think it was last push before wn selling got wrapped up they tried to find a better producer but they couldn’t. If you noticed, after simon’s statement, she deleted her promo post. And we never got any sightings, or even trolling from them. Which we all know it was busy three weeks, sightings, trollings, articles. Actually when there were rumors, Gully was in canada, and justin will be at there too. They made justin posted from pt. L&D rumors debunked by releasing the location by l&d. he also got gene kelly, after these happened. They deleted her from his imdb. Red pill article is deleted as well. It looks like they wrapped up to me. He got what he wanted (GK movie). I feelike we are out of the wood finally.
I'm going to share your ask, but share my thoughts with you.
I really love how positive you're, but I don't know if it's that easy. Talking about his projects, she was at the Ghosted premiere; however, I agree that if this is PR for him, it's definitely not about selling his projects or covering up bad reviews, but more about getting projects or maybe that Gene Kelly project out of it. It's weird she deleted the WN post; I don't really see the point of it, even if they don't want her in the movies (I think there was an article about WN getting 3 movies). I'm actually interested in the fact that if they actually don't want her in it, it is because of the things people found out about her, and because even though more people have gotten to know her because of Chris, most of them don't really like her?
It definitely seemed like in the summer that this whole thing (if this is PR) had come to an end; he deactivated his social media accounts; there were no birthday posts or the whole podcast; but then the whole wedding thing happened.
I wouldn't necessarily say that him having that Gene Kelly project in IMDb Pro and them removing Alba as his wife from it means too much. That Gene Kelly project appears from time to time, or maybe never even leaves, so I wouldn't really put too much hope into that. I'd rather say don't put too much hope into anything they do or say. The only thing we can do is wait and see how this whole thing ends.
The problem here is that if this was only for PR reasons and there wasn't even a wedding, that doesn't really help the situation right now. They either need to fake a divorce or say that there was only a party in MA and they went on a vacation with friends in PT. Acting like nothing happened won't really help. Prior to the whole wedding thing, they could've just simply broken up and gone on with their lives, but that won't be that easy anymore.
These are obviously only plays if this whole thing is PR.
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Ian and Barbara from Doctor Who! And Two/Jamie. And also Mae/Linda from DC (bc of the icon)
IanBarbara (do they have a ship name? that's what I'm calling them) is perhaps one of the most "makes sense" pairings in all of Doctor Who (bold statement but they really do work). I wouldn't say I actively ship them though because I'm kinda attached to these heteros being really good friends but they are a good pairing (I know they get together in the EU tho, which is fine because it's not a "quick! we need to pair off these characters regardless of if it makes sense!" situation). They're Mulder and Scully to me, basically.
TwoJamie as a dynamic compels me more (love whatever they got going on) but I would say it makes slightly less sense, mostly because of the age gap (not between the Doctor and Jamie because he's a Time Lord, he's always going to be old but because of the 24 year age gap between the actors. Since 450 year old people don't exist, as a viewer I can only go by actor ages really). I don't think shipping them is bad or whatever, it's just hard not to notice it. The reason they're not higher in the "compels me" section is because I haven't decided whether I view them platonically or not so they're in limbo there, and I'm probably not going to decide definitivley because it's not about that for me.
I just really love how ride or die they are for each other immediately like when Two sees him again in The Underwater Menace and he's like "JAMIE!!!" even though he was not that happy to see the others (tunnel vision frfr). And in the Jamie audio story where Raven remarks Two seems particularly find of him 💚. And! How that affection remains across incarnations. Colin Baker has functionally said his Doctor is aroace (exact quote: "Love is a human emotion and the Doctor isn't human" (which... saying love is what makes us human is not great)) but the point is Six still cares for Jamie so much, regardless of the type of love he feels. Like in the Wreck of the Titan, the first thing he does after getting Jamie back is take him on a luxury cruise he'd been saving tickets for 🥺. (Well, attempts to do that. They end up on the Titanic LMAO).
MaeLinda isn't here because I haven't read Supergirl (1996), sorry (over 700 comics read seems like a lot but it's actually nothing 😔). Mae's my icon because I liked her in the Death of Superman, but I will read more of her stuff (and then gain MaeLinda opinions) but I'm currently possessed by my Doctor Who obsession.
In general, I tend to be less of an avid romance shipper and more of a dynamic enjoyer, which sometimes means shipping and sometimes doesn't. It's about closeness, not necessarily about how that closeness is defined (platonic? queerplatonic? romantic? who knows). They're partners (ambiguous).
Thanks for asking!
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I watched Lain over the past two weeks. Twice.
The first time I saw it I didn't have a clue in heck as to what was going on, but I had a pretty strong feeling of what the show was saying. The second time I understood all of the secrets of Lain and am here to preach her gospel. Haha, just kidding. But I do feel strongly that of all the possible interpretations, the literal canonical one is the only one I've heard that isn't satisfactory.
In addition to all the crazy theories I've seen people come up with (Lain is Jesus, Lain is Shinji from Evangelion, all of Lain is about aliens, etc.) - and god bless the lovely people who write those - there are two common interpretations. #1 is that Lain is a program constructed to break down the barrier between the Wired and the real world. #2 is that Lain is schizophrenic and by the end of the series has gone completely nucking futs. You can think of these as the literal interpretation and the meme interpretation, maybe.
My problem with #1 is if you accept it, the finale is deeply troubling. One key theme in Lain is that Lain despises being observed, but she loves observing others. Notice how panicked she gets any time the Men in Black train their sights on her in the early episodes, or the repeated scenes of her family members opening her door to stare at her, say nothing, and leave. And this gets discussed explicitly in the finale, where Lain tells herself that maybe she prefers to be a god because it's easier to be a god than a human being - you don't have to be seen but you can see everything. It's very clear that the point being made here is that Lain, if given the choice, would choose to be human after all she's been through. As such, her decision to remove herself from the world feels like a defeat, a hollow tragedy, and a betrayal of her own arc. It's not bad writing, necessarily - it just feels bad.
#2, by comparison, sits okay with me, but it does feel a bit silly. You can wave away the entire show as a meaningless hallucination, and its ending as a complete break with reality. So why were we watching this again?
During my second watch of the show, after the ninth episode (the alien one featuring the ultimate husbando Vannevar Bush), I wrote down two possibilities that I still thought were plausible at that stage. My ideas were fairly similar to #1 and #2 above, but with a couple crucial differences, so I'm going to call them #1A and #2A.
#1A: Lain is the emergent consciousness of the internet, and this is the story of her trying to figure out her place in the real world.
The key thing separating this from #1 is that I never took seriously the idea that Lain was deliberately constructed. Rather, I saw her (in this version) as a being nobody wanted or expected, but one who learned to exist with reference to other people.
There's one scene that makes me dismiss the "constructed Lain" interpretation out of hand even before the ending - it's the scene where her dad says goodbye to her on the stairs, and expresses that he "enjoyed playing house". It seems very obvious to me that the scene isn't meant to be taken at face value, being that it follows up the increasingly weird but oddly human behavior of all of Lain's family members. But if you think Lain is literally a program, you have no choice but to take this at face value, along with everything else her family does. Instead, I immediately took their behavior as Lain's perception of them. To Lain, her mother is basically a nonentity whose only emotional act is to kiss her father on occasion. This isn't the behavior of a paid actor - it's Lain's vision of how her human mother would sincerely act.
With #1A, the ending of Lain is her recognizing herself as the goddess of the internet, and recognizing that she cannot participate in the real world - but she loves everyone in it all the same. They are no longer NPCs and simulations to her, but real people. I like that version of her arc, but my other construction is the one I find even more compelling.
#2A: Lain is a human girl. She isn't schizophrenic, but lonely, isolated, and prone to fantasizing. The majority of what we see is her playing out a fantasy where she doesn't have to give up her privacy and finds her secret desire for attention and love - on the internet.
I already mentioned above that all we see of Lain's family seems to me like it's filtered through Lain's eyes. According to this interpretation, that also applies to the rest of her life. In class the other students appear as gray statues in the background because she doesn't care about them. The Knights are people she talks to on the internet, but what they really do we never find out. Instead she lives an elaborate fantasy including secret organizations, aliens, and of course - herself as a god-like figure at the center of it all.
I wasn't sold on this interpretation until I thought in depth about the ending to the story, and specifically Lain's "reset". It was always very hard for me to explain the reset, in conjunction with Lain's apparent affirmation to stop living as a god and start living as a human. But then something clicked - if nearly the entire story is Lain progressing her own fantasy, then the reset is her decision to go back to the real world, not to leave it. She chooses to live as a human again after a very, very long period of dissociative introspection.
#2A gives rise to the question of what the final scenes with Lain's dad and with adult Arisu are. The more comforting and to me, less fitting sub-interpretation is that those too are "memories" - fantasies of the future - and the real Arisu is Lain's classmate. But my favorite of all is this: the real Lain is 14. Her father is dead. The real Arisu is 24 or so. Lain deeply admires Arisu but has not seen her in a long time - the version of Arisu Lain remembers was a middle schooler. Perhaps Arisu was her babysitter when she was a small child. And in this version, the final scene with Arisu is just reality - a meeting after so many years.
The only qualm I have about this version - call it #2A2 - is that Lain's crucial statement in the finale that "memories can be of the present or future, not just the past" isn't used to full effect. But emotionally it seems to fit better than anything.
Anyway, I think I've thought enough about Lain to earn myself the right to take part in discussing it. It was in case a wonderful atmospheric anime I'll probably remember for a long time still.
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i just finished binging the dead boy detectives show, and i need to get my thoughts out, warning for spoilers
no spoilers tldr: its rlly good please go watch it i need a season 2.
now, onto the review(??):
it is very VERY different from the comics. this isn't *necessarily* bad, in fact i have no problems with pretty much any changes the show made, i just get antsy about cbms/tv shows changing the source material, bcs that happens all the time (i love the blue beetle movie but i will never forgive it for victoria kord). so here are some changes i liked: i liked the explicit queerness, i liked niko, i liked the fact that there were people in the afterlife actually looking for them, i liked how they wrote tragic mick (i love him so much), and i liked the setting change; some i didn't mind but would hate in the comics: edwin's magic, the whole brains/brawn thing?? (istg if a single one of you decides to portray charles as stupid, i will kill you), crystals personality & dynamic with the boys (she was fine but so drastically different from her comic self i would've preferred her to be an oc tbh), the removal of squooshing, the fact that the dead boys don't take cases from the living, edwin's hell being so much more violent, and the fact that they actually call themselves the dead boy detectives (i could be wrong but i've read all of their solos and i don't think they've ever done this??). the only change i really outright dislike is charles' death. i loved the part where edwin took care of him and read to him, but him being killed by the same bullies who killed edwin in the same place is just so much better than the lake. also, once again, crystal was a fine character, but that is just *not* the crystal palace surname-von hoverkraft i know!! where is her obsession with video games? where is her tech savvy? where are her insane parents?? i hope that one day we get an accurate cartoon adaptation of the toby litt run.
now moving on to the show itself!! i really liked the plot, the fact that it was semi-episodic, the cast of characters and actors was incredible. i just really liked it lol. tbh the literal only part of the show i didn't like is the fact that edwin and charles didn't kiss by the end. like... not even once. i wouldn't mind this if this wasn't a netflix show that wasn't getting much buzz, because i'm 99% sure this show isn't going to be renewed. also it felt kind of... idk, queerbait-y?? like there's obviously queer characters and content, but it feels like i watched this *for* edwin and charles' relationship and then they never got together. i feel like shows do this a lot, where, yes, there's a queer character, but they just aren't allowed to be in a happy relationship and get with the person they love. like idk it just makes me kind of angry, especially since we're probably not getting a season 2. i liked literally everything other than that, but it's just such a big scar on my enjoyment of the show that i can't help but mention it.
i don't really have much else to say other than: i really liked it, go watch it.
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So there was a conversation about queer representation in video games, and this got said in response to the perception that lesbians are more represented in video games compared to other LGBT identities (particularly gay men):
"Lesbians are fetishized by straight men, so that's why they're more common"
I'm going to be honest and say it's never really sat right with me from that point on. Not because I don't think there isn't some truth to the matter, but because I think it lacks a lot of nuance and a lot of much more important feminist thought. So let's just, break down my thoughts alright?
What does it mean to fetishize lesbians in this situation?
This is actually something I think is worth examining in a lot more detail, because when you talk about lesbian characters in media, there's usually one of two responses from predominantly cishet men regarding them:
The character(s) in question are vehemently disliked, often getting little attention, or as is common in fandom circles, having their character and the content surrounding them relentlessly criticized.
Strong affirmations that the characters involved are Definitely Not Gay and that it's reaching to insist they are.
This, to me, is kind of strange? It's in obvious contradiction to the idea that lesbian characters are getting the most representation. So what exactly is going on?
In truth, both responses highlight some truth, and to understand this, we need to look at the primary way men fetishize lesbians, which is through porn. When it comes to porn, often there is not an overt need to deal with the people involved as wholly unique individuals with their own feelings and thoughts and what not. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, porn actors are sex workers and that's going to be the result of that. It's just kind of a natural result and porn can handle this either gracefully or not.
But as an interesting side result, this means that it becomes very easy to decouple the actors away from the content. The second reaction becomes a dominant factor here: it becomes very easy to view the women involved as being available and often the primary way this developers from there is the idea of performance: a girlfriend and her friend performing for the boyfriend, or maybe two girlfriends etc. Now, again, there's nothing strictly wrong with that in concept as a sex act as long as everyone involved is aware and consenting and happy with it, but it's how it crops up in regards to how lesbians are viewed.
Lesbians are only tolerated when they're viewed to be available to men, and are often violently disliked when that's shown to not be the case. The world has not stopped oppressing lesbians for being overt in their affections towards other women just because of porn videos. This often has the effect that lesbian characters in media are rarely very explicit in order to preserve that illusion, or the much less comical and honestly perhaps somewhat grosser option I call the IntSys method where you just make your characters all bisexual.
To be clear, I find this really disrespectful and cowardly on principle. It really illustrates the extent that the creatives involved just see bisexuality as a convenience and not actually its own important identity. It becomes a way to still sell your lesbians to men, and frankly, eugh. Lesbians and bisexuals really deserve better than that and IntSys are still in fact tremendous cowards.
Fetishization does not correlate to representation either.
Guess who else is also fetishized by straight men its trans women babyyyyy! This is a very known quantity and its curious how that hasn't also caused a similar explosion in the number of trans women in video games. Actually what it has seemingly actually resulted in is more of the "trap" archetype, the transphobic and homophobic character who exists primarily as a joke.
Which is honestly a nice segway into the next point.
Lesbians do not necessarily represent a threat to masculinity.
If you wanted to know why so many lesbians in media are extremely femme and often conform to straight women beauty standards, this is it. It all has to do with masculinity. In fact, this really ties the knot with the problems with both lesbian representation in media (the absolute dearth of masculine women and butches (sorry that Genshin character is not butch)), the lack of representation of trans women, and the lack of representation of gay and bisexual men.
To transgress against masculinity in general has a habit of making you way more hated in our society which worships masculinity as a golden standard. If a woman is too masculine and is trying too hard to be like a man, she's often virulently hated. For trans women, the rejection of masculinity and the embracing of femininity makes them beloathe, and for gay and bisexual men, having sex with men is embracing what is seen as the female sexual role. We can even circle back here to the fetishization and lesbians and the anger of exclusion: it's okay for women to kiss each other and have sex as long as a guy is involved and enjoying it (and very bad if that's not the case). That doesn't even work with gay men, even though statistically more men are enjoying it.
There's an entire thesis that could be written about the stigmatization of the sexual role of the bottom in homosexuality, or on the eventual estrangement of the femme gay men in queer society. Ideas of masculinity are inextricably tied to straight men's perception of gay men, and unfortunately, gay men are often viewed as directly transgressive. A straight man being hit on by a gay man is often viewed as a direct assault on that straight man's masculinity, and as a result, gay men are just directly hated a lot more. There's a reason violence towards gay men is still staggeringly common. It's not like the video game industry is making any progressive waves in combating any of this either.
But there's one point as well in addition to this I would feel remiss not to bring up:
Are we really laying at the feet of a lot of good, honest queer representation in video games the burden of appealing to fetishistic straight men?
This one in particular bothers me because it is actually worth noting that there is a lot of lesbian representation that has nothing to do with fetishization at all. Not because it isn't sexual in any way, but because its created by queer lesbians wanting to see themselves in the media. So one must ask if there's something else involved.
For me, I have a general pet theory that's called Cluster Behavior of Exclusionary Qualities. The gist of it is that I've noticed that outsiders to a community often do not have one single defining trait that separates them from the majority, but often have more of them. The primary reason for this is that people who are already excluded will generally start to re-examine a lot of the other norms they take for granted. But I think another aspect of it as well is that the more reasons you have for not being accepted, generally the more it just makes you stubborn and angry. What are they going to do, exclude you harder? Ultimately, the industry is still really, really sexist and it's harder for women to even make a foothold in the industry at all to begin with. You're not fighting any less uphill, so why not just make something authentic to yourself and resist a lot of the bullshit?
This isn't to say there aren't gay men in the video game industry, there absolutely are, but I think the pressure to conform is probably a lot stronger, because acceptance really is just right around the corner. Sometimes it is easier to just go with the flow when its beneficial, and I don't judge for that its a bitch of a world and we all gotta eat somehow.
So what do I think at the end of all this?
I think that the fetishization of lesbians actually results in us getting a lot less authentic, well-written lesbian characters and stories, and what it does produce are a lot of ambiguously written characters and token attempts at inclusion that often fall flat. I do think it's likely even then that still outweighs a lot of other representation in video games, but I think there are much stronger factors to explain that.
At the end of the day, we're all fighting for fucking scraps out here. We're not going to get better representation by taking jabs at each other about this. But maybe, one day, we can live in a world where a Final Fantasy 19 has two women absolutely destroying it so I no longer need to see the straight couple from 16.
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COVER INTERVIEW:
Its been a long day for Simone Ashley. By the time we sit down to chat over Zoom, its 7:20 pm in London and Ashley has spent the last sixteen hours inside a dark cavernous studio filming night scenes for one of UK's most cherished TV shows.With her eyes still readjusting to the light and her face showing zero signs of dregs of a hard day's work,she sits at home emanating the exuberance of someone raring to do it all over again.
It wasn't easy to pin down Ashley for our interview. And its understandable really, knowing that she's soon to become one of the most talked about actresses on our screens. Only a few months ago, whispers of Ashley started rumbling across the internet. Her face quickly started appearing on Twitter and Instagram. Articles that told you "everything you need to know about Simone Ashley" became suggested reads for TV lovers.
Why ? Because in a landmark move for the 26 year old actor, the news broke that Ashley would be taking on her next role as Kate Sharma-the fiery headstrong and grounded new female lead of Bridgerton.
As Kate Sharma,Ashley joins as the love interest of Jonathan Bailey's character,Anthony.When the news of the role was released, Netflix tweeted "Kate Sharma is a smart headstrong headstrong young woman who suffers no fools- Anthony Bridgerton very much included" which is no doubt a nod to the juicy tumultuous events to come. Speaking with Ashley about the role and her character its increasingly hard to believe that despite her almost continuous smile,infectiously calm demeanour and astute gathered reflections on her life and career, she says that she is in fact very similar to the fiery character she plays.
"Naturally when we meet someone fiery who maybe has a temper or is incredibly emotional, its really natural for us to feel slightly intimidated by that person and not really understand where it comes from, to feel protective of ourselves if it comes from a place of animosity" Ashley says ruminating upon what makes Kate, Kate. "A lot of time, people who have those traits- quite fiery, raised voice and have a temper- are actually people who have the biggest hearts. There's work to be done on how you express yourself. I don't think its a necessarily bad thing"
And the pressure was certainly on Ashley, to bring the character of Kate Sharma to life as much as she could. Julia Quinn the author of the Bridgerton novel series, tweeted "I couldn't dream of a more perfect Kate" when the news of Ashley's arrival was announced.
So the actress took her time to really understand who Kate was really deep under the surface so that she could slip into her skin and stand tall around the Bridgerton sets,not only with support from a corset but with an arresting poise that speaks true of her character.
For most of us we were first introduced to Ashley during her appearance in the widely revered Netflix hit show- Sex Education. Our first glimpse of the future Bridgerton star was of Ashley portraying a 16 year old high school girl perching on a derelict toilet in an asbestos covered bathroom next to the show's protagonist, Asa Butterfield as she confides in him about her more turbulent sexual experiences. Sex Education set out to break down questions of sex and sexuality that most of us had growing up, exploring different stories and topics that hone in a range of topics and taboos. It soon became a treasure of a show for anyone wanting to find out about things no one is really talking about.
"I'm so grateful to be part of that show" Ashley says reminiscing about how close the cast of Sex Education cast became."It's a cast and crew of such incredibly intelligent wonderful people with really big hearts and all in all as well as being part of the series, that was a massive thing I took away from the job, I made some really amazing friends I think it was just a really fun job to be a part of . It's such a fun story that John Hughes kind of high school world it was just really special."
Prior to the role Ashley worked with Olivia Coleman and David Tennant in Broadchurch as well as more recently appearing in shows like ITV's The Sister. She had a blink-and-you'll-miss-me role in 2015's iconic cinematic story of hip hop group NWA's Straight Outta Compton. Even though Sex Education's seismic success could only mean good things were coming to the cast Ashley is still pinching herself over what seems to have fallen deservedly on to her lap.
It's no shock that Ashley finds herself likely taken aback by the recent developments in her career, the world will be watching as she steps foot ; her back help straight and hands locked together in traditional Regency-era gowns on to our screens. But not only has landing the role been a game change for her career but it's also thrown her into a world of complete unfamiliarity wrapped up in what seems to be the most rigorous work schedule around.
"With Bridgerton it's much more intense than Sex Education in the sense that if I'm not filming I'm horse riding, training or rehearsals. I'm an accent training or I'm in a fitting" Ashley explains "I've never really worn a corset before so that took some getting used to, my body definitely changed a little bit wearing it. And that kind of changed my posture a lot to suit the era. Horse riding, I've never really ridden before, I rode once years ago, but I did some intense training for that and it turns out I'm a natural at it so that's a great thing" she shares.
With unrivalled anticipation of the second season, based on the second instalment of Quinn's novel series The Viscount Who Loved Me- as well as the fan bases that spans across continents and even releasing its own "Nap Dresses" fashion collection, Bridgerton has become an empire stretching all over the globe and Simone Ashley has undoubtedly taken centre stage.
But none of this came easily for the actress. Ashley's dreams of acting have always been firm and unwavering in her mind.With no other option of what her future might look like Ashley took a dangerous leap into a world that chucks people out this despondent and dreamless as quickly as it can make you the next big thing. "I have incredibly supportive parents especially my mum" she says. "I was extremely stubborn in my choices and I left home quite early when I was about 15 years old and I was just very focused. So to be honest even if they were supportive or not I was going to do it anyway"
"I couched surfed quite a lot, and I worked various retail jobs. I did a year of acting on a musical theatre course at a drama school and then it didn't work out, I actually left after my first year then I went to LA where I did my first teenie tiny acting role. Then I came back to London and took it seriously and started knocking on a lot of doors, going to thousands of auditions like any other actor, and just went back to acting class. I was just really curious to see how deep I could get into craft."
Grafting with unchanged determination took Ashley,from job to job, London to LA, and retail job to retail job. But as her self-assurance and awareness of her potential became steadfast in her mind the jobs got bigger and her dreams got closer.
"If I am really honest, I got kicked out of the drama school that I went to" Ashley admits, opening up as our conversation draws to a close. "I failed in dance and I was told that I wasn't ever going to be in performing arts. There wasn't a part of me that ever believe anything there was saying.I always knew that I was really smart and maybe just have some growing up to do, but I always knew that this what I was meant to be doing" she said wrapping her head around being the new star of one of Netflix's biggest shows.And if there is any greater testament to proving that it can happen, that taking risks can one day be undeniably fruitful, its Bridgerton's newest heroine.
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