#complaining is ok! i love haters i'm a hater myself but this fandom is exhaustive!!!!

[tothedarkdarkseas]

I miss phase 5 when 2D had that nice pulled back hair, always wanted to see him with dyed hair, black and blue whould look so good together! I also miss phase 2 when he had a personality, I'm honesty just mad at jamie at this point, ok maybe not that mad but still, no more uwu bottom pretty boy 2D I want cocky top piece of shit 2D. Also when did murdoc became a crybaby he sold his soul to satan bro respect that old man please jamie sir, ok sorry for the spam.

(I’ll try to add a cut for length, but read mores seem to only work half the time on Tumblr now! Sorry about that!)

Hey again! Phase 5 definitely has a cool art style, I do wish Jamie would’ve kept that hair up for more than just one picture! Stu’s hair has also shifted so much along a spectrum of blue that you have to wonder if it’s gonna go all the way grey. I wish it would! At this point I think my biggest wants would be seeing an adult Stu with his natural pre-blue hair, or seeing an odd sort of salt-and-pepper with the blue and the white/grey.

As for the character frustrations, you’re definitely not alone! To an extent I do believe in “death of the author” so to speak, I believe in a work standing alone, but I also don’t tend to get sincerely angry with creators for not making The Thing They Created exactly how I wanted. That’s probably not evidenced by my complaining though, haha. I definitely do feel some resentment for how nice-and-whatever Stu’s become now, but I recognize that’s a product of me restructuring Gorillaz as something it’s not-- but even thinking of it as objectively as possible, reminding myself Gorillaz is a fun daft project and nothing more... is this... is this really what you want, Jamie? You can be honest man, it’s just us, do you really want Stu to be the #softboy #angel? Don’t you and the writers miss coming up with lines for him at least half as foul as Murdoc’s? This is probably conspiracy nonsense, but I feel like in the effort to make Stu seem more like what the audience is saying they connect with, no one who is actually writing him connects with him, and it makes this all ring even more hollow. (I’m sure if asked they’d say otherwise though, so maybe I’m projecting. And this isn’t singling out Jamie or Ed or anyone, I don’t think Cass was perfect either, but there was a distinct feeling of personality we used to get from him that this phase does feel lacking in.)

And Murdoc... I know this is very unpopular to say as a person who tries (maybe fails, but tries) to ground the characters in reality and bring a bit more weight to their stories, but... I don’t personally feel much connection to Murdoc crying from loneliness. From a goofster-gagster-memester perspective, sure (and that’s why I reckon it’s actually in the video, as a joke about Murdoc looking pitiful with his arsecrack out) but I’ve just never enjoyed the task of explaining why Murdoc is genuinely crying and it’s meant to be this heavy dramatic moment and not just seem like a quick and easy trick to prove he’s got a soft squishy heart. I don’t see that as the only way to express that he has emotions or show him sympathetically, and for me it just feels a bit out of character if it’s not a goof, at least not without a lot more written around it to give it context. Y’know, it’s like... I feel like I always have to clarify that I really do love Murdoc and think he’s an interesting character, because you’re written off as a hater if you don’t baby him (and this goes for Stu as well, obviously.) I can appreciate his general paranoia and really grand, unwarranted sense of betrayal, that’s very Murdoc, but in general I found the discourse around Desole to be probably the most exhausting thing I’ve experienced in the fandom yet.

Sorry for the negativity! Much has been said about it but at the end of the day, this phase making little sense is not something that’s really weighing on me or taking away my fun or anything, I’m always pretty fine just doing my own thing over here, haha.

#unpopular sensitive gorillaz boyz opinions /// #i'd just rather the canon be funny and not worry about how likable the characters are coming across #they're fun as dirtbags and fandom will do the legwork regardless! just don't worry about it! #theuglyducklingssister #long post