listen, i know phandom notoriously romanticizes erik and christine, it's the nature of the thing and its allure, and i've no problem with that (even though i'm a raoul girlie at heart! lnd does not exist), but since i'm seeing some massively inaccurate bad faith takes on the bird app celebrating the show closing because it's "toxic/problematic/glamorizes stalking/is about stockholm syndrome" (lol not this again) "the phantom is a bad abusive murderer" (yeah! the story KNOWS this! have any of these people ever once understood gothic romance? or fiction? or, like, joy...?), allow me to dust off a quick and ineloquent commentary on our heroine, miss christine daae:
the phantom is not the protagonist. christine is. the emotional and psychological lens through which the story is told is christine's. the journey and character growth from innocent ingenue to more knowing woman? christine's. the character who radically transforms the narrative through her will, bravery, and compassion? christine! christine is the hero of her own story! christine overcomes extraordinary grief, trauma, gaslighting, manipulation, exploitation of her innate talents, an obsessive in pursuit of her, an entire company who doesn't believe her and thinks she's a mad child (even her beloved - the light romance contrasting the dark one - is guilty of this for a bit), and she does this with fortitude and reclamation of her self and her own voice, and by displaying extraordinary empathy. the phantom doesn't let her go because he suddenly becomes "good" himself, or is "redeemed," he lets her go because her goodness overwhelms him, her small act of tenderness even after she angrily and rightfully defies him forces him to realize she deserves her life. that to love someone does not mean you can treat them as a possession. (please note that in the book, he dies shortly afterwards. his is an immense and broken love, and he is a tragic figure.)
it is not a story about an abuser with the upper hand, it's a story about a young woman who survives, grows, and LEAVES. her courage and grace is the fueling engine of the entire machine. her agency is paramount in the ending. i frankly won't stand for erasure of that, and derivative takes about her as a hapless victim and the show as endorsing the phantom (it doesn't) have always made me want to drop a few chandeliers.
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Have you seen The Amazing Digital Circus yet?
If so, what's your opinion on it?
I LOVE TADC! It’s my favorite indie show at the moment! There’s just so much I like about it but my main ones are
1. The setting and execution being unique.
A horror-like project taking place in an late 90s/early 2000s digital game is not a new idea and same goes with characters being stuck in a purgatory however it’s how the artists reinvent those idea that makes it new. The digital Circus made its own aesthetic that makes it stand out from other projects with similar concepts and designs. When I first watched the pilot, one of many things that stuck out to me was how new the story ideas felt. I couldn’t think of any other pieces of media similar to TADC beside for surface-level comparisons. The TADC created its own aesthetic and knows what it wants to be and I like it!
2. Soundtrack.
Speaks for itself, the soundtrack for the pilot is so good especially Your New Home. That song is very catchy and emotional too. It has such a unique melody, everytime you hear the first few notes you instantly recognize it. It does a great job highlighting the dread and existentialism crisis of Pomni’s situation. I recommend to give it a listen if you haven’t.
3. The characters dynamics.
I just love how the characters interact with each other. The majority of the jokes comes from characters’ interactions and dynamics and how well everyone plays off of each other. The best example is Jax with everyone, Jax is a funny jerk who likes bullying his peers. It’s funny to see what creative ways Jax will bully the other people whether it’s being sarcastic and making quips at them, or though goofy pranks and how the characters react because of their contrast in personality. Every character beside Jax is openly stressed or worried in someway while Jax, at first seem like a chill layback dude.
4. The characters differences.
I adored the differences between each character from how they talk to their poses. After watching HH and HB, I learned to have an appreciation for character differences. It’s just refreshing to see characters allowed to be different instead of the same tired reused tropes and repeating the same type of dialogue again for every character.
5. Mystery and lore.
There is so much to explore in the pilot, it’s make you wanting more. When going in to watch the pilot, I made the mistake of thinking the series will be predictable. I didn’t see how they could make this premise work because by the end of it, Pomni will go insane but then I watched the pilot and was speechless. The pilot does a good job setting up questions for the audience to ask. If Caine lied about the exit, what are other things did he lied about? How long has the cast been stuck in the circus? Who are these people? Are they previous game developers? Who were they in their previous lives? What is the company’s motivation to create the headset? What are the abstractions in game? Are they viruses to the game program? Who were the former cast? What horrors has Kinger seen to be as paranoid and easily frighten as he is now? Do the abstractions still have a consciousness? You just want to find out more about the lore to solve the many mysteries in the show. I find it impressive Gooseworx was able to stir up the theorists because they have admitted in an ask, there are already theories floating around that are almost right about the show.
One problem I did have for the pilot were the scenes containing the Gloink Queen. The pacing of the pilot was fine until we got to her then it was slow. I feel it dragged longer than it needed too but beside that, my issues for the pilot ends.
I can’t speak for the fandom on other platforms but the tumblr one is great! Most of the time everyone is being respectful towards each other and I love seeing what creative theories, AU, fanfics, and art the fans created. The only people causing drama are the anti-shippers, and it’s just dumb. All of the cast are adults, if age gaps ships makes people uncomfortable, that’s valid but they shouldn’t make it into other people’s problems. Gooseworx themselves admitted they don’t care for romance and they don’t want fans in the fandom getting harassed over shipping.
Overall despite what issues I had for the pilot and fandom, they’re overshadowed by the positives and I can’t wait to see the full show and the fandom’s growth.
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ik i call out winx fans here a lot for racism but like,, the fan space here is genuinely so much better than any other social media. i've been looking at winx edits on tiktok and holy shit they're all so fucking mean?? every single comment section is just full of people complaining about how much they hate Insert Character Here, there's constant fighting between the editors, so much misinformation,,, its so bad!! even though there are people here who aren't as fond of certain characters, they mostly keep it to themselves and at the very least don't fight with other fans about it. like,, the fandom here is just full of really creative people who bonded over liking winx, which is what fandom should be, but the tiktok teens turned it into some pissing contest about which character is better. i'm so glad fans here aren't like that god it'd be so miserable
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Youve made me curious, what's Tai Sui about? What's the appeal 👀👀
LET ME TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THE APPEAL ANON!!
tai sui is an absolutely fantastically written steampunk xianxia novel that acts as a deconstruction of the xianxia genre!! if you like detailed world building, questions about the cost of immortality, what makes a god, and identity, themes about environmentalism, class, autonomy, the power of names, and just incredible levels of emotional damage (broken up by the funniest and most annoying (/affectionate) protagonist around), tai sui is for you!!
which is to say. this novel was engineered to make me specifically absolutely lose it LOL
i kept on trying to make this post both coherent and not long and i have given up. here is a bunch of words of me yelling about how much i love tai sui below the page break.
TAI SUI IS SO!!! MY BRAIN!!! ITS BEING REWRITTEN!!!
there is literally no one in the main cast i dont like. they're all so funny in their own ways and so likeable!! I genuinely have such a difficult time picking my favorite character in tai sui because they're all so interesting and well-written, and i love seeing them interact with each other
part of this absolutely has to do the protagonist, xi ping, who is just the funniest man around. he's also the most annoying and i want to see him crushed like a bug (/affectionate). he's really good at bouncing off of other characters, and i love seeing him drag other folks into Problems and Situations and just being a general force of chaos and mayhem in the world
it's also really good that he's so funny and lighthearted because tai sui has some really tragic moments!! it gets fucking sad!! i've cried multiple times and i don't usually cry at media!! i only just finished book three!!
tai sui is also really good at writing women!! i love tai sui women so much. i don't really have much more to say about this but like. gender and wlw win <3
another thing tai sui does that i like a lot is zoom out to focus on the ways the events of the novel are affecting ur average day folks. when i say ''tai sui is about class and environmental issues'' i mean they don't just like, say it in the narration and then not elaborate on it. we explicitly see how people are being affected by the way the world is governed and the hardships they are forced to live through. it's not really left to your imagination.
but something i also really really like is that while priest does show the hardship that characterizes the lives of the people, they also show the ways in which people struggle to live on regardless.
tai sui is about tragedy in a lot of ways, but it's not a tragedy they take lying down, and it's not like people don't find their own moments of happiness in spite of the hard lives they live. which is really important to me!! its something i genuinely appreciate from the narration so much!! yes, life is hard. yes, things are difficult. and yes, people find a way to continue on regardless!!!!
PUNCHES A WALL. IM SO EMOTIONAL ABOUT TAI SUI.
ALSO THE NARRATION IS SO GORGEOUS??? LIKE HELLO??? IM LITERALLY OBSESSED WITH THE PROSE. EATS IT WHOLE LIKE IM A BURMESE PYTHON. or uh. like im going out to a gyro place with my friends and i get so focused on eating the food that i don't notice that i'm eating the sandwich paper wrap until a fair amount of it is chowed down haha :')
i also mentioned this a little on my side twitter but the way tai sui is formatted is also really fun to me. like. it feels like a tv show with the way the scenes change and the cliff hangers the chapters end on sometimes. which is why it really doesn't feel like its 900k words. you just keep going and then BOOM ur done with a book. the real reason im doodling my way through this novel is to force myself to go slow. bc otherwise i would have finished it in a week (there is something wrong with me).
anyways please read tai sui
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I start to think internet is honestly not such a bad place to make friends at. It is just really treacherous. In real life, you can disagree with the person on even important topics several times for months, years even, and you will still have contact. But online, all it takes is like, ONE negative interaction or bad post for person that kept cherishing and supporting you and sharing their life with you to disown you, and all previous feelings and experiences get retroactively ruined.
Not just that, but also there are plenty of terminally online idiots that can't to save their lives grasp the concept of how not everyone will get along. Some people just WILL have a conflict, some people just WILL make you angry or YOU will make them angry. I legit heard the "it doesn't matter if she was nice to you, she was rude to like 4 people in the span of 5-6 years so if you ignore that you are selfish and don't care about the community uwu" cultish nonsense about myself (only real ones remember xd). This shit just doesn't happen in reality, you can have straight up enemy in your class/workplace and people will try to fix the situation. And sure if one person snapped at another, people try to resolve this.
I honestly think that the whole "b-but internet friendships are not real!!!!1! uwu" bunch aside, people are generally lazy about bonds and relationships. That the only way they will ever put effort into preserving bonds and communicating despite issues is if they are forced to by sharing a physical space. In real life they can't just block a person out of their life and be done, they will have to see them in family, in the class, at work, just accidentally meet them in the city etc. So they have to talk it out. But how having to do it can be a real choice? Like... internet is a good place to make friends at because if a person that had a CHOICE to never see you again, that was not FORCED to endure you still sticks with you regardless of negative interactions - it means that they are real one. You can only know whether someone actually needs you or not when they have full freedom of choice without any consequences, but only internet can reveal this much. It just takes a while to find right people, but it is worth it. Basically, internet doesn't "ruin" people, it just reveals their true nature because only not having consequences can do that. But it also reveals who actually wants to accept you, flaws or not, when irl you can't know if that's real or they are forced to to not make their lives harder 🤔
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