#this is an allegory for some system shit going on

[system-of-a-feather]

Today I was invited to the table of the game of life. Everyone here is playing their cards, some are playing Magic, others Pokemon, some Yugioh, some playing cards, and even one guy over there has been playing Baseball cards I think, but as absurd as this game looks, they all appear to be building to a greater image.

The call me to the table to add to the game.

I walk up and pull out my deck of one, singular Skip Uno card. I sit down and shout Uno and play my Skip Uno card. I have won.

The table looks at me - paused in bafflement; a silent stare of bewilderment

They tell me that is not how this game of life works. We each create combos, chains, strategies and skills and build this massive play to form a much greater game.

They tell me that there isn't any winning in this game of life; they tell me that I need to bring more cards to the table, draw some more and join in on creating chained webs and supportive suggestions.

I tell them this is all that I have, there is nothing more to how my plays work other than this singular Skip Uno Card. I play Uno, the only function of Uno is to remove your cards. There is a limited amount of chain and skillful strategy that can be played in the traditional game of Uno; even less when your entire deck is empty and all you have is a singular card.

We have an issue. My game doesn't work at this table. We are incompatible, my deck simply doesn't work with the nature of this collaborative game.

I turn to the ref, solutions my good man. I can't fix my deck, I can't generate new cards. I can't make a play other than Skip Uno, what can anyone ask of me.

The ref checks the book, he checks the rules; he looks up and with a quizzical suggestion, asks if I could ask for someone else's cards

I say no, I don't have a card for that, all I have is a single Skip Uno Card. I do not have a Draw 4 or Draw 2. I only have Skip Uno.

He looks at me. He turns to the other players. He whispers in their ears as they chatter among one another. They each pull from their decks, donating one card each and collecting them into a stack.

They hand me the deck. In it, a Preordain, a holographic Charizard, a single piece of Exodia, a four of spades, and Babe Ruth. These cards now sit around my single Skip Uno card.

I turn to the ref, raising an eyebrow at this strange deck built before me; uncertain if this solution would work, if these cards could even possibly be played at this table.

Even so, new options have been placed in my hand. The bizarre game resumes. I play the four of spades.

The turn roles by.

#alter: data #you are free to reblog and comment and all that #writing #creative writing #recovery #actuallydid #this is an allegory for some system shit going on #allegory #allegory writing #data's writing #for myself or other parts that might not understand / remember the context #I have near to 0 foresight and ability to see the future and as a result do not have much ability to make strategies and solutions #and as the ocd ocpd fuck i am #I have one option my brain gives me and I functionably can not think of doing anything else #not even to the point of getting anxiety #i just straight up am structurally dissociated from the ability to think about any other 'plays' #which is even more apparent with how far ahead most parts in our system see #i dont consider myself to have a foreshortened future in the sense I dont think I will die soon or anything #but i do in the sense I literally cant think past the very instant moment #ptsd #c-ptsd #foreshortened future #also yes #this is supposed to be a bit comedic in nature #you can laugh

[tteokdoroki]

☆༉ — KATSUKI BAKUGOU. pre-k teacher!au.

about. some random headcanons of bakugou being a pre school teacher bc i think that he’s great with kids and would try so hard not to fall in love with his student’s mom.

warnings. minors, blank and ageless blogs do not interact. sfw, bakugou is soft for kids, reader is a single mother, fem!reader, pre school teacher!bakugou.

personally, i think bakugou would make a great pre-school teacher.

imagine a quirkless universe where bakugou decides to work with kids because he knows that in a world where everyone turns against one another — kids are the only ones who have never done wrong. as a pre school teacher, he tries to be the person he wished he had protecting him.

the class pre-k teacher!bakugou gets assigned are known to be ‘his kids’. they have their own system, in which bakugou claps once and they all scramble to sit on the carpet for story time or know to stack their handwriting books up neatly at the end of their tables. the kids like that their teacher is strong and able to pick three of them up at once, they order that he plays heroes with them or sometimes dresses up like a princess from the story book before nap time.

pre-k teacher!bakugou's class is the most well behaved, the little ones always snuggle up to him quietly when it’s time to sleep and listen well before they’re let out into the playground for time out doors. it’s almost like he gentle parents them too — your kid in katsuki’s class is particularly sensitive at times, but the blonde always gives her a little time to cry out her feelings in the reflection corner because kids will always figure their shit out even if they can’t articulate it properly.

“what’s wrong, sweetheart? can ya try ‘n tell me what’s up?”

pre-k teacher!bakugou who gets along well with the parents but doesn’t dare to cross the boundaries of professionalism… except for when it comes to you. the flustered young mum who’s trying to get her life together with an extremely shy and stubborn daughter that takes bakugou months to crack. he bribes her with special books at reading time, the first pick of pillows and blankies for naps and even helps her tie her shoes when he’s not supposed to.

but only because of the way your eyes light up at your daughter’s progress a few months later and the way you cling to pre-k teacher!bakugou's arm (whilst trying not to cry) when he tells you that your daughter is finally setting in with friends.

he absolutely cannot have a crush on you, however.

pre-k teacher!bakugou makes homemade snacks for his class that meets every dietary and allegory requirement of every kid he has — more often than not it’s fruit and veg, he tells his kids that they get superpowers from eating healthy. but sometimes he indulges them with gluten free brownies or muffins, sending extra home for the parents too.

pre-k teacher!bakugou puts his funny reading glasses on whenever a student of his makes him a piece of art. they always giggle. no matter what’s been made, the creations from his kids always go up on the ‘bk class wall of fame’ — he feels sentimental over each blob drawn onto colour paper with sprinkles of glue, pasta, buttons and glitter. they mean so much to him, he can’t help but adore the gifts he’s given.

pre-k teacher!bakugou who tries not to cry when his class move up a grade. he promised himself not to be like this, but the kids are squeezing and hugging him, showering him in end of year gifts as a thank you for being the best teacher ever. bakugou isn’t very good at hiding how much he’ll miss his kids — especially your little girl who he’s so used to having by his side until you pick her up everyday.

but when pre-k teacher!bakugou starts clearing out his classroom for a year, he finds a card from his favourite student (your daughter) and inside is your number scrawled quickly in the top right corner.

‘been waiting for this all year. call me, now that you’re not her teacher - xxx’

꒰ end. — all rights reserved © tteokdoroki 2023. do not copy, repost, translate & recommend elsewhere.

#bakugou x reader #bakugou x you #bakugou fluff #bakugou imagines #bakugo x reader #bakugo fluff #bakugo x you #bakugou drabble #bnha x reader #bnha fluff #bnha imagines #katsuki bakugou x reader #my hero academia x reader #mha x reader #✧ ₊˚੭ — writing #tteokdoroki

[trincketbox]

Jason Todd as a Trans (ftm) allegory

Written by me, a trans man

[this edit was made by me, original picture it's Dan Mora's sketch]

TW gender disphoria, (implied) transphobia.

Im not saying his story was written with this perspective in mind, Im saying *death of the author (*the reinterpretation of artistic creations by the public both as a community and aa individuals, and how this goes far beyond the creator's original message on mind) is a very real thing.

This narrative resonated with me, a trans man, and my experience as such. Maybe out there is another transmasc person who caught themselves invested in this character the same way as I, and maybe they'll read this post and be happy to found out they're not alone on these feelings.

Without further addue, let's begin.

The second Robin, and the feeling of not fitting

Every trans person first memory of perceiving oneself as somehow different (and how) it's particular to each.

Some realize pretty young, some older. Some always have this lingering feeling of not belonging but become conscious of it later in life.

This feeling its present trough all of Jason's life. First, when he first arrives at the Manor. Later, when he starts operating as Robin. Then when Tim "replaces him", and so on.

Usually labelled as the black lamb of the family.

Tragedy is always, first, born off love

Jason's death and resurrection is written as a tragedy (no shit, Sherlock). But there, to be a tragedy, there has to be hope first. There has to be love.

Now, this varies from version to version, but a general consence is that Jason Todd was loved by Bruce Wayne, regardless of how much their relationship might change and twist on the future; Jason Todd was a good kid, regardless of how he might be portrayed as recless. He was a traumatized, angry kid who wanted to make things better. Who wished for bad guys to not hurt people anymore. Who wished to change the system for better, and took the matter on his own hands both as a child and as a young adult.

This

This right here

Was a loved, brave, bold, sensitive, mischievous, smart child who would latter come back like this:

Demanding justice, demanding damnation for al the pain he went through, demanding retaliation to the monster that set him off this world.

And all these requests fell to the ears of Bruce Wayne, Batman. The man who took him in as a scared, bold litte child that beated him in the cold of the night in the alley where his parents died. He stole his car tires, he's a child and he stole his car tires and he made Batman laugh.

That Perception doesn't change with his rise from the dead.

What changes is Bruce's view of him now.

Now, this depends on the writer, but on the start of Jason's "coming back to Gotham to fight Bruce" arc, there is the accusation of him coming back wrong.

Of him being better before

Of something being wrong with him since the start.

The implications of his physical change as wrong in comparation to his younger self.

I find Jason's body dismorphia due to The Lazarus Pit™ very interesting,but in this case Im not referring to it as a comparation with body disphoria (even through, he does get the feeling of your body changing in ways out of your control and the trauma that surrounds it).

Im talking about Bruce's view on all of this.

Luckily, if you're trans and had supportive parents, you won't know these things by first hand experience, but many, many people do.

And Jason gets it.

Jason Todd its womanhood™ coded

This is, partially, one of th main reasons why his fanbase consists on a large part of fangirls.

Repressed rage upon the injustices you go through all your life, and once the last drop falls, said rage is weaponized. Seen as dirty, as over the top, as dangerous.

Your older self being compared to your younger self, being asked (directly or indirectly) where that sweet child™ went.

Being striped away from your body autonomy (murder, torture, resurrection against his will, whatever is going on in Batman Gotham War).

Being labeled as the most sensitive. Sometimes in a good light, sometimes not.

The burning weight of still loving parental figures that hurted you.

Topping it all, it's implied through many instances he's a feminist (yes, Im aware this is also heavily influenced by fanon interpretations of the character, but you can't deny it's still heavily implied).

All of these issues almost universal (however not exclusive) to AFAB people life experience.

There is this recognition in these wounds. "He gets it", you feel, he gets it.

He gets it in a similar way transmasc individual have an undeniable insight of these issues. He gets it in a way that feels genuine, familiar, personal.

Lastly but nor least important,

He gives me gender™ vibes. That's it, that's the argument

Over all, Jason Todd its a multifaceted, complex character. He's morally grey, his temperament ranging and mutating with each reinterpretation. Some core issues stick, others don't.

I do not hold the one and only right interpretation of this character.

We can al agree, nevertheless, that even through he's not canonically trans,

Jason todd would be a great trans ally, fighting by our side, in name of our rights, our pain but also our pride.

For that's what heroes do.

#dc comics #trincketbox #Jason todd #Jason todd trans #Jason todd ftm #Dc trans #Dc ftm #Dc headcanons #Batfamily #Batbros #Batkids #Robin #robin jason todd #Batfam #wayne family adventures #Batman #Jason Todd headcanons #trans headcanon #Ftm character #Gotham war #WHY IS THE QUALITY OF THE FIRST PICTURE SO LOW #English isn't my first language #This was written at 2am #With no traductor to check up words #And completely self indulgent

[mdhwrites]

Owl House tries to be critical of religious thinking and thought processes but the ending unfortunately supports the notion as well as the writing do you have the same thoughts as well?

It's not the ending that ruins this. The WHOLE SHOW is terrible at this. The reason why is obvious as well: The show is too busy mocking modern society and late stage capitalism for its villains, if it's mocking anything, to have time or room to say anything about dystopians, puritans or religion.

Just to make this point quickly: The first time we EVER hear about the Titan in any sort of context that implies even reverence is the S1 FINALE. It is only first brought up as the reason how Belos came to power: His ability to hear the Titan. Before then, the Titan is maybe used to replace God in common expletives but that's it. It's just the place they live in so supposedly one of TOH's main critiques takes an ENTIRE. SEASON. to show up.

However, it's not just how long it takes for people to start even mentioning it that's the problem. It never gains a foothold. People don't do things for the Titan. They do things for Belos. There's like maybe a half dozen LINES in the entire show that have anything to do with religious allegory besides the fact that witch hunts were religiously motivated. Maybe closer to a dozen because of Hunter's ramblings during Hollow Mind but that is ONE episode for the majority of any talk about this.

And it's not just that she show fails to depict a religion. Allegory exists for a reason. But... What is the faith then? The Coven System is MUCH closer to a stratified class system, or a communist economic system, that it literally ever comes to being a religion. It's basis might be in that but no one treats it that way. It's just a job and what you decide to specialize in.

The wild witches being absent is another part of this that also explains why it's absent. Eda doesn't get bothered by... Anyone? In the entire show? about being a wanted criminal. Covention is the absolute closest the show ever comes to having anyone besides the EC give a shit. In that one, people at least squint at her but despite her suspicious behavior, they don't do more than that. That is actually pretty accurate to how someone in the US might act in the modern day... But not in a dystopia. Especially not a religiously motivated dystopia.

A common factor between religious zealots and dystopias is the CONSTANT PARANOIA. The fear that is put into them of the other. How they are directed to destroy ANYTHING that is against the doctrine. This is why Christianity has had SO MANY SCHISMS because a single question for the faith will cause some people to lose their minds! The witch trials, no matter where they were, were often motivated by fear of demons and empowerment of others and used to keep those who might be shaking things up down, using both genuinely held beliefs and those that could be manipulated to cause the masses to agree that the person had to die. Even from a less extreme perspective, these same ideas are used to discriminate, alienate and attack.

However... That doesn't happen. Just because Eda is nice, to a couple people, an entire mob of loyal citizens is able to be rallied to go against the ONE LAW of the Isles. There is no belief there. There is no indoctrination there. If the Isles actually cared about the Titan, Eda should be fucked. Luz should cast a glyph in front of Amity and TERRIFY her because, as Amity puts it, "I've never seen someone cast it like that."

And the funny thing is, this would have made Luz's character climax statement ACTUALLY WORK. If everyone was terrified of her simply because she chose a different path, had to do things differently and was just inherently different, she could be a great stand in for all the effort so many marginalized people have to put in. All this work just to be understood against held beliefs that don't reflect reality. Held beliefs that only exist to prop up the status quote.

But that would mean making the Isles an inherently hostile place. To make Luz have to work for EVERY. SINGLE. INCH that she gains. And, well, the writers weren't interested in that. They weren't interested in a struggle. Instead, they were interested in the story of a young bi teenager going to a fantasy world and living out her dreams.

So sure, her literally being blessed by God to enact his will against his enemies is AWFUL. It explicitly makes it so that she is actually just Belos but she actually DOES hear the Titan! So you know, just don't believe in false prophets but prophets do exist and you should follow them unquestionably.

However, the problem starts LONG before then. Like almost any problem with TOH honestly.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house

[bonefall]

Since you mentioned only cats and a few other distant animals are sentient, does this mean foxes are getting their sentience removed? Midnight can talk to foxes in the books and even convinces some foxes to leave a patrol of cats alone (the foxes are WEIRDLY violent and talk about eating the cats too lmaoo).

I assume Hollyleaf's changes mean the Fox Cub Incident is either being moved or just removed entirely, I always found that small plot point interesting in face of all those "Non-cat in clan" AUs. Seems like something that could be interesting if an "us vs them" argument was formed from it, especially if it was targeted against Midnight and calling her unholy yknow?

Yeah, that sapience is gone completely. In this universe, language is limited only to humans, cats, and some distant animals that are far outside the range of Albion (elephants, bottlenoses, some parrots, etc)

And Hollyleaf's story especially. Ngl to you, I don't like that fox idea. Or anything about Hollyleaf's Story. I think it was the worst possible route to take.

"Hollyleaf will be a mother to this evil creature to learn what it's like to love something that hates you. It is so sad to be your mom Leafpool (Squirrel-who?). Don't you feel like a shitty daughter now, Holly? Let's not ask any questions about the code btw, or how you were already filled with crushing shame from it. Or how it made you so disgusted about the idea of pregnant nuns that you flipped your shit and ruined the lives of your entire family. No, what really mattered about this situation was maternal empathy. Also here take the nearest male character we can find to ship you with, we accidentally made Cinderheart too gay when she was upset about your death lmao"

But, digressing, putting my distaste of that novella aside,

WC is profoundly xenophobic already with just the cats, and I think it was a CATASTROPHIC mistake to make it so every animal is secretly intelligent but speaks animal language. Now every conflict between cats and their predators is an ethnic dispute! You're chasing out groups of people perfectly capable of reasoning if you bridged the language barrier, but they're also ACTUAL PREDATORS.

AT BEST; It's the same uncomfortable situations that Zootopia and Lion King ends up tripping over. In Zootopia, predators are used as an allegory for oppressed groups... but predators are MADE to eat prey. A rabbit is RIGHT to be terrified of a fox, twice its size with a jaw made for catching bunnies. In Lion King, lions have divine authority to rule over their dinner/subjects, and chase out any animal based on their personal ideology... which just so happens to only be leveraged against rival predator species.

(Nerd preemption: yes i know about lion guard. I do not think diverse Lion Cops were the solution you think it is.)

Carelessly adding sapience to "natural systems" often ends up accidentally justifying bigotry. Bigotry doesn't MAKE SENSE, it's bullshit we made up and perpetuate through culture, but food webs are completely logical. The rabbit fears the fox because the fox eats rabbits. The lion hates the hyena because they compete for the same food. Gazelles don't happily submit to an overlord who is divinely capable of deciding who should live and who should die, it's just nature.

But it gets even worse-- because it's actually WORST CASE; the Erins saw that complicated moral problem and went, "don't worry! They're actually born evil! Foxes just talk about food and killing things :)"

like... my brother in cats, YOU gave them language in the first place! What was the fucking point if they were just going to be evil barbarians anyway?!? For ONE scene where Midnight could show off her Duolingo streak???

So to summarize,

It was an awful idea to start with

It was executed in the worst possible way

In a series that is already plagued with xenophobic sentiment, this somehow made it even worse and more direct

If it was completely nuked it from the story, the series would be immediately better with minimal change. Holly caring for what is essentially the clan cat-equivalent of an exotic animal like a chimp or a tiger cub would have done the same thing

There is not even a glimmer of an idea here that justifies the poison that full sapience does to the wider implications of the series.

Don't even get me started on the Badger Debaucle in TNP, which is actually in my top 5 for most vile things in WC

So if I don't explicitly say that a species in BB is capable of true language, assume it is non-sapient. Talking animals like Midnight and Rat Leader are magical individuals-- gods, curses, etc.

#Guiding principle #I don't even like the name of Holly's novella. Like. Really. Couldn't think of a better title? #You're really that strapped for ideas? #Couldn't call it her Solitude. Or her Tunnel. Or whatever. #Or hell even call it her Fox #Holly's Story... tune in next week for Lion's Book. Or Jay's 634 Pages. #Our exciting new novella. Squilf's Thing.

[ragingadhd]

Will and Alyss are trans here’s my essay

We talk a lot about how funny it is that Flanagan unintentionally wrote the gayest love story between Halt and Crowley in TEY, but holy shit we don’t talk enough about how he also managed to accidentally write the two most trans characters ever.

Alyss and Will being trans is a semi-popular headcanon that’s been in the fandom for ages now, but I haven’t seen many people really dive into why this headcanon is so prevalent. I think that partially has to do with the fact that, like any lgbtq+ identity, it’s pretty difficult to clock someone as trans without relying on trans stereotypes. Really, any character in the RA series could be trans if you chose to believe it since being trans doesn’t look any certain way. That being said, I do think there are some pretty clear qualities and experiences that Will and Alyss have that feel very close to my own experience with being transgender.

Physical appearance is usually the first thing people point out/notice when talking about this headcanon. Will is short, more so than one might expect from a cis man. Alyss is taller than most men and also has a deep voice. I have mixed feelings about people pointing to this as the only reason they think they’re trans. I mean, it makes enough sense for it to be the only reason since one part of being trans is the fact that one’s body doesn’t match their gender identity. What I don’t like about that being the only reason is that there’s so much more to the trans identity and experience than “body don’t match :(“

But that’s the cool thing about Will and Alyss, their physical appearance effects their perception of themselves the same way it does for a trans person (or a cis person really, but it feels much more prevalent in trans people). In the first book, Will is clearly uncomfortable with his height; almost any time it’s brought up, he replies with “I haven’t had my growth spurt yet”, almost defensively. Then, as Will becomes more comfortable with who he is, you can see it bother him less and less. I love this bc it’s exactly what happened with my dysphoria as I transitioned. The more I got to know myself and discover myself, the less my dysphoria bothered me.

As for Alyss, she is so clearly so confident with her appearance. She never tries to hide her height or voice. Although we don’t get to see her journey with those qualities, the way she’s so confident feels like something the earned. It’s something she maybe used to feel insecure about, then decided she gets to decide what femininity means to her. Her height and voice contribute to her elegance and femininity rather than contradict them.

Another thing about Will is his name and how it relates to his identity. I know Flanagan didn’t intend for any of this to be some trans allegory, but goddamn can I relate my trans experience to it. Will grew up without a last name, and you can see how deeply that effects him. It wasn’t just that he was “Will no-name”, he was missing a part of his identity. Hell, he said verbatim “at least you know who you are” to a fucking owl because he felt so confused and unheard (which btw is the most edgy teen thing he ever did).

Though you can see this missing part of his identity bother him less as he gained a support system, it’s still clear that he felt like something was missing. If he didn’t feel like something was missing, he wouldn’t have been so incredibly happy when he became “Will Treaty”. And when he got his last name, you can tell he’s proud, not because he finally has an identity, but because he finally has a name to match the identity he’s spent so long discovering and cultivating. He no longer expresses any sadness or grief that he doesn’t have his father’s last name, because he doesn’t need it to know who he is. He’s Will Treaty, and he’s perfectly happy with being exactly that. This is the most trans-coded naming experience holy shit.

Anyway that’s all I have to say about this (for now at least). Go give your local trans friend a kiss.

#rangers apprentice #will treaty #alyss mainwaring #trans will treaty #trans alyss mainwaring #ranger's apprentice #trans

[swordfright]

I love your dsmp analisis!! expecially the ones about the final. You expressed the thoughts I've been trying to put in words prefectly and make me think again about some details of the story I wasnt watching well. The thing you said about the way how interpersonal abuse is used to justified systhemic abuse remenbers me about how justice and prisons work today

Immensely relieved to hear someone still finds my finale reaction post interesting because honestly i cringed a little when i rediscovered it. I feel this way about most of my old posts, not because I think I was wrong (i stand by that shit!!!) ) but I guess because like...the emotional intensity...lmao. That stream really had me going through it. To quote Veggie Tales, "I laughed. I cried. It moved me, Bob."

Although I suppose it's worth mentioning that there is one detail I've changed my mind on. Tbh I don't think i'd still use the word "systemic" to describe the abuse c!Dream deals with. At the time I wrote that post, I was trying to express that the cruelty c!Tommy suffers and the crulety c!Dream suffers are different but connected, and that the excuses used (by both characters and fans) to justify c!Dream's abuse mirrored IRL conversations about punitive justice.

While I do think the Pandora arc and its aftermath happen to work really well as an anti-prison allegory, I don't think we can really call anything in DSMP canon "systemic" because like...there are no systems! The server is, what, 30-something people split into half a dozen factions? There is no state on that server cohesive enough to codify anything into a system. [More on this here but it's tangential.]

All that said, I do 100% stand by the main point of that post, which was that violence perpetuates itself and the finale was largely about recognizing this and choosing something else. It's not too late. It's not too late, and even when it is too late, the end can always be a beginning if you let it :'') Good shit!!

#don't get me wrong - interpersonal abuse is definitely used to justify systemic abuse #but in this particular story i don't see the violence in question as systemic #on the contrary. i think c!sam's cruelty towards c!dream is very very personal #even if neither of them would admit it #anyway this ask made me so happy!! #glad my ramblings aren't super annoying to everyone #asks #c!dream #dsmp finale #pandoras vault

[fruitsofhell]

People shit on Elemental for its race/culture allegory looking even more reductive and rigid than Zootopia's on the service, but I think it actually used it super well. It feels a lot more like a very broad and fable-ish metaphor than the sort of hard world-building with direct racial parallels found in Zootopia. Zootopia aged poorly cause it was so fucking direct in its parallel imagery to real world oppression with the police angle, whereas Elemental is just generally about the experience of being an immigrant. The way it uses the infrastructure of the city being actively built for some and harmful to others is really clever, I adored how they used that.

It also helps greatly that Elemental was written by a POC from the perspective of the marginalized because it helps make the metaphors feel more cohesive. The choice to make Judy the main focus as a perpetrator of the systemic predator oppression that greatly mirrors real world anti-blackness aged like milk to me, it screams white guilt complex. And the fact it spends a lot of time not engaging with forms of prejudice besides the bunny oppression until it gets to that feels very flat. Elemental immedietly explains its main allegory very strongly and from the perspective of those it affects, so there's no fluff or time spent ignoring the issues from the privileged perspective.

Literally the thing that will instantly kill your fantasy oppression metaphor is being white guilty about it or not thinking super hard about what you're paralleling if you're going to be as blunt as Zootopia. Stuff like accidentally giving the oppressed group a reason to be oppressed as you do with the predator-prey dynamic. It's just the biggest fucking red flag and shows little understanding of why these systems exist irl. In Elemental the metaphor obviously uses a lot of imagery to show that the fire people are meant to be east asian-coded, but beyond that its content just being a story about class and immigrant families. About being from different worlds and feeling like they're impossible to combine, because of experiences and backgrounds, which is expressed as being fire and water.

Unlike being a bunny and fox, that imagery is a bit less loaded and can be turned into a sort of mutual harm as it is in the film with Wade being at risk of evaporating as muxh as Ember is at risk of being put out. And, in the end, it's found that water can just bubble a bit as the metaphor for a compromise. Which is fine enough and where the more fable-ish approach to the allegory became clear to me.

It's also used very cutely for their personalities too in a way that comes back to the background divide - Ember being fiery, anxious, and high-strung from pressures of supporting her community, and Wade being all blubbery and emotional but mellower because he lives in a supportive upper-class family. Its just a lot cleverer on a couple of levels than the bumbling between 'predators are black and brown people but also their oppression is bad but also they are dangerous but also its cause of a conspiracy, and also small prey are kinda like white woman and theres intersectionality but its shown horribly'.

Despite Ember's racial coding, no matter how you code Wade's family it doesn't matter because it is simply about - 'you live in a city that has integrated for you, and I don't' - which could apply to an upper-class family of any background, cause it's more of a class thing now. Even if he was black-coded (which Ive seen from fans likely because of his VA, I dont remember if he was in the films text), it still works cause their ARE affluent black families whom by nature of having been here and integrated are in that privileged role over a poorer immigrant family of any other race.

Allegories for class or upbringing usually age better, the systems that create those are a lot more basic and less loaded to parallel on a surface level than racism or misogyny. Not that they CANT go really deep, but it's easier to not come off as blatantly offensive as long as you're not like a eugenicist about it.

#shut the heck up #elemental #film and animation #media analysis #i didnt pay attebtion to all of elemental but from what i did it worked good #people clown on it too hard #its still kinda basic and whatever but it deserves some props

[springtrappd]

n. o?????? what racist guy

so there's this guy on twitter called blackfootferret, who's a pretty standard fnaf theorist guy who tweets shit, uploads videos to youtube, you know the drill. pretty standard, right?

well, earlier this week (on 01/11/2033, aedt) he decided to upload a video called The Two Williams: The Jekyll and Hyde of FNAF [archive], in which he very seriously argues that not only does william afton suffer from dissociative identity disorder, but so does scott fucking cawthon. yes, seriously. part of this fnaf theory video is that Real Guy, Scott Cawthon, has did and is using afton as a stand-in for himself.

the video itself is utterly batshit in ways way too extreme to go into here. like, every single sentence is another sucker-punch of "jesse what the fuck are you talking about" that wouldn't fit within tumblr's image limit. to give you a taste, however, enjoy these screenshots from this totally normal video:

naturally, this drew people's attention and incited controversy, especially when he went on twitter to complain about being banned from the game theory subreddit [archive]... which caused people to dig up some of his older theories [archive], and... yeah, that random mention of lamar (one of charlie's friends in tse) in that screenshot? that's because he thinks every dark-skinned background character is the same black guy -- lamar afton, the son of ballora and part of his afton family horcrux theory, where he argues that all of the robot suits were actually intentionally made to store parts of the afton family's souls. if you want to know more about that, you can always check out his series on it -- clocking in at a nice, short and digestible 5 hours and 43 minutes! (i'm not, though. you could not pay me.)

he also compared the security puppet's armband system to the nazis (and used a racial slur against romani people -- classy!), claiming it as an allegory for racism against charlie, who is -- as we all know -- the daughter of henry and ballora, who later gets stuffed in fredbear.

naturally, he's taken the backlash every well and is responding thoughtfully to criticism. just kidding here's a highlight reel of his replies

he's a level of batshit beyond even matpat and it's genuinely impressive. like, i can't even be mad? because it's just so fucking hilariously insane. "the fazgoo from fazbear frights is a parallel for william afton being a system". his use of outdated language and complete misunderstanding of how literally anything works ever making it very clear that he googled precisely one thing and it was "did population percentage". the fucking graphs. "how is it ableist to headcanon that every villain/questionable person in the series are actually evil alters". rting barack obama in the middle of all this. "i can't be racist, i follow three black people on patreon". i'm kind of obsessed (and honestly surprised he didn't pull out "the pink guy is pink as a reference to the pink triangle", but i'm gonna be real here, i don't think he's ever googled anything about the holocaust either). to close us out, please enjoy him putting his foot in his mouth:

#speaking! #anon #asks #discourse #long post #nazi ment #racism #ableism #holocaust ment #sorry for only partial alt text! #started & realised the magnitude of it i'd need to write #this stupid thing's already taken me #like two hours of sourcing & screenshotting & formatting

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

Jumping off the tags of the post I just reblogged, here is my vision for a Merlin reboot (I know it's not gonna happen but shhh a girl can dream)

Merlin has to be played by Joe Locke, obviously. He's got the cheekbones, the ears, the sassy twink aura, it's him or nothing.

I'm envisioning a tone similar to Doctor Who. I want the silly monster-of-the-week, bordering on camp, fantasy shenanigans that we know and love. But intercut with good character development that fans can go feral for.

Lean in to Merlin and Morgana as narrative foils, with Merlin being corrupted by his love for Arthur and Morgana being corrupted by her resentment for her family.

If it's going to be a tragedy, make it intentionally a tragedy. I want it to be unclear who we're supposed to be rooting for.

Give me a magic allegory that doesn't explicitly condone the oppressors. Make it a cautionary tale of Merlin becoming disillusioned with a system that promised him acceptance through conformity. (Although a happy ending would be nice too).

obviously, Merlin and Arthur should end up together, but make it real slow burn. And give Arthur consistent character development so that he actually accepts and values Merlin.

I want Morgana and Gwen to date at the start and then have a messy breakup that spurns her villain arc. Gimme goth Morgana in full jealous ex-gf mode.

Gwen should actually cheat on Arthur with Lancelot. Don't be afraid to give Gwen and Lancelot character flaws. She can feel alienated from high society and neglected by Arthur. Lance can have a self righteous streak and believe that he deserves Gwen more than Arthur does. And he does, let them be happy together.

I generally hate dark gritty reboots that feed off of nostalgia, but I genuinely think that the premise and themes of Merlin have the potential to be explored in a really interesting and fresh way (à la the Shadow and Bone tv adaptation, rather than Riverdale or some shit)

#many controversial things being said i know #bbc merlin #merlin #merthur #morgwen #gwencelot

[system-of-a-feather]

I'm glad you're going hogwild on Bleach rn. It was also a major part of our childhood and development, and I feel like there's still a ton to get out of it, even from an older perspective. (Not trying to sound uppity or anything, I really love Bleach.)

What do you think about the idea of Ichigo as a CDD allegory? I don't think he was written with that in mind, but reading through the manga, there are a lot of scenes that make me go "hmMMMMMM."

(Never watched the anime, lol. Manga-only)

Funny you should ask that question. I have actually already made a very important post on the topic of Ichigo as a CDD allegory. /hj

Honestly though, I think its one of my favorite "not intentionally a CDD but very relatable as someone with a CDD". Like I'd have to get further into TYBW and later cause I know they expand and drop some lore secrets about the dynamic of the part (I was gonna edit that to be more accurate to the world context of Bleach but I felt that term is telling about how I feel about the allegory XD) that make up Ichigo's soul and shit.

I know a lot of what is revealed because as good as I obstained from a lot of spoilers, I actually heard a rumor that Hollow Ichigo isn't seen after the Aizen-Karakura town arc and I was so distraught at that that I let it be something I got spoiled on before it was announced that it would continue. At the time, I thought it upset me cause I thought the hollow stuff was cool, but that reasoning didn't really make sense to me because I was actually like *sad* in a "no thats not fair or right, hollow ichigo deserves to live too" which in hindsight, I realize was probably some not-entirely subconscious "no don't just delete and erase the existance of a part of yourself!!! You should make friends with them and make them your best ally!!! I want to see more HIchi and Ichigo interact ;w;"

and also

like

lowkey I had a Hollow Ichigo introject in my head that I didn't know about for the longest time so it was probably pretty personal

But personal shit aside, I honestly really do like it. I mean to some level - especially early in the series - its a lot of "oooooh spooky evil alter" vibes, but honest to god - and this is a controversial opinion - I think we need more nuanced "evil" alter representation rather than the elimination of the "evil alter" trope because shitty asshole alters exist and are actually common and I think its a lot more meaningful to show how two completely conflicting and otherwise aggressive towards eachother individuals can find a middle ground and empower eachother. Which is what Bleach does particularly with Ichigo and his hollow self and UNIRONICALLY the whole Bleach arc Ichigo has with his hollow self is incredibly similar to the "arc" that XIV and I had which, go figure. Me the Shounen Boy Optimist protagonist and a literal hollow ichigo introject had a similar arc to the Shounen Protagonist and Hollow ichigo. Do you see the shock in my voice?

Honestly if I have time and feel like it (unlikely since I don't often have time) I might put a longer opinion / discussion on it, but honestly, even outside of Ichigo, I think the way Bleach handles Zanpaktous and even stuff like Lillynette and Stark is just a really fun way to have a lot of plural / CDD adjacent themes and vibes without necessarily even being an allegory.

The idea of being able to have a manifestation of your soul and the power it has take a sentient form and the bonding, communication, and collaboration with said manifestation being the key to increased power and skill development is just??? The coolest thing?

Honestly I think Bleach has subconsciously informed a lot of how our system is structured and interacts in more ways than we are probably cognitively currently aware of and I think to some good level that whole just general vibe probably plays a role in it somewhere.

But man, I love this show. I honestly am genuinely thinking of returning to my natural autistic instincts and just chronically watching it whenever I dont have anything else to watch because I really DONT need to have a variety of shows to watch and honestly if something aint broke, why ever change it /hj

I can have a comfort anime smh

#bleach #bleach anime #ask #asks #ichigo #ichigo kurosaki #media

[snowyvoid]

I love your haunted siphonophore posting so much it's really good. I think it really fits with how the science team and the game and benrey all sort of play off of each other with Gordon always ending up as the victim/'food' but there's a slight dissonance between all of them. Benrey comes back as a skeleton and for the first night he just walks around and talks like normal until after Gordon wakes up where it seems to become it's own creature that is more tethered to the gamespace (I know it clips out and fucks with geometry but it also feels like it starts to slot into the role of 'spooky skeleton to antagonize and frighten the player' instead of 'benrey is around and talking to people when he's supposed to be dead'). Or how the world seems to bend to fit the insane things the Science Team says (Sunkist, Chuck E Cheese, Passport, etc) but Coomer is still seperate enough from the game that he becomes frightened and angry when he realizes that his world is small and painted. They all kind of group up into one thing, which is basically an elaborate bait and trap for Gordon, but there's tension between the individual pieces and they all have unique perspectives on what's happening despite playing into the same greater thing.

Sorry I'm having a hard time capturing exactly what you meant into this I get what you meant it's just. words are difficult. But your hlvrai thoughts make me insane

no this is like. exactly what i mean. you get it.

the thing about siphonophores is that each component of the organism has its own mouths. like. one component will be the stomach, one will make the organism swim, etc etc, but they all have their own mouths. they all feed.

and there is always this kind of dissonance between gordon and the others, and yes obviously he is the one playing a video game, but i always felt like it went deeper than hostile AI being weirded out by the new guy. it felt more,,, natural?? i guess??? it all feels set up on a stage. aside from the fact that its a game and it is has coded events. the AI, the thing that is suppose to think for itself, still seems kinda. within its own limits. stuck within the body of the facility. (for example, coomer and/or bubby freaking out when they go outside of the skybox/into space).

but the dissonance between the science team and the game/facility is!!! oh my godddd!!!! i could write an essay on that shit. so interesting. and i love that the dissonance is often physically manifested. your hatred towards this thing that you hate is real and will be seen and will affect the world outside you.

like. you have this thing, a large container that has events and ideas that are built into it (the game, the organism as a whole, the haunted house), and there are different components within this container that have some kind of symbiotic relationship (good or bad) with the outside container (black mesa, the individual nervous systems of the organism, the rooms/ghosts/humans haunting* the house), and all of these individual components has a manifestation of its difference or hostility (the science team, the individual mouths, the opinions each component of the haunted house has on each other (i need to make another post about this)).

sorry that was probably really complicated. i just needed to get it out of me because its all ive been thinking about since i made that first post.

*this is within the idea that the hypothetical house is haunted by something. which is generally the idea i go for when in reference to sentient AI, the whole this house had a purpose and it changed, this AI had a code and it was faulty. etc etc. pretty sure ive already posted something about that.

weird little mspaint diagram with some other ideas i have not talked about. note; this is not scientifically accurate to siphonophores. i just thought they were a really good allegory. you are definitely gonna need to zoom in for this thing. but it is important to the explanation i guess.

i just find it really fun to put obvious differences between characters/living things and see where they come together. like the science team, gordon, and benry are all separate beings in their own way but they are like a family. blah. hope you enjoy as always this is a bit messy.

#hlvrai #stupid diagram took way to long to make #whatever. i hope this sums it up well. and thank you so much for adding stuff on tjodity i always adore your additions. #they keep this trainwreck of an AU going strong #excuse any spelling and/or grammar mistakes im really bad at this #derealization #unreality #haunted house hlvrai au

[theterrancrowe]

I don’t really like Zootopia, not one bit…

I mean, I used to like Zootopia when it first came out, but I was very young and naïve at the time and I didn’t really understand (or more accurately, care to understand) the problems that plague the actual film.

And I’m not talking about how it essentially uses the same cookie-cutter plot of most Disney films at the time, nor am I talking about the shitty twist villain, Assistant Bellweather, or even the god-awful pop song, ‘try everything’ by Shakira. No, I am specifically referring to the political messaging of the film.

In a nutshell, the racism allegory of Zootopia doesn’t work because of both the mismanaged use of animal symbolism (specifically the LACK of symbolism of meaningful use of it), and the complete unwillingness on behalf of the writers to explore the nuances of racism in any way.

The concept of 'race' is really just a colonial construct just made to serve the interests of colonial powers in Europe and to justify the abhorrent actions they were doing to literally everyone else, and only has a weak connection to actual ethnicity. Like, the reason why Irish and Italians were not considered "white" back then, but are now, or how people group eastern asians as a 'seperate kind of people' than south and southestern asians because they're not brown is all the same, its made up.

And because the writers dont seem to really understand this about race (and also because theyre both white), they completely misrepresent race as a concept by depicting it as just a real and biological way that people are structured as, instead of the wibbly-wobbly bullshit that it really is, it's like how a lot of cis people like to treat the gender binary. But at the same time this supposed 'biological truth' is just pushed aside as just a slight difference, like how in the actual film, no one actually addresses what predators eat or how they actually are different.

This contradictory nature is also the reason as to why they have to 'go savage' in order to actually stir up the bullshit race war that Assistant Mayor Bellweather wanted (just because i guess? Her motives are never explained.) This movie talks about racism like its just people hating eachother for a justifiable reason that they just made up, and then bending backwards and saying that its completely nonsensical and we should just get along anyway.

I think the reason as to why this is, is because the actual writers just don't know shit about racism. They're both white, and they don't seem to make that many political stances anyway, so its safe to assume that all the nuances of systemic racism have just not stuck to them in any way, and that their understanding of it just boils down to "some people are just mean to others because their skin is brown."

Racism in real life is based on cultural ideas on how certain 'races' behave mostly in a cultural context. Theres a reason why black people often have negative stereotypes depicting them as robbers or violent rapists, or of them eating fried chicken and watermelon like animals. Because black people have a history of enslavement, followed by racist systemic oppression after the abolishment of legal slavery as an American institution. These stereotypes are bullshit, but they exist, not as a product of some innate human quality of tribalism, but as a product of a white supremacist culture. The same goes for all other 'races' too, with their own specific cultural contexts.

There's so much potential in using furry imagery to convey a political message, but what this movie does with it is to just tell a neoliberal story about a half baked racism allegory that doesn't even make a lick of sense under scrutiny

#Zootopia #movies

[rejectedfables]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

Character: Draco Malfoy (HP) Why I love them: I don't. I love the version of him I frankensteined together from fics I read/wrote as an undiagnosed autistic preteen who wished I knew how to be meaner, and was hopelessly demisexually gay for a brunette with glasses.

Character: Uzumaki Naruto (Naruto) Why I love them: Emotionally neglected ADHD powerhouse who thinks "what do 600 hot girls look like? Me with titties and pigtails 600 times obviously" followed by "what do 600 hot boys look like? All my male friends with bedroom eyes OBVIOUSLY" and somehow hasn't figured out he's into dudes and is probably genderfluid. The Haku and Zabuza arc came SO close to "child soldier figures out that making children into soldiers is bad, actually, and resolves to create a better society where fewer people needlessly suffer" but then I think the author got old and forgot his own trajectory in favor of endless spectacle creep and, idk, something about the moon crushing Konoha or whatever. I lost interest in the story, but not the BOY. Also his relentless fixation with that dark haired cool guy he kissed one time makes every other character feel awkward, and I relate to that.

Character: Urameshi Yusuke (Yu Yu Hakusho) Why I love them: LOVE me a guy who even HEAVEN writes off as an irredeemable asshole surprising everyone with an act of selflessness. Love me an asshole who dedicates his life to love and friendship. Yusuke's narrative is basically "Obviously all yokai are evil. Wait, some aren't (some of my best friends are yokai)? Wait, most aren't (I actually really enjoy the yokai world/community)? Wait, I'M a yokai? (THAT'S why I am the way I am, and actually that's not evil it's just different)??? So there's evil humans AND evil yokai but neither are inherently bad, MOST are just regular people on both sides, and both are worth protecting" and anyway this is a neurodivergent and queer allegory to me, which slaps severely.

Character: Shi Qingxuan (Heaven Official's Blessing) Why I love them: Gender

Character: Luke Fon Fabre (Tales of the Abyss) Why I love them: Nobody's doing character growth like this little shit. An icon. It takes like 30 hours of gameplay for him to become likable and when he does it's somehow genuinely worth it.

Character: Changheng (Love Between Fairy and Devil) Why I love them: (I'm picking only one character per story, which is the only reason Xiao Lanhua and Dongfang Qingcang aren't also on this list.) You're telling me the God of War's narrative is a "tragic princess, betrothed since childhood, can't escape her family's expectations, constantly has to put everyone else above herself, until finally she snaps" story blended with "man who has been forced to live in war, falls for the first person who acknowledges that he, too, needs protection, ultimately rejects the violence he's been forced to endure and enact in favor of pursuing peace" and I'm what? NOT supposed to go insane? Also his nose freckle gives me heart palpitations.

Character: Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars, specifically season 1) Why I love them: What an excellent example of a badly coping shithead jerk fuckup boy who would be SO soft in any context where he's not under constant threat. Something about his mouth-breathing under duress compels me.

Character: Kyo (Fruits Basket) Why I love them: Badly coping under duress, the entire system is stacked against him, anger management issues and the snatched waist of a 90's manga twink. What can I say, a feral cat finding stability and love gets me every time.

Character: Xue Yang (MDZS) Why I love them: Irredeemable asshole feral cat ass man, coping badly at all times with all things but holding it together with a winning personality (gratuitous violence and bad jokes). Falls SO hard for the first person to show him love and kindness, becomes SO soft when not under threat for the first time ever, and then fucks up SO badly he ruins his whole fucking life. Spends more time trying to get back what he lost than he actually HAD what he lost. He's irredeemable. He's irredeemable. He makes apple rabbits for A Qing because she's sad. He's irredeemable. He doesn't pull a weapon on Xingchen even when Xingchen has already stabbed him and he's renowned for violence and revenge. He's irredeemable. I starting writing a post in his defense and hit the character limit halfway through my 'notes to flesh out later' bullet pointed list. He's irredeemable?? Xiao Xingchen could, though, is all I'm saying. The deeper you look into his actions the more humanity there is to find. I'm rotating every single thing about him in my mind like a rotisserie chicken.

Character: Chu Wanning (ERHA) Why I love them: He's hopelessly demisexually gay for literally just one guy. His story is gratuitously tragic but with a happy ending. Autistic Yearning incarnate. He's a burnt out husk of a blushing virgin, and the horniest person alive. Would readily die for his convictions, but won't ask for help. Prettiest wife anyone could ever wish for, with a strong masculine jaw. Total knockout gorgeous with body dysmorphia. Hyper competent with zero emotional intelligence. Widely respected and beloved with intense self loathing. He's never not masking. He's an atticked wife, he's a bossy husband, he's a piece of wood. He's 45. He's 6. He's 20. He's 32. He is catnip for me.

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #xue yang #asks #anon #2ha #erha #erha he ta de bai mao shizun #lbfad #love between fairy and devil #naruto #yyh #yu yu hakusho #i'm not gonna tag all these #anyway I love asks like this it just always takes me a while so [blesses you with patience] or whatever

[legionofpotatoes]

extremely bad faith mandalorian takes, do not engage please i cannot stop hysterically laughing at this season and thus am incapable of level-headed discourse. these are just words I want to write down to see if they look as unbelievable as they sound in my head

my favorite telltale sign of the embarrassing s3 story optics is their like. genuinely hilarious ostrich-neck-in-the-sand rehash of past story arcs down to the aesthetic fucking beats. that's the shit sandwich that really gets me in this whole stank buffet. It is astonishing. Like there was genuinely nothing else they could come up with as to not upset the status quo of their fickle, marketable story limbo, and so they, and I cannot stress this part enough, ignored established character progression beats and just did them again. they just did them again. from the top, using shockingly similar payoffs, right in front of our own eyes. and I just sat there and ate it!!

din has to re-love his toxic death cult after clearly progressing away from their value systems cause he's cooler with that helmet always on. gotta keep the limbo going. his main north star, set up as his way out of said cult, gets recruited into it instead, completely defanging the possibility of interrogating the entire bedrock of trauma and insecurity that kept uncomfortably clashing with his expressions of love and humanity in the past. now they're all one big happy gel of a Cool Dude With Gun and Kid. gotta keep the limbo going.

at some point he also has to re-learn his droid prejudices to then re-unlearn them again, a couple of times even, for no discernible thematic reason other than to make him act like an ass to some type of botched working class allegories (??? the fuck is going on with droids this season in general??). gotta keep the limbo going.

grogu, meanwhile, has to re-earn a mandalorian piece of armor to re-reinforce his allegiance (and here I was thinking the rond would be a pulpy setup for some shot-dead-fake-out but how can chekov's anything exist in this mangled mess), cause mandalorian culture is a live service videogame of tiered ranks now, so the potential upgrades are conveniently endless. gotta keep the limbo going. speaking of their culture, he also, hilariously, has to then be re-adopted by din to re-reveal their paternal bond and re-dramatize their love. cause he's not a foundling anymore, see; he's an apprentice now! the words are different. that makes the emotional meaning reset also. I know this from film school. audiences have no object permanence, right? they're all fish? we're writing this show for fucking fish, right? like in the aquariums? gotta keep the limbo going.

and they just keep doing this. they will dress it all up with technicalities and loud Plot Noise but it is all emotionally the same exact shit that has already happened and it is making me feel insane. same exact payoffs for backpedaled setups that were already, for all storytelling purposes, finished and done away with. it is comical. they're telling nothing. non-stories and recursive sisyphean plotlines that reset primitive character arcs every five episodes like it's the most unmoored bermuda triangle-ass time loop in space. you cannot even really twist it into some type of harmless expression in lieu of episodic TV, or even something more campy, cause like. it does have a rapidly progressing plotline about big and overarching stuff, stuff that is holistic, linear, and goal-oriented, like retaking homeworlds and reforging their broken nation and fighting mr gideon man. it's not a weekly detective romp with B plots galore, not anymore at least. but the characters somehow start and end in the same spots they always were. like the big ole smoking fucking gun that that is.

it feels like the most clear-cut example of plot moving forward - at breakneck speed sometimes - while characters progress either backwards or just. like. sideways and then back again?? almost like dropping a teabag into an empty mug and calling it a beverage. I see the pretty taste-making ingredient sitting sadly at the bottom there, but where's the substance? what is this all for? to wank it to how cool mandalorians look when they fly? I mean they can be pretty cool, no argument there. but some of them could be cooler if they felt things deeply and that changed them, fundamentally. you know, how A-to-B storytelling does sometimes.

and I am achingly aware that I am aging out of this show's target audience, I know that. but the death by comparison within the same bloody show's adjacent seasons is just as harrowing. what happened. it just worked too good is what. a corporation responsible for telling a myth will never allow it to finish if it suddenly starts hemorrhaging this much money. grogu and din can't progress, even aesthetically, past their season 1 selves, no matter how much that same season's story was setting them up to. cause inscrutable sad dad and cute doll baby combo. we'll either throw away those story hooks or keep resetting them. keep the limbo going.

groundhog day-ass show. it's hysterical. I can't be normal about how mask-off blatant this all is now.

and to follow this up to andor of all things. really clinches it, you know. no notes. just no notes, disney. tens across the board

#i know i am being very unkind here but let me have this okay? this is my gremlin blog and I really REALLY liked the first season #and I childishly hold on to star wars and it's breaking apart at the seams #and I AM part of the problem but I'm also hopelessly in love with it. i also had a very bad day. #i deserve this is what I'm saying. this was bad and I wanna see it written down so it maybe feels less insane #looking at it now and. it's not! it is. pretty wild that they did this season this way #this is the most live service show in existence #tony gilroy i am counting on you. please make this right #text #negativity #long post

[super-hero-confessions]

People who fail to grasp the more important reasoning behind the Trump and American Exceptionalism allegory for Homelander really worry me about as much if not more than the people who use the allegories as excuses to dehumanize him.

It is one step away from those that unironically idealize him.

Homelander is, and always has been, a satirical caricature of American Exceptionalism on fantasy steroids and a showcasing of the dangers of Patriarchal Capitalism near its final form of decay, Fascism.

And how it hurts even those that manage or float, or we perceive to manage or float, their way to the "top", such as Cis White Hetero Men.

That is what Vought made him, yes. It's also what the author purposely made Vought make him in order to present a specific lesson and tell a story.

That's why the Trump allegory.

I'm not here to defend the worst president that never should have been so help me god go and vote people if that piece of shit gets elected again we will all be doomed.

No.

Let's put this in perspective.

Donald J. Trump's life story is basically Soldier Boy's story.

Born into a rich family, grows up with "everything", shithead father that uses the son as an outlet for his own dissatisfaction with the world and holds his "pride" above his child.

In turn, this creates a bitter, angry, narcissistic asshole who is dangerous with any sort of power. Sound familiar yet?

Except instead of compound V, he for reasons still unknown somehow became president. Maybe a bit cushier overall but the same general blueprint is there.

Hell, he even had protesters brutalized, committed war crimes, and abuses everyone around him into a state of perpetual ass kissing while secretly seething and hating him.

To put it into further perspective, Trump doesn't speak above a 3rd grade level. This makes it very easy for the general American populace to understand and "relate" him, apart from all the lying, but there's likely a deeper, psychologically driven reason behind that too.

Here's the thing.

Trump, Soldier Boy, and Homelander, are all still deplorable monsters who, despite a hard and tragic past that makes some sense of the ire they feel for the world, go on to commit crimes against humanity and become the very thing that hurt them.

They are all merely symptoms of a greater problem.

Patriarchal Feudalism. Which became Patriarchal Imperialism. Which became Patriarchal Capitalism.

In other words, stupid ass abusive social hierarchy systems that make no fucking sense and are a complete waste of human potential and brain power.

Which hurts everyone.

Including the Cis White Hetero Men that the system is perceivably designed for.

Hint.

It's not actually designed for them in a general sense.

It's designed for specific quasi-incestuous white welfare queen families. We used to recognize them as royalty and nobility. Skin color, sexuality, identity, and labels are all just marketing tools they use to "divide and conquer" humans.

Because people don't fight back against their real enemies when they're too disoriented and confused from fighting amongst themselves over meaningless bullshit.

But the Cis White Hetero men? Maybe it doesn't hurt them the same way or as much as someone who is forced to be at the "bottom" of the pyramid.

But it still hurts them.

I don't feel sympathy for Donald Trump. I have no hope for a man who hurts others, uses a broken system to his advantage, and has no will or even time to change who he is.

But I still recognize that he is HUMAN whether I like it or not.

"But he's gross. But he's the worst. But he'll bring the apocalypse. But he needs to be stopped."

And I agree with all of those things.

But he's still fucking human.

Which means that if we want to be better? We don't get to do what he did. We don't get to dehumanize and derail and forget our own humanity. We don't get to be monsters.

Unless we want him and this broken system to win, and continue winning like it has for millennia.

But, and this is a big one, these are all the things that make Homelander WRONG.

Instead, we use him to make an example of what not to be. We use him as a warning for ourselves.

Getting rid of one asshole that profits from the system in place does not change the system nor fix the real problem.

It just paves the way for a new asshole to take his place.

Soldier Boy.

And then Homelander.

And then Ryan.

Of course, there's still one major difference in that Donald Trump is sane.

An idiot, sure, but sane.

Homelander, reasonably so, is not.

Obviously, or rather hopefully, we as a species will never have to face a case so particular as Homelander's. But in a court of U.S. Law, he would be deemed criminally insane.

Criminally insane people are not punished, they are hospitalized for treatment.

The Boys fandom is riddled with ableism, grooming apologism, rape apologism, abuse apologsim, torture apologism, murder apologism, and even genocide apologism. Probably some more I may have missed.

And to a degree, it's understandable that any fandom would be filled with ordinary people that are flawed and may lack self awareness in one area or another. This is normal.

But we can do better.

All of those in fandom that do this in one form or another are failing in understanding the lessons in the media presenting itself to them, in one form or another.

That's why the Trump allegory.

It isn't just randomly thrown in for shits and giggles, it's part of the lesson.

It should be considered a testament to our own humanity in understanding whether or not we can bring ourselves to feel sympathy for a devil or at least to understand how and why those devils are created.

The fact that Homelander is such a polarizing character should be a testament to just how realistic the writing is. Because real public figures, like Donald Trump, are just as polarizing.

But if you would want to lynch your neighbor just for being a very likely uneducated Trump supporter, you are part of the problem.

If seeing the Trump stuff just makes you irrationally angry and start insulting the makers of a satirical dark comedy show that is reasonably known for its whacky shit and gore?

Namely, because it doesn't align with exactly how you want to perceive a particular character?

F- Media Literacy.

#confession #rant #the boys