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colorisbyshe · 10 months

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A lot of the response to Oppenheimer criticism has been "Clearly, you haven't watched the film, it isn't celebrating him! It shows all the things he did wrong" and I have to say... that's... still... missing the point of the criticism.

Oppenheimer occupies the same space as all the war films--like Dunkirk--that say "War is hell." While these films could and do skew towards "War is bad, let's avoid it," they still often... really end up saying "War is hell but let's pity the warriors and maybe consider the ways in which it was worth it."

The "war is hell" films end up completely missing the "anti war" mark because they choose to focus on the people waging the war, painting them in a sympathetic or at least humanizing light even when they're in the wrong. You feel bad when a soldier has to kill a kid on the other side--even if the kid is unarmed or begging for their life--because it's sooo sad that the soldier was driven to that point. And because... well, what else could they have done?

A much more effective "war is hell" film would be focused on the people whose land is ravaged by bombs. The civilians. The families. The people who lose their homes, their schools, their hospitals, their lives. Not in waging war but just in happening to live where war is happening. THEY are the real victims. They are not victimizers who might come to regret it (like warriors, like Oppenheimer) but like... actual victims.

In choosing to make a film about Oppenheimer and not about his victims--the people of New Mexico, the people of Japan, people forced into internment camps on US soil, and broader even then--you are saying "This man is responsible for great evil but let's humanize him too. Let's recognize that he didn't really have a choice or that maybe he felt bad about it. It was out of his hands."

Beyond humanizing him, it gives this history an element of inevitability. He HAD to do it. This HAD to happen. It's horrible that it happened but it was always going to happen.

If you focus instead on all the people victimized, you see all the reasons why it didn't have to happen.

And if Christopher Nolan isn't equipped to tell the story of New Mexican civilians who weren't given protective gear when the only jobs they had left were at all the labs or the stories of what a Japanese child does when his family is ravaged by American war crimes... he doesn't have to tell that story. The option isn't "Tell Oppenheimer or tell an intimate story he can't at all relate to." He could just... not tell this story.

Some stories really are not meant to have entertainment value. Some stories are not meant to be human stories but rather just facts on paper. Or told from the other human side. Sort of how like documentaries on serial killers often get it wrong but the fictionalized tv shows exploring ~what made them serial killers are ALWAYS wrong.

Some perspectives don't really need to be explored, is what I'm saying. Oppenheimer shouldn't be a grey or even dark protagonist. Some atrocities do not need to be humanized in any way, even if the humanity mostly culminates into "He was still wrong, though."

There are more efficient, less troubling ways to explore the motivation (the greed, the nationalism, the racism, the hatred, the warmongernig) behind bombings and wars like this. That would be better tools at realizing how we are repeating history, right now, in 2023.

That don't involve having to paint atrocities and the people behind them as grey or human or pathetic or pitiable.

#wrote this at 2am #whoops

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piracytheorist · 2 months

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Hello will be a kiss Twiyor at some point in history ?

Hi! Honestly, I'm 50/50 on this.

On one hand, I believe twiyor will be canon, in one way or another we will be shown that they've become an actual, real couple. Ideally post-reveal, so they can learn to love each other without any big secrets and lies between them.

On the other hand, manga and anime usually aren't super explicit on kisses, especially if they're targeted towards younger audiences. The Spy x Family manga is rated 16+, while the anime is rated TV-14, and it's shounen, so I wouldn't be surprised if they never even exchange "I love you"s, honestly, considering how rarely those words are said out loud in Japanese culture. Spy x Family is shounen, and those have even fewer kisses than shoujo and josei manga.

I'm guessing that Endo writes from his own experience, and mostly with a Japanese audience in mind. And that audience is used to couples going only as far as holding hands or maybe hugging. Kissing isn't a big thing, especially in shounen manga.

That said, the setting is in a fictional European country, and as a European myself I feel that Endo has done a great job making the characters and the setting feel European. And in European media, for the most part, kisses are a big part of romance. That too said, SxF isn't a romance, and even when twiyor becomes canon I doubt it will shadow the relationship of Anya with her parents, and the family in general. So it's quite possible that there won't be an actual kiss between Yor and Loid in the story, because their relationship won't get that much focus to warrant the need of an on-screen kiss. If there is one, it might be the kind of Big Damn Kiss that tv tropes talks about, and just the one, to "solidify" the relationship to the audience.

I think it could be used in the story to show character development. Twilight started relationships with women only for the needs of his missions, never investing emotionally in them. With Yor, how will it feel that he actually feels things when they kiss, and how will it feel that he wants and desires to kiss her, after he'd spent all his years as a spy denying himself any human connections? And for Yor, it would be a big step in letting someone close, in feeling safe and secure in someone approaching her enough for that. Her job has poisoned her view of close proximity, since the only people that get so close to her are Yuri (whom she basically raised) and her victims (who attack her, and she has to defend herself before she kills them - proximity with them means danger). She's already being affectionate with Anya, but that is similar to how Yuri was like with her when they were young. How will it feel like to have Twilight, a man who lied and cheated and coated his hands with blood, approach her to kiss her and for her to feel safe, to know that whatever happens, he will actually protect her and fight alongside her and not against her?

So maybe yes, maybe not. I honestly hope we do get at least one kiss, but I wouldn't be surprised (though I would be a little sad, due to my own expectations) if we never got one.

(Anime only fan here, don't spoil me for the manga)

#ask and ye shall receive #Anonymous #sxf #twiyor

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olderthannetfic · 1 year

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Hey, I've read your thoughts on sexy fiction and how it doesn't affect things. But didn't Fifty Shades of Gray do that? It caused a lot of damage to the BDSM community and a lot of women got hurt trying to re-enact what they saw without proper BDSM technique. BTW not trying to be rude, just asking for your thoughts

How often did this actually happen though?

I'm not saying it was zero because there are plenty of people in the world who are too stupid to live, but the main effect I actually saw from 50SoG was that local sex shops and BDSM organizations circulated flyers saying "BDSM 101 class! Come find out about the real practices behind 50 Shades!" They may have disapproved, but they took the opportunity to educate the n00bs—and probably make a buck given how much a nice set of restraints costs.

The BDSM community was already regarded as violent perverts by lots of kink-negative people. A bog standard Ravished By The Billionaire type romance novel is not going to shift that radically in either direction. People who refuse to understand about kink and consent and who have never bothered to learn more might have their prejudices reconfirmed by 50SoG, but it wouldn't be anything they don't already think.

Could there be a minor negative effect from supporting existing prejudices? Sure. But 50SoG isn't more of a problem than... like... literally anything on prime time TV.

Most women who read romance novels do understand that they're fantasy and not a how-to manual. Adding spanking doesn't change that.

Even that stat on Wikipedia about sex toy injuries jumping the year after the book was published seems a bit dubious to me. If you follow the link, they show that the injuries being discussed are mostly emergency room visits to remove "foreign bodies" from orifices, and 58% of victims are male. The injuries I'd expect from a rash of 50SoG imitators are nerve damage from improper bondage techniques or wounds from incompetent paddling, whipping, etc. It also looks like the stats were trending upwards already. Not to mention we're talking about a couple of thousand people per year in the whole US after the spike. This is fucking nothing compared to how many people read those books.

It seems like people just assumed there must be a rash of battered women with BDSM injuries and then stated that it was so.

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motifcollector · 1 year

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rambles ahead. while intellectually i understand that people enjoy and engage with art for diff reasons and in various ways, it is so difficult for me to wrap my head around people who watch succession and then post about how the characters are all horrible and they have no sympathy for them. some of these people are just being intellectually dishonest imo–why watch it you have no emotional investment?!–but i suppose there are people who genuinely feel this way. and i think sometimes there is a real lack of compassion or basic humanity underlying these sentiments. obviously i am not saying [x] Roy child did nothing wrong but the way people close their minds to the possibility of seeing the humanity in someone deeply different from themselves, even to a monstrous extent, is so strange to me.

it reminds me of a recent New York Times story about paris hilton being abused as a teen at boarding school. the comments on the story (posted on FB) were almost all along the lines of "who cares, she's rich, she's shallow/dumb/etc, this isn't a real problem." these are NYT commenters—people who likely view themselves as liberal and/or progressive and broad-minded. (i am an avid NYT hater so please don't take this as an endorsement of them or their readership lol.) and i think fundamentally, if you do not feel sympathy for an abuse victim, regardless of whether or not you like them as a person, you have lost the plot. i am not trying to make a 1:1 equivalency between a fictional tv show and an actual person's life but these things seem at least a little connected to me. and i really really do not think refusing to feel any sympathy for people you dislike is a good thing.

#succession #peyton.txt

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itsbrucey · 5 months

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“it’s glorification not exploration” OKAY. PERFECT EXPLANATION OF MY OPINION ON IT TOO. IVE ALWAYS FELT LIKE I COULDNT PICK A “”SIDE”” BUT THATS HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT TOO. PROSHIPPERS ARE GROSS BECAUSE THEYRE TRYING TO MAKE IT FUN AND GOOD. WHEN THATS NOT WHAT IT IS AT ALL. idk sorry for the yelling just. i agree so much.

I'm sorry for making a little stink on my blog but it's my blog and I get to have opinions sometimes. And yeah, that's my general thoughts on it??? Sorry for the cut but now I gotta talk. Also probably just. Trigger/Content Warning in general

I think it becomes dangerous when proshippers make content without meaningfully engaging all aspects of the content or they actively just. Glorify it. The content itself isn't critically thought about and it shows and then it loses me. And again, like I spat about, I support dark fiction and themes and ideas!! Extreme violence and all it's forms do exist in the real world. But to fetishize that violence against people is like being spit on.

And I understand that trauma is a difficult thing to handle and it can play a role in creation/consumption of certain media but not everything is a healthy coping mechanism, nor are you freed from responsibility because of trauma.

I'm thinking I'm especially pissy about this bc I used to be friends with people who made proship content and celebrated it. I was friends with them before they started to do this but I just watched them devolve. I saw how they treated subject matter and joked about it and didn't care about who got exposed to it. They actively relished in the fact they were making things that were upsetting or triggering. And a lot of proshippers have this attitude and victim complex while also straight up just posting child or rape porn.

It's a thin line to walk and there's nuances to how to ethically and thoughtfully engage with dark/taboo stuff. I don't think people are bad people if they like murder in tv shows or how a relationship depicting abuse was written in a book. It's bad when you sit there and get off on someone else's traumas without giving it a second thought.

#Brucey Answers!#wow. sorry about this one. idk if i even made sense #tw proship mention #tw rape mention #tw csa mention #idk. im not anybody's boss. I'll usually just block and move on if it's gross #unless its anything relating to children then i hope you off yourself.#And yeah i guess its another reminder. proshippers or proship supporters!! don't interact. i actively hate you #i DON'T. hate people who like dark content and are normal about it. i also don't agree with censorship just bc things are uncomfy #THERES NUANCE. i also think the entire debate with antis vs proship is kind of fucking stupid #but its way easier to tell proshippers to fuck off rather than give them the benefit of the doubt #im a normal adult person who thinks rape and CSA and abuse is Bad and shouldn't be attractive to people

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n7punk · 3 years

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Do you think it’s a red flag if someone unironically likes shadow weaver? my friend started watching shera and she’s basically justifying Catra’s abuse because she likes shadow weaver. Ik it’s just a show but I’m actually reconsidering my friendship with her lol

Might be controversial, but yes if someone justifies Shadow Weaver's actions, that is a red flag. If they just like her as a character - because she is an interesting character, and you can like the fact that a character is well-developed without justifying a single thing they do - then that's totally fine, but if they completely dismiss the fact that she is abusive, and especially if they place the blame for that abuse on her victims, then I would not personally be comfortable talking to that person. SW's actions are not something purely of the realm of fiction (unlike, say, opening a portal that tears apart space-time after being tortured with lightning magic), and the harm that they cause is one of the reasons so many people relate to Catra and/or Adora.

SW is an interesting character because of how well written she is, and how accurately the show portrays that relationship between an abusive parent and their ward without justifying it. It even shows Adora and Catra still caring about her in some ways without making it seem like it is something they are obligated to do, but rather that it is a reality of their situation - a consequence of being raised by her, despite the pain that she caused them.

I often feel like people take the war and Catra's actions in SPOP "too seriously" (treating the war as if it is a real one, rather than the metaphor that it mostly serves. The show itself portrays Mermista as handling losing her kingdom to the Horde the same way one deals with a break up), but the way SW's abuse is depicted is extremely realistic to how many people with abusive parents experience it (there are, of course, different types of abuse and abusers, but the show nails its portrayal of SW’s type).

There are, of course, nuances to this conversation. Catra does bad things too, because she is a young abuse victim who doesn't know any other way given that she was raised entirely as a child soldier in an environment of abuse, without even things like TV to show her another kind of life. She improves and takes steps to remedy her mistakes by the end of the show.

Shadow Weaver, by contrast, is an adult who repeatedly, for decades, abuses and uses people, never improving as a person, even if she changes to serve the "good" side (which she only did after Hordak imprisoned her and tried to send her to Beast Island. Friendly reminder that Catra joined the side of good without being sentenced to death by her current boss - she in fact was placing that sentence on her own head by freeing Glimmer, but she did it anyway). Shadow Weaver changes allegiances just to chase positions of power where she can continue to abuse people - Catra tries to secure a position of power as self-defense, and because she has never been given anything else to aspire to in the Fright Zone, whereas Shadow Weaver has known both the light and the dark and purposefully chose the one that would serve her best.

Villains are fun - loving villains is why I love Catra, and She-go, and any other number of "evil" (or actually evil) women, and I don't expect every post someone makes about a character they like to include an asterisk that links to a meta about the problems with them as a person (especially one that treats them as if they were they real, because most of the time that doesn’t even make sense for the piece of media), but if they are claiming she isn't abusive or it's the fault of her victims, then that's indicative of a questionable personality type to me.

Catra to Entrapta: "I'm sorry."

Shadow Weaver to Catra: "You're welcome."

That's really all you need to compare the two by the end of season five.

#tldr i personally would not be friends with someone who genuinely excuses that #but also theres a difference between posting about a character and thinking their actions are fine #(but also. sometimes there isnt)#hence why i end up blocking so many h*rdak stans on sight despite personally thinking he is an interesting character #anyway sorry this is a fucking MILE LONG POST #i ended up going off because i have a lot of Thoughts #anon #misc

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peacefullyproship · 3 years

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"Ships are romanticizing and normalizing pedophilia!!!" Tw: Grooming, CSA, pedophilia.

"You're romanticizing and normalizing pedophilia and abuse." No me simply shipping something is not normalizing romanticizing or glorifying anything an actual person has been through and let me explain why.

When you romanticize something you are trying to make the act committed against someone seem not as bad or better than it actually is. In a sense you are trying to spin it in a positive light. When it comes to a ship they are two fictional characters who never and will never go through any trauma, the trauma that is being "romanticized" does not even exist to being with. In a fictional world everything is made up, it doesn't have to reflect the real world at all so. A ship between a 15 yr old character and a 30 yr old character may be seen as romantic because the fictional 15yr old can't and will never experience the trauma and pain of being taken advantage of unlike real life. The ship may be seen as romantic because the 15yr old in the ship may not even act or represent in any shape or form an actual person let alone a child. There are many factors on why someone may like a minor x adult ship, most have little to nothing to do with the age of the characters. In real life a child being in a relationship with and adult can bring so much baggage and hardship this is why the act is nothing to be praised. In fiction however the concept can come with many different interpretations one being that the "victim" isn't even a victim at all but a willing partner. This doesn't make the person seeing it that way a "pedophile trying to justify pedophilia" it's a person simply exploring dark topics with fictional non existent characters. it's a person who likes the idea of two characters being together, it doesn't mean they would enjoy seeing the two together if they were a real couple.

Normalizing is when you try to make something seem normal when it is and shouldn't be that way. I've seen so many say that pedophilic ships normalize the act of pedophilia and that's the furthers thing from the Truth. Pedophilia is and will never become normal or something seen as okay by society. Hell even if it was it would take way more then some Eri x Deku to make it that way. Going by the "pedophilic fiction can normalize it irl' we'd also have to use that logic for violent or media displaying other illigal activities. There are many shows and movies that display murders in a positive light, in one where you are supposed to root for the killer. This has been a common trope for many many years now. Even in saying this we are still taught that killing and hurting others is wrong no matter what we see on tv.

"when I was a kid I found pedophilic media and thought it was normal." The way media is interpreted is up to the audience who consumes it. It's up to the individual or the guardian of said individual to shape and mold how they view media and how they let it affect them. No, you seeing a ship didn't cause you to think it was normal and okay. Your parents not teaching you that pedophilic acts twords real people is wrong caused you to think that. Your parents allowing unrestricted access to the internet allowed you to stumble across theses things and then in turn internalize them. It's not up to authors and artists to tell your kid right from wrong, it's up to those children's guardians to monitor and also explain theses disgusting concepts to their children in a way that's age appropriate. Media should not have to spell out in bold letters that the concept displayed is nothing to praise in the real world. Young people should be taught first the difference between fiction and reality and then why certain things in fiction are fine but will never and shouldn't be in real life. The first exposer a child has to a topic as heavy as pedophilia shouldn't be them finding a ship drawing or fanart representing the dynamic, a child shouldn't feel as if just because a fictional character is doing something it's fine for them to do it as well. A child should be sat down and explained what pedophilia really is.

This isn't to say that some sick people don't use these ships as a way to groom victims. Unfortunately these ships can and have been used to groom children into thinking this behavior is okay in the real world. This however is not the fault of the artists. Grooming can occur with any type of explicit media no matter the content. These ships existing is not the problem, the problem comes when people try and use these ships as a representation of what they think in the real world or want. It becomes a problem when sick people use these ships to lure in young people into thinking it's what they need. When the media is just veiwed as his it's intended it's not harmful at all. It's useless to blame media for the shitty people using it in the wrong way, these people as proven before will do ANYTHING to get what they really want.

#anti ship hate #proship #proship wars #proshippers #problematic media #dark fiction #proshipper #minor x adult ships #ships #shippin #shipping #money #proship safe space

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addytheheartbreaker · 5 years

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"Meet Victoria the Poodle"

Name: Victoria Hyeon

Age: 24

Height: 5'5 ft

Weight: 50 kg

Mask singer belong to: Margaret Cho

Friends with: All of the female masked singers, Nicol and his brothers, Peacock, Deer, Pineapple, Doll and Butterfly.

Appearance: Korean girl, white with pink highlight hair, short fluffy hair with two locks of hair on either side of the head with the same hair color, pale pink eyes, pink long nails with bling (could be seen) and tattoos on her left shoulder, slim but chubby body.

Clothing style: K-pop clothing, geometric design and fluffy coats or design (main clothing), hippies fashion, Korean clothing and 70's and 80's fashion.

Facts about Victoria:

•Victoria's hair, face and body are very soft when ever people asked or without permission to touch her softness or touch her inappropriately.

•she is a heartbreaker with a total of 5 ex boyfriends who is a bad influence to her.

•and she is easily fallen in loved to people both real or fictional.

•If fictional, she has a TON of fictional crushes that is on her crush list from anime, cartoons, movies and TV shows.

•Poodle's sexuality is Pansexual.

•A kind, friendly, bubbly and fluffy girl but has a bossy, snobby and bitch attitude depends on her reaction.

•She is highly on shopping with Lea and Linette or other masked singers. (Again, No joke about her!)

•Poodle has a impulse spending spree due that to her obsession on shopping stuff.

•she uses dog shampoo to wash her hair.

•she only goes bubble baths on weekends.

•her nails were long and painted pink and added bling. She properly cross her hands to show off her nails for safety not to ruined them.

•born half korean-american girl in San Francisco.

•Victoria's past isn't really easy. First she has a loving family but has a bad reputation on school. Being a victim of bullying (verbally and physically), horrible gossiping, nearly almost got raped twice which traumatized her and give hostility by people to her parents giving them a hard time.

•she said, she has been fired multiple time. Her former jobs are: a nurse at her brothers hospital, phone sex operator, mascot, dress designer and shop keeper's register.

•Victoria has an average grades, but she isn't graduated as a result she drop out to work to support her parents and making her brother easy.

•She has a older brother who is a golden pig (Ken Jeong's apprentice).

•since she is pansexual, she is mostly attractived to men and has a whole bunches of crushes on her list. What she like is a gay/transgender man or a tomboy girl.

•part of the LGBT community to Leon.

•she did met Leon at the community together before she met Joen.

•She is the president of the Model club while Lea as vice president.

•Victoria's room were all geometric design, white and pink in all shades and hippies on 70's.

•she has a full room closet of all of her clothes, jewelry, shoes and other stuff she had brought on shopping.

•when a guy hitting on her, flirt with her or do something inappropriately, you better stop or you'll get destroyed by her. (Ronnie: you better be. I had seen it like she is the boss of every man on earth. Joen: like hell none of them would dare annoyed her, she is a heartbreaker and a man destroyer for fuck sake!)

•Poodle loves to listen k-pop, she eats mostly Korean food especially she can handle spicy food and she own many merchandise of her favorite k-pop band.

•She is a stand-up comedian, fashion designer, actress, singer songwriter, dancer and supporting LGBT community for behalf of women, Asian Americans, and the LGBT community.

•Victoria and her older brother Jung Hyeon are comedian, they also both celebrities at the same day they meet their mentors.

•She loves to tease her brother Jung. The time she is eliminated at the Masked Singer, this is a another tease for him to take advantage for not knowing his own sister.

•she has a tattoo on her left shoulder same with her brother on the opposite shoulder.

•Poodle loves to look perfect from any special event she attended.

•Victoria's dance moves are erotic dance and bellydancing.

•she has depression depends on where she felt like she feels depressed.

•Same with her brother, they both act at the same movie and TV show.

•Poodle known Alien and Unicorn long before Lion.

•Monster and Poodle are the fluffiest people of the group. However Victoria doesn't like people touch her while TJ loves to cuddle and hugs people as much as he can.

•Victoria adores Addy when she show off her skills, talent, her past and her modelimg skills.

•Learned that Doll is came from Philippines, she easily became a fan of Addy due that Philippines are well known to beauty pageant, trans people and fun experience of warm welcomes to people.

•she can speak both English and Korean.

•Victoria owns a dog that died since she is just a teenager.

•Her ears can moved behind her hair which gave us poodle like behavior.

•Ronnie, Bebe and TJ are aware of her behavior changes as she pretend to be a poodle dog.

•she is friends with Nicol and his brothers since they are dogs.

#victoria the poodle #mask au #the mask au #masked au #the masked singer human au

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lol-jackles · 6 years

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If you got the time to be my fandom psychologist for a minute, explain to me why the fuck do we care about who or who isn't a lead? What, are there bragging rights with lead titles? Why does it matter if Misha's a lead or not? Is there some prize or something at the end of this race that I don't see? It all started because J2 said they were the only main leads, then somehow thongs started giving friction burns with the twists people got. Why care? Just enjoy the character if you enjoy them.

Why care? The pursuit of happiness (it’s even in the United States Declaration of Independence starring Will Smith). What is the prize? Not being a loser. Maybe they know they can’t win, but they don’t want to lose either.

First, I think everybody knows that all actors want to play the lead. No actor says they want to be the greatest second banana ever or be famous for playing third wheels. Misha’s fans instinctively believe he wants to play a lead so they say he’s a lead and by proxy soothe their own ego. Though the fans are projecting, this isn’t entirely unreasonable because everybody is lead stars in their own lives. I remind my teenage niece and nephews that “your boy/girlfriends are not supporting actors in your life. They are lead stars in their own life. How would you feel if others only see you as supporting characters in their life where your only purpose to revolve around them?”

Second, lead = bonafide popularity. Directors can choose whatever actors they want for supporting roles but they have very little say in casting lead roles in films and tv shows. Producers and marketing people hold the power to cast lead actors who have proven track records, popularity, and how bankable they are, I think even the most casual fan knows this. A studio does not want to risk millions of dollars on a film or TV show with no bankable stars in the lead roles artistic decisions take second place to the need to reduce financial risks. So if Misha is a “lead” then that means according to the risk adverse industry he really is popular and not just popular among a set a minority shippers aka the losers. What is popularity? It’s a place of power. How often do you hear sports fans say “we won!” when their favorite team wins a championship even though the fans were sitting on a couch at home eating pizza while their team suffers concussions on the playing field? Same for actors’ fans.

But how can they still say with a straight face that Misha is the lead when legit numbers like Nielsen ratings and Q scores don’t back it up, you ask. Bubble world and echo chamber aside, they can tell themselves it’s not Misha’s fault he’s not getting acknowledgment and respect he deserves as a “lead” because of “the thief”.

Let’s take the sport analogy further.

The year is 1996 and the fight for World Boxing Association heavyweight title is between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. The legendary Tyson was no longer in his prime and his coach predicted that if he can’t land a knockout punch early, “he’s going to try to disqualify himself, either by elbowing, or throwing a low blow, butting, or biting”. That’s exactly what happened, Tyson bit Holyfield and lost the championship title due to disqualification. Tyson can tell himself that he didn’t lose to a better opponent, he lost because the referee determined the outcome of the fight and “stole” his championship title from him and gave it to Holyfield. The same thing happened when Serena Williams had her meltdown at the U.S Open and accused the referee of being “a thief”. She can tell herself she lost the Grand Slam title due to disqualification, not because Osaka is the better player.

Ackles Army used to regularly accuse Jared of stealing the spotlight from Jensen who should have gotten first billing because he’s more popular according to their spam polls, not because Jared is better at playing the lead protagonist which led to his higher popularity score than Jensen’s. Ackles Army created the Destiel shippers and passed along their anti-Jared obsession to them. So in Misha’s fans pov, Misha isn’t getting the respect and acknowledge deserving of a “lead” because Jared’s Sam Winchester is “stealing” the stories and spotlight that belongs to Misha/Cas. Lately it’s Alexander/Jack who is stealing Cas’s spotlight. Now Misha and his fans are victims. Being the victim, paradoxically, can place one in a position of power because people usually don’t want to disagree or challenge victims for fear of being seen as an uncaring bully. The silencing of others provides the “victim” with a sense of power over others, and that feels good.

It’s why Misha’s fans both claim that Misha is lead while also a victim; double dose of power and that makes them feel good.

Third, it’s really not about the actors and their status. I’ve often said that actors, even leads, don’t have much power in the industry but even if most fans realize this it’s not the point. People want to feel validated about themselves, which is expressed in the art they consume - music, stories, and fictional characters. The more popular their chosen consumed art, the more validated they feel about themselves. Being popular helps people get attention and if they are insecure about themselves they need this attention to validate who they are so they can feel better about themselves. A lot of people, especially teenage girls, want to be popular because they think it validates their existence. Feeling validated leads to feeling happy. If their surrogate is popular, that means they’re likable by proxy.

As you can see, it all comes down to happiness. Lead = popular = winner = power = validation = acceptance = happiness. Popularity has a lot to do with our happiness.

For all the talk how “popularity doesn’t matter after middle school high school, etc”, it certainly doesn’t appear that way. Popularity is a part of life that we experience every day, in every type of social situation. And the way that we experience popularity in one context tends to be related to the way we connect to others in all parts of our lives. So this doesn’t mean being popular means having the highest ratings, winning the most polls, or having the most followers or “likes” and “retweets”. For example, I had a colleague didn’t like to hang out and make small talks, he didn’t join clubs or fraternities and avoided lunches with business associates unless there was a definite business reason for the lunch. Yet when he retired there were four different retirement parties thrown for him. Much to his surprise he was popular and didn’t know it. ….or care. The real trick isn’t just about being popular, but rather about being popular with the people that really matter. Misha is popular with shippers, but they matter far less than the mainstream fans that Jared and Jensen have. If Misha is the lead he has access to mainstream fans and then his fans are valued more than just a fetish club.

#misha collins #second banana #lead

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antthonystark · 7 years

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My opinion on this is this isn't real life so no one is obligated to pay equal attention to all the characters, it won't have like material consequences. Clary is the biggest victim here but I'm gonna focus on Alec because he is my favorite and I think he's the best and most interesting. People who think clary is the best can talk about her. It's just funny lol people are acting like we now have to care about every fictional character in a tv show equally as if Clary needs us to give her therapy

yup exactly this lol people on here in general just need to get that this is a tv show and these characters are fictional like chill out and have fun it aint that deep tbh

like if it were even god forbid a cast member’s real relative who died, then it would be extremely shitty for someone to go “oh but how does my favourite cast member feel about this” because those are real people

but these are not

it’s not the same as someone going “clary’s pain doesn’t matter” or “clary’s pain isn’t relevant to the story” or “clary’s pain doesnt matter to me at all” or “clary’s pain is not comparable to alec’s (in that alec’s is worse)” or anything like that - if anyone is saying that, they’re dead stupid and wrong.

(and don’t get me wrong - i am actually very very interested to see how clary processes her grief for jocelyn, because based on 2x05 promo it looks like she’s not even trying - she’s literally just skipping straight to denial and saying “im getting her back”, she’s saying it “wasn’t supposed to happen” so that means it can and should somehow be reversed. like that is a really scary mindset and i feel so horrible for her because it’s just such a clary way of handling things - “nope. not accepting this reality, i’m making my own.” her stubborn determination is a double-edged sword, both a virtue and a vice - it has worked well enough for her in the past albeit with consequences (e.g. with simon’s death and resurrection) but this time it doesn’t seem like it’s going to. so the moment (assuming jocelyn is really dead) that it’s going to really sink in for her and she’s going to be forced to accept it is going to be so so so terrible and i just. my poor child. she does not deserve this, especially not after everything she went through to get jocelyn back)

it’s just. alec’s my boy ya know. i gotta care about him the most lol….im not going to tell a clary stan to stop caring about clary to worry about how this is affecting alec so dont tell me how to live my life lol

(and…lbr. if it was ANY other character, e.g. izzy or magnus or even simon, who was in alec’s shoes…there wouldn’t be anybody doing this weird pitting-their-suffering-against-each-other thing. people just have a problem with alec stans focusing on alec and it’s a standard that really isn’t applied to any others IN MY humble opinion)

#wank for ts #wank //#discourse //#it's fiction guys lol no need to take things quite so seriously #clary fray #alec lightwood #shadowhunters #sh spoilers #Anonymous

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