I love how on Tumblr, "media literacy" has become "Um, just because someone writes about this doesn't mean they're endorsing this. I hate all these media puritans ruining everything."
I'm sad to inform you that knowing when and whether an author is endorsing something, implying something, saying something, is also part of media literacy. Knowing when they are doing this and when they're not is part of media literacy. Assuming that no author has ever endorsed a bad thing is how you fall for proper gander. It's not media literacy to always assume that nobody ever has agreed with the morally reprehensible ideas in their work.
Sometimes, authors are endorsing something, and you need to be aware when that happens, and you also need to be aware when you're doing it as an author. All media isn't horny dubcon fanfic where you and the author know it's problematic IRL but you get off to it in the privacy of your brain. Sometimes very smart people can convince you of something that'll hurt others in the real world. Sometimes very dumb people will romanticize something without realizing they're doing it and you'll be caught up in it without realizing that you are.
Being aware of this is also media literacy. Being aware of the narrative tools used to affect your thinking is media literacy. Deciding on your own whether you agree with an author or not is media literacy. Enjoying characters doing bad things and allowing authors to create flawed or cruel characters for the sake of a story is perfectly fine, but it is not the same as being media literate. Being smug about how you never think an author has bad intentions tells me you're edgy, not that you're media literate. You can't use one rule to apply to all media. That's not how media literacy works. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Aheem heem. Anyway.
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i can't help but think of all the times gaz is so considerate towards you. the walking embodiment of "this reminded me of you", "i thought you might like this", and "every action i take is with you in mind".
gaz makes a bunch of playlists of moments you shared together and ones that you will share together in the future. he has songs the two of you danced to at 3am in the kitchen. he carefully curates the perfect playlist title for that one time you both sang in the car on the way to grab your morning brew. the only one you haven't heard yet is one he's saving for the perfect moment when the two of you have snuck away into your own little private corner to chat and laugh about anything and everything. he knows he won't need it to set the mood or fill the silence. but it's what he listens to so he can hype himself up for that moment.
gaz and you have matching keychains that connect to each other when you're around. except they get tangled up somehow, so usually one of you is holding both sets of keys. it's not like you're far from each other anyways. at this point you two have exchanged your spares so that way in case of emergency (usually this means there's a bug in the other's room) you'd be able to help each other out. it was his idea to swap keys anyways. speaking of matching, you both have complementary phone cases on your personals. what you don't know is that he hides a little polaroid of you two together underneath his case.
the one time you try to match him and pay him back is when you're ahead of him in line at the caf. he's still trying to convince the server to give him a little more than usual. balances the tray on one hand and flexes the other with a playful smile and a "i'm a growing boy still, see!" you try not laugh when they slap on the usual portion and he sighs as he makes his way over to you. you beam at him holding an extra set of utensils. you'd kept that in mind as you saw how full his hands were trying to hold his tray. when you show him the extra fork, he quirks a brow and shuffles his right hand from beneath the tray and shows that he'd already gotten utensils. but he'd grabbed one for you, too.
so the both of you are standing there with four forks total as you'd thought to grab one extra for the other. you pout because this was one of the ways you were supposed to surprise him back and he beat you to it! gaz just grins at you and ushers you over to a table. he deposits two little pudding cups besides you and says it worked out anyways because now you have something clean for dessert. you frown at him because how is eating pudding with a fork any good. he shushes you by feeding you a bite of his pudding with a cheeky smile and you can't help but smile back. because of course he got your favorite.
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It's kinda hilarious how the Lords in Black looked at Ted and went "yeah, no, fuck this one guy in particular" for no real discernible reason. Like, obviously, there's Tinky and his Spankoffski Poké Ball, but then there's Pokey who a) turned homeless!Ted immediately and then had him dance two feet away from his infected little brother and b) passes up on turning anyone with Join Us or Die solely to taunt/beat up Ted with his girlfriend and her husband. And! They all collectively agree that they're gonna try to make Grace/Steph/Peter all think that killing Pete is the way to go, even though they shouldn't really care whether Steph dies or Grace loses her [redacted] because they're all still "things they cherish the most". What the hell made these eldritch beings decide to fixate on fucking Ted of all people??
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Tom's line about Shiv being selfish and "find[ing] it very hard to think about me" is actually so telling because while it's absolutely true that she rarely takes his position into consideration, Tom never once thinks about what he can do to help Shiv unless it also benefits him.
Every single time he makes a move or sacrifice that might help her, it's always something that he thinks will give him a leg up. He volunteers to take the fall for cruises, not for Shiv, who is in no way implicated, or even for Waystar, but because he thinks it'll ingratiate him to Logan, and the second it seems like he might have to actually follow through on that, he immediately tries to get out of it and even throws Shiv under the bus. Meanwhile, for all that Shiv disregards his interests, there are a number of things she does that only help him, and she's the one who actually sacrifices something and undermines her position with Logan to beg him not to let Tom go to jail.
It just makes it so clear that no matter how much he might love her (and I think he does, in his own compromised way), for him their relationship was always built on the underlying assumption that it's her job to prop him up, but it's not his job to help her.
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I do love how, upon learning what Vash is capable of, Wolfwood isn’t exactly afraid of what he is. He’s afraid of what he’s capable of. Because he only knows himself as a monster, so what must one like Vash be able to destroy?
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