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antimony-medusa · 1 year

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The thing with RPF

Okay, I don't tend to engage much with RPF. I have read it, but only when recommended by someone whose taste I trust (I think it's all supernatural aus that I've read, to-date), and my intention is not to write it. Not really my scene.

However, I really think this fandom could stand to stop treating RPF like it is the devil.

If you engage only with someone in the form of like an hour a week of video of them performing for an audience, particularly if that video is edited, like, when you start mentally rotating characters to create with, your brain isn't gonna draw a huge difference between the guy from the scripted thing you watched, and the person from, idk, mythbusters. Love to see my guy make a big explosion.

In both situations, you don't know them as people, you know them as like, personas, characters. You are essentially engaging with them as fictional characters, cause you only see the small segment of their lives that they put into the video, and whatever story they're telling with that. You don't know them as people, because how could you? So your brain going "hehe what if hunger games au" is just one of the ways brains work.

And idk, as long as you know you're doing that, I think that's fine.

It's fiction. You're writing/reading fiction. It's in the name. You know that it's not true, you're dealing with fictionalized versions of like, stage personas, or teaching methodologies, or historical records, and you can make your little fictions, and you show it to the eight people who are also really into *spins wheel* Ancient Egyptian RPF or *spins other wheel* Taskmaster UK TV RPF or *continues to spin the wheel* Polygon (web series) RPF. You all shake each other's hands and go "man I really like [person/character] and I think about them a lot" and someone else goes "I also think about [person/character] a lot and I think that if he was a warrior cat he would be a kittypet" and someone else goes "I think if [peson/character] would boil an egg the egg would explode cause he's really bad at boiling eggs" and you go "go on". You are all silly together, and you are all doing fiction, and you go on your merry way.

Like that is A Thing People Do On The Internet, and that stays in its its designated space, and that's fine. Might not be your jam but it's fine. That is not more weird than inventing an elaborate imaginary religion for a minecraft world, or working out the emotional nuance of an arranged marrige au between fictional detectives, or carefully making an elaborate interlocking series of stories where someone from a children's cartoon is horribly tortured, rescued, recovers, and gets their vengance. All of that looks weird from the outside, and is a fine and honourable thing to do in your little circles on the internet.

The part where this becomes a problem is when you take your fiction (lies we tell recreationally) out of the designated circle of people enjoying the fictions, and you shove it in the face of the person it's based on, and go "do you like this" or "is this okay" or "I found this and I think it's bad is it bad".

When you are doing the fiction you are engaging with the person as a character which is like, fine, and a truthful reflection of how much you actually know them (not at all, you don't know them), but in shoving it in their face you are going "I don't know you but I want you to react to this for my entertainment/justification, because I think this reflects on you, and apparently I think I deserve your time and attention, and also I think I already know how you're gonna react and I'm gonna use it for my callout posts", which is like, so much ruder than just making fictions about people you don't actually know.

Like writing a superhero au about the person you watch video game speedrun— based. Love the imagination. That is making something from nothing, a great creative act. I could not do that at all but I salute you.

Telling the speedrunner about it? No were you raised in a barn. You are not writing it for the person to approve of— they don"t know you— you are writing it for fun and the enjoyment of other speedrunner enjoyers. Keep it locked down.

As long as we're all aware that RPF is fiction, and we keep it in circles where we're circulating it as fiction— ao3 archive locks exist for a reason! this is not something you want to show up on a google search!— this is just a thing people do for entertainment. Don't bring it up to the person it's about, and you're fine.

And I've been thinking about this because like, I don't think what I'm writing is RPF, but BOY from the outside people seem to think it is! Including the creators! Which means that even while I'm doing my best to adhere to character beats from the story and not just streamer personas, and differentiate between the dude in england and the dude in 3rd life, also I should be aware that if the creator hits it, he's probably gonna think that I'm just writing this about him.

Things go SO MUCH BETTER if the creator only finds it if he goes "huh I wonder what people are writing about me" and deliberately goes to look for it, not if he's just going along thinking about disney movies and someone comes screaming into his field of view like "people are writing about you on the internet". And then he's gotta deal with the ways he's percieved, and whatever weird warrior cat situation people were putting him in, and the fact that people don't know him but think he can't boil an egg, and the 3rd life cannibalism aus, and and and— it's a mess. Please don't do that.

All of this to say A) RPF is fine actually that's just like one of the ways storytelling works— we're not writing RPF but it isn't the devil either. B) STOP TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT FANFICTION.

#discourse #rpf #I had to sit through people ask phil TWICE on friday what his favourite fics are #and I could have bitten through the screen #fandom meta

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sage-nebula · 2 months

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WatcherTV Debrief

I said I was going to write down all of my thoughts yesterday, but I was simply too tired after work. So I'm going to do so now, in a post that is likely going to be very long, but hopefully will still be worth the read for some of you anyway.

TL;DR: I believe this is a very poor decision on Watcher Entertainment's part and it is at the very least going to cost them a huge swath of their fanbase, if not their entire company in the long run. And at this point in time, I myself will not be subscribing.

With that said though, I don't want this post to merely be a rant about how much I dislike the decision, so I'm going to start off by looking at things from their perspective and explaining why, although some people in the fanbase might feel betrayed, none of the three (yes, three, because Steven, Ryan, and Shane were all equal parts of this decision) personally betrayed anyone in the fandom. If you're still angry, I understand that seeing what might seem like a "defense" might be upsetting, but again, I hope you'll find some value in it regardless.

All of that said, that plus my extensive criticism of this decision is going to be long, so let's go beneath a cut.

First, let us state the obvious: Watcher Entertainment is a media company -- a business -- and Shane Madej, Ryan Bergara, and Steven Lim are not your friends. They are business owners first, and media producers + actors second.

I italicized actors to draw attention to it, because this is something that I think gets . . . not forgotten, per se, but pushed aside in people's minds when they consume video content online, particularly when that video content is on YouTube, which originally began as a point and shoot video upload website that was meant to give anyone and everyone the ability to upload their vlogs or silly little videos. The term "parasocial relationships" is one that has proliferated across the internet, but I think the issue here -- with Shane and Ryan in particular -- is not only that people are thinking of them as "friends," but also that they are thinking, "These are their authentic selves, this is who they really are, I know them." And the fact of the matter is, that isn't true. Shane and Ryan are actors. What we see in their videos isn't their authentic selves. We don't know them.

Now, that isn't to say that it's all a lie. It isn't quite the same as, say, Ryan Gosling or Leo DiCaprio playing a role in a film. But every internet celebrity (and that is what they are at this point) presents themselves in a particular way to their audience. Even in the Pod Watcher podcast, where ostensibly they're having Just Friendly Conversations About Whatever's On Their Minds, they're mindful of the fact that their audience is listening, their audience is judging, their audience is making gifs and fanart of moments they like. They're acting. They're playing up personas to keep fans engaged, to keep fans coming back for more.

So Shane and Ryan (and Steven, when he can be) are actors. You don't know their true authentic selves, and you never have. Anything they say has to be taken with a grain of salt, because they are saying what they want you to hear. Even their live shows are rehearsed. And what this means -- that they only show you what they want to show you -- is that they did not betray you, because they couldn't betray you. They don't know you, just like you don't know them. Betrayal is not possible here.

To that end, Watcher Entertainment is a media company -- in other words, a business. And businesses must generate not only revenue, but profit in order to stay afloat. Now, I don't know what Watcher's financial books look like right now. I have seen people throwing around a lot of numbers about what they have to make from Patreon, from ticket and merchandise sales, et cetera, but without looking at the expense reports, the bank statements, and the budget sheets, it's difficult for any of us to say just what state Watcher is in financially. We can guess, but that's the best we can do.

That said though, we don't have to guess to know the very basic principle of running a business. A business has to, at the bare minimum, break even. Ideally, the business would profit, so that they can not only do things like pay their employees fairly, but also so that they can expand and grow. Any business requires money in order to make product, whether that product is food, an item that you can purchase, or entertainment media that you consume as a viewer. As nice as it would be if Watcher could make their content without needing money to do so, they can't. Even independent YouTubers, including video essayists and Let's Players, require money to make their content. The equipment, in both purchasing and upkeep, requires money. The games (for Let's Players) require money. Internet and electricity bills, food, books needed for research, props, et cetera -- all of that requires money. No matter how simple a video may look, it still requires money to make. There is a reason that most people aren't able to make YouTube a full time job, and it isn't because they aren't talented; it's because it is a deceptively expensive venture to get into.

So with that said, even without knowing Watcher's current financial situation, it does make sense that they need money to run their business, purely from a "businesses need money" standpoint. This is common sense. This is why things like Watcher selling merchandise, having sponsored ads, having a Patreon, et cetera always made sense. And it is possible, too, that even if their present financial situation is okay, that they are thinking about the future, and costs they are likely to be incurring within the next year.

I don't know how many people within the fanbase listen to their podcast, Pod Watcher, but I do. A few episodes ago, Steven revealed that he wants to open a Malaysian restaurant within the next year. This is his dream, to bring Malaysian culture to the United States with food. This is an amazing dream for him, it's wonderful for him, I wish him success in this venture.

However, running a restaurant -- and not only running one, but building one from the ground up and running it -- takes an astronomical amount of time and energy. This is time and energy that Steven is currently expending keeping Watcher Entertainment afloat as the sole person in charge of managing their financials. (He has the official title of CEO, with Shane and Ryan having stepped away from that title In Name Only to focus on production, but the job that Steven is actually doing is CFO -- Chief Financial Officer.) So when Steven announced that he was going to be opening a restaurant within the next year, what I heard was, "Oh, Steven is leaving Watcher within the next year." This is supported, in my opinion, by Steven saying things like how Shane and Ryan will get free drinks whenever they visit, and then hastily tacking on fans can have it, too. He was trying not to show that he was leaving just yet to the fanbase, but the writing is on the wall and they all know it.

What this means is that when Steven leaves, they will need to find someone to replace him. Either Shane and/or Ryan will need to step away from producing and acting in their shows to take over CFO duties (which the reason why they stepped away is because they handled CFO duties poorly while Steven was better equipped for it, so I doubt either of them would like to do this), or they will need to hire someone to do that for them. The lowest CFO salary in LA I can find is $140k/year, and that isn't including benefits. Since Steven helped found the company, it's doubtful he's making that much, but his replacement won't be a founder and will likely want competitive compensation. There is a good chance that, considering this, Shane, Ryan, and Steven feel pressured to bring in a lot more money than they're currently doing right now.

And I understand all of that. I have supported them where I can; yesterday I literally wore my $80+ Mystery Files jacket to work, which felt a bit bitter after the news broke and I realized I wouldn't be able to watch future seasons of said show. I overpaid for a denim jacket because I wanted to support them. It's not as if I don't understand.

However . . . here is where the criticism begins.

To begin with, there is an old saying: you have to spend money to make money. To go back to my previous statements about how even smaller scale YouTubers spend money to keep producing videos to keep their channels afloat, what this saying means is that if you aren't going to put any money into your business or product, you aren't going to have a business or product to generate any revenue. However, some young business owners take this to the extreme, and figure that if they pump tons and tons and tons of cash into their business at the start, it will start to generate revenue more quickly. What ends up happening is that they overspend, sometimes even despite their best efforts not to, and end up not being able to claw their way back out of the red in the end.

Unfortunately, that is what I think that Watcher is doing with their new streamer.

Let's be clear: There have been valid criticisms about how they seemingly over-budget on shows that don't need to have such high production values or budget. Someone mentioned that their Let's Play show (I don't watch that one because horror games are uninteresting to me, so I don't remember the name) credits something akin to 26 people, which is silly when you consider the fact that there are independent Let's Players who are able to produce content themselves. Of course, you have to remember that the LPers on YouTube are editing their own videos, which Ryan and Shane probably aren't able to do -- but even then, that would be one or perhaps two additional editors. The number of people they have working on that particular venture does seem excessive.

With that said though, those 26 people were already employed and being paid, so having them work on the Let's Play show was likely not a new business expense. The streamer, however, is a completely different story.

First, they had to have paid likely multiple people to build the WatcherTV streaming website for them. Granted, I could be wrong since I have never used Squarespace, but I find it difficult to believe this is something Squarespace would be capable of handling. So unless they already had experienced programmers on their staff, they would have had to hire programmers to build the streaming website. They would also need to pay for hosting the streaming website, which includes not only the domain, but server space for all of their videos, and videos take up a lot of space. Previously, YouTube hosted all of their videos. Now? That needs to be on Watcher, and server space and maintenance is not cheap.

So they are paying for programmers, domain name, server space, server maintenance. They are also going to need to pay for security. Not only do they need to be concerned about any potential DDoS attempts, but more importantly they need security to ensure that they can't suffer a data breach and lose the credit card information of their subscribers, something which happens all the time to other companies. Now you may say, if it happens all the time and those companies are fine, Watcher will be too, right? Well, does Watcher have lawyers on retainer? Because litigation can be raised against companies with insufficient website security that puts customers' financial information at risk, which means Watcher could find themselves facing a lawsuit if their streamer is hacked and credit card information is stolen.

So they will need to pay for systems administrators to not only build security for the streamer, but also maintain security for the streamer, because cyber attacks evolve each day and it is a constant battle against them. It is possible that whatever third party they partnered with to build the streamer for them bundled all this together (if that is the route they went), but either way, services like that do not come cheap -- and if they do, you are not getting a service of value.

So what this comes down to is that Watcher Entertainment has likely spent a ton of money they allegedly do not have to build this streamer, taking the "you have to spend money to make money" adage to the extreme. Their hope, near as I can tell, is that they will generate enough revenue from the streamer so that they will be able to recoup the cost of building and maintaining the streamer and generate profit. However, judging by the reaction from the fandom, I think that is unlikely.

As everyone knows, the reaction to this news has been abysmal. While some of the responses toward Steven and Ryan in particular have been racist vomit, I do think there are valid reasons for why this news has been received so poorly. These reasons include:

Watcher built hype for a week, with a countdown timer and everything, teasing an announcement as if it were a new show or similar "gift" to the fandom, when in reality it was the news that the fandom would now have to pay for content that was previously free.

Patreon subscribers are expected to continue paying the same amount, but for far less content than before. Access to the streamer is not included in the basic tier; they'll need to double their cash output.

Many fans are international fans who can't access the streamer at all without a VPN to switch their location to the United States. Even if they want to pay, they are barred from doing so, meaning that Watcher Entertainment is shutting a large portion of its fanbase out for the foreseeable future.

Watcher took a very patronizing tone with their audience in both the announcement video and their Patreon letter. In the announcement video, which was fourteen minutes long when the actual pertinent information took half that time to deliver (if that), they began with a long diatribe about their careers and how much YouTube meant to them, and how sad they were to leave it -- as if they had guns held to their head, and weren't making this decision of their own volition. This is condescending; it implies they believe their audience is stupid enough to believe they were backed into a corner and have no choice. In the Patreon letter, they had a line that read, "And part of that change includes a bit of news that will surely be met with some fits of sobs- we're bringing Watcher Weekly+ to a close. We know. We know." Again, this is patronizing language. They are talking down to their fans, and assuming their fans will be heartbroken by losing a behind scenes the video, or whatever Watcher Weekly+ is. This arrogant, condescending tone does not help soften the blow of being told they are going to pay the same amount of money for less content.

As you can see, the way that Watcher Entertainment executed the announcement that they would be moving future content behind a paywall was abysmal, and the fanbase reacted accordingly. Provided that the anger isn't empty and that the current fanbase sticks true to their word about not subscribing (either out of principle, location, or because they can't afford it), Watcher Entertainment has lost a huge chunk of expected revenue directly out of the gate. And it's possible that they expected this; they had to know they would be shutting out international fans (at least for a time, presumably) and that there would be fans who couldn't afford it. But it's possible that they felt that there would be enough fans to support and subscribe anyway (hence the arrogant tone about people sobbing over losing Watcher Weekly+; that attitude screams of "you're so devoted to us you will do whatever we ask no matter the cost"), and also that they would be able to pick up enough new fans that it would cushion the blow of losing old fans.

Here is where the next problem lies.

Watcher's current subscription model is $5.99/month or $60/year. If you go monthly, you end up paying $72 for the year, so the annual plan is the better deal by $12. When you compare pricing to other streaming services, this may not seem so bad at first; it's on par with DropoutTV, and it's cheaper than Netflix, Disney+, and other big names such as those.

The difference, though, is that all of those other streamers -- DropoutTV included -- have far more content than Watcher does, meaning that the customer (and keep in mind that we are customers, we are not friends, and truly we are not fans when we are paying them money for product from their business) gets more bang for their buck.

I have seen the argument from defenders of the streamer in fandom that say, "So you care about quantity over quality?" And this argument is flawed for several reasons:

There are plenty of quality TV shows on other streaming platforms. DropoutTV has Game Changer. Hulu has Schitt's Creek and Abbot Elementary. Peacock has The Office and Parks & Recreation, so on and so forth. Watcher Entertainment has good shows, but they are not the only good shows in the whole of the media industry. Dare I say, they aren't even the only good shows on YouTube.

While Watcher does produce shows of high quality, their shows have tiny seasons of only six episodes each, and their seasons are spaced out months apart. They also cancel their shows without warning or announcement, meaning fans can wait (and wait, and wait) for a new season of a show they like that will never come, because Watcher dropped the show and didn't bother making official word on it. If you go through Watcher's entire content library (which is easy to do even if you like all their shows, and even easier if you only have a handful of shows you enjoy), then you will be paying for a streamer that you do not use for months on end while you wait for the next batch of six episodes that you maybe want to see if, again, you don't like all of their shows. (I myself only follow five: Puppet History, Mystery Files, Too Many Spirits, Top 5 Beatdown, and Ghost Files.) That is money you have spent on a service you rarely use. In other words: money wasted.

That last point is particularly important when you consider that Watcher Entertainment hopes to draw new customers in to subscribe to their streamer.

Pretend, for a moment, that you have never heard of Ryan, Shane, or Watcher before. You are browsing YouTube, and you come across the season premier of season three of Ghost Files. You enjoy it, so you think, oh, I would like to view the rest of the season. You learn that the rest of the season is on a streaming service called WatcherTV, which only hosts series that Watcher themselves have produced. Their library is very small right now. New episodes for ongoing seasons are weekly, they only have one season airing at a time, new seasons have month long gaps between them. This service costs $60 a year annually, or $6 a month ($72 annually). You've never seen any of their other shows before, and while you could technically afford it, it's not as if money is no object to you. You'd likely have to give up a streamer that has a much, much larger selection of shows and movies you already know you like to give this one a shot. (This one that, mind you, doesn't work outside of your internet browser, so you can't watch it on your television either.)

Would you do it? Really put yourselves in the shoes of someone who has no familiarity at all with Shane, Ryan, Steven, or their shows before that moment. Would you choose to pay $60 for a streamer with low accessibility, and a tiny, infrequently updated library? Especially if it meant losing access to so much more?

It isn't just that numerical value of the price that makes it a bad move. It's the price relative to the product being offered. Watcher's own fans, who love their content, are fiercely divided over whether to subscribe, with many saying they won't. In what universe does someone who has never heard of Watcher sign up to pay them that much for so little offerings? Particularly when they'll only be advertising via YouTube, and infrequently at that given that they'll only be posting season premiers?

(And this is not getting into how they were originally going to pull all of their content before the backlash. Yes, they walked it back -- but not only did they say in the video that the content would only be live until May 31st, but the Variety article says that the company originally told Variety that they would be pulling content, only for Ryan to issue a statement saying they wouldn't do that after. Meaning, they walked that part back because that's the part they could walk back. They have undoubtedly sank far too much money into the streamer to back out of that now. It's way too late.)

Businesses need to make money. Steven, Ryan, and Shane are business owners who are trying to make their business profitable. But I believe that this was one of the worst ways to go about it. I'm not saying that I know exactly what they should have done instead. I don't have all the answers. But I do know that from the terrible execution of getting everyone excited only to tell them (in the most patronizing way possible) that they would now have to pay for a previously free service, to deciding to sink a bunch of money into a streamer that they seem to have done no market research on beforehand and that they don't have the content library to support, this absolutely seems like the wrong way. Moving their content to an existing streamer like Nebula would have been a better move, in my opinion. (And it would have prompted me to actually sign up for Nebula, since there are several video essayists I haven't followed there . . . but I would have followed Watcher, since it would give me access to Watcher content and the content of those video essayists I've been missing.)

But what's done is done. As I said, I think at this point Watcher Entertainment has jumped off the cliff and they didn't do so with a bungee cable. I don't think they can walk this back. I'll be interested in seeing if they succeed, but I have very strong doubts they will.

#watcher #watcher entertainment #shane madej #ryan bergara #steven lim

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dnphobe · 5 months

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i am so deeply fascinated by the specific culture of internet fame and the conflation of the brand and the personal that happens as the result of a form of fame uniquely reliant on (perceived) interpersonal connection rather than a specific professional output. and dan and phil are one of the only not-deeply-depressing examples bc they have semi-successfully escaped their original personas while still retaining boundaries with their audience. the straight man/fool schtick is still a part of their dynamic (bert and ernie fr) but they're able to be so tongue in cheek about it at this stage it's very interesting to me

it's like. such a specific thing. because to equate dan and phil to comediens (the closest comparison i can find to their careers but from traditional media. or even radio personalities (something they actually were for years)....i don't know anything about those people's personal lives, at least not until there's a scandal that breaks everyone's view of them because it doesn't match with their stage personas.

but dan and phil's jobs, and the majority of online public figures, pretty much Require some degree of personalisation. there's possibilities for that Not to happen, like with people who Just post short films, or even the comparatively more recent rise of video essayists (and before that commentary youtubers) where the focus is very much on a Topic. but the very First youtuber boom (compared to youtube Video boom) was very much. person sits in front of camera and tells you about their life. and that's what those youtubers did. except in all the ways they didn't both because they had to be entertaining and many Real things are simply...not entertaining or interesting to people who don't know you. so you exaggerate who you are and stretch the truth of the stories you tell. and second of all because...who Wants strangers to know them personally? i don't. there's things my closest friends don't know about me. because i don't Feel like sharing those things (i will clarify here i am a painfully private person who hates being perceived for no real reason. but i'm sure Everyone goes through this to some degree.

and YES. dan and phil have indeed semi-successfully escaped those personas and i feel like there's a lot of youtubers we can't say that about. like yes their audience isn't as big as it used to be, but i feel like next to none of that is because of people disliking the shedding of persona. i largely put it down to the following things: the passage of time. all 'celebrities' level of fame fluctuates, largely with a rise then fall, but potential for a rise again; tied to the passage of time many people consider dan and phil to be a part of their 'cringy' teenhood and haven't given their newer eras a chance due to their own internalised shame, and; yeah, a Large aspect of the phandom was the Mystery. Are they Gay, are they Together, Why won't they Tell us they are Gay and Together. then they told us they're gay and told us they're Not gonna tell us concretely they're together. I don't LIKE admitting this because those of us here are like. here for more than 'phan' (or out of genuine appreciation for their relationship rather than treating it as something to get to the Bottom of), but this Is proven by the numbers their click bait videos did.

that was a a tangent. now i am going to go on another one and theorize on Why dan and phil have gotten through their rebranding(s) largely unscathed:

so first of all the parasocialisation or whatever you want to call it in the fandom was. Always more intense than even many other similar fanbases. except it wasn't i Feel like i know you from your on screen persona. it was i Feel like i know you Past your persona and i know this persona isn't You. which makes us sound tinhat as hell, like oh we know you Better than the things you show us? except we were right (phannie mantra tbh). like there's a reason people were fighting tooth and nail for phil to say 'fuck' for so long and it's not because we were interested in seeing him be something different than he was, but because we were perfectly aware he was a man around the age of 30 who can and does say swears and we wanted him to be Him with us. in many ways we Always wanted them to shed the personas.

second of all, they timed shedding their personas Very well. they started doing it after tatinof, which, while many of us were still young we were getting Older and changing a lot ourselves. so we were adjusted to change in the way we wouldn't have been before. and they dropped it even more Post coming out, and, i mean, how are you gonna be mad about that? their sexuality is in a way very tangled up in the personas, and as a largely LGBT+ fandom we wanted them to be able to express this part of them they've been holding back freely, and if that comes with dropping Other facades then, well, the closet is a hell of a drug. like. of Course they are going to change after a Big Change. which is another thing. they always Communicated they were about to change. whether that's dan making a whole video on a rebrand and changing his hair, or post-baking universe, or post-coming out.

but mostly i think it's this: dan and phil CULTIVATED their audience. they learned not to surprise us with the backlash from tabinof's sudden announcement and then would pepper in hints for any project and any change months-years in advance. and if you didn't like the hints you were getting? you could leave. only here for the mystery? here's the line of what you're gonna get, you can leave. but the people who stayed are people who Stayed. they have a staying power where it wasn't just...trading in one group of kids for another when the first group ages out, or being left to flounder after the first group ages out. and the second they stopped having a young audience, they stopped trying to Appeal to a young audience when they stopped having one, locking those doors. and i think that maturing with us was very important bc look if they Were still in those 2015 personas? i wouldn't be here. i'd be like...thanks but i am too old for this. so, conversely to everything, i think shedding those personas was, in a way, only BENEFICIAL to them

does any of this makes sense lmao

#sorry for this essay hdjdjdkdl #i feel like i didn't even cover all ur points which i wish i did bc they are all So interesting #but 'ry shut up' kicked in #but i love talking abt their personas and perception and the evolution of it all #thank u for sending this to lil ole me!#asks

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just-antithings · 2 months

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This might be a weird beef, and my 'evidence' is also most probably anecdotal, but I swear this happens so often I could conduct a social study, so I thought I'd share!

So I casually keep engaging with fandom on twitter and tumblr, and of course I come across all kinds of people, pros and antis and secret third things too.

I mostly try to stay in the 'normal person who doesn't hurt anyone' space, cultivating my internet experience, as you do, no matter what I do though, there be antis in the replies and quotes with the usual brain dead takes, and they always yell at people like "shut up weirdo!! you're weird!!! you're Weirdy McWeirderton!!!"

But that's not the surprising part. The surprising part is that 90% of the time if I check such a person's profile... they're a furry. Their account is months, years of sharing or making furry art or cosplaying such themes, sfw and nsfw too.

Now, listen - I would be spitting in my own eye if I had anything against them enjoying what they enjoy, so this is not about that. We have different tastes, and that's perfectly fine.

But OBJECTIVELY SPEAKING. My guy. My dude. In the eyes of majority society. Or imagine like, in the eyes of my Eastern European grandma who is 72 and watches soap operas.

"WEIRD" starts with... you. It's you! It's not a 15 year old and a 17 year old kid dating. (Fictional, no less...) Childhood friends becoming lovers is not incestuous, and it's super insulting to say so. I don't pretend to know what sheltered life antis live where you never have crushes on classmates or never meet anyone on the beach or at guitar practice, but these are literally the most common things in real life! What ISN'T common though - in "normie" circles, on the 'adult with a job' pane of existence - is liking anthropomorphic animals after you've turned older than 12.

Again, I have nothing against if you do. I genuinely mean that.

I genuinely believe we ALL deserve space, this is why I'd like everyone to understand that the OBJECTIVE definition of 'weird' is NOT the proshippers and whatever the hell 'illegality' antis keep accusing them of. To me this common use of "weird" as a 'gotcha' is just funny and illogical. THEIR fantasies would literally not be accepted anywhere except on the internet and its blissful options to stay anonymous, and yet they keep harrassing people for entertaining the same.

Has anyone ever noticed any other specific pattern like that?

Oh yeah it’s super common

#mod erin #ask #just anti things

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aratitty-itto · 6 months

Text

Fontaine has an interesting theme about social media and influencers. When you first arrive, you come across some people talking about a real court case as if it's a play, reveling in the dramatics of it instead of treating it as a real court case with real consequences. Social media has started to blur what is serious with entertainment- people's private or embarrasing moments are put on blast on youtube or tiktok or wherever so someone can laugh or feel sad for five seconds. People judging someone's entire personality and telling people what they should do in a situation based on one story they weren't even there for (ex. reddit, especially AITA but plenty of other places), "mommy bloggers" using their children as content. The courthouse is also the opera house, and with all the drama in the several court cases we've been in, it seems that the real winner (at least to the audience) is making your point in the most dramatic way possible rather than actually being innocent of the crime. This is often how internet drama plays out- whoever makes the first accusation and/or the most wild one is the "winner", in terms of attention. We try and present evidence in ways that will sway the audience's reaction, and the scales literally tip one way or another based on reactions. Furina is a major influencer on this topic. She is often in the courthouse, and well known to take an interest in the cases. When we arrive, she immediately shows up dramatically to accuse us of a made up crime, attempting to create another trial for her to take part in to use for the drama. Lyney gets us out of it, but it immediately sets up her character for the rest of the story.

The 4.2 archon quest has the segment where we see where Furina first came to be. She is told she must play the part of an archon, no matter what. No one can know she isn't, she must live up to everyone's expectations of an archon. She then introduces herself to a crowd, slightly nervous, trying to be herself. The crowd jeers, saying something similar to "THIS is an archon?" She then tries again, putting on a more confident and decisive front, saying, "see? that was just a test! I, the archon, am glad you didn't fall for it." She tries to be herself, but the expectations and jeers from the public encourage her to put on a false front to fit their idea of an archon.

I have watched this happen many, many times to people i have followed- whether bloggers, youtubers, streamers, etc; they often start off a bit rough around the edges, but genuine and enthusiastic, and then they get more popular and cater what they make to whatever trends are in right now, with more sponsors, less niche content, more polished and more similar to every other creator.

Furina seems a great example of how the expectations of social media/ the public's judgement of how you should be will end up pushing people into playing a part that burns you out and makes you feel hollow.

#genshin impact #genshin meta #analysis #fontaine #fontaine spoilers #furina #genshin

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 2 months

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Okay so this is bugging me.

The Volturi uphold the law and the law is don't let anyone know about vampires. Cool.

Meanwhile every two weeks they're bringing about thirty people to Volterra. Mostly TOURISTS. Who are EXPECTED TO RETURN HOME. And one old lady who seems to know she's part of a magical scheme and knows she's about to die and is reenacting the first few chapters of Dracula, only she wandered up to the castle.

How are they keeping this on the downlow???

Maybe during the book timeline you could say oh there was no internet no one was keeping up with tourists, but we have examples of tourists going missing and it becoming international news like the people who go missing on spring break. Bring in the internet and the Volturi's lifestyle is going to suffer the same problems as the Cullens, too many vampires in one place, being weird.

I guess you could say they enforce the law so who's going to stop them? But it just doesn't make sense?

(Also would have made more sense for THIS to be the grievance the Romanian brought up, but they're dumb.)

The answer's hilarious.

The real answer is Meyer really wanted this tourist scheme for some reason (and hey, at least they're not constantly preying on the poorest and the weakest in society, that's nice I guess) so we get... what we get.

This is explained somewhat in the guide.

The way the scheme goes is that Heidi runs a fake vacation sweepstakes. You get an email in your inbox that says congratulations! You have just won a trip to Thailand (yes, bear with me a moment)! Now, some people will likely realize they did not win a trip to Thailand because nothing is free and they don't think about the email and go on with their merry lives. Others are told by their relatives: honey, this will get you trafficked, this isn't real, and go on with their merry lives.

Some, though, agree and find themselves on a trip with likeminded people who also believe they're going to Thailand. And they do, at first, go to Thailand or wherever the tour said it was going for a bit. This is done via a presumably private jet which helps move things along and avoid intervention and inspection. But somehow, they end up with Volterra (without being told they're in Italy or Volterra) and one trip to the chomping room later and they're gone.

It's a convoluted ridiculous scheme that seems to be for Heidi's entertainment (this is her full time job every two weeks) and it does seem to hinge primarily on a) not much internet b) not many with cell phones. Probably the scheme changes a bit in the more modern age.

But the going all over the place, being a sketchy sweepstakes to start with, all of that is to make it harder to track where exactly the tourists died and make it murkier of whether they were in Italy (let alone Volterra) at all.

So it's not quite as bad as it seems or that the movie made it (the book was a bit more multicultural in tourists than Amuricans in that we have a foreign woman saying prayers as she realizes where she is) but it is ridiculous.

#twilight #twilight meta #twilight headcanon #twilight renaissance #the volturi #heidi #meta #headcanon #opinion #razzle-dazzle-13

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right-brain-left-brain · 1 year

Text

A potential idea for Deltarune's chapter 3 secret boss

I think this post might get me some weird looks, but fuck it we ball.

I'll just stop beating around the bush and propose the idea (ramble): Chapter 3 will have a Sonic-like secret boss.

You have Woody Theory, now get ready for Sonic Theory.

Now please, hear me out.

The core idea here isn't to just rib at all the bad Sonic OCs in the internet (okay, maybe it was), but I wanted to reflect a theme that fits Chapter 3's take on a TV themed world well (a Hollywood-like setting); stardom, or the loss of it in this case.

For context, in the 90s, due to Sonic the Hedgehog's success, there was a trend where every mascot platformer tried to emulate Sonic (mainly his US portrayal at that time, an effort to make him appeal to the American market more) as much as they could; high speed/fast paced action, a mascot with a cool and snarky attitude, and advertising focused on just how fast the game could go and/or how cool and edgy the mascot is. As with all trends, it eventually died out, with a majority of the titles fading into obscurity (though the Sonic series it self is still very relevant and thriving) if not remembered for how tacky they were.

Basing a secret boss on this fits with the currently known secret bosses’ theme of forgotten and/or discarded objects (Jevil = jester card, Spamton = spam mail). In the context of Chapter 3's Hollywood-esque setting, this makes for a character that was once a star. They were the talk of the town, a household name until they suddenly fell from stardom, mimicking the fast but short lived success of the trend. Now, they wish to reclaim the fame and star power they once had, no matter what and how.

All the secret bosses are heavily tied to the theme of freedom and control. Jevil, believing that he's the only free person in the Card Kingdom, feels like he can do anything (as in being in full control). Spamton constantly seeks freedom and to release himself from his strings. Making the Chapter 3 secret boss an in-game game character also reflects the themes of freedom and control; game characters tend to be played (or controlled) by something beyond their world (players). As a game character, this secret boss's take on freedom and control could be interesting. Instead of wanting to no longer be controlled, they want to be controlled, to have a direction for them to go along with. Now abandoned, they have nobody to follow and be guided by. This mimics a game; playable characters only do something when you move them, let go of the controller and they just stand there, waiting to be moved again. This can also play with the theme of you, the player, and your dynamic with Kris, the character. Kris, someone who's haunted by the idea of all their actions not being in their control, being met with someone who wants to be controlled all the time, their antipode, can make for interesting encounters.

The Dreemurr household has a game console with two controllers; one official and the other a knockoff/off-brand one. Toriel mentions Asriel liking a character who is essentially the Deltarune universe's version of Yoshi in its version of Super Smash Bros. As 'Super Smashing Fighters' is a clear reference to Super Smash Bros, which as a series is played on consoles, this further confirms that there's a game console somewhere in the house. As the game console is something that Asriel have ties to, this gives Toby the chance to further explore Kris as a person, their thoughts and fears, and dynamics with others (especially family) even with Chapter 3's more lighter and gameplay focused take. The console is currently tucked under Asriel's bed which, while it looks like a problem, I'll get into a bit later.

Video games can still make sense in a TV World that puts emphasis on performance; they're entertainment played on television by connecting a device onto it (at least home console games). The secret boss being the main character of a game can be translated as an actor, someone who carries out the directions provided by a 'script' of sorts (the game itself or you/the player). In a way, video games are movies or shows that the player themselves have full control of; they share several elements with other forms of media, only this time with giving the consumer more liberty in enjoying.

The Deltarune status updates reveals what the OST calls a 'Green Room'. A Green Room is a "a room (as in a theater or studio) where performers can relax before or after appearances". Fitting for the direction that Chapter 3 takes for a world themed around TV entertainment. Not only does this reinforces the actor and performance theme that Chapter 3's direction goes for, which can especially be applied to the secret boss, but it confirms something; the Dreemurr house's second floor being involved. Before this sneak peek, a lot of fans assumed that only the living room will get Dark World-ified, but this single screenshot seems to be saying otherwise. We get a loose layout of the second floor's hallways, the potted cacti are the same in shape, the couches mimic Kris and Asriel's bed, the starry wallpaper comes from Asriel's side of the bedroom, and some even say the box of (prop?) swords represent Asriel's pencil box. This still gives the chance of the game console as a secret boss, or any other things in the second floor to be referenced as well.

In one of Spamton's QnA answers, we may have the elements of the next secret bosses revealed. Spamton himself have the Puppet/Cat element, sharing it with Tasque Manager according to the game's files. We can assume that Death/Scythe in this answer belongs to Jevil (though the game's files lists it as Chaos/Chaos, possibly as a joke), as the JevilsKnife is basically a scythe and Spamton dislikes him. This leaves us with Thunder/Light and Dark/Star. Thunder/Light fits well with the secret boss being a Sonic expy, as both are very fast things, while Dark/Star could refer to what this possible secret boss is; a star that fell from fame into obscurity (or darkness).

Now, onto fan theory territory.

1. Memoryhead: There's a theory suggesting that the Memoryheads represent the currently known and future secret bosses. Here's the Memoryhead itself, along with the circled parts showing Jevil (red) and Spamton (yellow):

Obviously these aren't the only faces on the Memoryhead as we also have this face:

Should look familiar right? Of course this isn't really definitive proof of the concept being plausible. I wanted to point out just how eerily similar one of the faces on the Memoryhead is to Sonic's conjoined eyes.

2. SOUL colors: A more common theory is that each secret boss would have their own SOUL color/modes based on the Undertale Genocide Route bosses in reverse order (Sans = Jevil = Red, Spamton = Mettaton = Yellow). On top of this theory, another theory from Reddit says that the secret bosses reflect an inversion of each color's virtues; in the case of the currently known secret bosses, Red for Determination, Yellow for Justice. Jevil accepts the truth with no resistance and deludes himself into believing he's free to do anything (the opposite of Determination) while Spamton is a crooked salesman who pressures Kris into making bad deals and scams his customers (the opposite of Justice). Following this pattern, the Chapter 3 secret boss's SOUL color/mode is either Purple or Green. Let's talk about how this could work for our Sonic ripoff.

Purple is the color of Perseverance. Inverting Perseverance could give us something along the lines of Apathy. To persevere is to stand tall even against the odds and the many trials of life. As the trend of Sonic-esque platformers lived for quite a short time, it can be said that it didn't persevere through the tests of time. Maybe we could have someone who's long gave up their dreams of returning to the spotlight, where they consider their current state as being eternally lost, until an opportunity (Kris and their SOUL; something to control them) presents itself. This sends them in a more frenzied and desperate state that makes them do whatever it takes to become famous again, no matter what they'll face in their path to have 'freedom' once more. This portrayal can both invert Perseverance as well as display a twisted version of it.

Instead of spiderwebs, the lines could be TV scan lines, tying the chapter's TV theme with the secret boss' basis of a video game character. The lines could also refer to game consoles and controllers, with both using wires to connect themselves onto the TV.

Alternatively, this secret boss uses the green SOUL, the color of Kindness. Inverting Kindness gives Selfishness or Meanness. This still lines up with the secret boss being a Sonic clone, as the games that tried to ride and capitalise on Sonic's success tend to forgo Sonic's kindness and heroism for being cool and edgy for the sake of being cool and edgy, ending up with a character whose only defining trait is 'being totally rad' even to the point of self-centeredness. With that interpretation, the secret boss can instead be selfish and shrewd, disregarding others and doing whatever they can no matter what to get their hands on Kris' SOUL. On the surface, they still try to keep a kind and heroic persona (but not without the snark) despite no one remembering them. All of this to reclaim the image that they once have, their stardom, and their life. Why should they matter? They're not the ones who have their lives and acclaim suddenly robbed from them right?

While it skips the Purple SOUL, the Green SOUL returning in Chapter 3 can be inferred from Seam saying that the "next opponent" (presumably the secret boss) is impossible to beat without the 'Shadow Mantle'. A mantle can mean many things, for one it could mean a cape of sorts or a covering. As Seam says that we need the Shadow Mantle to fight the next secret boss, it can be inferred that it acts as a second shield for the Green SOUL, covering the area not protected by it.

3. Heaven and Hell: So far, all the known secret bosses have made references to Heaven or Hell. Jevil, besides being a demonic jester, says “MY HEARTS GO OUT TO ALL YOU SINNERS!” before one of his attacks. Spamton have made several allusions to Heaven (“ARE YOU WATCHING, [Heaven]!? IT'S TIME FOR SPAMTON'S [Comeback Special]!”) and has an angel theming (the mini Spamtons that heal half your health, Spamton NEO). Making the Chapter 3 secret boss a star past their prime by basing it on a dead gaming trend still fits this theming. They’re a star that fell into obscurity. In other words, Lucifer, the morning star, a fallen angel.

Okay, all of this is cool and weird. But then, what about the flowers? The ones Asgore gave to Toriel? Wouldn't that, a discarded thing that sits fairly near to the living room, also be secret boss material?

Simple, they can still be a part of this potential secret boss, just not as the boss itself.

Instead, the flowers can be the stage for the boss fight. A lot of Classic Sonic games (read: Sonic games at the 90s) start off in places with a fair amount of vegetation, especially trees and flowers. I can see the flowers also acting as the trees. In short, the trash can itself will be the stage for the secret boss's fight.

And now, some personal ideas.

1. Speech quirk: As an embodiment of a long gone fad, this secret boss's speech quirk would be speaking in 90's slang frequently while putting certain letters in bubbles, as if they're buttons on a game controller, with T being replaced with a + to evoke a D-pad. Something like so:

2. Gaster design motif: It's heavily implied that Gaster have some involvements with the secret bosses. They also have design motifs that they share with Gaster; Jevil have Gaster's eye cracks (or is it just clown makeup?) while Spamton have Gaster's fashion sense. I think, for a character that plays into the theme of a former star that long for their fame to return, the Chapter 3 secret boss will have a hole on each hand, just like Gaster's hands. On top of rings being the main collectible of every Sonic game as well as loop-de-loops being a common feature in Sonic level design, hands with holes can symbolise grasping for something (in this case fame/stardom), only to fail.

3. Amusement park ride: Each secret boss so far seem to have an amusement park ride theme of sorts, with Jevil's fight being in a carousel (or at least similar to) and Spamton's fight taking you on [[a ride around town]] on a rollercoaster. As the rollercoaster is (unfortunately) taken, I'm gonna have to go with a pendulum ride. Besides being a very fast ride (some even swinging in a full circle, just like a loop-de-loop), it can symbolise this character's arc of wanting to reach their past stardom only to slip away.

Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire cowboy thing ended up being a hint to the actual secret boss itself, but, knowing Toby Fox, I also wouldn't be surprised if it isn't. If this ends up being inevitably deconfirmed by Chapter 3's release, I can still claim him as an entirely original secret boss complete with an orange SOUL mode. All in all, I just needed to put this out somewhere, for some unfortunate souls to read.

TL;DR: The Chapter 3 secret boss is a Sonic expy as a riff on the Mascot with Attitude trend from the 90s and to parallel a movie star past their prime (according to Chapter 3's direction), desperate to be guided and to have fame once more.

#deltarune #deltarune secret bosses #deltarune secret boss #deltarune fan character #deltarune oc #deltarune chapter 3 #deltarune theory #deltarune au #well it's a crack theory for sure #sorry if it came off as rambly #i've been holding on this for some time #sonic theory #woody theory

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coffeebanana · 11 months

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How would you recommend interacting with a writer. If a story wasn't to your taste, or left you unsatisfied. But you still want to encourage, the writer. And show gratitude for the free entertainment?

Hi anon!

The short answer is, a simple "thanks for the fic!" or "thanks for sharing!" or even a few emojis will often suffice. You really don't have to let the writer know what you didn't like. At the end of the day, they're not writing the fic for you, and obiously not every story is going to satisfy everyone the same way--otherwise we'd all be the same and that would be a horrendously boring world to live in.

The long answer is probably unecessary, but I like to procrastinate on my WIPs talk 😂

There's a format of commenting that goes a little like this: "i don't normally like [X ship, X trope, the way X acts in canon, etc...], but i love the way you do it!!" And honestly I myself have used that before--mostly for tropes, though possibly for some ships as well. And on the surface, that's reads as a compliment. Personally, when ppl leave me that sort of comment, I'll usually interpret it as a compliment too--unless they're full on bashing the thing I love (which sometimes happens with people criticizing canon). And I do think it's INTENDED as a compliment. (That's how I've meant it, when I used it, so I do try my best to also interpret others in good faith.)

But it can also read as "I don't like this thing that you really like and I felt the need to tell you that." Honestly, I didn't even realize it would come across that way until I saw someone else point it out. And then...yeah, I started to notice the fics I get it on more (A lot lot lot of my ladrien fics, lmao.)

So I'm at a weird cross roads where I try not to use that anymore--unless it's with someone I'm fairly sure will understand how I mean it?because sometimes you do have more of a rapport with certain ppl and they'll understand what you mean--but I also don't want to say it's 100% a bad thing to say. I really do understand the intent.

Anyways, my point in bringing that up is that you never don't know what seemingly innocent "this wasn't quite to my taste" comment is going to read as an insult. And so if you really DO want to encourage said writer, I'd recommend sticking to the positives.

Another big thing that's important to me personally is: don't lie.

People have a tendancy to...I don't want to say be disingenuous, but certainly to exaggerate at times on the internet. You see that in the SCREAMING CRYING EATING GLASS types comments. And those are USUALLY sincere in the way that the emotions they convey are sincere. We as a society understand they're not literally eating glass but that they're in agony because the angst in the fic was so good and they want more. But then--something I've noticed--that sort of lingo has a way of slipping into a default response of sorts. And sometimes that makes me question if people really mean it?

This second thing is probably more of a personal thing than a response to your question, but since it's something I've been thinking about lately I hope you don't mind that I brought it up too. I really don't want people to lie to me about my writing.

Not even if it's "to be nice".

Maybe this is in part because I myself find it...difficult to be insincere with ppl, but I don't want false compliments--that's something I tell my friends too. If I write a trope or pairing you don't like? There's never any pressure to read it. I don't expect comments or kudos from anyone. And I'm not someone who in general believes people are insincere--that's not really fair to other people. But everyone has doubts at some point, and I feel like adding to that by straight up lying to make someone feel better just isn't the way to go? If you can't pick out a detail from the fic that you genuinely enjoyed, then maybe keep it to the simple "thanks for sharing!"

So, I guess the TLDR is: keep it short and sweet. keep it encouraging if that's really your goal. (and, if this ever happens to be in reference to something that I specifically have written? please don't feel like you HAVE to say anything at all)

Thanks for the ask!! Sorry I went on for so long LOL💜

#ask response #anonymous #long post

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notesfromtheidiotbox · 6 months

Text

I'm showing a picture of this post instead of reblogging because I don't want to distract from OP's point, but the various comments and reblogs all seem to have a common thread of "how did this happen? Why don't people seem to care?"

My personal theory is widespread compassion fatigue. It's finally ingrained itself fully into our collective psyche. And I'm not just talking about recent events either.

I'm 47 years old. I've lived through the end of the Cold War, two Gulf Wars, one major terrorist attack on US soil that upended literally EVERYTHING about everyday life in the US, the rising threat of climate change, a once in a century pandemic, multiple boom-and-bust economic cycles, the rise of the internet and with it the rise of accessibility of both information and MISinformation, multiple smaller conflicts around the world, the change in corporate attitudes from "we serve our customers our products faithfully and loyally" to "fuck you! That's our money in your wallet and we're not even going to pretend we thought of you as anything else anymore," the creeping resurgence of fascism as a political ideology in the US not seen since the 30s and early 40s,* rapidly rising inflation and wage stagnation without any sort of action to mitigate it for most of the population. and literally hundreds to thousands of people online yelling at each other for not "doing more," "doing better," or for not supporting/believing/doing the right things in the right way.

I honestly think the compassion/empathy tank is not just empty in the US, it's burned through the fumes and is now bone dry.

Being as generous as possible with the timeline, ever since 2001**, what we laughingly call the news in this country has served us a 24/7 diet of crisis after crisis, with no respite. It's ebbed and flowed, of course, but the general message has been "everything is getting worse, nobody is going to save us, we can't solve the existential threats of war, disease, famine, climate change, racism, and lethal prejudice that exists everywhere." And while collective action has garnered several significant victories, the attitude is still "this won't work because everybody has their own ideas of what needs to be done and how to do it and spend more time arguing over the details rather than doing anything***"

I think we don't care because we just CAN'T anymore. Even the things we would normally use to recharge ourselves aren't working. The food doesn't taste good, the entertainment is turning into forgettable sludge by the rapid rise of streaming, and it seems like you aren't allowed to be anywhere in public without spending money, and if you aren't required to spend money to be somewhere, odds are if you stay there for too long you'll have somebody giving you the side eye and demanding an explanation.

And online? Anger, dehumanization, and the constant cry of any sincere expression of joy or excitement is "cringe."

22 years of being constantly told the world is shit, humans are awful, you only have as much value as your bank account has digits, your employers don't respect you or the customers who get affected by their boneheaded decisions, leaving you to take the bullet, and constant reminders if problems which are too big to be solved in our lifetime.****

We're all tired, and we're beaten down, and we just don't have any more fucks to give about the latest crisis created by those in positions of power for what we are realizing are the most petty and stupid reasons.

There isn't a one size fits all solution here. But that's pretty much what I think has happened: the people of the United States in general have reached a point where we don't have the emotional capacity to deal with any more of this seemingly unsolvable shit. And I honestly think it's going to continue to get worse before it starts to get better.

Try to take care of each other out there, okay?

*For younger readers: oh yeah, during Hitler's rise to power until Pearl Harbor, there were PLENTY of people who thought Hitler was just swell.

** I'd actually argue the trauma cycle started with Vietnam, but it really accelerated with the 24 hour news cycle, the increase in internet speeds, and the events of 9/11.

***On a related note, be EXTREMELY leery of those online who won't accept anything but full-scale revolution as a remedy. Most of the time, these people have no plan for what comes after or seem to think that when society collapses, they'll be on top of the pile, ready to be the boot.

****The kinds of changes that would be needed to wipe out war, prejudice, and many other systemic problems are probably going to take decades, if not centuries. And because of the always on demand nature of society right now, a lot of people seem to have a real problem wrapping their heads around that. Change for the worse happens immediately. Change for the better takes a LOT longer.

#compassion fatigue #state of the world #united states #cannot wait for the shitshow this post is going to start

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mariesjordans · 3 days

Note

Oh yeah I had this idea where Marie and Jordan were Internet friends - with one key difference: they don't reveal that they're supes. It just felt like giving the other a reason to hate them.

Then they meet at God u and underneath the animosity there's this familiarity that nags at them.

Hxjsjdhdks

I know this isn't a drabble idea but sjsksbsj

Comfort Zone

(1.2k words) i’m rusty hope you like

There was something about them, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Like she’d met them in a past life or an old friend you knew once as a child.

What they said replayed in her head all day. Despite how they got under her skin, she couldn’t let it go.

“All progress takes place outside the comfort zone”

3 days earlier

J: [I think you’re overthinking]

Jordan had never thought themself to be the motivational type but there was something about this girl. They wanted the best for her and they’d ensure she knew she deserved it.

They felt like they knew her entirely but not at all at the same time. The girl wouldn’t even give them her first name under the excuse that “the mystery is what keeps their friendship alive”.

Friendship…. the old Jordan would kick himself right now because of course they managed to fall for a girl through a screen.

Jordan’s thoughts were interrupted by the ping on their phone, they rolled over and unlocked it.

M: [I’m not overthinking, it’s a new school. New people, new everything it’s… nerve wracking to say the least]

Jordan smiles waiting for the girl to finish rambling, knowing they were due a few more text bubbles before they can successfully calm her down.

M: [I mean i’m not like antisocial but at the same time I can’t see myself just walking up to somebody and us hitting it off and your silence is really starting to freak me out!]

J: [I wanted to let you have your moment before pulling you back to reality, you know where the rest of us live]

M: [I’m glad you can find entertainment admist my turmoil]

J: [I can find amusement during your dramatics yes]

M: [I will block you]

J: [You’ve had a year and a half to block me, good luck living without me]

M: [Thumbs down]

Jordan smiles a bit to herself, continuing.

J: [Look the way I see it, all progress takes place outside the comfort zone. A quote I live by]

M : [That was not helpful and I know you just googled that]

J : [Listen i’m free tomorrow and i’ll have my phone on hand so you can talk to me whenever, it’ll also make you look super busy deal?]

M: [Deal]

Present

“She hasn’t even told you her name and you’re talking like she’s the one, excuse me if I’m a bit concerned.” Luke kicked his feet up on the desk in front of him to immediately be knocked off by Jordan.

“I didn’t say she’s the one I just said I wouldn’t mind if I knew someone like her in real life, and respect the desk man.”

“You’ve been checking your phone all day waiting to be her knight in shining armor.” Cate pipes up from the couch across the office.

“No one asked you! And as for you- “ Jordan cuts eyes at Luke. “Why do I even bother telling you anything alone if you’re just gonna relay the information to barbie”.

“Play nice Jordan.” Andre walks in and Jordan sinks into their chair because yes of course all three of them teaming up against him as usual.

“Yeah be nice Jordan.” Cate stuck her tongue out to make a point met with Jordan rolling her eyes.

“I’m still trying to figure out why you invited that freshman to come out with us don’t you have enough on your plate.” Jordan pointed between Cate and Luke.

“I know this comes as a shocker to you my friend but some of us are capable of friendship with other beings without intentions of jumping in their pants.”

“What are you trying to insinuate here!” Jordan knew exactly where this was going but didn’t have the care to stop it.

“What he’s saying is maybe we do wish your dream girl was real and present cause that’s the most committed any of us have seen you in all 3 years of knowing you.” Cate teases as she grabs her things. “Anyways it’s getting around that time, we need to go get ready.”

“Oh is that what you’re doing, getting ready?”

Cate makes a point to flip Jordan off as Luke trails after her followed by Andre blowing kisses and shutting the door.

Jordan rests his eyes for a moment, a moment that didn’t last long seeing as they jumped at their phone the minute it pinged.

M: [Day is going decent so far, I got invited to hang out with this guy. One of the people he hangs with seems like a total douche though. I can probably get around it.]

J: [I like this change of spirit on you, I’d be careful though you just met this guy. Define “hang out”.]

Jordan cringed knowing they sounded like a jealous boyfriend, but hoping it went over her head.

M: [He seems laid back, plus I think I can take him. I guess we’re going to some club.]

J: [Weird.]

M: [Don’t make me second guess myself what happened to the inspirational you I was getting this morning!]

J: [No that’s not what I meant, I mean we kind of have the same plans tonight.]

A bit too similar.

M: [ Awesome, well I’ll hit you for a drunk texting session later and tell you all about it.]

J: [You wanna get drunk with these guys first night out???]

M: [I’m KIDDING, you can put the guns down superman I got this]

J: [Superman doesn’t use guns.]

That night

“Staring daggers at her all night isn’t gonna magically make her explode Jordan”

Cate nudged them as they eyed the new girl at the bar with Luke, “Marie” excessively giggling at something they knew couldn’t have been that funny.

“Don’t they seem a bit too comfortable to you.”

“Oh no you’re not gonna turn this on me, and you’re especially not gonna turn me on that girl, she’s adorable!”

“I agree!” Andre plopped down on the couch next to Jordan, the music was loud but Andre was still yelling a lot louder than need be.

“I just don’t understand where you guys got this random urge to let this girl into our circle 3 years into this friendship.”

Cate shared a look with Andre before they both bursted into giggles.

“Somebody sounds possessive! Maybe we should make the bed up for four instead tonight.” Jordan cringed and pushed Andre away from them.

“You guys aren’t funny i’m being serious.”

“We know that’s the sad part.” Jordan looked at the bar as Marie tried to help Luke balance their round of shots on a slim tray.

“Give her a chance.” Jordan opened their mouth to protest but Cate quickly cut them off “Give. her. a. chance. Promise me!”

Jordan remained silent.

“Promise me Jordan!”

“Fine!”

“Not a fan of dancing?” Jordan once again mentally kicking themself trying to make small talk.

Marie stared forward at Andre pulling out some of his most ridiculous moves as Luke and Cate encouraged his antics, stopping only to look at Jordan-bewildered.

“Wow he says more than 2 words and is capable of different facial expressions outside a death glare, color me shocked.”

Jordan felt their irritation rise and fall reminding themself of the promise they made Cate.

“I’m….. sorry.”

Marie took them in for a second, his eyes genuine.

“I know I just kind of showed up and barged my way in but I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I promise.”

“Well, all progress takes place outside-“

“-the comfort zone.” Marie eyed them for a second.

Then it hit her….. it should be impossible but….. it was…. it was them.

Totally down to continue this btw if anyone wants. I’m writing requests rn but I have more for this one I wanna do. Also I proofread a few times but sorry for any spelling errors.

#jordan li #marie moreau #mariejordan #jaz sinclair #london thor #derek luh #gen v prime #gen v amazon #gen v fic #gen v #mariesjordanswrites #gen v fanfiction #mariejordan fanfiction #mariejordan fanfic #first fic back don’t kill me #jordan uses any pronouns

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flower-boi16 · 5 months

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Jinx Vs The Human World & The End: The PERFECT Ending To a Good Show

So...recently, I just watched the finale to The Ghost and Molly Mcgee on TV. If you didn't see my review of The Ghost and Molly Mcgee, I quite like this show. It's not amazing or anything, but it's certainly a good show that I'd recommend you watch. When I went to watch these episodes I didn't expect much; just a fun duo of episodes with some heartwarming moments in them. Instead...the finale was AMAZING. I'm not exaggerating when I say that TGAMM has one of the best finales of any Disney cartoon in recent years. It perfectly caps off the show and gives a satisfying if bittersweet finale to these characters.

In this post I'm just going to go through my thoughts on both of these episodes and why I like them. Also, this post WILL contain spoilers for the entire finale, so, ya, you've been warned. But enough stalling, let's finally begin...

1. Jinx Vs The Human World

So Jinx Vs The Human World is...pretty good. Basically, the plot is that Jinx takes over the chairman's robe after Scratch leaves it on a robot to replace him and chaos ensues. I do like Jinx as a villain here; she's pretty entertaining and is also a threatening and competent antagonist, with her being able to capture Molly and drain her joy to get her sobgoblins to get stronger and attack the living world.

We also finally get a resolution to the chens plotline here; basically, it turns out that Geof was the one who scared Ruben as a kid, buuuut Geof didn't exactly mean to scare him and was just sneezing because of the dust. This is a...perfectly fine resolution to the Chens plotline, and I do like them helping in the final battle against Jinx. Speaking of that final battle, it was done pretty well; Scratch comes with an idea for how to beat Jinx, that being to think about things that bring them joy so the sobgoblins could over eat and explode.

And after that Jinx is trapped in a ghost container thanks to June and Darryl and the episode ends with Scratch giving up his chairman status due to realizing he isn't exactly a good leader and puts a curse that the rob shall choose who is worthy of being the next chairman.

The songs in the episode were also pretty good; I really like Back to Misery in particular, though Give Em' Joy was also a nice song. So overall, Jinx vs The Human World is a pretty good episode, Jinx is a nice antagonist, the resolution to the Chens plotline was solid, the songs were great and the final battle was done very well. I'd say it's an 8/10 episode, it's pretty solid. The episode would have been better as a 44-minute special though, as the pacing was kinda messy. Now...time to get to the final episode of the series, and...hoo boy, this final episode...it was PERFECT.

2. The End

I'm just going to say it; The End is my favorite episode of the whole show, hands down. I didn't expect the finale to this silly little show to be this good, but it was, and wow, this is one of the best finales in any Disney cartoon I've seen. I don't really know where to begin with this episode, so I'll just get straight to the point; basically after possessing Todd for 2 seconds Scratch gets a vision about his life, and Darryl tells finds Adia on the internet (she was blowing up on click clock), and after he and Molly contact Adia online, a revelation gets dropped; Scratch isn't a ghost, he's a Wraith, and he's Todd's wraith, meaning he isn't actually dead.

This episode basically cemented Scratch as my favorite character here. We get the song Maybe Next Time, a heartbreaking song about how Scratch wasted his life. Instead of adventuring with Adia, he stayed at home and never lived his life, because he played it safe. He was too afraid of taking risks and dying, but because of how afraid he was, he never lived his life to the fullest, he kept on closing himself off, until one day...he just gave up his ghost.

And he kept playing it safe as a ghost, closing himself off because he was still afraid. It's a heartbreaking story about somebody who wasted his whole life because he was afraid of taking risks and chose to just play it safe instead. But...that's not how the story ends.

We get the scene where Molly talks with Scratch outside of Todd's house, and it's the best scene in the whole episode. In the scene Scratch wonders what his life would've been like if he didn't constantly play it safe; if ever decided to take risks and join Adia. And Molly goes and encourages him, saying he could go back to his body and live out his life. Scratch still tries to play it safe, but Molly stops him, saying that Scratch is still playing things safe, how he's still afraid.

Scratch admits this, and says that Molly should be afraid too, since he could forget his whole afterlife when he goes back to the living, and how risky it is. But Molly keeps encouraging him, saying that risks are what make life worth living. She then says how Scratch didn't stop playing things safe as a ghost, and how he shut himself away from others, but now, he's grown; Scratch was able to make real friends, he stopped shutting himself away from everyone, and she encourages him to live out his life. The two hug, and, when Scratch goes to the house, he says that he's sorry if he forgets her, but Molly says that although Scratch may forget her, she'll never forget him. And so, Scratch rings the doorbell, Todd comes out as he looks outside and sees Molly, and Scratch goes back into his OG body, giving one last smile to Molly, as Molly smiles back.

This scene was PHENOMENAL. It officially made Scratch into my favorite character and was a fantastic ending to his character; Somebody who never spent his life and always played it safe, who fell into a depression due to wasting his life and closing himself off from others, but then is able to make friends and goes to spend his life to the fullest, finally deciding to join Adia and adventure with her just like how they wanted to as kids, and the credits even show him reuniting with her. Although Scratch's memories are gone, (or they probably are? I dunno, the show is pretty ambiguous with if Scratch's memories have fully disappeared but ehhh) his growth isn't, if that makes any sense.

He learns to live his life and to no longer just play things safe, taking risks, because as Molly said, risks are what makes life worth living for after all. It's not just a great way to cap off Scratch's character, it gives a beautiful and mature message; you shouldn't just play things safe, you spend your life to the fullest, take risks, adventure out, live your life, it may be risky, but that's what makes life worth living for.

It's a bittersweet but beautiful ending to the show and this character, and THAT'S why The End is my favorite episode of the show. 10/10

(Only real gripe is that I would have LOVED a final song at the end of the episode, aside from that though, its still amazing)

3. Conclusion

While I don't think The Ghost and Molly Mcgee is some kind of masterpiece (I'd say it's like, a 7.5/10) It's a pretty good show and I'd recommend you watch it. The characters are solid, the animation looks nice, it's funny (occasional usage of toilet humor notwithstanding) and the songs are pretty good. Season 2 is honestly better than Season 1 imo, the songs are better, the episodes are better, there's more development and interesting plotlines, and the finale was fantastic.

TGAMM's Finale is a perfect ending to the show, it ends all the show's plotlines in a neat and satisfying way. One of the best finales to any Disney cartoon I've seen, not on the same level as GF or TOH's finales, but still fantastic.

#the ghost and molly mcgee #tgamm #tgamm season 2 #tgamm the end #jinx vs the human world #tgamm finale #tgamm s2

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