Category: Uncategorized

saccharinescorpion:

okay, the reason that I get mad and antsy about posts that are like “despite what tumblbllblblbllblblr says you can like people who are problematic :)” is that God, “problematic” is the most vague wimpy bullshit baby umbrella term in the entire world

if my friend says “he’s my problematic fav ^_^” i instantly get worried because “problematic” can mean literally ANYTHING from “said something mildly insenstive about a political issue” to “voices distaste about those gosh dang horrible Latinos coming to steal American jobs” to “sexually harassed and groped his underage fans.” what did he do? who cares! it’s insignificant enough to just shove under a single bland inoffensive word and never touch it again, i guess

you’re allowed to like famous people (or like, shows or video games or whatever) that have flaws, but you can’t just hide bad things under a single tidy little word so can absolve yourself of any guilt you get over supporting a guy who’s beaten his lover or who’s whined about how there’s no more racism in America.

stop cooing to yourself and your followers that it’s okay to like ~problematic~ things, we GET it,
nobody’s perfect, so let’s move past that. grow a fucking spine and say words like “sexist” or “bigoted” outloud. and not just in a watered down “yeah she said some bad things :(” kind of way, get MEAN about! “yeah i like her work a lot, but i hate all that bullshit racist stuff she says on her Twitter” you’re allowed to like something while being loud, vocal, and angry about how much you hate the bad parts. be mean, be unpleasant, but never just be the person who gives a pass to all the bullshit that assholes can get away with in this world just because you don’t want to feel bad for liking a tv show or celebrity

Just cause you struggle with the idea of people finding ships/characters/shows that don’t involve white men more fun and interesting than those that do doesn’t mean those people are ‘virtue signalling’ or picking characters based on what’s the least problematic it’s frankly not that deep.

a rant.

baroque-mirrors:

So much of TV is way too concerned with being Clever™ right now. There’s this pervasive myth that audiences won’t enjoy a narrative climax unless it’s a total surprise. “Predictable” is always used as a pejorative term when it comes to storytelling, but I think that’s absolute crap, because here’s the thing: 

Unpredictability is not, inherently, a virtue. Unpredictability can mean: a) you don’t have a clear grasp on who your characters are or what direction they’re growing. b) you don’t have a clear vision for the story you’re trying to tell. c) you don’t know how to tell the story (for example, you have a Point A and a Point B but the middle is a bunch of disjointed time-wasting filler. 

“But,” the showrunners cry, “you never saw that twist coming! We kept you on your toes!” That does not make it good. Cleverness is often just smoke and mirrors designed to distract the audience from a lack of substance; it doesn’t guarantee a worthwhile story. I don’t want to be shocked for the sake of surprise – I want to feel like the experience was worth my time.

I want to be introduced to a character, and then I want to be taken on a journey with that character. I want every step of that journey to teach me who they are; what they believe, what they want, what they hate, what they fear, and what they love, so that when they are faced with a conflict or a critical moment of decision, I understand exactly why they do what they do. I’m hoping their choices in that moment will reveal something truthful and powerful and worth knowing about another person’s experience. 

That’s what I want in a story. I genuinely don’t care whether it’s clever or predictable or whatever; I just want a worthwhile journey in which every moment of every episode means something – to the character(s), and to me. That’s what makes serial television satisfying. It has nothing to do with shock or intellect or reinventing the wheel, it’s just about telling the damn story in a way that makes you feel it.