Fandoms of the World II

[snoopyfloyd]

[flandepanapen]

All right, just binge-watched Season 2 of BEEF, which had a fascinating premise, maybe not so great landing, but still processing it, so let's talk through the ending. Spoilers ahead:

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So, at the end, Austin on the verge of turning in the thumb drive to the police, maybe "getting the girl," and becoming the hero of the story who could take down Madame Park, decides to turn back, return the evidence, and gets back with Ashley. Why is this? Why not go through to the unknown, especially when Eunice, albeit reluctantly, confesses her love back?

The key is in the dialogue. Madame Park tells Austin that love only exists within the capitalist system, within its constraints—implying that it is a function within the system. Austin's love for Eunice then seems to be a paradox, as he is on the verge of potentially overturning a system of money and corruption to explore this possibility. But as he hears Eunice tell him what he wants to hear, perhaps just to get the evidence in, perhaps with some truth to it, he realizes that it is not guaranteed. That if he goes after her, a woman that reminds him of his mother, he may never get the "love" (power) that he is looking for, because he would be submitting to a symbol of the matriarchy.

Meanwhile, Austin knows that Ashley does not love him. He has confronted her with the truth of her abandonment issues, of her unhealed trauma that is in the way of having any form of trust or love with her partner. But by knowing this weakness, knowing that she will always love him and never let him go, he also knows that he will always hold power over her—the power of knowledge. And with the promise of a son on-the-way (with a fertilized embryo), he has all the ingredients to submit to the patriarchy.

And Austin does just that—submits. Despite Ashley becoming the breadwinner, despite any reversal in gender expectations, Austin's choice of love continues the patriarchy and sustains the capitalist system.

[metamorphesque]

"All of these flames ...", Eghishe Charents (translated by tathev simonyan)

[apatheticlexicographer]

i'm seeing ppl saying the documentary shows chatGPT tabs open while scripts were being written and my first thought was 'wait is THAT what led to milkshakegate???'

bc if AI was being used in writing the scripts it would surely be drawing from stuff about the series that's been posted online (???) so it wouldn't necessarily differentiate between TFS and the show itself, which could account for the mixup of which iteration of melvald's will is familiar with.

and it would also explain why 'mike the brave' is used to establish holly the heroic and then never mentioned again...

annnnnd the misuse of the word 'innate' if will's powers are understood to only derive from vecna via the hivemind...

and the inconsistency of why will was unharmed when vecna was defeated...

and why the 'melting room' thing is so random and never relevant again after the jancy breakup...

and why it literally doesn't matter that there were 12 kids...

is this why robin explicitly mentioned will's bowlcut TWICE??? bc it gets brought up so often online???

and were the stonathan bait and the 'babes at emerson' line even intentional or were they just there bc it was drawing from scraped fanfiction???

ACTUALLY ON THE WHOLE IT EXPLAINS WHY THE DUFFERS HAVE BEEN SO VAGUE IN THEIR INTERVIEWS. "I WOULD ASSUME" THIS, "UP TO INTERPRETATION" THAT. THEY DON'T FUCKING KNOW BECAUSE IT IS *LITERALLY* SLOP FROM THE MACHINE!!!

[allmylove12]

conformitygate needs its own wikipedia article

[metamorphesque]

The Cathedral, Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917)

[heathcliffbot]

12/29/2025

[metamorphesque]

haiku #15, tathev simonyan

[enchantedbook]

'The Three Fates' by Alexander Rothaug, 1910

[parisimms]

Seeing people in the stranger things tag on about conformitygate... but it's mostly filled with people trying to villainise Kali and using bs points to push her as 'the big bad' that "We'll be getting in episode 9 trust !!"

God even in death this poor girl can't escape people villainising her, brushing off her abuse, or trying to make her into a bigger villain than yk... the main villain of the show?

Kali my poor baby... none of these people deserve you.

[flandepanapen]

Question—how was Will able to access Lucas's POV in the hospital in Episode 6? Or rather, how did Vecna use Will to access Lucas's POV to find Max?

[flandepanapen]

Okay, so I've vacilated between conformitygate actually having a material conclusion (the real finale) or just being an interpretation for those of us paying attention. But I just realized, honestly with all the hype people are putting into this, it would be the perfect opportunity for a movie announcement. ST is big enough for that, that would resolve the issue of an announced "finale" and would be a huge promotional opportunity. But let's see if any of this is real or if this is the ultimate copium.

[bylerspite]

I think it needs to be cleared up that those who are participating in discussing conformitygate are not having a mental breakdown. They are analysing a tv show which is an art form. I think we're well aware that it's unlikely to happen because the duffer brothers are not that clever. I did english literature at uni and overanalysing stuff is my version of fun. We're never told that we're reading too much into a book. Anyone that analyses a book knows deep down that the author very well might not have intended your interpretation but that's the beauty of art. It's up for interpretation.

Books are made to be analysed and the same goes for TV. Especially because TV relies so much more showing rather than telling. There's less introspection on TV so instead symbolism is used which makes it even more likely that signs are there to be found.

I do not care about the duffer brothers. A lot of people outside of them put a lot of work into making the show so I'm honouring them by enjoying it and reading too much into it for as long as I feel like it to be honest.

[drop-of-infinity]

I don’t think we talk enough about how the entirety of Wicked is built on the irony of No One Mourns the Wicked. The musical exists because Glinda feels the need to tell Elphaba’s story, because she is in mourning and entirely alone in that. Glinda’s love is what creates the musical because no one mourns Elphaba except her, and that is an incredibly lonely place to be. She’s just lost two of the most important people to her, and all she’s trying to do is make someone, anyone else see how important they were.

[sakurabraches]

okay i know the point of contrasting glinda walking down the aisle to elphaba walking through the cages of Animals was probably a "lies in the light truth in the darkness" thing but there's a read of that choice that implies that, deep down, glinda finds heterosexual marriage as horrifying as elphaba finds Animals in cages, and that's just very, very funny

[purpldology]

Look at my Spanish teacher man, we ain't never passing 😭🙏

[medusas-daughter]

The Creature calling itself Viktor and following Viktor around is so much more tragic when you know how babies develop and how newborns don't yet realise they and their mothers are two separate people. And one of the first things babies realise about themselves is that they're a whole separate person. And one of the first things they do when they start developing as a person is find out they have hands and play with them and with textures and start exploring. And when they want to start talking, they put their hands and fingers on their parents lips and throats to figure out how that sound is coming out of there and then they start imitating. Guillermo Del Toro nailed every single step of human development in such a beautiful celebration of life.

And Viktor abused the crap out of the poor creature for not being smart enough when it was only following natural developmental milestones. Because, like most men, like his own father, he wanted to create life but he wasn't interested in raising it beyond that and instead wanted it to be born a doctor ready to show the world how smart Viktor is for creating a carbon copy of his brain except in a stronger immortal body. Elizabeth gave him five minutes of love and let him explore how sounds come out of her mouth and he started talking.

Idk why some people are complaining about the movie being different from the book when the essence is literally the same, Viktor created life as if it were a godly feat and not something women have been doing since the dawn of humanity, and then he abandoned that life as deadbeat dads do. And that abandonment is what created a monster out of an innocent souls who could have become a beautiful being had it been nurtured. That's literally what Mary Shelley wrote. She would have been proud of this story. On top of being an incredibly gorgeous visual story, the narrative is very loyal to the point Shelley wanted to make.