@theartofmadeline
bliss lane
titsay
Not today Justin
The Stonewall Inn
roma★
noise dept.
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Interview Vampire Daily
YOU ARE THE REASON
occasionally subtle
RMH
TMBGareOK. The Official They Might Be Giants tumblr
Cosmic Funnies
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
$LAYYYTER
almost home
Noah Kahan
tannertan36
Product Placement
seen from United States
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@insouciant-jouissance
sorry that you think my fictional ship is illegal. I actually consulted a fictional lawyer about it and he had a talk with a fictional cop about the fictional laws and then they both looked at me, and very seriously said "we'll allow it because it's hot."
People seem to have forgotten that "proship" was the Fandom norm for the longest time.
Only, it wasn't called proship. It was called ship and let ship. Or minding your own buisness.
If someone had a ship you didn't like or thought was gross, you would avoid them. If they drew art or wrote stories you didn't agree with or like, you would ignore them.
There were tags like smut, whump, and angst to tell people about things they might not want to read. And then dead dove: do not eat for taboo subjects and especially gritty fic.
Then people started to ignore that. Younger fans started to bully people because they disagreed with shipping certain characters. Whether it be because it "wasn't canon", they thought it was gross, or they just didn't like it.
These people began calling themselves "anti-ship"
Pro-ship became a label to show that someone was against anti-ship.
Eventually, the anti-ship movement began to die down. So do you know what they did? They started accusing people. Of being pedophiles, groomers, rape supporters, and more. All because they wrote or drew things that these people didn't like.
They began claiming that THEY were the Fandom norm, and that these "proshippers" were the bad people. They started claiming that proship stood for "problematic shipping"
Due to this, the term "pro-ship" is often misconstrued as to what it means. Many people don't even KNOW what it means.
It means "anti-censorship".
It means that we support someone's right to produce art, no matter how gross, no matter how taboo, no matter how "problematic"
Because it's not hurting anyone.
If it's something you don't want to see? Block the person. Block the tag. Say in your bio that you don't like it. That's what they're FOR!
This was discussed in earlier days of fandom.
"I wonder why people would read a story in a genre they don't care for, then take the time to let the writer know that sure enough, they didn't care for it. That would be like me going to a restaurant, ordering a slice of cherry pie, then asking that the chef be brought out so I can say "I don't like cherry pie, and I didn't like yours either." To continue this analogy into its usual fannish outcome, the chef would say "Well gee, lady, why did you order it?" And I'd say, "Are you questioning my right to order cherry pie?"
-Unknown 2002
Except now, it would be like the person who didn't like the cherry pie and ordered it anyways then demanded that no restaurant serve cherry pie because it was poison. Not only is it a ridiculous request, it's blatantly untrue.
Plenty of documented cases of people enjoying a particular fucked-up fantasy scenario while simultaneously finding real-life examples of the same thing physically repugnant to the point of illness.
fav confusing thing ever? antis who LOVE rick and morty. “rickorty shippers eat shit” oh the ship from the show that has rick canonically marry his grandson, or rick making morty kiss him, or the giant incest baby in space, or the orgy rick and summer and morty had with dragons, i can go on bruh
Well, that was one hell of an episode.
I'll start with what we're all thinking: it's disappointing that the sweet moments that Rick and Morty shared in "A Rick in King Mortur's Mort" weren't real. "Little junebug" and the hug in particular were so loving. Admittedly, Rick seemed out of character, but I loved seeing his grandfatherly side.
However, I don't think it's entirely a bad thing. "Rick" changed way too quickly, and Morty forgave him too quickly. It let Rick off the hook when Morty deserves to tell Rick how much he hurt him. Rick needs to face what he's done, not make up with a quick hug and nice words.
And I mean--Rick could have programmed that robot to be cruel. He could've programmed him to mentally beat the family down so they wouldn't bother the real Rick. Or he could've programmed to be the same as he is. Why not? But he programmed that robot to be gentle and loving: the grandfather that Morty deserves. The one that Rick would've been in another lifetime.
I love how the robot also pointed out that anything that he did, Rick technically did himself. Rick programmed the robot to act that way.
"Rick and Morty is about how nothing matters!" Bullshit. The robot wasn't just a replacement Rick. Yes, Rick built him because he was being a petty asshole, but he could've made that robot an abusive piece of shit to be an even pettier asshole. Instead, the robot showed us Rick at his best.
I was glad that the episode clarified that Rick made the robot at the beginning of the previous episode so that we didn't have to wonder how long we'd been watching a Rick stand-in.
Rick still did everything else this season. He willingly went to therapy, spent time with his family, helped Jerry when he didn't need to (and side-eyed the family for making fun of him), told Morty that he loves him, threw himself on top of Morty to protect him, showed him physical gentleness, told him that his life matters, tried to be a better father to his daughters, and abandoned his revenge quest in "Solaricks" when Morty called him "Grandpa." He's still changing.
And this is the same man that's making himself crazy as he tries to hunt down Prime Rick. He abandoned that for a moment for the Smiths.
Even in this episode, Rick was tame compared to his past behavior. He's still crabby and somewhat distant, but he's far from the monster that he was in "The Rickchurian Mortydate" (and again, another brilliant callback to season three.)
Still, my heart breaks for Morty. All he wants is for Rick to love him. Rick does love him, but not in the way that he needs. His parents aren't exactly great, either--the Smiths might do more together as a family, but wake me up when Morty has another episode with Beth or Jerry. We've got, what, one of each? And his episode with Jerry was all the way back in season one.
Morty's repressed rage isn't going anywhere, either. I was shocked when he tried to kill the president. He's been racking up a body count since "Look Who's Purging Now" in season two, and I wonder how much worse he's going to get.
Not that I blame him after all the trauma he's experienced. The world had written him off as a nobody long before Rick showed up. Once, he was lonely and neglected. Now, Rick gives him plenty of attention and even affection, but he's also been selfish, abusive and just batshit crazy at times. When is it going to end?
I'm glad that this episode revived the tension between Rick and Morty--it's not a good thing, but it shows that Rick hasn't magically become a saint. It also shows that Morty's continuing to stand up for himself. And let's face it: we've got four more seasons to go. Their issues can't end here.
Maybe they'll split up for good. Maybe Morty will try to kill him. Maybe Morty will snap and carve a path of destruction throughout the galaxy. Maybe Morty's love will save him.
On a lighter note, I LOVED it when Rick said that the president and his inventions would give him "neurotypical cooties." I thought the writers had forgotten that Rick is autistic before season six. Nope, they haven't--and the series is blatant about representation.
No "Haha we code Rick as autistic! We won't state that in the show though lol!" No accidental portrayal, like Sheldon Cooper, that's offensive to the autistic community. Rick is autistic, and the show's going to rub your face in it. Cry about it, dudebros who say that Rick is neurotypical (and yes, they say that. I've seen it!)
The cliffhanger also made me ecstatic. It's everything that I wanted from a cliffhanger. Season five had a decent one, but it wasn't about Rick's character or backstory. It was just the usual "Damn, how are they going to get out of this?"
I can't wait to see Rick chase Prime in season seven. I'm also hoping that the show will become more serialized as it goes on. I've been saying for a while that making it increasingly successive and going full serialization in season ten would be gutsy and thrilling to watch.
Overall, this was a great season that seems to be building up to something even greater. The new writers clearly love and respect the show. They brought up concepts that I thought the show would never touch again, like Morty liking science (has that ever come up before? He has a bunch of science stuff in his room, but the show didn't touch on it.) All the callbacks were great and never seemed like nostalgia bait. They were loving tributes to the series.
And the new writers seem to like us, lol. They were clearly trying to please our "side" of the fandom.
Rick paused his revenge quest for his family, but he didn't end it. He'll do almost anything to kill Prime. Anything to eliminate the suffering that he can't drown with abuse and alcohol. Anything to make the pain go away for the last time.
just so you know, you have some followers who enjoy/write fanfiction. not saying their urls rn bc i don’t wanna air out dirty laundry in public but if you want them so you can block and report, just say the word and i’ll dm you a list
BRO?
anon is a puritan who time traveled to remind us all that novels lead to sinful flights of fancy and we must read naught but the scriptures
the problem with ice cream is that it is inherently degrading to the original milk, and the act of creating it is inherently self-indulgent and perverted. even when it isn't filled with pieces of candy/baked goods (though that is the most blatant example), the person creating it is doing so just because it makes them feel good or they enjoy fantasizing about certain flavor profiles and combinations. it's gross and masturbatory. not to mention that many ice cream makers use freezers, an appliance riddled with many problems.
So, I think we've all heard the allegations against Justin Roiland by now and all I have to say is: separate the art from the artist. You can still like and enjoy Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites, High On Life, etc. without supporting the creators. And nothing is really final about the case so we just have to hold our breath.
morty, rick, + existentialism (s6e2 spoilers): imo this episode touched some interesting concepts regarding morty and who he is - and not just relative to rick.
who is “morty”? he is a fourteen-year-old boy who adventures with his grandpa Rick. he has a sister, he has parents, he likes video games, and he’s super hormonal. that’s what we’re told - what the various parts of morty are led to believe; they are morty. and yet all have these parts of morty have independent initiatives of their own, lives that don’t involve rick, relationships and goals that seem real, appearances that don’t resemble the morty we know at all. these parts of morty have lived for a very long time - multiple virtual lives spanning decades without knowing he has a grandpa named rick, without knowing he is “morty”.
people are made through their relationships with others and through the perceptions of other people. morty’s existence are locked to those above traits. are they self-imposed, or was it a role forced onto him by someone else? some of them are the former - others, he had no say in the matter. morty doesn’t age. he cannot change nor move beyond this role placed on him. and if he can, it’s taken away from him. if people ask you who morty is, you’ll most likely reply with, “oh, he is Rick’s grandson.” this is because Morty’s entire identity is nearly consumed by his relationship with Rick, and this is how the parts of him interpret who Morty is as well. so who is he, without his relationship with his grandfather?
the existentialistic nature of Morty’s various lives reminded me of this dialogue from NGE, that I really adore—
“No, I am me. I became myself by the instrumentality of the links and relationships between myself and others. I am formed by interaction of others. They create me as I create them. These relationships and interactions serve to shape the patterns of my heart and mind.”
“Those are bonds?”
“Yes. That is the name for what I share with those who have created the thing known as me. That is what will continue to shape me. Those are bonds.”
“But there is someone else who is your true self. You don’t know them, but they exist. You’ve denied that fact, in an attempted to suppress that facet of your reality. Because of fear.
Because they might not have human form.
Because then your present self might cease to be.
This is fear.
This is what you fear. That you will become nothing. Or frightened that you will disappear from the minds of others if another exists.”
“I’m afraid? Why is that?”
“Because your current self has never existed. You are scared, aren’t you? Because you will cease to be.”
“No, I’m not. I am happy because I want to die. I want despair. I want to return to nothing, but I can’t. He won’t let me return to nothingness. Not yet. I still exist because he needs me. But when everything is over, when I am of no use anymore, he will abandon me. I’ve prayed for the day he would abandon me. But now, now I fear it.”
there were parts in morty who explicitly proclaimed they’d rather die than return to the “real world”. parts that wanted to resume the lives they knew in Roy’s world that felt real; they were real to morty. they know nothing truly genuine about their “real life” outside of that, because they’re nothing more than shallow impressions that rick gave him.
“real life and rick” is fittingly perceived as a religion by the parts of morty. morty returning to the place at Rick’s side is treated as equivalent to obeying a scripture with no real proof, no real reason other than blind faith, putting one’s reason for existing to an all-powerful being that knows more than they could imagine and shapes their very reality.
morty is no stranger to having normality ripped away from him, especially when it comes to autonomy, his life, and the makeup of who he is. we’re literally given the notion that morty’s existence has been mass-manufactured by ricks, whether in a lab or through Rick’s influence in his life.
so there’s something to be said about the remaining part of morty, that small part of him that rick allowed to continue their remaining finite life in that virtual world. that part of morty genuinely had the ability to grow up. he could physically age, mentally grow, weave new relationships. he had an ability to articulate and understand the nature of his mixed feelings of resentment towards rick’s inability to say he loves morty and his longing to be told rick loves him.
these are all the things that morty cannot have nor say in the “real world” because of rick, and rick knows it too well. rick lets that small part of morty go. he’s too attached to properly let go of morty, even knowing that morty cannot grow with him glued to his side. still, rick loves him too much to force all of morty to stay with him. so he lets that part of morty live, away from him, even if it’s in a a place so deeply removed from morty’s conscience that it’s half likely it will die there. and it’s a small step from before where rick literally cried for Morty’s other half to come back.
without that part of morty, who will morty be moving forward?
baffled by the recent genre of "you shouldn't only consume shippable media" posts like that's actually a real problem. seeing people on tumblr talk about fandom stuff and concluding that therefore they must have literally nothing else going on in their lives is a really weird logical leap tbh. like, it's tumblr. i come on here to be gay and look at cat videos. that is this website's sole purpose for me. love and light to you all but i have zero interest in engaging in in-depth analysis of foundational literature with you
having said all this: analysing media for homoerotic subtext is actually the single most noble and academic thing anyone could do with their time and people who engage in that are literally heroes
it’s like, people obviously just trying to find an excuse to bully people for making and consuming content that they find Weird, but it’s In Fashion to be weird now so to justify it they need to find a way to Moralize It
shipping isn’t just Weird and Gross anymore, now it’s Ideologically Impure. now it’s the Opposite of intelligent media consumption. now media consumption is, itself, a moral act that you can do The Wrong Way. media consumption is activism and if you don’t do your due diligence then you’re causing harm.
it’s ridiculous on the face of it, and yet it’s such a Popular sentiment and I have to wonder How
totally normal and not deranged thing to say
For those who didnt realize it wasn’t just a blanket statement, but actually made sense
okay, but i would argue that the blanket statement did make sense. ADULTS shouldn’t even feel comfortable on the internet. the days of old when the internet was just creepy people in chat rooms are long past. the internet is full of creepy individuals, insidious advertising, and aggressive bots and coding that exists solely to exploit every bit of information they can get from you.
if you feel comfortable here as an adult, you need to examine why. what have you done to make that happen? how long did it take? what sites do you primarily visit and how do you protect yourself therein? when did you first start accessing the internet and when was the last time you had to actively learn how to protect yourself?
kids exist on an internet that does not deign to teach them how to truly use it on the off chance they can be exploited. they exist on an internet that doesn’t force them to learn how to protect themselves, and actively encourages them to share unnecessary personal information about themselves. the internet is NOT a friendly place and regardless of if content is allowed to be NC-17, it will still NOT BE SAFE for children.
also, adults are here. we’ve fucking BEEN here, we CREATED this. why do you think we don’t deserve to use the internet for whatever purposes we want? why are you so determined to dumb it down to “child friendly” content? what does that entail? based on whose idea of friendly???
please develop some critical thinking, im actually begging
yea i get in most age gap ships theres like a "ill die first and leave ya alone because im old" thing but in a rickorty fic? bold of ya to assume rick would die from old age. he's replaced half of his limbs and organs with high tech prosthetics already, he's the smartest man in the central finite curve, he ain't dying from something as easily preventable as rapid cell decomposition. he'll make a damn synth body and live for as long as he wants, and he'll sure as shit do the same for morty. move to that universe in ep1 where no one ages. so many different ways he could cheat death.
if tumblr users found out about the simple concept of “different people have different boundaries about media and that’s normal” their brains would explode
things that make you uncomfortable don’t necessarily make other people uncomfortable and vice versa. also things don’t have to be objectively morally wrong to make you uncomfortable and in fact thinking you HAVE to always be morally justified about not liking something is not healthy.
Actually adding this to say disliking it on vibes alone is justified. Like you don’t have to defend a thesis about why you don’t like something. “I don’t like it because I don’t enjoy it” is a completely okay way to interact with media, and anyone who says otherwise is probably not mean-spirited, but certainly too enthusiastic about making you like something.
At the end of the day yiu alone are responsible for your media consumption so if you like something someone else doesn’t like you keep doing you.
But if you don’t like something someone else likes don’t be a dick and ruin it for them. Live and let live, there’s plenty of things I don’t like that people are gaga for but I stay out of it. Why waste energy on stuff I dislike when I can pour energy into stuff I do like?
Beth is sus about how Rick treats Morty when Morty says he’s going to be Rick’s bride.
Inspired by a tweet, check the notes for a link!
More of Rick smiling at Morty–
BECAUSE EVERY ONE I FIND BRINGS ME HAPPINESS
Still not over Rick saying the adventure partnership is a metaphor for romantic relationships
Some of my followers have expressed confusion as to the dead dove situation! That is okay.
There is a show called Arrested Development. There is one specific scene where a character finds a bag in the fridge. The bag is labeled “DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT!” The character looks inside the bag. It is a dead dove. The character looks up and says, “I don’t know what I expected.”
The bag warned specifically what was inside it. The character looked anyway and found what the bag warned about. It was not the bag’s fault he looked, nor the fault of the person who labeled the bag, because, hey, they warned anyone who looked at it there is a dead dove in this bag. It is entirely the fault of the character who looked, and he admits that by saying he didn’t know what he expected other than what he was warned for.
This warning phrase has become a tag for authors, mostly because people are looking at the warnings, reading the fic, and then complaining about things they were warned about beforehand. It is the authors saying, “You read the tags and looked anyway. That is on you, not on me, because I warned you. You made the choice to open the fic and read it. You made the choice to open the bag.”
I’ve found that when I find this tag on a fic, it’s because it deals with some pretty heavy stuff, so I like it as a reminder to check the tags carefully and read any notes the author may have before I decide to dive into a fic. In the end, what you consume is your choice, and if you read something you don’t like despite the author’s warnings (like I did yesterday), that’s on you. I should have closed the window when I realized what was happening and I didn’t, and that’s on me.
Another dimension here:
Sometimes authors use the “dead Dove do not eat” tag as roughly equivalent to the phrase “what it says on the tin”, and it literally can just mean “hey. Did you read the tags? That’s what’s in this fic. Make sure you read the tags”.
But the other dimension present, that it’s for heavier content as the OP said, I want to lean into that for a moment. Part of the reason that that scene and that phrase resonated for people, is because of the probable unpleasantness implied in finding a bag full of the carcass of a dove.
In a fair amount of fanfiction, there is a tendency to address heavy topics or tropes, and then kind of make them better? Like maybe there is some kind of abuse, but over the course of the fic the person heals from it, or the abuser gets punished… Or maybe there’s technically a major character death tag, but it’s only temporary death, and the character comes back, etc
Which makes sense, because fanfiction is largely a form of escapism, and for a lot of people that’s what they prefer. That bad guys get punished and All is resolved and everyone lives either happily ever after or happily for now. (Also historically, in many places media was only Allowed if it did that, and so even if other things may be allowed in more places now, many of us have grown up in cultures where most other media we consume operates that way. Think of the Bury Your Gays trope, which was required to portray queer folks within the boundaries of Hollywood’s Hayes Code, or the innumerable “very special episode"s of television, intending to teach the audience something)
But because there can be that unspoken expectation in fandom, that even when heavy stuff does come up, that the author will somehow make it better… Then even though heavy stuff was tagged for in a fic, if that stuff is NOT “made better” or explicitly condemned or whatever in the fic, sometimes readers can have a bad time or get mad or feel betrayed. The author tagged responsibly, but because of that unwritten expectation of “positive” resolution, (positive in quotes here, because not all readers have the same idea of what that looks like, which is part of the problem) readers can find themselves accidentally consuming content that they didn’t want to. Because experience has taught them that those tags are often not accurate to the “final” experience of a piece.
And so some readers may read things that are tagged in a way that Should indicate to them that it’s not actually stuff they want to read, but because they have these additional expectations, they ignore the warnings and read it anyway and then have a bad experience and get mad at an author (this is not what the OP did, to be clear, they seem to have, responsibly, had an unfortunate time and then gone. “Ah, my mistake” and moved on, knowing it was not the author’s fault).
And specifically to address situations like that, and avoid accidentally discomfiting readers or having people be hurt or angry in the comments, some authors use “dead dove: do not eat” (and there are sometimes fandom-specific variants of that tag that do a similar thing, like “hydra trash party” in the MCU), they use that tag as an extra warning beyond the regular content tags for heavier/darker/more intense or taboo subjects. specifically to say:
“THIS FIC CONTAINS ELEMENTS THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND UNDESIRABLE. What is in my tags IS in my fic, and I am not promising to somehow soften those things or make them better or undo them over the course of the fic. What it says in the tags is what is present. Do not come in expecting to find that those tags are not accurate. If you read those tags, and that is not a fic you want to be reading, with no caveats or conditions, then you should go elsewhere.”
Which is where the idea of “dead dove” as a complete Category of fic comes from– that “dead dove” fic is fic that deals with darker or heavier themes Specifically without any caveats or wrapping them up in nice bows. (I have told you there’s the corpse of a dove in this bag, and so if you open this bag and look inside, you will see the corpse of a dove) Maybe it’s content with unhappy endings. Maybe it’s content where “bad guys” get to do a lot of bad stuff… And no one rescues the hero. Maybe it’s heavy kink content that’s garunteed to squick some people. Maybe there is abuse, assault, or questionable/abscence of consent, and the fic is either from the abuser’s point of view, or otherwise the narrative does not go out of it’s way to “condemn” or “punish” the abusive character.
For dead dove content like that, the author is indicating that a different/specific set of social rules and expectations should apply. Instead of
“everyone mostly likes and wants happy endings and justice and things to be resolved neat and clean and fluffy, so I can assume that most people are operating that way and are taking the opportunity of fic to right wrongs and imagine a ‘better’ world” etc.
The contract proposed by a dead dove tag is
“We are both consenting adults responsible for our own experiences. We both understand that fiction is not reality, and specifically that any dark/heavy/fringe/taboo/unethical/dangerous elements present in this work do not in any way indicate what the author wants to happen or not in the real world, or approves of happening in the real world, and we are stating that now, so that we do not have to apologize or justify it again later. That is addressed here. I, the reader, am trusting the author to accurately and clearly warn for content, and the author is trusting me to know what content I will not like/should not be reading. By reading this tag, and the other tags, and clicking through, I the reader am consenting to read about what is portrayed in these tags, and if I find that something in this content upsets me, and it is something that was warned for in those tags, then I am taking responsibility for having made that choice, and will not be harassing the author about it afterwards.”
This kind of content and this kind of tagging is necessarily reliant on very clear and explicit communication. It both acknowledges that the content is not for everyone, but also that people who would like to engage with that content should be able to safely do so together.
In my opinion, it is an ideal evolution of fan spaces. In my opinion, it is absolutely wonderful that we have arrived here, that we now have tools and language that allows all of fandom to be together in one space and also be able to have exactly the kind of experience we each feel comfortable with and want to be having.
It DOES require education and conversation, however, which is why it’s wonderful that people like the original poster are taking the time to do that, and that people like those who asked questions of the original poster are taking the time to educate themselves. 💚
