I think the Hunger Games series sits in a similar literary position to The Lord of the Rings, as a piece of literature (by a Catholic author) that sparked a whole new subgenre and then gets blamed for flaws that exist in the copycat books and aren’t actually part of the original.
Like, despite what parodies might say, Katniss is nowhere near the stereotypical “unqualified teenager chosen to lead a rebellion for no good reason”. The entire point is that she’s not leading the rebellion. She’s a traumatized teenager who has emotional reactions to the horrors in her society, and is constantly being reined in by more experienced adults who have to tell her, “No, this is not how you fight the government, you are going to get people killed.” She’s not the upstart teenager showing the brainless adults what to do–she’s a teenager being manipulated by smarter and more experienced adults. She has no power in the rebellion except as a useful piece of propaganda, and the entire trilogy is her straining against that role. It’s much more realistic and far more nuanced than anyone who dismisses it as “stereotypical YA dystopian” gives it credit for.
And the misconceptions don’t end there. The Hunger Games has no “stereotypical YA love triangle”–yes, there are two potential love interests, but the romance is so not the point. There’s a war going on! Katniss has more important things to worry about than boys! The romance was never about her choosing between two hot boys–it’s about choosing between two diametrically opposed worldviews. Will she choose anger and war, or compassion and peace? Of course a trilogy filled with the horrors of war ends with her marriage to the peace-loving Peeta. Unlike some of the YA dystopian copycats, the romance here is part of the message, not just something to pacify readers who expect “hot love triangles” in their YA.
The worldbuilding in the Hunger Games trilogy is simplistic and not realistic, but unlike some of her imitators, Collins does this because she has something to say, not because she’s cobbling together a grim and gritty dystopia that’s “similar to the Hunger Games”. The worldbuilding has an allegorical function, kept simple so we can see beyond it to what Collins is really saying–and it’s nothing so comforting as “we need to fight the evil people who are ruining society”. The Capitol’s not just the powerful, greedy bad guys–the Capitol is us, First World America, living in luxury while we ignore the problems of the rest of the world, and thinking of other nations largely in terms of what resources we can get from them. This simplistic world is a sparsely set stage that lets us explore the larger themes about exploitation and war and the horrors people will commit for the sake of their bread and circuses, meant to make us think deeper about what separates a hero from a villain.
There’s a reason these books became a literary phenomenon. There’s a reason that dozens upon dozens of authors attempted to imitate them. But these imitators can’t capture that same genius, largely because they’re trying to imitate the trappings of another book, and failing to capture the larger and more meaningful message underneath. Make a copy of a copy of a copy, and you’ll wind up with something far removed from the original masterpiece. But we shouldn’t make the mistake of blaming those flaws on the original work.
ai generated images make me increasingly sad and tired the more i see them in more and more casual contexts. i dont know how to explain, but it just fills the world with a bunch of nothing. no matter how visually stunning the pictures might be, there's nothing behind it for me. no dedication, no emotions, no feelings, no hard work or creativity, nothing i can truly think about, admire or enjoy. i dont think thats how art is supposed to be
there's something to be said about the way jeremy refused to believe the worst of jean because he trusted that kevin would not have sent him to usc if he was as bad as the rest of the ravens. and at the same time jean trusting jeremy as his partner because again kevin would not have sent him there if jeremy was not a good person that could look after jean. something poetic about the unwavering trust that they both have in kevin !! kevin day !! the man that you are !!
All fundraisers have been looked into by me or vetted by others. If anyone notices issues in validity with any of the fundraisers listed please let me know. Funding updates daily!
Fadi Al-Sharif and family ($13,594/$62,500 goal)
Hayam Taha and family (€9,728/€30,000 goal)
Deyaa and family (€9,404/€20,000 goal)
Fatima Alshanti (kr,14,195 SEK/kr150,000 goal)
Shahed Ghazi and family ($7,579 CAD/$94,838 goal)
Little Yusuf and family (€7,297/€85,000 goal)
Sara & Huda Hajjaj and family ($2,375/$15,000 goal)
Mohammed JH Shamia's family (kr27,471 SEK/kr250,000 goal)
Maram Ahmed and family (€1,420/€30,000 goal)
Hamza Almofty and family ($4,092/$35,000 goal)
Mahmoud Jomaa (€1,479/€10,000 goal)
Dr. Mohammed Shara ($1,171/$20,000 goal)
Abdulrahman Alshanti and family (kr139,795 SEK/kr350,000 goal)
Besan Almabhouh's family (€6,403/€25,000 goal)
Said Tanani and brothers (€31,575/€50,000 goal)
Donia Tanani and family (€67,973/€100,000 goal)
Hussein Shamiya, his pregnant wife, and son ($9,340/$40,000 goal)
Mohammed Shamia and family ($17,946/$35,000 goal)
Amro Bakr & kids Bakir and Tala (€2,297/€15,000 goal)
Almadhoun family ($18,837/$80,000 goal)
Child Mohammed (€7,195/€10,000 goal)
Sana'a and family (£20,788/£50,000 goal)
Noha Ayyad and family ($24,037/$95,160 goal)
Maryam Ayyad and family ($1,000/$15,000 goal) - Maryam is related to Noha listed above, who is managing her fundraiser.
Hamza Sameer and family ($2,199/$55,000 goal)
Hamza is related to Noha, he is her uncle’s son.
Nazmi Mwafi and family ($5,301/65,000 goal)
Ibrahim Almofty and family ($2,929/$40,000 goal)
Hamdi Hejazi and family ($12,453/$25,000 goal)
Mohammed and family ($7,980/$25,000 goal)
Heba and family (€29,106/€60,000 goal)
Mohammed Abuhasanein and family (kr2,302 SEK/kr 350,000 goal!!!)
Rawan and Yemna (kr27,395 SEK/kr319,315 goal)
Laila Auda (€5,117/€35,000 goal)
Ola Madi (€150/€40,000 goal!!!)
Tawfik Satoom and family ($5,050/$45,000 goal)
Laila Abd El Bari, her husband, and unborn baby Sham (€1,388/€25,000 goal)
Abdullah Mohammed and family ($2,704/$47,000 goal)
With the whole Watcher situation, I keep wondering if they expected a positive response to their announcement, if they are shocked by the responses, if this is in line with what they thought would come. Because surely they must've anticipated backlash.
And I know no one needs my two cents on this topic but I just gotta get it out.
For anyone who reads this and doesn't know, Watcher Entertainment is a YouTube channel founded by Ryan Bergara, Shane Madej and Steven Lim. Currently, as they've stated in one of their Videos (Making Watcher), Steven is the sole CEO and makes all the financial decisions.
All three of them are former BuzzFeed employees, known for Unsolved True Crime & Unsolved Supernatural as well as Worth It.
On Friday, they announced they are leaving YouTube and creating their own streaming service. All of their current content will stay on YouTube, though originally that wasn't the plan, as seen in the Variety interview: "The company originally told Variety that Watcher would eventually remove all of its videos from YouTube, where it currently has 2.9 million subscribers. However, according to Bergara, Watcher is not fully exiting YouTube: It will still keep its backlog of videos on YouTube, and going forward will put the first episodes of new seasons on YouTube — while the full new seasons will be exclusively available on the Watcher streamer."
As of me writing this, less than 48 hours after their announcement, they've gone from 2.93 million YouTube followers down to 2.86 million. Even on tiktok, where they haven't posted the video, they've lost 5k followers (all these numbers are according to Social Blade, which won't let me see Instagram without paying money). I've already watched five YouTube videos on "these YouTubers destroyed their career in a single video", including a video by a creator with over 14 million followers (penguinz0: Greed Ruined These YouTubers)
And, yeah sure, the service is "only" 6$ and you can share with friends, which Shane even encouraged in the video. First of all, that is still a lot of money and saying they kept the price low so everyone can watch just feels like a slap in the face - even for me, who is in the very privileged position to be able to afford it.
I won't pay for it. I'm not here for all of their stuff, I love Puppet History and Ghost Files and Mystery Files. I'm not keen on the gaming videos or other formats, I don't listen to the podcast. I don't think it's the wisest decision, but I'm curious to see how it'll play out.
And I get why they would need to make more money. But I also don't get it. Because in some of the videos I watched about the situation, they did breakdowns of ad revenue and sponsor money. I have no idea about business and I have to trust other people more knowledgeable - and to an extent, I have to trust Watcher when they say some shows cost "tens of thousands of dollars".
They said in their video they want to make higher production, TV like, videos. And I understand that this is THEIR want and THEIR need. But it is not the want and need of their current audience. But how are they gonna gain a new audience if they only put the first episode of a new show on YouTube? How do they expect to draw the audience that is interested in TV quality... well, essentially youtube shows? We don't care about fancy sets, we watched them happily during BuzzFeed Unsolved becuase it is the dynamic between Ryan and Shane that makes it work.
Which brings me to the next point: They also said they wanna hire more people to be on camera. Which I get, don't get me wrong. Ryan and Shane are doing a lot of the shows, they barely get a break and I can get why they would take some of the burden off their shoulders.
But THEY are the reason we stuck by. RYAN AND SHANE are why we are watching.
They have tried adding new talent. They had shows predominently done by Steven, like Dish Granted or the early seasons of Too Many Spirits (which still feature Ryan and Shane). They introduced a friend of theirs, Ricky, as another bartender on Too Many Spirits, a show where Steven/bartender makes a drink while Ryan and Shane read spooky stories around a campfire and rate the spookyness and get progressively more drunk. You can't tell me that one costs hundreds of thousands of dollars (of course I know they are mostly talking about Ghost Files here)
The show had the new bartender establish a "friendly banter" with Steven - and that was when I stopped watching the show. The friendly banter felt really mean-spirited and I didn't like Ricky. Dish Granted with Steven was cute for the first season and I was really hyped for the second but it didn't.... hit the same way. He basically asks his friends what their favourite meals are and then he makes them but with really expensive ingredients. And in the second season, it felt less like they had friends over and like you were joining friends because they had people like Simu Liu, who has main roles in Marvel movies. And I don't doubt he's friends with Steven but it felt a lot less genuine. Also I hadn't heard a lot of good things about that actor but that's neither here not there.
They tried gaming videos with Ryan and Shane - never watched them but they did alright, 500k views or so. They did a lot of tier ranking videos which I personally don't like to the point that I didn't even watch them when my favourite creators like Jarvis Johnson or Drew Gooden were the guests. They did alright cause they mostly had Ryan and Shane. AND they were the videos that got started on tumblr. idk if you remember that, they had a tier ranking thing on tumblr. Then they had Ricky do a new show, Worth A Shot, where he was given a snack and recreated it in drink form. It was interesting to watch but I never found him that likeable - the show didn't do very well, 270k views max. And they had "Pretty Historic" wich flopped so hard. They examined historical beauty standards but the host seemed stilted and even I could tell that there were pretty big inaccuracies. With the best show they pulled about 240k views and the show only had three episodes anyway.
Meanwhile, Ghost Files, Mystery Files - the shows that ONLY feature Ryan and Shane, pull over 800k consistently, most of the time over 1mio and up to 2mio. So I am wondering why they think putting all their new content behind a paywall and introducing new people - which historically has not worked out for them - is a good move.
It's also telling that only one of the three founders (Steven, the CEO, the finance guy) posted it on Instagram. The other two haven't.
And people blame him because of this shows which aren't popular, but I'm pretty sure going to Alcatraz and getting to film there for a whole night is a bit more expensive than his show.
Still, it doesn't sit right that they announce they've hired two new people from the BuzzFeed Worth It era and are excited to take Worth It more international and then five days later say: yeah this is all so expensive, we're leaving YouTube. It doesn't sit right that Shane continously talks about eating the rich and then does this - but I don't know the intricacies of their business, of course. I can't tell for certain if they are really not making enough money with midroll ads and sponsors and - oh yes right - a patreon with tierd subscriptions and 12k subscribers.
So let me get this straight: they are putting content that was previously free behind a pay wall while already having a pay wall. So which bonus content will patreon get that the Watcher TV people won't get? Or will they get the same content? Will patreon get behind the scene and uncut stuff while Watcher TV has the TV quality shows?
Currently, Watcher TV isn't available in all countries. They haven't announced an app. They have no new content on their, only things that are currently on YouTube.
Not a single comment I have read on YouTube, instagram, tiktok or tumblr said they are looking forward to the new era.
And I know there's a lot of parasocial relationship stuff happening here. I followed Ryan and Shane from BuzzFeed, same as I did with Safiya or Try Guys - the latter I gave up on pretty quickly because I realised I only really liked Eugene (and Ariel...). The Try Guys have introduced new talent. They also have 8 million YouTube followers and post more regularly than Watcher.
So it makes sense, in a way, to compare Watcher to another YouTube channel I watch regularly: Sorted Food. They have 2.77 million YouTube followers. They have also introduced new talent and regularly have guests in their videos. Sorted are a group of childhood/uni friends who started a food cooking YouTube channel. One of them is a classically trained chef, the other three are "normals". Their videos range from cooking battles to gadget tests to trying tiktok trends or figuring out if you really need to buy the posh ingredient or of the budget one will work just as well.
I personally am reluctant to spend money on patreon. I even feel weird liking instagram posts because they are celebrities, it's weird if my name is suddenly there - not that any of them would ever notice. But I have commented on their instagram posts, I've consistently bought tickets to their live streaming events for the past 1.5, nearly 2, YEARS. They have a side hustle: sidekick, an app that helps reduce food waste and helps you meal plan. I've subscribed to it, realised I was in too deep of a depression to really use it, unsubscribed. But once they have an offer, I'll subscribe to them again cause I did like it. Because they make me feel safe in their community.
So how does this tie in to Watcher? They have a similar fan base, at least going on the reasons why people are watching. They have a similar follower count. They both do live shows, they have a more or less rotating cast, they've got staff. I watch them for the same reason I watched Watcher: the dynamics. It feels like hanging out with people I know.
But Sorted isn't trying to make TV quality videos. And trust me, I get it. I get that Watcher are filmmakers at their hearts - but it worked out for Eugene from Try Guys. He was in less videos, it was clearly communicated (from what I've glimpses during their drama following the Ned cheating scandal) and people were excited for him. His movie is an Oscar winner now, if I'm not mistaken. So it can work. You can achieve your creative freedom while not burning your fandom. But not like Watcher did.
Given the amount of "they destroyed their career" videos already out, the intense backlash... I'm curious. They are starting their UK tour next week, first show on Tuesday. I'm gonna hop on tiktok to see what people said about the show following the announcement.
Also, how much do you have to fuck up to take up half my tiktok fyp on the day Taylor Swift releases a double album??? And I say this as someone who took overtime to get off work early so I can listen to her album with my friend while working on my Eras Tour outfit.
Do you game? Do you like history? Wanna help out my friend for his bachelor's thesis on Historicity in Video Games?
It would be amazing if you could fill in a short (10-20min depending on your freeform answers) Google Form questionnaire for my friend's thesis. It would really help him out!
Think of games like Assassins Creed or Red Dead Redemption or Age of Empires or Call of Duty or Oregon Trail.
He's looking at the importance of historicity in games like that, what counts as historically accurate or authentic, what's even important, and looks into differences between what gamers vs game developers perceive as important or authentic!
Player's side
Game developer's side
For example, he goes into whether or not you'd prefer historically accurate travel options vs faster travel options - and it's always teleportation over slowly walking for me personally.
hasty doodle featuring merthur! i don’t think i’ve ever posted about bbc merlin on here, but was recently inspired by their dynamic since their archetypes could absolutely go both ways - sunshine/grumpy, protector/precious, goofy/stoic. bbc struck gold in the shipping sector but just didn’t know it, and also it was 2008.
(casual-suited arthur because i could not be bothered to draw armor)
Do you game? Do you like history? Wanna help out my friend for his bachelor's thesis on Historicity in Video Games?
It would be amazing if you could fill in a short (10-20min depending on your freeform answers) Google Form questionnaire for my friend's thesis. It would really help him out!
Think of games like Assassins Creed or Red Dead Redemption or Age of Empires or Call of Duty or Oregon Trail.
He's looking at the importance of historicity in games like that, what counts as historically accurate or authentic, what's even important, and looks into differences between what gamers vs game developers perceive as important or authentic!
Player's side
Game developer's side
For example, he goes into whether or not you'd prefer historically accurate travel options vs faster travel options - and it's always teleportation over slowly walking for me personally.
