don’t look at me (unless i post something good)

media analysis ,

[marshmallowsocial]

i wish my local creek wasn't so contaminated with e coli I feel like sitting in a natural body of water would, like, probably fix MOST of my problems right now

[mosspapi]

It should be illegal to have a bus stop without a bench I am 1000% serious rn

[bloodonmybarbieshirt]

If you think this and you are near the Charlotte metro! Come out and volunteer with a community led project putting up bus stop benches in our town!

Benches 4 Bus Stops Official: Instagram | Linktree

People deserve a comfortable, accessible place to sit while waiting for the bus.

b4bs.org is the quick link! Come out and make our city better, with accessible wooden benches, everywhere that someone needs to rest

[bloodonmybarbieshirt]

Genuinely how can so much laundry get done and still leave me with more laundry to do? This is homophobic

[marshmallowsocial]

HONESTLY

when will it end (the dirty laundry)

[amphibifish]

never do any sort of collaborative storytelling with your friends youll get addicted for life

[regging]

observation: among a certain subset of tumblr users, the term “blorbo” has become unchic, but the concept it describes is still important; and so it has been replaced with “The Character”

[cardentist]

to be Fair, I think The Character is meant to describe a certain level of agony, of being consumed by what loves you. blorbo is an expression of affection, The Character is sinking into the depths

[imsodishy]

[opiwritesstuff]

Recently watched Season 1 of Invincible. Some thoughts about it as an entry into stories that subvert the superhero genre.

One of the things that makes this show so subversive isn’t the brutal violence it introduces to the superhero genre. The Boys did that already, and it’s kind of the first thing you might think of when you want to be subversive using superheroes. The real horror comes from how Invincible characterizes the lives of the people who live in this world that aren’t superpowered, and it often comes in places where another show might’ve played it for an almost humorous purpose. This is clear from the very first episode’s opening, where Invicible introduces us to a security guard who goes into detail about how proud he is of his adoptive son.

Upon first viewing this episode, my immediate reaction was “Oh this man is dead, probably within the next two minutes”, because that’s what most writers would have done with that character when writing something subversive of the genre. But while he does get into a situation where he is threatened by someone with superpowers in this scene, he doesn’t die. He is saved! Not what you would expect from a show billed as subversive. After all, saving people and winning the day is what happens in non-subversive superhero stories.

But Invincible’s writers aren’t here for the shock value. This security guard character comes back, and over the course of the first season the writers actually build out this character that at first seemed like a one-off.

This is how Invincible subverts the genre. It puts the horror of living in a world with superpowers on display by actually caring about the lives of the people in it and letting the audience sit with them much longer than another show might’ve.

Another example is during the final episode of the season. Omni-man and Invincible are established to be fighting something like 60 miles south of Chicago earlier in the scene, and then Mark gets PUNCHED. The show cuts to a view of a city, presumably Chicago, and as viewers it’s fairly clear what most happened. Mark just got punched sixty whole miles by his father. Another show would play that for a display of power as well as an almost comedic effect— punch, cut, Mark’s immediate impact. But Invincible instead allows the viewer to sit with the mundane life happening in Chicago for something like 30 seconds before Mark appears, smashing into a skyscraper and sending it tumbling. Those 30 seconds allow the horror of what we know is about to happen sink in. How the everyday lives of the people in this city are about to be irrevocably interrupted and changed.

The mundane people of the world are, in aggregate, a character. One that Invincible as a show takes measures to ensure the viewer cares about, and that’s part of why its horror works so well.

[deviantplum]

In the interest of maintaining karmic balance, as the Catholics go into lent, I will be hitting full throttle on the hedonism. Gonna incorporate new and exciting vices for the next 40 days.

[thatsnotweirdatall-deactivated2]

[opiwritesstuff]

Apothecary Diaries S2 vague spoilers ahead

I haven’t actually finished s2 yet but I’m having the thoughts now and I want to post them

Jinshi and Maomao are extremely similar in one very critical way: Both of them abhor power and proximity to power. Throughout S1, Maomao consistently tries to downplay her knowledge and abilities. It is largely framed through the idea that she doesn’t want to give her kidnappers more profit from her (the prime example being paid more if she were literate), but she also regularly internally expresses discomfort at the idea of having the attention of important people in the Rear Palace. After all, it is very dangerous for her to have that attention— mistakes can become far more costly when they inconvenience people in power. Additionally, it just gives her a lot more responsibility.

Jinshi is much the same, but plays at a much higher scale. His “rightful position” in the hierarchy of his nation is second to very few people in terms of raw power, but he avoids it and hides from it because that level of power and responsibility would force him to become someone he isn’t. His relationship to the previous emperor is also very distressing to him, given the horrible actions of his predecessor. By taking a position as a eunuch in the rear palace, he has a lot more freedom— not enough freedom to let the mask down entirely, but enough that the mask does not consume him and he is able to express himself outside of his work.

So why then does Jinshi feel comfortable consistently using his position to pull Maomao into more responsibility and closer to power? What is preventing him from seeing that he is doing to her exactly what he is running from himself?

While part of it is Maomao’s refusal to set boundaries with him most of the time (which isn’t her fault— she is highly aware of the power dynamic at play and how Jinshi’s ire could straight up get her killed), I think that it’s because Jinshi’s position in the rear palace is, to him, an abdication of his power.

The rear palace is *low pressure* environment for Jinshi, so he fails to conceptualize that for a commoner like Maomao, he is pulling her into a very *high pressure* environment. This is why we so often see Jinshi letting his mask down around Maomao in comparison to Maomao having her guard way up in her interactions with him. The difference in their station doesn’t just create a power dynamic, it creates a fundamental disconnect in their understanding of what power even is.

I’m interested to see if the show will address this in the rest of s2 or if it will keep that as an undercurrent in how Maomao and Jinshi’s relationship is written.

[opiwritesstuff]

I have since finished season 2 and have further thoughts:

Apothecary Diaries is a show about power, the responsibility that comes with it, and the danger that power can put you in.

Maomao’s arc over the first two seasons is all about how she begins to accept the power she holds and what that means about her responsibility to other people. At the start of the show, she is acutely aware of the fact that she has very little political power as a commoner, in particular as a commoner who was abducted and sold into servitude at the Rear Palace. Maomao *does* have power though— primarily through her knowledge of medicine and poisons and her deductive reasoning skills. At the start of the show, she regularly dismisses the responsibility of having more information that others in a situation. “It’s not my problem” is a common refrain.

By the end of season 2, however, we see Maomao regularly entering into and staying in situations that could be quite dangerous to her because she has begun to recognize that her knowledge is a form of power, and that possessing that knowledge does give her responsibility over the situations she finds herself in. This is most stark with the children that take the revival medicine— she is the only one that can save them, but involving herself with their fate is potentially dangerous. After all, it is said that the Royal Guard would likely kill all of the women and children. If that were actually what was going to happen, saving them could be considered treasonous. Despite this, Maomao accepts that responsibility instead of sloughing it off as she might have before.

The same thing we see with Jinshi. The only time we see him truly in danger is when he is in his role as the Imperial Brother, in the course of two separate assassination attempts; he is safer as a “eunuch”. But he learns to accept his responsibility because of Maomao and the danger she ends up in because of him.

They’re such great foils for one another! Maomao was pulled into accepting her responsibility by Jinshi, and Jinshi was pulled into accepting his by Maomao in turn.

Another note that makes Apothecary Diaries such a good inspection of power and the responsibility/danger that comes with it is that it understands that there are many different types of power, from political to informational and even to simple beauty (Maomao avoids this power regularly, explicitly because it is dangerous to be beautiful! It’s what gets her kidnapped!)

A lesser show would only be concerned with political power, but Apothecary Diaries really understands its subject and is incredible because of it.

[opiwritesstuff]

Apothecary Diaries S2 vague spoilers ahead

I haven’t actually finished s2 yet but I’m having the thoughts now and I want to post them

Jinshi and Maomao are extremely similar in one very critical way: Both of them abhor power and proximity to power. Throughout S1, Maomao consistently tries to downplay her knowledge and abilities. It is largely framed through the idea that she doesn’t want to give her kidnappers more profit from her (the prime example being paid more if she were literate), but she also regularly internally expresses discomfort at the idea of having the attention of important people in the Rear Palace. After all, it is very dangerous for her to have that attention— mistakes can become far more costly when they inconvenience people in power. Additionally, it just gives her a lot more responsibility.

Jinshi is much the same, but plays at a much higher scale. His “rightful position” in the hierarchy of his nation is second to very few people in terms of raw power, but he avoids it and hides from it because that level of power and responsibility would force him to become someone he isn’t. His relationship to the previous emperor is also very distressing to him, given the horrible actions of his predecessor. By taking a position as a eunuch in the rear palace, he has a lot more freedom— not enough freedom to let the mask down entirely, but enough that the mask does not consume him and he is able to express himself outside of his work.

So why then does Jinshi feel comfortable consistently using his position to pull Maomao into more responsibility and closer to power? What is preventing him from seeing that he is doing to her exactly what he is running from himself?

While part of it is Maomao’s refusal to set boundaries with him most of the time (which isn’t her fault— she is highly aware of the power dynamic at play and how Jinshi’s ire could straight up get her killed), I think that it’s because Jinshi’s position in the rear palace is, to him, an abdication of his power.

The rear palace is *low pressure* environment for Jinshi, so he fails to conceptualize that for a commoner like Maomao, he is pulling her into a very *high pressure* environment. This is why we so often see Jinshi letting his mask down around Maomao in comparison to Maomao having her guard way up in her interactions with him. The difference in their station doesn’t just create a power dynamic, it creates a fundamental disconnect in their understanding of what power even is.

I’m interested to see if the show will address this in the rest of s2 or if it will keep that as an undercurrent in how Maomao and Jinshi’s relationship is written.

[str-ngeloop]

probably tomorrow i'm gonna somehow be more organized and disciplined than i ever have been in my whole life so i'm fine probably

[opiwritesstuff]

Benoit Blanc has an ethically dubious moral code and I don’t think people talk about that enough

It’s not as present in the first movie because Marta gets herself into a lot of danger on her own, but Blanc consistently:

1. Actively encourages people towards dramatic actions that frequently put their health and safety at risk

2. Doesn’t *not* care for human life, but often prioritizes other things in situations where human life is at risk

We see this several times in Glass Onion with his interactions with Helen. Blanc is the person to bring up imitating her sister and coming to the island, and though he does also bring up the danger inherent in that idea, one could argue that it is his responsibility in that moment to dissuade Helen, rather than just tell her about the danger.

In fact I find his interactions with Helen in that scene to be potentially manipulative— designed to convince her to come to the island with him in a way that leaves her believing it was her choice.

He also implicitly encourages her to the rebellion we see at the end of the movie and *hands her the piece of Klear she needs to follow through on it*. As an audience it is a cathartic, if pyrrhic, victory for Helen, but she has once again been pushed into a course of action that is actively dangerous to her by Blanc. She could get hurt or killed by using the Klear, and she will most certainly be burdened with years and years of court cases at minimum about the events of that day. Even if she survives it, she could end up in prison!

And Benoit himself is always so insulated from the consequences by virtue of framing himself as an outsider. Helen bears by far the majority of the danger by coming to Bron’s island in the first place— Blanc is a world renowned detective who does not so obviously pose a threat, and at the end of the movie he leaves the compound right after encouraging Helen to blow it up.

It’s also notable that for this example, he didn’t say anything to her explicitly about what she should do. He leaves himself legally clean for what is about to happen.

In Wake Up Dead Man, Blanc admits that he “regrets his stalling” as he tries to get to Dr. Nat’s house and hopes that the two “aren’t too late”. In this we see that Blanc *does* care about human life, but it is not the most important consideration at any given moment. He also later reveals that he knew Martha had poisoned herself before giving her confession and withheld that information.

He claims he “knew it was too late”, but Benoit Blanc is not a doctor. Instead, he valued the truth coming out more than he valued potentially saving Martha’s life.

Over and over again we watch Blanc push and prod people in dangerous ways, withhold potentially lifesaving information, and risk tragedy in service of finding the truth, all the while positioning himself as a neutral party.

Maybe at some point I’ll do a more thorough breakdown of his character but I found this interesting to think about.

[opiwritesstuff]

My beautiful partner making chili:

“My mother did once win a neighborhood chili contest. Am I chili nepo baby?”

[opiwritesstuff]

Toxic worldviews arise when your political position supersedes your understanding of individual personhood

This is most obvious with right wing politics these days (dehumanization of immigrants as a *very* relevant example) but this happens all over the political spectrum

Like yeah of course online political discourse sucks, the internet is famously good at making people forget that they’re talking to other real life human beings with lives and loved ones and dreams and weird little quirks and secret fears they don’t tell anyone

If everyone had a daily dose of sonder the world would probably be a better place

[lightbluedaisie-deactivated2022]

The urge to bother my mutuals

[lightbluedaisie-deactivated2022]

[jaynotwayne]

reblog if it’s okay for your mutuals to bother you <3

[spookbuddy]

Do you think they made the bunnygirls read the bible

[opiwritesstuff]

The story of Eve except she goes willingly to the devil and god tries to keep her because of the power she would take with her.