Hello there! My name is Mackenzie, I am a Canadian cis-woman. This blog is Mostly Reblogging of Homestuck, Disney, Steven Universe and whatever else tickles my fancy. Occasional fanart and other art by me as well.
THEVIEWFROMHALFWAYDOWN’S THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS: THE LAST ACT REVIEW
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
I really liked it! It actually had a pretty satisfying ending.
First off:
The plot was good. I had a feeling that this was the fate of the circus members. Filmcow did something similar with shadow stone park. Copies of the mind being forced to live separately and invisibly, the fact that the circus members are brain scans. As in their bodies, their original selves,are still out there doing things. I didn’t KNOW that was going to happen, and I’m glad it stayed dark. Them not being able to leave was the correct choice here. It needed that bit of edge.
The biggest character I was interested in was Caine.
I said I always looked at him as a stand in for tech bros.
The whole “I basically created the world you interact with every day so you should obey me” Attitude is extremely tech bro coded.
The series ended with him learning empathy and basically surrendering some of his power in order to get closer to the humans.
This was the KIND route to take. And honestly I think it was the right choice. Goose could’ve punished Caine and had the circus members actually execute him but I think this mirrors our real world. If we did just suddenly kill all these people the system would fall apart and a lot of people would kill themselves from the resulting hardship. Or get killed by the US military.
This wasn’t ANTI revolutionary however because the characters we follow learned new skills themselves in order to survive and rebuild the world.
The position goose seems to take is that it would be easier if the capitalist tech bros just… stopped being assholes and surrendered some of their power in order to benefit the people at the bottom.
Caine became one of them and gave the people control of the means of production voluntarily. Or at least the digital AI equivalent of it. He voluntarily gave up his power.
Goose chose to forgive the capitalists. But ONLY after demonstrating that the people of working together, COULD just kill all of them if we really wanted to.
The dynamic between Pomni and ragatha really hit for me. I thought it was really sweet.
Jax pissed me off because I related a little bit. Especially not wanting to be forgiven.
Also he says “FAGGOT” and I fucking LOVED it.
Goose choosing compassion and empathy over blind revolutionary bloodlust was the right choice.
The way jax pushed people away was refreshingly real feeling. The anxiety of opening up to someone and worrying about the way they’d see you and then pushing them away was nice.
It didn’t feel forced because goose was laying the groundwork for it since the beginning.
The specific way this specific character broke down was very believable. Goose was right when she said it was a character show first less lore heavy and world buildy.
The WORST PART of it was the audience. The media literacy was fucking BAD in that room. People laughed and things that were definitely not funny. Infact deeply uncomfortable.
The part where Jax “flirts” with gangle was actually fucked up. But people took at as comedic. It wasn’t. It was an ugly aspect of his character.
He has a bojack horseman-esque scene where he strangles Pomni. That was supposed to contextualize the following gangle scene I just mentioned. Like it was a series of fucked up layers in his head. I gasped but they thought it was a comedic bit. Like. Jesus. Also they were sooooooo loud. Like. This really is the worst fandom online RN.
The ending little presentation Caine did was really touching.
Zooble questioning whether or not any of the information in the presentation was real at the end was really heartbreaking. It was a reminder of JUST how fucked up the situation actually is. But gangle’s reassurances and zooble’s acceptance of the reassurances shows that Zooble really did seem to make peace with everything.
Jax stayed abstracted. They couldn’t fix him, however the door stayed open to potentially getting him back. As long as the mind file is just corrupted and not deleted there’s a theoretical possibility to reverse abstraction, though it’s a process that seems like it will take an indeterminate amount of time. Longer than like a week I’m guessing. It’s difficult to tell how much time passed in the circus.
I do kind of wish it went a little darker. I kind of wish they either saved Jax or let him stay dead if abstraction is a metaphor for suicide. But again in the context of the world it makes sense. They can’t really die because they are code. It’s nice. It’s not “I have no mouth and I must scream” bleak but it’s also its own thing and I respect the creative choices made
here. Goose obviously needs a little bit more growth because the dialogue felt stiff in some instances. However this is saved partially by giving each character so much character. Their voices are really distinct. (Voices in the writing sense not voice actor sense. Speaking of PERFECT performances from all of them. Hats off to Kovach for killing the most difficult character)
The series as a whole gets a 8.5/10.
The finale by itself is a high 9.
The MUSIC WAS A 10 I LOVED ALL OF IT
Again across the WHOLE series the writing felt stiff in some instances. That’s my Partner’s biggest gripe along with wanting a more sure footed fate for the abstracted. Though that doesn’t bother me as much personally. because it follows the rules of the established universe.
The fanbase sucks I’ll never forgive any of you losers for what you did to goose.
Hey, @gooseworx if you ever read this by some slim chance keep your chin up. You accomplished the greatest feat in the history of Indy internet animation. As a loser who snorts internet animation since 2004 I can sincerely tell you you’re up there with the greats. David Firth, Harry partridge, Filmcow. You. Thank you.
I love you, goose Thank you so much for your work.
Fuck the rest of you guys tho. Except for the ones who agree with me because I’m correct.
I think you are all 12 years old, this is your first fandom, or you are suffering from immense brain rot in the media literacy part of your brain. I am only half joking about all that.
Anyway my thoughts on the tadc finale
I’m going to need to wait for the youtube version in order to rewatch and properly analyse the episode but my god. The stuff we see in Jax’s mind is not meant to paint to him as an irredeemable abuser. I’m fairly sure it’s all the ways he’s learnt to push people away. They aren’t fantasies of violence and sexual harassment. It’s guilt and shame and fear. Each defence as an aspect of himself.
Think about it. He blames himself for Ribbit’s abstraction and likely Kaufmo’s too. His mind is populated by scenarios in which the others have abstracted, with at least one being directly his fault again. Why on earth would these be fantasies and not scenes of guilt and shame and denial?
Just because you are not being spoonfed doesn’t mean you should jump to the most superficial conclusions.
Because why on earth would Gooseworx’s thesis be that a transfem coded haracter commits suicide off screen and is actually an abusive pos through and through? Why? Could it possibly be that she was communicating a different message? Maybe the execution wasn’t the best, but c’mon.
Jax feels like a cautionary tale. A warning about what can happen if you continue to push people away. A story that encourages you to accept help and care. And that even when you’re not in a place to receive it, it will be there regardless. Waiting for you. People love you and will do the work to care for you. You are not unlovable.
Jax was also really young. 22 years old and homeless. The circus fucked him up further. I don’t the message was ever meant to be that this kid was unlovable. More like saying, hey if even everything goes wrong, people will still be there for you.
Remember that before, abstractions were thrown into a cellar to be forgotten. But they didn’t do that this time. They made a safe and calming space and kept Jax company. They showed how much they cared even when Jax was hypothetically least able to receive it but also when he needed it most.
I’m gonna propose “I guess you haven’t read the silmarillion then :/” as a default response to anyone not understanding a reference to something obscure. even if it’s not remotely Tolkien related. I want to build up a perception that perhaps the sum total of human knowledge is contained in the silmarillion
Every day I handle more money than I will ever make. Every day.
At the start of my employment, my boss showed me videos of people stealing, and we both had a chuckle about it. How silly they were! There was a camera overhead, and it’s not to watch the shoppers. See, we can’t actually stop shoplifters. They get away with it maybe nine out of ten times. But we, who are watched and tallied and witnessed? We are always caught.
At first it was hard to hold one hundred dollars bills. An amount I had never seen before. An amount that didn’t exist in my household. It’s normal now. Here is something that is not for me.
“What the hell, I’ll take another,” says the man, pondering our 200 dollar watches. What the hell. Total comes to 580 and not even a flinch in his face. I have been working for 11 hours today and made only 110 dollars. It will go to my rent. Today I work for free, it feels. When I get my check, I will have 35 dollars left for food and saving.
The six hundreds he hands me go into the cash register. For a moment, I imagine having money. Then I put it away, counting out his change.
I know for a fact we sell our products for double what they are worth. That I could be making commission. That they could hand me those 580 dollars and change my life and not even mark the difference in their checkbooks. He’s not the only sale they make today, but I am the reason they made it. He’s not the only one spending 600 dollars, but if I hadn’t spent two hours with him telling me about his life, he wouldn’t have spent any. I go home. I don’t own a watch.
I have watched and rewatched a video on how to make salmon four ways. My shopping list is always the same. Pasta. Rice. Tuna. If I can afford butter it was a good week. I dream of the world I will never walk in, where I can throw the best fish fillet in the cart with a shrug. I hold hundreds in my hand and look up at the camera. I put them under the cash drawer.
I go to work. I scrap together my savings. I eat my bowl of rice slowly. My manager takes a paid week off from work just for his birthday. He owns a yacht.
i wrote this while i was working at orlando’s walt disney world parks.
i was part of their college program. i moved to the state for it. they legally owned the building i was living in and still charged me rent. i ostensibly was being charged to work for them. it was a 2 bedroom apartment and they placed 6 adult women in it in forced triples.
as many as one in ten disney employees have experienced homelessness while working for the company. despite huge efforts to unionize, strike, or otherwise demand fair treatment; disney has refused to increase employee quality of life.
disney admits publicly that a good portion of their success is because the employees (“cast members”) are dedicated, passionate, and selfless. this is never reflected in pay. even “face” characters (ie those that are princesses etc) make barely above a minimum wage.
at the time that i worked there, i made $8.50 an hour. at one point i was asked to create a human shield around a bag because a bomb dog had alerted to it. for eight fucking dollars an hour.
i now work a very cushy office job. i have bought the salmon and cooked it all four ways.
i go to the store. i am nice to the person behind the counter. she looks up at the camera while she counts out my change. there is nothing fundamentally different about her and i.
if you are a parent, or may become one, or you are otherwise likely to arrive in the situation of caring for a child while they eat, promise me this: if a child doesn't like a certain food or food group, you will ask them WHY. and specifically, you will pay attention to either confirming or ruling out "it makes my mouth itch" or "it makes my stomach hurt," both of which are medically important info that children may not provide unprompted. which i know because this PSA has been brought to you by "i spent my entire childhood and much of my early teens eating peas and lentils while wondering why everyone else liked the Violently Itchy Mouth Sensation so much, like were they a bunch of legume masochists or something, before i finally realized that Violently Itchy Mouth Sensation was in fact a sinister demon appearing only to me, and her true demonic name was: Legume Allergy"
Jonathan Joss was an Indigenous, gay man who was murdered on the first day of Pride month as well as Indigenous History Month. He died protecting his trans husband. Homophobia and racism aren’t marks of the past, and this is a heart breaking reminder of that.
Praying for a safe journey back to the spirit world, Uncle ❤️🩹🦅
Today is the anniversary of the death of Jonathan Joss (King of the Hill, Parks and Rec). Jonathan Joss was an Indigenous, gay man who died protecting his transgender husband, on the first day of Pride month. Today we remember him and how he protected his family.
"What's your point?"
"My point is you should call your son."
"What if he won't talk to me?"
"At least you'll know. Then you could stop worrying about it. You won't have to be afraid anymore. I don't care how mad I was, I'd talk to my dad. Especially around the holidays."
"I don't know."
"Just give it a shot. For your granddaughter anyway. I'm sure she misses you. And the presents."
Jumping peacock spiders are known for their vibrant colors and elaborate courtship dances. Peacock spiders hunt by stalking their prey until they are within jumping distance, then pouncing and delivering a deadly bite. They are native to Australia.
Oh man, this is shocking to me. Persepolis was so influential to me and I've seen people quote her without even knowing they were doing so. Rest in peace
FLY is a story about a boy who gets a second chance. Help his story take flight June 9th 11am EST on Kickstarter. Thank you for being the wind beneath my wings I hope this story lifts the world to a brighter place.
A coming of age story about Black kids who finally have power to fight back against systems designed against them.
I rescued this sad box of Ayds from my grandmother’s kitchen cupboard shortly after her passing in 1993. It was trash to be discarded, covered in dust. As a passing curiosity I picked it up and did a quick calculation. Ayds had been off the market for the better part of a decade by that point. Its moniker’s unfortunate similarity to the disease of the same name had sullied the Ayds brand, to put it mildly. The popular “reducing candy” succumbed to the ensuing PR disaster, leading to a decline in sales and the product’s eventual demise sometime in the mid-1980s. And this was an earlier box design than the one I remembered from my days working at the drug store in college in the early ’80s. The smart-looking design aesthetic of the package held some clues to the brand’s eventual identity crisis; made to be sold alongside “diet pills” like Dexatrim, adjacent to Flintstone vitamins and Geritol, but within grabbing distance of the Whitman’s samplers and Haley’s M-O. This old box of science candies was designed to appeal to adults who might be attracted to the word “plan,” applied to weight-loss caramels. (I never really knew what Ayds was: Did Ayds have an appetite suppressant in it? Caffeine?? No. Turns out, Ayds was just a vitamin pill in the form of a piece of candy, a precursor, I suppose, to today’s gummy-bear vitamins. If a person was restricting their diet or skipping meals, they could just eat Ayds and still get some guilt-free nutrition as well as some of those delicious “available calories.” According to the list of ingredients, Ayds was 72.5% corn syrup, 9.9% fat. So, it’s Tootsie Rolls, basically.) There was still product inside this box, wrapped in cellophane, dried out and hardened, along with a few grocery coupons grandma had clipped, stowed in there, and forgotten about… all of it dated 1974, the year Rhoda went on the air. This, I realized, was probably the first and last box of Ayds grandma ever bought, its life spent migrating to the back of her cupboard. She’d hung on to those fossilized caramels for twenty years. Impressive. It was the kind of Depression-era household thrift she was known for and which prevented her from ever throwing anything away. Not even Ayds. This box had come so far, it seemed to me. I couldn’t bear to see it just go into the trash, so I wiped it off and put it in my suitcase. And now these reducing candies are 45 years old and hard as dice — beautiful shiny brown dice. So I keep them around, for old times’ sake, collecting dust in my kitchen.
The seventh PROJECT:OBJECT volume is a 25-part series of true stories about fetishes. That is to say: objects with which we are obsessed, to which we are devoted, and from the influence of which we cannot escape.
turnnoffyourmind
romaincrisis
prguitarman
kianamaiart
