#media discourse

[myheartticks]

Genuinely baffled by the number of (cis) straight guys I've seen who just can't appreciate or enjoy media- hating the Princess Bride because it's "too silly"? Calling Project Hail Mary a "nothing-burger" because Rocky didn't die?

And don't even get me started on the idiots who hate new Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who because they're "too woke".

[dellaliz19]

Ok it kills me to wade into this discourse, but Will Byers explicitly canonically coming out to his loved ones as gay isn’t queerbaiting just because he’s not part of the ship you want.

[lonestardust]

not to get too deep about art and capitalism and lone star ending but i kinda wanna talk about how much grief can live inside loving a piece of art that had to exist inside a system that measures worth in numbers and profit before anything else. not in chemistry, not in care, not in connection or the people who poured years of their lives into it. I'm trying to convince myself that it's not an overreaction to feel sad. art asks us to invest emotionally first before anything else, to believe in connection and to connect and so of course it would feel natural to mourn that having to end. there was just so much intention and heart in it. and even if it ended because of “logistics” or “timing” or whatever softer word gets used, it still doesn't erase its impact and what it gave the audience and the artist. capitalism needs the myth of artistic autonomy to keep creators and viewers emotionally invested. while still making decisions based primarily on profit 🫠 but apparently we're still supposed to pretend this contradiction doesn't evoked any sense of discontent at all.

[zainmaki]

I noticed this thing online where people try to defend media properties by saying “they worked hard on it” It’s just a form of deflection from genuine criticism. Yeah what the crew has gone through hell to make anything is impressive but that doesn’t matter. If it sucks then it sucks. If I go to pizzeria and they gave me a brunt pizza, I didn’t like my pizza being burnt to a crisp and the employee said that the cooks worked hard on it so I should eat it. It doesn’t matter what matters is the pizza tastes like shit. Putting effort in something does not equal a good thing.

[matt0044]

I'm worried Adults Who Watch Kids Shows(TM) are becoming too easy of a punching bag.

Don’t get me wrong, there are indeed plenty who could stand to broaden their diet of art in terms of age demographic and maybe learn to judge storytelling with more nuance on that front.

However… I feel like they’re becoming too much of a thought terminating cliche in the realm of “It’s not that deep, bro, it’s just for kids.” As if media aimed at kids, especially in the animation department, isn’t worthy of any deeper analysis be it positive or negative.

Yes, sometimes you need to pull yourself out of a negativity spiral over something that’s targeted clear out of your age demographic.

By that same token, however…

Steven Universe, Avatar, Korra, what-have-you inspiring grown up audience members either to dissect it or show great appreciation for it on any level is a net positive.

It points to how art can make strides to be itself even in corporate studio spaces that are notorious for being all “Ah, it’s for kids, don’t get too artsy with it.”

And I worry that in trying to combat the discourse inspired by SU or Voltron, we’re swinging too hard in the other direction.

[someonesoonforgotten]

Some of the discourse around the Testament of Ann Lee is just so embarrassing. It really shows that many people are just completely unable to rise above their own perspective.

It's a biography of this one particular person and people are arguing it should be about someone else? That seems absurd on the face of it, right? You are complaining your order of x isn't y?

But it makes sense if you can see the pervasive lack of empathy or the unwillingness to entertain that different people might have valuable perspectives. Some atheist people demand a sympathetic enlightenment perspective to call out these superstitious lunatics. Some religious people demand a mainstream believer's perspective to call out these cultish heretics.

Again, it's pandering relatability they ask. They can't relate to someone who holds fundamentally different beliefs so they need a self-insert. Humanity isn't enough to connect to someone. They must be your mirror. The disease of our culture is relatability. Even more than that, they see the way the film tries to express what the Shaker's religious experience must have been like, and they are offended at the idea of letting themselves feel such sensations. It's a refusal to see the world through any other perspective than their own.

And then we wonder why the world is the way it is. Sure, capitalism does what it does. But the culture wars, the progressive infighting, the far right rise, the fracturing left etc. so much of it is fundamentally rooted in an learned unwillingness to believe there is any validity outside one's own perspective. it's true self-centredness.

It's like people need to believe otherness equals invalid in order not to have their self collapse in insecurity or something. It's genuinely so sad.

What small people we have become.

[benkaben]

I feel like I'm constantly watching 2 sides of the web completely parallel to each other where one complains that everything is queerbait, even explicitly queer shows or books or you know, real life people being bi, ace, aro, or god forbid, poly, just existing, cause they're all actually straight you know, while the other states nothing it's actually queerbait and has never been and actually companies have never tried to bait audiences with queer storylines, either those storylines weren't there and you, viewer, made them up to complain, or they were actually there all the time, the creators just wanted to play hide and seek with you of course, and since you cracked the clues it was not bait, it was queer representation actually.

And I don't know man, I think it depends.

[posts-written-by-murderbot]

If you had to live in the universe of a show, which one would you choose?

Drama Sun Islands. Despite the title (and the drama), all recurrent characters are contrivedly immune to death and serious injury. I’d like to live in a world where I know the worst thing that can happen to my humans is losing the season finale dance-off.

If I had to nail it down to a specific season it would be DSI: Miami. The sets were great. Don’t talk to me about the reboot. As far as I’m concerned the reboot doesn’t exist.