#semi-meta

[liskantope]

Weird -- I could swear there was a post (by a Tumblr I don't know) just the other day about how what everybody feels like eating is just what they're supposed to be eating health-wise with a "why would we be different from other animals in not being evolved to naturally individuals crave exactly what is healthiest for each of us individuals?" bent to the argument but otherwise absolutely zero justification, and then one of my mutuals (and I'm 95% sure I correctly remember who) reblogged it with an excellent response explaining from personal experience that this is not true and that they have to discipline themself on what they eat so as to avoid feeling crappy and unhealthy. And I can't find it among my likes and can't find it on that mutual's blog. I'd been intending to reblog my mutual with a couple of further comments and was "bookmarking" it by liking it.

I've been unusually distracted and overwhelmed lately, but I'm not so out of it that I would have imagined all this. I guess almost certainly the post (most likely the original post) got deleted for whatever reason. (I mean, I'm sure that most of the thousands of notes were from people who supported the OP, but maybe they got dogpiled on, and I don't like the idea that I might have joined in the dogpile.) I try to stay out of the food/nutrition/health discourse; I already get into too many other sensitive arenas of discourse than is probably good for me or others. Maybe this was the gods of Tumblr's way of preventing me from the poor judgment of getting myself into the topic. (Except I'm writing this semi-meta-post about it now... oops.)

[onekisstotakewithme]

Love, as it comes.

Okay, so this is just some rambling meta thoughts I had (when i was sitting in my US history class) this morning.

I was thinking about how MASH gave us so much in terms of healthy male friendships, and men expressing their emotions, and being comfortable expressing and showing emotions. That’s a pretty big deal for a show made in the 70s and 80s and set in the 50s. 

But I was more thinking about how no matter how you view Hawkeye and BJ’s relationship, it’s very clear that they have one of the deepest and most emotional bonds on the show. I’d never try and claim that the writers were saying that the two of them were in love but I will say that they love each other. A Lot.

Hawkeye explicitly says as much in “Who Knew?” (11x05), when he’s giving that eulogy, that he loves every person there, and lists off the main cast... of whom BJ is the very last name he says. The way he says it, the way his voice cracks, the way he smiles at BJ. They love each other.

I’m not talking about the throwaway jokes (”Are you married?/ No but we’ve been through so much it looks that way” or “at least you have me”/ “you’ll have to shave”), but those were conscious choices on behalf of the writers.

But when you look at the (potentially) unconscious choices... that the writers made... well the whole reason I sat down to write this little meta was because of a tiny little scene in “Letters” (9x02) that probably went fairly unnoticed.

Hawkeye is sitting there, watching a little girl he just operated on, writing a letter to a boy whose brother died in Korea after being fixed at a MASH, and he advises the boy not to let his love turn into hate. And to look for good wherever he can find it.

And this is so small as to be insignificant, but right after Hawk writes that, who should walk in, but BJ?

I’m not saying the writers deliberately write them as in love. I’m not saying that Alan and Mike deliberately played them as in love.

I am saying that anyone looking at the two of them can tell how much they love each other. Some bonds go deeper than words.

But I think BJ says it all when he says he doesn’t know what the place would’ve been like without Hawkeye. Because that is the essence of it. They needed each other to survive hell, and not only that but found a deep and true love in the process.

(and maybe next time I’ll talk about how often Hawkeye and BJ get storylines that parallel romantic storylines...)

[ftwdthoughts-blog]

so here’s the thing. i love ftwd. really i do. but i started watching it specifically for the characters of color in fear because i knew there were going to be native characters in s3 and i wanted to see them flourish and have great arcs, and i don’t regret doing that, but i think there are a lot of issues inherently in the fandom.

1.) the fandom overlap between the 100 and ftwd b/c of adc fans. this isn’t necessarily automatically a “problem” but it absolutely does bother me that alicia by far gets more love and support than other characters in the show. i can’t rlly look for content just featuring characters that aren’t alicia on tumblr? like i’ve genuinely tried to look for content that doesn’t involve alicia in some way and it barely exists. which is Great for alicia stans, but it’s not super great for the rest of us. a great example of how this can be upsetting to fans is travis’ death. when travis died, a lot of ppl within the fandom were more concerned with alicia’s feelings than with the fact that travis died??? which was upsetting to a lot of people for obvious reasons (particularly to indigenous fans, maori fans, fans of color and pacific islander and polynesian fans)

2.) the fact that people prefer shipping nick with troy (or even alicia and elyza lex) than giving love and support to canonically lgbt characters.

to me at least, there’s something particularly weird about shipping nick (who btw is played by a BIRACIAL ACTOR) with a canonical racist. what about strand? strand deserves love and support as a mlmoc (who is PLAYED BY A MLMOC) and strand deserves love and support in his relationships. ik that some will say ship and let ship but i just,,, don’t like how people excuse troy’s horrifying behavior by saying that he’s an Uwu smol bean and that he’s in heaven with nick etc. etc.

with alicia and elyza lex, while i absolutely support the right of fandom creators to do what they want n such, please tag things accordingly! please do not put things that should only be in the alicia clark tag or whatever tag you use in the overall ftwd tag. i’ve never seen the 100 and i probably won’t watch it anytime soon, so it’s frustrating for those of us who aren’t adc stans or alicia stans to see content that is completely adjacent to the overall fandom in the general tag.

3.) the weird lack of love for characters of color in this show

there seems to be a problem in this fandom for neglecting characters of color. i already touched on this but i think there’s something really insidious abt the lack of posts abt characters like taqa or strand or luciana or ofelia or even travis (even though some claim he evolved to be a fan fave) whereas characters like troy (who is, and this is important, violently racist) have an abundance of gifsets and love. i just,,, It makes me really upset and unhappy. im sure other fans of color/ indigenous fans/ etc. feel the same and are just as upset and disappointed and angry about it as i am. i feel let down by the fandom. it’s uncritical adoration like that towards troy that makes me feel unwelcome in the fandom. we don’t live in a racism-free void. the representation and inclusion of characters of color is important and it matters.

anyway these are some of my thoughts. i’m ngl i kind of think the ftwd fandom is fractured in a way that i haven’t really seen in other fandoms. please leave comments if you wld like but i ask that you keep them respectful.

[mizjoely]

A recent conversation with @geekyangie (edited for clarity) about the changing nature of the relationship between John and Sherlock, the two deeply flawed heroes of our favorite (and most frustrating) series:

geekyangie: I really liked the post about how John is trying to be a good man and failing, and Sherlock is trying NOT to be a good man, and failing. They are, in a lot of ways, trading places. Sherlock needed John, and now John needs Sherlock.

mizjoely: And now they’ve reached some weird equilibrium.

geekyangie: Some middle ground codependency? I can see that. Yin and yang.

[ultraspacechampion]

(@wingsofachampion) Hiya! What's it like being a champion? -Tropius

Depends on what aspect of it. You got the E4 and previous champion who still treat you like this newbie. Like yeah, why should I have to battle you again to take on challengers Acerola. Sometimes the attention is nice but it is kinda a drag overall. The various champion fanfares are nice. And my pokemon like the accomplishment so I do it for them rather than them.

[thinksomenoise]

Post #500 surpassed?? (None the wiser)

Probably don’t even remember all this content I’ve been bombarding onto you. Lots of stuff I’m filling the Tumblr servers with.

This is post #502, to be precise.

Still, I don’t have the impression that the quality has increased. By any means. I’m none the wiser, thus the posts are neither. But I think I found a good balance between nerdy and silly. Yea, let’s keep it that way.

By the way, if you really did count all my posts and arrived at a wholly different number: seems like some of my posts have been deleted or hidden, probably because I used some... let’s say adult language.

Frankly, I’m not too sure whether my count is at all correct.

Let’s go for 1000, shall we.

Think some noise.

[chromathesia-old]

blood? mud? who knows

[tenfoldgambit]

Hello Followers! (and anyone else who may be listening)

If you have not watched How to Get Away With Murder yet let me tell you: You are missing out. This may be a long post, so if you aren't convinced that you should watch it, read on. Oh, and this is spoiler free.

So I watched the first three episodes after they aired and I have to say, I was impressed. It was a pretty well done show. The writing was good and consistent, the acting is great all around, and the cinematography has more than a few overwhelmingly beautiful moments. However, he fourth episode that aired tonight changed my mind on all of that. 

I am completely at a loss for words. This episode slayed. I think the only thing I was capable of saying for quite a while after was "wow." 

Let me get down to why this episode was undoubtedly my favourite of any new show and one of my favourite things I've watched in quite a while. The acting. The writing. The cinematography. The editing. The characters. The character development.The representation. The plot. The plot twist. The foreshadowing. The pacing. All completely flawless. Oh, and Jack Falahee. I'm talking Jensen Ackles-attractive here ;) just a little bonus.

The acting: I've been knee deep in acting and drama for years now and what a exquisite piece of performance art that was. The acting has been spot on (props to the casting department, major props) so far but this episode had so many powerful performances from main and side characters alike. There were so many moments where the emotions of the characters were palpable, even through the tv screen. I don't want to give any of the plot away so that's as far as I'll go here. 

The writing: The writing is so good. For anyone who has problems with any of our favourite shows inconsistent, misogynistic, or just plain bad writing this show is a breath of fresh air. All the characters are written as real people, female characters included. I haven't heard a line yet that seems out of character and while it is still only the fourth episode, I have a lot of hope that it will stay this way. On another note, there are so many great exchanges and one liners that have some pretty serious truth to them.

The cinematography: I'm a huge cinematography nerd. Pretty cinematography could probably convince me to watch just about anything. This utilizes cinematography so well. Subtle most of the time with some breathtakingly beautiful moments spliced in. This is a more difficult one to articulate as to why I'm a fan so let's just leave it at 'this show is a feast for the eyes'. And again, I don't want to spoil anything but there was an outstanding example of cinematography in the newest episode that I fangirled over. 

The editing: The editing in this show is used so well to add all sorts of subtext and layers to both scenes and characters. Again, not much to say here other than this editing is better than most tv on air. 

The characters: They are all so real. Every single one of these characters feels like someone you could actually meet at  university on on the street. And they're all diverse and unique, they don't feel contrived either. Watching their interactions is quite a treat sometimes too. 

The character development: I don't want to give away any spoilers but let's just say there are some pretty great character developments that have started to take place and they make me very happy.

The representation: I know that the representation may not be completely there yet but this show is a huge step in the right direction. Half of the main characters are people of colour. There is also representation of different sexual orientations, I suspect we may even get a bisexual character however that hasn't been canonically stated (though heavily implied) and this isn't a speculation post so I'll stop here. 

The plot and the plot twist: The plot is incredibly intriguing. I find myself hooked on what's happening and the minute details of it. There is a major plot twist at the end of this episode and as someone who is decent at guessing whats going to happen, I had no idea. 

The foreshadowing: Not going to say anything here because by it's very nature, it would spoil the plot but the foreshadowing is well done. Subtle but it's there and noticeable. 

The pacing: I think this may be one of my favourite things about the show. It's so spot on. This show does a splendid job of making the 40 minutes seem like an hour and a half without dragging on. It fits in so much without feeling too full or too fast. Every episode leaves off at a perfect place. It leaves you wanting more but still feeling satisfied. As well, most shows would have the events of episode 4 be somewhere near the season finale. It's fast. It's full. It's a joy to watch. 

So there's my reasons for loving the show so far. I can't say for certain that everybody will share my opinions but here are my opinions and a few facts. Take them as you will. 

Hopefully you will enjoy, 

Smelevenith