#take that haters!... if... if there's any there...

[ratintank]

ANYBODY WANTS SOME MOVIE SONIC POSITIVITY???

... no?... Uh....

WELL TOO BAD CUZ I'M POSTING IT ANYWAY!

[airborneinfantry]

References to contemporary films & actors in BAND OF BROTHERS (2001)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT/SOURCES ↓

Mae West was an American actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright whose career spanned more than seven decades. Recognized as a prominent sex symbol of her time, she was known for portraying sexually confident characters and for her use of double entendres (Wikipedia). During World War II, Allied aircrews called their yellow inflatable, vest-like personal flotation devices "Mae Wests" partly because, when inflated, the wearer resembled the actress's buxom appearance (Wikipedia).

Mr. Lucky is a 1943 romance film starring Cary Grant and Laraine Day. The film is about an attraction between a shady gambler and a wealthy socialite in the days prior to the United States entering World War II (Wikipedia).

Marlene Dietrich was a German-born American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly seven decades (Wikipedia). She renounced her German citizenship in 1939, and when the US entered World War II in 1941, she was one of the first public figures to help sell war bonds (Wikipedia). Dietrich went on two United Service Organization tours in 1944 and 1945. She traveled first to North Africa and Italy, where she was the first entertainer to reach rescued Allied soldiers in Anzio, and then later to France and Germany, with this second tour lasting 11 months, beginning just on the heels of D-Day. Her performances in the now-famous USO Camp Shows involved singing, dancing, and a comedy routine with a musical saw, and she usually left troops in fits of laughter. She fought off bouts of influenza, slept in tents, and suffered from frostbite, but in the end, Dietrich put on more than 500 performances for Allied troops throughout the war, many of which were on the front lines. When asked why she risked her life to support American soldiers, she responded, “aus Anstand – Out of decency” (USO).

Rita Hayworth was an American actress and dancer. She is one of the most renowned actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and was the second top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II, after Betty Grable (Wikipedia). Nix's comment about Hayworth's marriage is likely a reference to her marriage to filmmaker and actor Orson Welles, whom she was married to from 1943 to 1947. This is also likely an oversight by the show's writers, as the scene takes place in 1945, and a marriage that happened two years prior would probably not be breaking news.

Abbott and Costello were an American comedy duo composed of comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, whose work in radio, film, and television made them the most popular comedy team of the 1940s and 1950s, and the highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II (Wikipedia).

Seven Sinners is a 1940 American romantic drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne. The film is about a torch singer who wows a Navy officer and his shipmates at a South Seas cafe (Wikipedia).

John Wayne was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films that were produced during the Golden Age of Hollywood, especially in Western and war movies (Wikipedia). He also notoriously did not serve during World War II, even though many of his contemporaries did. There are many reasons given as to why Wayne did not enlist, including but not limited to: his age (he was 34 years old at the time of Pearl Harbor), his 3-A deferment (family deferment), an injury he suffered in college, his unwillingless to put his film career on hold, and his infamous affair with Marlene Dietrich he allegedly did not want to give up. The most common reason given is that the studio he was contracted under, Republic Studios, allegedly threatened to sue him if he enlisted. The studio also reportedly intervened in the Selective Service process and requested Wayne's exemption from the draft (Wikipedia). On the other hand, arguably more bankable and more famous actors, such as Clark Gable and James Stewart, enlisted for combat despite pressure from their respective studios not to do so. No matter how much of not enlisting Wayne was personally responsible for, and how much guilt he felt after the fact, he was reportedly not popular with US servicemen during World War II, and he toured with the USO for about three months in 1944 (Slash Film).

[aingeal98]

The fun thing about Cass not appearing much in the og Birds of Prey while Babs is literally parenting her over in Batgirl at the same time is that it creates a potential situation where Barbara can be ranting to Ted or Jason Bard about how this damn kid won't eat their veggies because they just want burgers instead and keeps performing risky moves in combat and runs away when Babs touches on mental health but at least they'll let Babs tuck them into bed at night if they're tired enough and Ted/Jason etc is like awww I didn't know you were a mom now!

Babs: What? I'm not a mom I'm just looking out for this kid because she needs someone.

Dinah: You had to take an hour off last week to take them to the dentist and another hour the week before to teach them how to spell and pronounce commonly used legal jargon.

Ted: Wow! How young is this kid? Should they be out crime fighting?

Babs: They're eighteen.

Ted:

Jason:

Babs: It's complicated alright!

[pseudophan]

ok i opened twitter and saw a whole bunch of people argue that they genuinely sincerely wholeheartedly deadass not a joke thought dan and phil's acting in the sketch today was good so i definitely need to go to bed i think

[dietkoke]

Mind you, Cassian didn’t just stop existing just because his book is done. His “role” isn’t over. That being said, why is she taking Cassians plot lines and thinking it’ll be Elains next?

Not to mention, does she honestly think Elain would go alone? Literally choosing to willingly ignore the obvious male who blends into shadows.

Try as you might, Yaz, but 1) Cassian isn’t the only reliable narrator in the series and 2) Azriel will be following Elain along wherever she goes because he’s not only a trusted member of the Inner Circle (something Lucien isn’t) but he’s also Elain’s love interest.

Cry about it.

Also her choosing to ignore that Lucien can’t be trusted by the Inner Circle but honestly thinks the rare Seer will leave and join that bozo, ijbol

[genericpuff]

hoooooooo boy okay we got a LIVE ONE FOLKS

I obviously talk a looooot of shit here about Lore Olympus and Rachel Smythe, which often includes discussing and showcasing her past behavior with her fandom (including but not limited to: the Minthe cosplayer incident, the struggle street tweet, etc. all of which you can search up on my blog as I've talked about these incidents repeatedly, I will not be responding to asks about these incidents.)

But on the whole, Rachel's done a fairly decent job at keeping herself under the radar for the past few years. As much as people might criticize her for not being transparent enough with her audience, it's obvious at this point that she's doing what's best for her mental health, and outside of the odd vague-post complaining about her audience being mean to her, she tends to stay pretty out of trouble these days. Nothing has ever gotten quite as bad as the Minthe incident, and the most egregious she's been since then was when she'd write very not-subtle clapbacks at her audience through LO, but at least by that point, LO was shit anyways and most of us were still getting our fun out of dunking on the comic even when it was attempting to dunk on us.

So for what it's worth, I commend Rachel for doing what's necessary for her mental health and her career at this time! Even though there are times it might look bad on her, the quiet neutrality she's taken as of late is pretty harmless and inconsequential. From an audience perspective, it's very much preferred over how she (and her fandom by extension) used to behave, and from her perspective, while I don't have access to it, I'd like to hope she's learned how to protect her peace in spite of what people say about her and her work.

I CANNOT SAY THE SAME FOR POOKIE-SENPAI, THE CREATOR OF DOWN TO EARTH, AND WHAT SHE IS DOING TO THE POOR FOLKS IN THE DTE SUBREDDIT.

WHY ARE SO MANY WEBTOON ORIGINALS CREATORS LIKE THIS-

Look, I understand having beef with your audience's interpretation of your work. I understand how frustrating it can feel when what you intended feels like it's being overlooked, ignored, or completely misunderstood. I also understand wanting to participate with your audience directly by participating in their fandom spaces, I literally do that every day both here and on Tumblr and within the antiLO spaces that, while not as active as they used to be, still exist and are still used!

But understanding does not equal acceptance or condoning. I do not accept or condone this behavior, because I know from experience how unhealthy and unproductive it is.

Of course, I am probably the exact kind of person Pookie-Senpai is talking shit about, because I too have criticized and DNF'ed Down to Earth for what came across as a 'born sexy yesterday' characterization of Zaida and how that also relates to her 'relationship' with Kade. I've talked about this at length in the past and for the most part, my criticisms remain the same even now.

But regardless of how you or the creator feels about these criticisms, it is NOT an excuse to behave in this manner. This would be like hosting a book club meeting, you're discussing the new Sarah J. Maas novel, and all of a sudden Sarah comes BURSTING through your front door, uninvited, declaring that your criticisms of her work are all factually incorrect and if you have such a problem with it then you should just stop reading her work entirely and go write your own novel.

But wait, it's kind of worse actually, because APPARENTLY (ALLEGEDLY) HER HUSBAND IS ONE OF THE MODERATORS. AND HE TOO FREQUENTLY ARGUES AND PICKS FIGHTS WITH USERS SIMPLY SHARING THEIR OPINION IN THIS, THE SUBREDDIT FOR DISCUSSING DOWN TO EARTH-

So if you're a DTE fan looking for DTE discussion in any regard, and come across the official subreddit, you are QUITE LITERALLY being monitored by both the creator and her husband and can at any time be jumped by either (or both) of them if you say a single thing that they deem as 'hate'.

Like. I don't want to say that this by comparison absolves Rachel Smythe of all her issues, it doesn't, but it DOES make my problems with Lore Olympus and Rachel Smythe feel so, so much smaller. Because godDAMN, while Rachel has had issues in the past with enforcing herself over her own fandom spaces, I can't ever say it's been to this extent; and any instances that did get out of hand were few and far between and clearly a lesson for Rachel because at the very least she's made an effort to step back from social media drama, for the sake of both her own mental well-being and sanity, and for the sake of her fandom's enjoyment of her work.

Her patterns of behavior are well known, and most of all, aren't still actively happening to this day. Pookie-Senpai, on the other hand, is just quietly holding her fandom hostage and seemingly no one is saying anything about it, almost because they probably can't!

Jesus christ, we started a criticism-focused subreddit for LO over way less than this. So it BAFFLES me that the Down to Earth fandom is seemingly fine with this behavior. I'm sure they aren't. I'm sure there are many who have opted to simply not interact with the subreddit. But how sad is that? To not feel welcome or be able to freely participate in one of the ONLY PUBLIC FANDOM SPACES for a comic you enjoy, simply because you have to worry about THIS sort of shit any time you make a single comment or post?

I know this is just stupid fandom shit, in the grand scheme of things there are way bigger problems in the world, but for a lot of people, fandom is their way of engaging with a work, sharing it with others, and most of all, fostering their love for it. For better and for worse, fandom is ESSENTIAL to the lifespan of many works, because if it weren't for fandom culture, indie productions might never get noticed, media that was nearly lost might never have been found, cult classics might never have become cult classics, and of course, toxic behavior from companies and creators might never be exposed and their victims never liberated.

This is just a single subreddit for one comic and one creator duo, obviously Pookie-Senpai and her husband aren't committing actual crimes or harming people to the extent that predatory companies and/or productions that are made on a way bigger scale tend to do (and get away with). But just because there are bigger fish to fry doesn't mean this kind of behavior is any less concerning or worth discussing. Especially when this creator has 4.4 million subscribers on Webtoons. Literally only 2 million shy of Lore Olympus' subscriber count, and a little less than 1 billion views behind, which sure, is a BIG DIFFERENCE, but also, Down to Earth is still ongoing and still growing.

And yet this is what the fans who want to actually discuss the comic have to look forward to. As a reader who, by the way, doesn't even like Down to Earth, I'm horrified for the people who do; as a creator, I'm disappointed, because I've seen far more humility and grace from creators fighting to be seen in both Originals and Canvas, many of whom have also had to deal with criticisms they've felt are 'unfair', than I'm seeing from Pookie-Senpai, someone who has this big an audience but can't see past her flaws and the detractors who recognize them, to appreciate her victories and the people who helped her get there. She evidently doesn't recognize that these 'haters' are still people who chose to read her work, chose to give her story a chance, and chose to share their thoughts with other fans, often times with the hopes that any criticisms they had of the story might be something addressed or improved upon with time.

"If you don't like it don't read it!" "Make your own webcomic if you're so smart!" is annoying enough when it's preached by diehard fans trying to defend a creator on their behalf. When it's preached by the creator, in such an unprofessional and aggressive and unsolicited manner, it begs the question where the reverse holds true:

"If you don't like these criticisms, why are you engaging with them? Why don't you address the issues those critics are pointing out if you're so good at what you do?"

Whether you're a reader or a creator, whether you like it or not, criticism is a form of engagement. Sometimes your fans, even the ones who LOVE your work, will have things to say about it that aren't positive. This is not inherently a bad thing. But acting like it's a bad thing and reacting in this way towards it existing often results in worse outcomes - it results in a fandom that can't fully engage with a work they want to spend their time discussing and engaging with, and it results in a creator who ruins their own reputation, work, and possibly even their own mental health by refusing to either ignore criticism to protect their own peace, or accept it and grow from it.

-------

I think what's most baffling and crazy about this whole post is the reason why I'm even making it in the first place. I haven't read Down to Earth in ages, I gave it basically two attempts and then DNF'ed it for good, and I sure as shit don't use the Down to Earth subreddit because I am not a fan of the comic and it's not a space for me. And unlike Lore Olympus, I never liked it enough in the first place to feel compelled to talk about it repeatedly in excruciating detail - only enough to share my thoughts about why I DNF'ed it.

So I wanna make it clear, I didn't wake up this morning with the intent of making this post.

No, this whole thing started when I woke up, opened a reddit tab, and received a notification of a response to a comment I made a whole ass year ago, in a /r/webtoons thread discussing Down to Earth.

I'll spare you the walls of text that ensued, but essentially, this person argued that I hadn't given DTE "enough of a chance" (even though since then I had in fact given it another read, beyond 10 episodes this time) and that the creator had actually explained that Zaida wasn't a "born sexy yesterday" character.

And how did the creator explain it? Well, fortunately that person was gracious enough to provide a link-

Oh, okay, so Pookie-Senpai's "explanation" isn't an explanation at all, actually. It's, instead, a very emotionally-fueled rant where she condemns anyone who believes that Zaida is "born sexy yesterday", that clearly people don't understand that Zaida acts the way she does because she's a "foreigner" (hey so we do understand that, and that's part of why we criticize her for being written the way she is lol if you want an example of a sci-fi alien foreigner allegory done well, go watch Project Hail Mary) and that clearly it's unreasonable for people to expect her to write her entire story over again just to make the haters happy... even though that's not what anyone is asking her to do at all when they criticize the story for being what it is, they're literally just... sharing their opinion. To what they assumed would be other strangers on the Internet who also read the comic, because that's how fandom works.

Oh yeah, and also stop comparing her work to the Fifth Element! Which people have apparently been doing! Because she's very insistent that she DID NOT COPY THE FIFTH ELEMENT!!! It was just one of her MANY inspirations for DTE and people who don't see the obvious differences - like the fact that DTE is a slice of life romance set on Earth and not a sci-fi action movie - need to stop asking her about it!!! *sniff sniff* Hey, who farted?

Anyways, that white knight acting on Pookie-Senpai's behalf... apparently thought that was going to sway my opinion of her and her work. And to that I say... do you even know who you're talking to LOL

Like I don't think that person realizes this, but in their haste to defend and protect a comic and its creator at all costs (even going so far as to victim blame Zaida because clearly Kade was just trying to "warn her about being too trusting" when he very heavily implied he would assault her in the house he took her into after she crash landed on Earth) they INSTEAD wound up providing all the evidence of this creator's behavior, and most of all, they provided it to me, infamous and chronically online Tumblr blogger who has quite regularly shared evidence exposing the poor behavior of big webtoon creators and even Webtoons - the company - itself. Literally the worst person you could have accidentally provided it to.

I know this is stupid webtoons shit and so this comparison is wildly unrelated and even probably inappropriate (apologies), but being served up all the evidence I need to cement my opinion of this creator and her work being toxic as fuck on a silver fucking platter like this from someone who THOUGHT it was going to change that opinion, I can't help but feel a sense of emotional camaraderie with the attorney who was sent all the text messages exposing and confirming Alex Jones' guilt as a fraudster.

Like it's so deliciously ironic I almost feel like this could qualify entrapment, like I feel like I'm being baited into making this post. But unfortunately, it's not uncommon in the slightest for people to stumble upon old comments on mine and try to raise arguments from the dead just for this exact purpose, to try and "get in the last word" over topics I'm not even interested in anymore but am still armed to destroy again. I have to assume this happens because these particular people get sucked into searching up things they don't like on Google/reddit/etc. solely for the purpose of self-soothing by stepping up on a soapbox in regards to whatever it is they're upset about.

No one ever wins in these arguments, but I get the sense they know that winning isn't the goal - it's just to wear down the person they've chosen as an opponent, over a fight that only exists in their own head, all to make themselves feel superior and smart.

Hell, if it weren't for the pointless cyclical arguing that ensued with this person, I might have assumed they knew what they were doing and that's why they picked me to respond to. Alas, I don't think that's the case. This is, in all likelihood, just some dumb random white knight putting their own foot in their mouth, and doing more harm than good for the person they were trying to defend. And unfortunately for them, the person whose comment they took issue with a year after it had already come and gone was the executioner themselves. This is Shakespearean levels of dramatic irony that keeps the hater-ade flowing through my veins.

[ubejamjar]

"I know my three sons—Haurchefant, Aymeric, and Ishgardian Banneret—would joyfully stand by me in providing you the warmest welcome."

- Edmont de Fortemps

[p3achperfum3]

on the note of new blake audio

ALSO let’s not gloss over the fact that bestie is NOT leaving or betraying blake since im seeing a lot of people interpret it that way. this is not bestie finally viewing blake as beyond help or finally seeing that he’s crazy or giving themselves a way out.

this bitch ARGUED with brachium vocally defending him with some “that wasn’t him that was d’deridahn” argument. and also bestie already knows everything about the basement bc d’deridahn showed them on day 1 and they did NOT gaf LMAO they went “you did that for me??” and kissed that freak. bestie only RELUCTANTLY gave brachium any information because brachium promised that if there was any way to save blake and keep him in tact when separating him from d’deridahn, that he would do that. bestie literally asked brachium to HELP blake and brachium was like “WHAT are you even saying rn” but gave in bc he NEEDED that info. bestie literally made it so that BRACHIUM, number one blake hater who swore he would kill blake, promised he WOULD NOT kill blake and guarantee blake’s SAFETY to the best of his ability. bestie is not going anywhere.

bestie is trying to save blake behind the scenes the same way blake had been trying to save bestie behind the scenes because these two characters have always been two sides of the same coin and it fucks me up because they’re so perfect together FUCKKKKKK PRY THEM FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS BESTIE LOVES THEIR MAN SORRY ABOUT IT