let us lie in the sun

At times, Gatwa’s casting in those projects has been dismissed as an exercise in ‘box-ticking’. Gatwa scoffs. ‘First of all, you don’t know anything about me. Secondly, tick fcking boxes! People need to be fcking seen. What are you going to do, tell the same stories? Have the same people fronting things for all of eternity? Representation and inclusivity and branching out… it enriches us all. How embarrassing. You people with your tiny mindsets – open a book, look out the window and then f*ck off.’ (source)

What do I mean by the Third Argument? Well, I'm not sure I've ever made a post about this directly, but as far as I can see it, there are three main arguments for greater diversity in popular media. The first two are the most common, and they go like this:

It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see people like them on screen. That is, the beneficiaries are marginalized people.

It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see and learn about people who are not like them through art. That is, the beneficiaries are non-marginalized people, who then (hopefully) pass on the benefit by treating marginalized people better.

These two arguments are the source of a lot of debate here on ye olde tumblr. Despite both being arguments for representation, they pull in different directions. What counts as 'good' representation for the purposes of Argument 1 often would not be good for the purposes of Argument 2, and vice versa. Authentic versus sympathetic. Ugly or over-sanitized. You see this debate play out constantly. It's really hard for a piece of - say - queer media to do both at once.

But these debates tend to leave out Argument 3, the one that Gatwa is making above. And that argument cuts through a lot of this debate.

3. It is good for media to be diverse because art needs variety. The beneficiary of representation is art itself, absent any social effects that may or may not be present.

For this argument, diverse stories are intrinsically good. It is good to make art that's not just the same thing you've seen a hundred times before. Putting the kinds of people who don't often make it into mainstream media into your art is an extremely efficient way to make that happen. It's not the only method, but it's a really good method.

For representation to be 'good representation' according to Argument 3, all it needs to be is interesting. A story you haven't heard before, at least not in that medium. That which counts as 'bad representation' by the lights of this argument are stock characters, like the Eternally Patient Mother, the Gay Best Friend, the Wise Black Advisor. Perhaps there was a time in which these characters were new, but that time has long passed. There's no art in pulling a bog-standard character trope off the shelf. Show us a new kind of guy. The world is infinitely diverse. You're not going to run out. Telling the same stories with the same voices for all eternity, as Gatwa says, is boring. Even if there was nothing else wrong with it, this would be. Art isn't supposed to be boring.

WOW I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS MY FAVORITE TELEVISION SERIES OF ALL TIME (it's not out yet)

2. Your creativity matters and so does your ability to share it

3. Serial harassers in fandom spaces are beginning to express discomfort that sites like AO3 completely strip their ability to do anything about fic they don't like, sometimes going as far as leaving entire fandoms due to the influx of "problematic fiction without a chance for consequences to the author". Posting your fanworks to AO3 actively contributes to making harassers feel unsafe and powerless in fandom

4. Militant anti-fanfic content creators also cannot do anything about fic posted to AO3

5. You can post anonymously to AO3, with the ability to de-anonymize at any time

The freed unit we meet in Platform Decay has no real context for anything other than MB’s log. It has no support and is so obviously a rogue SecUnit that it’s miraculous it wasn’t killed (honestly, the only reason it wasn’t killed was because it ran into MB)! Three didn’t even think to include the helpful additional codes MB gives the unit as a parting gift.

The fact of the matter is that despite having biases, I think Murderbot is very thoughtful and realistic about what’s possible. It feels very deeply for the units it encounters (hence why it has offered in the past). It doesn’t want these units harmed!

Not to mention the fact it strikes me as a bad thing for corporates to get their hands on a unit with a jailbroken GovMod.

Queen! Belt out a banger of a turnmaxing moid

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns

Tell me about a complicated man. Muse, [...]

who highkey through savage sidequests toughed it

driven time and again off course, [...]

tell me how he wandered and was lost

after chopping Troy-town to dogfood deadass

once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.

when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy,

Sailed through sick storms and dealt with dramas

Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,

and where he went, and who he met, the pain he suffered in the storms at sea, and how

Locked in to lead his fam to a homey safe space

fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.

he worked to save his life and bring his men back home.

Talk of the trips and trenches, the sus opps he faced how the GOAT cooked and vibed with the randos though he lowkey took the L on that mission when his bros

But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove – the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,

He failed to keep them safe; poor fools,

Like NPCS blundered badly to beef with the big G

the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun

they ate the Sun God’s cattle, and the god

and got ghosted, permablocked, cooked completely.

and the Sungod blotted out the day of their return. . . .

kept them from home. . . .

This Ring quest will have two hobbits. Maximum.

Then they all get to Rivendell and have somehow multiplied into four hobbits. And it's like. Okay. Maybe the others are right.

Maybe this is too many hobbits.

We have as many hobbits as we have not-hobbits.

But damn it, you just don't want to get rid of any of these hobbits. Screw it! Everyone can deal. Four hobbits. This is a four hobbits problem.

So away you go.

And things go bad in the worst possible way.

Over and over.

You've lost your hobbits. You've lost yourself. The fellowship has been separated.

It takes everything in your power to help the humans defend themselves, bringing them together to save Rohan. Finally, as things begin to look upright, you're ready to face the war with everything the Rohirrim have left.

You're ready to face him. This may be the hardest battle you've ever fought. But you ride.

Then you get there and two of your fucking hobbits are sitting there like "Yeah, while you were gone, we raised a tree army and beat Saruman's ass. Wanna help us loot his tower?"

....

There were not, in fact, too many hobbits.

GOD, she does not want to do this. She does not want to force him into that ship. But unlike Grace, she doesn’t have the luxury of collapsing, because somebody still has to act. Somebody still has to make the impossible decision and live with it. And Sandra Hüller plays this so brilliantly because she never makes Stratt’s suffering loud. She keeps it all so restrained and controlled, but you can still see every tiny crack in her composure. She has to hold herself together while her entire world is falling apart.

And the thing is, for YEARS Grace was probably the closest thing she had to a friend. Someone she trusted, relied on, someone who actually understood the unbearable weight she had to carry every single day while the entire planet waited for extinction or salvation. And instead of meeting her halfway and carrying that burden together with her, Grace leaves her alone with it. Grace gets to unload all of his fear, anger, and panic onto her, and she STILL has to be the one who is held responsible. THAT is what makes me lose my mind every time I watch this scene. Because yes, from Grace’s perspective, Stratt betrays him. But from Stratt’s perspective? Grace betrays her, the mission, years of work, and honestly humanity itself. And on top of all that, she is of course also heartbroken for her friend. She has to sacrifice someone she deeply cares about, become the villain in his story, and still keep going. As Sandra Hüller’s character says in Sibyl, “Sometimes having a breakdown is a luxury.” And damn well it is for Eva Stratt.

(🪷) uhh my YSA design,,,I hope I did it respectfully (•́⁠ ⁠ ⁠‿⁠ ⁠,⁠•̀)