Under Your Bed, for a Certain Definition of Under

the "fear vs laughter" premise of monsters inc is part of a broader allegory about corporate greed at the expense of the health and well-being of the world at large. in particular, it's roughly analogous to the world's continued reliance on fossil fuels, which is due in part to fearmongering about nuclear power and wind farms.

a key element of the plot is that it's not just a matter of "the main characters don't want to subsist on fear, they want to be Niceys." the plot and characterization rely on sully and ESPECIALLY mike buying into the corporate line on human children, and thus going from "terrified" to "confused and intrigued" when it becomes apparent that human children are not actually dangerous

the result of all this is that "laugh power is just as feasible, and in fact more efficient" develops the themes and characters rather than shutting them down. if the premise of the movie were simply that sully and mike are Niceys to begin with, you lose the allegory, you have to rewrite the plot from scratch, and the characters - imo - become considerably less interesting, because you're robbing them of the tension between "maybe what I'm doing is wrong" and "I would like to have Money to Eat, not cause a mass panic, and not get thrown in jail or killed or written off as a crank"

attitude is a major element here. monsters inc isn't out here implying that the concept of monsters engendering fear/pain in order to harvest it is stupid. undertale isn't a game where "you're in a dungeon but everyone is friendly;" a pacifist run is a conscious decision that you make with people firing bullets at you. this one's a Twitter example, but - something like lovely lady rpg or clam man 2 isn't starting from the absurd premise that harry dubois and the setting he's in are Generic and therefore Uninteresting, only to tear them out and replace them with nothing of substance.

lastly, and imo this is key:

a short tumblr post is ill-suited for exploring ideas in any real detail, which tends to make it more annoying, not less.

more specifically: these posts rarely dive into the actual narrative implications of anything they're proposing, instead favoring vague gestures at pithy but underdeveloped ideas. there's a difference between saying "what if Indiana Jones didn't go on adventures lol" and "what if a normal, realistic archaeologist still got drawn into a pulp adventure and had to get by in spite of being terrified and under-equipped to deal with the situation." the latter would be A Story that engages with the genre, not just a cheap gag.

in conclusion:

Specifically, I think the original target audiences for the posts OP mentions are, in order: scholars/academics, and people with chronic pain. (I know the second post, though I'm not completely sure about the first.)

But let's take the first example: Indiana Jones but does grant applications and modern academia stuff. So you have this character who is offered mythical plots, but is self-constrained by the modern scholarly code of ethics. That's boring? You have the clash between the standard lone hero myth and a communal scholarly collaboration. You have a character who is being told (presumably believably!) that they are the chosen one, while buying into the modern bureaucracy and systems that helps ensure responsible, ethical scholarship. You have, at the core, a character who is trying to reconcile two ways of seeing the world. That can be allegorical for many many real life scenarios. Gender roles/personal gender ideals. Balancing being of two cultures. The divide between the expectations of a parent and the desires of a child.

But, this is a post that makes sense and has depth if academic structures are already a part of your life and you've thought at length about the ethical garbage fire that science can quite easily turn into.

The second example: first, it's a power fantasy for people with chronic pain. But it also has pretty obvious allegorical details that stick out to me (personally) like a neon sign.

You have a scenario where the most human connection you can have is with a literal demon, something completely alien, but which provides a lifeline of connection. (The medical system is often extremely hostile to human existence but it often provides the best hope of relief/treatment.)

You have a scenario where the only person who is helping you also profits off your misery (the central tension of for-profit healthcare).

The original post did not make the demon a doctor, but rather a nurse. (Often, sympathetic doctors are also at the mercy of an uncaring system and may not have the specialist knowledge to help with a particular problem and the specialists who do are often hostile/uncaring--putting the helpful demon at an explicitly lower level of power reflects this reality.)

You also have additional layers which connect the demon and their patients/show the demon as a mirror: the demon who decided to just treat patients significantly outperformed all of the other demons trying to do things the normal way (allegory for using accommodations and succeeding rather than trying to do things the "normal" way and struggling). Also, the demon looking at life and reevaluating/finding a path that works for them (a common experience after encountering disability).

This is to me a post/chain of posts that are riffing off the experiences of having chronic pain or illness, and I admit, it might not make sense without context or those particular life experiences.

So if you’re one of those “I can only write when I feel Inspired™” type of writers but you never seem to feel very inspired, and all of the usual “You have to make a schedule and stick to it and sit down and write XYZ words per day” writing tips have never worked for you and only make you feel guilty but you have no idea why,

have you perhaps considered that you might be neurodivergent / mentally ill / have a chronic health condition, and that what you call “inspiration” is what the rest of us call “spoons”?

So if you’re one of those “I can only write when I feel Inspired™” type of writers but you never seem to feel very inspired, and all of the usual “You have to make a schedule and stick to it and sit down and write XYZ words per day” writing tips have never worked for you and only make you feel guilty but you have no idea why,

have you perhaps considered that you might be neurodivergent / mentally ill / have a chronic health condition, and that what you call “inspiration” is what the rest of us call “spoons”?

My mom has a habit of asking non-sequitur questions without context, and I have a habit of asking why she’s asking before I answer. Part of this is because I’m instinctively a cagey bastard, but my answer is often flexible depending on circumstances.

Today my mother was on the phone with someone while I was on the toilet. She shouted “What time do you need to be at work?” from across the house and I, flustered, asked “Why?”

In fact, I think I personally have a similar communication problem (definitely ignore this if I’m missing something). I often answer yes/no questions with a single one-word answer which is technically true but exceedingly unhelpful. (Example: “Have you eaten?” “No.” “Okay, [offer of lunch options]” “Oh, I have food I just haven’t eaten it”--is much less efficient/good communication than saying “No, my food’s in the microwave”)

お昼にしましょう～☆

久しぶりに猫ちゃん♪（ブラシ練習がてら）

process gif! 

Like, what if his name just happens to be Montgomery Scott, so all of his friends started calling him “Scotty,” and then every time he was introduced to a new person, they would be like “Oh, are you Scottish? My uncle was Scottish!”

And finally, he just gets sick of explaining the situation, so he starts replying with “aye, laddie!” But then it turns out that the person he said that to was Captain Kirk, and he doesn’t want to admit that he lied to his new commanding officer, so he has to keep speaking in a ridiculously over-the-top brogue and commenting constantly on how much he loves drinking Scotch, and by the time that he realises that Kirk would have found humour in the situation, he’s in too deep and can’t stop pretending, and it gradually just becomes his normal speech pattern.

Then, years later, the Enterprise is being inspected by a Starfleet engineer who’s actually Scottish, and Scotty takes him on a walking tour of his warp engines and is all like “Auch! Here be me wee bairns!” and the other engineer is just like “what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Scotty soundproofing his quarters on the Enterprise so that no one can hear him teach himself to play the bagpipes from instructional videos.

Scotty making a great show of taking a shuttle down to Aberdeen to “visit his family” every time the Enterprise is in Earth orbit and then, once on the ground, discreetly site-to-site transporting himself to Vancouver or whatever.

*slaps roof of train* this bad boy can fit so much cosmic horror in it

So when said horde did arrive, they saw the general sitting outside the city’s open gates, drinking tea. The horde sent a couple of emissaries over to see what was what, and the general greeted them cheerfully and invited them all to come and take tea with him.

The horde decided that this was a scenario that had “MASSIVE FUCKING TRAP” written all over it in beautiful calligraphy and promptly fucked off.

so this story is the Romance of Three Kingdoms, and essentially takes place between Zhuge Liang, resident tactician extraordinaire, and Sima Yi… OTHER resident tactician extraordinaire.

The two were both regarded as tactical geniuses and recognized the other as their rival. Zhuge Liang had a reputation for ambushing the SHIT out of his opponents and using the environment to his advantage, thus destroying large armies with a small number of men. Sima Yi (who kind of entered the picture later) was a cautious person whose speciality was unravelling his opponent’s plans before they began. So it was natural that the two would butt heads; however, since Sima Yi tended to have more men and resources, he started winning battles against the former. Which, y’know, kinda sucked.

On to the actual story: Zhuge Liang is all like “shit i gotta defend this city with like 10 men.” Literally if he fights ANY kind of battle here, he WILL lose; his only option for survival is not to fight. And that’s looking more and more impossible until he hears that his rival is leading the opposing army. And then he gets this brilliant idea. He basically opens all the gates, sends his men out in civilian clothes to sweep the streets, and sits on top of the gate drinking tea and chilling out and basically makes the whole thing out to be a trap

When Sima Yi comes he’s all like “yo come on in bro”

and Sima Yi is like “yeah he’s never been that obvious about his traps before. this is definitely a bluff” and he’s about to head in when he realizes

wait. he knows that i think he’s bluffing.

and so he gets it in his head that maybe, just MAYBE, Zhuge Liang has this cunning plan that will wipe out his army - recall that he has a pretty good handle on what his rival is capable of. And after a long period of deliberation (which is just like “he know that I know that he knows that etc.”), being the cautious man he is, SIma Yi eventually decides to turn his entire army around and leave.

Zhuge Liang later points out that the plan was based specifically on the fact that he was facing his rival; if it had been anyone else, there’s no way it would have worked. A dumber or less cautious person would have simply charged in and won without breaking a sweat. 

Well, that day was super foggy (which Zhuge Liang had predicted. Did I mention he was also a freakishly accurate meteorologist?). So the enemy across the river sees a fleet of boats armed to the teeth with what appears to be half an army of men. They panic! and start firing arrows like crazy. 

Zhuge Liang lets this play out for a while, then he’s like, ”Ok guys that’s enough.” They calmly turn the boats around and go back to base, where they dismantle the scarecrows and pull out all the enemy’s arrows.

Especially since it makes Zhuge Liang look like this:

Time travel is central to Endgame’s plot.

Back to the Future got banned for time travel in China.