GreenTrickster's Den

“They’re not smarter or faster they’re buying up others’ lifetimes to do their chores”

I see this reaction a lot, and I gotta say, it always makes me a little sad. Whenever the conversation of exploitation of labor comes up, inevitably someone finds themselves struggling with the guilt of “It is so important to me not to contribute to exploitation but I cannot do this thing myself and need someone else to do it for me, so how do I even approach that?”

Exploitation isn’t in the hiring of a service worker. Exploitation is in the respect you show them for their ability to perform the service you need from them.

I have been on a cleaning service staff before, and also been someone who hired a cleaning service, and I can tell you for sure that a lot of cleaning crews (especially worker owned ones) absolutely LOVE their clients and are genuinely happy to be able to make their lives better. The clients they don’t like? Those are the ones who disrespect the workers.

When I was involved with a cleaning service, we had everything from little old ladies living alone to McMasions with five cars as clients, and I can assure you that whenever there was someone who clearly hired us because they were overwhelmed or unable to keep their space clean, those were the households where you put a little more elbow grease in and did a deep clean even when it wasn’t paid for, because you could see how much these people were trying and struggling, and they were always so kind and generous and often embarrassed when talking to you about the job.

I only hired a service a couple if times in my life, but whenever I did, I worked with the same people as often as I could, tipped as well as I could afford, and tried to be the kind of client I would want to have, and that’s how I often ended up with my baseboards cleaned too, or my fridge scrubbed and organized or a restorative clean done in a high use room even when that wasn’t what I had scheduled or paid for.

I’ve heard the same thing from all manner of service workers over the years. Many of us like our jobs! We enjoy the work. It’s the customers that can do a number on you.

I like having a job.

I like working.

Heck, I like having my rote little tasks that have no originality, they just begin and end, and then going home with unused creativity bubbling out of my ears to use on my own hobbies and writing projects!

I like this kind of work!

Yes, exactly! Just... wander. Exist make my own fun, perhaps with a group of friends.

...

...hands up everyone who wants to do HotelCon. It's just a bunch of us checking into a hotel and living in it for a weekend. Cosplay, fan merch, and cool outfits you never get a chance to wear anywhere are encouraged, but not required.

Main event: breakfast buffet.

Main attractions: climbing the stairs and passively riding the elevators (like, just getting into one and not pressing any buttons, just not getting off again until you feel like it).

Meet 'n' greet: The receptionists - everyone who joins HotelCon will be guaranteed two personal interactions with a receptionist, one when they arrive, and one when they leave.

Special guests: The hotel staff, who will be wandering the hotel at their own discretion. Guests of HotelCon who see them are encouraged to thank them for their hard work, but otherwise politely maintain their distance.

Side event 1: Midnight Meander, in which guests of HotelCon congregate in small groups and wander the corridors after dark, conversing quietly and communally enjoying the nighttime liminal space.

Side event 2: Cosplay on the Town, in which HotelCon guests are encouraged to dress in their aforementioned cosplay/fan merch/cool outfits, and strike out beyond the bounds of the host hotel to get meals other than breakfast, and potentially look at any shops or locations of interest.

Superman let Clark be caring and human in a way most superhero movies don't seem to let their protagonists get, and the movie prioritized life and humanity as the core of why Superman does what he does. He values every life no matter what and does everything he can to save people, with a level of kindness and compassion that is often overlooked in the majority of big blockbuster action movies that care too much about cool explosions to worry about how many casualties they would have created in the process.

Supergirl let Kara be a flawed and messy character, as someone who makes mistakes and isn't always perfect but still tries to do the right thing. Kara wasn't sexualized or made into a #girlboss at all, and she had no romantic love interest forced into the movie. The bond she does form is with a young mentor and the relationship isn't framed as maternal or motherly in the slightest. She was written as a complicated but caring individual who is dealing with her trauma as best as she can.

Even beyond appreciating that they didn't do this to Kara or Lois or one of the usual crowd, it's such a genuinely brilliant move. Because all you have to do is the following:

Movie: Here is a doggo.

Audience: We love the doggo.

Movie: Oh no, the doggo is in danger!

Audience: Oh no, not the doggo, we are 1,000,000% invested in the doggo being okay!

An extra M.

…

You know, comma vs coma?

Probably because Danny Phantom wouldn't come out for another six years.

Though, to be fair, DP's the one that had the overall bigger impact; got introduced to it via half of one episode that I couldn't really hear the dialogue for, was instantly dreaming about it that night.

Microsoft: Hold my beer.

Sony: *gasp* How dare Microsoft up stage me! Well then, watch this-

Me: Yes, we get it - you both suck. Can you two go a week without advertising how awful you are?

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is when he’s IN the Petrova Line, and he’s having a moment. Because it’s beautiful. It’s destroying galaxies, uncountable lives, but it’s still beautiful.

Same goes for the taumoeba Grace and Rocky discover that eats astrophage. It's exactly what they need to save their worlds. But it also almost kills Rocky and is the reason that Grace is unable to return to Earth as the two of them planned to. And it's not presented as evil or cruel for almost ruining the missions (and almost killing two worlds). The taumoeba's doing exactly what it's supposed to do; eat astrophage. That it's able to get to the astrophage fuel stores is a mistake on Grace and Rocky's part, and is treated as simply another obstacle to overcome.

I love that.

I also love that there aren't really any actual antagonists in the film. It makes it very clear that none of the named characters we get to know are evil, or even particularly bad; they've all just been put in horrific situations by events beyond anyone's control. And now they have to live with that as best they can. It breaks my heart every time Eva says that more of the Earth's population will survive if the governments of the world work together, "...which they won't." Because you can both see and feel her heart breaking as she says it. She doesn't want those people to die. She doesn't want Grace to die. She doesn't want anyone to die. But that's not an option, and she's the one staring down the speeding trolley with her hand on the track switch.

Even Grace himself, who is shown to be a very kind, caring man, ultimately refused to go on the mission. Knowing that literally everyone will die if he doesn't. It's an objectively selfish, cowardly, cruel choice. The sort of call we all like to think we'd never make if put in such a situation ourselves. But he still makes it, and that scene's a punch to the gut every time I see it, too.

But the film doesn't punish him for it.

The film doesn't punish anyone, really.

The last shots we see of all the people we know? They're happy, smiling, content. They don't carry grudges or resentment, no 'I told you so' or 'I'll never forgive you' type lines. It's a subtle indication that there is no need for punishment or retribution, because none of these are bad people. There are no villains in this film, just a bunch of people doing the best they can in impossible circumstances and some extremely basic space organisms doing their thing.

I found the Dancers!

I love them! <3

On the down side, I beat the Dancers.

And now I can't fight them anymore.

Sad.

:(

I found the Dancers!

I love them! <3