okaay, finished TADC. Trans rights. Fun ride, I didn't really get that wrapped by it (probably for the extremely shallow reason of not really vibing with CG / 3D animation) but behind the youtube kids-esque nightmare graphics and designs there was the sort of doom-patrol-esque found family therapycore nonsense I eat up, wrapped up in a harlan ellison reference of all things, which, idk, feels like that says something about being stuck online in 2020s pretty well, whatever andrew hussie did with 2010s internet culture was done again here, and that's something. most media is scared to show characters even texting too long, any attempt to hold a mirror to online spaces is immediately labeled as cringe, and isekai is booming. we really don't like looking at ourselves.
TADC is, for the most part, the product of a single creator, not written by committee, which is what allowed it to look and sound the way it did. Way too irreverent for disney but way too thoughtful for adult swim, it lived and died with the spirit of a webcomic, or fanfiction, the kind of strong authorial intent ghouls might mislabel as immaturity.
But it also meant that, yeah, the character screen time wasn't perfectly divided, not everyone had their development wrapped neatly, jax became the point of interest and her expression was prioritized over making a more widely pleasing product, and since 20 different people weren't needed to make that decision, it went through. And the rest of the cast wasn't given the attention they probably deserved. Not even really the protagonist. Modern fandom is really revolved around comfort characters, following media specifically for your blorbo, which as a comics reader is already an endless hell, so I get it. it's kind of a bummer. I just think it's better than the alternative.
If we want to see more indie animation succeeding, in all likelihood that's what it's gonna look like, moments that really resonate with specific people and leave everyone else feeling a little alienated. that's the price of specificity, that's authorship ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Maybe it's unfair, but my current fear is shows and movies getting replaced by AI generated soulless chimeras, so seeing maybe the biggest phenomenon right now getting criticized for the opposite reason, an obvious human authorial bias, is sick, actually. More of this, please, even if not all of it resonates with me all the time. Especially if it doesn't, actually.
But also make the next indie sensation about the nonbinary experience for me specifically please, ty
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