The Shy Changling

So...how much of the bad discourse surrounding Steven Universe is just because people were really hoping that the Gems would beat up Andy DeMayo in "Gem Harvest"?

I was astonished to learn that there was controversy around this episode, because I felt like it was just kind of a normal children's cartoon about getting along with difficult relatives; and then I looked it up and learned that it had the extremely inauspicious timing of airing right after Trump's 2016 victory, and, yeah, okay, I can understand why a children's fantasy about reconciling with your obnoxious conservative relatives and getting them to accept your alternate family structure would play rather poorly at the time.

I think that Rebecca Sugar probably assumed, like most of the world that wasn't my specific flavour of extremely online in 2016, that Clinton would crush Trump and that this episode would maybe help to smooth over divisions; but of course what ended up happening is that an episode about how you should be empathetic towards your bigoted relatives ended up airing just as your bigoted relatives were going around victoriously hate-criming people in the street.

Watching it now, though, it ends up feeling wistful more than anything. Like, yeah, sure, it doesn't work like that, and we all know that now...But wouldn't it be nice if it did? It feels like a pleasant dream.

Steven Universe is fundamentally a power fantasy—but the fantasy is being able to get through to people and heal things. The power is love instead of strength.

"Like, yeah, sure, it doesn't work like that, and we all know that now...But wouldn't it be nice if it did?" Yeah....

“it sounds like you’re justifying their actions-“ i am. they’re a fictional character. i’m okay with anything they do all the time. hope this helps.

it's also creating a class of people who you can abuse while telling yourself that you're Good and Moral and Not an Abuser.

You also absolve the people around the abuser of accountability and give them means to tell themselves the abusive behavior they saw couldn't have actually been abusive. They can tell themselves that since abusers are corrupt, evil, inhuman monsters, anyone who they know and do not think of as a corrupt, evil, inhuman monster couldn't possibly be abusing anyone. Only people they don't know personally can be abusers, so they have no obligation to question anything or intervene. Which is one of the single biggest factors that allows abusers of all kinds to continue being abusive without consequence.

This world is so beautiful. People are shipping Ryan gosling and markiplier. Because they were both in space movies you see

Tumblr users love to do things like this. I DO NOT mean this in a mocking way to be completely clear. I think it's cute. It reminds me of back in the day when people shipped jack frost and elsa cause they both have ice powers.

Or like the superwholock thing. Tumblr users like to go "I like this thing AND that thing.. What if my FAVORITE CHARACTERS met each other? Would that be cool or WHAT!" And the thing is it's absolutely adorable

You can say it's cringe or bad or missing the point of the movie all you want but I don't care. Yeah man, I bet it would be really cute if there was a happy ending and the blood murder man (in space) got saved by the dorky science teacher (in space) and they had yaoi moments. I'm so glad you're having fun

"What do your elvish eyes see?" is Aragorn saying, as politely as possible, "Because the REST OF US are at a significant disadvantage, Prince Dipshit."

wdym for no apparent reason it's because it's awesome

i think MORE characters should be rape survivors. i think more characters should be csa survivors. i think more characters should be dv survivors. i think strong and noble and attractive and charming and brilliant characters with indomitable spirits should be survivors. i think the most powerful characters in the world should be survivors. i think characters who are cultural icons should be survivors. i think victims and survivors should see ourselves in the most admirable and beloved characters around! i think we should be protagonists!!!

#‘it’s so unnecessary’ . okay . god yea this one drives me CRAZY. people will yap all day long about how it's "unnecessary" to make a character a survivor like do you think it was necessary for any of us to be abused or raped irl? was it narratively essential? did it teach the audience an important lesson? why do we, who have to justify our experiences and existences and reactions all the time in real life, also have to justify why we should exist in fiction? people act so repulsed by the thought of us. i've really fully and truly had enough of that. there is nothing so uniquely disgusting or repulsive or unspeakable about our victimhood or our survival that justifies this obsession with keeping the reality of our existence hidden

"oh but talking about it can be triggering for victims :(((" you know what else is triggering? living in a world that insists that we cannot be open and honest about what happened to us. maybe if we had, oh, i don't know, prominent examples in our cultural stories of people who are victims and are competent and strong it might be easier (for everyone, not just victims) to have the discussions we actually need to have about our trauma.

sometimes your favorite fanfic isn't a fanfic at all but the insane DM's between you and your equally freaky mutual

btw i love when dubcon is used in fiction as a way to explore characters. i love when characters don’t understand how to “properly” ask for consent because they have never had their consent respected in their lives. i love when traumatized adult characters make potentially unwise choices about what to do with their bodies because they have the autonomy to do so. i love when characters make choices that i personally wouldn’t make, but i can totally understand how they got there. i love when characters have complex, fucked up, unhealthy dynamics, but still care about each other and want to do better. i love when writers trust audience members to read between the lines instead of spoon feeding them moral lessons. i love when characters are allowed to actually fuck up and have mistakes to learn from!