sea freak

the intro, for starters: it's INTENTIONAL. the bedsheets are ON PURPOSE. the shirts that match the bedsheets. the premise: how they were reduced to the Iconic Matching Bedsheets because that was how the fans Branded them. the intimacy of the bed setting. different but belonging together, the perfect speculated Are They Dating.

confirming it 7 seconds in to finally take control of the narrative.

then, the title card: gloved hands ripping apart the bedsheets and setting them on fire. anonymous people on the internet ruining something so incredibly private, ripping it apart and setting the dregs on fire. THAT'S the theme of the video: why they kept it a secret.. and why they're sharing it now. taking control of the narrative, shedding a light on the damage that was done.

when there are clips of old videos that were since privated i don't think it's accidental that they're taken from torrent sites with the logo intact and not the official upload. BECAUSE THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT. it feels invasive. IT WAS INVASIVE.

it's ART. it's INTENTIONAL. yeah they're dating but they're WRITERS. this isn't just a dating announcement, it's an introspective art film. a video essay. a think piece. so many layers to this video that i think many people are missing or ignoring.

then the REBRAND. it's such a powerful conclusion to a video all about strangers controlling the narrative of one's life and career, and finally freeing oneself from that chokehold. setting boundaries. deciding for yourself what, and how, you do from now on. a metamorphosis, maybe. finally taking back the control that was ripped from them for all those years.

But on a smaller level it is the disappearance of something that was so ubiquitous to American childhood. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Americans can hear the exact intonation of this phrase in their head: "This program made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by viewers like you. Thank you."

A donation of $5/month gets you access to PBS Passport which has a lot of dramas, news, documentaries, and the ability to stream your local PBS station live.

NPR: Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it's shutting down

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.

use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.

use storygraph instead of goodreads.

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.

feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3