so SAG-AFTRA finally released some official guidance for fans, viewers, creators/influencers, critics, and more during the strike. here's what you need to know:

2. they're asking regular viewers and fans to DONATE TO STRIKE FUNDS, SHOW UP TO PICKETS IF YOU CAN, and please do NOT boycott streaming services or movies in theaters.

3. influencers, content creators, cosplayers, and anything in between is still a bit of a grey area, but they're asking people to use their best judgement. "organically" means UNPAID promo (like an invite to a premiere without being paid, being sent a publicity box, letting the company's social media post a photo of you in cosplay, etc).

obviously this doesn't answer every question, and isn't hard and fast rules for fanworks, but it can at least inform how you personally choose to move forward when posting online and moving publically. i hope this helps!

Ok so I think I figured out where the wires got crossed for fanwork specifically

(Gift link to NYT article)

SAG considers “content creator” and “influencer” to be interchangeable but for most chronically online weirdos (myself included) that’s not really the case so if you don’t know anything and you see the official guidelines it can sound like “oh don’t write fanfic”

The crucial thing to remember if you are not affiliated with SAG-AFTRA is: “are you accepting money and/or free shit from studios, are you someone who does do that, wants to do that, or has done that in the past ?” Then the non-member influencer guidelines apply to you or you should keep them in mind if you’re interested in joining.

Everyone else is good.

(Also important to remember that like. Influencers aren’t just people who happen to be on social media they are paid to do shit and be aware of parasocial relationships but that’s a whole other thing)

TL;DR: Do not accept money or any perks in lieu of payment from studios

Tumblr has suppressed the truth of “Pearl Hates the Irish.” Please reblog this archival post so that others can learn the truth.

prince zuko got you all out here thinking every dark haired antagonist boy is gonna do right in the end when zuzu was the exception not the rule

I really wish it weren’t though? I think it’s really telling that a lot of people like redemption arcs because we want to see people be good despite their pasts. The fact that there are so little redemption arcs in media is very upsetting because it just sends the message that people can’t change which we know is not true. I absolutely don’t mean this for characters like Kylo Ren though lol

Redemption arcs are hard and Zuko’s was successful for a couple of reasons: 

1) Zuko wasn’t the worst character in the Fire Nation. From really early on it was shown that, compared to Zhao, Azula, and other Fire Nation leaders, Zuko was consistently more noble. He tried to be a good person and do the right thing, even when doing so led to him suffering for his actions. 

2) Zuko suffered for his mistakes. He suffered when he turned away from Iroh, he suffered when he betrayed Iroh, and he suffered even after his face turn. There were consequences for his mistakes; he didn’t get off scot free because his childhood was hard. He was still held accountable by the narrative and made to take responsibility for the wrongs he did. 

3) Zuko made tangible amends to the people he hurt. He rescued Hakoda, helped Katara get closure, and became Aang’s firebending master. He put in work to make up for the things he did and rebuild bridges with his new allies. 

Most redemption narratives fail because the guilty party is guilty of much greater crimes than failing to capture the hero, never works to make amends, and never suffers for their mistakes. You wanted to see Zuko redeem himself because he had the capacity, wanted to do the work, and paid dearly for his mistakes.

you’re right and you should say it

I don’t think all of these need to be met for a successful redemption arc, or for a character to get redeemed, though. I mean always kinda depends what the tone of your story and setting is, but let me present you Exhibit A:

Vegeta, from Dragon Ball

>never actually becomes a true Good Guy ™ >never actually makes amends >never actually feels remorse for the people he killed (and there were PLENTY, aside from the heros of the story he ended and the many bystanders, we know the dude genocided whole planets) >dude even relapses sometimes during the story, back to his evil shit before bouncing back for good Still one of my most fav redemption arcs of characters out there. Is it as well-written as Zukos? No. Did he deserve his redemption? LOL NO! But he got it anyway and tbh he’s one of the best characters in Dragon Ball. I don’t disagree with your points, OP, but it can 100% work without meeting these.

prince zuko got you all out here thinking every dark haired antagonist boy is gonna do right in the end when zuzu was the exception not the rule

I really wish it weren’t though? I think it’s really telling that a lot of people like redemption arcs because we want to see people be good despite their pasts. The fact that there are so little redemption arcs in media is very upsetting because it just sends the message that people can’t change which we know is not true. I absolutely don’t mean this for characters like Kylo Ren though lol

Redemption arcs are hard and Zuko’s was successful for a couple of reasons: 

1) Zuko wasn’t the worst character in the Fire Nation. From really early on it was shown that, compared to Zhao, Azula, and other Fire Nation leaders, Zuko was consistently more noble. He tried to be a good person and do the right thing, even when doing so led to him suffering for his actions. 

2) Zuko suffered for his mistakes. He suffered when he turned away from Iroh, he suffered when he betrayed Iroh, and he suffered even after his face turn. There were consequences for his mistakes; he didn’t get off scot free because his childhood was hard. He was still held accountable by the narrative and made to take responsibility for the wrongs he did. 

3) Zuko made tangible amends to the people he hurt. He rescued Hakoda, helped Katara get closure, and became Aang’s firebending master. He put in work to make up for the things he did and rebuild bridges with his new allies. 

Most redemption narratives fail because the guilty party is guilty of much greater crimes than failing to capture the hero, never works to make amends, and never suffers for their mistakes. You wanted to see Zuko redeem himself because he had the capacity, wanted to do the work, and paid dearly for his mistakes.

you’re right and you should say it

Honestly though I think most people (including the OP) sees redemption arcs as a reward that you can give to villains who are “good enough”, which is BS. The fact that Zuko was “not the worst” in the Fire Nation shouldn’t be a factor here because the whole point of redemption is to give it to someone who doesn’t deserve it. If redemtion arcs only work for characters who already have clear noble qualities then they are useless

I also think that most people tend to lump in redemption with reform and forgiveness even though those are 3 very separate but equally valid concepts and this leads to people dismissing positive character development that doesn’t follow the step-by-step process of a proper redemption arc.

Untitled.

i made a comic in google slides for some ungodly reason

the long-awaited sequel, Untitled #2

Untitled #3 explores the formulaic entertainment mass-produced by the pawns of capitalism. Or I just wanted to say ass. One of the two.

Untitled #4: the plot thiccens. also there’s a plot apparently

Untitled #5. This whole comic is 23 strips long, and I’ll be doing daily uploads until it’s all posted. Thanks for the great response y’all.

Untitled #6. Okay so firstly, HOLY FUCK Y’ALL. I did NOT expect this comic to get notes, let alone fanart. The most recent strip will always be linked at the bottom of my pinned post, so you can check there to see if you’re caught up.

Untitled #7. Not much to say here. I hope you’re having a good day!

Untitled #8. The true plot begins.

Untitled #9. The Creator can possess Red because I, like Red, have a phenomenal ass. That’s it. It’s not that deep.

Untitled #10. *slaps roof of blue square* this bad boy can fit so much fucking existential despair

Untitled #11. Bet you didn’t expect the ass jokes comic to come to this now did you

Untitled #12. Red is fucking pissed at me. sorry buddy

Untitled #13. I indeed cannot have a comic without characters. Well played, Red.

Untitled #14. Red has his priorities straight.

Untitled #15. It would be funny if this were the last strip but I promise it isn’t. I put too much effort into the end of the comic to stop it now.

Untitled #16. Nice try, Red. Nice try.

Untitled #17. The paradox of omnipotence perpetually vexes me :(

Untitled #18. Let’s not have any ambiguity: Red’s dead. Hey, that rhymes! Neat!

Untitled #19. While strip 18 coincidentally did fall on April Fool’s, it wasn’t a prank. This comic has two characters now. Remember when this comic was about ass jokes?

Untitled #20. Three more strips to go. Holy shit.

Untitled #21. ass haha

Untitled #22. What am I going to do? Who knows… Find out tomorrow at roughly 8:30 AM EST!

Untitled #23.

the idea that Optimus just sits in truck mode when he’s really pissed and/or giving the silent treatment is actually cute as fuck. how he’ll just sit there all day in truck mode. backing up into little hiding places.

like you try to talk to him and he probably just rumbles his engines grumpily in reply. then when he’s finally had enough, he just blasts his horn really loudly and then you know it’s time to leave

Would it be alright to say that the only one that can come to him when he’s like this is Ratchet and he has to be in his ambulance mode?

Desperately want to see that happen.

I feel Optimus know that he can’t just honk his horn to have Ratchet to leave him alone.  He try this once. He never expected to have Ratchet answering by using his siren for an hour strait…. Never again.

DYING

Op: *HONK!*

Ratchet: *SIREN* DONT YOU USE THAT TONE WITH ME YOUNG MAN

This is my new favorite Optimus headcanon

This has been bothering me

I mean c’mon

it’s a second dolphin ready to deploy like a fighter missile

So I just saw on the news about an AI-driven tractor doing farming now and combined with AI-driven cars I think we finally found the timeline that kicks off the Cars universe

If you or a loved one can hear this image, you may be entitled to financial compensation

I would take this image and this sound if I could have all my favorite shows that exist only on streaming platforms on DVDs.

I GOT A FUCKING RAISE THE POTATO WORKED WTF

This potato works. Every. Fucking. Time.

Reblogging because it’s a damn potato and I want to encourage people to assume potatoes are magical.

w-what if potato is actually lucky

The Owl House: Says that people are complex, complicated and have different strokes of morality 

 The Owl House: Shows Belos feeling guilty about killing his brother and the grimwalkers, says that he and Caleb became witch-hunters because they wanted to “fit in”. 

Also The Owl House: Brushes off Belos as some crazy evil extremist, never bothers to talk about how his ideology and guilt could have shaped him, and kills him off in the most anti climactic way possible

Sorry but can we all agree that Nazi’s are bad? Yes? Can we all agree that people always have at least one positive trait—and can even be remorseful? Yes?

Okay but does that mean the Nazi should be glorified anyway just because he’s a little remorseful for killing literally thousands of people. LITERALLY thousands. Hm. Hmmmmmm.

Sorry but I don’t particularly agree with your take on this

I never said that Belos’ actions should be glorified. Nor did I say that he was a good person. And I do agree that all Nazis are bad. I just wish the Owl House had explored/acknowledged more on what drove Philip to become the monster he is. A bit like Amity and Lilith, but without the redemption part.

He was driven by the same exact thing as any witch hunter in our history (REAL LIFE EVENTS). Racism, sexism and homophobia. Idk about you but I don’t particularly care about his reasons when that’s the gist

All OP pointed out was how TOH pretends to be deep or complex but in reality it was none of that.

You’re the one who brought up Nazi into OP’s post.

You’re also the one to imply that OP was somehow glorifying Nazis.

And now you’re just bringing up the witch hunts (then emphasizing that they were real life events despite the fact that TOH is fictional show with fictional witches) after OP disproves your first claims.

No offense, but it seems like your just using real life events to make OP look/feel bad about their take of the show. You don’t like Belos and that’s fine, but don’t come to OP and then implied that they were glorifying Nazis for having issues with how the show wrote Belos.

Full offense but Belos is literally a racist mass murderer who spent literally decades of his life cooking up a scheme to COMMIT MASS GENOCIDE i’m sorry I don’t particularly give a shit about the possibility of him feeling a little bit ~regretful~ or having little screen time within a rushed third season, of which i’d much rather learn more about the main cast than his goopy nasty ass.

Also if you like, look at it through the eyes of parallels, of which is very obvious the creators were drawing, LIKE VERY VERY OBVIOUSLY, EVEN IF IT’S FANTASY OR WHATEVER, then you will see a striking resemblance of Colonist Europeans indoctrinating native people before, during and after mass murder of their people, actively suppressing and whitewashing their cultures and practices through Christian conversion boarding schools. I’ve taken several college classes on the matter and I can confidently say: shit was fucked up, and there are already hundreds of shows told in the perspective of the white man.

And just for the record, giving him ~reasons~ for his actions is literally glorifying Nazi ideology, because then people can point at his past and be like “see? He was sad before. That’s why he wants to kill a whole island’s worth of people”, which people literally do with actual, real life people, let alone fictional characters. I don’t give a flying fuck about his reasons. I’m glad he died in the most anticlimactic way possible the first time, and the second time.

Look. Not every villain has to have a redemption arc. Not every villain has to be fully fleshed out. Not every villain has to be relatable or whatever. And when their stories parallel that of history, of course I’m going to look at it through that lens. It’s an important thing to realize and understand.

Belos was literally a mass murdering, racist, religious fanatic. Boo hoo he didn’t get that much screen time in a story that was quickly rushed to the finish line. And I take issue with them seeing Belos, who is literally a crazy extremist, and wanting him to be coddled by the writers. He HARDLY feels fucking guilty. Good God I can’t believe this is actually something I have to write on here

yes hello, I’m Jewish. Can we all agree that not every racist, sexist, or homophobe is a nazi? Can we? Great thanks. That’s one.

Two: the point the OP was making was a literary point. The point of a well written, mature villain with a believable personality, backstory and motivation is to make them sympathetic to the audience. We can be sympathetic towards a villain, want him to be well written and with depth, and yet still hate his guts and want him defeated and get his just desserts for causing harm to others.

May I remind you all that the owl house is mainly a show aimed for children? And I’m not talking about lowering standards of good, believable writing because “kids shows have no depth or quality” i mean to say that it does not have these overt themes of nazism in it. yes there are themes in there about racism and bigotry, but it doesn’t speak about these themes openly, and it doesnt go often deeper than “big white scary bad man bad” and then they stomp belos into the floor.

what i mean by “literary point” is that the show has put down past hints about belos’ backstory and has hinted at him being sympathetic and having actual emotions towards his brother and about witch hunting. the show put down hints, meaning we are expecting, as an audience, a pay off down the line that expands upon these points that would’ve shown belos in a larger light as a character with menacing depth.

except, none of that happened. it was hinted at multiple times, even within the last season, but ultimately by the last episode, they just make him into an eldritch beast to be defeated and seen as a horrific monster with no backbone and all his menace and cunning wiped out just to make a point of being able to stomp your enemies into the ground without humanizing them.

this isnt just a mess of a message for children and morally as a whole, but also just an utter mess story wise, throwing away all hints of morality for the character and anything deeper hinted at him into the toilet just to make a point, even a political point, which imo doesn’t belong in such a show. it just reminds me of the whole “andy demayo” incident from steven universe from 2016, and i dont even want to open THAT can of worms.

all your points about belos being a mass, racist murderer and such, and bc of that, in your opinion, not deserving a bigger backstory or screentime - look im sorry, but have you seen mainstream media nowadays? hannibal? the boys? invincible? those shows focus on mass murderers and pay attention to their writing AND give focus to these characters who are absolutely heinous (and with not redemption arcs). why? BECAUSE ITS INTERESTING. its psychological. i LOVE going into a psycho’s head and seeing how they tick - and yet we see ourselves in them, some humanity in them. to be clear - fictional ones. because theyre fun. because theyre insane. because they are US. because we can see our dark sides in them. if youve taken classes on such things, then i recommend taking some psychology courses then, instead of dismissing such facets of humanity outright, because they are in all of us, whether we like to admit it or not. and you thinking its a waste of time to focus on such plot points and characterization is, im sorry, just sad and very limiting.

Air Himbo

Water Himbo

Earth Himbo

Fire Himbo

@crvggio​ I’ve been laughing at this for 47 years

And the Avatar

Reblogging again because that last addition is IMPORTANT

But when the world needed him most, he pulled the wrong lever...

Why do they even have that lever?

learning from the reblogs of that post that there's a lot of people out there under the impression that "kill your darlings" means "kill your characters" and that's the funniest possible interpretation of that phrase

since a couple people sent asks: it means you can't be precious about your own writing when the time comes to edit. sometimes you will write a really good scene, or a really good line, or a really good description. it will be your new favorite thing you've ever written. the kind of thing you want to post on tumblr attributed to "the book i haven't written yet" because it's just that good. but when the whole thing is done and you're reading it over, it just. it doesn't actually work. it stands out like a sore thumb. it fucks up the pacing, or maybe once you've really got a handle on characters you realize it's ooc. "kill your darlings" is about learning to delete those bits, even though they're really good, because they're making the work as a whole worse.

... but a lot of people i know don't actually delete them because it's 2023 and you can just cut and paste them into a different document titled "bits" until you write something where they'll fit. and sometimes it actually does fit in the work, but you tried to put it in the wrong place or in the mouth of the wrong character. but learning that you can put a lot of excellent paragraphs together to make a story that's worse than the sum of its parts is the important part.