This will go to deaf ears, but can we please stop redacting/black boxing sentences from memes until you can’t see anything but black lines? This is a mess. Just make a new one.
Whenever people try to tell me to ship “moral ships” I like to think about how inherently immoral it is to flirt with service workers at coffee shops where they’re obliged to be nice to you so… many coffee shop AUs are like. Immoral. But given that they are a fantasy where this is instant romance without the fear of trapping a service worker in an uncomfortable situation that’s tantamount to workplace sexual harassment, I enjoy the cutesy coffee shop AUs immensely.
And that’s basically my attitude towards all fantasy. There’s lots of things I enjoy in fantasy that wouldn’t work IRL. Enemies to lovers. Sudden kisses. Miscommunications in relationships. Codependency. Fight sluts who physically assault each other while emotionally connecting.
Once you start ascribing your morals to the fiction you consume, you tend to miss the issues in even the most innocuous, innocent seeming scenarios. It’s easy to judge other people’s fictional enjoyment until someone points out your innocent coffee shop AU is romanticised workplace harassment.
But it’s all fiction. It’s a fantasy. That’s why it’s fine.
A lack of education around things like consent, healthy relationships, self respect and respect of others, bodily autonomy, etc, has made people think they can rely only on fiction to tell them what right - but that’s dangerous. And unsustainable.
Episode 3 perfectly shows why straying away from the game and creating a more elaborate interpretation can benefit itself AND its inspiration. It sucks that Ellie never got to meet Bill and we didn’t get that silly banter from them, but the game will always be there. Retelling the exact same story is not what we wanted. Something new, nuanced, meaningful, that honors side characters on the big screen is exactly what we needed, wanted, and received. Now, Bill and Frank in the game world have so much more backstory provided by the show!
Me tomorrow morning, reading all the think pieces from angry gamers screaming how gay people shouldn’t exist in their game where a lesbian teenager is the embodiment of hope
Zelenogorsk the Pallas’s cat has so many important things to do. One of these things is a daily patrol of his territory. He should carefully check, inspect and sniff everything, and then climb to his personal watch-tower-tree to observe surroundings, and try to spot a keeper carrying a meal. So… being a manul is a tiring job!
