2/10/2014-8/10/2014

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General Fandom

Questionable: Back Story: Jennifer Cruise (blog) - "It's in the back of the story, not at the front where the action and character arc and the change is. Using back story for motivation in the now isn't just lazy, it's useless."

topic:writing

Is 'Homeland' the most racist show on TV?: Chris Osterndorf (blog) - "But on Thursday, Homeland was struck another blow, when the Washington Post's Laura Durkay alleged it holds the title of the "most bigoted show on television.""

topic:racism, topic:television

How political comedy culture breeds social apathy: Oliver Lee Bateman - "The fake news and its endless-yet-harmless satire came upon us gradually, long after the fires of outrage once fanned by 1960s controversialists such as Lenny Bruce and the Firesign Theatre had dimmed. The rebel yells of those performers, crying out for social justice or demanding that attention must be paid to structural inequality, gave way first to the insouciant witticisms of Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segment and then to The Onion, The Daily Show, and all of the latter's imitators."

topic:television, topic:politics, topic:comedy

Oh, My Pop Culture Religion: Can Religious Violence Ever Be Good?: stinekey (blog) - "With such an intense reaction to real religious violence, one would think that our pop culture would reflect it. Instead, geek culture seems to accept religious violence in some contexts, but not others. So why is that?"

topic:religion, topic:violence

Sexualized Saturdays: Is My Queerness Distracting You?: cloudnoodle (blog) - "Tell me if you've heard this one before: "why does this character have to be gay? It's so distracting!" Or what about this: "we thought about making this character queer, but we thought it would be a distraction"."

topic:queer, topic:representation

Why Superhero Muscles Aren't The Equal of Sexy Curves: Andrew Wheeler (blog) - "Big muscles are a male fantasy. That's not to say that women aren't ever into them, but let's face facts; women have never been the primary target audience for superhero comics, and male heroes are drawn with big muscles anyway."

topic:comics

Scientists of Television: The Process of "The Americans" and "Hannibal": Libby Hill (blog) - "The writer-producers driving the decisions on those shows are architects; they are puppeteers; they are gods. And, sometimes, they are scientists. Each scripted series on television is its own experiment, handcrafted Skinner boxes, painstakingly crafted for their characters to putter around in."

fandom:hannibal, fandom:theamericans

Specific Fandoms

Agents of SHIELD
The Problem of Mike Peterson: Thoughts on Agents of SHIELD and Race: Abigail Nussbaum (blog) - "And so with one fell stroke, Mike Peterson is repositioned. From a potential protagonist, he becomes a subject, someone for our actual heroes to deal with. Someone for SHIELD to manage, hide, and control."

fandom:agentsofshield, topic:race

BoJack Horseman
'BoJack Horseman' and the peculiar charm of sad cartoons: Miles Klee (blog) - "BoJack Horseman, a Netflix original series, subverts all those notions with the sort of dark wit and emotional force that make for cult classic status."

fandom:bojackhorseman

The Boxtrolls
Is The Boxtrolls Transphobic? No, Not Really: Rachel Kolb (blog) - "I have seen The Boxtrolls. I have read the arguments as to why it is transmisogynistic, and I have come to this conclusion: A belief can be sincerely held and still be unsupported and wrong. Here is why."

fandom:theboxtrolls, topic:lgbt

Cross Ange
A new anime series' rape scene sparks heated debate: Aja Romano (blog) - "The first episode of a new anime, Cross Ange, streamed Sunday across the Internet, and one controversial scene has ignited a furor among fans and sparked a debate between horrified viewers and anti-feminists. At the core of the debate is what many fans feel is a sexually objectified portrayal of a sexual assault."

fandom:anime, warning:rape, warning:nsfw

Doctor Who
Checking in with the Doctor: Doctor Who Season 8 Midseason Review: stinekey (blog) - "The next five episodes haven't followed much of a cohesive plot. Rather, they're one-off ideas for what might make an interesting Doctor Who episode."

fandom:doctorwho

The Caretaker - Series 8 - Episode Six (Meta/Review): Boji (AO3) - "Personally, I rather love the fact that Clara's choice undercuts the reading of companion as unrequited love interest (Rose, Martha, Sarah-Jane?) and that she's dating someone the Doctor wouldn't necessarily approve of. But, I do wish the writers and show runner would decide if the Doctor is being purely paternalistic, and over-bearing - or not. "

fandom:doctorwho

Dragon Age
Monstrous Women in Dragon Age: Desire Demons and Broodmothers: Dymphna (blog) - "In this essay, I'd like to talk about a very specific feature of Dragon Age: Origins: the female monsters. Throughout the game, the player encounters humanoid enemies (such as bandits or soldiers) that are both male and female, with no significant differences between the two sexes. The monstrous enemies in the game, on the other hand, follow a different course. While most of the monsters are agendered or masculine in form, there are two monsters who are feminine — the broodmother and the desire demon. There's nothing wrong or sexist about having a game that has monsters that are female. But the desire demon and the broodmother are different. These monsters are monstrousbecause of their femininity. Their monstrousness is directly linked to misogynistic beliefs about female sexuality."

fandom:dragonage, topic:feminism

Family Guy
Is it too late to save 'Family Guy'?: Dominick Mayer (blog) - "And while piling on a Seth MacFarlane endeavor on the Internet feels more and more like straddling a dead horse and pummeling its midsection with every passing day, the debate about MacFarlane's merits has been renewed."

fandom:familyguy

Fullmetal Alchemist
Get To Know A Manga Artist: The Unstoppable Hiromu Arakawa (part 2, part 3) : Caitlin Donovan (blog) - long discussion of Arakawa, her work, her themes, and her fictional characters

fandom:fullmetalalchemist, topic:femalecharacter, topic:racism

Gotham
Gotham's Selina Kyle Said What?: MadameAce (blog) - "I wasn't planning on doing another post about Batman this soon, but Selina Kyle said something during Gotham's second episode that I feel the need to address. Especially because I've seen people cheering her inappropriate behavior on."

fandom:gotham, warning:rape

Legend of Korra
Is a Revolution Without Bending a Revolution Worth Having?: Squid, Inc. (blog) - "I raise these points because in Book 3, Legend of Korra essentially asks the same questions that it did in Book 1 with the Amon and the Equalists: If a system is or leader is fundamentally corrupt, unequal, or oppressive, to what lengths can or should one go to abolish it?"

fandom:legendofkorra

Once Upon A Time
Once Upon a Time in Conversation: "White Out": Jill Pantozzi (blog) - "Share your thoughts on the episode and chat with fellow Once fans in the comments!"

fandom:onceuponatime

Planetary
Inside Godzilla's Rotting Carcass: Nicolas Labarre (blog) - "In 1999, Warren Ellis, John Cassaday and Laura DePuy explored the Godzilla imagery in the second issue of Planetary, "Island". The series was still in the process of codifying its relationship to its readers and was very open about its objectives and methods. It sought to present the archeology of fiction by conflating the narratives of popular texts and their very existence as popular objects, and having the heroes of the series excavate and interpret these condensed remains."

fandom:planetary

A Song of Ice and Fire
Wild at Heart: A Look at Notable "Free Folk": Hierophantasm (blog) - "In a fantasy series where politics is such a major component - the machinations, the wars, the assassinations - perhaps the most unique party in this mythos is that of the free folk, or, as they are more commonly known as, wildlings."

fandom:asoiaf

Twin Peaks
5 reasons 'Twin Peaks' changed TV forever: Chris Osterndorf (blog) - "If there's one lesson to be learned from modern television, it's that a show is never really dead if people still love it."

fandom:twinpeaks