i think my one complaint with the whole generational trauma zeitgeist - or making it into this all-encompassing “thing” that social relationships suffers from more than anything - is that it just feels like a narrower, more limitedversion of sociological storytelling.
whereas sociological storytelling has characters that respond to every sphere of influence around them - families, yes, but also wider society, culture, class, race, region, and all the other broad social learning institutions within a culture such as the education system, religion, traditions, etc etc.
generational trauma is a subcategory of sorts, maybe, and its not bad to acknowledge subcategories exist! at least its an attempt for people to understand cause-and-effect… but it is not everything. and when people don’t focus as much on other aspects, you can end up thinking in this individualistic way that you can either “choose” to break the chain or not and that will be your value as a person.
that’s not how it works. it prerequisites being aware of these things in order to “make” that choice (what is a choice, really? does it descent from the gods or are you at every moment responding to your environment the way you think is right?) and presupposes that one does have that free will so long as one is aware of one (1) type of social influence.
the problem often becomes whatever character that “started” this cycle of abuse or the “first round” of generational trauma. because without acknowledging these other spheres of influence, you just end up dehumanizing them and dismissing how society impacted them in turn. they just become “the source.” if generational trauma is “all you got” as both cause and effect, then you have a flat character who just exists to have your problems (and your parents, who are allowed to be sympathetic onlybecause of the trauma they themselves suffered) problems blamed on.
i think its important to acknowledge other spheres of influence over people than their immediately families… or rather, that its not just their families or the specific way history repeats itself in their immediate social circle that matters.
the good news is that a lot of generational trauma stories understand this. there is a cause-and-effect to the parent or grandparent that supposedly “started” the cycle and that they were the product of their own environment and social circumstances… but in social media, not so much. if you yourself can’t point to a higher “bad guy” further up than you in the chain, sorry, no sympathy for you.
i was gonna write about everything everywhere all at once that “i can already tell i’m gonna be annoyed by people only fitting this movie into The Zeitgeist of generational trauma movies” when its also one of the best portrayals of existentialism and Facing the Absurd i’ve seen in film… but just as i was being pessimistic like that, i saw people actually doseem to get it!!
like yass… understanding that the lack of support system and purpose in life which causes existential dread can come from anything and anywhere, as a fundamental part of the human condition… and also understanding that the crucial relationship that brings you back from the brink of destruction in confronting the absurdity of life can be anyone, and anyonecan suffer from it, not just people going through generational trauma…. yass twitter go off.
everything everywhere all at once interests me greatly, and i have heard only positive things about it, but it has one of the worst most generic descriptions i’ve ever heard
it’s literally like “oh cool, you and every marvel movie”
I think maybe if there’s something that people are saying about their own marginalized bodies that’s clearly giving them gender euphoria and/or just a regular old confidence boost, and it makes you insecure or gives you second hand dysphoria, then that’s a valid emotion to have but also shouldn’t be broadcasted like a #hottake on a public social media website and instead talked through with someone in private.
like some fat people get a lot of joy out of affirmations about being sexy, some transmascs get a lot of joy out of men’s tits memes, some transfems get a lot of joy out of suck her dick sunday memes, and it’s fine if the idea of any of these puts you off but it’s not the fault of the people who enjoy them and they shouldn’t have to self censor because of it.
the new owl house was good! you’d think i wouldn’t like odelia being so one-note but what matters to me is she makes sense. she’s every rich person / politician whose self-justification boils down to “how could i be doing the wrong thing, its for my family! my kids and grandkids will be rich!”
also, tangent - but this is something thats basically encouraged in a lot of mainstream american culture. there’s so much focus on how family “matters most” and rugged individualist protagonists “protecting their family” against danger, and this is seen as an inherent good even if they don’t really help anyone else.
so that’s a big reason you get a lot of extremely rich people and conservative politicians thinking of themselves as generous, even goodpeople - they are objectively making their families better off (by becoming richer + enacting policies that keep wealth concentrated), even if their politics and businesses hurt the earth and everyone else.
a while back i made a “judging your taste in film” uquiz, but it was focusing on having you pick your favorite films from acclaimed auteur directors, and it somehow ended up in front of people who have never seen the matrix or the dark knight and more than half of the takers got the “you skipped too many questions” result.
everything everywhere all at once interests me greatly, and i have heard only positive things about it, but it has one of the worst most generic descriptions i’ve ever heard
it’s literally like “oh cool, you and every marvel movie”
i’m just gonna bulletpoint here. starting with things i liked:
obviously, i like that the collector ended up being someone with their own motivations rather than just like a xD quirky ex machina
i like that hunter wasn’t able to fight belos, even when it counted. so often you see the “”“satisfying”“” thing where an abuse victim just snaps and decks their abuser in the face without fear. i’m sure hunter is mad deep down… but i like that it’s something he’s not able to channel, due to other emotions like fear being paramount here. perhaps even lingering love.
in fact, IF hunter stays this way… i, resident hunter disliker, may even grow to like him. i just assumed, TOH being somewhat predictable, he was gonna have the classic arc of realizing he’s been lied to and then Beating Up His Abuser. i want him to stay more conflicted. more gentle.
i like that they played into belos as someone who wants to save humanity with more sincerity. that felt veryfake and cheap before, it was more substantial here. it was like he almost had a real motivation!! rather than being just an Evil Liar who Lies!!!
as much as i didn’t like how refusing to free the collector was another instance of belos being, well, an Evil Liar who Lies, in hindsight, it does make sense. this kids a powerful lil fucker.
i also like that this means we have a “villain” who is not an authoritarian, but an anarchist agent of chaos. wild magic, even. sure, i don’t think the collector will really be a villain, more an unpredictable force of nature who may actually just be having a tea party with king right now. but still. duality! nuance! yay!
I LIKE BELOS WEARING HIS HUMAN DRIP FUCK YOU LUZ
also huge fan that the belos goo attached to hunter and came with to the human realm :D i’m sure this means only good things :D ok but unironically i would like a redemption arc (“we need your help to save humanity”) that only i will enjoy, while every egg on twitter complains about it being unearned or rushed.
WE GOT A TITLE DROP!!!!! THE COLLECTOR IS CREATING AN OWL HOUSE ™ THAT MATTERS TO THE STORY?
things i disliked:
the aforementioned “you lied to me!” betrayal between belos and the collector. i feel like every poorly-written villain has to do because they’re the villain. they’re an asshole to people around them not because it furthers their goals, but just to make sure the audience knows they’re an asshole.
same thing with kikimora.
in the collectors case, like i said, not entirely unwarranted… but it does seem like an instance where belos is just big mad that he cant control them. its not like he’s doing it for the boiling isles’ sake. its just him him him.
wow they really just had belos try to kill everyone (even his followers, some of which he’s known for decades, if not centuries!) just to once again show that he’s the bad guy.
okay. so. this is a big one - in a show for kids, you know the protagonists will survive. that’s nota bad thing! but it does mean you NEED emotional stakes that aren’t rooted in whether people will live. and almost everything “emotional” this episode is a fakeout about someone dying.
strongly trying to resist urge to contrast it to SU “change your mind”, where steven’s entire identity as himself, as someone separate from his mother, hangs in the balance.
raeda suffers the mostfrom this. like 50% of their relationship is already someone lying or tricking the other To Protect Them ™, which i already don’t love… but to ALSO have their main emotional thread in the s2 finale be a fakeout sacrifice is not great. we know raine isn’t gonna die, we know eda isn’t gonna die. this is a real relationship with emotional complexity, but they can’t steer it in any other direction than angsty fake sacrifices.
oh eda got out of the coven system REAL easy. just remove the arm, i guess. that’s dumb. i wish she had stuck with it. could’ve prompted some soul-searching now that the new threat (the collector) is the embodiment of wild, unhinged magic.
other general thoughts:
look. i know belos tentative truce with the heroes is extremelyunlikely, but i feel like even people who want him to just be a villain have to be somewhat charmed with the idea of grumpy ghost goo following the gang around, commenting on how stupid their plans are, how heshould be the leader, etc.
on that note, luz actuallykeeping her promise and getting belos some modern human clothes would be sick. girls night shopping trip WHEN????? i wanna see him in yeezys.
i’m all on board with king molting theory. make him big.
bring luz’ mama to the demon realm somehow. she seems somewhat disillusioned with her own life, yknow?
while i agree that this was a somewhat messy / overstuffed episode, idk, i think that lends it an advantage in that it can’t just wrap everything up with a neat little bow. i think that lack of time might even benefit the show in s3 somewhat, because they might have to keep some things open-ended. which i like :)
I think they’re implying that Eda sensed the Collector being freed.
i don’t know if they’re implying that or if they just thought it was a cool transition, but it would be interesting. maybe, if the collector does end up being a real threat in s3 (their mind seems so malleable and i buy into “king is molting” theory, so it could really go either direction), it would be interesting to force eda to confront the logical extreme of wild magic - basically, unchecked power in the hands of whoever. even a literal child.
my one fear with the owl house that’s 100% gonna happen is that the collector is gonna realize bELos iS jUsT UsINg YoU and then become a boring one-dimensional good guy
on the flipside, my one hope that might happen is that there’s more to the day of unity than the main characters think. like maybe belos is willing to save his followers and coven witches, just removing their magic so they can, in his mind, “fit in” with human society.
a lot of the information - especially the really hyperbolic-sounding stuff about belos just fucking killing everyone - has been from second-hand sources who themselves were either low in the hierarchy or already biased against belos.
basically, it would be cool if the owl house pulled a steven universe (in eps like the trial, your mother and mine, the answer, etc) and acknowledged that people are biased to their own perspectives and that one persons information may not be the whole story. and i think it’s possible - the show has dabbled in this, however briefly, with having luz’ memories be more negative and catastrophic than the situation actually was.
my one fear with the owl house that’s 100% gonna happen is that the collector is gonna realize bELos iS jUsT UsINg YoU and then become a boring one-dimensional good guy
i know we’re not an united ideological movement in any way, but i do wish trans people and trans allies had well-known guides for deradicalizing terfs.
terfs, like most cults, are pragmatic - they’ll take whoever they can get. but many of us on the left, be we lgbt+ or allies, are steeped in irredeemability politics. we don’t reform bigots, we exclude them.
and understandably so! but that also means the closest we get to actually bringing someone back from the brink is to just be hostile and tell them to fuck off. i getit, because we’re all dealing with our own trauma and these people are obviously partially responsible. but i do think there’s a way to deradicalize people.
terfs know people can change, that’s how they recruit. we have to believe people can change the other way too… otherwise, we’re dealing with an exponential number of terfs and terf-adjacent people who can seemingly only be radicalized in one direction. and that’s nota good numbers game.
so uh. yeah. if there was like an organized effort to create a “general guide” to deradicalize terfs, that’d be cool. and it can take many forms - literature and other texts which debunk their talking points, creating welcoming communities for previously isolated and lovebombed individuals, feminist circles which emphasize the harmony and interdependence of trans and feminist movements to destroy patriarchy and gendered expectations, or whatever else.
its a cliche to say at this point, but i think its still true - if we want to “win”, i think we need to work harder than to just say “its not my job to educate you.” if someone is in a gray area, or have yikes or outright offensive questions, we need to do something other than just tell them to fuck off. it doesn’t have to be you, but it has to be someone.
i say all of this because i’m trans and i’m scared. terfs are “rising” in politics. they are cited in transphobic legislation. they are able to stop goodlegislation. i want to deradicalize terfs notbecause i want you to personally forgive the people who hurt you, but because i want us to work together to protect trans people in society.
uwu trans boys who are feminine and attracted to men and wear dresses and paint their nails are actually the most powerful warriors against terfs we have, because exactly zero (0) of their talking points apply to us.
no we’re not “lost butch lesbians.” neither of those words make sense with our experiences, and no amount of conversion therapy will change that. no we don’t think “woman = feminine, man = masculine.” i’m currently wearing sparkly seafoam green nails. no we don’t need “feminism education,” half of us grew up feminist or later became so, and that’s a huge reason we’re more comfortable in having a non-traditional expression of our identity and breaking down patriarchal expectations by subverting gender roles. and no, we dont just need to realize that “strong women exist” or that “girls can be CEOs too”. most of us are socialists or communists so we don’t wanna be CEOs or contribute to exploitation thru climbing the hierarchical structures of our society anyway lmao.
