When I was in middle school, I took commissions from classmates for drawings of Spongebob characters for about a quarter a pop. It was one of my first forays into “professional” cartooning, and only a small example of the monumental impact of this plucky underwater sponge.
I know I’m not alone in believing that the show has left an indelible mark on the face of cartoon and internet history, and its aftershock will continue for many years.
Rest in Peace, Stephen Hillenburg. Thanks for the good times.
THIS. I saw a post the other day that literally said if you do it to a fictional character, you’ll do it in real life.
No. Just NO.
I’m so glad someone put it into words.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is a legend, and he’s absolutely right.
And I really feel like there are parts of fandom that don’t get or don’t believe this, and I think that’s troubling. I’ve seen arguments that people shouldn’t have dark fantasies, or that bad impulses in themselves make a bad person. I’ve seen so much shaming over thoughts.
And if you get to a point where it’s bad to have dark thoughts and it’s bad to wonder what something would be like and it’s bad to put yourself in the shoes of anyone who isn’t “pure”, if fiction is no longer a realm where you can confront and explore, but an ongoing test of moral purity… well, maybe not everyone’s brain works like mine, but I feel like that takes away something incredibly important to being human.
nharmonya backup 