Thinking about that tweet that was like “joss whedon’s ‘give your audience what they need not what they want’ advice broke a generation of writers brains” and what that “eat your veggies” mindset looks like when it comes from a place of cruelty rooted in racism and misogyny.

If what you perceive your fans to “need” is punishment for your own amusement and/or vindication, well, *gestures at every media property that has chosen to set itself on fire in the last five years*

Twice in the last two years I have watched shows directly inspired by spaghetti westerns set up a "small group of people fight off a larger group of baddies" episode and both times, I was *shocked* that the good guys won without at bare minimum, excessive losses.

Literally thought Baby Yoda was going to die in first season Mandalorian. Or failing that, that the nice widow and her child in that ep would be tortured to death in front of Mando. Same with Warrior, which is a considerably more gruesome show-- I was prepared for utter horror.

And then I was *surprised* when more than just the lone main character survived, because I have seen so many shows take the "shock" route where the kindly saloon owner/friendly widow/adorable moppets are cannon fodder to Teach Us A Lesson about, idk, how dumb it is to hope?

I HAD COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN THAT THE POINT OF SPAGHETTI WESTERNS IS THE GOOD GUYS* WIN??? THAT'S LITERALLY THEIR WHOLE THING AND I HAVE BEEN SO BRAIN POISONED BY CONTEMPORARY MEDIA I FORGOT

*excepting the whole "invading indigenous lands" thing but that's a whole different issue

(I feel like I make a thread on this exact subject once every 6-8 weeks but I'll stop when it stops being relevant, sorry not sorry)