Made A Gdocs OC Sheet For Obey Me, Since Most Of The Templates I've Seen Are For Artists And The Doc

Okay time for the PBS Kids essay

Read it under the cut!

:readmore:

In 1968, before there was PBS Kids proper, there was Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. While it came several decades before the children’s block, it laid the foundation for the themes and values present in every facet of the network’s history.

Mr. Roger famously hated children’s programming at the time. To him, it all was droll and useless. But he didn’t dissuade the medium entirely— he saw potential. Potential that led to a few smaller television jobs, and eventually the creation of Mr. Roger’s neighborhood.

Rogers didn’t invent educational TV for children, but he did perfect it. He poured real heart and soul into probably the most sincere, heartfelt program in history.

Honestly, he could have his own essay. The more things you learn about the real man of Mr. Rogers, the more you’ll like him.

Anyway, the biggest thing that makes PBS different is the fact that it earns money through grants, fundraisers, and private donors— not through sponsorships and merchandise sales. This way, PBS Kids can push programming that it feels is important, rather than programming that merely sells well.

This also means PBS is less afraid of pushing social boundaries. Money doesn’t go away when their shows become subjects of debate— and Mr. Rogers took full advantage of this.

For context, this was 1969. The Jim Crow era had just barely, barely ended. Pool segregation was still very much legal.

Mr. Rogers sharing a pool and a towel with the Black Mr. Clemmons was a pretty big deal at the time— especially on a show made for children.

Rogers was far from the untouchable sacred cow of today. When he was alive, he had a large number of detractors. Let’s just say that scene didn’t fly nicely by everyone.

Just one year after the debut of Mr. Roger’s came Sesame Street.

While Mr. Roger’s was made for all children, Sesame Street had the explicit goal of supplementing the education of underserved communities— especially inner-city Black (and later Latino) children.

While it was made to be accessible to children of all races and income levels, they definitely went the extra mile to make it something special for inner-city Black and Brown kids. (Why do you think it it’s “Sesame Street” and not “Sesame Cul-de-Sac”?)

At the time, a wholesome, sweet show set in a brownstone street was practically unheard of.

Jon Stone, the casting director, deliberately sought to make the cast as rich with color as he possibly could, bringing on a huge amount of Black talent such as Loretta Long, Matt Robinson, and Kevin Clash, as well as featuring Black celebrities as guest stars. Later, the show would expand its horizons, bringing on actors from Latino, Asian, Native American, and many more backgrounds.

White actors were and still are a minority on show.

In addition to letters and numbers, the purpose of Sesame Street is clear: make kids of color know that they’re smart, beautiful, and loved.

It doesn’t get more explicit than this.

I want to point out this comment because it’s funny

You’re telling me this bitch isn’t Hispanic???

Anyway, these two were followed up by Reading Rainbow in 1983. And guess what?

That’s right. Non-white focus.

These three shows, (along with other, lesser-known programs like Lamb-Chops Play Along, Newton’s Apple, and Shining Times Station (who featured Ringo Starr himself?? seriously how did that happen and why does no one talk about it) and some other nostalgic favorites like Bill Nye the Science guy, The Magic Schoolbus, Arthur, and Thomas the Tank Engine) aired on the new PTV block, which evolved into PBS Kids in 1999, bringing along Between the Lions, Dragon Tales, and many more.

Arthur is another stand-out that I’d like to talk about— it doesn’t have the same racial focus of Sesame Street, but it does focus on different income levels. The characters have various housing situations, from apartments to mansions to no home at all.

It also takes cues from Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s in regards to talking about tough topics, though as Arthur has a slightly older target audience, it discusses things through stories rather than talking directly to the audience.

Cancer, religion, workplace discrimination, along with current (at the time) events such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina are all discussed on the show.

Another big focus on Arthur is disability. For once, they don’t stick a character in a wheelchair and then pretend he’s not in a wheelchair. A striking number of major characters either develop or get diagnosed with physical disabilities and/or neurodivergences, such as asthma, severe food allergies, and dyslexia, and they deal with them in very realistic ways.

A handful of minor characters have more obvious disabilities, and THANK GOD they go beyond the trite messaging of “disabled people can do everything abled people can do! everyone clap now!”

One episode in particular has the awesome message of “holy shit stop trying to help me all the time— it’s patronizing as fuck. I can get around just fine without you stepping on eggshells and trying to be the hero all the fucking time”

There are sooo many other shows I could talk about, but I can’t write about them all. I’m definitely gonna point out some more standout ones, though.

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

Created by Chinese-American woman Amy Tang

Dragonfly TV

Features a multitude of female and non-white scientists to foster an interest in science with kids in those groups

Maya & Miguel

One of the network’s first Hispanic-led shows

SciGirls

I shouldn’t have to explain what the goal of this one was.

Molly of Denali

When was the last time you saw a show that treated Native Americans as people? Much less a children’s show? 90% of the cast is Athabascan, and the show revolves around Athabascan culture, not shying away from topics like boarding schools and modern-day racism. Most of the writers are also Athabascan, and the show even has an official Gwich’in dub!

It’s this commitment to real, authentic social justice that makes PBS Kids so much different from its competitors. Could you imagine the Paw Patrol dog looking at the camera and earnestly discussing what happened to George Floyd? I don’t think so— but Arthur talked specifically about it, Sesame Street did an hour long special about race in general, and the network itself made a 30 minute special.

Disney Jr. could never. (Other than trying to teach colorblindness, of course.)

I’m gonna have to cut this into two parts, since I just hit the image limit

This^

“but why do we need to teach or mention asexuality in health class”

well my guy, maybe so asexual teens dont think something’s wrong w them ???

I spent.. two days on this.. 100% worth it.

I also spent like 20 minutes trying to find the link to the actual post that inspired this and i couldn’t so i apologize aaaaa. I hope yall like this!!

I tried my best to rhyme when i could but all i can hope for is that this isnt a trainwreck xD

studied up

ngl I thought the puzzle piece as an autistic symbol meant like. I am a vital puzzle piece to your society. humans would never have invented half the things they did without us. you're telling me it means I'm missing something?? buddy. listen. listen to me reeeeaal closely. no human has all the pieces to humanity. no one. no one has all the features enables no one has all the strengths weaknesses or quirks. no one has a whole puzzle. we make the freaking complete picture together. that's the freaking point.

if you don’t support pebbles the lesbian budgie and her giant wife dni

thanks to @rambling-prince-thoughts i'm now willing to share a full analysis on remus (the whole gang is here!). i wish my own personal headcanons and things i've found in canon can help people understand how complex remus actually is.

cw for religious commentary, bible quotes and remus being remus.

disclaimer: i'm catholic. this is not, in any way, meant to impose my religion. remus holds way too many references to the bible for me to not mention it. if this isn't for you, it's 100% okay to turn away from this post. don't leave hate when you can just ignore it. the reason behind saying i'm catholic is to show famders they can have faith and still kin remus the way i do! there's nothing to feel guilty about, intrusive thoughts just make you human 💚

so to quote our favorite trash rat: "let's start from the beginning!"

this will follow the story of cain and abel from genesis 4, which remus mentions in dwit. i'll color code who represents who according to both canon (the twins) and personal headcanon (c! thomas):

cain - remus / abel - roman / god - c! thomas

in 4 genesis 4:4-5 we see that one day, after working hard on their respective jobs, cain and abel present their creations to god. he looks proud at abel's work, but he doesn't with cain's. this makes cain angry. let me remind you green is the color of envy. we know thomas favored roman over remus' creativity during dwit, we see remus get upset over everyone constantly thinking of his work as useless or unwanted.

later, in 4 genesis 4:6-7, god questions cain's anger and tells him that only if he does the right thing, he will be accepted. if he doesn't, sin will try to consume him and cain needs to rule over it. i love the choice of words here: right thing, accepted and rule. everyone was shutting remus up, telling him how awful he was and how bad the things he said were. if only remus could be more like his brother, then maybe he could be accepted.

i have a whole headcanon on the "rule over it" part. i think remus just went insane. you see, during the split, remus got all the "bad" parts of creativity. not only that, but just like roman got thomas' ego, remus got the intrusive thoughts. the way virgil has his own anxiety. i'm convinced remus has his own intrusive thoughts.

at one point, the intrusive thoughts became so loud, he had no other option but to embrace them. in the genesis, god wants cain to resist against sin. remus in this case didn't resist, he took control over his thoughts instead of letting them consume him. he clearly knows what having intrusive thoughts feels like and that hurt him and scarred him real bad. he is okay now with being called demented, he ruled over the intrusive thoughts.

you can see there are moments where remus seems uncomfortable when they talk about intrusive thoughts. his role is creativity, but he is cursed with intrusive thoughts. talking from personal experience, i can see his distress. the screams, loud laughs and stimming. all in an attempt to shut up those thoughts, but sometimes they become too much and they have to get out. the worst part is that you blurt out horrible things like cannibalism and murder. people around you don't understand and they think you mean it. virgil was very right and very wrong when he asked: "but are they opinions that matter?"

yes, the intrusive thought itself doesn't matter. but it's not okay to imply remus' words and opinions don't matter just because he blurts out these things. he matters as much as roman, his brother deals with being the ego and pride. remus has his own issues too that should not be ignored or ruled out as "not important".

immediately after that, in 4 genesis 4:8-12, cain kills abel. god condemns cain to a life where his work will never bear fruit and he will be a restless wanderer. in the "5 years later" video, remus says: "did you know how bored i was before you decided to confront me? all i did was walk around and look for stuff in your head to fuck with!". which implies remus was free to wander around the mindscape, but couldn't be listened to by thomas until he wanted to. which happens in dwit since the thoughts became too much to ignore.

here's something really cool. in 4 genesis 4:14-15. cain says to god: "from your face i shall be hidden. i shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." god replies: “not so! if anyone kills cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” which in the context of what we saw in dwit, means that remus was okay to stay in the dark, but anyone who dares to go against the duke's work will suffer the consequences. we know this because the more the others tried to force him out, the more powerful he became.

(there seems to be an islamic interpretation which says that the devil whispered to cain: "hit abel's head with a stone and kill him", which i found very interesting considering roman took a morning star to the head and the whisper in thomas' head. but i know nothing about it, so i can't confirm it's true.)

i don't believe in patton or janus keeping him locked away, because c! thomas has more power than people give him credit for. remus explicitly says thomas made him the way he is, logan points out it was him who decided to split creativity: "at a young age, you filed away products of your imagination as either welcome or forbidden." it is during clbg that roman says to thomas: "you have to give us permission first..." and virgil says "you are the boss, thomas. any information you want to know, you can know. you just have to be open to hearing it."

imo, thomas doesn't know anything about himself and the things he can do. the sides are there to guide him, but i don't think any side has the power to keep something hidden from thomas if thomas himself wants to learn. the reason the sides were able to out janus was because thomas gave his permission, but in dwit the sides didn't want remus to show himself. it was thomas who allowed him in.

let's go re-watch dwit for the fifth time this week:

when he sings: “and since you haven’t puked yet, we'll know they're wrong when they call you sick.” i think it's a nice metaphor to say from the very start that “since you haven’t acted on these thoughts, they'll see there's nothing wrong with you”. he also sings about people not liking him, which makes me wonder about past experiences he had with the sides. he can also be talking about how a lot of people dislike intrusive thoughts and dark creativity.

“good and bad is all made-up nonsense!” makes sense even for me! i don't believe in heaven or hell as physical places, but rather states of self when we are alive. when you're a good person to yourself and others, you can be at peace, but you'll have a harder time if you're bad. good and bad are not extremes, they are a gray mix. just because something is seen as good or bad doesn't mean it is in some cases. intrusive thoughts are seen as bad, but they can be fun! maybe you got a meme pop into your head and started laughing? or how about being in a conversation and an intrusive thought finishes the other person's sentence and you can't keep a straight face because of how stupid it sounds?

the tree of good and evil from the genesis (also known as the tree of knowledge/tree of life) is known for the belief that indulging in pleasure is immoral, but that belief often comes from people who are not religious. good and evil actually represent “the everything”, adam and eve gained knowledge instead of just pleasure. the knowledge to see what's right and wrong, a moral compass and tons of wisdom. for example, without the fruit they would never be able to punish criminals. this tree also represents the mixture of good and evil that creates mortality. janus offering a morsel (fruit) from the tree to thomas or any side means: do not put good and evil into separate boxes, embrace your humanity, what makes you human and your life will be easier.

janus representing the snake is actually genius because he is deceit and no one will trust deceit, but janus represents someone who wants to show the truth. so to make him the lord of the lies is truly evil, mr. sanders. remus represents the truth, but he is also given an evil role. they both are there to give thomas the fruit that will allow him to be more honest and direct dealing with his issues, so that he no longer deceives himself about the ugliness within him. in that scene, while janus seems to be talking to remus, remus sings janus' part. to me that can be interpreted as: janus and i had a talk and here's how we help thomas.

remus talks about how every mortal sins and dies at some point, but they try to deny it and ignore it. remus saying he will still be there even if thomas is alone can represent how no matter how much we isolate ourselves from sin, it will always be there as part of the human psyche. might as well accept that fact now.

remus asks him: "why do you want to stifle your own creativity?" which can perfectly mean: "why are you denying and ignoring a part of yourself that can be good?" dark creativity can be amazing! take a look at your favorite horror films and games, tragic novels and dramas. they all use a perfect combination of remus and roman's creativity. without one of them, we would never have these things.

laughing at your own intrusive thoughts can be a sign of you hating those thoughts, but being so used to them you don't care anymore. remus obviously knows what it's like to hate them and try and force them out, lot of good that did him! he realized repression is horrible. you don't need to act on these thoughts, you can get them out by writing them down in a journal or saying them out loud in private. trust me, it feels way better than keeping them inside.

i really like remus recognizing he is not scary, but instead, people are scared of him. if anyone needs to hear this: you're not a freak or a monster for having intrusive thoughts or any dark interest, or both! remus is just trying to be himself and deal with a very human thing a lot of us can relate to. thats why he makes me feel like i'm not alone in this <3

i think remus threatening logan to shut up is because he thought logan would attempt to convince thomas to repress his thoughts the same way patton did. i really like that logan continues to teach amazing lessons on intrusive thoughts, why the duke is important and we can see remus listening to him without interrupting. until the last part where he is just a brat.

just remus saying there is no rhyme or reason to what he does is enough for people to remember intrusive thoughts are mostly meaningless, like virgil said. they just happen. don't take them too seriously or think too deeply about them.

i want to point out that remus becomes distressed when logan says his contributions are intrusive thoughts instead of a different creativity. like… remus just couldn’t convince anyone, not even logan, of his job. no wonder he acts like a brat in wtit. the one side who was closest to understanding him, ended up being just like the rest of them. stubborn and repressing his own feelings, that seems to be a recurring theme with our boys.

remus is able to be gentle, we can see that when he listens to virgil at the end of dwit. that genuine smile and eye contact (which he avoids for most of the episode), the calm chuckles compared to the loud laughter from before and sweet tone of his voice… it's clear that whatever happened between virgil and the dark sides, remus doesn't think ill of him. i could almost believe he misses him. i think that whatever happened, it was between virgil and janus. remus had nothing to do with it and virgil knows that. in the "happy fifth anniversary" celebration, virgil looks amused at remus. i think he misses him too.

in wtit, i absolutely adore how remus uses real traps for thomas to represent how intrusive thoughts can trap you in an endless loop of hurting. i love that he can just give thomas the thoughts without any effort, but he uses his creativity to have fun with his other job and be extra dramatic. the fact he can attack other sides, summon beings like real people or monsters AND control them, that makes me wonder how powerful he truly is. it can be a unique aspect of the twins and i would love to see more of that in future videos.

remus is not scary. i've seen scary people and remus is not it (it's what he represents that scares others). he is silly and playful, extra and dare i say, more dramatic than roman. there's a lot of curiosity from him that i believe comes from his constant intrusive thoughts, he also seems to be knowledgeable in specific topics. he is very genuine in the way he expresses himself, not really hiding anything. he is so unique and eager to spend time with the sides.

he also acts in a way that reminds me of how loneliness can affect someone when they finally interact with others. his poor ability to read the room and how others feel, the little control he has over how loud his voice can get, the constant need for attention. all signs of being neurodivergent spending a long time by himself.

remus tries to teach a lesson to logan about how he can't do everything by himself. sadly, remus is the only side around for some reason (i guess the others had a ddr tournament) and logan refuses to acknowledge remus as a potential helper. instead, he keeps seeing him as an antagonist in thomas’ day, which he is. i think remus could potentially be against thomas after being denied acceptance by the others. that's why i would love to see remus become orange’s ally in his way to create chaos. in dwit he does say he wants to wreak havoc. the dance scene can be seen as another battle between sides, logan winning because logic can be a powerful tool against the irrationality of intrusive thoughts. but since it's logan who is being affected by orange’s influence, i wonder what that will do to logan’s power over remus.

remus tried to be accepted before and he was refused the opportunity, he tried a last time in dwit and failed once again. i think he is fed up at this point, that's why he feels like such a threat in wtit. he doesn't seem to care that he is creativity anymore, instead leaning more into his role as intrusive thoughts and using his creative power to make those stronger. he looks PISSED when logan tries to talk to him at the end of wtit. he clearly doesn't trust him nor believes logan is being honest.

remus says “you're going to pretend that i don't exist, so i'll pretend you don't exist.” and logan goes about how everyone has their own role, but still cannot see remus as creativity and remus is just so mad at him and the others for that. the sides think they're acknowledging remus by accepting him as intrusive thoughts, when in reality, they're denying his main role. it's the same thing that happened with virgil, in denying virgil as helpful and thinking he was only anxiety (which is perceived as a bad thing), they saw the effects of no anxiety at all and how much virgil protected thomas.

i really like remus getting interested in logan when orange shows himself. i see it as remus finally seeing a flawed logan, which can allow sympathy since remus is extremely flawed. logan showed him he is repressing something and who is remus but an advocate against repression?

roman and remus’ relationship is extremely interesting, putting all the cain and abel parallels aside, i think they love each other the way siblings do. they banter and annoy each other to no end. roman says he doesn't like him at the end of dwit, but it's so obvious he is in denial. he doesn't want to admit someone like remus is his twin and that he is fond of him despite his weirdness. i want remus to close roman’s arc, i want remus to help roman understand that it's okay to not be perfect and still be a good creativity. if anyone can help roman feel less insecure about himself, it's his twin.

roman says remus shows him everything he doesn't want to be. remus is flawed and happy to be seen as such. roman struggles so much to keep up the mask of perfection and when he sees how happy his brother is being flawed, he hates it. the little things that make roman insecure, remus embraces them and roman can learn so much from him. they likely share a room, they spend time together or at least, remus whispers into his ear waaay too much. if you go back to episodes before dwit, you'll see how defensive roman gets over things he said that others disapproved off, clearly being influenced by his twin. i think the realization roman talks about it's not only remus being the one to influence him, but also that remus represents more than he thought he did.

i think we can all agree with roman that sometimes we see ourselves in the mirror and we see the parts that makes us flawed, we hate them and want to turn away from them instead of accepting them. remus makes people uncomfortable because the truth is, most of us see something in him that we try to deny. be it the intrusive thoughts, the dark creativity… or something as simple as having an annoying laugh. we will always be able to love ourselves and quicky find something that we hate. not because it hurts us, but sometimes… because others have hurt us for being this way. i'm autistic and i know how harsh the world can be to people who are different, but remus made me feel seen. he made me feel valid for being me! he always makes me laugh and most importantly, he makes me feel safe <3

the most beautiful thing about remus is how freely he is himself. people will try to stop you from being who you are at heart, they will call you a freak and try to shut you down. if you take one thing from remus (even if you don't like him or sympathize with him) is that true happiness can be found in allowing yourself to be who you are. without a care in the world, because the only person who can judge you is yourself. no one else. you know yourself better than anyone else, so be happy and go feral if you want. as long as you're living true to yourself and staying safe 💛

go ahead and eat that second cookie, you earned it 🍪✨ if you don't like cookies, go grab something you enjoy. reward yourself for staying strong against this mess we call world. thank you for reading! i hope you have a wonderful day/night ⛅

in case you ever wanted to know what mambo number 5 sounds like with all the instruments (including the drums) replaced with bike horns