Challenge #02453-F263: A General Warning
"Do you wanna go with me, [fellow Havenworlder]? Human Frank invited me to a showing of one of his favourite - what's the word? Ah, "movies"! No, stop screaming! This one is just some made-up story about wooden mush or something. Sounds pretty safe, probably not much violence there."
[ten minutes into Pulp Fiction]
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" -- Anon Guest
Never trust Human entertainments. They are made by Deathworlders, for Deathworlders and, for many years after they met and learned about Havenworlders, about Deathworlders. They assume, in their typical egocentric way, that all species are more or less like them. It doesn't matter how wrong they are nor how often they are that wrong. They will keep making that assumption for many years yet.
Even the entertainments aimed at their young have to enter the Galactic Standards Distribution scene with copious warning labels for more sensitive species. Frequent entertainments for Human young contain one or more deceased, dying, or otherwise absent parental figures. Elders and household pets are frequently shown dying. Human young are taught about mortality early.
Sudden loud noises, uncanny valley imagery, supernatural elements, unnatural abilities, and an assortment of similar things are viewed by Humans as 'safe viewing' for their young. What is not safe, apparently, is excessive gore and nudity. Those things are solely for adult Humans, or Humans who are close enough to adulthood to be considered nearly immune. It should not need to be said that Havenworlders should check the cautions list against their own resistance levels before viewing any Human entertainments. Yes, even Boobahs[1].
Let's not get started on the entire Talking Animal genre. This has lead to many a diplomatic error that, thankfully, the Humans are over-prepared to forgive. They recognise its their own fault for creating the mis-assumption, and are generously at ease with the mistakes it causes.
Animated and puppetry violence is often more extreme than live action violence. This is because neither animated nor puppet figures are real and therefore more can be done against them than could be tolerated by a living being. Even then, Humans spend a majority of their time figuring out ways to make it look like a living Human is tolerating levels of pain and endurance that only a cartoon or puppet character could believably achieve... all without actually hurting the Human involved.
Believe it or not, it took the Humans years to develop laws that prevented harm coming to actors both Human and Nonhuman.
Always check the offensensitivity notices published by the Galactic Standards Committee.
[1] For the lucky unknowing: Boobahs is an entertainment for extremely small Humans that contains footage of rainbow, blobby humanoid figures apparently performing elementary calisthenics to assorted squeaky noises. This is somehow both completely harmless and oddly disturbing.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / funniefarm5]
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