User blog comment:Dianecat98/The Whole It's Just a Cartoon Excuse/@comment-31022739-20170818214943

I dunno. I think "it's just a cartoon" is fine when it's all about putting things into context, especially with what the show is trying to present.

For instance, a lot of people didn't like "No Such Luck" because of the "child abuse" that Lincoln suffers. The thing is, the episode never presents it as maltreatment with serious gravitas, which means that it's all down to how the viewer views it. Since it's a subjective perspective on a series of events, I think using "it's just a cartoon" or in this episode's case, "it's just an exaggeration of unintentional neglect that carries no severe consequences throughout the duration" is a very suitable way of calming down unnecessary vitriol and indignation, which usually strays away from constructive criticism, anyways.

But in general? It's definitely not appropriate, especially when you consider how a lot of cartoons nowadays do way more than simply entertaining a target audience for eleven-minute intervals at a time; I'm leaving the adult cartoons out of the discussion when I say this, by the way.

Keep in mind, however, there's a difference between criticism and angrily typing out diatribes about what you hated about [X], and doing so without having anything of worth to present.