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toshiirou · 1 year

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racism in Nintendo 2: electric boogaloo

hello and welcome back it is i, once more. to talk about the elephant in the room that has reappeared in the release of the totk designs. a suspiciously green elephant i might say

this is of course about ganon

i have made a few posts before about ganon - about how it's not anti-racist to 'redeem' his role as an all-evil villain by sexualising him; about the fan response to the first totk trailer and the rehydrated ganondorf trend; and how other characters (namely link) do not get the same treatment that ganon gets for similar design features.

what i want to give today is a more straightforward explanation of 1. why it is bad that ganon is green (yes, it is in fact bad) and 2. the orientalism inherent in his totk design. i know a lot of people find him hot, and might become defensive that i'm pointing out features that they enjoy. the fact of the matter is that the sexualisation of totk ganon is done by deliberately playing upon erotic orientalist tropes and this is something that shouldn't be ignored for personal comfort.

so to start. the green skin. im going to quote an article called Greenface: Exploring green skin in contemporary Hollywood cinema by Brady Hammond, which can be summed up by the arguement in the

"article [is] that as overtly racist cinematic depictions associated with real-world skin colors – particularly black skin – have decreased, Hollywood cinema has relocated those tropes onto green skin."

and I agree. I've talked about coding before in relation to loz, and it is no stretch to consider that a character can be representative of some particular demographic(s) without replicating their features in their entirety.

Without doubt it is straightforward to say that ganon represents a brown or black man. The gerudo are heavily inspired by the SWANA region, and not to mention that most of the gerudo indeed have a brown skin tone. botw having lighter and darker skinned gerudo is still representative of the SWANA region and the variety of looks we have there.

and thus coding done with ganon's design - intentional or otherwise - cannot escape the racial implications that ganon is very clearly a brown or black man. which means negative coding that coincides with preexisting racist coding and racial stereotypes will carry those same racist undertones. none of it is undermined by that nintendo is a Japanese company or that this is a fictional world in a video game. deliberate design choices made by real people can't be absolved from racism when it's convenient

to start:

"David Batchelor states that ‘color has been the object of extreme prejudice in Western culture’. This prejudice, he argues, manifests itself by either dismissing color outright as ‘superficial’ or by denigrating it and ‘[making it] out to be the property of some “foreign” body – usually the feminine, the oriental, the primitive, the infantile, the vulgar, the queer or the pathological’."

and

"More importantly, given the ability of the cinema screen to render fantastic spaces and colors it is necessary to consider how characters are represented when they feature an unnatural or even impossible skin color."

the gerudo have always had an orientalist lens laid over them. ganon has always had strong animalistic associations, and has appeared non-human a number of times. this was fine before nintendo retconned him to specifically be a brown man from a group that are explicitly human in the same way that hylians are human and other round-eared people in the loz franchise are human. it is racist to seperate the gerudo exclusively from other human groups as having explicitly non-human characteristics given their prolific role as the first group of brown humans in tloz, and the most foreign and exoticized group of humans.

to give ganon green skin is thusly, a way that implicitly denies his humanity. and it becomes pointed when this primitive and animalistic coding occurs most frequently to the brown man villain. now that totk revived ganon as a humaoid it becomes more pointed that he's denied the same human skintone of the rest of the gerudo, and it's quite frankly upsetting to see this happen and to be glossed over.

more specifically. green has preexisting racist associations for black and brown characters specifically. that is because green has long been used in media to depict the racialised other by linking them with real world negative racist stereotypes. an example given in the article "in Star Trek (1966-1969) when an alien woman of the Orion race dances. Her skin is an emerald green and she is both hyper-feminine and an alien Other." not commented upon but which is more evidence to the racial stereotyping of green skin is that the orion woman is depicted in a distinctly orientalist manner: with a hypersexualized outfit and routine that is reminiscent of belly dancer fantasies. the low light, setting choices, and recurring theme of the slave women dancing provocatively plays upon the western imaginations of the Harem.

as you can see:

other examples of the green other include orcs (with their own swath of racial stereotypes), the grinch, aliens, gremlins, goblins, etc. what often occurs is that green characters are concurrently linked to ethnic stereotypes through coding that is brought together in the fantasy realm by their green skin. that coding may include racism, orientalism, xenophobia, antisemitism, anti-indigenous stereotypes or so on. it is clear that ganon representing a brown/black man brings with it negative coding in the game as the only villain, his animalistic associations, his domineering violence that stands apart from the primarily female gerudo, and as the racialised other. this coding would still exist if he was not green. but it is an affront to dignity to remove the humanity of a brown man by also making him green.

if i have not yet lost you then to wrap up: the fetishizing other. as established with his coding, ganon's humanity is put into question with his design, and he can be linked to the SWANA region. evocative of a harem is the only (violent and dangerous) man from a group of women who are hidden away, and is explicitly a danger to both them and western/hylian rule and ideology.

His imagery is paired with similar design choices made for the gerudo women to sexualize him and invoke imagery of the sexy orient, the beast that can be tamed, and so on. This is done primarily with his torso being bare while he wears gold jewelry, in a way almost reminiscent of chains or cuffs. brown and black men are fetishized through sexualising them as erotic beasts, which is clear to the image that totk ganon's design presents. even the toe rings play into this - as a practice with a long history in India as worn by married women (and men, in Tamil culture).

much akin to the face veil for women, brown and black men are often sexualised through (usually gold) jewelry. specifically (like with the veil) the juxtaposition between their lack of full covering (bare torso is most common) and the abundance of ornamental jewelry. it shows their body as this exotic, decorated prize, where their nudity is highlighted by what they do wear. [this remains true despite the real world groups in the swana region that have traditionally topless outfits for men. that sort of respectful and researched depiction of cultural outfits it not what is happening here, clearly]

[note: there are clear elements of ganon's outfit that have a noticeable influence of the samurai, and the outfit is not exclusively made from one source. however the features of the outfit that i am mentioning, the jewellery, toe ring, even the trousers, are not part of the samurai aspect. it is in conjunction with the other coding and features that ganon having a bare torso becomes anything more significant]

which all goes to say that totk ganon's design continues Nintendo's legacy of racism. He is simultaneously dehumanised and sexualised - which only serves to further his dehumanisation. I am not going to ask for or address his role as a villain, what I want is just a modicum of respect.

#totk ganon #gerudo #gerudo tag #moya's loz thoughts #legend of salty #txt #if u don't know me im not open to feedback but block me and move on with your life

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lil-tachyon · 6 months

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You mentioned Clark Ashton Smith. Which of his stories would you recommend? So far I've been underwhelmed.

Context for anyone who doesn't know: Clark Ashton Smith was one of the "Big Three" of Weird Tales (the other two being Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard) and is certainly the least famous. Even if you don't know who Lovecraft or Howard are, you've probably heard of Cthulu and Conan the Barbarian. Smith is also certainly the weirdest of them all by a good margin and the most inconsistent in his writing. You pick up a Lovecraft story and 90% of the time it's going to be at least competently written and you know the broad strokes of what the content will be (unnameable cosmic horrors, nervous breakdowns, and often very explicit racism). A Smith story is just as likely to feel like it was written by an accomplished poet as it is to feel like a teenager's drivel. And it could be about wizards at the end of time, or spacewrecked astronauts, or medieval French bishops. The only consistent thing about his work is that you'll need a dictionary by your side while you read it. Get ready for words like "mephitic," "hippocephalic," and "cyclopean" to be abused in ways that even Lovecraft probably found egregious. (Emperor of Dreams? More like Emperor of Purple Prose! Haha, good joke Logan.) The bizzarity and unevenness of his output are probably the qualities that I find so engaging about it and also the things that have kept him from being as beloved as his peers into the present day.

Anyway, I haven't done a deep-dive on Smith since I read his complete works all the way through. Some of his stories are pretty fresh in my mind, but most of them I haven't read in 5-6 years. Keep all that in mind and I'll put my recommendations below the break:

"The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis": Definitely my personal favorite Smith story and probably one of his best. If you don't like this one, it's unlikely you'll be a fan. On its own a very good "ancient cosmic horror" story, what really makes it stand out is it's setting: a near-future (relative to the 1932 publication date) Mars that has been colonized (in a very 19th century sense of the word) by humans. The Martian city of Ignarh is apparently a hub for interplanetary commerce and the subaltern Martian indigenous population provide local guides for human archaeologists to study (and no doubt exploit) the ruins of ancient civilizations that abound on the planet. Smith wrote two other stories in the same setting, "The Dweller in the Gulf" and "Vulthoom" that re-tread the same plot beats but lend a little more color to the Martians themselves. A writer capable of viewing the Martians as sympathetic peoples rather than as "native savages" could've spun this setting into something truly great. Richard Corben also does a fantastic comic adaptation.

"The Abominations of Yondo": Didn't like the first recommendation? I'll take one more shot at making you a fan. "Abominations" is a very short read that manages to contain all the hallmarks of a classic Smith story. Nobody else does it like him and if you don't like it then you just don't like it.

"City of the Singing Flame": A story of inter-dimensional exploration that manages to weave together Smith's obvious love for his home state of California with his penchant for imaginary places beyond time and space. It has a sequel that I thought was okay but most people dislike. If you like this story, it's probably better to treat it as a standalone.

"A Night in Malnéant": A somber, dreary horror tale that I don't think gets enough love or at least isn't anthologized particularly often. Tones down the weirdness a bit, but in a good way.

"Isle of the Torturers": Far-future horror-fantasy that really sticks the ending. Also does the same thing as "Yoh-Vombis" where it has a setting that's only briefly introduced but could easily be spun into a full-on novel. Great Halloween read.

Off the top of my head, those are some of my personal favorites. "Return of the Sorcerer" gets anthologized a lot. It's not weird enough for me but I think it's considered one of his better stories. Similarly I'm not a big fan of his Averoigne cycle of stories (set in medieval France), but if you want some dark ages sword and sorcery, "Mother of Toads" and "The Colossus of Ylourgne" are the ones I liked best.

I'd also like to mention "The Great God Awto" which is a truly bad short story but notable for being one of the earliest pieces of anti-car fiction of which I'm aware. Predates Bradbury's "The Pedestrian" by more than a decade.

Also if you can't find any of Smith's work at your local library, check out eldritchdark.org. I believe all his fiction is available for free here as well as his visual art and other resources.

#send me an ask!#clark ashton smith #h. p. lovecraft #robert e. howard #weird fiction

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continuations · 7 months

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We Need New Forms of Living Together

I was at a conference earlier this year where one of the topics was the fear of a population implosion. Some people are concerned that with birth rates declining in many parts of the world we might suddenly find ourselves without enough humans. Elon Musk has on several occasions declared population collapse the biggest risk to humanity (ahead of the climate crisis). I have two issues with this line of thinking. First, global population is still growing and some of those expressing concern are veiling a deep racism where they believe that areas with higher birth rates are inferior. Second, a combination of ongoing technological progress together with getting past peak population would be a fantastic outcome.

Still there are people who would like to have children but are not in fact having them. While some of this is driven by concern about where the world is headed, a lot of it is a function of the economics of having children. It's expensive to do so not just in dollar terms but also in time commitment. At the conference one person advanced the suggestion that the answer is we must bring back the extended family as a widely embraced structure. Grandparents, the argument goes, could help raise children and as an extra benefit this could help address the loneliness crisis for older people.

This idea of a return to the extended family neatly fits into a larger pattern of trying to solve our current problems by going back to an imagined better past. The current tradwife movement is another example of this. I say "imagined better past" because the narratives conveniently omit much of the actual reality of that past. My writing here on Continuations and in The World After Capital is aimed at a different idea: what can we learn from the past so that we can create a better future?

People living together has clear benefits. It allows for more efficient sharing of resources. And it provides company which is something humans thrive on. The question then becomes what forms can this take? Thankfully there is now a lot of new exploration happening. Friends of mine in Germany bought an abandoned village and have formed a new community there. The Supernuclear Substack documents a variety of new coliving groups, such as Radish in Oakland. Here is a post on how that has made it easier to have babies.

So much of our views of what constitutes a good way of living together is culturally determined. But it goes deeper than that because over time culture is reflected in the built environment which is quite difficult to change. Suburban single family homes are a great example of that, as are highrise buildings in the city without common spaces. The currently high vacancy rates in office buildings may provide an opportunity to build some of these out in ways that are conducive to experimenting with new forms of coliving.

If you are working an initiative to convert offices into dedicated space for coliving (or are simply aware of one), I would love to hear more about it.

#living #coliving

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philosophika · 2 months

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Hi there friend, sorry it’s been a while, life has been busy. A question about AUs, since this is something I’m currently exploring:

If you were to create an Alternate Universe of your setting, what kind of setting would it be? What changes would you make for you characters to fit?

Hi Aqua (@aquadestinyswriting), thank you for this thought-provoking ask! And no worries <3 Life is life, and it gets us all! I'm always psyched to see you on my blog. To the moots, if you aren't familiar with the fantastic Aqua yet and/or you love the Titan Fighting Fantasy universe, go check out her Writeblr Masterpost for a complete overview of all her projects!

This is the question of the moment for The Sorcerer's Apprentice as I'm currently redesigning the universe. You couldn't have hit the nail more squarely on the head!! Previously, the story had been set in (1) a heavily UK-inspired high-fantasy macrocosm (á la Game of Thrones) and (2) a modern-day psychological horror version of a NYC Fifth Avenue apartment (á la Rosemary's Baby). In these previous universes, Valeriano and Altaluna were, respectively, a King and his heir, and an elderly socialite and his heir. However, since both these settings and their associated character roles eventually chafed against what I was looking to achieve with the story (aka. an exploration of the link between capitalism, colonialism, racism, and environmental disaster), I decided that this time I'd abandon all familiar formulas and rebuild the world from the ground up to highlight the broader social tensions that underlie Valeriano and Altaluna's relationship and, on a meta-narrative level, ensure that the aesthetics of the novel do not in any way reinforce or glorify the issues I'm attempting to criticize.

One of the biggest changes I've made in service of this goal is that I've taken the story completely out of the northern hemisphere. The geography, fauna & flora, religion and culture of the newly minted universe are all based on Colombia and Latin America more generally. In this way, I'm hoping that the novel itself will push back against the idea that our culture and environment are appealing, but only as the setting of a romantic weekend getaway or as the backdrop to a drug and/or human trafficking drama. I want to show that fantasy is possible here, too. That we can dream in our own terms. Furthermore, I want to undermine this general feeling that we (Colombians & Latin Americans more generally) have nothing to be proud of when compared to the US or countries in Europe. By highlighting and praising our architecture, food, natural diversity, and customs my aim is to chip away at that self-deprecating streak and all its associated myths (that we're poor because we're stupid, and lazy because we get too much sun) as much as I can. I would be really happy if my novel could help people see themselves and the world they live in, in a new more positive light...

Of course, this change in the setting/universe means changes for Valeriano and Altaluna as well. It would be tone-deaf to keep Valeriano as a King in a novel that is inspired by a region so heavily marked by the fight for independence from a monarchical society. For this reason, I'm leaning toward keeping the 'socialite' role he played in the Rosemary's Baby edition of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, with a few modifications. I'm actually thinking of using him to show how art can work to perpetuate colonial power (but more on that later! I still need to hash out some details). Similarly, Altaluna will be conserving her 'heir' role from the Rosemary's Baby edition, but with some of the more large-scale social movement/impact she had in the Game of Thrones rendition. If I can successfully adapt both Altaluna and Valeriano to this new universe, then their conflict should expand beyond a family drama into a commentary on the horrors colonialism enacts both on the oppressor and the oppressed (thank you, Discourse on Colonialism by Aime Cesaire for opening my eyes). If I'm really lucky, then maybe I'll be able to test possible solutions, like Babel by R.F. Kuang does (the solution there is violence, which is very Fanon adjacent).

Anyway, who knows. We'll see how it goes!

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adelle-ein · 10 months

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lace's oc2path review

Disclaimer: I am deeply critical of this game and of Octopath 1, and I very much loathe COTC, so there will be a lot of negativity in this post. Don't like don't read!!!111 Also explicit spoilers for everything duh, and game typical content warnings.

Octopath and I have a…complicated relationship. It was my first Switch game. I had fond memories of it, even if it was never my favorite, I found it very hard, I really only cared about Primrose and Cyrus as characters, and I never even got all the secret jobs, let alone beat Galdera. Then the mobile game COTC came along, bringing with it a clusterfuck of horrific misogyny, racism, and frankly terrible grimdark story writing, severely souring my relationship with the franchise. I tried to replay it in 2022 and couldn’t even get to a chapter 2 — the grind was awful, the world was bland, the stories were just insufferably boring at best and misogynistic at worst. The lack of relationships or even acknowledgement between the characters made the whole thing feel stilted. Therion works alone, don’t mind the seven other people walking behind him! Now let’s explain the ways all the stories connect in a diary info dump locked behind a boss rush!

Octopath 1 has staggering design flaws and, as more and more JRPGS come to the Switch, those flaws become strikingly pronounced. Party dynamics are important to me, and without them, most of 1’s cast remained stubbornly boring. The game was hard, but not fun enough for me to want to grind OR learn advanced strats. Every chapter of every story follows the same basic plot beats and the layout of the world is boring and predictable, with even the scenery getting old eventually.

So I had mixed feelings when Octopath 2 was announced, especially when I saw they hadn't changed a single one of the main 8 classes and that the Crossed Paths would only be between four duos of characters. Still, the game went on sale for $40 in mid-April. Split the price with a sibling and here we are.

For starters: The graphics in this game are fantastic. I’m still not in love with HD-2D, mostly because of the lack of expressiveness in the tiny character pixels. Watching them flop over dead in a pile of blood in Triangle Strategy was only ever hilarious, and most emotional scenes fall flat. Strangely, Asano continues insisting on using this style for really drama-heavy, emotional games. Luckily, they’ve made some strides forward with OT2. The bigger human sprites are drastically more dynamic and expressive, move more fluidly than ever before, and have ample opportunity to demonstrate both emotion and personality. Everyone’s unique walk cycles and Bewildering Grace dances really bring character to the game. We can get a clearer look at job outfits and have animations for all kinds of things like dancing and character interactions. And HD-2D, as always, continues to shine in the backgrounds, special effects, and enemy sprites. The game is very pretty, and while I still don’t think HD-2D is the best choice for any character-driven game, the sprites don’t feel nearly as rough and awkward as they do in their predecessors. I hope Team Asano retains this style in future HD-2D installments, especially interpersonal ones.

The world is huge, sprawling, and genuinely FUN to explore this time, with various nooks and crannies to dig into. The day/night cycle and added path actions really add a lot of fun and variety to gameplay. The world not being a perfect circle moving outwards really makes things more exciting and less tedious, and the towns, cities, and dungeons had so much variety. I genuinely had fun on the journey this time, while in 1 i was just dragging myself from town to town. The bonus bosses, latent powers, hidden classes, sidequests, and various new game mechanics all felt like upgrades from the first game to me.

The music is banging, no criticisms here. I’ve gotten the impression before that Revo and Nishiki have been influenced by and learning from each other and I think this really shows it. Super fun, loved that we have more theme variants now. VA work was solid, with some very fun moments but nothing I was super amazed by. That's not a problem, though, it's really all I ask for in a game. Loved the added voice lines, the unique voice lines for certain bosses (I don't wanna fight no doggy-dog…), and how the characters interact with each other in battle as the game proceeds.

I’ll continue with my thoughts on the eight characters/stories one by one and then give some overall opinions on the “main plot” and game itself.

Ochette:

The constant food talk gets old fast. Seriously, every conversation this girl has ends up being about food or similar. I also think her voice acting may have been mixed oddly, sometimes it's quiet and sometimes at too high a volume, she ends up sounding REALLY loud and grating a lot of the time. Overall, she really doesn't feel as fleshed out as every other character, and it's a shame. That being said, she does have some very fun travel banters and brings a fun "kid of the group" energy, it's just…she's twenty goddamn years old.

Story-wise, had a lot of potential but constant food talk and the weird fantasy racism (why do they all speak broken English) were huge drags. I thought the stuff with the unchosen starter was a really good idea, but there just wasn't enough time lent to it, and overall the first and last chapters felt completely disconnected from the middle ones. Oh well.

Castti:

No mercy, only pain. She's just a great character who ended up with so much depth and felt like a twist on the kindly, maternal healer. "Do harm when necessary to save lives" is a great archetype for doctor characters and Castti plays the role fantastically. She has been through so much and still chooses to be gentle when she can, but if she has to she'll bring the axe down. She has a talent for making do. She has so many fantastic scenes and lines and flips the "mom friend" character around on its head. I really love her, she's great, she's up there with Primrose for me forever.

Her story was also my favorite, and her boss the toughest to beat by a comfortable margin (what worked in the end was no strategy just hikari, throne, and their knives). Sure, some beats are always predictable in Octopathland, but chapter 3 was beautifully done, and the use of game mechanics and the interface to play with the effects of Castti's amnesia were really enjoyable. Nothing groundbreaking, but a strong and solid story that felt emotional and meaningful as well as unique and independent from the stuff all three games have done and rehashed. Castti herself is of course a huge part of that, but this is one of the rare Octopath stories that didn't feel like it was being fully carried by the strength of the MC.

Throne:

Throne herself, I adore. She's fun, she's determined, she's witty, she's like Primrose in some ways but firmly different in others. She doesn't want to kill, but it's all she knows. She has some fantastic travel banters. I laughed out loud at her first "Bravo, Temenos." And the little "tada…" when she uses Disguise. She's great, she has endless potential, and boy does she have fun path actions.

Warning for discussion of incest, abuse, and rape in the following paragraph :(

Unfortunately, her story is the classic edgy Octopath misogyny fest. What was with that random sex slave and what the hell happened to her??? We don't care, she only exists to show that Bad Guys Evil and that Throne Can't Be A Hero Because She Is Tainted. Everyone wants to rape Throne and that is made way too clear. Some of those people are her fucking brothers, because why the fuck not. And the ending with the "but was it worth it?" tone was phenomenally stupid. Octopath asking the quintessential question: is it okay to escape slavery even if you have to kill your slavers? What if your slavers love you (even though they keep you in a collar and whip you and offer you up as a rape victim and force you to kill people?) What if your slavers are your parents or siblings? Also not loving any of the Marietta story, anything that involves "she killed our baby" is going to set my hair on end in this day and age and I just did not like the way any of that was portrayed and handled. Even if Claude didn't rape Marietta, it's clear he raped several of the other mothers including a few of the ones we meet, and they're all forcibly separated from their babies and left to die — it's just too much. It's too disgusting. The huge conspiracy itself fell flat due to the general creep factor and tried way too hard to be edgy. Throne cannot be happy within her story for even a second and it's way overdone. I'm sick, absolutely sick, of this type of story and COTC trying to play with "but she loves her abuser" stuff and doing a frankly disgusting and often fetishizing job. Overall, it felt like a COTC plotline, and that is very much a bad thing for me! I'm glad that the postgame sidequest cleared up the Mira plotline and actually had some "breaking the cycle" themes, but the fact that we've just apparently left the residents of Lostseed to suffer and die instead of even attempting to bring them to the Garden or somewhere they can get help is pretty gross.

But again, I adore Throne herself. Get her out of this game. Put her in Animal Crossing or something.

Osvald:

And now we flip around! Talk about pleasant surprises! I was not expecting to like him or his story at all, it felt so Octopath edgy and woman-in-fridges-y. And to an extent, it is, but the game is actually self-aware of this and gently pokes fun at it to a degree that makes it more bearable. Osvald is an Edgy Man and the other travelers can and will be confused by it. That's really fun. Being able to save Elena flips everything about the story on its head in a good way, and The Answer being The Power Of Love is both so funny and so sweet and fitting. Just a genuinely heartfelt and optimistic story in the end despite where it begins, I really liked it despite another dead wife on the pile. The antithesis to Throne's story.

My main complaint is that the story pacing ends up really off due to two out of five chapters being at the very start and about the prison escape. I really think he could have benefited from another chapter between his 3 and 4. I wish the ending was more emotionally satisfying, but it does feel in character and leave on a hopeful note. Would have enjoyed, if not a reunion scene between him and Elena, something more significant about them and their relationship than the tiny nod we got at the end. All that being said, liked both him and his story a lot!

Partitio:

He really is very funny. Those voice lines are a hoot, every Scent of Commerce is just ridiculous, and his determination to stop That Devil Called Poverty by having a polite meeting with the CEO of capitalism and giving him some $$$ is just absurd. As a character, I can’t say I find him as interesting as Castti, Throne, or Osvald, but he’s entertaining if nothing else, and his first chapter pacing is creative. He was my MC and spent tons of time running Arcanist Sidestepper or Latent Power Catapult Inventor, so of course I got pretty attached. Yeehaw let's do it catapult go-go-go

But let’s be real here. Any story about a merchant “helping the poor” by doing more capitalism is going to be kind of a mess. It wasn’t a harmful mess, but it felt like the story was deliberately skirting around making any meaningful commentary. None of this is surprising, but I spent a lot of chapter 4 rolling my eyes. Roque illegally modifying a contract after signature on multiple occasions is just completely brushed aside, and Partitio happily SIGNS a contract with him KNOWING Roque has a habit of violating and editing them. It’s all just very…dumb. Seize the means of production Partitio! Don’t just give The Man eighty billion leaves! Also, Roque apparently KEEPS all that money in the postgame even though he’s allegedly reformed, soooooo (I know he's using it on the railroads but like….Yeah)

But yeah, while it was a silly story, it wasn’t much else. He's a fun guy though. I wonder if octopath 3 will bring us our first edgy merchant MC.

Agnea:

She’s sweet and fun. I don’t really feel like I have a lot to say about her, which isn’t a negative? I enjoy her theme, I love all her dance animations, I think her constantly-slipping accent is pretty funny (I’m genuinely not sure if the premise is that Agnea hides her accent and occasionally slips into it by mistake, or if the VA keeps forgetting that Agnea is supposed to sound Southern and only remembers when Agnea says “oh my stars” or something lol. It’s funny though.) But like I said, I enjoy her, she’s not as grating as some of the other “goodhearted, happy go lucky” characters from 1.

Similarly, while I don’t have much to say about her story, that’s not to say I disliked it. I thought it was sweet. Dolcinea and her gf are some of my favorite NPCs in the game, the final battle kicked my ass in a fun way, and most of all I love how ¾ of Agnea’s bosses are just her going “I want to speak to the manager!!” and it actually working. I liked it a LOT better than tressa’s, which it’s constantly compared to, since it felt like an actual coherent story. She’s a star!

Temenos:

Fandom made me dislike Temenos before I set foot in the Crestlands. In those early days especially, every woman in this game was ignored in favor of an AVALANCHE of fanart of him and crick. People say weird shit about Temenos being a twink, some of which is frankly homophobic and/or creepy. I pretty strongly disliked his predecessor Fandom Favorite Man, Therion. Man had a lot riding against him. All that being said, once I got to know him I liked Temenos just fine! He's a priest who can't remember the Lord's Prayer and calls the scripture boring at every given opportunity. Also enjoys beating the shit out of people for information and can barely be contained by those around him. It's a fun character type.

His story, though, is honestly just blah. I guessed the big murderer about as soon as they appeared on screen, and by the time I finished the story I was pretty confident I knew who was manipulating them too…and I was right. As funny as it is that Temenos can use his "special powers" to just, like, see something lying on the floor, the investigation/mystery is really lacking and dull, which is disappointing. Particularly since his story is the "main" one that reveals the ultimate final boss, and the only one that gets a full follow-up cutscene in the extra chapters — it ended up just being a big pile of text dumping, which is not a fun way to do a mystery/whodunit!

Also Crick is boring.

Hikari:

Hikari is Just Fine. He's sometimes fun, largely unremarkable, just another member of the crowd. The same is pretty much true of his story as well — it's just Fine. Has a pretty hilarious mom-fridging as horses whinny loudly in the background, which I think was iconic. Dunban levels of "bad at making friends" (and while it's not "Therion works alone" levels of stupid by any means, does feel a little awkward that he keeps talking about needing his Allies and True Friends while seven people he camps with are standing right there…) I really just don't have a lot to say about him or his story, which isn't a bad thing! It was fine, he's fine. My only real complaint is that I don't love that his overcoming his Evil Blood was tied to him also having Good Blood on his mother's side — that detail seems irrelevant to everything, and I would have preferred his overcoming the Shadow and taking back his Hidden Power just be framed as him having willpower and a good, kind heart. But I am nitpicking here, since I think that was the intention — just wish blood hadn't been brought into it, y'know? Anyway yeah Hikari's fine.

Together Now:

The Crossed Paths are SO short (other than waiting for that insanely long lute performance to be over) and that's a shame. I wish there were more of them, between more characters, that they were longer…I hope any future Octopath games play with these concepts. Overall, I mean, it's a huge meaty game and it's not that I wanted to be playing it longer, I was satisfied by the length. I just really would have appreciated more character interaction. I'm glad that you can view the travel banters freely and easily from the menus now, and that there are more of them. But I do wish that the characters emoted during them instead of just standing there staring blankly at each other. Huge improvement over one, just not quite there yet!

I will say the Extra Chapters/final boss were also huge improvement over 1's, with actual cutscenes, some character interaction, more consistent foreshadowing, and finally, a boss with no boss rush leadup whose level of challenge is more "difficult but doable" than "haha fuck you." My hopes for this game had been that they would lower the final boss difficulty and make a bigger, harder bonus boss for hardcore players to enjoy, and I'm really happy that they did so! I beat Vide :)

That being said, most of the Extra Chapter reveals were entirely contained in heaps of diary entries again. You guys expect me to remember who Tanzy was or care?? Other than the Arcanette cutscene/battle, things never got that emotional or exciting. A few travel banters tried to fill in the blanks, but there just wasn't enough emotion or stakes put into the scenes. That being said, I enjoyed the Vide battle and it was the perfect difficulty level for me, and I enjoyed the ending and epilogue a lot! It just didn't quite do everything I want from a JRPG ending (which…has been my tune with almost every newly released JRPG I've played in the last couple years :( we need better endings in these things.)

Will also say that the Osterra nods don't really make sense, but I'm personally subscribing to Osterra and Solistia straight up being parallel worlds (I suspect COTC will be confirming this one way or another in the JP version shortly, but like, eh).

Overall, it was a good game, I liked it, it's hands down my favorite Octopath and probably my second favorite Asano game after BD2. Despite my complaints, wishes things had diverged further from the original game, and generally feeling like this series is a bit overrated in JRPG circles, Oct2path is solid, fun, and a big upgrade from its predecessors. Stan Castti

#lace reviews #txt #octopath traveler spoilers #octopath traveler 2 spoilers #octopath 2 spoilers #octopath traveler ii spoilers

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power-chords · 2 years

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Has it ever occurred to you that just because something is common, doesn’t mean it’s per se healthy or okay? We live in a sick society so natch many people’s fantasies would be synergistic with that. I’m sure there are a lot of people with race play fantastics as well; by the same logic should we uncritically accept this too as a natural expression of human sexuality? If raceplay is an aberration, even if explored in fantasy, why isn’t rape? Are you suggesting that rape is more natural than racism?

No, it’s never occurred to me that people get horny about bad and wrong fantasy scenarios precisely because they know they’re bad and wrong to act on in the real world, or that real world power dynamics structure the private expression of sexual power fantasies. What a bizarre and facile question. Has it ever occurred to you that shaming people for the content of their fantasies does nothing to eradicate them (never mind that a good portion of them do the shaming on their own!), and that you cannot identify and should not attempt to identify who’s dangerous or “sick” on the basis of sexy thoughtcrime?

I’m not telling you to uncritically accept anything, I’m telling you it’s regressive, pointless, stupid, and evil to presume you can know what individual connection exists between Thought and Action, or Fantasy Desire and Real World Desire, and that you can morally adjudicate on that basis. Not only is it not my business what strangers get hot and bothered about, but I’m also not going to waste my time wondering which variety of possible antisemite is more likely to hurt me: the guy who indulges some ridiculous and caricatured Night Porter-esque domination narrative while masturbating, or the dudes I met during the solar eclipse in Wyoming who had some really wild bumper stickers on their car. What fantasy world do you live in?

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codenamesazanka · 2 years

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choices Horikoshi made for his story that I think is cool:

Nearly everyone has a superpower, so we’ve moved beyond the ‘persecuted superpowered minority’ trope as a (often unfortunate) allegory for discrimination

Instead discrimination in the story can be its own thing that draw commonalities with various irl parallels (disability, neurodiversity, racism)

No ‘quirk-suppressing’ or ‘quirk-cancelling’ technology. No easy way to fight superpowered opponents or control them. All the horrifying implications/consequences of that.

Control of quirks is hinged completely on the social contract between people. “If you don’t use your quirk and you don’t hurt people, then you’re allowed to participate in society; and we’ll protect you from people who would use their quirks to hurt you.”

quirks have been around for nearly 200 years, so this is the world as people know it and no one remembers the exact norms of Before

the social construction of heteromorphs (no matter how ‘non-human’ someone looks due to their quirk, they’re still human)

Criminals labeled the emotionally-charged word ‘Villains’ instead of just ‘quirk criminals’

Some people really do have what appears to be inherently dangerous quirks - ones that are easily lethal, ones that requires the violation of another person’s boundaries to work, ones that are getting too strong, etc.

Quirks appears to have basis, biological or otherwise, in influencing a person’s behavior, but it’s also tempered by environment, upbringing, will, etc. There predisposition, but it’s not destiny.

HeroAca Japan is a parallel to modern Japan (instead of being in a fictional country or different world altogether), exploring similar issues in a fantastical way, and it’s hard not to see it as commentary at times

the Villains are all people often seen as ‘problems’ in modern Japan: freeters (Gentle), hikikomori (Spinner, La Brava), NEETs (the entire League, other villains); kid who’s implied to have snapped due to academic pressures (Mustard), loan shark victim (Setsuno), yakuza (Shie Hassaikai), cults (MLA); or they come from circumstances that puts them at the margins or bottom of society like low education, homelessness, criminal records, mental illness, etc. They represent irl categories of people that are often ostracized and very alienated from ‘normal’ Japanese society (where not fitting in can have drastic consequences).

BUT they’re written as quite sympathetic and largely have legitimate grievances and points.

And despite the fact they can be/are unpleasant and have made bad decisions and done bad things, theme of the story is still about saving them.

#nalslastworkingbraincell #the villains are all very disenfranchised disillusioned depressed frustrated people

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idkaguyorsomething · 6 months

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Why you should read Cowboys and Indians

Despite what the title might indicate, this isn’t an AU or western. This is a story about identity, friendship, and one of the best reinterpretations of the Twilight Saga ever written.

Who It’s About: the story centers on, of all characters, Leah and Jasper. Seth and Edward play some minor roles, but most of the story is about the surprisingly heartwarming friendship between those two.

Why You Should Check It Out: this is one of the only Twilight fics I’ve read that actively confronts the shitty racial implications in its source material (Leah’s experiences as an indigenous woman and Jasper’s confederate background) and it makes a really compelling story out of it. Jasper in canon is probably one of my most hated characters because of how little development he gets and how his backstory of having fought for the confederates in the American Civil War is completely glossed over. Here, the author manages to make him into a likable, complicated man, one that you can look at and think “yeah, if vampirism enhances your human traits, he’d get emotion powers” and has him confront his past in a really interesting journey. And Leah gets her due!! If you, like me, hated how canon treated her, then it might be worth it just to check this out because watching her form bonds and open up feels truly cathartic. A lot of how growing up on the reservation shaped her is explored, and she gets some awesome moments. Even if you don’t like these characters or think that a friendship between them sounds unlikely, the writing is so good that by the end you’ll be totally invested in both of them and their friendship. There’s also a sequel oneshot, The Star Quilt, with Alice in a more prominent position where Leah gets a happily ever after.

Reasons You Might Want To Avoid: this fic heavily discusses racism and the history of the USA south, so if you’re not in the mood for either of those or are unfamiliar with the latter, this probably isn’t for you (though I’d heavily encourage you to engage with some form of discussion of the racial undertones of Twilight anyways, there is a lot to be said there). It’s also partially non-chronological, so if you hate that kind of storytelling then this might get under your skin. All-around, it’s really a great story, and the closest thing to any serious flaws this fic has is that it doesn’t have much in the way of a plot. The author goes into detail about why this is in their notes, and the story is more about the development between Leah and Jasper than defeating any kind of an antagonist or finding a Macguffin. Technically, the plot of Twilight is going on in the background the whole time, but it doesn’t really affect the story in any meaningful way, so that’s that.

TL;DR Cowboys and Indians is a fantastic exploration of a lot of the subject matter that Stephanie Meyer never did anything with, giving us a surprisingly powerful emotional bond between two unlikely characters in the process. Extra recommended for any fans of Leah Clearwater!!

#twilight #twilight saga #fic rec #twilight renaissance #leah clearwater #jasper whitlock #jasper cullen #jasper hale #why does that mf have so many last names?#he doesn’t even have a personality in canon #tw racism mention #it’s really good tho go check it out

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smokefalls · 1 year

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Title: Babel Author: R.F. Kuang Publication Year: 2022 Publisher: Harper Voyager Genre: fiction, fantasy, historical fiction

[Note: I read this book in November 2022, but am only publishing quotes and a review now because the HarperCollins union have finally gotten their contract, meaning I will return to posting content from books published by HarperCollins.]

I’ve sat on this review for months (primarily because of the HarperCollins strike), but I think it helped to reflect on what I took away from Babel. I want to begin and say that Babel is absolutely brilliant. It is scathing, well-researched, and more. As a racialized academic in the humanities, Kuang touched on many things that deeply resonated with me, but one thing she got across wonderfully was the agonizing love/hate relationship that historically marginalized people have while in academia. I felt a lot of catharsis reading this book and sincerely empathized with Robin’s grief and Griffin’s anger in particular.

I can see how Kuang deliberately crafted her characters to be more than characters. They are part of a larger, very layered commentary on the violent, isolating nature of academia and its ties to powerful institutions and systems. Babel is a fascinating yet disturbing exploration of how disrupting the status quo, especially at institutions like Oxford, is a complex act of violence, depending on who is the one writing history.

I’ve seen some of the criticisms of this book. I feel confident in saying that some were terrible takes (I don’t need to rehash them, especially if you’ve seen them on other social media platforms), but I think there were some valid criticisms as well. I agree that the pacing of the book was a bit awkward, thinking back on my reading experience, and realizing that part of the reason why it took so long for me to get through this book was due to pacing. Another understandable critique was the desire to see the fantastical elements of this book to be fleshed out more (though this didn’t really bother me, personally). A third critique I saw that I do want to respond to is about the heavy-handed nature of the book. I can see why some may not like this, but… as a marginalized scholar in the humanities (and one who has gotten a degree in the United Kingdom), I can say with absolute confidence that this is our reality. It can be very in your face in the most appalling ways. A great example of this is when someone outright tells Robin’s cohort, “We accept you not despite, but because of your foreign backgrounds.” These moments are frequent throughout Babel, but Kuang is simply portraying what racialized academics face and the different ways these play out.

Babel is by no means perfect, but when it comes to the heart of the content, it is a tour de force in literature about academia. Babel is a desperately needed book in this realm of literature, especially with how frequently romanticized academia is to an alarming degree. This book truly brings the “dark” in “dark academia,” and no matter how heavy-handed the book may seem, I hope it brings some awareness to the power dynamics and lasting colonial legacies of the academic world.

(I have a lot of thoughts on this book, and all the notes I’ve written on this book barely make it in this review, but just know that this one hit very close to home.)

Content Warning: racism, death, colonialism, child abuse, violence, classism, slavery, colorism, sexism, murder, suicide, xenophobia, toxic friendship, grief

#R.F. Kuang #Babel #book review #fiction #fantasy #historical fiction #2022 reads #booklr

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besidesitstoowarm · 7 months

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series 3 retrospective

martha jones. you were fantasic.

this season is like evenly split between half garbage and half genius. "blink" is easily one of the best episodes the show has ever put forth in 60 years; penis dalek. really nothing else to say there! sally sparrow and penis dalek. woag... the beauty of the world

i've said it in previous retrospectives but martha really got the short end of every single stick here. there were some HUGE shoes to fill in the first post-rose companion (even worse w catherine tate for the christmas special too!) and it's certainly not that i think freema agyeman can't fill them! i love martha! but the "colorblind" vibes of the casting really don't help. first black companion (sorry not counting mickey) and she's the doctor's rebound.

i'm not even sure what the solution is. i WANT to say that they could have the romantic aspect initially (they have some chemistry in "smith and jones") and maybe it would naturally peter out through the season? like she'd get to know him better and realize actually no thanks? "human nature" is kind of late in the season but it would be a really good environment for martha to go ACTUALLY i'm over your ass goodbye. idk i love her SO much but no matter what "first companion after rose" was ALWAYS going to be a hard sell, let alone "also romantically interested in the doctor" LET ALONE first black companion!! martha deserves better. in my mind she dates river.

i think the reason i love this season so much (besides martha my beloved martha) is that it suffers from "star wars prequels disorder" which is like, fantastic ideas hamfisted by a moron at the helm (also racism) like hooverville is a fantastic dw setting! understandable to modern audience but also thematically resonant. again i say this story makes more sense w cybermen than daleks BUT taking the "upgrade your abilities or die" and compounding it w the great depression is amazing!! bad story tho quite bad. "lazarus experiment" had so many points to make!! but the scorpion king was there. sad!

and of course. the goddamn master is here. again i must say, i KNOW they had crazy gay sex offscreen. this finale is easily my fave until s10 with the mondassion cybermen (<3 <3 <3). i honestly couldn't really explain why. the camp? the hobbit doctor and the world's worst cgi? whatever mental illness lucy saxon has they didn't explore? martha jones saving the world?? all of the above??

i really do love this season. for all the missteps, i do appreciate the work they DID put into miss martha jones and the weird relationship she had w the doctor. if it's true she returns for the 60th my dick is going to explode. there are some highkey BANGERS and some losers, which is always to be expected. i wish martha luck on completing her residency and look forward to DONNA NOBLE (and her granddad)

#doctor who #dw s3 #season wrap #companion wrap

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borealwrites · 1 year

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For today’s @flashfictionfridayofficial prompt!

See Me Burning

Fandom: Witcher

Pairing: A hint of Geralt/Jaskier

Warnings: Temporary Character Death, Minor Violence

Other Tags: Storytelling, Myths and Legends, 2nd Person POV (sort of), Alternate Universe—Modern, Alternate Universe—Canon, Canon Typical Racism

————

You are a storyteller; myths and legends are your bread and butter, and you’ve recently learned a new one you’re dying to share. Trapped in a pub by a summer storm, you find yourself with an audience eager to hear your stories. With a grin you settle in and begin your tale:

“It started with an auspicious birth; a nobleman born during a glorious meteor shower, with eyes bluer than flame and skin that practically glowed in the light of the torches. A strong and healthy baby, who cooed and giggled from his first breath, watching the world with wide, excited eyes.

“As the boy grew, he was deeply loved by his family. An intelligent and curious child, he spent his days devouring every bit of knowledge he could find. Especially if it pertained to the stars. The boy loved the stars and would spend hours staring up at night, and, on occasion, reaching up as though to touch them. Of course, he was unable to reach them and eventually turned his attention to the ground, flowers being as close to the stars as he could get.

“The boy grew into a young man, and he left his home for further schooling. There he learned more of the world and delighted in it. Out of all the heaps of knowledge, he especially fell in love with music. Oh yes, the stars were his first love, but music joined flowers as his second, and he decided his path forward was to be a bard. All great bards had stage names, and so he called himself Jaskier, or perhaps Dandelion, or Ranunculus, or some other flower name. Something pretty, delicate, and stubborn.

“Jaskier set off to explore the world, a lute in hand. Everywhere he went he saw hardship like he had never experienced or seen, and found himself dismayed. He began to sing songs of hope so that he might lift people’s spirits.”

You stop here and glance around at your audience. “This is a myth,” you remind them. “Things are about to get fantastical, as myths often do. But it’s not real, of course.”

They chuckle, and you continue on.

One day, he met a monster in the shape of a man. A witcher. Jaskier had of course heard all the stories about witchers, and especially this witcher. The Butcher of Blaviken, the White Wolf, Geralt of Rivia. Though at the time he was simply the Butcher. Full of love for the world, Jaskier befriended the witcher, seeing past the man, past the monster, and to the soul inside. They had many adventures; we all know those stories. Of The White Wolf and his beloved bard.

Eventually, as it always does, war came. Jaskier and the White Wolf were separated, whether by fate or by their own design nobody knows. Jaskier looked around at the world he loved, and saw pain and suffering even more than before. Saw that humans were hunting down elves and dwarves, fae and dopplers, gnomes, halflings, selkies, anyone different. That couldn’t be allowed. So Jaskier disguised himself and began saving anyone he could, rescuing them every night with only his beloved stars to guide him.

It seemed hopeless in the end. Nowhere was safe for those he rescued. They were endlessly hunted by soldiers and those who wanted to purge the world. Running from it could only last so long, and eventually, they were caught. A well-aimed arrow pierced Jaskier through the eye before he could warn anyone, killing him instantly.

But it wasn’t the end.

The place that would have become a battleground went still as Jaskier’s body began to glow. Bright, twinkling light radiated out of his body, attracting the soldier’s attention as he stood, the arrow vanishing in a flash, his eyes as bright as stars. His enemies were transfixed, staring in awe and fear. They couldn’t look away, as though hypnotized. He took a step back, and they took a step forward.

Jaskier turned his burning gaze towards the people he had been trying to save, nodded once, then turned and fled to the north. The soldiers followed him, ignoring their original quarry. Jaskier’s second in command, a fellow bard known only as Sandpiper, gathered their wits and began heading south, away from where the soldiers had been led. As they looked back to the north, they saw a new star in the sky; brighter than its fellows, it drew the eye. And Sandpiper knew it was Jaskier, distracting their enemies.

Eventually, Sandpiper and their followers arrived at the mythical land of Xin’trea, where everyone could live peacefully, without fear of the humans hunting them. And every night they turned towards the north to watch Jaskier appear in the night sky. We now call him the North Star, but he was originally Jaskier.

Some say that if you keep him at your back and head south, you too will eventually reach Xin’trea, but that the gates are barred against all humans, save for one. The entire land waits for Jaskier to return to them, to return to a place where there is no suffering or pain, where Geralt stands ready to welcome his beloved, the last person who can enter Xin’trea before it closes forever.”

There’s a moment of silence once you finish, and then someone in your audience gives an appreciative whistle. You receive many compliments, and even enough cash to cover your lunch as thanks. The storm has stopped now, and people trickle out or back to their tables. Except for one couple; two men, one with long silver hair and the other with short brown hair. You ignore them and return to counting your money. Without asking, the second man settles into the chair across from you.

“An excellent story,” he says. “But I don’t think you got the ending quite right.”

You glance up from counting the bills and into a pair of eyes bluer than flame.

————

Find this on Ao3

#storm writes #the witcher fanfiction #my writing #fanfiction #flash fic friday

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ursathebear · 6 months

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im not playing baldur's gate 3 rn which means im thinking about baldur's gate 3 so im gonna write my thoughts about the companions i have in it so far (im also barely into this game so don't spoil me pls)

Astarion

This rat bastard of a vampire spawn is probably my least favorite companion so far. While he's hot and funny, its clear that his vanity and cheeky wit are just a facade to cover up deeper problems. I've heard some of his backstory so far, and while I'm sympathetic to his plight, his racism and lack of empathy for others in similar positions to his own makes me dislike him.

Gale

Gale seems to be the goody two-shoes of the group, approving of every single stereotypical good guy action I take. As a result, he likes me a lot, though I can't say the same about him. He fails on two fronts with me - not having a particularly interesting personality, and having the most insane backstory despite being a low level character in a crpg. Part of the weave lives inside himself? He fucked Mystara? He's a walking nuclear bomb? Bro ur level 2 shut the fuck up

Karlach

I love her and I want to kiss her, similar to Astarion, being stuck in a place against her will, doing actions against her nature, but the dark parts of her past don't hold her back, and she's out of the gate trying to do whats right. We love to see a strong woman in body, mind, and heart

Lae'zel

Lae'zel comes across as cold, uncaring, and calculating. Honestly, she's a bitch most of the time, and she disapproves every time I accept any quest except getting the worm out of my head. As much as she dislikes me for trying to help people, there's a feeling I get from the way she's written that she's not a bad person really. Its just, since she's literally from off planet, her moral axioms are so alien to what is considered "good" and "just" on Faerun. Within her own society, she's likely considered a good person, its just their morals are more centered on preservation of self and creche over all else. Whoever wrote her did a fantastic job to get this idea across imo. She still has a superiority complex tho :(

Shadowheart

She's great. Charming and sweet, though with mystery and intrigue surrounding her. Both the main character and her dealing with memory loss, but in very different ways is fascinating. I don't know much about her beyond her personality yet, though neither does she. Furthermore, she seems to be a good person, supporting my generally "good" actions like helping the tieflings in the grove, avoiding combat when possible, and stopping violence, which is nice but also somewhat confusing. As someone with a passing knowledge of forgotten realms lore, isn't Shar an evil goddess, associated with like, death and grief? I'm interested in seeing how Shadowheart acts following her return to Baldur's Gate, as well as what awaits her when she finally gets her memories back.

Wyll

He's a nice guy, though secretive (for good reasons). Willingly letting his "humanity" be taken in order to protect someone he just met "Karlach" is an incredible move, and I have no doubt in my mind about his good intentions after it. Similarly, his connection both to Baldur's Gate's nobility and his connection to the frontiers is interesting, though I've yet to get to a place where this aspect of his character is truly explored.

Halsin

I just got this guy like yesterday and haven't had in my party once, I have no thoughts

#baldur's gate #baldur's gate 3 #bg3

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princeescaluswords · 1 year

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For the same ask game, 4 + 16 + 74?

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

Strangely enough, I get most of my inspiration from the interplay between different media creations (literature, television, cinema) and the fandoms that exist around them. On the positive side, I am still amazed by the perspectives and the variations that people can bring to a text, even if I don't agree with them. On the negative side, I am quite frankly tasked by the racism, by the misogyny, by obsessive hostility, by the decadence pervasive in the fandom, but it also inspires me to answer it.

I have an imagination, fantastic but also moral. When I read something that I hadn't considered before, such as your excellent Great War AU for Teen Wolf, I can see how you draw a parallel between the established mores of class and patriotism that propelled British youth into Flanders fields. Your versions of the cast are placed into a bloody war not of their own making which served the interests of people above their social and economic level rather than into a supernatural feud not of their own making which served the interests of people above their social and economic level. I wouldn't want to write the same thing, but I am in the initial stages of an AU set in California during the American Civil War, where concepts of human dignity were in direct conflict. After all, I see human dignity as a value in and of itself as a core value of Teen Wolf expressed through its lead protagonist.

And then there is the endless inspiration through negative example (referred to in fandom terms as 'spitefic') where fundamentally corrupt interpretations inspire me to write countering fictions. For example, one that always gets my passion burning is the fanon idea that the primary problem with Teen Wolf is that Scott doesn't kill enough people, conjured in complete disregard of how the very story was predicated on the endless acts of vengeance between Argent and Hale. I can never bring any version of Scott, even the ones I write who do kill, to treat human life cheaply, and there is always scorn for those who do.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

I presently am preparing for publication my final offering in Scottuary 2023, a missing scene from The Wolves of War, but I have four other stories in planning stages. There's a lull, as a lack of WIPs mean that I don't have a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that I made a promise of finish that story, so I better finish it.

I won't talk about the one that's going up this Saturday -- people will see that soon enough -- but the one that I'm interested in the most is the one I mentioned above: the Civil War Era story, set in California in 1861 rather than in 2011. It will require a significant amount of reading and research on my part, as there are three significant cultures I want to study -- the indigenous peoples, the remnants of Spanish control, and the American entrepreneurs that dominated the mid-19th century Californian society in the wake of the 40s gold rush. It would be quite a challenge to pull off successfully.

The others are continuations of my MCU fusion and my Game of Thrones fusion along with one that is difficult to write but persistent in hanging around. It's a very dark fiction, an exploration of the consequences if a post-nogitsune Stiles bought into Peter's proposition that you can kill your way to safety, because I've seen too many triumphant Steter-Kills-Anyone-They-Don't-Like-and-Live Happily-Ever-After power fantasies for them not to leave an impression.

74. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

Aside from the characteristic typos? For some reason, I tend to leave suffixes off words or leave out necessary words altogether. But mostly I reject the idea that teenage characters don't think about their own actions and that it is boring and presumptuous to spend time wondering if they are doing the right thing. One of the flaws of many properties, including Teen Wolf, is the idea that audiences wouldn't be interested in the why. For example, Scott McCall had many adults mentoring them who demonstrated specific rationality about their behavior. It hurt the story to forbid Scott from talking about it. Empathy and compassion are not just intuitive phenomena. It does give my work a cerebral feel, though I've never posted a fiction anonymously.

#my writing #ask game #teen wolf fanfiction #fandom problems #teen wolf fandom problems

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carriagelamp · 2 years

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Spent a lot of time reading outside in the sun this month, which is, of course, the ultimate bliss of summer. Under the tree, by the lake, while camping, next to the creek...

Blacksad

Blacksad is a crime noir story following the titular private investigator in the 1950s, though with anthropomorphized animals rather than humans. Like an adult version of Zootopia. I picked up this omnibus of the first three volumes because I was in the middle of playing the PS4 game and quite enjoying the world it laid out, though I ended up having mixed feelings about the series as a whole. It explores some complicated issues of American society during the 1950s, like racism, fascism, and nuclear armament, and since the creators are both Spanish rather than American themselves I liked the sort of outside perspective. It laid things bare in a way that you don’t always get from other works.

That being said, some of the issues definitely hit weird, the stories often felt like they were trying to tackle more than they had space to actually tell, and the way they portray women is just absolute shit. It’s one of those “the men definitely Are Animals and the women Have A Lil Nose And Maybe Some Non-Descript Animals Ears”. It made the sex scenes VERY uncomfortable, to have a Definite Animal and a Definite Human.

Still, the art itself is almost able to redeem all other faults.

Demon Slayer 5,6

I continue along with this series, which follows Tanjiro as he travels with his demon-turned sister, trying to find a cure and develop his skills as a demon slayer, to get revenge on the monsters that killed their family. I still like the premise, there’s something very pure about it, like a platonic ideal of shonen, and Tanjiro is a delight. These last two books though I found a bit more lackluster. Also we have entered Character Have Just The Weirdest Design that a lot of shonen seem to hit sooner or later.

Dennis the Menace: To The Core

Stumbled across this while cleaning and had to stop everything to read it. One of those cute classics you just can’t go wrong with. It's simple but always cute.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation 2

This series owns my soul. I am currently reading the third and trying to make it last because I will be going insane while I wait for the fourth book which doesn’t come out til WINTER. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wanji are complete fucking morons and I love them with my entire heart. This book was a little rough for deep, long sections of backstory that followed other characters. While I did technically enjoy those sections and I liked the characters in them, they often ended up feeling VERY long. I would have liked for them to have been a bit more interspersed with the actual protagonists. Still, I’m loving the lore and the world and the politics… ending of book 2 had me absolutely losing my shit.

and listen, adult novels that still give you full page illustrations? I'm a simple person and I love this.

Grease

Okay, so I am a sucker for a well done novelization. This is not that. I have never seen an author fail to understand their assignment so badly. This person has framed the story so that SONNY, a random T-Bird, is the narrator. You know, everyone’s favourite character. This also means it EXCLUSIVELY shows the POV of the T-Birds, and absolutely nothing about the Pink Ladies or Sandy except for when they intercept the T-Birds, and layered through Sonny’s sexist narrative. It honestly sucks so incredibly much. I did not finish this and was tempted to toss it in the river.

Haikyu 42-45

I! HAVE! FINISHED! THE! SERIES! Man, I can’t think of many manga that made me read for fourty fucking volumes but Haikyu managed it. Absolutely phenomenal sports manga, the way this author was able to follow so many different characters and make you really care about their development and struggles… absolutely masterful. And not just the main character, not just the main team, this manga-ka did a really fantastic job of placing you into the POV of other teams and I think that went a long way for keeping the series feeling fresh and exciting. And every time a character you cared about got better it felt like such a success! Admittedly, the last few volumes, which showed the post-high school lives of the characters, were not my favourite ending ever. Having the characters fail to win the Spring Tournament, as cliche as that may have been, took a lot of the wind from my sails and I never really got it back. The final match in the last book was enjoyable, seeing how Hinata has grown into a truly superb player was epic, and I love the peek at the Olympics, but it didn’t have the magic that the rest of the series had for me.

Love Stage

Disappointing. I’ve read a lot of other books by this author and have always really enjoyed them. I usually don’t by yaoi sight-unseen these days because I don’t trust like that, but I decided to give it a go because this author has never steered me wrong. This one, unfortunately did. It had funny moments, but the squickiness completely overpowered everything else. Would not recommend, unless you really enjoyed a very specific, standard yaoi format that was common in like… the mid-naughts.

Neon Sign Amber

Now this one was good. I had to read it in French because it never got an English translation, but it was worth the weirdness of having a French-English dictionary next to me while I read smut. It was a charming single book story with really nice art. If anything, I wouldn’t have minded another book just because the ending felt a bit rushed — one character has a lot of baggage about people knowing he’s gay, and the other is only just coming to terms with his sexuality, so seeing how these two adults navigate an actual relationship would have been very interesting. Are they open about it? What sort of road bumps do they have to sort out together? I dunno, I had more questions, but what it gave me was still very nice.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 1,2

…Okay, I’ll be honest, I read the name, made some VERY specific assumptions, and pointedly avoided this manga. My cousin decided to actually read the back though and that’s how I found out my assumptions were wrong and it’s actually pretty cute. It’s about a “Hanako-san” ghost… which is normally a girl ghost, though not in this case. He helps keeps the other mysteries of the school in check, and ends up getting a human girl wrapped up in the local supernatural activity. It feels like a slightly more childish xxxHolic which isn’t an itch I ever expected to have scratched by another series, so that’s exciting.

What Did You Eat Yesterday 1

Just a cute domestic romance that’s all framed around the meals one of the main characters cooks. It has middle aged characters, which is a nice change from a lot of romances/yaoi, with more adult dilemmas to work through. And each chapter dedicates several loving pages to walking you through exactly what’s being cooked, to the point where I’m pretty sure you could cook along with the main character if you wanted. It was lovely.

#book review #book reviews #chatter #manga #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #demon slayer #toilet bound hanako kun #what did you eat yesterday #neon sign amber #haikyu #grease #dennis the menace #blacksad #queer lit

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