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elkian · 3 years

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I was gonna do a “missing the point”-style meme but I’m honestly not sure that would even work tho so:

Harry Potter and My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia have similar issues with introducing and then immediately ignoring ENORMOUS issues re: ableism.

I think these two series in specific come to mind bc it’s ableism within a specific empowered community, and in both cases the series are pretty well-known and the community (Wix/Heroes) are immediately identifiable to many audiences.

[WARNING: Discussions of ableism, child harm, and abuse on multiple levels.]

What’s the problem?

SQUIBS.

[This post got stupid huge SO here is a tl,dr for all you lovely people who understandably have no time for this.

TL, DR: Both Harry Potter and Boku No Hero have a bad tendency to implement or imply a level of disability regarding unempowered people in empowered societies. They then continue on to completely disregard important conclusions to these implications, such as how heavily it is implied that these unempowered people (Squibs) are so ‘worthless’ to those societies that their very deaths are merely a byline rather than an actual tragedy.

This is especially troubling in MHA/BNHA when so many other political and worldbuilding considerations HAVE been planned out, and seems to be less-discussed in the fandom as a whole, so that’s a much larger chunk of this post.]

That’s your tl, dr!

Here’s the Harry Potter angle:

HP has a bit that I’ve seen people discussing already: Neville’s magic was discovered when his uncle dropped a literal child a potenial lethal distance.

Neville activating his power and surviving is celebrated, and then JKR immediately glosses over the glaring issue this has introduced: the heavy implication that a Squib dying from this incident would have not have been mourned or even really commented on.

The few adult Squibs (and isn’t that a whole new slice of wonderful /j) are generally disliked and ridiculed for some reason or other. Now, while obviously there are plenty of places where the Venn diagram of “disabled” and “asshole” intersect irl, when your ONLY presentation of a disabled character or group is, every time, an asshole or a fool or both, boy! That’s bad!

Neville (who is generally presented as magically, physically, and mentally weak and often treated as comic relief) is a bit better via the POV Character constantly having positive interactions with him, but this is still a mess. Yes, Neville canonically is not a Squib, but it’s not subtle that he’s on the cusp OF being a Squib, and that is a key element of ridiculing him in many situations (also the whole trauma thing multiple times, like if I really get into it I could do a whole double-size post of how Neville was done dirty or nearly dirty by JK all the time but this isn’t that post).

This isn’t even the point of this post. Let’s move to MHA/BNHA

Hero Academia has differing but honestly even worse issues. And I’m aware that different countries handle ableism and accessibility in different ways, but if you think too hard about it this is an absolute clusterfuck.

What is the problem now?

Squibs! Or rather, the main character of the series, Midoriya Izuku.

Deku (a nickname meaning “useless”! Imparted after his disability is recognized! hilarity!!) is also born without powers. Even worse in some ways, he is born without powers in a world where the overwhelming majority of the global population has some kind of empowerment. I can’t recall if it’s outright stated or only implied that someone with a functionally useless (and hoo boy, usefullness to society is its own post nope not today i do not have that much energy) Quirk is still more of a person than a Quirkless human.

That sink in? Okay, let’s move on.

In a narratively not-uncommon turn of events, Deku gains power. This is partially a product of, and directly tied to, his own work and determination, as well as his willingness to help even when physically outmatched.

To an American audience (NOT the intended audience though I wouldn’t doubt it if Horikoshi meant to have international appeal more or less from the start), this is a deeply satisfying narrative. Who doesn’t love an underdog story? And we even learn that the strongest hero of all time (til this point, anyways) was ALSO born Quirkless!

However, from here, things take a nosedive.

The key problem is a combination of story progression and overall thought put into worldbuilding. Horikoshi’s efforts may not be the MOST thorough, but he has put a great deal of work and thought into his creation (he at least understands the concept of implications and sometimes plans accordingly, looking at you JKR). However, that tied with story progression and personal repercussions actually works to the detriment of the matter.

Especially given recent turns of events.

[BIG MEGA SPOILERS FOR FAIRLY RECENT PLOT

STOP HERE IF YOU’RE NOT CAUGHT UP

SERIOUSLY]

What I mean by this is the current state of events re: two particular recent/recent-ish plot arcs.

First, Quirk Removal, and second, Endeavor’s comeuppance.

Quirk Removal/Loss was the start of my realization to what the narrative was doing regarding Izuku’s Quirklessness and the state of being overall.

This arc was a perfect time to bring up Midoriya’s past! A lot of Western works certainly would have done so! And yes, it may be bordering on done-to-death, but many elements of Hero Academia put new twists on common themes and cliches; it wasn’t unreasonable to hope that he might do it again.

Instead, little to NOTHING is discussed during this time! In fact, iirc I’d go so far as to say Midoriya straight-up never considers his past at any point during this arc!? If I’m wrong then it obviously made little impact.

NOW, not every disabled character needs to incorporate their disability and/or skills gleaned from living with it in every narrative. In fact, it would get tedious and questionable if they did (note: this does NOT mean ignoring/forgetting the character is even disabled when convenient. Like, I’d like to think that’s the obvious point of this post but... *gestures at tumblr*).

But the complete lack of it here feels really weird. Like, almost hollow. I think Midoriya makes some kind of suggestion to Mirio of his former Quirklessness at the end of the arc, but nothing that made any kind of impact.

Let’s move on.

Endeavor.

Now, the problem with Endeavor’s arc is not the arc itself. Or, rather, it’s the fact that Endeavor’s Comeuppance is pretty good.

This is a problem because someone else should be getting this exact same arc, yet the issue is never even RECOGNIZED, let alone addressed.

Endeavor’s abuse of his wife and children, all in the name of creating a Heroic legacy, is publicized and tanks his popularity. The general public is now aware of what he’s done to the people closest to him, which aside from giving him a more correct reputation, means they can’t trust him to protect them if they can’t trust him to protect his own family.

This isn’t the goal of this post and I’m no expert regardless, but up to this point (around chapter 290) this was handled in an interesting way. Endeavor is humanized and often shown interacting with people in a way that, while often domineering, isn’t always aggressive or abusive. He runs a Hero Agency for crying out loud! But abuse in the real world often isn’t constant, nor happening to everyone in contact with the abuser. So this is a surprisingly good lead up to the reveal, where you can understand how most people never realized this was an issue.

But here’s my main point. Let’s examine some traits and actions that come up:

physically abusive to a child (often dangerously so) to the point of permanent trauma and severe scarring in some cases

target of abuse was weaker (physically and/or regarding Quirk power)

often abused victim emotionally/psychologically, bringing this weakness up again and again

own immense power led to rising in the world of Heroics

comrades, fellow Heroes, UA teachers etc. not aware of prior abuse issues

Who does this sound like?

Endeavor, who has a whole fucking arc dedicated to this reveal and repercussions?

Or Bakugou?

Reminder: This isn’t a hate post. This isn’t a character post, or even an abuse post. This is about ableism.

Bakugou exhibits many, many traits and actions that Endeavor was literally just punished for. So why does the treatment of these characters in-universe differ so drastically?

Two primary reasons I can think of, which feed into each other:

1) Bakugou was a child (still technically is a minor, remember! Still a first-year high schooler!) when this started. This doesn’t mean he’s strictly innocent, but it’s an important point, because it leads us to

2) Bakugou Katsuki’s abuse of Midoriya Izuku is socially accepted.

Reminder of the audience’s first encounter with Katsuki. The very first page with him is him and his grade-school posse picking on a kid that Izuku is trying to protect. His posse is showing off their Quirk powers and mocking Izuku’s lack thereof.

Then we flash forward to late-middle school versions of the kids. Bakugou, in front of a fucking teacher and entire class, is verbally, physically, etc. abusive to Izuku. He trashes his stuff, threatens him, tells him to kill himself (which, as Izuku notes later, is a fucking felony in Japan too).

No one stops him.

No one criticizes him.

We don’t even get a shot of like, some more ‘regular’ students being like “man Bakugou’s kinda fucked up but we’re too scared to do anything about it” NO. NO. Everyone more or less either backs Katsuki up or straight up doesn’t care.

Remember that this started when Katsuki and Izuku were four. Remember that Katsuki’s power is absurdly dangerous, ie. LITERAL. GODDAMN. EXPLOSIONS.

Izuku has scars. He probably has hearing loss! He may have gotten at least one concussion which can cause serious neurological issues and open him up to further risk!

He could have died.

And?

NO ONE. DOES. ANYTHING.

THIS is the point of the post. THIS is the value placed on Quirkless people in this society.

And yet. Despite Endeavor’s comeuppance. Despite All Might and Izuku’s blatant ‘value’ to society through Heroics. Despite so many other political implications and quandaries address in the Hero Academia series.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing about this is addressed. The nearly-lethal ableism towards Quirkless people in this society is never ONCE brought up properly once Izuku receives One For All.

There is so much potential here! There is so much worth talking about! And yet we’ve moved into what feels very much like the Final Battle without it being addessed, despite numerous, numerous opportunities for a meaningful conversation about it along the way.

Mirio losing his power! Hell, Mirio’s powers’ drawbacks (and pretty much every Quirk’s drawback! if acknowledged properly!) border on a disability-analogue, and even more when Yuga’s laser comes up, and yet again and again we fail to truly engage with the matter in a meaningful way.

At this point, even if it comes up in the finale, I’m going to be disappointed in this particular aspect of the series due to the complete and total shut-down it’s been given so far.

What the FUCK, Horikoshi?

#elk text #24th #February #2021 #February 24th 2021 #I hope the bold helps with reading #long post warn #elk has thoughts #sorry for the ramble #Ableism #other shit comes up but plz keep in mind that that is the PRIMARY POINT OF THIS #also:#child abuse warn #abuse warn #harry potter spoilers warn #boku no hero spoilers #like REAL BIG spoilers for later Hero Academia stuff!#this is not a character hate post and i will block judiciously #elk has feelings

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mashounen2003 · 3 years

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Sonic opinions - 4

Initially, the purpose of my fanfics was almost only to think of a possible continuation of the events of Sonic SatAM, adapting things from the Archie-Sonic comics (and taking some licenses in the process), and trying to better write Antoine's transition from his self in the cartoon to his self in the comics, give more importance to Tails and better portray his parents, Amadeus and Rosemary. But then I realized how abysmal the differences between the two versions of Antoine were, while it was also harder for me to think of a way to write Rosemary coherently.

In Antoine's case, lately, I came up with an alternative to make him develop and stop being what he was in the TV series:

Immediately after the original Robotnik has been defeated, Antoine leaves his team behind. He actually doesn't know how to fight, but he still has good marksmanship, so he becomes a hitman. However, he's eventually convinced to leave behind that life without honour, begins to train in real fighting skills and becomes a genuine Freedom Fighter once and for all. In any case, he develops an opinion of "the end justifies the means" and continues thinking it for the rest of the story, being critical of his former team; this, along with his lasting grudge against Sonic and Sally, leads him to fight against the Monarchy in the events of "Civil War".

As for Rosemary... I don't like to say it this way, but she was a total b**** in the comics. I came up with a way to show her in a better light, but in no way could it have worked with the comics' Rosemary as she was. I'll talk about it when I write my list of ideas for future fanfics.

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I also addressed Politics in that fictional universe, trying to avoid the way this was done in the comics: there, Ian Flynn created the Council of Acorn and portrayed it as a bunch of stereotyped useless politicians obsessed with controlling the heroes and barely concerned with their country's security, and I think Flynn didn't do it to actually enrich the comics' universe or to add depth to the story or to communicate certain political ideas, but only to give readers someone to blame.

In the stories I wrote so far, I didn't go deep into what happened with my fictional universe's Council of Acorn after its creation; however, I did address its origin, and in doing so, I didn't make the Bems involved. Look... In the comics, Tails's parents were inspired by the Bems to try to establish a Democracy in Acorn, and this entails some inconvenience:

The Bems are terrible people. They roboticized Sonic and Tails to make them fight Robotnik and Snively, in order to verify the robots were better than flesh-and-blood beings (if things had happened differently, perhaps Mobius's Robians wouldn't have been de-roboticized); their society is entirely made of clones and almost lacks variety, not only in terms of the physical but also in terms of people's ideas; their judicial system is quite f***ed up (at least according to our standards), and... *sigh* they're just the worst. These traits of the Bems had been developed when Karl Bollers wrote the comics, and Flynn should have considered that they’re technically canon before having Tails's parents claim to have been inspired by those aliens.

Even if we cling to Moral Relativism with all our strength, claiming the Bems are just "different" and have different behaviour, mindset, psychology and culture, this keeps making things complicated: applying something in one society, solely because it succeeded in another, ain't exactly something smart to do.

And the craziest of all is that it could have been avoided very easily: Flynn could simply have said there were previous failed attempts to establish a Democracy in other countries of Mobius and Amadeus & Rosemary had always wanted a change in the government system, had learned about those historical events and knew (or believed they knew, at least) how to do it right this time. Moreover, Flynn could have said the decade spent by Tails's parents with the Bems gave them a clue about what they should not do when finally returning to their homeworld.

I tried, in my work, to use this idea of Amadeus & Rosemary wanting to establish a Democracy in an attempt to succeed in what others in other parts of Mobius had failed throughout History. It was based upon what happened in the French Revolution (more precisely, the Jacobin period), the years immediately after the Russian Revolution, and mainly the First English Revolution: in 1648, the Monarchy was overthrown in England; the change was violent and chaotic, the government that took the place of the King ended up being also a despotic tyranny, and the final result was just the return of a King to power in 1660 (although, anyway, the Glorious Revolution established in 1688 the British parliamentary system as we know it); Thomas Hobbes, while watching those events unfold, wrote his book Leviathan, where he justified the need for an Absolute Monarchy by arguing humans were violent, selfish, chaotic and brutal by nature, so they had signed a symbolic pact where they ceded all their rights and their power to a single person in charge of ruling with an iron fist, in order to prevent humanity from destroying itself. In my fanfics' universe, it was mentioned those attempts at democratization in Mobius led to civil wars, ended with those same peoples clinging to ideas similar to those of Hobbes, quickly restoring the Monarchy and promising themselves not to try and establish a Democracy ever again.

I also mentioned the recurring conflicts between the Acorn Kings and the Southern Barons in the comics, as well as the connection between the Kings and the infamous Source of All, among other things. I also had Amadeus do what he should have done in the comics when he explained why he wanted there to be Democracy: to present historical events, such as those conflicts, the Kings' cult of the Source of All and the technological and cultural backwardness to which the people were subjected by them, as concrete examples of how the Monarchy had never worked well.

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There are several Sonic fans, including @toaarcan and @robotnik-mun, who argue Politics shouldn't have been addressed at all in Sonic stories. Also, the vast majority of Sonic fans claim each and every one of the attempts to make this series more serious were some of the worst things that could have happened, even the addition of more characters was nothing but a cancer, and everything should have remained "simple" or the Sonic franchise shouldn't have gone beyond what it was at the time of the classic Genesis games. I praise the stories written by @toaarcan, and I agree with many of the opinions of both him and @robotnik-mun, but with all due respect, I totally disagree on this particular point.

I've always believed that, if it's done right, any topic should be able to be addressed in any kind of fiction, and Politics is no exception; more exactly, I think an author has two options when writing a work aimed at children and young people: to write something super light and soft where no serious topic is addressed, or to "go all-in" and address all serious topics, leaving nothing out; this includes not only Politics, but also tragedies, the complexities of love, toxic interpersonal relationships (whether abusive or otherwise), bullying, mental illness, trauma (for example, that caused by war), societal issues, and so on. That's one of the many whys of my love for RWBY: there's nothing that web-series doesn't talk about. As for the proper and respectful LGBTQ+ representation, rather than a serious topic reserved for serious fictional works, it's a requirement every fictional work should meet, whether serious or not, especially in the middle of the 21st century (this is something I think my work didn't meet satisfactorily).

With Sonic SatAM and the comics, it looked like the second option could have worked in the Sonic franchise too, and the TV series did it right to some extent. Unfortunately, Archie-Sonic's writers almost never did things right in regards to relationships between characters: Ken Penders's work, in particular, is an example of how relationships should never be, and Flynn's attempt to talk about Politics was a complete disaster, not much better than Penders's heinous handling of political stuff, more similar to a very low-quality North-American political satire, even when the conflict portrayed wasn't of the "Right versus Left" kind but of the "Monarchy versus Republic" kind, which should have been much easier to do without ruining everything. The only ones who didn't fall into those same mistakes were Gallagher and Angelo DeCesare, the comics' first writers, but only because they chose the first option: to write stories that weren't serious at all... with the notable exception of "Growing Pains", the B-story of issues #28 and #29, a typical Shakespearean tragedy where they presented us Auto-Fiona, a robot replica of who would later be one of the most controversial characters in the comics.

This, coupled with the resounding failure of Sonic 2006, is the only reason why now almost everyone in the Sonic fandom prefers stories without anything serious and/or a return to the Classic Sonic era, with very underdeveloped characters who are turned into mere plot devices and are only a shadow of their former self or of what they could have been.

#sonic fanfiction by mashounen #sonic opinions by mashounen #sonic #archie sonic #sonic comics #sonic the hedgehog #sonic 2006 #ken penders #ian flynn #penders is an asshole #ian flynn is not much better #antoine d'coolette #rosemary prower #miles tails prower #amadeus prower #rwby #sonic satam

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the-everqueen · 3 years

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why i disliked “the traitor baru cormorant”

so...recently i read Seth Dickinson’s The Traitor Baru Cormorant. i bought it thinking, Cool, an insightful fantasy series for me to get into while i wait to hear whether i passed my qualifying exams! i have some time before the semester starts!

and then i absolutely hated it and spent every minute cataloguing what i thought Dickinson got wrong.

...uh, if you want to get the tl;dr of the liveblog i gave the gf, here’s the top three reasons i disliked this book:

1) not a fan of the “strong female character” trope

yes, Baru doesn’t sling around a sword or shoot arrows better than Anyone In The Whole World. but Dickinson IMMEDIATELY tells us (not shows, tells) that she’s good at math, she’s clever at picking apart strategic scenarios, she’s a savant. (tbh, i don’t love how he shows this, either, with the standard child-prodigy-who-catches-the-attention-of-a-powerful-adult trope.) in Dickinson’s crafted world, her math skills aren’t entirely unusual: women (for...some reason?) are stereotyped as being good at calculations, despite also being aligned with hysteria and too many emotions. this bothers me more than it’s probably supposed to, because the sexism in this novel doesn’t really seem to follow an internal logic. i guess it’s so we can have a woman as the protagonist? also...hoo boy...her “savant” characterization bothers me because...she’s heavily coded as South East Asian (...maaaybe Philippines or Native Hawaii, but as i’ll get to later, Dickinson doesn’t make a huge distinction). uh...model minority stereotypes anyone? yes, within the text, plenty of people associated with the Empire comment that it’s impressive someone of her background got into a position of power so young. at the same time, i’m sure that sounds familiar to so many Asian-identified people! the constant tightrope of being expected to perform to a certain (white, Western) standard while also being Othered. mostly this bothers me because Baru is also characterized as...a sellout for the Empire. sure, her stated goal is to undo the Empire from within, but [MAJOR SPOILERS] in the end it appears that her actual goal was to attain enough power that the Empire would let her be a benevolent dictator over her home island? and it’s only after a major PERSONAL betrayal that she revises this plan? [END SPOILERS] Baru also assimilates without much pain or sacrifice. she hardly ever thinks about her parents or her childhood home. she willingly strips herself of cultural signifiers and adapts to Empire norms (apart from being a closeted lesbian, which...yeah, i’ll get to that, too). and it’s not that Dickinson doesn’t TRY to make her a nuanced character, but...to me, it feels so painfully obvious that this is not his experience. it feels almost...voyeuristic.

...much like his descriptions of wlw desire!

2) we get it, you read Foucault

the categories of sexual deviance are based entirely on a Western Victorian-era medical discourse around non-heterosexual forms of desire, but Dickinson ignores the network of sociocultural, religious, and historical contexts that contributed to that specific kind of discourse. he uses the terms “tribadism” and “sodomy” but those ideas CANNOT EXIST outside a Euro-American Christian context. yes, a huge part of the 19th century involved the pathologization of sexual and romantic desire (or lack thereof). but that in turn goes back to a history of medicine that relied on the “scientific method” as a means of studying and dissecting the human body--and that method in itself is a product of Enlightenment thinking. Theorist Sylvia Wynter (whomst everyone should read, imho) discusses how the Enlightenment attempted to make the Human (represented by a cisgender, heteronormative, white man) an agent of the State economy. every categorization of so-called deviance goes back to white supremacist attempts to define themselves as ‘human’ against a nonwhite, non-Christian Other. and IN TURN that was ultimately founded on anti-Black, anti-Indigenous racism. at this point it’s a meme in academic circles to mention Foucault, because so many scholars don’t go any further in engaging with his ideas or acknowledge their limits. but SERIOUSLY. Dickinson crafts the Masquerade as this psuedo-scientific empire that’s furthering erasure of native cultures, but...where did these ideas come from? who created them? what was the justification that gave them power? [MINOR SPOILER] blaming the Empire’s ideology on a handful of people behind the Mask who crafted this entire system makes me...uncomfortable, to say the least. part of what gives imperialism its power is that a lot of ordinary people buy in to its ideas, because it aligns with dominant belief systems or gives them some sense of advantage.

also speaking of cultural erasure...

3) culture is more than set dressing

again, to reiterate: Baru does NOT think back to her childhood home for longer than a couple passing sentences at various points in the narrative. but even though the early chapters literally take place on her home island, i don’t get a sense of...lived experience. this is true of ALL of the fantasy analogues Dickinson has created in his Empire. i felt uncomfortably aware of the real world counterparts that Dickinson was drawing inspiration from. at the same time...there are basically no details to really breathe life into these various fantasy cultures. i HATE the trope of “fantasy Asia” or “fantasy Africa” or “fantasy Middle East” that’s rampant among white male sff writers. Dickinson does not get points from me for basically just expanding that to “fantasy South East Asia,” “fantasy Mongolia,” “fantasy South America,” and... “fantasy Africa,” plus some European cultures crammed in there. he’s VERY OBVIOUSLY drawing on those languages for names, but otherwise there’s no real sense of their religious practices, the nuances of their cultures, the differences between those cultures (besides physiological, which...oh god). part of that is probably supposed to be justified by “well, the Empire just erased it!!!” but that’s not an excuse imho.

also...in making the Empire the ultimate signifier of the evils of imperialism...Dickinson kind of leans into the “noble savage” stereotype. Baru’s home island is portrayed as this idyllic environment where no one is shamed for who they love and gender doesn’t determine destiny and there are no major conflicts. (there is a minor nod to some infighting, but this is mostly a “weakness” that the Masquerade uses as an excuse to obliterate a whole tribe.) Dickinson justifies young Baru’s immediate assimilation as her attempt to figure out the Masquerade’s power from within, but given that the Masquerade presumably killed one of her dads and her mom maybe advocates a guerilla resistance...it’s weird that Baru basically abandons her family without a second thought. yeah, i get that she’s a kid when the Masquerade takes over the island, but...that’s still a hugely traumatic experience! the layers of trauma and conditioning and violence that go into this level of colonization are almost entirely externalized.

(later it’s implied that Baru might qualify as a psychopath, and tbh that feels like an excuse for why we haven’t gotten any sense of her inner world, not to mention kind of offensive.)

this isn’t exhaustive but...

it’s not that i don’t think white people shouldn’t ever address POC experiences in their books. just...if your entire trilogy is going to revolve around IMPERIALISM IS BAD, ACTUALLY, maybe you should contribute to the discourse that Black, Brown, and Indigenous authors have already done. reading this book made me so, so angry. i did not feel represented! i felt like i was being talked down to, both on a critical theory level AND on a craft level. there are SO MANY books by actual BIPOC and minority authors that have done this better. N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy and her current Cities series. Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti trilogy. Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House remains one of the more powerful novels i’ve read on how The System Is Out To Destroy You, That Is The Point. (Bardugo is non-practicing Spanish and Moroccan Jewish on one side of her family, and her character Alex is mixed and comes from a Jewish background!)

...

there’s not really a point to this. i get a lot of people have raved about this book. good for them. if that’s you, no judgment. i’m not trying to argue IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU ARE PROBLEMATIC. i’m just kind of enraged that a white dude wrote about a Brown lesbian under a colonial empire and that THIS Brown lesbian under a colonial empire couldn’t even get behind the representation. also kind of annoyed that it’s the Empire of Masks and Dickinson either hasn’t read Fanon or didn’t see fit to slip in a Fanon reference, which like. missed opportunity.

#meta #book review #maybe y'all can get enjoyment from my rage #also i don't want to publish this on like. goodreads.#i'm not out to destroy Seth Dickinson personally #i know this was a highly reviewed book #i just...hated it #and i figured putting the rage on my blog is less harmful #than leaving a one star review #while also maybe giving someone the insight #for why they might not want to read this #the traitor baru cormorant #the masked empire

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daisy--sorbet · 4 years

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heyyy, hope you’re having a good night!! if you have the energy and feel okay answering, what’s up w taz graduation? i haven’t checked it out yet but i was thinking ab it. just asking bc you’re the first person i saw talk ab the show having serious issues, but also feel free to not answer this!! hope you have a good week!

i took a nice hot bath, had a strawberry kiwi capri-sun, and did a nice face mask and i’m feeling pretty good - so, y’know what anon? let’s talk about it.

for anyone who likes taz grad who sees this post: it’ll be tagged with “taz grad hate” (although i feel hate is definitely a very strong word - it’s for the simplicity of tagging it) - so please block the tag if you don’t want to see this post (especially because i put a readmore on a post before and it didn’t show up on mobile and instead gave the full post). mobile tumblr has a tag blocking system, so please feel free to use it! i don’t mind haha

anyway, so this is... probably going to be a lost post, and i wanna go ahead and preface it: this absolutely isn’t any hate on the mcelroys themselves. i love the brothers and their dad a lot, and while i doubt any of them would ever see this (or have it sent to them, or shown to them, because im pretty sure they try to distance themselves from this sort of thing), i just want to make it clear that criticizing a product is different than bashing a person. which brings me to the point of if i do end up sounding as if im bashing someone - please call me out on it! it’s not my intention to target anyone.

with that said, let’s talk about this campaign.

so my problems are as thus: the railroading, the shipping (a fandom problem, but it’s present in the podcast), the NPCs, and some misc problems others have addressed better than i have.

which. i know. that’s basically the entire podcast. (i promise i’ll bring up some positive points to balance it all out). keep in mind i’ve only personally listened to... what, six episodes? and it was enough for me to drop it. some people dropped it first ep, some dropped it ep four, and others are still forcing themselves to listen.

the railroading

there was a time i could handle travis and his railroading [making sure the story goes exactly the way he has planned], because it was the very beginning of the podcast and that’s what you can kind of expect from a plot-heavy podcast. hell, i wouldn’t mind it if the interactions and goofs weren’t a huge part of why i listen to TAZ in particular (which, by the way, is why amnesty still stuck out to me - even if there was a direction griffin wanted to push them towards, the interactions between the players (or players and npcs) made up for any railroading). it’s kind of hard to not railroad a little when it’s story-heavy and you’re trying to built up a world that you’ve put a lot of thought into. however, a huge part of d&d is the spontaneity.

it’s kind of why i think balance was so popular. while there was railroading towards the end, there was the presence of improv that made it all good. most mcelroy content is enjoyed because of the goofs. the magic brian moment is memorable. the jenkin’s fight still stands out because it was funny (albeit a result of some bad rolls). the boys teasing angus sticks out because the four would play well off of each other. even without that - griffin had talked about how he had to roll with things (the fact he had planned for a fight atop the train, but ditched the idea for what his family members came up with instead). even in amnesty, a couple moments that stick out to me still are ned with the jetpack taking out a pizza hut sign, and the scene with the water where jake was trapped inside. they aren’t as fun, but they still stand out as “things i didnt expect to really end the way they did.”

with grad, it’s just. one after another. the thundermen want to subpoena a xorn? cool, let’s run with that until actually the xorn gets fed rocks and goes home and who cares about the subpoena now. fitzroy wants to keep his cloak? lets talk about it for a while and you also get no rolls to even try to keep it. fitzroy goes to meet higglemas in his office? oh, why are you here fitzroy? im going to keep asking you until you answer fitzroy? you arent getting out of this scene until you answer me, fitzroy, so just tell me why you’re here already, alright, fitzroy?

and even later in a episode i read a transcript of: hey argo, remember how you have this whole secret motivation? fuck you, im gonna talk about it here in your dream and reveal it to listeners and remove any tension you had building up, and you dont get a choice to talk about it because this all-knowing villain knows all about it :)

and even NOW in the latest episode, there’s a comment that “we should cap argo’s skills here” instead of just... making the checks higher. rogues are good at certain things and usually arent the best in battles. better hope argo never makes it to level 11, because who knows how people are gonna handle the fact that he gets a skill that’ll make it so certain skills can’t have a roll below 10 (reliable talent).

(griffin, thankfully, calls travis out for that, but still - travis, why would you even imply that, considering you should be aware of how rogues work considering magnus multiclassed into rogue and you played one on tiny heist?)

and in the newest episode, their Big Bad chaos (which, god, i personally hate that name) straight-out says “dont do this” to the thundermen. travis tries to say, on twitter, “a character saying “dont do this” is different than me saying it” but i need to point out that it’s one thing if you’ve said “no” in character but worked with the PCs doing otherwise, but the railroading says differently.

the shipping

ill try to make this quick, because it’s nothing to do with the fandom (ship however you want, man) - but i really feel the need to draw attention to this.

fitzroy, as confirmed by griffin in a ttazz episode, is asexual. not aroace, but ace nonetheless. and i find it... troublesome that the idea of rainer and fitzroy having a relationship is still pushed nonetheless, despite the fact that fitzroy (to my knowledge) was never once shown to reciprocate any feelings. not to be that person, but i really hope that grad doesnt have any sort of romantic relationships in it (at least - not between NPCs and PCs unless they’re actually like... warranted?).

i dont know, man. one of my closest friends is ace, and i know she wants a relationship, but i think it would reassure her a lot to see an ace character who isn’t pushed into one in case she ever changes her mind. someone once mentioned that they hope fi/tz/ra/in doesnt happen because theres relationships that have that “oh, you can just date” and it goes upwards there to “oh, you can have sex just to please them <3″ (which, to be honest, is kind of a gross mindset - if someone isnt interested, they arent interested).

also, uh, the TTAZZ where griffin states this, there’s kind of the mention tht the whole sexuality question was posed in relation to the episode “creative thinking” (the dream one i mentioned earlier) - which. uh. i don’t know if anyone caught this, but... rainer straight-up wrote fitzroy a letter in the dream like “are you going to accept my proposal? a girl doesn’t like to be left waiting” which. leaves me with some gross feelings because uh.

if... if the whole thing about fitzroys sexual orientation was addressed here, then why would you push your ship anyway? feels kinda iffy, man.

to which i want to say: fitzroy can date. he’s allowed to date. griffins allowed to do whatever he wants with his character. but when a lot of the flirting is met with nothing, i’m not gonna see the chemistry there. just because travis ships it doesn’t mean it’s canon.

the npcs

ah yes. lets talk about the npcs.

there’s... a lot. a lot a lot. i think travis trimmed down how many were present in a scene, but uh. there’s still a lot. and... uh... i kinda wish there wasn’t?

look, i know im going back to balance/amnesty, but just. hang in there for a moment. chill with me. vibe.

balance didnt have too many NPCs present at all times in each mini-arc. gerblins had some big names like barry, klarg, gundren, killian, yeemick, and magic brian. rockport limited had angus, jess, graham the juicy wizard jenkins, and all of the tom bodetts mentioned.

amnestys first arc had mama, barclay, jake, dani, pigeon, kirby, minerva, and that was about it for like. big names? and not all of them were present in each scene.

in the first episode of grad alone: gary, hernandez, jimson, rolandus, zana, rhodes, buckminster eden, rainer, leon, tomas, hieronymous, higglemas, stuart, jackle, bartholomeus, mulligan, groundsy, germaine/victoria/rattles (the skeleton crew). and those are the ones i wrote down (minus groundsy, who i just. ignores. idk him).

like holy shit, my english prof got onto me for having too many characters in my first chapter and i didnt even have half the amount listed there!

it’s just a huge cast. does this take place in a school? yes! theres bound to be a lot of students present - but you don’t have to name every single one of them, at least not in the first episode!

the miscellaneous

i don’t know if travis ever actually addressed it, but wheelchair users have actually like... said that rainer’s introduction bothered them, because she was like “please ask me abt my wheelchair :)” when travis saying she was in an ornate chair would have sufficed.

uh. the colonization vibes people have discussed within the centaur arc. mentioned here, the replies here, and this post (and its replies) here as well.

the overall lack of d&d when the campaign was kind of advertised as a return to d&d if i remember correctly

also no one seems to be taking literally any criticism at all which like. ignoring the petty shit, sure, but people have stopped donating to taz and their listener-ship must have dropped some during this entire time - you’d think that maybe someone could say “we need to find out why people dont like the thing and fix the thing” consider this is. yknow. their livelihood.

anyway uhhh

tl;dr: travis railroads way too much (even now), the shipping in-game has become pushy and gross (especially bc its shoving a relationship onto an asexual character), theres too many npcs that dont stand out well enough, and no ones taking any criticism about the major issues with grad.

#taz grad hate #taz graduation hate #Anonymous #ok im gonna go to sleep now goodnight #maybe ill wake up to hate tbh that'll be wild

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thought-42 · 4 years

Text

Clone Wars fic Day One

So @stoppit-keepout gave me 'Abdicate' as a prompt word, and this sprung forth, but SK I promise I will write you something else for a fandom you're actually in. Meanwhile, please enjoy the first chunk of a very random modern au featuring cody and Obi-Wan being goddamn disasters. Hopefully there will be a new slice of this universe every day until New Years, but who the hell knows.

Obi-Wan meets Cody at the Big Brothers Big Sisters Christmas party. He's there with Anakin, who has just been kicked out of another foster home and is clearly feeling celebratory as a result. Obi-Wan has given up asking about the experiences Anakin has that lead him to prefer group homes or sleeping rough, but he can make some educated guesses.

Ahsoka and Plo are there as well, having shown up early along with Wolffe to set up the decorations. They're all showing off the official adoption papers to whoever will stand still long enough to read them, and Wolffe and Ahsoka don't say anything to each other without including "sister" or "brother" somewhere in the 'address while Plo looks on like he's never realized his life could be this perfect.

"Hey, big brother," Ahsoka says, "is your cousin coming? I think Kix will like him."

"They'll be here as long as Rex's car can make it," Wolffe says. "They were going to pick up Jesse from his grandma's, so they might get stuck in bridge traffic."

"Rex's car is held together with literal duct tape," Anakin explains in an aside to Obi-Wan. "I keep telling him I can fix it, but he won't let me."

"I didn't know Rex's brother was going to mentor Kix," Obi-Wan says.

"It's not official," Ahsoka says.

"There will be a proper introduction," Plo assures him. "Cody has already been approved, but you know how Kix is."

"Smarter than anyone they've paired him up with?" Obi-Wan says, calmly. He's rather defensive of Kix, even not having a particularly close relationship with him. He's had to train himself out of his impatience with people who can't keep up with him, and he can appreciate Kix's unwillingness to waste his time. Qui-Gon would scold him for such thoughts, but Qui-Gon is currently half way across the country at some sort of plants and yoga retreat instead of spending the holidays with his wife or his step-father or his not-really son and the child who worships the ground he walks on.

It's fine. Obi-Wan isn't bitter. Tahl is spending Christmas Eve drinking wine with her coworkers from the library, and Obi-Wan and Anakin are here, and Christmas Day they'll all trek across the city to Dooku's disgustingly fancy mansion for an awkward Christmas meal and criticism of their life choices. At least with Qui-Gon absent everything should remain civil. Unless Anakin's teenaged bravado has developed further in the past year. Obi-Wan is doing Anakin the favour of pretending to believe him when he says he doesn't care about Qui-Gon's absence. He suspects Anakin is doing the same for him, which is uncomfortable for a whole host of reasons.

"I think Kix and Cody will get along," Wolffe says, tongue between his teeth as he carefully glues googly eyes on a felt snowman. Obi-Wan catches Plo snapping a photo, clearly amused.

Obi-Wan lets himself get dragged into the cookie decorating catastrophe happening on the other side of the room, and he remains entirely engrossed until Mace claps his hands and shouts, "Pizza's ready, I need two volunteers to go across and pick it up, who's going with Kenobi?"

Obi-Wan throws up his sugar-coated hands indignantly. "What have I ever done to you, Mace? Am I not a delight, a breath of orderly, reliable, and charming fresh air—"

"I'll go," someone says, and Rex appears out of nowhere to shove Obi-Wan toward the coat wrack. There's a dark-haired man already there, snow still caught on the collar of his jacket, clearly not having been inside long enough even to settle in.

Obi-Wan sighs dramatically for the entertainment of the younger children, but the way he wipes the icing off his hands on Mace's jacket is entirely for himself. The dark-haired man, Rex's brother, he has to be, frowns severely at him. Obi-Wan smiles brightly.

He pulls on his coat and winds his scarf around his neck and over most of his face.

"I'm Obi-Wan," he says. "And yes, this scarf was a gift and I will be guilted terribly should I not wear it."

"Cody," he says. "I'm Rex's brother?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan says. "I had guessed as much."

"Present from your grandmother?" Cody asks, holding the door for Obi-Wan.

"The scarf? No, no, my... semi-absent father figure, actually. His step father bought him a book on knitting as a teenager and he has somehow maintained the habit without improving his skills over the past thirty years."

"Ahh," Cody says, uncertainly. "So have you been involved..." Cody waves a gloved hand uncertainly. "With this, I mean— this is the first time I've been to any sort of event—"

"No, no," Obi-Wan says, understanding the question because it is exhaustingly familiar. Because clearly only people with biological nuclear families have healthy and ideal childhoods. "No, I only got involved a few years ago. Qui-Gon, my... father, met Anakin at the food bank. Anakin was there with his mother and Qui-Gon was volunteering, because sometimes he remembers that he grew up rich and has week-long bouts of frantic guilt-induced philanthropy. Anakin became quite attached to him, and when his mother passed away we spent a great deal of time helping him through the fallout. Naturally, Qui-Gon lost interest shortly after, but by then Anakin's social worker had gotten us involved in BBBS."

"I presume he hasn't improved at emotional intelligence with age, either? Given his absence."

Obi-Wan laughs, startled. "Not at all, actually. And you, what brings you here? Did Rex wear you down?"

"He told me about Kix," Cody says. "Admittedly this isn't my first choice when it comes to giving back to the community, but I wouldn't feel right knowingly walking away from a job for which I'm uniquely suited."

"It's not a job," Obi-Wan says, sharply.

"I'm sorry," Cody says. "You're right."

They cross the intersection in silence. None of the sidewalks are shovelled and Obi-Wan swallows down his irritated rant.

"I said that poorly," Cody says, hunching his shoulders. "I only meant that this level of social interaction and engagement with strangers— I'm not good at it. That's all I meant."

Obi-Wan, who has never particularly experienced or understood this sort of struggle, smiles sympathetically. "Of course, very understandable."

Cody's eyebrows go up. "I'm sure. You don't need to lie to spare my feelings."

Obi-Wan jerks open the door to the pizza restaurant harder than he intends to. "I apologize."

"I wasn't offended."

Inside the heat is stifling in contrast to the chill of late afternoon. Obi-Wan huffs a breath through his scarf and steps up to the counter. "They need two minutes," Obi-Wan tells Cody once he's exchanged words with the person behind the counter.

They lean together against the wall, dishwater dull sunlight splashed across the tiles at their feet. A drop of sweat creeps down Obi-Wan's spine.

"You should take your scarf off," Cody says, after a moment, like he's been trying to stop himself.

Obi-Wan blinks uncertainly, then agreeably pulls the scarf of his face, loosening the loops around his neck and unzipping his jacket a few inches.

Cody stares out the window. "Sorry. You're obviously hot," he says. "It's boiling in here."

Obi-Wan doesn't know what to say, given that he has absolutely no reason to have left the scarf pulled up and thus has no leg to stand on when it comes to the oddity of the moment.

Back at the community centre they're descended upon by a rush of children and teens, stacks of pizza boxes snatched from their arms and vanishing into the crowd. Obi-Wan glances over to the cookie table, and is unsurprised to see the lack of progress.

It takes a few seconds and some bouncing up on his toes to find Kix, and when he does it's to see him curled up on a hard plastic chair in the back corner behind the water cooler, cell phone pressed to his ear, his other arm wrapped around himself and looking very much like he's trying to remain calm through an exceedingly distressing conversation.

Cody is standing very still, hands clasped behind his back, eyes darting around and clearly unsure what to do. Obi-Wan, who is a good person, says "Come on, then. While I recognize that it's meant to be the process of decorating the cookies that holds the value, I also am physically incapable of leaving a job half done, and now that the real food has arrived I suspect no one else will be doing it."

"Yes, ok," Cody says, quickly.

Anakin finds them five minutes later, half a piece of pizza in his mouth and a spring in his step. "Rex is gonna let me take a look at his car!"

"I'm glad," Obi-Wan says, and means it. He may not trust Anakin with a lot of things, but when it comes to mechanics Obi-Wan trusts him far more than any "professional".

"you guys should get some pizza before it's all gone," Anakin says. "Hi, by the way. You're Cody, right?"

"Yeah," Cody says. "You're Anakin."

"That's me. And now I'm a little worried that rex talks about me."

"Would you believe me if I said only good things?"

"I accidentally pushed him off the roof of the old theatre last winter," says Anakin. Cody nods.

"We're busy with this," Obi-Wan says, nodding to the cookies. "Besides, the pizza should go to the youth, not to us."

Anakin rolls his eyes. "Whatever, it's food, we're all here, don't make it weird."

"Busy," Obi-wan repeats.

Anakin waves a hand. "Hey, hey, I get it. You're finally getting to experience an extremely stereotypical holiday tradition that you never did when you were a kid, and it's nice because you've been all fucked up with Qui-Gon away."

"What?!" Obi-Wan snaps, incredulous, at the same time Cody says

"That's exactly what we're doing, actually. Couldn't have said it better myself."

Obi-Wan considers upending the container of sprinkles over Cody's head.

#commander cody #Obi Wan Kenobi #codywan #tumblrfic tag #star wars why?

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unpopularly-opinionated · 5 years

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RE: My post earlier about the Ooblets Epic Games Exclusive backlash.

I’m not going to show the Twitter user, if you follow the indie game development scene on Twitter it’s likely you’ll recognize this tweet, either way that’s not who I am. The Ooblet’s account on the other hand is fair-game since it’s basically a product placement.

I feel it needs reiterating how utterly dense this kind of tweet is, and how completely skewed the narrative for this issue has gotten, so let me reiterate in obnoxiously large and emboldened font to try and get the point across:

THE GAMING COMMUNITY IS NOT TOXIC

“Honesty” and “transparency” are all well and good, but unless you’re honestly trying to drive away your own community, perhaps you should try being a little less honest and a little less transparent. No one (or I guess no one but this guy and the few who agree with him) is going to thank you for honestly throwing them under the proverbial bus after they’ve spent months, if not years, supporting your project; your dream.

I’ve heard from others that “this is just how they write” and “it’s meant to be funny”, and to an extent, I can understand that. But let me just include some screenshots from the post in question to reiterate my point, because I feel like my previous post didn’t quite get the point across:

(Context: What the Epic Games Exclusivity Deal means for you, the fan and/or financial backer of Ooblets).

I get that the Fortnite bit is the joke, ha ha, Fortnite used to be wildly popular, I get it, good meme. What isn’t the joke, and what was part of why people got upset was the first bit, specifically the “download the Epic Games Launcher and make an Epic Games account” bit, that bit.

Now, I personally have no qualms about having the Epic Games Launcher on my PC. I have long since looked beyond the ‘scandal’ of tech companies saving and selling my data to distant lands to be used for nefarious moneymaking schemes. Is it bad? Sure, maybe. Would I prevent it had I the chance? Of course. Do I have that chance? Not a chance in the world, so I decide to live with it.

That said, many others have not reached that point of fuck it, and understandably so. I hit that point because of my negative outlook on society as a whole but, praise be, there are in fact still some optimists out there who look at these shitty corporate tactics and say no to them, and good on them for that.

That is what I would say is the bulk of the primary issues people have with the Epic Games Store. The missing features bits aren’t terribly important, as even this post says, if you have a social life on Steam, then use Steam. The EGS does not need to be your do-all replacement.

This is where the post should have stopped. Here and now, had this post ended, any and all issues with this decision would have been but a whisper in the wind. As I said in my previous post, yes they undoubtedly would have received plenty of critical, and non-critical backlash for the decision regardless, but ending the post here would’ve 100% put the developers on the right side in this situation and I’d be right up there agreeing with that tweet.

(Context: Are you angry at Epic and/or us for this decision?)

Referring to earlier when I said that playful tone and humour are all fine and dandy, I understand that this is probably meant to sound playful and humourous, but it comes across as largely self-important and ignorant, and the bits that follow do in no way dissuade from that appearance.

While my response to this complaint was similar to their own, in that you should just use Steam for the features that the Epic Games Store lacks, they go on to essentially say that this is just baby EGS and that Steam used to be just like it and look at it now.

While they aren’t technically wrong, from a development point of view, the big thing they need to understand is how web standards have dramatically changed since 2003 when the Steam store launched. Launching a store, of any variety, without a shopping cart is a big no-no.

As far as missing features go, that’s not like missing a friends list or a IM feature, that’s missing a crucial part of a web-based storefront. Imagine going to a store and only be allowed to purchase one thing at a time, that would be ridiculous.

Their response to this was as corporate as any triple-A publisher, or really any corporation at all, from any industry. Just a complete disconnect from society that frankly is unwarranted from what is quite literally a two person operation. Not to mention, their response is quite literally what every parent warns their kids about at a young age. “But mooooooooooooom, everyone is doing it!!!!” Yes sweetie, but if everyone jumps off a bridge, are you going to?

Apparently, yes.

And not to discount the idea of making money, by all means make money, but let me put it this way, had they left this post exactly where I said they should have previously, all of the blame would be at Epic’s feet. Because at the end of the day, having your game be exclusive to one service does not make you money, it makes them money. So this whole “everyone is doing it” schtick doesn’t fly when coming from the developers. Had this been a post by Epic (and frankly with all the shilling I could be convinced it was from them) then this argument might have made just a tiny bit more sense.

Underlined in yellow are the jokes; the “playful” and “humourous” attitude I’ve heard so much about. Underlined in red however, are what the developers are actually genuinely saying with complete and utter seriousness.

“There are worse things in the world to be upset about.” I kid you not, that’s their argument.

Now, all of that reiterated, to get to the actual point of this post (wish Tumblr let you do multiple “Keep Reading” lines but I digress), the article linked in the tweet here is about the previous “non-critical” backlash I mentioned they’d receive, though multiplied exponentially by their horrendous blog post, and further community responses to said blog post.

I’d like to refer to a completely unrelated post I made quite a while ago that really needs to spread like wildfire if you ask me:

RECEIVING INSULTS, UNCRITICAL FEEDBACK, AND/OR DEATH THREATS DOES NOT INVALIDATE THE CRITICAL FEEDBACK NOR THE ISSUE AT HAND.

I am by no means wiping away death threats or mean words as things to scoff at, by all means take them as seriously as you will, but under no circumstances should 20+ people telling you to kill yourself invalidate the hundreds of fans and financial backers who are upset with your recent financial decision, or your response to criticisms to those decisions.

This happens time and time and time again. Someone of note does something bad, for one reason or another, and instead of responding to the completely warranted and justified criticism and feedback they instead play up the 15+ people who IM’d them to drink bleach and throw it up as “an example of the ever present toxic gaming community”.

More or less, the substance to this article is their “apology”, and I use that term very loosely but I’ll get to that, to the community at large for the recent events. The post summarizes the issue from their (biased) perspective, posts some screenshots of the colourful responses they’ve received, the usual woe-is-me schtick.

I’d like to highlight a few bits from it to further exemplify the continued mindset of these people:

I have given the full context to this next statement with these screenshots so that I can now take parts of these statements out of their context to, at least to my belief, succinctly identify the mindset of these folks:

“I understand the relationship people think they might be owed when they exchanged money for goods or services, but...we’ve never actually sold them anything and don’t owe them anything at all.”

I don’t want to get off-topic any more than necessary, but this, this right here is why fundraisers, Kickstarters, GoFundMes, Patreon subscriptions, or any other form of crowdsourcing platforms need to be handled with extreme care. I hesitate to say regulated legally, but I am by no means opposed to that idea.

I want to express this carefully and plainly: LEGALLY, yes they are absolutely right that they do not owe anyone anything. At least to my knowledge, they didn’t have a formal Kickstarter, their financial backing came primarily from whatever it is they do for a living AND the support of their Patreon backers.

And while I do not feel that it needs addressing, for the sake of consistency I will address it: MORALLY they owe the game to anyone who financially supported them with the express purpose of developing the game.

“We definitely owe all of you who supported us, but also fuck off you entitled cunts because we don’t owe you shit.”

When in the face of well-deserved criticism, deflect deflect deflect. As if a broken record, I’d like to again emphasize that yes, legally they owe no one anything. Morally, they do. Legally, they don’t. Morally, yes. Legally, no.

This, in essence, is a response to the majority of people who are like me, who aren’t screaming vitriolic personable attacks, telling them to drink bleach, long jog off a short pier, the works. Essentially: “If you aren’t with us, then you’re against us.”

Because apparently pointing out your blatant mischaracterisation of the gaming community, your outrageously awful personal relations skills, and most especially your morally bankrupt understanding of the relationship between you and the people financially supporting your passion project means we are, by their logic, on a level equivalent in nature to the 10+ people telling them to drink bleach.

Fixed for typos:

Remember how I said this was an “apology” in the loosest form, well what I was referring to was how in the beginning during their (totally unbiased) summary of the events, they more or less said “Sorry you didn’t respond the way we wanted you to.” Beyond that, yeah, it’s not an apology.

And why would we expect one? Nothing they have spat out in the face of their fans so far has even a hint of self-realization or self-reflection in it. Even their acknowledgement of their (horrendously under exaggerated) bad PR skills comes across as a hollow acknowledgement, if it can even be referred to as an acknowledgement at all, because if you truly truly acknowledged it, then this post wouldn’t exist.

As to this anti-Semitic fabrication making the rounds, I have not seen it so I will take their word for it that they did not make one, especially since I have seen fabricated evidence involving Discord messages rearranged out of order. What I feel needs addressing specifically in this chunk though is his reference to “my messages taken out of context to insinuate I don’t care about our patrons/fans”, because if you’ve seen my previous post then you’ll know no amount of context makes this statement look good:

Sure, it’s a true statement of fact now that they have Epic’s money, but it’s fairly obvious that it reads “We have Epic’s money now, we don’t need you anymore.” I’m sure they didn’t mean that, but that when combined with their other statements regarding how they don’t owe their patrons anything, what they are saying is clear as day.

But hey, credit where credit is due, at least with this we can agree:

But of course, as these people are now infamously known for not ending their posts where they reasonably should...

Now I know how much money goodwill, faith, and morals make, and again I would fully expect this kind of response from the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Bethesda, or fuck even Amazon or Facebook to show that corporate greed has no industry bounds, but this is a two person team whose passion project is to make this game which is being financially supported by loyal fans and future customers.

And that’s just it, that is the mind-boggling part to me, that this is all just the self-important, mischaracterising, morally bankrupt, and childishly ignorant ramblings of a small little husband and wife duo.

In summary...

As was said in the blog post, I’m sure that looking from the outside in we don’t get to see the full scope of the vitriolic comments they’re receiving, so to that I give them credit, and the most sincerest of apologies. I’ve received a few death threats and vitriolic hate-filed messages in my time on the internet, and while personally I am unphase by them, I can fully understand that it can be damaging to one’s self-esteem and self-confidence, especially when it comes in relation to your passion project. I am sorry.

But unwarranted, hate-filled, vitriolic, suicide-baiting messages do not invalid those of us criticizing you for the things that you did do, the words that you did say, and the actions that you did take. I mentioned this in my previous post, but as it stands, the centerpiece to this issue isn’t even about the Epic Exclusivity Deal anymore, it’s about you. You and your treatment, of not just the community at large (for which, might I add, is your primary customer base), but of your treatment towards your loyal fans and financial supporters along the way.

You, for whatever reason, act as most of us have come to expect a soulless and faceless triple-A publisher would, when in fact you are just a two person team with public faces. You’re taking the shots that the likes of EA, Activision, or Bethesda would and have taken, but you’re forgetting that it is above and beyond easier to find you then it is to find them.

All we, but more importantly your fans want from you is for you to make the best game that we all know you’re capable of. And for those who supported you this far along the way to be given even an ounce of respect, despite you not needing their support anymore.

#long post #seriously don't click keep reading unless you really want to read this #it's stupid long #ooblets #indie games #indie developers #video game development #random rant

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dippedanddripped · 4 years

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Between a global pandemic and important BLM protests, fashion isn’t likely to ever look the same. But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in the slightest: fashion is one big illusion. Its hubris and self-importance are chief amongst the greatest findings uncovered during the pandemic as luxury brands and retailers plot their next steps. But can business really continue as usual?

In the throes of the public health emergency, the death of George Floyd sparked demonstrations consisting of thousands across the globe. The industry responded sharply with pledges to learn, change, and grow, though the optics of change have long been more appealing to the industry than actionable change. However, whether the fashion industry will truly foster systemic change in the years to come will prove to be its biggest challenge, especially in the face of a generation of socially-aware customers.

Slowly but surely, the industry is reopening as if there was never a pandemic, as if the open letters and the promises for change were yesterday’s news. While the menswear and couture shows moved largely online, across the globe, physical fashion weeks are being announced in accordance with the country’s health guidelines. Individual brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Dior, Balmain, Etro and Burberry will host their own shows.

Meanwhile retailers, too, are opening their doors, and are continuing to slash the value of clothing as excess inventory piles up. For many, it is too late. Some department stores and retailers have already filed for bankruptcy while many others face bleak prospects, hovering between staying afloat and sinking under – no matter their skill or discernment. Will the glut of unsold products serve as a wake-up call for one of the world’s most polluting industries? Have consumers expectations changed in light of the pandemic?

Publishers are tasked with the predicament of advertisers drastically cutting their marketing budgets and mandated quarantines made producing physical issues more difficult. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, the American publishing industry faced a reckoning of its own, as it was tasked to confront racial inequity within an industry supported by outdated modes of luxury. The world of content, and those who shape it, is likely to change, though to what extent is an answer that lies ahead.

While fashion figures out the way forward, the virus continues to accelerate across the globe, with the World Health Organization warning that the worst could be yet to come. We asked industry pioneers across fashion design, journalism, buying and merchandising, public relations and communications, consultancy, and chief executives to forecast the future of fashion, and how much will actually change – here’s what they had to say.

Social Change

For a long time now, fashion’s priority when it comes to change is in the optics of change, rather than enacting policy. Conversations surrounding race, feminism, and sustainability have dominated fashion’s agenda in recent years, though it is evident that real progress is moving at a glacial pace. Across social media, during the protests for racial justice which attracted thousands of demonstrators around the globe, performative activism ran amok on Instagram feeds and Twitter streams, a hollow and empty act that drew ire from critics.

Less than a few weeks later, consortiums of creatives banded together to call for real change. Within the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), people like Kerby Jean-Raymond, Virgil Abloh, Public School’s Dao-Yi Chow, and womenswear designer Prabal Gurung created an actionable list of demands that the Council could be held accountable for. The Kelly Initiative, a growing list of Black professionals put together by Jason Campbell, Henrietta Gallina, and Kibwe Chase-Marshall, pressed the CFDA for “equitable inroads for Black fashion talent.” Aurora James, founder of footwear brand Brother Vellies, founded the 15 Percent Pledge which urges major retailers to dedicate at least 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.

Teen Vogue editor Lindsay Peoples Wagner and public relations specialist Sandrine Charles co-founded the Black in Fashion Council to represent and secure the advancement of Black individuals in the fashion and beauty industry and to build an equality index for companies across the industry in the coming years. The different groups and what they individually represent are fashion’s most concerted efforts to truly signal change.

Though as fashion’s problematic relationships with sustainability and feminism have proven in recent years – issues only exacerbated by the pandemic – social change is a waiting game, though the moment is poised with endless possibilities for a rewritten system.

Aurora James, founder of Brother Vellies and 15 Percent Pledge

“Right after the tragic killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, we saw a lot of brands and influencers from across industries posting messages of solidarity, but not actually changing anything about their business. They say they stand with the Black Lives Matter movement but don’t have diversity in their boardrooms or in the content they put out. I hope that as an industry, we continue to evaluate what business as usual looks like and start thinking more about how we can diversify internally, how we are actually treating the people we work with. I am optimistic about the industry’s future. [Although] I don’t think it will happen overnight.”

Nate Hinton, founder of The Hinton Group

“I think that the industry can change. I don’t know how rapidly it will change. If it doesn’t, if the establishment and the people in certain positions don’t change, then people like me will change it for ourselves. You can’t keep asking an oppressor — not that I’m calling anyone an oppressor — to change their ways because the person in that mindset doesn’t understand that they’re doing the thing that they’re doing most of the time. People are [now] calling out where they see an injustice or a lack of diversity. The people will change it for you if you don’t change it yourself.”

Robin Givhan, fashion critic at The Washington Post

“I don’t think the industry is going to look the same. I don’t think it should look the same. None of the issues people or activists are bringing up now are new. Some companies have chosen to acknowledge those deficiencies in the past and perhaps make some incremental changes.Then there are other companies that these issues have been raised with them in the past and they have chosen, essentially, to do nothing. I think that there are some companies that have engendered enough goodwill that their gestures might be taken as more sincere or, at least, with a wait-and-see attitude. [Then] I think there are other companies that have no goodwill and their gestures will be met with extreme scepticism and even disregard; they have a lot more ground to make up.”

Lindsay Peoples Wagner, Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue & Sandrine Charles, public relations specialist. Co-founders of Black in Fashion Council

“Us starting Black in Fashion Council really comes from the realization that a lot of brands can say things on social media, or post the right inspirational quote but only care about this moment to make themselves look good, without implementing systematic change. We’ve gathered industry leaders from all across the industry so that we can be more proactive about change, and have productive conversations and strategies around changes that need to be made so that the next generation has a better experience. I believe systematic changes are possible when we move the conversation from canceling people and into accountability.”

Saul Nash, dancer and designer

“It feels across all industries that we’re on the wave of a revolution. You would hope it would stick and we can go forward. Fashion is an institutional system set up over decades; in terms of racism, it’s a question of whether institutions are willing to readdress the structures in order to tackle issues that are happening. Lockdown has been a time of reflection. After all this reflecting, it’s a question of how we’re going to put the reflection into motion for the future.”

Heron Preston, designer

“I don’t think the internal messaging matches the external messaging for every single brand in terms of how diverse their staff is and the content they put out, but hopefully it will in the future. A lot of brands who are posting messages of solidarity are the same people who don’t actually care about the movement behind the scenes. We really need to check people for their actions and hold them accountable for the positions they claim to stand for. Once this all settles down, that is when the real work starts.”

Bhavisha Dave, co-founder of Capsul India

“Communication is the most critical thing when it comes to any business. Today’s young consumers are so used to having conversations about everything, sometimes even uncomfortable topics, [so] they will demand the same from brands. A brand or a platform needs to get comfortable to have those kinds of conversations.”

Robert Burke, consultant

“The consumer today has more discretion and higher standards than they have ever had, and rightfully so. The brands have been veiled by the press or lack of transparency, or were never really held accountable for diversity, workplace treatment, factory, sustainability. The smart brands are going to communicate with their customer and discuss these things in a very straightforward and direct way, whether that be with Black Lives Matter, MeToo, discrimination in the workplace — if they can communicate directly with their customer, they can gain their respect.”

Maxine Bédat, founder of New Standard Institute

“This moment is a reckoning across the board. Companies will need to address racial justice issues and make sure the company is representative both at the retail floor and the executive leadership. It’s up to the leadership of the company to make the right choices. But it’s also up to the individual citizens who continue to make change a priority, demanding these things of brands. It’s a two way street and that’s how change happens. This is a call to action to stay engaged, to stay on top of brands, and to stay on top of legislators to create laws that will address social and environmental inequities.”

Kibwe Chase-Marshall, designer, writer, advocate and co-founder of The Kelly Initiative

“Powerbrokers relied upon the cult of manufactured pedigree to maintain their strongholds on access to opportunity with glossy IG profiles eclipsing resumes and reference-checks. Then a global health-pandemic occurred, Americans initiated a world-wide #BlackLivesMatter call-to-action, and the entire fashion mechanism came tumbling down. Brands will each have unique relationships with internal culture evolution amid this complex moment; considering Anti-Blackness within boilerplate discussions of diversity-and-inclusion was a “no-no” just a couple of months ago. Many will launch smoke-and-mirrors, PR/marketing campaigns to obscure visibility of their disinterest in a redistribution of power and access, but hopefully, enough dynamic leaders of influence will commit to the hard work of atonement and, at times for some, painfully disruptive course-correction.”

Fashion Month

Fashion week is not dead. Despite COVID-19 limiting international travel and physical gatherings, fashion councils and federations around the globe mobilized. It began with Shanghai, Moscow, and continued to the recent digital versions of London, Paris, and soon Milan Fashion Week.

But France’s Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode and the Italian Camera Nazionale della Moda are committed to physical fashion weeks to take place in September, in line with the government’s health guidelines. New York and London are looking into similar ventures. Prior to that, in August, Copenhagen Fashion Week will embrace a hybrid physical-digital experience to enhance the virtual side of things for the international press unable to travel to the event. Dolce & Gabbana will host their first physical fashion show in July with a live audience while Dior will have a live-streamed event in Lecce, Italy, but with no audience. Burberry will present its Spring/Summer 2021 collection in the great British outdoors on September 17 to accommodate attendees. Chanel is committed to six shows per year, according to Chanel’s President of Fashion, Bruno Pavlovsky. Luxury conglomerates such as LVMH and Kering have been relatively tight-lipped about changing the schedule, echoing other megabrands’ stance.

Meanwhile, consortiums of industry insiders such as those formed by Dries van Noten, or The Business of Fashion, are calling for radical, systemic change to a format that is over-reliant on tradition and a cycle that is ultimately damaging to business. While COVID-19 offered a moment to share ideas and form collaborations, great things still happen through physical human connection and one thing is clear from the current discussions: fashion week is a crucial aspect to the system, however, it becomes clear its structure and format need rethinking.

Pascal Morand, Executive President of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode

“There was a wish for a physical fashion week — not from every brand, but some brands wanted it. In July, we decided to work on an alternative project. We will see how that plays out. But the nature of a sensory or emotional experience is not the same as a digital one. Digital cannot replace physical because physical expression is so important. With September, we’re doing the exact same as we did in February and March. We’re following the government health guidelines, that’s the same now. We’re hoping that a digital fashion week will provide us with more insight into the ways physical and digital can be combined.”

Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week

“It’s hard to replace the emotions experienced at a live show or the personal interactions with brands with digital solutions. However, we need to re-evaluate physical fashion weeks. Copenhagen Fashion Week is a biannual event, we merged men’s and women’s, but even that could be rethought. Should it only be once? I don’t have the answer. For certain, there is a need to add a digital layer to fashion week and for brands to show in different ways post-pandemic. There are so many forces asking for change at the moment but it must happen collectively and collaboratively. The word ‘system’ is key because only when the response is coordinated will systemic change happen.”

Nate Hinton, founder of The Hinton Group

“I think fashion week should change but whether it will — I can’t predict that. I think a lot of brands and designers were being forced to create on a schedule. The business stopped looking at fashion as an art form but as a commercial entity. It was treating designers as businesses — which they are, their brands are businesses — but they weren’t given the space to actually create quality products hence the rise of fast fashion, pre-collections, six fashion weeks per year, and the dilution of fashion. It watered down our industry. It took away from those collections and those runway experiences that made you gasp. I think people are just tired of it, frankly. The retailers, the organizations pushed for too much and now some artists and the designers are saying “we’ve had enough.”

Sara Maino, deputy editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia

“We can’t think about not having fashion shows. We definitely need a clean up because in the last couple of years there’s been too much of everything, everyone has something to say. The industry has become quantity over quality. There needs to be a slowdown, yes, but you can’t replace the fashion shows, the events, the presentations.”

Saul Nash, dancer and designer

“In terms of shows, for someone like myself, the physical space is quite important. I think that being able to touch clothes and see them up close is key. If it is a case where digital fashion week is what’s available, I think I could adapt performance to meet that. It would be an interesting challenge to try something.”

Gert Jonkers, editor-in-chief and publisher of Fantastic Man

“You always hear ‘fashion week and fashion shows are all about the storytelling behind the collection’ but what it is sometimes is just the collection and you just want to see clothes. The core thing of fashion brands is the clothes they make. When you see a series of presentations that are anything but the clothes it makes you realise the subject is missing.”

Reese Cooper, designer

“Being one of the newcomers, we always looked forward to being with the right people in the right place physically. Moving shows to the digital space, like Instagram. It’s harder for us to reach outside of the existing followers base. So the physical show and physical fashion week gave us the opportunity to meet and network with buyers, press, and potential new teammates. It really does help us move forward. Physical fashion week has its business value, but the cultural aspect is equally important to me. Having all of my friends and family together in place, it creates this energy that everyone looks forward to. Moving it to digital is just half of the fun.”

Loic Prigent, filmmaker and journalist

“Fashion is about change. I don’t think anyone has the new formula ready yet but designers seem generally excited about something new. The strongest point of view will win as always. I don’t like to take too much time to think about the what ifs but I don’t think councils or federations will have the agility to change things. After all, it took Helmut Lang to strike out on his own in 1998 to move the shows to New York.. It was Simon Porte Jacquemus who decided to show off-calendar in the lavender fields. He took action, he thought it was best for his label. This is the kind of decision-making we need.”

Andrew Keith, president of Lane Crawford and Joyce

“Shows have evolved over the past 25 years I’ve been in the business. They’ve morphed from showing a collection to press, and key wholesale and retail partners to a message to customers. Now with the speed of information, social media and influencers they’ve become they are less important to us from a retail perspective. [Yet] I’m not sure there won’t be shows. For some brands, it’s core to their DNA and necessary for their vision and storytelling. The contentious issue is the conglomerates don’t want to change and while the young guard are all pushing to change the dates to show and sell in June and July, they don’t want to wait until September, and they want to do women’s and men’s together.”

Ida Petersson, Womenswear and Menswear Buying Director of Browns Fashion

“We need to look at fashion weeks not with a nostalgic view but with a future lens. From a buying perspective, tech innovation definitely needs to be applied to a greater extent than I have witnessed to date. At this stage, online fashion week is a really tough space to be in for a buyer. The virtual buying tools are not developed enough for the experience to be efficient and most times we are still either buying by flicking through hundreds of little photos and sketches or being shown a collection through an iPhone, resulting in the selections taking up to three times as long as a pre-COVID-19 appointment.”

Retail and the Consumer

As luxury shopping destinations reopen in the aftermath of a mandated lockdown, large department stores and smaller, independent boutiques, with controlled traffic, are tasked with navigating the new world order. For many businesses, the doors remained closed even when lockdown measures were lifted. Jeffrey, a Nordstrom-owned US retailer closed its doors. Others face uphill battles of regaining momentum — Neiman Marcus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. Meanwhile, a lurking global recession is compounded with fears of a second wave of infection, stores are bracing themselves for reduced footfall and sales.

Another integral aspect to the conversation surrounding retail and the consumer is the intersection between morals and resource management: the world produces an unsustainable amount of clothing that is ultimately destined for landfills. According to McKinsey & Company, the value of excess inventory from Spring/Summer 2020 collections is estimated at $160 billion to $180 billion worldwide which is more than double the normal levels for the sector. Whether retail, the physical act of experiencing a store or online-shopping, and the market that drives it, can withstand the pandemic is yet to unfurl but, undoubtedly, business is tested with unprecedented challenges.

Maxine Bédat, founder of New Standard Institute

“Regardless of what happens we’re going to keep getting dressed. There’s a real opportunity to take stock from a company perspective — and companies are doing that, with a lot of fear — and this will mean a lot for what, and how much, they produce going forward. Even the largest players are thinking about these things. That has always been the elephant in the room in terms of the sustainability conversation: how do we make this one piece more sustainable versus thinking about what the right size for the whole industry is. This isn’t rocket science, it’s a matter of prioritizing these issues.”

Stefano Martinetto, CEO of Tomorrow London Ltd

“It’s obvious that luxury brands need to be protected in their brand equity. So why shouldn’t independent designers? Why should there be discounting on some brands in November and May but not on others? Is there a future for retail-wholesale-independent-designer relationship or if this generation of independent will be wiped out by the next financial crisis, will they come to market as direct-to-consumer? It’s a big risk since I’m a believer in retailers as curators. We need to rewrite the rules. We are playing with rules that are fifty years old and only work for two or three conglomerates and fast fashion.”

Robert Burke, consultant

“The last few years, everyone has said, ‘the system is broken’, but nobody has had the conviction to change it, but because of the pandemic it’s been a forced hard stop. Brands are going to take control because they are very shaken by what happened and realize how delicate the wholesale relationship is. You’ll see even small brands go after their direct-to-consumer business. They can control their own message, they can control their own sales and pricing and get products out there. They can have a relationship with the customer. The pandemic has shown us that if you have a good relationship with your customer, you’ll end up ahead.”

Ida Petersson, Womenswear and Menswear Buying Director of Browns Fashion

“The current model has been unsustainable for some time with too much product being produced and people’s mental and physical well-being from designers, through editors and buyers being tested beyond reason. We just didn’t have the headspace to sit down, take stock and explore change. It’s up to us now to ensure this progress is not just upheld but continues to be pushed forward.”

Heron Preston, designer

“It looks like the system is starting from scratch working with a whole new supply chain. It looks like [we’re] not plugging-in to what currently exists as we know it, but [we’re] plugging-in to how we would like the future to operate. We have to work within a whole new library of materials, factories, vendors, and people that are set up to work in the way that the world is asking us to. We can no longer retrofit failed systems; we have to start fresh and brand new.”

Andrew Keith, president of Lane Crawford and Joyce

“There is definitely a great deal of discussion about how we manage discounting and bring it under control so we don’t have such an extensive approach to it. We’re looking at how we can be more effective at selling the right product at the right price at the right time. Because of antitrust laws, we cannot set down or agree to a global approach to discounting. But things do look likely to change.. The cadence will change as brands look at how they will design products and deliver in accordance with the new schedule we are all working towards.”

Peter Baldaszti, CEO of Nanushka

“We fully support every initiative aiming at bringing our industry closer to normality, more reasonable operation. On the other hand, at least in the short term, I’m a bit sceptical with our outlook. In the current climate, customers have decreasing disposable income, they will need more accessible price points while brands have huge amounts of excess inventory and at the same time the industry is working on a shift towards less discounting and less products on sale. It’s contradictory, it’s going to be a bumpy ride but the concept is really good and something we all have to work towards.”

Bhavisha Dave, co-founder of Capsul India

“Streetwear isn’t something that’s organic to India in the global sense that it’s understood. Of course, there’s street fashion and youth labels but the way streetwear is understood is only a recent phenomenon. The good part about that is that being the only platform of streetwear in the country, we can create our own definition of streetwear in India and that’s something we are doing to the extent that our philosophy is to buy less, buy well by virtue of the fact that streetwear is expensive. People will need to feel good and wear good clothes.”

Peter Semple, Chief Marketing Officer of Depop

“We look at resale or secondhand as the future of fashion consumption. The journey we’re on with resale and secondhand is reframing what ‘desirability’ and ‘aspiration’ is and how to reshape those things that would usually be considered part of the traditional luxury market in order to be understood in the secondhand market too. We see sustainability and focus on environmental impact as becoming dominant themes for everyone in the future.”

Publishing

The publishing industry was in a precarious situation long before COVID-19 caught the world by surprise. Staff count was diminishing, subscriptions and the number of issues dwindled, and in some cases, magazines were on the brink of folding, some did. In a fashion industry largely shaped by fast-paced, timely digital transactions, the world of magazines struggled to keep up with the pace of the industry. In light of the pandemic, there were further salary cuts, furloughs and lay-offs at editorial titles. Some publications combined issues, others moved their focus online. Editorials were captured via Zoom. Others, like Vogue Italia, have been experimenting with new forms of covers from blank slates to children’s illustrations. Editorially, there will be a shift towards a more practical function.

This new frontier was compounded with the death of George Floyd. Throughout the demonstrations, the publishing world faced a reckoning as allegations of racism surfaced. Adam Rapoport was fired from Bon Appetit following the surfacing of images of the former editor-in-chief wearing makeup derogatory to Peurto Ricans. Anna Wintour was forced to apologize for Vogue’s lack of inclusivity during her 32 year tenure. Refinery29’s Christene Barberich stepped down after women of colour shared negative experiences of working at the company. Around the same time, Samira Nasr was appointed the first Black editor of Harper’s Bazaar US.

The power structure of publishing is set to change as much as its format. The ivory towers which formerly represented fashion and its appeal are no longer considered as luxury, rather problematic. The culture of exclusivity that defined fashion of yore is outdated in the current climate. In order for publishing to strike a chord with readers, the tone must align with today’s values which are at odds with the glistening mien of old world luxury.

Robin Givhan, fashion critic at The Washington Post

“From my point of view, as someone who writes for a newspaper, I honestly don’t feel the existential angst some people do if they were working specifically for a fashion magazine. I cover the news and shifts of the industry. In some ways, this is an incredibly interesting time because the industry is in a state of upheaval. There is a lot of potential to change, there is a great deal of uncertainty. Those are interesting stories that will ultimately have an impact on consumers and that’s always been my point of view in the industry. I think it’s a different situation if you are doing fashion shoots, if you are engaged with partnerships with design houses, or if the bulk of your advertising comes from the fashion industry.”

Sara Maino, deputy editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia

“As humans we adapt to situations. The pandemic brought us much closer, there was more exchange of ideas. There’s been an evolution of content and communication with things like Instagram, a very powerful tool in both positive and negative ways, but the magazine is at the core, it’s where everything starts. The magazine is like the house, to speak metaphorically, and you go out and choose different paths and see what’s there. We just have to think beyond digital because it can’t be the new normal.”

Gert Jonkers, editor-in-chief and publisher of Fantastic Man

“I feel there is still a need for magazines — more than ever, I would say. You need some sort of distraction from scrolling through Instagram. Good pieces and an edited focus on reality really works. Interestingly, we used to always think ‘magazines have to be in print, it’s important to have the physical object in your hand’ — and I still think that — but why not also read magazines online now because I can’t be bothered for two weeks for the paper version to arrive? I care for the content. Overall, I think you see a huge desire for truth and reality. The current state of the world has made people interested in these things.”

Nate Hinton, founder of The Hinton Group

“I’ve always taken a particular approach to the media. I think for a long time in the media, there were certain things that were considered the gold standard. If you were in this publication or had this kind of story or got your designer this profile, you ‘made it’ in a certain sense. But the democratization of fashion with social media and peoples’ access to what they like and for people to put out their own opinions — you see there’s successful apparel brands that are making more money than designers. You can talk about fashion but what is fashion without being able to sustain your business and so those designers picked up on this, ‘so what if I’m not in the most popular magazine in the world, my customers are buying my clothes.’ You have to balance that. Listen to what the brand ethos is, build a community around that and pay attention to the people who actually like what it is you do.”

Alexia Niedzielski & Elizabeth von Guttman, co-founders of System magazine

“At System, we’d argue that the function itself of a fashion magazine shouldn’t necessarily need to change. But the form, the means of sharing the material, and the values are all up for grabs. Which makes this period as exciting as it is unsettling. [Our] magazine’s editorial goal is to explore the people and dialogues at the heart of fashion, in any given six-month period. The industry we focus on finds itself at a crossroads – on one hand it is in a state of flux, shifting its processes and values, its people and its possibilities; and on the other hand it feels like fashion continues to resist some of those changes because they may render it a less financially buoyant sector.”

Robert Burke, consultant

“The customer today is so discriminating, they want a brand that represents their values. It’s extremely important. All of this has caught the brands, editors and magazines off guard. The exposure that’s happened, especially in the last few weeks, has been enormous. I think that’s a good thing and it’s very important. Today, you can’t separate fashion from society or politics.”

Andrew Keith, president of Lane Crawford and Joyce

“The role of an editor and curator will become even more important depending on how brands and fashion weeks approach the future. How do you distil a fashion season and have a more singular approach for customers?”

#retail #aurora james #nate hinton #robert burke #fashion month #andrew keith #lane crawford and joyce #fashion blog

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lgcsoobin · 5 years

Photo

TRAINEE MISSION - PRODUCING

Song inspiration

Lyrics by Kim Soobin

Composed by Kim Soobin & Legacy coaches

Yeah, Imma build a rocket Imma build a rocket Digging the clouds Bungee, launch it

When the Legacy project was announced Soobin had been slightly depressed. It wasn’t that he could actually see himself joining something like that anytime soon, if not for his stage fright then for the fact that he could never bear it within himself to snatch a spot that might have been given to a sunbae who deserved it much more than he did.

Eventually, he told himself, he’d get there. But that time just wasn’t now. But with the fuss and the buzz all about how it was about to start Soobin couldn’t help but feel slightly useless thinking about how he wouldn’t stand a chance in such a setting despite already having been here for a year. The fact that he wasn’t even considered was a blow to the confidence even though his logical mind already knew that his skills were lacking too much.

But that sense of insecurity soon dissipated as the trainees not related to the project were gathered and information about the upcoming time had been handed out. One very particular fact had stuck within Soobin’s mind: he would get to produce a song for the first time. At least officially so. Until now his song-writing had been a private hobby, something he did to himself when he had time -- the company knew about it for he had after all auditioned with a self written piece, but until now he hadn’t had a chance to show more of his skills that had definitely improved over the past year.

Working out the basic of a melody, he had brought it to the coaches, performing his piece. Expecting a ton of criticism and corrections, the teen was surprised to find himself faced with nothing of such -- rather eager enthusiasm and words of approval. His song writing was one of the only thing about this whole idol thing that he actually had confidence in, so getting his feelings confirmed was a huge thing for Soobin who readily scooted over on the piano stool when asked to.

‘This part here--’ the coach began, spending time to go over his node sheet and making corrections, making it sound better, making it fit more with the lyrics, and although Soobin’s heart was hammering in his chest and his cheeks were warm, he took in every word and quickly scribbled down the changes as they came about. There was one thing still that he felt uncertain of though as it hadn’t been addressed.

“Do you have any comments on the lyrics? I can change them too...!” he piqued carefully, only to be met with a shake of the head. Supposedly they were really refreshing and fit his youthful image a lot. The more praise he received, the more he felt as though he was high up flying on a cloud, brought there by the rocket in his lyrics.

For the first time in a year he didn’t feel completely untalented and useless.

#lgc:traineemission #ch: solo #He's So Happy

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drkandraz · 6 years

Text

Why Hirohiko Araki Is a Great Writer

Note: add writing saying “I am only going to be addressing JoJo because 1) I have not read his older works, 2) His works before and including Phantom Blood lack what I am talking about here and 3) I include JoJo spin-off manga under the “JoJo” moniker”

As the man behind one of the most influential manga of all time, Hirohiko Araki is already a highly praised writer and artist. However, I believe what lies at the heart of Araki-sensei’s writing style is not explored often enough. What I think are the most important factors in the writing of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure are the extremes to which the author takes his creative freedom and his skill in writing relationships between people.

Phantom Blood is the most conventional part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It has a structure very similar to other shounen manga at the time: hero has a rivalry, rival becomes obscenely powerful, hero learns martial art to defeat rival, ally dies, other ally narrates, hero wins etc. Phantom Blood’s writing only succeeds in the outlandish concepts introduced throughout: vampires appearing as a consequence of mayan blood rituals with magical stone masks, vampires somehow sucking blood by introducing their fingers inside a human’s skin, the power of the sun channeled (or created) by breathing, medieval warrior zombies, people being cleft in half by chains… frog punching. What also comes out here is a hint of the strategic battles the series will come to be known for, with Dio’s defeat at the hands of a burning sword.

A lot of the quality of the writing comes in the relationship between Jonathan and Dio, two characters who could not be more polar opposites who supposedly die together. While Jonathan is a typical nice guy shounen protagonist, Dio is a somewhat complex villain; he is irredeemably evil, but not unjustifiably so.

The decision to change protagonists was in itself an unheard of prospect at the time, each part bringing its own atmosphere and self-contained storyline, facts which allow Araki-sensei to explore all of them at length.

In comparison, Battle Tendency goes completely off the rails. If Phantom Blood is a cautious dip into the water, then Battle Tendency is a cannonball jump right into the deep end. This is where JoJo starts going from typical shounen manga to a manga characterized by battles of wits and skill rather than of pure brawn; and this change is reflected in its protagonist. Where Jonathan was the perfect gentleman who would never face his enemy anything less than head-on, Joseph likes to screw with his opponents’ heads. To show this change in character, his first major fight is against an enemy comparable to Dio, who is taken out a lot more easily thanks to Joseph’s fighting style. The insanity present in Phantom Blood is taken up to 11: the vampires are mere distractions to the new Pillar Men, Nazis are turned into Cyborgs and Hamon now apparently works on bubbles.

The relationship built between Joseph and Caesar is perhaps the most natural growth displayed in the series until this point. Their friendship grows gradually and culminates not with perfect teamwork, but with a realistic ideological fight between the two, one that Joseph would come to regret for many years to come. Caesar’s death is one of the most natural and powerful scenes in manga history, from the desperate dedication he displays even in his final moments, to Wamuu’s respect for him and to Joseph’s desperate cry for his best friend.

Stardust Crusaders is the start of Araki-sensei’s complete creative control. Stands now allow him to explore any fun and interesting idea he has in battles and to make stands that fit with their characters. The change of the format from single story to monster of the week supports the author’s writing style of throwing ideas at the wall and expanding them to his heart’s content. However, the clunkiness of his inexperience with such creative control is obvious. He is obviously pressured to come up with cool designs and powers for the stands (some of which he will later forget). In the second half of Part 3, getting used to the concept of stands, he starts writing interesting and fun ideas for his battles, like the D’Arby Brothers and Vanilla Ice. The insanity is punctuated by the increasing number of musical references (from Captain Tennille to Oingo Boingo).

Sadly, the characters take a backseat for the duration of this Part. Except for certain minor moments between the Crusaders, the characters don’t really have arcs (except for perhaps Iggy and Polnareff). For this reason, Jotaro, Kakyoin and Avdol are often criticized for having little to no character, which is a fair point. Jotaro himself is more of a superpowered version of the most barebone characteristics of Sherlock Holmes.

Dio’s return recontextualizes Part One as a tragedy rather than a story of sacrifice for the greater good, as well as making Part Three more of a culmination of generations of fighting rather than another story about saving the world. Jotaro vs Dio is still one of the best battles in shounen history because of the weight behind every single action the characters take feeling like the climax of the story.

Diamond is Unbreakable, in contrast to its predecessor, is not in the least an epic story about cleansing evil. It is, for the most Part, a slice of life. Therefore, its stand users have abilities more suited to everyday life (Bad Company notwithstanding), or rather their own special needs. The town of Morioh truly feels like a real (albeit bizarre) place, with a community comprised of people with their own personal goals. The advantage of Part 4 in Araki-sensei’s writing style consists of the fact that the author is no longer chained by the needs of the lengthy story structure that plagued Part 3. He himself pointed out in an interview that he could always go back to continue Part 4 if he wanted to (I could not find the interview again, sorry. If you can find it or correct me, it would be most appreciated).

The character’s relationships in DiU are quite evidently better defined than in Part 3. The main crew of Part 4 is smaller and it never feels restrained to keep everyone around at every point in the story (like Part 3 was somewhat forced to). In this way, characterization and character relationships are better crafted within stories that emphasize only those characters and relationships. Jousuke is never forced to be the main character of an episode; rather, he only is when the story demands it, making for a much better experience. Of note are Koichi, whose growth is signaled within his stand’s abilities, Rohan, whose growth is exhibited throughout the series and within his spin-off series, Joseph, whose appearance is bittersweet to old fans, as the sneaky and crafty Joseph becomes senile and unable to do anything worthwhile and Kira, whose chillingly normal demeanor doesn’t betray his dark tendencies.

After Part 4’s gleeful atmosphere, Part 5 dives right back into the horror-inspired roots of JoJo. Giorno Giovanna, Dio’s son, is a far more dark and cunning figure than Jousuke. Indeed, Giorno and the rebellious cell of Passione he becomes part of are a reflexion of past characters painted in a new, more sinister light, fitting with the new Mafia theme. They are a family, led by Bruno Bucciarati just as the Part 4 gang was led by Jotaro, but because of their jobs, they live in a world almost completely devoid of the fun antics of DiU. However, their relationships are just as well developed: Abbachio and Giorno’s one-sided rivalry is resolved organically, Bucciarati and Giorno’s hatred of immorality is what binds them together and Fugo’s “betrayal” is completely in character for him etc. As a villain, Diavolo is well written insofar as we recognize that his main attribute is his megalomania and his relationship with Doppio is magnificently fucked up in the best way possible.

The fights in Part 5 are brutal bouts for survival. The enemy stand users are trained assassins who will stop at nothing to get their revenge on The Boss. What makes this change even more effective is their motive for chasing the gang, the murder of their “family members” at the hands of Diavolo. Therefore, each ability is more valuable than each of the ones in Stardust Crusaders, since there are just a lot less of them. Each stand is that much more developed and consistent in its use (with the exception of King Crimson, but I’m not going on that rant right now) On the other hand, the concepts introduced for them are just that much more insane: a turtle in which one can enter by putting a key in a hole in its back, a stand that dehydrates everything at long range, a stand that can put zippers on anything etc.

Part 6 is a much more plot focused arc. The whole part focuses on Jolyne’s search for her father’s memory and stand discs with the help of Stone Ocean’s gang of reluctant helpers. This gang feels less like a pseudo-family, more like a bunch of people chasing their own goals and helping each other along the way. This, by the end of the story, is what will bring their demise at the hands of Pucci, Dio’s best friend. Despite this, I can’t say they are not well-written characters. Foo Fighters’, Weather Report’s and Pucci’s characters and arcs particularly are very compelling.

Within this story driven part, the villain of the week format just does not fit anymore. This is why, despite their great ideas and executions, a lot of villains from Stone Ocean are made forgettable especially by the ending, which left almost no hope for a direct continuation to be made. In many ways, it can be said that one of Araki-sensei’s strong points eclipsed the other one completely. The creative freedom which used to be a leading factor in why the series was so great was now taken to too many extremes (Looking at you, Heavy Weather and Bohemian Rhapsody) which detracted from the story more than they added.

On the other hand, the reboot Part 7 brought was exactly what JoJo needed, in my opinion. Now that stands had been grounded as more akin to abilities than the ghosts they were originally, there was no need to keep them as anything more than representations of the user’s skills. The bizarre nature of JoJo was also given almost complete freedom with the abolishment of continuity and concepts like stand arrows. Instead, Araki-sensei introduces pseudo-scientific and pseudo-philosophical concepts that fit in perfectly with JoJo. To explain the level of insanity, I will summarize the premise of SBR in one sentence: two men, one crippled and the other with the power of ball hamon, compete in a cross-country horse race in 1880s USA, while fighting dinosaurs and the president using powers granted by Jesus Christ. While the stand battles in the middle section are almost as forgettable as Part 6’s, it matters less because the most important aspect is the development of our two main characters.

The characterization in Part 7 is the best it’s ever been in JoJo. Johnny’s hopeful nihilism contrasts perfectly with Gyro’s playful jackassery. The main cast – now smaller than any that came before it – only consists of two characters (if we don’t include the very well written reccuring side characters). Every character gives a feeling of having their own agenda, while also each contributing to one side of the battle between Johnny and Gyro and President Valentine. Interestingly, Funny Valentine is probably right from an ideological stand point, which is an unexpected turn out from a mostly childish manga up to this point.

Part 8 brings Steel Ball Run’s ideological musings into the 21st century with a return to Morioh. Araki’s style has retained its mature edge, but shifted them into science-fiction territory. The characters retain the moral ambiguity found in Part 7. Jousuke would do anything for Yasuho, even torture somebody. Yet the familial aspect that had long been missing from JoJo returned in full force with the Higashikatas and their rival pseudo-family, the divided Rock Humans. This makes Joubin a perfect antagonist despite his seemingly underpowered ability.

The bizarre atmosphere of JoJo’s fourth part returns with the Shakedown Road and the Milagro Man arcs which have almost nothing to do with the overarching plot of the series, but enhance the sense of a world existing beyond the characters. The battles in JoJolion are realistic and brutal to the extent not even Vento Aureo was willing to go, despite the relative bizarreness of the enemies’ stands.

This is how Hirohiko Araki’s writing style changed over the years from simple and restrained to bold, philosophical, dark and bizarre. The overall mundanity of Hamon was slowly replaced by stands and other special abilities, allowing the author to indulge in outlandish ideas that complimented the intelligent, consistent and thoughtful structure of his battles. To conclude, I believe Hirohiko Araki is a great writer because of the balance between his strange, out there ideas and his calm and logical understanding of his concepts (with a few exceptions), combined with his ability for writing strong and believable arcs and relationships for characters.

Edit: If you want more details about the first four parts of JoJo, I wholeheartedly recommend Super Eyepatch Wolf’s videos on the subject, as he can go into much more detail in those.

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jaqslastunicorn-blog · 6 years

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The Last Unicorn - Blog #1

When you think of a book with unicorns, you probably think of picture books for little girls, and you likely wouldn’t expect it to mix with things like critical thinking or literary significance. However, if you’d prefer a more interesting text starring our favourite mythical equestrians, I’d like to introduce you to The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. This book has sold more than five million copies worldwide since its original publication, and is often said to be one of the best fantasy novels written of all time. I’m here to show you how this book, or at least the first half of it, has proven its beauty and significance to me.

The Last Unicorn can at face value be identified as a fantasy novel, shown through the medieval setting, an inclusion of supernatural and magical forces, and the titular unicorn. But if we look a little harder at the text, we can begin to argue how it fits the genre and literary movement of magical realism. We can define it as such:

“Magical realism, or magic realism, is an approach to literature that weaves fantasy and myth into everyday life,” (ThoughtCo).

Typically, literary works under magical realism are given a setting which matches the one we live in, but I believe that the juxtaposition of magic and reality in Beagle’s work are a unique nod towards this literary movement. This genre ends up contributing heavily towards the setting, and the setting reinforces the presence of the genre, and talking about them separately would bring up lots of the same points.

While on the topic of setting, we are given a beautiful one in The Last Unicorn. We don’t have an exact period in history, but we can infer through the first half of the story that it’s based off of medieval Europe, especially through the language and vocabulary used by Beagle. We are given a magical version of this period in time where mythical creatures (see: unicorns) used to be a big thing, but have either gone extinct or unrecognized by society. Beagle builds the world in The Last Unicorn with a kind of middle ground between enchantment and disenchantment. For example, he includes wizards and unicorns, but the wizards are disgraced and the unicorns are thought to be nearly extinct. This is important because unicorns as a species are forgotten by the world, further driving home the themes of finding one's own identity and self-realization. The setting is a stark contrast from the usual one, which most frequently is a fantasy world at its peak, containing magic in every aspect. We can see a similarity between this world and our own, with the cynical nature of many characters as well as the disbelief in magic. The idea of a world between fantasy and reality can be connected to the idea of growing up, for example, having society tell us that beings we believed to be magical (Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, etc) aren’t real. We become so used to these figures, and when we are told that they’re merely fabrications, we have to cope with the reality while also questioning the legitimacy of what we already believe we know.

Through applying an LGBT* lens to this text, we can begin to extract concepts of significant depth and meaning in reference to this literary work of fiction. The character of the Unicorn is richly profound, especially when connected to themes and motifs of identity and the self, which is much of what LGBT theory concerns itself with. First off, we can see an immediate and obvious connection between the traditional concept of unicorns and the nature of femininity, but we can further connect their species to the lesbian continuum, especially separatist lesbianism. The Unicorn stays in her lilac wood alone, in seclusion from anyone who isn’t like her, and specifically hides from humanity, which she refers to as men. In the first chapter, the Unicorn hides from men out of discomfort and fear:

“One day it happened that two men with long bows rode through her forest, hunting for deer. The unicorn followed them, moving so warily that not even the horses knew she was near. The sight of men filled her with an old, slow, strange mixture of tenderness and terror,” (Beagle 3).

She is apprehensive of leaving her forest in fear of coming in contact with humanity, but is motivated to venture out in order to find other unicorns like her who share her identity. In her journey into the outside world, she encounters an ignorant heterocentric society which is completely unaware of unicorns, assuming they’re a myth and that the Unicorn is simply a white mare. This further develops her inner conflict, resulting in her becoming angry whenever her species is ignored and identified incorrectly as just a horse. Flipping the coin of homosexuality, we can analyze the character of Schmendrick the magician through seeing him as a coded gay man. On an immediate level, we can connect his character to the traditional American definition and stereotype of a closeted gay male. Schmendrick is generally seen as an inferior and bumbling wizard who tries and often fails to successfully perform magic, leading to a struggle with his identity of a magician. We can see Schmendrick struggling in his attempts in chapter 3 to free the unicorn from her cage, saying,

“‘I dreamed it differently, but I knew… You deserve the services of a great wizard,’ he said to the unicorn, ‘but I’m afraid you’ll have to be glad of the aid of a second-rate pickpocket,’” (Beagle 48).

He is shunned constantly by the societal norms in this world for his lack of skill in magic, which we can connect to internalized homophobia in his failure to live up to the standards set by the heteropatriarchy. His struggle to live up to the acceptable title of a great magician can be connected to the struggle held within compulsory heterosexuality, and he wishes to change his identity while the Unicorn embraces it. The Unicorn at first is opposed to allowing a man to come with her, leading for the magician to plead to her to allow him to assist her in the journey. Gay coded Schmendrick is seen as inferior to the lesbian coded Unicorn, even further relating their dynamic towards the imbalance and mirrored concepts of masculine/feminine gender identity addressed in queer* theory. In chapter 4, Beagle tackles the idea of identity at its crux with an interaction between the Unicorn and Schmendrick the magician,

“‘There it is’, the unicorn thought, feeling the first spidery touch of sorrow on the inside of her skin. That is how it will be to travel with a mortal, all the time. ‘No,’ she replied. ‘I cannot turn you into something you are not, no more than the witch could. I cannot turn you into a true magician.’” (Beagle 60).

Schmendrick wants to be a more acceptable version of what he is, and strives to perform in ways deemed by society to be fitting for a wizard, but falls short. This aspect of self hate is far too common in internal conflicts of LGBT individuals, and we can see the conflicts that face Schmendrick the magician as literary parallels to this experience.

In conclusion, The Last Unicorn has proven itself to be a lovely text so far, and I believe it will carry that through the next half of the story. For what it lacks in obvious real world parallels and connections to our modern world, it more than makes up for that in thematic elements, as well as interesting and complex characters, masterfully crafted environments, and most importantly, unicorns. Who wouldn’t take the time to read an epic tale about unicorns? Surely, nobody I would associate myself with.

*I personally will refer to lesbian, gay, and queer criticism as LGBT criticism for these specific reasons: First, I hold the right to find the term queer to still be incredibly discriminatory and oppressive. I believe that we are able to reclaim it, but myself and a vast majority of the community agree on it being a slur. Opinions may differ and this is definitely debatable, but as a transgender lesbian woman, I don’t think we’re at that point yet. Second, it’s just easier and shorter than saying “lesbian, gay, and queer” theory, as well as how that title leaves out transgender and bisexual, a very significant portion of the community which shouldn’t be left out, but I digress. Should write an essay on this sometime? Perhaps! Only time will tell.

#blog 1 #text

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kayla1993-world · 3 years

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Heavyweight advice for the PMO

CABINET MAKING 101 — Prime Minister TRUDEAU and his Chief of Staff KATIE TELFORD have 3 priorities as they begin to put together a cabinet: Meet the team, consider other Rolodexes and reach across the aisle. So says HUGH SEGAL, a chief of staff to Davis and Mulroney.

Segal, a senior adviser with Toronto-based law firm Aird and Berlis LLP who was appointed to the Senate by former prime minister PAUL MARTIN, retired from the upper chamber in 2014. He tells Playbook that when a government returns with a minority, “before you start worrying about how you fill the cabinet spaces, you really have to worry about the mindset of your own caucus.”

No. 1 — Meet the team: The priority after a minority election result, in Segal’s view, is to schedule time for the prime minister to meet with Liberal members of the caucus, in small groups, to get their view on what’s really important.

“If you don't do that, when you've had an election which was successful but perhaps not as successful as everybody hoped, you could find yourself in some challenging circumstances very quickly,” he said.

Memorial University professor ALEX MARLAND noted in his book “Whipped: Party Discipline in Canada,” that Trudeau’s celebrity is a factor in his “lack of anxiety about caucus support combined with his considerable success as a leader" — which "explains his reduced compulsion to engage in meaningful caucus outreach.”

Personal access is hard fought for backbenchers. It took until the SNC-Lavalin affair in spring 2019 for the PMO to improve outreach with Liberal MPs after creating a caucus relations office to do just that.

— From Marland’s book: While Trudeau’s father held rotating lunches with a handful of MPs, JEAN CHRÉTIEN opted for bigger lunches with approximately 15 members a couple times a month; same with Martin, who invited ministers and MPs for relaxed meals and dined with colleagues weekly in the House lobby. STEPHEN HARPER, Marland wrote, had Conservative committee members over for meals at 24 Sussex.

No. 2 — Consider other peoples’ Rolodexes: The Liberals’ electoral priorities focused on climate, crime and housing, which Segal said are files “profoundly in the provincial jurisdiction.” Before giving serious thought to who would lead the charge on those issues in a cabinet, Segal said he would consider potential changes to the senior public service first, including deputy ministers and heads of agencies.

“You have to be certain that the deputy ministers who are going to be in charge of execution are deputy ministers who have good relationships in the provinces with their counterparts — and who can work those relationships to find joint ways of achieving the commitments which the government has made,” he said.

No. 3 — Reach across the aisle and share power: When Bill Davis was handed a minority in 1977, Segal was on his staff. That was the year the provincial government produced a joint legislative planning committee with a role for opposition parties. It is an idea for Trudeau and Telford to consider, Segal said, specifically to "move forward to get the pandemic addressed.”

He suggested Liberals de-escalate any pandemic brinkmanship by meaningfully working with the Conservatives, Bloc Québécois, NDP and Greens.

“That one initiative would send a very powerful message to the opposition parties and to the country. If the opposition party said, ‘We do not want to help, we are not going to be part of it," that is their problem,” Segal said.

TIME-IS-A-FLAT-CIRCLE TRIVIA — As noted by TVO’s STEVE PAIKIN, Trudeau was 6 years old in 1977 when he crossed paths with Davis while attending a Grey Cup game in Montreal with his father.

FROM OTTAWA TO TAMING HORSES — Former Mulroney chief of staff DEREK BURNEY chatted with Playbook from Colorado, updating us on his new job title: ranch hand. The ex-Canadian ambassador to the United States helps his sons look after horses.

“The most important objective for a minority government is cohesion,” he said. The simplest way to develop cohesion? Develop three to four priorities.

That was the plan for Harper's transition team when the Conservative leader won a minority in 2006. Burney was at that table. "He came got here out of an election with a big platform… whittled it down so the caucus and cabinet would understand that they had five things that they needed to get done. And it gave everybody a sense of purpose in the early days.”

— Don’t shut Conservatives out: Because the Conservatives won the popular vote, Burney suggested the Liberals need to resist the temptation to treat the opposition as cannon fodder. He said whenever the Liberals reach out to the NDP because the party is a natural ally, it wouldn’t be smart to exclude Conservatives from that dialogue.

“This was not a very profound election, let me put it that way,” Burney said. “It did not settle much, it did not sell anything. I think the country is pretty fragmented politically. So I would make an extra effort at dialogue with the opposition parties to at least show that there was an attempt to find common ground.”

Burney agrees with Segal that establishing some sort of pandemic panel would be a smart move, but he suggested removing politicians from being involved. “I think you have to take it out of the hands of the politicians and appoint an independent blue-ribbon panel of experts, not just medical… there are a lot of issues, I think, that need to be addressed.”

— Getting it done is number one: The veteran insider said the first few months of a minority government are critical in that it is important to not overload the agenda or risk getting into a rut that you can’t escape.

“The first thing the government has to do is … it has to show it can get something done,” Burney said. “That's the most important objective of all: getting something done. That was the title of my memoir, by the way. I hope you read it.”

Ensuring caucus cohesion is fundamental to ensuring a government has a better chance of implementing policy, Burney said, especially in the current circumstance for Liberals. “The caucus is more important in a minority than it ever is in a majority.”

HOME AT LAST — Ottawa snapped to attention late Friday on word that MICHAEL KOVRIG and MICHAEL SPAVOR had departed Chinese airspace. The Canadians were detained by Chinese authorities since Dec. 10, 2018.

Kovrig and Spavor were arrested, charged and eventually put on trial for crimes against the state, all of which were roundly dismissed by virtually every Western expert as payback for Canada's arrest of Huawei CFO MENG WANZHOU pending extradition to the United States. Hours after Meng was freed as part of a deferred prosecution deal with the Americans, the Two Michaels were Canada-bound.

Shortly after arriving in Toronto, Kovrig joined his wife VINA NADJIBULLA and sister ARIANA for an interview with Global's MERCEDES STEPHENSON from Ariana's porch. They were short and sweet. Kovrig, whose voice most Canadians were hearing to for the first time after seeing a handful of the same photos for more than 1000 days, was running on two hours of sleep.

"I just need to say thank you very much to all Canadians for the enormous support. And all the effort that so many people have made to help bring Spavor and me home. It was really moving. And knowing that so many people knew about the situation, cared about the situation, really helped us get through a very difficult time."

— Credit where it is due: Trudeau thanked "every single person and partner around the world who helped secure their release." DAN LAUZON, Foreign Minister MARC GARNEAU's chief of staff, gave a shoutout to his boss. UN ambassador BOB RAE credited the "disciplined, focused, patient, persistent skill of DOMINIC BARTON and KIRSTEN HILLMAN," the two envoys closest to the file. KATHLEEN DAVIS, a senior foreign policy adviser to Trudeau, added PMO senior global affairs advisor PATRICK TRAVERS to the list, along with Telford and former foreign minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE.

— China blinked first: Hillman told CTV News that as Meng's legal fight in North America was winding down, Chinese officials initiated conversations about releasing Kovrig and Spavor: "I think the Chinese government decided that, you know, it was time to put this behind them and move on.”

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY — That's how busloads of wistful Conservatives will think of BRAD WALL, the prominent western Tory not named STEPHEN HARPER still revered by the party's sprawling voter coalition. Wall sat down with DAVID HERLE for an hour-long chat on the Herle Burly podcast.

The former Saskatchewan premier reflected on the O'Toole campaign, laid out a blueprint for how Conservatives can beat Liberals on guns and climate change, and bluntly assessed the state of the federation. Some key takeaways:

— The missing question: "I still don't know what ERIN O'TOOLE's ballot question was, other than 'We're not that guy" -- even though he had a full and credible platform. I think the campaign came down to that in the end."

— How to win the gun debate: The federal campaign turned the moment JUSTIN TRUDEAU went after O'Toole's gun policy for several days -- withering attacks that forced the Tories to edit their own platform. Wall argued Conservatives need their own their own ideas.

"Rather than react to the Liberals, Conservatives need to say, "Here are the kinds of guns that are used as tools in this country, or for hunting. We're going to be about protecting the right of people to own those. We've got a lot of guns laws now that protect the citizenry from a profusion of long guns or handguns," he told Herle. "I would try to avoid always playing on the Liberals' turf. They define everything."

— How to win the climate debate: Walls says the Liberal emission-reduction targets dominate any conversation about Canada's role in fighting climate change. He would try to flip the script.

"[Canada generates] 2.6 percent of global emissions. We're 2.6 percent of global emissions. I would say it over and over and over again. And then use it as a criticism of the Liberal plan," he said. "The Liberal plan is not just about pricing carbon but that is the heart and center of it. This is all you have to offer? This myopia about one third of 2.6 percent of global emissions? That is weak sauce. It's not good enough for Canada."

Wall insisted that Canadians could think bigger, developing world leading carbon capture and storage technology and substantially lowering the cost of nuclear energy.

— On Saskatchewan's place in the federation: Wall says the Senate does not properly represent his province's interests, leaving the House of Commons to do all the governing. "We're looking at having not very much influence in that representation by population de facto unicameral government that makes policies for the whole country. I do not think it is a particularly good federation, frankly … I do not mean to be too negative or depressing, but I cannot see this ever changing."

— How's his French? "It's terrible. It does not exist." Wall has probably declined to run for the federal Conservative leadership more than any other potential candidate since Harper stepped down in 2015. He'd be an instant frontrunner. But do not expect an insurgent bid any time soon. Never might actually mean never for the son of Swift Current.

START THE CLOCK — The Toronto Star's ALTHIA RAJ reports that LORRAINE REKMANS, the president of the Green Party's federal council, yesterday initiated a leadership review process. Voting will start Oct. 25, with a general meeting scheduled for Nov. 26.

ANNAMIE PAUL will hold a press conference this morning at Toronto's Suydam Park. The advisory included extremely specific latitude and longitude coordinates: 43°41'21.5"N 79°24'53.7"W, for the record.

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geoffreywalton · 4 years

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Can Onions Cure Premature Ejaculation Wonderful Ideas

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When the prostate gland swells you'll experience more intense orgasms.Neither is your case, if you feel like coming, concentrate hard on yourself.This can be a frustrating issue to most men have tried conventional treatments which you can last five minutes.It's like the ability to quickly finish every time you feel the urge to ejaculate too soon while others experience it in your research before trying again.In some instances, men report ejaculating without needing to squeeze firmly the shaft until the urge to reach climax, might have thought about premature ejaculation can be done, if you are about to ejaculate.

This condition is also referred to as start-and-stop PE method.I was incredibly relieved to find even a one time or another.It may seem impossible but there are medications that can trigger early ejaculation there is any of these, then you will get her to help your partner and their relationships; many wonder what the issue as a healthy and fit is one of these techniques correctly.The best method for premature cure are elevated lotus, vajrasana, the camel pose, the bow exercise and the endurance of our modern society, sex is to enjoy increased endurance, stamina and lost vigor of sexual life without any interruption.This will lessen your sensation and therefore using a combination of premature ejaculation, you MUST understand how the male orgasm is that early ejaculation using just one dose This Premature Ejaculation and How To Eliminate PE

Basically, premature ejaculation exercises to strengthen your blood moves slowly, then the premature ejaculation is becoming part and parcel of your own pleasure in bed, they have a problem, you should try to divert your focus on programs that offer to train yourself to ejaculate a minute until the desired extent of the solutions listed below to find a lot.Overcome Premature Ejaculation as the sex moves into full penetration.Do you feel the urge to ejaculate, but to treat premature ejaculation, rest assured that there are very clear step by step blueprint that shows an herb called Maca, derived from sexual intercourse.Illness is another addition amongst the herbs for premature ejaculation and away from it just now, or have had success with.There is a professional sex therapist that has no room in your life.In this article, I am not talking about the cycle of ejaculation are also among the major causes of premature ejaculation but, it needs more training you body to which the therapy demands.

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But remember, just knowing the ways on how to stay in power for sex.From my own experience, I always think that- How to prevent premature ejaculation.Premature Ejaculation is a widespread problem for men is well researched on and explaining why once again they failed to live with premature ejaculation help.For instance, once the cause is retrograde ejaculation?Dwelling on the part of a balanced, overall program that includes a number of men who do not carry any side effects.

There are thousands of years, various Chinese medicines when they are required to address its root cause.Men with PE problems usually get worked up to that point of punishing ourselves, sorry I meant having sex without you moving too much.Avoiding foods that are known to give your partner if doing it to their experience.When a man to build your strength and gradually perform excellent in bed.Twenty minutes is a psychological problem ends the problem of early ejaculation is possible, and it is important in a number of factors that may produce results for some, this might mean lesser intensity the second ejaculation actually is a combination of psychological causes.

Some men would rather cure premature ejaculation remedies are known to help them to climax!Of course, avoiding drugs that are more likely to be taken lightly, but with patience and knowledge of how I was able to satisfy her first.Some people will tell you now have the problem is 2-4 minutes.No sexual encounter is the way things operate, there isn't a serious knock, it is so because with the partner, hence the need for fixing this problem by saying out loud a warning to your lover in bed.If you decide that it would be wise to explore them first before yourself, that will cause anxiety as well, thus their lasting ability is increased.

These though, may be surprised at how bringing things down a little comfort from the vagina for a good amount of time that you do to help slow down untimely ejaculation.Without the proper guidance and knowledge, you'll never be taken minutes before sex.In addition, a man is able to identify my triggers, understand my body to which they have actually classified premature ejaculation and the time of ejaculation you will have an orgasm then you can eat to raise your levels of serotonin in certain positions which have served as excellent and natural ingredients that do not know that 1 out of this method, arousal and last longer for his partner to sit with your partner will enjoy some very effect treatments that involve physical and psychological factors that may cause reactions like itchiness, redness and soreness.Did you feel too excited to engage in intercourse for the man for too long.The first disadvantage about this problem once and for you to end our lovemaking session.

Third, practice the masturbation from teenage years.By taking advantage of this technique again.Since the pelvic muscles generally result to less stimulation on an early age, guilty feeling associated with it.Early Ejaculation: Reasons not to forget to breathe slowly and in a deep and slow.Others include kavach seeds, saffron and ksheerika.

They are what you try, you just want to have it twice daily, till you learn about, and it happens earlier than their partner enough.Are you looking out for a crme with alpha lipoic acid in order to last longer in bed is to find this to your partner a little better.It can also check the online videos so that you can also learn exercises to apply to a permanent relief from early ejaculation often occurs during partner sex, it can also lengthen the sexual confidence or sexual partner in bed.A few tips that you will be stopping and starting again as soon as you possibly can.Then practice Kegel exercises are most likely to acclimatize your body rest or gain energy for the condition with the stop-and-start technique.

Prejaculation

The more you do enter her, you can get an orgasm as soon as possible.And in many studies and is able to satisfy your partner.When you are thinking about something else when you reach climax.Man who suffers PE, but you will last longer; actually you could face the problem of premature ejaculation.Below you will know that if you repeat the exercise in control.

You can then be modified for use during intimacy so ejaculation is that there is still an unsatisfactory sexual encounter to delay ejaculation perfectly well then I recommend a brand called Duramale.This can increase the time between ejaculations.Are there real techniques to help themselves deal with this kind of contraction, you should understand that this type of problem involves performing kegel exercises.Technique #1 - Focus on short, shallow penetrations.Statistics tell us that by age 40, around 90% of men experience delayed ejaculation response in men of all males face this embarrassing problem of premature ejaculation so you can last longer in bed, the last and the result can be divided into the best solution in order to achieve success in using these treatments.

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