#being given to forms of media which only people who have or are given massive funding can participate in

[moodr1ng]

i think theres probably something interesting going on regarding the relationship between.. how accessible a form of media is to create at a professional level for an average individual or small group (eg: writing at a professional level is comparatively very accessible, making a movie at a professional level is comparatively inaccessible) vs which forms of media are currently dominating whats considered mainstream and which forms appear to not be valued as much anymore. but any conclusion i draw upon would only be anecdotal so its whatever

#like i think literature has become more and more devalued #but also stuff like the booktok fad has made it rise again so i cant point to numbers to say that #but also.. you know.. idk it doesnt feel like any of that has the cultural impact of movies for example #i am generally talking abt 'accessible' in the sense of financially permissible #obvs access overall to art is limited by many more factors #im just talking about like. can some average person afford to create this realistically. #anyway it FEELS to me like culturally we are moving towards artistic relevance and cultural power being #being given to forms of media which only people who have or are given massive funding can participate in #and in which there is basically no independent market of the same quality/level #while not highly valuing forms of art where its very very easy to find any random person producing it independently #and that feels like a concentration of media power and cultural imagination into the hands of the rich #which isnt rly a hot take we know this ofc. but it feels like we further advance into it w time

[gemsofgreece]

OK some things about Greece's Marina Satti results and we're done with this

JK I am not done with Marina I love her but we're done with the circus Marina was in, for another year

So, she is a perfectionist but I hope she will soon understand how much SHE SUCCEEDED. And it will look like a love delirium but no I am not being biased.

Marina Satti got 11th place. Missed Top 10 by one. She was basically killed by the juries.

In the televoting she won 8th place. So she was in the top 10 of all people's votes. She was also 8th in the votes from the Rest of the World, which is a big deal in my opinion.

I won't be mad at the juries because their voting overall made sense in many ways and we were aware that Zari was a not jury-friendly song in any way. It had zurna, it had rap, obviously juries don't go for this stuff. So, it's okay. We knew that.

BUT Marina Satti got 8th - 11th place:

By singing exclusively in the Greek language.

By singing in an entirely Balkan, eastern melody during a year that a lot of the Balkans and East Europe had withdrawn from the contest.

By kinda rapping / reggaetoning, which is generally hated in Eurovision.

By doing exactly her thing, despite knowing how much she would be fought by certain people.

By knowingly choosing the very risky song instead of a ballad and a typical dance song that she also had available as options.

By not trying to be "understood" and get sympathy votes.

By being given a tiny budget from the Greek delegation, much smaller than any previous years including to last year's NQ lame tycoon nephew entry. So GD gave a famous artist like Marina much less money than to those small unknown kids that had gone before her. WTF

By being hated for her song and her (genius) music video and a large percentage of the population writing in English and asking foreigners to not vote for her and blaming her for insulting Greece, Greek culture etc (HINT: No she did not insult it and a blog called gemsofgreece tells you that so relax) and insulting her, her morals, her family, her father's descent and her talent relentlessly for three months

By the unprecedented thing of the freaking SHOWBIZ of the country making openly insulting attacks against her and her song. Like, seriously, there were FAMOUS celebrities going on TV and calling her song "cat vomit", a fashion designer (before her dress choice lol) saying she should go to Eurovision naked because there's no other hope for her to get votes. I am serious. You might say, oh, she must have done something. NO. Guys, no. She has never said or done anything wrong to any celebrity in the country as far as I am aware. She was attacked by musicians, fashion designers, TV shows and honestly nobody knows why. It's a different thing to not like something than to get a polemic position openly as a celebrity against another famous person. This has never happened before, I don't remember anything like this. Celebrities shitting on another artist's effort out of nowhere, especially in advance. To put it simply, now that Marina will have to return to Greece (poor thing), she has good reasons to sue half the country.

By losing her father one month ago.

By getting pretty ill during the semi-final, losing her voice and being administrated medication every three hours.

By suffering chronically from severe anxiety, which is why she refused three prior propositions from the Greek delegation to represent the country.

Well, by receiving a new massive wave of hate from people from or supporting Israel and the Greek government controlled media and press, who all started a fierce campaign against her the last two days before the final. The reason was that she showed intentionally boredom / sleepiness during the time the Israeli contestant was speaking. Make of that what you will, I am only presenting the facts of how her placement was formed here. Many Jewish people wrote they had voted her in the semi but now they wouldn't. I believe because Israel is an eastern country, probably several people of Jewish descent voted for her and then all those votes were lost. It's no matter, I am just explaining that she would probably otherwise be 7th in the televoting, 10th overall. Here we analyze if Marina succeeded her goal, we don't nitpick for Eurovision's sake.

And as you see, she succeeded. With all the odds against her, with a LOT of people hating her and making her life harder and her effort impossible, with the loss of her father, she succeeded in her vision. Bring back Greek language, the eastern sound and having the world dance with it. Shoutout to Armenia who also succeeded in this and made top 10, the song was a little more conventional. Let's be real, Satti achieved all this with a VERY difficult song. The definition of a difficult song and in a little known language. Nothing else, just congratulations to her and I hope she realises all this and does not let her trademark anxiety and perfectionism get the better of her. Also, she really created an international fan community with this and I think there are good things coming for her in the future :)))))

PS1: Odds had her 8th-10th place but they underestimated the juries and the last day's hate she got. In general odds were not very successful this year.

PS2. No worries Greek and Cypriot televoting exchanged the 12 points again :D

PS3: to the ageist haters who wondered why she looks 20 though she is 38, kitties reach her age and you will be crying to look like her

PS4: Marina’s 8th place in televoting was the best placement since 2013, surpassing Amanda and Stefania with the English jury friendly songs 😃😃😃 Greek delegation take a bloody hint

#greece #eurovision #marina satti #good thing this is over #now i am ready for her new lp #and her collaboration with Nemo #wooohoooo #greek culture #greeks #greek people #greek music #greek facts #coals of greece

[queen-breha-organa]

I wanted to briefly come back online and discuss the WGA and, in turn, the current writer's strike.

I know my opinion matters very little, and I don’t consider myself an expert or a valuable voice in this matter. However, since I talk about Star Wars a lot, I wanted to discuss the strike because these things go hand in hand. I think it’s unfair to ignore the real-world circumstances that shape the media you enjoy. Knowing the context of something is important. And beyond that, this situation has just been on my mind, and I wanted to express my thoughts somewhere. 

Firstly, all workers should be paid living wages. All workers deserve to be treated fairly and compensated fairly. All workers deserve safe, productive, and fair working environments—end of story.

I’ve been seeing a lot of jokes along the lines of “I didn’t even know media had writers these days,” and while I understand the joke and the potential humor in it, I feel like it’s important to realize that this is entirely why the WGA is striking in the first place.

The writer’s rooms are shrinking. Writers are being overworked. Writers are being underpaid. Writers are being dismissed and undercut. These factors lead to poorly written and poorly managed shows because the individuals who write the bones of the shows are exhausted and burdened by corporate interference, unreasonable deadlines (especially in animation), unfair wages, and stale corporate agendas.

Additionally, these writers often aren’t given the opportunity to oversee or manage their writing while it’s being filmed. Instead, companies are acting as if the writing process ends before the filming process so that they can shorten the writer's contracts and pay them less. However, in actuality, the writing process is often most valuable during the filming process. 

Some things work on paper but don’t work on the day. Maybe the joke doesn’t land, or an actor can’t deliver the line as intended. Writers are needed on set to rework and revise these lines, so the process can run smoother without sacrificing story and believability. Now some actors are incredible at improvising and can make these things work. However, overall, without writers on set, you usually end up with awkward/stiff dialogue or scenes that make no sense. Writing doesn’t stop in the writers' room.

Another massive force driving this strike is the evolution of streaming services. 

With “traditional” tv reruns, the network airing the media has to purchase the viewing rights of the episode or the show. This money is then extended to the people who worked on the show in the form of residuals. It makes sense. Something you worked on makes money, so in turn, you get money. 

However, streaming services have broken this mold by allowing consumers to watch whatever media whenever they want. Streaming services claim that it is no longer possible to pay residuals for these shows since they don’t know how often or when the shows are being watched. This is a lie.

Companies will brag privately in shareholder's meetings and publicly in articles about streaming shows that have done well. We’ll read headlines like “Stranger Things’ Was Most-Streamed TV Show in 2022” or “‘Star Wars’ vs. Marvel: Which Disney+ Shows Are Most-Viewed.” These articles and the data within them prove it is possible to know how frequently shows/movies are being watched on streaming services. Still, companies are only willing to shell out this information for bragging rights and not for fair payments.

In 2021, Disney CEO Bob Chapk earned $32 million. In contrast, the WGA website states, “Median weekly writer-producer pay has declined 4% over the last decade. Adjusting for inflation, the decline is 23%.” These writers are merely asking for 3%, while CEOs are given the moon.

This is unacceptable.

If you’re reading this post, if you’re on Tumblr and engaging with fandoms enough to have this post written by me, a Star Wars blog, circulate on your feed, media writing has affected your life. Writers have impacted you and your daily routine and hobbies. 

You should care about this strike. You should be supporting this strike. 

We all want our favorite shows to come back, we all want to reunite with our favorite characters, and we all want to see their stories, their triumphs, and their struggles. 

But the real people behind these stories and behind these characters are far more important than any fictional narrative. 

These writers have crafted the worlds and stories we love, and by supporting them, we can return the favor and craft a better world for them too.

#Writers strike #real people matter more than the new season of your favorite show #Long post

[paranorahjones]

i know it's a common thing for fandoms to build themselves largely on a gross disservice to the media they're centered around, but i genuinely think that the FNAF fandom is one of the worst instances of this that i've ever seen, in the way that it built itself off of assigning characterizations to the animatronics that were not in the least related to the fact that those animatronics are very much haunted by dead children. and no, i won't allow the excuse of "we didn't know all the lore when the games were first coming out" because just . . . no. that was barely subtext. it's not hard to figure that out.

one allowance i will make is that the average age of the members of the fandom was probably a lot younger than was intended, but even then you had adult fans pornographying these characters, for which there was and is no excuse. yeah, i know, it happens in every fandom ever, but that doesn't prevent me from being disgusted by it, especially when the characters are essentially children. but then those people started trying to backtrack, saying that there was difference, that they only "had the hots" for the animatronics, not the actual children possessing them. and that kind of perverted cognitive dissonance (which occurs in a LOT of fandoms) is a large factor in why media comprehension as a whole is dying out massively, and died out largely within the FNAF fandom.

you cannot separate every integral aspect of a character, discard some aspects and hold onto others and form from them some kind of husk that you can lust over, and call yourself a fan of that character or the media they originate from in any sense of the word. you are not a fan, you are a porn addict looking for new material and you have zero ability to comprehend or respect any given story without viewing it through the lense of wanting to get your rocks off.

i digress. but this is a huge reason why i adore the FNAF movie so much. it brought the story back to its bones, reigned in years of horrible mischaracterizations, and took every opportunity to remind the audience that the animatronics are children. that was one of the best choices that the filmmakers could have possibly made, as well as the choice to show the children themselves in Mike's dream sequences.

in every fandom there will always be those who love to willfully misinterpret the source material. but i'm honestly so relieved that we didn't get the FNAF movie until now, after so many years. it allowed the fandom time to grow up a bit, and for the most part i would say that it has.

anyways. FNAF deserved a much better audience than it got.

#fnaf #the fnaf movie #five nights at freddy's #fandom criticism #fandom critical

[twistedtummies2]

Top 15 Video Game Villains

Before I get into this list, given the topic, I have to make a very simple and honest confession: I’m really not much of a gamer. I’ve played some games, but not really that many. I’ve honestly WATCHED more games than I’ve actually PLAYED. There’s a lot of reasons why this is, but at the end of the day, the fact is that video games are just one of those forms of media where I’m really not an expert.

With that said, I have a great respect for video games as a medium, and I know a LOT of people are EXTREMELY into them. Video gaming has gone from something of a niche subculture to a MASSIVE market and piece of major pop culture in and of itself, just as generally respected, lauded, and appreciated as movies or television. Games themselves have come a long way: back when they were new, no one really cared about story or character, it was really a matter of just making things fun to play as a pastime. Over time, however, the medium has evolved, and the storytelling and characters in some of the greatest games have become just as important as the actual gameplay involved…which is why I’m able to say that, despite not playing many games, I can still make a list like this in good confidence. See, you don’t need to play something to understand how good a character is…and every game needs an obstacle. Something for the player to overcome. Like any other great story, one needs an antagonist…and sometimes, you need a villain. Many of the villains of video games, like games themselves, have become just as popular as the games themselves, as well as many other great and glorious villains throughout history. Through the ones that have lasted the longest, you can really trace the evolution of gaming itself, and with the ones that are more “one hit wonders,” you can see glimpses of some interesting moments in the grand pantheon of video games. So, despite hardly being an expert on the subject, I felt it was time I give these characters some time in the spotlight. Keep in mind, my opinions will DEFINITELY differ from those of a LOT of other people, simply because I have a different perspective on things. Also, with two exceptions, I’ll only be including one villain per game/franchise. With that said, let’s waste no more time! These are My Top 15 Favorite Video Game Villains!

15. The Phantom Blot & The Mad Doctor, from Epic Mickey.

This is the first exception I mentioned in my preamble. I couldn’t decide which of these two to include, so I just decided to include both. The Epic Mickey games - which were sadly cut short by various behind-the-scenes shenanigans - were Disney’s attempt to bring Mickey Mouse to the forefront in gaming, and to try and find a way to make Mickey “cool” again. The games are sort of a love letter to the Mouse’s long history as a character, as well as to Disney’s history as a whole, and while they are far from perfect, they still have a bit of a cult following, for various reasons. The main antagonists of the first game were these two scoundrels. The Phantom Blot - also known as “The Shadow Blot” or simply “The Blot,” in this specific title - is a character who has had a long history in Disney before this title. In comics and cartoons prior to the game, the Blot was a masked supervillain. In the games, the Blot is reimagined as a ravenous ink monster, who essentially acts as a force of pure destruction, with no apparent purpose but to spread ruin wherever he goes. The Mad Doctor, meanwhile, first appeared in a Mickey cartoon by the same name; in the games, he is a cyborganic mad scientist who started out as a friend to some of the characters, but ultimately revealed his true nature and joined forces with the Blot in a bid to become the greatest villain of all time. While the Blot never returned in any of the sequels, the Mad Doctor did, and the Blot’s impact was still felt even after the beast was defeated. Both were fun twists on classic, somewhat obscure characters, and more people know about them because of these games than anything else. I don’t really think that’s a bad thing.

14. The Crooked Man, from The Wolf Among Us.

This was a title released by Telltale Games, who specialized in games that were interactive “choose your own adventure”-type stories. The player’s choices would determine how the stories went, above all else. In the case of “The Wolf Among Us” - based on the comic series “Fables” - the story was a sort of fantasy and film noir blend, with Sheriff Bigby Wolf (guess who he is) trying to solve a case of mysterious murders in the city of Fabletown, where characters from fairy-tales, folklore, and mythology all live. At the end of this long and twisted case, it’s revealed the mastermind behind it all is this fellow: the Crooked Man. From the moment we start realizing his involvement, the Crooked Man seems like a total and pure nasty…and he is. But here’s the genius of the character: after going through so much to reach him and finally confront him, when the time finally arrives, he isn’t depicted as a dark-hearted monster, but instead a reasonable, intellectual, and EXTREMELY persuasive gentleman. The brilliance of the Crooked Man is that he doesn’t just get into the heads of the other characters in the story, but has the capacity to get into the head of the player, and make them doubt the decisions they are making. You know he can’t be trusted and has to be brought to justice, but he’s very skilled at twisting things around, making every moment tense as you wonder whether you’re making the right choice or not. His demeanor of composed, collected rationality almost never falters, making it feel like he’s in control even when you have the upper hand. In a game all about your choices and their consequences, that’s an EXTREMELY powerful villain to have, and no other main antagonists from other Telltale titles, in my opinion, are quite as effective in THAT regard. He may not be one of the most iconic villains in history, but he’ll always be one I hold in high esteem.

13. The Moon Bear King, from Puppeteer.

All of the other villains after this character are from series or franchise works. There are multiple installments in them, and so there are often many villains to choose from. The same goes with the previous two entries, as well: Epic Mickey had three games to its name, and a sequel to “The Wolf Among Us” is in development as we speak. “Puppeteer” is an oddball, as a result, because it’s a one-and-done deal: it’s not part of a major franchise or series, it’s just one single, lonely title, and it’s not necessarily one that tons of people would know. I doubt you’d be seeing cosplays or highly-viewed videos about this game anywhere of note. However, as far as one hit wonders go, it’s a VERY good game: it’s got a wicked sense of humor, simple and addictive gameplay that still manages to be challenging, and a very unique sense of aesthetic style. It also has a very fun main antagonist: the evil and bombastic Moon Bear King. The King is an evil, gluttonous monster who has taken over the kingdom of the moon. It’s eventually revealed that he was once a humble little teddy bear, who suffered from deep insecurity, and desperately wanted friendship. The Little Bear stole the Black Moonstone, a dangerous artifact, which corrupted his desires and transformed him into the beastly Moon Bear King: a literally power-hungry demon who longs to devour the souls of all of Earth’s children. Aided by his Twelve Generals (all themed around animals from the Chinese Zodiac), the King’s plans are challenged by the hero of the story, Kutaro. The King is one of those wonderful villains who mingles humor, menace, and pathos perfectly: he’s actually EXTREMELY funny, but he’s also extremely nasty, capable of some truly horrifying acts of evil. When you learn the truth of his origins and motivations, he becomes a sympathetic character, which only adds to the layers of his personality. On the one hand, it would have been nice to see more of him, and the world of Puppeteer in general. On the other hand, I think this is one of those games where its singular status is part of what makes it so special. If a sequel or spin-off ever does come out, I shall be curious…but as it stands, the King and his source work are perfectly grand on their own.

12. Kefka Palazzo, from Final Fantasy.

I’ll come right out and admit it, I’m not really super familiar with the Final Fantasy series and a lot of its characters. And that, very frankly, is why Kefka is so low on the list: he’s one of the very few characters from the franchise I do feel I know pretty well, even if I do say so myself. This is good for him in terms of his own merits, but it’s also why I don’t think I can honestly and justly place him higher. With that said, he IS a really fun villain. I know a lot of people praise Sephiroth as the greatest antagonist of the series, and he’s a good villain, too…but in my opinion, Kefka is even more interesting, as well as just a lot of fun. One of my issues with FF, and why I’m not really familiar with it, is that a lot of characters (among those I know) feel very similar, in terms of both personality and design. Kefka, however, is truly a one of a kind figure: he’s a wild, chaotic, childish, brightly colored jester who walks, sounds, and generally behaves in a way that is extremely unique compared to all the rest around him. As far as villainy goes, he’s wonderful in how he’s such a paradoxical character. Kefka is a nihilist of the highest order, who has no purpose in life other than to inflict suffering and death. While he can be manipulative and cunning, there is no end goal beyond just making others feel pain and seeing things perish. On the one hand, this makes him one of the most thoroughly vile figures in the franchise, and in some ways one of the most frightening. But at the same time, there’s a sort of sadness to Kefka: the reason he is so obsessed with destruction is because he literally cannot understand the ideas of love, compassion, or even hope. When others express those concepts, his physically incapable of comprehending them: he sees no meaning in life, because in his mind, there IS nothing but death looming on the horizon. His flamboyant and vibrant facade is exactly that: a sort of armor that hides an overwhelming emptiness, which only making others hurt seems to satisfy in any way. He is funny and frightening, tragic yet despicable, and those kinds of layers always make for fascinating antagonists. He would be MUCH higher if I just knew more about his universe in general. 

11. Pagan Min, from Far Cry 4.

I should point out that Far Cry 4 is the only Far Cry game I know especially well, mostly because it’s the only one I’ve actually played. I have not played nor even looked at much from the other games in the series, so I really can’t comment on them. (I say this because I know there are some villains from other installments people might list over Pagan. In my case, he’s really the only one I know well.) Initially, when I was planning this list out, Pagan was a bit further down…but after revisiting FC4, I discovered he was a lot greater than I already recalled. He’s a villain who really works best IN a video game world, as his presence is felt through the gameplay and various other things that can ONLY work in a video game setting. Most of his time in the game is spent on the peripherals, but his impact is felt throughout the whole adventure. He’s also an intriguingly layered sort of villain: Pagan is a tyrant and a psychopath, with a flamboyant sense of style and a very freewheeling, jocular personality. However, as the game goes on, we quickly realize more sides to his personality. Perhaps the most notable is his relationship with the main character, Ajay: he actually LIKES Ajay, and doesn’t really want to kill him, because our protagonist has ties to Pagan’s past. Pagan seems to see Ajay as a sort of surrogate son, but unlike other “father nemeses” in fiction, he never goes down the path of “you may be my son, but I will still kill you because too far gone into evil and so forth.” Instead he just…kind of gets annoyed we’re playing with “naughty children.” Right up to the end, though, he’s jolly and sympathetic with the protagonist, which honestly makes the cruelty he shows towards others all the more unsettling. A lot of this game revolves around the question of loyalty, and of rightful leadership. Pagan Min represents the nightmare of absolute power, but he also represents a sort of strange temptation…and hey, it’s not like the alternative rulers the game presents are any nicer, at the end of the day. :P

10. Skull Face, from Metal Gear Solid V.

Most MGS fans would probably place a villain with longer standing here - such as Liquid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, or possibly Psycho Mantis. And all of them are fun villains, but I am not most fans. Skull Face may only appear in one game (well…technically two games, since MGSV was released effectively in two parts, “Ground Zeroes” and “Phantom Pain”), but that doesn’t negate him placement by any means. This character seems to be one fans are polarized over: depending on where you look and who you ask, he’s either one of the best villains from the series, or one of the worst. As you can imagine, I fall into the former category. Skull Face is an extremely messed up bad guy, with a very depressing past and remarkably twisted motivations. You feel sorry for him in some ways, but in other ways, he’s one of the most utterly reprehensible villains the series puts forth. His demeanor is equally paradoxical: his physical design and some of his mannerisms are rather over-the-top, but there’s a seriousness and a subtlety to him at the same time. He’s kind of everything you want from a villain…and to top it off, he’s the kind of villain who I feel really only works in a video game. (A bit like our previous pick.) See, part of what makes Skull Face so great is that, even when he isn’t onscreen, his presence is felt: what he does in the game affects the player even when they aren’t physically facing him down, and a lot of who he is is presented in things you find hidden throughout the game. It’s these little nuggets of intrigue that make him so fascinating, but even on a superficial level, I think he’s still a pretty great baddy. The only problem with the character I have, and why he doesn’t make the top ten, is that we never really get what I feel is a satisfying conclusion for him: his story ends, make no mistake, an what happens to him isn't WHOLLY disappointing, but I feel like a final boss fight against him would have helped him make even more of an impact. Maybe that’s one of the reasons some people have a problem with him, but for me, it doesn’t ruin him entirely.

9. Jack the Ripper AND Bartholomew Roberts, from Assassin’s Creed.

Here is the other exception I mentioned earlier, and it’s admittedly a somewhat more glaring example. With the Mad Doctor and the Blot, they at least appeared in the same title together, the first Epic Mickey game. Roberts and the Ripper appear in the same franchise, but in two completely different titles and storylines. There are lots of great villains in AC, from historical figures to totally fictional characters, but when trying to decide between my favorites, I knew it would have to be at least one of these two…and after revisiting their respective appearances, I couldn’t decide between them. The issue is that I like both for similar reasons, but also for totally different ones. Both are historical criminals of great infamy, and both are my favorite fictional depictions of those figures. Each is interesting in different ways, and also despicable in different ways. Roberts is one of the main antagonists of the game “Black Flag,” and is a prominent figure throughout the story, with a big impact on things that happen. He’s also a unique villain in that he is neither an Assassin nor a Templar, but a Sage; someone caught in-between the two feuding factions. Roberts also starts out as a sympathetic character, and even becomes an ally, before eventually showing his colors as an antagonist. In the Ripper’s case, he’s only the villain for a DLC package, which is optional; it doesn’t really affect the story of the main game for his title, “Syndicate,” if you play it or not. So in that regard, Roberts has him beat. However, Jack’s setup - as a former Assassin turned rogue - gives him a similarly unique status in the universe of the games. Plus, gameplay-wise, Jack is much more fascinating; first of all, you actually get to PLAY as the Ripper throughout the DLC. Second of all, his boss fight is probably one of the best bosses in the whole series. The battle with Roberts is nothing to scoff at either, but it’s comparatively much more standard; it’s great in its historical accuracy and grandiose nature. Between the two, I found the pros and cons of each evened out; I kept going back and forth on who really earned the spot. So, end of the day, I decided to just let both of these dastardly gentlemen have it.

8. Flowey/Asriel Dreemurr, from Undertale.

So, talking about this character/these characters means delivering MAJOR spoilers, just to warn everyone. However, since Undertale is such a big deal at this point, and since it’s now been ALMOST A DECADE since it came out? I think it’s okay for me to speak candidly about the subject. In “Undertale,” your main character - whose name is eventually revealed to be Frisk - winds up in a mysterious world populated by monsters. The game subverts the trope of RPG titles, where you boost your powers and abilities by slaying beasts in random encounters; you absolutely can slaughter every monster in sight, if you WANT to, but if you do that…well…“you’re gonna have a bad time,” as the game says. Most of the “enemies” you encounter in the game are actually friendly, or simply acting on a sort of misunderstanding, or otherwise able to be reasoned with. There is, however, one exception: throughout the game, in all of its different paths, you are plagued by a mysterious, talking sunflower simply known as “Flowey.” Flowey is a sadistic monster who revels in death and quite literally hungers for power. It’s eventually revealed, if you take the “True Pacifist” route - which is typically regarded as the “True Ending” of the game - that Flowey is the reincarnation (or something like it) of this character: Asriel Dreemurr, the long-dead prince of this underground world. Eventually, his true form is revealed, which leads to an epic final boss. (Though, to be fair, Flowey’s own boss, found in other routes, is pretty crazy, too.) Along with it comes his backstory, which is…really quite gut-wrenching. Asriel is both one of the most dangerous enemies you face, if not THE most dangerous, and yet also arguably the single most tragic character in the entire game. There’s not enough time and space for me to go into everything about him, but suffice it to say, when you learn why he is the way he is - both as Flowey and as himself - it’s honestly pretty heartbreaking. He’s the only character who one could argue doesn’t get a happy ending, in the True Pacifist route, and yet he’s also the character who you wish could have one the most, despite all the terrible things he does by the end of the story. Between both his true form and his appearance as the demented Flowey, he manages to kind of be everything you could want out of a villain: he’s powerful, menacing, rather creepy, and yet also shockingly sympathetic. If any villain on this list most exemplifies the idea of “sympathy for the devil,” it’s probably Asriel.

7. GLaDOS, from Portal.

This evil AI is another rather paradoxical villain. Most versions of the “Evil AI” concept - whether it be an out-of-control robot, or a computer program gone mad, depict the AI in question as somewhat morally ambiguous. They typically are just trying to carry out their programming, or see themselves in the right and humans in the wrong, seeing people as flawed and themselves as perfect. There’s a coldness, a detached-ness, to such creations, typically speaking; they aren’t necessarily EVIL, they’ve just gone to an extreme measure. GLaDOS, however, is different: she IS evil, plain and simple, and it’s not entirely clear why. She is openly sadistic, cruel, and murderous, and uses her power and presence to manipulate others in various ways. GLaDOS actually has a conscience, unlike most characters of this sort, but she deliberately ignores it, and her personality and desires go well beyond simply furthering science as she claims to do. What’s fascinating about GLaDOS, however, are the complex emotions that arise between her and the player’s main character, Chell. On the one hand, the two are arch-nemeses, but on the other hand, the two are almost friends. GLaDOS yearns to kill Chell in the first game, but Chell also relies on her a lot in both Portal games. GLaDOS is cynically sarcastic, passive-aggressive, and bitter towards Chell, in lots of ways and for lots of reasons, yet she also admits to thinking of Chell as “her best friend.” Indeed, GLaDOS seems pretty pissed at the player during the final boss in the first game, and after her defeat when we meet her in the second game, but not in a “How dare you, mere peon!” way so much as a feeling of bizarre, genuine betrayal. It’s the twisted emotions of GLaDOS, and her unique nature among other characters within her own archetype, that makes her so intriguing. She is, once again, a villain who melds so many different layers - humor, horror, and surprising empathy (if not necessarily sympathy) - making for a well-rounded and memorable antagonist.

6. Xehanort, from Kingdom Hearts.

“Kingdom Hearts” is one of my two favorite video game franchises (we’ll get to the other of those two soon), so it seemed only fair I place the main antagonist of the entire series high up. I nearly gave him a spot in the Top 5, but...well...when you see who DID take the number five slot, you'll understand. In some ways, having said that, I think Xehanort is one of the most underrated video game villains: despite the popularity and success of the KH series, I rarely hear Xehanort’s name mentioned when people bring up famous video game baddies, and I also don’t typically see much cosplay of him or anything like that. For me, though, he’s definitely one of the greats, and also one of the single most persistent buggers. It would take FOREVER to describe EVERYTHING that goes on with this guy, because, essentially, describing Xehanort’s story and setup in any meaningful way would mean going into the lore of the entire KH franchise, and…yeah, we’re not doing that here, if ever. XD For now, suffice it to say he’s a marvelous villain in how he permeates the whole franchise: everything that goes wrong in the heroes’ lives is either directly or indirectly thanks to Xehanort’s meddling, and with multiple different forms of himself - from Xemnas to “Terra-Nort” to the Seeker of Darkness - you can’t turn a corner without running into some version of this guy causing trouble somewhere. His motivations and character archetype ride a fine line between mad scientist and dark wizard, and despite causing all sorts of havoc across many different worlds…when his story comes to an end, you do sort of feel sorry to see him go. It’s been indicated Xehanort’s ultimate defeat may not be the end to KH as a whole, so time will tell what other villains could come in the future. And who knows? Considering how many times this character and his many forms have cheated death before, maybe we still haven’t seen the last of him…

5. Dr. Eggman, from Sonic the Hedgehog.

I’ve only actually played one Sonic game, that being “Sonic Unleashed.” (Apparently, that game is sort of a polarized one among fans.) However, I have looked at things from other games, as well as come to understand the franchise through its other outlets, such as television and movies. So while Sonic isn’t necessarily a universe I’m a pure-blooded expert on, I know a lot more about it than, say, Final Fantasy. One thing that’s consistent in every version, in my opinion, is this: Dr. Robotnik, also known as Dr. Eggman, is ALWAYS my favorite character. Eggman is one of the most iconic of all video game villains, perhaps second only to Bowser from Nintendo’s core lineup. He is the quintessential mad scientist: a greedy, ambitious lunatic and robotics expert who seeks to, of course, take over the world. If only he could just smash, shoot, or otherwise scuttle that annoying hedgehog who keeps ruining his dastardly schemes! Eggman is one of the most versatile villains in gaming, I would say, as well; different depictions of him throughout the Sonic franchise have handled the kind of villain he is in different ways. Some takes on Eggman are honestly VERY scary, making him a truly threatening and grotesque villain with no redeeming values whatsoever. Others make him into a clown, a sort of roly-poly goofball who isn’t really a threat so much as a persistent nuisance. My favorite ones, however, blend a bit of both; making Robotnik a character who can be funny, and perhaps even sympathetic, but is nevertheless totally capable of committing absolute atrocities. I always love villains who have that kind of multi-layered aspect to their personality, being empathetic and entertaining while also still able to pose a decent threat and act as a true obstacle to the hero. If there’s one thing that Eggman is consistently shown to be in every depiction, it’s determined; some might even say stubborn. No matter how many of his machines get ruined, no matter how many plans for global domination are foiled, he always comes back ready for more. He’s basically the Wile E. Coyote of video games: forever chasing a super-speedy foe, but seemingly destined to always come second place. Sometimes, that simple formula is all it takes to make a character fun.

4. Count Dracula, from Castlevania.

Alongside Kingdom Hearts, “Castlevania” is one of my two favorite video game franchises, and…to be honest, one of the single biggest reasons why is this guy. The Castlevania series started out as a tribute to classic horror and monster movies, featuring various references to both Universal Monsters and Hammer Horror. While it hasn’t abandoned those roots completely, over time, it’s become more and more its own thing, and most of the really famous classic monster figures - such as Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon - while certainly persistent figures throughout the franchise, have always sort of remained background figures. The one great exception is the king of the monsters: the Prince of Darkness, the Lord of the Vampires, the Count of Transylvania…the One and Only Dracula. Castlevania’s Dracula may not have the automatic recognizability of some film versions, but over time, he has become more and more iconic, as he is the main antagonist of the whole franchise. And considering the franchise has been around since the 1980s, and has not only had multiple games under its belt but two very successful animated series adaptations, it’s not hard to understand why. Even when Dracula isn’t the final boss or main antagonist of a specific game, he’s always present in some form or another, and the different paths the franchise has gone down have evolved this villainous vampire in all sorts of ways. He’s gone from a pretty straightforward villain, to a sympathetic and tragic antagonist, to even getting to be a protagonistic anti-hero figure. And with every interpretation, he is always interesting and intimidating. He’s easily one of my favorite interpretations of Bram Stoker’s greatest creation, and has earned every ounce of respect as one of video gaming’s most classic adversaries: he’s just as immortal in those ranks as anywhere else.

3. Bowser, from Mario Bros.

Well, you can’t have a good list of video game villains and not at least mention this guy. As I said before, alongside Dr. Eggman, Bowser - the King Koopa himself - is quite possibly the single most iconic antagonist in video gaming history. Heck, whenever people bring up video games in general, the Mario Bros. series is probably one of the first examples to come to mind. Just as Robotnik will never seem to give up chasing Sonic, Bowser is thoroughly unceasing in his desire to abduct and wed the beautiful Princess Peach. No matter how often she spurns his advances, he always comes back to try a new plan to conquer the world and gain her hand in marriage…and every time he does, Mario is there to stop him, along with Luigi, Yoshi, Toad, and all the rest of the plumber’s playmates. Also, much like Eggman, Bowser is as versatile as he is iconic: some versions of the character depict him as a genuinely monstrous threat that needs to be beaten, others show him as more of a buffoon who tends to be more annoying than truly dangerous. Once again, like Dr. Robotnik, I like Bowser best when he’s somewhere in the middle: able to be funny and perhaps even sympathetic, but also still being a genuine menace and a villain to be reckoned with. What boosts Bowser above Eggman is primarily that I know and understand the Mario universe better than the Sonic universe, and I have a slightly bigger attachment to Bowser as a result. (Plus, I…sort of have a crush on him, I’ll confess. I can’t help it, he’s a big, burly, man-eating monster with a deep, powerful voice, I’M WEAK. >///> )

2. Carmen Sandiego.

You won’t find Carmen on a lot of other people’s video game villains lists, admittedly not without good reason, but there was never any doubt in my mind she’d rank highly here. If you only know this character through the Netflix television series, and its spin-offs, then you’re probably confused: in that version, Carmen is the main protagonist, and was depicted as a sort of misunderstood heroine. She’s akin to Arsene Lupin or The Saint: using crime to battle crime. That is NOT the original interpretation of Carmen Sandiego: Carmen had a loooong history before the Netflix reboot, and it started with a series of computer and console games, where she was the main antagonist. The games were “edutainment” packages: meant to offer educational value as well as entertainment. They were primarily focused on teaching children social studies, like Geography and History (although some other fields got covered, too, such as Math and English). I grew up playing a LOT of “edutainment” games (my mother was, and still is, a schoolteacher), and most of them were kind of “eh.” But the one series I absolutely loved, and STILL love, was Carmen Sandiego. The premise of the games had Carmen as the World’s Greatest Thief: the leader of a secret cabal of robbers and spies known as VILE, who sought to plunder the world’s greatest treasures. Everything from the Statue of Liberty, to Elvis’ Pink Cadillac, to the Mona Lisa…Carmen and her cohorts would steal everything rare or one-of-a-kind under the Sun, no matter how implausible the crime seemed. Throughout the franchise, Carmen was consistently depicted as a glamorous and mysterious character, a sort of teasing incentive: we wanted to capture this illusive, fascinating, shadowy woman in her fine red outfit, and the urge to know what it would be like to go toe-to-toe with her directly kept people playing. As time went on, Carmen’s character was developed further, giving her a more morally ambiguous personality, and a backstory that was both revealing…and yet still full of tantalizing holes. You never really knew why Carmen did what she did, or what she would do next, or where she could pop up. It was the eternal mystery of the character that made her so interesting. While her career has had ups and downs, she’s never really gone away, and while I do like the Netflix version and its more heroic depiction of her…I will always prefer the Classic Carmen, and all her villainous ways. The thrill of the chase she provided always made learning fun.

1. Joker, from Batman: Arkham.

As I think I’ve said before in the past, the Joker is quite possibly my favorite villain of all time. And as I ALSO think I’ve said before, Mark Hamill’s take on the character is my favorite version of the same. So it stands to reason, just by that logic alone, that the Batman: Arkham series would have my favorite villain in video games, since it features Hamill playing my favorite baddy, and it’s arguably his greatest work with the character aside from the DCAU. (Oh, and Troy Baker also took the reins a couple of times; he’s freaking awesome, too.) While the Joker was not the main antagonist of every single game in the franchise, he was always - as the character ever is - a persistent and impactful thorn in the Dark Knight’s side. The series focused a lot on the twisted, strange relationship between these two arch-enemies, and their seemingly eternal duel with each other was what drove much of the plot in each game, and provided many of the most interesting moments. Even after dying in-universe, officially, the Clown Prince of Crime would continue to plague the Caped Crusader from beyond the grave. You can really see the whole series, overall, as an exploration of the rivalry between these two characters, from where it started to how it ended. Other villains came and went, and were portrayed in a variety of ways - some better than others - but the Joker was consistently present, and consistently well-handled, making for not only one of the best versions of the comic book creep that’s ever been, but one of the most iconic and lauded villains in video game history. He is part of the reason the Arkham games were a success, as much as any of the gameplay and atmospheric elements, and there is so much you could analyze or say about the character - both onscreen and behind the scenes - to explain why. It’s therefore no surprise at all that he takes the cake as My Favorite Video Game Villain.

HONORABLE MENTIONS INCLUDE…

Albert Wesker, from Resident Evil. (I just don’t know a ton about these games or this character, so despite his iconography, it didn’t feel fair to place him in the ranks.)

SEVERAL Villains from American McGee’s Alice. (The Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, and the Dollmaker from “Madness Returns”, in particular. All are great villains, but when I really looked at things, I felt other characters earned it more, and I felt like three villains at once would have been MAJOR cheating.)

Doc Ock, from the PS4 Spider-Man Game. (Wasn’t sure how else to credit that title. Also, I haven't played the sequel yet, but I hear Kraven the Hunter there is AWESOME.)

Ganon, from The Legend of Zelda. (Same issue as Wesker.)

Gruntilda, from Banjo-Kazooie. (Very nearly made the list, but I just have a bigger fondness for Epic Mickey.)

Rollo Flamme AND Fellow Honest, from Twisted Wonderland. (Oh, you all know I couldn’t ignore this one. These two are the most antagonistic characters so far, one could argue, as we really haven’t seen them become protagonists - at least not yet - and they do arguably the most reprehensible things of any character in the game. However, because of the way this whole game works, not sure if they really count enough to make the list.)

Shao Kahn, from Mortal Kombat. (Same issue as Gruntilda.)

#list #countdown #top 15 #video games #video game villains #batman: arkham #joker #carmen sandiego #bowser #nintendo #mario bros. #count dracula #dracula #castlevania #xehanort #kingdom hearts #kh #dr. eggman #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #glados #portal #asriel #asriel dreemurr #flowey #undertale #jack the ripper #bartholomew roberts #assassin's creed #syndicate

[bracketsoffear]

Gog-Agog (Kill Six Billion Demons) "Oh worm? Her true nature is a massive, worlds-spanning colony of worms united under a single mind and identity, who frequently fractures and develops its own micro-identities within the whole; she’s more of a multiversal infection than an individual. She offers people happiness through her media empire (read: political and capitalist propaganda) and eating her worms to become more of her: “People always wanna feel good. Satisfied. Pretty. Happy! […] Eat this worm! If you eat it, you’ll become me! And being me is reaaaally fun!” Her ability to infect and assimilate others has given her a massive cult that worships the Worm-Queen as a god, imitating her current style and aspiring towards being eventually assimilated by her; this is reminiscent of Mag 153 with the Divine Chain Cult and Agape. At one point she forms countless bodies into a hollow moon made of faces and attacks w/ tentacles made of heads vomiting out other heads."

Taylor Hebert/Skitter (Worm) "Taylor gained the ability to detect and control a wide variety of bugs and bug-like creatures (including insects, spiders, earthworms, and crustaceans) after being stuffed into a locker full of used tampons and pads. She set out to become a superhero, but ended up becoming a supervillain named Skitter instead. Her powers let her inflict anaphylactic shock (bee stings), comas (black widow spiders), tissue necrosis (brown recluse spiders) or death (all of the above), and she later gets access to bullet ants for 24 hours of pain. The applications she’s found for her powers include include attacking with hundreds of venomous creatures, spying on people from two blocks away by looking through the eyes of insects, devising a bullet-resistant costume by commanding spiders to spin one from their silk, improvising a costume with carefully directed insects (which not only conceals her identity but intimidates her opponents with a giant, creepy-looking human-shaped swarm), arming even the nonstinging, nonvenomous insects (imagine being divebombed by bugs whose undersides are coated in capsaicin who are guided to your mouth, nostrils, and eyes), have her bugs vibrate to mimic speech, using bugs pull the pins on grenades, employing spider threads as triplines or to cocoon people, and even killing a Nigh Invulnerable character by cramming insects down their throat so that they suffocate. After what she did to Lung, The Merchants, and Dragon, she is considered, quote, "one of the scariest motherfuckers in town." By the end of the story, this has been upgraded to 'one of the scariest motherfuckers in the multiverse'. After Scion's defeat the entire superhero community goes out of their way to forget her because they're so traumatized by what Khepri did. It's eventually revealed in Ward that, since no-one knows what happened to her, the entire superhero community tries to avoid saying her name because they're scared of drawing her attention."

Image from the Worm Wiki, credit to Neoworm.

#corruption poll #the magnus archives #the corruption #kill six billion demons #worm #poll

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Kirk Swearingen

In the face of what seems like endless gun carnage in the U.S., Republican politicians call for more mental health funding even while withholding it. Not only are there now more guns than people in this country, many Republicans and the right-wing media continue to profit by leading people, especially younger men, to despair.

They're projecting their own unexamined mental health issues on others. As Salon's Amanda Marcotte has often pointed out, for Republicans it seems that every accusation is a confession.

When Donald Trump and his confederates claim that Democrats cheat in elections, that's what is known as a tell, since cheating at elections is precisely what they themselves are trying their best (or worst) to do.

When Ivy League–educated Republicans attack the liberal "elite." When Trump Republicans profess outrage about the "Biden crime family." When the malignant narcissist who formerly occupied the White House claims that liberals (whom he claims are "socialists," "radicals" or "Marxists") are out to destroy the country. Every accusation is a confession.

So Republican politicians and their media allies call for more mental health spending as a supposed solution to the gun violence crisis, one suspects that's a reflection of their own mental strain in championing an absurd interpretation of the Second Amendment and steadfastly ignoring the fact that people in other large Western nations have issues with mental health too, but for some reason don't shoot each other, or themselves, nearly as often.

Many men who vote Republican, it seems, are too focused on propping up their fragile masculinity to seek help in any case. (It might make them look like "betas.") Far too often, a right-wing man gets so worked up about a perceived threat to his manliness that he goes on a shooting rampage with assault-style weapons, which the Supreme Court has helpfully explained is every American's God-given right, under the twisted logic that there was no "history or tradition" in the 18th century of prohibiting high-powered firearms that hadn't been invented.

So many American conservatives live in a seemingly incessant state of fear — about books and experts and science and liberals and immigrants and independent women and people of color and people with different sexual preferences or gender identities — that it's no wonder they appear mentally and emotionally unhealthy. Then there are the evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who form the most reliable MAGA Republican base: Their alleged belief in Jesus Christ has become so warped they now perceive their savior in the person of our twice-impeached, four-times-indicted ex-president. None of this signals a group of well-adjusted human beings. The HBO series "The Righteous Gemstones," a dark comedy about shallow, grifting televangelists stunted and spoiled by wealth, has to work hard to outdo what we see at Trump rallies.

Come on, it's not like we weren't warned about all this. Remember Trump's infamous 2016 response to Hillary Clinton: "No puppet, no puppet … You're the puppet!" Did that sound like a mentally well-adjusted adult? Or an adult of any kind? How about this lovely Mother's Day greeting, earlier this year. Who defends themselves against allegations of criminal actions by saying, "I'm a legitimate person"? Who frequently posts in all caps on social media, flinging incomprehensible accusations at political opponents?

As for anti-"woke" warrior Ron DeSantis, his campaign against Trump appears to be a spectacular failure, even as he apparently mimics Trump's fragile ego, accompanying vindictiveness and bizarre obsession with manliness. Like "personality" Tucker Carlson's 2022 special on "The End of Men," DeSantis' anti-Pride video was pretty darned homoerotic.

Along with the right-wing cable news machine profiting by actively diminishing the mental acuity of its viewers, "manfluencer" grifters like Andrew Tate, selling "alpha male" misogyny to lonely, insecure young men, have made fortunes encouraging them to become misogynistic white nationalists — essentially mini-Trumps, but with actual muscle tone (not just in risible fantasy). It's good to see some mentally healthy young people fight back with satire.

When a serial liar and hatemonger like Trump remains the choice of a large majority of Republican voters even after two impeachments, an ever-growing count of felony indictments and an ongoing attempted coup; when voters send deeply unserious, dysfunctional or delusional individuals to Congress as their representatives; when fascist-fanboy Governors like DeSantis and Greg Abbott model their states after authoritarian regimes and deploy stochastic terrorism to put marginalized populations at risk of violence, is it any wonder that ordinary citizens feel permanently on edge, in a state of chronic existential dread?

But the right won't give up — I don't mean on issues of principle or policy, since it doesn't have any, but in its crusade to "own the libs," take rights away from people who are not like them and enforce theocratic minority rule. In fact, that mean-spirited crusade is the basis of the right's tribal identity. As Adam Serwer of The Atlantic famously pointed out some time ago, the cruelty is the point:

“Taking joy in that suffering is more human than most would like to admit. Somewhere on the wide spectrum between adolescent teasing and the smiling white men in the lynching photographs are the Trump supporters whose community is built by rejoicing in the anguish of those they see as unlike them, who have found in their shared cruelty an answer to the loneliness and atomization of modern life.”

As I reread those lines, I think back to the cheering and laughter of the Trump supporters during CNN's pathetic "town hall" rally for Trump in May, as he turned in his typical shameless performance of lies, bluster, bullying and whining. Here's a suggested campaign slogan: "Trump 2024: Come for the Lying, Stay for the Crying." As Salon contributor Mike Lofgren has observed, the GOP's "heart of darkness" has moved beyond just whining; They want retribution, payback for all the real or perceived slights they have suffered, and they believe only their cult leader can deliver it.

Brian Klaas, a professor of global politics at University College London, writes that we end up with bad people in power so often for three main reasons: power acts as a magnet for corruptible people (often "Machiavellian narcissists, perhaps with a dash of psychopathy thrown in too"); holding power tends to corrupt people; we tend to give people power for the wrong reasons.

"Corruptible people are disproportionately drawn to power, disproportionately good at wriggling their way into it and disproportionately likely to cling to it once they've got it," Klaas notes. We can fix this, he argues, by fixing our political system, recruiting better candidates and instituting real accountability for wrongdoing. Good systems, he says, attract good people. Fighting corruption is an integral part of the Democratic Playbook published by the Brookings Institution. A political system dominated by money, "dark" or otherwise, is not working.

Most politicians would not entertain the thought that they are mentally unwell. They are simply playing the game; looking to gain advantage in any way that works and is not blatantly illegal (with some notable exceptions. But does that kind of Machiavellian behavior, part of the "dark triad," suggest a well-functioning mind and spirit? We too often shrug at politics, accepting the narrative that it's just a game. But it's not; it is freedom or tyranny, dignity or subjugation, life or death.

Those who dehumanize their political opponents by referring to them as enemies and who call teachers, librarians and parents "groomers" have mental health issues far exceeding those of young people struggling with questions of sexual orientation or gender identity. Men who work to limit women's autonomy over their own bodies, or for that matter conservative women who punch down to bolster their fragile status have serious issues to work on and should quit afflicting them on the rest of us.

To be fair, a great many of us in America face our own mental health issues across the political spectrum. More of us, almost certainly, should seek the counsel of friends and professionals. We are chronically depressed and lonely. Political polarization has separated friends and family members from each other. The religious right has embraced an evangelism of intolerance against other people whose mental and emotional struggles they don't understand. While Republicans play-act as defenders of the working class, they labor tirelessly to drive working people deeper into lives of endless labor and debt servitude.

As the late, great American novelist Kurt Vonnegut would have said, about this and about his currently banned books: "So it goes." I don't think he meant to indicate cynical acceptance, more like an acknowledgment of humanity's deep history of stupidity and intolerance — and the need to carry on nonetheless. So we work diligently to maintain our own sense of self, our fragile balance, our purpose and our will — even in a country where, far too often, the inmates are running the asylum.

#us politics #news #salon #republicans #conservatives #gop #gun violence #gun control #gun rights #mass shootings #op eds #Kirk Swearingen #mental health #mental illness #white nationalists #alt right #Adam Serwer #the Atlantic #Mike Lofgren #Brian Klaas #Kurt Vonnegut #incels #misogyny #2023

[cripplecharacters]

I'm writing a story where a blind character temporarily gets a mental link to other characters. During this, the characters share thoughts and senses. I thought it would make sense that he would get their visual input, and be able to "see" what they were seeing. However, I don't want it to seem like a cure, or a fix to his disability. It is strictly temporary, but I'm not sure if this is okay. Also, how would you feel about him being curious/interested at the idea of images?

Hi! As a general rule, I would still strongly advise against giving your blind characters magic vision. Even if it’s only temporary, it still serves as a power that negates chunks of their disability, and still reinforces the ideas that sight is the only way to do certain things and that any blind person would want to see if they could, which is not true. Many of us are perfectly comfortable being blind and are not at all interested in powers that would grant us vision.

I would much rather see this character still unable to receive other characters’ visual input and continue to only receive other senses. This route can also be more realistic, because if this character is totally blind or has never had vision of their own before, their brain likely wouldn’t know how to make sense of visual input. Not only that, but I think a lot of people don’t realise that learning how to see really can be learning, and it can be extremely overwhelming and disorienting for someone who never has before or a character that only gets access to vision in limited quantities. It can take real life blind people months and months of visual therapy to train their brains how to see and learn how to function and not get overwhelmed by new levels of vision, and that’s even with the fact that most real life corrective surgeries can only grant minor improvements and usually aren’t enough to make the person no longer qualify as blind.

It’s not as simple as suddenly being able to see and use simple logic to figure out what things are. It can be a real process of teaching your brain how to even understand visual input and it can honestly take just as long to learn how to do things visually as it can take to learn how to do them non-visually. It is likely to slow the character down even more, on top of being just really overwhelming and exhausting. There are a lot of things happening in your field of vision that can just feel like massive sensory overload if you’re not used to it, which can be stressful and confusing when you still don’t understand half of what you’re looking at and how to interpret things like depth and movement and shadows. It might be more likely to throw the character off and cause them to misunderstand what they’re looking at.

It is pretty realistic for some blind people to have curiosity about images and vision, but it’s definitely not all of us, so I would think about whether this character as a person is particularly interested in vision or not. I would also think about whether this character would even want to receive visual input from other characters, given all the factors mentioned above. Many of us don’t have an interest and wouldn’t bother even if it was offered to us, not just because it would be overwhelming and force us to re-learn how to live our lives, but also because we are super comfortable with our blindness and don’t see any real reason to want to see. If this character is well-adjusted and super comfortable with their blindness, they probably don’t think about vision very often and it might only be an idle curiosity once in a long while.

Plus, as mentioned above, it is still a power that negates chunks of a disability and can reinforce negative ideas about blindness, and it’s a bit of a tired trope that can often just leave blind readers groaning and wanting to close the story. Giving a blind character a form of magic vision is often the only way we get to see blind characters in media, and it is way more interesting and ground-breaking to see a blind character that breaks that mold and doesn’t fall into the trope at all. I would encourage you to leave the magic vision out, even if only for the sake of making your story more interesting and unconventional.

— Mod Lane

#mod Lane #anonymous #disability negating superpowers #cure trope #blindness #tropes #fantasy setting #fantasy tropes

[bdzonthareel]

Barbie

When I first heard about a Barbie movie, I like many people rolled their eyes at the very thought of it. Barbie media has often (at times unfairly) lambasted for being a cash grab and that was my initial reaction, however we I heard that Margot Robbie was involved and her production company was fitting the bill, my interest was piqued. So without further ado, (and I never thought I would ever say these words) let’s talk about Barbie!

We’re introduced to the fictional world of Barbieland, where every concept of Barbie exists and lives in perfect harmony with a respective Ken, and Allan (there’s only one of him.) But the harmony is disrupted when Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie begins to suffer from an existential crisis and in order for her to fix what’s wrong she must go to the real world and meet the girl who is playing with her and figure out what’s wrong.

In all genres of entertainment, comedy is one of those that I am insanely harsh on, as comedian myself I feel like there should be a flow to long form story, especially in comedy. But I can say that Director and co-screenwriter Greta Gerwig created a work that was heartfelt and hilarious in this film.

The cinematography is nothing short of brilliant, lots and lots of pink paint was used to bring Barbieland to life and it felt like one massive play set. And the various Real World shots were not to be out done giving off a stark contrast to each other.

The soundtrack was a delightful mix of classic top 40s, newer hits and self-aware comedic songs. The score was equally light poppy and fun, composers (pop music legend) Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt brought an amazing upbeat energy to this film.

Co-writer Noah Baumbach, helped with some very well-timed jokes, and you know they worked because they triggered a metric ton of incels, and that alone was worth the price of admission. Together with Gerwig, I was throughly impressed with the amount of meta commentary on display, and despite what some might lead you to believe, the film doesn’t demonize men; the film’s message is far more complex than that. I also appreciate the fact that they made the movie about the titular character, with seems to be something that franchises like Transformers can’t seem to get right.

And the performances were hilariously well done, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gossling have great chemistry as they lampoon the ideas of these characters’ roles. Simu Liu, is amazing versatile and brings the same amazing timing that he brought to Kim’s Convenience and it was delightful. Although my favorite Barbies were Issa Rei as President Barbie and Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie. And I would be remised to ignore Hari Nef whose Doctor Barbie was whimsical and charming, Also since I’m madly in love with Alexandra Shipp I can say that she another of my favorite parts. America Ferreira and Ariana Greenblat served as great moral support for the various inhabitants of Barbieland and then there Will Ferrell I was almost convinced was Ken at one point given his goofball behavior. I also enjoyed seeing Rhea Pearlman as one (spoilers), she just gets better with age. Kate McKinnon really went all in as Weird Barbie as did Michael Cera as Allan (easily my favorite character in the film.) And last but certainly NOT least, Dame Hellen Mirren as the narrator brought a nice touch of her

Barbie was more than what I and many others initially expected, it was packaged as a goofball fish-out-of-water comedy which is a tired cliché in its own right, I sat down on this for a good while before writing this and I feel like its one of the best comedies I have seen in a very long time. It was very funny, but it also had a lot to say about growing up, holding on to thing that we love, and letting go of them. The biggest message that we all have to find our own way, because we are all more than just an idea and life doesn’t exist in just a straight line and at the end of the day isn’t that what it means to be human?

I give Barbie a well-deserved, 5 out of 5.

#movie review #hollywood #barbie #ryan gosling #margot robbie #barbieheimer #ken doll #micheal cera #dua lipa #john cena #greta gerwig #will ferrell #comedy #matel #barbie doll #barbie girl #barbieland #barbie world

[rainbowsky]

Hey rainbowsky, idk if you could answer this for me or maybe somebody else but why is there a bad connotation with being called idol? I see this mostly in China compared Korea or Japan but idols in China will try very hard to distance themselves from the word idol and see it as bad, I just wanted to know your thoughts on this. From what I’ve seen idols in Korea and Japan don’t care. Again as far as I’ve seen.

Hi Anon!

Idols tend to be looked down upon everywhere, not just in China.

Yes, it's true that they're massively popular and admired by millions of adoring fans, but only within a narrow group of very young girls. From a mainstream perspective the majority of people would have no clue who these 'massively popular' idols are because they aren't part of daily life in the media they consume.

As entertainers they're usually not taken seriously in the industry when compared with serious actors who went to acting school and perform in serious works, or when compared to other popular figures such as top athletes, musicians, comedians, etc.. They are seen as manufactured marketing products, not serious entertainers.

And this isn't just an 'Asian idol' thing - this is a reality across the globe. Look at how top 40 pop stars are viewed in society vs how well-known actors, comedians, TV hosts, athletes, politicians and other public figures are viewed.

Justin Beiber - as popular and as talented as he is - will never be taken as seriously as film stars like Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman or Michelle Yeoh, or even TV actors like Bob Odenkirk or Peter Dinklage.

There are good reasons to not want to be seen as an idol in the entertainment business or by the public at large:

Idols are broadly viewed as being popular because of their looks and because of the fashion/fad they represent, not because of any special talent, experience or ability.

Idols are viewed as having won some sort of a lottery rather than as having worked hard to earn their notoriety.

Idols will tend to be cast in projects where acting ability isn't a huge factor - projects intended to highlight the idol's looks and appeal to the type of young women who follow idols. The point is to get as much traffic, attention and revenue as possible rather than to create an enduring cinematic masterpiece. Serious opportunities aren't typically given to them.

There is a real shelf life to idols. They tend to be a flash in the pan - people whose careers only last as long as their style is in vogue and as long as their looks are in peak form. They often fly high and fall hard, never to be heard of again. Whereas other popular figures have a longer trajectory to their careers, and often their work spans decades.

Idol fan culture means there is a lot of BS associated with being an idol that most other popular figures don't have to deal with nearly as much - in part because the fan base is so young and less mature, less able to see the seriousness of (or care about the consequences of) their behavior. Stalker fans, toxic fan activity, shipping with everyone they interact with, trying to hack into their private info, installing tracking devices on their cars, harassing family members, wasteful and outrageous consumer behavior, vote-manipulation, fan wars - all of which has serious negative impacts on stars. Especially in China, where stars are held directly accountable for the behavior of their fans.

Idols face bigger career risks than other public figures do. Being seen to be in a relationship, for example, can kill an idol's career moreso than that of a serious actor or musician. They have to maintain a much more 'perfect' image than other public figures do. They come under an incredible amount of scrutiny for people who aren't considered 'serious' entertainers.

Idols are usually very tightly managed and don't tend to have as much control over their careers as other popular figures do, especially if they come out of 'idol search' competition shows. Their contracts are notoriously exploitative and restrictive, and cover every aspect of their public and private lives. Often most of the money they earn goes to their management company.

Idols are restricted not just by their management companies, but also by their fans. Often they are victims of their own success, because their fan bases often have a lot of influence over what they are able to do. For example, DD lost solo fans when he took on The Untamed as a project, because many of them didn't want him appearing in a BL project. GG's popularity means he's had to reel in his often friendly, affectionate behavior around costars because his fans ship him or go to war over it.

There are likely a lot of idols who are perfectly happy in a career as an idol, but most seem to see it as a stepping stone to more serious opportunities. They use the attention they have to get roles that will enable them to transition into a longer, more stable career.

It's true that these extremes are even bigger in China, especially lately, due to the way the government and media have been framing fan culture as corrupting, immoral, wasteful, disruptive, misleading and a massively negative influence on youth.

They've enacted policies that attempt to intentionally place idols at a disadvantage in the entertainment industry there (limitations on which roles idols can play, for example, and limitations on the number of dramas featuring idols that can be made, limitations on behavior and dress in the media that appear to directly target idol fashion/culture, etc.).

The more someone is seen as a 'traffic star' in China, the more restrictions and scrutiny they are put under.

GG and DD both came out of idol groups, and are seen by many as being famous only because of (and only good for) their looks. They have a lot of hard work ahead of them to prove themselves, and to be taken seriously and given more serious opportunities. They appear to be handling that quite well and making great progress, but they still have a ways to go before they'll be accepted broadly as serious public figures with respectable careers that will stand the test of time.

#entertainment industry #ggdd in the public eye #ask

[lemonhemlock]

AFAIK we don’t know 100% rooks rest is ep 4 at all- the directors list has been debated, only Clare and Andrej confirmed their episodes. Alan Taylor was seen directing scenes shot in Bourne Woods, but we don’t know for sure he directed the battle scenes themselves (he was there for Criston and Gwayne, which could easily happen in an earlier ep.) The idea of RR battle happening at episode 4 comes from a much earlier outline leak and has been propped up as truth by pretty much every spoilers account. It could very well be true, but we just don’t have any proof right now

Anonymous asked: Sorry to add on here- so much stuff people come yell at you about is uncomfirmed 😭😭 I like spoilers and leaks, but this fandom doesn’t seem to understand how they work. We know Dyana is back, but not for how many episodes- it’s not confirmed by her agency but by someone who plays her stand in. Plus, given how much is done in editing, there’s always room for smaller characters and storylines to be cut out. Nothing is worth being upset or freak out by until it airs on tv 😭

these are asks from this tuesday i didn't get around to answering

no need to apologise, i just don't know what to tell you guys as i'm not invested enough to keep tabs and go searching for myself, is all :)) as we've already pointed out, the trouble is that scenes can be re-written or re-shot*, small parts can be cut out, editing in post-production can massively change the framing, ad-libs exist etc so it's always a better idea to form opinions on a piece of media after you've seen the finished product

*we don't know how long the strikes will last and what they'll do if/after they end - who knows how far along with the production they will be & actors can always be recalled to re-shoot stuff if it they decide some parts just don't gel well

#ask #anon #dyanna #hotd speculation

[popculturebuffet]

Digimon Adventure: V-Tamer 01 Review!: An Pro-Digious Lost Classic

Hello all you happy people and welcome to Pop Culture Buffet, where I review some of the best media around.. and sometimes throw some in the garbage bin.  Today we dive into a classic I just discovered, one tied to a staple franchise of my childhood, and one you fine people voted on. It’s time to give it 100% for Digimon Adventure: V-Tamer 01: A Rope of Sand. 

I first found digimon via the anime, which came over to the states at the exact right time. I was 8, I loved Pokemon, so my atttiude to ANOTHER cool show about raising adorable and badass monsters that had it’s own engaging worldbuilding, loveable characters, and cool as heck monsters was ...

I was hooked and the fact it was on FoxKids, which I watched every saturday, as I eagerly gobbled up both adventures and the first half of tamers, saw the movie and bought tons of toys I wish i’d held onto because shit’s expensive to rebuy.  While I sadly didn’t see much of late stage tamers thanks to poor scheduling and haven’t gotten around to watching the anime after (And in the case of Frontier actively noped out as a teen when I found out the premise and found reruns on jetix), I’ve always loved this franchise ,and only haven’t watched what i’ve missed nor revisited my childhood because my watchpile is a massive nightmare from which few things actually escape. It’s a creative spin on Mons as while it wasn’t the first on the block, it was the first to really codify the monsters being their own individual beings who chooose to work with the humans, instead of being essentially being pets who fancy a scrap. Instead their wild creatures choosing to fancy a scrap to save the world, either by desitny or just liking this human they found and thinking they’ll keep them. This idea has been used since but I feel Digimon’s the one who really codified this version of monster taming.. which is odd given they were originally virtual pets, but still. The franchise also often dosen’t sell short the danger our heroes are in: while it still keeps it within family friendly territory, digimon CAN die, and while they can also reincarnate, it’s not a guarantee you’ll come back.. and if your a leomon pre-2020 ,i’ts a guarnatee you won’t be coming back. When stranded in a digital world our heroes are often in deadly danger and while Surivive seems to be the work emphasising this the most, there hasn’t been a one i’m aware of that wasn’t a gag manga that didn’t make it deadly clear that as peaceful and kind as most digimon were, the digital world and what comes form it is often dangerous. 

So why V-1. Well as I said it won a poll I did last month to see which manga/manhwa i’d cover with my patreons having picked out the applimon manga and the manhwa adaptations of adventure 01 and 02. And to my shock.. this one swept it. Granted in hindsight I can kind of see why as V-01 is both something people who haven’t read it, while adventure, as loved as it is, has at the time of this writing gotten 2 series, 5 movies, and tons of merch and tends to be the most represented in various media. So it’s not a huge suprise people would instead go for something they don’t know as well, and those who do know it clearly love it. As for why I picked it it was for those reasons: It’s unqiue, I hadn’t got around to reading it, most people don’t know it and thus it fascinated me and i’m pleased as punch to say my curoisty paid off though as for why and how.. you’l ljust have to read on, and hopefully for those who haven’t tried it I can convince you too as unsuually for me I won’t be trying to go into heavy spoilers for my review. Normally I like to get deep into the analysis, but here I feel i’d rather more people get to enjoy it and those who do know it can nod their head or shake their fist at me accordingly. There will be a light spoiler here or there, but for the most part you can go directly from this review to the manga and still enjoy it. Let’s begin. 

                                                 What Is V-Tamer 01? For the uninitiated, V-Tamer 01 is a digimon manga. The Digimon Digital Pets were a huge hit in japan which lead to a one shot Manga , Come On Digimon! by Hiroshi Izawa, which debuted in V-Jump, and was such a hit it warranted a full series. Debuting in 1998 This was not only the first bit of major Digimon Media but predates Adventure by a year, though weirdly it’d not only outlast adventure but run through frontier, before being cut short because frontier nearly murdered the franchise.  As a result of pre-dating the anime, it thus dosen’t have some of the logic to the franchise that would later be popularized by the anime: For starters when a digimon evolves, it STAYS evolved. Digivolution isn’t reversible unless it’s done by Jogress aka Fusion. Not only that our heroes partner digimon STARTS the Manga as a champion, having already been raised up to that, so for the first third he has a champion as a partner and for the other two thirds he’s an ultimate, only becoming a mega at the very end. This also applies to any ally digimon as we see both big good magnangemon and his right hand leomon evolve as the manga progresses. As a result the main antagonists for the first third are Ultimates, to be a level above zero, and for the second and third parts we get Megas. 

The other big swing is that the digital pet aspect is used and much like Tamers after it, Digimon is an actual thing in the real world, if just as a v-pet line, with the various tamers being people who raised their mons as digtial pets int he real world first. As a result the digivice can be used much like a pokedex in pokemon special: It can check health, relay commands and check moves, instead of being a mystical super thing. I honestly prefer this as it give sthe digivice more weight as a tool and allows the tamer to be more active in fights. Our main heroes Tai and Zero are as strong as they are because they work as a team with Tai’s strategy and Zero’s raw battle talent meaning they can beat foes outside their weight class, and when they can’t work in concert , such as the enemy preventing commands, is when their at their most threatened. 

And speaking of Tamers, only ONE tamer here is a chosen one: Tai himself, who was brought here. The others are antagonists, all coming here to create a new world for themselves. Even with that a lot of the mainstays of the franchise were there from adaptation one: The hero having goggles (being an alternate version of Tai, which the manga itself later establishes in a crossover), digivolution often being based on emotions and done at a critical and dramatic moment, esclating threats that are usually esclating sets of quirky minibossses, and digimentals, which would be key to adventure 02. It’s still the same digimon I know and love. .just remixed a bit to fit an older verison of the franchise. So what kind of story do they tell with that?

                                                       100%  V-Tamer 01 is the story of Tai, a middle school fan of Digimon Digital Pets whose quite good at it but gets rejected from a tournament because his Veedramon, Zero, isn’t recognized by the tournament officals... who you’d THINK would have sympathy to a child who clearly didn’t hack this and it was clearly either a glitch or simply a digimon you guys hadn’t heard of yet but

So as a consolation soon after Tai ends up in the digital world and meets Zero for real. And yes that’s another weird thing here: while most digimon, like the rest of the franchise are referred to by species, Tai’s two companions here have names outside of it. Granted it’s probably less confusing when you have a pack of digimon to not have a three jims type situation and have to call them the agumon when you can just call one Jerry, or Frank, or The Lone Locust of the Apocalypse.

The two get along great and their partnership is one of the things that makes the manga special: The two are truly best friends which isn’t unusual for digimon, usually partners and their tamers are very close and it’s their bonds that allow them to grow and reach their true potetials. But  this may be easily one of the purest and most adorable friendships i’ve seen: The two work hard together, train and trust each other more than anything, and train hard to get stronger. Well at leats in the first third, but in the second and third acts things are esclating so quickly there isn’t really time, so it’s fair. They also have the endearing as hell habit of dork dancing any time they win. 

My friend Masked Maverick helped me with this, as he’s a huge fan of V-Tamer 01 and a digimon expert, and I agree with him this is just so damn charming. 

The two trust each other on a level that only the truest of friends do, in a way that feels real like I do with my best friends.. and it thus becomes their greatest asset in battle. Zero is a great fighter, but really isn’t a tactical genius, while Tai is but obviously is a squishy human. It’s explicit here that the combo of Zero’s raw strength and tai’s intellgent tactics, helpfully transmitted wirelessly after having to shout the mearly on is what MAKES them so effective. Their earliest opponents are ultimates, digimon a level stronger, and thus the two HAVE to rely on smart strategy or die. It’s another of the manga’s strong points: While ther’es plenty of your standard “Heart helping a hero pull through” and hot blooded action like all shonen, the real strength in the fights is tai using everything he can think of to help Zero win. They may have a limited moveset, simply using v-arrow on things and claws and once zero digivolves, flight, but the manga works it hard. Said limited moveset is also because digimon in the v-pet era only had a few attacks, with card and video games helpfully fleshing it out for future media. The tactics make each fight exciting as you figure our heroes will probably win.. but not HOW they will or what their opponents are going to pull. 

Not only that the true partnership and friendship... actually creates problems. Zero is so devoted to tai tha it’s revealed he hasn’t become an ultimate because he’s worried it’ll affect their friendship, and only does when Tai’s life is on the line. (Tai of course dosen’t care what he becomes, but is willing to let Zero digivolve on his own time), while we later find out the boost zero gets from emotions.. has some serious drawbacks. I won’t spoil them for you but not only does it cleverly deconstruct the emotinal boost but Zero KNOWS about it and was damaging his body with them for Tai’s sake. It’s clever to show that while said friendship is healthy our own doubts and nerousis can cause us to take horrible unecessary risks just to hold on to a friendship that isn’t in any danger. 

The two soon meet Gabo, a gabumon who thinks their little sobs but soon comes around and takes them to meet his master, MagnaAngemon, whose the big good here. As it turns out he brought Tai to the digital world as the Evil Daemon, who yes is indeed a digimon, is trying to take over the world. 

And Magna summoned our heroes to gather the 5 tags needed to penetrate his castle and stop him and stuff. So for the first volume and a good chunk of the first third, it’s simple monster of the week stuff: Tai fights one of Daemon’s general, uses clever tactics to get through, maybe meets a friend along the way, and gets a tag. 

What mixes it up and truly pushes V-Tamer 01 into greatness is the introduction of our TRUE antagonist, Neo Saiba. Neo is another tamer.. but Tai’s opposite, seeing digimon as merley means to an end, gladly discarding ones he finds weak and finding out their some form of real dosen’t remotely stop him from thinking this way, his first fight with tai having him curelly sacrifice a metalgreymon who just wanted to be strong for him simply to get scans of Tai’s abliities with his digivice. He is cold, will gladly throw away anything to achive his goal of making a new world, and he is every bit as clever and tactical as Tai. His first tactic is using jogress (Fusion), but having the fusion disolve to dodge attacks, and allowing him to replenish and he still uses jogress as his main tactic going into the second. It’s something you rarely see as the only other evil tamer around the same time , 02′s ken, uses far diffrent tactics and it wouldn’t be till xross wars (which i’m currently reading the manga for and is pretty damn sweet), we got other tamers/generals who could use the same tactics as our heroes, and to this day no one has really used fusion combativley like this that i’m aware of. It’s a completely unique and awesome techinque that requires tactics, the tecs weakness (both digimon split the damage so their still injured), and a digivolution to overcome. It raises the stakes by giving Tai an equal opponent to fight.

Neo is a truly intresting big bad, using strategy to overwhlem his foes and when the second act hits and he needs to grow the ultimate digital monster Daemon has been growing all manga and raise it, he enlists three MORE tamers, as while Tai can now enter the castle he has to get there first. That’s where things hit their peak as Tai must now fight three tamers who not only have stronger mons but each have their own clever tactics to fight  tai with and their own reasons for wanting “to create their own new world”: Sigma , a masked lad who felt ostracized in the real world and who uses his Piedemons ablities to itnercept tai’s commands, Mari, who is creepily selling pictures to older men depsite being in MIDDLE SCHOOL 

Ugh. Just.. no to all of that, and who pretends to be a ditz... onlly to reveal it’s a stalling tactic so Neo’s plans can go off without a hitch and Hideto, who has an utterly heartwrenching backstory that ties into zeros and who has a FUCKING OMNIMON AS HIS PARTNER. No I didn’t mistype that. OMNIMON. Yes Royal Knight, Tai and Matt’s ultimate trump cart, THAT OMNIMON. THAT HAPPENS. 

That.. really was my reactoin. I flipped out. There was also supposed to be a third phase, but it got cut down as Frontier nearly killed the franchise, so the manga had to speed up to the climax after the alias 3. This also leads to why the manga hasn’t been localized. JUST this one, the other ones have no excuse bandai what the shit, but this one.. had some legal issues with the writer. As such daemon and veedramon had to have vastly diffrent designs in other media and many of the manga’s original digis, including the ones that were originally going to be recurring but were reduced to cameos for time, have yet to show up again. The writer/artist of the manga has since reconclied with Bandai and has done some work on ghost game, so there is hope for them but yea, sticky legal issues left this out of print for a while and still out of print here despite digimon’s rising popularity again. It’s why while I won’t link to sites directly, I encourage you to look for a fan translation as I feel no shame in reading something online if it has no offical release or is long out of print. Sometimes it’s the only way to keep a work in circulation like the archie sonic comics. 

And I REALLY do recommend it as I loved this one: it is a quick read, only 9 volumes and the pacing is breakneck. It is fairly monster of the week: first the 5 devas, then the alias 3 and again there was going to be another before the final showdown with the big bad, and we get maybe THREE fights without zero in the whole manga, so it could be repittive.. but the slow escalation and clever tactics , forcing our heroes to constantly evolve their tactics or die, and the engaging characters really keep you hooked. I coudln’t wait to get to the next chapters each time and if you like a good fighting manga, this one is an outstanding one to check out. 

It’s only real weaknesses are the said lack of variety: It’s very much zero saves the day, and Gabo is there mostly to scream from the sidelines. He never evolves, only fights once and while his help as cook is useful and he’s still fairly likeable, it feels disapionting he never gets to digivolve into garurumon and pitch in. It dosen’t help the garuru line is one of my faviortes, and given we see Neo and Hideto both have multiple partners, there’s no reason Tai couldn’t of added Gabo to his digivice. It’s a mild disapointment. I also feel the later tritagonist added, while an intresting character, dosen’t get to do much of her own agency and just mostly wonders around a castle for most of her time in the manga. 

Despite these flaws though.. V-Tamer 01 is fantastic. It’s fun, heartfelt and never lets up till the end, only getting better and better as it goes and while it has a lot of the franchises cliches, it also has a lot of i’ts heart, unique scenarios you won’t see elsewhere and dork dancing. So much dork dancing. So check it out when you can as you prepare to surivive, and maybe if this does well i’ll visit the other digimon manga and the manhawa’s sometime. Until then, consider joining my patreon, and thanks for reading. 

#digimon #digimon v-tamer #digimon v-tamer 01 #zeromaru #tai kamiya #neo saiba #veedramon #aeroveedramon #gabumon #agumon #magnaangemon #alias iii

[venuskind]

Resetting to Real

The more I retreat from socializing virtually

The more I am unavailable

The richer my remaining encounters and relationships are

A lovely paradox to live, navigate and experience.

That is one way of putting my latest experiment in relating in a nutshell, of course the experience itself is much more nuanced and the insights gained multidimensional and manyfold. Retreating from social media and its temptations in staying connected with those, who in times before internet would have been lost to my experience until our life paths crossed or aligned again, has been a source of deep contemplations, emotional and mental integration and a fundamental reset to my relational system.

There is beauty in the possibilities of virtuality, the multitude of information and knowledge available to us in our increasingly digital realities. And in the glaring light of infinite possibilities, distractions and temptations it is easy to remain blind to the costs of living our relational lives to a high degree within digital instead of analogue realities. Which points in part towards the loss of exchanges in form of tones of voices, micro-expressions, body language, chemistry and energy and goes much further than we are aware of until we make ourselves change our experience.

There is a massive loss our relational system encounters in engaging too much in the virtual and not enough in the real. A loss in nourishment, calibration, and co-regulation with others, which are essential to our wellbeing and health. Unfortunately the habituated behaviors and communication styles that arise from being too much in the digital have a way of bleeding over into the real and disconnecting us further when we remain unaware.

Have you noticed how little REAL encounters you have with others these days? 

In a real encounter all participants are present, open hearted, ready and capable to attune to each other, listen, share and express from their essential nature. There is a marked absence of the machinations of the ego, mind games, automatisms, and mindless chatter or replay of patterns. No matter if people are spiritual or not, the majority do not take the time to be fully present and attuned to an exchange as their being is way too exited, vigilant, minds racing, emotions chaotically overflowing or ebbing - which only allows for personalities and minds to meet but no deeper meeting of souls and beings to be possible. 

The engagement in the virtual has furthermore robbed many of several layers of trust, which once arose from feeling safe to express who they are in contexts of friendship or acquaintanceship. The experience of safe spaces where everyone gets to express freely and healthy discourses on the matters shared (not on the validity of another's feelings, experience, or worse person) is possible, has become a luxury hidden behind paywalls of therapy, workshops and retreats. And even there the corrosiveness of current trends is undercutting a true and prevailing acceptance of ALL that is present by only allowing for what aligns with the given groupthink. If we do not consciously create such safe spaces for each other we are becoming part and enablers of this toxic patterning that cuts us off from each other and renders egos ever more fragile, violent and dangerous.

Real encounters are also more prevalent when people have enough time to themselves, to integrate experiences, to self care and nurture, to know themselves and their inner universe and have the spaciousness and willingness to open to the vastness of another in their unique complexities. They cannot be easily had by a relational system that is being drained and exhausted by non-stop information overload, emotionally manipulative content, and the rise and intensity of fanatical and manipulative language, and disappointing social encounters and experiences in the virtual sphere. 

They can happen wherever one person is willing and ready to hold space for realness and invites the others into presence. It takes only one person to open the door, and equally only one to bar real encounters. I sense there is more here that wants to be explored and known by us...

The past 3 months have been incredibly nourishing and delightful to me as I had more real encounters in that time than I recall having in years. My awareness was focused on the quality of relating, energy exchange, reciprocity, and my body's responses in order to learn anew what works for me and serves my wellbeing. It was surprising to realize how important fairly short exchanges with strangers or near-strangers can be whenever we are fully present to them and the others follow our invitation into it. Amazing how a short conversation, smiles, and meeting of beings can uplift and nurture the relational system for days to come - if experienced and reflected from a space of open hearted presence, playfulness and gratitude.

What a gift to reset to the real and get new insights into my relational system and its workings.

~ August 2022

Photography by Tatsuo Suzuki

Source https://venuskind.de/2022/12/resetting-to-real/

[karupoeg11]

2, 15, 28, 50, 52 and 86 for the ask game :)

Thank you very much for the Ask! 💗

Some answers might be pretty long....

2. What kind of emotions do the stars evoke for you, if any? The ocean, the sky, the moon?

The stars and the universe have always evoked great admiration and respect in me. I've given much thought on the life cycle of stars, how they are born in nebulae, vast clouds of hot gas and dust - they are like stellar nurseries. How the blue hypergiants live their life radiating heat and emissions and how gracefully and explosively they leave their life by casting away the outer shells and compressing their core into such a dense form that a neutron star may form.

I can't wrap my mind around the fact that a neutron star is so dense, one tiny piece in size of a sugar cube could outweigh the entire human race in mass.

I ponder over the supermassive black hole that keeps our entire home galaxy together and functioning. We can so peacefully enjoy our lives in the outer skirts of Milky Way on our precious blue diamond, a sparkling droplet of water surrounded by a harsh desert when in the heart of our galaxy stars are ferociously spinning around, melting together and being devoured by the black devil. Just so we could live....

I was about eight years old when I found a science magazine where a vivid description of a gamma ray burst caught my eye. It was described as an indeterminate amount of energy released when two neutron stars collide which can wipe out the entire galaxy. I just thought that was so cool! 😄

15. Is there a song, book, movie, or other piece of media that has drastically altered your life? What was it, are there multiple?

Yes, there is, multiple. I just highlight two of them. The first one was a book titled "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque. I couldn't put it down before my mind had swallowed it in one big single bite. I don't even know if I blinked too many times while reading it. The atmosphere the author conveys through the vivid descriptions of the Second World War paints a picture soaked in blood and tears.

I don't remember for how long I cried after finishing that book. For the dog whose cries was heard from the distance. For those soldiers who went looking for it at the same time dodging from bullets and projectiles. What happened to all those people.

This book made me value my life more, to put it shortly.

The other one was a movie titled "Martyrs". There are two versions of this (2008 and 2015) but I prefer the earlier version. I stop here just by mentioning it because it falls under the category of extreme horror and could be traumatizing for some.

That too changed me on the long run.

28. What has influenced your taste in music?

The summer of 2019 where I saw a breathtaking live version of "The Keeper" performed by my gorgeous lion.... 🔥🦁

It was the first time of my entire life when I saw him and I just looked at him with my eyes wide open in awe and disbelief. How can a human being outshine the most massive of hypergiants in the universe? I still don't know the answer.

50. What qualities do you find charming?

I'm an extremely socially awkward person so I'm drawn to people who are shy and quiet on the outside but warm and friendly on the inside. They must possess true love and respect for all nature and all animals, not just the cute ones. 😉

52. Do you spend a lot of time thinking about the meaning of your life? Are you looking for meaning?

No, not at all. For the past years I've been battling with the thoughts my own brain generates. And I've only recently started to knowingly develop qualities in myself that hold greater value for me. Let's just see where that leads to. I think I'm pretty meaningless, altogether. Takes off a lot of pressure.

86. What could you talk about for hours?

One word: SPIDERS.

I love those leggy multi-eyed friends to pieces. Whenever I feel stressed I imagine a billion big hairy spiders around me, embracing me, hugging me tightly. It helps me.

#ask answered

[hmcpheeblog]

5.   Achievements and milestones (both technically and professionally, during the internship and personally).

From the very start, being accepted into the internship at SEN was a huge milestone and achievement for myself. Being able to be given the opportunity to intern at a massive sporting network made me feel very proud after the sacrifices I’ve made along the way. 

Getting into the internship itself, I set out some goals I wanted to achieve during my time there. These included building my skills in video producing and editing, making connections, and taking on any role or task they needed me to do so I can get the best out of myself. I truly believe that I achieved all these goals I set during my time there. 

My skill set was one of the more important goals that I set out to achieve both during the internship and personally outside of the internship. Before applying for the Video Producer role, I believed that video producing and editing was something that I wanted to really take to the next level, as I had a keen interest in the field. A study by NARAYANAN, OLK and FUKAMI (2010) found that problem solving, critical thinking, and rhetorical skills are improved when put in a real world work environment like an internship. Not only did I want to impress and upgrade my skill set for the internship, but for my work outside of it. My current job at the AFL is a Social Media Producer. In this role, I am tasked with producing content for our AFL Victoria and VFL/VFLW channels across all platforms. Majority of my work revolves around video editing, and using the skills I learnt at SEN, I was able to transfer them over to my worklife. Ultimately, this has led to obtaining full time work as an “Editor - Content Creator”, where I use the same video editing software, and produce and edit podcasts/vodcasts, as well as social media clips. Which is basically the same as what I was doing at SEN, but this time for a podcast company instead of radio. 

Another goal I set out to do was to create connections within the workplace. Networking is something that I learnt to be very important in this industry when I first started this course. And since learning that in my first couple weeks in 2021, I have always made sure I put myself out there and reach out to people in my field. I believe that I made a good impression and made some strong connections during my time at SEN with all the guys in the office, who I think will do right by me if I ever needed to use them as a reference in the future.

Lastly, I wanted to achieve my goal of doing any task I was asked to do, no matter how hard, big, or complicated it was. With so many different codes to look after, as well as different forms of video content I had to produce, I believe I accomplished this goal of mine.  

NARAYANAN, V.K., OLK, P.M. and FUKAMI, C.V. (2010). Determinants of Internship Effectiveness: An Exploratory Model. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9(1), pp.61–80. doi:https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2010.48661191.

[thequeerideology]

#5: what are the biggest ethical issues facing young people in the world today?

in a modern-day society with a level of access to social media deemed impossible just a couple of decades ago, ethics and morality have consumed the general population in ways the world has never before seen. with teenagers and even children being able to form strong political and moral opinions well before adulthood and then spread those opinions through social media, it's safe to say that ethical issues throughout youth are much more prominent and impactful than they were in the past. but which of these issues are the most prominent?

#1: the israel-palestine war - a vice article headlined "tiktok says it's not the algorithm, teens are just pro-palestine" says it all. the ongoing genocide inflicted by israel in gaza has taken social media by storm, and teenagers are truly fighting for the greater good unlike i've personally ever seen before. this is the most i've seen a worldwide conflict be discussed on social media since i've started actively using it, and for good reason. at the same time, there is also a large push in support of israel, with many pro-israel teenagers popping up with israeli flags in their display names on tiktok or vehemently supporting any celebrity that is revealed to be standing on the side of israel in the conflict. this war has brought to light the importance of media literacy, as well as the impact that media can have on shaping entire worldviews. the algorithm you are given on a social media platform and the people you surround yourself with online are both major factors in how you perceive a situation and what side you choose to take, and teenagers tend to form very strong opinions on a specific side when it comes to these sorts of conversations. i personally stand with palestine, for example, and i feel strongly about this because i have looked at the numbers and the data and the history that lead up to this conflict and i cannot in good conscience believe that the treatment of palestinian civilians at large is justified.

#2: transgender issues - as of recently, there has been a surge in relevance of all topics regarding transgender individuals. there has been a massive outburst of rage from conservatives surrounding the topics of "protecting their children" and "stopping sexual mutilation," which has been met with an equally-massive outburst of defense from the left, with the intent of protecting queer and transgender youth as well as providing transgender individuals with access to gender-affirming care and protecting them from discrimination. there seems to be very few people nowadays who feel completely neutral or nuanced in regards to this topic. the reason this affects today's youth in particular is because there has been an upward incline of youth coming out as queer or transgender recently that there has not been in the past. this is due in part to the increased and widened acceptance of the community, which has allowed more people to feel safe coming out and living as their true selves. however, there are also many youth who believe that this incline is actually due to government or parental indoctrination. i personally don't think it would make sense for a government actively passing anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills to simultaneously be indoctrinating children into becoming members of those communities, but there are many people who unfortunately do feel that way.

these two issues are the most prominent across social media and the real world in general, but they are far from the only two. the ongoing genocide in congo, the war in ukraine, the homelessness dilemma, and indigenous reconciliation are a few more examples of ethical situations that have taken the world by storm. as a general rule, gen. z is incredibly driven by a passion to change the world, in whatever way that may be, and it has paved the way for many changes in the social landscape of the world. will this path continue as generations go on? only time will tell.