#now i would have loved for us to get there without the excessive vitriol of the past couple days but!

[pinkhysteria]

jag leaving cory a sweet goodbye message and tearing up over his eviction is the sappy ending i wanted from the inevitable cory vs. jag war regardless of who took the shot first, so i will be taking that one win tonight.

#bb25 #now i would have loved for us to get there without the excessive vitriol of the past couple days but! #anyway. he's gotta go but as soon as he's out i will be rooting for my unreliables friendship throuple sawry. #jag has a missing spine and his brain has been cooked by the house but i do not believe he's some soulless monster they'll be fine lol. #this fandom loves saying 'nobody is gonna talk post-show everyone is gonna HATE each other' every season. #cory's mother has already liked tweets saying they dgaf and are not gonna resent jag/his family for this let's be frrrr.

[vanquishedvaliant]

So there’s this trend I’m seeing on social media about people boycotting / encouraging people not to buy the upcoming Mass Effect remasters.

The reasonings being somewhat varied, some valid, others not, but mostly centering around one thing in specific; cut content relating to same sex relationships that didn’t make it into the games.

Now, I understand not being interested in the product being offered; I’m probably not going to buy it myself for a lack of specific features like multiplayer and... just not needing the buy the game for my fifth or sixth time. It’s completely valid to think the remasters are just not doing enough for you to justify a purchase, or that their faith in the company doing it properly in their current state isn’t there. I get that.

But the mood that’s come up lately isn’t just disinterest; it’s downright outrage. Violent, ideologically charged opposition to even the concept of the remasters because of a perceived failure to meet their extremely specific and often high standards and notions of progressiveness.

Now it’s not exactly news that Bioware has had a rocky relationship with inclusivity over the years, with queer characters flitting in and out of recognition and prominence, appropriation of queer archetypes, and less than stellar execution of what characters they do include. I’ve had my complaints with these myself from time to time, though it’s still always struck me historically as a generally positive, if clumsy attempt at progress that I appreciated despite the flaws; remember that the original Mass Effect 1 came out in 2007, and was the focus of a major media scandal about even including romantic relationships at all in the game, nevermind same sex ones. That’s 14 years ago! The most recent game in the series is 9 years old!

We can talk about the social standards of the times and the progress we’ve made, and we can also talk about the merits of restoring and improving media as it was, or recreating it to more closely reflect the values of today and which or both of them is a worthwhile pursuit, but I don’t think that’s what’s being sincerely argued here.

What we see instead is some protestation that failure to make the exacting changes that they see fit according to their personal ideology is some kind of radically regressive statement, as if it’s a conscious, malicious decision and not either one made in good faith or not at all. This movement has collectively decided that the remaster needs to contain exactly the changes that fit their fleeting whims or the entire thing’s at best a wash and a wasted effort, and in some cases a ‘homophobic’ statement of hatred, or cynically callous laziness. 

Let’s remember; the focus of this argument is the presence of available simulated dating options in a 14 year old game. The arguments posits that some of these alternative options are ones that were cut from the release of the games, notably the first one, and have some or numerous assets that exist in various forms within the game files that with some work can be accessed in the game with user-made modifications. Some of this is true; though much of it is exaggerated or misconstrued in terms of its scope or viability.

Many of these people just assume that this cut content that someone else has restored in a mod somewhere is just some sort of simple toggle done in moments without effort, ignoring the work those modders did on their own time and money to introduce those features. 

Even if we just hand wave any standards of quality or continuity or polish and integration these mods have, you have to consider the dozens to hundreds of volunteer man hours of labor these fans put into many of those mods to make them viable that a company paying it’s employees a fair wage and time to do without overworking has to budget. Which I should mind to you is something also incredibly topically relevant in game dev these days. Adding new content costs money. Restoring old content, still costs money.

Even then, the viability of many of those original assets is at question in itself; the 'ingredients’ used to create the content are not equivalent to the ‘cooked’ content found in the game files, so some of them are difficult to work with or lacking in features or quality. Hell, we know for a fact that half of the god damn development data for ME1 is just fucking gone, which is why the DLC isn’t making an appearance in the remaster at all; it just doesn’t exist anymore and would need to be remade from utter scratch.

Now there’s a dozen reasons undertakings like these would or wouldn’t make their list of priorities for remaster given the other work they are doing re; texture and model uprezzing, gameplay updates, etc. It’s not exactly strange for them to recreate the game largely as it was with a more limited scope of changes. Perhaps the decision was made to preserve some parts of the game largely as it was; with mostly minor cosmetic changes to things like Miranda’s camera angles; things that don’t have much overhead or ripple effect. Perhaps restoring the content was considered, but didn’t make the cut- maybe for the same reasons it didn’t make it into the game in 2007. Maybe for different ones.

Only the people involved know.

Now, would I like to see some of that content restored and improved? Sure! I think it’d have been a great thing if they’d promoted the series as having new or restored content; if they’d promised us such things. But they haven’t, and while it’s one thing to praise taking an initiative like that if they had, I think it’s completely unreasonable to be outraged that they didn’t.

We can celebrate that kind of outstanding and excellent steps forward in inclusivity, but we have to understand that while someone not being ahead of the curve may not be exciting or even disappointing; it is not in itself an act of directed aggression. And treating it like one is a waste of time and energy that we can direct to protesting actual aggression, or celebrating those outstanding steps.

But here’s the major thing that kills me; all those mods they love and praise aren’t going anywhere.

The remaster will come out and unless Bioware is so completely tone deaf and media blind from the past year they pull a WC3, the old versions of the game will all still be available. All those user made mods they cite in these arguments about “how easy” it is to add content to the game will still be there, ready to play as they always were. Some of them might even work or be easily made to work with the new versions!

All of that will still be there! And we’ll have access to a new version of the trilogy that is far more accessible to new players who haven’t yet been exposed to so much of the games content that they are desperate for more of it.

Just look at Mass Effect 1; that game has not aged well, and it was kind of a sloppy mess even when it came out! How many new players can we get to enjoy all the good things the series has to offer with an easily accessed, more enjoyable package to play through the entire series without issue? I’ve done numerous replays of the trilogy through the years, and Mass Effect 1 is always a huge stumbling block. It’s just a pain in the ass, straight out. Don’t you want at least the option to fix that?

And if not, you don’t have to buy it and no harm is done to you! Enjoy your existing version with your mods and familiar features and flaws.

And if you truly, genuinely care so passionately about Bioware improving their record of inclusivity; look instead to the new game that’s coming out and look forward to that instead. Every game in the franchise has been better than the last at this; ME1 cut the same sex relationships, but ME2 had some. ME3 had even more, and then Andromeda had yet even further than that after patching!

How many will the new game have?

Look forward to that and make it clear to bioware you’re looking for that in their games; just.... ease off this ridiculous vitriol in trying to get people to avoid the remaster because it’s not good enough for you. No one needs to have this bullying done to either the developers themselves or the players looking to buy the game for themselves or others. It’s simply not productive.

Especially with this franchise’s sordid history with excessive media outrage and entitlement that’s been absolutely exhausted.

Just... relax. And have some perspective.

#mass effect #me #mass effect legendary edition #mass effect legendary #long post

[possessionisamyth]

i know the ending had to be rushed because instead of the usual 13 episode seasons AS decided to drop genndy to 10, BUT i started thinking about the daughters of aku and boy do i have some things to say writing wise, and no this isnt about “realism” but just how to make their presence as a unit more impactful or how to make ashi’s character development better as a temp antagonist to jack, spoilers below if you havent finished watching samurai jack

Option 1: Have the daughters of Aku be raised by Aku.

Some people have already suggested this as a cute AU, but to be honest that would strengthen the daughters bond with Aku more than just having hearsay through their mother. And since Aku does have emotions, isn’t afraid to spread propaganda onto children (the fairytale episode), and is building a kingdom that encompasses the universe, that would’ve been a great alternate to Jack’s stance, where instead of fighting just some assassin troupe he’s technically fighting an assassin troupe of princesses when he was once a prince whose own kingdom was destroyed by their father.

The bonds between the sisters would be tighter in that they respected their father both out of fear and the time they spent with him because he would’ve told them all the lies they needed to hear for them to trust him, he would’ve taken moderately good care of them(basic provisions), and he would definitely let them wreak havoc where ever they wanted without suffering consequences as long as they didn’t fuck up his own shit. “Mindless drone sisters except for one” doesn’t stick for long when it comes to guilt about murdering them, but “rebel girl gang who trusts their father and has many reasons to think you’re genuinely the bad guy” definitely would.

To not just have Ashi yelling at Jack, but all of the sisters shit talking him out of vitriol. Throwing his guilt back into his face. “If you’re so great, why couldn’t you save them? If you’re so good, why did you kill them?” Have Jack have to deal with his guilt inside and outside from a group of women who were indoctrinated to believe everything their father said just like Jack was and then really make him question what’s the difference between him and them? His father could’ve done all the same things telling him what’s evil and what isn’t. Yes, he still knows Aku is evil, but this train of thought would be humanizing them even further to the brink where Jack isn’t sure he can kill any of them. Cause it was “easier” when he could believe they didn’t have any emotions except for one (Ashi) but much more impossible when he has to accept that they all do. “They’re just robots.” No, they’re not. They’re just like you, Jack.

Option 2: Some sisters don’t die.

Make the killing blows accidents. Going with their canon way of being raised, have Jack still understand that they’re people, and make the killing blows reactionary instead of functionary. He doesn’t want to kill them, but he’s so used to fighting, he’s so used to defending himself that the weapons he grabs and the attacks he does manage to hit the vitals of a few of the sisters while the rest he leaves mortally wounded or physically incapable of fighting. If they’re really raised as machines to kill him, this would leave them useless to complete the task.

Then have Jack, as he’s leaving the scene of carnage have to witness the sisters who can move crawling towards their fallen sisters, trying to hold back bleeding wounds, scraping through the reddening snow in an attempt to show compassion for the one’s whose lives are fading away.

And then have Jack make a choice. He could leave them there. Some of them might make it, but probably not. Even if they all did, they wouldn’t be able to chase him any more. The wounds he inflicted on them would prevent them from fighting as they used to unless they got a fuck ton of physical therapy and/or robotic prosthesis. Or, he could do the same as he did with Ashi in canon and take the survivors. Teach them about the world. About Aku’s lies. About what he’s really fighting for, and let them make the choice on their own. Because they never had a choice before, but now they do, and let it be overwhelming and confusing. Let them make mistakes, but let them learn from it. They don’t all have to make the right choice at the end, but they shouldn’t have to die for it. Show the conflict and correction from sisters who did make the right choice and let them be.

Option 3: None of the sisters die by Jack’s hand.

Same as option two, but Jack doesn’t kill any of them. He saves the ones who need immediate medical attention, teaches them, and lets those sisters go back to the ones he only inhibited. The saved sisters try to pass the rhetoric they learned only to be deemed weak and now they all have to fight each other. It can be to the death. The evil sisters who refused to change or learn would die, Ashi wouldn’t be by herself. They’d all have to come to terms with what they’ve done as some either go to fight Aku with Jack and Ashi, while the others leave so they can stew in their guilt of killing their sisters.

Option 4: Get his ass!!!!!

Have Ashi actively resent Jack for killing all her sisters. No, I don’t care what half-assed explanation Ashi gave to her mother, you don’t get raised with 6 other people and some of them NOT form of bond between each other when you’re all working towards the same goal.  Especially when they had to function as a unit! Her mother wasn’t Aku, she didn’t see everything they did as soon as it was bedtime for 20 something years.

I want this to be a chip on her shoulder, I don’t want her shifting the blame of everything onto her mother. Yes, Jack was going to kill everyone and only Ashi survived, but why didn’t he do the killing blow for her? Why didn’t he try harder to save any of the other sisters? Why did he go for the kill shot every time instead of just mortally wounding them to prevent them from fighting if he knew they were humans and not robots? Isn’t he supposed to protect people? Isn’t he supposed to save people? Like yes, still have her learn the world is a wonderful place and Aku is making it worse, and still have her go to fight Aku for the sisters she’d lost, but don’t have her fall in love with the man who killed the only family she’d ever known before being thrusted into an unknown world and then have a sexual awakening on top of that??????? WHAT???????

Would've been better having Ashi see things and think of memories of her sisters that connected her with them through said images or objects, and then going through the process of mourning for each one before the confrontation with her mother.

Option 5: Have Ashi fall in love with Jack first. (Best One for Romance)

Can we say scouting missions? The daughters of aku were displayed as being curious through scenes when they observe unusual behaviors to the new environments they’re scouring through. Have them hunt Jack without the efficiency of the imakandi, and learn about the world on their own. Ashi is the leader so she’s responsible for finding Jack first, but that leaves the other six to sharpen weapons, get supplies,etc. They do need to eat and sleep as they’re still human. Then they have to interact with people, and animals, and nature and learn on their own. Have them hear stories about how great Aku is, and how awful Aku is from a variety of the people they have to meet from these supply runs or leads towards Jack that turn out to be false.

Make them argue with each other about what’s true and what isn’t from what they’ve heard of Aku. Show a struggle of acceptance when the strangers they talk to present proof of how “Great” or “Awful” Aku has been. Let them make the decision on what being human actually means WHILE Ashi is scouting and watching Jack do all these good things for innocent people, and then have her come back to settle any confusion ready to say their mother is wrong only to be interrupted by their mother telling them Jack’s location before Ashi can get the words out.

Even sweeter if you have Jack notice when he’s alone versus when he’s “alone” (ashi is watching), and he talks to her. It starts with things like “if your intent is to kill me, I ask you to reconsider” then changes to “if you’re hungry, i’m leaving the excess here, help yourself” until its “your killing intent has long since vanished, do you wish to speak to me finally?” because Jack is already used to randos turning into traveling companions (blue totoro, da samurai, scotsman, ikra) he can accept the stalking to an extent as long as it doesn't escalate negatively.

After their mother’s message, the sisters find Jack, but they struggle to fight him not out of lack of skill, but because they know so much about the world now, and they’re not sure what to believe anymore. Let Jack see their hesitation and capitalize on it with his words, until Ashi puts her foot down by taking Jack’s side. Since she’s the leader, and with all they know now, they choose to follow Ashi’s word. They then proceed to travel together and tease tf out of Ashi about her feelings for the samurai.

Final thoughts:

Any of these options excluding 4 since it’s more canon streamlined, could be much more easily done by having the first half of the series being about the sisters development flanking Jack’s turmoil plot, and the second half being about the daughters making mistakes and learning from them as they build towards the final fight which becomes much more badass in that Jack’s friends are fighting anywhere from 2-7 daughters of aku in that cool evil form with all the evil robots.

The relationship of the daughters of aku was more of a pacing issue than a writing issue, but I think if they focused more on the fact of we’re going to watch a family die over a lie instead of “they’re all mindless and only ashi has emotions” their deaths would’ve hurt A Lot more. Ashi’s development would’ve been more meaningful, and Jack’s guilt would’ve been much heavier. However someone wanted their hashed in romance so I guess this would’ve stuck a sword in their well-made plans.

Not to mention the idea that the daughters were the only people Jack killed over the span of 50 years makes it ring more out as shock value killing. As if there wouldn’t be non-robotic aliens or non-robotic humans or non-robotic human-alien hybrids who wouldn’t 100% follow Aku of their own violation? Nah, we’ve seen them, and we can see what privilege does to people. Plus if they had privileges that would be taken away by Aku’s downfall...well...I don’t think Aku was the only one asking for Jack’s head on a platter.

#samurai jack #daughters of aku #ashi #jashi #meta #i do like jashi i just wish it was executed better #long post of alternatives

[teamoliv-archive]

I don’t have much for unpopular opinions, but I’ll try this instead: what’s your take on the whole situation regarding RWBY and their recent decisions in the latest season? (Frcstbxte)

send me controversial or unpopular opinions and I’ll tell you if I agree or disagree 🐸 ☕️

Hoo boy. People are going to unfollow me for this one guaranteed due to how may super strong opinions people have about this. This one’s getting a cut to avoid drama.

I do want to stress that I don’t want to devalue or invalidate anyone’s complaints regarding the show. Enjoyment is a highly personal thing and if you’re frustrated, upset, disappointed, or otherwise had negative feelings don’t let this convince you that you’re not allowed to feel the way you do about the volume.. My gripes are more on the mechanical and storytelling aspects of things and with the arguments used to criticize the volume. I only hope I can make my case on why the commonly complained about parts of the show don’t warrant the vitriol in my opinion. I likely won’t convince too many people, but I’d like to make my case here anyway.

I honestly believe a lot of the complaints about the latest season from a writing standpoint are short-sighted, lack scope, and/or just miss the point of what we’re looking at. From an overall storytelling perspective this was definitely the most well put together season the show has had so far and a lot of the complaints only address individual concerns that some fans had regarding things not happening the way they wanted to without a regard for the overall plot. This is why I think a lot of the complaints don’t measure up and where my actual gripes with the part lie.

1. Theme

You cannot consider yourself to have analyzed a work without first looking at its overall theme. RWBY’s structure doubles up on this as not only does the show as a whole have its overarching themes and plot, but each individual volume has their own to deal with as well. Here the theme is trust, as directly stated in the opening lyrics and it’s a common source of problems and solutions throughout the the show. 

From an overarching standpoint, we have Salem doing her darnedest to break apart any alliances that could be formed against her. I do not believe this is because she fears humanity in terms of tactical numbers. This simply isn’t that kind of show. The writers have said in interviews that they take most of their story and theme cues from the magical girl genre. You know, the same “love and friendship conquers all” magical girl genre that all those shows not named Madoka Magicka use as the basis for their protagonists. The silver eye power seems fueled by that exact sentiment and I think that’s going to be a huge factor close to the end. This is not a setting where pragmatism and strategic thinking will carry the day- keep that in mind.

2. RWBY vs. Ironwood

This is the part everyone’s been talking about and I think a lot of the hard-line side-taking in either direction is missing the point entirely. This conflict was always going to happen and both sides have fault to bear.

The two sides can be seen as having their own character arcs on a macro scale. Individual character motivations weren’t nearly as important as they were in previous volumes and it helps to see them mostly through the lens of Ruby and Ironwood. The basic core of the problem throughout the series is this, Team RWBY has decided to go along with Ironwood’s plan for lack of one themselves, but don’t trust him with the whole truth until they know how he’ll react to it. This is a man with an army and a paranoid streak after all. This, of course, is a decision that winds up instrumental in triggering Ironwood’s paranoid shitstorm later in the volume.

That said, I don’t believe the problem is Ruby’s decision making- It’s the narrative. The whole reason this comes across as weird and contrived is that we are never told the reason Ruby and co. don’t trust Ironwood with the information from the lamp. By all accounts up until this point there was no visible reason for them to do so and we’re simply never told WHY. Answering this simple question would have made the entire rest of the narrative make a lot more sense were she just given a believable reason to hold the info back, let alone any reason at all.

Now let’s bounce back to Ironwood. I’m going to just go out and say I grew tired of the “Ironwood did no wrong.” discourse pretty quickly because, again, people are missing the point. For this one, we have to look back into the theme- trust. When Ironwood has his breakdown, he not only turns his back on Ruby and her team for lying to him, but he goes right into his martial law plan also betraying the trust of the council, Robyn, and the people of Mantle who are now going to be sacrificed for the sake of salvaging his original plan. Despite Ruby and co’s actions making the situation worse, we aren’t meant to see Ironwood’s new solution as a better alternative purely on the moral cost of what he’s doing. This is what is called in screenwriting the “Moral Line” defined as a vision of right and wrong as told through the protagonists. We’re meant to sympathize with Ruby owning up to lying to Ironwood and trying to move forward despite the setbacks, not cheer for Ironwood calling them out and forcing out a more pragmatic path.

To me, I think this stems from a common sentiment shared in a lot of popular media and deconstruction of tropes that idealism is a naive and childish flaw and that proper strategic logic is what solves problems. Again, I predict that due to the genre inspirations of this story, this won’t be the case at all. Ironwood is going to fail because he turned his back on moral idealism, trust, and friendship in favor of planning and decisive action no matter the cost, not despite it. Harriet summarized the entire philosophy well during her fight with Ruby:

“It’s not excessive if it’s necessary!”

This line feels, to me, like a reflection of everything that Team RWBY is now fighting against and we should be able to understand as an audience from a moral standpoint why this is the way it is.

As a small aside, let’s cap this off with the RWBY vs. ACE-Ops fight. A lot of people called foul because the ACE-Ops lost and I just don’t understand why. The moment the fight started, I knew what the outcome was going to be purely because the story as it was set up simply couldn’t progress otherwise. Much like Mercury and Emerald in volume 5, RWBY matching and defeating the ACE-Ops shows the progression of the main characters. Them choosing to fight also shows RWBY the final stakes moving forward and symbolically shows them that the might of the entire Atlas army is now their enemy moving forward. 

With this in mind, I want to go back to Ironwood’s martial law plan and defend some aspects of his character that should be. Up until the point of Ironwood’s breakdown it was seriously and soberly treated as a last resort option with a clear understanding by Ironwood, Winter, and the ACE-Ops that they knew exactly what was it was going to imply. This does not make them evil and it’s important to understand that. However the Tin Man needs a heart and this brings us to Ironwood’s fatal flaw. The real bad decision was that the martial law plan was enacted despite already having the unity of the people of Mantle behind them. He lost far more than the stands to gain with his decision, thinking only from a tactical and strategic standpoint regardless of what he has to sacrifice to get there. Those sacrifices have already all but left him facing Salem alone. If he survives next volume, I’ll be surprised.

3. Qrow and Clover

For a few moments, I do want to discuss Clover and Qrow’s dynamic because it’s very important to Qrow’s story throughout the part. Regardless of how you choose to interpret their exchanges, the important takeaway here is that for the first time in possibly decades Qrow had a friend he can talk to as an equal and not have Ozpin’s plans or a generational gap in the way. 

Ever since we were introduced to Qrow, he’s shown himself to be a dysfunctional loner who is only just recently trying to seriously pick himself back up off his feet. I believe the fact that he was finally shown that he can actually have friends is a huge factor in this. His life has always been dominated by his feelings and doomsaying. He spends every interaction waiting for the other shoe to drop and uses his own semblance as an excuse to perpetuate that worldview.

And this is why I think Qrow’s fight with Clover makes total sense to have happened. He’s one of Oz’s main team and also has a fatal flaw.

The cowardly lion needed courage and he died for his cowardice.

The tin man needs a heart and lost all his allies in the pursuit of his goals.

The scarecrow needs a brain and his emotional decision-making cost him his friend’s life.

This is a genuine tragedy, literary-speaking in fact. Qrow’s awful situation was one of his own making and he knows it, but I can’t imagine him doing anything else. One thing that I’ve seen throughout the show about Qrow is that he’s never given up trying to stop Salem- he’s an idealist like Ruby and in my opinion has been subverting the mentor archetype beautifully. However, every time he’s made a major decision in the series, he’s done it on an emotional or practical level. No real thinking ever goes into what he does. When Clover calmly announces to Qrow what was just ordered and Robyn summarily attacks him, his first instinct is to try and stop the fight.

I’m going to break here to discuss Robyn’s actions at this moment- another common complaint. Would we really expect someone like her to have done anything different with the news that the city she’s worked so hard to work with all those years was just cast aside? This would have been seen to anyone in her position as nothing less than a double-cross given how just a few hours ago everything for the evacuation was moving apace. From a characters standpoint, I don’t get why anyone would fault Robyn for being furious at this aside from “It’s not the smart thing to do right now.” No, it’s not, but I’m also very tired of seeing people complain about characters making non-optimal decisions. Not everyone things with perfect logic, strategy, or sense at every given moment. This is a perfectly human response to finding out your loved ones were just given a death sentence. She lashed out at Clover over lack of Ironwood face to punch.

With this in mind, Qrow’s decision to fight Clover is a bit more personal. He’s treating it more or less the same way that he treated Raven joining with Cinder a few parts ago. Qrow is clearly very much against the idea of leaving what’s left of Mantle to die and now has a lot of aggression to take out seeing how calmly and without complaint Clover takes the order. The only friend Qrow’s had in a long time chose his duty over him and he doesn’t know how to take that- so they fight. It’s safe to assume that Qrow is likely in a highly emotional state and, as we’ve established before, not thinking about what he’s doing. Robyn is passed out in the wreckage, Tyrian is left unattended, and they’re miles away from any real contact from anyone. Bluntly, he screwed up, he screwed up big time, but his character leads me to believe he wouldn’t really have done anything else.

Then we see Qrow in engage in a little something we in the literary community call “seriously fucking up.” In the heat of the moment, he decides to trust Tyrian at his word and it ends about as well as to be expected. Qrow made a mistake, one of the biggest mistakes in the entire series and one that looks plainly obvious and avoidable to the audience, but only when you consider it through the lens of someone who’s making calm and rational decisions. Yes, Qrow fucked up, I’m not defending his decision making; I’m defending the scene and why that faulty decision making was the only thing that could really happen. 

4. Winter and Penny

The biggest complaint regarding these two is Penny leaving Winter behind at the end of the part. Frankly, for this one I’ve got nothing so I’m not going to pretend I have an answer to the complaints. Much like Ruby early on, the show just outright refuses to give us the reason she left. Winter getting the maiden powers might have been part of the plan, but I don’t think Ironwood would be so inflexible as to not settle for Penny getting it instead. The only thing I can imagine that could be going through her head is that she still wants to try and save Mantle and live up to her title, trusting Winter can handle herself. However, again like with Ruby, I don’t believe that the character is to blame here, but the narrative just refusing to give us an explanation and leaving us to sit there in frustrated confusion. We might get it next part, but I don’t like that...

5. Can I Talk About Watts Now?

With that out of the way, I do have one really bizarre complaint regarding the part that no one else seems to talk talk about.

I am very disappointed with Watts. This is mostly just be griping about lost potential so bear with a small rant.

There was a lot of setup regarding Watts as a threat and when he got the codes. We’re told that given time he could control literally all of Atlas (because apparently two-factor authentication and dead man’s switches don’t exist but that’s a logical gripe for another day). My question is why this wasn’t capitalized on. I wanted a repeat of the mechanical soldiers turning on the Vale citizens. We could have had automated vehicles wreaking havoc, fights between people and robots, and all sorts of fun stuff. You can argue that Watts was distracted by Ironwood’s trap and didn’t have the time to really cut loose and I’ll accept that, but I just wish we could have seen more. Any Watts RPers out there who want some ideas, you’re free to steal this one.

#ooc #munday asks #discourse #RWBY vol 7 #Anonymous

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream: Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel is one of the MCU’s most powerful characters right now, one of the few heroes who can even have a hope of defeating Thanos, so of course she needs to have a movie. Throwing in a bunch of heroes into an ensemble film without properly setting them up is what amateurs do, and at this point Marvel is no amateur; they know how to properly set up heroes… kind of. You see, Marvel Studios has a bit of a problem when it comes to origin films: they’re all very, very similar, very formulaic, and sometimes even predictable. That’s not to say they’re bad, far from it! Films like Black Panther, Ant-Man, and Doctor Strange are all rather formulaic but they all have interesting twists to the formula that makes them feel fun and exciting. Marvel is a lot better with quirkier fare, ensemble movies, and sequels than they are with solo origin films, Iron Man notwithstanding, but they usually find a way to make things feel fresh.

Captain Marvel… does and doesn’t achieve this. Captain Marvel is probably the most “Marvel” Marvel movie yet made; it feels like a film they would have released a decade ago, during Phase 1 or Phase 2. And there is actually a good reason for that; this movie has been in the plannig stages for a long, long time, but racist, sexist, cheapskate CEO Ike Perlmutter wouldn’t let this film be made because he didn’t think non-white, non-male leads could sell (a laughable sentiment when looking at superhero films nowadays), only relenting to let the film be made if Kevin Feige made an Inhumans movie, which fell through when Feige managed to get rid of the meddler and get him exiled to the Marvel TV department. This film has been a long time coming, and it feels like it.

But I can’t say the film is bad; it’s most definitely not, and there’s a lot to love in the film. At the same time though, it’s easy to see why someone might not find themselves sucked into this; it’s a film coming out in Phase 3 that feels like it belongs in Phase 1. Where it would have been one of the best Marvel films of the early phases, it struggles a bit to stand out in the current MCU where the past few films have been nothing but home runs, and competing superhero cinematic universes have also been producing quality films, with Spider-Verse and Aquaman in particular bringing a lot of new stuff to the table. It just feels like Captain Marvel is almost irrelevat in the current landscape aside from introducing Carol Danvers to the MCU.

And yet… this is still a good, fun movie, because it delivers exactly what it promises, and it does the one thing I consider the saving grace of any film that would otherwise be average: it is wholly, unabashedly cheesy.

So let’s talk about what I loved first. The Skrulls are easily the very best part of the film, particularly Talos. Talos is one of the most interesting and complex antagonists in the MCU so far, and there’s a lot more to him than it initially seems. Just the fact that in general the Skrulls are now part of the MCU is absolutely delightful, as it seemed for so long they’d be exiled from continnuity due to Fox owning the rights to the most famous Skrull, Super-Skrull, due to his close ties to the Fantastic Four (though this is no longer a problem). To say much more about what makes the Skrulls so great would be to spoil one of the few genuinely good twists the movie has to offer, but it is a pretty neat twist on what you’d expect from Skrulls.

Carol herself, as played by Brie Larson, is a mostly enjoyable character. I think Carol is a bit shaky right now, having to deal with the tired amnesia plot and not getting to use her powers all that much, but for the most part she’s an enjoyable hero. I think she’ll fare a lot better in ensemble films and sequels, because Larson does a really good job, it’s just that so much of the movie is spent with her being limited. However, this is mitigated by the fact that she has great chemistry with Samuel L. Jackson, and pretty much every scene with Fury and Carol interacting is amazing. Speaking of Jackson, the effects used to de-age him are nothing short of stunning; you can’t even tell its CGI, it’s that good. Far better than the de-aging effects used in films like Rogue One, that’s for sure

The soundtrack is pretty good, though sometimes it’s a bit too on-the-nose. The usage of “Come As Your Are” is so literal it hurts, and the usage of “Just a Girl” is so utterly cheesy. But I think stuff like this helps add to the film’s charm, as does the fact that this movie is honestly, genuinely funny, especially due to the aforementioned banter between Carol and Fury, as well as the presence of Goose the cat, who Fury dotes over and who plays quite an amusing and cool role in the film, shockingly enough. Goose might be one of the best characters in the film honestly, which is not often something you hear about a pet cat.

Of course, not everything is perfect. A lot of the action is nauseatingly shaky and weirdly poorly choreographed, with the exception of the final battle and perhaps Carol’s escape from the Skrulls near the start. For a superhero movie, having such wonky action is inexcusable, though thankfully there’s not too much fighting… or not thankfully, since again, this is a superhero film, the sort of film where you expect superhero action. It’s not all bad, but when it gets bad it gets really bad.

There’s also the underutilization of characters. You know how the return of Ronan and Coulson was hyped up? Well, unfortunately for everyone, both of their screentimes are incredibly limited to the point they are essentially cameos, though Ronan feels like a cameo moreso than Coulson. Korath, too, is a bit wasted, though he at least gets a little more prominence with him being part of Carol’s initial squad, though he’s still not exactly focused on to any great extent. It just feels so pointless to have these actors come back to these roles if they’re essentially playing meaningless bit parts, especially in the case of Korath and Ronan, seeing as we know they end up dying anyway. It just seems like a huge missed opportunity to do something with these characters.

And of course, the whole amnesia plot kind of holds things back. Not that it’s done poorly, but it is a tired trope that is tricky to pull off, and considering Carol’s amnesia holds back the plot and holds her back from using her powers to any great extent, it does feel like more of a burden than anything that leads to interesting developments. It doesn’t help that most of the stuff revealed over the course of her rediscovering who she is is stuff that you could easily figure out on your own from nothing more than promotional material and the obvious hints throughout the film; it just feels like a contrivance to keep Carol in a weakened, vulnerable state instead of letting her let loose. Say what you will about Superman movies, but he at least gets to be Superman for vast swaths of the film in his origin story movies. Here, Carol’s big Captain Marvel moments really only come at the end, though I can’t stress enough that the  final battle is a pretty cool sequence.

Still, nothing in this movie is done excessively poorly; there’s nothing here as bad as the Iron Man sequels or Thor: The Dark World. On the other hand though, there’s nothing here as innovative or impressive as in Thor: Ragnarok, Infinity War, Black Panther, or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, with the exception of the Skrulls. There’s a lot of good elements here, obviously, but most of the stuff really just doesn’t elevate this movie to greatness; it’s merely a good, even very good film, but not as great as it should be nor as bad as some make it out to be. And this isn’t entirely the film’s fault; as I said, Perlmutter’s meddling did keep this on the backburner for a long, long time, so it’s frankly amazing the film is any good at all.

Really, whether you love or hate this is going to boil down to how much you can tolerate cheesiness. I live and breathe cheesiness, I have been exposed to cheese since I was young, so of course I’m pretty fond of this film. I’m also a huge fan of Skrulls so it’s a given I’d like a film with them in it. But if you don’t like this film, if you just don’t connect, well, it’s hard to blame you. It’s not an amazing or groundbreaking film, and really that’s a shame, because it could have and should have been. But on the other hand, not every film needs to exist to break new ground, not every film needs to change the world… sometimes films can just exist and be good.

Captain Marvel is a film that has attracted a lot of controversy, vitriol, and debating over it, making it one of the most controversial superhero movies in recent memory. Beyond that sentence I’m not going to even bother addressing any of that, because it is all the most idiotic drivel I have seen in regards to film in years. This is an utterly harmless superhero movie through and through, and any argument otherwise is just pointless drivel.

I really wish this could have come out years ago, because this would have been a game-changer back when superhero films were first breaking through. In this day and age? It’s just a good, fun movie, nothing less. I have faith Carol’s next outings, in Endgame and her inevitable sequels, will be a lot stronger and more polished and full of interesting developments, but her first outing is simply a fun time before the inevitable heartbreak and mindblowing that Endgame promises. I’m kind of okay with that; it’s nice to have a little calm before the storm.

#Michael in the Mainstream #review #movie review #Captain Marvel #MCU #Marvel #superhero movie #Brie Larson #Samuel L. Jackson #Nick Fury

[laveritaswoman]

What If ... ?

(This post was inspired by some questions posed by @pissedoffsoka13​ yesterday, but I went so far afield of what she was asking that I didn’t want to weigh her blog down with my excessive wordiness and off-topic topics. So thank you for the inspiration, Soka.)

What if S/C would have come out publicly as a RL couple in January 2016? (Offered as a “what could have been.”):

If S and C had come out publicly as a RL couple when shippers suspected they were going to in January 2016 (instead we got the IFH, most likely thrust upon them by TPTB), I believe there would have been few negative effects. But I also think they would have achieved so much more ... together. I think they could have had more “coupley” fashion endorsements, a la the Saks and Departures magazine promotions (and probably Kooples, which may have been in the works but got canned by IFH). These endorsements would have raised their visibility and popularity factor immensely. The fact that they were a couple would have made the TV/magazine/newspaper entertainment section circuit. As a result, their visibility/popularity factor, again, would have increased markedly, garnering them more viewers who decided to check out OL simply because they were enchanted by S/C’s natural chemistry and funny banter during their appearances on entertainment TV segments or in magazine interviews.

I don’t think being a couple would have hurt their acting opportunities outside of OL. In my opinion, the entertainment industry would not have viewed them as less legitimate actors if it was known that they were together IRL. Just look at the ”Americans” couple and their noms, awards, and recognition. Both S and C have shown their acting chops in projects outside of OL and they have showreels to prove it.

Contrary to C’s rationale offered during the IFH as to why they couldn’t work together and “be together,” I believe that if S/C were together, they were not the types that would have succumbed to fits of jealousy and fights if one was getting the acting gigs and the other wasn’t. They have established too many other interests outside of acting to keep them busy. I think they wouldn’t have succumbed to the pressures if, after OL was over, they had to spend periods of time away from each other on their own acting projects. Both are mature individuals who’ve been living life on their own terms for over 20 years -- I don’t see them as clingy and they are quite capable of doing fine being apart, as evidenced by the vacations/holidays that they spend apart from one another now (but I do think they secretly meet up at the end of these vacays/holidays to spend leisure time together).

As for the impact on OL, I don’t think coming out as a couple would have been problematic to the show, even if they were to break up. S and C are mature professionals who understand and embrace the importance of their jobs and their roles. They would have continued to show their great chemistry in front of the camera on OL regardless of their on- or off- relationship status. Who knows, the OL TV series might continue through completion of all 8 (or 9) books; who better to take on a long-term project than a long-term couple?

If they had a child or children, which they’ve both expressed they would like, they wouldn’t have had to worry about hiding her/them from the world because of some fake narrative that they had to maintain. They just wouldn’t have had to hide, period, and to me, the hiding and lying would be the most difficult, stressful thing to do if I were in their shoes. But most of all, they wouldn’t have had to compromise the respect and love that they received from their loyal, passionate fans early on, but that they slowly chipped away at with their deceit, gaslighting, belittling (”crazy” and “delusional”), troll endorsement, and bullying enabling.

They could have had the most loyal, loving, creative, powerful fandom of any fandom out there, and not one that is now among the most fractured. Fans would have been able to proudly celebrate both OL and “S/C together,” without all the venom and vitriole of the antis, NSTs, celebri-trolls, and assorted nasties. They could have used the power of the fandom to win new acting jobs and entertainment industry awards, People’s Choice Awards, etc. They could have rallied their fans behind their causes to an even greater degree and brought in even more money for WCC,Bloodwise, MPC, and Cahonas.  

But most important of all, S/C would have been able to be their authentic, lovely, loving, joking, touchy, raunchy, perfectly synchronized selves around one another ... all the time. They could have openly, as a couple, shared all the exciting highs in their careers together. They could have slayed the red carpets together. S could have proudly escorted his wifey to all the awards show parties, and they could have made all their networking connections together as a team ... or separately if needed (but while watching each other’s back). S could have been there to cheer C on from his seat next to her at the GGs, the BAFTAs, the IFTAs, etc.

Perhaps, someday, we’ll be lucky enough to see S and C actually come out publicly as a RL couple and we can celebrate their love for reals. And I can guarantee you they will be able to obtain a much higher level of privacy by being public. I know that sounds contradictory, but it’s true. Once the fandom knows the truth ... the actual truth and not the fake truth ... everyone will take a collective deep breath, calm down, and celebrate S/C together. Those that aren’t pulling for S/C together will pack up their hatred for happiness and go home or move on to find another fandom to destroy. There will be no more intrusions on S/C’s privacy, and that of their family and friend’s, caused by fandom factions fighting over “are they/aren’t they?” and trying to examine every little micro-detail to prove that their side is correct.

Until then, we can imagine S/C together, we have that right.

#samcait #bettertogether

[ernmark]

Just wondering in the vanpire fic how does one turn someone into vampire? Has peter offered to do so to juno? Does he not want juno to have to be a vampire like him? Has he ever accidently almost turned him? (My old twilight fan self is peeking out from the box she's shoved in)

Oh, Twilight. I have a complicated relationship with that series.

I used to be a die-hard fan, complete with lots of meta about where the series was going and what was actually going on, how Bella was an unreliable narrator, etc. And then the last book came out and I realized that all of the things I thought were meant to be subtext and foreshadowing were… not actually those things. That, and the whole last book being about first a wedding, then a pregnancy, then a baby, which… yeah, I have not been shy about my feelings about that subject.

I did not take it well.

My feelings have mellowed considerably since then– a lot of that comes with the realization that the things that made me so upset aren’t even remotely uncommon, particularly in stories written by/for dudes, but none of them get nearly the same amount of vitriol or outright hatred. So I learned to chill.

It’s one of the big reasons why I keep reiterating that my meta isn’t meant to be taken as expectation– because bad things happen when you pin your hopes to a thing that the writer didn’t actually intend to put there.

Peter is a vampire | Part 2 (NSFW) | Part 3 (NSFW?)

This one will be somewhat NSFW. There’s also some discussion of depression and suicidal thoughts.

Juno is shuddering, and I can’t tell if it’s from the blood loss or the aftershocks of orgasm. I have just enough motivation left to apply pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding, and then I’m kissing his mouth with the same fervor that I applied to his neck a few moments before. He’s gasping for air by the time I pull myself away, and his lips are stained red. 

It’s a good color on you, I think.

I could kiss you forever if you didn’t need to breathe.

We could do this for the rest of eternity, you know.

I don’t say the words out loud. He’s too pliant, as delirious as he is now from lack of blood and excess of sex. I could ask him anything and he would give it to me without a second thought.

At least, not at first.

But he would think about it again. He would have until the end of time to fill with regret or resentment. If he joins me, I want it to be his decision. I want him to be sure.

So I hold back the offer and I make another one instead. “Water?”

He nods mutely, and I cradle his head in my arms as I raise a glass to his lips.

It’s a slow day at the office when I bring it up. 

“I could turn you, if you’d like.”

Juno looks up from his game of Solitaire. “Turn me where?”

Right here, if we locked the door and sent Rita on vacation for a little while.

“Into a vampire,” I say instead. 

He saves the game, despite the fact that he’ll never pick it up again, and closes out of the application. When he he turns back to me, I have his full attention.

He looks like he’s waiting for something.

“Is that something you’d like?” I ask carefully.

“I don’t know,” he says with just as much caution. “Let me think about it?”

That much is probably a good sign. Most people are either enthusiastic about being turned or violently opposed to the idea. Hesitation means he’s actually thinking about it.

I don’t push further.

Weeks have passed before we talk about it again, and he’s the one who brings it up.

“Getting turned fixes you, doesn’t it?”

It’s so abrupt that it takes me a few moments to catch up. “There’s a degree of healing involved.” It’s a necessary step, of course; considering the injuries necessary to drain a person of that much blood, most fledgling vampires would be little more than raw meat if there wasn’t at least some healing involved.

“Not like that,” he says. “Like how you don’t actually need your glasses.”

I flash a grin. I wear them mostly out of habit and sentiment– and because frames do wonders for changing the shape of the face. I suppose it was only a matter of time before he figured that out.

“One of the vampires I used to know had some pretty bad nerve damage as a kid. Getting turned fixed that for xir.”

“That can happen.”

He holds the next sentence in his mouth for a moment too long, looking for all the world like he intends to swallow it back down again. 

And finally he lets it out. “You think it would fix me?”

I think about that for a moment. “I’m not sure. I’ve never heard of regrowing something as extensive as an eye, but then–”

“Not my eye,” he says. “Me.”

I go very still.

I want to tell him that there’s nothing to fix– that I love him completely, bad days and all. But he isn’t asking for assurances or platitudes. I can’t tell him there’s nothing wrong when I’ve seen him stare up at me like he’s lost in the void.

“I… don’t know,” I admit. 

“If you turned me tomorrow and it didn’t, I’d be stuck like this forever. Peter, there are days when I don’t want to make it to the end of the week. I mean, sure, it’s gotten better since you arrived, but they still happen. How am I supposed to keep it together for another ten or twelve centuries?” He runs his hand through his thick curls. “And if it did– if you turned me, and suddenly I’m not depressed– would I even be me anymore? I mean, the person you like. The person you want to be with. How much of that would change? I mean, vampirism isn’t like meds. You can’t just quit if it doesn’t agree with you.” He lowers his voice to a mutter. “Or I can’t, anyway. You could.”

I take his hand. “Human or vampire, Juno, I’m not going anywhere.”

“And if I change?”

“It’s not about if,” I tell him. “You are going to change, whether because of vampirism or age or the passage of time. That much is inevitable.” I lift my hand to stroke his cheek. “But so is the fact that I will be here when you do. And I will love you then like I love you now.”

He shuts his eye and leans his forehead against mine with a heavy sigh.

He doesn’t give me an answer, and I don’t ask.

When he makes a decision, he’ll let me know.

#theflatwoodsmonsterisalesbian #the penumbra podcast #writing prompt #fanfiction #in a lot of vampire canon turning is supposed to refine you into your best self #(or your best self minus morality anyway) #which is how they justify vampires being all pretty and ethereal and graceful #which has always made me wonder how mental illness plays into all of that #after all #the trick isn't living forever #it's living with yourself forever

[recommendedlisten]

The battle wounds of a DIY music blogger are directly reflected in the eye strain due to excessive screen time that such a human is subjected to, and this week, this writer is definitely seeing stars. This isn’t just because Solange and Carly Rae Jepsen are once again turning their sights toward global domination, or the fact that highly anticipated releases from folktale aliens Big Thief, blushing dreamweaver Hatchie, or hardcore angels Fury made great first impressions with their newly-announced albums. There was also scene heroes Emily Reo, Kitty and Potty Mouth doing things on their own terms, too, all the while up and comers BRUTUS and Jackie Mendoza continued to impress with intriguing new dimensions in their respective sounds. In short, this week’s music was very extra, and there’s still a heavy order left to discuss.

Here’s the best of the rest from the week of February 24th, 2019…

American Football feat. Elizabeth Powell - “Every Wave to Ever Rise” [Polyvinyl Records]

On March 22nd, American Football will release their third self-titled effort, and remarkably so, despite the long stretch between their 1999 genre-molding classic and the now, the Midwestern emo pioneers have evolved with the times rather than just rummaging through nostalgia in their sound. A major factor in that on this outing has been the inclusion of guest vocals beyond Mike Knsella’s own hum, as we recently heard third wave emo icon Hayley Williams of Paramore serenade the growing pains on “Uncomfortably Numb”. The LP’s latest preview “Every Wave to Ever Rise” is further proof of both, as it features Land of Talk’s Elizabeth Powell joining the quartet for a gorgeous listen of ghostly arpeggios that sparkles at the surface like refracted water, as Powell’s soft presence co-mingle a faint spell in layered langued. “Truth or dare / Love is the cross you bear / J'ai mal au cœur, c'est la faute de l'amour,” she sings in its chorus. American Football have also tacked on west coast dates to their North American tour, bringing along emotive next-gens Illumanati Hotties, Tomberlin, and Pure Bathing Culture with them.

Control Top - “Chain Reaction” [Get Better Records]

It’s not very common for a band to have announced an album and its first single well into a year in advance of when it actually becomes slated on the release calendar, but that’s what Philly punks Control Top managed to do when they set “Type A”, off their forthcoming debut full-length Covert Contracts, into the wild last March. Despite the passing of time since, the trio -- comprised of frontperson and bassist Ali Carter, drummer Alex Lichtenauer of HIRS / Get Better Records’ and Bleeding Rainbows guitarist Al Creedon -- remain fiercely awake and confrontational on the LP’s second preview “Chain Reaction”. As Carter tells Stereogum, “The song takes place in the middle of an argument... Vitriol is flying and emotions are running high. With our culture’s growing appetite for anger and conflict, a petty disagreement can easily escalate into a full-out shouting match.” Knife-like guitar riffs daggering over even sharper angles are the vehicle for her choice words as thumping rhythm mimics the non-stop adrenaline drip that ensures emotions remain high and heated. “I'm looking for an open door / But all I see is a broken mirror I can't take it anymore / I wish I could disappear / What start,” Carter shouts, hurling herself at the edge of a point of no return. The album, by the way, officially arrives on April 5th, and they’ll be supporting Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers on the road this spring.

Covert Contracts by CONTROL TOP

Deafheaven - “Black Brick” [ANTI-]

It would seem that for every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction in Deafheaven’s catalog. Last year, the band released the listmaker Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, a listen that you could arguably consider their most accessible work to date in the way they focused on elements of slowcore, shoegaze, and even some gothic balladry thanks to an assist from Chelsea Wolfe, but make no mistake about it -- Deafheaven can be depended upon delivering a reminder that they’re still a metal band despite what the purists hate on them with whenever they push the genre’s corners out a little further into the experimental unknown. “Black Brick”, a new one-off single, is a sharp-toothed epic doing just that by ferociously pulverizing itself up through a scorched earth as George Clarke’s black metal howls damn us all to their intense hellscape. The listen will come in use beginning next week when the band heads out on a co-headlining tour with fellow metal outliers Baroness and avant outfit Zeal & Ardor.

Ex Hex - “Rainbow Shiner” [Merge Records]

Mary Timony’s Ex Hex is another one of the many artists with new music out on March 22nd, as the glammed out indie rock trio led by the former Helium frontwoman will break their five year stretch of silence since 2014′s debut Rip very loudly with the release of its sophomore follow-up It’s Real. So far, we’ve heard Timony, bassist Betsey Wright and drummer Laura Harris spin us through an intergalactic romance and toughened us up with a pep talk with their power-pop licks, but with the album’s latest advance listen “Rainbow Shiner”, the trio go full-on Detroit Rock City with a hair metal twist in their glittering of arena-sized riffs that’s got a big swagger to it. Cheap faux leather, studded vests, tatted arms, and chipped nail polish white-knuckling a vintage muscle car with the windows down may come to mind when taking this one in, which is to say, it’s smashes through the stereo with an effortless, dangerous cool.

Nothing - “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping” [Relapse Records]

Shoegazing shape-shifters Nothing outdid themselves once again with one of last year’s best heavy albums in their third studio effort Dance On the Blacktop. Over the years, however, the Philly punk band has amassed an impressive string of covers released in the interim between albums, showcasing a malleable side to their sound in applying textures of loud echoes in the dark to listens you may not originally deem adjacent to Nothing’s own sonic vortex. If you ever wanted to have them all in one place, then you’re in luck, as Nothing’s takes on Concrete Blonde, Low, New Order, Ride, and their latest, a feedback-drenched interpretation of Grouper’s “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping”, will appear on Spirit Of The Stairs – B-Sides & Rarities, due out on March 6th. The compilation includes those listens alongside B-sides, demos, and live versions of songs that stretch the full span of their catalog, making for an essential listen for anyone who considers them a completist. Like many, Nothing heads into SXSW as they tour throughout the entire spring, with one leg featuring CANDY and Tony Molina, and another co-headlining with Basement, supported by Gouge Away and Teenage Wrist.

PUP - “Free At Last” [Little Dipper / Rise Records]

Stefan Babcock is upping his Debbie Downer game for PUP’s upcoming third studio effort Morbid Stuff. Now that he’s made it perfectly clear to the “Kids” that life is meaningless (but it’s what you make out of it), he’s piling on the self-loathing and destructive habits with the album’s second preview “Free At Last”. The listen is characteristically wild and reckless in axe-edged riffs and beefed up drum crashes that topple charging versus into big chorus sing-a-long -- in this case, the deprecating, “Just ’cause you’re sad again, it doesn’t make you special at all...” -- that lifts Babcock’s gloomy sneer of reality into a comforting rallying cry of a punk anthem. Preceding its debut, the band released the lyrics and a basic chord chart to its fans asking them to record the song without hearing it, and those results are now the now the basis of its music video. Charly Bliss’ Eva Hendricks and celebrity stan Finn Wolfhard make guest appearances throughout the altered edit final instructional as well.

Show Me the Body - “Madonna Rocket” [Loma Vista]

Art-minded hardcore trio Show Me the Body have signed on with major indie Loma Vista for the release of their forthcoming Chris Coady-produced sophomore effort Dog Whistle, due out on March 29th. A slicker side of the studio as well as a cohesiveness in the trio’s carnage has already been defined through the crunchy static of the album’s lead single “Camp Orchestre” and again resurfaces through the collision of fast moving walls of ‘80s-era British post-punk and NYC hardcore of its second preview “Madonna Rocket”. It’s a dash that barely makes the three-minute mark over wiry guitars, relentless drumming and frontman Julian Cashwan Pratt snarling over the sea-sawing teetering that intensifies as the listen wears on. “When I meet someone that’s good, I want to die with them / Dead friends / I still want to say goodbye to them / Aside from me, aside from them / All I have is family / I will die with them” his words thrash into bodies. That he finds in the track’s accompanying visuals, a dual shot performance clip recorded at the band’s Corpus DIY spaces in LA and New York City.

War On Women - “The Ash Is Not the End” [Bridge Nine Records]

The great feminist punk band War On Women were also among one of the creators of last year’s best heavy-hitting albums with their sophomore effort Capture the Flag, an album built around unabashed socio-political anthems and a controlled grip around melodic hardcore aggression. Their screams for activism and change in a current climate that could stand to be burned to the ground by their plight continues on “The Ash Is Not the End”, the Baltimore quintet’s contribution to Adult Swim’s Singles series. What’s most noticeable about this listen, as opposed to the gritty firestorms of earlier, is how a greater degree in pop heroics akin to Paramore’s rockier moments in turn pronounce Shawna Potter’s time’s up declaration. “It’s all just a matter of time,” she spears through crisp cut riffage. You’ll be able to catch War On Women all over the world this spring and summer, including dates opening for Jawbreaker’s east coast tour.

#the best of the rest #american football #control top #deafheaven #nothing #ex hex #pup #show me the body #war on women #Songs #new music & videos

[bodizwonder]

‘What occurred after I went vegan for a month’

So right here’s the factor about adopting a vegan food plan: everybody goes to have an issue with it. Everyone aside from you.

Without uttering the v phrase, individuals simply know. It’s like they will odor the vegan on you. The repute of vegans making obnoxious declarations is fully false – from my expertise, it’s one thing you retain to your self.

The response was by no means good. There you’ll be, munching on a salad sandwich, minding your personal enterprise, and a pal will shoot you some suspicious side-eye.

“That sandwich wrapper says it’s vegan.”

“It is.”

“You’re vegan?!”

“I am.”

At which level they are going to march off in disgust, and also you’re left alone along with your salad sandwich questioning what it’s you probably did flawed.

Beyond stealing from the aged, parking in disabled spots, or straight out homicide; veganism is essentially the most offensive crime you’ll be able to commit within the 21st century. You could have individuals you’ve identified your whole life flip their again on you, livid along with your capability to cease consuming cheese. You will cease receiving dinner invitations. A easy espresso date will trigger a scene, and also you’ll end up defending your integrity merely for selecting the burrito bowl over the meat tacos. Being a vegan is difficult.

And I ought to know, as a result of for a complete month I dipped my toe into the wild world of plant-based consuming. Yes, reader, I used to be a vegan. Grab your pitchforks and put together your rotten greens to throw at my head, as a result of I’m saying the V phrase and I’m not sorry for it.

My foray into the darkish artwork of veganism wasn’t for another purpose that giving my physique an opportunity to get well from my in any other case dreadful food plan. I used to be as much as my eyeballs in sugar and steak and complete wheels of D’Affinois (what? It was a housewarming reward) and my physique was calling out for some Me Time. It wished to clock out with a cup of tea and head of broccoli. “Take the kids for an hour or so?” my physique requested me, “Take the phone off the hook? Give me a foot massage?” So, I listened, did some analysis, and determined to check out a vegan food plan. Me Time for my guts.

The outcomes have been astounding. Within days I had extra power, I used to be consciously selecting what I put into my physique, and I used to be even slowing down my breakneck routine to make sure I had time to cook dinner 3 sq. meals a day. My pores and skin was glowing, my eyes have been vivid, and I used to be filled with power. And everybody was FURIOUS.

The working joke is that vegans are a bunch of assholes, however from my expertise, it’s may simply be the opposite occasion that’s obtained the issue. I’ve by no means skilled such unbridled disdain in my life – and as somebody who sported a really questionable undercut for a few years, that’s a giant name. I used to be shocked when buddies who I do know and love made no qualms about talking up on their view of veganism. “Vegans are assholes,” they mentioned. My buddies have been calling me an asshole, simply because I used to be selecting chickpeas over cheeseburgers. Cringe.

In my brief time behind enemy strains as a vegan, I used to be given an unimaginable quantity of perception into 2 issues: firstly, simply how simple – and helpful – it’s to be 1, and secondly, simply how many individuals will hate you for it.

Fact: veganism is straightforward. Really simple. Truth be informed, I used to be ready to spend my month as a vegan feeling hungry and glamorously skinny, however was stunned to learn how a lot you’ll be able to really eat. Rather than sacrificing my favorite meals, I used to be consuming greater than ever. Seeking out plant-based options is a chunk of (egg free) cake: because of the facility of Google, you’ll be able to faucet right into a bounty of vegan recipes every time inspiration calls. I began to truly take pleasure in cooking once more as I dove headfirst into zucchini lasagne, avocado chocolate mousse, or eggplant curries; ecstatic that my cooking abilities did certainly prolong past toast and issues that required 3 minutes on excessive.

Another truth: veganism is unpopular. Offsetting my superb inexperienced excessive was the rising unease at how many individuals have been mad with me. Simply put, the one factor killing my vibe was, effectively, everybody else. Even now, as a card carrying Non-Vegan, I’m nervous to debate the subject on-line. I’ve been a contract author for lengthy sufficient to cease caring about public opinion, however the anti-vegan sentiment is so sturdy I’m already anticipating the backlash. What will individuals say? What portal to hell will I open within the feedback part? Will individuals go away burning crosses on my garden?

And I’m not alone. When meals author Richard Cornish determined in addition the bacon for a complete yr, he was additionally overcome with the vitriol he obtained from these round him.

“People are completely dreadful,” he mentioned on the launch of his e-book, My Year Without Meat.

“It’s that individuals who select to place themselves on the outer are ripe for bullies and other people say essentially the most horrible issues, they usually attempt to trick you.”

Cornish mentioned that folks would attempt to sneak meat into his meals, or deal with his vegan dishes like an alien object. “There’s numerous disrespect for individuals who select to not eat meat.”

I had loads of time to replicate on the deep-seated Aussie mistrust of veganism throughout my month with out meat. Why DO individuals hate vegans a lot? Is it the unwelcome perception into their very own unhealthy diets? Was it merely tall poppy syndrome? And, given the onset of worldwide warming and the doubtless prospect of tremendously diminished factory-farming capabilities, when are individuals going to cease being such jerks about sustainable, plant-based diets?

Dunno.

But what I do know is that this: ‘vegan’ isn’t a grimy phrase. It may earn you soiled seems, however it isn’t a grimy phrase. Vegans may really feel just like the uncool child within the college playground in the mean time, however I don’t reckon that can final lengthy.

Our meat-and-three-veg Aussie identification is present process a seismic shift at current. Sinking just a few pints after a nasty day is being swapped out with mindfulness workouts or a yoga class. Over 2.1 million Aussies determine as largely or utterly vegetarian. Beer consuming is at a 65-year low. And the meat-centric food plan of outdated is making manner for a lighter, more healthy, plant based mostly choice as an alternative.

Whether it’s for a 1 meal or the month, I reckon everybody ought to have a shot at consuming a plant-based food plan.

You may simply shock your self at how scrumptious being a vegan asshole actually is.

Liam Hemsworth was simply named PETA’s sexiest vegan, and he is by no means felt higher.

September 20, 201711:36am

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BLOGGER RITU ARYA’S Manual TO PUDUCHERRY

In a way, Puducherry reflects my lifestyles or the balance that I’m trying to acquire. There’s a bit bit of chaos and the standard bustle, but I’m still capable of escape into nature and just loosen up and daydream. My non-public style follows in the identical vein. At some point, I’m out in messy bed hair, an outsized T-blouse and shoes, and the following, I’m spending a touch more time layering clothing and neck-pieces, trying a DIY turban, sitting on jewelry and sticking on a bindi. How I get dressed each day relies upon at the kingdom of my thoughts. Moved quickly, at peace, worrying, happy — most of these emotions dominate my alternatives from my cloth cabinet.

It helps you to be you. I believe comfort comes certainly else. And in this type of warm and humid region, you cannot compromise on that front. On the equal time, its tranquil vibe places your mind relaxed, so that you are cool and calm and urged to be for your relaxed fine.

There’s a lot to like. Firstly, there’s the stunning French Zone. With its stone pathways, bougainvillea-protected walls and sea-facing homes, it’s a completely happy revel in. Then, there are the human beings; all the locals and travelers are dressed so distinctively, and it truly is the best way to take a look at fashion and culture.

Kalki, Café des Arts, and Janaki are my traditional suspects. Kalki on Assignment Street is well worth a go to in case you are interested in local Auroville brands. The opening gives a collection of products that range from vital oils and candles to books and extra. Café des Arts is a remarkable vicinity for solitude, in which you may curl up with a great e-book and nibble on delicious meals. It even has a small curated boutique for garments and jewelry from wherein you could select up souvenirs. And ultimately, Janaki in White Town is in which you could save for excessive-stop fashion designer brands.

The Intimate Bloggers Guide

within the world of broadcasting, interactivity has been the unmarried largest alternate inside the beyond ten years. Visitors and listeners who attempted in useless to get on a smartphone in or wrote irritated letters to ‘Factors of View’ were suddenly given remarkable get admission to the presenters they listened to and admired. Texts and e-mails were broadcast inside minutes, no longer weeks of sending them in and the target audience has become a part of the display. This intimacy has been reflected in the commercial enterprise global, with blogs and other social media bringing carrier provides up close and private with their customers like never before.

Many human beings discover this loss of distance pretty hard to deal with. The radio presenter has his critic right in his face, correcting his anecdotes and heaven forbid, suggesting new thoughts. The business blogger gives her detractors an open platform to publicly placed the boot into her product and it is horrifying. but in case you examine the manner the quality media practitioners have handled this development, we see them the usage of it as an opportunity; a possibility to build a dating with the audience, to concentrate and to feedback.

BBC Radio 5 Live for example appointed a Peoples’ Champion to accumulate listener comments and ideas, that could then be fed returned into the programs. The PM program on Radio 4 began IPM which used listeners’ tale thoughts as a starting point for a whole new display. With the aid of capitalizing on the exceptional possibilities unfolded With the aid of text, blogs, and e-mails, radio has strengthened the audience bond. There may be no quicker manner to disarm your critics then Through opening the door and welcoming them in.

One very senior BBC boss did simply this. He responded to a person, who have been vitriolic in his complaints, By inviting him to return right down to London to edit the display, accordingly turning his worst enemy into his best advocate at a stroke. people like to sense as although they have privileged access or ‘the interior track’ and a well-finished weblog can supply them just that. The communicate you create along with your customers and the remarks you invite and get hold of is just like the bond among a radio presenter and his target market. it is a continuing communication that everybody simply hopes will keep on. It would not be practical to move down the pub with all your readers after paintings, but the relationship you build-up makes it sense as although One day, you just may.

The Lazy Bloggers Manual to Leveraging Content One of the nice things about the running a blog platform is the capacity to leverage your personal Content material as well as proportion others, and it’s far this capability that no longer handiest helps perpetuate the blogosphere and the net as an entire, it is also what sustains it. So it’s far a for the reason that while you begin your journey as a blogger you’ll participate within the righteous act of tweeting, digging, and generally sharing your personal and all and sundry else’s deal.Ice.Us Content.

It took me some time to learn this however I will assist you to in on a little secret now; There are such a lot of systems available to assist leverage your very own Content, and the complete point of this post is to speak approximately precisely that – but ironically, it is thru sharing different people’s Content that you may get more visitors and in the long run gain extra for your blog and your brand. (You continue to want first-rate Content material of path)

Sharing is Worrying, and Being concerned takes a while

Now the hassle with sharing other humans’ Content is the time it takes to really do it nicely. I’ve talked before approximately the first rate strength of Powerful blog Commenting and the overall significance of building and retaining relationships in the blogosphere but it’s time ingesting, to say the least, so in terms of the undertaking of leveraging our personal Content material – locating the quickest and simplest technique feasible is actually in our excellent interest. With that, I come up with the methods I use to leverage my own Content that does not take me anytime at all.

Oh, and may I just quick add (in case you had been wondering) the Reproduction Content Penalty does no longer exist, There’s no such component, in truth, I am going to use the F phrase right here. The Reproduction Content penalty is a Farce, a Faux Pas and a Fallacy so neglect demanding approximately whether you have to Replica your Content some other place and simply do it already:)

The Social Media playground is one which I’m but to master and debate nevertheless rages over its effectiveness in Advertising talk, but when you have the capability to percentage your Content material there without lifting a finger then I say why not. you could try this By using putting in a few plug-ins that mechanically proportion your publish to your Facebook wall and additionally to Twitter. WP to Twitter and WordBook are each available to download thru your admin panel and in case you don’t already have them established I exceedingly suggest you do so.

Bloggers love to share

Through a long way, the pleasant area to leverage your Content material is through structures that sell running a blog in preferred due to the fact the traffic you get can be your peers so they may remark and have interaction. The excellent region to try this definitely is BlogEngage ( a very becoming call I might add) and this website is an invitation best forum for bloggers to share their Content and sell each different’s great stuff. The nice factor about BlogEngage is that you can install a ‘vote’ button just like you would a ‘Tweet this’ button so that your readers can vote or even submit your posts! That is the splendor of BlogEngage, due to the fact the Content is genuinely a hyperlink to the authentic publish you no longer handiest make it easy for others to post your articles for you, you furthermore may guarantee click-throughs on your website when the publish is Life.

sturdy>Article Advertising

There’s no way I am going to move into the fine details or Article Advertising, but I am going to inform you how I leverage my quality Content material without truly doing a great deal in any respect and it’s throughout the strength of the plug-in (again, man I love WordPress)

I’ve heard many a pro blogger communicate approximately EzineArticles as being the best Article Directory well worth the use of and due to the fact they are the best Article Directory to offer a plug-in it type of works out properly virtually.

The plug-in I communicate of is to be had via EzineArticles in your Creator Place under Creator Equipment and basically what it does is allow you to send your posts directly to Ezine from WordPress. That is brilliant due to the fact you may now share your exceptional paintings with the maximum authoritative Article Listing on the internet genuinely By way of clicking a button, but first, you may make some adjustments.

Ezine does no longer take delivery of hyperlinks within the post (usually) and does not accept feedback that understands the object as a weblog post so earlier than you submit your own publish you need to rectify this. The fine way to do This is simply to kill all of your hyperlinks, take away any connection with your personal weblog or readers and then post it to Ezine. Now go to your Dashboard and whilst your weblog freaks out and tells you that you have not saved you say ‘Sure no issues’ and hence none of the modifications you just made are stored. See, there simply is a lazy manner of doing the whole lot.

Those are the methods that I take advantage of to percentage my own Content material that doesn’t take more than 2 minutes of my time to do, and they have all validated to be Effective methods of producing visitors to my weblog – genuinely the lazy blogger’s way.

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Running a blog, Negativity and Incivility

New Post has been published on https://beingmad.org/running-a-blog-negativity-and-incivility/

Running a blog, Negativity and Incivility

Social scientists, socio-economists, and social psychologists are an increasing number of pointing to the reality that the social blog negativity and incivility mood in the USA, and internationally’s way of life and civilization is turning terrible and that universal social temper goes to get loads worse before enhancing. Research graphs and diagrams, which include the Elliot Wave Precept, underscore the locating that there is a herbal ebb and waft of social temper (fine vs. terrible) and that darker times, socially and politically, lie beforehand of us, creating accelerated anxiety and negativity. Nowhere is that this terrible temper greater obvious than in the blogosphere in which incivility, disrespect, meanness, bullying, and demeaning behavior rule the day, and the posts. What’s it that money owed for this negativity among bloggers and what may be carried out to perhaps soothe and diminish their high degree of vitriol, rancor, meanness, incivility and disregard?

I’ve accompanied the negativity of weblog discussions especially from the angle of being curious about the character of the interactions wherein the behaviors are as exciting if now not greater so, than the content material.

There is absolute confidence passion drives many a blogger’s interactions. Unfortunately, passion is frequently used as an “excuse” (it is in no way a “reason”) to treat any other blogger disrespectfully or in an uncivil way.

Interestingly enough, Studies additionally points to increases in the variety of heart assaults, most cancers incidents, obesity charges, diabetes, suicides, spousal abuse incidents, and so forth. What is the connection?

Whether it is a growth in incivility or in existence-threatening contamination and ailment, those records do no longer mean that I must interact in anti-social or self-negative conduct.

You may select what behaviors support one to stay a healthy lifestyle and which do not. The equal reasoning is true for Whether one chooses to be civil or uncivil, respectful or disrespectful, hurtful and harmful or compassionate and information in my relationships and interactions, on blogs, this is, in how one chooses to show up in the international.

Shakespeare said, “An occasion is neither good nor bad, most effective questioning makes it so.” So, why is one’s “thinking” so bad? What perception structures, mental models of the sector and those inside the world, assumptions, misconceptions, misperceptions does one have hard-stressed out into their brain that brings one to reactivity, to negativity inside the face of simply, nicely, “phrases”?

So, with appreciating too how I display up inside the blogosphere, the lowest line is the diploma to which I’m “aware” – Whether or not I am consciously privy to “how I am” and “who I’m” at the same time as Blogging, and regarding others in a weblog network, or am I “unconscious”, being reactive, without a conscious notion of how I’m behaving.

In our modern culture within the U.S. in which most oldsters are passionate about ego needs for control, recognition, and safety, it’s no marvel that most folks’ mind are “killing thoughts” in place of “recuperation thoughts.” The chant underlying maximum of our interactions and interrelationships is: “it’s all approximately me! Out of my manner!”

  Furthermore, in a subculture in which many folks benefit their experience of identity (“who I’m”) from a direct association with their “understanding and information” (the database in their brain), it’s no surprise that a whole lot of the incivility and reactivity on blogs comes from the attitude that: “Whilst you disagree with my facts, well, you disagree with me”, and due to the fact such war of words is just too much of successful to many parents’ egos, they react (fight, as opposed to flee or freeze). Agreeing to disagree and engaging in optimistic speak are speedy becoming a lost artwork bureaucracy in Western lifestyle.

Whilst parents are “subconscious” of “how they are” and “who they’re”, While folks are unable or unwilling to have interaction in self-reflection, their tendency is to accomplice and behave with a herd mentality – witness the vitriol, the excessive-pitch ever-escalating level of disrespect, sarcasm (within the guise of “humor”), mocking, bullying, this is taking the region on blogs.

much of the terrible and disrespectful exchanges in blogs has to do with how one relates to any other human being. lifestyles are relationship – the way wherein one chooses to, consciously or unconsciously, relate to, “meet”, “see” and accept any other character. What is taking place in the blogosphere is a manifestation of a blogger’s inner battle that manifests as a failure to relate to every other character in an accepting, compassionate, respectful way that transcends simple “change of expertise and data.”

So, while the Research is what it is, that doesn’t suggest one can’t consciously select how one desires to be in dating, is talk, in verbal exchange While Blogging.

So, how does one come to be extra conscious of 1’s Blogging behaviors? How does one grow to be conscious of what is driving one’s poor Blogging conduct? With the aid of consciously thinking about What’s below one’s need to be uncivil, imply, disrespectful, and demeaning.

There are underlying drivers for a whole lot of the negative interactions on blogs. those drivers are characterized as: (1) “it is no longer approximately the facts or content”, and (2) “it is all about the facts or content.”

1. it’s now not about the content

From this attitude, What is going on is the want for an person blogger to resort to a verbally abusive and bullying approach to be able to make a “connection” with another person. For different bloggers, the want is to first have interaction, after which disengage, then engage and disengage, as in a “love-hate” courting, as a way to stay in the game.

within the area of psychodynamics or ego psychology, this each of these behaviors are referred to as “negative merging.” In some relationships, the simplest way people can “merge” or have any semblance of “connectivity” (e.G., mental, emotional,, psychological, social, and many others.) is By combating or arguing. Without the preventing or arguing, there would be no connectivity, no relating. As a result, the want to bully, argue, demean, discover fault, nit-select, and so forth., helps a blogger top experience engaged and “merged.” It offers the blogger a experience of “belonging”, being psychologically and emotionally connected. It actually has nothing to do with the “statistics” being discussed or exchanged.

Alternatively, the terrible and uncivil behavior is ready connecting and desiring to sense “seen” and “heard”, in other phrases, to experience that the blogger is without a doubt “anyone” as opposed to being a “nobody.” Until the blogger feels they’re anyone, they sense they haven’t any feel of value or really worth. The handiest drawback is that gambling out of this need to be “visible” comes from a deeper location of anger, fear, and negativity.

In “negatively merged” relationships, real and authentic, mature, heartfelt recognition, approval, and pleasure are missing. So, the most effective way the two or more bloggers can revel in any “fake” connection in any respect is from this location of poor engagement, regularly it is within the shape of poking, being disrespectful, being uncivil, nit-picking, locating the fault, etc.

In “terrible-merged” relationships, such back-and-forth conduct, and infantile emotional performing out turns into the only supply of touch between bloggers. the bottom line is that during negative-merged relationships, terrible touch is better than no contact in any respect.

So content apart, or greater such bloggers are not any specific than a couple who, lacking any actual heartfelt, mature, grownup-level connectivity, motel to arguing and preventing over a way to stack the dishes inside the dishwasher, fold the laundry, or vacuum the auto, or slice the turkey. At the cease of the day, for negatively merged bloggers, it is by no means truly approximately the “content material”. it’s about the need to be “seen” and join While There is no actual feeling of connectedness.

Until and Unless a “bad-merged” inclined blogger expands their focus and explores What is sincerely “under” their want to be terrible, uncivil and disrespectful, (i.E., By using consciously exploring their prescribing self-pictures, beliefs, preconceptions, “hard wiring” approximately how they view their self vis-à-vis being inside the world and regarding others), There may be likely in no way going to be any alternate or transformation of that blogger’s behavior. So, they will combat, lick their wounds, leave and come lower back to combat some other day on any other blog, usually at some other’s throat, continually argumentative, bickering, poking, criticizing. Why? it is the simplest manner they know how to “join.”

2. content material is the whole thing.

The ego-character is pushed By means of one’s Internal Judge and Critic, the Inner voice that constantly creates drama and dissatisfied in our lives, that in no way permits us to genuinely experience at peace with ourselves. The Internal Choose and critic is driven By means of 3 major ego desires: control, security, and recognition.

driven continually and relentlessly Through these three desires, lots of us derive our identity, that is, “who I suppose I am”, and “who I take myself to be” from outside matters, instead of experiencing ourselves with integrity and authenticity that arises from being in contact with our Inner Nature, our actual and real Self, from What’s “internal”.

One of the externals from which people benefit an experience in their pick out is their “information.” For these parents, their mantra is “I’m my facts.” In other phrases, my identity, who I am, is defined on what I’ve in my mind, my database. I stay in my thoughts, and my thoughts define me as a person.

Coming from this intellectual area, then, in a Running a blog environment, what takes place Whilst a person disagrees with a “facts identification” blogger, is that the “data identification” blogger is unable and unwilling to peer the opposite’s response as a simple perspective, or factor of view, or as just “distinct from me.” Instead, the “information identification” blogger has a want to react, to end up protective and vital and take the other’s information as a private affront and as a personal and “attack on me.”

In our tradition of right vs. incorrect, desirable vs. bad, win vs. Lose, me vs. You, for lots bloggers there’s little to no room for the attractiveness of differences, i.E., “distinctive data”. As an alternative, There may be greater of a need for lots bloggers to have interaction in a few kind of escalating “advert hominem” attack so that the “statistics identity” blogger can continue to exist, live, and no longer lose their identity. The “records identification” blogger survives With the aid of assembly their need to “be right” in a few way, form or form.

And so When these “statistics identity” bloggers feel attacked because some other blogger has offered “specific records”, or disagreed with them, they emotionally feel out of manipulating, insecure, and unrecognized, unseen. Their inner, subconscious response is: “My God, I haven’t any identity if my records are “incorrect’. I want to fight again and save myself.”

In this state of (regularly unconscious) reactivity characterised By using anger, fear, worry, resentment, defensiveness, feeling “small”, unseen, invisible, unrecognized, unappreciated, being resistant, protecting and agitated, and feeling a lack of manage, recognition or emotional security, some bloggers act out with a view to sense and see themselves as large, large, as “anyone” with an identity.

“facts identification” bloggers might be amazed in the event that they were to explore why they want to behave out and sting, poke, demean and bully others, why they want to attack, shield and counter-attack, why they are so stuck up in identifying with “my records.”

What takes place in the blogosphere is truly no one-of-a-kind from what happens among and amongst people and couples each day, at paintings, at domestic and at play, i.E., occurrences of the identical behaviors that show up While parents permit their ego-personalities and “comparative-judgmental minds” to get within the manner of a healthful relationship, a healthy communicate, a wholesome interaction. The dynamic here with the “records identity: blogger, is that they may be being By way of their want for manage, recognition and protection as opposed to permitting their self to coming from one’s Internal plane in which one may be perfectly cozy with who one is and in which one is no need to be proper and Without relying on one’s information because the source of who they’re.

The poking, the disrespect, the vitriol and incivility are all about resistance, denial and projecting. it’s all approximately now not being “consciously aware of “Who I’m” and “How I’m” in courting; so the negativity comes from one’s locking directly to cruise manipulate, being “subconscious” and simply reacting to everything happening “outside”. it is approximately wanting to appearance “outdoor” for What is missing “interior.”

even as a few can also view ad hominem assaults, rudeness, disrespect, poking, bullying and poor behaviors as “common” in modern discussions and relationships, they’re no longer, neither for kids nor for adults, and once in a while, inside the blogosphere, it is tough to tell the distinction. Reactive factors reason mental, emotional or even bodily pain, and discomfort and for the real and lurking “ringside” contributors and observers, even though they’ll not also be aware about it. The discord does take a toll, one way or every other.

wherein a few lurkers would in reality and absolutely want to offer their views in a secure surroundings, they’re regularly wary of doing so as they don’t want to come back up against bloggers whose need is to “take it individually” and who react to “one of a kind” takes and data in a terrible, poking, rejecting manner. it is the “facts identification” bloggers who make many blogs unsafe for so many others who’ve worth contributions to make.

So, The negativity is an try to fill this hollow of deficiency, wondering that spending time and electricity being important, judgmental, demeaning and disrespectful of others will someday make me sense “higher” On the fee of folks who I’m stepping on and over in my attempts to get to the top of some ladder (financial, social professional, etc.) with a purpose to make me experience like “somebody.”

So, what can bloggers do to make certain an extra inclusive, safe, mutually-respective container for grownup-adult communicate and reduce the intense diploma of negativity that permeates so much of the blogosphere?

possibly bloggers can envision after which act to create an environment in which You’ll be aware, take delivery of and appreciate the uniqueness of every other blogger’s attitude Without routinely leaping on the “me vs. You”, “proper vs. incorrect”, “accurate vs. terrible” “expert vs. novice”, “intelligent vs. silly” continuum.

perhaps bloggers can make an effort to transport out in their highbrow zip code of “it is all about what I know.” and explore the possibly, greater foreign, landscape of non-violent conversation to enhance the first-rate of some of their interactions, even coming near discussions with the curiosity of a “beginner’s thoughts”, a neutral mind.

perhaps bloggers can take a deep breath, feel into their bodies and enjoy their feelings and emotions, before responding to a publish and consciously ask themselves, “Why would an affordable, rational, decent character like me consciously choose to be disrespectful, uncivil and harm any other person virtually because their “information” isn’t the same as my “information.”

Gandhi said, “Be the alternate you want to see.” So, in case you are undertaking uncivil, disrespectful, demeaning behaviors as a blogger, do not watch for others to alternate their tone and tenor. It starts off evolved with you.

As Rumi says, “Out past proper doing and wrong doing, there may be a field; I will meet you there.” Come from that region for your blogs and have interaction from that a part of yourself this is respectful, accepting, compassionate, empathic, and inclusive.

Bloggers can select to play in that subject with their colleagues; or they can select to create some thing and fight in a battlefield of phrases, of ego, hostility and lost identity. One brings happiness, collegiality, contentment and well-being; the opposite brings pain and struggling, mentally, emotionally, bodily, socially, and spiritually.

Incivility and negativity are all about “resistance” to a something” out there” with which one feels uncomfortable. Incivility and negativity are all approximately being “subconscious” of how one is in relationship. Incivility and negativity are all about the ego’s want for manipulate, reputation and safety and being unwilling to go “internal” and discover why one wishes to hurt, be verbally abusive, and disregard some other. Incivility and negativity are largely approximately the mantras: “I might As a substitute be right than glad.” Or, “I need to be anyone On the price of being seen as a no one.”

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The women who make a dwelling gaming on Twitch

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The women who make a dwelling gaming on Twitch

Two years in the past Chelsea quit her job as a pharmacy technician to play video games.

“I went to paintings in the future, and I was like, ‘I would sincerely be making more money if I had stayed at domestic and kept gambling video video games than coming here,’” she says. That week she exceeded in her resignation. Women are also gaming on twitch

Chelsea is one in all a developing quantity of Australian women making a residing from Twitch.tv, a live-video-streaming platform that allows humans from all around the world to observe one another play video games. It’s additionally a social network: chat rooms are embedded into consumer pages next to video streams, permitting the broadcaster and target audience to engage in actual time. Going using the username X mins, Chelsea has grown to be famed for her competencies in the name of Responsibility – a lot so that gambling it online has come to be her bread and butter. Each night approximately 10 pm she turns on her webcam, chats to some her 330,000 fans and receives to work.

Twitch has come what may escape becoming a household call no matter its excellent reputation: the company claims it has nine.7 million active users on its site each day and more than 2 million streamers a month. Amazon noticed its capability in 2014 and bought it for $970m, even though the selection left many commercial enterprise commentators scratching their heads at the time.

The employer doesn’t have the handiest deal in on-line interactions: it also lives streams some the sector’s largest online game tournaments, in which expert gamers compete in stadiums in front of hundreds of people and thousands and thousands of online visitors. Audiences for recreation games routinely surpass the ones of mainstream television – but one way or the other the scene manages to hold the illusion of being a lifestyle.

While a tiny quantity of games ends up tournament megastars, other lawn-range streamers make their money through fan donations and sponsorships. Popular streamers are provided with the option of partnering with Twitch to install a subscriptions function on their page, which offers customers the possibility to pay a fee folks$4.99 a month to the streamer’s channel. Twitch, of course, takes a slice, but 1/2 the subscription fee is going without delay to the streamer, and maximum customers subscribe to assist their favoured games.

“It becomes base profits for streamers, in place of just relying on tips, which one month can be $a hundred, which subsequent month will be $4,000 – you by no means recognise,” says Mia. She is a relative newcomer to the sector of live streaming. Although she has been gambling video games considering she become a child, she most effective found Twitch approximately 18 months ago, via an internet pal. “I didn’t have gamer friends … and it’s not something which you might just stumble throughout,” she explains. “While I discovered Twitch and noticed that such a lot of people have these kinds of friends and were doing notable matters and sharing they enjoy together, I merely without a doubt desired to get on board.”

Mia, whose display call is SeriesofBlurs, died immediately in. “I was running my usual complete-time activity, and then I would come domestic and begin streaming without delay … and then visit nighttime and then repeat,” she says.

She knew in no time that she desired to come to be a complete-time streamer, but constructing up a following Even as preserving down every other task turned into tight. Then there had been the social implications. “I’d constantly be having to shield it, now not simplest to my pals, who were like, ‘Why aren’t you popping out?,’ however to myself as correctly, because I had numerous self-doubt.”

Being an expert gamer sounds like a dream come authentic and an increasing number of Australian girls are making it their career – a lot of them the usage of Twitch as a platform, making everywhere between the equivalent of the minimum salary to loads of thousands of greenbacks a yr.

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Whether or not it could be a decades-long profession, although, stays to be visible. While there are numerous men whose live gaming careers seem not to be hampered by way of their age, the range of ladies over the age of 30 visible within the gaming sphere is relatively small. “It relies upon on the game,” says Chelsea. “I’ve seen a few Sim Town and Civilisation video games, and I’ve seen older girls there, but it’s very rare.”

Kat, whose username is Lower fruit, is some other excessive-profile Australian gamer with about 240,000 followers on Twitch. “It’s miles a dream activity,” she says. “It’s a whole lot of money for gambling video games. It’s far a dream. So it might be a form of difficult to move away from that. So I would love to be doing it so much time as possible till I burn out. However, I am open to and that I’m exploring different things as well.”

Like much of the web world, streamers and their followers are often recognised handiest using their first call or chosen on-display handle. This semi-anonymity is each a boon and a burden for female gamers. Harassment frequently comes via a pseudonym. On the same time, to protect themselves, some ladies deliberately maintain their personal information, consisting of their surname and area, even their age, out of the equation. Mum or dad Australia is the use of best first names and display screen handles on this piece for that reason.

Mia, Chelsea and Kat are fantastic about their career preference. “as long as I hold putting attempt in, I foresee that I ought to do it for the next five or 10 years at the least,” says Chelsea.

Mia says: “on the end of the day, I’m doing what I love.”

How gaming have become a boys’ membership Surveys during the last couple of years advocate that, far from being a tiny minority in a male-ruled industry, ladies make up at least half of-of the gaming population. But notwithstanding being among a growing wide variety of seen, high-profile women in professional gaming, all of the women Father or mother Australia spoke to had something else in common, too: a sense of isolation.

The gaming industry markets itself unequivocally as a boys’ membership. For this reason, girls’ entry into this space is followed by using dangerously loaded assumptions from a bit of their male target audience.

“I sense like being a gamer has usually isolated me,” Mia says. “developing up in a girls’ college, it wasn’t virtually commonplace to be into video games.”

Chelsea recollects having comparable emotions. “I’d continually be so excited for my friends to depart so I ought to sit down down at my computer and play games all night,” she says.

She didn’t tell her friends about her gaming at the start. “It was an aspect that I kept at the lowdown. It wasn’t a lot of shame; it’s just I felt like [they] wouldn’t apprehend it the manner that folks who play the video games do.”

Kat says: “I had some desirable girlfriends that did play games in excessive college but they form of grew out of it. And I guess that turned into the component: they grew out of it and me in no way did.”

It changed into boys who delivered Kat to gaming. “I had boy cousins, older boy cousins, and also you just can’t assist it. If they’re playing it, you need to play too.”

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however if half of the gaming population is a woman, how could a technology of lady game enthusiasts develop up understanding so few different women who play?

“It’s no coincidence that most video game shops plaster their partitions with promotional posters for motion games, shooters and struggle games,” writes Tracey Lien in a chunk for the net magazine Polygon.

Lien explains how in 1983, the online game market spectacularly collapsed, largely because of being flooded with sub-par product. An industry that changed into, till then, largely gender-neutral, and protected many women at both the executive and improvement stages, began scrabbling round for a manner out of a financial hole. Lien writes that when the crash, “the sports industry’s pursuit of a safe and reliable market caused it coming in at the young male. And so the advertising campaigns started. Video games were strictly advertised as products for guys, and the message became clear: no women allowed.”

The Australian game developer Leena Van Deventer argues that the consequences of this gendered mass marketing are most apparent inside the present day technology of 20- and 30-something gamers. “ladies have constantly been there,” she says. “girls have been instrumental at the beginning of games and tech. However, our era remains very much dealing with the hangover of being instructed it’s now not for us and the result that has had in our establishments and in our way of life.”

In other phrases, if a technology of girls grew up questioning they didn’t know any girl game enthusiasts, it was due to the fact they had been cowed into silence by using a subculture that repeatedly told them video games were not for them.

Nowhere is this greater apparent than in the development of Gamergate – a mostly nameless on-line harassment campaign, concerning rape and death threats, which centred on discrediting some of the ladies inside the gaming network, which include the developers Zoe Quinn and Brianna Wu and the critic Anita Sarkeesian. It established, greater than something, that there are deep pockets of vitriol within the gaming international reserved mainly for girls.

“women’s look performs a larger position [in their success] than their real gameplay,” Chelsea says. “While guys’ appearance, it does not count if their gameplay is exceptional.”

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And with regards to creating wealth, there are delivered expectancies. “I used to be without a doubt concerned approximately getting donations because of what could be requested,” Kat says. She started streaming While she becomes at college studying journalism. Her connection became low quality – “I don’t even realise how people saw me thru the pixels” – but it became sufficient to permit her to construct a strong following which ended in some very generous donations.

“There are a few bizarre matters that streamers get requested to do, like sending panties – people email and ask for that,” she says. “Or like, photos in their toes in exchange for money.”