#what are the political implications

[shouldprobablybereading]

Hot take of the day is that I think sanderson not letting adolin murdering sadeas have any real consequences killed like 95% of interesting debate on the morality of it

#it serves some narrative point on some character arcs #but it could have been so much more interesting than sanderson made it #like right now it’s just kinda pointless #to talk about #nobody cares about sadeas so it’s not emotional #and the closest we can get to a philosophical debate is adolin and dalinar being kinda awkward about it #which again would have been interesting if anything actually came out of it #but it didn’t #now it’s just a question of whether you should be allowed to take the law into your own hands like that #which I think could be very interesting if we took a look at the power position adolin holds #as highprince and heir etc. #should he be allowed to make that type of decisions #sadeas was an asshole but how does this play into how he solves other conflicts #if not for his dad and cousin being the ones in charge would someone else be treated differently #this type of thing was exactly why people didn’t want to work with the alethi to begin with #what are the political implications #blah blah #even if saying ‘yeah it was right it was necessary and sadeas sucked’ #it would have been more interesting if there was anything to compare it to rather than just #‘well now we don’t have to deal with sadeas anymore that’s convenient’

[wherestoriescomefrom]

rian johnson took all that time, put in all that effort to make glass onion a fantastic period piece to the first four months of pandemic, a prescient narrative that anticipates the stupidity of rich billionaires, and then pulled the rug from under us because the world of benoit blanc just straight up doesn't have the mona lisa anymore

#Some geniuses in the notes are talking about how it wasn't the real mona lisa #And I'm editing my tags because tumblr is a website with minimal reading comprehension #But the POINT is that he went through all that effort to make the world canon complaint with ours #Only to DESTROY a cultural artefact real or not #Having massive political implications for the world #And that's what I was pointing out. Here and in another reblog that presumably no one will care to fish out #It's in the replies for those looking #Anyway I hope rian johnson makes ten of these without the mona lisa #Also as a side note. So many movies have ignored covid #Not this man. He's like no we'll include it. But if we divert from canon reality #We're going to destroy the mona lisa #Love that for him. Icon #hello void this is ridiculosity #knives out #glass onion

[vigilskeep]

ranking da love interests on a scale of how unhinged theyd be if their beloved was made tranquil (they would all be maximum unhinged its just a matter of deciding what flavour)

#like theres obvious ones like anders canonically would mercy kill and then burn down the world about it #and thats stellar beautiful no notes #but we gotta get into the others #for example i’d kill to see what sebastian’s little vengeance fuelled heart would get up to #not to mention that i have no idea if this is a good read or not bc i still havent played the romance but #he strikes me as a guy who would just stay devoted married to his tranquil spouse his entire life #it seems like something he would do. #and a bizarre political scenario it makes <3 fascinating vibes at starkhaven parties #i feel like other people it would hurt too much to be around them or they would feel it wasnt really them anymore #but to seb he made a vow and he has a wife those things havent changed even if so much else has #which would be crazy if anders was alive to hate it. and the implications abt hawke then. okay im going to stop talking im inventing #entire scenarios now

[rickybaby]

Ricciardo confesses ‘I’m not naive’ to Red Bull pressure

#there’s a reason why Horner keeps insisting they’re in no rush to finalise the seat for 2025 #and I keep going back to what Natalie said — #they know they put him in that Red Bull car and he’ll still be fast as fuck #what people fundamentally misunderstand about Daniel and Red bull is that — #red bull knows Daniel. knows what he is worth as a driver #he is not a rookie who has to prove he has the speed #they know he has the speed. he just needs to show it again and more consistently #and that’s a lower more achievable threshold #obviously there is possible political implications here but #Daniel knows exactly what he needs to show and he is more of than halfway there #daniel ricciardo #text

[miralines]

I don’t have the brainpower to elaborate on this the way it deserves but the Toy Soldier is a brilliant parody of militarism and Dapper Steampunk Englishness that really doesn’t get enough credit

#the mechanisms #the mechs #the toy soldier #as I’ve been archiving I found a Jessica law tweet about bad retrofuturism #the kind of thing I like to refer to as taking the punk out of steampunk #and she mentions ts’s manner is very similar to what she’s criticizing #and acknowledges it does murder which that character archetype doesn’t generally #but she didn’t get into how. it does murder. it follows any order. it loves battle and is posh and knows everything about tea etiquette. #and those are bad!! it’s not noble or gallant it’s a very polite war criminal!! #it’s that genteel English officer taken seriously and with the implications of its violence #which is a wonderful pushback to the kind of popular ‘steampunk’ that’s just romanticized neovictorianism

[ride-a-dromedary]

Those new friendship dialogue options. Man. This game, continuing the tradition of giving us one way to be nice to Halsin and an endless array of ways to be really mean to him while he's too tactful/kind/autistically oblivious to stand up for himself. "Honored to be your beast of burden" indeed.

Considering I firmly believe that Halsin was in the "bullied as a kid/teenager" and is currently in the "consistently imposed upon as an adult who does not fit within the 'norm' of society to the point that he's internalized and normalized being inherently disregarded as anything other than his physical appearance even when he has multiple times proven himself beyond it" camp, it does very much swim of: at this point what is really the point of standing up for myself/getting upset when I've already clearly indicated that I don't really like when people disregard my feelings? It's a coping mechanism - almost like he has been the bigger person his entire life (...literally and figuratively).

Wonder if he disapproves with that one, too. Unless at that point it's meant to be implied that since he's friends with the player character, he's okay with the animal association now, but like...I don't know, I genuinely don't think Halsin likes that regardless of who it's coming from or whether it's meant as a playful jab or not.

#maybe that's part of the reason the dudebros hate him so much - no matter how many times they are mean to him #he just plunders right on politely like haha good one ANYWAY #it also almost swims of i will not give you the satisfaction of seeing me upset from your immature jabs - i am far too mature for that #you dick #(not the last part but i'd like to say that last part) #BG3 Musing #Jemi gets asks #honestly though halsin i feel you friend im the same way too often #EDIT: also i just wonder if he thinks himself worth defending - he claims his body is just a vessel to serve nature with #and that he's nature's fiercest defender but suspiciously not his own - you wonder what the implications of that are #does make him drawing a line in the sand all the more powerful - if someone is used to being the bigger person *refuses* to be #you wonder at the implication there too

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

There is a reason im being hesitant to refer to Aphmau as 'Lord Avra of Phoenix Drop' in my rewrite.

But honestly the second reason is just the idea of her being lord is so outrageous because if this bitch can do it, so can anyone

#like sure she's nice and helpful and gets stuff done #but politics? This girl does not know what planet she is on do not ask her about the societal implications of the theocracy she is running #like she might wear the title lord as a funky hat when she stabs people but Garroth Donna and Visher are rushing to shut her up before she #can open her mouth in a meeting. because no they're not waging a holy war against Zane or legalising cannibalism 'because its natural' #aphmau #aphverse #rewrite #aphblr #minecraft diaries #mcd #ranthredo #avra of phoenix drop

[catilinas]

wait also the catiline conspiracy by john maddox roberts. it says a lot that he has a whole series of mystery novels set in 1st century bcs rome and i haven’t bothered to read the rest of them because of their aura of Terrible

#like i will read bad books if catiline is there. but dear lord the bad genealogy in that book #‘what if my made up protagonist whose praenomen is decius btw (not a real praenomen!!!) was married to caesar’s niece julia’ #like have you grasped the implications of caesar having a fictional niece called julia. you’re telling me caesar has a secret brother?????? #if you can’t be bothered to figure out roman nomenclature for your series of novels set in ancient rome perhaps consider: voluntary exile #ouughhhhhh the interpretation of party politics in that book sucked as well #beeps

[koheletgirl]

again you can acknowledge how fucked up and hypocritical the recent blacklisting wave in hollywood is, while also actually looking into what some of those people said so you don't rally yourself behind antisemites

#two! things! can be true! at the same! time! #stop putting susan 'jews being afraid is a new phenomenon and also they deserve it' sarandon on my dash #(tbc im not quoting her but those are 100% the implications of what she said) #antisemitism #politics cw

[goldensunset]

that thing about the meanings of certain words and phrases beginning to accumulate different meanings and implications over time… i just accidentally said ‘you’re welcome’ instead of ‘no problem’/‘sure’ and i died inside. i. died.

#to a non native speaker or older adult that sounds normal #to us younger generations of native speakers: ���you’re welcome’ has a snobbish connotation to it #it’s like saying ‘why yes i DID help you. you’re welcome to my help but let us both acknowledge what i have done for you. remember it.’ #you’re supposed to say ‘no problem’ to be like ‘oh no no it was nothing!’ to stay humble #it’s so subtle but the cultural implications are so significant. help #i like panicked in that conversation i think cuz it was in a weird circumstance and WHY did my brain produce that first #i think that was my politeness-around-strangers brain kicking in and trying to come up with the most formal way to speak as i usually do #unfortunately the formal option here is actually the worse option #peach rambles

[lugosis]

this is so funny to me like I GUESSSSS but also they are quite literally for fashion purposes as is most clothing. because when you’re making that vest you’re still thinking about whether or not it looks good. at least i hope you are.

#this is what i meant by the political implications of wearing a vest with a patch #some punk people talk about fashion like wearing punk esque clothing is cultural appropriation #like yeah bro it’s embarrassing when normies try to dress alt but it’s not really harming anyone

[rubberbandballqueen]

when at the library today i picked up a book abt typography to pick up some more theoretical skills there and to no one's surprise it pretended that european languages were the only languages in the world which like whatever i'll still learn what principles it has to teach and then try to reverse-engineer applications to cn font design based on what i know.

despite not trusting the english-language resources available online to be as in-depth or technical as i desire, i got curious and googled "chinese typographic design" anyway n scrolling through the introduction to the first result, you can kind of tell it's not written with a chinese-speaking audience in mind, or at the very least an audience with some semblance of chinese cultural sensitivities bc its section headed by the words "navigating the simplified and traditional divide" goes on to basically say it's an Aesthetic Decision which. well. is certainly a way to pretend you're avoiding politics.

#mostly you get the impression bc one of the first sections is like 'so how do chinese words work?' #and goes on to explain the idea of radicals and components n stuff and it's like If You Knew Literally Any Chinese #even as a foreigner starting to learn you'd understand the concept of semantic radicals #the worm speaks #phrasing that heading as 'navigating a divide' feels like it's alluding to An Awareness of the political implications n stuff #which most people in the west are not actually aware of!! so then to go on and be like #'oh yeah simplified is like swiftly efficient and ~modern~ while traditional holds fast to its cultural roots from a bygone era' #like. this is some stares straight into the camera type shit to me. like you really didn't have to call us bygone y'know. #like i'd have been fine if they were like 'simplified is what's used in the mainland china n is thus used much more frequently' #'whereas traditional is used in taiwan hk and with older communities' like that's Fine you did it you Navigated The Divide #but if you frame it in terms of an aesthetic choice based in how ~modern~ or ~bygone~ you want to feel #then you're going to end up with people who are merely curious abt cn typography bc it's a very foreign language to them #who take that at face value. good lord #AND ALSO they have separate encodings in unicode. like just saying. they are also encoded differently and that's an important thing #you do not know how many times i've downloaded allegedly traditional cn fonts only to discover they expect simplified input #in order to display the glyphs which Are still designed as traditional to be fair but anyway. it's a nuisance.

[aibari]

relatedly. it does genuinely bother me that the mcu never deals with the sociopolitical and economic implications of both the snap and the unsnappening

GIRL YOU SUDDENLY HAVE A DRAMATIC DECREASE IN WORKFORCE WYD vs GIRL YOU SUDDENLY HAVE A DRAMATIC INCREASE IN NEED FOR RESOURCES WYD

#what does that DO to your local community #what kind of power vacuums might open up #WHAT ABOUT THE ECONOMY................... #mcu was never going to have the guts to deal with these things as though they have systemic implications #because it is fundamentally not interested in systemic issues beyond like. secret government conspiracy hydra bad #like you need an enemy that can on some level be dealt with by one guy or a small team of guys coming in and doing some punching #which is fine!! #but it does lead itself to the atomization of responsibility to the individual level #and in the case of mcu + the mouse more generally ... well we don't want to get TOO political now do we

[lambentplume]

my UI lit review just makes me want to make games

#THINKING... discursive construction of meaning through play etc etc #the thesis of my lit review is like. how the interface itself generates meaning and messages (and political and ethical implications) #thinking so dearly about video games. i've never tried to develop one before nor do i have Any way of doing so #i also don't have anything i'd really want to say through a game. i just want to play in a space #jaerambles #also because this is part of a graduation requirement class i get nervous about it. not because i need department approval #but because i personally have to finish it. doesn't help that my prof likes the idea and thus does not provide constructive criticism #i might hammer out something a week before the ungraded draft deadline and see what she thinks about it though. #it's Not a thesis so it's not that deep but especially if i want to go to grad school i might as well write something i can show off #phew. thank you tags i love you tags.

[aeide-thea]

god i know that complaining abt fic which most of you haven't read, and which i won't, for politeness' sake, identify in this post, is a great way to come across as both dickish and boring—

but i've been rereading a very long, very satisfyingly plotty series that's a fandom darling and the thing is, when you read like 400k of an author's work at once it really starts to become painfully apparent what their priorities are, by which i mean two things:

holy shit they're obsessed with 'what if strong powerful men who could hurt you didn't (but did hurt Bad Guys) (and it was sexy of them),' which leads into

holy shit they do not appear to have thought through the implications of saying 'i will have my heroes take over the same power structures that have enabled abuse, make no real changes to those structures other than swapping out the leadership, and then claim that everything is wonderful now bc Good Men Are In Charge'??

like. i don't necessarily need every passing fantasy to present me with a coherent, revolutionary system of politics and ethics—sometimes things are just fun and sexy and not especially Examined and that's fine!—but by the time someone's written literally almost half a million words, and done a lot of worldbuilding while they were at it, i am going to start squinting if they seem to think a Good Man can e.g. become an emperor by killing off the leadership of multiple countries and installing puppet kings loyal to him and still remain a Good Man, even if the justification was that the original leadership was maltreating its citizens and deserved to be extrajudicially executed. like. this shit was a bad, autocratic move when the US did it in real life and it's still bad now that you're having our mutual blorbo do it in fiction! and that's not even getting into the whole thing where like. they've got servants who the Good Man and his friends ""treat well"" but who very much remain second-class citizens in terms of how the story actually frames them and their concerns. [this was also a huge issue i had with foz m*adows' most recent book—everyone wants to write about fantasy nobles but they also want to make them good people and it's like. honestly i think it might be better to get comfortable writing about flawed people, but also—if your aristos aren't treating their servants like equals and your text isn't either, you haven't actually cracked the Moral Aristo paradox, sorry!] like, there's nothing that says your story has to depict a fully Healed World, nor should there be! but it's troubling if you seem to be convinced you've written one (and have your wide-eyed love interests constantly marveling at it!) when you very patently haven't.

#in all honesty—i've framed a lot of this as political/ethical critique‚ and like‚ it IS‚ but also— #i'm just really frustrated because like. the whole 'what if people were shockingly nice to you' thing feels like it SHOULD be better for me #but in actual fact i find myself totally turning up my nose at it and i can't totally work out why #i mean i guess part of it is that this author's Traumatized Love Interests are always really innocent victims #which i can't identify with emotionally because i feel like a piece of shit #so i need a story that's more like 'person who's been told they were a monster for so long they believe it gets convinced they aren't' #'(lovingly and sexily)' #but also i think a lot of it just. isn't subtle enough. like i need to have to put pieces together so i'm implicated in my own catharsis #being constantly told 'wow it's so amazing i'm not being abused by this person who COULD abuse me!! that's so sexy of them!' #is just. not doing it for me. like. 'not abusive' is not actually sexy to me‚ unfortunately. i need some character traits. #and unfortunately the ones this author tosses in for flavor ALSO don't convince me #because they never actually manifest in the story. it's like 'oh this character is so prickly—but never actually offends the LI.' #'oh this other character is so gruff—but the LI understands that about them from day one and doesn't take it personally.' #like. if the hero's 'flaws' don't actually cause any problems—they aren't flaws #anyway. i've definitely complained about this exact series multiple times on here at this point #but that's the thing—it's compelling enough i keep going back to it‚ so i get extra-frustrated by its flaws #whereas like. there's a lot of stuff that's much worse that i've been much less frustrated by #because i never had any particular hopes for it #anyway. thx for yr patience in this fully self-inflicted Trying Time‚ lmao #i guess this can get filed under #bookblogging