#when it comes to “political commentary in video games”

[itsbasil]

this literally never stops being funny like dog they made starship troopers with the Baby's First Satire cranked up to 11 and these people are still fucking dumbfounded that the creators don't share their politics

#idk if anyone who follows me plays helldivers 2 but trust me #when it comes to “political commentary in video games” #helldivers 2 does everything short of putting “YOU ARE FIGHTING FOR THE BAD GUYS” in every loading sequence #helldivers #helldivers 2

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Humans are not perfectly vigilant

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then PROVIDENCE (Apr 12), and beyond!

Here's a fun AI story: a security researcher noticed that large companies' AI-authored source-code repeatedly referenced a nonexistent library (an AI "hallucination"), so he created a (defanged) malicious library with that name and uploaded it, and thousands of developers automatically downloaded and incorporated it as they compiled the code:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/ai_bots_hallucinate_software_packages/

These "hallucinations" are a stubbornly persistent feature of large language models, because these models only give the illusion of understanding; in reality, they are just sophisticated forms of autocomplete, drawing on huge databases to make shrewd (but reliably fallible) guesses about which word comes next:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922

Guessing the next word without understanding the meaning of the resulting sentence makes unsupervised LLMs unsuitable for high-stakes tasks. The whole AI bubble is based on convincing investors that one or more of the following is true:

There are low-stakes, high-value tasks that will recoup the massive costs of AI training and operation;

There are high-stakes, high-value tasks that can be made cheaper by adding an AI to a human operator;

Adding more training data to an AI will make it stop hallucinating, so that it can take over high-stakes, high-value tasks without a "human in the loop."

These are dubious propositions. There's a universe of low-stakes, low-value tasks – political disinformation, spam, fraud, academic cheating, nonconsensual porn, dialog for video-game NPCs – but none of them seem likely to generate enough revenue for AI companies to justify the billions spent on models, nor the trillions in valuation attributed to AI companies:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

The proposition that increasing training data will decrease hallucinations is hotly contested among AI practitioners. I confess that I don't know enough about AI to evaluate opposing sides' claims, but even if you stipulate that adding lots of human-generated training data will make the software a better guesser, there's a serious problem. All those low-value, low-stakes applications are flooding the internet with botshit. After all, the one thing AI is unarguably very good at is producing bullshit at scale. As the web becomes an anaerobic lagoon for botshit, the quantum of human-generated "content" in any internet core sample is dwindling to homeopathic levels:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/14/inhuman-centipede/#enshittibottification

This means that adding another order of magnitude more training data to AI won't just add massive computational expense – the data will be many orders of magnitude more expensive to acquire, even without factoring in the additional liability arising from new legal theories about scraping:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/17/how-to-think-about-scraping/

That leaves us with "humans in the loop" – the idea that an AI's business model is selling software to businesses that will pair it with human operators who will closely scrutinize the code's guesses. There's a version of this that sounds plausible – the one in which the human operator is in charge, and the AI acts as an eternally vigilant "sanity check" on the human's activities.

For example, my car has a system that notices when I activate my blinker while there's another car in my blind-spot. I'm pretty consistent about checking my blind spot, but I'm also a fallible human and there've been a couple times where the alert saved me from making a potentially dangerous maneuver. As disciplined as I am, I'm also sometimes forgetful about turning off lights, or waking up in time for work, or remembering someone's phone number (or birthday). I like having an automated system that does the robotically perfect trick of never forgetting something important.

There's a name for this in automation circles: a "centaur." I'm the human head, and I've fused with a powerful robot body that supports me, doing things that humans are innately bad at.

That's the good kind of automation, and we all benefit from it. But it only takes a small twist to turn this good automation into a nightmare. I'm speaking here of the reverse-centaur: automation in which the computer is in charge, bossing a human around so it can get its job done. Think of Amazon warehouse workers, who wear haptic bracelets and are continuously observed by AI cameras as autonomous shelves shuttle in front of them and demand that they pick and pack items at a pace that destroys their bodies and drives them mad:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

Automation centaurs are great: they relieve humans of drudgework and let them focus on the creative and satisfying parts of their jobs. That's how AI-assisted coding is pitched: rather than looking up tricky syntax and other tedious programming tasks, an AI "co-pilot" is billed as freeing up its human "pilot" to focus on the creative puzzle-solving that makes coding so satisfying.

But an hallucinating AI is a terrible co-pilot. It's just good enough to get the job done much of the time, but it also sneakily inserts booby-traps that are statistically guaranteed to look as plausible as the good code (that's what a next-word-guessing program does: guesses the statistically most likely word).

This turns AI-"assisted" coders into reverse centaurs. The AI can churn out code at superhuman speed, and you, the human in the loop, must maintain perfect vigilance and attention as you review that code, spotting the cleverly disguised hooks for malicious code that the AI can't be prevented from inserting into its code. As "Lena" writes, "code review [is] difficult relative to writing new code":

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773779967521780169

Why is that? "Passively reading someone else's code just doesn't engage my brain in the same way. It's harder to do properly":

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773780355708764665

There's a name for this phenomenon: "automation blindness." Humans are just not equipped for eternal vigilance. We get good at spotting patterns that occur frequently – so good that we miss the anomalies. That's why TSA agents are so good at spotting harmless shampoo bottles on X-rays, even as they miss nearly every gun and bomb that a red team smuggles through their checkpoints:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/23/automation-blindness/#humans-in-the-loop

"Lena"'s thread points out that this is as true for AI-assisted driving as it is for AI-assisted coding: "self-driving cars replace the experience of driving with the experience of being a driving instructor":

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773841546753831283

In other words, they turn you into a reverse-centaur. Whereas my blind-spot double-checking robot allows me to make maneuvers at human speed and points out the things I've missed, a "supervised" self-driving car makes maneuvers at a computer's frantic pace, and demands that its human supervisor tirelessly and perfectly assesses each of those maneuvers. No wonder Cruise's murderous "self-driving" taxis replaced each low-waged driver with 1.5 high-waged technical robot supervisors:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

AI radiology programs are said to be able to spot cancerous masses that human radiologists miss. A centaur-based AI-assisted radiology program would keep the same number of radiologists in the field, but they would get less done: every time they assessed an X-ray, the AI would give them a second opinion. If the human and the AI disagreed, the human would go back and re-assess the X-ray. We'd get better radiology, at a higher price (the price of the AI software, plus the additional hours the radiologist would work).

But back to making the AI bubble pay off: for AI to pay off, the human in the loop has to reduce the costs of the business buying an AI. No one who invests in an AI company believes that their returns will come from business customers to agree to increase their costs. The AI can't do your job, but the AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI anyway – that pitch is the most successful form of AI disinformation in the world.

An AI that "hallucinates" bad advice to fliers can't replace human customer service reps, but airlines are firing reps and replacing them with chatbots:

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240222-air-canada-chatbot-misinformation-what-travellers-should-know

An AI that "hallucinates" bad legal advice to New Yorkers can't replace city services, but Mayor Adams still tells New Yorkers to get their legal advice from his chatbots:

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/03/nycs-government-chatbot-is-lying-about-city-laws-and-regulations/

The only reason bosses want to buy robots is to fire humans and lower their costs. That's why "AI art" is such a pisser. There are plenty of harmless ways to automate art production with software – everything from a "healing brush" in Photoshop to deepfake tools that let a video-editor alter the eye-lines of all the extras in a scene to shift the focus. A graphic novelist who models a room in The Sims and then moves the camera around to get traceable geometry for different angles is a centaur – they are genuinely offloading some finicky drudgework onto a robot that is perfectly attentive and vigilant.

But the pitch from "AI art" companies is "fire your graphic artists and replace them with botshit." They're pitching a world where the robots get to do all the creative stuff (badly) and humans have to work at robotic pace, with robotic vigilance, in order to catch the mistakes that the robots make at superhuman speed.

Reverse centaurism is brutal. That's not news: Charlie Chaplin documented the problems of reverse centaurs nearly 100 years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_(film)

As ever, the problem with a gadget isn't what it does: it's who it does it for and who it does it to. There are plenty of benefits from being a centaur – lots of ways that automation can help workers. But the only path to AI profitability lies in reverse centaurs, automation that turns the human in the loop into the crumple-zone for a robot:

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

--

Jorge Royan (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Munich_-_Two_boys_playing_in_a_park_-_7328.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

--

Noah Wulf (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thunderbirds_at_Attention_Next_to_Thunderbird_1_-_Aviation_Nation_2019.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #ai #supervised ai #humans in the loop #coding assistance #ai art #fully automated luxury communism #labor

[goodluckclove]

An Open Letter to a Professional Author

I came across a writer here who I imagine will probably never see this, but their presence was enough to make me pretty mad for two days now. I've decided to pen a little statement to this Long-Term, Professional, Full-Time, Published Author who makes a habit out of being deeply unpleasant in a way that apparently has only attracted an audience of other deeply unpleasant people.

People here seem to like it when I get mad. So, uh, enjoy?

Dear Professional Author,

I came across a post of yours on some feed here the other day and enjoyed your commentary. It was one of those writing memes that sort of called attention to actually writing as opposed to just thinking about your project - the kind that people usually respond to with some sort of joke expressing their repulsion at the concept.

You responded with distaste and I generally agreed. The tone was a little aggressive for me, but that kind of humor also leaves me generally confused. I personally ended up concluding that the self-deprecating humor was a coping mechanism for a larger issue that keeps these people from writing - intimidation, lack of confidence, physical or mental pain, things like that. You seemed to think it was a matter of will, which I found to be an approach that at the very least was well-intentioned.

Turns out it wasn't.

First off, I should say that this isn't about your political beliefs. Your political beliefs that are really more like general human beliefs. I don't want to get into that. Instead, I just want to talk about your writing. You are a full-time, published author, as you say in nearly post where you talk about writing. A major point of pride to you seems to be the fact that you are traditionally published. Any other method doesn't seem to be as legitimate to you. That's interesting to me.

You also don't seem to have much of an audience outside of people who mainly come to agree with your politics. I didn't really see a single positive interaction between you and another writer on here for as much as I was willing to scroll through your blog. That's also interesting to me.

I didn't spent too much time on your blog once I realized that you were definitely not the kind of person I would ever want any interaction with. What I did want to do is use your presence indirectly to prove a point that I've been wanting to get into for some time now.

To put it simply, I'll say this: a career in professional writing is not actually as cool or important as you might think it is.

Now I'll be direct and say that I've never been traditionally published for anything longer than a short story or long-term, unpaid column. You don't give any details on any of your writing, as far as I've seen (Once again - interesting!), so there's a chance you've made more in contracts and royalties than I have. But I'm a working writer. I've had a career in ghostwriting and technical writing. I've written and produced plays that have been featured in festivals in multiple states. I'm not speaking from a place of no experience, is what I mean to say.

What I also mean to say is that - while I view writing in many ways as a spiritual and healing act that I couldn't live without - it's also a job. It's not always exciting, and even when it is exciting it's only exciting to me. I consider the best date night to be when my wife works on video game development while I write my draft. I leave the house on a regular basis, but it's mainly to go to different places to write.

In short - I love to write, but I don't think it makes me cool. Or interesting. Or valuable. Or intelligent. Or just generally fun to be around and talk to. These are things I strive to cultivate in other aspects of the way I live and grow as a human being on this planet.

Being a Professional Author in one particular genre doesn't give you authority over the craft as a whole. You can't just throw yourself into conversations and start with I'm a published writer and assume that means you have the final say on any discussion. Believe it or not, in many cases it does not matter.

Lots of people are published traditionally, and it does prove some level of validity in their line of work. But there are a huge variety of people in the world of trad pub. There are people who write books in genres that don't apply to writers here. There are people who write books that aren't very good. There are even people who write trad pub books that are very good, but their careers are sullied by the fact that the authors themselves are not good people.

Being a successful writer does not mean you're a good person. Being a writer at all does not mean you are a good person. I believe in Death of the Author to an extent, but when that author insists on making a presence on a public website and doling out advice and opinions to other writers the lines start to blur considerably.

Writing is a job. You work it over a period of time and learn skills and strategies that work for you. The same applies to virtually every other job, including ones that society views as less romantic as something in the arts. Can you imagine me breaking into your home while you're making lunch and telling you how to arrange your cheese slices based on what I know as a full-time, professional sandwich artist at Subway? You might be interested based on leaning something you didn't know about a place you might've eaten at before. But that does not entitle me to your respect on its own.

I am not entitled to your respect based on how well I learned how to make a sandwich based on my hypothetical career at Subway. Just as I don't deserve it solely because I know two card tricks, can get out a variety of stains, read most of the works of the major beatniks, can make a really good carbonara, or any other specific about my life that ultimately does not play a huge part in who I am as a person.

When I am on my death bed, I hope to god the core of my character was not the fact that I typed stories from my brain until I got carpal tunnel. If my obituary begins and ends at "writer", no matter how positive the qualifier is before that, it will be the greatest failure of my life.

Because I am a writer. But that does not matter. It does not matter if you're a writer. It can be fun and enjoyable if you are, even better if you make a living at it, but it doesn't mean you'll be happy. It doesn't mean people will like you or perceive you to be the leader and teacher you might think you are. It certainly doesn't give you a free pass to throw cruelty at strangers for truly no real reason.

Professional Author, you had a chance to raise up the next generation of an industry I assume you must value. You're choosing not to, and that's fine. You don't have the obligation to. You do have the choice to not get involved and pretend to give advice that ranges from vague to untrue. You seem to be taking that responsibility very seriously.

It's like some twist on crab mentality, where instead of dragging crabs trying to escape the bucket you're swiping at anyone who tries to crawl in with you. Then, as they struggle, you're looking down at them and making comments on how easy it is to get in the bucket, if you only just do it and maybe read some books.

To all of us, I say this: question authority, even in the arts. Especially in the arts. Nobody knows as much as they say. That includes me, but I do know this - any branch of publishing feels really good. It's scary but it's fun. If you're traditional published or indie published or self published, it says nothing about how good your book is or how good you are as a writer or how valuable you are as a human being.

Don't be this lonely bucket crab. They seem mean and I'm tired of talking about them.

Best Regards,

Clove

#writeblr #writing community #writers on tumblr #on writing #writing #authors of tumblr #writer community #writing inspiration #writing inspo #writing rants #personal #clove is angry

[verysium]

what do you read in your spare time? you’re one of the most eloquent users i know, id love to hear how you find the media you consume and what your favorites are

omg ei 😊 welcome back to the inbox! thank you for your sweet words although i'm probably not qualified enough to be considered the full definition of eloquent. i am going to preface this post by saying that i definitely don't read as much as i should, so this list is not going to be comprehensive whatsoever. the last time i even visited an in-person library was like half a decade ago, and since then my spare time has been nonexistent lmao. anyways, here are some of my favorite/most recent reads as listed by author:

POETRY

richard siken: i think siken is already well-known both in the literary world and in whatever booktok deems is popular culture. if you don't already know him though, he is best known for his poetry collection crush, which delves into themes of obsession, gay love, and violent eroticism. i actually read this chapbook unknowingly. as in i was hounding sketchy pdf download sites at 3 AM and saw a man with bloodied lips on the cover and decided to read it. he basically became my summer fever dream after that. the way he juxtaposes images is seamless, smoother than water. only richard siken can talk about violence without making it sound violent. i also enjoyed his other poetry collection war of the foxes, especially "portrait of fryderyk in shifting light." i think light is a common motif throughout most of his poems, and he manipulates it effortlessly. the most recent piece i read from him is "piano lesson." i have nothing left to say that he didn't already say, so i would just recommend reading it for yourself. he is the og big brain when it comes to word play.

ocean vuong: he's unforgettable, and i mean that literally because nobody forgets a person named ocean. time is a mother was exactly what the name suggests: an exploration of grief, loss, and the rewind of time after his mother's death. some of the poems are almost cinematic in quality. "künstlerroman" is my favorite because it feels exactly like watching a video tape in reverse. i think his most famous work is "someday i'll love ocean vuong." it was the first piece i ever read from him, and to this day, it remains my comfort poem.

silas denver melvin: i only recently discovered him through his chapbook grit. i think he's also on tumblr @/sweatermuppet. he writes a lot on the trans experience, and his work gives me a mix of southern gothic and country vibes. would definitely read his other publications if i had the time.

chen chen: one thing about chen chen is that he always comes to devour. my favorite works from him are "self-portrait as so much potential" and "song of the anti-sisyphus." you have to put on your thinking cap for some of his poems, but once you grasp the meaning, everything makes sense all at once.

franny choi: "disaster means without a star" was the entire inspiration behind my first rin fic. i relate to her more personally in regards to the diaspora experience, but her collections are worth reading in general because of the sheer quality.

pages matam: his poem "piñata" was what got me into slam poetry. his work mostly consists of political commentary which i feel is particularly relevant in today's social climate. "on learning america's english" also resonates with people who have encountered the entire losing/learning immigrant tongues experience.

laura lamb brown-lavolie: i've only read one spoken word poem from her, and tbh i only needed to read one. "on this the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the titanic, we reconsider the buoyancy of the human heart" is my two-headed calf poem. one day i will get this tattooed.

brendan constantine: once again, this was the result of me being chronically online coupled with the boredom of an august heat wave. i found "the opposites game" through TED. honestly, i was a bit unsure about it at first, but it's a cute little poem that makes you really delve into the intricacies of craft.

TEEN POETRY & PROSE

yasmeen khan: she could mouth her words onto every square inch of my body, and i would still be coming back for more. ingraining them into flesh is not enough. "movie stars" is by far my favorite work from her. she writes about femininity and womanhood so profoundly. it's tragic, but really i wouldn't have it end any other way.

kaya dierks: her writing is basically middle-of-nowhere small town stoner teenage life but personified. "crushed" is my favorite piece from her. the soundtrack for this work was definitely by ethel cain, and you cannot convince me otherwise.

FICTION

madeline miller: i was first introduced to her when i read the song of achilles. let's just say that book had me nonverbal for the greater half of three months. it was my metaphorical hatchet. i buried it once, and i never want to dig it up again. i read circe a few years later. the first time was during the blue hour at an airport, right between one red-eye flight and another transfer. i don't even remember that experience because i was heavily sleep-deprived. i read it again recently for a literature course, this time for academic analysis. overall, i enjoy the the heroine-centric narrative. typically, i'm a bit wary of novels with heavy feminist themes because they either project their agenda too strongly or they run the risk of misrepresentation. circe doesn't exactly have that problem. it was more about empowerment and less about exercising power over others.

charlotte brontë: as a historical figure, brontë was questionable, but jane eyre most certainly was not. that book rewired my brain, and that is saying something because i have never read any classic by choice. and it is so important to me that jane was the ugliest, plainest girl you could ever imagine. also cus i unironically enjoy angst, and this book was full of dramatic misunderstandings.

yoko ogawa: i love japanese literature, so there is no reason not to include this one here. "a peddler of tears" is one of my favorite short stories. i did not expect the ending at all, but it was welcome. something about violence, body gore, and dismemberment being framed as romantic and semi-erotic just gets to me. sign me the hell up. hotel iris is a hit-or-miss with some people. either you like the fact that art makes you uncomfortable or you shut it down completely. for me, i was alright with exploring some of its darker themes, but read at your own discretion.

NONFICTION

ross gay: he lives up to his name both in optimism and in carefree joy. probably one of my favorite creative nonfiction authors simply based off the accessibility of his writing style. easy to read and understand but still hits you with the full force of a semi-truck. i would recommend his book inciting joy. it's a collection of essays that delve into grief, but since this is ross gay, he makes it seem like a quintessential part of life.

paul kalanithi: sixteen-year-old me was mind blown by him cus before that doctors were shrewish old men with bald spots and sterile coats, not poetic surgeons who dissected the anatomy of word and recited t.s. eliot in the most heart-wrenching way possible. he is everything i want to become in both life and death. when breath becomes air literally does take your breath away.

#asks #moots ♡

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

Kazuki’s honey trapping

and Rei’s yearning for a (stray) cat

Just some thoughts on the first episode: Piece of Cake

On the day Rei took a stray cat to his loft and had an all-nighter playing video games was the night Kazuki didn’t go home. Kazuki went on a mission to bed one of the hotel staff members to obtain information about the Varint Hotel where their Christmas Eve assignment was going to happen.

Episode 1, Piece of Cake

Honey trapping, an act “involving the use of romantic or sexual relationships for interpersonal, political (including state espionage), or monetary purpose,” is obviously Kazuki’s turf. What if Kazuki’s expertise on amorous adventures in comparison with Rei’s lack thereof might have triggered the latter’s search for caring a living creature?

“Hey, I want to love, is this true love? Is just wanting to be loved insincere? What should I do?” The opening credits, “Shock!” by Ayase

This might be a long stretch, but could Rei have been heartbroken and jealous whenever Kazuki had to sleep with someone else (again), thereby attempting to replace that loneliness by adopting a cat he found on the street?

Does that mean that the instances where Rei has brought a stray cat at home coincides with him trailing behind (“stalk”) Kazuki whenever he becomes a honeypot or visits the casinos and rents a companion? I’d like to think that Rei does this. And because it is a recurring theme in their household, he didn’t forget to buy cat food this time around.

I assume, Rei snubbed Kazuki’s cooked food and ordered a takeaway instead just to spite him, not because he was a lazy sod. Or it could be a combination of both.

His “couch-crasher” insult might be a commentary on Kazuki’s sleeping around with different people. But not because he crashes at his luxurious loft. That’s why the vitriol after Kazuki took the cat away from him. Resistance is futile. Rei seems to be weak when it comes to Kazuki.

Concerning Rei’s attitude on relationships, he’s probably suppressing his feelings, a trait he’s learned more reinforced growing up in a Mafia family. Moreover, Kazuki keeps on pointing out his allergic reaction to forming any dalliances to anything or anyone due to their dangerous profession, which will soon become nil courtesy of Miri.

In that case, Miri holds the key to make his two “fathers” open up their feelings to each other.

The question is: will they show it or is it going to be implied through a tragedy that will befall the three? A kidnapping? A shooting? The kid will be taken away bc laws?

Apropos: The official website posted this. Too bad, it is canon that Kazuki might have thrown away the cat food. Oh, that is cruel, Kazuki.

#buddy daddies #buddy daddies anime #buddy daddies spoilers #buddy daddies wall of text #kazuki kurusu #suwa rei #rei suwa #kazurei #kazuki et rei #episode 1: piece of cake #unasaka miri #buddy daddies head canon

[duhragonball]

All right, let me put this under a cut, because this doesn’t come up often, but I think I’d like a single post I can refer people to when this topic gets brought up.

Short version: I read all seven books and hated them, and now the author is an unapologetic transphobe, which is something I have no patience for.  In recent years, critics have begun to connect the author’s neoliberal politics with a lot of the flaws in the writing, and this video by Shaun is a pretty good exploration of what was so frustrating about the books and the characters.  

Long version: I “liveblogged” all seven Harry Potter novels between 2005 and 2012.  I use the quote marks because back in those days I’m not sure “liveblog” was a term, but I certainly hadn’t heard of it.  I called it a “review”, but I basically would read each chapter and recap the whole thing with my smartass commentary.  In hindsight, this was probably more like me trying to do Nostalgia Critic’s bit in prose format, but I wasn’t very familiar with him at the time either. 

Soon afterward, I moved my online presence to tumblr, which was sort of a fresh start for me.  It sounds like I’m implying there was some sort of bad experience that came out of the whole thing, but there wasn’t.  I was proud of the work I did at the time, and while I’m not sure if it holds up in the 2020′s, I got a lot of satisfaction out of finishing a multiyear project like that.  But by the end, I was ready to move on, and so I have moved on, which is why I don’t speak of it much in this space. 

The point I’m making here is that I read all the books and I examined them pretty thoroughly, and my conclusion was that they all sucked.  Yes, even your favorite one.  No, it didn’t start out good and jump the shark later on.  They all sucked.  That’s what I had against Harry Potter.

I say “had”, because even though I’ve moved on to other pursuits, J.K. Rowling continues to maintain a public presence, selling her video games and spin-off movies and so on.  She’s also gone full-on TERF, spouting transphobic rhetoric and using her platform as a billionaire best-seller to bully people who are much less fortunate than herself. 

I’ll embed that video I linked to up top.

I think Shaun does a really excellent job explaining just what bugged me so much about the Harry Potter books.  I found the main characters extremely unlikeable, and I could never quite put my finger on the reason.  And the villains were pretty weak too, despite all their terrible crimes and talk of conquest.  Superficially, the whole thing feels like a classic good vs. evil struggle, with good wizards fighting bad wizards, kind of like how the Transformers are about good alien robots fighting a war against bad alien robots.  But it never seemed to work in the Harry Potter books.

Shaun explains why: Despite the “good versus evil” premise, a lot of the good guys just act like thoughtless, selfish pricks sometimes, and it’s justified because they’re on the good guy team.  Sometimes a character will do something terrible to another character, and it’s deemed acceptable because they’re nominally a “good guy”, and the person they’re being a jerk to is a “bad guy”, so they’re fair game.  It’s less about “good vs. evil” and more about “us vs. them”.  

Shaun doesn’t spent a lot of time getting into Rowling’s transphobia, but he does talk about a lot of the other problematic stuff in the books, like the lack of thought she put into Cho Chang’s name.  He also points out the hypocrisy in having all the other characters act irritated with Hermione’s anti-slavery campaign.  The whole thing with the house elves was half-baked from the start, and Rowling kept stumbling through each book trying to correct course, ultimately settling on having one character stand up for the Right Thing, only to have all the other characters ignore or dismiss her concerns.  Harry himself seems to have no particular opinion on house-elf slavery, which sums up the character very succinctly.   He’s the protagonist and the viewpoint character, but he doesn’t stand for anything in particular.

Now that I think about it, I suppose this was why I kept working anime characters and Transformers and professional wrestlers into my liveblog of the books.  At the time, I would have told you I was just doing it to keep myself entertained as I trudged through the series, but in hindsight, I think I was just starved for characters who actually believed in something bigger than themselves.   Harry can barely be arsed to do his own homework, meanwhile, I’ve known what passions fuel Omega Supreme since I was nine years old. 

“Diction: Straighforward.  Personality: Complex. (*snif*)”

I don’t know what sort of person you are, @endmylife69​ . You strike me as a reply guy, contrarian for its own sake.  I see feminist and antifeminist posts in your likes, and one of the three posts on your blog is about how much you hate Chi-Chi, so I don’t know why you even show up to my blog, where I think Chi-Chi is awesome.  The point is if your agenda here is to sea-lion me into “proving” that Rowling is a TERF and that TERFs are bad, I’m not interested in playing that game.  There’s plenty of critics out there who will walk you through that discussion step by step.  You asked what my problem is with her, and I’m telling you.

There are fans of hers who have to struggle with the moral implications of liking her work while distancing themselves from her hateful beliefs.  I respect the fans who have to figure that out.  I don’t respect the fans who just pretend like the dilemma doesn’t exist, because they care more about playing that new Hogwarts vidya game than anything else. 

For my own part, I can’t relate to the fans’ dilemma, because I always thought Rowling’s book series sucked shit.  What’s frustrating for me is that I spent about seven years roasting her books on the internet, and the whole time I was going “Ha ha these books suck shit!”, and it all just feels so dated now, because she’s going to go down in history as this rich, hateful bigot.  Her lousy writing is going to be a footnote to her career.  It’s like writing an “epic takedown” of Mel Gibson movies without ever getting into all the antisemitic stuff he’s done.  In retrospect, I feel kind of disgusted for engaging with her work at all, even to insult it. 

I’m sick of talking about Harry Potter, so let me make this about Chi-Chi, since that seems to be the only thing I know you have strong opinions about.  Part of the reason I like Chi-Chi so much is because she’s basically right.  She objects to a lot of the things that happen in Dragon Ball, which makes her seem like a killjoy, but her motives are sensible and important.  She grounds the other characters, keeping them with one foot in the real world. 

This is because Chi-Chi understands that there’s more to life than fighting gonzo anime battles.  Yes, she lives in a world where laser karate is real and quite prevalent.  Yes, her sons are insanely powerful warriors who are sometimes the only thing standing in the way of world annihilation.  But at the same time? Gohan and Goten really do need to study and get good jobs.  Protecting the world is important, but so is family, and home life, and the work you do.  Also, maybe it’s important to stop breaking the furniture all the time.  Its expensive, dammit. 

These are messages that a lot of DB fans don’t care for, because they tuned in for gonzo anime battles, and this loud woman is scolding everyone for wanting that.  But the point of the character is that there’s a bigger world in the lore.  There’s places to live and people to meet and things to do besides fighting Frieza all the time, and she wants her loved ones to thrive in that world, which is why she keeps reminding them of it. 

And that’s a metaphor for our own world, where there’s more to our own lives than the shows we watch and the books we read, and the internet arguments we get into.  We each have to ask ourselves what we stand for, what we’re trying to be on this planet.  My problem with the Harry Potter franchise is that it doesn’t seem to stand for much of anything.  The characters only seem to care about stopping big league threats, but have no interest in reforming their broken society.  The protagonist spends much of his time just passively experiencing the story like he’s sitting in a theme park ride.  The author only seems to feel strongly about punching down, attacking trans people and surrounding herself with anyone willing to congratulate her for this despicable attitude.  Her supporters only seem to care about being on her side, no matter how morally bankrupt it is. 

Like, okay, that video game came out a few months ago, and I saw people on Twitter trying to angrily justify their decision to buy it, even though a lot of people have pointed out that it directly supports a woman who uses her wealth to justify her bigotry platform.  They’d go “It’s just a game!” and someone made a really snotty TikTok about it or something, and I’m like “Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?”  If it was just a game, then they’d just play it and not say anything.  But they know it’s not just about the game, and that’s why they’re so defensive about it.  They want to be on both sides of this thing, and that doesn’t surprise me much, since their favorite book series taught them that they can be a real selfish dickbag and still be a good guy as long as you oppose the main villain. 

Chi-Chi would see right through that.  It’s not enough to just oppose the final boss.  It’s the life you live before and after those kinds of battles that defines you as a person. 

Anyway, Harry Potter sucks rotten eggs, and the author is a giant toolshed.  Also, that funeral they did for the giant spider was a fucking ordeal to read.  0/10 would not recommend. 

#ask duhragonball #index

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

The far cry 5 confused me, like ever played Assassin Creed 3? Like they did a good job showing the difference between American ideals vs what Congress did.

Like they outed George Washington historical orders to burn down native villages during the Seven Years War and how Congress screwed over the natives after the revolution

But like there was a subset of side quests called the Homestead missions, that showed the American dream. People from different walks of life coming together to make something different, something better, second chances and such.

And journalists was surprised that the normal town folks wasn’t racist to you if your character was non white? I mean, they would be weary of you regardless of race or gender as you are a Marshall so still an outside. Also one of the first marketing for 5 had a black priest show he getting armed to protect his town from the cult

But…the game humanized American townsfolk better than Hollywood been doing for the past decade.

Like a parade of American gun control…despite a French Canadian company executing our ideas better our own entertainment industry.

When you have a chance can you answer this anon? I’m a black American and I thought they did it well.

I've played Assassin's Creed 3 and I didn't really like it, but AC3 really doesn't have anything to do with my point about Far Cry 5 other than providing more evidence of Ubisoft's political leanings.

Ubisoft is a French company run and staffed by mostly left wing people. When they make political statements in their work, those statements are always pushing the left wing side of an issue. Far Cry 5 is very clearly supposed to be a game making fun of rural, religious life and American gun culture. They have two different characters who are large parts of the story who exist solely to make fun of Southern Americans, one of whom is a blatant MAGA stand in. The other is that character's son, a stereotypical stupid redneck who only gets some character development beyond that when he starts going against his father's beliefs. The bad guys are all white and religious and mostly male, while the good guys are multicultural with a lot of female characters. The main character is a federal Marshall and it's that main character who is the catalyst for the good guys finally pushing back the cult. It's not too difficult to see the message there being something along the lines of "rural prepper types who pride themselves on being self-sufficient need the government's help to protect themselves". The intent with Far Cry 5 was very clearly, at least in part, to mock "right wing" ideals and American rural culture.

But what they actually ended up doing was writing a love letter to those ideals and that culture. They ended up portraying most rural folk as accepting and competent people who just want to be left alone to live their lives, and who will do the right thing when they come up against a difficult situation. They ended up illustrating why the second amendment is so important by showing how an armed populace is necessary for fighting against tyranny when the police/government/etc can't, or won't. And yes this tyranny was a cult and not the government, but the point still stands. The fact that Ubisoft ended up "executing our ideas better our own entertainment industry" was by accident because they really don't understand the issues they're commenting on. They're a bunch of left wing French people who have never experienced rural American right wing culture trying to portray that culture from within their own left wing echo chamber, while also needing to tone down the political commentary to sell a video game to the very people they're trying to mock. But even the mockery that does get through ends up backfiring when the metanarrative overrides the written narrative. They focus so hard on making their bad guys out to be right wing religious nuts that they don't realize they're making their good guys out to be a much more numerous population of normal right leaning people fighting back against the extremism on "their" side.

[balioc]

I've been asked to provide brief commentary on some specific books from my 2023 reading list, so --

Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America, Richard Rorty

I was not super impressed by this one. The core thesis -- the radical theory-driven left is not particularly helpful in terms of advancing concrete leftist political goals within the American system -- is, at this point, not news. (It wasn't even really news in 1998 when the book was published.) And everything surrounding that thesis...well, it is very serious about the idea that it is Good and Helpful to develop a nationalistic-but-leftist ideological consciousness, which should raise a lot of eyebrows no matter who you are.

This book was recommended by Matt Yglesias, and it reads very much like part of the ideological grounding of someone like Matt Yglesias. Which is not a compliment. I like Yglesias, but -- ideological grounding is not his strong suit.

The Tatami Galaxy, Tomihiko Morimi

It was...fine, I guess.

There are four stories, which are theoretically all alternate-universe versions of the same events. (Not a spoiler, that fact is revealed extremely quickly.) They're all very modern-Asian-style magical surrealism. The last story is substantially the longest and substantially the best; its vision of the titular "tatami galaxy," a Borges-style labyrinth made from endless iterations of your own college dorm room, is at the very least punchy and memorable. But there's not really enough there there, and the first three stories are a slog.

The Man Who Was Thursday, G. K. Chesterton

This is fucking amazing. Probably the best book I read all year, unless that goes to the Oscar Wilde.

It's witty throughout, although it's the wit of an old stodgy conservative British guy who sneers at a lot of things, so you have to be willing to live with that. But it's also...well, ballsy is the best word I have for it. Saying that it's a "twist book" fails to do it justice. There is a twist -- but the more-relevant thing is that it sneaks around behind you and kicks you in the back of the head in a way that is mostly not about the twist, but about a much-more-fundamentally-weird thing that Chesterton is doing. The book you are reading at the end is very much not the book you thought you were reading at the beginning.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

Mnr mnr mnr mnr. My feelings here are complicated.

On the one hand: this is a book about a small number of people with incestuously-tangled lives who make art together and in reaction to each other, who are absolutely obsessed with the art that they're making. This is a theme that has a lot of resonance for me, and, like, it gets the feel of that thing largely right. There are also other, more-idiosyncratic reasons for this book to have resonance for me.

On the other hand: it's a character-driven litfic book, and I don't love any of the characters, or even particularly like them. They are the wrong flavor of nerd, with the wrong kinds of thoughts and emotional issues. Also, it is a book about making and selling video games that...reads like it was written by someone who doesn't quite understand how video games work or how the video game market works.

On the gripping hand: it does a very good job of portraying the aspect of life experience that is "as you get older, the intense dramas of your youth don't get forgotten, but the colors kind of fade and the feelings come to seem much less important with perspective."

In particular: Near the beginning, there is a side character who is portrayed as the Absolute Fucking Unforgivable Shitbag Monster of a contemporary story told using contemporary norms. He does the kind of things that are specifically tailored to make you think this guy deserves nothing but hate, forever. The characters, to the extent that they know about him and what he's done, by and large do feel that way. And then...well, it's not like there's ever a comeuppance or a redemption or anything like that. But at the end, the feeling is much more -- well, he's this guy we know, there's a lot of awkwardness related to past pain and past wrongdoing, but even so we're something sort of like old friends and really it's mostly just water under the bridge at this point.

Which is, complicatedly, interesting.

#media reviews

[comic-panels]

Final Fantasy XVI Review

Spoiler warning For Final Fantasy XVI

and Asura’s Wrath I guess

Somewhere around 2/3rds of the way through Final Fantasy XVI Godzilla and Mothra do the fusion dance to defeat King Ghidorah and I am through the moon.

It’s the peak of the dumb spectacle that FF XVI delivers in its best moments, topping the previous large spectacle boss fight that was also a marvel of large scale blow your socks off nonsense. It’s also the emotional peak of the narrative where the emotional threads that the game actually cares about come together (It’s brothers all the way down).

They go to space!

It’s great.

After that Final Fantasy XVI basically fritters away everything it’s built up, squandering all its potential and my good will. But before I get to the deal breaker let’s talk about some other issues.

The early hours of Final Fantasy XVI spend a lot of time building up the world and political realities of the world. The game wants to present itself as a more adult Final Fantasy. This is a Final Fantasy that fucks and says fuck. There’s blood. Red blood. There’s politics, people in a room discuss a war. And a lot of air is spent on the magical slavery of this world. The early hours we see the tragedy of Clive’s life and how everything he had is taken away from him.

And then he gets like all of it back. Even his dog.

Clive is a pretty dumb protagonist. And I mean like head empty dumb. It takes hours in game for him to realize that it was him who turned into Ifrit and killed his brother. And then he has to come to terms with having killed his brother. And then it takes more hours for him to discover that his brother was never really dead after all.

I don’t have a problem with a head empty himbo protagonist, but it tries my patience a little to be following around this specific guy who’s never put two and two together explore and learn about the world of magical slavery and why it’s bad.

This is a game about Kaiju firing lasers at each other in space. There isn’t nuanced thoughtful commentary here. The game doesn’t have anything interesting to say about its magical slavery, or how to depict it, it just sucks a lot of the air out of the room. A lot of whinging, no meat.

All that early posturing, and setup in those early hours gives way to a game that isn’t really “mature” at all. It took some light seasoning from Game of Thrones but that’s it. After those initial scenes of Benedikta straddling Hugo in the hallway, or Anabella ready to go to town on Elwin’s dick while ranting about genetic purity, the game is actually really chaste and terrified of sex.  When it comes to Clive and Jill’s romance suddenly the game is unwilling to show anything. When they meet up as adult they just fall into being married like immediately, the game only willing to even give the player the classic almost-kiss-but-interrupted moment after hours of them together. Just falling face first into the Whores and Madonnas trope. My favorite example of this is when Clive goes to an actual brothel and the Madame flirts with Clive a little and there’s just zero chance that Clive would respond to this one iota. The only characters allowed to be really horny are explicitly evil and brutally killed. Only characters the game doesn’t think of as fucking are allowed to have the actually emotional conversations that can provide a feast for horny fan communities. Like Clive and Cid. Or Clive and Gav. Or Clive and Joshua. Clive and his brother spend more time lovingly starring into each other’s eyes than him and his wife do in this video game. And the one actually gay relationship is also reduced to tasteful kiss with the camera zoomed out. The game is too scared of actual romance and so the emotional moments of characters interacting and sharing feelings is left to the homosocial moments. The endgame sidequest that is basically Jill’s loyalty mission when at the end of it you get a pop-up saying Jill will now always stay in your party is about you and Joshua hanging out without her. And she doesn’t even come on the final mission!

But so it goes.

The game is at its best when it’s Kaiju firing lasers in space. Being afraid of cooties isn’t a deal breaker.

Neither does the fact that all the political intrigue hinted at early on comes to naught when it becomes clear that the video game is built around going to all the Mothercrystals on the map and blowing them up. You just go around and cut off the head of every major government one by one and none of their relationships with each other matter. Infuriatingly at the same time as you’re doing that you’re also going to a nearby town and befriending the most influential richest person there, who is your main ally in your quest to free slaves. To the point where in the last town you don’t know who your contact will be so the plan is to specifically find the richest, most influential person in town, because clearly that person will be against slavery. What are we doing here guys? Just a lot of time befriending the nice slave owners in this video game. There’s a late game sidequest that’s all about about finding your dad’s lost will where he says he was gonna free all his slaves after he died. Aw, see, he was a good one after all.

Can we get back to the Kaiju in space please.

It’s not just that the content of this part of the game is bad. It’s that it’s bad in the same way repeatedly, which sets up a bigger problem with the end of the game.

The game just doesn’t have enough surprises.

When Ifrit and Phoenix fuse together into one being, the emotional climax of their entire journey to stop their step-brother Bahamut, whose life has also been ruined by Anabella and is now enthralled to Ultima, I was surprised and delighted. That just never happened again for the rest of the game.

The only kinds of surprises were baffling disappointments, like Jill not coming on the final mission, or Ultima’s strongest form just being evil Ifrit-Phoenix, like this was a Marvel movie.

The thing I will point to that I think a lot of this stems from is that Ultima is fucking boring. His flat affect, his weird emotionless face and the fact that at the end of the day, he’s just another dumb guy.

There’s also the fact that being enthralled to Ultima also makes Barnabas/Odin suck.

In the early parts of the game there is some intrigue set up with Cid, Benedicta and Barnabas; how Cid abandoned his position at Barnabas’s side. We see Benedicta hates him for it and we get a taste of Cid’s  anger towards Barnabas.

But with Cid dead by the time Barnabas is really in the story there’s no emotion left there. He and Clive have no relationship. Ultima’s whole thing is about how people shouldn’t have will, they’re just a tool he created for his own needs. With Barnabas fully bought in on that, it means there’s no juice to this showdown. Barnabas is just a dumb guy who doesn’t believe in his own will.

There’s nothing there. There are hints of other things as you can tell at some point someone thought maybe there should be more to this. We get a cutscene with Barnabas naked as Ultima transforms into his mom also naked. But there’s no follow up to that. And then during the fight Barnabas, in masked Odin mode, goes full green goblin and becomes a different character briefly cackling like a madman, which is like just enough to make me go “you’re right video game, Barnabas should have had literally any personality this whole time.”

And this is where my enthusiasm for this game died. For one the game pads out getting you to the Barnabas fight, and it does so using a nasty trick it used before: to put you face to face with the boss fight, only to then pull you away so that you could meet face to face again, without any of the stakes of the game having changed. The game also does this with Titan, but at least there you got to cut off Hugo’s hands for your trouble. You fake fight Barnabas twice, with him kicking your ass in cutscenes and you undergoing no actual power ups before you really fight and defeat him.

The spectacle of this fight is a downgrade from the last big one, you barely even fight Odin in Eikon form. And there are no emotional stakes. Barnabas is King of a dead city. He doesn’t have an argument, his temptation of Clive is completely hollow.

I just need the characters to hate each other, or at least be emotionally involved with each other in some way. This is basic Shonen stuff here, and the game drops the ball completely. The storytelling and plotting have sucked everything dry. Early on all Odin had to do was stand on a hill and be huge, and my heart swelled.

He’s a giant dude on a giant horse, and all the fun of that has been slowly, repeatedly and thoroughly stamped out.

At this point I’m mad.

You never even confront the blight itself omg, how do you fuck that up, I’m so mad. Ultima is just some guy running from it. Cid’s whole theory was wrong but it never even mattered. We’re just here to punch God and end the video game. Nothing matters.

I love the video game Asura’s Wrath. That is spectacle action done correctly even though the playing of the video game is kinda whatever. The end of that game is Asura angrily punching God for making his daughter cry. It’s not complicated. But it’s worlds more engaging to me than the end of Final Fantasy XVI, which vaguely just copies that ending beat for beat without any of the verve that makes Asura’s Wrath sing.

It feels kinda dumb to say after mentioning Asura’s Wrath, but the combat here kinda ran out of steam over the length of the game. It starts really fun and the first few Ikon unlocks really keep making it better, but then you kinda hit a wall. Too many of the abilities feel similar to others, and there’s no fun new moevement getting added to your kit. And then the really late game Eikons just gave me abilities that had lengthy animations attached, so it really was like an older Final Fantasy where I’m sitting there watching an unskippable cutscene in the middle of battle. The game went from dodging and parrying to comboing abilities to maximize stagger amount to firing Kamehamehas over and over. And like, that last one is cool, but less engaging when you’re just doing that over and over for like the last 10 hours or whatever. That’s an exaggeration, but for the final boss, he was so mobile that I basically couldn’t do my setup combos on him and just had to wait for the cooldown on my lengthy laser beam spell.

Final Fantasy XVI wishes it were as good as Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4.

I was having a good time for most of the way through Final Fantasy XVI. I had my nitpicks with the story and structure, but the highs were very high. The Bahamut fight is truly incredible. I was very happy. But the back end of the game was frankly just pretty boring overall, which burned away a lot of my goodwill and makes me less forgiving of the game’s other problems.

There’s like one moment late in the game where your whole crew crashes your death march to kill the Night King beyond The Wall and you are all finally together to confront evil and I saw a glimpse of a better world where you just got to hang with your party and use the power of friendship to save the world together.

But like that the dream was gone.

Instead the game ends with a world where people use flint to make fire instead of expending people’s life force.

So I dunno. 7/10. 7.5? It coulda been a 10. The Devs should have watched less Game of Thrones and more Kamen Rider. It would have served the game they were capable of making better.

#ff #ffxvi spoilers #ff xvi #Final Fantasy #Final Fantasy XVI #Asura's Wrath #review #spoilers

[teaveetamer]

"you’re soooo disgusted by incest that you’re willing to harass people who talk about it, but not disgusted enough to stop funding the company that continues producing content you’re supposedly so disgusted by? Miss me with that shit" you forgot that here is the 3dr category, the people who do boycott but bully others for not doing it. Like the people who bullied streamers who bought Hogwarts Legacy (i don't play the game nor care for it but damn)

That asides, Fe incest is limited to subtext between siblings that never go far, incest protrayed as wrong in several games and if it's the Avatar, you have the game's excuse to explain why it technically isnt' because Fe games are targeted at teens so they can't go too far with it, just like they have to be careful with the fanservice within the game.

Also, forgot to say this, but they'd also have to boycott greek mythology or mythology in general. And historical text such as Cleopatra marrying her brother (though t'was political) or the famous rumors about the Borgia family though it turn out to be false but never prevented people to use it in fictions (cough, cough Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas)

Oh boy someone's giving me the opportunity to talk about the stupid wizard game it's my lucky day!

I'm not going to argue that harassment didn't happen to streamers who played the game, but I was pretty deep in the sauce following the fallout for this and 99.9999999999999999999999% of the commentary I saw was just people saying basic shit like "trans rights", telling the streamer that they were disappointed in their decision to purchase and play the game on stream and they would not be watching/following any longer, and pointing out that your $60 to trans lifeline wasn't gonna do jack shit compared to the disgusting amount of influence JK has.

(Just so everyone is clear... I, you know, I agree with these statements. Especially that last point, that "but I donated $60 to trans lifeline!" is a placebo to make yourself feel like you've done something to counterbalance. A dollar in JKR's pocket is worth a hundred in trans lifeline's, because JKR has a fuckton of money she can throw at anything she wants to support or oppose, is friends with people in government who will listen to her, and despite the backlash she's still an incredibly well known, influential person. Streamers and Youtubers are even worse tbh, because not only did they put money in JKR's pockets, they're now actively advertising and profiting off of the game. Why don't you put all of the profits you make from your streams toward trans lifeline too, if you're such an ally?)

And this is not something where I was just going into pro-trans-people-should-be-allowed-to-live circles. I was looking at compilations from supporters of the streamers trying to condemn people for the hate, and this was the kind of thing people were pulling up. Now I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure when you're trying to demonstrate that brutal harassment is happening, you go for the most fucked up shit you can find. Sooooo if that's the best they were coming up with, either their perception of what constitutes harassment is grievously warped, or they genuinely couldn't find anything harder than someone on twit with a trans flag in their display name saying "trans rights". Which is... telling.

I did, however, see a lot of really disgusting harassment from transphobes leaving hateful shit on youtube videos and tweets from trans creators! You can find it pretty easily, actually, it's literally all over any trans creator's videos speaking up about the game. Even chill ones that were like "I'm not saying you're a bad person for buying this game, but you're not my ally" which, you know. Yeah.

So like, you know, ~cis opinions~ and all, but kiiiiiiiinda feels like maybe one side was blatantly trying to martyr streamers based on some critique they received and maybe a small group of bad actors harassing them to motivate and justify harassment of trans people. Which, you know, if you've ever been a member of a marginalized community, should be an extremely familiar tactic to you by now.

And the thing that really fucks me off is that it's not hard to enjoy the stupid wizard game without putting money into the pockets of someone who literally wants their fellow humans dead. This is a very rare instance in life where you actually can have your cake and eat it too. Just buy it used, I've been saying that for months. The profit from used games go entirely to the store you purchased them from. And hey, another reason to not let physical die out! It requires that someone, somewhere buy it new first, but let's be real we all know that people were gonna buy the stupid wizard game and there was nothing we were gonna be able to do to stop them.

That's what I was going to do if the game piqued my interest (which tbh, the more I saw of it the less interested in actually playing it at some point I got. I mean I like the stupid wizard world as much as the next Zilennial but they aren't selling me shit unless it's a cozy wizard school life sim. There aren't even romance options! That's like half the reason to play a not!Bioware game! And I don't want to play a stupid 15 year old. And I've heard all of the outfits are atrocious and I'm sorry, I'm a fashion over function player.)

Also, while I'm ranting, here's an unpopular opinion for you: the blatant dick sucking by review outlets of one of the most mid looking games of 2023 was excruciatingly painful to watch. Did you see some of those reviews? Fucking ridiculous. "There's only six spells, the texture pop in is godawful, the game runs like shit, the world is boring. 9/10". Like yeah I get that review outlets are naturally going to be biased toward positive reviews so they can continue getting early access and perks, but GOD they could at least pretend. And it'll still probably get GotY because it's the wizard IP you remember from when you were a kid! Member? I member!

#tw transphobia #tw HP and the six million pointless sidequests #I might have more to rant about but this is getting long

[applestorms]

been reading through some of the author commentary from the patreon post archive for HS^2 stuff & writing notes on certain quotes from it and i think i've come up with (slightly) more distinct reasons for why the epilogues/homestuck^2 feel so off and/or frustrating to me. not gonna post the full thing + i'm only about halfway through reading it all, but here's a few points (warning this one gets kinda political):

It’s possible “Ultimate” Dirk’s presence was suppressing other splinters of himself from manifesting.

Wait, so... Ult. Dirk is just suppressing the other splinters? But I thought the entire point was that he subsumed all the other splinters to become one Ultimate Self? Weird, but I guess that plays more into the narrative powers side of things that they put a lot of emphasis on. That, or the creators don't have a very clear idea of what actually makes an Ultimate Self, which would. also work lmfao

Unlike the other victors of the game, Jane threw herself into the world the kids made together. She grew up preparing to take over a major company, and has the confidence to show for it.

Gonna get more into two ideas here in a bit related to this quote, the first being HS^2's Trump Era politics & the second being Jane more specifically. Here's the first connection:

I don’t know if you noticed, but everything is terrible right now. And I don’t mean just in Homestuck’s dumb fake earth. I mean in our dumb real earth. Our planet is burning and folks go to bed hungry just so twelve guys can have more money than Croesus could have ever dreamed of. The concept of “truth” is at its most tenuous – political divisions involve contradictory interpretations of basic facts. I’ve been playing a lot of Death Stranding recently. Basically any media that you’re making in 2019 has to either address what’s going on around us or come off sanitized, sterilized, with its head in the sand. Kojima offers a simple power fantasy: Through Norman Reedus’s sweaty, urine-filled labor, the things that divide us can be banished. America can be unified again.

HS^2 is kind of agonizingly pessimistic when it comes to its (not at all subtle) political messaging, which I suppose you can in part attribute to a Trump-era leftist/liberal culture, but I personally also attribute to a specific flavor of white person existential pessimism. What frustrates me about HS^2's politics in particular though is just how much it talks down to the reader, acting like their (frankly, imo, pretty fuckin basic) reflections on the flaws of capitalism, gender constructs, and contemporary American politics are these revolutionary ideas that nobody other than them truly understands. It's really aggravating to read, honestly, and reminds me a lot of the perspective reflected on in this video by F.D Signifier about Bo Burnham's Inside & white performative liberalism, though in this context the creators are much more insufferable about it than Burnham ever was. (This is NOT to say every creator working on HS^2 was white or even ascribes/d to these kinds of politics, but that's one of the voices that I feel comes through the strongest.)

Edit: Re-watched that whole video and he really does get at the exact idea I'm thinking of. However, I would add that the thing that makes HS^2 feel especially insufferable to me is the fact that it doesn't feel like the authors are engaging in their politics as genuinely or personally as Burnham does. Where Burnham's look into these issues is self-reflective, the existential dread coming from the ways in which he himself plays a part in perpetuation of systems of oppression, I feel like HS^2's creators were unwilling to look at the ways in which they themselves might've benefited from the same kinds of privileges. It's just- it's egotistical, honestly! And it's a vibe that I get from a lot of heavily queer, young, white fandom spaces, which presume that because of their own experiences with queer and trans-based bigotry they understand everything and don't have to examine their own biases or any other nuances to their social position/the privileges they might personally have & continue to benefit from. I don't know- Homestuck was never going to be a good medium for examining the nuances of race and privilege, that was determined by the very first page or whenever Hussie decided non-canon races were a thing, but that doesn't make it any less agonizing to watch such a ham-fisted, pompous attempt at "social commentary." Ugh.

I guess I can understand the desire to get HS^2's politics to be more up to date and with it, again considering what the Trump-era American political landscape looked like (and what HS proper looked like, let's be real), but the way they approach this just makes the authors seem that much more immature to me. I hesitate to even call this political commentary, it's just pointing out that things are bad and then complaining about it. There's no hope here and it shows, and I personally have very little patience when it comes to that kind of perspective. I don't want to be too harsh to the creators or completely undermine the ways they might've faced structural social challenges (yes, trans people have it fucking bad right now! And there was absolutely some bigoted shit directed at the creators that was more reprehensible than anything here, I was there when this shit was coming out, I saw it all too (alongside the genuinely good criticism that they wrote off just as easily, but I digress)), but this shit is just bad, I'm sorry.

Privilege, safety, and inherited wealth do funny things to the brain. People justify to themselves why they have what they have. If you have enough for long enough, you start to convince yourself you deserve it. Jane won the game, lost very little, and as god of a new world decided to dominate its markets as a corporate mogul. Her conception of what was possible with her capability and god-like reason was shaded, limited by the world she grew up in. She is not a goddess of fantasy, a semi-mythical trickster creature like Jasprose, or a meta-aware marionette master like Dirk. She saw a new world and chose, simply, to replicate the power structures of the 21st-century America she was raised in. Boardrooms, power pantsuits, formality and professionalism.

(Longer quote here justifying the horror they did to Jane's character but let's add one more before I elaborate further)

But in the end, isn’t that what every story is? Trying to untie knots that you put in the rope yourself?

This quote is very telling and gets at my issue with the Jane quote from above, really one of my main issues with the all post-canon shit just in general: when the authors were creating a bunch of problems and inserting them into the story, something that is (typically) necessary for any kind of meaningful storytelling, they went about the process of introducing that conflict totally wrong.

In the original story of HS, problems for the characters primarily originated from Sburb, which acts as both the game they're playing and, as is demonstrated throughout Act 1, the world itself. Problems in the story thus often feel at least kind of true to life because they either originate directly from the game & its constructs (which the characters have no control over, parallel to how you can't usually control the world irl) or individuals responding to those circumstances w/ their own set of unique characteristics (Vriska being an active character and creating villains to become a hero but also Rose deciding she has to go through with a suicide mission in response to the game/Doc Scratch and Dave in turn responding to her actions, etc. etc.).

This is not necessarily true for all of the story or every single plot point/character arc, but I think it generally follows, and so for as meta as HS gets, it never really felt to me like you could see the hand of the author when it comes to how major plot elements are introduced, outside of a few very overt examples. Problems are able to crop up fairly naturally through characters responding in what they think to be natural/rational ways to their circumstances, but may or may not be due to the limitations on their understanding. The situation and environment of Sburb and the world of HS itself may be absurd and stupid and crazy and very obviously created by an author, but the characters typically feel consistent and true to themselves as people in how they respond to the absurdity and confusion of their world. It's one of the reasons why I think HS is so appealing as a coming of age story actually, since stepping into adulthood (or even just your teenage years) does often feel like entering a world that is crazy and cruel and unknowable with all of these malicious, far-away forces that know way more than you could ever possibly understand controlling every detail of the world around you and deciding your fate before you even get the chance to know it's coming. These are kids, they really don't have a lot of power even once they ascend to godhood in comparison to the forces they're dealing with, and the story & world reflects that.

The problem w/ HS^2 & the Epilogues is that the authors don't have the same game construct to work with, barely have a world at all to begin with actually, and so they instead twist pretty much every single character into the worst possible versions of themselves in order to try and recreate the same HS absurdity. But it just doesn't work, because there is no real explanation for why every character is suddenly at their lowest point and acting like a fucking idiot all the time other than "ooo adulthood makes everyone worse!" and vague gestures to capitalism and privilege (or what I would call structural ignorance, though I don't think they ever call it that), so the story just comes across as incredibly cruel and uncaring and unabashedly pessimistic in a way that's just miserable to read.

Yes, Jane grew up privileged, it makes sense that she would be sympathetic to capitalism and try to recreate the same social structures that fucked people up on the original Earth- but that is not nearly enough justification for why she has suddenly gone full fascist dictator endorsing troll eugenics and trying to murder people, and it doesn't even work well as social commentary cause it's so extreme right from the start that it couldn't possibly reflect real life issues or the development of actual fascist/bigoted ideas. Yes, Trump's ties to the alt-right are fucking terrifying and conservative politics in general in the U.S. nowadays are incredibly fucked, but there's still logical people and seemingly rational explanations being utilized to justify the bullshit that many people genuinely believe in and HS^2 fails to meaningfully reflect or comment on any of those, at least from what I can tell. Everyone is consistent with how they are terrible, I'll give them that, for Dirk and Jane and everyone else the flaws that are being emphasized are ones that are generally kind of consistent with canon, but I simply cannot get behind why they suddenly decided to be the worst possible versions of themselves other than that the authors realize they needed plot and decided that the best way to make Candy and Meat the Bad Timelines:tm: was to spontaneously make everyone as insufferable as possible.

I think a part of the problem is the time skip, honestly. And the fact that Earth C as a location itself is surprisingly underutilized when it comes to creating problems for the characters. The characters are gods ruling over a world where they can be dictator of the globe at the end of a single election. Without the game and the lack of distinct outside villains, there is nothing stopping them from having full agency over everything other than each other, so in order to create plot, instead of going through the effort to create a world or social structure they just made everyone worse and called it a day. It's like the epitome of white liberalism's inability to understand bad systems vs. bad individuals- there are no real systems here, nothing that actually functions past a name, so everyone is just fucking terrible.

(Honestly, I think the fact that there are no overt outside villains could've been a good way of transitioning to the fact that these characters aren't kids anymore- if Dirk and Jane didn't have to be transformed into fucking caricatures of themselves in order to do it. Really the problem is that so many of the characters that used to add interesting nuance to the social conflict are fucking dead now. RIP trolls.)

Since this is turning out to be the political astronaut ramble I guess I'll just keep going for a bit: one of the most meaningful insights a professor has ever given to me came is the idea that we "haven't earned our pessimism yet," as the younger generations, or haven't faced The Shit directly or long enough to justify having as little hope as we do. Many of us have looked at the problem and given up before even trying to solve it, and are, in fact, not really justified in making such a decision.

For me, there's an additional layer to that idea as well: one of the ideas that Beauvoir talks about in her feminist philosophy is that of agency, wherein social privilege allows for certain groups to decide which meaning-creating projects they want to or to not take on where others are not allowed to make the same choice. If you sit in any kind of position of social privilege, that historical role has continually been the one to not only benefit from the rules, but make them in the first place. This kind of pessimism is thus not just unearned, not just frustrating to listen to, but actively harmful to the creation of meaningful change. Who really benefits from inaction? From a lack of change to the status quo? And who are the privileged to make decisions about whether or not we're allowed to fight for this shit in the first place?

#astronaut rambles #big warning this one got a lot more political (sorry?) #i hope this doesn't come across as too harsh ik it gets a little preachy at the end #but i just. i have *so* little patience for that shit now guys #it was insufferable when hs^2 was first coming out and the creators were scrambling to justify their own actions #all the while bullying any fans that dared to try and reasonably criticize their terrible and/or questionable creative decisions #and it only gets worse the more time that passes #i almost get secondhand embarrassment reading these commentaries just from how unprofessional they can be #do not recommend #hs #rose tag #it's kind of difficult for me to properly criticize post-canon stuff actually #i don't know what it is about it #it's like it's just consistent enough w/ just enough half-decent ideas that sometimes i think its not that bad or ill even enjoy parts of i #but then i read certain comments and just. Remember #the Horrors #kinda scared to post this one but i've read it over a few times guess i'll just go for it

[renardtrickster]

My take on the Wizard Game Discourse is that the Harry Potter Video Game Scene hasn't been good since Prisoner of Azkaban on the PS2 (and also the LEGO games), but furthermore the left dropped the ball on Hog Legacy by A LOT, and on SO MANY LEVELS.

The first thing that should be discussed is the streaming scene, in particular the fact that a lot of streamers got sent hate for playing or wanting to play the game, or outright harassed for it (I don't know how widespread this was but I'm moving forward with the assumption that it was a Notable Phenomenon). In particular, this doesn't do anything useful and actively hurts us. If you're a neutral "apolitical" streamer who just wants to play a mediocre wizard game, then you're more likely than not going to block, ignore, and continue on (while also drawing attention to it on social media), because spite and the Streisand Effect is a very potent motivator, and this goes double if you're an especially big streamer. If you're a leftist streamer, see the next paragraph. And if you're a reactionary streamer, you're just going to spin it as a culture war "the left attacked me for liking Harry Potter" thing. And on this point, leftists already have to struggle with a reputation for being no-fun-allowed wokescolds. If we had said "don't play the game it's shit and so is JKR" and responded to it coming out by clowning on it 24/7 (and also not making it trend on twitter every day leading up to it releasing) then we still would have gotten that, but at that point is becomes Dialogue and you can just tell them that their mom sucks you good and hard through your jorts. The circle of online political discourse turns gently. The imagery of leftists actually actively jumping on people's backs because For God's Sake I Just Wanna Game, however, is much harder to shake off though. That shit scares normies off and gives reactionaries more ammo.

Going from the above, I mentioned there's one group of people who will fold when given backlash for playing Wizard Game, and it's: other leftist streamer! I've seen quite a couple of lefty streamers say something to the effect of "might play it, prolly not buying it though Yar Har Har, and make fun of it/donate the money to a trans charity to stick it to JKR", and they get blowback from it, even from their own audience. One notable instance was Hasan Piker planning to do Exactly This, only for his fanbase to slag on him and not do it, because doing otherwise would be "supporting JKR". I have more to say about "supporting JKR", but let's look at the impact here. Before, JKR was going to make a shitload of money, but also a couple of prominent leftist streamers would have streamed the game, made fun of it, showcased to their audience all the shortcomings of the game's mechanics and writing, potentially done the Really Smart Thing of using a normie opener ("Harry Potter am I right?") to inject leftist commentary in a way that's easily consumable, even by liberals and apoliticals, and then tossed whatever money they made (likely the hundreds of thousands, if not millions in Hasan's case) into a trans charity. Instead, what we get is just JKR making a shitload of money and also we get headlines about how the most prominent leftist streamer got bullied by his own audience for playing bideo james, and also the charity streams don't happen. What is our outcome? What did we accomplish? Was it moral purity? Do we care about moral purity? Will moral purity prevent the rapidly approaching trans genocide from happening? I dunno, but at least I feel slightly better for it.

The final point is my address of a counterargument I've often seen in relation to "just pirate the wizard game" or "play the wizard game to slag on it and make money for charity" or similar, and I imagine it's a point that someone reading this was about to shoot at me. It was a tweet by JK Rowling, where she states that she counts any support of her works, including Harry Potter, as indirect support of her and her ideology. Now, financially speaking this is true, any money you throw at JKR goes to JKR (which is why you should either Not Give Her Money For The Game or at the very least do it and then throw x200 that much towards groups harmed by her), but a lot of people seem to take this further, in that even if you don't financially buffer her, playing/reading her stuff is like an unconscious and/or spiritual "good job on the transphobia, love the way you're the public face of a hate movement!" handshake, and that publicly doing so is just a roundabout means of sending support and fans (and recruits) her way. And to this, I would like to say THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS. ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?

Not only is this argument as incoherent as Tom Cruise saying that watching his movies is like an indirect vindication of Scientology, and also insincere because even if Harry Potter and Cormorant Strike or whatever became unpopular and unprofitable overnight she would keep on doing what she's doing, but the real baffling part is the fact that lefties just accepted and agreed with this, letting JKR define the framework and the endgoals. By accepting this, we immediately concede that the only proper response to a 10+ years old sitting on the bookshelf at home is to burn it (please think carefully before commenting "yes I am okay with identifying with the imagery of leftists being book-burners but politically reflected). By accepting this, we concede that someone watching the films or reading the book to MST3K it or negatively review it or critically point out all the things wrong with the writing or JKR's worldview is the same thing as uncritically watching and supporting it and loving JKR. By accepting this, we make a bet with JKR that if her new game sells well, then that means she's right, and the public is on her side when it comes to transphobia. It's not, by the way, people liking Harry Potter doesn't mean people liking transphobia, much less JKR herself, in much the same way that H.P. Lovecraft being a household name doesn't mean that everyone who's ever read Shadow Over Innsmouth actually really secretly supports racism not to mention the fact that the public majority is on the side of trans people, transphobes just so happen to be loud, fucking annoying, and also in positions of power because our power structures really favor the reactionary voice for No Reason In Particular. But the game was destined to make bank, because of reactionary support, and also apoliticals/liberals/normies not being too assed about it, but mainly because JKR is a household name bigger than Lovecraft at this point. It was a bet we didn't need to make, because we let her control the narrative when we didn't need to, and in attempting to "win" the unnecessary bet, we gave her free advertising, embarrassed ourselves, prevented ourselves from doing charity streams for some reason, and accomplished nothing where just saying "game a shit" and clowning on it on twitter would have done infinitely more at none of the cost.

My final note before you go is that this post is a criticism of the online left, but it is from a leftist perspective. This is no place for people whose takeaway is "well the real issue you guys don't realize how BASED JKR is and how trans people are bad" and you will be beaten senseless by every able-bodied patron in the bar bar for such audacious behavior.

#oh no renardie is posting #infoxicated

[volterran-wine]

If the members of the Volturi were big social media influencers, what would they specialise in/post about

example: demetri might post about books and book recommendations and maybe some travel

• — 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑖 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑠?

Greetings dear Anonymous, and thank you so much for your question. This was a lot of fun to imagine because it has such AU potential. It was actually a lot easier to place the different members than I imagined. Hopefully you enjoy!

—

The Royals

𝐀𝐫𝐨: Made his big debut as a story-time YouTuber. However, his following sensed how his stories became more and more outlandish as the years went on. At this point nobody knows if any of Aro's stories are true, but damn if he is not entertaining.

𝐂𝐚𝐢𝐮𝐬: Most of the time he is a silent artist across social media, specialising in paints and sometimes giving out tips and tricks. Gained a large following after accidentally creating a thirst trap when he did not notice how he was filming himself painting top-less. He is now known as the hottest painter on the internet and he despairs.

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐬: He has a YouTube channel where he covers a lot of different pieces on the piano, however he never shows his face or talk in any of his videos. His cover of 'Merry go around for life' went viral and he now introduces new audiences to old and contemporary music alike.

𝐒𝐮𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚: Is a successful makeup guru, however, she is known for doing makeup tutorials while also talking about political and social issues. If you are a follower of Sulpicia’s you receive all sorts of helpful makeup tips, while also staying up to date with how the world is doing.

𝐀𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐚: An adventure influencer who takes her followers along on the most spellbinding trips around the globe. Athenodora will trek through the wilds in all sorts of weather year round and teach survival skills to her dear followers.

𝐃𝐢𝐝𝐲𝐦𝐞: A daily life vlogger that shows her trials and tribulations through life in an exceptionally raw manner, nothing is off the table and she is well loved for her genuine nature.

—

The Guard

𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢: Is well known on book-tok for his scathing reactions as well as reviewing every book he has ever read with one hour long videos on YouTube. Some of his followers are there for his good looks, while others are truly invested in what he has to say.

𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐱: Is in fact a personal trainer that runs different accounts across social media, showing people different work-outs but also how to implement healthier habits in your everyday life.

𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐝𝐢: Runs a luxury YouTube channel, reviewing all sorts of high fashion products and taking people along for her extraordinary life where travel is prominent. Is exceptionally knowledgeable when it comes to products and is not scared of telling the truth no matter how harsh.

𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐞: Creates exceptionally aesthetic vlogs with not even a voice-over, all of them seem to have a spooky undertone and that is intentional on Jane's part.

𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐜: Owns one of the best known gaming channels despite only being 13 years old. He is into single player games, but he really shines when his humour comes out during multiplayer games.

𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐚: Does all sorts of comforting ASMR content, and is especially well known for her 'Rude' or 'Toxic' role-plays.

𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧: Has an exceptionally chaotic cooking show online. Goes into the science of how cooking even works and you learn something new every time she teaches you a recipe.

𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐨: Is known as the most nosey commentary channel on all of YouTube. He may never have heard about a particular creator; but if they fuck up and do something horrible he will be on them with a 2 and a half hour video exposing them, with proof and being entertaining through the entire thing.

𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐨𝐧: Has a couple channel together with Chelsea, but Afton has his own segment where he talks about anything nerdy or fantasy related.

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞𝐚: Has a couple channel together with Afton, but Chelsea has her own segment on the channel where she talks about her love for anything diy. 

#Volturi Questionnaire #Aro Volturi #Caius Volturi #Marcus Volturi #Sulpicia Volturi #Athenodora Volturi #Didyme Volturi #Demetri Volturi #Felix Volturi #Jane Volturi #Alec Volturi #Heidi Volturi #Renata Volturi #Corin Volturi #Santiago Volturi #Afton Volturi #Chelsea Volturi

[semper-legens]

3. Queen of the Sea, by Dylan Meconis

Owned?: Yes   Page count: 394 My summary: Margaret has always lived on the Island. She knows it inside and out - the nuns, the livestock, the storms that wash over the ocean. But when the supply ships bring new arrivals, her world is about to be upturned. First is her new friend WIlliam; then Eleanor, the banished former queen. And Margaret will soon find herself hopelessly entangled in the queen’s plans… My rating: 5/5       My commentary:

This is honestly one of my favourite books that I own, I am so glad that I picked it up randomly at a comic shop at that one time. This is a reread, I have previously talked about it a couple of years ago, but as I’ve recently played through the entirety of Pentiment (an excellent video game that you should play) recently, I thought I’d pick it up again. It’s such a sweet, surprisingly complex story, with a well-grounded and realistic cast of characters who are all very grounded to the world that they live in and the reality they inhabit. I absolutely adore it.

Margaret, our protagonist, is such a strong character, and a part of that to my eyes is the fact that Meconis doesn’t fall into the Not Like Other Girls character archetype. Margaret is raised with the expectation that she will become a nun when she is older, and doesn’t really seem to consider any other future for herself than that initially. We see her learning embroidery, and she seems to like doing it! She does her chores around the convent, and while she’s a headstrong and outspoken girl, she never really contrasts herself with other girls while being that, it’s just a character trait that she has, which is really nice. I love to see historical women who aren’t given anachronistic or heavy-handed ideas to highlight how they’re Strong Independent Women, and are allowed to be independent within a realistic image of how a woman in their era might achieve that. And in addition to that, Margaret is just really sweet, really positive and optimistic, and an interesting character in and of herself! I love her.

The art is gorgeous. It’s #bright, colourful but with more moody tones when needed, with a lot of soft curves and clean lines. Every character’s face is unique and distinctive, and easy to distinguish from each other, which is very much welcome given that all of the nuns have their hair and most of their bodies covered. I absolutely love this style, it’s very welcoming.

This graphic novel is very much made to be accessible to kids, what with the child protagonist and colourful art style and casual tone. However, it’s in no way dumbed down for that audience. It touches on serious themes and political machinations in a very accessible way that can be understood and enjoyed both by children and adults. Part of this is the coming-of-age aspect of Margaret’s life - she’s being introduced to a lot of the harsh truths about the world beyond her island, and has to grow up fast and come into the political sphere when she never assumed that would be part of her life. It’s very much welcome, though, and makes for an interesting, historically grounded narrative. Final note, though - while I’ve talked about the historical influences on this story, the world of it is not Tudor England, it’s a non-real world inspired heavily by Tudor England, so some artistic license and fabrication is absolutely fine because this is not depicting real history, which makes the places where it is historically attested and draws from reality all the more impressive to me. You didn’t have to put this degree of work in, but you did, and I appreciate it!

Next up, some tales from the depths, and the creatures that lurk there.

#Queen of the Sea #Dylan Meconis #bookblr #book blog #book blogging #5

[annakie]

So, some thoughts and screenshots on the first few hours of BG3 --

Indyara is my Half-Elf Bard. She's a character I have played in several D&D games, wanting to find a game where her backstory mattered and we actually finished the game. I'm actually in that game right now, playing every other Saturday morning, though there was one other game it... almost worked out for her.

Bard is my favorite D&D class, going back to when I played one in a 3/3.5e game for several years in the early 2000's, and I played BG1 & 2 with one.

Decently high CHA (16) but not sacrificing INT, DEX, and CON (14) while having a bad WIS (9) and STR (8). Let's see how that works out for her.

High Half-elf for that sweet CHA bonus and getting Firebolt, so I have an actual useful damaging cantrip. (Do not ask me for my diatribe about why everyone is wrong about Vicious Mockery being a good spell unless you want an earful.)

Absolutely fuming that they still are leaving the version number up and it's visible in screenshots. Cannot believe that oversight. Also that they leave menu buttons visible in cutscenes, what the fuck Larian? Found out last night that apparently hitting f10 should stop that, but that removes the entire UI and obviously you need to turn it back on. But for now my entire first day's of screenshots and videos look like ass and I'm mad about it.

Lots of screenshots and commentary below the cut. I didn't make it too far in-game and honestly I don't talk about the plot much.

Hey, look lady, we're both stuck here. Indy is very patient and diplomatic, whatever it takes to make it through every day as unscathed as possible, but this one might try that patience. At least she's useful. Let's see if we can make a friend.

Indy did save Shadowheart from her pod, but the way she and Lae'zel bicker is already giving her a headache.

Well this certainly is a development, and I'm sure whoever these two are will be completely unimportant in the hours to come.

I told myself I wasn't going to savescum when I failed a roll, but look, I'm not about to let Indyara Nat 1 on a CHARISMA check about magic when she very first meets the future love of her life. I reloaded this one.

Indy's initial impression on meeting Gale: a few seconds of "Wait, THIS is the one I'm going to fall in love with?" met with "Oh. I get it." a few seconds later. Very smart, polite, charming and funny? Sign me up, please.

Plus, we look great in screenshots together.

(Indy's hair is definitely lighter in sunlight than I intended, her hair was supposed to be brown with pink streaks (for bardic flair) but it comes out looking dark honey in direct sun. Ah well.)

A few minutes later though "Wait, this one is as charming and me, and extremely heroic? Are you SURE we made the right choice? They're both great. Can't we have them both?"

(Sorry Indy, we don't need two high-CHA characters in the main party. He's saved for another playthrough.)

Oh come ON. This isn't fair. Another one?

Poly mod... when? Or at least a list of who is officially OK with poly in-game? Shadowheart is growing on me, too, after a bit of a rough introduction.

I'm sorry, Astarion. I already took a level dip in rogue to be the party trap/lock skill monkey since we're bringing along the Wizard, Cleric and, for now at least, the fighter. (We'll see how long that lasts. This game needs more tank companions. Though I don't mind companions that are challenging, generally.)

I love having a camp again. Need better camp clothes, though, for all of us. I did do the Twitch Stream unlock thing, but haven't found those rewards in-game yet. Anyone?

Literally already started unlocking the Gale romance by the time I was just wandering around the Emerald Grove area. He loves almost every decision I make and I'm glad of it.

...of course there's a catch.

Hahahaha holy shit, Volo! I love being a bard in this game and loved bullshitting Volo, and he loved knowing he was getting bullshitted.

See, wasn't this a nice time, ladies, listening to this other bard sing? Let's have less bickering, more listening to Bards. <3

Astarion... I'm just not into Vampires. At least not with this character. Still, I like you. I wish I could have offered to help him find food here instead of just sending him away, but I let him down easy.

Indy found a cute hat at camp and is wearing the FUCK out of it. I mean look at her! And it helps with song of rest! (though it does considerably shorten her hair, but hey, it's a MAGIC hat so that's just part of the magic.)

I've played a Larian game or two before so I picked up Speak with Animals as one of my first level spells and do not regret it. However, I feel like I didn't help this Owlbear enough, though I let her and her cub be. Probably missed out on something cool here. Again, I'll pick it up in another playthrough. I'm trying to not google for answers to every puzzle this time and just play through blind.

OH HOLY SHIT WHAT DID I WALK IN ON. I'M SO SORRY FOR YOU AND FOR ME.

Oh no, Gale is into some other woman... oh wait that's Mystra. I get it, you're a wizard. And I'm a smart Lore bard who's also very into magic so uh, let's make some magic happen? Also, sorry we got this cutscene when Gale was at like 2hp so he's all bruised up. I love that it shows on the character models though.

Ohhh wait you DO want to make magic together? I'm down with that, and got to put bardic flourishes on all my responses to Gale's instructions. I LOVE this game, I LOVED this scene. Though I hate what the magic VFX did to Indy's face here.

Oh my God, is this the first flirt scene!?! Tell me it's the first flirt scene!!

I imagined slipping my hand into his hand on a romantic walk and... he liked it. This was very, very sweet. And getting to flirt over a shared love of magic was... *chef's kiss*

I'm also making great progress with Shadowheart. Okay, we can be BFFs. <3

Things to come indeed, Gale.

----

In Early Access I didn't get very far and honestly I think last night I made it about as far as I ever made then, or close to it. I basically went "Whelp I love this game, I don't want to spend my time playing through this now when I can go through it fresh later in like a year." (and then it was THREE, but that's fine.)

I'm fighting Phase Spiders but fuck that, I might come back when we all hit level 4. That fight sucked. I am trying to make "good" choices but have probably really screwed some stuff up. i feel bad that Astarion and Wyll get left at camp but they don't fit into my party makeup (I think I'll do a Paladin next and bring both of them along instead of Gale and Lae.)

Absolutely love all of the chances to shortcut quests and fights by Barding / persuading / lying my way out of it. So few things I don't love so far, though I definitely feel like I'm stumbling my way through the dark, not knowing if I'm doing the right things.

Can't wait to do almost nothing this weekend but play BG3. A full day of work, first, though. :(

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

[austronauts]

I am returning oh so soon with another ‘director’s commentary’ on a toronto maple leafs video.

as apparently...one of 4.5 justin/mitch truthers (me, justin, mitch, remaining 1.5 = mathematically shoddy amalgamation of the various lovely ppl on here who have come to me to talk about justin and mitch)...i felt like it was My Duty to share my annotated version of this video.

so, this leafs: blueprint episode is ostensibly about justin’s contract renewal but is really ultimately about celebrating justin holl the human.

As a 2nd/3rd line defenseman, Justin is always going to be perceived as an unglamorous “grinder” who’s invisible at best or unfairly maligned at worst. Which is completely unfair, but the reality of the NHL and a team that’s stacked with so many household names.

All this to say - it’s very nice to see him get this homage and the love that I think he deserves. 

ok onto my brainrot annotations

1:11 - oh my GODDD. BABY JUSTIN HOLL from his college years. he is SO SQUISHY-LOOKING IN HIS LITTLE BEANIE. SQUISH HIM SQUISH HIM SQUISH HIM

2:20 - Justin scoring the BUZZER-BEATER GAME WINNING GOAL for the U of Minnesota Gophers (lmfao) in the NCAA playoffs’ final 4. Oh how do I know exactly what game it was? Because MITCH explains this all - reciting exactly when and how Justin scored to - GAS JUSTIN UP in his Marner Assist Foundation promo video.  can you believe mitch. can you believe justin. can you believe them. Anyway, look at the raw unfettered EUPHORIA and pride here all the teammates have for Justin! i TRULY love that for him

3:54 - bruh i didn’t know justin and his wife audrey were HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS. 

4:09 - The video switching to MITCH JUSTIN STEPH AND AUDREY RIGHT AFTER AUDREY SAYS “we found a really good group. a really good crew”????? THE EDITING IS RICH WITH MEANING AND SUBTEXT, MY LADS

4:09 - MITCH SITTING ON JUSTINS LAP AND YAPPING AND GIGGLING WHILE JUSTIN JUST SITS THERE LOOKING LIKE THIS HAPPENS TO HIM EVERYDAY EVEN THOUGH HE DOESN’T EVEN REMEMBER OFFICIALLY ADOPTING THIS SCRUNKLY YORKSHIRE TERRIER WHO KEEPS SHOWING UP AND ASKING HIM WHAT AN ENCYCLOPEDIA IS AND SITTING ON HIS LAP?????????? NO I WONT STOP YELLING SHUT UP

4:12 - audrey speaks about being with justin through all the highs and the lows and all the uncertainty-mired limbo of professional sports with such genuine love here. and as much as my heart is a desiccated cornichon pickle incapable of romance, I DID FEEL A LITTLE SOMETHING HERE. disgusting. i must return to my roots of comparing nathan mackinnon to various pale tumescent root vegetables ugh.  (also justin playing what appears to be a bach piece which is extreme king shit because bach is one of my FAVORITE composers to play on the piano. i always knew justin was my favorite) 

4:57 - another mitch/justin moment on the ice just being giggly beans.

sidenote - everytime i see justin’s dad i remember he wrote a book about bicycling from mexico to alaska and therefore is much cooler than justin or any of the leafs. (there’s a video of justin playing golf with muzzin i think? where justin chirps his own dad for always talking about his own book lmfao)

8:30 - sweet lil willy throwing the leafs’ post-game basketball to justin to celebrate justin’s new contract... and justin attempting to do some kind of...dunking move that is extremely whiteboy cringefail. even though i am watching this thru my laptop screen, i looked away and politely pretended not to see that. 

8:47 - this is now i think...the 2nd leafs video i’ve heard Young Thug/Gunna’s “Hot” in the lockerroom? DO THEY LISTEN TO ANY OTHER SONG? why not a bit of beyonce partition or carly rae jepsen? why not a bit of azealia banks’ 212? 

8:54 - mitch swans by the camera looking as twinky as ever and i SWEAR that’s his reedy ass warbly ass voice singing in falsetto. he’s just ALWAYS. SO. ON. BRAND!

9:30 - Justin and his family and old minnesota friends all gather in the stands after the game to take a commemorative photo in honor of justin’s new NHL contract. GUESS WHO SHOWS UP TO TAKE THE PHOTO OF THIS SPECIAL MOMENT? UR RIGHT. ONE (1) ONTARIAN TWINK MITCH MARNER It’s so........magnanimous and brave of all of them to entrust the immortalization of this special moment in the dainty little hamster paws of mitch tbh. look at him FOCUSING with all 2 of his neurons fdlkjslksls

#justin holl #mitch marner #they are SO. FUCKING PRECIOUS dont look at me