#post-internet theory

[hinamie]

green

[kidcaroline]

I'm gonna say something controversial but inho's character doesn't revolve only around gihun

[myrsinemezzo]

Haladriel and Interfandom Strife

I’ve been having an enjoyable time reading and researching about gender, race, sexuality, and neoliberal feminism in fandom in terms of both antagonism within fandom communities along with anti culture. (Because why would I do my job when I can be rattling around on journals and books dedicated to fandom studies…) Wow, has it been interesting when I think of some of these things in terms of Haladriel as well as the wider TROP community and beyond.

One of the things that struck me the most is the idea when people made up of an oppressed body cannot generate larger structural change, often the outlet becomes “horizontal violence” where anger is dispersed and “directed laterally within the oppressed group instead of at larger structural concerns” (Duffy, Miltner, Wahlstedt, 2022). Elaine Duffy conceived of and circulated this concept way back in 1995 and it’s been brought up again in recent internet scholarship focused on both anti and interfandom interactions. In many ways, this attitude and act confuses real-world activism with an individual’s relationship to neoliberal consumption and what that trio of authors modify into “digital horizontal violence.” While their primary object of study was social media and influencer culture, their main point is that cycles of misogyny rattle along right next to that violence and vitriol. Even if it’s distributed outside of male spheres the rhetoric is often piggybacking talking points from those spheres (aka “silly women interested in their romance” or “we have to protect you from yourselves”). As Duffy, Miltner, and Wahlstedt drily put it, “th[e] efficacy in dismantling gendered norms is dubious,” despite the “passion and intensity” members of internet callout groups use to critique what they see as harmful attitudes.

So do anti-Haladriels feel oppressed and lash out with digital horizontal violence? From my perspective, it’s a resounding yes. It’s easier to take out frustrations on a related group within a fandom that you feel is not doing morality right than to enact structural change against the attacks of wider lorebro LOTR circles or even larger structural issues like misogyny and capitalism itself.

The big problem with that is not only does it suck, but it very much seems as if the discourse around Haladriel has had the marked effect of chilling fandom participation within the main TROP tags and even within the Haladriel tag itself from anyone interested in that ship. This isn’t helped by vague or anonymous posts reminiscent of the discourse on Twitter over the past two years or more of those ambivalent to or who dislike the ship dividing fans into camps of “bad haladriels” vs “good haladriels.” Those two arbitrary camps are still often lumped together by the refusal to outright say what is meant or who is meant – possibly at the risk of sounding mean or antagonistic.

There’s way more to say when it comes to the underlying problems with queer erasure in terms of kink where those inside and outside TROP fandom are not able to imagine or intuit that a het pairing like Haladriel can function as kink for members of the queer community in just as valid a way as slash preferences within het communities (Morrissey, 2014). And don’t get me started on the concept of generational cringe culture that also doesn’t accomplish change and just buys into ageist assumptions of being able to have distinct generational age ranges that inherently and constantly improve on the previous generation (because it’s no secret that a lot of antis are puritanical in their view on sex and romance if you take a look on social media platforms and even on AO3).

Them’s my thoughts on recent readings. It really hammers home how older ideas of “don’t like don’t read,” “Your kink is not my kink and that’s okay,” or – if you’re into blocking habits which I’m not unless someone is actively screaming epithets at me – to curate space however you want or can. There’s also a concept of “Calling In” rather than “Calling Out” that I’ve just started to dig into (Ross, 2020) that suggests working through trauma together rather than attacking other interfandom groups is the way to go. Because do Haladriel fans engage in the same kind of digital horizontal violence when they feel oppressed? Sure! But it’s going to be a long, long hiatus without some kind of self-awareness on what can happen between all of us, and scholarship helps me make sense of fandom and sometimes the wider world.

Anyway, none of us are perfect, and god knows I’ve misstepped in fandom dealings before, but I love this space and my ship and my show. …And at some point I’ll get back to Sticks of Power and purposeful positivity posts. I vow it lol.

[mikey-hunter]

Why Age of Calamity Did That (And Why Age of Imprisonment Will Too)

So when Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity came out, there was a very vocal contingent of fans who were upset about a particular twist in its narrative.

Age of Imprisonment was just announced, with a hauntingly similar setup, and I'm seeing a number of fans talking as if the same twist won't happen this time, or at least saying they hope it doesn't. I just wanted to lay out the reason why it happened the first time, and why it almost certainly will again.

I'm going to be dropping unmarked spoilers for all three previous games in this trilogy that's soon to become a quadrilogy, by the way. I imagine most of the people speculating about Age of Imprisonment will already know them, but just to cover my bases, you can stop reading now if you're behind.

So, let's start at Age of Calamity's announcement.

We were told it would be "A story 100 Years before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," and told it would depict the battles against the Calamity not previously shown. Fans immediately started joking about already knowing how it ended, that this was a game that would end with most of the cast dying.

Then the demo came out. A Guardian the size of an ostrich egg woke up at the same time as Zelda awakening her powers, traveled back in time, and activated the Sheikah Towers early. Also, Link was a regular soldier and not the Hero who had been wielding the Master Sword since he was a pre-teen.

Surprisingly, a large portion of the fandom either failed or refused to see the twist coming at that point.

But the twist came all the same: in the full game, the time traveling egg guardian enables the four successors to the Champions from BotW to save them, Zelda awakens her powers before Link is killed, they band together to slay Calamity Ganon, and a happy ending is enjoyed by all. Including the Yiga Clan, who defected because reasons.

Some fans were very upset about this. They were promised a prequel, and seemed to think it would be a good idea. But the reason it wasn't is fairly obvious if you think about it.

For one thing: Warriors games are about the fanservice power fantasy. Playing as beloved characters and mowing down hundreds of cannon fodder enemies as easily as one mows a lawn.

For another: one of the playable characters in the original Hyrule Warriors on Wii U was Agitha from Twilight Princess. She was included purely because one of the developers was a fan of hers and argued for her inclusion. Koei-Tecmo's Hyrule Warriors team includes people who are big enough Zelda fans to have favorite minor NPCs.

Now, consider for a moment what a "canon" ending to Age of Calamity would have looked like. The Champions are dead. Link is dead. Zelda awakened her powers a moment too late, so she's going to go hold down Calamity Ganon while the Sheikah trio carry Link's body to the Shrine of Resurrection. They don't know how long it will take to work, or if it will even work at all, so the three of them agree to live separately and wait for him, so that even if the Yiga Clan finds and overcomes them, at least the other two will live on to pass Zelda's message on to Link.

In other words, you just paid full retail price for a beat'em up where all your favorite characters die, and have a completely separate game to go play for the story's actual resolution.

Maybe you, personally, actually wanted that, but would a casual Zelda fan who just got the game for Christmas have wanted it? Would a Dynasty Warriors fan trying the game out as a gateway to the Zelda series have been okay with being told they now have to buy another game in a completely different genre to get their closure?

To be frank, no. Age of Calamity didn't lead in to Breath of the Wild because that would have made for a bad product. Instead of watching the Champions die, we got to see them live, be happy, and interact with their successors. If you want to imagine the full details of their deaths and be sad about it, that's what fanfiction is for.

And now we have Age of Imprisonment on the way.

Tears of the Kingdom, much like Breath of the Wild, has a sequence of flashbacks to a distant past, that ends on a downer note of "Welp, we're boned, but all we can do is wait for Link to come sort it out."

Just like Age of Calamity, Age of Imprisonment purports to be a full depiction of these events...

But the events of the Dragon Tears are in even more dire need of an intervention from the present than the Memories were, entirely because of the cast.

Taking this reveal trailer at face value, we can expect eight characters: Zelda, Sonia, Rauru, Mineru, and the four Ancient Sages. By the end of the Dragon Tears as we saw them in Tears of the Kingdom...

Sonia is assassinated

Rauru gives his life to seal Ganon under the castle

Mineru succumbs to her injuries and begins haunting Zelda's tablet

Zelda essentially commits fantasy suicide, because as far as anyone in the narrative is aware, becoming a dragon destroys your sense of self and is irreversible.

The Sages live, but with how little TotK gave them to work with, AoI is going to have to characterize them from scratch.

That's a hard sell to anyone looking to buy a fun video game full of Zelda characters, and that's not the only problem with this roster: it's also small.

Not counting certain characters having multiple weapons, the original Hyrule Warriors launched with a roster of 13, and then three of the bosses were made playable in a patch.

Age of Calamity launched with 18.

If we're sticking entirely to the founding era with this game, we're following up a game that set sales records for the Warriors series with a piddly little roster that tells you at the end to go play a different game, with the surviving half of the roster being the faceless nobodies. Who's actually going to buy that beyond the LoZ die-hards who pitched a fit because not every returning NPC in Tears of the Kingdom greeted Link with a "Hey, I remember you!"?

It's quite clear, to me, that Age of Imprisonment is going to have another time travel twist, this time bringing in the modern Sages, as well as Link, probably Purah, and perhaps some others. (Paya? Tauro? Robbie? Josha? Kohga, for some reason? All possible, but Purah's the only supporting cast pick I'm confident in.)

If nothing else, the fact that Nintendo announced amiibo of the TotK Sages the same day as Age of Imprisonment seems more than coincidental.

[moonlightmantras]

as someone who used to be a kris knight truther before chapters 3 and 4 released this is genuinely the first time I've ever had a theory about a game be SHATTERED into millions of pieces infront of my eyes and its so funny because i was so confident in it too. usually when I play games that are still getting updated to add on to the story/even when im watching a show that has episodes or seasons come out in an extended period of time i don't even try to make theories I'll just be like "wow that was a very good piece of media can't wait to find out what happens next" and move on but with the kris knight theory I was just like oh yeah this is canon. this is so canon to me Nothing can ever shake this theory. and then here comes THE FUCKING KNIGHT FIGHT IN CHAPTER 3 and it's like. God Damn It

[stanshikabutreddie]

you know what i just realized. when richie is going on about being married and he asks eddie "did you not hear this?" obviously we're all like well duh he didn't hear this because they didn't remember each other but instead eddie answers no so honestly that it makes me think that not only was this man hate watching richie's specials but he was also keeping tabs on him to the point where he was genuinely suprised to hear that richie got married. that's right guys. eddie was is a huge richie "trashmouth" tozier fanboy.

[imparateasa]

How Naruto and Sasuke reacted after Hagoromo told them his backstory:

Hagoromo: —and though separated by circumstance of birth, you both are still my precious sons. I wish I had more time speak but it seems fate shall not allow it, goodbye my children

Naruto: Hear that Sasuke? Sage gramps said we’re brothers, I knew we were connected by more than just friendship BELIEVE IT!

Sasuke (Homosexually): B-Brothers? That means… No this can’t be.

[wackywatchdotcom]

on the subject of pomni and zooble im deeply invested in seeing how their dynamic plays out. theyve had like.... two proper interactions. one of which is barely even both people like zooble delivers Bad News to pomni and pomni doesnt really seem like shes noting whos saying it so much as the fact that shes being told things by a bunch of strangers and is panicking about it and then zooble scowls in the bg for the next five minutes before jax drags ragatha and pomni off. the most theyve actually interacted is in ep 4 when zooble asks pomni abt ep 3, pomni tells them and then they get deeply upset for a reason that revolves around 'why did caine think i would enjoy possession'

we generally dont really know what their dynamic even is they just kinda exist around each other. that said zooble tends to sound harsh like half the time but like... theyre not mean theyrw just blunt. i think above all else zooble is actually more concerned w the safety of the other cast members than one would assume. we see it best in eps 2 and 4 i think. in ep 2 theyre patient w ragatha, smth theyre not in the pilot. but the circumstances are different. in the pilot this is just another shitty day, that keeps getting worse. they dont even get to sit out the adventure despite being told they can. but ep 2 they get time to themself, and know ragathas probably not really handling things well

and i think abt it a lot but them being ragathas designated driver is like. really notable imo actually. because ragatha isnt in danger. its unclear where theyre driving or if theyre driving, but zooble goes oh, ragatha cant be trusted to drive. even though ragathas been pissing them off all day. even though if ragatha actually got herself injured it would be fixable and its unclear if ragatha would even notice. if zooble didnt care they couldve just left. if zooble was worried abt gangle theyd have stayed (theyre clearly concerned for her, but i dont think they read it as danger- so making sure ragatha stays physically safe becomes a higher priority. it also says smth abt the amnt of faith they have in gangle, even if it was technically misplaced here. i think they get worried about gangle but to them the highest risk member is kinger, not gangle. on some level i dont know if theyve been in the circus long enough to see any patterns in when people abstract). but they make sure ragatha gets back safe. because she pissed them off that day but could tell something was up, and that even if shed be okay in the end, they wanted to be sure that ragatha wasnt hurt

i think it speaks to the actual level of concern they exhibit for the others. theyre cautious. them and pomni ar ethe most visibly distrusting of caine. and i think it relates to zooble not having been here long. jax and ragatha in particular may ebe able to ignore the slapstick bullshit of the circus, may be able to walk off an injury just fine because its just part of life, but as far as zoobles concerned they want to avoid it if possible. i think they know its not normal for things to be this way and they cant change it but they can stop pointlessly harmful things from happening

i think their spiel abt the others in ep 3 is also very telling in that they actually have a really flattering description for ragatha and gangle. ragathas too nice, and i dont think thats obliviousness. i think zooble is one of the more emotionally intelligent characters, they just have little patience and arent 'sweet' about it. theyre extremely aware of the other characters imo. they just... genuinely think ragathas nice. i dont think ep 4 even changed that. and gangles too ahy to speak up. they say this not in a way thats critical. in fact its one of the calmest things theyve said in the whole show im pretty sure. they care abt her and know how she feels even if shes not confident enough to say it to caine

and getting back to pomni is that their assessment of pomni is that 'she looks traumatized everytime she comes back for one' (iirc some other translations are even more explicit in this description of pomni as being impacted by the adventures). implying theyve not only been very much paying attention, but q the way they say it they seem Genuinely Concerned. i think on some level theyre irritated by pomni, not on a personal level but bc pomni is The New One. she hasnt settled in, and i think zooble gets irritated by the song and dance of a person finding out that what they already have to cope with as being Their Life Forever, Now is also theirs. but its not personal, and i dont think its smth zooble holds against her. but i think zooble has definitely picked up on the fact that pomni is having a very rough go at it for her first days- esp since the harshest they get is before caine gives his spiel abt the fake exit door or before its clear that pomni saw kaufmo, too. and from the start of ep 4 its clear that they heavily dislike the measures caine is taking to appeal to them (and id argue that part of their response to caine is in part frustration at him putting the others at risk, but thats getting more into my personal speculation without a huge basis)

i think zooble is a person who largely expresses care for others through concern and, honestly to some degree, helping people. which now that i say it is fascinating considering ragathas whole deal. and the trajectory pomnis going in. or the fact that im not sure they know kinger all that well yet (they know a bit abt him but i think without talking to him in the dark a person would miss a large amount of context). or their deeply interesting dynamic with caine, a person who prides himself on his role as an entertainer for others and has no other goals at all. it creates an interesting contrast when i think theyre one of the few characters who even helps others successfully at all

anyway, this all got off track and wasnt what i actually even made this post to talk about. my intent was to mention that i dont think zooble has actually seen pomni when shes more stressed. i mean theyve seen her post ep 2, which is notable, and theyve seen her get panicked in the pilot and probably saw her Not Looking Well at the feast. but ehile the audience has seen pomni Freak Out and be jumpscared or launch herself at a gate (plus select members of the cast), zooble has certainly not. we also have that advert where ahe attacks jax that is noncanon but depicts a aide of pomni not seen super clearly in the eps yet, that of which being violence. all of this is to say im not sure zooble actually knows about pomnis capacity to attack things and i find it funny to imagine zooble finding out and getting startled because they knew pomni was nervous but they havent seen that side of it yet

(and to a lesser extent, i think gangle- and ragatha sort of- are the only characters whove actually seen pomnis capacity to be patient with people. gummigoo doesnt remember. its implied kinger forgot- even if its vague how much he forgot pomni was scared thru most of that and the brief moment of patience she had was VERY short-lived. ragatha got pomnis little apology type thing in ep 3 but thats it. i think gangle is the one whos actually seen the most of this from pomni. so i imagine gangle probably has one of if not the most flattering image of her of the entire main cast, despite the fact that pomni does actually say smth that upsets gangle too earlier- which ive been meaning to make a post abt how each of the cast members upset gangle in a way unique to that persons own issues but thats smth ill talk abt later- and i think gangle wouldnt blatantly state this in detail to zooble, maybe say that pomni helped her out, but i think if gangle told zooble abt this at all itd make zoobles image of pomni even more skewed. and way more likely that seeing pomni attack someone would startle them)

[gilearstimboards]

---

On Conspiracy Boards on the internet arguing with people Stimboard

PT: On Conspiracy Boards on the internet arguing with people Stimboard

Made with an irl friend :)

Credits: x x x | x x x | x x x

[turtleblogatlast]

Man I wish we got more of the turtle tots especially their “slightly older turtle tots” designs, because they are so cute

[paperuniverse]

I hate hate how in the new Internet real people can't talk about important topics like sexual assault, swear, or even say the word death but fucking bots and advertisers can show full on fetish material.

[jack-talks-about-jack]

Hello tumblr

So this is the first blog I ever make with the intent of posting my own stuff, so bare with me

The idea is that'll re-read Jackson's Diary for the fourth time and take notes of some ideas I have or just comment abt the episode. Then, I'll maybe post some theories or analysis I have.

If you think that you've seen someone else doing something very similar, then there's a 99% chance that someone is the person I took the idea from

[agenderduck]

It deeply upsets me that there aren’t a lot of analysis posts off of Lesley, at least ones that don’t completely mischaracterize her. Often times Lesley is watered down to just being “Yellow’s Mom” by the fandom and nothing else. Lesley is tragic. She is not motherly, she’s a prisoner. A prisoner in a prison partially of her own design, but a prisoner nonetheless. matpat, and the david theory in general has rotted people’s brains. It’s fine to have an interpretation of a character, I could care less, but it’s an entirely different thing all together to completely miss the point of a character. Watching the line “you’re one of my favorites….” be brushed aside for what is otherwise a completely unserious line is infuriating. There’s no actual proof that Lesley is Yellow’s mother outside of theories. When she says “you’re not my real son” In my eyes, it’s more so in the way that she is the creator, and he is her creation, not that Lesley is actually an author, she just thinks she is. The trio represent parts of her, almost everything they do is by her hands. They’re miserable because Lesley is miserable. She believes herself to be an author, a creator, but she doesn’t hold any real power, just a small amount. Yellow didn’t scale the staircase on his own, everything was meticulously laid out by Lesley. Because, the truth is, he represents a part of Lesley that she has long since forgotten, the part of her that genuinely wants to change, to progress instead of regress. By giving yellow his batteries and bringing him up stairs, she is checking that she is still alive. That there is still that small part of her that can change.

But, as previously stated, she doesn’t have any real power, and she has no interest in truly changing. She has strings of her own, she can’t change even if she wanted to. Lesley has a tendency of setting up scenarios where the puppets are given a false sense of control. She does it with red in transport, and she does it again in electricity with yellow. In her mind she’s teaching them, teaching them that things cannot stray outside of what she has laid out for them. It’s her own twisted way of helping. Yellow, unlike red, possesses a genuine ability to question things and a natural curiosity. Lesley knows this. That’s precisely why his batteries are denied from him, unless Lesley hands them to him on a silver platter when convenient. Yellow has to pay the price of being constantly disoriented, to be in a constant state of confusion because if he isn’t then that would entail Lesley addressing what is pulling on her strings. The batteries are a threat to this cycle, hence why Lesley gifts him a book of false knowledge. A book of nothing. A red herring. She knows where that book is going, straight into the shredder as it always does. Where it should be. Because ever so slightly out of shot at the end of her room sits a door that creaks open every once in a while and she dare not question it. A door that she ignores as she continues on playing her piano as she always does. As it should be. No questions to be had. Just the keys of a piano echoing emptily in a dilapidated dollhouse, and the ghost of an artist who lost herself eons ago.

[lolcatsaestheticdump]

Will youtube get their shit together???????

[steinbeck-vines]

I think I just figured out where Lippmann's Ability comes from, and what its name might be

It's not only Public Opinion, Walter Lippmann's most famous book, the start of which arguably ties very well to the Ability or at least to the character (he talks about the inevitable gaps and warps in information transfer, which contrasts the impossibility of killing Lippmann without evidence as well as the efforts every news major outlet would go to to rapidly expose the truth)

Walter Lippmann popularized (but did not come up with) the phrase "Cold War" with a set of newspaper columns titled "Cold War" and later published as his book The Cold War: A Study in U.S. Foreign Policy (or just Cold War)

One of the most famous features of the Cold War itself was Mutually Assured Destruction. I'm no scholar, but from what I know, it boils down to we-can't-use-nuclear-weapons-against-them-because-if-we-do-then-they'll-bomb-us-and-we'll-be-dead-but-that's-okay-because-they-can't-do-it-to-us-either-since-then-they'd-be-dead-so-we-all-just-accept-this-and-try-to-live-while-making-sure-we-can-kill-the-other-if-we-want-to

What does Lippmann's Ability do? It "react[s] to and counter[s] an attacker's thirst for blood", which, combined with his fame, makes him "a bomb that [will] go off the moment he die[s]" and which nearly everyone is too afraid to mess around with

If you kill him, he'll annihilate you back

At a glance, Lippmann's Ability seems very much like Mutually Assured Destruction but paradoxically onesided--his attacker's destruction is assured and his isn't, which theoretically defeats the point. Then again, if Lippmann were to use his Ability or other combat skills in the public eye, it would destroy the façade of the famous actor and his career along with it (assuming that he's the face of the mafia in subtle ways and the majority of people don't know he's a criminal). Also, as far as I know, none of the Abilities in BSD (not even the more on-the-nose ones like Draculea) exactly replicate their inspirations

Would it be a stretch to guess Lippmann's Ability is Cold War?

[lethalwizard]

um stream of conciousness post bc i went down an ai music rabbit hole today

because while ive had ai text and images pushed at me constantly i haven’t really encountered music because idgaf its nothing to me - but i saw a post about an ai band that’s racked up thousands of listens on streaming platforms and i was like ok what’s all this then

so i like looked through some subreddits and like 70% of it is just baby’s 4th FL project - like you could achieve that level of production with a couple of youtube tutorials and a splice subscription. then the other 30% of it is like, 6/10 (3/10 audio quality consistently though, it’s so funny any clown with a daw can export a pristine wav file but genai shits the bed completely). but the really fucking funny thing is i kept seeing “how to get the most out of your generations” tips and it was just real mixing and mastering advice. like ALL of the stuff that was passable wasn’t just shat out the computer a real person had to write lyrics and mix and master it

like, guys. again you could do this with an fl rip and free samples. i mean i have my opinions about splice producers but honestly why don’t you people just start ripping stems i swear it’d genuinly be easier

oh also the “singers” don’t take breaths in between phrases, once you notice it it’s glaringly obvious