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Those were 2.20 minutes well spent!

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Horizon Zero Dawn

I'm playing Horizon Zero Dawn right now and this is one of the best games I've played. And this is completely spoiler-free. What's sad is that when the game came out I decided not to play it because I read online that the game appropriated from Native American cultures. Now I can say that the Nora tribe in the game have Native American, Celtic and Viking influences like the game makers have said in an interview. I can also point out every last thing they've taken from Native Americans: The Nora call their hunters/warriors "Braves" which the game makers have also said in an interview they picked specifically because they thought it would be inoffensive. There are dream catchers in a few places, which are non-interactable and not explained. They wear brown leather and use bows. There's a lot of blue accent on brown going on but that's mostly on the bridges. I think the protaganist Aloy has feathers attached to her bow and spear But that's everything. There are also a lot of white characters with matted hair. I also read that there would be offensive feather headdresses in this game but there are NO such things! What could have been confused with this is that the Carja tribe, who are inspired by Egypt, Rome and Greece, have those helmets with the red fluff on top of them, you know the ones. And the Banuk's shamans, who seem to be inspired by Inuits, have headdresses with colored fabric bands hanging down to their knees.

But this game makes such an obviously conscious effort to be diverse and feminist. The Nora are a matriarchy. And while I don't believe a matriarchy is the goal of feminism, it's clear the game makers intended for this to be feminist. Like how the Nora men are not subjugated, but with the Carja and Oseram tribes which are patriarchies, the women Aloy meets will tell her all about how they are second-class citizens. There are also at least two moments I can think of. One where Aloy is talking to two Carja soldiers and one of them says "I was going to report to a Nora commander, but I didn't see one" His superior snaps at him and screams "Have you never seen a Nora woman before! Show some respect! Report to her, not to me!" Not that Aloy becomes a commander, but you get it. And another where Aloy is talking to an Oseram quest-giver and he says something like "You could afford garments more suited to your fine shapes-" Aloy cuts him off and says "If you want me to do this, you need to stop talking now." He says "I was just saying, a woman as well molded as-" Aloy cuts him off again with a sigh and a shrug. But it's not a sigh like she gives up, it's a sigh with a look that says "No, you can't say that either". And because it needs to be said, Aloy is an eighteen-year-old woman who is not sexualised in any way, shape or form. There is no sexualised armour, not even dlc. There are three armours that show her belly, and one that shows off her legs as well. And those are still not sexualised.

As for diversity, they have a good mix of white, asian and african-american characters, with some middle eastern characters thrown in there. I think the best example of why this was a conscious decision by the game makers is that the three High Matriarchs of the Nora is one white, one black and one asian one. There was also concern about how the game uses the word "savages" to describe the Nora because they have influence from Native Americans. That word is only used by snobby, xenophobic Carja. They make a big deal about how xenophobic some Carja are to mirror a certain modern political situation. And by the Oseram quest-giver above to joke about how politically incorrect he is. NEVER have I felt like the game was calling Native Americans "savages". Although I understand that it's not that simple. A future America with no native people around is troublesome no matter how you look at it.

The game is set in Colorado and Utah in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has had to start over from scratch. The Nora are hunter-gatherers for example. Humanity has no understanding of technology anymore, as it belongs to the ancient world. There are machine dinosaurs and animals that roam the wilds and attack humans for reasons no one knows. You play as Aloy who grew up as an outcast to the Nora for reasons no one will tell her. Her goal is to win the Proving so she will be granted a boon from the matriarchs and ask them who her mother is.

It's an open-world, Action-RPG. I usually dread combat in video games because it's usually just button mashing against an OP enemy or throwing you into combat out of nowhere and not letting you flee like it's an arbitrary task that needs to be done. But in this game I spend like 5-10 minutes in combat because it's so much fun. Here's the thing: it's not really combat, it's hunting. Now, I despise hunting as well. But you hunt machines, and they make it fun because there are so many different ways to do it! You hide in the tall grass, which makes you literally invisable. You can lure the machines closer by whistling or throwing a small rock. You can shoot them with an arrow, a fire arrow, a precision arrow, a freeze arrow, a shock arrow, a freeze bomb, a shock bomb or an explosive bomb. You can tie them up, you can set traps, and you can set up tripwires which either explode or shock them. You can also shoot tearblast arrows which removes part of a machine when aimed right. Like a freeze cannister to stop it from using ranged freeze attacks. When a machine gets close enough to you whithout noticing you, you can use Silent Strike to down it without the other machines even noticing. If a machine notices you and attacks you, you can just button mash with your spear on R1 and R2. And that's not even all of the different ways you can take down machines! You can kill animals and humans too, and it hurts my soul, but it's mostly aviodable. There are some quests that require it though.

For example, let's say you crouch down and hide in the tall grass. You shoot an arrow just right to take down a weaker machine. This catches the attention of a medium strong machine, and that machine starts looking for you. But it still can't see you so you shoot out some Blast Wires without leaving your hiding spot and whistle to make it come towards you. The Blast Wires do some damage and it stops to look around but it still can't see you so it keeps moving closer and then you use Silent Strike.

The game has a realistic animation style and it is absolutely, breathtakingly, gorgeous. It won some awards for that. I got the Complete Edition which gives you the art book and it is equally gorgeous. I have a love-hate relationship with this one aspect though, the game shifts between sunny, pouring rain and light snowfall. It also shifts between daytime and nighttime. This makes the game world feel so much more real but it makes it way more challenging to hunt during the night or even just find your way around a settlement. But it's probably supposed to make it more challenging. You can't see the beautiful game world during the night though which is a shame.

This is also the most mature video game I have played. "Mature" video games usually fall into one of two categories: blood and tits or edgy youtube video essay. But Horizon Zero Dawn is actually mature. There are no sexualised female characters, there are no sex jokes, there's no blood, there's no gore, there's no edgyness... And Aloy is not the Choosen One who will rise to become more powerful and inexplicably influential than the mere commoners. I mean, she is the Choosen One and some characters have heard of her skills but most people just treat her like any other hunter. Good, but not the best. The game also gets pretty real in some parts, like, realistic in a serious way. It also showed me one of the best, most lovingly crafted, realistic things I have seen in a video game: NPCs with idle shifting-from-side-to-side-with-your-arms-crossed-at-a-party animation.

TL;DR: Horizon Zero Dawn is fun, beautiful, feminist, diverse and the height of appropriation is dream catchers and using the word "braves".

Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition are on sale on PlayStation Store until the 19th of January!

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I just saw this post about how the internet is capitalist and needs to go down and I just GRRR That is so backwards! Just from the top of my head, what I know about the internet is that it was made by regular people, I think it was two guys from Australia. It was made to be an open information sharing network by and for regular people. Laws weren't meant to apply. It was made for the right of citizens to share and access any and all information. Which I think you can guess from stuff like Pirate Bay, pirate political parties and looking back to ten years ago when advertisements were rare and streaming the latest movies was as easy and safe as snapping your fingers. The internet was just hijacked

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tory power stance is still the funniest thing to come out of uk party politics in a long time

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god i can't even talk about sexualized female characters because it's so very personal to me. i grew up with those images people are debating, ever since i was little. and even if i knew they were sexist bullshit it still affected me, and really damaged my sexuality. i used to be afraid of it, i didn't think there was anything positive about it. i can't even read some man write that "it doesn't matter" on the internet without feeling like crying.

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I mean, maybe there isn't as much political activism in 2018 as there was in the 60s and 70s but at least young leftists don't read Mao anymore

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DA:I is on sale for $5

Until January 11th, Dragon Age Inquisition is on sale on Origin for $4.99 USD

The Deluxe edition is 7.49 USD and the Game of the Year Edition (includes the DLCs, including Trespasser) is 9.99

If you’ve wanted to play it but couldn’t afford a 20-40 dollar game, now is a good time to save your money and get it

Edit: Both DA:O and DA2 are both on sale for $5 each. DA:O Awakening is currently on sale for $6.66. Not kidding.

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Never eat more than half a calzone. I feel like there's a hot iron ball in my stomach...........

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i LAUGH EVERY TIME I SEE THIS FUCKING PICTURE

ring ring

HELLO??? captain haddock asks, shoving the shower head against his face as water shoots out of it. HELLO??

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Hey there! =) This is based on the story of real people from 18th century Sweden, Ulrika Stålhammar and Maria Löhnman. A bunch of years ago when I first read about them I was so impressed, I still wasn’t used to the sort of stories that people wouldn’t believe in a movie (will I ever be?), and since I wished to make a comic about them.

There’s so many stories like that I feel need to be shared, people that usually wouldn’t be welcomed finding ways to reach happiness anyway, whatever that meant for them, no matter the period or place. And as more time passes more of us succeed in that.

I intended to put this up on Gumroad, but in the end I didn’t feel like charging. Making this bit by bit helped me to keep my sanity this last month and I hope it can bring you some good feelings as well.

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i have a question! as of now, do teenagers and young women still wear hanfu? i know there’s a hanfu revival movement going on, but is it normal to see people wear hanfu or hanfu influenced clothes walking around the street?

Hi, thanks for the question!

I answered part of your question in my reply here, so please check it out! To answer your specific question - yes, because of the hanfu revival movement, more and more teenagers and young women/men are wearing hanfu. I wouldn’t say it’s currently “normal” to see people wearing hanfu or hanfu-influenced clothes walking around the street, but it’s definitely becoming more common and accepted, compared to before. I have a compilation of hanfu street fashion photos in my post here.

Here are some more examples:

It’s not just women - men are in on the trend too!

For more photos/resources, please check out my hanfu movement and street style tags. Hope this helps!

Chinese street fashion snaps via 小杰街拍, 她街拍, 街拍LOOK, 路客文化.

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I just watched a bakning contest-show on TV, and there was a teenage boy on it, and he went: shit godammit hell it's fucking lumpy 😂 if all cooking shows were like that i would watch

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read the full comic!

i have watched approximately 54535624664534 of these so here is my Ode to Hallmark Christmas Movies

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Luisa Capetillo (1879-1922): The Activist Arrested For Wearing Pants

Full entry here. Books here. Patreon here. Art notes and whatnot after the cut.

Keep reading

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theydies and gentlethem,

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yall i remember that one post that said george blagden’s bottles were filled with grape juice while filming les mis and CAN YOU IMAGINE what if R actually just drinks bottles and bottles of grape juice and everyone just assumes it’s alcohol no one actually knows what’s in it and R never bothered to tell anyone so every time someone gives him the Disappointed Look™️ when they see him drinking he’s like???? why do they have a problem with me drinking juice?? why do all my friends hAtE mE????

AND ONE DAY during a meeting someone (let’s say courfeyrac) goes hey R can i have some of that and he’s like yeah sure and the MOMENT he realises what he’s drinking he spits a mouthful of GRAPE JUICE all over the place and he’s like “R IS THIS??? G R A P E JUICE??” and R just?? yes?? what did you think it was?

“and you’ve been drinking THIS the whole time?”

“uh yeah?? i just never understood why all of you have a problem with it. i mean yeah it’s not the best fruit juice yknow like apple juice is great and all but i personally pre-“

“R HAVE YOU BEEN DRINKING GRAPE JUICE AND ONLY GRAPE JUICE IN THOSE BOTTLES THE W H O L E TIME?”

“yes? did you.. did you only just find out?”

“GRANTAIRE WE THOUGHT YOU HAD A DRINKING PROBLEM WE WERE ALL GENUINELY CONCERNED FOR YOU”

“I HAVENT HAD ALCOHOL IN 2 YEARS”

and everyone just.. the meeting doesn’t even happen because everyone just needs to lie down.

BONUS:

“wait a minute… if you’ve been sober all this time then why do you.. you know.. why have you been acting so?? intoxicated? we were all so convinced you were always ALWAYS drunk because of how you act”

“THATS MY PERSONALITY THATS JUST WHO I AM”

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Azumarill and Marill at the beach!