siensapsap

[siensapsap]

THIS, SO MUCH THIS.

One of the things I appreciated most about Critical Role Campaign 3 from a literary lens is that it confronted how one of the most challenging parts of all political fights is just deciding what precisely is wrong & what to do about it. Especially as a group. This is where most real movements fail.

The very reason that depicting this reality is annoying to so many viewers is why it needs to be shown in fiction with full honesty. The convention in modern Western literature is to continuously lie about this part & never show it because verbal confrontation makes people as uneasy as cringe does.

But that leaves us with a lack of fiction to help process how we can do this in our daily lives. Unfortunately, we don't get to magically come to a consensus behind the scenes. We have to actually talk to everyone from the loved to the loathed about what we want to happen. And they often don't agree!

In a real-world activist meeting, It's often considered rather gauche to start casting fireball at the other attendees until they're all dead & not your problem because you disagree about which action to address next. Also considered poor taste to keep casting charm person until everyone agrees.

Which means that you're going to have to use your words to persuade others what to do tomorrow, even when you 99% agree with each other. And you're going to have to tolerate the frustration of going around and around in circles restating your case. See 12 Angry Men.

But that's not sexy in a violence-obsessed culture. It's hard to make it look good in a trailer. It's complicated and slow and requires people to compromise as a group instead of asserting their dominant will over people. It reminds us of how messy political processes are even on the 1:1 level.

But it's also the only thing that actually works. Even in revolutions where violence got the ball rolling, that wasn't what actually repaired anything. It was people talking endlessly about how to redistribute power more fairly, & what specific task they were going to do the next day to achieve it.

If the only art we ever allow to be made is art that lies about that process, then we're never going to be equipped to do it. We're denying ourselves safer places to explore that process where real people don't die when we can't get our shit together. Evading things doesn't make them easier to do.

It took the Critical Role Founders 14 episodes to agree on the name Bells Hells, as they were joking that the indecision was a real problem they were having that was slowly becoming a marketing problem actually inhibiting the business. In reality "just pick something and do it" is very hard.

So given an actually hard moral + political choice at the center of the story with a bunch of characters who have different perspectives, I don't doubt that it was just as fast if not faster to just talk it out in game than it would have been to hide it in the group chat.

Pre-deciding what to do is also not improve. That's really just a "Critical Role SHOULD be scripted" argument. The core aesthetic & method of free improv is to not decide until you're in the moment. Just feel what's there instead of overthinking it to try & control it. That's the FUN & freeing part.

I loved all the character development that grew between the cracks of disagreeing & figuring out what that means about themselves and their relationship to the world & each other. It was so subtle & constant that it seemed still in the way a stream is. But the stream profoundly reshapes the land.

So I liked it. I liked seeing how the sausage is made instead of just the finished spectacle. Especially from a group of people who have had to successfully navigate that process every day for a decade in order to achieve the reward of making and controlling their own art while staying friends.

If we can't even handle negotiation in our media with our blorbos that we get to turn off & walk away from, how the hell are we going to handle city council meetings, protests, mutual aid groups, unions, or anything of boots-on-the-ground political value to fight the literal actual fascist takeover?

[siensapsap]

Lucy Grey is the kindling, Haymitch the striker, and together with Peeta (the flint) they fan Katniss' spark into a blaze.

[siensapsap]

I just spent half an hour lying on the floor in the sunspot and it has given me a new understanding of cats

[siensapsap]

I want you to remember:

The fascists hate you too and they just will pretend otherwise until after they've killed the rest of us, before they turn on you.

[siensapsap]

Sorry for the essay in advance, i fucking love this book XD. Also, it is absolutely fine to not like a book as much as the majority does. It is good to form your own opinion first.

I think the fact that the material wasn't anything new is kind of the point, and the story that was told could only shout it's message this effectively because it's Haymitch.

I read the book a few days ago, and the way I see it, there are 2 major themes. There are a lot of themes of course, but there were two that seemed to be the main focus.

1) a revolution isn't built in a day, it isn't one lucky shot.

2) the institution that's being overthrown will do anything to convince you the bricks are not being laid, and often succeed.

The fact that the story isn't anything new is very important to bringing home the first point. Katniss isn't the first person to rebel against the capitol from within the games, Katniss isn't even the first Victor to do it.

In this book it is made clear to us that the seeds for the rebellion were being sown long before her time. We see all these familiar faces making this oh so familiar attempt at revolution to drive it home that Katniss would not have succeeded without the groundwork that had already been laid for her by years of attempts, sacrifice and dedication.

I think that is an incredibly important message in the time we live in now. Even if you don't succeed in bettering the world the first try, you have to keep trying or the spark will be made without the kindling to turn it to a blaze.

The second point this book is making, is why this being Haymitch is so important. The way propaganda works, the way it is used to convince people the temporary is a fact of life.

We already knew a bit about Haymitch's games. We knew what they did to him, we knew about his one act of rebellion that cost him his family.

Except we didn't know shit. Katniss and us, the audience, were just as susceptible to the propaganda that convinced us that that was all there was to his story. There was so much the capitol erased, both their own flaws (the chariot parade) and the way the tributes and victor took advantage of them to rebel (the chariot parade 2: race to the snowy top).

I don't think that point could have been made as effectively with anyone else. We thought we already knew Haymitch. If she'd chosen any other Victor to tell that story we would be far less confident in our ignorance.

All of that combined with the further exploring of earlier themes, characters and plot points, resulted in a book that pulled my heartstrings on a character basis, but was also incredibly effective in communicating the message it wanted to send to the world.

What did you guys think about Sunrise on the Reaping?

I had been waiting for forever for a book about Haymitch’s games and I’m extremely sorry to say that I was a bit disappointed. The material wasn’t anything new and I feel the political commentary could have been more effective if used in another story or manner.

I did really enjoy getting to see Haymitch’s perspective however and getting to see how he changed from the person he was in this book to the person he was in the original trilogy. The epilogue was also perfect.

I’d love to hear what everyone else thinks. I know I’m not in the majority as someone who doesn’t think the book was five stars or a masterpiece but I’d love to hear all opinions or reviews.

[siensapsap]

Critical Role's EXU: Divergence is very much the kind of story we need right now.

A story about building a better world out of one left devastated. About being tired and hurt and having suffered, but choosing kindness anyway. About using your strength to help those who have little, because that is what strength is for. About Hope, not as an ephemeral distant thing, but as something you DO.

Been dealing with a lot (everyone has really), and still kinda processing those most relatable moments, since it feels like my brain wasn't in the right place for it at the time.

But yeah. It definitely strikes a chord inside, especially right now.

[siensapsap]

I don't know what possessed the writers, but the sound of Sam suffering immediately followed by Celia comforting the child she did it for broke me.

[siensapsap]

Queer 2024

I saw Queer in the theater last night and was pretty excited for it. the trailers seemed interesting, I'd heard good stuff and Daniel Craig is great when he gets to play anything but James Bond.

I have never been so disappointed in my life. There was nothing to this film. The atmosphere was beautifully done, but that was it. That was the film.

There wasn't really a plot. There was one clear goal that was introduced when we were already halfway through the film (getting the specific drug) and I could kind of guess why the main character wanted that drug, but it was by no means made clear by the film, because I watched this with two other people and all three of us thought he wanted it for different reasons.

There was barely any character building. The main character was built up a little bit, but throughout most of the film they just kept reinforcing how sad, possessive and addicted to drugs he was. which was good character building for the first hour or so, but after that it just made his character feel incredibly shallow. it's like the promise of character depth but then you discover what you thought was a lake is actually barely a puddle.

The second main character was somehow worse. I thought he was more likeable (which has nothing to do with being a good character) but that was mostly because after a 2.5 hour movie i still have no clue who the fuck he is. I don't know his personality, I don't know his likes or dislikes, I don't know his motivation. He was just there. I feel like for every 20 words main character spoke, he spoke maybe 1 and it was usually vague. Other than that he mainly just smiled or frowned.

The pacing was absolutely terrible. I felt like I was watching an introduction for the first hour of the film. I kept waiting for it to get to the meat of the plot, but it was just more of the same.

I usually argue modern movies need more time to just exist in the moment, to give a scene or character time to breathe. I usually hate the super fast paced movies that feel like they are trying to cover up their lack of substance by speeding by any emotional moments.

This was the opposite. This was all just in the moment. It lingered on every little thing, dragging out even the most insignificant bullshit. it felt like the visual version of a student writing an essay that isn't long enough yet, so they just keep making it longer without adding any substance and you end up with a 3 paragraph bit explaining grass is green.

It is interesting to see the Tumblr response to it, because in both top and latest it is just visuals. I scrolled for 5 minutes through both and saw a single textpost of 2 paragraphs of actual meaningful discussion, the rest was just pictures. that's how this film felt to me. an interesting veneer, but ultimately just incredibly hollow.

p.s. the sloth gets bonus points though, that was a good sloth.

[siensapsap]

One of my favorite things about the way Penelope responds to Odysseus spiralling about being a monster, is that she immediately speaks his language.

She tricks him into breaking the cycle of self-loathing the exact same way he uses his words to convince and trick the people he's dealt with along the way home. She knows that's how he works, even after all this time.

She knows that if she argues directly he'll just keep throwing arguments back at her, so she tricks him into saying her argument for her like he does so often and i think that's just amazing.

[siensapsap]

i hate it when i cant even write a poem about something because its too obvious. like in the airbnb i was at i guess it used to be a kids room cause you could see the imprint of one little glow in the dark star that had been missed and painted over in landlord white. like that's a poem already what's the point

[siensapsap]

callout posts in 2014: this user is sending mean messages to people! please be warned!

callout posts in 2015: this user is stealing bones from cemeteries for witch rituals!

callout posts in 2016: this user Actually A Nazi

callout posts in 2017: this user watches an anime I don’t like

callout posts in 2018: i went through this user’s youtube like history and found a video from JonTron that they liked in 2012, proving that they’re a bad person

callout posts in 2019: this user plays E-Rated Video Games, which are meant for children, which seems pretty sus to me idk :/

callout posts in 2020: this user stole 5 gallons of purified water from the New DC Resistance Camp and was last seen headed towards Sunken Brooklyn

[siensapsap]

Me, reading this:

'this is so wholeso- there is that knife through the ribs, yup, should've known it was coming.'

I have an hc that it common for pro heros to donate toys and neccerties to those in need around christmas (and maybe other big holiday) some do it just from goodnes of thier heart while other do it in hope to improve thier approval rating (Endeavor). It became such a big thing that you look like ass if you didnt and was in top 20. I would think Ryuku, Mandalay and Fatgum is one of the best at picking out gifts for kids to enjoy. Hawks struggles hard to come up with something to donate to kids and when people told him, "pick something you would like as a kid" all he wanted as a kid was a stable home and family... and he can't really donate that. So he just endup buying some stuffed animals and clothing. Best jeanist at least once donated a sewing machine for kids beacuse "It both fun and teach you a uselful skill" while Edgeshot just boight a ninja type toys beacuse duh. Endeavor just bought toys he knew he proably should actally gotten his kids growing up...

Anyways merry christmas and happy holidays

[siensapsap]

Wait, is Orym's bananas high perception a trauma response to not spotting the assassins that killed his husband coming? Is it literally 'Nobody will ever be able to sneak up on the people I care about like that again?'

Like, in my head, I was going 'oh haha, this is Liam trying to make the perfect counter to someone like Vax, someone who can beat a high level rogue's minimum stealth role,' but like... in character? In character this is a man who has decided he'll never let anyone catch him unawares again.

[siensapsap]

[siensapsap]

Holy shit that's cool

Angel of Death

[siensapsap]

[siensapsap]

3 are done. I’ll let you have a think on what months they should be while I charge my iPad and think about what I’m going to do for suki’s redraw