#are they really gonna claim that people can't change in a 10 years?

[shaunashipman]

is this enough to get those "tommy's evil for how he treated hen and chimney" to zip it? clearly he's grown and changed enough in the literal decade they worked together that kenny can say that chim loves him

[centrally-unplanned]

I saw this slightly-old post making the rounds recently by former alt-right memelord Walt Bismark, on how the alt-right "won" in the late 2010's - positing that as the cause of why it generally vanished. I agree overall with the vanishing part, its not gone-gone ofc but it waned as a cohesive movement. But I saw a lot of people (and generally not alt-right figures) agreeing with its conclusion and I am a bit more skeptical of those.

Its largely a personal essay so I wont address most of it, but it has a summary of five main points that outline essentially "the agenda of the Alt Right at the beginning" to evaluate success upon. Bismark thinks they won on all five, but overall I think this is playing a trick of inventing an enemy to claim you defeated. Anyway, the points:

1: Shift the “Overton Window” of acceptable public discourse to make it politically viable to openly discuss the interests of white people in mainstream politics, in the same way black people or Jewish people discuss their collective interests. 

This one I will grant a partial victory - there was a legitimate intensification of "white as identity" in politics, a making explicit what was implicit in the 2010's. Now ofc I consider this to be a classic horseshoe moment; the hard left at the time was also extremely interested in abandoning race neutrality and valorizing racial identity as an organizing principle, and did it in a very ham-fisted way that the right capitalized on, so it was an easy battle to win - but that is what it is, ofc the wider environment defined the goals & strategy. I mention it however because I do think this is only partial, and the gap between implicit and explicit isn't that relevant. He mentions as an example of this success:

Affirmative action was of course squashed by SCOTUS and the necessary legal infrastructure is being deployed to burn it down. Mainstream conservatives are mobilizing a lot of resources and energy to this end.

But conservatives have been fighting affirmative action for 20+ years, easily. Here is a 1999 article on precisely such a campaign, I literally just googled "conservatives affirmative action [year]" and I get results each time, 2003 had big cases (the Bollinger cases) on AA, etc. I remember "affirmative action bake sale" memes from like 2006 at my uni! What changed between Bollinger and 2023's Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard is that conservatives had just had enough time to stack courts, and wait for Supreme Court justices to die. That just...takes time to do! The strategy hadn't changed between 2003 and 2023. And meanwhile, did they win? They won that court case, sure. What do you...think the ethic makeup of the next Harvard class is gonna be? Wanna take some bets?

His other listed victories are things like:

"Vivek defended the Great Replacement Theory on national television and remained a major Trump surrogate. The SPLC would have marginalized him for that 10 years ago. Today because of polarization and MAGA closing ranks they can’t do shit."

And like, the Southern Poverty Law Center would have successfully marginalized a Republican politician in idk 2003 are you completely high right now? Strom Fucking Thurmond was an active Senator in 2003! This is the repeated tactic here, the imagined enemies - there was never a time where liberal institutions could consistently force conservative politicians to kowtow, so you can't claim it as a change.

This is why I mention the social justice horseshoe, because he has this point here:

These days you can complain about quotas etc. being unfair to you as a white man and it’s not inflammatory or low status among centrists and conservatives. Even non-woke liberals won’t really hate you for it, just quietly think you’re a bit of a chud. This was not the case in 2015. 

And this is partially correct, I agree there was some norm shift. But that is because in ~2010 there really weren't any quotas against white men, it wasn't a thing almost anywhere outside of university applications, so the complaint would make no sense. What happened was that starting in ~2012 a huge left cultural movement started that just openly supported active discrimination against whites, Asians and men. They were a small minority of course, and never had much power, but they got enough power in certain institutions like non-profits and universities that there was a string of just very obvious cases of clear racial discrimination against in particular whites & asians (both men and women, white women often got it very bad in this wave). And the large majority of people just saw that and went "uh yeah racism is still bad?" and so now you can say that because its actually relevant to say. From that lens, is this a successful cultural victory on the part of the alt-right? In some sense sure, but really its more a cultural failure of the hard left. The status quo just kept on chugging along.

Ugh that point went long, the others repeat so we will go through them quicker.

2: Elevate identity issues like anti-immigration and the promotion of traditional gender norms to the center of Republican politics. 

A fake enemy here - anti-immigration was already a huge issue for Republicans in the 2000's. It had a huge wave under Obama actually, it goes in cycles like that. And it responds to material conditions; it's a big issue again right now because the immigration numbers spiked massively under Biden, its just way worse of a problem now (primarily due to the booming economy of course). Again a partial victory for the first part, I agree its more salient due to Trump platforming it, but I'm skeptical that it is a big shift - people are memory-holing the Tea Party movement really badly here for example.

And the second point is just obviously false, Republicans always cared about that, and they care about it less now, giving up the ghost on gay marriage for example. The Alt-Right coincided with a decline of the influence of the Religious Right, and it shows on this issue, 0 points.

3: Make it socially acceptable to discuss HBD and the resulting moral implications for leveling mechanisms like affirmative action. 

Peak "log off" moment, it was always acceptable to discuss this outside of liberal/professional circles and there it still isn't acceptable to discuss it. Charles Murray wrote the Bell Curve in 1994 and his been an American Enterprise Institute Scholar for this entire span of time. This is confusing churn for change - the mid-2010's had a bunch of big, mainly online fights about HBD, and then everyone just sort of moved on with the status quo pretty much unchanged. Nothing like education policy, even in Republican circles, has shifted over this.

4: Convince conservatives to stop ceding moral authority to liberals and allowing them to determine who on the Right is verboten or beyond the pale. Make it unacceptable among conservatives to “punch Right” or purge people for wrongthink. 

Sigh, again when have Republicans ever ceded moral authority to liberals? Harvard University could not condemn Newt Gingrich in ~2009 and make him change his mind about anything. And "Republicans don't self-criticize while Liberals eat themselves alive" has been a complaint for literally decades, you would hear that as far back as say Clinton and things like the 1999 WTO protests. Its both true and exaggerated - the Tea Party primaried Republican candidates for wrongthink in 2010, and Trump did the same thing! With disastrous results for the Republicans in 2022. I really, really don't think you can look at Trump's Republican party and say they solved the Wrongthink problem.

5: Expose and dismantle the hypocritical attitude that allows neocons to militantly support Israeli ethnonationalism while brutally repressing any white identity politics domestically.

This one is just a lolwut moment, "brutally repressing any white identity politics domestically", like what does that even mean? Name the concrete policy proposals George Bush implemented in 2007 than Donald Trump didn't in 2018 around this topic. Again a fake enemy, they were never repressed by the right, and ofc are still hated by liberal institutions like universities.

Moving on from any specific point, I think its very telling that very little about free trade vs protectionism or isolationism/support of autocracy abroad enters this list. Because beyond immigration those are the big shifts the Trump movement (which is the mechanism the alt-right has to claim for making its impact) has ushered into the party. They didn't change its stance on sexual politics or "race & IQ" or anything, those haven't changed, but meanwhile the party has completely flipped on things like tariffs or opposition to Russian military expansion. But of course those don't align neatly at all with the issues the Alt-Right fought about in 2015.

The reality the Alt-Right can't escape is that they used Trump as their mechanism for change, and Trump never really cared about any of their goals beyond immigration. He used them and then pursued either bog-standard Republican policy or his own mercurial, autocratic whims, eventually channeling all of this energy into election denialism. I really don't think if you pulled aside frikkin Ryan Faulk in 2014, asked him to put down his graphs about Raven's Progressive Matrices of black Caribbean students, and said "Hey 10 years from now all of this energy is being channeled into pretending that a failed real estate mogul didn't lose the 2020 presidential election", that he would look at that outcome and think Mission Accomplished.

I don't want to fully oversell, there are for example wins Bismark doesn't mention (School choice comes to mind, the biggest conservative win of the past decade besides the protectionist swing). The Alt Right was an influential movement, it earned its place in history. But I do not think it is an example of being a "victim of its own success". I think instead it should be understood as part of the "radical froth" of the 2010's, that bubbled over and then evaporated like its more intense leftwing peers did. It made some mark and then got left in the dust.

Net ranking of the 5 points: 0.5 for Point 1, 0.25 for Point 2, 0 for the rest, 1.25/5.

[eyesore-boi]

You think that you're alone but

We are waiting for you every night...

You're mine.

Close ups and other stuff below!

...so....10 years, huh?

I cannot understate how much FNaF means to me in my life, and yeah...know that sounds a b i t much considering it's the funny har har bear games, but lemme explain-

Truth is, i was actually terrified of FNaF when it first came out! I remember my first introduction to it was when i was having a sleepover at my friend's place and he was both playing and watching other people play the first game, and when i was watching it with him, i got scared and tried to avoid the game as much as i could, even claiming to hate the game despite just knowing the first game. I was young and was prone to sheltering myself from stuff i didn't understand, and that being the first scary game i've ever seen caused that reaction, but over time...that changed.

It happened when i was watching YT and clicked on a comic dub i never seen before, thinking it was an AU for a fandom i was in (probably Undertale i dunno), but lo and behold, it was actually a fandub/animatic for the missing kids incident, and that...peaked my interest. I got curious on how this scary game actually had an interesting story to it and not just some game that goes boo. So, soon after that, i decided to look up simply "FNaF Story", found the Game Theory videos, and...the rest is history.

I was amazed and hooked, got invested in how the games explained the story in ways i've never seen before, got excited when i saw everything click together in real time, and pair that with how i got into the series r i g h t when Sister Location came out, arguably when the lore really started to kick off, i knew there was no going back now. I stuck with the series since. I watched all the animatics and dubs, listened to all the songs, tried drawing the characters, made OC's, and even talked to other people about this franchise.

And now look- Not gonna pretened this whole time it's been sunshine and (Chica's) rainbows, especially in recent times. The drop off SB caused, the lore getting more and more complicated and convoluted, the divide between older and newer fans, being the founder of Mascot Horror (for every Poppy Playtime there i s a Garten of Ban Ban) and course the IRL drama, but in all seriousness...i still wouldn't trade it for anything.

FNaF, this series, is my very first experience connecting me with a community like this, both good and bad, helping me understand how to properly enjoy media and even learn/take things from it, and i think without it i wouldn't be in the fandoms i'd be in now. The scary, horror ones, the niche, hard to find ones, story driven, character rich, and of course...more importantly...getting me into Markiplier, which further influenced the "outside the box" kind of thinking cause my g o d for these two stories you need too-

And speaking of, because of those two stories, it lead to me branching out more creativily and even creating my own webcomic for an AU combining both of them, so regardless on how that'll go, i'm just glad this series has influenced me enough to create something for others to see, since that's all i ever want to give.

But really, this franchise will forever be with me, and though i don't always agree with all of it (i haven't read any of the books in y e a r s and i refuse to do so), it only makes some of the stuff it does do right completely worth it (like the movie, peak cinema), and for where ever this bear shaped train is going next, well, i'll be here for the ride for all of it. No matter how many burning buildings it goes through.

...oh and um- Right yeah. The actual art piece. Uh....it crashed multiple times when drawing it. It's even a miracle i was able to export it. I can't even open it up anymore. So even if i wanted to change anything about it, i c a n 't -

But still pretty happy with how it came together! Was run drawing these robos, some being kinda redraws from the past, while other's i've n e v e r drawn before, so that was interesting! But still, tried to draw the "main character" so to say from each of the main FNaF games, and just kinda be...walking along through the series, nothing too deep or complex, but still interesting enough! ....unlike the fnaf storyline cause g o d how many restaurants wERE THEIR S C O T T -

But for real this is going long enough, so ima head out and do my own FNaF related things thay you don't need to worry about shush *commits arson*

HAPPY 10TH FNAF BIRTHDAY EVERYBODY!! >:DD

[sindri42]

What is capitalism if private ownership and monopolization are out

This is about the insulin thing, right? Let me walk you through the steps.

The current situation is, there are three big corporations making insulin. They make it for super cheap, like $2 a dose or something including packaging and distribution and all that jazz, but they know that people need this stuff in order to not die, so there's no reason to restrain themselves as far as pricing goes. So they sell the stuff for like $500 a vial, earning a tidy 25,000% profit, because what are customers gonna do, not buy it?

In a capitalist system, this is a huge opportunity for anybody with a few thousand in seed money and a smidge of ambition. The process of making insulin is hardly a secret. I might not have the economy of scale going and I need a big up-front investment for equipment, but even if it costs me five times as much per dose to produce the stuff, that's still less than 2% of the current market price. So I start making and distributing the stuff for $10 a vial, and selling it for $400, and all the customers see that they can get the same product for $100 less so they stop buying from those three big companies and start buying from my startup. Then a month later, somebody else comes along with the same idea but undercuts me, and I lose all my customers to sombody willing to sell the stuff for $350, but that's fine I just change all my labels to sell for $300 and they come rushing back, and I'm still making $290 pure profit on every vial. Fast forward a couple years, and the market price of insulin is like, $12 a vial tops, because if you try to get profit margins any bigger than that you're the most expensive option and nobody buys from you. There was never any altruism involved in that process, no magic, no glorious savior who figured out a way to impose their will upon the world in order to save lives, just ordinary greedy humans fighting each other to make more money for themselves, but the end result is that the people who need this stuff to survive get it for a tiny fraction of what they used to be paying.

In the system that we're actually using, the three big corporations go to the government with three big suitcases full of cash, and the government passes a law that says anybody who tries to make insulin who isn't one of the three big corporations goes directly to prison forever. All the competition vanishes, and without the risk of somebody selling the same product for less they're able to keep raising the price as much as they want. I mean, if you get up to the point where the majority of your customers literally can't buy it anymore and they die then you have fewer customers, so going up into the millions per vial would be counterproductive, but as long as the majority of people who need insulin can just barely scrape together enough, you maximize your profits. And all it costs is widespread human suffering and a few surprisingly affordable bribes.

And then here's the really funny part: the corporations that benefit most from government interference in the market? They're the ones that fund all the media that convinces kids that the solution to all their problems is to give the government even more control over every aspect of life. They're the ones who pushed the narrative that 'libertarian' is synonymous with 'pedophile'. They're the ones who bury stories about corrupt politicians so you never question how a congressman can have a salary under $200,000 a year, go into the position with a net worth of a million dollars, and come out eight years later as a billionaire. Almost every "anti-capitalist" movement out there, if you follow the chain of evidence back, is funded directly by the corporations it claims to oppose, because shifting the balance of power further away from the individual and more toward the State means more profit for the people who are in a position to manipulate the state.

Now, this isn't to say that a free market is without problems. If there was zero regulation of the production of insulin, then a particularly unethical person could undercut the legitimate sources by making a loose approximation of the product people need for much cheaper by using dangerous or ineffective methods, and then sell it at prices that legitimate manufacturers can't compete with because the purchase price is lower than the manufacturing price. Which means that when you buy insulin, you would need to do your own research into who's got a reputation for quality, and there would be people who straight up die because they decided to go for the $4-6 "insulin" instead of the $12-15 insulin. But I'm pretty sure that would still be better than the only option being $500.

[felixakranken]

Thoughts on Jack and Rose knowing or not knowing about Felix's alcoholism:

I keep seeing people say that Jack and Rose weren't aware of Felix's alcoholism because of the new line in 4 where Susan and Charles say that they don't know and debate on telling them. While I understand why it's being interpreted as such, I don't personally agree.

First off, there's absolutely no feesible way they would be unaware of Felix's problems. They've known him for 20 years and are extremely close to him, and we know from Linda's diary that Felix has been drinking for about 10 years at this point. It's stated numerous times that he comes to work drunk, and even Linda says that he'd be so drunk he'd spend the night at the warehouse some nights. Unless Jack and Rose are completely blind they'd be aware of this. They co own the company with him after all.

I suspect it is known he was an alcoholic but he had gone into recovery at some point and recently relapsed. Maybe he was attempting to hide the relapse from them, but there's no way that they'd be entirely unaware of his alcoholism. I'm thinking maybe that line was meant more as they don't know where Felix is. He's skipping work to go to the bar and isn't telling Jack and Rose of his actual whereabouts. Felix would for sure lie about something like this.

I just can't buy the fact that these people he works with every day and are his best friends wouldn't have a single clue of his addiction, but other people he works with do? I've known many alcoholics in my time, regardless of if I'd ever seen them drink or not their behavior is very obvious, and the change in personality is too.

With all that being said, of course, this is not in defense of Jack asking Felix to do him a favor and claiming he "should've known" at all. This is just my thoughts on how logically Jack and Rose having no idea he's an alcoholic isn't really possible.

I wish people would think just a little bit more about how this would work realistically than assuming ANYTHING in this series is gonna be that simple. Nuance is extremely valuable.

[dicenote]

touta matsuda

discuss

omg YES ty! This is gonna be a long, disorganized ramble, so bear with me!

Touta Matsuda. My blorbo, skrunky scrimblo, love of my life, etc.

There are so many things about Matsuda's character that I could talk about. His impulsivity, his loyalty, his uncertainty... All of it makes a very real and very interesting character. And I think that a lot of his traits shine in one of the most horrifying scenes from his perspective: the Yellow Box Warehouse.

Like, let's take a step back and look at the numbers here. On one side of the warehouse, we've got a guy claiming to be L, and the three members of the old Kira Task Force that he brought with him. On the other side, we've got a different guy claiming to be L and three members of the SPK that he brought with him (oh. and the guy from the Task Force that got kidnapped in the mix). Outside, Kira's accomplice is lying in wait. So we've got ten people in all who are ready for the final showdown. The reveal. The evidence that will finally end this years-long nightmare and point to the true identity of Kira.

And of those 10 people, only one of them doesn't have a clue who Kira really is.

Light is Kira. Mikami is X-Kira and finds out who Kira is as soon as he looks in the room. Near and the SPK are all on the same page. Mogi and Aizawa know. Ide's a bit more on the fence but he wasn't completely in the dark. So Matsuda is the only one who goes in totally blind.

If anyone were to re-write Death Note purely from Matsuda's perspective, the Warehouse scene would go from tense to horrifying. To (nearly) everyone else there, this confrontation isn’t meant to reveal an unexpected truth, it’s to confirm something that they already know. But for Matsuda? Near's request to meet at the warehouse is, at worst, a tactic to once again frame Light. Because Light obviously can't be Kira, right? Light will show Near that he's wrong, and the investigation will continue as normal until the real Kira is caught.

But then Near presents that irrefutable evidence, and everything that Matsuda knew for over five years comes crumbling down. Light starts monologuing about how the world had to be fixed and how no one could ever make it as far as he did. Kira and Light are one and the same. Matsuda always thought that Kira was a well-intentioned person who was helping change the world. Ide and Aizawa and Mogi believed that Kira was evil, they were much stronger in their resolve than Matsuda ever could be. But Light had confessed to him once that he too questioned if what they were doing was right. If Kira was doing right.

Light has always been Kira.

And then comes the absolutely tasty part where Matsuda shoots Light. I love how chapter 106 is called "Intent to Kill", because it reminds me of how Matsuda and Light are foils to each other. Better yet, they can be compared against a man they both held such deep respect for, Soichiro Yagami.

See, Soichiro threatens to kill people a good couple times, and even holds a gun to his son's face, but he never has any intent to kill. In fact, he's never killed anyone, as (I think) Mello points out. It's almost kind of silly. Like, Soichiro draws the line at firing bullets or writing full names in the Death Note, and that's it? Everything else is fair game? Weird line to draw, but go off I guess.

Light, meanwhile, justifies killing thousands. But only with the Death Note. With the Death Note, his intent to kill becomes a righteous one, another step on the path to becoming God of a New World. The criminals deserved to die. Those who get in Kira's way deserve to die. Because Light isn't a serial killer. He's doing the right thing! Crime is going down, war has stopped, and Light is the only one who could have possibly gone this far and done this much good.

And then we're back to Matsuda. I believe the mafia raid is the first time we see Matsuda using a gun, and we see that he's damn good at it. So good, in fact, that he's able to fire only non-lethal shots to get the Death Note back. (Also, fun tidbit: I'm pretty sure he's the only one who doesn't go into the raid with a rifle, he's just got like, a standard-issue cop pistol with a light on it.) The same thing happens in the warehouse, at least initially. He fires at Light's hand to get him to stop writing. Then he and Light yell at each other for a little bit about (who else?) Soichiro. Light demands that Matsuda shoot the others, because he's the only one who understands Kira. When Matsuda hesitates, Light resumes writing Near's name. Then Matsuda fires again and again and again. Anything to make Light stop. Anything to make it all stop. But it becomes obvious that he's not just shooting Light as a deterrent. What does Matsuda say as he's doing it?

"He needs to die!"

The others literally have to drag Matsuda away before he can execute Light on the spot.

Matsuda is a character full of contradictions. He dedicates over half a decade to fighting Kira, but he doubts the whole time. He tries to follow in Soichiro's footsteps but in the end makes the same justification that Light did when he first started writing in the Death Note. This man is a criminal. He deserves to die. The Yellow Box Warehouse not only exposed Light's true colors, but Matsuda's as well.

[eruscreaminginthedistance]

Ugh it's taken me like a week to post this because reformatting PF posts on my phone is a bitch so I'm gonna throw this out here so that i don't put it off any longer; my Dune Part 2 review.

Basically, I feel like I'm living through a Category 5 LOTR event in real time. I was worried going into the second film that I was overhyped and that I should temper my expectations; speculative fiction adaptations 9 times out of 10 are usually dead on arrival and Dune Part 1 already defied the odds for being as good as it was for an almost 1-to-1 recreation.

I feel like after this I could confidently trust Denis Villeneuve with my life. The man's not really making a product. He clearly LOVES sci fi. Respect for the source material oozes out of every scene of Dune, and his little tweaks and changes are done with care and with a sense of critically engaging with the story that shows real thought.

Praying to the gods that once Denis finishes the trilogy he brings out a boxset DVDs with at least three behind the scenes DVDs MINIMUM. I need to see every single aspect of production on this leviathan of a project and then ritualistically watch all three movies back to back as I would with LOTR.

Spoilers under the cut

In terms of what I liked:

I've only read the first two books in full - Children and God Emperor are next on my list to finish this year - so I can't speak as an uber knowledgeable Dune nerd who knows the books back to front, but I'm very confident when I say that Denis's changes to the source material didn't take away from the experience of the story at all.

- Chani's probably the biggest change of all in the sequel and oh my god does it revitalise her character. I was quite shocked scrolling through tags to see book readers complain about how much the movie changed her and her arc. What are they mad about? That they gave Chani something to do other than sucking Paul's dick? In the book, literally everyone is 100% behind Paul uncritically accepting every single thing he does and Chani is just one of a swarm of characters that do that. I say this with much love because I like her book counterpart but I struggle to understand the people who claim to be so invested in book Paul and Chani's dynamic as opposed to the film's when book Chani's whole character is "Wife", until Dune Messiah when she gets the "Nagging Wife" upgrade. Denis's version effectively makes her co-protagonist with Paul and it was so exciting to see that play out on screen. She became the moral litmus test and the last vestige of uncorrupted ideals in the movie; Paul's descent into fascism and betrayal of the Fremen would not have hit nearly as hard if everyone went along with it like in the book.. I really felt for Chani having to watch everyone she knows get swept up in this insane fervour. She's too dedicated to the concept of freedom to fall for the bullshit and that was such a relief ti witness. Film Chani is her own character, not just another limb of Paul's, so her story is going in a slightly different direction and I'm really excited to see that. Would not have been nearly as hyped if her whole arc was just going to be "be pregnant. die" again.

- Jessica being an absolute FREAK. She was probably my favourite character from the book and I was so pissed she wasn't in Dune Messiah. I needed to get inside her head and wiggle around in there while I was reading, and Denis fed me. In the book, I got the impression she was quite a passive participant in the prophecy, so getting to see her go full wicked witch in the film was a massive highlight. Speaking to Alia in the womb, her sinister use of The Voice (such a horrific departure from her only using it for self defence in Part 1), her FASHION. Denis needs to adapt her into Dune Messiah I refuse to watch a version of Messiah without Jessica in it.

- Stilgar came out of nowhere with the steel chair for me. The first book is filled back to back with noble fatherly leader figures so he got very lost in the shuffle and I didn't really pay attention to him that much beyond being one of Paul's many mentors. I read a tiny bit of Children before watching Part 2 and Stilgar seriously considering murdering Paul's children made me do a double take. Then seeing him in this movie blew me away. Guys I think I've slept on Stilgar all this time xD. Not gonna lie though, the film beefs up his character quite a lot from the books. I think it was a good decision to make him comedic relief, because it offsets that "religious fundamentalist" element that could put people off. It makes him much softer and more likeable. He's just a guy with big hopes and big dreams and a big heart who's a bit silly sometimes, and that makes him the ultimate prey for Paul and Jessica. It's absolutely sickening to see them exploit his sincere faith and beliefs and I'm getting upset now just thinking about all the horrific things he'll be lead to do. Denis did a fantastic job of making him a more sympathetic and softer character for people to compare with his post-timeskip Space Hitler's Right Hand Man role.

- Introducing Princess Irulan early hell yeah!! Huge improvement on the book imo; she was very much a dark horse character for this film and Florence Pugh nailed it. I loved her being the narrator much like in the book, and it was interesting to see her contribute to putting the pieces in place for the endgame, rather than just turn up at the end. More of her please, Denis!

- One of my complaints about the first film was that there wasn't enough Harkonnen action, specifically the Harkonnen-Atreides rivalry, which was talked about a bit but not really shown. Denis made all those Harkonnen scenes specifically for me. I adored the balls to the wall aesthetics and the incredibly villainous acting. This film isn't afraid of moustache twirls and villainous laughter and I LOVE that. It felt fresh. Villains who just love doing bad shit and aren't even trying to justify themselves they just LOVE being horrible creatures in their black stone murder palaces.

- What can I say about the look of the film. You've all seen it. If you haven't then go fix that. It's one of the most visually cohesive and stunning films I've seen in a long time. I don't know how a world can feel so real and yet unreal (/pos) at the same time.

- Hans Zimmer showed the fuck UP for this score. I've been listening to it nonstop all weekend. I kinda miss the Atreides bagpipes but the new horns drive me insane so it's a good tradeoff.

Things I'm on the fence about:

- I think it was a good call to remove the whole thing with Paul uh, inheriting Harah from Jamis. It gave more screentime to Chani and I think would have really put viewers off Paul when really you wanna keep people going in blind rooting for him until the third act. BUT I was surprised she wasn't in the film at all? I was convinced that the lady we see Chani talking with was supposed to be an adapted Harah, but I'm seeing everywhere online that that's not supposed to be her and Harah wasn't in the film? Why not? It just felt a bit weird that she's just some nameless Fremen.

- I'm not gonna lie I forgot Thufir existed on my first watch. I think me not missing him overall is a good sign. I didn't rewatch part 1 so I guess I assumed they'd killed him off in the Arrakeen attack, and didn't realise his part had been cut until I saw an article about it later. That was kind of disappointing. While I think the film is perfectly fine without him, I think the inclusion of his plot as kind-of prisoner kind-of strategist for the Harkonnens would have really solidified the Harkonnen-Atreides rivalry. Again because we almost never see an Atreides and Harkonnen onscreen together, so having him there to exemplify it in practice I think could have just polished things up for me personally. But also I want all films to be 5 hours long so what do I know.

- Jessica and Chani didn't interact nearly as much as I wanted them to tbh. I'm hoping that Dune Messiah beefs up their relationship.

- Timothee Chalamet

Things I didn't like:

- Not Paul btw, just Timothee

- Been saying this since the first movie but him and Zendaya were really only cast cos they're hot ticket items right now, not because they have the look and feel of the characters or the world; they just wanted to cast some hot supermodels in the roles

- Zendaya justifies her casting though by being the better actor though; I was sceptical but I came to buy her as Chani and she did a good job resonating with me

- Timothee's just a guy though, wasn't impressed

- Which is a huge problem because the emotional throughline of the movie is their romance and I just. Did not buy it. Timothee could not have paid me to believe that he was in love with Chani. They were like the definition of everybody's beautiful but nobody's horny. Just saying words with their blank hot faces. At least Zendaya put some effort in.

Anyway 10/10. This is going in my top 5 movies of all time and is one of the best book to screen adaptations I have ever seen.

[mokeonn]

Transmascs simply acknowledging that they face problems transfems don't tend to face as often aren't claiming misandry as a systemic force against all men exists, they are just acknowledging how their gender affects the form discrimination takes. 'Man' is not a default, ungendered state, and being a man does not lead to default, ungendered bigotry. This applies to homophobia, racism, ableism, etc and absolutely applies to transphobia. It'd be nice for men in all marginalized groups to be able to describe those intersections, without people deliberately taking the most bad faith interpretations of the terminology on a purely semantic level, regardless of what the terminology is or what it's describing.

As someone who once held the perspective you do, I believe you yourself would benefit from acknowledging your experiences as they are and unlearning the mental gymnastics and thought-terminating cliches required to degender your clearly gendered experiences as a trans man.

I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, men are not an oppressed group. A lot of men are oppressed, yes, but not because they're men. This was like, feminism 101. Men benefit from the patriarchy. Society was built around the idea that (white) men are superior. Man is not a default, but we live in a gendered society that treats it as such.

I am oppressed because I'm trans, because I'm autistic, because I'm mentally ill, because I'm disabled...

but not because I'm a man.

Have I been the subject of anti transmasc transphobia? Yeah. Of course. Obviously. But let's me explicitly clear here:

It's not because I'm a man, it's because I'm trans. The root of the specific bigotry I go through is transphobia. It's not "misandry", it's because I'm trans! The disgust I get for being a trans man is because I'm a trans man, not because I'm a trans man.

I'm sorry Anon but I'm not going to change my mind on this. I've been out as trans for over a decade now, and any disdain I get is not from my manhood, but because of my transness. Many men deal with bigotry and systemic oppression, but not because they're men. Every example I see trans man say is "transandrophobia" is based in transphobia, not misandry.

Like, I thought we all knew this??? Trans women face very specific oppression because they're trans, women, and trans women?? That's why the term transmisogyny exists? To describe the very specific oppression trans women face? Why would I use a term that involves the word Misandry in some way, a term we have lambasted for years now for good reason, when I can just say that what I deal with is transphobia? Because that's what it is. Transphobia. When I think back on the last 10 years of being openly trans, the bigotry I faced was because I was trans.

Use whatever labels you want I guess, I can't stop you, but I am gonna judge you for using misandry unironically lmao. Like yeah sometimes people are specifically transphobic towards trans men but it's because they hate us for being trans, not men, lmao.

Also, In my experience the guys who try to make these labels that are just repackaged versions of misandry are just like... generally unpleasant people to be around and they tend to not really interact with the larger trans community outside of other transmascs. They're pretty uninformed about the community im gonna be real with you. Like it really gives me the vibes of 15 year old MRAs who say men are oppressed because the patriarcy also hurts them. Like yeah, the patriarchy hurts everyone, but it specifically targets women. Just because you were caught in the crossfire, doesn't mean you were a target.

TL;DR: nah i've done a lot of thinking on it and it's just transphobia. And I'm okay with just describing it as transphobia. It doesn't need to be more. It doesn't "need to intersect with being a man", it's just transphobia. I'm okay with just calling it that. I've already reflected on my experiences and it's not a "thought terminating cliche" to say it's just transphobia.

I also repeated myself a lot bc I drank a cup of coffee before I had breakfast so I'm probably incoherent lmaooooo

[cbrownjc]

i think you're right people came blind for the romance and i was maybe too harsh. i've been sideyeing people's reaction to this show and themes since half the fandom called daniel a voyeur pedophile for... demanding proof that claudia's diary actually said what louis was claiming. like this fandom is sensitive AS HELL and if/when louis chooses dick over claudia/it turns out episode five went way different i'm kind of scared how people will react

Hey Anon,

It's okay, I don't think you were harsh or intended to be.

The Daniel situation is interesting. I get people who sided with Louis and the idea that he was protecting Claudia when that episode first aired. Even I did, in theory. (Having to care for my mother, who had Parkinson's, for 10 years made me completely unobjective about Daniel slapping Louis when Louis manipulated Daniel's Parkinson's, however. I personally would have punched Louis for that one, even if it would have gotten me killed.)

But in my head, I also knew what Claudia's diaries, even being around, and a thing in the show, actually meant. Because I knew their significance in the book Merrick and what Claudia had written in her (one) diary that was found - and that was her hatred for both Lestat and Louis.

And so, I couldn't shake the feeling that Claudia's diary was being edited not just because Louis was trying to protect what had happened to her.

And as we see by EP7, Daniel was right to question the pages that were taken out. Because even though Louis took the pages of the SA out to protect Claudia, we see that even more pages than just those have been taken out of her diaries.

One section, in particular, where Daniel can clearly tell Claudia hated Louis' guts. Which matches up with her diary in Merrick.

Investigative Journalists aren't there to be friendly and sometimes can lack tact. And they aren't there to reinforce a story you want to tell yourself. I really don't know what to think of people who thought Daniel was being a voyeur pedophile for asking for the missing pages, because wow for missing the point. Daniel was asking because he could sense something was off when it came to the story Louis was telling and Claudia's diaries - which were being used to reinforce Louis' story - were not being presented unedited to do that, and he was right.

If you look closely at this image, you can even see pages have been taken out of where Claudia recorded Lestat's last words:

Armand is likely the one who's been editing the diaries when the edges are clean-cut like that. But the main point is that Claudia's diaries are being edited. Claudia's story, which she told for herself, is being changed to suit whatever story Louis has been needing to tell himself about everything that happened.

Daniel is being told an account of the events to suit what Louis needs to believe and removed of the things he can't face up to. Particularly when it comes to his own choices and actions.

Spoilers Below For The Second Half of the Book IWTV and Possibly Season 2:

I know much of the non-book fandom will flip out when Louis goes off with the man/vampire who orchestrated Claudia's death. Not gonna lie, when I read that in the book years ago - after having seen the 1994 movie when it first came out, which changed that bit - I was side-eyeing Louis hard for that one.

But Louis isn't supposed to be some heroic figure. He's tragic, with some maddening faults.

This whole story is a tragedy. IWTV ends tragically, not happily. And I just don't know if the part of the fandom that doesn't know the story will be able to deal with that fact.

These vampires are monsters. They love deeply and passionately and crave love like they crave blood, but they are monsters, each in their own way. And they are all going to do some awful shit, in season 2 and any others seasons we might get. Because that is the nature of their story over the course of the chronicles.

We'll see how those new to the fandom deal with that. But not all of it will be well, I can already tell.

[robo-cryptid]

Do you consider yourself a Yeehan shipper? And if so, why? I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, I’m a relatively new shipper (started playing this year, and other Yeehan shippers directed me to your work), but I’ve seen some of your tweets and in many of them you seem to have more negative things to say about how they make you feel than positive. So I was curious to know your stance on them, and why you keep writing for them. (If this is too invasive, you don’t have to reply)

Also, I really enjoyed Ricochet. It sold the ship to me, basically (but now I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing)..

First off, I'm really glad you liked Ricochet! It's one of the fics I'm still really proud of, and I'm currently in a project with fanartist @showerwhoops and a friend who makes fandom light novels to make it printable with lots of gorgeous art. I mean, mostly I just love collabs and wanna support G's light novel-making hobby, but hopefully other people will find that exciting to know.

With regard to Yeehan, lol, I'm struggling to figure out how to answer this, especially without context for which tweets in particular. The simple answer is yeah, I'm a Yeehan shipper. I love them. I've said it before, but I basically trauma-bonded to them and can't let go. But also I love the themes of redemption and the various forms that can take, and people finding love not when they're young and fresh-faced but when they're jaded and have been through some shit, and seeing two people fight not only to make the world better but to make themselves better people together. I love all of that. It's delicious. I also love writing them as dumb himbos because why the heck not.

I've been in this fandom since 2018. I've written 70+ fics just for Yeehan (plus a few dozen others for the rest of Overwatch), and I'm still writing it. Of my last three art commissions, one was Hanzo and one was Yeehan. I started Yeehan Fic Rec Friday (@yeehanfrf) to help new people find good Yeehan recs sourced from the community, not just one person, and to lift up my fellow writers. All of this is on my twitter, and that's not even getting into all the fan events I've participated in, etc., before this year. So yeah, I'd say I'm a fan, lol.

Unless you're mistaking my shitposting and lovingly mocking the characters for meanness, maybe the negativity you're seeing is when I'm being critical of the fandom itself? In which case... you know, I'm going to take this as an opportunity. And it's gonna get kind of long, so let's go behind a cut.

I can only reiterate that I've been here since 2018. I've seen so much shit, and while some of it has come from "outsiders" (other shippers, people who are sick of Overwatch, etc.), plenty of it has come from my fellow Yeehans too. And while most of my frustration with the Yeehan fandom is on the level of, you know, family that you love but would like to shake some sense into, that doesn't change that it can be frustrating.

Here, an assuredly incomplete list of all the things I've experienced from other Yeehan fans:

I've seen people harassed outright for drawing/writing the "wrong" character bottoming. I've seen literally dozens of nonbinary and transmasc people misgendered and harassed for being "fujoshi" "fetishizinig mlm," because nothing says great justice like blending transphobia and misogyny to attack real people over fictional characters. I've been here for at least 10 different rounds of witch hunts for various fandom "crimes" like people shipping characters with a bad-idea-in-real-life age gap or power imbalance, or even just shipping the same character with multiple people.

I was here when Cassidy's animated short dropped and it took less than an hour to see hate posts about Ashe. And I was also here when fandom retconned the tale of those events to claim Yeehan fans only hate her because some of her fans are shitty, and it can't possibly under any circumstances be misogyny ever. (Which is not saying that some of her fans aren't shitty. It's just that some Yeehan fans are also shitty and in denial about it.)

I've been outright harassed for talking about fandom misogyny, no matter how kitten gentle and "Let's Have a Teaching Moment" I've been about it. I've been harassed for pointing out fandom racism. I've seen a friend get ostracized and harassed much worse for pointing out the same fandom racism and misogyny. And this is, of course, on top of actually seeing and reading racist portrayals of Hanzo and occasionally Cassidy, and seeing and reading constant misogyny (mostly over Ashe, but not exclusive to her) to remind me that men get to have greater interiority and receive more sympathy and get their flaws smoothed over in ways women never do, in fiction and in reality. But hey, don't point any of that out, because fandom is supposed to be a place for escapism, even if those things are making it difficult to escape, yourself! (And then of course I've seen people attacked really harshly over the kind of "they probably genuinely did not know better and it would have been an easy fix if someone just very kindly explained it to them instead of needing to publicly punish them" racism or misogyny.)

I've had someone hold a sustained, months-long campaign of just constantly shit-talking me and low-grade harassing me across multiple Discord servers, and recruiting their friends to do the same, all because I said, "Hey, you've been consistently rude and also triggered me this one time."

I've had anons in my inbox doing everything from demanding I write more to accusing me of pedophilia (or supporting it) for... I don't even know at this point, lol. Because that's a thing people do in fandoms, I guess.

Maybe because I'm prolific or maybe because I actually talk to anons or maybe because I have a follower count above the triple digits, a lot of people have treated me like I'm nothing but a content machine, not a person, which is something I've seen plenty of people do to other artists and writers across fandom. It's crummy. It makes me feel like I don't belong here if I'm not "producing," and even then I'm only tolerated for that, not for, like, my basic humanity (or being funny as hell imho). I've had people attack me over dumb jokes or act like I'm not a "real fan" for them (despite the aforementioned 70+ fics, like I guess those don't count if I make a joke about Cassidy being kind of a douche one time in his animated short).

And anything that's happened to me, I've seen happen to other people. Often worse, actually, because I get far fewer rude comments on my fanfic than several of my friends do, and nobody's misgendering me when they imply I'm a woman, even if they do sometimes erase my queerness.

On the scale of things that are mostly just annoying/stressful and not so much acts of aggression, fandom does this thing where it just freaks out (positive or negative) about something instantly, so I get spoiled on stuff if I don't see it within 15 minutes after it dropped? That's frustrating, especially if the reaction is largely negative, so I'm just, like, absorbing all these bad vibes before I ever get to see the thing for myself.

And then, you know, shipwars. Shipwars are obnoxious. They are exhausting. I do not have time for them. They are also unavoidable these days. Any time I go searching for content, there's someone shitting on Yeehan and someone else stirring the pot by replying to them, and frankly it's just tiresome from all sides. (Besides, I think if you're a fan of the juggernaut ship in a fandom, you've gotta chill and recognize people will find you annoying, then go comfort yourself with your near-daily fanarts and over 6,000 fics. This doesn't mean they're allowed to be absolutely garbage monsters and harass people. Like I'm not pretending Yeehan fans are the only people capable of sucking, lol. They aren't! Online harassment is shitty at all times! But if all they're saying is, "Why does Yeehan get so much attention? I hate it," you can just ignore them, mute them, block them, whatever you gotta do.)

In general, I'm often critical of fandom, especially my corner of it, mostly because I'm a social scientist by training so observing groups of people is what I do. Like genuinely, I enjoy holding the world around me under a microscope. But also in terms of reach and efficacy, I'm more interested in "cleaning up my own backyard," so to speak, than arguing with people who wouldn't listen to me anyway (Yeehan antis in this case, I guess). So when I turn the "negative" lens on, it's of course going to be aimed at the community I'm most embedded in. It doesn't mean people outside of Yeehan are better or worse people; they're just not the ones I'm exposed to constantly, lol.

But also, as many bad things as this sounds like, I've actually mostly enjoyed my time in this fandom. I've made a ton of friends here, people I adore and respect and am so, so grateful to have in my life. I've gotten to be part of some really cool projects. I've been lucky enough to experience the absolute joy of knowing people like something that I've made, of getting to make stuff for people, of people telling me I inspired them to make things. All of those are really special, wonderful things that places like fandom cultivate, and I love that part so much that it makes me feel gooey and self-conscious about trying to articulate it.

Anyway. I'm sure the actual question you asked got answered in the paragraphs above the cut, but just in case it didn't, it was nice to be able to just say all the things anyway. You're new here. I hope you enjoy all the fun parts and don't get bogged down by the crummy ones. Also you should definitely check out the @yeehanfrf rec lists if you haven't.

[santiagosilva]

[ chay suede, cis man, he/him ] - was that santiago severo da silva i saw by the lighthouse today? i heard that the thirty-three year old who has been in nightrest for his whole life on and off and works as a professional soccer player (usmnt defensive midfielder) has a reputation of being resilient, but also spiteful. they reside in low point & people in town usually associate them with early morning workouts, not being ready for big changes, muscle tape on legs, guilty pleasures, football chants & an unwillingness to forgive. let’s hope the killer doesn’t go after them next.

trigger warning: divorce

BASICS

full name: santiago severo da silva

nickname: santi

date of birth: september 25, 1989

gender: cis man

pronouns: he/him

occupation: professional soccer player

birthplace: nightrest, massachusetts

sexuality: heterosexual

height: 5′10″

BACKGROUND

he was born in nightrest to a big family. he was the second oldest and the second son. he had one older brother and two younger sisters, and they were all a really big, happy family

he looks back on his childhood very fondly because it was filled with a lot of happy memories with his family and his friends and he was incredibly close with his siblings too

when he was sixteen years old, his parents started fighting, and eventually they announced that they were getting a divorce

his mother wanted to move back to brazil, and though the choice was there, santi didn't want to leave his father and his siblings behind

their parents stated that they "fell out of love" and santi thought that was absolute bullshit. up until that point, he looked up to his parents with so much respect and love and he couldn't understand how people who claim to love each other so much could just suddenly not anymore

also imagine his betrayal when all the siblings said they were gonna stay, except for analu. santi liked to think he was really close with all of his siblings. he was close with his older brother because they were the only two guys, he was close with analu because she was the sibling that came right after him and they had the same zest for life, and he was close with the youngest because he felt protective over her

he thought they had an understanding that even though their parents are breaking up, the siblings will always, always be together so when analu came back during her junior year of high school, santi was incredibly cold with her. he was very curt with her, didn't really talk to her that much and that animosity stayed with him.

he knows it's mostly misdirected anger because he was more angry at their mom for leaving, but he figured he had enough anger to go around

santi's one true love had always been soccer (he calls it football) and he'd been playing that sport since he was a kid. it's one of the things he bonds over with his dad because they'd watch football games all the time (let's gooooo seleção canarinha)

he was the only freshman to have made it to the team back in high school, and he was also on a sports scholarship in uni

it didn't take long before he became a part of the usmnt as a striker, eventually becoming the team's captain

that was more than ten years ago, and he's no longer the player he used to be. he can't play the way he used to, he's not as fast as he used to be, and while his love for the sport is still as strong as it was, he knows it's time to throw in the towel

it's his last year and he decided he wouldn't renew his contract with the team, but a part of him knows that even if he wanted to renew it, they probably wouldn't sign him on which breaks his heart

so he's ending things on his own terms, but he also has not talked about it with literally anybody

PERSONALITY TRAITS

+ hard-working, resilient, disciplined

- closed off, stubborn, unforgiving

FUN FACTS

strong af #mommyissues

has only ever been in three serious relationships (one in high school, one in college, and one when he was just starting out being on the team) and the rest have just been flings

he wakes up very early. he's very disciplined when it comes to his training, even though it's not as rigorous as it used to be

loves to cook. he learned to do it from a young age because he wanted to make his own meal plan

for the most part, he doesn't really get into trouble. he's just kinda living his life, not really laying his problems onto everybody else, but is willing to listen to everybody

he doesn't have a plan for what comes after his last year but he figured that was a problem for future santi

definitely holds a lot of sadness still for the life he used to have like he achieved his dream which is what everybody talks about, but nobody really prepared him for what comes after

he's kind of a fuckboy but also not??? when he's in a relationship, he's very devoted, but when he's not looking for a relationship, then it would take a lot for him to actually settle down

he's extremely picky with everything - the people he gets into relationships with, his food, where he spends his money, where/what/who he spends his time on

channels his anger into the game but isn't opposed to getting into fights here and there

fluent in portuguese

still loves his siblings (except analu rip) so much and would do absolutely anything for them

came back home because there's a small break mid-season and also because he needs to look after his dad and he misses home but is also severely confused because he hasn't come back here since before the first body washed up on shore and suddenly, he came back to serial killers, an engagement party and his friend pregnant and he's literally like :pedropascal:

mostly just has absolutely no idea what's going on but is rolling with it

has been back for only three days!!

WANTED CONNECTIONS

his siblings!!

his ride or die

squad

ex-best friends

childhood friends who stayed friends

childhood friends who drifted apart

opposites attract

his high school ex (must be 32-34)

his college ex

his after college ex

fellow football fan (alliteration ftw)

friends with benefits

enemies

flings

family friends

[spinningbuster98]

So...now that the initial hype (and bewilderment?) for the trailer has largely subsided I would like to give my own personal thoughts on Sonic X Shadow Generations

I'm not happy

In fact after the initial feeling of "holy shit they're actually doing this!?" wore off I got pretty goddamn furious if I'm gonna be honest

Putting aside the fact that I am not the biggest fan of Shadow's game, in fact I can quite comfortably say that I hate it, a sentiment that I confirmed for myself after replaying it for a marathon roughly 2 years ago, so much so that, if it weren't for 06 and Secret Rings existing (and maybe Chronicles as well), it would quite easily be the worst Sonic game to me.

Putting aside also the fact that it is very likely to be written by Mr Ian-I can't work with these Shadow mandates man!-Flynn, whose track record on not only the IDW comic but also Frontiers leaves... quite a lot to be desired, especially when referencing past games is concerned

Putting, once again, aside the fact that what little level design we've seen in the trailer seems to be roughly on the same level as Forces', which should make it at least a tiny bit more inspired than Frontiers' though that's not inspiring much confidence in ME

...why?

Really: why?

Why celebrate Shadow The Hedgehog of all games?

Generations is a celebratory game, a game that, very optimistically, looks back on Sonic's story, both the highlights and yes, even the lowlights, which is why Crisis City was included

However it's one thing to include a level from an infamous game that ruined your reputation as part of your historical celebration while also making it far better than how it was in its original iteration

It's another thing to create a whole seperate story campaign dedicated to revisiting one of the most embarassing entries of Sonic's history, one of the titles that is most responsible for Sonic's reputation going down the drain over the years. And no: I'm not claiming that Shadow's game is the biggest culprit, even before its release Heroes was getting a lot of flack, and as early as the mid 90s, after S3K's release, people were starting to dunk on Sonic a bit. But I think we can all agree that it's when Shadow first appeared with a gun in his hand while cursing like an edgy teen that people collectively agreed that Sonic was now washed out and unsalvageable.

And you know I don't wanna act like this thing is doomed before it's out: it is technically possible that they can deliver something decent both gameplay and writing wise and if they do then I'll eat my own hat and praise it like it deserves!

But I am very doubtful about this, given Sega's quite frankly abysmal recent track record with this stuff, especially in light of Frontiers

And I know: it's just an extra mode bundled with a preexisting good game. Why are you bitching so much?

I'm bitching because this is but a symptom of a larger issue that's been going on for over a decade now, which is Sonic as a series being absolutely dependent on revisiting its past in often half assed ways in an attempt to pander to nostalgic fans rather than, y'know, genuinely and fully moving forward! The actual attitude hasn't really changed in 10 years, it's just that now instead of pandering to the classic elitists they're pandering to the Adventure fans, who will gladly eat this up despite whining for years about nostalgia pandering themselves because all their rhetoric during the past decade was mostly bullshit that can be summed up as "Yeah but they're not pandering to the REAL Sonic aka the one I grew up with!"

There's a part of me that would almost like to praise Sega for "taking it on the chin" so to speak, for wanting to take their chances by revisiting an old, hated game and doing something potentially good with it

But let's be perfectly clear here: Sega's not digging up Shadow's game or SA2 for that matter because they want to redeem them or anything, there are only 3 reasons why they're making this

For the aforementioned Adventure-era pandering, Sega have no doubt noticed that the kids who played Shth back in 2005 have now grown up and love it, while the older fans who bashed it have now largely left the fandom so this game is now free to be used as nostalgia bait

It's Shadow and not only is he so popular that everything with his name attatched to it is bound to sell but his playstyle is 90% Sonic's anyway, so they'll mostly just have to make new animations for him

Sonic Movie 3 is coming and they obviously want to capitalize on it. This game is very clearly for newer fans to serve as a "who this guy is and what his deal is" history lesson

The last 2 reasons are especially obvious because honestly, if they're so adamant on pandering to the Adventure Era nostalgia, then why don't they draw from other, better and more deserving sources?

Why not recreate levels from SA1 and 2 or even Heroes? You can even recreate story scenes from them if you truly want, it would still be pandering but at least stuff like Tails and Amy's character arcs in SA1 are far better written and more respectful to their characters than anything from Shadow's game is towards its own protagonist! Hell why not do something TRULY cool, something that is ACTUALLY unthrodden ground and maybe give us for the very first time 3D versions of levels from the Advance series? Cyber Base and Chaos Angel in 3D anyone? Or maybe the Rush games? With a playable Blaze for the first time since forever? I mean Shadow already had his own DLC episode in Forces and it was pretty ok, why not give someone else their own Episode?

Look: if you like Shadow's game and you like what you see? Good for you, I honestly, genuinely hope that you have a good time

But as for me? A (former?) Sonic fan who hasn't enjoyed anything Sonic related to come out of this entire franchise since 2013 (with the semi exception of Mania and maybe Superstars though I still haven't gotten around to playing it), and who's been extremely cynical of Sega and Sonic Team's way of handling this series? This is just the latest in a long list of nails in the coffin

[valleydean]

Since we can finally laugh at this… do you think you can share what his joke last year was *supposed* to mean?

I’m getting the sense that you’re taking more offense to some joke than others, but I don’t know which are more appropriate because we just didn’t get the conversation you got. He brought it up on his own this time so it must be ok to talk about

ok well first of all, i'm not really the end all and be all of what's an appropriate joke, so i can't really answer that question lmao. for me, i saw things that i thought were mean-spirited instead of "this is something we can all laugh about as friends and members of the same fandom and we can laugh about it WITH HIM." i mean, of course i've seen things that are mean-spirited but they're still objectively hilarious and you gotta give credit where credit's due, however!!!!!!! .........i forgot where i was going with this. anyway, i just mean to say that some people are just mean and it's annoying

and i mean, as far as what he meant by the joke, i think i've said this before and i think HE'S said this before but he basically meant "i'm all three APPARENTLY" like, "you guys think i'm all three." he just phrased it poorly. which like, is gonna happen sometimes. happens to me probably 10 times a day for real lol it was unfortunate but he meant it as a little joke to laugh with us and instead it turned into a huge thing. i remember him being like in the m&g "it didn't even occur to me that it could be interpreted as anything else other than what i was thinking" which, again, happens. i don't think anyone can claim that's never happened to them. but fortunately, for most people, it's not the equivalent of fiery plane crash explosion lmaooo

but i'm glad he still feels like he can joke with us! i'm glad that didn't change. obviously i can't speak for him but from what i've gleaned about him over these very many years, like many of us, this fandom is kinda a safe space for him in a way, and i think it's good for him to know he has that support. so i think it would be a really sad day when he stopped joking with us about crap

[zhongrin]

Rin I keep sending you brainrots. So here is an idea. I have a love of horror movies, cults and slashers. I had this idea. What if human zhongli and Alhaitham that slowly turn into demons. I had this idea of a blood moon ritual. The ritual was done that turned most current members of the family into demons. What happened is long ago. There were 10 families that decided to gain immortality by sacrificing their own humanity to become a demon. The ritual required that they must claim their biggest desire or else their mind goes insane. This ritual cursed every family member that is directly related to the person who gained immortality(ageless). So marrying into the family won't turn you into a demon. The person will slowly start to become a demon and as the transformation goes on they will start to lose their insatiable desire then they must obtain that or else they will go insane. First they will gain small traits like feet hands arm or neck hair, then the skin starts to change then the face becomes truly demonic. It happens every year at a spefic date. This happens at a festival were the curse comes out. Each family has a different transformation. For Zhongli he was cursed to gain draconic traits. Alhaitham is cursed to gain wolf like traits. Rin you are stuck between a hard place as zhongli your senior Co worker and Alhaitham your best friend from high school are in love with you. You don't know what to do then both of them end up missing. their desire was you. You call them and they tell that they are sick. You tell them I hope you come during the festival when they get better and mmet them at this location. The festival was a dedication for spirits and you must appear like them. It's basically halloween that is more restrictive in clothing and happens during summer. The reason why was you know those people whose desire was not able to be fulfilled well they attacked people that were not like them. You told them to meet you at the specified location under a giant willow tree. You wait to see two men one was a wolf masked man the other was a dragon masked man. You were able to guess they were Zhongli and Alhaitham from the hair. You saw them turn to you and say that you need to run as they don't think they can contain it anymore. You try to talk them. Their hunger for you cannot be contained know they are chasing after you. As soon as you were cornered they started to fight. You thought that they were wearing masks until you try to take it of. The two laughed maniacally as they say it was their true face. Alhaitham wants Eliminate this lizard just so he can have all for him. Zhongli says he needs to discipline this dog on manners to not take what is mine. What are you gonna you do Rin. You're two crushes are now fighting each other for you. What are you gonna do convince them to stop fighting and share you, Run Away from both or help one of them. Rin what would you do.

*breathes heavily* BORSCH YOU CANT DO THIS TO ME WAUGH THIS IS SO GOOD??????? WHAT WOULD I DO INDEED OH G O D I'M SO INDECISIVE I CAN'T MAKE THIS DECISION *HEAD IN HANDS*

c-can't i take both of them- what happens if i just... you know.... tell them they can share me hakdhskdjsk

i... i suppose if i really have to choose one i'd choose zhongli. al haitham i'm so sorry 😭

i'm now imagining if this was an otome game of sorts, your decision could result in a good(?) end where you end up with whoever you choose, or a yandere (bad?) end where whoever you didn't choose went berserk and kills the other to have you all to himself ;)

i am... i'm going to brainrot this so hard. might even make a bot for these bc... ooooh. this concept is calling out really hard to me. thank you so much for the food, friend 🙏🏻

[lualewis]

New profile ans I'm back to my old antics jumping into the pro/anti rabbit hole!

For anyone who can't tell, I am pretty proship. And jumping back into the rabbit hole has given me thoughts to share. To my currently 2 followers, I know you're not surprised and it will happen again!!! Eventually, when adhd allows is. Also @lightningstarborne you should get the other sibling to follow me as well so I can yell at 3 people along with the void.

Gonna be talking about the classic "fiction does/doesn't affect reality" cause it's one of the biggest arguing points with probably the most nuance.

Fiction can affect reality, but it is not in a perfect 1:1 ratio, and it usually happens in ways people don't expect. The Tetris and Jaws effects are both real, shark hunting and a fear of sharks was increased by a movie and after playing too much Tetris can make people start viewing things like pieces to be fit together until they stop for a bit.

Well let's think about those (admittedly I have seen 3 shark/underwater horror movies in 2 days and wsnt to share) starting with Jaws. The movie claims that maneating sharks are rare, especially ones of the size they had. It also pointed out how the shark was a natural part of the ocean even if it was dangerous. But people only picked up on the killer shark part. You know what parts of the movie focused on a lot more? A town focusing on making money during a holiday weekend more than caring about the safety of the people. There are arguments on screen about whether to close the beach for safety or keep it open for tourism. The movie blatantly points out how politics will bowl over things like safety until multiple people are dead. But that is not something brought up often. There are similarities with "The Meg" but those focus more on environmentalism and how a change can be disastrous. Yet people still focus on the big deadly shark aspect.

None of that is a 1:1 effect on reality. Jaws caused more people to be scared of sharks, and more people to hunt and kill them despite how low the death rate to sharks actually is. Less than 10 people die by shark per year, but across 4 Jaws movies 18 people died. Nobody was really effected by the explicit rarity mentioned in the movie, and most people don't even remember the politics mentioned. If that movie had a 1:1 effect, how did so much of the movie get overlooked?

The tetris effect is super interesting because it can happen with something as insignificant as a chessboard. Play too much checkers or chess, practice or think about the game too often? Now you're seeing images of it when you close your eyes, when things line up like the game you think of moving pieces like you would in a match? Those are tetris effects symptoms. It's been seen in people who speed solve Rubik's Cubes. With tetris, you think of fitting boxes together or of seeing them fall into place, or visualize a boarder and see pieces when you close your eyes. Being personal again, if I work security for too long and see thousands of people walking around for hours, I'll still see crowds walking around when my eyes are closed for about 2 days after. This is some kind of fiction effecting reality, but is also something that can happen with pretty much anything. See a meteor one night and think "where's the spaceship" cause you've played too many games and you've been effected in a tetris effect way. But, while these are distracting and maybe a little dangerous because of it, they're all super simple and things you can snap yourself out of with just a "wtf, I'm not playing my game" type thing. There is absolutely an effect on reality, but the extent is immediately thinking a response you would do in the thing you have literally just spent hours (minimum) doing and visualizing game elements and random times.

Violent video games are also brought up a lot. Studies are mostly inconclusive and don't always scale for competitiveness or types of violence. It's known tnag they can have an effect and for some people that is stronger. However, game companies and policies similar to movie ratings attempt to motigate this by giving age ratings. As you age, you decelope more of an awareness of reality being separate from fiction, and age ratings are a response to that. This is a part that I think is overlooked a lot. With violent video game debates, and arguments on how to age restrict some games and movies and TV shows, those age ratings are meant to be a guide for how well someone can understand and handle the content. That to some extent includes how well someone can separate fiction and reality. Using a personal example (again) my twin and I are 12 years older than our younger sisters. When my twin and I were 14, we started watching the It miniseries. My twin one day decided to rewaych it while babysitting the then 2 year old younger siblings. One of them ended up afraid of the curtains in our house because of the opening acene; being 2 she couldn't separate reality while my twin being 14 knew it was all fake.

Thats why we apart to explore darker topics, in media and our own imagination, as we age. We can understand that it is 100% not real, while still thinking about ourselves or someone else in a terrible situation. We can think about how we'd react emotionally, the actions we'd take, how everything would play out, while knowing it's not real. All media does this in some way, but I think written media can be the most intense. There is more detail laid out or explained, we can have context going back decades into the characters lives, and so many writers will change the prosody of their writing just to draw you in more. The emotions you feel, no matter what genre story you are using to feel them, are real, they are fiction effecting reality. It can be standard housewife porn that you are reacting to, or some weird violent thing on ao3, or something gross and intense in disturbing ways, and you will have a very real emotional reaction. But that doesn't mean it's effecting you in a way that will make you recreate it. Housewife porn has been around forever but that doesn't mean women are going around and immediately reenacting those books. Saying that fanfiction is going to cause people to do terrible things ignores the entirety of the history of literature and people having taboo books well before the internet got big.

There is so much nuance. Something making you go "ew" doesn't mean it's immediately the worst thing ever. Especially on the internet where you can (to some extent (fucking corporations)) curate your own experience. If you don't like a blog, stop following them or block them. Don't like a story on ao3; close it and put the tags in your exclusion list.

[the-firebird69]

Trump claims it was his ‘best debate ever’ as he rushes to spin room in clear sign of ‘a bad night’ (msn.com)

This is a joke we're getting ready to counter strike before you attack and for years because of your joke Trump and we're building up because of your asinine joke Donald Trump and the name itself is code to us who the **** are you people not to notice that this guy is useless to you means you just want to bother me is very insulting it's the last thing you're gonna do and really Camilla and Biden are gonna be saved because these idiots are gonna try and have people attack and a lot of people and we're gonna wipe them out with ease and we need to get the ships and we have to have them and this commotion with Trump just sitting there is not helping this is not the type of thing we need we need things up on Saturn and tighten and for this nonsense to stop new Otta and Ariana are moving on it they saw the problem we need to help them out and get it going and get them the hell out of everyone's face including ours and take all of their fleets these stupid useless idiots they can't help it they say and I agree and their honorary and their mean because the max are very mean but really I can't defend people who are treating me so badly and they're the way they get stuff done is really awful because they're twisted and backwards people granted most of them are being manipulated threatened or warped by this one loser individual trump and his cohort Tommy F but they don't have the gumption to stand up to them and they stood up to the wrong people they should have had the pseudo empire help them as it is I hear most of the attack on the pseudo empire is by Trump and his forces and it is about 70% and 10% of the rest of his force are wired up Morlock 20% of them half that it's left our mercenaries and the others are roped into it and BJA has to keep an eye on him now this kind of a war it needs to be recognized for what it is this slob next door is over motivated by being here and he's doing the wrong thing and he is probably not gonna change or stop and he needs to be stopped cold you guys need to meet seriously and put an end to what he's doing this is probably an execution order on him now and it's probably not the only one from the only group it's a real one so I'm not going to scream in Bello like this loser donald Trump wants me to and boy is he a loser We need to deploy some unconventional techniques on this **** **** **** to keep the earth safe and it seems like the wrong thing to do but the moron doesn't match and he doesn't escalate and he doesn't do anything that's normal and we need to head him off at the past and in order to do so we have to stop subversive infiltrators and more at the source and we should eliminate it from happening he doesn't have clear objectives and he's not going to make any he's just here to ruin people and he ruins across the board by the way requesting my people take a look at my request

Zues

and the ass is wavng me down lol so i say no. they sit wiat to die due to you. need to stop you get help in the form of fleets. nad to go to saturn be needed. and htey agree it is horrid. need out. nd they are surrounded due to attacks on myself. and cant bereak free. and wont be allowed to go off no. and they the pseudo empire dont want them on venus or nar saturn no and it is closer now

Hera

and we see it. they wiill try heard it one hour ago. and trump says they are to blame for the mouthing off. and we see our osn doesnt wnt to read your garble morlock the debae went well for Harris and she won. and tons say it. trumps say no and are all over the air wves and tons take them out they have money need it now while it stull works. and take. and tak. and take and until full not ful by far.

We have heard a lot of complaints from a lot of people today we hear our sons complaint and we're going to comply and we're going to cut this idiot down i'm sick of hearing from him we need to go after him and take out his idiots it's not a safe person and he lights fire to use museums and movie theaters schools shoots up schools the guy needs to go his need to go we're gonna start deploying systems to get rid of them faster and don't try and copy of smack warlock you don't look like us or sound like us you're saying things too fast and incorrectly it doesn't look like us you look ridiculous at least you're doing the job but Jesus Christ you know dye your hair black or something

Thor Freya

Olympus