#but not enough of them unified on voting the same character

[apollo-just-ice]

OH MY GOD ALFONSE WON CYL??!!!

I DID NOT EXPECT THIS BUT I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT IT OMG

Summer is gonna be sooooo good I can’t wait aaah 😭

[pog-through-the-suffering]

actually i will elaborate because i want to and i can

tubbo was right and i stand by that.

(aka a brain dump of a whole bunch of thoughts i’ve had post-vod watch)

quackity and fundy kept repeating that “peace was not an option” WHEN IT LITERALLY WAS. dream left new l’manberg to rebuild, didn’t stop badlands from forming, allowed everyone else to futz around and do whatever they wanted - within certain bounds. and of course on a meta level it’s very clearly because if he just shut down new countries there would be no plot/content, but in-character that means that dream (who they dubbed “mega-government”) just. let them do whatever.

literally the only reason this plot kick started was because tommy and ranboo burned down dsmp’s king’s vacation home. and yeah you could argue it was a form of protest against monarchy but - as has been said before, what even does the monarch get? a nice castle? a pretty title and crown? and his vacation home no less, not even like, the main castle. peace was an option! you just don’t fudging burn down the vacation homes of monarchs!

and then there’s the argument “dream forms a mega-government”

1. techno hates all forms of government- like someone commented techno would take down the walls (as a form of protest against dream, i’m assuming), but would he really? i mean, c’mon, he’s not going to help the growth of a governed nation by removing its obstacle. so like... he’s not gonna... help a government... take down another government...? tubbo has a point, techno’s gonna go after the government once he’s done with dream (assuming he does anything to dream at all)

1a. quackity said “techno doesn’t mind a small government” - uh, he absolutely does, quackity. are we talking about the same technoblade???

2. does dream really form a mega-government? aside from the monarch figurehead and his general role as leader of ‘dream smp’ (which- is just inclusive of. all?? the land?? in the minecraft world??) he has a couple of rules but like, really what does he do? isn’t he more a god than anything??? like he has a couple of commandments and gets angry when you break them but otherwise doesn’t really rule and also just futzes around doing what he wants

i feel like there’s also something to be said about the parallels between dream and tubbo as “logical” leaders - or, leaders without attachment to tangible stuff aside from a few specific things that they really care about.

dream deposes george as king because george being king puts him in danger à la technoblade. this insults george, who views being king as Actually Important (despite king not doing Anything and having very little actual power) - dream does this because he knows that the title does not matter. but george’s life does. other examples: he refuses any connection to spirit as a way to be threatened. but he does care about the discs, i.e. power over tommy, and his friends (insert wayy better posts about how dream’s protecting his friends by pushing them away).

tubbo similarly exiles tommy because—well, tommy’s also a bit of a danger to the stability of new l’manberg if he continues with these shenanigans—but it also in some ways keeps tommy safe. gives him time away from power, from disc conflict, time to be a kid without having to worry about dream or techno hunting him down. but he does deeply care for l’manberg and the 465k people living in it. and tubbo knows that the discs do not matter—in fact, they do less than not mattering, they actively hinder tommy from caring whole-heartedly about new l’manberg.

also the sheer capital D delicious irony of mr. quackity saying “government is power” in the same monologue about wanting to work with mr. technoblade... you cant make this stuff up folks

also, quackity and fundy keep weaponizing their time under jschlatt against tubbo. hello??? are you joshing me??? i mean tubbo didn’t spend as much time under jschlatt but that’s because the man LITERALLY ORDERED TUBBO’S EXECUTION. tubbo has just as much of a right—maybe even more, in some ways—to claim being fudged up by his time under jschlatt. and the sheer GALL to call tubbo, who was treated like a work horse, weaponized as an emotional twist of the knife against tommy, and executed by jschlatt, to be called the next jschlatt—

i am SO glad tubbo went on his whole “you have undermined my authority” bit SO MUCH. i love him SO MUCH for it. it was actual emotional catharsis for me because tubbo, throughout the smp, has routinely been talked past, ignored, babied, forced to work, FINALLY saying “enough is enough”. and he is the president! he does get the final say! that is what you guys agreed upon! and more than that, that is what the majority of people voted should happen! i guess it could be argued that dream and techno influenced the vote but come on.

and even if tubbo didn’t have his authority undermined - did tubbo agree to the plan so much as get strong armed into it? like, they never asked tubbo for their opinion: tommy just pitched his plan and then quackity and fundy immediately went along with it. exactly the same way that landed them in this situation.

only difference is: tommy, and fundy, and quackity, don’t see the consequences of this plan, because tubbo stopped it before there were consequences to be had at all. like tubbo said— they just get these ridiculous ideas and they all bandwagon on it and they just go and go and go and don’t stop to think about what could go wrong.

like - seriously, how realistic is it actually that they could’ve unified the smp against dream? technoblade hates all forms of government, so he would NOT team up with a government against a not-even-formalized government. the badlands just want chaos, and this is so clearly a one-sided fight (shoudl everybody take new l’manberg’s side) so they’d probably team with dream. and puffy pretty much adopted dream as her pet/child, so that’s another person you can’t get. i doubt the people on the periphery - hbomb94, purpled - would go against dream, who has pretty much just let them vibe and do as they wish. i mean maybe if they really wanted to get involved in the plot?? but.

in conclusion: y’all thought tommy was theseus? no, tubbo is theseus.

[rye-views]

A Promised Land by Barack Obama. 8/10

I would recommend this book to my friends. I would reread this book.

There are certain things that Barack articulates that I’m thankful for. His over-optimism and feelings of eccentricity. I completely related to its isolating feelings even though it wasn’t the same situation and experience as mine. It’s nice to see something similar from someone different. I also liked his description of feeling everything in its entirety and how it was like a movie splice. I have felt this many times and it’s a beautiful way to describe it. I like how so much of what Barack says, thinks, and feels are so genuine and relatable. It's nice to see someone articulate and empathize this well, esp. from a man and a man in power.

I love learning that Michelle was disappointed by the situation caused by his choices at times. Other things were more important at the time and nice to see it be relevant.

It’s interesting to see the difference between this book and “Becoming.” They have different aims, but it still shows me a difference between a man and woman. I also notice that when men are described, it’s always physical. When it’s women, it’s more character and personality.

Crazy how intelligent and emotionally aware Barack is. When he stated how he couldn't just pick and choose the good things of Reverend Wright's church, I was like true and wow.

The things that Toot taught Barack is what someone should've taught me as I grew up.

Barack comparing the rides to Noah's Ark is amusing.

When he mentions translations of what the Big 4 are saying, I think about how we can't be straightforward in politics. Why not?

It took me forever to read this because I really wanted to absorb the knowledge. There's a lot of events that are covered and things I had no idea about. I love how this catalogues so much of history that were relevant to my lifetime.

Memorable Quotes: “gives even my roughest drafts too smooth a gloss and lends half-baked thoughts the mask of tidiness” “I needed to focus on only those things to come.” “Much of what I read I only dimly understood” “a bond between those who had once seemed far apart.” “Whatever it was, I knew I wasn’t ready.” “An America that could explain me.” “I suffered rejections and insults often enough to stop fearing them.” “Enthusiasm makes up for a host of deficiencies.” “Failure and want were all around you.” “It should have been enough.” “but my mother was never one to see hard work as anything but good.” “On top of my sorrow, I felt a great shame.” “There’s a physical feeling, a current of emotion that passes back and forth between you and the crowd, as if your lives and theirs are suddenly spliced together, like a movie reel, projecting backward and forward in time, and your voice creeps right up to the edge of cracking, because for an instant, you feel them deeply; you can see them whole. You’ve tapped into some collective spirit, a thing we all know and wish for – a sense of connection that overrides our differences and replaces them with a giant swell of possibility – and like all things that matter most, you know the moment is fleeting and that soon the spell will be broken.” “To be a workhorse not a show horse – that was my goal.” “I had become a mere conduit through which people might recognize the value of their own stories, their own worth, and share them with one another.” "Yes we can." “the personal really was political” “I had to listen to, and not just theorize about, what mattered to people.” “it wasn’t so much what he did as how he made you feel. Like anything was possible. Like the world was yours to remake.” “It’s hard, in retrospect, to understand why you did something stupid.” “In fact, you shouldn’t even count on my vote.” “What do you consider your place in history?” “I could take a punch. And I didn’t give up.” “I knew I could afford to be patient.” “but the only way for Daddy to disguise himself is if he has an operation to pin back his ears.” “Forgotten people and forgotten voices remained everywhere.” “the more troops would become targets of an enemy they often could not see and did not understand.” “The power to inspire is rare. Moments like this are rare. You think you may not be ready, that you’ll do it at more convenient time. But you don’t choose the time. The time chooses you.” “people were moved by emotion, not facts.” “Beneath the low-key person and deep convictions, he just plain liked the combat.” "defined not by what they are but what they can never be." "To the relief of his keepers, the bear became accustomed to captivity." "he understood better than most the complications of race, religion, and family, and how good and bad, love and hate, might be hopelessly tangled in the same heart" "She was one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America." "But I worry that my memories of that night, like so much else that's happened these past twelve years, are shaded by the images that I've seen, the footage of our family walking across the stage, the photographs of the crowds and lights and magnificent backdrops." "a keeper of values we'd once thought ordinary but had learned were more rare than we had ever imagined." ""It's going to be hard to get the public excited about food stamps and repaving roads," Axe said. "Not real sexy."" "This time I said nothing, admiring his occasional, almost endearing ability to state the obvious." "You must be under the mistaken impression that I care." "all of them unified only in their common desire to be somewhere else." "ready to die for eternal joy--or maybe just a taste of something better." "But make no mistake, it was weird." "the unspoken regrets." "my supporters lacked all conviction, while my opponents were full of passionate intensity." "Michelle was someone who started from the heart and not the head, from experience rather than abstractions." "I wanted to believe that the ability to connect was still there. My wife wasn't so sure." “The

audacity of hope.” "Sometimes your most important work involved the stuff nobody noticed." "forgotten under the accumulation of the new joys and paints that make up a life." "you learn to improvise to meet your objectives--or at least to cut your losses." "They would take for granted that their aunt was on the U.S. Supreme Court, shaping the life of a nation--as would kids across the country. Which was fine. That's what progress was like." "Did they miss the rhythms of ordinary life? Were they lonely? Did they sometimes feel a jolt in their heart and wonder how it was that they had ended up where they were?" "I reminded myself that every president felt saddled with the previous administration's choices and mistakes, that 90 percent of the job was navigating inherited problems and unanticipated crises. Only if you did that well enough, with discipline and purpose, did you get a real shot at shaping the future." "Was it possible that abstract principles and high-minded ideals were and always would be nothing more than a pretense, a palliative, a way to beat back despair, but no match for the more primal urges that really moved us, so that no matter what we said or did, history was sure to run along its predetermined course, an endless cycle of fear, hunger and conflict, dominance and weakness?" "meant to be a reminder--in a place premised on hate and intolerance--of the common humanity we share." "A man making up for things." "For war was contradiction, as was the history of America." "To be known. To be heard. To have one's unique identity recognized and seen as worthy. It was a universal human desire" "pleasures that cost nothing, belonged to no one, and were accessible to all." "I suppose, when the world slows down, your strivings get pushed to the back of your mind." "whether in my seeming calm as crises piled up, my insistence that everything would work out in the end, I was really just protecting my self--and contributing to her loneliness." "It was a lonely thought at a lonely time." "You never looked as smart as the ex-president did on the sidelines." "Get exposed to other people's truths, I thought, and attitudes change." "It wasn't often, I thought, that a true act of conscience is recognized that way." "their struggles and resentments troubling but remote." "are mere conduits for the deep, relentless currents of the times or whether we're at least partly the authors of what's to come." "contemplating the knife's edge between perceived success and potential catastrophe" "daily, unheralded acts of people who weren't seeking attention but simply knew what they were doing and did it with pride." "She makes me better as a person and better on the page."

[conchabae]

Greta Thunberg and Friday’s 4 Future

"I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice."

This statement by Greta Thunberg is very powerful. Every generation has had youth that to some extent like the idea of and strive for success, fame and power, but these aspirations have been warped and are all too important amongst our younger generations today. This is directly linked to the nature of internet culture and social media which profits and promotes extreme beauty ideals, materialistic possessions and expressions of grandeur alongside a fixation on followers, likes and the analytics of online “popularity”. Yet, we still have cultural norms that view the youngest in society as the progressives, those who are responsible for shifting and building a better tomorrow. Many Western teens today spend their free-time on beauty tutorials, fashion and other forms of entertainment. There’s beauty in that Greta Thunberg, a well-off Swedish white girl, who could turn a blind eye to injustices in the world, fights to unlearn and speak up against climate injustice. In addition, she fights to spread awareness and put pressure on global governments to make needed systemic change. Greta claims she doesn't care about being popular, because she clearly does not do this for being liked and famous, she knows that fighting for climate justice and sustainability is not popular or “trendy”, she does it because it is what she cares about, and because it is right.

It is because of her honesty and dedication, that she has moved and awaken millions of other western people. Ironically, she has become an iconic and famous figure for defending the environment. It is admirable that even with a platform which has received millions of followers, praise from celebrities, as well as invites from famous politicians, she has never given up her principles to become more likable and her message stays the same, even when it is uncomfortable to those who know they do not do enough for the earth.

I did not live in NYC last year, but there was a climate strike in Foley Square in 2019 as well as strikes all across the world. I was inspired by Greta’s movement and participated in the school strike for climate in Stockholm. It was amazing to see so many people of all different backgrounds and ages participating in the city’s center to hear climate activists and my friends and I boycotted school to support the Friday’s 4 Future campaign.

The long term dedication and commitment movements like Friday’s 4 Future and Black Lives Matter have shown for years now, have woken me up to my complacency to my reality, when it does not align with the world I want to live in. I was 13 years old when the Black Lives Matter hashtag and conversation started. I was 18 when Greta Thunberg started striking for the climate. I realize now that it is not only the people we see highlighted in the news who can make important change, it is all of us. Greta Thunberg’s book No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference, really was a wakeup call on how climate change, which is inevitable with our current ways, is a crisis and an urgent issue that can only be resolved by facing it head on.

 Photos from the Stockholm strike taken by: Lotta Fernvall / AFTONBLADET

These are a selection of a few photos taken at the global Climate Strike in 2019, but these are all taken in front of the Swedish parliament, where the movement began. It is surreal how people in the thousands came to join her on this historical global strike in her home country and all over the world, when she started striking all by herself at this exact spot. Greta Thunberg has been the catalyst for heightened awareness and care about climate justice.

I think many people, including Greta Thunberg herself in the trailer for her Hulu documentary, attribute her hyper focus on the reality and danger of climate change to her having Asperger’s syndrome. While a common symptom of Asperger’s syndrome is to have an “obsessive” interest in a particular subject, I do think we should not dismiss her drive, passion and heart in climate justice just to her condition. Greta’s ability to push against her discomfort with social networking, to perform speeches in front of millions, and exchange awkward pleasantries with powerful public figures to access their platform, shows huge amounts of bravery and heart. It is a character strength that she has tunnel vision on the science of climate change and carbon emissions, and this helps her continue to educate herself on the topic. This is something that many of us locals do not show interest in, especially since most of the information is clouded in complicated and exclusionary scientific language, often in lengthy journals.

She does not just care about the environment for the knowledge, she wants to save the world, and save future generation’s right to fulfilling and happy lives. I have so much respect for her and trust in her intentions, and as Greta has said herself, she does not struggle with Asperger’s, she has it. Her journey to activism and contributions to the world should not be pigeon holed or minimized by her condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced us all to experience a different state than our regular normal, has made it more clear than ever, that many of our customs and way of life are not sustainable. As the prevalence of police brutality and other systems of oppression are harder to ignore, I think we all are becoming more aware of daily injustices. In the first months of quarantine in Europe, reports were showing photographic evidence that wildlife and ecosystems were improving and thriving because of the reduced human activity that used to scare away wildlife and pollute ecosystems. The visual that is etched into my mind are the rivers in Venice, Italy. Because of the mandatory quarantine, no boats or gondolas were in use, and the rivers all over the water city cleared to a vibrant blue. It took me back to a trip there when I was 12, and how the waters were so green and muddy we joked that falling in would be a health risk. It was somewhat bittersweet to see this imagery, as it was beauty that was rare to see, and that it is rare because of us!

Photos taken of clear water in Italy, taken by @ikaveri on Twitter. 

In this same pandemic, we have also seen the red and orange skies of LA, filled with clouds and rainfalls of ash. This was heartbreaking for the world to witness, as we learned it was the cause of not some dreamy sunset or blood sun, but because of the massive forest wild fires that have devastated families and communities by burning down homes and making the air unbreathable in some places.

Photo credit: Brittany Hosea-Small / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Photo by Josh Edelson / AFP VIA Getty Images

There is no quick fix for the climate and like all social issues, we need to be committed and address it from various angles. We need to vote in political representatives that acknowledge climate change as fact, which unfortunately is the first crucial step we must take unlike other democracies with the same quality of education and science. We need to then protest and put as much pressure as possible on local, state and national politics to enact policies that lead to reduced emissions. We must reduce the amount of influence and investments fossil fuel corporations receive from taxpayers, and invest federally into sustainable alternatives. Unfortunately, most Americans do not even realize how much their lifestyle destroys their land but also the global climate temperature. We need to create a social shift in attitudes around consumption in all forms and this starts with widespread education, so perhaps media and specifically social media is the strongest and quickest way to do this.

“If a few girls can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school for a few weeks, imagine what we could do together if we wanted to.”

I think this quote by Greta emphasizes the power of the people being unified and organized. When we are organized is when we are truly unstoppable and cannot be ignored by the appointed leaders that be. We outnumber them all. We need to organize and stay focused to make real and much needed change.

“Adults keep saying - We owe it to the young people to give them hope - but I don’t want your hope.

I don’t want you to be hopeful.

I want you to panic.”

- Greta Thunberg in her Our House is On Fire speech.

I think the discussion around Greta Thunberg and her activism is interesting and there are three camps with different receptions of her in online discourse. I think the first camp were responsible for her becoming a household name globally. People who felt overwhelmed about climate change, had made some attempts at doing their part, like only riding public transport and going vegan. The first camp mainly consists of the younger generations that were somewhat aware but overwhelmed with the amount of structural issues that contribute to climate change. They were the force that joined Greta at her strikes in Stockholm outside Swedish parliament, and the ones who organized strikes in their own home countries. The second camp, were those like me, who found out about her a bit later when a strong media buzz was already present and notably by media that did not intend to further her purpose and emphasize the importance of climate justice, but just used her for novelty, headlines and clickbait instead. Many marginalized people questioned some of Greta’s viral rhetoric that often spoke of her being “stolen of her childhood and dreams'' as we saw a European, well-off white girl, who was being invited to speak to the most influential politicians, embraced by Hollywood A-listers and was also being honored at protests around the globe for her strikes. What could she possibly know about struggle? We respected her passion for climate change, but convinced ourselves that she needs to scold politicians and those who actually hold power for change, so we carried on with our lives and continued to live in comfortable denial. The third camp consisted of active climate change deniers, and conservatives who weaponized her Asperger's and the fact that she was a young woman (can’t forget to add ageism and misogyny to edgy memes eh?) and aimed to assassinate her character and validity in the form of “jokes” and memes. The third camp often brought up her privilege not only as a critique, but as a means to silence her and the topic altogether. Many influential right-wing politicians, including Donald Trump, partook in this to distance their followers from having any interest in her, or climate justice.

“Greta Thunberg is the spark but we are the wildfire.” - Naomi Klein

As I mentioned earlier, Greta Thunberg’s book has taken away my criticisms of her global status. She has brilliant values, an in-depth scientific understanding of the subject she advocates for, and her emphasis on climate equity, which many white activists fail to acknowledge as an important factor, all made me a supporter of Greta. I do not care about the trolls and those who have tried to ridicule and minimize the honor in her life mission. She is probably one of the most inspiring individuals and change makers of my time. Her book and speeches have amazing rhetoric that unprogrammed a lot of my own learned helplessness about the environment. It also reminded me of my individual responsibility as well as my government's responsibility to stop global warming from happening and create a sustainable world. We need to put in the work, we only have so much time left before it is too late, whether we like that fact or not. Her stance that climate change is black and white is so effective and true: “either we reduce global emissions by 50%, or we do not.” It really is that simple. We need to activate so we can enact the needed solutions to meet that goal. Reading Thunberg’s book has inspired me to take more action and make more sustainable choices and unlearn a lot of U.S. consumerism culture. I have educated myself more throughout quarantine by learning about zero waste methods and the environmental benefits of veganism. However, while personal accountability is great, it is a form of privilege to be able to buy more sustainably, especially when the current market place mainly offers unsustainable products as the most affordable. We must also learn how to politically fight for actual policies and political change that force systemic and societal change .

“We have a new wave of contention in society that’s being led by women. … And the youth climate movement is leading this generational shift."

- Dana Fisher

In late 2019, The Washington Post conducted a poll that found that 46% of teen girls said the climate was “extremely important”, while only 23 % of teen boys said so. Furthermore, more than twice as many black and Hispanic teens participated in school strikes on climate change than their white peers, and girls were more likely to participate than boys. This data is one of several including Dana Fisher’s, a sociologist and researcher at the University of Maryland, who found similar ratios when studying the populations of activists and participants in the Washington, DC 2019 climate strike.

I think the ratio of who shows up for the environment points to social roles at large. The likelihood of caring about climate change can do with one’s privilege and ability to empathize with abstract or foreign problems that one may not be negatively affected with (right now). While we all hold some form of privilege, all women have experienced some form of sexism and misogyny, and therefore are more likely to be able to empathize with marginalized groups they do not belong to, and advocate for social movements that address injustices they may not themselves experience.

There is a correlation between those most marginalized in society, being the most active in social reform and revolution. Because when one is in the lowest or lower social casts of society, and has the least social freedoms and privileges, one has nothing to lose and everything to gain from change. This is why we can see in many social justice movements across the US, that black queer people and specifically black trans women, have consistently been at the forefront for important social progress.

When it comes to climate change, there is a certain amount of empathy required, especially when you live in a western country, or part of the world where you have an excess of resources at your disposal and you are comfortable with the status quo. That is something we all need to address and with that comes a checking of ego. Is my temporary happiness more important than other people’s well-being and lives? Am I contributing to the exploitation of people and the destruction of the planet? My planet?

I do not often see men on a large scale extending this type of self-reflection and empathy for social problems, either in small social settings or in positions of power. This is similar to how many men do not reflect on how it feels to be catcalled or sexually harassed as a woman. This is not because men are predisposed to be heartless rather, I believe this is a cause of social conditioning. Women are more conditioned to be team players, to listen and exercise great empathy at all times, otherwise she is socially scorned. Men are not expected to show these traits to the same extent, and often can rely on this lack of social standard and their own privilege to ignore social issues all together. We need to unlearn that issues women care about are insular to “women’s issues”, for they are societal problems, and we need to encourage and expect young boys and men to be equally accountable for a better world.

It is so inspiring to see so many young teens following Greta’s initiative, like Alexandria Villaseñor, who after experiencing an asthma attack during a wildfire in California, not only took the time to educate herself on the dangers of this phenomenon, but also organized Friday’s 4 Future strikes in NYC with the US Climate Strike group. Since then, she has also spoken at countless international conventions about climate change, and alongside Thunberg and 15 other youth activists, filed a legal complaint against UN nations who had not upheld their Paris agreement climate goals. This is so badass and I did not even know about this until today. In fact, there are countless teens all over the world, many of whom aren’t of legal voting age, who are suing local / federal governments and organizations for environmental malpractice and for jeopardizing their futures! 

As they should! Let’s all keep fighting for a better and sustainable future.

Students and youth striking in Seoul, South Korea. Photo credit: Chung Sung-Jun / GETTY IMAGES

Young people striking in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo credit: Jeff J Mitchell / GETTY IMAGES

Youth striking in Hong Kong. Photo credit: Kim Cheung / AP PHOTO

[onegirllis]

Since Life is Strange 2 is finally fully released, I let myself to write a probably not-so-short review of the complete season. The momentum for such a summary is already gone I presume but it took me a moment to finally digest and find the proper words to describe what I think and feel about this production. Following the game from the start, I patiently waited to look at the story as a whole, hoping to find an explanation for tons of burning questions and satisfying outcomes to my choices and decisions. Unfortunately, most of those didn’t happen, therefore I present you with a piece that is not very favorable towards the newest Dontnod production, harsh in places but honest. Please, do not read if you really enjoyed the story of the two brothers and find it meaningful and important, not burdened with any fallacy. Life is way too short to read reviews that just leave you frustrated.

Remember the scene in Life is Strange season one (I still hate the fact that I have to separate different instances of the franchise calling them seasons), when Max summoned by an enormous plasma TV in Victoria’s room fantasizes about watching “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” on it? “I like this movie, I don’t care what everybody says,” getting protective about her preferences, the little freckle leaves the room soon after, never gifting us with any explanation as to why she indeed values this animation so much or why it was an important statement. It was never brought back again, it will never matter, becoming simply a meme material or a trigger for snarky comments from Twitch streamers and YouTubers. I watched the said movie a long time ago, recalling only two things about it: the breathtaking animation of hair at the beginning and the fact that the main male character looked like Ben Affleck. The rest of the story fell into obscurity before the end credits hit the screen. I reached for this title only because I was interested in anything video games related, and the name of the popular franchise was more than enough.

The same thing goes for Life is Strange 2.

Just like the mentioned FF: The Spirits Within, the second instance of the beloved series is more of an animation than an interactive experience. Recently, plenty of video games, overwhelmed by finally reachable technology of smooth mocaps, facial expressions, hyper-realistic locations, and scanned people as characters, turned into an alley dedicated to B-class movies. From adventures by David Cage to Death Stranding, video games started to flip their working template, replacing the actual action with long animations, not the other way around. With scattered gameplay, sometimes forced as if the developers reminded themselves at the last minute that this product is supposed to be interactive, they raise an eyebrow at best, and boil your blood with the lack of creativity at its worst. Life Is Strange 2 follows this trend with astonishing enthusiasm and to the core. Even regarding this particular genre that’s supposed to focus on narrative, it barely stands as a walking simulator becoming a hardly watchable TV series — a road trip story where walking is limited.

Well, shit.

The gameplay in Life is Strange 2 is nonexistent. To be frank, riveting action-packed sequences were never a trademark of the series, but a blatant lack of any didn’t make this experience any better. With the first one, the rewind power allowed the player to actually be part of the narrative. The second, where Sean just serves as a witness to his brother’s actions, plays more like a full motion picture. An enormous amount of un-skippable cut-scenes change LIS2 into a tedious, dragging journey straight from the worst selection of buy 1 get 3 free Z-class movies. The music and the mastery in creating an atmosphere that rose Dontnod to international fame due to widespread acclaim can’t save those sequences either. It almost feels like their own creation so enchanted the development team that they ignored all the red flags and clumsy solutions to immerse in the world themselves, treating the actual player as a lesser evil, throwing them a bone just to claim it is a video game format. To no surprise, most of the items the player interacts with don’t matter at all and don’t serve any purpose either to foreshadow an upcoming outcome, present exposition to the world, or be in any way helpful.

The lack of superpower is not an issue here though. Before the Storm met the expectations with way more grace, proving that a story doesn’t need a lot of strange in life to grip and hold its audience for hours. Watching a superhero growing up is an interesting premise, but a hell of a challenge to execute and execute well. Some stories like “Little Man Tate” translate to a brilliant film, but don’t necessarily work as games, after the planning stage or first Game Design Document. The references regarding the first game also remain scattered and uneven, tossed on the pile with a heap of faith that devoted fans would notice, but without a purpose in mind.

Even if I sound harsh, I do believe that Dontnod wanted to deliver the best story possible, but Life is Strange 2 feels even too big to absorb or fill with details. Captain Spirit, not necessarily my cup of tea either, was in my opinion way more coherent, as the creative team felt more comfortable with such a small scope of a product. Everything falls into place after careful exploration, makes more sense with every minute. The mystery about the mother, an alumnus of Blackwell Academy, and an admirer of Jefferson’s work is a solid premise that didn’t raise expectations up the roof nor overpromise. The mystery of yet another mother, this time Life is Strange 2, played for over 3 and a half episodes, falls flat in comparison and ends in the disappointing question “that’s it?”

No, that’s not it. There’s more to it.

Life is Strange 1 was mocked as Tumblr: The Game, while the second instance could easily pass as Twitter: The Animated Series. The writers didn’t challenge themselves or the audience to answer the question of why certain people voted for Donald Trump, or why they would do it yet again. The only reason presented in the story is quite simplistic and obvious – because they are evil, deplorable people, not worth listening to. They are the worst. We are better. Issues of being harangued by foreigners about domestic policies and troubles of your own country are a brewing can of worms I wouldn’t like to touch at the moment. Still, this particular stance, which serves as painful generalization that every single republican voter in the US is foul, can be forged only by someone who either lives in a bubble or doesn’t live here at all. Simply because we all have parents, grandparents, relatives, friends, or co-workers who decided to elect the actual prescient to power. Some of them are racists, disgusting, and horrible personas, and some just belong to the scared of change, confused and manipulated crowd that don’t accept the fast-paced transformation nor the need for a revolution. We coexist together, arguing and fighting, especially during holiday breaks, but even if it costs me a headache, I wouldn’t call them evil. Millions of people voted for Trump, but only a few wouldn’t spit on a swastika if confronted with the Nazi banner.

It’s even more painful when you understand what kind of message was sewed into the stitches of a shattered story. There was no ill will, or at least I don’t think so, but an honest, genuine need to express the concern about modern America. Unfortunately, when executed, this concern changed into another yell or discourse by the family table during an argument with your racist uncle. An open discussion in a game community that unifies both left and right supporters equally by their love for this form of entertainment would be appreciated by many, just like after playing LIS1, a handful of people changed their views on LGBT issues.

Instead of a lesson that had to be experienced, we got a lecture about morality and tolerance, contradicting itself constantly and nonchalantly following the well-known tropes NOT in a sarcastic and admirable way known from Saturday Night Live, but in a lazy and sometimes even clumsy substitute of a dramatic format. The political landscape painted in LIS2 is caricatural, unforgiving, harsh like a deserted wasteland with a few peaceful oases to stop at, but shies over its own existence, not willing to thoroughly discuss the dreadful weather. Guess what? The sand won’t change into greener pastures only because you close your eyes, putting your imagination to work. Donald Trump might not be re-elected for a second term, but his supporters will stay in place, even more conflicted by the other side. It’s a brave decision to deliver such a punitive story but such a cowardice to break its pillars, hoping that the general public wouldn’t notice or get distracted when things get too heated up.

The lack of subtlety forced scene by scene is even more polarizing. There is no peaceful dialogue with the other side as if it couldn’t exist in this world. There is no change of heart or a path to do so. Sometimes it feels like the only message that LIS2 writers wanted to provide was to find your own, peaceful and liberal hermitage, either among hipsters in the Redwood forest, driving a car that your ‘family with money but no soul’ had bought you or move to a trailer park filled with artistic souls in Nowhere, Arizona. Any contact with the outside world can hurt you and your feelings. Drop off the grid or die. The end.

No discussion.

The efforts of trying to understand the motivation behind even the most dreadful character of the first game, got lost in preparation for the second. LIS2 builds a higher wall between two political sides, than any other game released after Trump became the president of the United States and desperately wants to keep it erected, ignoring the crumbling foundations of such. A proverbial river you shall not cross nor build bridges over since the only outcome would end up in death, destruction, or you and your young brother getting hurt.

I’m familiar with the discussion about LIS2, especially with a shouting match that if you do not like this instance, you are therefore a racist pig, a disgusting person without a soul, conscience, or working brain that doesn’t understand the situation and never will. On the contrary. In my humble opinion, we deserve a better discussion, better stories, better representation, not sticking to whatever is presented because it’s brave enough or was never approached before. I disagree with the stance that a Latino, bisexual main character is enough to close your eyes, omitting all problems that this title tries to shun, riding its high horse. No. Those topics are way too crucial to just walk past, setting for less with your head down, thanking for the game industry to take notice. You the player deserve better, even if you don’t struggle with specific issues on a daily basis. And after playing LIS2, you may feel so good about yourself, stating that an effort was made but it it wasn’t made enough.

I expected more. I wanted Dontnod to do more, and frankly, I feel silly putting so much faith in them and supporting their efforts. Armed with resources provided by Square Enix, I’m sure they are aware of the fact that most of their audience is quite young and wouldn’t mind a lesson or message about what to do amidst troubled times. Well, Dontnod doesn’t have any but warns you that voicing your opinion or being different may end up in disaster. Outraged, they just yell at the news, angry about what our reality has changed into, but nothing comes out of it. It’s all right, though. Our parents do the same thing. We started to do the same thing, but instead of complaining to family members, we have Twitter.

While Life is Strange 2 tries really hard to come across as a realistic and raw portrait of the US at the end of the decade, they didn’t have enough courage to show realistic obstacles two runaways would be faced with. The brothers do meet a handful of bigots and racists, but the rest of the fellow travelers help them beyond understanding or hidden agenda. Sean and Daniel never really struggle to find a place to stay or a warm meal, usually complaining on or off the screen just before the game mercifully provides them with a solution. There’s no trap they can fall into, no ambiguous characters that promise one thing and then demand something in return. It’s very honorable for Brody to pay for a place to stay, but if an adult man gave young kids a key to a motel room, I would consider a way more sinister outcome. It’s not even about Brody himself, since good people exist, just like the racist ones, but the boys not even once are put in a realistic, scary situation created by a supposed ally. If somebody is helpful, this person is always decent, offering them a job, a ride, some food or money. The bad people wear red hats and yell racist slurs. America by Dontnod is simple to navigate but raw and painful when not necessary and fairy-tale-like when it could teach an actual lesson. Running away from home is not so hazardous because of Trump supporters but because you can end up dead in a ravine, being robbed and raped. It’s not the first and surely not the last time when the developers feared to touch any topic of sexual abuse with a ten-foot pole, but then the journey plays more like a vacation than a desperate escape. Sean gets beaten-up a few times, loses his eye due to a brawl, but it doesn’t affect him at all in the long run. When Daniel finally gets kidnapped, it’s not an Epstein-like circle, dealing with human trafficking, but a religious cult that worships him. The first option, even if it feels like a stretch, is unfortunately way more realistic than the latter.

Preaching to the choir is not the biggest sin this game commits though. That brings me to the most discussed theme of the production, which is education.

With all due respect to the developers, writers, and designers, Life is Strange 2 in this aspect falls flat as a discovery of a Sunday father, who is responsible for taking his kid to the zoo and struggles to find any common ground with his offspring, either trying to crack jokes about famous pop-culture phenomena or talk about food discussing their next favorite meal. The said father is trying his best though, perfectly aware that it’s his only chance to teach his son a thing or two, but doesn’t know exactly where to start, torn apart between buying more ice cream and throwing a fit about a stain on the carpet. The father doesn’t even like kids that much and can’t translate his lessons into an engaging play that would be memorized forever, rolling his eyes and counting the days to his kid’s graduation so they could share a beer or two and talk about adult things. Now, any effort to explain how the world works seems to be in vain, therefore a waste of his precious time. Leaving the emotional approach aside, the father doesn’t have to cuddle with his kid when he’s scared, bullied, traumatized or asks millions of questions about the future or present, because the full-time mother is waiting at home willing to replace him in this duty. The mother, knowing that her ex-partner sucks big time at talking about feelings, will be the one who will hold the kid, patiently explaining that the boogieman does not exist, playing pirates, or stay late at night to distract his sorrows. The kid will never discuss his fears with his dad though, trying so hard to impress his male parent. He will never know, and it’s fine. The mother is going to do the job while he can deliver a once a week entertainment along with the lines of ultimate wisdom that most likely will be forgotten anyway.

This is not raising a kid, it’s nursing them like a fragile plant in a flowerpot, focusing on water, sun, and fertilizer, but discarding the emotional background, hoping that somebody else would take care of such issues if things go south.

Sean can’t raise his brother well, simply because he is immature and will stay immature for the rest of the game. There is no moment when he truly goes through a transformation changing from a boy to a man, a fully grown-up adult who takes responsibility for his actions and makes sacrifices for the sake of the greater good. No, surrendering in a fight in the church doesn’t serve as one, neither does the first sexual experience. He doesn’t wonder even once if the hastily constructed plan is benefiting Daniel, forcing it to the last minutes of the game, taking the separation as the worst thing that could happen. There’s no spark of a tragedy like in “The Road” when a father gives up his son to strangers for the sake of saving him. Sean doesn’t care, presenting no character development across the board, merely pushing forward. If there are doubts, they disappear in the blink of an eye when the next cut-scene takes place.

I understand that such a young lad as Sean wouldn’t know how to raise a kid, especially if having no model to rely on. However, a part of growing pains is developing the awareness that we know way less than we assumed. That said, Sean Diaz is always assuming he is right, not asking for advice regarding Daniel even once. Apparently, it’s not something that he’s interested in or ever will be. If Life is Strange 2 wants to pass as a coming of age story, it falls on its face before it even starts.

Moreover, locked in the auto-driven plot, Sean cannot grow up and gain a new perspective; otherwise, the story wouldn’t reach its big, explosion-packed finale of crossing the border. His desperate efforts of influencing his brother usually converge to order him around, feed him with half-truths or simply leave him in the dark when convenient. I didn’t see any difference or change in Sean’s approach from episode one when he scolded his brother, annoyed for his party plans being interrupted, and in episode three, when he reacts similarly, for the sake of spending time alone with the chosen love interest. There’s no deep thought, no wonder about his own wrongdoings expressed to his brother, no faults admitted, no fallacies explained, with one life-threating situation after another. From an illegal weed growing farm, to destroying police stations, Sean just follows the road, paved by the writers, oblivious to the harm done to his younger sibling, as if Daniel simply forgets the morally gray choices, growing his moral spine entirely on performing chores. Washing the dishes and peeling potatoes does not make us better people but understanding a perspective so different than our own does. Thanks to Sean, Daniel expands his world, but it’s a very one-sided perspective, focusing on always praised, hippie-style liberties, and disregarding every option that requires any code of conduct, as represented by the grandparents. While the older brother forces the younger one to keep up with the designed tasks, he never discusses the issues that really matter. In episode 3, the youngster gets involved in a heist, a robbery, but after it fails, costing Sean his eye and the possible death of some of their companions, this is never mentioned. Mexico, a plan that is hardly a plan at all, is supposed to be an answer to all the questions and doubts. El Dorado of knowledge.

This is not how you raise a dog, not to mention a child.

There is no emotional bond, no special ties between the brothers, except a few problematic moments that play mostly on simple connection forged by blood, not by circumstances. Sean worries about Daniel because he’s his brother, but the player starts to wonder quite quickly why and what for. Reminiscing about old times gets nailed down to a few lines about the comforts and amenities of a life long gone. The tough topics, such as grieving after personally witnessing their father’s death, are mentioned scarcely and without much emphasis, as if serving only as a reminder to the player, but not a poignant struggle. Same goes with the dog, their friends mutilated at the end of the weed farm chapter, Chris (aka captain spirit) who is mentioned just before the end credits of the second episode, and tons of others. On top of it, the scattered and not so often dialogue lines about putting people in danger refer only to the good folk, siding with the brothers, not to humankind in general. Killing a police officer or knocking down a gas station owner are just natural ways of how things work in America, honorable deeds since it’s apparently perfectly fine for a kid to attempt a homicide if people are mean.

What a brave story.

Chloe Price had been suffering for five years after William, her beloved father, died in a car crash. For Sean and Daniel, there is no grief to experience, but a memory to share with a plan to erect a monument in the future. Esteban Diaz is a plot device, a symbol of inequality, but not a family member. Even a dream sequence with his guest appearance lacks the impact of the subconscious conversations we’ve seen in Before the Storm. It just simply doesn’t matter.

I can’t believe I have to say this but the relatable part about LIS1 wasn’t the tornado, just like in LIS2 crossing the border is its weakest point, but it’s those small moments, gestures, quick smiles in passing, the atmosphere and a breath of fresh air when a line, sometimes silly, got dropped. In the most recent story, there is not a single line worth quoting, memorizing, or discussing. And please, don’t bring up “awesome possum” again. It’s literally taken from The Lego Movie song.

The brothers, just like Thelma and Louise, decide to leave everything behind, throwing away the life as they knew it and forging their own future despite all odds. Although, when the two desperate women drive off the cliff committing suicide, chased by the armed forces, there is nothing to explain as the audience fully understands their reasoning. Their will of life was strong, but the path they followed was too steep to return. Without any help or support, confronted with brutal honesty and the world’s cruelty around them, it is the best possible solution. The story of the two brothers, even if it tries to echo the iconic movie, couldn’t be more different. Despite resources at their disposal, family members that do care about their wellbeing, the whole community rising in protest in their hometown, they risk everything for the sake of getting back to the land they don’t even know. Their Mexican heritage is also mentioned just as an exposition, and, as we learn in the very last episode, just before the ending that Daniel doesn’t speak Spanish. So why do the stubborn Diaz brothers despite all odds travel to Mexico? Because.

Canada was too close, I guess.

Last but not least, let’s talk about sex, because why the hell not. A lot of fans or admirers of the previous instances howled across all social media about how much they miss Max and Chloe. I don’t really think it’s the case, but those two girls symbolize something that LIS2 has a tremendous problem with. There’s no emotional connection between the characters the brothers meet along the way, especially the ones that really should matter. Even the love interests feel more like nagging choices than anything else, an experiment during a camping trip, not something that would last or could be fantasized about. Instead of nerve-wracking decisions such as if you’re supposed to kiss Rachel, hold her hand, or the ecstatic discovery (for PriceFielders, but it was ecstatic, right?) that Chloe changed her phone’s background, we are instead presented with a lineup of sexual experiences, that maybe trail-blaze the road when it comes to topics tackled by a video game, but fall into obscurity as an emotional construction. There is no build-up between Sean and Finn as everything develops to a kiss in one conversation, and Cassidy has fewer lines than Victoria Chase before she invites Sean to her tent. We watch it as we watched it before, trying to get attached, feel something, but the only thing we remember was how much it touched us years ago when we played a different game but with a similar title. The sex scene, relatable or not, is stripped from the emotional intimacy and is as sensitively challenging as a dog being killed.

Character development doesn’t move an inch even if Sean, a surrogate father to his brother, lost his virginity to an older girl. There’s no single thought in his head that he might conceive his own offspring during this short but probably memorable experience. There’s not a single line except for the satisfaction of some female parts finally discovered. Oh, dashing explorer, will you ever learn?

It’s sad. I did want to like this game and gave it plenty of chances like no other titles ever. I’ve made excuses for the poor execution, technical problems, with the whiny voice acting that was driving me up the wall, plot twists written (I think) on a lunch break, and so on, but I couldn’t stand it. It’s a hard pass when it comes to a video game in general, not to mention the story, script, and everything else. Life is Strange season one; a low-budget production, was the first step to create a masterpiece that LIS2 might’ve been able to become. The second season didn’t learn much from LIS1’s mistakes, additionally exchanging the well-known beauty for a garbage fire, ignoring all the warning signs along the way. Delivering a story that tackles such important topics, it slides between the checkmarks on the board of issues, mentioning conversion therapy, religion, gayness, illegal immigration, and a spiral of crimes but never elaborating on any of them. There is no meat and potatoes presented on the plate of events, but just a sticky, sweet gravy with nothing underneath that leaves you not only hungry but frustrated, willing to call the chef and yell at the waiter. The trick is that unless you were living under a rock, there are tons of other productions in different media that give those themes justice, carefully unfolding all the aspects, giving voice to both sides. The fact that it’s the first video game having an affair with serious issues doesn’t matter. I don’t believe that anybody who consumes any kind of other media like decent books, movies, or TV shows can remain blind to the problems of Life is Strange 2, claiming it to be a good story. It’s not.

So here we are, girls, boys, and beyond. Life is Strange 2 with its broken mechanics, story, characters, and spirit slowly but surely will be forgotten. It’s Dontnod’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within that you might love to watch or play on your brand-new TV, despite what everybody else would say, omitting any valid or invalid criticism, but unfortunately, it won’t change the general optics about this particular piece of media. A lost chance or recklessness created a convoluted mess and with a heart beating in the wrong place. You might praise Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, get excited about it since it’s a free world, free country (and even if it’s not, no one will take this ersatz of such liberty) and don’t let anybody tell you what to love. The problem is, that most likely the only thing that people will remember about this production is that the main male character looked like Ben Affleck and the hair animation was dope. Everything else won’t matter.

The same thing goes, unfortunately, for Life is Strange 2, subtitle: The Spirits Without.

[entropy-game-dev]

The Best Birthday Postmortem

Hey all! Voting/rating was recently enabled for all games in the #GM20 gamejam - if you downloaded and liked the game, we would really, REALLY appreciate it if you rated it using this link! You can also download and play the game here as well, of course, otherwise this postmortem might not make too much sense!

Gameplay Summary:

You are throwing a birthday party for your 19 best friends and yourself. You bought 20 gifts online, but didn't really think about who to give what to. So, on the day of the party, your goal is to talk to each of your guests (and you can also display your own thoughts pulled from a random selection) in order to figure out who would like what present the most. Each gift-guest combination has a rating from 0 to 1, and your goal is to give all the gifts away while scoring as high as possible!

What went right:

Tutorial: Learning a very harsh lesson from the last game, this time we endeavoured to have a proper tutorial that explains each action in turn and was planned from the beginning of the game. You can't progress the tutorial until you do each action in order, which is helpful as the thoughts button and giving gifts to yourself would not be very intuitive otherwise. Not having done a tutorial in this fashion before, I found relatively nice ways to advance the tutorial and to limit user actions as well. As tutorial states were cumulative, actions were only ever added and it was easy enough to add a series of if tutestate > whatever to the controls which Lucinius had neatly set up.

Scope: Yes it's a new record for us, we finished and submitted the game a whopping 4 hours before the deadline! This was in contrast to the last two gamejams were we were submitting in a rush and the quality of the last features were were adding had suffered. I can't really say if we're getting better at estimating our workload or we're getting more efficient at working, or it's just been luck, but honestly like most complicated aspects it's most likely a combination of a variety of factors. I thought I bit off more than I could chew regarding the 20 character and present designs, PLUS the animations - and admittedly, those animations were the last thing that got done - but we did get there in the end, which is the most important thing.

Art: After a day or two of experimenting with a 32 colour pallette (obtained from the always-useful Lospec, I realised that for what I was trying to achieve, 32 colours wasn't cutting it for me and so I swapped over to a 64 colour pallette. Now, while I did notice more and more things that annoyed me about it over the course of the week, I've been taking notes of, and I'll be producing a modified palette for next time around. Nevertheless, I was able to stick with it and produce a mostly unified set of asset - with the caveat that I did have to resort to outlines on characters and presents because the skin and floorboard colours were very similar.

Reusable code: I think we made a lot of progress here - not only did we use some modular code from past projects here, we got a lot of useful code out of this project. Of note is the work Lucinius did converting bbTextbox (highly recommended, by the way) into a box that can have multiple "boxes" worth of text, with controls for fast forwarding, skipping, and even a yes/no choice system for future projects. This was also our first time working with GMS2's new camera system, and we also got some nice code and functions out of that. Well, Lucinius did, I didn't have much to do with it...

Pair (🍐) programming: I think we both found that when we were able to work together and discuss/bounce ideas of each other, we were at our most efficient. There was a lot of stuff I wasn't familiar with that I could quickly ask Luc, and likewise some code I was more familiar with - like bbTextbox and database management, he could ask me about. I'm pretty sure most of the hard problems were solved working together which means we complimented each other well!

What went wrong:

Dialog: Yes, there was a lot, and no, that isn't the issue as such! The main issue here was that the majority of dialog and characterisation was hidden behind presents, and it was unrealistic to assume that players would be doing multiple playthroughs to see each character's reaction to different presents - there were about 6 lines per character that could be read just from talking normally to them, and then another 20 lines per character for the gift giving portion. I also tried hard to give the characters relationships to each other outside of the party, but namedropping characters without some sort of reference (either a visual aid or maybe a colour coded system) probably didn't work that well. Also, there were about 80 different thoughts you could pull up but I had forgot to randomise the seed at the beginning of each game so you'd see the same thoughts in the same order! Ugh!

Score system: Tying in to this, the score system was designed as such that characters would score your gift from 0 to 1 in order to provide a max score of 20. However, I think there might have been too much emphasis on scoring, because during playtesting, my guinea pigs were worrying too much about who got what present, without really understanding that the score isn't that important and it was more about the experience (seeing what each character had to say). Compounding this, the dialog was not completely explicit on who wanted what gift - and this was by design, because I wanted to lessen the focus on giving THE PERFECT gift to each character, but the ambiguity only served to highlight my players' anxieties! 

Workloads: Content is seriously hard work - it took me a good 2 days to write up all the text for the game and 3 days to do the tilesets, designs, and animations. That meant that Lucinius was left to do most of the heavy lifting on the programming side, and given that we work well programming together, I think that portion of it could have been much more efficient! Of course, I helped out where I could but in the end I was mainly contributing in terms of dialog and art, not programming.

Timings: Furthermore, due to our schedules, we were mostly programming separately except on the weekend and the final night! We of course, had a chatroom where we were able to leave each other messages and had a project management system backing us up in terms of tasks etc, but the main body of work was done asynchronously, which was not bad, as we got it done, but we could have been a bit more coordinated and efficient had we been able to work simultaneously.

Final thoughts:

Overall, we were both really really really happy with what we were able to achieve. It was honestly pretty smooth sailing from start to finish with quite a bit of time spent on the dialog system (with good reason, mind), and we produced something that was pretty well received by the people who played it! Still haven’t played/rated it? Check it out here!

[fantasyfoucault]

Course Post #8: Sleeping on the Future’s Authenticity

Doktor Sleepless broadcasting on 98.3 Heaven’s Pirates

Warren Ellis’s Doktor Sleepless pushes the biopunk genre to new limits by combining its cyberpunk vision of a futuristic world that integrates technology with biology with anarchist philosophy. Situated in Heavenside, where much of Reinhardt’s is still at play and has created the “grinder” culture, which are “people [who] practise homebrewed extreme body modification” (Ellis).

The series protagonist, John Reinhardt, has turned into the maniacal Doktor Sleepless, his grinder name, after leaving Heavenside upon realizing the lie at the heart of humanistic thought. Reinhardt is a biohacker-turned-bioterrorist, or, Doktor Sleepless, and is a tech genius who has no friends or loved ones. He is particularly interested in biotechnology and biocybernetics that have allowed the transhuman grinder culture to form in Heavenside. Additionally, he is well-trained in computer programming, security and hacking, as we see when he shows Nurse Igor his control over the Apocalypse Bunker. Basically, he is the foil to Tony Stark’s techno-humanistic ideals. He is responsible for many technologies in the future city of Heavenside, such as Clatter, a wireless IM Lens instant messaging system built on soft contact lens that people put in their eyes and allows for cross platform services. Reinhardt is also the creator of Shriekyware, a technology that has manifested the “Shrieky Girl” subculture. Shriekyware is a set of networked receivers and transmitters like two fake fingernails, fake teeth or tongue-rings combined with an IM lens, like Clatter. This technology forms a motion-capture unit and haptic interface that allows the transmission of touch between users, which unifies all its users on the net with the same sensation and feeling, essentially creating a co-human existence. Another of Reinhardt’s technologies that is connected to Clatter are the I.D. Tags, electronic capsules that people ingest that identifies the person and enables one to vote, receive medical care, and make payments on bills. Earlier this semester we read an article by Maureen Meadows and Matthijs Kouw called “Future Making: Inclusive Design and Smart Cities” that hearkens to Doktor Sleepless’s futuristic Heavenside but on an individualistic level. In this article they discuss the possibilities that smart technologies hold in “enabl[ing] the efficient governance of urban public spaces, energy flows, and mobility patterns” (Kouw, Meadows). These smart technologies are various information and communication technologies (ICTs) like sensors, big data-processors, wearable technologies, and even autonomous cars that “will lead to more innovative and sustainable cities and dramatically improve urban life” (Kouw, Meadows). Meadows and Kouw argue for the consideration of different approaches in which all of society can team together in order to create a single vision for future cities. This is where Doktor Sleepless’s Heavenside deviates, as most of the technologies developed by Reinhardt are for the sole purpose of enhancing the individual, not society as a whole. In fact, Doktor Sleepless has become disgusted with how far grinder technology has evolved into creating such a deviant and solipsistic culture.

One of the comic’s prevalent themes is Doktor Sleepless’s Boemerian fatalist philosophy based on Henrik Boemer’s book The Darkening Sky (1966). Doktor Sleepless’s fatalist philosophy and plan to turn Heavenside on itself by awakening grinder culture from its own false consciousness is because he believes that Heavenside is “not the future we were promised... if we can't have that, then we shouldn't have anything at all” (Ellis). Using 98.3 Heaven’s Pirates frequency, Doktor Sleepless preaches his Boemerian philosophy to incite social anxiety and agitation at the complacency and privileged lifestyle that has enveloped Heavenside. In his first broadcast, Doktor Sleepless calls out the Heavenside residents for their obliviousness to the future they’re in, and their complacency:

“Everywhere I go I hear the same thing: ‘Where’s my fucking jet pack? Where’s my flying car?’ . . . You live in the future and you don’t know it. Half of you know where your friends are by looking inside your eyeball, for God’s sake . . . You can rebuild your own fucking bodies at home with stuff you bought from the hardware store . . . The future sneaks up on us. It leaks through the small, ordinary things. You want your jetpack, but you don’t even think about your IM lenses and your phones, were you born with them? No. You’re science fictional creatures. Each and every one of you” (Ellis)

This idea of an absent in the present—the absence of a jetpack and flying car in Heavenside’s futuristic present—reminds me of Tim Richardson’s reiteration of Warren Ellis’s “’science fiction condition,’ [which is] how ‘we can measure the contemporary day by the things that have become absent’” in his essay “The Authenticity of What’s Next.” For Richardson, we could measure change “by the removal or absence or invisibility of things . . . things [that] never even have to exist to register as absent.” The idea of opening a space of vacancy leads him to speculate that “maybe the best way to sell an authentic future is to remove something we don’t notice now, so that an authentic-seeming future wouldn’t be drawn as us with the addition of jet packs, but as us with the subtraction” of everyday tools, methods of transportation or anything else we tend to look as in the rear-view mirror (Richardson). Certainly, the Heavenside residents’s dissatisfaction with their present reality indicates a “futurity that is already upon us as the technology we take for granted, that we’re even bored with, that has fundamentally changed the way we work and live” (Richardson). For Doktor Sleepless, however, it is not so much about presenting an authentic future as much as challenging those of us sleeping on authenticity, or what we think it means to be “real.” For Doktor Sleepless, “Authenticity is bullshit. Never more so than today. We can be anyone we can imagine being. We can be someone new every day . . . ‘You should be happy with who you are.’ ‘Be yourself.’ . . . We’re not real enough. We’re not authentic to our society. Free speech does not extend to our bodies” (Ellis). Doktor Sleepless’s brash words are truly authentic, which is perhaps why it takes a comic book character whose existence is absent in our present reality to utter for them to (hopefully) register into our own individual practice. If, as Richardson speculates that “hacking seems about reuse and—more importantly—repurposing,” then Doktor Sleepless is the ultimate hack insofar as he is hacking, or repurposing, the grinders consciousness, challenging them to abandon their transhuman obsession and gain autonomy from the system of biotechnology. Doktor Sleepless pleads the grinders to “Be authentic to your dreams. Be authentic to your own ideas about yourself. Grind away at your own minds and bodies until you become your own invention.” In the same way, Ellis is pleading with us today to hack our own “minds and bodies” and become our “own invention[s].” Society has always told us who we should be. Michel Foucault and Judith Butler say that the moment we are born we are tossed into power relations and discourses that inscribe us with social norms and regulations in order to be heterosexual, be “manly,” be XYZ, be docile bodies. We are taught to hate others based on the color of their skin or who they love because of deep-seated ideological power structures. Heteronormative gender roles have embedded every facet of society and regulate the free-market capitalist economy that feeds off our own complacency and dissatisfaction with our present future. Cosmetic surgery and body modification offer us opportunities to modify our bodies to our liking according to what society demands of us. Social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, to name a few, offer us the possibility of creating a copy of our original selves in order to present it to the rest of the world, creating a simulacra where we all play an inauthentic role. Richardson describes an outbreak as “a localized occurrence or symptom of something already in the system more widely. To force an outbreak is to exploit a potential that’s already there.” I believe that in this era of Trumpian right-wing white supremacy, the potential for an outbreak is perhaps as visible as ever but the collective consciousness still fails to hack itself. Yet the collective relies on the individual. I guess then the question is, “What does hacking look like for you?” Perhaps it is our unconscious slumber, our deep sleep to the future’s authenticity, that prevents us from finding any semblance of an answer. Maybe that’s why Doktor Sleepless never sleeps.

Source: http://enculturation.net/authenticity

“I grew up in Heavenside. I know every inch of it… I know it like the face and body of my first love. We’re going to burn it all down. Because this is not the future we were promised. And if we can’t have that, then we shouldn’t have anything at all.” --Doktor Sleepless

[dalekofchaos]

New Republic demilitarization in New canon was stupid

In Legends, The New Republic is admired for their military and strong resolve. 

In New Canon...they demilitarize. When a single Star Destroyer "...carried enough firepower to subdue an entire planetary system..." Did no one think about there still being a handful left out there even after Jakku? Now we got Resurgent-class ships... can't imagine they are any less powerful than the last ones. With a galaxy full of pirates and crime lords and an Empire remnant that is KNOWN to not be led by the most pacifist of leaders, the best course of action was to demilitarize? And then they stupidly line up their sole fleet around one system. With this kind of incompetence, it’s no wonder The First Order were able to destroy the New Republic. Yet The First Order is just as stupid.

The Republic had gotten by without a standing military for centuries, relying entirely on local militias to defend against the occasional problems that cropped up from the unknown regions of space. Mon Mothma should have considered that the only reason that worked was because the Republic had been the only nation of any consequence that existed.

But they had not gone back to the status quo. The Empire/First Order was a real nation, unified in purpose. They certainly hadn't disarmed, and they were not impressed by the legitimacy of a government that had overthrown them largely by assassinating their former head of state (who, remember, had been elected!) No one should have expected any treaty with them to stand unless the Republic had the means of immediately enforcing it.

I can see the reasons for wanting to disarm. The fact is that not all worlds in the new Republic were equal in terms of their ability to defend themselves, and the more active members of the alliance could have easily used their rebellion era forces to gain inappropriate amounts of influence in regards to establishing policy. That alone made the idea of rebuilding the Republic as it had been extremely difficult, and demilitarizing was an effective way to demonstrate that the New Republic was determined to be an alliance of equals that would never use force to get its member worlds to comply with the wishes of the majority.

But these concerns never should have been given precedence over the immediate threat represented by having a hostile nation on your borders which is armed ready to attack at the first signs of weakness.

Mon Mothma and The Republic were foolish thinking that there will be peace there will never be peace. Peace is temporarily. What’s the point of a democracy if you cannot defend it? This is why The New Republic in Legends fought the Vong. The Republic actually should have kept building their arms, ships and defenses so they could be ready to stop a war before it can begin. If The First Order did attack, then The New Republic would have their forces ready to fight them. 

Not just the imperial remnants in the Unknown Regions but the Empire itself continued to exist in the Core and Inner Rim (except Coruscant, which was surrendered to the New Republic) as per the Galactic Concordance after the battle of Jakku.

While some restrictions were placed on the Empire, nothing prevented the imperials from clandestinely working against the New Republic. What was Mon Mothma smoking when she wanted the New Republic demilitarized despite it being a phase of recovery, Imperials continuing to exist in the Core and Inner Rim, and Imperial Remnants, pirates and other unsavoury elements wreaking havoc in the Outer Rim, Unknown Regions and Wild Space.

Its horrendous world building and ruining the character of Mon Mothma. It makes absolutely no sense how the New Republic was able to last even this long (30 years), you would get member systems seceding left and right because the NR is unable to effectively protect them, and doesn't allow them to arm and protect themselves.

While I could foresee systems being wary of a centralized government, the fact that the NR needs a truce with the Imperial Remnants, means that they would need some sort of military fleet to protect themselves and to enforce that truce. As winners, they don't need to surrender their arms, but because they (strangely) allow Imperials into their new senate, they get voted to do so. Logically, it should have been the Imperials to give up their military, but the opposite happens, the Remnant actually increases from that of the Empire.

What should have happened is that the NR commanders the Imperial Fleet and starts protecting systems who join the NR, all while chasing down and fighting any of the Remnants (Moffs, Warlords, Crime Lords, etc) who have grabbed power in the resulting vacuum. We could have seen an evolution of ships from Old Republic to Empire to NR ones. They could have renamed Star Destroyers into Star Defenders. Hell, they could have had a Republic of independent systems, each with their own sizable military, so that power isn't centralized.

This could have been an interesting question for the ST. What happens after you win a war? How do you not make the same mistakes or become the thing you fought. What happens in a power vacuum? The NR should have been the dominant emerging power, and the Remnant should have been a small, secretive, unknown order, striking strategically from the UR where they hid, and causing fear and panic to spread in the NR. But no, instead of telling an interesting story, we are force fed the recycled poorly written rehashed Rebels vs Empire and the Rebels are made to be weaker than The First Order. The First Order are a terrorist movement, they should not be reigning after Hosnian Prime’s destruction, ESPECIALLY AFTER LOSING STARKILLER BASE. Even more insulting is demilitarization. Wouldn't they need it to enforce laws? To fend off pirates and criminals? That'd be like the entire world deciding after World War II to just get rid of their armies. No one would be dumb enough to do that.  

Concentrating your government and defenses around only one system is really stupid(AND BAD FUCKING WRITING) The New Republic’s forces should have been spread far across the galaxy. So after Hosnian Prime, The New Republic  sees the bigger picture and mobilizes their fleet and unites their forces with The Resistance. Instead The New Republic is stupidly destroyed because Rian wanted the Rebels to be the Rebels again.(lol this movie is fucking dumb) God forbid we get The New Republic fighting the First Order and making the heroes looking strong in force instead of stupidly having all the Rebels fit inside the Falcon. For the love of fucking god I hate this fucking timeline.

Once again, the whole rest of the New Republic’s fleet was at one single place doing nothing. What do they even exist for? A show of power? No. To protect the system? From what? The galaxy is safe enough to have a demilitarized government, right? If the galaxy is so safe and Empire free, why even have ships to protect Hosnian Prime? Just shown to be destroyed....

The problem I have with what Disney has done with the Star Wars timeline is they have essentially said "Nothing interesting happened for 30 years after ROTJ" which has stripped the EU of the ability to tell interesting stories in what used to be the most interesting time period. Shamefully bad writing and worldbuilding. Things are so peaceful and people are so content that the New Republic is able to demilitarize to the point that The First Order are able to rise and build Starkiller Base.

JJ Abrams...for reasons. Wanted to recycle the Empire vs Rebels, so instead of The New Republic fighting the First Order, we get Rebels The Resistance and Lucasfilm had to figure out a way to make it possible, which has resulted in an incredibly lackluster and stupid time period.

[santafeisafantase]

@thattheatrefreak here ya go dood and others. it’s still just a rough draft and not me bashing newsies bc i love it so much, but i was interesting in doing the research so here we go. enjoy!!

//

Newsies vs. The Newsboy Strike of 1899

Did you know that back in 1899, the newsboys, also known as newsies, of New York City went on strike? The strike caused massive disruption to the city’s key services. Critical news stopped and strikes and protests halted transportation. At one point even the entirety of the Brooklyn Bridge shut down. This was such an important event in our history that Walt Disney Studios created a movie in 1992, which would later become a Broadway musical in 2012, about the strike called, ‘Newsies’. Disney’s Newsies represented the Newsboy Strike of 1899 inaccurately as evidenced by the fictional characters and plotlines.

Based on the Newsboys Strike of 1899, Disney’s Newsies creates many fictional characters to tell their version of the story. In fact, the main character and “leader” of the Disney’s Newsies strike did not exist in real life but was created to support their interpretation of the story..

Jack Kelly, the alleged leader of the strike, was a charismatic character created to further their story.. His character is loosely based off the actual leader of the strike, Louis ‘Kid Blink’ Balett(i)*. Kid Blink (sometimes referred to as Blind Diamond) was the leader and chief organizer of the Newsboy’s Union Strike Committee. Kid Blink was said to be between the ages of 13-18 and Italian, while Jack was 17 and (most likely) Irish. At the time, Italians were frowned upon, and otherwise not well perceived by others, including but not limited to- the Irish. So, although the change from Italian to Irish appears insignificant on the surface, due to tensions between these groups during this time it seems curious

Both Blink and Jack Kelly accepted a bribe from a newspaper, going back to work. Jack took the bride in order to keep his boys from going to The Refuge (a jail for underaged kids), and while there’s no apparent reason for Blink accepting the bride, it was most likely just for the money. Another difference between Blink and Disney’s Jack Kelly is their mannerisms during the strike. When Kid Blink came across scabs (boys who went against the strike), he would soak them (beat them up) into joining the strike, Jack used his way words to talk the scabs into joining the strike.

His more memorable speech from the Broadway production is as follows, “Listen fellas…I know somebody put yis up to this. Probably paid ya some extra money too. Yeah? Well, it ain’t right. Pulitzer thinks we’re gutter rats with no respect for nothin’, includin’ each other. Is that who we are? Well, we stab each other in the back and, yeah, that’s who we are. But if we stand together, we change the whole game. And it ain’t just about us. All across this city there are boys and girls who ought to be playin’ or going to school. Instead they’re slavin’ to support themselves and their folks. Ain’t no crime to bein’ poor, and not a one of us complains if the work we do is hard. All we ask is a square deal. Fellas…for the sake of all the kids in every sweatshop, factory, and slaughter house in this town, I beg you… throw down your papers and join the strike.” Disney’s Jack is more a verbal peacemaker than brute enforcer.

Along with Jack Kelly, David ‘Davey’ Jacobs, and the entire Jacobs family didn’t exist either. In the 1992 Newsies movie, the Jacobs family took Jack in when David and Les, two brothers, became newsies. Davey suggested the strike and became Jack's right-hand during the strike. Sarah, Davey and Les's sister, was Jack's love interest, but an otherwise unimportant character who was written out in the stage production. The Jacobs parents aren't in the stage version, as well. They’re mentioned a few times, but never shown or talked about in much detail. The family, in the movie, showed Jack what it was like to have a real family, as none of the newsboys really had families. This idea of a perfect family and Jack;s want of this idea becomes a recurring theme in Jack’s storyline. There’s a possibility Davey was based off Dave Simmons, the president of the Strike Committee who was voted out alongside Blink for betraying the strike. Simmons was treasurer for the second half of the strike after being forced to step down from his higher position. Davey could’ve also been inspired by/based off Morris Cohen, who replaced Simmons as president of the strike committee. Consistent with the transition of Jack from thug-ish to more of a charismatic leader, Disney gave Jack more relatable family ties and direction.

Furthermore, Bryan Denton did not write the big stories that won the boys the strike. In fact, those articles don’t exist at all! As well as that, Bryan Denton did not actually exist. He was originated for the movie. It’s likely he wasn’t based off anyone in particular, seeing as though the articles from the time came from all over the place. Bryan served to unify the storytelling in somewhat of a narrator fashion that the audience can rally around.

On the topic of the newspaper reporters, Katherine Pulitzer/Plumber (Plumber having been the name she allegedly published under) did not write for ‘The New York Sun’ or anywhere, for that matter. While Katherine Pulitzer was a real person, she died of pneumonia at the age of 2 years old. In the Broadway musical, she’s written to replace both Sarah Jacobs, as Jack’s love interest, and Bryon Denton, as the reporter for the strike.

Another misrepresentation is the infamous leader of the Brooklyn Newsies, Spot Conlon. Spot Conlon, and the Brooklyn newsies, according to the musical/movie, were major influences on the strike. Disney makes it out like without Spot they wouldn't have won the strike at all. Racetrack Higgins, in Disney's versions, is just a newsie from Manhattan who loves to play poker and bet on horse races, when in actuality, Racetrack was the real ‘voice of Brooklyn’ and is mentioned throughout the papers as a major influence on the strike. He also gave a speech at the rally in Irving Hall, claiming to have confronted the chief of police, as well as threatening the boys if they thought of betraying the strike. Racetrack was temporarily vice-president of the strike committee after Blink and Simmons were voted out.

Disney also claims after Kelly betrays the strike, he joins the strike again to assist in writing and printing their own paper that helps them win the strike. Joseph Pulitzer, the owner of ‘The New York World’, sees the paper and makes Jack and the newsies an offer. He would lower the raise of price by half if they went back to work. Jack rebutted by saying that ‘The World’ would also buy back whatever papers the newsboys don’t sell, full price. In truth, over the two weeks that the boys were striking, ‘The World’ made many offers to which the Union’s Strike Committee turned down. Most of the newsies disagreed with the Strike Committee refusing to accept the offers. Eventually, Pulitzer made an offer to the newsies, not the Official Decision Makers of the strike. Pulitzer offered them 100% return rights. The newsies immediately accepted the offer, agreeing to go back to work, while the Union Committee, who disagreed with their decision to accept to offer, said they would continue to strike.

According to Disney’s Newsies, Pulitzer decided to raise the price of papers because once the war ended, they weren’t selling enough papers. Joseph Pulitzer wanted to put more money into flashy photos and headlines, so they could sell more newspapers. In order to do so, they raised the price of the newspapers from $.50 per hundred to $.60, meaning the newsies would have to sell 10 more papers just to make the same about as always. When the newsies saw the raise in price, they were immediately enraged and decided to strike. When the boys organized their first rally, Pulitzer tried to get the mayor and Snyder (the warden of The Refuge) to arrest Jack and get the rally shut down.

In actuality, ‘The World’, and most of the newspapers in the city, raised the price of their papers during the war, knowing that the headlines were dramatic enough that papers would sell easily. When the war ended, all the newspapers brought the prices back down, except for ‘The World’ and ‘The Journal’. Because the war had ended, papers weren’t selling as well, and the newsies couldn’t make enough money to survive. That being said, the newsies didn’t strike immediately. The war ended in August of 1898, and they didn’t strike until July 1899. They elected a group of boys to lead the strike called the Union Committee which consisted of Kid Blink as chief organizer, Dave Simmons as president, Little Mikey as an orator, and Jim Gaiety, Young Monix, Barney Peanuts, Crutch Morris, Crazy Arburn, Scabutch/Scabooch, and Abe Newman. The intention of Pulitzer was not as ill-intentioned and specific as Disney indicated.

Even the conclusion of the strike was changed to suit Disney’s narrative! They make it out to be more willing and accommodating than what actually happened. So, all that said, Disney’s Newsies represented the Newsboy Strike of 1899 inaccurately as evidenced by the fictional characters and plotlines.

*according to some sources, it could also be spelled ‘Balett(i)’

Works Cited

Anonymous. “‘The Looker-on’ Observing Racetrack Higgins”. Brooklyn Life, 29 July 1899. cityhallpark1899.com/2015/07/29/the-looker-racetrack-higgins/

Nasaw, David. “Read all about it: The story of the newsies’ two-week strike against publishers Pulitzer, Hearst”. New York Daily News, 14 August 2017. nydailynews.com/new-york/story-newsies-strike-titans-pulitzer-hearst-article-1.2858550

Siegrist, Julie. “Newsies the Movie: Is it Historically Accurate?” When I Can Breathe, Blogger, 19 January 2014. whenicanbreathe.blogspot.com/2014/01/evaluation-newsies-movie-is-it.html

Romero, Kristina. “Newsies: The real story compared with the movie/musical”. Calling Extra, WordPress, 24 March 2012. callingextra.com/author/kristina/

Newsboys of 1899, Tumblr.

Torin. “Historical Context Newsies”. The Gilder Lehrman. www.gilderlehrman.org/content/historical-context-newsies

Stern, Liz. “Blast From the Past: Newsboy Strike of 1899 “. History Detectives, New-York Historical Society, 27 July 2012. historydetectives.nyhistory.org/2012/07/blast-from-the-past-newsboy-strike-of-1899/

Morisako, Kira. “Kid Blink”. Extra! Extra! Newsboys Take A Stand: The Newsboys Strike of 1899, Weebly. newsboysstrike1899.weebly.com/kid-blink.html

Anonymous. “Newsboys' strike of 1899”. Wikiwand, Wikipedia. www.wikiwand.com/en/Newsboys%27_strike_of_1899#/Louis_%22Kid_Blink%22_Baletti

Anonymous. “Newsies Historical Research”. Newsies History, Tumblr. newsieshistory.tumblr.com/post/91454605563/some-things-we-know-about-the-real-kid-blink-part

[dailysassfromshego]

Controversial topics about my country!!!

As some of you might now, I live in a pretty damn Balkan Eastern European country that is pretty misogynistic, homophobic etc etc….

-ABORTION We all are shocked now about USA anti-“pro-life” propaganda these recent days…Thank God in Albania abortions are legal for some several reasons that the poorest states of America (like Alabama) are failing to actually understand!  1) POOR EDUCATION!!! Poor education means high illiteracy rates followed by low average income (Albanian’s average monthly wage is around 200-300 euros). Poor education also means incest, rape and unprotected sex! Yes, our rates on these are pretty high! I got friends whose moms and/or themselves work at maternity centers/hospitals and they say the average of teenage pregnancies are too damn high and a good part of them end up in abortion, specifically or if possible in other cities so nobody specially their parents won’t see them to “publicly shame on them somehow”, simply because falling pregnant at a very young age is also humiliating to their parents and if they found out those girls better commit suicide rather than being actually killed by their fathers or bigger brothers!!! Rarely these girls get the support of their own family tbh and specifically if these girls are from the rural parts of the country. This happens mainly because a girl should be married first and give birth later, and in most scenarios this is because of unprotected sex due to their partners being total assholes for refusing to use protection and most of the cases later dumping them!  2) Health risks for mother or kid! These were the cases that were tolerated even back during communism (also rape and incest were part of the exclusion at that time), but even then there would be a lot where women would fake illnesses to want a pregnancy terminated for sorely their personal reasons. (At least they’d better fake documents at a very trusted person or they could easily face Spaç, the Albanian Gulag, cause spies were fucking everywhere!) And “yes” there could be complications that show up after the 5th month.  3) THE GENDER OF THE KID! Being a very misogynistic country aborting simply because the upcoming child is a girl will push wives by their husbands to commit an UNWANTED ABORTION! This is by far the most controversial and this is the only reason that should be banned by law if you ask me! Thankfully abortions cost less than 200 euros. And to all those “pro-lifers”: You really are pro-life but if the kid dies within the next 3 years by the poor life conditions don’t @ me cause ya all the real anti-lifers! Or lets say that those kids end up in an orphanage where in most cases the conditions are equally as bad as if their biological mothers would keep ‘em, specially in poor countries most kids in orphanages are malnourished, psychologically and physically abused by the people who work in those orphanages or by their older fellows! (I can not even count the amount of the cases we had here and most are within the last 3 years!) “If are a pro-lifer then you better want a life with quality not with the guaranteed fear of abuse and death!!!”

-LGBTQ RIGHTS Not the most welcomed country for the LGBTQ community, I see actors and politicians being openly homophobic and swearing to kill their own sons if they found out they were gay, live on TV programs! However the more educated and informed the common society gets the better for the community! Here you got a source for more info into this topic if interested! Thankfully we are progressing into this topic and we got 17th of May on 2014 as the 1st LGBTQ pride and since then held every year! (Currently speaking we have some exchange students from Spain that are gay and one of them has cried for having a very good time here and being accepted from his fellow students and my father, who is his teacher and if not actually the only one of the teachers to truly accept him for whom he is rather than in his home where he is very badly treated by his teachers simply because he is gay and drags!) However we also got a kind of “transgender” culture that is more of an old tradition in rural parts of Northern Albania, practiced under the “Kanun of Lek Dukagjini/Rules of Lek Dukagjini” (check on internet about this one, is a very interesting topic to even study on it if you are a non-Albanian + it will get you to understand the whole old mentality of this country better) the women called “Burrnesha” or else called the “Sworn Virgin” who are the women that take a vow of chastity and wear male clothing in order to live as men in patriarchal northern Albanian society, cause due to the family not having any sons therefore they’d become “the sons their family never had” keep their childhood surnames and inherit the family properties. There is also a whole National Geographic Taboo series episode dedicated on this topic + a lot of documentaries for you to check out! In this patriarchal country is basically more acceptable if a woman condones with the life of a man than a boy with a woman’s. Notable is one of the best live-on-air TV programs “wrecks” was when a transgender got asked by the dumb ass hostess what kind of community she represents and her respond was “I represent the community of women!” and the host went by in a very pushing way “but you are a different kind of a woman it should be something more or else…” and the other ones interrupts “…let me take is this way honey, just because you are blonde you represent the community of blondes?” and the host says in a thinking way “…mmm yes, actually, yes!” This scene became one of the best memes against the illiteracy of that particular TV hostess whom is known to make stupid questions and totally out of place comments + a boom against most of those so called journalists that have and are filling our media courses full of unprofessionalism, lies and trash content! “Your genitalia preferences are none of my business and shouldn’t be anybody’s! What matters is your character!”

-WOMEN RIGHTS Believe it on not Albania allowed women to vote before Italy, starting in 1920 and gaining full rights of voting in 1945! The very 1st feminist movement was started leaded by Urani Rumbo (who happens to be from the same city as me, Gjirokastra) who promoted woman’s emancipation by publishing the newspaper “Drita” (light in Albanian) and protesting in 1923 so girls could get high-school education! It is known though that actually the Tosk part (Southern part of Albania) was always more matriarchal compared to the patriarchal Geg part (Northern part), and women where seen with far more equal rights towards men while in the other part women were seen as objects. However in 1945 Albania became the 1st communist country that actually applied the ideal of gender equality compared to others that were more symbolic rather than actually applied! That system also put a whole ban on pre-arranged marriages, gave them their rights to get a full education, vote and work equally as men did! You finally had female doctors, drivers etc. even mine diggers!!! (When my grandmother had my father she was just 19 and my grandfather, 26 at the time, was begging to her to continue her university studies on economics where she had won a scholarship, but she kept on declining saying she had to raise the kids while he was saying that her mother could do that as she was living with them! Now she regrets not listening to him!) Anyways by the fall of communism in 90′, things got a bit out of control and the “Kanun” (friendly reminder the “Kanun” is basically medieval rules made somewhere in the 1400′ for the rural parts of the north) got back in tracks and a lot women lost their rights not “legally” but “morally” and this being applied till recent days where the law and authorities would actually do nothing on cases of domestic abuse, rape and incest. And as if this is not enough most of these cases are not even reported due to fear from their husbands, relatives or even family for putting a shame on them! Not to even mention some sexist laws that were put the recent years… Though thankfully there are people fighting about that but yet again is a lot to do due to poor education specially mainly in the rural parts which consists around 70% of the country! “There is still a lot to be done!”

-RELIGION Now this one is my fave! Here nobody gives a flying fuck about your faith! Once again the 1st communist country to truly apply the ideology’s terms making us the 1st Atheist country in the world, in the 60′! Sure a lot mosques and churches were demolished, yet the most important ones were preserved (compared to now that only a few are being founded by Turkey, Greece or Vatican regarding on where they apply their interests on, which is totally unacceptable, and most of them aren’t legit ones with real historical values) and a lot of priest and believers where imprisoned (this one wasn’t a fair move tbh), yet it was the best option to finally unify the nation based on nationality rather than on religion that most nations actually do and/or have! If that wasn’t done on the right time Albania would have ended up in a Bosnia of 90′ scenario where people slaughtered each-other for identifying with another religion=nationality! That, cause if religions weren’t banned people would not accept each-other only because of having another faith, not to add the slurs each of them had and still do somehow! This opened up to marriages regardless of religion which is truly an amazing thing and impossible in most of the world! (My mum is Christian Orthodox from her family, my dad Bektashi Muslim from his and it was his choice to baptize me Christian Orthodox... Funny part? None of us is actually a believer!!!) Why still does? After 90′ a lot people, mainly non-Albanians, found free space to mess up with people’s minds and pushing them to become believers of a certain religion for a considerate amount of money in exchange! Believe it or not this still is a very high risk these days using all sorts of forms to brainwash the illiterate part of the society and condone with a lifestyle that is borderline morally and physically illegal or at least should be illegal! Simply because religion is a very personal topic and nobody should push that on anybody in any way possible! However the best part of being a secular state is that you get to celebrate extra vocations!  “In the end of the day Albanians’ real faith is “money and food”... as for the rest we don’t really care as long as we got to celebrate!” XD

[luxlightly]

Thoughts On Proper Protest. Re: The Cates Fiasco p2

[Part 1]

If we want to have any effect as a community of readers on the current state of the Venom comics, it’s important to have a focus and a direction. Let’s make a break down in the same style as the example I gave in the last post.

1: An action is proposed. To fire Cates and/or retcon or otherwise invalidate much of his run’s content. This has obviously already been done. The idea is out there. 

2: Gathering of information. Gather information on why the events of the run, specifically the most recent issue, is so offensive and damaging to Venom as a character, the Venom comics, Venom comic fans, and Marvel comics as a whole. Consider the current social and political climate. The #metoo and #i’mnotok movements are going strong and gaining a lot of traction. Consider and analyze why, in a time that sexual assault is such a hot button issue and is being treated with a seriousness that it hasn’t always been in the past, the implications of having a hero character be revealed as a rapist. How that reflects on Marvel, and also on Disney, who cater largely to younger audiences and care heavily about their image.

3: Organized protest. Protest is a show, as I said. So make a show of it. Going on social media, contacting, calling, and writing to Marvel and Disney to show them that their customers (who vote with their dollar on whether they keep their jobs) are upset and intend not to purchase their wares until action is taken. Pair that with boycotts. The importance in this kind of thing is 1:numbers. Marvel has to get an idea that the scope of the offense is large enough to cause a decrease in their profit directly or by indirectly damaging their reputation and image. That it will either directly make the current run sell less, or that it will overall make the character less marketable and therefore less valuable. 2: Professionalism. Companies are quick to be dismissive of reactions they see as being purely based on impulse and passing emotion. Well worded, polite but stern letters make more impact than strings of expletives which companies can discount as being a “fleeting emotion” that is only shared by a small, hot headed minority. Letters directly to Disney and Marvel should be worded as the business dealings they are. You are expressing that you are disappointed in their product and do not intend to continue doing business with them until your concerns are addressed. Money is what corporations care about. More than anything else. Informal social media protest through things like twitter can obviously be less professional but it still pays to avoid insults without a backing in solid criticism. 

From there, it hopefully goes on to Disney/Marvel making a decision to respect the wishes of its customers and take action. In terms of actions everyone can take, here’s a simple list:

Write to Disney/Marvel directly at spideyoffice@marvel.com (Be sure to Mark your letters “okay to print”). Be professional, but clear in how upset you are. If you are a long time fan, mention this. Let them know they’re losing customers, not just not gaining new ones.

Make posts on social media expressing your distaste. Use the hashtag “#CanCates” (’can’as in to fire) to keep the movement unified. @ Marvel and Disney directly. DO NOT @ Cates. It just allows him to more easily add his voice to the discussion, which we don’t want. 

Warn others against the run. Let parents who may not know anything about comics know not to buy it for their kids, not knowing about the offensive material of later issues. Let it become a topic that people who don’t know a thing about comics and don’t much care to know about and have feelings about. 

Most importantly, if it wasn’t obvious: DON’T BUY ANY OF THE CURRENT RUN COMICS. None of this means a thing if the run continues to get our money.