#except I know where I'd be on this discourse I'd be like 'oh are the phantom thieves just murderering CEOs now? go for jeff bezos next <3'

[scarrletmoon]

okay i know the Discourse™️ has been going on for way too long at this point, but

i think some people outside of the OFMD fandom don’t actually get why we’re particularly annoying about this show

OFMD is not the first queer show to ever exist. if anything, it's a late entry in decades of queer media. over a year and a half since the first few episodes aired, everyone knows that OFMD is queer. that doesn't make it particularly special

but back in March? this is the trailer that dropped in February of 2022, 2 weeks before the premier. if you're used to seeing queer chemistry in shows that aren't intended to be queer, you might see the hints between Ed and Stede here. but to most people? it's just a silly little pirate comedy. just guys being dudes. the trailer doesn't even hint at the other 2 canonical queer relationships in the show -- the closest it gets suggesting romance is the music and the pink in the poster

so when people watched this show in March 2022, they went into it expecting subtext and nothing else. to them, it was like watching Sherlock or Supernatural or Merlin in the 2010s. if you were in any of those fandoms -- especially Sherlock and Supernatural -- you know what it was like; constant jokes at our expense, being mocked for creating explicit fanwork, made fun of by the creators and within the show itself. if we saw queer subtext, that was our problem. this was a time when you pretended NOT to be in fandom, for fear of ridicule. we kept our fanwork to ourselves, we DID NOT share it with the cast, and we accepted that our favourite ships would probably never be canon. maybe one day, if we were lucky, we'd have a show where the subtext wasn't mockery as much as deliberate foreshadowing -- but that had to be YEARS away

right?

OFMD was never billed as a queer show, not in the beginning. there was no LGBTQ+ tag on (HBO) Max, it wasn't on anyone's list of upcoming queer shows in 2022, it flew under the radar through most of its first season. this was a show about pirates, and sure, some of them were queer. but not the LEADS. if you think they're romantically involved, that's must be fandom brain poisoning

except the 9th episode aired, and they kissed. and the show said "you're not crazy for thinking they have chemistry because they really do. it's been a romance this whole time". and in the 10th episode, Stede realizes that he's in love

(not mandating you watch this clip if you don't care for the show, but there's something that feels particularly earth shattering about no one saying the word gay but knowing that Stede's realizing he is, that it's completely unambiguous and explicit in a way that only straight romances are usually allowed to be)

this is why people freaked out about this show. no one knew. even the creator, David Jenkins, was surprised when WE were surprised that it was gay for real -- he set out to write a love story, using all the tried and true beats of a rom com. he'd never even heard of the term queerbaiting. he looked at historical Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet and thought "oh, there's something here" and just...wrote that, with very little fanfare, like it was inevitable. like it was obvious. of course Jim and Pam end up together. of course Buttercup and Westley end up together. what kind of disappointing ending would it be if You've Got Mail ended with the main characters just going their separate ways?

so of course Ed and Stede are in love

look, i get it. we're annoying and won't shut the fuck up about this show that seems mediocre at best. i watched the whole thing back in march, thought "huh, that was cool" and was sure that i'd forget about it in a few days

an hour after looking at fanart on twitter, i was lost in the fucking sauce

there's just so much to unpack from a mere 10 episodes. it covers racism, toxic masculinity, gender expression, sexuality, trauma and abuse. and i don't think we should overlook the fact that the non-white characters in this show get to be fully human in a way i haven't seen in my favourite shows in recent memory

additionally, most OFMD are 25 or older. we're not people who've been spoiled by queer rep, who don't get how hard it used to be, how you'd have to grovel for scraps, how shipping and fanfiction was a way to find queer rep where we thought there never would be. we've been here. we're annoying about this show because for a lot of us, it's the first time we've been treated like our queerness isn't an anomaly that needs to be relegated to its own section, that needs to be praised for the bare minimum of acknowledging that we exist. it's not pulling punches to avoid scaring away a straight audience. it just is.

OFMD for me is like when i watched Black Panther for the first time and realized that this is what white people felt all the time. have there been other black superhero movies? of course! does Disney fucking suck? BOY does it. but that was the first time i got to sit in a movie theater and watch a mainstream film that looked at Africa and said "look at how beautiful you are, exactly as you are"

and idk. i think that's really cool

[theseerasures]

notes on the owl house, season 1

was gonna do a sequence of liveblogs but then??? i got really into it??? so i guess the most important tl;dr is that yes lesbians you were right this time

S01E01

*watches first scene, where a single brown mother gives her kid a brochure for Conformity Camp with a cartoonish image of a child being crowded into a box, when her kid has already been established as being comically and cartoonishly imaginative, while a flock of doves fly into the air spelling out the words THIS IS A JOKE PLEASE DO NOT MAKE A DISCOURSE ABOUT THIS*

*pauses episode*

*gently and reverently rests finger on screen* a discourse happened here

i knew that Wendie Malick voices Eda before i started and thought i'd properly girded my loins and yet every time she opens her mouth i think she's gonna tell Luz she's punishing Luz for being alive

S01E03: gotta say i'm appreciative of this show's policy of "NO BOYS ALLOWED" unless the boys are the LITTLEST GUYS IN THE WORLD in which case "SON BOY ALLOWED"

S01E05

it's weird that the Adora in this show has Catra's haircut

wait

siSTER???

i guess kudos for subverting my expectations but between this and Frozen what is it with Disney properties courting the Incest Yay people

was the thought that since Eda and Lilith are Old(tm) it wouldn't happen this time because. uhhhhhh

i guess since Catradora was NebulaGamora you could argue Dana Terrace was just returning the trope to old familial roots??? bah i'm not gonna think about this anymore. Lilith def cursed Eda tho

spotted: Amity Blight and her best frenemy Luz Noceda dueling over the last open spot to the Magic Yale welcome luncheon!!!! xoxo GossipWitch

S01E07

not only does Amity have siblings her siblings are VEX AND VAX??? what is happening

Amity: you're a bully Luz!!!! i would know, because i call myself that in the mirror every morning!!!! not because i'm self aware though. it's to pump me up for another day of Bratz the Movie level shenanigans

wow this enemies-to-lovers is turning around fast. i was expecting Amity to at least girlboss if not gaslight but she barely got to gatekeep before being all "i guess :) we both learned something today :)"

yes Amity Luz accidentally hurting your precarious sense of self once is definitely the same as you tormenting Willow for years

S01E12

oh i've seen this Steven Universe episode.

*sees the monster* and so have the storyboarders

why is everyone so mean to Hooty :(

seriously tho i get having one person in the friend group that everyone inexplicably dislikes is a comedy standard or whatever but. it feels out of place for a show that otherwise bellows "it's great to be weird!!!" from the rooftops

Hooty never did nothing to nobody!!! except be all powerful and occasionally asking to be included in shenanigans

on the other hand given King's design they had to work REALLY hard for me to dislike him, but wow! it's definitely paid off, he's the worst

this is the third episode in a row where King's plot is that he has to learn a lesson about not being Disney-brand-selfish and i know this didn't happen but i'm suddenly imagining the world where he eventually takes over as the main character and The Owl House became Disney's answer to Teen Titans Go

S01E13: okay fine King reaching Todd Chavez levels of shenanigans in this episode was good. he can stay

S01E14: MAYBE THEY SHOULD CALL IT SHAPESHIFT LAND. BECAUSE IT'S A LAND WHERE YOU GO TO SHAPESHIFT

S01E15

can i just say that. naming a powerful-but-overlooked witch--who is the BFF to the main character, who thrives on both a) The Hubris and b) The Resentment--Willow is. well no harm in wearing your influence on your sleeve i guess

she does plant magic! it's not like they could have called her Glimmer

i can't believe Amity was made to end her friendship with Willow by CAITLIN GLASS'S SHADOW LAUGHING ON A WALL

*Amity pulls on Skara's invitation like she's gonna rip it apart* NO AMITY THAT'S AN ACTUAL BUTTERFLY

Amity: i'm not actually gonna rip it because it's a real butterfly, but you get the gesture, right?

me: ...fine. FINE

>:(

*watches Amity release the butterfly invitation as a symbol of overcoming her past self* wow. trans Amity confirmed

all the Blight kids are trans actually the twins transed and nobody even made a fuss bc their parents are terrible and Amity is a fourteen year old with youngest most specialest child syndrome

S01E16

Amity: i can't fight my worst fear because it's SO EMBARASSING

me: Amity if it's the one where you fail a test and then your mother shows up and calls you fat i guarantee everyone in school has already guessed

i guess we're just getting everybody's mommy issues huh

Luz's greatest flaw is how hard she commits to the bit, truly the ADHD representation we need

like it has literally not occurred to her that she could change course with what to tell Camila at any time. she chose her path and it's the only one for her now forever

oh Amity's greatest fear isn't even the obvious mom thing!! it's that Luz might turn her down!!! that's so fucking stupid Amity never ever change

S01E17

the recurring potshots at JoRane's intellectual property this season sure are.

this was produced and came out during the years she went public about losing her fucking mind, so like. everyone had to deal with it in the way they felt was appropriate. i'm not really out to judge the exact timbre of one's response so long as said response does not align with her bigotry, and i sympathize with the petty joy of belittling something owned by somone hateful, especially if that something once meant a lot to you...

i guess i'm just not super comfortable with it because a) you're still picking at a wound even if you end up making funny shapes out of the scabs, b) these hot takes are about general magic-school tropes but often are so specifically about her it feels like we're giving her credit for creating them, and c) owning her like this feels like an opiate when the real issue isn't that her fictional society is founded on 11 year olds taking one uquiz, or that the fake sport she made up is hideously unbalanced, it's that she's...the leader of hate group

all of which are misgivings i have about the Disney Corporation as well and i get that people don't watch this show to be REMINDED that we live in a society, so like. whatever i'm gonna stop talking about this

that Amity sure is gay amirite! she went from "mostly bormal about her obvious crush" to "Jodie Foster at the Golden Globes" in the span of one episode

S01E18

wow!!! Hooty saved everyone's bacon by being all-powerful. thank you Hooty sorry your squatters just take you for granted

oh hey Hordak

the fact that Willow and Gus immediately figured out what Luz was up to because of the helpful diagrams she drew for her non-plan is just so. i'm love them, actually

LILITH??? cursed Eda???? what an unexpected turn of events

okay yes Eda sacrificing her soul to her chronic illness for Luz provoked some genuine emotion from my flinty irreverent heart

it was just the emotional climax of Brave with a Last Agni Kai color scheme but hey i cry during the emotional climax of Brave, so

S01E19

is King...not sad his momowner is about to die??? i get that Luz is the focus here but it's weird that he's not even a little bit distraught

um

Lilith

oh my god what

what????

you really think someone would do that??? just ESTABLISH A FASCIST STATE AND TELL LIES????

Lilith how the fuck did you become the head of the secret police when you're like THIS

MINDWIPED WILLOW HAD MORE DEDUCTIVE SKILLS, LILITH

i thought there'd be SOME fascist ideology buy-in like cursing Eda made her scared of Power without Discipline or something but she's...only here??? because this one thing Hordak said he'd do???? HE DIDN'T EVEN PINKIE SWEAR LILITH

like yes yes i know. "cop older sister fails upwards and yikes her way into defending her genocidal boss" I KNOW the only way she could be more my type is if she had dyed her hair white, but i can't pay attention to any of that bc i'm too distracted by the logic-defying stupidity

Lilith when you ditched your glasses for your Goth makeover did you just. never get contacts??? because the only reason i can think of for even you blithely sailing past every red flag is that you were literally too blind to see them

i just

i can't believe i thought Winter Schnee was the purest encapsulation of "in my defense your honor i really am the dumbest bitch alive" when Lilith was there all along

i guess her existence is a powerful statement that MILFs can be morons too

*Luz confronting Lilith and displaying a level of anger that's probably supposed to be unsettling* oh my god Luz YES GET HER PUT HER OUT OF HER FUCKING MISERY

Lilith: i just don't understand why even after i've restrained and assaulted them no one believes i just want to have a civil conversation :(

tHIRTY YEARS????

like yes okay i'm sure there are some profound implications here we can draw about grooming and abuse and sunk cost fallacies but i just

Lilith: i was on the fence about cursing my sister, but when i asked for the Emperor's advice he said "god forbid women do anything."

Luz:

Lilith: i'm realizing now that was bad advice. and that he probably meant it in a different, even worse way than how i interpreted it.

but don't worry gang! her solution to fixing all the evil she's been complicit in is to...uh, continue being complicit in the evils! it's the best way to ensure that the incredibly specific scenario that befell Eda and herself will never!!! happen!!! again!!!

quick Lilith, Hordak just ensnared you in tentacles! this is a perfect opportunity for you to show exactly how you're going to prevent "~this" from ever happening ag--oh she's gone

Eda, finding out Lilith didn't actually mean to curse her forever and this was all her sister's incredibly weird way to make amends: what kind of fucking mORON--wait actually this makes perfect sense

Eda honey obviously i love you for trying to shield your sister and petson from petrification but i don't think Lilith noticed you did that

given the established buffer speed of her brain i'm not sure she's even put together that the owlbeast and her sister are the same person

okay okay i'll move on

:') Luz you brave darling sunflower you've never done anything wrong ever in your life and i'm glad you committing to the bit saved the day, even if it came at such a high price

not sure you'll be taking home the coveted gold for Committing to the Bit tho, now that your witch-aunt has revealed herself as the undisputed champion of Blindly Committing to the Bit for the thirtieth consecutive ye--OKAY YES WE'RE NOT BEATING THIS DEAD HORSE ANYMORE

because i do want to take this show seriously, and nothing demonstrates "i'm gonna take responsibility for my own actions now" better than using your literal body to bear some of the harm you inflicted on others. it's a very nice way to bring their relationship full circle, and it resonates with other instances when characters are forced to stop defining themselves by outside standards and embrace what they're already good at.

(and what Lilith is good at is soothing the pain of others via self-harm! which i think is the point the Helen's-Type-Generator starts emitting confetti and oily black smoke)

is this the first instance of magic having a cost or rebound in this world? beyond "whew i did a lot of magic today, i'm tired?" hm

Dana Terrace really went "i'm gonna give the whump enthusiasts everything they want" with this trope huh

Going Forward

yes i liked it yes i know the second season is more heavily serialized yes i will watch that soon

this did make me think about how all seriality in TV these days seem to be about building up to one series-wide showdown as opposed to different seasons having their own mytharcs, but that has less to do with this show specific and more with the death of television as a medium and we ain't got time for that

given how much my exposure to this show beforehand was Lumity (to the point where i wasn't sure there were other characters besides Eda) i'm...kinda surprised at how sparse Amity's presence was in this season. i liked what we did see of her, but i went in expecting a lot more antagonism for a lot longer in that dynamic

but i guess that's tied in with this season not having much in the way of antagonism until the very end, and not-Hordak seems to be the only one actually invested in his whole world order. we don't have any sympathetic true believers, which I assumed would be Lilith and/or Amity? i guess neither Shadow Weaver nor Catra really gave a shit about the Horde's ideology either, but Shadow Weaver remained an unrepentant ball of spite until the end and it didn't really matter that Catra didn't give a shit about the Horde because the Horde was the only thing she knew. in contrast Amity and Lilith's ties to the existing system feel very shallow--in the latter case so much so it kind of boggles my willing suspension of disbelief?

i suppose the next season can change that, i know new characters get introduced so--

oh wait is that what's gonna happen to the bad sad twink

i've only seen his armor but given how many AO3 fics seem to be about him i'm just gonna assume that he's a bad sad twink

wait can i call someone a twink when he's probably in his early teens like the rest of the cast?

is there discourse about this i hope not

don't make me break out the flock of doves

[outeremissary]

Actually good gameplay/bad story vs. bad gameplay/good story poll has me thinking a lot about "bad gameplay." I feel like that's often treated as a really binary thing, but like. How many games out there is this subject often hotly contested on? How many older games, how many cult classics? I feel like for every game with "bad gameplay" there's at least one person defending the impact it has on the experience and atmosphere of the game. I've seen someone get heated about the idea of making inventory limits in older RPGs more lax when porting the games to modern systems because it removes stakes from the game to be able to carry More Items. You lose an edge of puzzle and of wilderness survival. The inventory management question is one that often pops up in discussions around horror games as well- what's a badly designed inventory and what's one that's frustrating intentionally? Or one that's excusable by the limits of its age? Is clunky combat bad in a combat heavy action game, or can it push the game's genre to suggest something else atmospherically? I really enjoy defenses of gameplay that's "bad" or "obsolete." I haven't been playing Dragon's Dogma 2 and have no way to judge one way or another, but I have heard it called unfriendly, backwards, and bad by detractors and unfriendly, backwards, and good by defenders. It's so fascinating where people draw the line and what criteria they use to determine what's passing and failing. And then when there are whole mechanics people love or hate too! I was looking at escort mission discourse just today. Conversation where on the one hand some people believe there's no way at all to attain a theoretically possible good implementation of an escort mission, while other people see even the most player unfriendly implementations as a challenge of player skill rather than a failure of design.

I don't really have anywhere I'm going with this, I just felt that the more I thought about it the more interesting it was because of the ways that gameplay could be interpreted through age, technical implementation, genre, and player tolerance in ways very distinct from how story and writing are judged. I think "good gameplay" as a concept is often positioned as gameplay which is snappy, clean, and accessible (accessibility exception carved out for games that sell themselves as Hard Games) with precise and technically well crafted controls, but I've seen so many cases for good gameplay being the absolute fucking opposite if it produces an interesting play experience. And you could say "oh, that's determined by the intent of the creators," but do you always have a way to know their intent? And how many games come together actually according to plan, with no schedule slippage and everything implemented exactly according to vision?

To use an example near and dear to me- yeah, I'm not leaving the Kingmaker in the tags after all- a part of Kingmaker's gameplay loop is kingdom management. You're exploring, fighting, and interacting with the world, but you're also coming to rule it through the kingdom, and this has to be balanced as a part of this loop just like all the other pieces. Kingdom management feeds back into the other pieces of the game- it gives mechanical benefits, it opens up new interactions, and when you explore it backfills the empty space you leave behind with something new, the kingdom, which can be further transformed. It also fills a different kind of empty space, the temporal space between chapters, and gives you meaningful choices to make when the plot isn't at a fever pitch by making it so that how you use your time has stakes beyond what exploration and quests provide. Kingdom management is also timer dependent and RNG heavy as fuck, and at points can feel very unfair even if I'd argue it seldom ever traps you and never traps you without an actual reason. It's also situated in a genre, the RPG, where RNG is seen as an acceptable and even expected part of gameplay systems. For me, kingdom management enhances the experience of the game and is an extremely worthwhile addition to the gameplay which plays in enjoyable ways off of other aspects of the gameplay. It's a part of a memorable and fun play experience. But so many people fucking hate kingdom management and see it as not just something they dislike, but something which is Bad in design and implementation. It's positioned as disruptive, unwieldy, player unfriendly, overwhelming, and arbitrary. And I see the case for all of those points. And I don't think there's any final way to objectively settle whether it's Good or Bad, and that ultimately what it gives to the game very much comes down to player preferences and playstyle. How you interact with a game gives these systems their meanings and impacts.

I don't really have a conclusion to this. It's just kind of word vomit getting the thoughts out of my head. ^^;; But I don't know. I think it's something really interesting, the fact that there's not necessarily an objective way of seeing gameplay as good or bad the same way that there's not an objective way to see a story. I answered that poll "bad gameplay and good story," but when I think about the games that make me choose that, it's not like they're unplayable even if sometimes I truly hate the experience of playing them. I think that their gameplay gives them meaning, specificity, and staying power in my mind for how I experienced the game because of this gameplay in a way that games with "good" gameplay can't always provide.

[neoyi]

Hoo boy, so how long before we get potential discourse on how this comic contradicts the established Crash Bandicoot timeline?

After all, Crash Purple/Spyro Orange had Ripto and Cortex meeting prior to Rumble ever being a spark in Toys for Bob's eyes.

I would say spin-off games in the series are kind of loose in terms of the canonical narrative, but Crash Bandicoot has kind of been an exception to that rule, in that characters first appearing in the forty billion racing spin-offs seem to return (Oxide) with implication that said spin-off happened, or the rest of the games supported extensive cutscenes and an actual plot that it stands to reason that they could all feasibly have happened canonically.

Rumble seem to follow in that; there's no plot to be found within the game, but these comics have served as nice bits of lore for us to chew on. There's not much to hone on, but would I not be a foolish student of Crashology to leave even the shallowest narrative uninterpreted? Unexamined? Left to rot in the sun like that?

I never bought the idea that Crash Bandicoot 4 was meant to be a thorough reboot of the franchise sans the OG Naughty Dog games, because there really wasn't much to contradict that latter games after Crash 4 still couldn't happen. Dingodile joining up with Crash's team (at the least, pragmatically, he seem to be a neutral force here driven by circumstances more than anything) might be the closest cutting off point since he's working for Cortex come Wrath of Cortex (Crash 4 never explains why he quit the ol' mad doctor's group, he just did for some reason), but now that Rumble's out, particularly with this comic, I'm now beginning to wonder if this is the creators' way of essentially wiping the slate as clean as they could and starting the franchise off from scratch.

And I think it needs it.

Oh, for sure, I'd argue it's yet another reworking of the franchise (Crash of the Titans kind of felt like one, even if, as far as I know since I never played it, they don't technically disown the timeline prior to its release) to revitalize and retool the poor series yet again, but this time, there's been a decade long gap - long enough for fans to lament what could have been, what we wished, and eventually, move on from it (well, some of us anyway.)

I was ready to call the franchise dead in the waters by, like, Year 8, wistful that they didn't get the send-off it deserved. Fact of the matter was, the last few games or so have just been a complicated, hot mess. Nobody seem to know what the hell they wanted to do with Crash the moment it fell out of Naughty Dog's hands. Not from lack of trying (and some developers did try), but it lingered around as either a pastiche of the OG game, a wacky-for-the-sake-of-wacky that varied in tolerance with its humor, or a sea of Dreamworkian pop cultural references - it was a mess. It was a HOT. MESS.

THIS comic, however, seem to signify that yes, come Crash 4: It's About Time, the whole ass franchise, after a decade of nothing, whih came after a decade of identity crisis, meant not only is this semi-reboot expected, but is downright necessary.

You could arguably just make A New Crash game that fittingly continues where it left off without acknowledging any of the past games, but with the assumption that it all happened, but ripping off that loaded, blood-chunked bandage for something visibly new, is probably the best this series, at this time, is going to get and ultimately needs.

Cut off the excess and start from where it was at its most simple, then slowly reintroduce the latter Crash elements. It does suck, if you are a fan of the latter-era Crash fans, to essentially be told after CTR that the rest of the games after is potentially no longer canon (Crash 4's announcer during the end credits certainly lampshades it, too.) This comic pretty heavily cements it, but man, it already does it so much better by introducing Ripto back into the Crashverse in just two pages of a comic versus an entire GBA game where he and Cortex... somehow share a universe and just... team up, I guess???

Of course Ripto crashes the party via a portal. Crash and Spyro's worlds are two vastly different places that sharing it together, while not impossible in the right hands, is tonally contradictory. Spyro's world is fantastical whimsy, Crash is sci-fi madness.

And it isn't like latter Crash characters cannot return. Crash 4's ending showed that absolutely CAN be the case.

Guys. GUYS. Nina's still here. Those two awful chicken announcers are still here.

The OG Crash games never really had the deepest stories, with only literal floating heads occasionally spouting the next motive. Having Crash 4 start from there WITH an elaborate narrative is probably the best starting point. There is no reason why any of the others cannot return in new, interesting roles while paying lip service to their older roles.

Setting aside complicated feelings on reboots notwithstanding, Crash Bandicoot really did needed a reset button, and if it means retooling the established canon in a metaphorical Crisis of Infinite Earths way, then so be it.

So yeah, the comic basically told us Crash Purple/Spyro Orange did not happen. And damn it, I think that's for the best.

On a final note, love this panel. For sake of gameplay, you're allowed to pick whichever character you want, but Rumble's lore seem to imply that villains stay on their end while, presumably, the heroes stay on their side. I guess Ripto serves as a third wheel who decided to muck things even further.

Also, I think Brio is saying Spyro's Japanese translated name, which is amazing cuz' anyone with basic Spyro trivia knowledge knows Ripto's name came from how the Japanese letters look when spelling out the purple dragon's name.

[ante--meridiem]

Personal shit under cut, not too explicit or tmi or anything though possibly mildly so, just more navel gazey rumination (and probably not in a very interesting way either) than most of you probably want to read, mostly on orientation and romance and such shit. And also, you know, the kind of ruminating on personal experiences and feelings that is always going to fall a bit outside of what I "should" feel.

After a long period of "I might be grey aro/grey ace but it's not significant enough to be worth trying to pin down the extent of it since I definitely do feel some attraction" I am once again wondering if I don't want to identify more actively as that.

Part of this has just been spurred by seeing another round of "we should combat exclusionism and biphobia among lesbians by focusing on the positive part of our attraction and not the negative" discourse and feeling intensely alienated even though I understand where it's coming from because the attraction I don't feel has had at least as much if not more impact on my life as the attraction I do feel and I can imagine a life where I'm happy never dating or fucking anyone (two things which already feel completely separate to me in a very "split attraction model"-esque way even though my attraction isn't even split, genderwise), and the kind of affinity and solidarity and "we're basically the same except for some extra details" that this discourse wants me to feel towards bi women is much closer to what I feel towards aroace people (not that I don't feel solidarity to bi people, women or otherwise - just that with aroace people there's an extra feeling of. Like. Oh you get it get it. Not universally, there's some aspects of aroace experience that are alienating to me as well, but much more strongly, and there's a lot of things that get described as primarily aroace experiences but which I relate intensely to).

There's also the alexythemia and bad interoception component muddying everything because even when my attraction is there, it's filtered through that.

And right now, for the past year or so, I've been kind of unable to imagine myself in a serious romantic relationship ever again, while intensely yearning for close platonic relationships I used to have, even though I have been doing some casual dating. But I don't know if that's shifting orientation/attraction or just the after effects of a break-up making me feel burnt out on romance - even though the break up happened over a year ago at this point and I have casually dated since. Like this doesn't feel like a "oh, my relationship didn't work out so now I believe I can never fall in love again" kind of thing, it's not a conscious assessment where I'm being cynical, it feels more like the part of me that was capable of holding and desiring those kinds of feelings is just. Gone. Maybe only temporarily. Maybe it's not gone just I've just lost my metaphorical keys or something. Who knows. But I do know I used to actively yearn for romantic relationships even if there's wasn't someone in particular I wanted them with and now all that yearning has transferred to wanting purely platonic ones.

Which is also complicated by the fact that I'm not sure I'm completely over my last ex. Not in the sense that I would want to get back together now, but that I might still be a little in love with the person they were when we were dating. Which shouldn't preclude me liking other people - I mean I'm poly for fuck's sake, and I was capable of seeing other people romantically back when I was still deeply in love with R - but might perhaps lead back to the "burnt out on romance" thing? In terms of, I tried this and poured a lot of attention and intensity and deliberateness into it, and it just left me with distance and confusing feelings.

I'd say I was burnt out on social interaction overall if not for the fact that again, I have been regularly yearning for intense and close platonic friendship, just not feeling up to any of the steps to get there - I'm in a position where keeping to myself and only really exerting social energy online and in one off irl encounters is a stable local maxima for me but definitely not a global one.

Regarding the casual dating I've been doing... my confession is that the motivation for it was that I didn't want the Landlord Situation to completely ruin my association with sexual intimacy and so made a conscious decision to look for it in circumstances I actually wanted it in, and before you judge me for that, it worked - I maintain feelings of agency that I think I might have lost if I hadn't gone for it. But it could never have led to a serious relationship, and I knew that the whole time (and made it very clear in my profile I was looking to date casually so I don't think I led anyone on), and it wasn't exactly motivated out of me thinking this is something I generally need in my life either, and now landlord isn't in the country and I'm no longer sure he's ever coming back, and I have affirmed my ability to seek out what I actually want to myself, I'm no longer sure I have any interest in continuing to seek out casual dating either even though my experiences doing it were mostly really good.

[yanderefairyangel]

You’re so right about Engage having staying power! All the Engage vs 3H stuff completely ignores some really fun crossover opportunities! How about some Engage & 3H asks :)

how would the friendship between Alfred and Dimitri work? What reaction do you think Alear has to the three houses and Byleth emblems when she’s introduced to their future selves in FEH? Does Byleth have any theories as to Alear’s origin before they know they’re a fell dragon (what with being the ‘Fell Star’)? Any thoughts as to Rafal and Mercie working on making sweets together - the candy gremlin dragon and the adorable sweetheart baker would be a funny dynamic I think. any 3H nations that are similar/ different to Engage nations, what would non emblem Byleth’s reaction to the emblem ring of themselves (f!Byleth meeting m!byleth’s emvkem ring would be funny too)

anyway: long ask but you don’t have to answer all of it, just the stuff you find interesting. Let’s get the fandom to love both for their amazing differences and how well they do their own unique things!

Thanks for the ask !

how would the friendship between Alfred and Dimitri work?

I'd be curious too cause those two have drastically different personalities but I can see them bonding over a training/work out session

What reaction do you think Alear has to the three houses and Byleth emblems when she’s introduced to their future selves in FEH?

Oh I am sure Alear will suddently understand why there was a 4 year discourse over those 3

Does Byleth have any theories as to Alear’s origin before they know they’re a fell dragon (what with being the ‘Fell Star’)

Byleth from what I recall doesn't know Sothis under the name of the Fell star that's how the Agarthans in particular refer to Sothis so this depends on whether or not we take into account the tiny bits of lore in the library. Now I might need to replay but from my memories the Emblems all knew who Alear was but they just went along since it was Lumera's wish ?

Any thoughts as to Rafal and Mercie working on making sweets together - the candy gremlin dragon and the adorable sweetheart baker would be a funny dynamic I think.

Oof I can see Rafal being all flustered by how Mercie is treating him like a child while she gets reminded of Emile because Rafal and Jeritza have a lot in common... except Rafal cannot be beaten by a 15 year old

any 3H nations that are similar/ different to Engage nations, what would non emblem Byleth’s reaction to the emblem ring of themselves (f!Byleth meeting m!byleth’s emvkem ring would be funny too)

Elusia is pretty similar to Fodlan for one reason and it's the Academy. But that can also been read as a Seisen's reference since gugurd, Eldie and Quan were also in an academy (trio of blue yellow and red lord going to school where did I saw this ?)

It's actually much easier to point out the differences because 3H has 3 nations that are really developped while Engage has 6 (12 if we count the Fell xenologue)

F!Byleth's reaction seeing her alter ego being an Emblem ranges from confusion to see a Male version of her existing to mistaking him for Sothis

[joemuggs]

ESCAPE THE CRINGE

I first wrote this piece for an art mag at the start of the year but they dicked me about over rewrites so much - and I mean really dicking about, like radio silence for three weeks then suddenly demanding changes for the next day - that for the first time in my life I actually pulled a piece. A couple of other outlets were up for it, but needed further alteration to fit house style... With so much going on I let it slide and let it slide, and now it's been so long I just feel like shoving it out there. It still feels relevant (maybe more so now that we're seeing an increasing public collapse of some of the most high profile demagogue scammers, albeit with new hydra heads quickly replacing them), and I'd rather have people see it and maybe feed back, rather than wrangle over it any further. So without further preamble, here's some thoughts about one of the defining reactions of our time and how to get away from it.

👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

We live in a time when groupthink and echo chambers are everywhere, where ingroup radicalisation, cult-like behaviours and submission to scammers and demagogues seem to be defining patterns of the era. Blame for these things is often laid at the feet of algorithms, of politicians, of capital - in many cases rightly so - but we all individually play the game too. We build the walls of our own cultural gated communities, with tweets and artworks and individual choices about where to go and what to say, and the more we do so the more those spaces that we force ourselves – and others – into become more or less gilded prisons. We all think we’re hip to something, and end up orbiting that something endlessly.

The first rule of hip club is you don’t talk about hip club. That is: if you’re serious about your aesthetic nowadays, you do your very best to not acknowledge that it even is an aesthetic – let alone identify its rules and delineations. Now, of course this doesn’t go for everyone: there are still anime cosplayers, emo kids and others who still gauchely adhere to the overt “style tribe” late 20th century ways of belonging. But these are exceptions that prove the rule. Far more often the things that make us “us”, that hold us together, are still based on taste - but these tastes that provide us with a sense of belonging are signalled covertly. They’re signalled not by discussing, or even necessarily knowing, what preferences make you belong among Your People, but rigidly enforcing the ingroup-outgroup divide with reactions against The Others’ tastes: through a set of real or figurative winces, grimaces and cringes. 

Oh yes, the cringe. That most visceral response, often deployed simply as a single word sentence by the Terminally Online, the argument ender to end all argument enders: just “cringe”. It’s noun, verb and adjective all rolled together into a gut level rejection, and it’s a dead giveaway that so, so many parts of The Discourse - as people solipsistically have it - is based way more on aesthetics than it is on any kind of coherent set of positions. That is, it’s less about showing revulsion at ideas, than about the fact that they’re expressed gauchely or clumsily or simply with the wrong slang. It’s a social cue, a nod to one’s fellows, to acknowledge shared good taste in memes, phrases and cadences, which one’s interlocutor has unforgivably failed to engage properly with. 

This kind of of us-and-them cringe-signalling operates in various ways across society, but perhaps the most fundamental dichotomy is basic vs hip, or normie vs hip. This in itself is framed in a variety of ways, but a super simplified version might run like this: influencer culture, sincere slogans, Will Ferrell and The Office memes, Goop wellness, "Fiat 500 Twitter" on one side - and shitposting, pursuit of the latest zero-caps punctuational microvariant, everything intellectualised but ironised, the moods formerly known as “based” and "dank" on the other. The former sees the latter as smug, pretentious, nonsensical, messy while in the other direction the hip cast the basics as conservative, simplistic, unimaginative, conformist. Each cringes at the other, each considers the other fundamentally in bad taste.

And these dichotomies are held in place firmly by the material interests of vested powers. So to keep with our sample duality, on the basic side, there are the affirmatory or aspirational solution-havers, the Matt Haigs and Johann Haris, Rupi Kaurs and Molly Maes, while on the hip side there’s the Somethingawful-to-Vice-to-Broadsheet ironymonger pipeline and the Politics Podcast Industrial Complex embodied in people called things like “PissPigGrandad”. Each relies on hate and fear of the other to provide a steady stream of attention and income to those who shore up their own self-image, who normalise an way of being, who provide just enough answers to make people feel like they’re on the right track, but not so many that they won’t keep coming back for more. Yet each is, of course, built on a lie. 

The basic think they are commonsensical and unpretentious, but actually adhere to byzantine aesthetic and political codes of belonging. The hip think they are switched on, fast moving and progressive but in fact their gatekeeping is deeply conservative: the solipsism of believing an echo chamber is “The Discourse”, no matter how ironically you try to couch that, is all about normalising enormously limited race, age, nationality and class boundaries around what is acceptable. Both are co-dependent false divisions of ideas and people made to shore up power structures and the interests of the privileged, and both are built on aesthetics above all else. Each is, in its own way, an insistence of good taste.

Once you see this, you see it everywhere. There are so many versions of this mutually exclusionary duality. Sometimes they’ll manifest as ostensible generational, regional or professional divides, sometimes as scene or faction schisms (and note well, political factions have more in common with musical, fashion or social scenes than anyone within them would ever care to admit). Each time, if you look, you’ll find that they are defined more by aesthetics than ethics: by those assemblages of catchphrases, by certain quirks of timing and emphasis. Whether it’s Dawkins and Harris quoting facts-and-reason guys defining themselves against what they think of as a feminised, emotion-driven mushiness in the barbaric masses, or underground music fans against the flash and spectacle of EDM, or vintage specs wearing postgrad ketamine-leftist cliques against “shitlib centrists”, or crypto-bros against anyone who doesn’t have a wallet, all too often the sense of self is generated by what one is NOT. 

And each time if you dig into what is happening in these oppositions, you’ll find someone benefitting in real, material terms: spokespeople, figureheads, demagogues, people whose theories or slogans are rallying points for believers and who rely on those believers for speaking engagements, podcast and newsletter subscriptions, NFT sales, academic tenure, political appointments, newspaper columns. There is a whole egosystem of commentariat and metacommentariat whose job appears to make bogeymen of one another, yet who one all too often finds in the upper echelons are on perfectly friendly terms when they run into one another in green rooms of media recordings, backstage at literary festivals or in the offices of the agents that they share. This last location not picked idly, n.b.: one of the UK’s loudest hip-left commentators of the past decade shares a literary agent with a leading hip-right provocateur and an old-school hard-right rabble rouser: they are very literally all in it together.

All of this, it really bears repeating, is built on lies, and further, is built on consciously or unconsciously deliberate obscuring of the truth, in order to support these power structures. If ever you see an argument that’s built around one of these abstracted dualities - pop vs underground, modernist vs traditional, respectable vs transgressive, health vs pleasure, decadence vs morality, rationalism vs “the blob”, take your pick - you can be sure that not only is there someone making cultural or actual capital out of it, but that they are muddying waters to make it more difficult to make out the connections, genealogies and human realities underlying what is being discussed. An appeal to take a side in one of these, ultimately aesthetic, judgements – an appeal to show good taste – is an appeal to feel the cringe instead of analysing what one is cringing at. It’s an appeal against scholarship.

Which is why we must, with extreme prejudice, abolish the concept of good taste. “In principle,” said the DJ and dance music producer Chrissy in 2020, “I think the idea of good taste is classist and racist! Usually whatever's considered good taste is what the most powerful or most educated or wealthiest people feel comfortable yelling about, and the ones out of them that can yell loudest and most eloquently about it, as a society we call that good taste.” And he is entirely right. No matter how you define “good taste”, you are defining it as a power relation, an exclusionary tool, a way to deride. 

Which is not to say that taste and discernment don’t and shouldn’t exist – but they exist in the sense that scholarship exists. Not ivory tower, status-accrued-by-citations scholarship, but scholarship as in demonstration of knowledge accumulated and the practice of accumulating it. The kind of scholarship that’s as likely – or perhaps more likely – to be exhibited by autodidacts as celebrity professors. You can’t judge scholarship according to winces, grimaces and cringes, you have to take it on according to what it is actually saying about its subjects and objects: and so with taste. Someone’s taste should impress precisely to the degree that they demonstrate that they know and care about the objects of their affection, not for its adherence to a social code imposed by vested interests. 

Maybe there are reasons to hope. The early years of this century were formed by information glut, by seemingly all of cultural history being available all at once. Many thought this would lead to cultural paralysis, a dissipation into undifferentiated “conent”, and a death of innovation – and certainly it can be seen to have driven a retreat into reactive and reactionary positions. When bold statement of preference and belonging is made difficult by the baffling array of choice, covertly coded taste bubbles are an inevitable outcome. But two things abode. 

Firstly, those genuine old-school style tribes, from cosplayers to grime lovers, who grew up together over years, put in the time together, and truly and positively identified with what they do, and the real spatio-temporal existence of what they do, in defiance of the grimaces of others. Second, the rise in value of curation. It’s a word often derided because of its ubiquity in marketing speech, and mocked because “everyone’s a curator” (or “everyone’s a DJ”) nowadays. But curation at its best is precisely the kind of pride in scholarship and individual ability to map connections across the information ocean, that can short circuit the demands of good taste. 

It’s available to all, it can be expressed easily – as punks did with paper fanzines and grime lovers with phone-shot video – and it is by its nature collaborative, sharing, and dependent on positive choices. There ARE glimmers of hope that Generation Z are more able to think in a curatorial way than their predecessors, to cut and paste the always-on data glut of past culture into something more actively expressed than reactively defined – something that can engender a sense of belonging without the need for those gut level micro-rejections of The Other to define itself. And if that is the case, then maybe, just maybe, they can demonstrate new ways to escape the cringe.

[iarshiastuff]

All in my head

Sometimes i remind myself that life isn't so black and white, as much being analytical in grey be my most comfort zone, i can't help but have feelings which aren't so logical. No i don't do this to impress others who are a tad too emotional?, they are usually discourse poisoned and shallow so i have come to despise them the most. Which is why i wish i didn't have something somewhat common to them, but oh well can't help it la la 🎵 we're all human afterall. If humanity were aware of their every action and look at themselves exactly as they are without any alterations, it wouldn't take long to realize that nothing is obsolute, it's all a silent room where they fill it with their own noise and pretend it came from anywhere but themselves. Nothing is except the way nature intended to be. So many fights, belitteling and shaming done to someone because people think they have the right reasons, but truth is, there are no reasons to be an energy sucking vampire. Perhaps i could look at nature and think that i should not become so worse to someone unless i keep myself protected from them. I realize, i may have forgotten, legit, how most of humankind can be, so i keep looking at my screen and feel disgust at tons of people who i do not know, because the things they say just don't eve feel fake, but fake in a mean spirited way toppled with "i am a good moral person who is making the world a better place", it feels like they are a control freak mostly. But i just wonder "This isn't my world right? Please tell me the world outside the screen is anything but like the screen" the answer may be debatable, but i can give a sigh of relief when i realize that its still not the same. I never knew how sick these people- no, specific-traits-layered-upto-one-trait makes me feel. But humanity isn't ready to embrace its both sides isn't it, you wanna show one side, you show one side, but pretending to be an angel does hurt. No one is inherently a devil either, but we will tear those down who hurt us, as if we are hurting the devil himself. I don't think humans should think they are near to the standards of both A&Ds. I realize, i may have been a peculiar person my whole life, and i am actually proud of it. Yes, from being a smart precocious preteen making philosophies in my room and who could make the older ladies jealous if i wasn't so sheltered; to a teen who can immersely experience the world- different perspectives and being a jewellery ethusiast who can withstand storms - i own all of it, i have experienced being myself in my shoes and and i from the bottom of my heart sincerely do not care to soothe you if this is too much for you. I am not heartless, i very much have the ability to feel sadness (yes, not faking it) for even something which you would least expect me to feel sad for given the way i am. My driver may be abducting people and i wouldn't know, but i'd still treat him with general courtesy. Mom used to warn me and got it clear in my head not to trust a stranger on street, i would look at an evil looking man and think maybe he could kill me, but i minded my business. If something which isn't my business does not sit right with me, i will express my feelings as well as keeping in mind that i cannot control said person, and no poisonous energy will be fed to such person.

[xxxpu55yslay3rxxx]

Probably gonna wrap up my anime discourse thoughts in this post...

You know what angers me most about criticism about anime fans? the whole shittiness about it. A lot of the time it's just body-shaming or other toxic behavior people don't take seriously.

What do I mean? whenever somebody sees an anime fan and they don't like them, they resort to really low insults. The 'gross and stinky' weeb gets thrown out a lot. Also another popular one is 'you'll never get a partner in life' as response to acting obnoxious. Imagine going up to someone who has a 'lame' hobby and saying 'they'll never get a bf/gf' as an appropriate criticism or just to shut them down. Oh wait they do lmaooooooooo! it's not nice then, it's also not nice when done to anime fans.

Some people think it's okay to act this way cause they buy into the stereotype that anime fans are mostly shitty men. I don't care about misandry but if you're gonna use that as excuse to haze weebs then it feels like a scapegoat. Also the people who say this also do this to women, so where's the consistency lmaooooo.

Also while we're at it, I wanna challenge the whole idea that all these trashy fanservice shows are harmful to women. Sure they're shitty at times but not harmful. In fact I'd argue they're less harmful cause women aren't involved except for voice acting. Sure you could criticize that women are made to do it, but that's more on labor practices than the fanservice itself.

It's true that I have met misogynist guys who were 'enabled' by anime but I didn't just turn around and start body-shaming or do all that toxic shit lmao. You can criticize people without being shit about it.

for every person that's like "real women suck, why can't they be like my anime waifus' there are billions of people just willing to go full mask off and act like assholes to people who have a 'cringy' hobby

[ablednt]

I’d love to see what discourse on tumblr would look like if the phantom thieves were real

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

honestly that’s why i’m not super in the fandom. i’m just in the background writing my dysfunctional izzy/ed fic and trying not to be weird abt izzy but tbh idek what ppl discourse abt. the only think that appeals to me abt him is the ed stuff. like why does ed want him to stay. why does he want ed to be blackbeard. it compels me. but some fanon interpretations of izzy i’ve run into have been. odd

I went off here but drop the fic if you want I'll probably read it.

Oh baby I wish I was you. I jumped on the fandom really early on because I needed something to do to take my mind off of a recent breakup and other things that were also happening which I'm less inclined to talk about and now I'm in the fucking trenches. I'm pretty immune to a character like Izzy Hands because I personally have never been able to hide who I am and I've always been violently myself. Mad respect to the autistics who have mastered the art of masking but I could personally never figure it out. I never really spent time in the closet I just realized what I was and announced it to the world. So a character who the vibe on him is "repressed gay man who hates himself" is a character I'm sympathetic too but is not relatable to me, and a character who is constantly obsessed with projecting his idealized version of other people onto them and getting violent when they don't fit into the box he's made for them is a character I loose patience for immediately. I'm navigating a minefield of guys who want me to fit into their neat little box and get mad when I don't in my real life. It's very easy for me to be normal about him for this reason.

If I can get a little off of your og question and into the weeds for a minute (I can you are in my inbox now <3) One of the best things about this show for me personally is the morality of it. Like this show sets up a world where we're supposed to forget everything we think about right and wrong and accept a new metric for us, growth and authenticity vs stagnation and repression. It's a moral framework that really appeals to me as a trans person a gay man and a neurodivergant person who has been beaten down for who I am my entire life, and also as someone who has never really figured out hiding for my own safety no matter how much I probably need to. I really like stories that tell me "I know it's hard for you to go against the grain but actually you're doing amazing sweetheart. being yourself is based as fuck" and there are a lot of stories that pretend to have that message but none of them really feel inclusive to me except for this one. And Izzy is terrific as a main villain because he basically embodies the wrong side of OFMD's moral dynamic. He mirrors Stede in a lot of ways, but Stede is constantly learning and growing and encouraging others around him to grow and be themselves, where as Izzy stagnates and tries to drag Ed down with him. And he's got more layers than a Calico Jack or a Badminton so, as much as I, a known Calico Jack enjoyer, hate to admit it, he is the best villain in the series.

So when people look at him and say "Actually that guy is right" it just sort of takes the wind out of me almost. Because while Our Flag says "the greatest good their is is being authentic to yourself" Izzy says "Oh, you think your cute" and "Pirates my ass" and "I should have let the English kill you. This, whatever it is that you've become, is a fate worse than death." Like you're not supposed to sympathize with that mindset, even if its coming out of the mouth of a character in the fundamentally relatable position of being gay and having a big fat crush on Ed.

So yeah the fanon interpretations have been really fucking odd. (there are also the other, bigotry related aspects, which have been talked to death by me and others.) I do think a lot of it is a failure of media analysis. And because I have to explain this character so thoroughly he has become less fun to play with as a toy. I'd much rather play with Calico Jack, a character who all of my disagreements with the majority of the fandom on are pedantic or conjecture, and none are related to racism or sexism or homophobia or anything like that. Which is tragic because Ed and Izzy's weird co worker codependancy is fucking juicy, dude. Why are they like that? I hope we get some of it in season 2.

I also kind of hope that Izzy is newer. Like Taika offhandedly threw out the idea that Ed has been a pirate for 20 years in an interview and I've seen people be like "Izzy has been pining for Ed for 20 years of working under him" as if it's a fact and I think it would be very funny if it was like "Nah actually they lesbian u haul moved in together 2 years ago and they've been like this ever since. " I don't know tho there's so many possibilities.

[lucemferto]

You know, I've been reading a lot of discourse on the Dream SMP's failures and I want to throw some thoughts at a bigger brain than my own to see if they're any good.

I think the SMP's main issue, the fundamental flaw which has caused the downward spiral of narrative quality is not actually anything to do with the narrative - it's that the narrative is suffering from poor world building and conveyance, which is in some way endemic to the medium of minecraft streams.

See, the problem is that unlike some other video-game based story, like Red VS Blue*, the DSMP doesn't have much of an assumed lore that can be taken from the game medium. RvB is essentially a Halo AU, so stuff like the Aliens showing up is explained by the intertextual knowledge the viewer can apply from the Halo games. But that doesn't exist for Minecraft, so the CC's have to put in the work themselves and they didn't.

*I know RVB is very different to DSMP (although I'd argue Quackity's lore streams are getting close to it) but ignore that.

So because there's little to no base lore, and the CCs didn't expand upon the worldbuilding early on, it means HUGE parts of the world have no concrete truth in the Dream SMP. Take Death for example. The idea of permanent death was just... not a thing. Not until Schlatt died. At Tubbo's execution, sure it was shocking, but it wasn't like he'd actually die - there was no understanding it was possible! Same for the independence war, Eret's betrayal, Tommy and Dream's duel, etc. Permanent Death only comes when Schlatt, and subsequently Wilbur, kick the bucket.

So Wilbur and Schlatt are DEAD dead. Okay, that's something that apparently can happen. But then Wilbur goes on reddit and responds to a question about 3 canon lives, says he likes it, and BAM! Now the SMP has an official canon, and death has stakes! But it retroactively gives much more narrative weight that didn't exist and wasn't intended to so many events!

Not to mention, there's still no concrete basis for what makes a death "canon". Why you get three. There's an afterlife and a goddess of death and totems of undying and immortals, not to mention minecraft's default Zombies, Skeletons, and oh what's that? Ghostbur? Cool, what the fuck is this worlds metaphysics anyway. Coherent worldbuilding? Nah, who needs it.

Death is one huge, glaring example. But the DSMP crew hasn't given enough thought to so MANY aspects of the world these characters are in and it kneecaps the narrative. You can't tell a good story in a setting that doesn't have established rules because how do we have anything resembling reasonable cause and effect if the rules of the universe are basically set out on a whim.

We don't understand their economy - businesses exist and presumably generate profit somehow? See: BigInnit Hotel, Tommy monetising Church Prime. But how does this mesh with villagers and stuff?

Countries can exist, sure, but none of them seem to have concrete laws or anything that actually... makes them countries. Your anarchist syndicate doesn't work as a plot line when there's functionally zero difference between "guys being dudes" and a country except what they call themselves. L'manberg had no clear legal system, no currency, no actual mechanism for the president to exert power - the entire reason Wilbur called the election is no one doing what he said!

Which brings me to L'manberg's elections... over 200 thousand people voted. Who are they, canonically? Citizens of L'manberg who have no representation on the server? Are they the fucking mobs? Is the Canon explanation that L'manberg's elections were online and people in a far off continent voted?

I can't wait to see how they handle the End. It will most likely be a train wreck.

My ultimate point is that the narrative would benefit an awful lot if the creators sat down and hashed out the details of their world. It might even let them weave some themes and story elements into the world, which they can later pull from instead of their asses.

Yeah, the problem is that the Dream SMP is kinda at a crossroads in terms of what it wants to be.

Does it want to tell a serious (or, rather, non-farcical) story within this Minecraft-world they created or do they want to do more casual rp? Because with casual rp that does not necessarily care about story consistency or prioritizes the viewing experience over the playing experience a world with consistent rules and traditional storytelling and worldbuilding might seem too restrictive.

Back in Season 1 that wasn't too much of a problem, because - in spite of how well told it all was - they still had a fairly simple story and skewed pretty heavily and obviously towards the casual rp, "this isn't a serious story we're trying to tell"-vibe.

Even Wilbur's descent - probably the darkest part of the story - carried itself with much more grandeur and theatricality when compared to Tommy's exile and Dream's torture.

But the fact of the matter is that Dream SMP-content has attracted a considerable number of fans specifically interested in the storytelling and narrative. People like Quackity, Karl and Dream play to those preferences by dialing up the sincerity of their storytelling, by reducing the metafiction, just generally treating the story more like a story being told to an audience and less like friends having fun.

If they want to push the storytelling of the Dream SMP, I definitely think that heeding what you said would probably be a good call. Because now they're in this weird twilight zone, where it's not casual enough to succeed with wacky improv-bits, but also not consistent and intentional enough to tell a story that matches their aspirations.

[nightswithkookmin]

MONDAY, JANUARY 18TH: GOLDY'S LOG

I miss Suga. Scratch that. I miss Agust D. My spirit animal.

I've been thinking about him a lot lately, wondering if his injury isn't an exemption to military service. I wonder if he qualifies, in light of his injury, as an able body. I wonder what their law defines as able body.

I wonder if he passed the legal physical exam and health assessment test when he turned 19, since he's had that injury way before debut. Or if BTS have undergone that mandatory military service assessment since they are all past 19 and what their results are.

Jimin has chronic back pain too. That should qualify him for an exemption to military duty. He can still do desk work if it's that serious.

I should talk to ***** and look into South Korea's law on exemptions to military service.

Moon values the arts and culture industry. There's already been an extension for conscription for the benefit of BTS. Their success and longevity in the spot light perhaps influenced this decision. Should BTS maintain this momentum, an exemption would be inevitable I feel.

I miss them. They've been gone for too long. I'm worried about the impact this is going to have on their popularity if they disconnect from fans for so long or be mechanical about the way they connect with their fans.

I hate the limited access to them. But Scarcity increases the value of a product and it's not surprising if this is the approach BigHit is adopting in the wake of the pandemic.

Limited access not only raises value, it creates demand. Bang PD is a bigbrain marketing genius- I hate it.

They are taking a huge risk with this new marketing strategy. Personally, I'd stick to what works but then I am no marketing guru. Just a consumer who likes to play it safe. I guess I won't be getting hired anytime soon. Fuck.

It's all very fascinating.

What's equally fascinating is the shippers out here on these streets. The Jokers.

I... they confuse the hell out of me sometimes.

How are they going to question my rationality when I talk about moments I feel Jikook are having issues in their relationship or had broken up etc but then have no problem with and even applaud that same rationality when I talk about moments that has led me to believe there is lack of depth in Tae Kook's dynamics or that they are not real by any standard or that another ship in BTS isn't real.

Do I have two minds? Or are they more inclined to be selective in their beliefs based on their biases towards Jikook and against other ships? It's weird.

By the same lens I define Jikook as real, I define Tae Kook or any other ship that includes JK and Jimin as not real. And by that same lens if I feel Jikook aren't together then I'm wrong and irrational?

It really confounds me.

Not sure if they expect me to apply double standards to Jikook in those instances.

I don't think there is right and wrong opinions or perspective when it comes to shipping, but I think if they are right about me being wrong about my perspective on Jikook then I must be wrong about my perspective on any other ship in BTS as well.

I can't be right about one and wrong about another. I'm either right about all or wrong about all.

I can't be 'right' about Tae Kook having 'issues' in their bond in such a way I think it often bars them from fully nurturing their bond and developing depth to it but then be 'wrong' about Jikook also having issues that mess with their bond from time to time when it's the same measurement I use in accessing the depth of bond of both ships.

I really don't understand their way of thinking.

What is right and what is wrong and who decides on that?

I think we ought to substitute right and wrong with 'believe and believable.' The approach to such discourse should be about what one is willing to believe or not believe about certain discussions: I believe this. I don't believe that. Because believes stem from our personal biases towards a subject.

And the people that come running to me with 'look, Jikook smiled at each other in On era so change your mind'

I would except I hear this debate all the time. I wonder if they realize they sound exactly like the Tuktukkers in my DMs trying to convince me Tae Kook is real.

'Look Tae sat on JK's laps! How can you say there is no depth to Tae kook' ' He squished JK's cheeks' 'Jk said he wants to ride with Tae, if there was no depth why did he say he wanted to ride with him'

I have a feeling Soft Koo is back. The days of Terminator JK might be over. Too bad, I liked terminator JK. He was a bad ass.

I like that he is experimenting with his looks. But I'm glad his Ravi-esque phase is over. I wonder who he is drawing inspiration from this time. He reminds me of Jimin though. There is something peaceful and serene about his looks.

Can't really tell much because Bighit is sitting on tons of footages. I think I need to send a truck to Bang PD HQ.

I don't like that Jimin posted a Vhopemin photo for Tae's birthday. It was cute and all but I don't like it. That shit felt passive aggressive as fuxk. Lmho. What, he didn't have a V or Vmin photo in his gallery? Sounds like someone didn't put much effort in their VMin agenda for this post.

I wonder if he will keep the same energy come JK's birthday. I mean both him and Tae didn't post for him💀

May be I'm reaching on this one. But a single post where V was not even the focus of the post... I think his birthday means a lot to him and he enjoys when people shower him with love and attention and I don't think his birthday is an exception.

And he kept reiterating after such said birthday how he recently discovered he loves to be loved and how he does most of the things he does in order to be loved by his fans, friends and family.

And it breaks my heart that, the headlines read BTS shower X, Y with love on his birthday but the two people close to him were missing from that list this time. The media talks about BTS posting for eachother as them showering eachother with love. Certainly they all know this.

And the fact Jin posted for Tae after Tae's birthday says a lot about Tae and JK. Tae had no intention of posting perhaps because he left JM a message on the packages. With Jin I feel he was overcompensating for not posting for him on his birthday...

JK gets a pass. If JM wasn't happy about him not posting for his birthday, he would have pulled a Jin.

Jimin talking about coming to the realization he loves to be loved makes me think JK withholding his affections openly made him come to the realization he loves to be loved. Just a hunch. And the only reason JK would withhold his affections is if Jimin himself estopps him. Those two give me headaches.

I think I got the closure I needed from this.

LESSON: dont get on JM's bad side and bloody post for his birthday 💀

Tae been releasing photos of Jimin and Jhope a lot lately. Not sure how that makes me feel either. I think it's beautiful. But when I think about all these beautiful photos he has of Jimin on his phone and how generous he is with them- I think they would have been more meaningful had he released it on JM's birthday. The snow photo he posted still sits in my Vmin heart somewhere.

I really don't like this not posting for each other's birthday business. It's 2021. They need to cut it out.

I feel JK set a bad precedent but personal happiness first so good for him.

This moment haunts me for some reason.

What was going through V's head. I want to know. RM looks done. Lol.

Jimin is really beautiful. I love his eyes when he smiles and the thing he does with his shoulders.

Some people complain I write a lot. Some say I don't write enough. Ayayayai!!!!!!

What to do.

I think I accidentally deleted a post.

I'm looking forward to JKK1. Stay Gold, Still with you, Your eyes tell... I hope he hasn't given his best away cos those were bops.

PJM1... oh God I'm nervous. I'm excited for it but nervous. I think Serendipity is a classic. The Christmas song was equally great and frankly the only good Christmas Ive heard so far and I don't even like Christmas- nothing against Baby Jesus I just think it sucks. That bridge in Dis-ease is something.

I want to read his thoughts. His spotify playlist is insightful but I want to confirm if he really sees himself as a mess who is always causing his lover grief.

I mean he did say he has realized he needs to be considerate towards those that love him. Not sure yet the connection there.

I want to read his thoughts.

PJM1....

I love JHOPE. I think his ship with Jimin is beautiful and healing. They make my insides warm. Not sure if their shippers think they are real. Do they? That would be awkward.

I think RM and Jimin need to spend time together... it would be good for them.

Jimin and Sungwoon shippers are alleging Jimin has been staying with Sungwoon all this while. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

But the bit about him living with Sungwoon before the start of Bon V 4 has me🤔

Around that period, I don't believe JM was at the dorms and Jikook were not together then too. He must have been staying somewhere...

I'll let them have that.

But around November 2019 when he was having issues with JK he was staying with Tae too so no I don't think that means Sungwoon is queer or that Jimin is sleeping with him💀

They need to get out of their imaginations.

I think Jikook will drive me crazy one day.

I can feel my cranium swelling.

JiRose shippers need to pack it up. They really think Jimin is straight? 💀

It's the bad editing for me.

That doesn't look like a straight face to me. Unless his butt was on fire and he was uncomfortable looking at that black interviewer, I think that's his flirting face.

Lately I've been thinking about what ifs.

What if Jikook is not real?

I wish I believed that.

[dannyphantom-rewrite]

Character ref for; Jack, Maddie and Jazz,

Art by @gally-hin / @gally-hin-phantom

Okay so first off; in terms of Actual redesign, I didn't change a whole lot. I'm actually very fond of Jack and Maddie's design's, my only real issue was with their proportions. Like...look as a lady person who is also thiCC I do not have a fucking wasp thin waist and I'm sure I'm not the only one, lmao. As for Jack? Godamnit he looked like a brick on toothpicks. Just Let him be a fucking Bara man! Anyway of course I asked Gally to do this one bc they're fucking great at drawing different body types

I also cannot and will not take credit for Jazz's outfit. I didn't have any issue with her canon clothes aside from them being a bit plain, so what she's wearing here was literally pulled straight off of her original concept art, which I will link here.

Anyway, getting to the Actual character lore now, let's start with

Maddie Fenton

-Full name is Madeline (I haven't decided on a maiden name yet)

-Born and raised on a farm in Arkansas, had a southern accent that she trained herself out of in college bc it was just one more reason for people not to take her seriously. Still sometimes uses "y'all" completely unironically bc old habits die hard.

-She has a really big family, and they're proud of her accomplishments but feel like she's wasting her talent studying ghosts, because really, up until the Fenton portal was up and running there wasn't even any solid proof they existed. Her sister Alicia is the one outlier there, and even if she doesn't understand, it she completely supports her.

-She majored in engineering and minored in psychology at Wisconsin EDU. Her, Jack and Vlad were all in the same engineering class, and that's where they met.

-Maddie is particularly interested in how ghosts think, analysing their behavior, their motives. Not only that, but they aren't just dead people with unfinished business, they've built an entire culture in the Ghost Zone that is completely seperate from humanity, and she wants to understand all of it.

-skilled marksman and 9th degree black belt, (which is. The highest fucking level there is holy shit? I looked it up after I saw it on her wiki page.)

Jack Fenton

-He's from Minnesota (Amity park is in Illinois and him and Maddie didn't move there until after they got married) 

-okay, "but why minnesota specifically" you ask? Because. I crave. Foot ball discourse. 

-minnesota vikings vs green bay packers guys do you UNDERSTAND WHERE IM GOING WITH THIS 

-The funny thing is that Jack only watches football casually while Vlad is a fucking die hard so when these two got together to see a game it was like....

-Jack: Here to chill and have a good time.

-Vlad: Primed and ready to start a fist fight at any given moment.

-I am never not going to be salty about how Canon Jack was portrayed like a complete moron 99% percent of the time. Like no...theres a difference between Actual Stupid and ADHD induced dumbass-ery.

-Am I saying Jack Fenton has ADHD? Yes. why? Because I also have ADHD and I have always vibed So Hard with his Character.

-Jack is loud and easily excited about things that interest him. He's impulsive and fidgety and yeah, a bit absent minded. He has a mouth that clearly runs so much faster than his head. His train of thought doesn't get derailed so much as it stops and takes several different detours on the way to it's final destination.

-and that's only the tip of the iceberg, really, I'd need an entire essay to get into this completely, but I just really relate.

-Jacks skill-set / interests regarding ghosts vary a bit from Maddie's, most notably in the sense that he doesn't believe that they're static entities already set in their ways, completely incapable of change.

-Jack majored in engineering and minored in Biology at Wisconsin EDU.

-Jack's work with tech is a bit hit or miss. He definitely HAS the engineering skills, but the intrest isn't always there and he's constantly jumping back and forth between different projects. He tends to focus on the concept work and schematics and leave most of the assembly to Maddie as a result. It's an arrangement that works well for them, and has drastically decreased the number of unintentional explosions in the lab.

-A lot of Jack's work tends to revolve around ghostly biology and Ectoplasm, figuring out how ghosts are made, what makes them tick, what the hell Ectoplasm Actually Is, how it's used as an energy source, ect.

-and yes, that does also mean he handles the dissections.

-See that facial scar? Yeah, that's not actually there at the start of the series rewrite but it's very important for plot reasons so I had to include it. Can't say much more on the subject because SPOILERs owo.

Jasmine Fenton

-Jazz is a 18 years old, and a senior at Casper high.

-Which means she prepping to go away to college and won't be around to keep an eye on Danny.

-Obviously that doesn't mean I'm just writing her out of the story, oh no. Know why? Because she's also gonna go to Wisconsin EDU. ya know who else is in Wisconsin? Fuckin' Vlad.

-Jazz is autistic, Although she passes for neurotypical in part due to symptoms being completely over looked in girls due to gender stereotyping and also the fact that she doesn't have any special interests that are considered " "too weird.""

- Her hyperfixation with psychology started at a young age in an effort to better understand people, and social/emotional cues and all that.

-Jazz is well liked at school but she's not popular or apart of any specific group or clique. She's very kind and compassionate to people, and just about everyone knows her, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who actually Considered her a friend. Except maybe Spike.

-I'm gonna have to give spike his own Character ref at some point, but he's this scary looking goth kid that's been held back twice. He's actually super sweet, just really fuckin' quiet and anxious. Him and jazz kinda ended up gravitating towards each other. She might do most of the talking, but they look out for each other.

-its not like jazz doesn't try to socialize, but it's difficult and she's found it much easier and less stressful to just. Keep to herself and let her interactions with her peers stay shallow and superficial. Sure, it's lonely sometimes but it's better than constantly worrying about saying the wrong thing or making some other misstep.

-One of Jazz's other special interests is football, and it's not so much the players or the game as it is the strategy of it? Started out as one of those things you do to bond with your dad, and she ended up getting really into it.

-She absolutley winds up getting into stupidly intense discussions with Vlad about it, too, lmao.

-Her and Danny probably bonded over SBNation bc that shit has both sentient satellites and ridiculously complex football mechanics.

-She's completely oblivious to the fact, but Dash has a massive crush on her bc holy shit this girl understands football (hey bud your toxic masculinity is showing put that shit away)

-I mentioned that Danny was in Cheer for a bit in middle school so it makes sense that she'd also be pushed into doing some kind of extracurricular activity.....so.....she was in a martial arts class for a bit thanks to Maddie and has a good grasp on self defense.

I think that's everything? I feel like I'm leaving things out tho? Idk if I did I'll come back and add on to this later and also pls don't hesitate to ask questions bc it really helps me flesh things out better.

[emeraldskulblaka]

On Bootlegs

There's no "read more" option on mobile - sorry!

The Bootleg Discourse™ comes up again and again, and I could have very well posted this post three, or even four years ago. It's not a new topic, but recent developments have really hit a nerve with me.

It should suffice to say that a Broadway performer

(1) criticised a fellow performer for "posting and condoning" bootlegs featuring themself

(2) publicly called out a fan who argued that they cannot attend any Broadway show because of where they live

(3) claimed that bootlegs lead to shows closing.

It's irrelevant who said it - these arguments aren't new and have been repeated over and over again for years.

From an objective viewpoint, the debate is pointless: it's illegal to record bootlegs of any kind, and therefore, you shouldn't actually be able to watch or listen to them.

Once you employ different arguments, your opinion is bound to be subjective.

Let's look at the classic (subjective) arguments against bootlegs:

"Recording bootlegs disturbs other audience members"

Recording audios definitely doesn't. And when an experienced master records a video, it's most likely that no one else will notice. It's the would-be filmers who are the real problem here + people taking photos + arriving late + leaving early + chatting + coughing + singing along + heads in the way. There are SO MANY other factors that influence one's experience of live theatre, and I've never personally seen anyone filming anything (except for the curtain call).

"Recording bootlegs disturbs performers"

Unless there's a blinking light or a flash, performers should be able to ignore it if they happen to notice a camera. They're professionals.

"Bootlegs influence ticket sales negatively"

Oh boy. No, definitely, definitely not. 95% of the audience consists of people who have never heard the term "bootleg" before. The general public just doesn't watch/listen to bootlegs. Most people watching a show are tourists. Yes, there are exceptions - celebrities will attract fans, and there will be lots of Broadway performers and fans in the audience for special occasions such as first preview, opening night, closing night, a performer's last show, muck-up matinees, etc - but these are exceptions.

And even looking at the 5% at most who are involved in some kind of fandom/have watched bootlegs - does watching bootlegs really affect which shows I see? Yes and no. In my case, however, that's always turned out positively for the shows in question.

The first bootleg I watched was Wicked (2013 with Donna Vivino?? Idk). I hadn't known the show before, but the plot had seemed appealing, so I watched it. And LOVED it. AND bought the cast album. I've watched several bootlegs since then, and I would still have seen the show live two months ago (then: lockdown happened) - the only reason why I didn't go see it earlier is because you can only watch a limited number of shows on a fixed number of days. PLUS I would have travelled to Hamburg to see the non-replica production that was set to open this autumn. Would I have become a fan if I hadn't watched the bootleg? I don't know. But now I know exactly what I'd get to see on stage, and I know I'd LOVE it. Maybe I wouldn't have bothered to listen to it all the way through if I hadn't watched the full show? There are other long-running shows I've never listened to, like Chicago. Bootlegs helped expand my knowledge of musicals.

Let's take this last argument even further:

"Bootlegs lead to shows closing"

Do they now? There are thousands of bootlegs of Les Mis, Phantom, Wicked, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and guess what? They're still selling really well! So are shows with fewer bootlegs available: The Lion King, Mamma Mia, Starlight Express (Bochum). Maybe bootlegs don't actually affect ticket sales, huh?

And what about shows that have already closed? Watching bootlegs of those doesn't leading to closings, obviously. On the contrary - they help keep the fandom alive!

"Bootlegs are not live theatre"

No, they aren't. And I truly believe that everyone knows that and would happily trade a bootleg for a ticket to a live show. But more often than not, it's not possible to see the show you're interested in in person. I'd love to be able to travel anywhere in the world whenever I like! But I'm not. I just can't afford it, and yet, I'm lucky because I live in a country that has several major production companies, a country in which musicals are actually A Thing™, a city with its own theatre that offers special student discounts, and I have parents who support me and my hobbies. Many people don't enjoy that privilege. And right now, live theatre simply isn't possible (with exceptions as of this week). People would love to see live shows, but sometimes they just... can't.

I completely understand performers who are upset about being recorded, I do. If they decide to report a filmer to the ushers, I can relate to them. And I don't expect anyone to publicly announce their support for bootlegs, even if some performers post recordings of themselves - Jonas Hein and Kim Folmli, for example - both understudies in the current German production of Tanz der Vampire. They do that in the hopes of getting fans to watch the show on their dates and further spread the love. That's the exception, though.

But lashing out at fans and fellow actors does more harm than good. I make it a rule to unfollow people who are openly aggressive towards fans mentioning/posting bootlegs. Note: aggressive, i. e. they lash out at them when the only thing fans wanted to do was say how much they love said performer.

Good examples of performers dealing with bootlegs:

- Kelly Mathieson and Rachel Anne Moore thanking fans for their love via comments under Instagram posts

- Aaron Tveit posting a screenshot of Hairspray captioned something like: great memories!

- Laura Michelle Kelly re-posting a story post: aww thank you! Did you record this? Sneaky :)

I don't expect anyone to admit they're looking for bootlegs or trading them (Hyoie O'Grady, Ben Platt).

The fact is: bootlegs have existed for decades, and I can't imagine a future without them. It's simply not happening. Pro-shots won't help much - that's just one cast, one production. They'll be popular, but they can neither replace a variety of bootlegs nor the experience of live theatre.

Attacking and shaming fans for watching bootlegs is the worst possible way of dealing with them. Yes, they're illegal. No, they don't really affect ticket sales. Most often, they lead to new fans of performers and shows (and to more artistic content maybe??).

Here's what fans and bootleg watchers shouldn't do:

tag performers in bootleg posts

upload bootlegs publicly to streaming sites

mention bootlegs to the cast / crew

ignore trading rules

There are always two sides of a coin, naturally. But I do believe it's not necessary to have the same debate over and over again.

Feel free to add/comment your opinions! I've read several other people's takes on the topic, and I'm aware that my arguments aren't original or special in any way. But I felt like I needed to state my opinion publicly.

[illgiveyouahint]

I feel your tags on the queer post so much. I've never been very active in my own queer communities in Belgium(where I grew up) or Germany(where I studied) and I feel a total disconnect from it. Everything is so focused on America (literature, films, series, discourse) that I sometimes forget how it is where I'm actually living. I know nothing about the history. For the most part, I even lack the vocabulary in my languages except English to talk about these issues, which makes it harder to do...

Hello darling, 

Oh I feel you on that so much. I struggle a lot when talking about queer issues in Czech. And tbh even though I've been an activist for about 3 years now I'm still learning about what the lgbtq+ community is like in my country. Still learning the history of my own country but know all about the lgbtq+ history in America. 

what I would suggest is to try to follow some local organisations. I don't know what organisations exist in your country I only know people from the Wel Jong Niet Hetero but I'm sure there's plenty to choose from. In my country, we for example have a Centre for queer memory which focuses on my country's queer history. I'm sure you have something like that in your country as well. that is a good place to start so that you can learn about your own country's history. You don't have to get involved or be active but just follow them on Instagram or facebook or whatever you use and see what they're posting. I'm sure Belgium has a rich lgbtq+ history and we should know definitely know more about it. I know a bit more about the German lgbtq+ history since they're our neighbours and I'm sure they have plenty of resources as well. I'd say just start somewhere and follow a few organisations and see where to go from there. Also in terms of the literature, films and series? I promise you it is there. Not as much as the USA and maybe not as out as in the USA but it is there. It just takes a bit of searching (the only Belgium queer film I know is North Sea Texas but I'm sure there's more). Also not just in terms of lgbtq+ topics in general I'd suggest to start following more belgian/german organisations/people etc. and perhaps go through your follow list and maybe eliminate the number of Americans you follow. Like do you really need to follow all these American celebrities? Just try to bring more balance to it.

Good luck 💛