I just want to say, that I agree with almost all of your Critical Role takes and you have 1000% better and more nuanced takes than all of Twitter and I greatly appreciate it! The takes over there regarding Liliana and the gods are just wild and you bring some much needed sanity to the content I see
Thanks! I hope you don't mind because I've been thinking about this re: the Twitter takes but the thing about Twitter and Liliana specifically that I've seen is that there's this really bizarre fetishization of like, the fact that she is a (white) southerner (this also weirdly happened for Birdie though to a much lesser extent, and the person who spearheaded that wasn't even American so I have to assume this is a specific corner of Twitter Culture At Large). And like, here's the thing. It's true that fantasy tends to be very British in its accents, and it's also true that accents in a fantasy world are used to convey the same things we'd assume in our world - RP British for educated, southern American for rural, Cockney for rougher types, etc.
It's also true that laying the exact socioeconomic parallels from our world onto, say, Liliana and Orym (who reads to me as non-regional but I, like Liam, am from the Northeast originally) is a recipe for disaster. Or rather, it's not, but it is going to reaffirm your own biases, some of which are dangerous to reaffirm.
There was a popular post on Tumblr a while back, probably not long after Trump was elected, of someone talking about how they were convincing a relative with the confederate flag towards socialism by appealing to the idea of "isn't in unfair how uneven wealth distribution is and how a small group has so much control" and a number of people were rightfully like "uh, maybe you should focus on the racism" or "hey OP ask your relative who they think that small group in control is because I'm getting a really bad feeling they're going to say it's The Jews." And I feel that a lot of the empathy for Liliana from those spaces feels like that OP. Or in other words: I get that you see your relatives in Liliana. Unfortunately, I cannot help but see me and mine in Orym.
You see someone trapped by circumstance and desperation in a dangerous ideology. I see the fact that I haven't gone to a synagogue in easily 6-7 years without there being a security guard present and usually, the doors locked with someone looking through the window to let you in, and then in the sanctuary there's been an installation so that you can quickly bar all the doors in case an alarm goes off or you hear shots in the lobby.
I think there's a great case for seeing yourself in Imogen, who is in a painful struggle with the fact that her mother does love her very much but is in dangerously deep and has done a number of incredibly terrible and harmful things. That latter point is important, incidentally; I get that cult members sometimes rise through the ranks but all but the leader are being manipulated. But the fact remains that a brainwashed person can still commit atrocities, and in this story, they have, many times over. It's especially true because like...sure, plenty of people are like "I lost my relative to a cult and I just want them back and I couldn't harm them," but also, as we've seen, this cult can and will harm Imogen! Plenty of people are also like "yeah I gotta cut them off, it hurts but unfortunately my horribly bigoted and violent relative, while a victim of brainwashing, is a threat to me too." It's not even the full picture of the Temult side of things, let alone the picture that includes the Vanguard's victims.
I also think the Southern gatekeeping is unhinged because it's like. guys there's QAnon members and other cults across the country; the Confederate flag example above was actually notable in that OP wasn't even Southern so you couldn't even write the flag off as deeply misguided heritage but rather was explicitly being used as a hate symbol. It's awfully presumptive to assume all southerners have the same experience (especially since the Temults are portrayed, physically and in accents, as white southerners, not that the experiences of white southerners aren't also incredibly varied). It's awfully presumptive to assume that people find Liliana threatening because they have no personal experience with people like her; often, it's because they have all too real experience with people like her, and it says something even worse about you if you can say "but you guys, I see me and my family in Liliana" when people are telling you that they see them and their families in Orym. I would not, personally, publicly admit that one's empathy extends to the people who remind you of your family but runs out before it reaches their victims. Nor would I publicly admit that I assume everyone who disagrees with me clearly has never had personal experience with this topic.
I should also note that, as I've noted a number of times before, that these are fictional characters and not real people. Twitter seems to be really fucking bad at grasping that. Like, yes, this is the other thing; I do not think that OP should kill their Confederate flag-toting relative, whereas if Imogen did so to Liliana I'd be like "hell yeah." The former is a real person who I do hope gets deprogrammed, just, you know, maybe adjust those priorities; the latter is a fictional character in a story.
Oghhhh Angel and Timothy's miserable awkward and just horrible dynamic (Thinking about it (I want Angel to rip into him I need her to be mad at him idc she deserves to bully him))
My thing is if you're friend with people who you can't rib a lil over stupid shit they say or even more importantly, address/confront ignorant to harmful rhetoric that they come out with without them guilt tripping YOU for having principles than it's not a friendship worth cultivating imo. And same goes for them if you're a person who can't handle being checked maturely. People have told me I'm pretty cold for cutting ties with people who I've know for years like its nothing but it's like idk when someone shows you who they are, they really do feel like dead weight to me lol
A VERY HAPPY 110TH BIRTHDAY TO FRANK TASHLIN! i genuinely went into a cold sweat at the prospect of forgetting—one of my all time favorite directors, cartoon or live action, as well as creative influences as a whole. every time i see his work i’m left thinking “you can DO THAT?” like above.
he’s one director where i genuinely struggle to think about any duds in his filmography (outside of some select pieces aging poorly, but even those often are tight on a wholly technical aspect .)
whether it be cartoons, stop motion, live action, or illustration, he has a transcendent tone that consistently leaves me spellbound. so much energy, so much ingenuity, so much boldness, and none of it ever feels pompous or stuffy. as an influence, i’m seriously indebted to him.
thinking abt like. if you introduce someone to something you're into and they're like, wow, that's so awesome, you're probably tickled that they dig it and are seemingly a kindred spirit at least that far; if you then introduce them to another thing you're into and they're again like, wow, that's so awesome, you're probably still pleased but also perhaps guiltily wondering whether they know any other adjectives; and if you introduce them to a third thing and yet again they're like, wow, that's so awesome, you're probably asking yourself, was any of that affirmation actually real or is this person just so reflexively accommodating that they've been turning off whatever independent critical faculties they possess in order to play a better yes-man???
(for values of 'you' that primarily mean 'me' obviously)
I am the first to point out that, of the two leads in P&P, Lizzy’s is the far deeper moral transformation and to say that Darcy’s character especially re: his flaws is wildly misunderstood and frequently painted out worse than he is out of fear of his particular kind of power. All of that said, I do love that Lizzy is just like “no, the way you treat me isn’t good enough and I will not simply accept it”
I keep pacing the kitchen while repeating the same things in my head over and over again so here is my thought vomit. Long vent post incoming
• Really concerned about how likely it is that we’ll only see the Jimas interact with Kiryu one or two times in a similar manner to 6. It’ll feel even worse this time for me considering Kiryu has cancer. It’ll also be a grievance for me given something I’ve complained about a lot. How weird they are about Kiryu and Majima’s relationship. It feels like ever since the ending of 3, they haven’t allowed them much of any interaction while simultaneously making a point that they’re close to each other even with the distance and it throws me for a loop every time. It’s made even more frustrating that their social medias have no problem posting about them (especially from Majima’s angle) as though they’re an actual ship. Plus, recently sharing blatant Kazumaji art on stream. If they keep doing that after this game I’m going to catapult myself to the sun. Obviously, I never expected the ship to actually happen. All I want is for their bizzaro relationship to have some sort of proper conclusion, but I have zero hope of that. It just makes no sense to keep making them out to be besties of some sort and then not allowing any follow through on that. Hell, they were weird in Ishin, too. It’s just SUCH a strange thing to do so often.
•At this point, it feels like the Jimas are only together because no one knows what else to do with them so they just end up together for years and years. My issue here is that it puts all of them on the back burner even though there’s still stuff missing about them. Like the biggest one being that we never get to see the real Daigo. They tell us about him a lot, but we never get to see him. RGGO of course bridges this gap. It’s just disappointing to know that’ll only ever exist there.
•If Mine is back (Yokoyama talked like the only thing stopping him from that was his voice actor), would he interact with Daigo? He was such a core part of his character, and it’d be interesting if they did see each other again. I would of course like it if Mine got to tell Daigo that he loved him straight to his face even though I’m more than certain they’d never do that.
•The Ichiban and Saeko proposal and all that still has me on edge. I do N O T know what all that’s about. Yokoyama claimed the game isn’t romantic, but he’s been on a kick lately with saying one thing and the exact opposite happening so I’m feeling pretty hesitant to believe him. I admittedly have a very hard time with media that contains a prominent pairing that I do not care about, but the plot keeps pushing in my face. Like with the second Kiryu saga game. To expand on Ichiban and Saeko, I mean that in 7, there’s nothing to show they have anything romantically going on despite the player’s ability to choose to date her or any other lady. I made sure to date nobody in my playthrough since I don’t care about that kind of stuff personally. They do, however, keep teasing Saeko and Nanba in a subtle way that really surprised me. I did find it interesting since visually they’re a really unexpected pairing and a possible romance that doesn’t involve the lead character seems pretty rare. RGG also typically isn’t that good at writing romantic notes so it was another surprise for me. All in all, this is just a personal issue I have pretty often with romance in media.
I know the game is still months away, and I’m not jumping to any conclusions. Just voicing a few concerns and one thing that’s sort of me hoping for something. It’s going to be a long wait to have all my questions answered 💀
Alright tumblr it's been real but I gotta take a break for my own sake, which knowing me could mean for 2 days or 2 months. In any case I'll still be checking tumblr just hopefully a lot less- as per usual don't be shy to @ me if you wanna make sure I see something, and my ask box is always open! And do take care all of you 💜
Using this as an audio reference for the posts I'm making, but to summarize:
Yuri starts out mad.
Yuri tries to calm himself down with a deep breath to ask for details instead of going through it angry.
Flynn doesn't say "like a good knight" in the sense of putting himself down. He simply says "as a knight" (the tl here doesn't use that, but with that included it's basically along the lines of "even though I had doubts, as a knight, I was determined to follow my orders").
Once Yuri has answers he calms down significantly.
Yuri uses " 'ttaku", which is a shortened down version of "mattaku" (Yuri often shortens words and speaks very casually), which in this particular situation basically would mean "geez", or "good grief". In this manner, it's expressive of exasperation/frustration/etc.
Yuri never mentions that "Flynn told him what to do" like the dub does (because in fact Flynn did not ever tell Yuri what to do. He only gave Sodia and his other knights orders. He expressed his own desire to take responsibility, but never told Yuri and his friends what to do).
At this point you can tell the anger has gone out of him and that he's calmed down, now that Flynn is approaching this with admission and responsibility.
Sodia is asking that Flynn returns as soon as possible (I believe this was a general translation error).
Flynn's thank you to Yuri is tonally much more heartfelt.
Yuri's response and gratefulness at Flynn coming back to himself is tonally much more heartfelt, relieved and sincere.
this is kinda random but it crossed my mind again today and I figured I'd bring it up, but if you're a friend/mutual of mine and you post art or something that I don't reblog, please don't take it personally. i have a lot of fandoms blocked for my own reasons and quite a bit of the content that y'all post falls into some of that and I just straight up Don't See It kfjdng
anyway. felt like clearing that up just in case it bothered anyone ><;;
Got a paramount+ trial subscription. Just finished watching all of Strange New Worlds (review: solid star trek shenanigans, pretty much all bangers with the exception of the Spock-is-human episode which just suuuuuucked and the Klingon war trauma episode about which I have let's say Philosophical Reservations in that it could have been more Space M*A*S*H. not as gay as I was promised, in fact I would say disappointingly heterosexual. adore uhura, hemmer and la'an. cannot believe they gorned my boy 😢)
Off sick all week with COVID can't really do anything except lie around and watch TV.