the nico and ace discourse is so funny to me because neither of them are morally good or morally bad and it's totally okay to admit that 💀
i feel like we've grown too accustomed to the all or nothing perspective on danganronpa characters and so we've neglected to see any form nuance in the good or bad.
nico isn't a bad person. i feel like it's pretty obvious to anyone who has critical thinking skills that they aren't a bad person BUT (this is where the nuance part kicks in) it's also okay to admit that they have anger issues and that trying to murder someone (no matter how far they push you) isn't justified morally. it's not surprising that they did try and kill ace and it's also not unfounded because who wouldn't 💀 BUT that doesn't make it right. there is literally no need to turn this into a 'but ace did this' and a 'but ace did that' because nico tried to kill him for being an asshole and piece of shit and if you hadn't guessed those are not on the same scale.
ace is also not a bad person (shocker) but he's still a bully and he's still takes his fear (that manifests into aggression) out on other people. what nico did could be warped into something that's justified but everything ace has done since the prologue is unprompted and nothing to do with the people around him and ALL to do with the fact that he can't regulate any of his emotions. ace is a bully and ace doesn't think about other people in any context ever and as an ace enjoyer that's totally okay to admit.
both of them are neurodivergent coded (nico being autistic/adhd coded depending on who you ask and ace being ocd coded according to me lmao 😭) but as we all know, none of that should be used as an excuse. infantilizing either of them is stupid but acting like they're satan incarnate is dumb too.
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Genuine question. Why are comics from online only publishers discouraged? What is the goal behind discouraging paid webcomics?
sorry for taking so long to answer this!
i got really excited about answering this but also am not very good at communicating things clearly, i often get lost in the details in my passion about stuff like this, so i hope this is still interesting to read and intelligible lol!
i dont think there is any one thing that inherently defines what is and isn't a webcomic, it's an amorphous category that i enjoy the ambiguity of. but for me, what first led to my wonder for them as an 11 year old, and what has been a major factor in my passion for them even as an adult, was their low barrier to entry in both making them and accessing them. if you have internet access and time, almost anyone can make a webcomic if they want to! of course, without editors (or often even full story plans) or sensitivity readers or more people on a team to collaborate and contribute to the comic's vision, and the huge effort that it takes to do all the tasks of writing, inks, coloring, lettering, etc. all on ones own often without professional resources to facilitate that, that means that a lot of webcomics are really rough in some way or another. but a lot of people have interesting ideas they want to work with, but don't have the technical skill, desire or ability to market themselves or be beholden to external work deadlines, or connections in some way or another to be able to share those ideas through traditional publishing. regardless of skill or ability, a lot of marginalized people are barred from having their stories accepted by publishers due to bigotry and expectations about what kind of story is profitable.
as a disabled lgbt kid, i definitely read a lot of really bad webcomics i wish i hadn't, but also some of the media i was exposed to that most represented me back then was in the form of webcomics from people a lot like me. and i could read so much of it easily and for free without having to risk much to access it behind my parents' backs!
obviously that isn't the case for every webcomic, but for me and my history with them, them being easily accessible to both publish and read has been really important.
there are absolutely a lot of good points to be made about how publishing free to read webcomics isn't always the most accessible thing for a lot of people, especially for poor and disabled people. making webcomics takes a huge amount of time and effort, and sometimes even if people are passionate about making a comic, they just can't afford to find the time for that around all the other responsibilities of their day to day lives unless it can be a consistent income source. thats why even if paid online comics arent my platonic ideal of webcomics, i absolutely would never exclude them. i want small creators making stories i want to read to get the money they need to survive and keep telling stories without burning out!
it could be argued that online publishers who specifically focus on webcomics don't always present the same barriers to entry as traditional publishers, and many don't restrict the scope of marginalized creators' stories at all or to the same extent as people have struggled in other more mainstream avenues. and from my outside understanding of publishers like hiveworks, i'd absolutely agree with that! i love a lot of hiveworks comics and think its an awesome thing! (of course literally my icon is from a hiveworks comic, tiger tiger!) nonetheless however, part of my goals with this tournament is to highlight lesser known comics, and as publishers like hiveworks help advertise and promote their comics, even if i still want everyone to read all my favorite comics published by them, and certainly there are limits to those advertising resources, they still don't need as much help as other comics without that support. so its not as much 'try not to submit these' and more 'as you submit stuff like this, try to submit stuff with less advertising resources and popularity too!'
going into this tournament i also had a similar sentiment for stuff like webtoons originals. there was an added element to me in how i feel like i know a lot of people nowadays who read webtoons but don't have much awareness of other forms of webcomic, but even if in my love for webcomics i want people to come to appreciate all the breadth of ways they can exist in, thats obviously not something to make a huge priority. it's incredible the amount of forms comics can take (sidenote but reading scott mccloud's "understanding comics" a couple years ago was really formative for me in cementing how much i appreciate that, i'd highly recommend it!!!), and the way infinite scroll comics like webtoon style comics more fully make use of their digital medium, using time scrolling to pace things in place of traditional gutters and panelling, is really really cool. of course they're becoming more popular in a world where more people have smartphones, where webtoon style comics are a lot easier to read than many other forms. i love a lot of webtoons, and id feel regressive to discourage stuff like line webtoon original comics any more than stuff like hiveworks comics, just to go against current trends in what comics people seem to prefer. they have a similar low barrier to entry (through contests) as other online publishers, and it's cool to see creators get the opportunity to get paid for their work and get help from professional editors and stuff
but in the past couple weeks of running this tournament, i ended up reading a lot more about the behind the scenes of what its like to be a line webtoon original creator. line webtoon's expectations for their creators are incredibly unrealistic and exploitative, with grueling deadlines leading to a lot of creators to get repetitive strain injuries, all while working for well below industry standards. obviously a lot of webcomic creators make an inconsistent poverty level income out of it as independent creators, and that shouldn't happen either, but it's absolutely inexcusable for a company to profit off this labor and then manufacture these same conditions. without any organized labor movement surrounding that issue, that of course isn't an argument against reading or promoting these comics on its own, creators are more likely to get more income if their comics get more popular, and despite the promise of popularity by becoming an official comic, they absolutely still aren't all promoted equally. what has made me want to slightly more discourage (but still absolutely not disallow!) stuff like line webtoon official comics has been the combination of that along with learning that much of the editing of webtoons originals carries less of the benefits of having experienced creatives collaborating with creators to elevate their stories to new levels, and very often instead ends up taking the form of 'simplify this plotline and make this character look more attractive and fit this archetype more fully so we can market this better and have readers easily consume each update while they're scrolling their phone without having to think about it too much'. while obviously there are a lot of amazing webtoon official comics in spite of what i've heard anectdotally, hearing that just really went against so much of what i've most valued about my experience with webcomics!
i want creators to be able to tell stories no matter how weird and unmarketable, where they'll never have to worry about pushback for making stories with characters and themes that resonate for them as a member of any oppressed group, and where there's as little pressure as possible pushing them to work harder or faster than they healthily can or want to! so for me, even if i still love a lot of online published comics and want them to be celebrated and want their creators to be able to make a comfortable living out of them, i still just want to highlight stories that had that level of freedom that has created some of my favorite experiences with webcomics just a little bit more.
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i think quite literally the only piece of solid evidence for the standard normie take that the beakers adopted nervous is that circe and loki remember him 'moving in' as a child, and at such an age those memories may indeed imply that the whole moving in situation involved some manner of adoption but they just don't recognise each other as family because they don't like each other. however nervous—as in the actual playable nervous—was created MUCH more recently than either of his housemates which in all likelihood means his memories are more reflective of the devs final intentions, and thus i'm more willing to hear out his take on things. he remembers moving in as a teenager, which lines up far better with ts2psp's explicit confirmation (if we're taking emily's word on it which one would assume the writers wanted us to) that he actually moved in willingly and signed a contract and shit. like i could believe a 16 yr old little freak living on the streets or in a failing foster system or whatever being willing and somewhat able to sign such a contact far more than i could believe a 10 yr old mohawked dickensian street urchin doing so, not even taking into account how the latter scenario would line up with circe and loki's ages, or rather, wouldn't. personally my take on nervous subject is that he's just a vulnerable young man who's down on his luck and frankly too unwell to live on his own or look after himself or work a traditional job or anything like that so living in some freaky couple's basement seems like a sweet deal to him, even if it sucks and ultimately leads to his death. feels good to not be explicitly contradicted by the text!
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