#the fucking ape nfts... how was that even real

[handweavers]

sorry it's still so funny that crypto and nfts like exploded and died after all that nonsense pyramid scheme scam shit and superbowl ads and bitcoin mining rigs ruining everything including the environment and it was all for nothing, it didn't change the world it didn't revolutionize anything it was all a complete scam and what remains of it still is. like blockchain tech isn't going anywhere it's probably going to exist in some capacity for the foreseeable future and crypto in general still exists (and existed before it became mainstream popular) but the vast majority of nfts, cryptocurrencies, etc are completely and utterly worthless now, shut down services, crashed markets and exchanges, etc. the only sad things are the people left holding the bag whose lives were ruined bc they got sucked into the scam and there's no justice or recompense + the sheer amt of environmental damage caused by this whole thing

[queenhawke]

ok here’s all my Thoughts about mq s3 and why it’s probably the weakest season so far.

tl;dr It just feels like they wrote themselves into a corner with how s2 ended and then didn’t know how to continue on from there. And it’s disappointing! It’s back to how it was in s1 where the only real strong character arc is Ian and Poppy’s, and the rest of the characters are just kinda… there to do funny stuff. And it’s not the worst thing in the world and they kiiiinda pull it together a little in the finale, but it’s disappointing because we know they can do good character arcs for all the characters simultaneously, because they did that in s2! Also fuck NFTs

Rest is under a read more bc I told y’all I’d write a novel

let’s compliment sandwich this so good things first:

The GrimPop storyline was good! Easily the strongest aspect of the season, tho I feel like Ian Winger-speeching himself out of the conflict was maybe a bit too easy? It was a good speech, I liked it, it fits their weird toxic codependent relationship well, but I would have liked to see him doing more for Poppy. Ah well, still good.

The bad is uhhh a lot. I don’t even know where to begin.

Actually let’s start with the metaverse/NFT shit, because it was shit and really soured me on the first half of the season. I get why these topics were included, it was a hot issue when they were writing the season, but it sucks how they were implemented. First off, it’s aged like milk, what with the multiple crypto crashes and NFTs kinda disappearing out of the collective consiousness (thank christ). Second, the fact that there’s no talk of the negative aspects of NFTs. Atrocious, especially concerning Rachel, who, being ostensibly the leftist of the group, should really at the very least have brought up the negative impact on the environment that NFTs/crypto has. Unfortunately, it does make sense why this happened. Ubisoft was one of the first game companies to use NFTs in their games, and Rob Mcelhenney owns one of those ugly fucking apes (I hope for his sake he’s sold it already), so he’s clearly invested in this shit. Obviously neither was gonna shittalk NFTs when they have such a big monetary stake in them. Hugely disappointing, but not surprising.

Now the characters... let’s start with Dana, because her “character development” was easily the most baffling to me. Like. Who is this? Where did this mini-Ian come from? This isn’t who Dana was. She had confidence, sure, but not Ian levels of delusional confidence. And like, what was the point of making her so much like Ian? How did that serve her character? Most she did was act like a kind of mediator between Ian and Poppy, but what did it do for her? The last ep kinda wrangles this into her being fed up with them and starting her own thing, but like, she was happy to hang out with Ian for most of the season. I dunno, I can kinda see what they were going for, but it doesn’t feel like there was a proper build-up to that final episode.

Let’s go to everyone’s favourite tumblr sexyman, Brad. Again, the last episode blatantly states his “arc” (working his way up to being in power again), but like. All the stuff inbetween doesn’t feel like it really adds up to anything. I mean, what did him being the janitor really... do. He acts like he’s up to something, but then he isn’t, and by ep 3 he’s already just doing HOMIE stuff again. I think it could have been so much more fun if he’d actually used his position as a janitor to weasel his way back into monetization. Like, digging up dirt on people and stuff. And again the build-up to the finale wasn’t really there. Oh, he wants a challenge now? He never talked about that. Where did that come from? Why not seed that more? Also, would have liked for his eating disorder to be addressed more. It’s so rare to see men with eating disorders on tv, it could’ve been something special. Maybe next season.

Rachel... I’m highly skeptical of her suddenly being “dumb”. Like sure, she was always shown to be a little airheaded, but it feels like they really turned it up to 11 and like... for what? It reminds me too much of how Britta was treated in later seasons of Community, and that was shitty then and is shitty now. It’s just wild to me that they’d have this whole arc in s2 about her finding her passion, and then they just throw it away. She could’ve been the new writer instead of the new HOMIE! Also, if she’s so dumb, how can she be made the new HOMIE at all. That’s a high fucking position, and you expect me to believe they just gave that to some rando ex-tester? I know MQ isn’t realistic, but I have my limits. And then they kinda lampshade that by having Brad be like “oh I engineered this” but that just feels lazy. Like my brother in christ you put her in this storyline, don’t act like it all meant nothing now. Also I know capitalism is a hell of a drug and I love me a corruption arc but could we for once have a leftist character on tv who like. Sticks to their guns and isn’t a massive hypocrite. Please.

THE LACK OF REAL STORYLINE BETWEEN BRAD AND JO. Hello he went to jail for her??? Hello?? Can we address this? Even a little? Maybe in the ep called TO CATCH A MOUSE?? It wasn’t even a mouse but you named it To Catch A Mouse and then you don’t have some sort of conversation between the mouse and the shark hello? Do I have to do everything myself around here??

Also, C.W. @kaitcake1289​ already wrote a good post on this but I’d just like to reiterate what a disappointment it is that his death seemingly has zero impact on anyone. And it could have been such a good way to tie all the characters together, which I think was sorely needed with how divided they were between MQ and GrimPop. The grief they would all feel from losing the studio’s weirdo grandpa could have been such a nice overarching theme. And it could all impact them in different ways and drive their arcs this season! Just a missed opportunity, and frankly a weird way to treat the death of one of the major characters. Even Pierce’s death in Community was more impactful, and he left because there was major beef between the actor and the showrunner.

I’m a bit hmm about the idea of Dana/Jo/Brad in their own studio, bc I just don’t think splitting the characters up like this worked out this season, but we’ll see. I hope they have an actual plan this time lmao.

Okay other end of the compliment sandwich uhhhhh. I think David’s arc was decent. It was nice to see him get along with Jo and to see him stand up for himself. Um. The Christmas ep was very good. Sarian was another banger backstory ep. In general there were loads of jokes I liked! I’m just disappointed with how the characters that weren’t Ian or Poppy were treated.

[gsquidman]

I'm so tired of leftists dunking on Crypto and NFTs online. One of the reasons why I hate it is that people like me, who really understand the stuff, can launch a much more devastating criticism of right wing crypto.

Right now, it seems like it's pretty much accepted that all NFTs are simply speculative scams. They're worthless things that offer no benefit to the owner besides the chance to tear off even more money from the next sucker who buys in.

This actually isn't true though, and those funny monkeys you see everywhere are the perfect example of NFTs with an actual use case. It's the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and it's right in the name. It's a club. People with these NFTs get to participate in an expanding sphere of forums and activities exclusive to people who had a Bored Ape.

It started with a bathroom inside a virtual yacht club house that you were allowed to draw graffiti on if you connected your wallet and proved your NFT ownership:

The idea is kind of cool, because the value of the NFT is based on the exclusive access it provides. That means that owners of Bored Apes are incentivized to develop more of those exclusive spaces to increase the value of their NFT. When you see the really fucked up monkeys, those are the Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, which were dropped exclusively to Bored Ape owners, so that's just one example of how owning a Bored Ape gave you some privilege that they hadn't planned when the first apes came out.

The end game vision of this compounding effort to inflate the value of Bored Apes is to envision the final club house rendered live in virtual reality. THAT'S the original conception of the "Metaverse" that Zuckerberg apparently adopted. They want a place where people who were smart enough to buy an Ape early, who are all rich on crypto currency and all think similarly, can hang out without anyone else around.

Get it? GET IT??

IT'S FUCKING ATLAS SHRUGGED!

NFTs aren't a scam. It's classism. It's literally Ayn Rand's Galt's Gulch reimagined in VR. They think they're better and smarter than everyone else. That's the real reason these monkeys should be scorned, because of what they represent in terms of exclusion and classism.

[the-antiapocalyptic-man]

some fucker on Upwork is trying to pay sub-minimum wage to do touch-up work on Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs while also being absolutely fucking demeaning to potential hires in the description and I just saw red. Wrote this whole paragraph tirade, flagged it to the admins, I really doubt it’ll do anything but I am just still so pissed off. Like, four bucks? To color your ugly ass, mass produced bullshit that you’re going to flipped for god knows how much fucking crypto to some tech brainrot weirdos

I don’t like to post vent posts a lot, but look out for this kind of shit, these people are not your friends. Scammers are gonna fucking scam. Even ignoring the (still sizable) environmental impact, these peoples are thieves and idiots and anti-art in every real way. It’s a fucking cult and while all we can do is hope that house of cards collapses sooner rather than later

I’m not even writing all this as someone who’s anti-commercial art. I take commissions, I read fucking comic books, I completely believe that living artists should at bare minimum be able to support themselves and ideally thrive making what they want to make. NFTs are not for artists, they are not for any medium or any creative ideal; NFTs are capitalism in their ugliest, most garish form and fuck that guy for trying to rope people into trying to shine his shit for him. It’s people like him who steal work, mint it, then turn around and act like the original artists are the assholes for not “getting there first” and that’s bullshit