#these are two statements that can coexist

[marciaillust]

I added some colours to her :)

[k4txlulzz]

i feel like if ppl learned to love characters without romanticizing mental problems or mental illness and acknowledge that caleb's actions are objectively concerning regardless of people's personal preferences for certain troupes, the conversation around caleb would be a lot healthier

i CANNOT hate him and i understand him, its not his fault he is the way he is. but the people who think him acting so intimidatingly and extremely possessively towards mc is hot ? yall need to look into critical consumption of media and media literacy 😭 if this guy turns into the "hot mentally ill man from dark romance booktok hell" i am genuinely going to be so sad because it does nothing but spit disrespect at caleb's character himself as a mentally struggling man AND create alarming narratives

he gave her strong enough cough medicine to KNOCK HER OUT. took advantage of the side effects and restricted her freedom as much as he could when she CLEARLY PROTESTED.

edit: this post is not meant to shame people for their preferences. i am simply tired of the idea of men intimidating and scaring women being romanticized/sexualized over and over in so many medias. there are many toxic Lis but caleb is different because he is genuinely INTIMIDATING and i dont feel like its okay for a woman to experience that from a man she is supposed to trust. i have seen multiple people joke about being scared by him and wanting another LI to "pick them up" and i ask : why should this be normalized at all ? im merely tired of female characters being put in situations where they are at a man's mercy while they give you the illusion of control to seemingly mock you. i like caleb a lot but this has to be said

[shadelorde]

Ace community can we please for the love of god stop calling sex-favorable or sex-neutral aces “exceptions.”

I’ve seen one too many angry shipping discourse posts where yall are complaining about your ace blorbo being headcanoned to have sex by some people because of “exceptions.”

We are not exceptions. We are just as much a part of the ace community as you are. We are allowed to talk about our experiences and we are allowed to also project our experiences onto fictional characters as much as you are, and the fact you assume it’s just allo people talking about these “exceptions” is a part of the problem.

[jaybirdsandbabybats]

linke saying viktor is ace as an excuse to deter the jayvik shippers man shut the hell up. you can be gay and ace. you can be gay and ace and still be sex positive.

dude can just straight up say "i dont like jayvik but if you see it that way i don't know what to say" instead of starting fires with all his non-answers in interviews

[achillesisnotcomingdown]

Inside of me there are two wolves. One tells me gender is a social construction, pronouns and labels are meaningless made up words and my identity will never fit into any (no matter how specific) box because I am so much more than words and labels.

The other wolf tells me to add more super specific xenogenders to my pronouns.page

I am listening and nodding to both wolves

[project-sekai-takes]

This fandom lowkey need to accept that toya doesn’t hate his dad and isn’t going to eventually

mafuyu too with her mom probablyyy

.

[a-very-sparkly-nerd]

AND ANOTHER THING about "oh rayla wasn't a badass in arc 2" a) she never was and b) yes the hell she is. we literally see her mellow out throughout arc 1

[mortispoxi]

After taking the time to really sit and process the roller coaster of information that was the recent People Make Games video about the drama surrounding Studio ZA/UM, I wanted to make this post to go over some of my thoughts that I had about the video. If you have not watched the video but are curious what people are saying about it or you have and you want to read someone else’s perspective, then I invite you to read through as I babble incoherently.

Overall, I thought it provided an interesting, in-depth look at the timeline of events leading up to Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindpere’s dismissals while also giving us a proper inside scoop to the interpersonal relationships of both the former and current Studio ZA/UM employees. However, I do think the video has a couple of problems specifically with the way some of the information is presented on top of the fact that it loses focus partway through from the real issue which is the alleged fraud that took place by the investors to acquire the majority share within the company.

A big problem that I had with the video was the way in which Kurvitz behavior and final statement are disproportionately framed in the narrative. Now I am not about to go on a lengthy rant to dismiss everything Robert Kurvitz did to his friends during his time at the studio. In fact, the thing that I really liked about this video was how Chris Bratt, the writer and interviewer, holds no punches when it comes to the accusations of misconduct we heard from current Studio ZA/UM employees against him. Instead, I think it needs to be addressed that Bratt left out background context, whether intentionally or unintentionally I do not want to speculate, that could potentially explain what happened to everyone leading up to the expulsions to make Kurvitz appear far worse than how he might’ve been. I fully believe every word Argo Tuulik, Kaspar Tamsula, and Petteri Sulonen has said about working under Kurvitz and his inner circle so by piecing together all their statements to create a timeline of events the investors start to look far less innocent than how they portray themselves to be in the video.

It’s abundantly clear that Kurvitz was notoriously hard to work with. However, what’s also clear was the tremendous amount of stress everyone was under while also still being in the throes of burnout after working on the game nonstop for months. I think the investors (Kender, Haavel, and Kompus) purposefully set the team up for failure by creating impossible deadlines without informing the writers, approving Kurvitz and his inner circle to take time off while disallowing the others from taking theirs, and attempting to restructure the company in preparation to franchise Disco Elysium against Kurvitz wishes and thus he felt scared enough to push for his role to be de facto creative leader anywhere he could. What seems to be three full years of forcing everyone to crunch, miscommunicating when important deadlines were, setting impossible work standards to meet, and readying themselves to snatch more power within the company may have helped sow the seeds of animosity the writers began growing towards one another.

All of this is nothing new for those of us who have been keeping an eye on the drama from the start. We were told long in advance by the likes of Martin Luiga, who although left the project early on has been friends and worked alongside him for the better part of two decades, that Kurvitz possesses less than stellar leadership skills and that there was no merit in what the investors would end up accusing him of doing to warrant his dismissal. That confirmation was given long before the release of the PMG video and cements the idea in my mind that perhaps Kurvitz erratic behavior that was described by the current Studio ZA/UM employees was not the cause but rather a symptom of a much larger problem happening around him (i.e. a toxic work environment brought on by the investors using manipulation tactics to further stress and cause resentment amongst the collective). Yes, Kurvitz was at times uncooperative and dismissive towards his fellow employees, but this aspect of his character and the situation was played up to be a far greater problem in the PMG video than what the context suggests. I’m also inclined to believe this interpretation because Argo Tuulik, despite having legitimate, unresolved issues with his friend, does still regard Kurvitz very highly and even believes that he should still have artistic access to Elysium.  

When you think about it from this perspective, it makes perfect sense as to why Kurvitz was acting erratically around his fellow coworkers who eventually lashed out at him. On top of Kurvitz’s subpar leadership skills, he clearly was rapidly losing control of the situation which caused a great amount of stress for everybody involved as he scrambled in every which way to hold onto his position within the studio. It does not surprise me when it’s admitted by Sulonen that Kurvitz was thinking of taking the source code to potentially start over with a newly founded company since the situation was rapidly deteriorating and everyone was getting more and more frustrated with him and his inner circle. The impossible working conditions they found themselves in was a pressure cooker for the animosity and resentment building within the disillusioned group. Clearly the investors made their workers run themselves ragged in order to divide everyone and make it easier for them to take advantage of Kurvitz’s now frequent outbursts to finally push him out of their way.

Everything that I’ve said above can easily be discerned from the context clues found in the interviews from the current and former ZA/UM members. Which if you think about it is an unfortunate statement because Bratt does not seem to register the complaints of mismanagement by the hands of the investors from either side and instead only points the spotlight at Kurvitz’s past transgressions. What I am describing is one of the major issues I have with the PMG video. The video talking about the ongoing legal battle to determine if corporate fraud took place seemed to disproportionately focus on the problems Kurvitz and his inner circle had with other team members and not issuing a public apology to his former colleagues. Now that doesn’t sound all too bad on paper, right? If Kurvitz apologized, it could help begin the healing process and make for a good closer for the video. Well, that’s where the problem comes into play because Kurvitz response to Bratt’s request for comment regarding what Tuulik, Tamsalu, and Sulonen said about his poor conduct should not come as a surprise to anyone who had been paying attention. In the video, Bratt hails the email Kurvitz sent back to him as arrogant and dismissive which he then uses to accuse him of not standing with his fellow workers in solidarity and not taking accountability for his actions. However, right at the start of his interview, Kurvitz informs Bratt that at the behest of his lawyers he does not want the full interview to be published as they are worried Studio ZA/UM might take something he said as an admission of guilt and use it against him in a court of law. Therefore, when asked to comment about what his former colleagues said about him, he fires back an email that basically says that he wants the focus to be on the thing that really matters, the lawsuits and the shady activities of the investors. Bratt, clearly not liking his response, decided to attack his statement even though had Kurvitz given PMG what they wanted he could potentially be incriminating himself. Whether he denies or fully understands that his actions hurt others, the way he responded is 100% justified and did not deserve the level of vitriol he got from both Bratt and the public. It seems like a double standard that Ilmar Kompus can deny answering a question by claiming he cannot comment due to the ongoing lawsuit during his interview but when Kurvitz does it for the exact same reasons he is attacked. Again, Kurvitz is fully responsible to rectify the hurt he caused others but legally he’s in the clear and Bratt seemed to purposely neglect that aspect of the ongoing narrative.

Now, I’m not about to pull a whole reddit conspiracy in my write up. I do believe Chris Bratt, who directed this video, went into this with the very best of intentions to tell the full story with an emphasis on the workers who were affected by the situation. However, the problems that I’ve listed above make me worry what will be the takeaway from someone who is only a casual observer of the ZA/UM situation. Personally, I have been following this from the beginning so I’ve had a lot of time to develop my own insight into things but that’s usually not the case for most people. What I’m concerned about is whether Bratt may have unintentionally furthered the investors narrative by pushing people’s focus away from themselves and onto Kurvitz who has largely had the support of fans and outside viewers up until this point. Studio ZA/UM as it stands is desperate for a leg up in the PR battle it’s had with Kurvitz since October 1st, 2022. They lost so much support once the announcement was made that Kurvitz and his inner circle had been terminated, and lost even more upon the release of collage mode, that it makes logical sense that they want more people to be on their side so when the time comes for the studio to announce another game their reviews and sales numbers won’t immediately be tanked by angry fans. So, the fact that this video seemingly only held its focus on the misgivings of Kurvitz closing statement and personality instead of what is actually being fought over, alleged corporate fraud and theft of IP, may have unwittingly handed the investors that distraction that they have been looking for. Since the release of this video, I’ve seen an unfortunate mix of people arguing over the ethics of the situation, those switching sides to now support the studio, and outright calling for Kurvitz to lose the right to access his life’s work. This is not the outcome me and many other like minded fans want to see from this mess. At the end of the day, Elysium is Robert Kurvitz’s life work, and he deserves a chance to legally regain those rights even if he is a prideful and arrogant person. His personality should not dictate whether he is allowed to prove in a court of law that the investors took something that isn’t theirs. Bratt’s well-meaning but deeply misguided efforts to report on the ZA/UM situation may have done more harm than good. I consider this to be the biggest flaw of the video and the reason why the contents ultimately did not sit right with me despite the accuracy and importance of the reporting.  

Just as a quick reminder for those who aren’t entirely up to speed or want a refresher, the reason why Kurvitz and Studio ZA/UM are fighting over the IP rights in the first place started when Kurvitz was promised by the investors that if he signed over the rights to Elysium and his book he would eventually be able to buy back a portion of the shares to the company and upon release of the sequel buy back even more. At no point was anyone supposed to possess a majority percent of the shares in the company to remain equitable amongst all participants. So, Kurvitz signed this contract under the assumption that the investors would hold up their end of the bargain while in the short term he would get the funding needed to complete the rest of the game. Unfortunately, when Margus Linnamäe left his position within the company, Ilmar Kompus agreed to buy him out of his share allegedly using the money intended to produce the sequel thus acquiring the majority share which tipped the balance of power. Now, the IP rights are currently held by the company YESSIRNOSIR Ltd. which no one holds shares of but is still owned and controlled by sources within Studio ZA/UM. The lawsuit itself is Kurvitz claiming that the way Kompus bought into the majority share of the company was done illegally and should he be able to prove in a court of law that fraud took place it would immediately delegitimize and invalidate Kompus’s control which would then give Kurvitz and Rostov a chance to reclaim power along with all the subsidiaries of the company which includes YESSIRNOSIR Ltd.

From the way I saw it, it certainly felt like Bratt went out of his way to put blame on the deteriorating work environment and splintering of a two-decade old artist collective squarely on Robert Kurvitz shoulders. If I were to speculate, I think in his anger after not receiving the conclusion he had been hoping for from his interviewee, Bratt refused to acknowledge the very real fact that his hands are legally tied with the things that he can publicly talk about which had the unintentional consequence of villainizing Kurvitz. Bratt is still correct in his assessment that Kurvitz is arrogant and people were hurt by his actions but whether intentional or not misrepresenting how much Kurvitz and his inner circle was responsible for the strife while neglecting to even acknowledge the amount of meddling the investors were doing behind the scenes only detracts from his argument and puts into question who he’s really representing in his video.

[cringefail-clown]

The fact that no one has asked about kankri is surprising

So kankri for bingo

[d3ad-eye-andy]

And yet, it's what he had to choose in the end anyway

[dark-elf-writes]

I’m always torn on Zeus in Astoria. On one hand: he’s a fuck.

On the other he outright goes: want to fuck Alex still? I’m okay with that.

I remember having really wanted a route for him (and Hercules) but knowing they wouldn’t get the fact that Zeus fucked up so horrific that his wife chose death over him, and that the idea of them relearning would have been much more complicated then they could have. :/

I appreciate Zeus being like “I fully admit to fucking you over for literal centuries so if you take up the mental of goddess you would not be beholden to me as your husband”

He however loses me at “You’re effectively being sacrificed because I said so regardless of what you and the goddess you may become may want.”

I think he is a very interesting character that could have a lot of nuance to him. I also think he’s particularly good for what he is which is an immortal king of kings who cannot see past his own wants and ego to take any amount of criticism because he has been all powerful for so long. What truly fascinated me was the amount of hints that Aphrodite is essentially boy-kinging him and lowkey manipulating him into making the right decisions instead of letting him run wild and free. Like that in itself is such a wild dynamic.

But god a Zeus route (even if they took like the Astraeus route and made him a branch of another season for like a limited run) would have been crazy. Like with all the hinted Bad Things going on in the past and essentially falling in love from scratch could have been really cool. I do not think however they could have fit that into 19 episodes like the Astoria seasons were because there would be a looooot of nuance there.

Hercules would have been fun particularly with the moments of clarity we saw in the Alex seasons. Like that moment right before he took them to Olympus the first time where he is all but begging them to come quietly because he really doesn’t want to be doing this either is fascinating and could have been fun to explore.

That being said: nothing is more satisfying to me than seeing Alex body them both like 10/10 no notes I love them so much

[cosmikazie]

hey fun fact calling everyone "anťis" doesnt actually absolve you from criticism and actually will, more often than not, confirm everyone's suspicions that you're a gross shitty person

[feralfens]

real fuckin weird to see a post pop up thats talking about leftist antisemitism but specifically focusing on free palestine stuff. go to their blog and. post below that is calling people reading books about palestine and palestinian freedom terrorists. i dont remember following the person but good fuckin riddance.

[cosmic-navel-gazin]

I'm blaming @thatsonehellofabird for making me

♪ Insane in the membrane

Insane in the brain ♪

thinking about the Dune/Hard To Be a God Venn diagram

I may never make a full recovery ever again after this

[taichissu]

i seriously need to learn how to enjoy lining bc man

[floworence]

I have to be honest guys, while animation isn't on par with the movie it was to be expected but what gets me is the plot. Like not judging it completely yet but I'm not too hopeful they will keep with the spirit of the original.