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So I did it. I opened an Etsy shop. I had such positive feedback from the photos my friend took of the one I gave them that I felt like taking the risk. Wish me luck!

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Hot take: the following things can be simultaneously true:

America has always done bad things

Trumpism is connected to the failures of Reconstruction

Trump is still a uniquely terrible figure who ushered in a uniquely destructive era in American politics

Snide remarks like “lulz, lmao, you think Trump is bad? America was ALWAYS bad” contributed to the cynicism, nihilism, and apathy which led to not enough people caring about the country to try to stop him at the ballot box

It reminds me of people being outraged when Democrats responded to something like Charlottesville with “this isn’t who we are”; yeah, obviously that’s always been part of America, but rhetoric has an impact and it both empowers white supremacists and demoralizes normies to say “yep, white supremacists represent America and everything has always sucked shit.” There are consequences to pretending all people and eras are equally bad, because then people stop taking new and dire threats seriously, and there are consequences to people believing their society is always and forever evil, because then they don't fight against those threatening to harm that society. You don't need to whitewash history to understand any of this.

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A copper retriever with her unoxidised puppies

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When I was 3 years old I went to a preschool that had this little green crocheted crocodile finger puppet that was my absolute favorite toy to play with of all time. I named her Chelsea, because Chelsea starts with C and crocodile starts with C and more often than not wild animals in fiction aimed at kids have names that start with the same first letter as their species. I played with Chelsea every day, because she was my favorite toy, and because the other kids weren't really interested in her, and also because I eventually started to hide her in a special secret spot in the room so no one else would find her before I did. She was so beloved by me that when I graduated from preschool, my teachers gave Chelsea to me permanently, because it was clear no one else would ever love that little crochet crocodile as much as me anyway (in part because I hid her). They waited a few weeks after I graduated before doing it, too, and sent Chelsea with some post cards as if the crocodile had been on a whirlwind "travel the world" vacation before deciding to come live with me.

And Chelsea remained my favorite toy all through my childhood. There were others I loved nearly as much, like my Imperial Godzilla and the big red T.rex from the first Jurassic Park toy line and my tiny knockoff plush Charmander, but Chelsea always held the place of honor in my heart. She was my absolute favorite toy.

I kept a lot of my favorite toys through adolescence, even if social pressure eventually got me to give away a lot of them (and some, y'know, broke). That's obviously not surprising to you if you've followed my blog, since I still collect toys into my adulthood. But it's important to note because while I know I made a conscious effort to never throw out Chelsea every time I pared down my collection... at some point, she went missing.

I became aware of it when I graduated from high school. I was feeling really emotional about leaving that stage of my life and, y'know, becoming an adult and shit, and in that state I decided to find Chelsea to reassure myself that I hadn't entirely left childhood behind. But Chelsea wasn't there. No matter how hard I looked, I could not find Chelsea anyway.

And that was, like, devastating, because the only explanation was that somehow, at some point, I had accidentally tossed her out with some other "childhood junk" while trying to grow up and be responsible in my teen years. I had literally thrown away my childhood in a careless attempt to be more grown up.

Of course I knew she was just a toy - nothing more than some yarn twisted together in the loose shape of a crocodile, lifeless and soul-less and more or less worthless in the objective light of day. But she was also Chelsea, my best friend since i was three, my stalwart little pal, a source of comfort for most of my life at that point, and I had just... tossed her out! Like garbage! What kind of person was I becoming if I could do that to my best friend?

I was very visibly distraught, and my mom noticed. Being very crafty, she tried to find the pattern for Chelsea so she could knit me a new one. The problem is, she had no idea where to find said pattern. She checked all her books of crochet patterns, and when that failed she tried the internet, but no matter how hard she looked, she found nothing.

So my mom found the next best thing.

The original Chelsea was a tiny finger puppet, and I had "met" her when I was three. Well, I was eighteen now - shouldn't Chelsea have grown too? And as has been established, this crocodile was fond of whirlwind vacations. My mom found a pattern that looked as much like Chelsea as possible while also being a much bigger crocodile, and gifted her to me before I left for college - to show that while we can't stop the flow of time or how it changes us, that doesn't mean we have to leave it behind.

And yeah, I decided to believe it. That's Chelsea now. Yeah, I know that in reality it's a completely different set of yarn made by my mom rather than... whoever it was that crocheted the original Chelsea, but then, Chelsea was never really the yarn. She was the feelings I put into the yarn, you know? So that's Chelsea, all grown up, and still my most prized toy.

...

Flash forward... Jesus, eighteen years, holy shit. A few weeks ago I saw a post trying to identify a different crochet crocodile pattern, and thinking it was cute, I decided to try and look for it on ebay and etsy, just to see if maybe I could find it. I didn't, but do you know what I found instead?

A very familiar crochet crocodile finger puppet. An intensely familiar one, you might say. Of course I bought it. And of course I asked the seller if, perhaps, they might have the pattern for it or know where it came from (they did not, alas). And after a few days, she showed up at my house.

She's not Chelsea, obviously. For one thing, she's far too clean and fresh looking - Chelsea was very well loved, and looked the part, while this crocodile finger puppet has definitely not endured years upon years of a child's affection. And, more importantly, she's not Chelsea because we've already established that Chelsea grew up into a bigger crochet crocodile. This has to be Chelsea's younger sister, Cici.

And if I could find another of Chelsea's kind after all these years, then maybe, with a bit of luck, I might find the pattern for her, and be able to make more of them. Fill the world with Chelseas.

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the most annoying people are people who don't understand storytelling. they be like "oooo how convenient that this thing happened to the main character in the very beginning". yeah no shit. that's why the story begins here

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“The Pyramid Guy from the opening credits literally has no significance to the show and never will. He’s just a generic image made to look mythological or spooky like most things in the intro.”

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Full thoughts on Netflix DMC

The short version is what I said the last time I brought this up - mostly liked it, a few sticking points or things I’m iffy about, curious about where it’s going from here, fully understand why a lot of fans of the games hated it.

The long version is under the cut, and it is a whole ass essay. Spoilers for the whole series as well as the games.

Let’s start with some positives. The action scenes were excellent. So was the animation. The sense of humor felt about right. The tone’s more cynical for sure, and it’s missing some of the the…I’m not sure how to explain it except heart. It’s missing that compared to the games, and I’m hoping there’ll be more of that as it goes. Soundtrack was great, though. Nice mix of game music and licensed stuff, and I’d been delighted with the 2000s nu metal and goth rock angle. I still think it’s a perfect fit for the mix of silly and fun-edgy that the games have going. I could nitpick about the use of Devil Trigger being too literal and also how it’s not Dante’s song, but it’s not worth the energy.  

I can understand why the characterization was a dealbreaker for a lot of people. For me, it made sense given the changes in backstory and circumstances. I didn’t personally feel that anyone was unrecognizable. I will say some of the specific arguments I’ve seen rub me the wrong way, but ultimately it’s subjective, and I don’t intend to tell anyone they’re wrong for how they felt.

I can’t see game Lady taking things to these extremes, but with no Arkham in sight to direct her revenge on, and DARCOM being there to swoop in and take advantage of her anger and broad hatred of demons, I can buy her being worse. She has the same character flaws, but more entrenched and magnified, meaning they’re going to take longer to work through. Worked for me, but again, I can see why a lot of people didn’t like it - they very much did make her worse. Also feels weird having her answer to Mary.

I do miss her scrappy independence from the games - it’s still here, but it hits differently because she’s not working alone. I don’t mind the “blood of the priestess” bit being gone- not really a load-bearing plot point, especially without Arkham. I don’t like that the Kalina Ann wasn’t custom-made or called that - hoping we get that later. They did name drop Nell as someone who makes her equipment, and Dante doesn’t have Ebony and Ivory yet either, so I’m assuming they’ll meet her in person next season and she’ll hook them up with some upgrades. Hoping she’ll get a custom version of that same rocket launcher too. I did like the power armor - that feels like something game Lady might use if given the chance. 

Complaining about her language feels like a weird hill to die on, though. No, she doesn’t do that in the games, and it’s annoying sometimes, but it is not a stretch for me to picture DMC3 Lady saying fuck a lot. 

As for Dante - he’s more aimless and less invested, but given that he didn���t know who his dad was here, that makes sense. Other than that, it’s not too different from how he was at the beginning of 3. If anything, it reminds me of how he was in the novel that takes place before 3. It wasn’t until after 1 that he took on Sparda’s legacy of protecting humankind - up until then, he wanted to find the demon who killed his mom. I do think that assuming he had superpowers and not considering that he might be a hybrid only makes sense if he was in denial about it - which is kinda implied. I also noticed that he comes across as more of a dumbass (affectionate) here than in the games - game Dante isn’t unintelligent so much as a goofball. I’m expecting more self-discovery for this Dante than he needed in the games. They did get the Bugs Bunny energy right, and I like that. The handful of pop culture references are new to this version, but they don’t feel out of place, especially since he’s about DMC3 age here. 

My main sticking point is going full war on terror allegory with the friendly demons. I didn’t mind the political angle as a whole - given how this studio does things, I never expected it to be apolitical. The issue is that by the end, it felt on-the-nose to the point of being borderline tasteless. Not sure how else to describe it. I think they could’ve either had the non-hostile demon underclass or the “invade hell in God’s name” thing, but doing both is…it’s not inherently a bad idea, but it’s a weird choice for this source material. I’m curious about how it comes across to people who haven’t played the games.

Plus, the more I hear about Shankar’s politics (which I’m still not 100% clear on, but I’ve heard centrist and I’ve heard some degree of Trump-friendly), the more disingenuous it feels. I’m all for tearing into Bush-era bullshit (even as a kid I knew he sucked) but I assumed it was done by someone who felt the same way about the current administration, in a “look where we’ve circled back to” sort of way. If it’s not, that’s disappointing. Maybe this was more the writing staff’s input than the producer? Not sure who’s doing what here. 

As for the friendly demons…it’s also not inherently a bad idea. It’s not unprecedented - it reminded me of that guy from the anime who was pretending to be a human, got treated way better than he was in the demon world, and betrayed his master to save the woman he’d fallen in love with. It’s like that more than Trish or Sparda’s cases, I think - just on a larger scale. Demons in the games aren’t inherently incapable of being friendly towards humans (or of having other virtues even if they’re not) but most of them have no reason to. They’re not used to compassion or mercy, and they don’t have any reason to think of humans as anything except food.

The issue is that they feel too innocent, I think? They’re more trusting of outsiders than you’d expect an underclass who lives in hiding ought to be, especially given how much of a dog-eat-dog world the demon world is (both here and in the games). It feels weird that they’d survived that long at all. They didn’t even think twice about adopting a random human who’d wandered into their world? They’re never angry at or resentful of strangers or humans in general, even when the group that went with the White Rabbit the first time all died? It feels like because of the analogy being made, they had to be perfect victims. They had to be kind and welcoming and meek 100% of the time, and they had to look like humans, and none of them really matter as characters except to die horribly and senselessly. Reminds me of some criticisms I’ve heard of how American war movies tend to portray locals, and…yeah, that feels like the trap they fell into here. 

I will acknowledge that the explanation for how the worlds work in this version makes the friendly demons existing more believable. Which reminds me - the technobabble didn’t bug me much. The way it all worked was the same either way.

That brings me to the White Rabbit himself. He had presence early on, but his backstory and motives…something’s fishy here. Obviously the point is that he’s gone way too far and cares more about revenge than helping his people, but his plan doesn’t make sense even then. Why wouldn’t Mundus just conquer both worlds? How would breaking the barrier change anything? If anything, it seems like it’d play right into Mundus’ hands - weird choice for someone who claims to hate him. I trust this team’s plot writing enough to assume this is intentional and not sloppy writing - we’re probably missing something. Still bugged me that no one brought that up.

I also get that they were trying to make him a foil to Lady so he’d be a personal villain in lieu of Arkham. I expected him to be Arkham! That was probably an intentional red herring! I just don’t think this worked as well as an alternative as it was intended to. 

Even thought I’m not impressed with him as a villain, I will say that episode 6 was gorgeous from an art and storytelling perspective. Very creative.

One thing I’ve seen people upset about is the focus on human evil, but that’s also not anything new. The games consistently make a point of some humans being as bad as any demon, if not worse. I didn’t get the impression that the show was a condemnation of humanity as a whole, just some of us - it’s more cynical than the games, sure, but saying it went full “humans are the real monsters” isn’t any more true here than it was in, say, DMC4 with all its self-righteous human villains. When Lady said the White Rabbit was awful in a human way, she didn’t mean /how/ evil he was - she meant his methods and the intensely personal cruelty of it all. Demons tend to be more straightforward by comparison. 

Speaking of which. Sparda. I do not think that the show’s saying he was wrong just because the White Rabbit thinks so. The fact that Dante didn’t know him here makes it fuzzier than it was, and so does the existence of the friendly demons, but it doesn’t change that he’s the reason any humans survived. I’d guess that finding out the truth is something that’s going to be explored throughout the show, especially with Vergil around. 

Speaking of Vergil, I feel like putting him in the trailers, even as a fake, was borderline false advertising. The little we see of him is already very different, what with apparently serving Mundus willingly, and his Nelo Angelo form being a disguise instead of something he was twisted into. It’s more feasible here because he didn’t actually know his father, and wouldn’t have had him as a role model like in the games. Still, it’s a major change to who he is as a character, and given how well-liked he is, they’ll need to be careful with how they handle him. 

My guess is that he doesn’t know that Mundus is the one who attacked his family - that’s the only way this makes any sense (I’m not even sure Dante knows that at this point). Mundus probably set things up to create a problem so he could rescue him from it and earn his trust. Either that, or he’s keeping Vergil alive somehow in exchange for service? Weird that he can breathe OK in the demon world when Dante couldn’t.

I’m guessing he’ll find that out and turn on Mundus, but still not see eye to eye with Dante because that’s their whole thing. I do think the idea of him growing up in the demon world is interesting - it’s another point of contrast with Dante. Also, his involvement is another fishy thing about the White Rabbit’s plans. Feels like he and Mundus were using him the whole time. 

My other sticking point is that this season needed more episodes. Leaving off where they did made it feel incomplete in more ways that just being a cliffhanger. It feels like a lot of people’s issues with characterization come from that lack of closure, or are at least made worse by it. Lady’s obviously not going to stay with DARCOM, especially once she finds out they killed the demons she tried to save. But we ended with her betraying Dante at the last minute. It’s not unbelievable for her to get better before she gets worse - like I said, more entrenched beliefs - but it’s deliberately unsatisfying, and that’s a risky choice to end a first season with. 

Oh, and Lucia’s cameo was nice and I expect we’ll see more of her in the next season given Arius showing up last-minute, but you guys are right, they did whitewash her. Seriously? :/

Enzo exists. He’s about how he is in the supplementary stuff he’s appeared in before. Didn’t expect him to go out like that, though.

Also, was that one researcher supposed to be Agnus? Don’t think they ever gave him a name, and he’s nowhere near as unhinged, but he reminded me of him. 

All of that to say - I liked some things, disliked others, and am reserving some judgement to see what the next season does. Felt like a good AU fanfic to me. Not surprised the fan reaction is so mixed. Disappointed but not surprised that people are sending each other hate messages about it. Just mute each other’s names or block each other if it bugs you that much. 

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not being able to borrow an ebook because someone else has it on loan is stupid as hell. like babe this is Document. these are pixels.

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Probably going to write out my full thoughts on Netflix DMC at some point, but here’s some brief impressions.

I can see why opinions are so mixed - there were a few odd choices there that I don’t know how to feel about - but I mostly liked it. Felt like it got the vibes right, and I thought the characters felt like how they’d be given the changes in circumstances.

My biggest issue is that it felt like half a season, and ending it like that felt unsatisfying. Lot of character arcs heading a certain way without getting the payoff yet, and I think that’s where a lot of people’s issues with characterization come from.

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Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”

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"UM OP DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT THIS INNOCUOUS VIDEO/IMAGE/POST IS ACTUALLY FETISH CONTENT"

might not be true at all and might be puritan panic you bought into but ok

even if it IS true, ok?? and?? based

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baby Lyna just had a nightmare…

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we need to set up a hacker play date with neyuni and gulool ja

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Sphene

I like her new look 💚

#ffxiv #sphene #7.2spoilers