#* past suffering. and etc

[bongosinferno]

A devastating and confusing thing about the Fallout setting, when you explore the pre-war aspects, is what the creators think about pre-war America. In the first games we only get hints of the pre-war world, but they seem to be some sort of wild fascist nation invading Canada. In Fallout 1, the first thing we're introduced to of the pre-war society is seeing a soldier shoot civilians and laughing.

Now, for the first 2 games and New Vegas we don't really know much. What we know is that there's a fascist military group known as the enclave who were a sort of US deep state even before the war, and that the government teamed up with corporate interests to preform vaguely MKULTRA-ish experiments with the Vaults. Basically, the government was an extreme version of the 50s American jingoism and McCarthyism.

This is well and dandy, I guess issues come up more when we get to the later games, especially 4, where it seems like none of this extreme plotting and societal civil unrest which would exist is seen. The society as presented in 4 also seems quite progressive, gay people are featured in the opening, and none of the baggage of say, civil rights not existing are included. Now on a baseline, I don't want settings to be more conservative, homophobic and sexist etc., but it becomes a very confusing setting when it's displayed both as this jingoist extreme thing with fascist tendencies aswell as a progressive place where everyone is seemingly equal. If you're focusing on the 50s as your setting, and American nationalism in the 50s, then you can't have McCarthyism spoofs and anti-communism as a societal paranoia norm while also general equality is the norm without misunderstanding why McCarthyism and nationalist jingoism is bad. A massive harm done in anti-communist paranoia is how it degrades and vilifies any progressive movements (women's rights, civil rights, homosexuality) as being morally un-American and therefore connected to communism. To ignore this just makes any critique of MacCarthyism and jingoism weird!

Basically, pre-war America in Fallout 4 becomes this both sides thing where America is both pure and equal and white fences in every instance that we see as the player (the intro), while also supposedly being this dystopic MacCarthyist hellscape that's broadcasting gladly about their war crimes in Canada, and wants to root out communism. I guess the only fix for this issue without getting into the fine print like they had to do is just not to focus too much on the pre-war world.

[arctic-bookclub]

oh also one thing that i realized just now: qbagi’s initial suspicion over what’s happening to qphil being tied to the federation is technically not wrong

you know what drew qphil’s deities’ interest to him and quesadilla island? the birdcage. rose said in her earliest message ”I could sense the bleeding heart of the one I once knew, far, far away”. the deities noticed qphil had disappeared, and maybe they were curious to know what had happened, but the thing that drove them to find him was rose’s want to help him. and if she really was the one that freed him from the cage (and it’s heavily hinted she was), that birdcage undeniably was the thing that launched all of this into action.

how the enderking figured out that qphil had been weakened? we don’t know, maybe he sensed it, maybe he had already been observing him, maybe he noticed rose leaving to look for qphil, it doesn’t really matter. what does matter is that the trauma qphil got from being locked in that cage is what gave the enderking the perfect opportunity to strike. and is what led us to where we are now in the story. so even thought the federation isn’t ultimately the one tormenting qphil right now, it can still all be traced back to them and their continual abuses of power :)

[nadia-el-mansours]

Your name, that's all it took.

[seveneyesoup]

ngl i’m still worried. like i Do have complete faith in ncuti gatwa but what i Don’t have is much faith at all in rtd’s writing about race

[the-one-that-weeps]

Isn't it fucked up how Mizuki, An and Rui are all characters in their unit that have had long running narratives that always build up in the background. Until it blows up in the character's faces and they're forced to confront it.

An with her feelings towards Kohane and Nagi

Mizuki with her secret

And Rui with Asahi (and also potential disbandement problems happening again ? Idk where colorpalet is taking WxS so idk)

It's also always about their abandonnement issues

We got An4 and Mizuki5, absolute murderer events where all of the build up just blows up and EVERYONE is in pain.

So uhm...thoughts and prayers towards Rui in case anything happens to him, I'm just gonna say that

How can you be so right. This is criminal/pos

Me and my buddies, we use the narrative to hide our issues regardless of the outcome. Damn

I actually think An5 is a better example of this. An5 is just An going "auhh but I'm so lame,, augh,,,," and then fighting it out by using all the pent up emotions she stored for. Pretty much all her events. That and WL An too.

Also down with the purple bastard I hope he burns. Ruibloom was FAR to merciful on him I think... It's time to make him pay.

[faaun]

pls i need to provide updates

[lucyvaleheart]

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[iniziare]

Tag drop: Jingliu

[fappellmoan]

worst texts to receive from the worst person you know

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Sometimes I get a bit ticked about the whole "invisible Canada" thing, but I went to a visiting scholar lecture about the Battle of the North Atlantic in WW2 from a British academic this morning, and he verbatim said: "Canada isn't involved enough it makes a difference." And the friend I went with pats my shoulder like, "I'm sure you guys did everything that you could do."

If that isn't the most concise summation of general opinions of Atlantic history I've ever seen, I'll never see a better one.

[girls-and-honey]

hey does anyone want to come over and knock me out cartoon style with a frying pan or perhaps an anvil so I can get some sleep

[machinavocis]

.

[tobacconist]

that statue the pope has behind him in his audience room really is so bizarre and creepy...

[aaami]

The psychiatric nurse told me that I should try drawing something small, nothing too complicated, so I guess I'm gonna try soon :')))

[cruelsister-moved2]

reading the creation of patriarchy is genuinely making me cry... it has really serious flaws and i disagree with parts quite majorly but any time i think about the genuine hopelessness and complete dehumanisation the vast majority of women in history lived through i just go so crazy and im torn because sometimes i feel so hopeless about the way things are today and i see how many men still fundamentally hold ideas, but i also cant even comprehend the enormity of suffering that was basically an unquestioned part of women’s experiences for thousands of years... like the fact it took society so long to even care 😭 like “There had never been any woman or group of women who had lived without male protection, as far as most women knew. There had never been any group of persons like them who had done anything significant for themselves. Women had no history—so they were told; so they believed.” 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[pepprs]

mutuals i overslept 😭😭😭😭😭😭