#ALSO i find it interesting how people in every culture find a way to exploit these disorders for personal gain.

[funstyle]

i love reading about what are classified as "culture-bound disorders" like it really opens my eyes to how euro-american psychiatry oversimplifies things. the physical and psychological effects of grief were so intense and impossible to articulate for me. like of course it's no wonder that every culture has its own words and explanations for it. it's more than just grief or trauma. it's a demon. or a witch's curse. or being possessed by the ghosts of the deceased. or a mysterious illness that makes you act out violently. all across the world and forever and ever we've been trying to rationalise our own pain to ourselves. we just want it all to make sense. idk. people treat psychiatry like it's law despite its gaping sociocultural blindspots huh

[commsroom]

OK I need you to point me to the nearest entry point into this fandom. I don’t know what this is, but you popped up on my dash.. and I need to know what this is. Please lead the way.

oh!! that's exciting. yes. okay!! wolf 359 is a science fiction audio drama about the isolated and questionably competent crew of a deep space research station, the u.s.s. hephaestus. the initial four characters are comms officer doug eiffel, 'everyman' pop culture guy who really, really hates his job; commander minkowski, who cares about her job and the rulebooks that come with it a little too much, and desperately wants to feel like she's keeping everything under control; dr. hilbert... eccentric? station medical officer and mad scientist whose methods and mission objectives are not entirely above board; and hera, the station's mother program, who struggles with her job and the ways she's perceived by others.

there are other characters who show up later - i would say only three of the above characters are "main" characters, while the actual fourth main character is introduced in s2 - but that requires way more context, and i don't want to get into spoilers, obviously.

wolf 359 is a character drama - it's my personal gold standard for character writing - and the brief descriptions i gave you are the most surface, surface level parts of them. the writers once said something about it, like... that they weren't interested in subverting typical sci-fi character archetypes so much as looking at them and asking "why would a real person behave that way?" and i think it really worked. whether i like them or not, they all feel like real people to me. it has great sound design and a lot of "physicality" in the performances for an audio-only show, which i think comes down to gabriel urbina's film background and the way the scripts are written and performed. (and alan rodi's incredible soundtrack and sense for music cues.) you can't see a lot of what's in the scripts, but they're acted out in a way that you can kinda feel it anyway. i love that.

here's a fan made trailer that i think captures a lot of the right energy. it's a show about a lot of things, but some of the primary themes are communication + music, and i think the collaborative nature of the show itself adds something very sincere to that. it's also about corporate and medical exploitation, resisting dehumanization, what makes us human, connection, identity and autonomy, guilt and accountability, the stories people tell themselves to justify who they are or what they feel it's necessary for them to do, and, of course, the enduring philosophical question: "what's wrong with handcuffs?"

you can check it out at the website i linked above, or anywhere you can listen to podcast feeds! it's free, but they added ads a few years ago, which i hate, so you can pay a dollar here for the ad-free feed if that'll make a big difference in your ability to enjoy it: https://www.patreon.com/Wolf359Radio

it's a sequential story, nothing you really need to know about listening order except that i recommend not skipping the mini episodes (they have important character context and are where they are in the feed for a reason) (with the exception of mission mishaps ones near the end; those are comedy bonus episodes you can listen to whenever) and that you should definitely watch the live show after ep 26 and listen to special episode change of mind between s3 and s4.

i also have a folder here of every recording script where i edited any parts that were different from the show's dialogue + added transcripts for the ones that didn't have available recording scripts, if that's something you'd find useful! i also recommend checking them out just to see what i mean about how they're written.

the first season is pretty short, so i'd say stick with it until at least episode 12/13 (two part finale) if you can - i love the first season, personally, but that's the point it really becomes serialized, and so that's where i think you can safely say if it's something that's going to capture your interest or not. ... and that's it! sorry this is kind of an essay, but i got excited about it. i hope you love the show, please keep me updated, and let me know if there's anything else!!

[bonaesperanza]

I feel like the Grysk work way better than the Yuuzhan Vong as the "nebulous threat" that Thrawn is fighting against because they are clearly tailor made to highlight how wrong Thrawn can be due to his own personal weaknesses.

The entire plot of the Ascendancy trilogy is the Grysk gaining footing through 100% political means - they use espionage to discover the internal divisions and weak points of a country's political system and then attack that, an issue that is probably better addressed through collaboration and the strengthening of the country's political culture and institutions (the Chiss are so quick to abandon their national interests in the face of internal divisions). Thrawn wins every single battle in that trilogy and yet everyone, including himself, is way worse off than where they started and at great risk from the Grysks simply because the Chiss political system is so unstable and because their culture sees collaboration with other races as fundamentally undesirable.

And what Thrawn, who is also either incapable of or completely uninterested in thinking about politics, concludes from all this is, "Ah, yes, this is a problem that can only be solved by throwing more military power at it. Preferably military power run by an authoritarian state that tries to eradicate any trace of political pluralism, because that will make them less vulnerable to the exploitation of the political actors' rivalries and personal interests."

And then he spends, what, fifteen years working with people like Tarkin and Krennic, while having to constantly extinguish rebellions that are popping up everywhere due to the Empire's oppressive policies, and still somehow thinks that the Grysks wouldn't be able to deal with the Empire easily. The Empire that didn't even need them to topple itself through internal conflict in less than a generation - if the Grysks wanted to conquer it, all they'd have to do is wait.

And after reading Lesser Evil I really think that at least part of it is due to some personal drives/needs he's not self-aware enough to address: he says it point-blank that he never believed the Ascendancy would give him an admiralship, and you see hints of his constant frustration at people not understanding him and him having to teach them (sometimes from a position of less power than they have, sometimes when they really don't care to be taught) both through Thrass's POV and through his very slight (but noticeable by his standards) emotional unraveling by the end of the book (e.s. the scene with Unghali where he gets all angry and scary).

Because he has never naturally arrived at the limit of his own competence but was always hamstrung by others, he has no means of differentiating between when he's theoretically right but the politics are obstructing him and when he's actually wrong and the solution is outside of his sphere of competence.

So of course that a political system where being a flag officer means that he gets to do whatever the fuck he wants as long as he convinces one guy of it, where he gets to teach people how to think better and pick only them for positions of power, in a country with no pesky norms about preemptive strikes that he constantly needs to rule lawyer around, sounds appealing.

It's not just about the Ascendancy now, it's also about showing what he can do when not too obstructed, and it's also the first time he has enough free reign to slam headfirst into the big wall of his own lack of capacity or desire to understand politics. But hey, at least he's free to fuck around and find out, not feeling constantly frustrated and overly controlled!

Truly the most character of all time, I love it. People complain about how Zahn babygirlified him in the new canon books just because they're from his POV when switching out the Vong for the Grysk makes him more unambiguously wrong than he was in Legends (where you got other people like Jacen Solo following the same rationale).

[bonefall]

Could you tell us some more about your Lizardstripe? It always annoyed me that the only cat in canon to point out double standards regarding kits was also the horrible mother that they blamed for all of Brokenstar’s issues. I’m glad she’s portrayed more sympathetically here though, with her friend group and role as Bluestar’s lawyer.

Anything out of BB!ShadowClan takes like, a Star Wars opening scroll of text to explain to an outsider and that's how I LIKE IT

It's my personal mission to inject nuance chemical into every woman demonized by Canon WC. Brokenstar isn't bad because he had a sad childhood or something, it was literally generations of culture turning toxic and demanding a cosmic reckoning from which he was born, moulded by, and ultimately embodied of his own free will.

Evil Women Who Weren't Good Mothers aren't responsible for his actions

Anyway, Lizardstripe.

She is gonna get her own summary at some point (I kinda want to do a ShadowClan Month at some point for the biggest ShC characters, like Nightstar, Russetfur, Stumptail, etc), but here's shards for now;

She's related to old Finchflight in some way. The timeline is getting reduxed and Finch is VERY dead by the time of TPB.

So she's either a child of his, or a niece. Finch is Yellowfang’s age (mid teens in TPB), Lizard is Bluestar's (10-ish)

She was a young mom, less than 2, she met the Forget-me-nots after she was already pregnant.

She wasn't actually raising Brokenstar, just suckling him. Ragged was doing that.

Lizard was still not a great mom. She didn't enjoy it at all, and was often getting bored and frustrated

She would often bring the kittens out into the woods on training exercises, activities they were TOO young for.

Runningkit, Deerkit, and Tanglekit were always covered in dings, bumps, ticks, and things that kept putting them in Yellowfang’s den as a result. Lizard was talked to more than once for this

When Brokenkit joined in on this, mysteriously, he was NEVER covered in dings. Like he was developing faster and was more agile than the others. Deerkit was jealous, Tanglekit thought it was AWESOME

Runningkit was developing a bit of a bully streak, realizing that he could exploit this by getting his sibs mad at him, and then hiding behind Broken

Lizard was always being forced to step in and take control of the situations by trying to break up the Dastardly Duo, but then would be OVERRULED by Raggedstar, who wanted his son to hang out with his friend

If Yellowfang didn't notice it herself, she would definitely learn through Lizard that these two should NOT be allowed to multiply their terror with power

But, that's more about them than Lizard.

She's a lot more than just someone's mom. She's a friend of Bluestar's, and the ShadowClan representative in the Forget-me-nots!

WOW her ShadowClan sense of humor is sharp. She can be VICIOUS

She often finds herself having to smooth her jokes over after making a comment that's too mean. What's just part of ShadowClan humor can be cutting to cats in other Clans

Oakheart is actually the one cat who never seems to get hurt, "i like your funny words lizardman"

She likes teasing Bluefur, she's just so easily flustered! And she cares so much about other people,

"Stars, you make me want to yack up a hairball, Bloof."

When Bluefur earns the name Bluemoon (unsure how yet) Lizardstripe b'awws that her nickname is going to be too cool now.

(In Clanmew, it's Luparfaf, Luf, vs Luparshom, Lum)

Lizardstripe and Barley Senior are the two smartest members of the group. Barley is all about logistics, schemas, building and working out plans for meeting up and not getting caught.

Lizardstripe knows what's going on in people's heads. She can be a manipulative mastermind, when she REALLY wants something.

I think she gave Blue and Hoprunner a lot of good advice on how to achieve their ambitions, but, she wasn't really interested in that extra responsibility herself

"What and have to deal with Raggedstar's wishy washy ass and his angelic brat more than i already do? I'd rather kiss a thistle."

What Lizi really liked in her life was the pleasure of it all. Sneaking around, teasing Bluefur, helping out Barley, wrestling Hoprunner. Playing games with her Clanmates, staying late at Gatherings.

She loves her freedom, the ability to decide where to spend her time

She was the first of the Forget-me-nots to die, a year or two after Bluestar took power, in a ferocious battle with WindClan.

Current draft: Talltail's son, Flytail, killed her violently in Heatherstar's Last Stand, the decisive battle that truly "ended" the Mothermouth Moorland War.

After that battle, ShadowClan lost a strategic area and could never regain their foothold. Raggedstar tried to surrender the next year, which was when Brokentail killed him.

Lizardstripe and Mudfoot being lost in the same year was one of the things he and Runningnose cited to each other as "reasons why" WindClan had to pay

If they died for nothing, if SO many had just fought in a war they lost... then it was all for nothing.

Warriors don't accept peace deals.

They fight, they fight to the last cat standing.

I think the news hit all of the Forget-me-nots hard. They hadn't met up in a while, their ambitions driving them apart over time, but... that didn't make it less difficult. No one thought she would be the first.

I think she's my favorite of the little friend group tbh, I'm fond of the Angel Lawyer Friend.

[illarian-rambling]

*in the most elegant, immaculate handwriting imaginable*

Dear Elsind,

I saw your column, and am in fact rather in need of advice. I’ve tried asking my good friend Amelia, but she just laughs uproariously every time I do, so I’ve given up on getting a straight answer from her.

I recently got a new coworker at my workplace, and he’s… very attractive, to say the least. His name is Merry, and he’s absolutely lovely. We’ve become fast friends, and I’ll admit I’m developing a bit of a crush on him. Luckily, the place I work is very unbothered by workplace relationships, but I have a lot of other problems.

First of all, I believe I may have mentioned I’m married in front of him. While my husbands wouldn’t mind me seeing him as well, I know a lot of pirates (oh, yes, context: I am a pirate) are very disapproving of polyamory and I don’t know how he’d react. I’m also asexual, and I’m not sure how he’d react to that either, since my people (I’m a siren) are generally stereotyped as seductive and expected to behave in a very certain way.

That being said, I keep feeling like he’s flirting with me. By pirate standards, he’s absolutely not. But he’s consistently started dressing more colourfully and elegantly and going out of his way to ask me what I think of his outfit. He’s also given me a few small trinkets he found at the market. Both of these are significant signifiers of flirting in my culture, and even though I know he couldn’t possibly know my cultural signifiers of flirting, I can’t help but feel like it means something.

Any advice you have would be welcome. If he is flirting with me, I’d love to see where it goes - he’s really a wonderful man (and I’ll admit I might have been dressing up for him a bit too). But if he isn’t interested, I’d hate to make him uncomfortable having to work on the same ship as me every day, especially since I outrank him (I’d never pressure him into anything, and Amelia would kill me if I did, but I can’t be sure he knows that). I’m not certain how best to proceed.

Much thanks,

Malcolm Lee

*In passibly legible cursive, hearts dotting all the I's*

Thanks so much for writing in, Malcolm!

This is a delicate situation you've found yourself in, but also, I think, a great opportunity. You're right - even in such a relaxed environment, coworker relationships can be tough. It gets messy when rank factors in, and if you ever break up, then you're just stuck seeing them everyday anyways.

But things are looking up for you! It would be quite the coincidence if Merry out of nowhere started engaging in siren flirting behaviors (I'm assuming your word for siren is different from mine, as the siren flirting I'm familiar with involves quite a few more human sacrifices). However, if I was a strapping pirate trying to show interest in my siren shipmate, I would read up on how sirens flirt and try to get him to take the hint. It's a really caring thing to do and a total green flag, in my opinion. Of course, yes, it could be a coincidence, but that's the boring answer!

As for the polyamory and asexuality, that's a conversation you're going to have to have up front with him. Make sure, if he is interested in seeing you, that he understands the possible risks involved. Also, definitely introduce him to your husbands. I don't know your exact situation, but all the polycules I've seen work best when every member is on friendly terms with the others. Asexuality is also something to talk about right off the bat. Make sure he's aware of your boundaries, especially when he might assume otherwise due to racial stereotypes. I can relate to you there - changelings are frequently assumed to be promiscuous due to a tendency to wear attractive faces as a social shield and a history of sexual exploitation. In my relationships, though I'm not asexual, I do have some strict boundaries when it comes to intimacy, and I find it best to be clear about these from the get-go. It's a good way to establish trust early on and also to use as a litmus test for your partner's respect for you. If your Merry is truly a worthwhile lover, he'll understand.

Ultimately, I think you should go for it! To me, it seems like he's trying to be subtle, but he's definitely interested in you. Maybe ask him out for a late-night picnic on the deck (I don't know anything about ships) and spill your heart there. I wish you luck, whatever you decide to do!

Ever your friend,

Elsind Cavernsight

(From this ask game)

[thethirdromana]

Something I find interesting about Deep Space Nine is how little it tells the story of Bajor, especially after season 3 or so.

The pilot set up a show in which Bajor could have been central - specifically, the post-colonial story of the planet and its people working out how to recover from the Occupation and govern themselves. And sometimes the series returns to the same themes, particularly in Accession (the one that moots the return of Bajor's pre-colonial caste system), The Circle three-parter (the one with the attempted coup against the provisional governors) and Shakaar (the one with the soil reclamators). We also get some sense of what's happening through Kai Winn's appearances.

All the same, it doesn't feel like the story of Bajor is even really a B-plot most of the time, it's just something we check in on every so often (frequently through the lens of Kira's boyfriends). The series does feel interested in Bajoran religion, but usually through the vehicle of Sisko as the Emissary, so it's detached from Bajor itself. When we do get Bajoran politics, it's mostly about the specific relationship between Bajor and the Federation. And though I haven't counted up episodes, it feels to me like we get way more about Cardassian politics than Bajoran ones.

I'm trying to write this in a neutral way because I love the story that the series did decide to tell, but I can't help but feel it's a pity we didn't get learn more about Bajoran daily life and politics.

E.g. how much of their original political system was still extant? Did they have to rebuild it? Were there tensions about what form that should take?

Did the Cardassian retreat leave skills shortages? Was Bajor able to create a civil service from nothing? Or were there Bajorans employed by the Cardassians who were allowed to stay in their previous roles? Were those people still trusted?

How about culture? Was there a deliberate attempt to de-Cardassianise Bajor? Accession is fascinating from this perspective, but were there any other cultural practices from Bajor's past that they wanted back - or didn't?

And how about Bajor's economy, in the transition from Cardassian exploitation to an economy run for the benefit of Bajorans? A lot of countries, even decades after colonialism, continue to focus on the industries that colonisers prioritised (for good reason) - how does that work when Bajor is increasingly exposed to post-scarcity economies?

I think the thing I want is the kind of filling out of the backstory of Bajor that A Stitch in Time and The Never-Ending Sacrifice provided for Cardassia. Maybe it already exists in one of the many tie-in novels or longer fanfics and I just need to find it?

[barefootbaltimore]

I just saw a post talking about Disney Princesses and the trope of a "strong female character" which is a conversation near and dear to my heart but I didn't agree with some of the ways OP framed the idea of feminism as a whole so I'm making my own post.

Classic, more stereotypically "feminine" Disney princesses have just as valid, if different, messages for children, and people as a whole, as modern more "strong" princesses. I feel like in 2024 this isn't really a hot take. I feel like we all know this. We know that "strength" shouldn't have to mean being loud and rebellious and a good fighter, and we know that "feminine" doesn't have to mean weak, and passive, and "a bad influence". At least we should know this.

And obviously we all know that no one children's movie is going to act as a person's entire model for how to be a person. Which is great because as much as I personally love classic Disney movies even the modern ones suffer from the use of racist, antisemitic, and ableist stereotypes. People need a wide range of role models and cultural touchstones and no one character or plot is going to "corrupt" them.

That said here are all of the ways some of the Disney princesses who used to be labeled as "bad influences" or "anti feminist" empowered me personally as a child and even today:

Snow White: This girl had an evil stepmother who tried to have her murdered, then she was left to find for herself in the woods. She'd have every right to rage and scream and never be kind or trust ever again. But she doesn't. She is still kind, she still trusts ( some times a bit too freely) and she makes a home and happiness where she is. She never blames herself for her abuse and neither do her friends. They believe her and they do their best to protect her. As a young girl who was being abused by her step-mom this was a powerful message for me. I can be happy after this. People will love me. I can be a kinder person. This doesn't define me.

Cinderella: Similar to Snow White in a lot of ways but shows even more how during the abuse Cinderella finds moments of joy and love and friendship. Her step sisters destroying her dress mirrors experiences I've had as a child, I know the devastation she was feeling. So the most important lesson for me, a child with very little control over her own life, was that someone could still come save me. I know that tends to be the exact opposite of the desire to have the princess save herself, and as an adult connect to those characters a bit more, but when I was watching Cinderella regularly? I needed to feel like if I could just find some happiness in my days then one day I would be rescued. Surviving until help arrives is also strength.

Belle: Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairytale so Belle was, naturally my favorite princess. Also she loved books and *I* loved books so obviously we were basically the same. Belle isn't abused, she has her father and even though people in town see her as kind of weird she has some people, like the bookseller, who are kind. The thing I love about this movie in particular is that the point of her character *is* that she is so much more than what people see. Just like Beast. It's no wonder that her name means beauty after all. Then her father goes missing and she is determined to find him, to save him. And she does, she willingly trades herself so that her father will go free. That's bravery. As a little girl who thought my dad was a superhero I liked to think I'd save him if he needed it. Then at the end of the movie she risks her life to save Beast as well. She's kind of a badass actually.

Ariel: I'm gonna be real if I had to hear one person slander this child for being manipulated into giving up her voice to live the life she always wanted I'd have been on the news. Like the lesson is right fucking there. Her family didn't support her interests or dreams and it drove her to someone who was looking to exploit a distressed kid for her own goals. This isn't rocket science people. Support your kids but also giving up your voice is *never* worth it. The other ways might be harder or take longer but you need your voice to advocate for yourself and to be your full self. Don't lessen who you are, it will bite you in the ass.

Sleeping Beauty: Okay heres a little note on Aurora. There really is no way to look at that movie and say Aurora was much more than a plot device. I mean she was also seen to be making the best out of a tough living situation but mostly this is Phillips movie and I accept that. She plays the setpiece role that the Main Characters love interest always had in those early Disney movies. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing it's just a thing.

Anyway thanks for coming along on this long and kind of pointless post. Remember to continue to boycott Disney because they are a horrible corporation and also because the BDS movement has called for a number of boycotts of Disney services and movies. Cancel that Disney+ and watch your old DVDs instead. And as always Free Palestine, Free Sudan, Free Congo.

[sshbpodcast]

Wake me when Season 1 of Enterprise gets interesting

by Ames

Season one of Enterprise just seemed to fly by, and thank goodness because we’re not finding it all that great, to be honest. Too much of it feels like more of the same stories that previous Treks have already told way better, but with less likable characters, less nuanced writing, and so much sexual objectification that we feel ill just watching it sometimes.

Sure, it’s still probably better than season one of TNG, which had more objectively BAD episodes, but it’s surprising to your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By just how boring this show is so far. We’ve noted a bunch of times over in our podcast coverage that there never seems to be any stakes because every opportunity for some character (main, side, guest, even background) to get killed, they never do. So grab your phase pistol and see what we had to wade through to get here in our usual bottom and top episodes from the season below and also in this week’s podcast chat (jump to 56:26 for season discussion). Cap’n.

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Bottom Three Episodes

There was a lot to dislike this season and I’m pretty sure we covered most of this season’s dreck in our typically varied responses here. Good work, “Cold Front,” you managed to squeak through somehow despite that terrible airlock scene.

“The Andorian Incident”: Ames If you’ve been following along with our podcast coverage, you’re probably as tired of me hating on Archer as I am of Archer hating on Vulcans, and this is where that sour taste really transpired. It’s a whole episode of our captain going lightyears out of his way to ruin some Vulcans’ day and then patting himself on the back for being justified about being so racist.

“Silent Enemy”: Chris Talk about uneven. What was almost an intriguing suspense episode about the crew being wholly unprepared for the kinds of enemies you find in space is thoroughly undercut by a mismatched B plot that, while cute, is distracting as hell, and by some really laughable alien design. At least Reed gets some pineapple cake.

“Fight or Flight”: Jake Poor Sluggo, we hardly knew thee. Boy, does this show start off with characters it’s just hard to care about. We’ve got Hoshi being pathetic in an “overcoming your fears” plotline so predictable I could have called every beat. And Archer simultaneously being indecisive and whining about his decisions at the same time. And then the metaphor with releasing the slug doesn’t even mesh!

“Fortunate Son”: Jake While it’s unfortunate how little Mayweather gets to do, I can’t say I feel that bad about it considering that everything he does get to do in this episode is annoying as hell. We’d love to see more about his upbringing as a boomer and the culture clash therein, but this episode botches it hard by making all the Fortunate crew assholes!

“Broken Bow”: Caitlin, Chris The whole series really gets off on the wrong foot with a premiere that is simultaneously too little and too much all at once. Between the Klingons, the Suliban, the Vulcans, the flashback scenes with Archer’s dad, the weird time room with the Humanoid Figure, AND introducing us to the whole crew, there are too many things happening, but absolutely none of them are interesting!

“Dear Doctor”: Ames, Caitlin All season long, we’ve been struggling with what we think of the Phlox character, and it mostly boils down to us finding him offputting. So of course the most Phlox-centric episode is in our bottoms list. Certainly helping matters is the fact that both Phlox AND the writers don’t understand evolution at all and use that as an excuse to genocide a people. Oops.

“Fusion”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake But the one that gets votes from all your SSHB hosts is the episode that sexually exploits the token hot character, as always. Hang on, that doesn’t narrow it down. It’s the one with the mind rapist Vulcan who takes advantage of T’Pol, entirely muddying whatever message about Vulcans this whole season was trying to make. Turns out they’re ALL just monsters, but in different ways, except for one you’ll see in our top episodes.

—

Top Three Episodes

It’s hard to call these “top” episodes of anything, as you’ll see we all pretty much agreed on two episodes this season that were genuinely enjoyable, and each of us frankly struggled to think of a third that we could see giving any accolades to...

“Acquisition”: Chris Listen, we don’t like it any more than you do, but there weren’t enough decent episodes this season and Chris had to include this retread of much better episodes. But you know what: the Ferengi hit us right in the fanservice spot, the veteran alumni are all pros, and aside from all the oomox, it was at least entertaining.

“Oasis”: Jake Back when we were covering season 2 of DS9, Jake put “Shadowplay” on his tops list, so it’s only fitting that he essentially do it again with this carbon copy of an episode. I guess there’s nothing wrong with doing the same idea twice when it’s a good one like this. It’s even got Rene Auberjonois! What’s not to like?

“Fallen Hero”: Caitlin One more “I know that face!” episode coaxing an emotional reaction out of us, which is almost certainly exactly what the show wanted to achieve. In this case, we have to give Fionnula Flanagan some credit for bringing some much needed nuance to the Vulcans, who badly needed it this season.

“Vox Sola”: Ames The final one-off episode that we scraped up to include on this list. And no, it’s not perfect by any stretch, but I have to give it some credit for giving us a truly alien alien, which I’m always a fan of watching our crew interact with. And T’Pol and Sato got to have some scenes together, which is a nice character pairing!

“Shockwave, Part I”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake Thank goodness for this season finale. Without it, I have no idea how deep into the bench we’d have to dig for other Top Episodes. But I have to hand it to this finale: this was the first time I felt like there were stakes and consequences. And what a cliffhanger! Say what you will about the Temporal Cold War, but seeing a ravaged 31st century scene sure makes things interesting.

“Shuttlepod One”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake But the one episode I can say we all legitimately liked this season was one of the great bottle episodes of Trek. Proving yet again that less is more, this little character piece leans on the acting chops of Connor Trineer and Dominic Keating, whose chemistry together is lovely to watch. Just super solid all around.

—

Pass the pecan pie, the rocky road ice cream, and the pineapple cake; we’re on for dessert! We’re hoping season two shapes up better overall than this one, so find out with us as we watch along in our podcast coverage over on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts, bounce a message off of Echo One on Facebook and Twitter, and get me a spoon!

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s2 ep 14: Alliances

I didn't remember this one, so it was an interesting watch. I like the idea of Voyager trying to find allies in the Delta Quadrant, but the first place they looked being the Kazon was... a weird choice, to put it nicely.

First of all, Chakotay coming to the Captain and being all 'the Kazon are attacking all the time, our Starfleet rules are clearly the problem!' was a little nonsensical, and then he offered absolutely no suggestion for what to do instead of what they were already doing, so that whole scene was kind of a head scratcher. (Chakotay has been kind of a bitchy jerk these past few episodes- why? To what end? Why do the writers constantly try to undermine their main characters on this show??)

The former Maquis crewmen being in favor of giving the Kazon what they want in the hopes they'd go away was an interesting plot development, and I actually do kind of like it when they point out that the two crews haven't actually become the Brady Bunch yet at this point. It was obviously put there to set up later plot points down the line, but Captain Janeway's unequivical response that she would blow up the ship before she'd give the Kazon any part of it was, frankly, badass as hell, and I'm 100% with her. I would die for her tbh, what a queen.

Tuvok being in favor of allying themselves with the Kazon was a little out of character I feel, since he usually advocates caution in nearly every situation. His likening it to the peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingons was a bit of a false equivalency, since the Federation and the Klingons had dealt with each other for centuries before that treaty was made, and they occupied the same reagion of space permanently and knew each other's cultures and motives pretty well after all that time. Considering that was not the case with the Kazon, it did seem like a pretty dumb idea to try to make an alliance with the people who have been actively attacking them from day one.

But anyway, The Captain decides to do it, and almost everybody is like 'omg no!' including Chakotay, who whined to her about it in the first place, and she rightly calls out his hypocrisy in wanting to do something unconventional and then balking when it wouldn't be fun or easy.

I love how B'Elanna was one of the few people to unequivically support the Captain, even to her former Maquis friends when they try to appeal to her Maquis loyalties. She's really come a long way from the first ep when she questioned who the hell Janeway was to give them orders, to telling her Maquis friend not to question Janeway's orders in front of her. I love how B'Elanna has come to trust the Captain so completely in this short time, the respect and friendship that's grown between them is so wonderful, and one of my favorite things in these early seasons.

I hated the scene where Neelix goes to a bar on a planet to get his friend to persuade one of the Kazon sects to ally with Voyager. There was absolutely no reason they needed to have a half naked dancing girl in a bikini in that scene at all, let alone dancing around in the background of the whole scene. Aside from being sick of gratuitous female nudity in everything (and a thong where you could see her whole ass counts as nudity, how were they even allowed to do that on network TV in those days??) I'm sick of the implication that the entire universe is catered to the tastes of straight men from patriarchal societies. Where are the half naked male dancers?? Oh, they don't exist?? The whole universe is made to cater to straight men who enjoy exploiting women?? Sure, Jan. Gag me with a spoon.

Also hated how they just had to keep bringing up how the Kazon hated negotiating with a woman. Creating ragingly misogynist villains on the first series with a female captain was a total dick move. When we should've just been able to have a female character being large and in charge without regard to gender, instead we get constant reminders that she's a woman, and therefore should be considered lesser. I don't care that it was the villains saying it, it's still a gross and shitty thing to throw in the way of a female lead in a world where a lot of people did, and still do, actually feel that way. Why does their garbage viewpoint even get a space at the table? That attitude does not deserve a platform, and Star Trek should be the last one to give it to them.

The maquis guy trying to contact Seska was kind of odd after they found out she was a Cardassian spy (they told the rest of the crew about that, right?? Idk, maybe not lol). You'd think the Maquis, who had been fighting the Cardassians, would hate her most of all, but it's an interesting idea to have all these rogue crewmembers working with the enemy, and it does set up the potential for future conflicts, so I'll go with it.

The Kazon's former oppressors the Trabe being introduced as refugees on the planet, fleeing the Kazon, was a nice twist, and explaining that the Kazon's ships were all stolen from them finally made the Kazon having ships make sense. Allying with the Trabe seemingly made more sense, but the way the Trabe leader was being played seemed kind of insincere, so his betrayal at the conference at the end was pretty easy to see coming, even though I truly didn't remember anything from this episode at all.

In the end, the lesson we learned here was what I thought from the beginning- that they were too new to the Delta Quadrant to be wading into any kind of politics with people they don't really know, and that Captain Janeway was right all along in sticking to their Starfleet mission and principles. Surprise! (But not really.)

I appreciated that it tried to do something a little different in getting more into the politics of the Delta Quadrant, but unfortunately, the Kazon are such one dimensional villains that it made the whole story a bit uninteresting and unbelieveable.

Tl;dr: An attempt to do more of a political story that didn't quite work, but which introduced some interesting plot points to explore in later episodes.

[aorish]

Can you please explain why you hate Marxism? (I already suspect what you are going to say, but I have never read Marx, and I assume you have)

The main objection I have, that really precludes Marxism more than refutes it, is that I reject the idea of social conflict theory; I'm highly skeptical that groups like "the bourgeoisie" and "the proletariat" can be said to meaningfully exist in a way that stands up to any sort of rigorous analysis, and I don't really buy that a claim like this could even be in a category of claims that I could believe - it's just too broadly defined to meet any standard of evidence. But I'm a mereological nihilist and a reductionist to a fault - the existence of "gunk" (a technical term) such as cultures to be interpreted or social systems to be analyzed is all utter nonsense to me, there are single humans and there is all of humanity and there are no meaningfully distinct groups in between beyond utter trivialities of definition (left handed people are not righthanded, etc). And I see this issue as mostly unresponded to or unexamined in scholarly literature; so while it's true that my philosophical worldview here renders several whole academic fields obsolete beyond Marxism but I largely believe the failure modes are identical for all of them and that they have not made their case.

Beyond my own insurmountable standards of evidence, I'm not sure I see the practicality of it? I'm aware that some Marxists avoid the sort of conspiratorial pitfall you commonly see where people believe that "the class war" is willfully being fought by the Other Side, that some cigar-smoking fat old white men in business suits and monocles are plotting on how to beat exploit the working class, and the only way to beat them is to raise class consciousness and plot against them even harder. But if this isn't the desired end-state of your ideology I'm just not sure what the point even is?

My annoyance with Marxists also extends beyond this, which I take to be a more charitable assumption, that "Marxist" refers to someone who has read, understood, and agreed with Marx. What are much more intolerable are the wider set of "Marxists" who are more "fans" than "followers" of Marx, and buy into the whole cult of personality and hagiography where Marx is said to have read Hegel or even studied under him (the latter chronologically impossible), or made some great contributions to calculus or history or economics or sociology, or whatever else. These people are mostly guilty of being twenty years old and trying on political ideologies the way old ladies in fancy clothing stores try on hats. There's no point in engaging them, because they'll lose interest in Marx just as fast as they acquired it, either once it stops paying social dividends or as soon as they find something else that pays more. They usually have shockingly reactionary other political views, usually again without much depth to them. Following past generations most of them will probably convert to Catholicism once they land a job that requires them to pay taxes. But they outnumber every other sort of leftist by a factor of ten and so I hate them all for it so, so much.

And realistically I've only got a finite amount of time and brain power on this planet. So in practice if someone who's a public intellectual calls themselves a Marxist or takes a "Marxist approach" to history or economics or aesthetics or whatever, I just write them off as a moron and don't even attempt to engage. It's not worth my time, to put it like a rat-adj, my prior on their level of epistemic hygiene is just too low.

[bestworstcase]

A lot of people don't like it when I point out that Vacuo is a dystopia (feeling that the fact that it's anti-Atlas and a victim of imperialism justifies all of its modern day policies), but I would like to point out that Menagerie is canonically in even worse shape than Vacuo economically and yet STILL manages to base it's culture on something other than "culling the weak", in spite of the fact that it has far FEWER allies than Vacuo does.

And yet, Menagerie isn't a dystopian hellhole the way Vacuo is. It's far more stable even though Adam almost started a Civil War at a FAR more politically unstable time than the Crown did.

Menagerie highlights how Vacuans don't NEED to be monsters to survive, they just choose to be their worst possible selves.

not just economically, geographically too. the vacuan desert is harsh and dangerous; the menagerian interior is uninhabitable. kuo kuana is the most crowded city in the world because the four kingdoms cordoned off as many faunus as possible on a small continent of which only a tiny fraction of the land is habitable. (and it’s not because of the grimm! blake says the wildlife in menagerie is a lot more dangerous than that of the vacuan desert and i want to know what the FUCK kind of beasts they’ve got that are worse than mole crabs.) and while obviously it’s easier to subsist on the coast than in the middle of a desert, coastal living has its own dangers and the people of kuo kuana don’t have any habitable higher ground to retreat to if a hurricane or tsunami swamps their homes. the environmental precariousness vacuans face, the constant danger of losing their homes to a natural disaster, is also present in menagerie.

and there’s another point of similarity in that the national identity of both states is so strongly defined by the history of suffering and exploitation by the other three kingdoms: the city vacuans have this… almost sour grapes, spiteful pride thing of “our home used to be a perfect paradise but we were COMFORTABLE and LAZY and that made us so WEAK we let people conquer and enslave us and now our home is hell on earth and we’re tougher and better than anyone else because suffering made us strong” whereas the people of menagerie have the bittersweet acknowledgment that they won the war for their rights and have a kingdom of their own now but also menagerie was given to them to shut them up and encourage them to segregate themselves from the rest of the world. and i think the key difference between these cultural narratives is that the menagerians own the fact that it still hurts, that turning that kick in the teeth into something good that they can really be proud of and find joy in doesn’t make it less discouraging to be rejected and neglected. meanwhile the city vacuans are multiple generations deep in trying to cope with the open wounds of this cultural trauma by telling themselves it was actually a good thing, that it was their fault for getting soft and it’s better now because it made them strong.

which makes the point you raised earlier about the nomadic tribes of the vacuan desert helping the city vacuans pretty interesting, i think? because the nomads have a markedly different relationship to the desert: fox’s tribe taught him that it’s beautiful and miraculous that life can persist in such a harsh environment and that the hardship makes each and every life all the more precious. yes it’s difficult, yes it’s dangerous, yes the desert will kill you if you don’t respect it, but the nomads live in it because they love the desert and they’re proud of themselves for being a part of it. there’s a lot of superficial overlap with the city vacuan attitude but the emotion behind it is one of appreciation, not resentment. and that much healthier mindset goes hand in hand with the nomadic culture being one that shaped fox into a well-adjusted, resilient, compassionate young man who believes that vacuo has “two kinds of people: those who were selfish and those who were fully dedicated to their community” and that selfishness is self-destructive; the beacon brigade, which gets ridiculed by the students of shade, is fox’s idea and he explicitly modeled it on the way his tribe supported each other.

and i think that’s probably the point rwby is building up to, with vacuo, that the rampant toxicity in city vacuan culture is a manifestation of festering trauma repeating itself from one generation to the next; it’s what you get when an entire nation tries to deal with imperial exploitation by burying it and pretending everything is fine, for centuries. they’re not bitter, they’re tough! they’re not resentful, they’re better than everybody else! there’s nothing wrong with them, their country is a shitty miserable hellscape nobody would ever want to live in but that’s FINE because it makes them STRONG and anyone who leaves is a traitor! and so forth. (in contrast fox leaves vacuo because he wants to live somewhere less dangerous, and when he comes back the nomads he encounters give him a warm welcome and tell him it doesn’t matter how far or how long he’s been away, he’s still one of them and he’ll always have a place here if he wants it.)

there’s this deep hurt that never healed, and when you get down to the foundations of what’s messed up in vacuo it’s just… that. menagerie healed after the faunus revolution and built a culture bound together by community support and ideals of equality, justice, and peace. the nomadic peoples of the vacuo accept hardship as a worthy price for living in the desert they chose as their home. both of these examples together reveal how city vacuans can move forward and fix what’s broken in their society.

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

I have nothing against Lottie, make your money girl while you can because the insta fame/money won’t be a guaranteed ride forever…, but I also find a lot of her projects not very authentic and more about making the most money . she’s dropped the ball on her tanning brand and barely promotes it anymore which is the opposite for genuine founders of companies, most are constantly shouting out their products to promote them 24/7. I think with Gemma she gives so little personal info about herself (which I actually find refreshing in a sea of over sharing every damn life detail) ….but her sunglass line also felt like a money grab to me that doesn’t have the heart behind it. I feel like alot of influencers who have brands have this mindset that if you have millions of followers, it will automatically equal to loads of money but that’s not the case. More and more people are being turned off by influencer culture because it’s oversaturated…so in order to stand out you have to be innovative and bring something unique to the table or people won’t buy what you’re trying to sell. Obviously this is all just my thoughts, not bashing any of them because like I said …make that money while people are still paying attention . But I am also going to be a critical consumer of every influencer trying to sell me something because so much of it is frankly a facade.

I think everything about influencing is terrifying and dystopian in its totality. Its bad for people who watch the content, for people who make the content and for us all. I think both Gemma and Lottie promote horrible lies that will make the world worse as core part of their influencing (greenwashing and making people feel worse so they'll buy beauty products).

I don't think making the world worse in some way is limited to influencers - it is unfortunate a part of a significant proportion of jobs under capitalism. What I think is particularly awful about influencing is the fact that it demands you not just to do terrible things - but be those things. (There's a whole other aspect of the exploitative nature of the industry around it - and Get Rich or Lie Trying by Symeon Brown is a really interesting exploration of that for all those who are interested).

But I think you're coming from a slightly different place anon - because you seem to focus on how well they're doing as influencers (something that I couldn't care less about), and then also authenticity.

In some ways I disagree with you about what makes things authentic. It was always really clear that Lottie's role in Tanologist was marketing. She's not an owner (the ownership structure is public knowledge) and wouldn't have anything to contribute to product development. But it's not inauthentic to lose interest in something!

More importantly - I hope that Gemma and Lottie and all other influencers are inauthentic in their social media posting that they do for money. The alternative is that they have allowed themselves to be entirely shaped by what would be most effective selling to people - which is much, much worse.

Finally I'm super unsure about the framing of a 'critical consumer' as something you could either be or not be. But I think it's really important to understand that influencing is all a facade - and it has to be.

[astercontrol]

I think the only sustainable form of online interaction is the small group-- be it a Discord server, a Mastodon instance, an email cc'd to a dozen friends who've been replying to each other on it for a year, or what-the-heck-ever.

And I'm not saying such online groups are likely to be sustainable individually. I'm saying that 1. they theoretically CAN be, and 2. when they fail they aren't utterly destroyed or fundamentally changed in their nature, they just break up into similar small groups that retain whichever social connections want to continue.

And this is a feature that only small groups can really manage...

(cw: troubling and depressing thoughts about Moderation Drama, debates over banned content and the boundaries thereof, potentially triggering topics)

The reason is because any moderation done on such groups is done by a person or people who have some capacity to grasp the job they're doing.

And who are doing it because they care about it. Not because they have some delusion that free social media can ever be profitable.

Now, their job is NOT EASY. It's extremely hard, sometimes. Even if you have a small number of people to moderate, you can get very overwhelmed very fast by the task of trying to enforce rules, trying to decide just what is and isn't covered by the wording of the rules, fielding accusations of bias and second-guessing yourself on whether you're enforcing rules equally and consistently for all members of the group. I tried it once, and I don't want to again.

But if the group is small, at least there's a good chance that the people in it will be making a good faith effort to get along with each other and resolve disputes reasonably.

The bigger the group, the more likely that there will be a large number of people on it actively trying to exploit loopholes in the rules or gaps in their enforcement-- often with the goal of spamming, scamming, or harassing people. And there is simply no way to moderate this sufficiently.

Say I'm in a small group of fanfiction writers, and the rules of the group say "no explicit sexual stories involving minors."

So far-- thank goodness --every small group I've been in lately has respected that rule-- no attempts to challenge it or debate its boundaries.

But ...That's a rule that could be a subject of intense debate if people WANTED to argue about it. How do you define a minor in, say, the world of Tron programs (who can look and act like adults on the same day they're created... and whose time system is so enigmatic that we can't even agree on what's the equivalent to a "year")? And how do you define an explicit sexual story, in the Tron fandom (where many of our erotic scenes are about characters touching each other's circuits nowhere near the genital area, and the climax gets called things like "overload" or "restart")? How in the world could you define any of the borders of that rule?

But a small, cooperative group will probably just go with it, and will have an overall agreement on what is meant, and will probably have no interest in breaking the agreed-upon spirit of the rule or debating the gray areas.

Now imagine a group large enough to have subcultures of not only spammers and scammers and trolls, but also bitterly feuding armies on both sides of a culture war. Right away, you'll be dealing with countless members finding ways to use that rule against each other:

"If you won't ban him over how he acts when he's debating social justice, you should at least ban him for posting a sex story about that character who never canonically has an age but In My Opinion is clearly an underage teenager"

"Moderators are biased against me! They used the no-sex-scenes-about-minors rule to ban my story where the character has flashbacks to being abused in childhood, but they won't ban that story about him hooking up with the AI right after creating him, even though the AI is less than a day old so it's clearly eroticizing this thing between a man and his newborn infant son"

"He has no business moralizing about other people's writing after THAT thing he wrote! just because no one's circuits turn purple in the scene doesn't change the fact that energy transfer is SEXUAL and between that pairing it's seriously CREEPY"

"I'm not slut-shaming her, I'm just saying that the OC she uses in her slutty roleplay claims to be 21 cycles old, so she'd BETTER make it clearer what side she's on in the argument over whether 'cycles' are days or years"

And the moment you get enough people questioning the boundaries of a rule like that (with or without ulterior motives against others, or accusations of unfairness) ... the moderator suddenly has to deal with constant attacks from all sides regarding their interpretation and application of the rules, no matter HOW many times in how many ways they tweak the wording and enforcement.

Not only can you not make everyone happy-- you can't even make everyone stop actively rooting for your death, calling you an oppressor/abuser/predator, and trying to cause you real-life harm. With enough people, the category of People Causing Serious Problems becomes far too big to be dealt with.

At this point a conscientious moderator who cares about the group will likely just give up.

A corporate owner of a social media site, who's gotten rich entirely by convincing stockholders that this venture will someday make money, is going to keep trying... but is not going to care enough to do it well. At all.

So... part of me hopes every online group I belong to will always stay small.

And I take at least some comfort in knowing that if the small ones get just slightly too big, parts can always break off and start anew.

(Dividing after reaching a certain size is natural cell behavior. Whatever is going on with major social media..... is not.)

[dungeons-and-divergency]

Hi there!

My name’s Barnie* and this is my oc depository and aesthetic blog. I’ll mostly be talking about my DnD/TTRPG characters but I may also include stuff for my novel characters. Neely Osbarrow has his own blog as I had a 8 month special interest in him. I don’t currently have those same buzzy feelings but maybe I will again some day so be sure to check out @neely-osbarrow​ if you enjoy him as a character.

My DnD characters in order of creation:

Sindri Ironeye (he/him)- A dwarven druid who left his mountain home young as no one there understood his affinity for all green and verdant

‘Duckie’ true name unknown (they/them)- An artificer/wizard (considering converting to an artificer/druid) gnome who maybe likes mushrooms a bit too much. They were a resident at a university until other people there got fed up with their unconventional ways of ‘study’ and they were thrown from the university. Though Duckie seems carefree and frankly high most of the time, they're actually looking for a way to resurrect their dead lover.

Neely Osbarrow (he/him)- An ex-cultist halfling ranger looking avenge his mother’s death and make sense of the world after finding out how much the cult he was brought up in twisted things beyond recognition. The cult all gone in an act of ascension without him, Neely is looking for a feeling of belonging once again and hopes to multiclass into bard, storytelling being a big passion of his.

Charis Floros (she/they)- A barbarian pirate satyr who is looking for revenge after their boyfriend betrayed them and left her for dead. Charis loves finding new friends, but romance? No thanks. Been there, done that. Never again.

Aster Lockwood (he/him)- A fairy fighter with an intense inferiority complex. He’s hoping to study fighting techniques throughout all cultures in his work as an anthropologist and take those learned skills to best his bully of a sister who tormented him all throughout his childhood and then maybe take over the world for a bit of fun afterwards.

Deryn Rivers (they/them)- A young aarakocra bard who is prone to exaggeration of their exploits and adventures. Deryn hopes to become a famous storyteller and be famed throughout the land.

Roland ‘Rolly’ Merle (he/him)- A halfling messenger who fell into roguish ways when trying to deliver some very important messages for the noble family he serves. Rolly will deliver those messages at some point, he’s sure. But what’s wrong about taking the scenic route, filled with lots of gold?

Lachlan ‘Lockie’ Beaumont (he/him)- A very flamboyant, fat, fun and flirtatious Wild Magic sorcerer halfling with an on-and-off ex(?) boyfriend who actually is the one who cursed him with the powers he now wields. Lockie is now searching for someone who will accept his need for an open relationship rather than zap him with magic for even suggesting the idea.

Arthur ‘Artie’ Garrick (any pronouns but defaults to he/him)- A reborn gnome celestial warlock whose boyfriend is their patron. Artie was a cleric but was killed and a solar working for the god Artie once served was in love with him and so got him reawoken. They rely on their angelic boyfriend for everything, most of their memories gone.

Ailbhe Keyes (they/them)- Ailbhe was a dedicated and wise coastal ranger when their young daughter was attacked by orca. Ailbhe instantly fought the orca to save their daughter but died in the process. However, the gods saw Ailbhe’s dedication to their craft and family and so granted them a place in one of the heavenly planes. But... Ailbhe’s dedication to family was a lot stronger than the gods had bargined for. Now Ailbhe wanders the planes, a ghost in every plane but the heaven Ailbhe was granted, posing some serious problems on trying to get back how to their little girl.

Jani Spurrey (he/him)- No one knew how evil Jani could be, everyone just thought him the grumpy but a loving half-elf husband to Xavier. And the loving part was no lie. But after Xavier died in an accident, Jani either snapped or the mask was dropped because he carefully warped Xander, Xavier’s twin brother, creating a mockery of his husband. Now Jani has struck a warlock deal to place the soul of his deceased husband in Xander’s body, for a price of course.

Enara Silverale (she/her)- Enara, dwarven cleric of Ilmater, is haunted by the curse that runs through her family. Never being able to stay long in one place, Enara just wants to feel love without that creeping feeling that the wolf is at her door.

Nima Charmchi (he/him)- Nima is a half elf-half dwarf and was raised by druids and rangers, meaning he feels all aspects of the earth run through him. Despite some bad luck with his boyfriends, Nima is a positive happy guy with no trauma, especially in comparison to my other characters.

Peren ‘Payr’ Liadon (he/him)- Peren comes from a long line of draconic sorcerers, and he always tries his best. However, he has no aptitude for magic, fighting or socialising, unlike the rest of his prestigious family. Despite this, he is well loved by his family for his good heart and determination. But even pitiful love takes it toll after a while, can Peren carry on being his cheery, there’s-always-next-time self for much longer?

Slypperie Gaq (no pronouns, uses name instead)- Gaq is a brave and selfless little sporekin, hailing from the Slypperie village. Gaq was part of the village guard but was recruited by the Hunters Guild after some members witnessed Gaq protect some sporekin and take down a ferocious beast. Gaq loves to just go where help is needed, and will even happily work for no gold. Gaq is also a mushroom of few words, only talking when Gaq feels it important and Gaq cannot stand nor understand lies, much to Gaq's party-mate's bemusement

Organisational tags I’ll use:

[character name] aesthetic

[character name] answers

[character name] info

[character name] story

memes

barnie speaks

blood tw

cults tw

nudity tw

[topic] tw

dnd, d&d, dnd oc, d&d oc, dnd character, d&d character, dndcore, rangercore, bardcore, cottagecore, adventurecore, fairycore, fantasy character, character blog, oc blog

[campaign name] session [no.]

Photo by me

*Barnie is the collective name for an OSDD system so you might see different writing style on this blog.

[uefunderneatharchive]

The Underneath Exploration Federation

Tristan here! I figured it would be a good idea to explain a little bit about the UEF.

The Underneath Exploration Federation is an internationally-funded organization tasked with the daunting feat of... well, exploring the Underneath. We do more than that, of course; besides cataloging the various levels, creatures, and cultures found in the Underneath, we're also tasked with maintaining good relations with the friendly denizens of the Underneath, such as the willos and artifactlings.

According to the custodians and friendly denizens we've been able to establish contact with, our world both isn't the first to come in contact with the Underneath, and is welcome to try and "tame" the chaos; according to them, "worse cultures have tried" and if we're at least civil and not exploitative of the Underneath and its people, we're allowed to try and make friends.

We've found remains of those cultures that weren't so civil.

So! You'll have seen references to LT Orchard as well as my own MAJ rank. Because of the unique circumstances of the organization, international law does require us to be labeled as a military organization in order to get the funding and resources required. Unfortunately, research grants don't account for armaments, so they kinda stuck a military organization around a research team, gave that research team the funding for actually researching, and gave the military around it the funding for the weapons and armor.

Hey, if it works, it works. Even if we're labeled as a military organization, we're not actually expected to be waging wars. That's kind of the opposite idea of what we're trying to do, anyway. And, because it's a federation, there's multiple smaller groups within the UEF, such as the research teams (also known as the Underneath Research Foundation) and the teams that scout for people who slipped accidentally into the Underneath (the Recovery Technical Team, aka the "Retroactive Traction Team" since they're anti-slip after the slip happens).

The UEF is... strange. Like, eccentric to a fault. I certainly don't help, but there's a lot of stuff that you wouldn't ever see in a military organization like this. For example, the standard armors here might be made of military-grade aramids, but they're all made in the style of "adventurely" tunics and robes like it's something out of a fantasy story. Hell, LT Orchard wears a full-ass set of plate armor, and some of the explorers opt to go for brigandine-style armor and jack-of-plates with metal plates too. It's, of course, all a response to the Underneath itself; you aren't likely to find monsters that fire bullets at you, so the safety of steel is just as good if not better against rending claws than combat vests and fatigues.

We've also been going back to melee weaponry! It's a weird feeling: after decades of guns, artillery, tanks and planes, and military-grade ritual casting, we're picking up swords and spears again and fighting small-scale. We still have some people using guns, but it's way easier to enchant melee weapons... guns are too complicated to carry enchantments, you have to do things like mass bless a box of bullets, and that gets expensive. The magic that we have access to is so good too, like, not only do we get some choice samples of spells from every manufacturer that donates to us, but the Underneath straight-up spawns new spells, basically. That's all I can describe it as, Lordedge discs and Gravitas tapes will just appear in dungeons and contain the weirdest and coolest bootleg spells that no one's ever heard of.

Anyway, I'm rambling on a bit too much. You've got a good slice of what the UEF is and how it works, so if you're interested in more, there's that shiny ask button to click on. I think. Did Mal set that up right? I think he did.

Well, this has been Tristan, signing off!

[olderthannetfic]

Now I'm at the point where I think if someone in the queer community is trying to tell women, femmes, afab people/whoever to stop enjoying BL, they also need to be consistent and tell all queer men to stop doing drag because they both engage with gender in the same way.

Everything those folks tell afab people [they're 1) capitalizing on male queerness without any of the struggles that come along with it or 2) depicting x identity without authenticity or 3) it's not #ownvoices/representation or 4) it's using stereotypes of x group that have historically harmed them] also apply to queer men who do drag in terms of them exploiting women for entertainment. Women are a marginalized group in society; that's a fact. A cis queer man will never truly understand what it's like to be a woman. A cis drag queen will likely never have to know what it's like to be constantly told from infancy your body and sexuality just exist for men. Your interests in fashion or makeup or academics are just for men. [By this logic, a cis woman could reasonably find an issue with a cis man then taking this aspect of personal and societal struggle and bastardizing it for entertainment/humor when women every day are killed, harassed, and attacked for not performing femininity for men.] Cis drag queens also use stereotypes of femininity as punchlines or jokes in this escapism when the ones who have to deal with the fallout in society are women. Drag queens are no more "representation" for women than BL characters are for queer men. No one goes to a drag show if that's what they want, and drag queens shouldn't be expected to do that, just like afab BL creators shouldn't be forced to conform to what anyone thinks is "good representation" for queer men. No queer man has been hurt by BL, just like no cis woman has been hurt by drag. Let's be consistent.

Now, is it also true that there are a lot of nonbinary and trans women who do drag as a way to express their gender? Yes. Are they likely the majority of drag queens? No. So, how would we decide who can appropriate aspects of the female experience? We can't. The same goes for afab BL fans and creators. Yeah, lots are trans or nonbinary, but it's ridiculous to expect everyone to out themselves or write a biographical manifesto to justify their tastes in entertainment. Are there drag queens who are misogynistic? Yes, the most famous example is RuPaul. Does this apply to all? No. Just like BL fans and homophobia.

However, everyone knows that talk of getting rid of drag queens is a common talking point of conservatives. This talk around afab BL fans should be considered in the same way.

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Huzzah!

I've pointed this out many times. Hell, I've seen a blog post from a BL type author who is leery of women writing BL that pointed out the same thing and came to a similar conclusion.

One of the more interesting commentaries on the cis gay male culture aspects of all this was in David Halperin's How to be Gay. Either I'm misremembering, or the kindle price has dropped from academic book horror levels to something more acceptable, at least to my US eye. ($14.16 currently) I highly recommend it.

He uses the word 'appropriation' to talk about what drag queens do, though he doesn't mean it in a "and that is obviously universally bad" way. He explicitly addresses the fact that some women will find drag misogynist, and that's okay. It's okay that they feel this way. It's okay that a subculture makes art for a particular audience that may be offputting or disturbing to other audiences.

The book is about a lot more than just drag. It goes into all of that cis gay male culture like loving The Golden Girls and venerating tragic women of classic Hollywood. I have sometimes, as a woman, felt almost like I was tresspassing on gay men's territory to love Joan Crawford and her ilk. Which, if you think about it, is fucking nuts.

Halperin doesn't talk about BL at all, at least not in that book, but his observations are like a mirror of fandom and inform a lot of how I look at #ownvoices.

The book is based on a class he taught with that same joke title. The point was that he did not find the performance of normative US cis gay male culture ("What a dump!", Golden Girls love, etc.) to be at all natural. He had to learn it. All his friends laughed about how he was the last guy to teach anyone "how to be gay".

Anyway, as he taught the class, he noticed something that shocked him: students were connecting with The Golden Girls and campy, queer-coded old Broadway plays much more than with the direct, literal representation, even when that representation was on Broadway in a similar tone and type of media.

The book is his exploration of why. To boil it down: gay men were seeking things that felt true internally, not externally. They were often identifying with situations and dynamics or with all of the characters. They didn't necessarily want to be told "Here's your self insert! Now relate!" It's full of the same kind of talk of critical distance that oldschool slash meta engages in.

I actually have a whole long meta piece about this: What I Want is To(o) Direct.

I got the idea after reading Halperin and bounced up to Francesca Coppa at a con to blather about it. She was like "Oh, I just wrote a book chapter on that." That chapter is: Slash/Drag: Appropriation and Visibility in the Age of Hamilton. You can find it in A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies.

Drag is great, but I hate the misogynist attitude that men can borrow from women to express their oppression or their interior worlds metaphorically, but women cannot borrow from men for the same purpose.

The inevitable transphobia that comes with strict policing of either is just the cherry on an already towering shit sundae.