#I feel like Nexus would unironically say that.

[shima-draws]

Anonymous M is SUCH a Nexus song I highly highly recommend

[akechi-official]

What's your opinion on the different MegaTen soundtracks? Which series has your favourites? Do you think there are any particularly bad ones?

Ooh thanks for the question! I love listening to MegaTen, my favorite YouTube channels are PSC, which catalogues all of the Persona music, and Megaten Music, which catalogues all of the MegaTen music. They’re great because they include a lot of lesser known soundtracks like OVAs and bonus CDs.

As far as my favorites go, of the Persona tracks I listen to the Persona 2: Innocent Sin soundtrack all the time. My favorite songs from there is definitely Knights of the Holy Lance and Yukino’s Theme. Yukino’s Theme is a bop and Knights of the Holy Lance is THE most hype song in Persona. Fight me.

I’ve also been listening to Persona 5 Strikers a lot lately, and I have to say I jam out to Counterfeit Phantom every time it comes on, it’s AMAZING.

The Persona soundtracks are all so good I could talk about each one for hours but I won’t. I WON’T. I’m forcing myself not to. But one more, I really love the Persona 3 Portable soundtrack, I think it deserves more love. One of my favorites from there is Sun, it is a bop, truly. When the horns come in I can’t help but dance, it’s great.

Switching over to MegaTen, SMT: If has a fantastic soundtrack that all of you should listen to. Tbh Old Enemy - Akira Volume might be the best battle theme I’ve ever heard. It’s so good, gosh. I feel like I keep saying that. Persona 5 had a remix on their soundtrack, which is also amazing, but here’s the original:

This might be a Steaming Hot Take but also really like the Dx2 soundtrack, particularly Desolation feels like I’m ascending to another reality when I listen to it which is kinda jarring considering everything else about Dx2 is so lackluster but the music is SICK. It’s all on Spotify too, give it a listen if you haven’t.

Also very much love the SMTV soundtrack, my favorite has got to be the Demi-fiend remix they did, it’s an absolute banger. But I also love Battle -origin- which plays when you fight Fionn, because WOW when I first heard that I was floored.

Okay this is a recent listen for me but the Raidou game soundtracks??? The HORNS??? My goodness WOW I love it so much. I have yet to listen to the full soundtrack but the main Theme is amazing, it very much makes me think of like, jazzy heists like Great Pretender.

Slightly veering off MegaTen for my “honorary” MegaTen titles, these are games that I consider in the same category as MegaTen but actually aren’t, but I still wanted to share anyway.

Trauma Center is such an enigma to me. I wish they would bring the series back, I think it’s pretty funny tbh. The series is just about dramatic doctors I think it would be hilarious if it was in MegaTen. Can you imagine. Anyway I love the soundtrack, there’s not really a good rip of it on YouTube unfortunately but like, unironically, they did not need to go this hard. Of course it was Shoji Meguro who composed it so who’s surprised? One of my favorites is Second Opinion, it’s very similar in vibes to Persona tbh. I think Vulnerability was a meme at some point, but I listen to that one quite often as well.

Okay guys. Listen. Catherine? WHY DOES IT GO SO HARD? I love the remixes they did of classical music so much, I listen to them all the time. My two favorites are Ode to Joy and Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 14, Op. 27 No. 2 in C Sharp Minor. The former is a BOP and the latter goes INCREDIBLY HARD.

I’m limiting myself to 10 so this is my last one, but I need you guys to listen to, like, the entire Etrian Odyssey soundtrack, from every game, because they are all on Spotify and they are all amazing. It would be impossible to choose a favorite but one of the bangers on my repeats is Tumult - Raise Thy Sword in Pride Nexus Version, because wow wow wow wow that’s all I have to say about that. Edit: Tumult - Crest of a Violent Wave [Arranged Version] also makes me want to scream it’s so good.

I don’t know if there’s truly a MegaTen soundtrack I dislike, I listen to most of them quite frequently and every soundtrack has its ups and downs. The soundtrack I dislike the most would probably be the Persona 5 Dancing soundtrack, because I don’t think there’s a single remix on there that I like to the point of listening on repeat, and it’s a shame that the game didn’t include anything from Strikers or Royal by virtue of it coming out before them. It shows that Atlus really jumped the gun on those games and put out rushed and unpolished games that could’ve really benefited by just… waiting. And when the songs in your dancing game aren’t very good, that’s really not a good sign.

Anyway enough negative talk, I love MegaTen music so much, I have a playlist filled with 500 of my favorite songs you can listen to here:

I’m constantly adding more song to this playlist, it’s mostly persona at the moment because it started out as a persona bops playlist and then I started adding a bunch of MegaTen as a whole so I’m still in the process of evening out the ratio. But anyway, give it a listen if you want, it’s quite the playlist lol.

If you have music of your own to share, please do! There’s still a bunch of MegaTen I haven’t heard yet.

[fireleaptfromhousetohouse]

Father Ted, weirdly, doesn't provide much fodder for this kind of analysis. The nearest we get to anything gender-y (and admittedly, it does make Linehan look ridiculous) is the time where they both-sides the relationship between Sinead O'Connor and the Catholic church. "Yeah, they're salivating hypocrites who ride on the back of women's unpaid labour - but cuh, the looney-tuney left, eh?"

Meanwhile, The IT Crowd simply doesn't stop dabbling in dark arts beyond the straightforwardly cishet - an episode in the second season has Moss decide he and Roy have become too co-dependent and pledge to spend some time apart, in a way It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia did far, far better. Of course, the way this front-lawn breakup plays out is with Moss declaring "You're my wife!" in tones of distress.

Espied at this sensitive moment by wandering pretty girls, Roy defensively informs them "if anything, I would be the husband". If Linehan's brain hadn't been completely melted by twitter, he could here claim that this is satire of conventional gender roles, that Roy, insecure in his masculinity, would of course reach for any possible opportunity to affirm it (and, it goes without saying, believes that there would be a clearly defined wife and husband). Given the wider context of Linehan's work, though, it's impossible to believe this is in any way satirical, as opposed to "ha ha, this straight man appears to be homosexual - and what's more he's the receptive partner, too".

The other shoe here drops in the third season, when, after the ludicrous sight of Moss and Roy pretending they know about football (in an episode literally called "Are We Not Men?"), they find themselves having to dodge police attention. Moss solves this by getting Roy against the wall for an extended kiss. Ha ha, this straight man appears to be homosexual - and what's more...

A very popular bit of rhetoric among anti-trans figures, like Linehan, is that the international groomer conspiracy is specifically targeting autistic children to make trans. But, as we see here, Linehan's the one who wrung laughs out of having an autistic character (played by a fit and healthy young actor, natch) be so goddamn spergy they think kissing another man is appropriate. This one you probably can't put down to confused, deep-seated envy - if anything, Linehan presumably feels terribly guilty about putting the idea in people's heads.

Much like Jen's brilliant, creative characterisation as a shoe-mad woman, homosexuality is something that Linehan as a '90s comedian feels it is his right to use all the stereotypes of unironically - though he would of course say it's completely ironic. At a certain level, though, it doesn't matter, and when you're depicting a gay man as greeting people with surprise tickles at the premiere of his musical, 'Gay!: A Gay Musical', you're definitely at that level. I don't want to be one of those people meticulously dissecting jokes for any trace of wrongthink, hell, I'll freely admit that I found Gay!: A Gay Musical very funny, but let's not pretend there was anything in there that couldn't have been written by a '70s professional bigot who thinks that gay sex is when a man wees into another man's belly button. It's still palatable today because it lacks the venom (and gloating about AIDS) any earlier treatment of the topic would have carried, but that bar's on the floor.

We've drifted a ways away from the whole gender nexus, though, haven't we? Well, no - Linehan gets the gang to Gay!: A Gay Musical via Jen's boyfriend of the week, who's speculated to be, and ultimately revealed to actually be, gay. So why was he stepping out with Jen? Oh, y'know:

Though again, here Linehan deserves credit for the restraint he once could display - there's a subplot involving the toilet facilities at Gay!: A Gay Musical, and he doesn't even use the word 'cottaging'.

After Graham Linehan came down with twitter madness over the existence of trans people, everyone evaluated that episode of The IT Crowd where Douglas goes out with a trans woman in a new light, as you’d expect -

Yet nobody has read anything into the episode where cavalier Douglas explains to nebbish Moss that the secret of his confidence is wearing women’s trousers (playing it off with “I’m fairly sure it doesn’t make me a transvestite”), and it works. Has it just been a case of confused, deep-seated envy the whole time?

[wolvesandpetals]

Fanfic: Loki x Sylvie Oneshot (Hurt/Comfort, Rated: teen, no adult content. Set before, during and after that scene in 1 x 05)

She should be inside, talking to the other Lokis, learning more about this place and its dangers, and strategically planning their next move. Instead, she is out here in the open, staring into the abyss, like she has been almost her entire life. She has lived in apocalypses, watching the colors of the sky change as people merrily went on with their lives, completely unaware of how fleeting it all is. Yet, in the middle of all that death and destruction, there she always has been, the epitome of survival.

[[MORE]]

This “Void” is no different. This is another place where death and destruction reigns but she remains standing at the end of the day. The sky is blue, but far away, where it meets this foresaken land, is a menacing shade of purple, resembling the one in Lamentis-1. It brings back memories of that night.

As if on cue, Loki comes and sits down beside her. For a man who never shuts up, he’s unusually quiet. She wonders what he might be thinking about. Their impending battle, his future plans, the TVA, Asgard, Thor…

Or whatever it is that he was about to tell her before he got pruned.

—

It’s not the best time to talk when you’re driving a shoddy car away from the mouth of a hungry demon cloud, but that won’t stop him.

“Hell of a Nexus event you caused there,” Mobius comments.

Sylvie’s heart skips a beat. “You know what my Nexus event was? You know why I was taken from Asgard?”

Mobius winces internally. “Oh, that. Sorry. I am in the dark, just like you. I don’t even know what my nexus event was.” His heart breaks at the thought of what home might be like. Does he have a family? Kids? What did he leave behind?

The car hits debris on the road, and they both bump their heads on the hood of the vehicle. “I’m talking about the Nexus event at Lamentis-1”, he clarifies.

“Yeah, about that. How did you know where to show up? What was the Nexus event?”

Mobius smiles. This one is just as clueless as the other one. And even though he has been hunting her for as long as he can remember, he can’t bring himself to voice it quiet as harshly this time. “Well, you and Loki had a connection back there. That’s what sent the timelines into a dizzy. Two Lokis falling in love.”

She feels the air leave her lungs. “I’m sorry, did you just say, love?”

He doesn’t answer, and in the silence, punctuated by the creature’s evil roar, she realises she’s been so focused on what was happening- the running, the fighting, the revelations, the pruning- that she never really stopped to think about how it made her feel.

That’s how it’s always been. That’s how it always has to be when you’re on the run through space and time.

And though she is still being chased at this very moment, she can’t help but contemplate this time. How does she feel?

Now that she thinks about it, deep down, she knows, no matter how many times she tells herself she is only doing this to find who is behind the curtains and get her life back, she would have gone about it in a completely different way, like she always has- hiding, fighting, planning and executing. There is only one reason why she would ever stab herself with a pruning stick.

(Love is a dagger, after all. A glowing, pruning one.)

—

“Mobius is not so bad.” She begins, and it doesn’t take them too long to completely deny their feelings for the other as well as promise their undying loyalty and pledge to be at each other’s side when all this is over.

She snuggles closer to Loki. “Loki?”

“Hmm?”

“If this is not a table cloth, then it’s surely a cape, right?”

He laughs, and it does something to her stomach that she still has to find a name for. “I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why did you ditch your hood?”

She shrugs. A whole life spent in the shadows, away from the spotlight, against the very basic instinct of a Loki. And now? “I’m tired of hiding, I guess.” Her voice is resolute, and her eyes shine with glorious purpose. “I want to be seen.”

“I see you,” he says softly. “I’d like to see more of you.”

She looks up at him with a curious smirk.

“That’s not what-” He’s visibly flustered, and it’s so much fun to make him squirm like this. “It’s not how it sounds. What I meant to say is, I’d like to see you again, when all of this is over.”

She smiles. Didn’t he say this already, when she was scared that he would leave her when all this is over?

Is he just as scared of her leaving him when all of this is over?

“I don’t know”, she bumps her shoulder against his playfully. “Do I want to torture myself so much?”

He feigns offense. “I will have you know, kings and presidents and Gods have begged- begged just to be granted an audience with me. You don’t know how lucky you are.”

“Lucky me”, she says only half- sarcastically. “Stuck here with you under the same-”, she tilts her head to indicate the green material that is currently shielding two frost giants from the cold, the ridiculousness of this not lost on her, “-blanket.”

“Lucky you,” he repeats unironically, and his hand finds its way to hers, their fingers intertwining.

He’s held hands before. He’s had women snuggle up to him too. But not like this. Not anyone who matters. Not anyone whose eyes sing “Come home”.

He places a soft kiss on her hair, the lips that have uttered a thousand lies now focused on the one truth.

She feels her whole body burn.

She’s seen a thousand worlds die before her own eyes, always escaping before the blistering heat found its way to her, never having the ability to save even a single life, knowing it’ll cause a Nexus event and she would be discovered. She’s witnessed so many people’s death- people who gave her food, shelter, clothing, shared a laugh or two with the orphan child from Asgard- the poor, lost, scared, little Sylvie.

Now she’s here, and she’s not completely certain that she’s not going to die.

Yet, this is the most alive that she has ever felt.

Her grip on his hand tightens, and he squeezes in return. Mobius would have a field day if he was to walk out and see them like this now.

“Loki, if I don’t make it-” she begins.

He cuts her off firmly. “Don’t.” The thought of losing her has been on his mind since the moment he got pruned, and he doesn’t think he can handle the thought of losing her again.

“How did you feel when you got pruned before you could tell me what it was you wanted to tell me?”

He takes a moment to gather his thoughts. He knows what he wanted to say, but he doesn’t know yet what it was he was going to say. The words were about to roll off his tongue, and then it was gone. All hope, all possibilities of a future, snatched away in just a moment. “I felt distraught.” He confesses honestly.

“Exactly.” She sits up now, facing him directly, crawling out from under the blanket, but never letting go out of his hand. “If I don’t make it, I’ll feel the same way.”

His face clouds with hope and confusion at the same time. “What are you saying?”

She’s not sure. She’s learnt at least thirty-four different languages from her life in apocalyptic worlds, yet, no language has the words to capture quite how she feels.

“Sylvie?” He prompts again, daunted by the silence.

“Loki.” She says his name. Because that’s all there is. The one word. This is about him. Maybe it always has been, maybe all those poets and musicians and dreamers are right and your whole life does lead up to something.

Maybe her whole miserable, horrible, terrible life has been leading up to this.

This moment when she closes the gap between their lips.

Her eyes are wide open, just like his, and they are staring at each other, waiting to see how the other reacts.

Maybe this was a mistake, she thinks, but his lips press harder against hers.

It’s still just a tender, sweet peck, and their eyes are still open, but his hands give hers another squeeze. He pulls back and leans his forehead against her, making their noses brush.

And then his lips find hers with a fever that mirrors her own, and their eyes flutter shut.

She’s lived in apocalypses. She knows that worlds are dying at this very moment. And at the same moment, other worlds are being born out of this, this dance between their lips- a Nexus event that is creating new timelines, new life.

(Love is a dagger, indeed. And you can see yourself in it, after all. But when you reach for it, it doesn’t always disappear. Sometimes, it’s so very real.)

[comingoutofthecauldron]

let’s talk about lesbophobia in fandom

i don’t like to use the word “lesbophobia” unironically because of all the gross radfem terfy connotations, so i will clarify right off the bat that i am neither a terf nor an aphobe and that if you are i want you off my blog like, right now. unfortunately, the meaning of lesbophobia has been so warped by alt right lesbians that seeing it in an unironic context makes me, a lesbian, uncomfortable, which speaks volumes in itself. so to clarify, lesbophobia is essentially homophobia with a pinch of sexism thrown into the mix, and it’s running rampant in supposed safe spaces and, more relevantly, fandom. 

/i’d also like to clarify that i’m not only speaking on lesbophobia, but also the general disgust and disdain for all wlw in fandom, and am using it as a sort of umbrella term/

lesbophobia and disdain for wlw has been around forever, but whilst gay positivity, mlm and mlm ships have been steadily increasing in popularity within fandom over time, wlw and wlw ships have remained perpetual underdogs. why? because lesbophobia has become a fandom within itself. both in and outside of fandom, we see instances of casual lesbophobia every single day—from aggression towards wlw to something as simple and prevalent as the complete and utter lack of sapphic ships and characters in media. hatred of lesbians and wlw is practically a trend, and it’s seeping in through the cracks of fandoms who are already facing issues with minorities and marginalized groups (i.e. racism, ableism). if you honestly think that lesbophobia isn’t prevalent as hell in fandom right now, you’re either not a wlw, you’re not all that involved in fandom, or you’re dumb as shit. 

just look at ships. in almost every single fandom, the ratio of mlm ships to sapphic ships is ridiculously unbalanced. people are quick to ship male characters who so much as smile at each other (and i don’t condemn that) but would never do the same for two women—even on the rare occasion that the ship is actually canon. i once wrote a wlw fanfic for a [predominantly straight] fandom, and received messages like this gem:

on the flip side of that, if there is a sapphic ship in canon or fanon, it is often fetishized and sexualised to a disturbing degree. there will be double the amount of nsfw art and fics, and ninety percent of it will be derogatory and fetishized as hell. having been actively involved in several fandoms over the past few years (and currently a content creator in one), i’ve seen instances of all this hundreds of times. people go crazy for mlm ships, but the second you say you ship/prefer a wlw ship, there’s always someone at the ready with, “i think all ships are great!” or “it’s not a contest” or “i prefer [insert m/m or m/f ship] actually” or “they’re my brotp!/why can’t you just let them be friends?”. not only do lesbians and wlw not get to have any rep in media, any rep that they try to create for themselves in fandom just gets attacked or ruined. this is so detrimental not only to all wlw, but especially to younger wlw who will end up being indoctrinated into this belief that their sexuality is something dirty, something that can never be tender and sweet but rather something that deserves to be preyed upon. 

building on that, let’s talk about engagement. i run an instagram account (where i have a significantly bigger following) as well as this blog for my fandom, where i post the content i create (mainly text posts). when i first started creating content, i made a lot for a relatively unpopular wlw ship, in which both girls are canonically romantically involved with a dude—though one of them is canonically pan. their canonical m/f ships are both very popular, and i noticed that my engagement was dropping every time i posted them, so i eventually just stopped. it wasn’t even a conscious decision; i merely resigned myself to the fact that the fandom didn’t want to see sapphic ships, and some people would even go as far as to condemn them. for reference, my instagram posts get an average of about 500 likes per post (popular ones usually exceeding 1k), but when i post this ship, my engagement drops to about 250 likes. similarly, my tumblr text posts have an average of about 140 notes per post (popular ones usually reaching up to 750), but my wlw content rarely surpasses 100. this just feeds the cycle of wlw never getting rep: if, like me, content creators become disincentivised by the lack of engagement with their sapphic content, they’re more likely to stop making/posting it, leading to further lack of rep—and when new content creators try to rectify that, they face the same problems. 

and then, of course, there’s the treatment of actual wlw in fandom. my best example of this is when my friend and i made an anti account on instagram (the first instagram anti account in that fandom), our bio saying something like “salty and bitter lesbians being salty and bitter”, and received an onslaught of lesbophobic insults and threats from angry stans within hours. (tw: r*pe) one commenter even went as far as to tell us that they wanted us to get r*ped. as well as this, i’ve seen so many instances of people using slurs against lesbians in arguments/in anons, often for no apparent reason other than they feel that they have the right. when i first mentioned i was a lesbian on instagram, my account only had about 200 followers, and within a day i lost 20. i also lose followers whenever i post f/f ships, not quite to that extent but enough for it to be noticeable, on top of the aforementioned engagement dips. in the face of all this adversity, i think a lot of wlw turn to mlm ships because they’re the closest thing we have to actual rep, but when we do we get accused of fetishizing them by the same people who fetishize us. there’s an endless list of double standards that non-wlw have been upholding for years, and i can firmly say that i’m really fucking sick of it. because of our sexuality, we will never be allowed to enjoy something without someone labelling it or us as dirty or otherwise problematic, when to them, the only problematic thing about us is that we aren’t pleasing men. 

as i mentioned before, the lack of rep for wlw in media is appallingly consistent, and part of that stems from tokenism. in a lot of modern mainstream media, you’ll have one, maybe two lgbt characters, and nine times out of ten those characters are white cis male gays. of course, there are exceptions to this, but generally, that’s it. script writers and authors (especially cishets) seem to have this mentality of, “oh, well, we gave them one, that’s sure to be enough!”, which means that on the off chance you do get your gay rep, the likelihood of also receiving wlw or any other kind of rep becomes practically non-existant. this belief that all marginalized groups are the same and that one represents all is what leads to misrepresentation on top of lack of rep, which is what makes tokenism so dangerous. if you treat your only gay character badly, you are essentially treating every single gay person badly in that universe. so not only is lesbophobia and disdain for wlw harmful to sapphic women via their exclusion in media, it’s also harming those minorities who do get rep. when people try to defend lesbophobic source material, that’s when fandom starts to get toxic. the need for critical thinking has never been more apparent and it has also never been less appeased—and wlw are getting hit hard by it, as always.

finally, a pretty big driving factor of lesbophobia is, ironically, lesbians. my lesbian friends and i often joke that though everyone seems to hate us, no one hates lesbians more than lesbians do. though i’d say it’s most prevalent on tumblr, i see traces of it all over the internet. the growth of alt right lesbian movements is not only reinforcing hatred for lesbians, but also reinforcing hatred for bi and pan women. here you have these terrible lesbians using their platforms to express their disgust for bi/pan women, for aces and aros, for trans women/nb lesbians, and people see them and say, “gosh, lesbians are just awful.” and just like that, all of us are evil. occasionally, lesbian blogs that i follow get put on terf blocklists for no other reason than the fact that they have “lesbian” in their bio. and the lesbians that actually deserve to be on those blocklists? they’re too busy spewing misinformation about trans women and bi women to care, boosted up by their alt right friends in an ever-expanding movement. i’ve found that this heavily influences fandom on tumblr, lesbians often getting branded as “biphobic” when they hc a female character as a lesbian rather than bi or pan. this criticism of both lesbians and wlw by lesbians and non-wlw alike only ever allows lesbophobia to grow, both in and out of fandom. that said, lesbians aren’t to blame for their own discrimination; rather, many of us have been conditioned into subconsciously endorsing it after spending our entire lives hearing heterosexual platitudes about lesbians and sapphic relationships. homophobic cishets are and always have been the nexus of this oppression—the only difference is that now they can hide behind alt right lesbians.

one thing has been made apparent to me throughout my time in fandom, and that thing is that no one likes to see men “underrepresented”. people hate sapphic ships and lesbians so much because there is no room for men, and men Do Not Like That. so, like the worms that they are, they slither their way in, be it through fetishization or condemnation of wlw characters and ships, and they ruin whatever good things we have going for us. the thing about worms, though, is that they’re easy enough to crush if you’re wearing the right shoes.

so to all my bi/pan gals and lesbian pals: put on your doc martens, because we’ve got ourselves some lesbophobes to stomp on. 

[blaerbear]

So there was this Mass Effect Andromeda 30 day countdown thing going around that I never bothered to start because I was lazy but now that the hype is hitting me full force, I’ve decided to be self indulgent and catch up with it for the final days. I’ll put it under the cut bc it’s long lol

30 Days: Will you play SisRyder or BroRyder first? Why? How does your Ryder define their gender?

Definitely SisRyder because I always play as a girl if the option is given to me. She identifies as a cis female. 

29 Days: What is your Ryder’s name? Why did you pick this name - is there a meaning or origin story behind it? Do they go by any nicknames? What would you name their sibling, father and mother if you were able to choose?

Tobin Ryder! She is named after my favorite soccer player. If I could name her brother, his name would be Christian. Her father’s name stays Alec, and her mother was Elizabeth. Tobin doesn’t go by any nicknames. 

28 Days: Are you going to use the default appearance or create a custom Ryder? If custom, describe your Ryder’s physical appearance (hair color, eye color, skin color, height, weight, facial features, any scars or tattoos, racial origin, etc). If you have art and/or a face-claim, feel free to add them here.

I’m gonna create a custom character, but she will look relatively similar. The ponytail style works for Tobin because she used to play sports and got used to tying it up. She has brown eyes and light freckles on her face. Honestly her face claim is prolly just gonna be Tobin Heath, who she is named after, with some slight differences ofc.

27 Days: Are you going to use the default appearance for Ryder’s sibling or customize them? Describe your ideas for their sibling’s and father’s physical appearance.

I will prolly keep her brother as the default since I think he looks fine. But if Tobin ends up looking a lot different than I pictured, I might tinker with his look a bit. 

26 Days: Do you have a specific class profile or mix of class profiles in mind for Ryder?

Def Vanguard. She picks up some infiltrator abilities due to her desire to learn how to fire a sniper rifle. She’s not used to hanging back and timing her shots, so it’s sort of a goal for her.

25 Days: Describe Ryder’s favorite combat style. Bioware call Peebee a “gunslinger” and describe Liam as a “close-range fighter” - how would you describe Ryder’s combat role/strengths? What are some of their favorite biotic/tech/other abilities?

She could definitely be considered like a bulldozer. She loves getting in people’s faces and taking them head on. She’s very impatient on the battlefield, so she really likes using abilities like biotic charge that allow her to zoom up to her enemy real quick.

24 Days: Which squadmates do you think will best compliment Ryder’s combat style? Alternatively, who do you plan to take out most in the field?

Companions like Vetra or Cora would prolly compliment her style well since they seem much more tactical. 

23 Days: Which weapons or category of weapons will Ryder prefer? Describe their favorite loadout.

She is absolutely in love with shotguns and never leaves the ship without one. It’s short-ranged and powerful and she couldn’t ask for anything better. She also really takes to melee weapons like the asari swords. 

22 Days: Will Ryder craft? What are you most excited about crafting? Do you have any names in mind already for weapons?

Tobin takes really good care of her weapons, so she’ll definitely be adding modifications to them rather quickly. She also unironically likes really edgy names, so she carries around a shotgun she named “Krogan’s Fury.” 

21 Days: What are Ryder’s personality traits? Describe 5 strengths and 5 flaws.

She’s very outgoing and friendly, but she’s also laid back in a sense that she doesn’t get shaken or worried very easily (unless it involves her brother). She’s a great friend, and will listen to anyone when they need her. But she also has no filter and often says things without thinking them through. She also has trouble focusing, which ended up affecting her performance in school. Despite that, she can come across as a bit too cocky.

20 Days: What first impressions does Ryder tend to give people? Do they have any ‘odd’ or specific mannerisms, habits or other quirks? How do they present and carry themselves?

She gives off a jock vibe. Some people have it in their heads that she’s not too bright since she values sports and is generally pretty loud. She also walks with her head up high, which puts some people off. But once people get to know her, she’s almost universally liked because she’s an easy person to be yourself around.

19 Days: Where would Ryder fall in the classic Paragon/Renegade morality system? What would their D&D alignment be? If you know their personality type in any personality typing systems (such as MBTI and Enneagram - you can find various type descriptions and tests using Google), feel free to add and discuss them here.

Tobin would fall closer to Paragon because she truly wants to help humanity and all those in need. When a situation involves her friends, she occasionally makes rash decisions when things could have been solved peacefully. I would consider her to be Neutral Good. 

18 Days: What qualities does Ryder like and dislike in other people? Are there any things they particularly appreciate or can’t stand?

She doesn’t take too well to people who think they’re above everyone else and assert their opinions when no one asked. She tends to make the closet bonds to those quieter than her. When she was younger, she grew up with sports teams full off outgoing girls like her, so she learned to appreciate those who are more lowkey. But she still gets along with others like her since they tend to share her same enthusiasm. 

17 Days: List some of Ryder’s favorite things - colors, food, music, etc. Is there anything of this nature that they hate? Do they have any hobbies or skills outside of combat?

She loves music and she’s quite gifted musically.  Along with her brother, she has a naturally good voice, and they often sing with each other to lift their friends moods and overall have a good time. Tobin is also particularly attached to soccer and will practice shooting whenever she can. When she’s aboard the Nexus, it’s the one thing she misses most. 

16 Days: How would Ryder define their sexuality?

She’s gay and has known it all her life. Her brother is bisexual, but he came out at a much older age.

15 Days: Delve into the Ryder family background - how is/was their relationship with their father, sibling and mother? Do they get along, hero worship, close twin connection, sibling rivalry, was it strained, was it distant, etc.

Both Tobin and Christian have never gotten along with their father. They always found him too uptight, and he never seemed to have time to devote to them. When their mother died, Tobin used her sports as an excuse to say away from home as much as possible so she wouldn’t have to be stuck around her father. She is, however, extremely close with her brother. They were each other’s best friends after their mother died, and their bond grows stronger with each passing day. 

14 Days: Describe some important or formative events in Ryder’s history. How did these impact and shape them?

Honestly, the death of their mother shaped them the most. After she was gone, they had no one they could hide behind. They were forced to grow up because they knew their father wouldn’t bother making an effort to care for them. They elevated each other into who they are today.

13 Days: Why did Ryder join the Alliance military? Later on, what were Ryder’s reasons for signing up to the Andromeda Initiative? Were they seeking adventure (or glory, or a challenge), wanting a new start, running from something, following their family, trying to secure a future for humanity, did they simply feel railroaded into it, etc.

She wanted to get away. After a while, it felt as though there was no more room to grow while stuck on the Citadel. She wanted to test herself, prove that she had the potential to be great. At first, she wasn’t too happy her father was chosen to be the Pathfinder, but she soon realized that she would be able to prove her worth to him through this journey. She signed up as fast as she could.

12 Days: How will Ryder feel upon waking up from cryo? Relieved, excited, scared, impatient to get going, lost, etc.

She’s disoriented but excited. She’s ready to explore their new world, make a name for herself. However, that excitement turns to uncertainty once she realizes her brother hasn’t awakened. Tobin believes in herself deep down, but this is a big new thing and for all the major hurdles in her life, she has had Christian by her side. It takes adjustments for sure.

11 Days: Once in Andromeda, what are Ryder’s goals? What drives them?

Proving to herself that she can be what humanity needs to find a new world. The closer she becomes to her squadmates, the more she strives for success because she wants a bright future for them as well.

10 Days: Will Ryder ever miss the Milky Way? What things and places will they miss most?

A part of her will always miss the Milky Way. It was her home, and her fondest memories (her mother) will remain in the galaxy forever. She also misses the old soccer field she played on with her friends. But at the end of the day, she doesn’t regret her decision to join the Andromeda Initiative, and she elects to make new memories that are just a good.

[dwoboyle]

Initial thoughts about the new Blade Runner

Just got back from seeing Blade Runner 2049 with my girlfriend. I wanted to write up my thoughts. This isn’t really intended as a formal review or in depth critique. Just some immediate thoughts and a bit of rambling. This does include flagrant spoilers. I hadn’t seen the original until about a year ago, and for the most part enjoyed it. As someone who has consumed sci-fi all my life I definitely noticed how influential the original was. It certainly was an important film that was complete in and of itself. A great mood piece. Not a favorite, definitely significant film.

As for the sequel. I enjoyed it while watching it and found myself emotionally invested during, but upon thinking about and discussing it with my girlfriend I have more complex thoughts. It certainly nails the aesthetic and was a wonderfully shot film, but it did the thing that I was hoping it wouldn't: Make the characters from the original more important than they were by putting them at the forefront of society's greatest issues.

The plot, itself, was well told but obvious and old. It moves passed the question of “What if robots were just people?” but then asks the equally trite question of “what if they could have children?” -or- “What if robots had more humanity than their creators?” Which it answers with “Well, I guess they’re organize to raise up eventually or something? Maybe the child would be like a symbol to them?” It’s not a particularly interesting answer to a question that has been explored before. While there is more room for exploration, this movie didn’t really do anything with it other than set up some “Chosen One” BS. We don’t need more of that. Modern media is too concerned with making characters whose worlds revolve around rather than making characters who exist within a world.

I suppose you could say that is all a setup for the theme of infighting within marginalized groups over misplaced faith in symbolic ideals instead of sharing the ambitions of rich visionaries that only want to exploit such groups for their labor. Perhaps they’re saying that “people need a symbol to understand they’re worth something.”

Which is consistent across both movies, but when applied the replicant child doesn’t really make any sense? Sure she can give birth, but it’s stated that none of the modern ones can reproduce and most Nexus 8’s aren’t around anymore, so what does that matter? That’s a pretty flimsy platform to start a revolution on. Also, the goals of the protagonist and the antagonist are the same in some ways? Maybe that’s the point? But why add an unnecessary mcguffin when the original did so much better without. Replicants are already people that I feel empathy for. Nothing in this movie furthered that.

Nothing that they added to the world of Blade Runner wasn’t already something that I’ve in other media. On the low end it had me thinking stuff like “Oh, I remember this from that 90’s anime Armitage the Third” and “Oh, this is sorta like the Mega Man X games…” This movie is about 30 years passed the point of being on the cutting edge of its themes.

The basic premise would have worked better had there been no direct connection between the previous film at all. No Deckard, no Rachel. It cheapens the original. Take their relationship. In the original, Deckard is a horrible abusive boyfriend who thinks he’s in love because a girl came into his life and is in desperate need of help but doesn’t know who to go to. The sex scene in that movie is more like rape than lovemaking. He treats her like an object and never really anything else. To say those two characters had a loving relationship is disingenuous. To think of Deckard as a hero is... wrong?

And what do they do with Rachel in this movie? Kill her off screen during childbirth. As my girlfriend mockingly put it “what good is a woman after she has had a kid? You can’t fuck her anymore.”

Neither film thinks very highly of women. I think it's worse in the sequel though. While all people are shown as disposable, women are almost always subservient, sex objects, or ineffectual. There are some partial subversions to this, but ultimately both films value men over women always, always, always.

There’s no 90 foot hologram of a sexy dancing naked man.

You can say that “Oh, well, it’s meant to show a society that is crumbling because of its disregard for its people”, but then there’s the way women are positioned in the plots. She might be a boss or lover, but is ultimately fated to die so the villain can look evil, or for pathos, or so the main character can win. Or, in the case of the memory maker, they’re a mcguffin literally meant to sit in room and do very little.

The twist with her as the child was fine, but it would have been way more interesting has it been Luv, the ever present antagonist, instead. May she knew maybe not. Then have Tech-bro be completely unaware as full-of-themself Tech-bro tend to be. He and the memory maker already had a connection.

Of course, ending is open ended enough that they could tack on another scene to drive the plot of inevitable sequels in whatever direction.

Despite all this, it could have been SOOOOOOO much worse. I’d rather an flawed but stylish movie that doesn’t understand what made the original good than another shitty blockbuster action flick. Though, it does skirt that line pretty close.

Also, as bonus, I’m really glad that dog was ok and hope that the dog continues to be ok, Dr. Badger was my favorite character, and I seriously cannot believe they unironically used the line “More Human than Human.” Like… really? You’re going to put that line, and have it be sincere? Are you sure? It’s 2017? Really? You want to do that? I guess we know what the sequel will be called.