#Long Form Essay

[anodesu]

Happy Warframe 1999 day! I wanted to share this one months ago but did not have the time/energy to clean it up. Behold: Amir. My sweet cheese. My good time boi. This was a time where I had been given a variety of mocap to clean up, and since I had made both an arcade and pinball cycle, Geoff went: "Why not both?" So this is 4 animations that work together: 2 arcade loops that are actually around 30- seconds long, and then two keyframed transition animations that each last about a second (counting overshoot and settle). I had to grab the level and pray that nothing got tweaked in the time I animated this, because the positioning of the machines was integral to making sure it worked. It was a wild challenge to get this up and running properly with Scott, who helped implement it. I hope that it entertained you up until you see his new version!

[kaijutegu]

welp. guess i know where the new followers came from!

[mybraindumpsterfire]

I just had a fucking brain blast and came up with the best idea:

AmazingPhil aka Phil Lester “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” deep dive video essay in the style of Mike’s Mic, Jenny Nicholson, etc. Just Phil breaking down Buffy lore and characters for however fucking long.

I would watch the absolute fuck out of it holy shit

[belfrysol]

I wish there were more people comfortable with the idea of invasions in souls games. I get why people don't like them of course, early game invasions kinda blow for both parties involved, you encountering cheaters on pc, and fromsoft definitely seems to be lowering the material incentive to participate.

But even with all of those stinkers, some of my best memories in any souls title has been within the realms of pvp. Getting hazed in Oolacile Township and Darkwood Garden, the scraps with the Spears of The Church, friendly duels with friends and strangers alike, the list could go on honestly.

There was this one instance in dark souls 1 where someone had placed a gravelord sign underneath the belfry gargoyles. Seeing as how those signs are pretty rare, I immediately went over to it and let myself into the hosts world. Me and a couple other buddies went to hunt him down and once we found him, to my horror, I realized they had gone through the trouble to get the dragon head stone early. It very quickly devolved into me and my fellow invaders trying to overwhelm them while dodging the nuclear fire breath from their dragon head. It was pretty short, I ended up dying a few times before finally getting him but it was incredibly chaotic and fun in a way that the main pve of the game just couldn't offer.

And I think that's why I ultimately end up willingly participating in invasions and duels. Going up against a real breathing opponent provides a unique and fresh challenge to the many areas of these games even after your 1st playthrough.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i mean it when i say we've gotta bring back askblogs. bring back making character chat posts with poor choice text colors over random backgrounds. bring back blogs dedicated to what outfits you think characters would wear.

fandom is an ecosystem, not a numbers game. these types of blogs/posts/etc still exist in concept, because people still want to make them and they're a great way to get your thoughts of an idea out in a simple format, but most people make them on like tiktok or instagram reels and that's where the problem lies. Those videos don't go anywhere. The format doesn't allow for the discussion to spread through the community and they're less likely to be engaged with in general. And to make them most people have to either show their face or figure out editing software, so the barrier to entry is higher (editing) and/or they have to forfeit an amount of privacy.

those types of posts/blogs are the first rung of the ecosystem. they're the perfect environment for younger members of the fandom to begin safely interacting with the larger community and putting their own thoughts and ideas out there. roleplay is the other major spot for that and those communities are diminishing as well, honestly (if you know of an rp forum board site, cherish it. and if you can make one, make one). they allow younger fans to begin engaging with the source material on a different/deeper level, but still at a very low barrier to entry, and begin conversations with other fans, which also helps them build skills which in turn may encourage them to pursue other avenues within the fandom (fic writing, other formats of askblog - which itself usually leads to art, cosplay, also fic writing, etc). Without those places to build those skills, they might feel discouraged from trying to begin when surrounded by curated people who have built their skills up for years.

And those conversations they foster also in turn help the community, by offering ideas to artists or fic writers to extrapolate on or building community jokes. And that text/blog format specifically is extremely beneficial, because it allows younger members of the fandom to remain anonymous and keep their privacy without concerning themselves with having any platform or having anything attached to them (very important for young fans figuring themselves out and navigating online community spaces for the first time, since they can remove themselves from spaces easily if they decide they don't like it and they're protected, rather than PUTTING THEIR FACE ON THE INTERNET). And those posts they make will spread a lot more into the community since they're in a significantly easier format to be reposted (few people are gonna be reposting tons of random short-form videos versus spamming their instagrams with reposts of 10 random fandom images yoinked from tumblr, or reposting to pinterest or something). Like, don't repost art, at the VERY least don't repost without credit, but also I am not ignorant to the fact that my art is not just the first google image result for "pjo pride" and related searches, but also the 4th, the 6th, the 9th, the 10th, the 11th, etc etc., and pops up in the search results before the official ReadRiordan does simply because people reposted my work more (most with credit, thankfully).

For fandom to be a community, it needs to perpetuate itself. There needs to be engagement with one another and conversation. If that bottom rung is cut off, then new fans won't be able to grow into the other niches of the fandom, and the fandom will be solely reliant on the source material and die out extremely quickly, and there won't be a community. There's no conversation! There's no reason to stay beyond the original material! But if you don't have points of entry for new fans, they won't have any way to build the skills needed to move into those niches, or engage with the community in a healthy way.

tl;dr: Bring back askblogs and character-based text post blogs. They are vital to fandom ecosystem.

[tricoufamily]

visiting the hometown

(want everyone to know this edit came to me in a dream and i changed the lore just to do it)

[starringvincentprice]

If I watch one more "video essay" that just recaps something and provides surface level observations I'm g

[starfilledsea]

the “my name is john silver, and i’ve got a long fucking memory” scene will always be one of my favorites because it’s one of the points where you really feel the inevitability of black sails. it has to end a certain way because you know from the very first episode that this is a prelude to treasure island, which is an extremely well known story. you already know how silver’s story has to end, because you know who he has to become. everyone knows the person he will become, his character in treasure island has had an enormous influence on pirates in pop culture (peg leg? check. parrot on his shoulder? check.). and while there are other moments that set him on the path to being the long john silver in treasure island (such as becoming the cook on the walrus and losing his leg), arguably the most important part is him getting the name long john silver.

before that, his future isn’t quite set in stone. sure, he’s the sea cook of the original title of the book, and sure, he has the missing leg, but he’s not long john silver yet. he doesn’t have the identity that he will be known and feared for. he doesn’t have to be long john silver. gaining the name and the persona that comes with it is such an integral part of sealing his fate, and before it comes you can almost believe that the story won’t end like that. that the john silver you see won’t become the long john silver that lives on in pop culture enough that there’s a fucking seafood restaurant chain named after him.

and, if you’re like me, you’ve spent almost 3 seasons wondering how it will happen— how “silver” becomes Long John Silver. the scene doesn’t even seem incredibly special at first, until silver says “my name is john silver, and i’ve got a long fucking memory” and then all you can do is sit there for a moment because that’s it. he’s put into motion what you know will eventually become the identity he’ll go down in history with. he hasn’t become long john silver yet, but from that moment on you know he will. it’s one more piece of the story clicking into place, and it’s a crucial step in bribing us to the inevitable ending. you can see the island looming on the horizon.

[tetw]

The 200 Best Articles from the New York Times

We've updated our list of the best journalism from America's leading newspaper... click through for 100s of articles and essays from the past 30 years that have really stood the test of time

[crispycreambacon]

Cliché Then and Now

An analysis of the Fraggle Rock episode "Mokey, Then and Now" and how stereotypes permeate our perceptions

Disclaimer: I am not calling for a disavowal of the show, nor am I implying the creators were intentionally racist. I am also not African, so there are likely things I got wrong or missed out on.

Special thanks to @jazzyjuno for contributing to the essay and @madamegemknight for helping me compile screenshots!

— ☆ —

When I first watched the Fraggle Rock episode “Mokey, Then and Now”, I laughed at the usual wackiness and welcomed the surprise of a dynamic between Mokey, Boober and Wembley. However, a strange discomfort lurked at the back of my head once they traveled to the past and met their ancestors. I couldn’t understand why at first when the episode seemed to radiate nothing but the fun I’ve come to expect from this show. Then, the first song came on.

I looked up the lyrics to confirm what I had heard, and to my disappointment, I didn’t mishear. This is one of many examples of pop culture’s reference to Vodou, a widely misunderstood religion from Haiti that garnered an unfair reputation for being “dangerous” and “demonic”, and like a lot of media back in the day—even still today—Fraggle Rock utilized this to create a mystifying atmosphere with a sinister undercurrent. While the portrayal is not as negative as the caricatures surrounding it, it is still a questionable usage of an already stigmatized religion.

(From the first verse)

Who do you do? We do voodoo

(We do voodoo)

Who do you do? We do voodoo

(Who do you do?)

(From the chorus)

Eye of bat, ear of toad,

Hoppin' down the dusty road,

Lizard, gizzard, beetle stew,

These will bring good luck to you.

It's true... True Voodoo!

Caterpillar, caterwaul,

Crawling up the garden wall,

Song of shadow, air of rain,

These will make you strong again.

It's true... True voodoo!

It wasn’t just the lyrics that caught my eye. Funnily enough, I went to the comments section of the music video, and I saw someone say this.

This person is not the only one who made the connection. So have I, and that is because the instrumentation sounds like an amalgamation of different African music genres. The beginning shots even showed the past Fraggles playing drums which look similar to the djembe, a percussion instrument from West Africa.

I had originally thought the instrumentation derived solely from Afrobeat, but my friend Juno pointed out how the creators had blended music from different cultures together to create what was commonly identified as tribal music, making it difficult to pinpoint a specific genre it was emulating. She even caught similarities to music outside of Africa, namely the Axé genre from Salvador, Brazil.

Once that link had been established, I realized why I felt uncomfortable with the past Fraggles. The creators of this episode likely meant to play on generic caveman stereotypes, but in doing so, they accidentally emulated elements of African culture and their stereotypes.

• African Influences in the Past Fraggles' Culture

Take a look at the clothing that the past Fraggles wore. Their accessories and colorful patterns allude to tribal African clothing, specifically Maasai bead necklaces from Kenya and Tanzania, and other jewelry they wear are made from natural materials such as stones, plants and hay.

Covering hair is a very common practice in many African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe to the point the clothing they use to wrap their heads has its own name which is a headwrap. While the hats that the past Fraggles wear aren’t explicitly headwraps, the past Fraggles demonstrate a reverence of covering their heads to the point when Mokey accidently cited a word to force them to take their hats off, they cried out in despair.

Moreover, when people depict Africans in media or simply imagine them, Africans are often imagined as bald which is a consequence of the generalization of an important part of ancient culture and the spread of ideas propped up by eugenicists. Guess what happens when the past Fraggles take their hats off.

The past Fraggles operated under a monarchy under the “Great and Wondrous leader” Fishface Fraggle whose presentation screams of what an average person may think of when visualizing an African king. His sceptre is carved like an Asante linguist staff—which, while not held by the king, is closely related to the king—and his throne has a loose resemblance to a palanquin which, while not exclusive to African culture, is used in Ghana. To add onto the African king imagery, the past Fraggles briefly showed off fans in the first song which are associated with the king’s fan bearers in Egypt.

• The Poor Implications

On its own, the past Fraggles having African influences in their culture isn’t an awful idea. It only becomes a problem when those influences are being used in a context which further perpetuates African stereotypes.

With all of this in mind, Boneface Fraggle suddenly takes on the “savage caricature” image which depicts Africans wearing bones in their nose and speaking in “broken” English.

It wasn’t just Boneface who spoke like this. There were multiple instances where the past Fraggles didn’t follow General American English and chanted caveman speech which has been associated with Africans to imply their lack of articulation and therefore inferiority.

The savage and uncivilized stereotypes are pushed further when the past Fraggles act in an unsavory way. For instance, they have outlawed laughter, even though it is a completely natural act, and imprisoned a Fraggle for breaking this law.

When Mokey is proven to not be Blundig Fraggle as she claimed to be, they immediately called for her, Boober and Wembley to be imprisoned and tied to a rock for what is implied to be eternity.

• Why Should We Care?

After all, the creators likely didn’t consciously draw inspiration from African cultures, nor did they intend to enforce these stereotypes. In fact, I proposed they were likely focusing more on caveman imagery.

That’s the thing though. Stereotypes, especially racial ones, are ingrained in us so deeply that we can subconsciously be influenced by them when we create and enjoy art connected to their subjects. Caveman stereotypes have a lot of overlap with African stereotypes, so in the creators attempting to portray one image, they accidentally invoke another.

In spite of my speculations on them drawing from cavemen, we cannot be completely sure of the intentions of the creators when trying to portray the past Fraggles as from what I can tell, they had not made them public. Regardless of what they intended, that doesn’t erase that the culture of the past Fraggles can be interpreted as a cumulation of African stereotypes.

We may not even remember where stereotypes originate from as they are a gross oversimplification of observations from our ancestors, yet these stereotypes stick with us and our culture even if we aren't actively thinking about them. Believing and passing on generalizations is a lot easier than thinking of all the nuances of a subject and researching where these generalizations came from.

Let me make it clear: you are not a bad person for not noticing before. The creators are not bad people for unintentionally perpetuating these stereotypes. This isn’t an issue with individual morality. Stereotypes are, by their design, meant to go unchallenged for literal centuries, and people aren’t meant to ponder over their validity. They are presented as simple truths so that we won’t have to think about why they factor into how we treat and think about other people, and we won’t have to confront the prejudice that they can cause.

This is why we have to actively call out stereotypes when we do notice them because how else will we ever stop believing them so easily? If we never question why we believe and enforce them, how can we undo their harm? Even something as small as pointing out when stereotypes are used in a TV show or calling out someone who uses them for their tasteless jokes can lead to bigger changes such as dismantling the racism which benefited from stereotypes.

• So What Do We Do About It?

Moving forward, we need to be more mindful about how we portray subjects in our art to ensure we can explore them with the nuance they need and to ensure that marginalized groups aren't harmed by our art. We also need to be aware of when the media utilizes these stereotypes and how they are presented in the media’s context. Recognizing harmful portrayals in others’ work can help us stay vigilant when making our own art, and we can also help each other realize our own shortcomings and minimize the harm done in the future. We live and learn then, we can live and learn now.

[andreablythe]

Happy Halloween! In honor of the holiday, I'm happy to share my new long-form essay — "The Never-Ending Tedium of Survival: The Final Girls Who Struggle to Stay Alive Again and Again and Again" — up today at Interstellar Flight!

From the opening paragraphs: Horror movie franchises are often recognized by their iconic villains — Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Ghostface, Pinhead, and many other often-masked and often-men baddies who are easily recognizable as a Halloween costume. However, they are not always the core of the series; more often, the heart and soul of a horror franchise is its survivor — the Final Girl (or Guy), who finds herself hunted all over again in the next film, who must learn to survive and survive again as she continuously stares down the ever-looming presence of the monster in the dark.

Bearing the wounds and scars granted by their roles as would-be-victims turned fighters, these Final Girls find themselves perpetually trapped in a limbo of trauma, dragging themselves through the mud and blood in the hopes of coming through the other side alive. This article will present an overview of a number of survivors, who have each appeared in at least three films within their franchise — and who each have their own journeys of coming to terms with their dark worlds.

Read the essay here: https://magazine.interstellarflightpress.com/the-never-ending-tedium-of-survival-4c5ab54a0635

[voltstone]

I HAVE MORE PROOF VIOLET AND MINNIE WERE NEVER ✨A THING✨ I SWEAR

plus how violentine is better bpd relationship. i mean what? hm?

i dont know what spawn within be woke me up from a dead sleep but here we are.

violet gots bpd (…probably). bpd idealization is not at all a good thing and is actually a sign of a rough connection. also, there's a taste of how identity plays into it.

and stuff. but whatever. nobody likes talking about bpd and i'll just sit here and rot or something.

okay, i'm being dramatic. lol. i'll go work on other essays. this is the one that it coms from btw.

[comicbookddr]

After 5 months and a lot of writing, it's finally out. You can now check out the most definitive MBAV video on all of YouTube (according to me).

I tried my best, thank for watching!

[icewindandboringhorror]

Everytime I face a new character limit on a website that didn't have them before/used to have really long ones... AUGHHhhh the modern social media world was not made for people like me (lovers of details, rambling, elaboration, thorough explanation, and nuance)

[iwtvdramacd18]

werewolf claudia au ideas?

ok now claudia I DEFINITELY cannot say much about so to answer that question yeah she might be in there a LIL......... idk idk

[blueskittlesart]

me, thinking that i have at least a base level understanding of botw: :)

blue, about to write a 1,000+ word essay that is going to completely revamp my understanding of the game and interpretation of its events: bada bing bada boom

i dont know how you do it. i am incredibly impressed and using all of this for fic inspiration. keep writing

every time someone asks me how i do this shit i have to regrettably inform them that the real genuine answer is that i am fucking insane. my 2 passions in life are writing and video games and the place where the 2 converge fascinates me to no end and i am that special kind of crazy that is capable of latching onto something and not thinking about anything else for 10 years. so. the only thing i have cared about deeply for the last several years of my life has been the way video games are written and constructed. and zelda is one of the most interestingly constructed franchises i have found to date. these games are just like. the absolute perfect story for my brain to work with and i truly do not know who i would be without them. and i am genuinely incredibly grateful that ive been able to build a platform where people like. CARE about what i have to say and take the time to ask me to think about the games because like. i would be doing it ANYWAY but knowing that there are people who actually read my analysis and appreciate the amount of thought i put into this stuff makes me really happy lol