#There's plenty more but those are the most prominent examples

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Love when I go through a tag for one of my favourite characters and it ends up just being an extensive block list :/

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Meatspace twiddling

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me next weekend (Mar 30/31) in ANAHEIM at WONDERCON, then in Boston with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then Providence (Apr 12), and beyond!

"Enshittification" isn't just a way of describing the symptoms of platform decay: it's also a theory of the mechanism of decay – the means by which platforms get shittier and shittier until they are a giant pile of shit.

I call that mechanism "twiddling": this is the ability of digital services to alter their business-logic – the prices they charge, the payouts they offer, the particulars of the deal – from instant to instant, for each user, continuously:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

Contrary to Big Tech's own boasting about its operations, the tricks that tech firms play to siphon value away from business customers and end-users aren't very sophisticated. They're crude gimmicks, like offering a higher per-hour wage to Uber drivers whom the algorithm judges to be picky about which rides they'll clock in for, and then lowering the wage by small increments as a way of lulling the driver into gradually accepting a permanent lower rate:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

This is a simple trick. The difference is that tech platforms like Uber can play it over and over, and very quickly. There's plenty of wage-stealing scumbag bosses who'd have loved to have shaved pennies off their workers' paychecks, then added a few cents back in if a worker cried foul, then started shaving the pennies again. The thing that stopped those bosses was the bottleneck of payroll clerks, who couldn't make the changes fast enough.

Uber plays crude tricks – like claiming that a driver isn't an employee because the control is mediated through an app – and then piles more crude tricks on top – this algorithmic wage discrimination gambit.

Have you ever watched a shell-game performed very slowly?

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-do-penn-tellers-famous-cups-and-balls-trick-in-12-steps

It's a series of very simple gimmicks, performed very quickly and smoothly. Computers are very quick and very smooth. The quickness of the hand deceives the eye: do crude tricks with superhuman speed and they'll seem sophisticated.

The one bright spot in the Great Enshittening that we're living through is that many firms are not sufficiently digitized to to these crude tricks very quickly. Take grocery stores: they can get up to a lot of the same tricks as Amazon – for example, they can charge suppliers for placement on the most prominent, easiest-to-reach shelves, reorganizing your shopping based on which companies pay the biggest bribes, rather than offering the best products and prices.

But Amazon takes this to a whole different level – beyond simply organizing their product pages based on payola, they do this for search. You ask Amazon, "What's your cheapest batteries?" and it lies to you. If you click the first link in a search-results page, you'll pay 29% more than you would if you got the best product – a product that is, on average, 17 places down on the results page. Amazon makes $38b/year taking bribes to lie to you:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

Amazon can do more than that. Thanks to its digital nature, it can continuously reprice its offerings – indeed, it can simply make up each price displayed on every product at the instant you look at it – based on its surveillance data about you, estimating your willingness to pay. For sellers, Amazon can continuously re-weight the likelihood that a given product will be shown to a customer based on the seller's willingness to discount their products, even to the point where they go out of business:

https://www.businessinsider.com/sadistic-amazon-treated-book-sellers-the-way-a-cheetah-would-pursue-a-sickly-gazelle-2013-10

Twiddling, in other words, lets digital services honeycomb their servers with sneaky wormholes that let them siphon value away from one kind of platform user and give it to another (as when Apple silently began spying on Iphone owners to create profiles for advertisers), or to themselves.

But hard-goods businesses struggle to do this kind of twiddling. Not for lack of desire – but for lack of capacity. Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon Fresh – an online grocery store – can change prices and layout millions of times per day, at effectively zero cost. Jeff Bezos, owner of Whole Foods – a brick-and-mortar grocer – needs a army of teenagers on rollerskates with pricing guns to achieve a fraction of this agility.

So hard-goods businesses are somewhat enshittification-resistant. It's not that their owners are more interested in the welfare of their customers, workers and suppliers – they merely lack the capacity to continuously rejigger the way their business runs.

Well, about that.

Grocers have been experimenting with "electronic shelf labels" in order to do "dynamic pricing" – that means that prices change quickly, in response to circumstances:

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1197958433/dynamic-pricing-grocery-supermarkets

This doesn't have to be bad! As @planetmoney points out, it's a little weird that grocers don't discount milk whose sell-by date is drawing near. That milk is worth less to shoppers, because they have to use it more quickly lest it expire. Instead of marking down the price of perishable goods – day-old lettuce, yesterday's bread, etc – grocers put them on the shelves next to fresher, more valuable products, leading to billions of dollars' worth of food-waste and and unimaginable quantities of methane-producing, planet-cooking landfill.

In Norway, ESLs are pretty well established and – at least according to Planet Money's reporting – they are used exclusively to offer discounts in order to reduce waste. They make everyone better off.

But towards the end of the story, they note that Norway's grocery sector – which alters prices up to 2,000 times per day – has been accused of using ESLs to rig prices, hiking them and blaming them on pandemic supply-chain problems and loose monetary policy. Greedflation, in other words.

Greedflation is rampant in the grocery sector, all around the world. Remember when the price of eggs doubled and they blamed in on bird-flu, even as the CEO of the one company that owns every egg brand you've ever heard of boasted about how he could hike prices and suckers would just pay it?

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/23/cant-make-an-omelet/#keep-calm-and-crack-on

In Canada, grocers rigged the price of bread, the most Les-Mis-ass form of corporate crime you can imagine (do you want guillotines, Galen Weston? Because this is how you get guillotines):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_price-fixing_in_Canada

EU grocers – another highly concentrated industry – also collude to rig prices:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/17/how-to-think-about-scraping/

Which is all to say that while these companies don't have to use the twiddling capabilities that come with ESLs to enshittify their stores, we'd be pretty fucking naive to assume that they won't.

And here's the bad news: US grocers like Whole Foods (owned by Amazon, the company that wrote the enshittification playbook) are already experimenting with ESLs. So is Alberstons/Safeway, the massive, inbred conglomerate that has already demonstrated its passion for using twiddling to fuck over their workers:

https://knock-la.com/vons-fires-delivery-drivers-prop-22-e899ee24ffd0/

Economists love "price discrimination" – where prices change based on circumstance, trying to match the perfect price with the perfect customer. On paper, that sounds plausible: if I need a quart of milk for a recipe I'm making tonight and I get a 50% discount on some about-to-expire 2%, then everyone's better off. I get a discount and the grocer gets some money for milk they'd have to throw away at the end of the day.

But these elegant, self-licking ice-cream cones only emerge if the corporation offering the deal is constrained. Perhaps they're constrained by competition – the fear that you'll go elsewhere. Or perhaps they're constrained by regulation – the fear that they'll be punished if they use twiddling-tech to cheat you.

The grocery sector, dominated by a cartel of massive companies that routinely collude to rip us off, is not constrained by competition. And for years, regulators let them get away with ripping us off (though finally that might be changing):

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/us/politics/grocery-prices-pandemic-ftc.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ek0.t2Pr.g4n2usbxEcoa

For neoclassical economists, the answer to all this is "caveat emptor" – let the buyer beware. If you want to make sure that ESLs are only used to offer you discounts and not to gouge prices, all you need to do is note the price of everything you buy, every time you buy it, and triple-check it every time you go back to the grocery store. Just be eternally vigilant!

Thing is, the one thing computers are much better at than humans is vigilance. With ESLs and other twiddling mechanisms, you're a fish on a hook, and the seller is tireless in giving you a little more slack, then a little less, until you finally drop your guard.

Economists desperately want these elegant models to work, but "efficient market hypothesis" is a brain-worm that always turns into apologetics for fraud. Dynamic markets sound like a good idea, but they are catnip for cheaters. "Just be eternally vigilant" is miserable advice, and no way to live your life:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

In his brilliant novel Spook Country, @GreatDismal describes augmented reality as "cyberspace everting" – that is, turning inside-out:

https://memex.craphound.com/2007/07/31/william-gibsons-spook-country/

The extrusion of twiddling technology from digital platforms into the physical world isn't cyberspace everting so much as it is cyberspace prolapsing.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/26/glitchbread/#electronic-shelf-tags

[ladyloveandjustice]

I was talking to my partner about how I think the main reason "heroic" gyaru characters are so trendy in anime right now, is likely because the actual fashion trend is over now, meaning they're no longer "scary" for being girls that rebel against Japanese beauty standards and act "rough". I do remember a time where gyaru characters showed up a lot less frequently but were generally portrayed as aggressive dumb sluts when they did, you know the drill... I remember there was even an afterward in the sailor moon manga where Naoko described herself as being scared when approached by a gyaru because that was the culture of the time. They were considered scary delinquents.

But now that the trend is officially over, anime can look back and decide "that was pretty cool actually! maybe they weren't all dumb sluts! Maybe stereotypes are bad! Maybe those delinquents were cool! maybe it would be great to have a sexy gyaru girlfriend!" (it does fail to address that even if a girl slept around that's fine, all the gyaru characters portrayed as good in anime are generally chaste, which generally gets a big whawhwhwhwhwa reaction, you can't judge a book my it's cover it seems!!! okay but why are judging the book to begin with.)

like don't get me wrong i love gyaru characters i love delinquent girls with all my heart and am glad to see them getting their flowers even it's too little too late. But it's interesting.

There is one big exception to the "animanga portayed gyarus as bad and dumb" at the height of the trend (and probably a lot of smaller ones but I'm talking in broad strokes) which is a shoujo manga called Gals! The main "gal character" is portrayed as struggling in school and a little ditsy, but overall plenty smart. She's a role model! She's a gal for justice. I've been meaning to read/watch it so I can't say much more but:

When she was in elementary school, she was enthusiastic about becoming a police officer, but quit the ambition after learning that she won't be able to dye her hair or wear her favorite accessories.

Being a gyaru saved her from becoming a cop, thank god.

There's some other big examples I found are also shoujo: Peach Girl and Shiritsu! Bijinzaka Joshi Koukou...

Sukeban were considered a similar delinquent subculture rebelling against norms, and I don't know enough about manga scene then to how Sukeban were overall portrayed, but it also interests me that the most prominent positive portrayal of them was also a shoujo manga-- in this case Sukeban Deka/Keiji. This was in 1975 when sukeban was very much still a thing. And arguably, that manga is why a lot of Sukeban heroes/nice girls show up in media today despite being so incredibly anachronistic.

(there's something to be said about how both delinquents being "good" comes with ties to the police, though with Saki it's more complicated because law enforcement is also depicted as incredibly shady and actually blackmails her).

I don't know what my point here all is, just that it's an interesting but unsurprising trend of rebellious women only getting sympathy when they're no longer active and no longer perceived as a threat, but the exceptions of sympathetic portrayal specifically when the trend is popular coming from shoujo manga...well it's only two examples so it could be a coincidence, but it's interesting. I think a very likely reason is the mangaka some girls who read manga might fall into those countercultures so they should have a story for them, or the idea rebellion might be more enticing for girls even if they are straight laced...

(actually it could be i don't know what im talking about i might delete this later)

[talonabraxas]

The Green Man by Talon Abraxas

Symbol of life and nature:

The most common and perhaps obvious interpretation of the Green Man is that of a pagan nature spirit, a symbol of man’s reliance on and union with nature, a symbol of the underlying life-force, and of the renewed cycle of growth each spring. In this respect, it seems likely that he has evolved from older nature deities such as the Celtic Cernunnos and the Greek Pan and Dionysus.

Some have gone so far as to make the argument that the Green Man represents a male counterpart - or son or lover or guardian - to Gaia (or the Earth Mother, or Great Goddess), a figure which has appeared throughout history in almost all cultures. In the 16th Century Cathedral at St-Bertrand de Comminges in southern France, there is even an example of a representation of a winged Earth Mother apparently giving birth to a smiling Green Man.

Because by far the most common occurrences of the Green Man are stone and wood carvings in churches, chapels, abbeys and cathedrals in Europe (particularly in Britain and France), some have seen this as evidence of the vitality of pre-Christian traditions surviving alongside, and even within, the dominant Christian mainstream. Much has been made of the boldness with which the Green Man was exhibited in early Christian churches, often appearing over main doorways, and surprisingly often in close proximity to representations of the Christ figure.

Incorporating a Green Man into the design of a medieval church or cathedral may therefore be seen as a kind of small act of faith on the part of the carver that life and fresh crops will return to the soil each spring and that the harvest will be plentiful. Pre-Christian pagan traditions and superstitions, particularly those related to nature and trees, were still a significant influence in early medieval times, as exemplified by the planting of yew trees (a prominent pagan symbol) in churchyards, and the maintenance of ancient “sacred groves” of trees.

Tree worship goes back into the prehistory of many of the cultures that directly influenced the people of Western Europe, not least the Greco-Roman and the Celtic, which is no great surprise when one considers that much of the continent of Europe was covered with vast forests in antiquity. It is perhaps also understandable that there are concentrations of Green Men in the churches of regions where there were large stretches of relict forests in ancient times, such as in Devon and Somerset, Yorkshire and the Midlands in England. The human-like attributes of trees (trunk-body, branches-arms, twigs-fingers, sap-blood), as well as their strength, beauty and longevity, make them an obvious subject for ancient worship. The Green Man can be seen as a continuing symbol of such beliefs, in much the same way as the later May Day pageants of the Early Modern period, many of which were led by the related figure of Jack-in-the-Green.

Symbol of fertility:

Although the Green Man is most often associated with spring, May Day, etc, there are also several examples which exhibit a more autumnal cast to the figure. For example, some Green Men prominently incorporate pairs of acorns into their designs (there is a good example in King's College Chapel, Cambridge), a motif which clearly has no springtime associations. In the same way, hawthorn leaves frequently appear on English Green Men (such as the famous one at Sutton Benger), and they are often accompanied by autumn berries rather than spring flowers. The Green Man in the Chapelle de Bauffremont in Dijon (one of the few to retain its original paint coloration) shows quite clearly its leaves in their autumn colours.

This may have been simple artistic license. However, acorns, partly due to their shape, were also a common medieval fertility symbol, and hawthorn is another tree which was explicitly associated with sexuality, all of which perhaps suggests a stronger link with fertility, as well as with harvest-time.

Symbol of death and rebirth:

The disgorging Green Man, sprouting vegetation from his orifices, may also be seen as a memento mori, or a reminder of the death that await all men, as well as a Pagan representation of resurrection and rebirth, as new life naturally springs out of our human remains. The Greek and Roman god Dionysus/Bacchus, often suggested as an early precursor of the Green Man, was also associated with death and rebirth in his parallel guise as Okeanus.

Several of the ancient Celtic demigods, Bran the Blessed being one of the best known, become prophetic oracles once their heads had been cut off (another variant on the theme of death and resurrection) and, although these figures were not traditionally represented as decorated with leaves, there may be a link between them and the later stand-alone Green Man heads.

There are several examples of self-consciously skull-like Green Men, with vegetation sprouting from eye-sockets, although these are more likely to be found on tombstones than as decoration in churches (good examples can be seen at Shebbear and Black Torrington in Devon, England). Such images might be interpreted as either representing rebirth and resurrection (in that the new life is growing out of death), or they might represent death and corruption (with the leaves growing parasitically through the decaying body).

The Green Man as archetype:

The very fact that images of the Green Man have appeared historically in such disparate and apparently unconnected locations have led some commentators, notably Roweena Pattee Kryder and William Anderson, to suggest that the figure is part of our collective unconscious, and represents a primeval archetype (in Jungian parlance) which is central to our relationship with Nature.

Phyllis Araneo has suggested that the appearance of the Green Man in European and worldwide art is a cyclical phenomenon triggered by times of crisis or significant change. For example, she suggests the proliferation of Green Man imagery after the 11th Century can perhaps be associated with feelings of relief and celebration after the widely predicted apocalypse of the millennium failed to materialize.

In the same way, the modern resurgence may have been triggered by the environmental crisis we are currently living through. In its modern revival, in the wake of James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis and the birth of the modern Green movement, the Green Man can be seen as the archetype of the “conservator”, whose brief is to counsel us to take from the environment only what we need to survive and to conserve the rest, and to remind us of our responsibilities for the stewardship of the natural world. A quote from Mike Harding succinctly summarizes this position: “If anything on this poisoned planet gives us hope of renewal it is this simple foliate head that has been there in one form or another since the beginning.”

-The Enigma of the Green Man - Theories and Interpretations

[dynamite-derek]

Sea of Stars: The best game you played as a child that released in 2023

When I was in middle school, I have vivid memories of playing Chrono Trigger. I rented it from my local video store, a poor man's family video. It even had a tanning bed, as was the style at the time. I sat in front of my grandmother's mid-size CRT television and was amazed at just about everything I saw. The beautiful pixel art, the various set pieces, the story, the music. Everything. My inner monologue for about a month after experiencing Chrono Trigger for the first time was using "thees" and "thous" a lot like Frog did in that localization. He was the best character so the way he spoke was the best way to speak. Simple as that.

Often times games try to ape Chrono Trigger because my experience with it is hardly a unique one. Most of the time, I feel these games miss the mark or fall short of it. They tease you with the "Chrono Trigger" but it more hits on some highlights that Chrono Trigger had instead of making an actual good game that can stand on its own merits. The example that comes most prominently to mind is "I Am Setsuna," a game I once wrote about on this blog. It's a game that mindlessly tries to take what makes Chrono Trigger a good game and slaps it onto something else. A soulless product developed by a company with a soulless name (Tokyo RPG Factory.)

My brother has been pestering me to play Sea of Stars for months now. Yet the specter of products like "I Am Setsuna" prevented me from making the jump for a long time. Yes, aesthetically, it played the part...but if I were to go back in time and rent this game from the fake Hollywood Video and play this on the mid-size CRT at my grandmother's house, would it capture my imagination? Would it stand on its own?

Yes.

On the surface, Sea of Stars looks like it's trying to be Chrono Trigger. They have the combo attacks, they have the wacky cast of characters from a variety of different backgrounds, the overworld and spritework looks pretty close and the music...well, the music can often feel like it was lifted straight from that very SNES game. But there's more to it than that. Quite literally. Sea of Stars doesn't just try to mimic the style of one beloved RPG, it lifts from several and becomes something of a Jack of all retro turn based trades.

The combat uses timed hits like Super Mario RPG - a system that's extremely easy to wrap your mind around but is extremely adept at keeping the player's attention. You can't just take your mind off of the game once you hit 'attack.' It also has the ability to change your characters in combat, which gives the game something of a Final Fantasy X (it's odd that a 20+ year old game is the 'newest' thing mentioned here) feeling. Sometimes a spot will call for a poison user, sometimes it will call for your warrior cook, sometimes it will call for your moon user. It's simple, but it makes each encounter feel unique and engaging. It also uses something akin to a limit break system, as seen in various Final Fantasy titles. Everybody gets an elaborate ultimate attack. When is the right time to use it? Even more variables tossed into a fairly easy-to-use system.

It's not just in the gameplay either. One of the big mistakes video game companies make when making 'new' retro games is that they cram too much story into the game. Don't get me wrong, stuff like Final Fantasy IV, Lunar Silver Star Story and Chrono Trigger have plenty of story, but go back and play those games and then go play Final Fantasy VII. The amount of dialogue and dedication to storytelling is next level compared to what you get in SNES games. Older RPGs have a smattering of world building and story but that is bolstered by the gameplay. Sea of Stars is similar in this regard. It does not have 'too much' story, it has about as much as you would see in an SNES RPG. It leaves something to the imagination. Not every last detail of the world is explained, you're left with a sense of wonder.

When I first heard the term 'solstice warrior,' I grimaced. It sounded so lame, like something out of a kid's cartoon. And yet, it is tackled with sincerity. They don't go out of their way to tell you every aspect of what goes into making these warriors, they keep things very simple and straight forward. It just feels authentic. By the end of the game I wanted to learn more about this world and these characters, I did not feel like everything had been spelled out in game and there was something left to discover. Even a post-game twist felt like something a kid would tell you at school and you'd just roll your eyes and say 'yeah fucking right Ned, I'm sure collecting all 60 conch shells will do that.'

My discovery with this game is that in order to create a 'love letter' to a genre, you need to focus on more than one game. It needs to just focus on lots of things. I am Setsuna feels like a shallow clone of Chrono Trigger. Sea of Stars feels like a game that saw great elements from a lot of other great games and came to its own conclusions by throwing those things together. I fully believe a middle school aged Derek would have been glued to his Grandma's CRT for a month straight playing this game. It's the highest compliment that I can pay this game. It's not better than Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI or Earthbound. But it still stands on its own and it is fantastic.

[wibble-wobbegong]

why do we lose mike’s perspective over time?

after s1, mike’s perspective on things slowly fades away. commonly, you’ll see people talk about the duffers hiding his queerness by stripping us from his perspective, and while that is true, it doesn’t make sense as the grander reason when we look at the show as a whole. it’s more of a helpful side effect

if mike’s perspective is given to us on a basis of his sexuality and wanting to mask his queerness, why do we get his perspective in scenes like these?

but not scenes like this?

really, the whole sauna test should have been from mike’s perspective because he came up with the whole thing, was the most involved in orchestrating it, and was a direct target of billy. we get many shots of mike, but little to none are from his perspective.

i don’t think it’s about mike being queer. i think hiding his perspective gives them more maneuverability as to how they want to handle mike’s queerness, but i don’t think that’s the main motive.

the thing about mike’s perspective is that is never completely disappeared. it still bleeds through, but only in specific moments, and it rarely lasts for long. we see his perspective bleed through in later seasons during scenes like these;

it’s weird, right?

let’s look at each season individually and what characterizes those seasons for mike as a whole.

Season 1 - mike is our central perspective and when he’s on screen, 90% of the time we’ll be in his POV. he’s determined and strong. he’s scared but also fascinated with what they’re discovering. this season can mostly be regarded as the season where mike is most true to to himself because he doesn’t yet understand why he would be anything else (until people start pushing him towards el, but he’s still being himself throughout it which is why he’s openly confused about what’s happening)

Season 2 - mike’s perspective becomes a bit more sporadic, and we aren’t in his perspective nearly as often as we were in s1, though still a good amount of time is given to him. his perspective becomes most prominent when danger is involved, and the hospital scenes are the best example of that shift between non-danger and danger scenes and where the perspective falls. in this season, he’s depressed and even believes he’s dealing with post-traumatic stress. he still has confidence in himself and his abilities, but we don’t see him partaking in DnD at all and he spends all of Halloween semi-pissed. he’s more uptight than he was in s1. he’s himself, but he’s being pulled towards a very dark spot

Season 3 - almost no perspective from him this season. the driest of deserts for anyone looking for mike’s perspective. even in danger scenes we don’t get his perspective!! this is the season where mike is doing everything in his power to repress who he is in order to try and “fix” himself — to grow up and finally start liking girls. he knows he doesn’t like girls, but he attributes this to being a child and thinks if he forces himself go grow up then he’ll finally like el back. he looks to lucas for guidance constantly and doesn’t know what he’s doing. even without his perspective, we see this perpetual regret on his face when he sees the consequences of his actions

Season 4 - mike’s perspective is still limited, but we get more blips. scenes like the cafeteria scene, the van scene, the scene on the couch and in the car back to hawkins. there are plenty of small moments that show us mike’s perspective, but majority of the season is through other people’s eyes despite the very central role mike has in the cali plotline. in a story that was meant to service the race to el, it ended up becoming much more about byler because the story was being told through will’s eyes. had it been from mike’s perspective, there likely wouldn’t have been as much clash between the romanticism of that plot compared to the action of everything else. obviously they wanted to include the romance stuff but they could’ve kept it more to the side like in previous seasons by maintaining the perspective of the guy finding all the clues and putting all the pieces together — they didn’t.

mike’s lacking perspective impacts more than just the byler story, and honestly i think that it very much so has to do with why mike was the one we were introduced to as the main character in s1 and why it’s important we’re going back to s1.

it seems that, typically, it’s only when mike is most secure in himself that we’re allowed to see his perspective (and i can make an argument for the ending of s3). mike being introduced as the main character, the character who’s shoes we’re supposed to fill, adds to this idea by making us less secure in the support we had for mike in s1 as mike becomes more and more insecure. it’s a rhetorical tactic to keep us in mike’s shoes in a very roundabout way and the unveiling of his perspective in s5, which i assume will happen in one massive episode, will directly coincide with mike being forced to face all the things he hates about himself.

mike’s sexuality is a massive insecurity, but it definitely isn’t his only one. we see issues with his family, his inability to be good enough for el or anybody, his slow loss of relationships by his own destruction, and his on-the-line dynamic with death. i’d make the argument that, rather than it being about his sexuality, it’s about having us go on this emotional journey with mike in an unconventional manner. as mike comes to accept himself for who he is (which goes far beyond his sexuality, which is arguably one of the few things he has accepted about himself using the perspective argument) we will learn to accept him as well. if we were the GA. we’re not which is why we already know all this

[jennibeultimate]

hiii this is random but !! ive been watching the olympics gymnastics and im kind of Obsessed and wanna get into watching gymnastics not just once every 4 years ?? wondering if u have any advice on where to start !! coz i know Nothing lol :))

Hi, you're welcome!

There is plenty of gymnastics to watch all year round. The Olympics is the highlight though every 4 years!

Btw I also got into watching artistic gymnastics by seeing the Olympics (20 years ago 🤯, when watching was depending heavily on terrestrial broadcast).

I am not really sure if I am the best to explain artistic gymnastics and tbh I am not following gymnastics as closely as 10 years ago but I still try to give some advices. I hope it helps. Pls ask if anything is unlcear.

I think in short the best advice is to just watch as much gymnastics as you can 😁 With time you will see and understand more about the sport.

A short and incomplete introduction into artistic gymnastics:

Let's start with some basics:

There are different kind of gymnastics, but I assume anon talks about artistic gymnastics as this was the most prominent discipline that gets most attention.

The governing body of gymnastics is the FIG. You can find a YouTube channel, an Instagram account and a Twitter account.

There are two shortcuts for artistic gymnastics. Men Artistic Gymnastics = MAG and Women's Artistic Gymnastics = WAG.

Male gymnasts perform on 6 apparatus (Vault, Floor, High Bar, Parallel Bars, Pommel Horse and Still Rings), female gymnasts on 4 apparatus (Balance Beam, Uneven Bars, Vault and Floor). The All Around (AA) competition is the most prestigious as you have to be good on all apparatus.

I would not bother with understanding everything about the points for the start, but for the basics there is a Difficulty Score (D-Score) and an Execution Score (E-Score) for each routine. The execution score will be deducted starting by 10,0. The difficulty score is open end. How the deductions on the E-score work is far too complex to explain in a simple post but you can watch out for landing errors, going out of bounds on a landing on Floor and Vault, pointed feet and bend knees, just to name some common errors. A fall is easy to spot and is always 1,0 off. The D-Score works different. Each element has a value starting by A and going up to H. A has 0,1 difficulty and H has 0,8. The 8 most difficult elements count towards the D-Score. There are some different requirements on each apparatus what you have to fullfill, but it would lead to far here to explain.

Competitions:

Artistic gymnastics has a World Championship every year except in the Olympic year, so that's the event to watch out most besides the Olympics. It always happens some time in October each year. Next World Championship 2025 will be in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Before the World Championship there are multiple other competitions to watch. There are championships on continental level (European Championships for example), World Cups and national competitions. And more but these are the competitions I would put my focus on. The Nationals of the USA are probably the most hyped and easily accesible via YouTube. European Championships have various broadcasts on TV but also have their own streaming site here Most events have some form of livestreaming or videos accesible afterwards.

Watch just as much as you can from competitions. You can always rely on Youtube videos. Also old videos are fun to watch.

Gymnasts and countries I recommend to keep an eye on:

I will focus on those who compete at the Olympics this time, but tbf getting into gymnastics at the Olympics may be the worst time as a lot of gymnast you'll see at the Olympics retire afterwards. So next year you might not see many returning ones...

There are plenty of amazing gymnasts but the post is already far too long, so I'll point out a few of the best and a few of my faves. (There sadly is a picture limit per post on Tumblr)

WAG (Women's Artistic Gymnastics)

I guess this name is familiar but always worth mentioning: Simone Biles 🇺🇸(superstar of the sport, called "Greatest of All Time" GOAT and frontrunner for the last decade - most decorated gymnast of all time. Olympic AA champion 2016 and 2024, World AA Champion 2013,2014,2015,2018,2019,2023)

Rebeca Andrade 🇧🇷 (World AA Champion 2022, Olympic Silver Medalist 2021 and 2024, Olympic VT Champion)

Qiu Qiyuan 🇨🇳 (2023 Uneven Bars World Champion - great Beam and Bars worker - just won Olympic UB Silver 2024 few hours ago)

Some others worth mentioning (sadly not pictured):

Kaylia Nemour 🇩🇿 (2024 UB Olympic champion - first African gymnast to win a medal at the Olympics)

Sunisa Lee 🇺🇸 (2021 AA Olympic Champion, 2024 AA & UB Bronze Medalist)

Flavia Saraiva 🇧🇷 (the most fun floor routines and gorgeous beam)

Elsabeth Black 🇨🇦 (fan favorite, 2017 Worlds AA Silver Medalist, 2022 Worlds Beam silver medalist)

Team USA is without a doubt the strongest nation in WAG. Not only did they win most of the team competitions the last decade, but also with quite a margin. Team Italy and Team Brazil have fought their way up to the top with Italy having a balanced team of gymnasts who can score evenly on all events and Team Brazil having superstar Rebeca Andrade who contributes massively with huge scores. Team China imo has the prettiest gymnastics of everyone but their weakest event Vault prevented them from winning team medals since 2014. Their strongest events are Beam and Uneven Bars.

(From left to right: Team Italy, USA and Brazil)

MAG (Men's Artistic Gymnastics)

Zhang Boheng 🇨🇳(World AA Champion 2021, Olympic AA Silver Medalist 2024 - tbh the best AA gymnast atm but battling with injuries and lost the AA final by a few tenth despite having a fall)

Daiki Hashimoto 🇯🇵 (Olympic AA and HB Champion 2021, World AA Champion 2022 & 2023)

Shinnosuke Oka 🇯🇵 (Olympic AA Champion 2024, World Junior AA Champion 2019 - the surprise AA Olympic Champion. Just 20 years old with a bright future)

(Shinnosuke Oka (left) and Daiki Hashimoto (right))

Zou Jinyuan 🇨🇳 (Olympic PB champion 2021, World Champion - the cleanest execution on parallel bars and overall you'll ever see)

Some more MAG gymnasts worth mentioning:

Carlos Yulo 🇵🇭 (first Philippine gymnast to win a world title and Olympic title - great AAer and Floor and Vault specialist - 2019 FX World Champion, 2024 Vault and Floor Olympic Champion)

Ilia Kovtun 🇺🇦 (2021 Worlds AA Bronze medalist & 2023 Worlds AA Silver Medalist)

Team China and Team Japan are those to watch out for the titles. They have the best teams and are far off all other countries atm (with Russia's team banned who won in Tokyo 2021) Team China is very strong on Still Rings and Parallel Bars. Team Japan is very strong on Parallel Bars

(Podium from left to right: China, Japan and USA)

Team USA unlike in the women competition are not frontrunners, but have received the Bronze medal at this games with hitting 18/18 routines. Other teams to watch out are Team Great Britain and Team Ukraine. Team Ukraine are the current European Champions are strong on Parallel Bars and Vault. Their weakness is High Bar which costed them the team medal in Paris. Team Great Britain has strong gymnasts on most events, most prominently Vault, Pommel Horse and Floor.

(Team Ukraine at the European Championship 2024 - from left to right: Nazar Chepurny, Stelmakh, Oleg Verniaev, Igor Radivilov and Ilia Kovtun)

About artistic gymnastics fandom:

If you wanna talk about gymnastics you can join the fandom, called gymternet. (The experience to see your faves suffering together may sting a little less 😅)

Tbh I am maybe not the right person to ask about fandom side of gymnastics (I am mostly active in figure skating fandom). There are a couple of "fandom" sites I use to follow gymnastics news: The Gymternet (link here) and The Balance Beam Situation (link here) (this one is a bit more on the "drama" side with the reporting)

For more fandom stuff you should better ask someone else for advice.

______

And while I am at it I also recommend watching rhythmic gymnastics, it's different but very beautiful. And the competition at this Olympics is about to happen from 8th to 10th August 2024! (Tbh by now I follow RG much closer than AG)

[utilitycaster]

@rowzeoli replied to your post “@rowzeoli replied to your post “Do you think part...”:

There's a lot to tackle on this so I'll do my best to cover it all! So I totally get where you're coming from and to be fair yes there are some things in old articles that I don't agree with any more in deeming people having done things "first" which is part of the issue of not having a collective historical memory around actual play as it moves so quickly. Most of the issue isn't that readership is down it's that AI and venture capitalism is destroying journalism

​

Hey, sorry for taking a bit to respond; it's been a hectic week and I wanted to give it some thought and time.

I'll start off with the good: I really do, again, appreciate you engaging here, and on the strength of that alone I am going to at least give Rascal's free articles a good solid chance for a while; I have been, admittedly, tarring it with the brush of a lot of frustrations (see below) and I know it's relatively new and still finding its place and should get a bit more of my patience. I also should note that while your article did hit on a lot of the patterns that have turned me - and no small amount of others - off of a lot of AP/TTRPG journalism it is by no means the worst example. The things you credited Burrow's End for are, admittedly, more obscure single-episode events within a huge body of work. Or in other words: there are bylines in the space that make me go "oh this is going to be bad" and yours is not one of them.

With that said: I'm sorry, but Polygon's bias is not a matter of time crunch or lack of funding. There is no way that a time crunch or lack of funding would consistently, over years (this was already word on the street at latest when EXU Calamity came out almost 2 years ago) result in a message of "D20 can do no wrong, and Critical Role rarely does right." If it were throwing out harsh criticism or glowing praise for a wide variety of shows, sure, that seems like it could come from not having a lot of time...but this goes beyond coincidence. It's a reputation that long precedes your entry into the field. As some others in the replies have noted, I might have written the most about it on Tumblr, but it's at this point not an uncommon observation. This also isn't an issue for other publications in a similar "nerd stuff" space - there's plenty of articles on, say, Dicebreaker or Comicbook.com that I don't care for, either because I disagree with the opinion or I think the analysis isn't really worthwhile, but those tend to at least have a mix of positive and critical articles about most shows. When I said you could treat Polygon articles like Madlibs, I meant it. And so I think it's great that you are no longer chasing "groundbreaking", for example, is not a solid ground for an article, but this also is showing me that even relatively new journalists are, very early on, starting with this exact formula. In some ways, that's more damning.

I do also want to add that I'm again, sympathetic to the lack of resources and to coming into a field with passionate and nitpicky fans who have been here for years. Not knowing about a single Critical Role one-shot from 2018 is something that I'd have been much more lenient about if it weren't hitting those repetitive notes of "D20 is great/this thing is groundbreaking/look at the production values." But the other article I posted, also from Polygon but not written by you, is, to be honest, pretty inexcusable. I get there's a lot of lost institutional memory...but either being unaware of, or ignoring the fact that there are a huge number of long-running actual play podcasts that play longform campaigns? That's pretty much on par, in terms of whether your audience trusts you, of the New York Times international news desk not being able to locate Russia on a map (though obviously with far less serious real-world ramifications). (The fact that this was written by a prominent actual play scholar meanwhile is like, I don't know, Neil DeGrasse Tyson not knowing how gravity works, but that's a separate topic).

And again, I get these are your colleagues. I have the luxury of being able to run my mouth without putting my livelihood at stake, and that's not true for people within the industry. I do not expect you to say anything ill about them, nor would I judge any specific individual for getting published in Polygon since I get that people are pitching to a number of sites so that they can get paid! But when I say "Polygon's AP/TTRPG coverage is at needs-a-change-of-leadership levels of bad" I am not alone in this, and it's something that has probably been true for easily 3+ years if not longer. Because it's one of the more prominent publications in the space (ironically, due to Justin McElroy of TAZ being a founder, and the fact that its videogame division is quite good and has had some viral videos, it had enviable name recognition among AP fans that it's only squandered since) it really is at a point where hitting that same formula in any AP journalism - claiming everything is groundbreaking, putting an emphasis on high production values, D20 good and CR bad - makes fans go "oh, more of this bullshit." I don't want to say you can't talk about these things - I definitely do not want to say that you cannot criticize Critical Role - but that specific well is has been poisoned for a long time. If someone hits these points it feels, whether or not it is true, that they're trying to be provocative by going against popular fan opinion, but are simultaneously just saying the same thing we've seen a million times before.

I believe wholeheartedly that from your perspective the competition is AI - and I don't want AI articles either. On the other hand, in terms of what I think fans who are in my position are turning to, it's not AI articles (I'm certainly not). If I want analysis, I'm probably, at this point, going to social media; I am not the only person who writes longform meta or analysis for fun, and I'll seek others who do out. I'm not personally a video essay person, but plenty are, and that's out there too. I'm not going there for reporting on news (I think the Dnd Shorts OGL debacle made it clear that actual journalists are very necessary) but yeah, if I want criticism or analysis? I'm going there instead, especially since there often is that missing institutional memory. If I do want journalism, at this point, some of the bigger shows are getting writeups in less niche publications, particularly Critical Role and D20, as is news of more major tabletop games. It's infrequent and it doesn't highlight indie works, but it tends to be, if nothing else, lacking in major errors or obvious bias. If I want to hear from cast members, at least four of the shows I watch or listen to have regular talkback shows, and Dropout regularly talks to AP/TTRPG figures on Adventuring Academy, and a lot of those shows take viewer questions. Which, again, probably not heartening to hear the competition is even tighter, but I guess my point is I hope it's possible, even with very limited resources, to move away from the above "novelty and production values above all" pattern because even that would do a lot of needed work to rebuild reader trust - and I'm going to be checking out Rascal in the hopes that it can.

[slavicafire]

I started doing some research on Slavic wedding and funeral rituals as well as other things, and I noticed that most sources are mainly about Russia? Sometimes they mention traditions coming from more western territories like Poland, but a lot of them seem to be focused on Russia. I began to wonder why. Do you perhaps have any thoughts or information about that?

the first question goes towards you: what sort of sources are you reading? where are you accessing them, and who are the authors? are you researching in multiple slavic languages or just one? some sources are more accessible and easier to obtain, yes, but at the end of the day what you read depends on your skill and patience in research itself, too.

when it comes to russian prevalence in certain sources, the size alone plays a part in it: with how big russia was and is - how it encroached on multiple territories and peoples throughout the centuries, simultaneously sucking up their traditions and snuffing them out, and oftentimes being their only chronicler - and how powerful and prominent it was. we have precious little sources regarding slavic beliefs across the ages - it is much easier for your documents, chronicles, and even oral histories to survive and be studied by new generations, including foreign scholars, when you are the winning party and the conqueror; when you have the resources to preserve them, and the numbers to fuel their study.

it is also important to understand that historical and ethnographic studies have been used since, well maybe not the dawn of time, but close to that, as tools for nation building. with enough money and human resources, and strong enough propaganda foundations, those tools aim to create and/or rewrite the common consciousness of people by the state that rules them with high degree of success - and russia has certainly never shied away from using them. these are nearly inherently political fields - it's building national foundation myths and establishing seemingly innate qualities linking people the state wants to govern, from small things like the songs children are singing in school and what the text boxes at the museums say to steer the explanation of a given exhibition in a certain direction, up to justifying martial conflicts and horrifying ideologies. if nationhood itself is not already a horrifying ideology, that is.

it might seem like a bad faith stretch to attribute the prevalence of russia and russian sources in many slavic-related studies, historical or religious or ethnograpic, simply to its size and power and degree of success of state propaganda, but the more you delve into this subject the more probable it seems. for example, many texts on slavic customs (pre-christian or not) in english, especially older ones, rely quite heavily on rybakov - the champion of anti-normanism and, nowadays, an author understood widely as very eager to build the nation-myth no matter the cost to actual historical accuracy. if "accuracy" is even a term that can be used while discussing history - but that's a whole different subject.

luckily, today we are getting more and more studies, more research, more researchers - and while it might seem naive, I do believe plenty of them are actively acting against pure nation myth-building, and are eager to focus on lands and peoples different than russia. accessing their works is, as I've said, a matter of one's personal skill and patience while looking for texts.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Can I ask you what type of elemental magic the boys use? I know that Ace is wind magic, Riddle is fire magic, Kalim and Silver and Rook is light magic but what about others?

While some characters do demonstrate using certain elemental magic spells (ie Ace using wind magic in the prologue), an individual is not limited to just one kind. If we’re considering both cards and main story canon as viable proof, one clear example of this is Kalim; his Dorm Uniform card has cosmic/water magic. (All previous Dorm Uniform cards were mono-element.) Then, in the main story itself, Kalim describes his UM as allowing him to produce a lot of water using only a little bit of magic. That implies relativity, meaning that other mages are able to use water magic too (just less efficiently than his specialized spell can). Kalim isn’t shown to use light magic prominently in the main story; the “light” being referred to in the ask most likely refers to his cosmic spells which are only seen in his card animations.

On that note, all characters have cards with a variety of elemental combinations, a lot of which are not fire/fire, water/water, flora/flora, or cosmic/cosmic. There are also plenty of what is traditionally thought of as “elemental” magic to the players that is not accounted for in those 4 (Ace’s wind magic isn’t accounted for, nor the magic that electrifies the golden contracts). Additionally, while cosmic magic is “dark” for most of the cast and “light” for Kalim, Silver, and Rook, it doesn’t bar the others from using light magic to, say, light the way in a dark area or something.

Elemental magic isn’t like unique magic where a mage is only capable of pulling off one kind of elemental magic out of all of them. Perhaps someone would be more inclined to one element over another (is that maybe what you were asking about?), whether that’s personal preference or innate skill (ie Grim is a fire monster creature so fire magic is easier for him to belch up, Riddle often uses fire especially when he gets mad), but this has rarely ever been pointed out in the dialogue. For example, the main story and vignettes don’t seem to distinguish Kalim/Rook/Silver’s cosmic magic as being “light” (or more “light prone”) from everyone else’s “dark”. It’s only noticeable to us in a cosmetic sense when we watch them in battle. Nor is it really said that people struggle with certain elements or even elemental magic “opposite” theirs.

It’s kind of arbitrary to assign characters a single element and, in some instances, doesn’t make sense in terms of power scaling and world building. Would a top-of-the-class student like Riddle or Azul (or Malleus, one of the top 5 mages in the world) really only be capable of fire or water magic, respectively?? Would an elite magic school like NRC really only have its students learn a single type of elemental magic and stop there? So… assigning one element to each character isn’t really possible. I would just assume they can use all elemental magic (although not all to the same level of proficiency) unless otherwise stated.

[burnitalldowndarling]

https://www.tumblr.com/burnitalldowndarling/744870483940524032/whats-been-particularly-vile-to-me-is-this-group

#alladis#the left started to die when the white people took over#obama derangement syndrome hit them just as hard#they've just displaced their bigotry in more convoluted ways Really? How so? /genuine

Short on time so not a lot of links or theory, but I think a major example of what I'm talking about is the white leftist dismissal of "identity politics." What they mean by idpol is marginalized people taking pride in their identities or talking about bigotry, which white leftists typically frame as a distraction from more important issues. Thing is, the "more important" issues tend to be those of primary importance to white men, such as UBI or copyleft -- but it's not idpol when they do it. Another example is the embrace of class-centered (also called "class first" and "class reductionist") leftism. Addressing class disparities and economic justice does help marginalized groups as well, but do remember that the people who stand to gain the most from class uplift are those who were already well-off -- as white cis people tend to be, in America, thanks to historical and systemic bigotry. The rising tide floats all boats, but those who already had speed boats in the water are still going to do better than the folks surviving on inflatable rafts.

Identity-centric politics such as anti-racism have always addressed class and economic justice issues, but had the added benefit of centering the most vulnerable groups. The idea was that if you address the needs of/reduce harm to those groups first, everyone still benefits, but you save more lives. In their rejection of idpol, the American left now often ignores harm reduction, denigrates incremental improvements that benefit marginalized groups, and weakens the whole coalition by permitting established power hierarchies and bigotries to run rampant. See the "dirtbag left". See also Bernie Sanders' own 2016 campaign staff revolting because he failed to address racism, racial and gendered pay disparities, and sexual assault. How's he going to build a progressive national coalition when he can't even get his own house in order, progressively?

And I blame white leftists, along with white conservatives, for Trump's election in 2016. These are the people who kept pushing third-party voting, "boycotting" voting, and accelerationist nonsense like the idea that letting Trump get elected would hasten The Glorious Revolution -- never mind if it killed a few poor or brown people along the way. These are people who attacked and dismissed marginalized people online (especially Black and queer women) whenever they pointed out the dangers of a Trump win. They were absolutely vile in their sexism toward Hillary Clinton and anyone who supported her. In a lot of cases these were "leftist" influencers and such who embraced Gamergate and other harassment campaigns, and used the techniques of same against their fellow leftists -- and surprise, surprise, several years later a whole lot of the most prominent ones have come out as fascists. They got right-wing radicalized during the 2000s and 2010s same as white conservatives, in other words; they're just as racist, just as gender essentialist, just as anti-semitic and classist and so on. They just like UBI too. And they're better at using therapy-speak or communist-speak to hide their bigotry.

Tl;dr, while there are plenty of white leftists who are doing the work and doing it right, the most prominent face of leftism for the last 10 years has been the dirtbags, the brocialists, the accelerationists, etc -- people who IMO make the left weaker, and who are frequently dangerous to the very same vulnerable groups that the left should be centering. And way too many of them have become very wealthy from doing so, at which point a lot of them stop being progressive. Almost as if they were only ever in it to advance themselves, in the first place.

[raayllum]

what fae like qualities do you believe aaravos has?

I don't know enough about the fae to say definitively (I've read some works depicting fae, such as The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser from the 1500s, A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, some other folklore myths) but I try to stay away from sources that are too Christianized for stuff that's more Pagan / northern and western Europe and the 1500s has plenty already.

When in doubt I'm loosely using wikipedia / old class notes for reference but if there's a site or source I think is cool and helpful I'll note it down below.

There is some that are generally common knowledge, such as:

Fae being mischevious tricksters with very particular phrasing. They don't tend to often be outright malevolent as a motivation, but often do harm to humans anyway either due to ignorance or blue-orange morality.

Blue-orange morality (for those who don't want to watch a video) is basically when a creature or being does not have a morality that operates that we would define it (on a spectrum of ethical right or wrong actions per consequence or intention). A good example is the spirits from ATLA (not LOK) or One-One from Infinity Train. He's a helpful little robot guy and he loves his friends, but he is ultimately bound and operates within the Train's rules. It's not that he can't deter from the Train's rules without distress or that he doesn't want to, it's that deterring from the Train's rules just doesn't compute to him as even a thing to do. He's operating on his own unique level and it's what turns him from a S1 ally to a S2 antagonist (but not villain).

There tends to be an emphasis on names, deals, and exchanges, i.e. if a Fae says "Can you give me your name?" and you tell them it, they own it and you by extension now, stuff like that. Also have a tendency to give humans they like, or humans who do nice things for them, gifts (whether it's actually a beneficial gift is sometimes debatable).

The Fae often lure humans away from the Ordinary Realm into the Faerie Realm, where time and magic work differently. Sometimes this means being whisked away, or unknowingly stepping through fairy rings. This can include both the Seelie and the UnSeelie Court (Scottish folklore).

Examples of the Fae in popular culture include Spirited Away (don't eat the food!), changeling myths (faerie leaving their babies in place of your own, nowadays seen as a connection to old stories of Autistic individuals), arguably Coraline (film and book), will-o-the-wisps, and other figures in Welsh, Cornish, and broad European folklore, etc.

Variants / similarities include huldufolk (Icelandic and Faroese folklore), sirens (Greek), kelpies (Scottish), etc. Over time Christian (bc of course) associations have also been applied as both demoted angels and tempting devils, but that sort of works given one of Aaravos' most prominent comparisons is Lucifer, and Prometheus, who were as crafty and clever as they come.

Basically:

Aaravos emphasis (or lack thereof) regarding his name and the general mystery surrounding it — "My name would mean nothing to you" even in the face of Viren's demands

We see the emphasis on phrasing given that it's been stated by the crew that Aaravos never lies, but we know he purposefully obscures and omits information

Entering into deals and exchanges with humans, giving them gifts and promises (Ziard's staff, Viren's rule for himself and Viren's life for Claudia)

Him seducing Viren yes I said it / everything with Sir Sparklepuff tbh

Fae can also sometimes set trials to pass or tasks for people to fulfil, similar-ish to Aaravos giving Viren a little fetch quest for them to communicate / "Those who fail tests of love are simple animals."

We don't know what Aaravos actually wants, exactly, or why, but given the indifference of the other Startouch elves to humanity's plights (and the fact they've let Aaravos wreak havoc and have never stepped in to stop him) it's a far bet their long, illustrious lives have given them a decidedly warped morality, and that Aaravos is pretty indifferent to other people's immense suffering at this point, too

His mirror realm being its own sort of faerie realm that he can bring Viren in and out of

Aaravos having multiple names and monikers — the Fallen Star, the Midnight Star, one of the Great Ones — much the way the Fae folk have many — the Good Neighbours, the Fair Folk, the Kind Ones, the Wee Folk, the Others (citation).

This isn't as much of a thing but all the nature motifs surrounding Aaravos (Elarion as a flower, the nature-esque patterns on the box that held the Key and that match the key, the flower and vine emulations on his mirror).

[swan2swan]

Huh, your Black Clover post reminded me of a train of thought I had about Shonen Female Leads? What makes for a good one period and what makes for one that is good in spite of the story around them?

Furthermore what does it mean for them to be "useless" as opposed to just not being the main asskicker of the lead cast? Apologies if this turns into something way too complicated.

Not at all!

So, there are several categories of "Useless" that female characters can fall into. One is the "Actually Useless", where you can cut them out and things don't really change. Examples being Tenten, Ururu, Loly and Menoly, probably some girls in One Piece...yes, Ururu helps with Ichigo's training and stalls Ilfort, but she's mostly just there to provide a sense of scale for the enemies. This is honestly usually what they're for. And it's fine, mostly...there's plenty of useless dudes, too. Jinta isn't exactly more useful than Ururu, save for his cute subplots with Karin. They're really just There, and that's...not usually the issue with the Female Characters we're talking about. You need to be a bigger hitter.

The more prominent ones are the Winless Ones. They might be important to the plot, but they ain't gonna carry a fight. This becomes MUCH more dangerous to their integrity. Hinata and Sakura kinda fall into this category: they're USEFUL, ridiculously so, and they have Big Moments, but they'll get scorned by a fandom because they're really only there to be the Side Character Woman. Often they'll get a Dedicated Chick Fight (this also happens to villains). Orihime is often viewed similarly: obviously, being a medic is CRUCIAL to Story Progression, having your Dedicated Healer is essential to keep the story going (see also: Bulma in the Namek Arc), but they're rarely going to have their Big Moments like that.

It's also a very, very sliding scale...but what I generally want for a Successful Female Character in an anime is for her to have the same bloody, tooth-grinding, hard-fought, well-planned victories that we read and watch shonen to see. I want them screaming with fury, mustering up all their energy, pulling out combos, unleashing hidden techniques, and finally persevering. It's fine if they fall short against a big opponent once or twice! Happens to everyone in Shonen! But by the fifth time your Female Lead finds herself fighting an opponent and almost dying before The Hero or the Antihero or the Mentor or The Squad pulls up to save her...sometimes it can get tiring.

And while shows like MHA did put out a good crop of girls to fight, most of the focus of plotlines and battles tends to fall on Deku, Bakugo, Todoroki, Dabi, Endeavor, and THEN onto Ochako, Momo, and Toga (the Ochako-Toga fights are all pretty good, but again, Chick Fights). JJK did okay with Maki, Nobara, and Mei Mei, but even they kinda pale compared to Gojo, Itadori, Nanami, and such (though she is certainly lively and memorable!!!).

Black Clover, though? Noelle's right in there with Yuno and Asta. In the recent epsiodes, she kept those shields up, kept saving people, and was fighting the whole darn time alongside Asta the Protagonist. Her powers grow, she fades a little as they do a whole arc focused on Vanessa's growth...Mimosa stays involved...and while the anime's current point hasn't really given Noelle any W's that I can remember, her biggest loss is to an enemy that SCREAMS "I am going to get my power level up, come back, and crush you". And I can't wait for that.

Also, she lost her WHOLE DARN POWERSET in the movie and still fought through, joined the battle, powered up, and...iirc...netted a W.

She's still playing third fiddle to Asta and Yuno, but she's more prominent than almost any other female SC I can think of. Short of Erina and Megumi in Food Wars.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 08/02/2024

mlp racism anthem (comix zone arrange)

Season 5 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume GS

Ripped by KnightOfGames

Requested by Corb! (Discord)

When I initially read the request asking for this to be covered (reminder - google form is on the pinned post!), I noticed something really interesting in the note the requestee attached. mlp racism anthem (comix zone arrange), as you may note by the initial acronym in the title, is a rip based on a joke from the My Little Pony franchise - and the requestee noted that the franchise had seen surprisingly little coverage on this blog despite being such a big part of the channel. And yeah: to my knowledge Determination is Magic is still the only directly MLP-related rip to be featured on the blog, with Field of Love and Cringe and SING A SONG ABOUT HOPES AND DREAMS as...edgecases, I guess. But it wasn't until I got this request that I started thinking...yeah, MLP HAS been a pretty big part of SiIvaGunner since its beginning, hasn't it?

Thing is, though, back in the early days of the channel, it always felt to me as if the MLP-posting was sort of...not meant to be taken seriously - to be taken as part of "cringe culture" rather than as actual appreciation of the show. The example that always sticks out to me is JoJo Wrap Up (My Little JoJo: Friendship is Manly), an early Season 2 rip that presents itself as a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure rip before bait-and-switching to a mashup of one of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's many cheerful, peppy, "cringe" songs. Given that the time around 2016/early 2017 was effectively the very peak of cringe culture, you can imagine for yourself what the outcome was - it became the third-most disliked video on the entire channel, with comments filled with salt from fans of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure cursing the very idea of combining their favorite franchise with MLP. Combined with the fact that JoJo fans were already getting plenty messed with intentionally by the SiIva team back in the day, as I covered in Hen'yoku no Piraman, and you get a pretty prominent example of the typical way MLP was treated back in early SiIvaGunner. A popular, cringe and gay kids show, and therefor prime material for trolling and nothing more.

As the years went on, as the team matured (and those who failed to were kicked off), and as the internet landscape as a whole changed for the better - you got the sense that My Little Pony was gradually becoming more of a sincere household name on the channel. Sure, its presence wasn't all *too* much higher than it had been in the past, but the act of using the show for trolling or intentionally-bad rips had all but ceased entirely overtime - which is, of course, how we got excellent rips like Determination is Magic. More than that, though - we in the audience were slowly made to realize that the SiIvaGunner team had several people on it who were far bigger fans of the show than we'd ever been led to believe.

Because sure, ripping the Friendship is Magic intro theme, ripping Winter Wrap-Up, sampling the show's most memetic clips in YTPMVs - that's all well and good. But mlp racism anthem (comix zone arrange) is something else entirely - an arrangement of one of the SEVERAL songs featured in the My Little Pony: A New Generation movie, which released just *three days* prior to the rip itself. There's not a hint of irony in sight, no popular song that Danger, Danger seeks to "ruin", and it isn't even using a song that's particularly popular within the nostalgic part of MLP's fandom. Much like the rip 88811, one that remains an all-time favorite for me, mlp racism anthem (comix zone arrange) is nothing more but a killer Genesis arrangement of a fantastic song. Part of the appeal of Danger, Danger in the A New Generation movie to begin with is that, it's the sole hard-rocking track of its kind in a movie otherwise filled with pop and cheer (the "racism anthem" of the title is referring to how Danger, Danger is the movie's villain song). Which in turn makes it a perfect fit for the soundscape of Comix Zone - there's nothing the Genesis does quite so well as rendering the sound of shredding guitars, and KnightOfGames utilizes it to absolutely fantastic effect here.

I'll likely be covering a good few more rips using the My Little Pony franchise in the future, and I'm really glad this submission alone reminded me of just how prevalent the series really is on the channel nowadays. With those bitter, cynical years far behind us, SiIvaGunner is able to stand proud, with full sincerity, as a celebration of ALL parts of internet pop culture - the concept of "cringe" be damned!

[talonabraxas]

The Enigma of the Green Man

Symbol of life and nature: The Celtic nature god Cernunnos from the Gundestrup Cauldron (1st Century BCE, now in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen)

The Celtic nature god Cernunnos from the Gundestrup Cauldron (1st Century BCE, now in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen)

The most common and perhaps obvious interpretation of the Green Man is that of a pagan nature spirit, a symbol of man’s reliance on and union with nature, a symbol of the underlying life-force, and of the renewed cycle of growth each spring. In this respect, it seems likely that he has evolved from older nature deities such as the Celtic Cernunnos and the Greek Pan and Dionysus.

Some have gone so far as to make the argument that the Green Man represents a male counterpart - or son or lover or guardian - to Gaia (or the Earth Mother, or Great Goddess), a figure which has appeared throughout history in almost all cultures. In the 16th Century Cathedral at St-Bertrand de Comminges in southern France, there is even an example of a representation of a winged Earth Mother apparently giving birth to a smiling Green Man.

Because by far the most common occurrences of the Green Man are stone and wood carvings in churches, chapels, abbeys and cathedrals in Europe (particularly in Britain and France), some have seen this as evidence of the vitality of pre-Christian traditions surviving alongside, and even within, the dominant Christian mainstream. Much has been made of the boldness with which the Green Man was exhibited in early Christian churches, often appearing over main doorways, and surprisingly often in close proximity to representations of the Christ figure.

Incorporating a Green Man into the design of a medieval church or cathedral may therefore be seen as a kind of small act of faith on the part of the carver that life and fresh crops will return to the soil each spring and that the harvest will be plentiful. Pre-Christian pagan traditions and superstitions, particularly those related to nature and trees, were still a significant influence in early medieval times, as exemplified by the planting of yew trees (a prominent pagan symbol) in churchyards, and the maintenance of ancient “sacred groves” of trees.

Tree worship goes back into the prehistory of many of the cultures that directly influenced the people of Western Europe, not least the Greco-Roman and the Celtic, which is no great surprise when one considers that much of the continent of Europe was covered with vast forests in antiquity. It is perhaps also understandable that there are concentrations of Green Men in the churches of regions where there were large stretches of relict forests in ancient times, such as in Devon and Somerset, Yorkshire and the Midlands in England. The human-like attributes of trees (trunk-body, branches-arms, twigs-fingers, sap-blood), as well as their strength, beauty and longevity, make them an obvious subject for ancient worship. The Green Man can be seen as a continuing symbol of such beliefs, in much the same way as the later May Day pageants of the Early Modern period, many of which were led by the related figure of Jack-in-the-Green.

Symbol of fertility: Although the Green Man is most often associated with spring, May Day, etc, there are also several examples which exhibit a more autumnal cast to the figure. For example, some Green Men prominently incorporate pairs of acorns into their designs (there is a good example in King's College Chapel, Cambridge), a motif which clearly has no springtime associations. In the same way, hawthorn leaves frequently appear on English Green Men (such as the famous one at Sutton Benger), and they are often accompanied by autumn berries rather than spring flowers. The Green Man in the Chapelle de Bauffremont in Dijon (one of the few to retain its original paint coloration) shows quite clearly its leaves in their autumn colours.

This may have been simple artistic license. However, acorns, partly due to their shape, were also a common medieval fertility symbol, and hawthorn is another tree which was explicitly associated with sexuality, all of which perhaps suggests a stronger link with fertility, as well as with harvest-time.

Symbol of death and rebirth: Green Man in the form of a skull on a gravestone in Shebbear, Devon, England (photo Simon Garbutt)

Green Man in the form of a skull on a gravestone in Shebbear, Devon, England

The disgorging Green Man, sprouting vegetation from his orifices, may also be seen as a memento mori, or a reminder of the death that await all men, as well as a Pagan representation of resurrection and rebirth, as new life naturally springs out of our human remains. The Greek and Roman god Dionysus/Bacchus, often suggested as an early precursor of the Green Man, was also associated with death and rebirth in his parallel guise as Okeanus.

Several of the ancient Celtic demigods, Bran the Blessed being one of the best known, become prophetic oracles once their heads had been cut off (another variant on the theme of death and resurrection) and, although these figures were not traditionally represented as decorated with leaves, there may be a link between them and the later stand-alone Green Man heads.

There are several examples of self-consciously skull-like Green Men, with vegetation sprouting from eye-sockets, although these are more likely to be found on tombstones than as decoration in churches (good examples can be seen at Shebbear and Black Torrington in Devon, England). Such images might be interpreted as either representing rebirth and resurrection (in that the new life is growing out of death), or they might represent death and corruption (with the leaves growing parasitically through the decaying body).

The Green Man by Talon Abraxas

[werbooz]

Why User-Centered Design is the Key to Online Success: Leveraging Psychology and Design Principles to Create Meaningful Experiences

 

User-Centered Design (UCD) is crucial in today’s digital world, where success relies not just on aesthetics or functionality but on crafting a user experience that resonates with users on a deeper psychological level. UCD prioritizes not only visual appeal but also the way users think, feel, and behave. Creating effective User-Centered Design is simpler than it may seem; it involves applying psychological principles, such as understanding cognitive load and paying careful attention to even the smallest design details. By focusing on these aspects, we can develop experiences that are not only intuitive but also rewarding. In this blog, we will explore why this approach is essential and how real-world examples highlight its significant impact.

Understanding Human Behavior: The Psychological Pillars of User Centered Design

Every user interaction with a product involves mental processing. If this process is considered overly cumbersome—in other terms if the user experiences a high cognitive load then—there is a likelihood that users will feel an overload and thus get annoyed and quit your site/product. One of the key ideas in user-centric design is reducing cognitive load, or the amount of mental effort required to use and understand a product.

Hick’s Law: Simplifying Choices

Hick’s Law states that the time taken to make a decision increases with the number of alternative choices available to the individual user and hence the more choices available to be used by or have the decision the more prolonged it will take for the user to make a decision. Thus, if a website bombards users with too many actionable options then the users may hesitate or leave entirely. Because of this same reason platforms like Netflix offer recommendations to its users to limit the choices and to show the user what’s most relevant. So, Instead of overwhelming users with the entire library, Netflix focuses on curating options that best fits the user preferences, thus making decision-making easier and faster.

Netflix Interface Showcasing Uses Hick’s Law to Simplify Choices

Fitts’s Law: Designing for Ease of Access

Fitts’s Law explains that why large, well-placed buttons are more effective than small buttons that are hard to reach. Users must have no friction or struggle to find key actions on your website/product. Amazon implements this really well by placing the "Add to Cart" buttons in prominent locations.

Design comparison showing familiar interface versus unfamiliar

These buttons are easy to spot and are large enough to click effortlessly, and also the buttons are placed so strategically to minimize user effort. This simple but thoughtful design element can significantly increase conversions because by doing so Amazon reduces the friction in the user's buying journey.

The Impact of Small Design Decisions: Tiny Tweaks that Leads to Big Results

Small design decisions can lead to a significant difference in how users interact with a product, even if the differences seem atomic or minute at first glance.

The Importance of Spacing 

Strategic spacing between elements can drastically improve focus and comprehension. According to the Gestalt Principles of Perception, specifically the Proximity Principle, items placed closely together are perceived as related, while those spaced apart draw more attention individually. Even something as simple as reducing visual clutter makes an enormous difference.

For example, Airbnb uses this principle beautifully. Their listings have plenty of white space, making it easier for users to digest information like pricing, property details, and reviews without feeling overwhelmed. By strategically spacing elements, they guide user attention to what’s most important—booking a stay.

FAQ

Que 1. What is User-Centered Design (UCD)?

Ans 1. User-Centered Design (UCD) is a design method that prioritizes the end user's demands, behaviors, and preferences. It entails studying and understanding customer expectations in order to develop products that are intuitive, simple to use, and aligned with user objectives.

Que 2.  How does psychology influence user-centered design?

Ans 2. Psychology has an effect on UCD because it helps creators understand how people think, act, and make decisions. Making digital systems easier to use and more interesting is based on psychological principles such as Hicks' Law (choice time), Fitts' Law (interaction efficiency), and the Gestalt principles (perception and organization).

Que 3. What is the difference between user-centered and conventional design?

Ans 3. The user's demands are prioritized in user-centered design, as opposed to traditional design that prioritizes aesthetics or corporate goals. Whereas traditional design may overlook important user feedback, resulting in usability problems, UCD constantly tests and refines based on user input.

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