#and then it’s just like all that stuff all that social commentary is totally based off of

[rhondafromhr]

I normally don’t like social media/youtuber AUs but I just came up with a really unhinged one that I feel compelled to subject y’all to.

So, Stephanie’s a podcast girlie. She started one to rebel against the constant pressure to stay out of the public eye and not do anything to make her dad look bad by saying a bunch of things she know will enrage the public (like “peanuts the pocket squirrel is overrated”) and having controversial guests. As it took off, she really started to enjoy the financial independence and attention/validation it brought her, eventually moving to LA to do it full-time.

Grace has a fundamentalist channel (not unlike Girl Defined) where she basically just spouts purity culture bullshit. She’s controversial and while she does have a decent amount of people following her unironically, most of her views are hate watches and she gets a lot of her engagement from commentary channels dunking on her. One of those channels is run by none other than Peter Spankoffski - most of his content is nerdy/science based stuff and that’s his real passion, but he needs to make rent and the videos about Grace are what get views and money.

Stephanie decides that having them both on her podcast would make for one hell of an episode and they agree to do it. She asks questions she knows will get them riled up and cause arguments. It escalates to an all-out screaming match at some points, but the second the cameras are off Grace completely switches up, just totally calm and unbothered. Then she hits on Stephanie, which really confuses the other two. It turns out she’s a grifter - she hasn’t bought into the things she preaches on her channel in a long time, but she keeps it up for the money and because she’s been doing it for so long she doesn’t know what else she would do. Steph and Pete both get it so they’re just like “oh, cool, respect.” Pete invites them to a party hosted by his friend Ruth - an aspiring actress and popular lifestyle vlogger. Her real dream is live theater, but she has a lot of anxiety and she’s way more comfortable talking to a camera and posting online than performing in front of a crowd. The few roles she has gotten have been less about her talent and more about using her following to sell tickets, which is a big insecurity of hers.

At the party, they run into Max, who has one of those awful prank channels where he’s an absolute menace to the public and Richie, his camera man (they met and became unlikely friends in college. They started the channel when Max got an injury that kept him from playing football and had a crisis over what to do with his life). Richie can’t believe this is what he’s using his film degree for and he constantly tries to get Max to pivot to more serious content. The six all get to talking and realize they all grew up in Hatchetfield (Max went to Sycamore in this universe. He was still a literal monster and bullied everyone there, but Hatchetfield High was safe). They talk for hours about all the strange occurrences they noticed back home and the fact that they all suspect some sinister, supernatural forces are at work there. Eventually, they decide to travel back there, investigate and exploit their findings for content in the most epic collab the world’s ever seen.

[genshinconfessions]

Honest to god, the more I see people behaving like actual monsters or children throwing a temper tantrum over characters not having skin as black as the abyss the more I flat out just do not have the capacity to care. I get it sucks that the characters aren't being diverse enough, I get it, but throwing death threats, slurs and god knows what else at the devs while behaving like spoiled rotten brats just makes me not care to any degree. If people can't behave like ACTUAL ADULTS and genuinely have polite points to say other than "Time to attack the devs again/slander the VAs or whoever for agreeing to go with this" whenever a character isn't dark skinned, they have no one to blame but themselves if the devs elect to not listen to what basically amounts to spoiled two year olds not getting what they want. I genuinely feel bad for people who want more diversity but are less hateful and end up being lumped in with the assholes who think threatening the devs lives is a okay, and I also feel bad for anyone genuinely excited about the Natlan characters getting absolutely harassed and ripped to shreds for not "thinking they're ugly for not being dark enough". I feel like if the fan base were ALOT LESS VITRIOLIC about the issue of diversity the devs would likely listen more. But as it stands now I can't wait for the harassing and death threats being thrown around to die down again so I can actually browse genshin twit and tumblr again in peace without having to worry about running into anyone being genuine human trash towards the devs over the color of fucking pixels. I've got enough stressing me out like grieving the loss of a parent, I don't need people being assholes to add to it and it sickens me that they don't see anything wrong with how they're acting. I'm just. I'm tired and wish people could be less like bullies or arseholes for once over a silly little gacha game they claim to love yet act like this. Sorry for this being a long confession, I just needed to get this off my chest cause it's been bugging me and stressing me out so much since the Natlan teaser got released whenever I've gone to look at Genshin stuff practically everywhere lately.....

i'm very sorry for your loss :( and if it will help you feel less alone, i generally agree with your sentiments.

for me, i am a pretty staunch hoyo defender (evident in previous posts when we used to comment on asks more frequently), but i must admit, i was slightly disappointed in the natlan characters since i believed the fan edits with darker skin did look better, and i wished hoyo would have listened to the intl fandom regarding south american/african/indigenous poc things.

that said, it's never okay to send death threats to anyone for any reason. i'm sure the devs are a lot less willing to make changes if all they're getting is death threats and, like you said, vitriolic hate. constructive criticism helps ppl realize where they're wrong and how to fix it; unconstructive criticism is generally useless and tends to be ignored.

the societal issue of colorism runs very, very deep, both in asia and generally around the world. it's not something that hoyo can fix singlehandedly by changing some characters. granted, i'm sure it would set a very good example for future game devs, and it would be really great if they did listen to intl feedback! but if they choose not to, that's not smth we can change their minds about.

side note, regarding a lot of the 'natlan is colonized' comments, we don't know the story yet. it's possible that hoyo will address it as social commentary, or it might be something totally different. leaks and the search for instant gratification have really made it difficult for people to enjoy a drawn-out storyline, and that's really sad.

we've said this a lot on this page but i'll say it again: why spend so much energy hating fictional media? if it no longer brings you joy for whatever reason (i.e. you dislike the natlan characters), stop playing. if the fandom is the main source of negativity, stop engaging with the fandom, block users and tags, curate your own experience. if you claim to hate everything about it but continue to engage with it, that's quite hypocritical and unconvincing.

in any case, if you like the game well enough to keep playing, keep playing. you don't need to justify your reasoning to anyone, and you definitely don't need to fall into a trap of radicalized (and dare i say often performative) social justice.

[bi-hop]

my thoughts on rgu ep 3

we're baaaack! my previous posts are all now under my rgu liveblog tag

lord, here we go with the extended recaps even though it's only episode 3-

it's interesting how memory is being played with here with Utena. such a formative moment is reduced to a strange fairy tale, a piece of gossip with faceless characters. the only proof of it is vague recollections paired with a single physical piece of evidence: the ring. but said ring is also associated with other elements of the world that she is still not fully privy to... just hm

the running gag of Utena being like "you need a friend" and Chu Chu being like "?" and Anthy being like "?" amuses me but also doesn't... can't put my finger on why though so I'm just gonna note it down and circle back to it

the Utena-sama stuff is funny. like, oh, okay, it's fine when girls are admiring you from a distance because you can write it off as a joke, but a girl insisting she's engaged to you and referring to you reverently is when you're finally like "actually I desire men, I totally want to date a boy, the masculinity has nothing to do with being gay, I want a NORMAL BOY" OADJODSJODS OKAY SURE UTENA

Girl, you claim to want to date a guy and then a guy flirts with you and you're immediately like "let's keep it platonic, dude". alright-

^ NOT AT ALL IMPLYING ATTRACTION TO DUDES MEANS YOU'RE RECEPTIVE TO ALL ADVANCES. just kinda funny immediately following a scene where she's like "erm actually I'm totally straight! I am a heterosexual!!!"

"is the prince bi too. did he kiss all of the duelists orrrr..." - riveting commentary from the girlfriend. I have no stance on this, I just think he seems like a creep

communication? in MY anime? it's far less likely than you'd think. (Touga is annoying but what else is new)

the council finally clueing in to the fact that Utena is not in fact in contact with End of the World (whoever THAT is). Saionji is also hiding or something? good fucking riddance

Anyway, I think the use of a prince as the model Utena bases her appearance on and also simultaneously the vague object of her desire is compelling in a compulsory heterosexuality narrative because it's a perfect analogue to how some lesbians I know would simply invent an idealized guy to project feelings onto due to the insistence of heterosexuality as a regime that a girl MUST desire a man. the easiest man to desire is the one you only vaguely remember from your childhood and have no real chance of meeting-

can everyone just leave Anthy alone????

Nanami looks nice, but I've watched too many shows with blonde mean girls to trust that she really has Anthy's best interests at heart...

circling back to the girls and how they treat Anthy (which includes Wakaba of course because Wakaba is meant to be a window into what the other girls are thinking IMO), there's this continual theme of everyone viewing Anthy as like... this seductress almost who is ruining the lives of boys like Saionji over nothing. She's 'shameless', she's a 'creep', whole time she's being abused and treated as an object. the relatable brown woman of color experience, I fear

Touga: I don't care about Utena. I care about a feminized fantasy of her I have in my head, even though my attraction to her started with how she regularly dresses. This is because I can fix her aesthetic-

Anthy and her social anxiety... man... just let her sit in the dorm and play cards with Chu Chu

and sure enough, Nanami sabotages her out of misdirected jealousy. girl, you need to be freed of the idea that girls are competition for your brother's affection. also, you need to kill your brother. you will do this for me and become a feminist-

I'm not surprised that the retaliation against Anthy is called a prank that maaaybe went too far. I'm especially not surprised this commentary is directed towards a moment of sexual violence. ty to Utena for intervening

gay people be dancing on loop... that is all

fun episode! much to chew on! on to the next

[impossiblesuitcase]

I wish someone would rewrite the lunar chronicles but better (no offence to Marissa Meyer) and make it cooler with minor alterations. Such as the cresswell age gap, the lack of futuristic or dystopian description besides the author’s own developed ideas like lunars and portscreens, more cyborgs mentioned so it doesn’t seem like Cinder is the only one really, and just overall slightly better writing minus the attributes that make it very clear this was made in the awkward 2010s. This series has so much potential, the whole idea is fantastic really, but the executions haven’t exactly shown that potential. It’s subjective and I’m not saying it’s a horrible trilogy, because it definitely is not, however, the initial interpretation or impression of the “futuristic cyborg cinderella/fairytales” is such an interesting and eye-catching topic on its own that it becomes a let down in certain ways. It could tell the story of all those Pinterest cyberpunk year 3000 cities. Additionally, various writers and authors have their own unique style of writing and it’d be quite compelling to read this series in a different style, preferably a dystopian author like the ready player one type

I agree to an extent. I too would want to alter some elements such as the wolfen soldiers and the alpha mate aspect. It would be cool to further enhance some of the futuristic elements of the setting. However what we have to consider is this--is there time for that? I personally don't see how more worldbuilding beyond the already extensive groundwork laid could work without slowing the story and pacing. Winter is 800 pages already--imagine if you added to it with further exposition! I feel it would suffer, not shine.

This is not a story about what a technologically-advanced society could look like, it's a story about a lost princess who reclaims her throne and overthrows a broken political system--set in a futuristic society. Marissa is foremost interested in characters and plot, still, when you sit back and analyse the worldbuilding, you can clearly see that she put a lot of thought into it. Cyborgs, escort droids, language evolution, robotic animals, political conflicts, space cruise ships; there's a lot of cool stuff in there! I think of all the things to improve about tlc, this would be low priority.

Moreover, this isn't intended to be a dystopian series, it's a sci-fi fantasy series. No, it doesn't have the social commentary like The Hunger Games, but it isn't trying to. The books in The Lunar Chronicles are based on fairytales, and are therefore meant to reflect the romantic, sometimes improbably fantastical elements of such. And yet still, this series explores themes of racism, ableism, sexual assault, suicide, domestic abuse and classism. These are not the main focus of the story, but they certainly aren't ignored. If the series was any darker, its core values of love, adventure and friendship could fall to the wayside.

You mentioned that the series is a trilogy so perhaps you haven't read all the books (the main series is actually a tetralogy, but the whole series is 7 books in total). If you are looking for a darker, more dystopian feel, try Fairest. For more cyborgs, try The Little Android in Stars Above.

So overall, would I enjoy reading tlc by a different author? Sure. I would love to see how an Asian author would depict New Beijing and the Eastern Commonwealth. However would I enjoy any other version more than the original? I don't think so. It would lose the humour, friendships and character developments that are uniquely Marissa. If The Lunar Chronicles isn't written by Marissa Meyer, then it just simply is not The Lunar Chronicles.

That's just my thoughts and I can understand your opinion.

[squeakadeeks]

Your real good at making costumes, 10 outta 10 stuff, ever want to do it professionally or are you in it for the love of the game? Hope your day is well and that your stress demons perish in unknown circumstances

thank you!!! ;-;

and honestly im happy you asked because I have a lot to say on this matter. In 2020, I really wanted to be a professional cosplayer. I had just graduated from my undergrad and was turbo burned out on physics, and thought I had the chops to go pro.

And I had Medium success, but very quickly I learned that holy schmaou making a full income from cosplay was not for me. If nothing else, it was very stressful to jump from contract to contract to maintain a steady income (also like.....Health Insurance).

However what broke that aspiration fully was the mental health aspect. I got exposed to a monumental amount of harassment since you need your work to be seen by people to make money, but not all of those people will be kind. Any post you show to 3 million people is going to get vile commentary regardless of the content. Also cosplay social media is a very image-based game, and relying on my appearance for my income made my anorexia go completely off the rails, on top of other complexes around feeling more like a consumable 2D digital jester than a person. The stress of keeping 120K people's attention perpetually such that they'll keep giving you money to buy groceries was Not Awesome. (Also I couldn't go more than a few months without having an alarming stalker experience.)

Trying to be a professional cosplayer was incredibly hard. And although there are other means in which I could accomplish this (commissions, competing, streaming, etc) I have utterly no interest in it anymore. My perspective on cosplay has totally changed after that experience, going through my icarus moment of attempting cosplay professionalism and getting burned made me go through enough of an Ego Death that I have tried my best to decouple the concept of """success""" from cosplay. Sure, I'm happy and delighted when people like the things I make and I love when companies show interest and faith in my work, but its not like...the be all end all for me anymore. or rather i view success as more "i had fun with this" as opposed to "this got a ton of views and lead to a sponsorship that made money"

so for the most part i do it just for fun and as a way to keep myself from going insane in grad school...that being said im not claiming to be an Enlightened Guru or anything who Cares Not For Worldly Desires Or The Opinions Of Others, because it still makes me happy when people like my work or I get an endorsement, and I still feel sad when a costume ""flops"" so to speak. but its just not....my whole life anymore.

[teslacoils-and-hubris]

If in the modern age, what tf2 characters do you think would use tiktok? Sorry im trying to think of an epic question but thats all i can imagine

don't apologize because i clearly had too much fun with this

scout without a doubt. im Not on tiktok so all i know about it from watching commentary youtubers talk about shit i dont care about in the background while i do other stuff, but he would absolutely get sucked into that weird NPC trend. I can see him watching it for hours, then deciding he'd be suuuuper popular if he did it. He does get super popular but its only because people make a game of getting him to break character which is super easy and happens constantly. he's constantly getting into fights with people and is only popular because he becomes this big punching bag laughing stock. Scout of course has no idea about this and thinks he's Finally Made It as an influencer until admin finds out he's been livestreaming from the base and has him shot live on stream and has all traces of his account scrubbed (though some people still got screen recordings) and it becomes this sort of internet true crime obsession for years.

I think Pyro downloaded it to play with filters and got sad when they didn't work on the gas mask. i could see them having a 'does it burn' type channel where the ending clip no matter what it started with or how small it was is always a massive inferno with their thumbs up in the corner and people go wild for it

I think medic would have fun doing tiktok dances and pretending to be a real doctor while telling people that actually *extremely dangerous health hazard* is not only completely safe but really good for you actually!! doing surgery on yourself is all a part of healthy curiosity and totally safe to remove your own heart for fun and profit!

i don't think any of the others would be on tiktok. heavy has a facebook but its all just minion memes and pictures of his guns and hasn't been updated in like 5 years. Spy and Sniper don't touch social media with a ten foot pole. Spy for spy reasons and sniper is a technologically inept hermit who has never had anything fancier than a nokia.

[omegaverse-guide]

WHY would you read that?!

Let's admit it - upon encountering omegaverse for the first time, we all thought it was weird. Maybe someone reading this still thinks so. There's certainly enough people out there who wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

But it's popular. I love it, personally, and I'm clearly not the only one. There are tv shows being made with a concept that a singular person put into a fandom-specific kink meme a mere 14 years ago. My grandma could walk into the bookstore and see a manga with omegaverse terminology in the title and ask me what it is. That's wild.

So, this is an earnest question - not necessarily of how it spread this quickly, but what's so appealing about it. This is based on my own personal experience and what I've heard others say, not necessarily representative of everyone who enjoys the trope.

From what I've seen, omegaverse has four major draws:

1. Porn

That's kinda obvious, and the one most people would put first, or perhaps as the only reason. And I'll argue the other points later, but I think it'd be stupid to understate the importance of this one. If you're into certain kinks, even if it's exclusively in fiction, omegaverse is great for you. Big dicks, breeding kink, excessive amounts of cum, biting, marathon sex, dubcon, feral/animalistic sex, dom/sub dynamics, possessive behaviour, maybe a dash of furry stuff, it's all there. There's a reason so much omegaverse is pwp, and it's that these are common kinks, and they work well together. People are horny, that's how omegaverse got made and spread, and that's beautiful.

2. Mpreg

Yes, there are other ways to knock a man up. Make him trans. Use magic. Or science, which is essentially the same thing anyway. You can come up with any amounts of ways to make this happen. But the beauty of the omegaverse is you don't have to. You don't have to do any research, you don't need to come up with a reason, and you don't have to figure out what the implications are if you don't want to. This man can get knocked up, and it's totally normal to everyone around him, and everyone reading will know and accept it, so you can get all of that out of the way and just focus on your guy, or all the guys, getting pregnant and having and raising a bunch of kids you made up for them. This gives you the satisfaction of letting any character you want produce babies with any other character you want, while also giving you the chance to torture any man you want with pregnancy symptoms (very cathartic). Or maybe you just have a pregnancy kink! Either way, it's convenient.

3. Social Commentary

Okay, to anyone who's never read omegaverse, this probably sounds like a joke, but I'm dead serious. At the core of omegaverse is one basic assumption: if a group of people is capable of bearing children, society will do anything and everything to make them have kids, and restrict them from whatever other roles they can, and they'll find whatever excuse they can find. It exposes sexism by stripping away all pretense of logic: in omegaverse, omegas are the stand-ins for women, and are treated as such. but anyone can be an omega. it has nothing to do with physical or mental capabilities how you're treated. you could literally be batman, the moment people find out you could theoretically give birth to a child, it's all over for you. the reality of our world is, sexism is still here. it's gotten better in a lot of ways, but sexism is not over. and sometimes the best way of realizing just how not over it is, is to put a man into the exact same situations we experience and go 'hey would that be fucked up or what?'.

4. Free For All

Because omegaverse is, by and large, a fanfiction thing, it's popular with the kind of people who enjoy reading and writing fanfiction. Do you know what the best thing about fanfiction is? No, it's not the gay sex, though that's a close second. The real answer is: it can be whatever the fuck you want it to be. Fanfiction has one major selling point: it doesn't need to be sold. Which means no author ever has to consider a target audience, or god forbid, a mass audience. Someone can just pour out their passion onto the page, and sometimes thousands of people will read it, and other times it'll just be you and three other freaks, but there's no reason to only produce the first type of fic. Most fic writers don't even have an editor/beta reader. And omegaverse is the same in that regard, at least in the realm of fic. It can be literally anything. It can be nothing but porn, including all the kinks, and only all the kinks you personally enjoy. It can be fluffy family stuff. It can be deep drama in a 200k epic, with biting social commentary. It can be all of that at once. Omegaverse has no rules. It's an author's playground, and fic writers love their playgrounds.

So that's my thesis on what's good about omegaverse. Why do you like it? Did I miss anything? Let me know!

[fereldanwench]

(I feel the need to make a small disclaimer: I am going to be talking about my perceptions about the CP77 fandom culture, some of which might be critical in nature, but this is not a call-out post on an individual or community scale. This is just me sharing some personal reflections. I suspect I'm not totally alone in some of this, but as always, YMMV.

Also, pleasepleaseplease do not feel bad or guilty for reaching out to me or tagging me in stuff or whatever--It means a lot to me that folks wanna chat and connect, and normally I'm 100% down, but I just need to clear my head a bit.)

So I've been ruminating a lot over the past few weeks about my ability to maintain a certain level of activity when it comes to fandom stuff, and I've concluded that my fandom social battery is really, really low.

I'm having a hard time keeping up with DMs, I'm having a hard time keeping up with tag games, I'm having a hard time keeping up with asks, I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the awesome stuff y'all are making--I'm just burnt out socially. And normally I would just take a social media break, but I think this is coming from deeper personal issues that a week offline isn't going to fix.

I've never been in a fandom before where I felt like there was this expectation to keep up with just about every single person in the community. It might be a false expectation I'm putting on myself, but given that I've seen other people apologize for not being able to keep up with posts or apologize for not having the spoons to leave nice tags on reblogs, I don't think this is just a me problem.

The CP77 fandom is relatively small compared to many of my other fandoms, like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, which I think can make it feel like keeping up with a good chunk of the community is totally feasible. For instance, I knew I could never dream of seeing all the DA content on Tumblr, so I never even made the effort to, but I know I can probably get just about everyone who posts in the femvfriday hastag by a certain time. So I often felt like I should do that, especially if I posted in the tag that Friday, too.

But the CP77 fandom is also really active, I think in large part due to the accessibility of photomode and virtual photography. I hope it's clear that I'm not saying this to diminish the value of VP, and obviously, everyone's mileage may vary based on personal technique and other artistic experience, but from my perspective, it does in general seem to be a quicker medium than traditional art or fic. I love the creativity of this community, but I actually can't feasibly keep up with everything everyone is doing all the time.

I made sort of a similar post last fall about the self-imposed pressure of having to create new things on a regular basis. At the time, I was grappling with losing a lot of personal time and brain power after having COVID in September and then working overtime in October, and I wasn't able to make stuff at the rate I had previously. I knew it was ridiculous, I knew no one was like "omg wench didn't post today, shame on her," but there was still FOMO on my part. I also felt like I had lost something I had previously had (specifically the time and energy to create) on account of shitty circumstances, which compounded my frustration.

I've been trying to tell myself that feeling guilty for not having the energy to reply to DMs in a timely fashion or to reblog every femvfriday post is just as silly and self-imposed, and that I don't need to explain to anyone that I just don't have the energy to participate like that right now. I've always been a very strong advocate for people using Tumblr how they want, and while yes, doing things like reblogging posts is a great way to connect with other people and show appreciation to fellow creators and I do encourage people who want to be a part of a community to do these things, it should never feel like an obligation. (The commentary on this post absolutely nails it for me.)

But this guilt and anxiety are harder to shake. Even in my very early days in the CP77 fandom, I noticed that it seemed very transactional to me. And to a point that makes sense, and I think is at least somewhat the result of Tumblr's functionality: you are going to be more likely to notice people who notice you and by extension to support people who support you. I don't think it's inherently a bad thing, but I think it can become one if there's no deeper connection after a certain point, especially if people start to feel like there's an imbalance in the transaction.

The gossipy nature of this fandom can make that even worse--It can be pretty easy to notice a drop-off in activity from someone who might have previously been very supportive and then spiral from "it's just because they're busy, it's fine" to "they're not interacting with me anymore because they heard something bad about me and now they hate me." (I've been on both sides of that one.) There are also a lot of assumptions about cliques and friendships and who's interacting with whom because of fandom politics or whatever that add another layer of stress and confusion here.

So for the past few weeks, every time I go to reblog a post or reply to a comment or consider who to tag after doing a tag game, all of this is weighing on me. Even if it's stupid, even if it's self-imposed, this is what is on my mind.

And what that's been resulting in is largely just not wanting to interact at all. Sometimes it would even make me feel guilty about posting my own stuff if I hadn't interacted with anyone else's in a while, as if I need to support other people in order to earn the privilege to share my own work. And this is of course reflective of much deeper issues I have (read: eldest daughter syndrome) than just fandom nonsense--I'm not putting this one on fandom at all--But it's a thing I deal with.

At some point in the past six month or so, I really lost sight of what this blog is really for, and that's for me. I do generally like interacting with the fandom at large, and I like organizing things and sharing resources that I think can be helpful for folks (especially since I really struggled with how much knowledge was locked behind Discord servers), but my blog is not actually a space for the CP77 community. It is for me, first and foremost, and I need to make it for me again.

I don't know exactly what that's gonna look like. I still consider CP77 my main fandom, and I don't really have much inclination to create or engage in other fictional worlds right now so it might not really look that much different. And I'm hoping that by removing some of this stress, it'll actually recharge my social battery so I can be better at doing the fun stuff like chatting about OCs and shippy stuff with friends.

But my activity here will probably be a lot more erratic as I reclaim this as a happy space for myself.

So that's it. And as always, if you read all of my personal problems, thank you, lmao. I know I'm ridiculous, and it's not that serious, and blah blah blah but THIS IS HOW I WORK THROUGH SHIT OKAY thx

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (07/24/23)

Reviews and thoughts under the cut

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (10/10)

This book is pretty much perfect. The plot is engaging, the characters are all amazing, the writing style hits hard, and there’s really good social commentary that touches on, honestly, almost every issue out there. Rin has got to be one of my favorite protagonists of all time; she’s the underdog, she’s easy to root for, and our desire for her to succeed almost makes us overlook her glaring flaws. Kuang establishes Rin’s overwhelming need to succeed, to win, to be the last one standing from the very beginning, and it leads to her slow but steady downfall as she must decide how far she is willing to go for the sake of her nation. Rin’s time in Sinegard is an interesting and unique twist on the fantasy school setting, and the tone switch between the time at Sinegard and the time at war is done masterfully. Even the war takes an incredibly dark turn, goes farther than the reader would ever expect, as Kuang draws from real history to write horrors that should’ve been beyond anyone’s imagination. Perhaps the most technically amazing part of this book is that even when she has fallen so far, part of us agrees with Rin; which is the danger of it all, isn’t it?

Neverseen by Shannon Messenger (8/10)

I have now officially reread all of the KotLC books I got through previously. Going into Lodestar will be uncharted territory for me, and wow am I glad I refreshed my memory. I forgot a lot of stuff, so it was almost like I was reading it for the first time. Like I predicted, this was a slower one, mostly filled with finding out more about the Black Swan and the Council, and there was a lot of Sophie and her friends wanting to do things that were "too dangerous." I won't lie, it dragged a bit, but it really picked up once Sophie started attending Exilium. I think the twins are a much-needed addition to the main cast to help shake things up and keep the dynamic from getting too worn out. Also, Calla is a particularly strong side character. While I could predict the broad strokes of the story, the actual method of getting there took me by surprise, and there's a huge twist at the end that totally restructures how the rest of the series is going to look. I'm very excited to start Lodestar!

Half Upon a Time by James Riley (8/10)

I loved this series as a kid, and rereading it was like returning home. It's actually so funny that this book has tons of tropes I love today just in a middle grade format. There's a pretty good level of intricacy to the plot, and the fairy tale elements are tons of fun. There are plenty of familiar characters that each have a unique twist to their story, often intertwining their stories with each other. For example, the Huntsman from Snow White is also the woodcutter/hunter from Little Red Riding Hood. This book also has a fun twist by being from the perspective of the character who guides someone who has fallen into another world. In most other books, May would be the main character, so having Jack tell the story subverts some expectations. The way Jack, May, and Philip interact is a little typical for the genre and time period, though I appreciate that it is heavily implied that Philip has no romantic interest in May. Finally, Jack's mysterious involvement with the Eye and his sword is one of my favorite parts of the book, and it's a pretty fresh concept.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent (CR, 20%)

I've barely progressed on this one, but I did make it to the end of the first trial, and I like how it was executed. Despite being a physically-based trial, there's a twist that allows Oraya to succeed through her wits, which makes infinitely more sense when she's up against vampires and demons. It also helps that Raihn is obviously gunning for an alliance with her, so he's more inclined to help her out. About the alliance, why Raihn specifically wants to team with Oraya is a pretty good one and honestly a more logical decision than I expected. However, Oraya turning him down made no sense to me. She's gonna have to team up with someone eventually, and Raihn seems like the lesser evil by far.

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (CR, 3%)

I've only just barely started this book, but I'm excited! I'm reading it with some friends, and the beginning seems quite interesting. I'll have some more in-depth thoughts next week once I've progressed more.

[the-ghost-king]

I think people getting mad about more modern interpretations of greek stories and plays is intriguing because the whole point of many plays and stuff was just to put commentary into ongoing politics and social issues of their society and readapting the stories to be for a more modern era just keeps within the theme of doing this.... there is a conversation to be had about how our modern interpretations of these things are warping the history of these stories and how that is an issue, but like, not every story must vow itself to total accuracy some stories are simply allowed to be something different and something new.... like hadestown is not a perfect interpretation of the story of orpheus and eurydice because it also takes time to make commentary on more modern concepts like global warming, industrialization, and capital in ways or to extents that likely were not as major of a concern if a concern at all for people in ancient greece. like the concept of persephone going willingly into the underworld and choosing to be hades wife vs her capture modern interpretations and the way people tried to rewrite more historical views of this story is a problem but someone reinterperating a piece through a modern lens is not inherently so in every case, that is at least to some extent the point of the story, and based on how these myths were passed and interpreted historically, the way they have always been used.

[transgenderer]

can you... expand on that (tlt not being about imperialism)

Elaborate, plz? I'd like to hear more of your tlt opinions

Can you elaborate on the TLT thing with regards of imperialism? I’m not familiar with the series, but I don’t care about spoilers and I want to hear your thoughts on it.

okay so sorry to the third person but i dont want to explain tlt lore so im just gonna assume people know tlt lore. anyway the empire just...doesnt make any sense? which is fine, its not about imperialism. but like, its not clear what exactly the empire is trying to achieve, how its enriching the metropole, etc. its not even clear WHO the empire is fighting? like, we see them occupy territory in NtN but we know that the empire is almost entirely devoted to warfare and yet who that warfare is against is unclear. they move the populations around for like no reason?

i mean, my very loose guess at whats going on is that tLT is actually a critique of extraction-based economic systems (i.e. every economic system since the beginning of time, call me when your premodern society isnt consuming a fixed and irreplaceable quantity of rock), for allegorical magic reasons the biosphere on the nine houses is fucked so theyre almost entirely depend on mining and such, i guess they ran out of material to extract in the solar system (i mean, it is thousands of years later), and so they acquire other planets to mine (plus farm? unclear) them to smithereens (this seems to be described pretty explicitly in NtN), the necromancy means ecological devastation is at megaspeed, the war theyre fighting is over natural resources. obviously itd just be cheaper and easier to extract from uninhabited planets but maybe they need the billionare descendants as like, labor?

so anyway this is bad because 1) "we will run out of resources to extract one day" is, while technically true, kind of a stupid argument imo. like yes obviously eventually, but like, its not modern luxury or whatever that relies on mining, its like...literally bronze age (technically stone age) technology that relies on mining. and a pre bronze age life sucks. and you could make the argument that while yes we could be using it more efficiently, entropy is against us so no matter what you do youll run out *eventually*. so like, then what? you have to make an argument that its running out *soon*, and those are dubious imo, and

2) real life empires were not about extracting natural resources! i mean they were a little. but they mostly werent. the motivations for empire were/are complicated but like, economy is not just "more natural resources good, less natural resources bad", the economy is mostly social and infrastructural wealth, which is complicated to maintain. so again, bad critique of empire.

3) but most importantly, tLT is run by an immortal superpowered godking, and as such the politics in world are totally alien to ours. like, in our world institutions and incentives overwhelm human motives both because humans alone are very weak, theyre only significantly powerful insofar as they can control other humans (or tech), and then also because humans are mortal so institutions outlive them. but tLT doesnt work like that at all, so its capability to be coherent commentary on earth politics is pretty hobbled? which is why it isnt, its a story about its characters, who are complex and whose actions are important on the scale of the characters we know. like yeah jod killed billions but because of the way fiction works this is not the important thing about jod, the important thing is how he treats people we see, which is much more nuanced and complex (alhtough still bad)

uhhhh i had more points. the state of tech in the nine houses is really silly, i know its tied to the resource stuff but it doesnt really make sense anyway. like, tech helps you get more resources. also the nine houses are very short on labor which prioritizes technology. and necromancy doesnt seem to replace technology that well, its pretty limited, esp cuz a single necromancer can only control like, what, ten constructs tops? also the idea of a war-centric economy for thousands of years is really silly. like its just totally infeasible. its fine! the worldbuilding is meant to be evocative and work on first glance, not be a totally functioning system, and it isnt

[3rdblah]

Game Show Pitch

Grab a random person to be your contestant. Experience or education in art creation/history/interpretation does not need to be taken into account.

Bring however many artists you want. Have them bring one or two (or three) of their pieces, medium doesn’t matter. The only limitations of content are staying within the show’s rating, and matching the theme if it’s a themed episode. Note that the artworks should not be ones that contestant(s) have seen before.

Ahead of time the artist should provide the producers with any meaning behind the piece or symbolisms. This is only if there are intended meanings/symbols.

Show the contestant(s) each artwork, one at a time. First they will decide if they think there is any meaning/symbolism in the piece. If they want, they can stop that round, learn if they were right, collect x amount of money if they were and nothing if they weren’t, and go the next round. (Please note that the contestant(s) should be informed that the ratio of meaning:no meaning is not set, it could be 50/50, all of one, all of the other, mostly one, etc)

If the contestant(s) are confident in their answer, they can go on. Optional for them to see the artist at this point, the whole time, or not at all. If they believe there is no symbolism/meaning, they then guess why the artist made that piece (it reminded them of their dog, they like flowers, they just wanted to, etc)

This is where it gets interesting. If the contestant(s) believe that there is a symbol/meaning to the artwork they are allowed to go on about the perceived meaning to their hearts content (still give them a time limit obv, but make it, like, half an hour) They are allowed to explain what parts of the work they think symbolize something, what that symbol is, how it all ties together etc etc etc. Just let them go buck wild. Put them on teams so they bounce ideas off each other. The more obscure the better tbh.

After a) or b), the artist (or host who was told by the artist) then declares how right/wrong the contestant(s) are. If they were right in the first part of the round, they get x amount of money (a bit bigger than the x amount if they quit after the first half). They hear what the artist submitted as the meaning/symbolism/reasoning (or just hear from the artist themself idk) and get however much more money within a certain range depending on how accurate their interpretation of the artwork is. I personally would have the artist decide how much they get, but whatever floats your boat.

If they were wrong in the first half they get nothing that round. Nbd if you said there wasn’t more behind the artwork, you learn what the symbolism/meaning is and how it all goes together, you go to the next round, life moves on. Much bigger of a deal if you spent 20 minutes piecing together details into an elaborate overarching social commentary just to hear that the entire reason behind the artwork was “I thought it would look pretty”.

This is where the devastation comes in. The embarrassment. The feeling that your deepness was entirely self deception. You spent so long making something and it turns out it was nothing (please note that nothing is used loosely here, I mean nothing as in nothing beyond the piece’s appearance, artworks made just for the hell of it are just as valid as ones balls to the walls with symbolism) We watch them agonize over all the time they spent getting no prize money when they could have been spending that time being right and winning something.

Bonus points if the rounds aren’t randomized. Extra bonus points if the producers are cruel with how they arrange the rounds. The first two pieces have some serious stuff behind them, the contestants debate over whether the third will also be like that or be for the hell of it. Based on previous rounds the contestant(s) think the next one will have an elaborate meaning, they make one up and it’s all for naught. Vice versa. Total chaos.

Basically I’m a genius and you should definitely give me money for this idea

[spider-sense-and-sensibility]

I know I wasn't tagged but I wanted to think about this - thank you @ladyaj-13 for asking anyone to participate! :)

Rules: List ten books that have stayed with you in some way, don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you.

here we go! I literally just made a list of the first 10 14 books I thought of (and then whittled)

'A Prayer for Owen Meany' by John Irving

I read this in school and it really really struck me - I like things to have meaning, for puzzle pieces to slot together, for metaphors to hit home, and to hear a whole life story, and this book really told the whole story of Owen Meany. That so many things had to happen for the climax of the book to succeed is just so many things slotting together in a satisfying (and sad) way. I've read it a few times since and it means something different each time.

'The Hunger Games Trilogy' by Suzanne Collins

I have never before nor since felt like I visualized a book so thoroughly and completely that I actively set out to do costume plates for all the characters when I first read them. Like I researched stuff and made figure base drawings for all of them and got about 30% through and then the movie came out and I lost it. But truly I saw this so clearly in my mind so kudos to Suzanne for describing stuff so in tune with my brain.

'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I never had to read this in school, and so it was the first "classic literature" book I read of my own accord. The imagery really does hit you and I can still picture moments in the book as well as the ever present billboard looming over it all.

'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' by Mark Haddon

I still think about the way the inner commentary in this book is laid out and how it felt like the way I thought sometimes and yet sometimes so differently. I have a brother on the spectrum and we talked about it and it really just put some stuff into perspective,both in things it got right (for him) and not. Not to mention just being a great mystery book.

'The Princess Bride' by William Goldman

I think this may be the book I have laughed or smiled the most while reading. It is just so funny and the commentary he gives on this "abridged" version of this "famous novel" is just great. And while the story is similar to the movie they are totally different experiences and both excellent in their respective formats.

'Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames' by Laura Maiklem

I love London. I love social history. I love the history of everyday people and objects. I love collections. I love little treasures of all kinds. I love bodies of water. And this book manages to mix all of those in a wonderful meander down the Thames, telling the history of Londoners as well as the author along the way. I have also mudlarked myself (before it got as complicated as it is today) and it is truly just wild to reach down on the shore of a river and just find pieces of Victorian pottery or Roman roof tiles or animal bones from the 18th century.

'Calvin and Hobbes' by Bill Watterson

Along with reading the strip every Sunday in the paper, we had the collections of comics in our house growing up and I would POUR over them constantly. I think a lot of my humor and some of my social consciousness even stems from reading Calvin and Hobbes.

'The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales' by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

I enjoy stories that take familiar tropes or tales and twists them in clever ways, and I think that was born with this book. I loved it as a child. There was humor and silliness threaded throughout - in the endpapers, in the commentary, written really small and really large and it is just such a fun book to read.

'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold

This was a really intriguing look at the afterlife and what it could be, and what it could mean, and the sense of watching life move on without you. I've read it on 3 different plane rides for some reason because it does really draw you in and I still can picture so many little moments from the novel.

'The Poisoner's Handbook' by Deborah Blum

This was a fascinating look at the exponential growth of forensics in 1920s New York, as well as Prohibition and crime in the city and the lives of working people. I never realized just how much literal poison people were willing to put in their bodies to get drunk (although the alcohol we drink today is also technically poison...) and also how much corruption existed (exists) in New York politics. I like true crime to some degree and this was a great story about poisons but also about the two dudes creating and running the forensic laboratory.

Phew! Honorable mention goes to the Baby-Sitters Club for being my personality for a few years, the Series That Shall Not Be Named that was a huge part of me and my siblings lives growing up, a Danielle Steele novel that I read secretly at 11 where the *imagery* realllllly stuck with me, and Sherlock Holmes, where I couldn't pick a favorite but I just like to imagine that Vincent Starrett poem "Here dwell together still two men of note / Who never lived and so can never die...Here, though the world explode, these two survive / And it is always eighteen ninety-five". Also to The Martian and The Perks of Being a Wallflower for being two books I read in one sitting that I can remember at this moment. Books are awesome!

(I'm not a good tagger because I get self conscious but feel free to do this yourself!! Anyone who wants to!)

[anissapierce]

do you have any thoughts on the current r/usty qu!ll situation and the controversy surrounding the recent article written about them? totally understand if you don't wanna get into it. you just often have insightful commentary on stuff so i wondered if you had anything to say about this. personally i think it's a little absurd the lengths some people are going to to defame and discredit the article writers

Oh yeah i saw that happening on twitter..im like a leeetle bit biased bc yeah ive been following the fable n folly network since very on like when it was just alba salix n the space show and yeah i follow sean n eli (the cocreators of the network) on insta bc dog pics so ive formed a minor attachment

Ok now to get into the actual meat of it all, heres a link to the article

I was already seeing some of the claims of the article bubbling up b4 it came out, which ok you might argue are there to add credibility to some shit tht isnt true but the claim that this is a smear campaign just feels so off base, yes newt made a mistake in not saying they were a marketing director for fable n folly up front but like...

I dodnt wade deep into the discrediting happening i just viewed some qrt while it was happening bc i do often go through those. I think if you believe that rusted queels growth was totally organic w no growing pains n anybody trying to point out a problem w them is trying to smear them for the competition well... Thats dumb

RQ and fable n folly r such different networks FnF doesn't have anything to gain from "taking RQ down" like ok sure they both have actual play podcasts set in space but otherwise

I do think that trying to keep every criticism of podcasts n networks to hush networks like discord is doing more harm than good yes ppl involved in the industry should get to talk abt shit others have done even if its 'indie'

I guess theres a response now i skimmed it idk enough Abt the situation to weigh in either way but idk i didnt think the tone of the article was as harsh as RQ makes it out to b it n casting aspersions on a person who .... Made a mistake like the company is owning up to their mistake is just so...

Also i refuse to believe this happened in dec like wtf i thought the article happened in summer... Newt has not edited the article so i am going to their twtr rn to see if they had a response

Edited: there is a response from the editors of the first article

I read it and the one qualm i have is bringing in BLM into the explanation Abt journalism like yes the conversation abt journalistic impartiality harms pic n is built on white supremacy but it felt odd to esp focus on tht when ppl are trying to discredit your journalism as three white ppl .... Especially to specifically bring up BLM but otherwise this article literally addressed everything

[marsixm]

so not to no true scotsman here but as someone who watches/listens to a Lot of true crime content but also is appalled by the 'true crime brain' phenomenon like im really wondering how radically different the true crime content can be out there, or is it the viewers mentality, or is it a combination of things. a lot of the true crime stuff i listen to is victim focused, but not conspiratorial. like mostly just recounting the basic facts of cases, usually older or solved ones. basically like the home made youtube successors to forensic files (which ive also seen basically every episode of) i know Certain Podcasts and tiktoks about current events apparently are fucked up? i did stop watching a particular youtube channel when it started leaning into "oooo spooky personality disorders" commentary out of nowhere in every case. im just like. is a lot of this driven by the way shit gets whipped up on social media + the current conservative conspiracy panic over "trafficking" or like i wonder how much true crime shit out there really is just saying all this shit and encouraging this behavior.

theres no point to this post im just reflecting on something thats causing such a huge social issue right now but is so weirdly not reflective of my experience of the thing.

i also wonder if its because i already sowed my conspiracy brain oats with fictional shit like tjlc so now i dont have the bandwidth for that anymore????

honestly a lot of this is just fucking me up right now too after seeing a bunch of people read the tea leaves of an obviously mentally unwell persons twitter acct and me reading this "evidence" in total confusion while these people whip each other up into a frenzy because 'how dare you not take these accustions seriously' when i think in reality mental health advocacy has focused so hard on anxiety and burnout and depression that people DONT know how to handle things like psychosis or delusions or anything at all when presented with it and theyll call anyone questioning if that is whats happening a monster and like. theres people in the comments of this, thinking its 100% real, ON THE SIDE of the person who might be delusional, saying "this is just like an episode of YOU!" "this is like a movie!" so i wonder how much of it is about /true/ crime at all???

like people have already gotten hurt, some are questioning if people reaffirming this persons delusions helped drive them to suicide, there are people who have been accused of murder based on literally nothing in the past couple years- personally i hate acting like something is 'tiktoks fault' bc it usually comes down to a social model much of the internet and large platforms fall into, it just so happens tiktok is very very very good at fueling that- but yeah tiktok definitely isnt helping this kind of telephone game of culture we have going on with conspiracies

anyway yeah this post is just rambling but like. seriously what the fuck is going on with the rest of true crime content out there

[heartslobbf]

i love telling people characters are canonically gay when they aren’t. just straight up lying about how their sexuality ive assigned them engenders some like super profound social commentary or whatever when it’s just an interpretation ive decided is Correct even if the writers have openly dismissed it