#anti shadiversity

[alpaca-clouds]

I honestly will never understand why people are so super shocked that Shadiversity ended up to be a conservative a-hole that is anti-everything and also *istic about everything.

Just saw a tweet on that and I am just very confused by this. One of my ex-bfs watched the Shadiversity content back in the mid-2010s, aka before half of his content was whining about women doing stuff. And even back then... A lot of his content back in the day was still quite clear where his mind was at. For once it is very clear that he had this conservative romantized view of the middle ages (aka "back then men could be real men in the battle field"), but also there is the fact that he would put in a ton of little misogynic things. Like sure, when you are very centrist (aka "right, but unwilling to admit it") you will probably not notice. But I am so confused why queer, left women are surprised by this,

Most of the time that a cis straight white guy is obsessing about any historical time, they usually build this time up in their imagination as this mythological place where "men were real men, and women knew their place". It doesn't matter what time it is, that usually stands behind it.

And believe me, it is very annoying. Like, they will not acknowledge a whole lot of how many of those men back in the days were serfs of some sort. Or how fucked up medieval battles actually were. And they will also not acknowledge how we actually know very little about genderdynamics in the lower classes at the time - or even some that very much hint at that there was not that much gendered division of work and such.

It is a whole thing currently in the historical and anthropological field, that the field forever just assumed strict gendered division of labor in a lot of historical times, without any evidence for it. Yet, when folks pushed back on it, people would go: "But where is the evidence that there WASN'T gendered division of labor?" Because folks will just assume there is.

Just as a lot of folks will not want to admit that every archeological thing we have ever found on Minoan Greece very clearly hints that it was a matriarchy - but folks will not want to acknowledge it.

[cha5otic]

Please go back to unecessarily in-depth nerdy exploration about swords and fantasy arms feasibility, its not working out for you

Do you remember that Aussie sword guy who used to talk about medieval weapons?

And, like, he seemed pretty good at talking about swords and shit. He seemed to have a good grasp of the history and tactics. He'd analyze movie weapons for their realism and that was fun. He did demonstrations with real weapons. For a time I really looked forward to his videos popping up in my feed.

He seemed like a harmless sword-fighting aficionado.

But then I guess he wanted to spread his wings. So he started down an anti-woke path. Giving questionable critiques about media and feminism. He started defending boob armor by showing historical examples even though most of those were decorative and not battle ready like in the games.

Then he admitted he was a fan of The Daily Wire.

And that was disappointing.

I missed him nerding out about swords, ya know?

Well, Shad decided to spread his wings again.

He has become...

*bad French accent* An artiste.

You see, he types words into a little box. Then a little robot does a google image search and steals a bunch of art. Then that robot reconfigures that art to be nearly indistinguishable from the source material. Well... aside from the occasional artist watermark.

Whoops!

A.I. art is very difficult. Sometimes when you type words into the box you get a woman with 5 lopsided anime tiddies. Or 20 fingers on one hand. It takes time and effort and experience to type in the perfect magic words so that you get something close to your imagination that doesn't belong in some sort of Lovecraftian horror ripoff.

For example, check out this cool "pirate hat" I asked A.I. to place on my head.

Clearly, I am not skilled enough at typing words into a box to get a proper pirate hat.

It. Is. Not. Easy.

I heard someone say you have to type things in a box for 10,000 hours before you start getting truly masterful generations.

I mean, you can't type "marathon runners" and expect that to actually work.

THIS REQUIRES SKILL, PEOPLE.

And I am a lowly amateur. I can only dream of becoming the box-typist Shad has honed himself into.

The thing is... Shad is very upset.

He is upset that you don't like his "art" and he is ready to die on this hill.

So... before he croaks on a mound of bullshit, he has something to show you. He has created something truly brilliant and when you see it, he is convinced you will validate his considerable efforts.

Before I show you his "Not. Easy." artistic masterpiece I'd like you to sit with what he has said for a second.

Ruminate in the verbiage.

Process the ideas and points of view presented.

Digest his plea for you to accept and love his hard won battle after typing words into a box to manifest his imaginings.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Have you sat?

Ruminated?

Processed?

Digested?

Okay, here it is...

[girlballs]

shadiversity being pro generative AI is honestly pushing me further towards the anti generative AI side of things like. i don't want to be anywhere near that cunt

[skeletonvintage]

Shadiversity is such a fascinating face of the anti-woke media critic YouTube community. He doesn’t have any charisma, literacy analysis skills, nor a drop of likability to make watching him bearable. What makes him interesting is that he is a walking strawman filled with every negative stereotype of the right wing culture war profiteers.

You ever saw one those posts that describes the most cartoony evil conservative Christian that you definitely think that the OP completely make up a person to get mad about. Well, Shad will look at that posts and believe that it is real then will make a video defending the fake person because he agrees with their message.

Anyway, I’ll let you guess what takes he’s making in this video.

[theliterarywolf]

Fennah is a GUY? Every time I saw him on your blog I thought he's a she, and now I got a video of his recommended talking about idiots trying to protect AI art, and like... damn.

Oh yeah, Sam Fennah's a guy. I did recently find out that his creative output is a bit of a collaborative effort between him and his wife (him doing the writing and character concept-art/animations, his wife handling promo art and the storybook art used in his book)

You can hear his voice in that book promo for Amygdala.

And, yeah, it was interesting to see that he agreed to that debate with Shadiversity about AI Art because Fennah, for all I love his work and his overall personality... Is a bit sour at times.

Like one of the main things I will always be like 'My guy, shut the hell up' with him was when the "Queen Bee" episode of HB came out and every other indie creator online was calling themselves 'dunking' on Viv because of Bee-Elzebub's design. He really had to call himself chiming in with 'oh, if you want a design that actually looks like an insect, I'm just going to drop one of the characters from my book here. No reason for it, just showing off'

But I can still appreciate one of the main parts of his argument in the debate: that is how people need to stop leaning on the 'art is supposed to be hard and laborious' type of anti-AI argument and focus more on the 'it's literally fucking theft' and 'whatever you're insisting AI can do better, you can excel beyond if you just commit to it' arguments.

[megamangxtheadventure]

CHAPTER 27: FUTURE GENSOKYO

lord goat obsarved the scene as the taliban and nazis where roundering up the human village "take them for reeducation we must cure them of woke and make them think only freedom thoughts" said shadiversity as he sat on his armor horse with knight armoer "we will go back to the glouous middle ages where socity was good and normal" he said thinking about becoming new king like olden days

a man held his sick human wife "please my wife she is sick go easy on us" said the man but shadiverstys second in command MR BABYFACE got real mad and bursted a blood vassel in his head "DID YOU SAY FUCKING PRONONS YOU FUCKER YOU WILL DIE HOW DARE YOU SAY THE PRONONS AHAHGAHAHAHHA!" he screamed and ripped the mans head off as blood and guts was everything and his wife screamed real bad and gfainted

Lord got gotted his xenon men in car robots called gyrozetters "i will have xenon take over the youkai maountion they can not stop our gyrozetter robots" he laughed but then sh adow jumped down and fired chaos spear "you fool working with nazis and the talban they will ensalve this world this is not progress its misery for the sake of it you utter foolish fool!" said shadow pointing at lord goat

shadow fighted them but it was no good as the gyrozetters beat him up "i have a way to deal with you MORBUS ENGINE B EAM!" said the eraser queen who had soul eraser mind control vr set on and the beam blastered shadow sending ihim into the time vortex.

THE FUTURE OF DARKNESS

shadow woke up in gensokyo but it was grim and ruin as all the woman and youkai where now slaves under the nazi taliban government "what has happen is this future" said shadow with ask

as he went into town the woman where in handmaider tale outfits and shadow saw reimu but older "come along wife of doomcock" said a guard and he whipped reimu

going into town shadow was then covered in solder guards "you are not a religion you are not conforming you are a rebel!" pointed a man and they takened guns out

"just greaT" shadow said and started to fight them with cool moves "CHAOS KICK!"

before bad guys could reinment the rebels had come and opened fire "shadow we need to get out of here we knowed you where coming due to the tablets of time" said the lead as they runned away.

at a cave the leader took her hood off and it was an older mariasa krismas "its you the witch girl " shadow said.

"i was once called wife of Desantis" she looked at the floor "you see after you vanished they bringed osama bin ledin back to life then bill cihiper used an anti magic field generator to kill all magic so when they had armys of nazis and taliban with guns we gotted over runned and the woman became slaves" marisa shed

"but what happen to megamangx and the others??" shadow said.

"they summoned an army of sonix.exes they destoryed the outside world so the illuminati had to colonizie gensokyo as the only safe place becuse of there hurbis and now everything is lost and depressingly horrible" marisa said.

a door opened and it was standing there it was a bearded jon arbunkle and HAT KID "Jon its you!" shadow sad with happy "ive been fighting a while but this kid here they wanted to meet shadow this is hat kid they have helped us a long time" said jon

"i am from another time and place i have come to fixing the timeline shadow you where meant to help megamangx stop the bad future and gorefield you need to go back and stop gensokyos fall it is the key" said hat kid and she took shadow into a garbage

THERE WAS A FIREBIRD CAR THERE WITH COOL CONTROLS "this is the chaos firebird gyroketter is has an omega sigma morbus engine and can send you back to the past you must stop the illuminati from rebuliding osama bin ladin and help megamangx get his mage forms" hat kid said

there was explosions As a group of russianb nationalists lead by pizza boy was there "you sure want to mess up our good future can't let you do that get em boys" said pizza boy as the russians shooted ak47s at hat kid as she took over a 100 bullets "ah get into the time car hurry" she died

"NOOO!" said shadow as he jumpe dinto the firebird and escaped driving into town as he runned over doomcock and over 20 bad guy guards "i need to turn out the time controls" shadow inputted the date and entered the time vortext

BACK IN PRESENT SDAYT

the firebird appeared and turned into robot and punched the xenon gyroketters real hard "I'M BACK BITCHS" SAID SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG and lord goat was scared "IMBOSSBLE I SENT YOU TO THE BAD FUTURE" he said "AND I CAME BACK!" shadow said and his gyro robot kicked him in the face

it was THEN MEGAMANGX ZANE YUKARI REIMU PATCHOLOI REMILIA FLANDERS KOISHI AND SATORY WHERE THERE "we have the power of mages the power of mages of old and uniting we stand against you GEWT OUT OF GENSOKYO YOU FASHIST BASTARDS" megamangx said and they all fired an ultra masterspark at the gyrozetters and shadibery and the taliban blowing them up "such power NO I DO NOT WANTING TO BE DEEAFTED I WAS GOING TO BUILD KNIGHTS AND CASTLES LIKE OLDEN DAYYYYS" and he turned into atoms

"the only olden days are you" said yukari.

shadow was happy as rouge was there too "Megamangx we needing to talk i saw the future and it was bad"

to be continued

[systlin]

Shadiversity was recently in a stream with the Sargon of Akkad, a sexist, right-wing, Trump-supporting, anti-Muslim, and lowkey neo-nazi British asshole. They apparently hang out a lot in their free time playing Bannerlord and bonding over being men. In the stream Shad showed signs of being anti-sex worker and a very traditionalist man with misogynistic views, agreeing with the many conservative opinions Sargon had. The fact that he's a casual friend with a guy supported by Neo-Nazis is BAD!

I JUST saw this while using mining equipment to dig through my inbox, and so looked it up to verify and sure enough it’s true.

I always had a FEELING, because he’s made gross comments about women so many times, but so few people ever believed me, and the thing he did was TALK ABOUT MASCULINITY WITH FUCKING SARGON OF AKKAD ALL BUDDY BUDDY AND BACK PATTING EACH OTHER

I KNEW it.

[the-cybersmith]

IMAGINE BEING THIS MUCH OF A BORING GIT.

Yes, it is time for anti-Shadiversity posting.

This man is somehow psychologically incapable of analysing or contemplating anything outside of the lens of a competitive multiplayer videogame. This is on top of the fact that he doesn’t understand basic filmmaking techniques (consider his analysis of “The King” where seemingly didn’t realise what Colour-Grading was) and is in general quite FAKE NEWS.

If every writer lived by this person’s advice, fiction would be a drab and lifeless wasteland. Rejecting a fun and engaging visual representation of magical travel because it is “broken” or “overpowered”? That’s an awful way of thinking about stories. This is a problem with the way Shadiversity considers the supernatural in fiction generally. There is no room for spirituality, metaphor, or deeper meaning... everything is just a set of tools, and can only be analysed as such.

It’s a terrible way to think about writing, about visuals, about storytelling. I hope creatives continue to give us fiction which they think looks good ant tells an interesting narrative, not whatever Shadiversity thinks is “balanced” (a concept which has no real importance in a film, a novel, a play, or most other fictional mediums).

[jabamaca]

An Idea Regarding the Disney Princesses Line-up (LONG)

When my brother and I watched the new Frozen II Teaser,  we felt a JRPG vibe towards it. With you know, the going on an adventure into new lands and meeting new characters (gathering up party members) shit.

I just had a great idea: How about an RPG (preferably turn-based), with the Princesses (and some other characters) as playable characters?

Okay, let’s get a run-down through ALL the Disney Princess films (and some films that I think that can approriately be considered as such, i.e. Frozen, Moana) and conceptualize if notable characters are Playable, NPCs, and Villains (and anything in between).

Unmentioned characters (most of the sidekicks) are assumed to portray any other element of the Gaem. Anyways...

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Snow White (Playable) - She is playable, yes; but how? She'll be a Bard(-like?), she will sing to get a debug or to call upon her animal (and non-animal) friends. But later on the story, she will wield a Hand Mirror and use little of the Queen Grimhilde’s power. The story-line is inspired by “A Little Crooked Tale” by forgotten-ladies on DeviantArt. (too lazy to explain the whole idea). Making her a little bit of a Witch late game. She be reluctant about this. I will use the “because plot” phrase quite a bit on this post.

Prince Ferdinand [Is that his real name?] (NPC) - Their setting is set a year or 2 after the film. He and Snow are married and ruling. He will just watch over the Kingdom when Snow joins the party.

Queen Grimhilde (Villain) - N.E.R. (No Explanation Required)

The Huntsman (Anti-Hero / Playable) - He will be an Assassin. He will be like the combination of the appearance/encounter instances of Gilgamesh (FFV) and the very-neutral / conflicted-nature / will-eventually-join-the-party aspect of Shadow (FFVI). A little characterization to him, will do wonders to the story.

Cinderella

Cinderella (Playable) - I imagine, given that she has the Fairy Godmother, she decided to get under her influence.She will be a Conjurer (Mage-Like). I treat the magic involved in the film with the likeness between Alteration and Conjuration school of magic in The Elder Scroll series. Imagine conjuring a Glass Sword amidst the battle, golem magic, cantrip magic. The plot might need to have something really bad happen to Fairy Godmother to justify her taking the role (make her dutiful on this game).

Prince Charming [Let’s make Charming his actual name] (NPC) - Same case as Prince Ferdinand.

Sleeping Beauty

Aurora (Playable) - Nature Wizard, similar with Cinderella but a little more nature-y (plant, animal, weather) given the specialty of her 3 Fairy Godmothers (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather). The setup for this is also similar with Cinderella’s, but with a touch of Maleficent corruption (’member the needle).

Prince Phillip (Playable) - He will be a... Glorious, noble, badass, motherflippin’, dragon-killin’ Knight!!! I want his character to be more justified, unlike in the “Maleficent” film. That story didn’t happen in this story (opinion and idea influenced by Shadiversity). His father is still alive, so someone will take care of the kingdom once he joins the party.

Maleficent (Villain) - N.E.R. (minus the “characterization” in the Maleficent film, add more mysterious-menacing-villainy)

The Little Mermaid

Ariel (Playable) - I imagine her needing to wield her father’s Trident, due to plot and necessity for her RPG adventures. She will need to go back to being a mermaid for the longevity of the Gaem (because plot). Having wielding the Trident she will have tremendous power, but has little idea on how to use it (game-design-balance shit and plot). With said power she is able to have her own personal sea to “hover” on. Plus, Trident... 3-pointed spear thingy... You can do things with that. Retiarius/Sea-God Mage(?), I don’t know, she has Triton Powers. She be reluctant about this.

Prince Eric (NPC) - He will have to take care of little Melody. (And the kingdom, of course)

Melody (NPC) - She will have her cute moments on the Gaem.

King Triton (NPC) - Something bad will have to happen to him for plot. But will have to have been resolved before leaving the story arc of the “Little Marmaid” area. Yadda-yadda, Triton gives Trident to Ariel, Ariel joins the party, Ariel says goodbye to her family, Ursula continues to be a threat beyond her kingdom/s, end of story-arc. The good shit.

Ursula (Villain) - N.E.R.

Beauty and the Beast

Belle (Playable) - Given that her father (Maurice) is an insane (complimentary) machinist and her obsession with knowledge. I recon that she will take after her father with the Machinist business. She will be equipped with / riding on the contraptions she and her father made in their workshop in the castle (setting is maybe a few years after the film).

Prince Adam (Playable) - Due to plot reasons, he will have to be Beast-form throughout the game (or at least transform to be it when in battle or adventuring). His servants are capable of governing the castle and its kingdom. He be reluctant about this.

Gaston (Villain) - Not really a world-threatening villain. Just an area story-arc villain.

Aladdin

Jasmine (Playable) - Jasmise will be a Dancer in this game. She can have dances that inflict status-effects/buffs on enemies/allies. Imagine the Dancer job on “Final Fantasy Tactics”. She is able to do this because fantasy-magicry, plot, her booty-shaking-capabilities, and game-design.

Aladdin (NPC) - He will not be playable because plot, something REALLY bad happens to him (doesn’t mean die) regarding the Genie and the Lamp. He and the Genie are M.I.A. throughout the game. I made him non-playable to make the Jasmine story-line interesting. I mean: I like Aladdin as a character, but he (and the Genie) being M.I.A. will be the perfect driving-force for Jasmine to be joining the party.

Genie (NPC) - Similar case with Aladdin.

Jaffar (Villain) - All-powerful Genie-Jaffar, baby!!! He be world-threatenning. N.E.R.

Cassim (Playable) - Aladdin’s father. Cassim’s driving-force to joing the party is the same as Jasmine’s. He will be a Thief with magical artifacts in his disposal. He will have a major role on The Hunstman’s character arc.

Pocahontas

Pocahontas (Playable) - She will be a Shaman training under Keketa, and under the mystical influences of the Grandmother Willow Tree. She will be tasked to investigate what is currently wrong amidst the magic of the world. Imagine her controlling nature, like bending the winds to her will.

John Smith (NPC) - He will just be a Trading Ship Captain that always visits Pocahontas given the opportunity. They are still lovers despite the long-distance.

Kocoum (Playable) - Pocahontas’ father (Chief Powhatan) will assign this Survivalist to protect Pocahontas along her journey.

Mulan

Mulan (Playable) - She will be a badass Warrior Princess that can wield any sort of non-magical weapons. She’s that badass (this description may or may not be biased). She joins the party to find out what is wrong with Mushu being on a very weak state on this Gaem.

General Li Shang (NPC) - He still needs to watch-over the kingdom’s army when Mulan joins the party, especially when his co-general/wife is gone.

The Princess and the Frog

Tiana (Playable) - Her story in this game is that a few years after the movie, plot happens which causes Mama Odie to die. Mama Odie, being a magical and spiritual voodoo priestess, goes to Tiana and transfers her essence (spirituality and voodoo powers) to her, making her a Voodoo Priestess; tasking her to confront the world-plot. She be reluctant about this.

Prince Naveen (NPC) - He will just be a supporting character giving emotional/moral support for Tiana.

Lottie (NPC) - Same case with Prince Naveen. 

Dr. Facilier (Shadow Man) (Villain) - He be back with a vengeance bigger and badder. N.E.R.

Tangled

[subjected to change, due to Tangled the Series]

Rapunzel (Playable) - She will be the Healer of the party. Her magical hair will grow back because of plot, and part of the plot is the mysterious Moon magic that was present in Tangled: the Series.

Eugene (Playable) - The Trickster of the group. He has the ability to steal like Cassim; but also has some Charismatic (think the Orator skill-set in Final Fantasy Tactics) and Acrobatic skill-sets. He is one of the characters who are sworn to protect Rapunzel.

Cass (Playable) - The Rouge of the group. She can wield her badass-ery on battle. She is other characters who are sworn to protect Rapunzel.

Varian (Anti-Hero) - Now that’s an anti-hero when I see one. Watch Varian’s character in Tangled: the Series, he’s has a very good setup to being an Anti-Hero.

Brave

Merida (Playable) - She will be a Ranger, complete with a personal pet Bear and Eagle, ready for combat. The plot will be set a few years after the movie and she would have already had a few hunting trip from which she acquired her pets.

The Witch (NPC) - The Witch will be the NPC to summon Merida to go on a quest to investigate the plot and join the party.

Frozen

[subjected to change, due to Frozen II]

Anna (NPC) - She will need to watch over Arendelle with the Queen joining the party.

Elsa (Playable) - The party’s Cryomancer, practically N.E.R.

Kristoff (Playable) - He will be the Brawler of the party, much like a beefy tank who uses blunt forces in combat. He is tasked by Anna to be Elsa’s bodyguard.

Hans (Anti-Hero) - His motives will be politics and vengeance. During the plot he would have already gathered a rebel army from the Southern Isles. Not really a world threat, but a recurring threatening hindrance for the party.

Moana

Moana (Playable) - During the plot she will have to gain full-control of her ocean powers, that’s why she will be the Hydromancer of the party.

Maui (Summon) - Given the plot. He will have to be initially be M.I.A. and then found at the end of the Moana area story-arc; making him able to be summoned by Moana in combat.

So that’s most of the idea I got. Took a lot of effort to put this in text form. So, yeah, all of these are just because of one teaser of an upcoming movie. Be aware that this will have NO relation with the Kingdom Hearts series. This “Gaem” has its own story.

[TL:DR - a traditional RPG with the Disney Princesses as the main centerpiece would be awesome]

[ljones41]

Shadiversity’s Review of “THE RISE OF SKYWALKER”

[alpaca-clouds]

"But it was Normal Back Then!" Or: The wrong ideas people have about history

Another history rant for today, because I just cannot help myself. But this is another topic that is kinda an evergreen. Especially when it comes to any sort of diversity, representation, and white, cishet dudes writing about historical settings. They usually do one or both of those things:

Write a story fully and entirely focused on white, cishet, abled dudes in the historical setting

Submit any marginalized character they might have to misogyny, queerphobia, racism and the like.

This will always be hidden behind the idea of "historical accuracy". The lack of characters who are not white, cishet, abled and male is sold as "historically accurate". And... I don't know, what to tell you, but... There is a good thing that it isn't. Especially not when it comes to medieval settings.

Medieval Europe was far more diverse than a lot of people imagine.

Mind you, yes, there were less people, that today we would describe as non-white, living in Europe. But there were people. Because, as I say so often: The real world is not a videogame in which there were additional walls. There were Roman folks from 300 AD going to fucking Japan.

Throughout most of European history there was trade with Asia and North Africa. Of course beginning with the crusades (so at the end of the 11th century) there was the beginning of anti-islamic and some racist sentiment starting in Western Europe. But, here is the thing: This was not at all comparative to the kinda racism that would develop at the beginning of the colonial period (so 1492).

(Antisemitism is an entirely different topic, though.)

And when it comes to queerphobia and misogyny... I honestly do not know how to tell you this. But... You know, that a lot of our ideas of these things in the middle ages are actually connected to the Rennaissance and also especially the Victorian period, which strongly went in for both things. And who then ended up projecting their ideas on sex and gender into the past.

See, when it comes to the middle ages in particular we do have the issue that there is a lot of primary sources missing - and a good chunk of sources we have being connected to the Catholic Church, which obviously was misogynic. BUT... From the other sources that we have, it seems fairly clear that this was in fact not true for most of the European medieval culture.

There is the issue in history (which I will probably blog about in a future blog) that often when we will usually have a bias towards giving more credit to the "official" stuff from the time. Court documents and church documents. But... While fewer people at the time were literate, it was actually more people than we imagine. And those other literate people wrote diaries and letters.

And from those other sources we can gleam that misogyny and queerphobia where by far not as severe as in later times. They existed, yes, but by far not as severely as we would see - for example - in the Victorian period.

Now, there is a plethora of reasons why this was the case. Something I can talk about a bit, if there is interest. But yeah...

Like, I am sorry. But the entire "that's historically accurate" thing most often comes from people, who have - in fact - not studied history at all. *coughs*Shadiversity*coughs*