#blandification

[undttype]

✎ Ⓐ ✄ NaNtxt008

« A Critique of Critiques of Blandification »

by Marcus Leis Allion

↳ https://www.nan.xyz/txt/a-critique-of-critiques-of-blandification/

[fashionlandscapeblog]

The blandification of fashion is very real, guys. It has been virtually impossible to find inspiring content for the past 2-3 seasons and I blame it on the rise of quiet luxury and late stage capitalism. The latter means that the fashion industry is designing as simply as possible (minimalism does not equal boring) not because of 'sustainability' as some people seem to put it, but to save on material, details. patterns, etc to increase profits in order not to go bankrupt in a system that demands increasing economic growth. The demand for quiet luxury has been welcomed by the fashion industry for this very same reason, but in my opinion, people who wear this 'trend' do not like fashion, since wearing nondescript clothing has nothing to do with style and individuality, but on the contrary: it makes you a clone. It has also nothing to do with minimalism and less with sustainability, because it is a logical fallacy to believe that absolute simplicity has a positive environmental impact, neither do the socalled 'capsule wardrobes'. You can buy a sequin skirt or something with a pattern or a very distinctive design, but if you wear it all the time, it is far more sustainable than a Loro Piana cashmere sweater you think you 'invested in', yet never wear. Capsule wardrobes and basics are a myth, as you will wear in real life what sparks joy in you the most (I'd rather wear my asymmetric tops than any 'basic' white shirt), not what a brand/influencer/magazine tells you to buy. Capsule wardrobes are a very individual thing based on your personality, not a cookie cutter formula. To achieve a wardrobe that you love and wear for years is a very organic and eventual process, definitely not based on what a Vogue site tells you to buy now, but on what you find yourself and love.

[parlerenfleurs]

Content warnings are usually recommendations to me. I rub my little trash raccoon hands delightfully, and eagerly browse them to see how the story will be exciting.

[aldieb]

no way did eric church create this monstrosity with morgan fucking wallen. i was just trying to drive to the grocery store and listen to some tunes but now i have to dress in black and shave my head in mourning………..

[sugarpkts]

the blandification of glass animals is so crazy like why did you stop making nightvision safari music and commit so hard to bisexual lighting music

[odoanaga]

I hate the blandification of modern mainstream fantasy so much, look what they did...

[erijuice]

My Revision of Wish

As someone who loves the concept of Wish, I thought it was a decent addition to the Disney Animation Canon. I enjoyed the songs, the gorgeous hybrid artstyle, and the homage to Sleeping Beauty's wide cinemascope aspect. Unfortunately, the more I think about Wish, the more disappointed I was with the final product. For what was supposed to be a celebration of Disney's legacy, it ended up being shot with the blandification ray by the studio itself, because they had a lot of interesting concepts planned for the film. It's just impossible for me to hate Wish like everyone else on the internet, because I know there's passion behind this idea, it was just muddled and screwed over by the despicable corporate side of Disney.

Now, while I did love the final product and was also simultaneously disappointed over what it could’ve and should’ve been, I wanted to showcase my version of the film with a heavier emphasis on the wishing star’s untold origin story. This is actually an updated/edited version of my original draft, and I added a little bit of characterization as well.

SPOILERS FOR THE ACTUAL FILM BTW

Wish (in my version) is fully 2D-Animated, and contains music, orchestration and lyrics from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, with additional output from Julia Michaels.

Cast:

Alycia Pascual-Peña as Asha

Chris Pine as King Magnifico

Amara Le Negra as Queen Amaya

Roman Banks as Orion (Star)

Summary: 

“Have you ever wondered how the legendary Wishing Star was born?… Set in a time centuries before Snow White wished by the wishing well, or Geppetto wished for his little wooden puppet to become a real boy, Wish takes place in the medieval city of Rosas, a fantasy kingdom off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea where your wishes can literally be transformed into reality. The kingdom is ruled by King Magnifico (Chris Pine) and Queen Amaya (Amara Le Negra), respected by all as the kingdom’s sole wish-granters. They live happily in peace with their royal daughter named Asha (voiced by Alycia Pascual Peña), who was set to take her parents’ throne once she turned 17. 

Princess Asha is sharp-witted and wildly smart beyond her years: a young philosopher in the making, who believes that the stars are always there to guide her. She's a shy bookworm who is very creative, she draws animations in her notepad and paints with watercolors all over her bedroom, much like Rapunzel. Asha also wants to be a musician and to inspire the people with her music. While being devoted to her goal to ensure that everyone gets their wish to come true, Asha also struggles with poor leadership skills, and she doesn't know how to be a good leader to her friends, or her kingdom. Her parents seem to make it look easy, and sometimes Asha prefers to rely on them to make her dreams come true. However, Asha believes that a bigger and stronger wish requires a much more difficult journey, and in order to achieve her wish, she must confront her own parents, two of the fiercest and most powerful villains the Disney universe has ever known.

King Magnifico is almost the same as his canon depiction, except he has no backstory of him losing his family to destruction which would've make him more sympathetic, and does not mesh well with him being a villain. He uses his magic to remove wishes from people's hearts and keeps them in his own "wish orbs" for personal keeping, but we don't find out what he does with them until the first act. Before he praticed magic, he was a philosopher who believed in the power of the stars in the night sky, inspiring Asha to develop her belief that there is magic in the stars.

Queen Amaya is a female villain who is madly in love with Magnifico and pressures Asha to be a perfect royal daughter, much in the vein of Yzma and Maleficent, with shades of Mother Gothel. She is a black dark-skinned Latina, and Asha's birth mother. Queen Amaya owns has a pet cat assistant named Cleo, who is a callback to Maleficent's crow Diablo, or Lady Tremaine's cat Lucifer.

Alright, now back to the story!

On her 17th birthday, during a beautiful royal ball, Asha notices that her parents have wondered off from their thrones, and she uncovers a dark truth about both of her parents and how they want to keep the wishes of the people for themselves. Even worse, she peaks through the cracked door of the throne room to witness that the King and Queen are crushing the people's wishes, and infusing their energy, in order to make their own magic more powerful, and thus manipulating the townspeople and giving them the false hope of their wishes being granted. Asha tries to keep what she saw a secret from her parents, but she argues that the wishes must be free and sent back to the people. After a heated argument with her parents, she runs to the forest and makes a passionate cry for help to the stars, in the hopes that they will give her guidance and strength to help her entire kingdom. (‘This Wish’ is staying btw, but with adjusted lyrics) Her plea pulls down the brightest star out of the sky and transforms it into a glowing ethereal humanoid being without a name.

Here is where we meet Orion. Orion is THE wishing star of legend. He is a glowing, Black-coded, humanoid boy around the same age as Asha. Newly formed, he has no name and no sense of right or wrong, much like Pinocchio, but he reveals himself to be a powerful shapeshifter with magic celestial powers. The starboy is aided with the tiny, Luma-like canon version of Star, named Little Dipper, as his personal companion. Little Dipper is more mischevious than Orion, but it's also a powerful wish granter in a tiny celestial body. With a reworked, more orchestral version of "At All Costs", Orion takes Asha on a gorgeous flight, explaining his purpose to help Asha, as the duo sings in harmony above the stardust-sprinkled woodlands, with Little Dipper setting the scene. After the song ends, Asha tries to name all the constellations off the top of her head, and ultimately names the starboy Orion (serving as a subtle callback to Kiss the Girl). Asha brings Orion back to the kingdom, and she tries to teach him how to grant the peoples’ wishes. As the two plans to give the wish orbs back to the people, Asha notices that her parents are angered over the townspeople praising Orion’s descend, hoping that he will grant the wishes of all the people. Feeling threatened by Orion’s presence, the King and Queen scheme to use dark magic to kill Fate and steal her magic, so that they will remain as the only wish-granters in Rosas, but at the risk of permanently being surrendered to the dark side. (This Is The Thanks I Get, except it's reworked into a grand, badass, orchestral villain duet with Magnifico on the first verse and Amaya on the second verse)

Desperate to warn the kingdom about her parents’ true colors, Asha disguises herself (a la Sleeping Beauty) as a peasant girl, while Orion tries to disguise himself as a normal human boy. As the two try to grant the wishes of the townpeople who haven't given their wishes to the king and queen, the town descends into chaos with some wishes spiraling out of control. While it is a moment of hilarity, Asha and Orion come to a realization that some wishes should never be granted in the first place, as they're more likely to cause harm and chaos than pure good. The two comes across a group of seven teenagers modeled after the Seven Dwarfs, Asha's longtime team, and Orion starts to get to know each one of them, before planning a rebellion against her parents, and yet, Asha is secretly hesitant to disobey her parents, she confesses to Orion - in a short reprise of At All Costs - about how she used to be perfectly obedient and a perfect princess to her people. Meanwhile, Orion reveals to the Seven Teens that he’s still learning to grant wishes, but they also end up horribly wrong, but he comes to a realization that he shouldn't grant wishes that could cause harm, no matter how much they beg for it. The Teens make a promise to Asha that they will protect her secret, as well as Orion's. The duo and the teens team up to stop the King and Queen, with a reworked version of "Knowing What I Know Now."

During the epic climax, Orion and Asha create a diversion, with Asha freeing the wishes with her team and learning to be a good leader in doing so, while Orion shapeshifts into multiple forms to battle the King and Queen and distract them away from the castle, but they capture Little Dipper into the scepter, and use Dipper's magic to transform their cat Cleo into a giant dragon (akin to Maleficent's dragon form) that flies them to the top of the castle, with Orion chained up. The parents chain Asha to the top of the castle where the battle occurs, and they force their daughter to watch Orion suffer. Engulfed by the pain of losing her protector, Asha breaks into the This Wish reprise, as do the other residents of Rosas. The King and Queen try to push Asha off the castle to her death, but the townspeoples' voices lift her up, as does Orion's, and he uses his magic to make her float above in mid-air. Everyone's hearts beginning to glow and attract their wishes back to their hearts as they sing in unison. Orion transfers most of his celestial powers into Asha, who uses her temporary celestial powers to free Little Dipper from the scepter, and blast the King and Queen to their death, while Orion simultaneously creates a powerful sword to throw into Cleo's heart, killing her as well. After a moment of silence, Asha breaks down into tears and feels bittersweet that she’ll never have her parents again, but more optimistic about being the ruler the kingdom desperately needed - someone who will choose only the best wishes to come true. Orion comes down to Earth to comforts Asha with a hug, and the kingdom rejoices with the evil King and Queen gone for good.

Cut to a few months later with Asha hosting her first royal ball for Rosas, and dancing with Orion, similar to the endings of Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. Before Orion flies back to the night sky to become the Wishing Star, he gets Little Dipper to create a magic wand and grants her the role of a honorary Blue Fairy guardian, transforming Asha’s purple queen gown into a beautiful, glittering, baby blue gown. Orion informs to Asha that Asha will be reincarnated into a true Blue Fairy after her time on Earth comes to an end, but Orion will descend back down to Rosas every now and then to help Asha. As a final gift, even though he admits his magic is not perfect just yet, Orion finally grants Asha’s wish and creates a lute for her to play for her people, but Asha realizes what her true wish was all along: To be a good leader to all of Rosas.

After Orion forms into the glimmering Wishing Star in the night sky above Rosas, Queen Asha looks down on the townspeople of Rosas with hope in her smile and she looks up at the wishing star above her, with a hope that everyone will have a wish to come true, because now, Queen Asha knows that there is no force, no magic more powerful than the power of a wish, for a wish is more powerful when it’s inside your heart.

Cut to a few nights later, after the credits have rolled, when Asha walks out onto the balcony above the kingdom. She pulls out a music sheet, and begins to play ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ for the stars, as an homage to Orion.

My version of Wish will also contain hundreds of Easter Eggs that all pay tribute to ALL 61 FILMS in the Walt Disney Animation Studios library, all worked seamlessly into the context of the story, not just containing the ones that inspire the film like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. Anyway, all I’m saying is that Disney should’ve hired me and put me into the writers room, because as a Disney fan, I know how to make this story work and how to make it even better, and I hope you guys love this version of the story! Oh, and also, screw Disney for donating to a genocide. Goodnight Kingdom of Rosas!

[only-by-the-stars]

more little NL vs NH thoughts because I can't stop playing NL again and apparently can't shut up about it (it is so important to me okay?)

-villager dialogue is just so much better in NL. I've heard people complain about the villagers not being mean anymore in that game like in older ones, and I have little opinion on that, but whew can I ever see the downgrade between NL and NH. the regular dialogue is so bland, and there's fewer options for when they have something to ask you for. in NH, it's:

wanna come over/can I visit your house RIGHT NOW? I had a fight with [other villager], can you deliver this gift? I'm trying to sell stuff, will you buy this from me?/here's a random item (this always happens when I'm digging up clams and need empty pockets...) can you catch this bug/fish for me? (very rarely) want to play a treasure hunt game?

whereas with NL it's:

wanna come over/can I visit your house RIGHT NOW? wanna come over/can I visit your house later? can you take this gift to [other villager]? I'm trying to sell stuff, will you buy this/can I trade you for item in your pockets? can you catch this bug/fish for me? wanna play hide and seek? can you bury/dig up this time capsule for me? can you bring me a piece of fruit? I need to speak to [other villager] but can't leave my house, can you bring them here?

I'm probably forgetting something, but you can see the disparity anyway. regular dialogue was generally more interesting too. I also like that you had to bring a sick animal medicine for *three* days instead of just one, it felt like nursing a sick friend back to health instead of one and done and was more rewarding.

-speaking of more rewarding... SHOP UPGRADES, MY BELOVED <333 my file has T&T Emporium, and it is SO NICE, OMG. ;w; I loved the process of working towards the shop upgrades and seeing it become gradually bigger and with a better item selection. ALSO I MISS YOU, GRACIE. </3 the fact that NH has the nerve to try and sell me ridiculously expensive furniture without the GracieGrace brand attached, smh.

-it was the Bug Off today! if I'd realized, I would've prepared last night, but oh well. I still got to get a couple cute furniture pieces and I think I'll place first, so that was fun.

-doing item customization yourself is more convenient (because you can see what things will look like without using a guide) and faster, but... I actually still like using Cyrus? I know he's at the co-op on Harv's island if you shell out enough cash, but that's so expensive and his prices have gone up. customization kits aren't cheap either! in NL you paid less, and had to wait a half hour for an individual item to be ready, but I like that. I like going a bit slower. NL in general is slower and so much more relaxed and relaxing, I like walking at a normal pace and getting to soak in the atmosphere and music.

-as much as I appreciate getting to hear Blathers blather about the donated stuff, I also like the convenience of getting to look at the info in the museum itself without having to bring him another one. it's part of what makes going to the museum soothing, despite that there's no wow factor in the design of the exhibits.

-Main Street in general is just so nice to have, and it makes the actual town feel bigger. I do like being able to decorate outside, but... at the same time I like the simpler feel here and the PWPs that we had. and remodeling town hall and the train station was so neat!!! why can't we do that in NH???

-GOD I MISS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA ITEMS AND VILLAGERS SO MUCH.

-the music. again, the music. NL remains one of my favorite video game soundtracks ever. when it hit 7 PM last night and The Song started playing... oh man... ;w; will we ever have that level of music quality again?

-cannot stress enough how much I miss Tortimer Island. the minigames! the easy access to summer bugs and fishing! AAAAAHHHH

-I... forgot what the Aquarius Urn looked like in this game and now I'm annoyed all over again at the blandification of the Zodiac series in NH. IT WAS BLUE AND FILLED WITH WATER. I COULD'VE. IT WOULD'VE LOOKED SO GOOD AS PART OF MY ZORA-THEMED AREAS. AAARGH!!!

-odd little discrepancy, but why is it when you talk to Gulliver to try and wake him up in NH you have to put away any tool you're carrying, but not so in NL? weird.

-I like the hyacinths and windflowers, but I also miss the violets and carnations. the purple roses were also a LOT prettier in NL.

-also, for all that NH offers more freedom in some aspects, it really took a big step backwards in house customization??? you can't even GET a different exterior until you have ALL the rooms, and you have NO CONTROL over the room size??? and the exterior options are all SO BLAND. you could be way more creative and aesthetic in NL by choosing which rooms to have, how big they were, and you had way more and more interesting exterior options.

-sure were more events and generally things to do in NL. :< the only part of winter I liked was playing snowman bingo and trying to make the different snow people for various rewards! and they took THAT away too! there was more charm, too, I loved the coziness of the "small forested village" that I got in NL, and I prefer taking the train to flying everywhere, and the post office was so cool, and I liked the reliability of taking Dr. Shrunk fruit to learn new reactions. I really hope the next game is a return to form and not more of the same problems that still plague NH...

[un-pearable]

oh yeah saw blue beetle last night and one million thumbs up. going into having heard it’s very tokusatsu and comic booky made it one million times better. goofy and stupid in fun ways. i’m so glad we’ve looped back around to comic book movies being like comic books: confusing chronologically and catered to fans willing to put up with wildly specific nonsense. also heck of a great job making a movie about gentrification and colonization out of the chaos of blue beetle lore and corporate blandification i genuinely had fun

[zykamiliah]

netflix atla episode one's fuck-ups:

they really killed the mystery and intrigue aspect of the first episode. we know from the first 10 minutes who aang is, so when he arrives 100 years later at the south water tribe there's nothing interesting going on. which brings me to-

too much tell, and what little "show" there is, is not the good kind.

making aang go "for a stroll" to erase the fact that in the original story he ran away after learning the truth because he (understandably) didn't want to shoulder that responsibility, it's just plain bad. to those who watched the original show it's gonna be very obvious they're following "the main character(s) can do no wrong" motto, which is just plain shitty writing

speaking of which, the characters fill so. so bland. i can't comprehend how dull was watching them interact.

that scene in the original where aang played with the kids??? gone. we don't need reminders that aang is a kid. he's a Hero now. he's Responsible. he's childish, he doesn't make Mistakes, he's Morally Correct always.

oh my poor boy sokka. what have they done to you. this blandification of the character is really the worst thing about the remake. and!!!

iroh has always been one of my faves and he's just so??? unfun??? what have they done to my favorite uncle???

speedruning the plot so that by the end of ep1 they are already visiting the aang's home/air temple-- where is the adventure??? where is the bonding?? do netflix even cares to show us these three becoming friends?

also lmao it seems they want to nip kataang in the bud. can't have aang think about romance and girls until he's 18 it seems ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Must Protect the Children From the Evil of Crushes

I'll admit that the one good thing the remake has going is the sets, the costumes, the craftmanship, the special effects and the fight choreographies-- credit where credit is due, that was pretty cool. i also feel that the casting was well done even if we've lost the comedic side of the story. that's probably a scrip and direction issue anyway

[atomictiki]

Fan redesigns these days suck all the personality out of characters. In ages past, it was about making characters more exciting, not this "blandification"

[goddessactuality]

I love you 70s I love you cars as big as boats I love you Detroit and Cleveland I love you yellow and brown I love you Brady Bunch I love you Shelley Duvall suburban dream girl I love you disco I love you groovy I Love you the way john denver sings I love you giorgio moroder i love you donna summer i love you i feel love i love you great uncles i love you silent generation i love you meadows i love you prairies i love you oregon trail i love you nellie oleson i love you calico print wallpaper i love you dry ass thistles i love you sunsets i love you golden hour i love you 1976 i love you sleazy steakhouse family restaurants i love you buffets i love you riverboats i love you giant industrial steel structures i love you oil fields and refineries i love you fall i love you rivers i love you steel mills i hate you 90s i hate you court rooms i hate you judges i hate you pr*da i hate you matt damon i hate you brad pitt i hate you silicon valley i hate you govermnents i hate you pomo i hate you classism i hate you stock market i hate you cop dramas i hate you 80s i hate you zoot suits i hate you yuppies i hate you afraid of the dark ass color palates i hate you corporate blandification i hate you gray walls i hate you cost cutting i hate you disavowal of responsibility to nature community society the earth and each other i love you neuschwanstein i love you sans souci i lvoe you versailles i love you biltmore i love you 1890s i love you belle epoque art nouveau rococo and baroque

[pingwen]

Corporate blandification has gotten to the point where I had to stare at an off brand box of raisin bran in the store for like a solid minute to determine whether it was actually off brand or the company just removed all identifying features from the box

[robotslenderman]

Top 5 pets, vampire clans and Pokemon please!

I'm gonna skip the pets one because I haven't had enough variety in pets to really make a top 5, but for the other two:

Clans:

5. Hecata

I'm not specifically interested in the Giovanni, but rather how diverse the clan of death is as a whole. Cappadocians, my beloved While I understand while they'd integrate all the death clans into one for TTRPG mechanical purposes, from a lore perspective it actually makes me really sad that that diversity is wiped out by the Family Reunion, and one reason I really like Perry from VTMOfB is that it implies some Hecata actually escaped the blandification of the clan and while they might have gained the painful bite, they continued to have their old banes.

The diversity also basically makes them the clan equivalent of the United States. Outsiders consider them to be one clan, but in reality they're multiple clans in a trench coat that present themselves as one for political purposes. I have never once met an American that said they were from America, they always said Texas, or Arizona, or New York. I like to think that if you ask a Hecata what clan they're from, they'll do the same -- they say Samedi, or a Harbinger, or Giovanni.

Their in-clan politics is probably the same too, which would be hilarious.

4. Gangrel

Yeaaaah my animal boys! The clan that appears to be independent from the outside, but is a lot more social than it lets on from the inside. I like how some clans are actually quite social (like the Hecata above, for instance), and the Gangrel are generally thought not to be. They also appeal to the Aussie in me in that they don't really believe in hierarchy; when Xaviar left the Camarilla, the rest of the Gangrel didn't mindlessly follow him, they spent years leaving, which suggests to me that every individual Gangrel made a conscious decision whether to leave or stay, and most of them decided to leave. Of course we have a few exceptions like Lettow, but for the most part Gangrel are free thinkers who aren't contrarian for the sake of being contrarian like the Brujah, but will quietly make up their own minds and follow through on that.

(And it also suggests that either Xaviar had an ego and thought himself more important than he actually was that he could leave and they'd follow, or that he was actually so in-tune with his clan that he realised once he left, many would follow in the end.)

And touching back on how they're actually much more social than we think -- Gangrel often come across as lone wolves, but they have Things: basically clan meetings/parties where they all get together and do Gangrel shit. Despite their reputation there is an aspect of a found family of sorts in there, and given their other clan traits, it's likely not out of duty, but out of choice. Gangrel who aren't interested just don't go to Things. Gangrel who are do, and those Gangrel have family connections within the clan. And "family" doesn't just mean vitae in this case -- the First Season tradition results in many Gangrel adopting each other.

I mean, I like to think that in most cases of the First Season (where a Gangrel is Embraced and then left to fend for themselves for three months to see if they're "strong enough" to survive), the sire is actually much like a mother deer in that they're nearby and keeping a close eye on their childe and making sure that they actually survive due to strength, and aren't destroyed purely by bad luck, but I also like that Gangrel are less selfish than other clans in that when they find fledglings they just take them in and raise them.

I also like the headcanon that different Gangrel behave in different ways depending on what their animal is, as if driven by that animal's instincts -- eg Gangrel whose animals have litters might Embrace several childer at once and raise them in a batch (wow, the poor sire lmao), other Gangrel might Embrace and abandon their childe right away because their animal does, but others might raise their childer one-on-one and be very involved and have relationships for the rest of their lives.

If you squiiiiiint it might even be supported by canon in a way that's not related to the Embrace. Beckett's a "lone wolf", but the lone wolf thing is actually a myth. They're pack animals. Beckett has a pack. Very few canon Kindred have genuine friends and he's the first that comes to mind. We have our Eagle Prince, Lettow. He loves to fly in a plane and his Elysium is physically high up, where he can look down on the world like a bird.

3. Ravnos

I actually don't have a Ravnos OC (despite having nearly 30 other VTM OCs) and never talk about the clan so it's probably surprise they're on this list, but I think they're so fucking cool. Master illusionists with one hell of a pain in the ass bane? That's awesome. It's so unique, it's so original. It's also a huge improvement over their racist as fuck meta history YIKES

I'm just sad that they apparently get along badly with the Gangrel (although it's hilarious that nobody knows why except the Ravnos and the Gangrel) because they seem they'd complement each other very well, but then, the Ventrue and the Lasombra complement each other too...

2. Tzimisce

I don't actually have that much to say about them, they're just such dicks and I love them, and I love how they have all this etiquette stuff explicitly because they're such dicks. They're a bunch of sadists, so they needed to have strict rules about how to interact with other Tzimisce so that they didn't start shit by turning the wrong Fiend's childe inside out or something, and boom, Tzimisce hospitality was born. I just find that so fucking funny. They might be a bunch of complete and utter assholes but they're not classless white trash, thank you very much!

Lasombra

I just fucking love these guys for two big reasons:

I'm a sucker for social Darwinists in fiction

The whole "technically they're disabled" thing, which is hilarious in light of 1.

So like. For me the Lasombra are a bit of a power fantasy -- as a kid I was emotionally neglected and sometimes outright emotionally abused. I was also neurodivergent. I was on my own. I never got taught any valuable life skills because I wasn't trusted to do shit or fuck by my parents, and other kids wanted nothing to do with me. If I was sad I had to comfort myself because I'd get a "well, what do you expect me to do about it?" or told what to do or told to get over it. When I struggled to do anything... I rarely got anywhere. I always lost. I always came last.

The Lasombra are a power fantasy in that they're in a shittier version of my childhood, where they get outright destroyed instead of eyerolls, and some of them still manage to thrive in it. I could barely scrape by, let alone win, but I was a kid in a highly social collaborative world that had no support, whereas the Lasombra are in an environment where they're expected not to have any and therefore, in a way, the playing field is more even for them because of that. The other kids were well adjusted and had advantages over me because they had parents that loved them and access to help whenever they asked, but most Lasombra share the same shitty childehoods. And they're encouraged to be mean motherfuckers like I used to fantasise about being mean to the other kids. Because I hated those kids, I resented those kids, I was jealous as fuck about those kids and I wanted them to pay for having what I didn't. In my fiction I love to channel that eleven-year-old girl in me who's bitter and angry at the world and wants to fuck it all up and make everyone else suffer so that they are forced to empathise with me in a way they chose not to.

As for the disability thing... they're Lasombra. The world is becoming increasingly reliant on technology. After thousands of years of being one of the most powerful clans in the world, of having a bane so minor that many Lasombra wouldn't have even realised it was there (mirrors were too expensive for most people to have throughout most of human history), they're going to be crippled in a matter of decades.

Fifty years ago Lasombra could do a shit ton of things they can't do today. Pretending that attendants don't exist for a moment: they can't go above the ground floor of many CBD buildings any more, because in many buildings stairwells are kept as fire escapes and the main mode of going up and down is via lifts, and when they press a button nothing happens. At airports they have to deal with the hassle of not being able to be scanned. Their communications suffer because the phone was invented, and then the mobile phone, and then the smart phone, so they're playing Telephone using ghouls or sending physical messengers because they can't contact people themselves like the other clans can, and so can't transmit messages as quickly. They can't even walk through a fucking automatic door!

A few years ago I had severe gastritis and had to mourn my previous able bodiedness after having just got a diagnosis for ADHD and feeling on top of the world because it was getting treated. So the Lasombra watching themselves going from being such a powerful clan to losing the ability to do so many things they used to take for granted... that's something I relate to. Strongly. And it's such a shame that I don't see that loss and grieving explored in canon, like, at all.

And it's also a kind of poetic justice -- they're the social Darwinist clan. Social Darwinists never see social bonds as the real asset it is, only a weakness. And now the Lasombra are increasingly disabled, they're also increasingly forced to rely on others to do things that other clans take for granted.

Pokemon:

These pokemon are all pokemon who ended up being favourites in the various pokemon games I played. As in, they stayed in my main party of 6 pretty much permanently while I might have rotated others in and out. I don't actually have anything to say about any of these, so I'll just share the list!

5. Sylveon

4. Skarmory

3. Breloom

2. Trubbish

Umbreon

[faggotswag]

of course in general i do hate the blandification & minimalism rot that’s been spreading for however long but one of my least favorite side effects of it is the most sexless silverware ever imaginable. where’s the flavor?! where’s the personality?! live a little! u cant even let ur spoon have a little rose on it!? perhaps a grape vine? get a life!!!!! enjoy the flair!!!! i’m sick!!!!

[motorclit]

I still don't get the blandification of spaces.

I have a theory not rooted in any evidence that I could give you, though. It's trying to make bland things the norm to balance out the reality of people's quality of life; make people think things aren't so bad, that the individual is overreacting.

Another theory is that rich people live a rather bland aesthetic lifestyle because they can afford to do things in life that make up for it.

And another is that establishments are cheap bastards who don't wanna spent a few extra bucks making the place look nice (hence why many fast food restaurants all look the same and shit).

The last one might actually be it, though. I say this because 9 times outta 10, it all boils down to something as simple as rich corporations wanting to make as much as possible by spending as little as possible, and not some illuminati-level pay-ops something or other. Because sometimes it's not that deep. It's just painfully simple.

For decades stoners were renowned for their aesthetics. For their blacklight posters and lava lamps, for their airbrushed dragon murals and electrical shock orb thingies from Spencer Gifts. Then they legalized weed and every weed store became the flattest, emptiest minimalist void imaginable. They're putting a weed store in a former Rainforest Cafe and they're tearing out all of the rainforest decor to make it just a big empty space with walls painted the blandest green they can find. They tore down paradise and put up a place where a business major tries to tell you CDB oil can cure cancer