#but cant we have some more diversity

[sternenschaukler]

Authors writing aroace coded characters like:

[violentdevotion]

wait do you have a fav boys character yet ?

i really like butcher but i feel like that's a basic answer and also the wrong answer. in another world id like frenchie but i can't get over how much i hate the actor. I love maeve theres never a moment she's on screen where im thinking get this woman outta here she's always entertaining to me. i like starlight but (and this is probably a bit nasty to say) there's smth a little uncanny valley about her sometimes where when she's talking im not listening but staring at her face trying to see what features throwing me off. I hate ashley but the actress played an insufferable character in jessica jones too and I really appreciate her ability to play The Most annoying woman you know.

centrist answer i like them all (except stormfront. hated her before i even knew she was a nazi. she was on insta live and i was waiting for her to explode and die) but my fave would have to be butcher bc i find im rooting for him the most and constantly justifying his actions. but sometimes karl urbans accent pisses me off. also black noir but he doesn't Do anything so it's hard to have him as a fave bc he's barely there.

[polskipolikarp]

Addressing the conversation in the notes about why are we haired the way we are - I really like the theory that head hair is not really meant to be practical, but more a social thing, or rather a way of attracting a partner (like male birds with pretty feathers). I have to admit there is a beauty in long, shiny hair.

The fact that males have facial hair is probably also socio-sexual, as in dimorphism.

But I think a good approach to this topic would be to look at modern day Africans and how they grow hair, and how much. Unfortunately I'm not really knowledgeable about this.

If humans were reconstructed from nothing but bones, they would 100% give us fur. The idea of “hairless except for the top of the head where the hair is actually the longest in the entire animal kingdom” would never come up

[bmpmp3]

and it goes without saying that the state of art history/visual culture video essay youtube is a bit dire. in that it like, doesnt exist outside of a few one off videos by general youtubers, decade old recordings of lectures, and random short text to speech videos that are likely ai generated

[beeseverywhen]

I just think that if someone's paying their rent and they are using the land you rent to them for its intended purpose (growing food and flowers for my households use) what does it fucking matter how they do it. Like please. What is the point. Chill the fuck out

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Amazon illegally interferes with an historic UK warehouse election

I'm in to TARTU, ESTONIA! Overcoming the Enshittocene (Monday, May 8, 6PM, Prima Vista Literary Festival keynote, University of Tartu Library, Struwe 1). AI, copyright and creative workers' labor rights (May 10, 8AM: Science Fiction Research Association talk, Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures building, Lossi 3, lobby). A talk for hackers on seizing the means of computation (May 10, 3PM, University of Tartu Delta Centre, Narva 18, room 1037).

Amazon is very good at everything it does, including being very bad at the things it doesn't want to do. Take signing up for Prime: nothing could be simpler. The company has built a greased slide from Prime-curiosity to Prime-confirmed that is the envy of every UX designer.

But unsubscribing from Prime? That's a fucking nightmare. Somehow the company that can easily figure out how to sign up for a service is totally baffled when it comes to making it just as easy to leave. Now, there's two possibilities here: either Amazon's UX competence is a kind of erratic freak tide that sweeps in at unpredictable intervals and hits these unbelievable high-water marks, or the company just doesn't want to let you leave.

To investigate this question, let's consider a parallel: Black Flag's Roach Motel. This is an icon of American design, a little brown cardboard box that is saturated in irresistibly delicious (to cockroaches, at least) pheromones. These powerful scents make it admirably easy for all the roaches in your home to locate your Roach Motel and enter it.

But the interior of the Roach Motel is also coated in a sticky glue. Once roaches enter the motel, their legs and bodies brush up against this glue and become hopeless mired in it. A roach can't leave – not without tearing off its own legs.

It's possible that Black Flag made a mistake here. Maybe they wanted to make it just as easy for a roach to leave as it is to enter. If that seems improbable to you, well, you're right. We don't even have to speculate, we can just refer to Black Flag's slogan for Roach Motel: "Roaches check in, but they don't check out."

It's intentional, and we know that because they told us so.

Back to Amazon and Prime. Was it some oversight that cause the company make it so marvelously painless to sign up for Prime, but such a titanic pain in the ass to leave? Again, no speculation is required, because Amazon's executives exchanged a mountain of internal memos in which this is identified as a deliberate strategy, by which they deliberately chose to trick people into signing up for Prime and then hid the means of leaving Prime. Prime is a Roach Motel: users check in, but they don't check out:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

When it benefits Amazon, they are obsessive – "relentless" (Bezos's original for the company) – about user friendliness. They value ease of use so highly that they even patented "one click checkout" – the incredibly obvious idea that a company that stores your shipping address and credit card could let you buy something with a single click:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click#Patent

But when it benefits Amazon to place obstacles in our way, they are even more relentless in inventing new forms of fuckery, spiteful little landmines they strew in our path. Just look at how Amazon deals with unionization efforts in its warehouses.

Amazon's relentless union-busting spans a wide diversity of tactics. On the one hand, they cook up media narratives to smear organizers, invoking racist dog-whistles to discredit workers who want a better deal:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/amazon-chris-smalls-smart-articulate-leaked-memo

On the other hand, they collude with federal agencies to make workers afraid that their secret ballots will be visible to their bosses, exposing them to retaliation:

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/amazon-violated-labor-law-alabama-union-election-labor-official-finds-rcna1582

They hold Cultural Revolution-style forced indoctrination meetings where they illegally threaten workers with punishment for voting in favor of their union:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/business/economy/amazon-union-staten-island-nlrb.html

And they fire Amazon tech workers who express solidarity with warehouse workers:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-fires-tech-employees-workers-criticism-warehouse-climate-policies/

But all this is high-touch, labor-intensive fuckery. Amazon, as we know, loves automation, and so it automates much of its union-busting: for example, it created an employee chat app that refused to deliver any message containing words like "fairness" or "grievance":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/05/doubleplusrelentless/#quackspeak

Amazon also invents implausible corporate fictions that allow it to terminate entire sections of its workforce for trying to unionize, by maintaining the tormented pretense that these workers, who wear Amazon uniforms, drive Amazon trucks, deliver Amazon packages, and are tracked by Amazon down to the movements of their eyeballs, are, in fact, not Amazon employees:

https://www.wired.com/story/his-drivers-unionized-then-amazon-tried-to-terminate-his-contract/

These workers have plenty of cause to want to unionize. Amazon warehouses are sources of grueling torment. Take "megacycling," a ten-hour shift that runs from 1:20AM to 11:50AM that workers are plunged into without warning or the right to refuse. This isn't just a night shift – it's a night shift that makes it impossible to care for your children or maintain any kind of normal life.

Then there's Jeff Bezos's war on his workers' kidneys. Amazon warehouse workers and drivers notoriously have to pee in bottles, because they are monitored by algorithms that dock their pay for taking bathroom breaks. The road to Amazon's warehouse in Coventry, England is littered with sealed bottles of driver piss, defenestrated by drivers before they reach the depot inspection site.

There's so much piss on the side of the Coventry road that the prankster Oobah Butler was able to collect it, decant it into bottles, and market it on Amazon as an energy beverage called "Bitter Lemon Release Energy," where it briefly became Amazon's bestselling energy drink:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/20/release-energy/#the-bitterest-lemon

(Butler promises that he didn't actually ship any bottled piss to people who weren't in on the gag – but let's just pause here and note how weird it is that a guy who hates our kidneys as much as Jeff Bezos built and flies a penis-shaped rocket.)

Butler also secretly joined the surge of 1,000 workers that Amazon hired for the Coventry warehouse in advance of a union vote, with the hope of diluting the yes side of that vote and forestall the union. Amazon displayed more of its famously selective competence here, spotting Butler and firing him in short order, while totally failing to notice that he was marketing bottles of driver piss as a bitter lemon drink on Amazon's retail platform.

After a long fight, Amazon's Coventry workers are finally getting their union vote, thanks to the GMB union's hard fought battle at the Central Arbitration Committee:

https://www.foxglove.org.uk/2024/04/26/amazon-warehouse-workers-in-coventry-will-vote-on-trade-union-recognition/

And right on schedule, Amazon has once again discovered its incredible facility for ease-of-use. The company has blanketed its shop floor with radioactively illegal "one click to quit the union" QR codes. When a worker aims their phones at the code and clicks the link, the system auto-generates a letter resigning the worker from their union.

As noted, this is totally illegal. English law bans employers from "making an offer to an employee for the sole or main purpose of inducing workers not to be members of an independent trade union, take part in its activities, or make use of its services."

Now, legal or not, this may strike you as a benign intervention on Amazon's part. Why shouldn't it be easy for workers to choose how they are represented in their workplaces? But the one-click system is only half of Amazon's illegal union-busting: the other half is delivered by its managers, who have cornered workers on the shop floor and ordered them to quit their union, threatening them with workplace retaliation if they don't.

This is in addition to more forced "captive audience" meetings where workers are bombarded with lies about what life in an union shop is like.

Again, the contrast couldn't be more stark. If you want to quit a union, Amazon makes this as easy as joining Prime. But if you want to join a union, Amazon makes that even harder than quitting Prime. Amazon has the same attitude to its workers and its customers: they see us all as a resource to be extracted, and have no qualms about tricking or even intimidating us into doing what's best for Amazon, at the expense of our own interests.

The campaigning law-firm Foxglove is representing five of Amazon's Coventry workers. They're doing the lord's work:

https://www.foxglove.org.uk/2024/05/02/legal-challenge-to-amazon-uks-new-one-click-to-quit-the-union-tool/

All this highlights the increasing divergence between the UK and the US when it comes to labor rights. Under the Biden Administration, @NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo has promulgated a rule that grants a union automatic recognition if the boss does anything to interfere with a union election:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth

In other words, if Amazon tries these tactics in the USA now, their union will be immediately recognized. Abruzzo has installed an ultra-sensitive tilt-sensor in America's union elections, and if Bezos or his class allies so much as sneeze in the direction of their workers' democratic rights, they automatically lose.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/06/one-click-to-quit-the-union/#foxglove

Image: Isabela.Zanella (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballot-box-2.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[eternitas]

People need to fucking chill and realize that sometimes things they enjoy are not made for them, so they need to stop demanding it suddenly becomes a thing for them

people discovering steven universe in 2023 are always like "this show is really good why the hell were yall so weird about it"

[dissociativedollcherry]

✮⋆˙ FROM THE START ୨୧

Yandere Oliver x shy reader

tw: Uhh yanderes are their own warning, obsessive behavior, Bullying, OOC in some parts(?) sadism(?) suggestive if you squint, isolation, toxic relationship, guilt tripping, please remember that this is not a healthy way to love someone nor its hot so always seek help if u encounter a person like this. theres some english mistakes too, sincerest apologies

୨୧ Oliver is a little piece of shit, we all know that so right off the bat, it would be no small feat that he would make fun of you, you were really asking for it in his vision just by the way you acted, he probably already would be the meanest of them all, and with you being shy? just doubles it.

୨୧ You were probably a new student that just got into the school, you probably would hang out with Abbie, which just drawed his attention to you more and obviously, making him mentally draw this big red target in ur back, congrats, you're now another target of his bullying.

୨୧ By the time he's been teasing you, Oliver would start to develop a very strange feeling everytime he saw you, he didnt know what that feeling was but it was growing everytime he would catch you in his eye sight.

୨୧ When he realizes, he's already too obsessed with you and he honestly dont know how someone so popular and tough like him got so enthralled by someone so shy and pathetic like you, but the reasons were diverse, he just doesnt see it. (or refuses to see it)

୨୧ It was probably Zip who would make him aware about his "crush" by teasingly asking if he was in love when she catched him staring at you too much, of course, Zip didnt know the deep lovesickness her friend developed for the shy student they usually picked up on.

୨୧ from that moment on, Oliver would make your life hell, the bullying would get way worse, if you had any friends, they would suddenly cut ties with you out of the blue or avoid you in general.

୨୧ Oliver would definitely use that to make you feel bad and more fragilized, he likes instigating those bad feelings on you because of your reactions, maybe hes just a sadist.

୨୧ Oliver is mean, obsessive, possessive, over protective and manipulative, often using your shy nature to his advantage and entertainment, making you do things for him and etc...

୨୧ Oliver after some time would manipulate you into staying more with him and his little trio, saying that at least you wouldnt stay alone anymore and that made you really confused and a bit suspicious but you knew how cruel he is and knew better than questioning him, so you just tagged along, you thought that maybe it would get better from there. little did you know that it would actually get worse from there.

୨୧ Oliver would grow more desperate and possessive of his love the more time passes, he would often fantasize lots of things with him and you and when you notice it, he wouldnt even let you stay with the trio anymore, you could only stay with him.

୨୧ You didnt have any other friends other than him, even though you didnt really consider him a friend, and if you tried to get some new friends, he would make those new friends avoid you in the same or next day.

୨୧ If you try to ignore him or avoid him, he would just use the guilt tripping card, saying that you are being so bad with him for nothing and that he is only trying to help you even though you KNOW deep down that he is only lying, but you just cant help but feel bad.

୨୧ Oliver would probably be very touch starved, but wouldnt really show it to you, a simple touch on your arm, shoulder or anything like that, would already make him go crazy and possibly want more, but he keeps him smug and mean facade, he cant let you see such side from him. not now at least

୨୧ Like it or not, you are trapped with a narcissist that wont let you go so soon, you will have to deal with his smug nature until you two part ways.

୨୧ “im the only one who wants you in my presence.”

[katapotato55]

how to make your writing be remembered forever and possibly be well loved.

(incredibly stupid and silly fanfiction line at the end of this post) I know that title is incredibly daunting but listen, its very simple. you ready?

MAKE STRONG CHARACTERS

"but kat! surely its not that simple! " nononono listen. bear with me. I want you to think of your favorite thing. Now ask: what do you remember the most about the thing you love? I will go first:

I love team fortress 2. and guess what: this game has been around since 2007, and was in development hell since before I was even born. The game has been around for 16 fucking years. And guess what? in the strong year of 2023 team fortress 2 Is STILL getting memed about. and do you want to know the crazy part? the character designs to the naked eye are not special at all. ok sure from a designer standpoint, these are very well designed characters made so that you can easily tell who they are based on their silhouette. but from the average joe.... tf2 is iconic but overall it looks ok. it doesn't seem special to a stranger to tf2. look at this completely random and arbitrary example of a game in the same genre:

I don't know shit about the characters in overwatch. Yeah i have a BASIC idea on what their personality is like based on voice lines and some videos i guess... but in-game they just exist. these characters are brightly colored, they have beautiful unique designs, hell they have even more diversity such as robots and people from other cultures! but i don't remember shit about these characters. Maybe I remember the ice lady and tracer, but nothing else. and yeah part of overwatch struggling right now is incompetant development, BUT: The characters in team fortress 2 are SO remember-able because the characters have such a vibrant personality. I am an orange box owner, its been a decade and a half and I am still remembering this game and enjoying art about it.

"but kat! that is a comedy game! Overwatch is a very serious game! are you saying comedy is needed to make a character more noticeable?" no. though I think allowing your characters to lighten up every now and then would humanize them. Not full on goofy, just give them something that makes them likeable. and if you cant do that, you can STILL make a compelling character even though they are mostly seriousness. I have an even more awfully thought out example:

kung fu panda is a masterclass in making a serious comedic movie somehow work. Master Oogway.... he isn't a comedic character at all. Yeah we made memes about him, but ignoring that, he is a wise and resourceful person. He is at calm and has faith in this intuition. there are a lot of characters like this. What makes Oogway stand out is that he is also a little bit kooky and sassy.

this youtube clip sums up what I mean. It is a funny line, it fits the character, and It doesn't ruin the seriousness of the moment. Some of the most successful series in history have something about them that has appealed to people. In my opinion: characters with strong personality and interesting traits is always a good way to ensure your writing is successful. The second most important is the characters bouncing off of each other in terms of their chemistry with each other. There is a reason why I spent years playing the first Destiny game and all of the DLC, but I remember fuck all about the characters. I think I maybe remember the bootleg star lord robot guy.

A writing exercise

here is an exercise to get you in the spirit of character making. step 1- get a random character from a random bit of media. In this case let me bring you master Oogway. Step 2- Get a completely different character from a completely unrelated series. I am going to give you Scout from team fortress 2. step 3- write a random ass thing about them interacting. Think about how the characters would react to each other and why. Think about each characters values in life and think about how they would bond and conflict with each other. Think about characters similar to the character they met in the past and how they reacted then, and if they have never interacted, make something interesting with it. Step 4- keep experimenting. Once you get into the spirit you can apply this to any new character you could want to make anyways thats it byeee- "arent you going to do that ?" do what? "make a writing thing about oogway and scout. " ........

Scout: let's go turtle you got nothing on my speed- Oogway: The one who first resorts to violence shows that he has no more arguments. Scout: that sounds like chicken talk! come on tough guy let me have it- Oogway then proceeds to make scout eat shit before vanishing in a cloud of cherry blossoms and dust from the desert. If this post isn't popular I want you to know my dignity was lost for nothing.

[erabu-san]

You are literally French. What would you know about any of this, an issue and drama stirred up by anericans.

Blackwashing exists and is used by bigots that hate white people. Its used to erase the ethnicity of asians just because people dont think they are "poc enough" because of their pale skin. Its used to demonize people with pale skin because its becoming more and more the norm to view anyone with pale skin as evil. That anyone who is "too pale" isnt enough or a human being.

They arent real people, and their skintones are fine as is. You wouldnt go up to, for example an albino or mixed race black/poc person and tell them they arent "dark enough". They dont even need to be special like that to be pale. Some just are pale.

Whether you think there should be more characters that are dark or not is not the issue. Its that you think they wouldnt be/arent good enough as is with pale skin that shows how much of a bigot you are.

Blackwashing is not the progressive act you think it is. Its obvious that your only experience with it is through genshin drama. You obviously know nothing about how much red haired pale characters & asian ones are substituted with black characters. How characters are simply replaced in the name of "diversity". How this forced inclusivity and diversity is just bigots trying to "get revenge" on the white people they hate so much, and to tick off DEI boxes on their little bigoted checklist.

You tell me to educate myself but its actually YOU who needs to be educated.

Many are complaining about sumeru and natlan characters with names similar to gods in cultures of our world that are pale when their inspiration is dark skinned. Claiming they want representation and for it to be accurate, to reflect our world on a 1-1 scale.

Yet these same people will make xiao, zhongli, Ei, and many more asian characters darker " because asians can be dark skinned too". Yet so can mostly dark skinned races be pale.

So why cant you (gen) respect such characters, who are gods and divine beings based on a culture where pale is more beautiful, and gods of such cultures are pale?

There is hypocrisy in everything to do with blackwashing. Its okay when its done to pale characters because in real life black people have been oppressed? But these characters are not real, nor are they a reflection of our reality, as far as we have seen they dont even have racism in this fictional world.

It is one thing to explore a character like with the recent hatsune miku trend, atleast there most people arent going at each other's throats saying black miku is better than japanese miku(as far as i have seen)

Seriously how can you even begin to justify this. And who ever told you that dark skinned characters "scare white people" is an absolute fucking liar trying to justify their own bigotry towards white people.

No black washing IS just as disgusting as whitewashing. Neither should exist, and you shouldn't feed into the stupid circle jerk of bigotry that both of them are.

Aaaah that's what I like ! Yes ! Thank you for telling me your opinion, explaining what is wrong. I absolutely love to learn, and I prefer to read this long text calling me ignorant and explaining why that just a simple text of you saying you are annoyed by a fanart.

Thank you for telling me ! First yes I am french, and indeed my culture has more an european pov. But again, I also grow up as a minority "race" with my parents culture !🙏 in france, i don't look like a french. Well. Still I am aware that it doesn't remove anything from what I said

And I totally agree with you, some are just pale !! It just happens I draw Kinich black because I like it like this. Is Kinich true inspiration are actually pale ? Tell me more, I wish to learn !!

Tbh when you talk abt gods being pale is beautiful, I thought about Nahida. I did research when she were out and yes, I do agree, there is character who are fine as they are.

And because I live in France I also see "dark skin scare white" as a true fact. It happens and it is harmful. 🧍 not only in France tho, in country where pale skin is portrayed as beautiful, people who have tan skin are less represented even if it is the majority. I suppose the contrary happens too !!

"Character are not real" and yet you are annoyed, I guess it is the action of "blackwash" that make you mad, more than "a fictional character w diffent skin tone" tho! My opinion is fiction does affect real world, as do real life affects fiction, and this is something I won't debate on

"They don't have racism in this fictional world" sorry but it does in Sumeru. 🙏 about this one npc she is reject by forest and desert because of them being mixed, desert not being access to book and even Cyno said his scholarship was complicated because he is from desert

If you wish to continue, please send me DM with arguments. I don't know if I would change my mind of not drawing Kinich pale, but I am super interested about what you have to say !! 👍👍

[kithj]

agree with all of your points here, but in response to anon... why does genderlocking a character mean that character's story then has to be about their gender? why does every female character have to have her story revolve around the oppression and misogyny she's faced within society? why do genderlocked trans characters only get to exist if we get to dissect their relationship with gender rather than just letting them... exist?

obviously, if you've read my work then you know i enjoy writing and reading about these things myself, but i really raise my eyebrow at anon's implication that certain people can only be in a story so long as it directly relates to their identity, or else it's "gender-neutral." men and women and nonbinary people are allowed to be included in any story in any genre, and their inclusion in that story shouldn't be limited to just their identity, and their identity also shouldn't be discarded when it's not. this goes doubly so for characters of color-- there are a lot of bipoc authors that voice this exact concern due to publishing limiting their work and only allowing them to tell stories that revolve entirely around their identity and the struggles they face because of it, versus white authors who have free reign to write about whatever they want.

limiting ourselves to only depicting certain people in this way is the opposite of what we should be advocating for. yes, everyone should always do research when it comes to writing a character outside of their own experience & you as the author should be aware of the way that character's identity may impact their relationship to the narrative you want to write, but reducing them to nothing more than that in the text can be just as harmful as ignoring it completely.

sometimes you do choose a character to be a certain way because you want to explore something in the narrative with them-- i did this with all of my characters in Blood Choke. but other times genderlocking happens just because it's what feels right! while there are some moments where gender is touched on in The Northern Passage, that is not the focus of the story (or the characters) at all. but i can't imagine depicting Clem, Merry, or Noel any other way. and sure, allowing gender selection may expand your audience, but for me, personally, i don't write solely to appease the largest audience. i write the things i want to write, and i like genderlocking for all of the reasons Harris listed and more. and to be clear, i also like the gender-selection mechanic! that's why Lea is still selectable; just like with the others, i can't imagine depicting them any other way. and Lea has just as much of a complex relationship with their gender as the other 3 characters-- they are not "gender-neutral."

i just really push back against the idea that player choice hinges entirely on whether or not a player can choose the genders of the other characters. like Harris said that is not the only thing of value in these kinds of stories, and there are so many other ways to approach interactive fiction than just romance/romance options, and i think it's a shame more people don't give certain IFs a chance because of something as silly as genderlocking.

Look, about the gender-locked thing, it's a nice idea. If you do something with it.

If you lock a certain character to a given gender, you can tell a story that relates to that gender. You can talk about and explore what gender is and how it affects the lives of people in your universe, what social roles are expected of them, how they relate to their bodies, how other people see them and how it affects the way they feel.

But, being honest, that's not your wheelhouse. You write gender-neutral stories, in which it might be acknowledged, but it doesn't influence the lives of your characters at all. You can write a gender-neutral story with gender-locked characters, certainly, the fact that not every single character of your previous games was gender-selectable is proof of that, but why would you? What there is to be gained, in narrative terms, with such a decision? It's more trouble than it's worth, given the climate of our community overall, where choice is valued immensely.

Now, if you want to try something new, if you want to write something completely different, then go ahead. Seize the opportunity. Just beware it's more complex than it first appears.

Mm, I don't think I agree that it's "more trouble than it's worth", or that NPC-gender choices are the main/only aspect of the value of player choice, but I think I understand what you're saying.

I'm not sure if "what is there to be gained" is rhetorical but if not here are some examples:

-it's easier to write specificity about characters' genders (whether it's solely acknowledging, or also influencing characters' lives) if it's not branched three ways

-eg it's easier to write two people of the same gender talking about some shared/differing experiences when it's set rather than it being a single section of a much wider set of branches

-I'd enjoy including romanceable characters who are canonically nonbinary rather than them being only that way under some circumstances (the last time I did this - or having all non-selectable romances - was in Blood Money, which was a long time ago now)

-it's easier to subvert or lean into various gender expectations and such when there's a single thread to write

-a lot of players have said they feel a fixed character is clearer in their mind; I don't always find this myself (and can find fixed characters also feel unclear, depending how they're written) but I've seen it said a lot

I am pleased with some of the specificity I put into Honor Bound (mostly for trans and nonbinary PCs and NPCs) so I do feel confident that I can do that side of things with selectable characters.

In general I think there are pros to both approaches, so it's interesting to think about.

(this ask is referring to these posts!)

[grecoromanyaoi]

The whole "are jews white" thing drives me crazy bc whiteness is not an innate state of being it is a position of power in relation to other people and therefore it is more complicated than "russian ashkie = white and sephardi = brown" but everyone wants to make race into a biological fact so we're stuck unable to acknowledge that in the same way that jews are seen as both capitalists and communists for the purposes of antisemitism, we can also be seen as both white and poc for the purposes of antisemitism AND some jews do access, use, weaponise white privilege. it's not hard

As a side note I happen to think using a "white israeli vs brown palestinian" is functionally inaccurate. while zionism obviously emerges from european nationalism and therefore includes those strains of racism, it is a nationalism aka it is about jews and not white people. ANYWAY.

right right!!! like. u cant rly "separate" jewish ppl into a white/nonwhite binary in terms of oppression bc a. whiteness is a construct, n often applies differently in different situation n b. this may break some of u all's brains but white sephardim also suffer race based discrimination. white ashkenazim n white sephardim have different experiences w race, judaism n antisemitism. there r different ppl from the same city even w wildly different relationships to ethnic identity n race. there r 5 separate synagogues in the venetian ghetto belonging to 5 different ethnic groups. theyre all italian. theyre all venetian even.

ashkenazi/sephardic/mizrahi trinary doesnt work either - many ppl r mixed, white western ashkenazim, asian ashkenazim n ashkenazim of color have different experiences w race, judaism, antisemitism, identity, culture, etc. n so do european sephardim n noneuropean sephardim (even different european sephardim between themselves, ntm how different noneuro sephardic identities r from each other), many ppl identify as both sephardic n mizrahi, etc.

n to the last point at the end of the day its still trying to erase the diversity of palestinians. like while theyre all equally palestinians n their identity is, for the lack of a better word, valid, n palestinian is also obv a cultural identity, there r plenty different ethnic, religious n racial groups within the palestinian identity. i think it connects to how many ppl, esp westerners n esp americans, refuse to analyze any global situation, usually indigenous struggles, outside their specific dichotomy of xyz oppressor n xyz oppressed. they cant fathom that brown n black israelis can b relatively privileged based on their ethnicity, so they decide to just ignore their existence alltogether. like how they refuse to comprehend that americans of color can also b privileged - both globally n as settlers on stolen land, but instead of saying that any and all criticisms of american r racist n targeting poc n usamerican is a racist dogwhistle, they go the in opposite direction n treat all israelis as white, n israel as a white country (dont tell them abt the demographic statistics in both countries). thats also why ppl refuse to b normal abt russian or ottoman imperialism - they cant rly neatly fit it into their idea of what racially/ethnic based oppression looks like.

"are jews white" are christians white? sorry for the long answer/rant, but at the end of the day, this remains unbeated

[opiopal]

Are we sure demons are even mammals? Their human forms are for hiding among humans, so they might not have the less obvious functions. We know Lucifer had 12 wings, but his angel form only shows six, implying that that is at least one more "truer" form, which could also be the case with demons. The truest form of a native demon might use an alternate method to feed their young.

this actually got me thinking more about it, so I started to think about their demon forms since that would probably give more answers,

so lucifer and mammon are birds, peacock and crow, so they would tend to eggs, so no need for breast feeding birds

levi is a serpent, yes there is sea life that are mammals, but sea snakes are def not one of them, so fertilizing eggs in bunches doesn't require breasts even after hatching.

asmo is a scorpion, I have NO CLUE how scorpions work when it comes to their young but i know for a fact that anything with an exoskeleton.. most of the time isn't a mammal. so again, eggs.

and beel is a bug, I forget if its fact that hes a cicada? thats just what I remember, and cicadas arent mammals so again, eggs

now i tried to search for what satan is since its really unclear(at least to me), if he was a bird like his dadmom then he would probably have wings, but he IS wing. and when I searched I was told unicorn and wolf(ofc his rebel teen emo ass would be a wolf) and obviously belphie is a goat/cow thing, so technically the anti lucifer league should be mammals just going off of their demon forms,

but again no nipples, belphie makes sense cause again, former angel, popped into existance, no mommy for him, but satan was born from lucifer.. technically organically...? (still cant believe mpreg basically happened) but lucifer probably was never intended to have kids from his own body so no nipples, and again satan came from wings, which yeah would all make sense, but then again I circle back to Dia

he's a dragon, yet was born not from an egg, but as a result of a live birth. which resulted in his mother passing away. so I'm still going strong on my dia's not a full demon theory(maybe royal blood makes him appear to be a pure demon?)

and I can also imagine that demons dont have a big powerful form like a "be not afraid" angel does, so lucifer and the brothers prolly had a down grade in the scary physical form factor. prolly another layer to their punishments. (ofc demons still prolly have a big scary demon form, just not as big as a flaming swords with wings and eyes and a booming voice)

and going onto other demons, I can imagine reproduction is very diverse in the devildom. demons who are more reptilian, demons that are birds, cold blooded creatures, anything that wouldn't give live birth would lay eggs, do silly little dances to attract mates, look pretty to attract mates, ect. and obviously demons that are goats, cows, deer, cat, dog, would give live birth. so maybe nipples with demons are like freckles? some people have them and other people just dont.

BUT, then again, demons could have only 1-2 animals that relate to their sin, demons of Greed could be crows and foxes, envy is snakes and sea creatures, ect. but then again mephisto is a thing, and he's a demon of pride, so that would make him a peacock like lucifer, but with a lack of a canon demon form its hard to say, but mephisto already shares a hairstyle and boyfriend with lucifer so it would just be mean to have him share even more with him. but than again he could also be a lion? but I dont think that would fit that little gay rich boy at all. But I think it would just be more interesting if a demons form isn't always directly related to their sin so they can be any animal.

all in all, the only thing I think I could come to a conclusion with is that angels aren't mammals. and ofc they wouldnt gain nipples after becoming demons cause how odd would that be? "NOO MY SISTERS DEAD AND IVE BEEN CAST DOWN TO HELL- what are those things on my chest." and with demons it could probably vary from being mammals and not being mammals. but I could imagine its like, 80% of the devildom lays eggs and the other 20% doesnt. but all in all I think demons can do either or, it just depends on what they want to do, get freaky and then give birth or lay an egg and sit on it till it hatches, but I'm sure no demon would willingly give birth if they had the option to just pop out an egg.

or maybe its just my crack theory, two demons kiss and get freaky then 9 months later a baby pops out of thin air, magic baby!

[the-fat-raccoon]

🌌 astro-gnomey Follow

Some of you don't want to hear it but at some point we're going to HAVE to acknowledge the effects of storm sorcerers (and keiromancy as a whole) on the environment. The wizard council has been pushing for regulations on these practices for years due to its large ecological effect on the realm, and yet it still stays unregulated because of misinformed petitioners who insist on preserve this harmful practice.

x x x

🌬 420haz3it Follow

hey ops ex here. they literally went through my family's tome of spells and destroyed every page that contained keiromancy. spells that were in my family since the Wizardry Renaissance, that saved towns from floods and droughts alike, are now lost to time and space

also as people in the notes pointed out all of those links are blatant misinformation that ignores what storm sorcerers have done to protect not only their local communities but the environment as a whole for centuries, and the people who spread this information are the exact same people who advocated to repeal the wishing star protection act.

hating keiromancy has always been a distraction so astrological mages can push for more unsafe practices in their own field. don't let them lie about their intent, and don't let the wizard council rush the process to earn an astromage liscense.

🪄 tradmage12 Follow

Being from a family of storm sorcerers puts a direct line from you to the Great Calamity that wiped out our magic for a millenia. You deserve to lose that tome and every last spark of magic in you.

🌬 420haz3it Follow

what

🌬 420haz3it Follow

theres no way youre serious. you dont actually believe that.

🪄 tradmage12 Follow

We all know it, the Great Calamity would have never happened if the sorcerer faction had listened to the wizard councils orders and steered clear of dragon hunting. But they didn't listen, and everyone suffered because of it. Don't act like there's no reason to not trust your kind with their own practices. You just can't help yourselves.

🌌 astro-gnomey Follow

I leave for the Berry Harvest and come back to this mess, really funny how you'll mention me taking action against your family's evil dark spells but don't mention that you only dated me for your weird gnomeplay fantasies. Also pay attention to the language used, very Anti Mage rhetoric being spread. What else would you expect of a storm sorcerer, of course they want to keep their powers, I'm going to shut off reblogs if people in the notes cant see how they're being manipulated by keiromancers. Quit trying to be 'progressive' when you just want to keep ruining the course of nature and keep down the mage class.

🌬 420haz3it Follow

get me off this fucking lichsite. there is no 'anti mage rhetoric', that's not a fucking thing. mages aren't some repressed class no matter how much you want to pretend that, they haven't had to deal with magical restrictions since before the great calamity even happened, meanwhile sorcerers to this day are still fighting to be seen as magical equals.

and while im at it 'keiromancers' is a made up term to put all weather magic users under one umbrella, as if forms of keiromancy arent so diverse amongst the realms that you cant even begin to compare them. it is not the same as saying necromancers. dont even start that bs.

also, gnomeplay is perfectly normal and acceptable between consenting partners, which we were, so idek why you bring that up. if i as a half elf want to have gnome partners theres literally no issue with that, youre mad because gneillielle has a more bountiful gourd harvest and far more whimsical tunes than you ever brought to our relationship.

storm sorcerers have done nothing wrong, you're the problem.

perhaps some shadow work could unlodge the staff youve got stuck up your cap and you could see the filthy fuckign system youre supporting as an astromage, im sick and tired of this.

🎱 claire-vances-fourth-eye Follow

op starts posting untagged wizard council x reader failed abjuration content in a year btw

5,482 notes

[zeronetxt]

i just want to say this for the sake of saying this.

the batkids' fav kpop groups (according to me)

i hc that they listen to kpop bc I listen to kpop. so heres the list starting w the 4 robins

Dick Grayson

TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THIS MAN IS A GG STAN. i can feel the vibes from here. he might enjoy a few lil bg songs but he is def one of those cutesy gg stans. i think hed vibe well w fromis_9's music bc its really upbeat yk

ULT: fromis_9

Le Sserafim

Twice

Jason Todd

there is NO ONE. ON THIS SAD EARTH. that can convince me he isnt a twice ult. however, he probs enjoys hardcore/noise music from bgs as well (which is fair enough) so there we have ateez and skz. im CONVINCED hes a chan ult, no idea why though. also i put lesserafim there bc yes. that man is just gonna be girling girling.

ULT: Twice

ATEEZ or Stray Kids

Le sserafim

Tim Drake

i was a bit less sure on tim's one, but im pretty sure these would probably be some of his top three, since the music is somewhat either really poppy or really hardcore, but i also feel like he'd enjoy listening to nugu groups, mainly nugu ggs. probably learns choreos too (get it girl)

ULT: æspa

TXT

Red Velvet

Damian Wayne

on the OTHER side of the spectrum is damian. this guy definitely knows the big groups (by 'big' i mean yg, jyp and hybe groups. anyone else, and hed be like "who?") i know for a FACT hes a bp fan.

ULT: Blackpink

NewJeans

(maybe) BTS

in conclusion however, id like to point out they are ALL twice stans real men stan twice

thats the robins done (minus steph, shes up next)

I personally dont know what i rly expect from the batgirls this time 😔

BUT

the batgirls (im bouta lock in)

barbara gordon

THIS WOMAN IS A GG STAN. is all i have to say pretty much about her. i just KNOW she loves hwasa. or just the girlbosses of kpop because yes.

MAMAMOO

(G)I-DLE

(i cant think of a third one, but i feel a bit of itzy or lesserafim)

adding kiss of life bc yes

cassandra cain

now for cass, my theory is she likes more rock or 'happy' music, no in between. like my mind thinks she'd like tws for some reason, like plot twist might actually be one of her favs. but then i also see her vibing to dreamcatcher, rolling quartz and day6 clear as day(6)

Dreamcatcher

Day6

TWS (casual probs)

Rolling Quartz

stephanie brown

now listen when i say this. THIS GIRL IS A MULTISTAN FOR SURE. i also definitely see her being into the music with a lot going on, such as nmixx or nct, or the groups with a diverse music range such as txt, enhypen or boynextdoor (for me personally), and p1harmony. i think girl would just LOVE itzy, and sing it in the shower or smth

NMIXX

NCT

ITZY

now there are a bunch of other groups that i think one of them would like, but cant place my finger on eg. kard or nu'est. but meh whatever, i have most of my repressed thoughts out. the one thing i need to say though: EVERYONE STANS TWICE IN THE BATFAM. and/or (mostly and though) lesserafim. thats is all :)

bonus:

duke thomas

im a bit less sure w duke's but i def know (in my messed up head) that he likes bnd. now i have this belief that EVERYONE in the batfam is a once, its a rule atm, so obv he also likes twice

boynextdoor

twice

lesserafim or kiss of life (not sure which he'd like more tbh 🧍👺)

[sharklovingaquarist]

My thoughts on female emotional expression through my interest in media with intricate stories and interactions with men who also enjoy them

So I like media where stories require a bit of involvement. I dont want to sound pretentious or anything but its fun! Im really enjoying some of the deeper pieces of TES and my favorite show right now is Ergo Proxy. But heres my experience with pieces of media like this and how they destroy the belief that womens mental state or emotional ability is taken more seriously. When I talk to men about these topics I feel like they see me as a father sees an infant pretending to help build a cabinet or something. Men act like their emotions aren't taken seriously then completely discard women's emotions or thoughts with a notion that our brains are more simplistic. We cant comprehend emotions when they are diverse and academic! Our emotions are more accepted, but they're instinctual and uncontrollable. Women are allowed to be emotional in an animal way, while men see their very few emotions as genuine and true. Complex. The only reason they think women's emotions are more accepted is because they percieve us as primal and unsophisticated. Women's emotions aren't taken seriously at all, our emotions are seen as less human and basic reactions are blamed on our lack of logic. Let's be fr.... how many stupid fucking male cinephile's (who only watch male manipulator ass movies) act like they're a philosopher for liking a "deep" piece of media do you see doubting the knowledge of a female fan? They disregard my intelligence, call my emotions robotic instinct, and have the nerve to say my emotions are taken more serious? Male loneliness is a myth made to ease the "big strong" men of today since they arent the current baby everyone is gawking over, tumbling around knocking shit over while their grandma fawns over them. When I can barely find a man who views my thoughts as complicated, when a relationship with a man would entail me following him and birthing his children without him even looking at me throughout the process... I don't give a fuck about their wellbeing and how "abused" our poor boys are.