#but they really had to add that element of exploiting a minor to make it stick

[airyairyaucontraire]

now in context, he's celebrating the demise of the wife he murdered in a staged plane crash with a garden party on the very day of her funeral

so this is a scene of some depravity

but out of context, could anything be nicer than a garden party hootenanny with Johnny Cash?

[poppyandzena]

(To preface, this isn't meant to be argumentative. I just wanted to share my 2¢; apologies if someone's already brought this up.)

I do think the "prime time television" thing is kinda missing the point. Watershed is done with mostly young children in mind; I don't think anyone actually believes that your average teenager isn't up past 8-9pm, or that they aren't watching stuff like Adult Swim or whatever (granted teens watch streaming more than actual cable TV these days - but my point stands). It isn't really an open secret or something anyone (besides some Christian conservative parents) makes a big deal about. It's... pretty normal teenager stuff?

The issue is that there's a significant difference between a teenager watching Rick & Morty or shounen anime, etc. on their own accord, and seeing suggestive content in those shows.... and what Poppy is doing. Sure, the level of risqueness in that art likely isn't worse than anything most teens have already seen on TV, but the source it's coming is what matters here. In this case, teens are being shown suggestive content by an adult (in her 40s, no less) who they're in direct contact with, who isn't a trusted guardian/teacher, and it's being done in an intimate/interpersonal setting. Not to mention, the art being of Poppy's own sona(s) adds an additional "personal" element to it.

For example, I definitely watched stuff like Family Guy, Austin Powers, and Adult Swim anime when I was 13 (and younger tbh). The suggestive stuff didn't harm or bother me, I had no problem laughing at the jokes (that I understood), and some shows were even a safe way to explore the topic. But... I would go to school the next day and still feel immensely uncomfortable being surrounded by my classmates making sexual jokes/comments - and those were my peers. I won't get started on how interactions with certain adults (online & irl) who made these kind of comments made me feel.

My point is, different contexts and situations can definitely alter what's comfortable and appropriate for a teenager. Like a teen seeing a sex scene in a movie is one thing, but their 40y/o neighbor sharing their personal Playboy collection with them is a whole other - yknow?

On top of that, Poppy just posts this stuff an area of the server that's supposedly designated as "SFW", where people don't expect to see suggestive content. She doesn't even have the courtesy to put a spoiler over the images. This effectively removes any option for members to "manage what content they want to view", short of just... leaving the server? Is this what she wants? At best, this seems really thoughtless towards all server members - including adults that may have valid reasons to want to avoid that stuff too.

As another personal example, I'm asexual and experience periods of sex repulsion. Of course I'm ultimately responsible for what content I see, but I would hope that if I were in a Discord server that claims to center around mental health, that I could safely stick to the "SFW" channels when I don't want to see sexual/risque content. And this is just one of several reasons why an adult may not want to see suggestive content that doesn't boil down to "puritanical BS".

If Poppy wants her server to be a place with no areas that are off-limits to suggestive content, that's fine and all. But she shouldn't mislead people into believing otherwise and should absolutely not be allowing minors to join if that's the case.

You're right. A child who stumbles upon Saw or a Playboy lacks the insidious implications that an adult exposing minors to pornographic content has. An adult has POWER. Poppy in those screencaps is arguing about if the minors even have a RIGHT to feel uncomfortable in her space. Those minors are now going to believe that it's okay for adults to show that content to them, to even go further. If Poppy is so comfortable showing sexual content and talking about her sexual exploits, then a child isn't going to see the red flags when another adult does the same thing towards them.

[lukutoukatvcd]

Lukupiiri 4 alustus: Influence & Power in Design

The Politics of Design, A (Not so) Global Manual for Visual Communication was published by Dutch author Ruben Pater in 2016. The book inspects the political context of design. The chapter of focus is Image and Photography. (p. 96-127) Pater tackles provocations regarding visual literacy, racial capitalism, cultural appropriation and much more. The form of the sub-chapters are strong and compact, while raising more questions to branch out to. 

A Designerly Inventory is an article written by Arab-Canadian designer Danah Abdulla. The article was published by queer intersectional feminist platform, Futuress in 2022. The article takes form as an assorted list of provocations to encourage critical thinking amongst designers. Danah Abdulla introduces herself as a pessoptimist, a view which is inseparable with hope and despair. Full of questions, yet hopeful. This is the tone I got from the article. 

Visual literacy was one of the most interesting and broad concepts of Ruben Pater's chapter. Visual literacy is the perception of visual communication based on one's culture and/or background. Pater argues that designers should not assume that everyone grasps their work in the same view, the designer’s view. The surroundings, culture and norms in which an individual has grown up has a massive effect on how one perceives visual communication. For example, I got extremely annoyed by an Espresso House Instagram ad because it was cropped too much to the right (it had a white streak) and had overlapping label elements, which were probably a mistake. I showed it to my brother and he didn’t understand what I was pointing at. My point is, everyone pays attention to different things and details. My brother saw a good deal on a pumpkin spice latte and I saw the unflattering composition of the design and completely disregarded the content.

Visual literacy is a similar concept explored in Abdulla’s article, especially in part 35: That design is not always universal. Standardization is easier than tailoring. It makes things efficient and saves money, but it sacrifices functionality amongst certain societies and people. A good example is furniture design. Let’s imagine a company buying chairs for their office space. They pick a model based on their budget and what looks “businessy.” Issues begin to arise when more and more employees file their complaints against the lousy chairs. The chairs feet are at an unadjustable height, so short people keep dangling off the edge and falling. Older people with back issues get unbearable aches from the tough material and arch of the back. Then there is one lucky dude who happens to be of standard size, height and age and the chair fits him like a glove. Standard is not for everybody. 

Ruben Pater speaks of the phenomenon “racial capitalism.” By this he means companies profiting off of visualizations of minorities instead of making significant changes for the long-run. As an example Pater points out companies, which display multiculturalism in the form of imagery to state their value as more inclusive. Another ridiculous example is the act of photoshopping stock images of people (often of different races) into existing pictures to add to the feel of diversity. I have heard of Stalin's photoshopping operations against scapegoats, but this was something. An image really is just an image. Further investigations need to be made to find out if a company is truly inclusive or just visually so. 

Cultural appropriation is the last part of Ruben Pater’s chapter. In context, this means the use of cultural elements without permission. It is criticized as minorities gain recognition only when a dominant culture exploits it. These borrowed cultural elements are often modified and/or affected by stereotypes. I recognized the example which involves Urban Outfitters and its clothing line inspired by Navajo textiles. In short, Urban Outfitters did not communicate or ask for permission from the Navajo tribe to use their designs. Profit was not shared either. Design is simply not just observing and doing, it is also questioning and understanding. I question whether “inspiration” is the correct word for UO to describe its intentions for the clothing line. Of course there are different kinds of inspiration, but it seems to be mostly visual, not contextual. 

In conclusion, both texts had plenty of similarities regarding structure and topics. Both Abdulla and Ruben’s text is built off of small and compact subtitles. Each subtitle points at or criticizes a certain way of doing things in design: What causes these phenomena? What can we learn? How can we make design better? I wish it were that easy. I found myself nodding along both texts a lot, but a part of me was overwhelmed. Is it even possible to be completely inclusive in design? I do believe that I could make design accessible to a wider range of people, but I don’t think it’s realistic that a designer could please everyone. I feel like I want to do the best that I can do. It is important to stay open and curious because the world is constantly evolving and so is design. 

[mainstc]

Blair witch witch

#Blair witch witch movie#

At least with the BW series, you can actually empathise with the characters as they act in a similar manner to that, any of us would in the same situation. When you think at that stage you'd set up camp for the night rather than wandering round in the dark – they set up camp for the night So often in horror films we have to put up with idiotic characters making idiotic, wholly unrealistic decisions and suffering the consequences as a result. When you find yourself thinking you'd definitely leave at that stage - the characters attempt to leave. For a start, the characters make genuinely, believable choices (minus maybe the idea of going into the woods in the first place). Despite the above however, Blair Witch does so much of what 'Project' did well. Without all that, and with people being so accustomed to 'hand-held horror films' now, this film doesn't really deliver anywhere near the terror or frights that its namesake did 17 years ago. Tie that in with all the paraphernalia that went with it – mockumentaries, interviews with relatives, the actors in hiding for months, and it meant people were genuinely terrified before they'd even set foot in the cinema. Part of what made the original so genre-defining and so ruthlessly scary (at the time) was the fact that nothing had been seen like it before. As a result, there isn't really much need for its existence other than to make more money for the film studio. It's effectively a modern remake of the original film with some minor tweaks. If you've seen the original there's really no need to see this one.

#Blair witch witch movie#

Add in the prolific vulgarities and this film finds itself in the “must avoid” category.This rating feels really harsh as this was a genuinely good movie and an excellent homage to the original.However the issues here are two-fold: 1. While supernatural beings and witches do exist, and a healthy fear of such is proper, using them to incite paranoia crosses the line. The Blair Witch Project is an intense, ultra-realistic scare-fest, designed to exploit occult imagery to generate fear. Summary: The mere absence of sex and violence isn’t a good enough reason to see a movie. Other Negative Elements: Heather is shown (from a distance) going to the bathroom in the woods. Heather asks if anyone has any weed (marijuana). Before they embark on their adventure, they drink Scotch. The name Jesus Christ is abused numerous times.ĭrug and Alcohol Content: The three characters smoke cigarettes (until they run out in the woods). Several hundred crude and profane expressions (including nearly 200 uses of the f-word and the s-word) are bandied about. Sexual Content: At worst, a vague reference to having sex.Ĭrude or Profane Language: Tons. A Bible-carrying townswoman who is referred to as the “town loony” provides information on the Witch legend. Seemingly occult symbols appear in the film (the three characters certainly interpret them as such). But to be fair, the somewhat simplistic execution of the plot places it in the same category as a very scary campfire ghost story, not The Exorcist. Spiritual Content: The very title and premise of the film fixates on witchcraft and the occult. Also, Heather and Michael care enough for their friend that they put aside their own fear to search for Josh when he is abducted. Positive Elements: Unlike the glamorized portrayals of witchcraft presented in much of popular media (think of shows such as Charmed), this film convinces viewers that witches are scary, evil and undesirable. Then the camera is knocked to the ground and the credits roll. They race to investigate the elusive sound. Finally the two remaining filmmakers stumble (at night) upon an abandoned, rundown house from which emanates moaning and screaming. Then Josh disappears and a bloody bundle of twigs is “delivered” which contains what they believe to be a part of his body. Needless to say, they get lost, and each night scary things happen. (The legend involves a witch who abducts and kills both children and adults). After interviewing a few local townsfolk about the Blair Witch legend, the three young adults hike deep into the nearby woods to get footage of locations associated with the legend. But don’t be fooled by Artisan Entertainment’s efforts to convince the average moviegoer that this film is true. One year later, their footage was found.” The remaining 79 minutes of The Blair Witch Project is “extracted” from that footage, all of which is shot with handheld camcorders and a 16 mm camera. The movie begins with text which reads, “In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittesville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary.

[back2themax]

Ranting about The Shining(1980) as a adaptation-

So let me say this first. I don’t think it’s a bad movie, hell is great at what it is trying to be! It is good, purely from a horror movie standpoint. As a adaptation of the book? It is absolutely shit.

What the movie succeeds in-

I’m going to start with being nice. So I used to love this film a whole lot more before I actually read the book. As there is some fantastic elements to it. The score, the sound itself is fantastic and greatly adds to that  unnerving feeling you get. Especially when it comes to the high pitched buzz used for the shine itself. The camera work! The shots in this film are great, very  atmospheric. It also helps in giving that cabin fever feel, everything in the hotel is so huge compared to the torrences and yet you still feel like your confided to a small space. Now, Jack Nickerson is not a good Jack Torrance BUT he is good as a crazy man.... it feels like he would work better as the embodiment of the hotel itself then the father.

Severe loss of  character-

The movie  pacifically ruins Jack and Dick. there is no benefit to wendy or Danny either but it isn’t as severe a drop in quality from the complex  characters in the book.

Jack-

So the movie makes It so so unclear what’s actually happening to this man. In the book, Jack is the recovering alcoholic father who had recently lost his job at a rather good school. He has sworn off drinking after two key events. Breaking his sons arm years ago , and the drunken night drove. In the book it is clear who and what Jack is. It is clear how much he truly loves his wife and son, how much he has been trying to rebuild Long lost trust and save the family by taking this job. He is a intelligent f man with a weakness the hotel can exploit. His decent is slow but typically he can be talked back to reality by his wife or by their son. The hotel slowly chips away his sanity by using his trama and addiction against him so that it can completely take him over in the final act, Jack Torrance is gone.

In the movie the hotel barely has to shove him and this man walks willingly into its arms. There’s no struggle,no real coaxing or conflict, the hotel does and he believes. Hell! He doesn’t even go to check on his son seeing the bruising on his neck! He doesn’t even seam concerned! While Jack in the book does indeed get pissy as this could completely ruin him AND THE FAMILY- he always puts Danny first. Danny is another thing. The boy adores his father, he’s a daddy’s boy. He loves this man so deeply, and yet we don’t get that. Even normal he seams terrified of the man! Not to mention in the book Jack is- a actual father like hello he’s actually present.

There is two moments they give with him that I actually like, that give him actual charecter

1- When Wendy brings him breakfast the one day it’s actually kind of a cute moment.

2- when he had the nightmare about hurting them, and actual expresses terror over hurting his family

Jack is such a complex and interesting charecter that you can both feel sorry for and angry at the same time... the movie strips all of this away from him and makes him this temper tantrum buffoon.

Dick-

Part of me wondered why the movie would even bring him back at all. They turned him into a plot device purely to get the other snowcat. In the book he holds a much larger role, becoming good friends with Danny and explaining a whole lot more about the shine and expressing where he shouldn’t go. In the late half he is a huge reason in why Wendy’s even alive! See in the book it’s not just a chase scene, they actually get hurt! Wendy is barely able to shamble, Half of dicks body is ruined and poor Danny is freezing. He plays such a huge role and is almost a secondary father figure to Danny. To just kill him is a insult.

Wendy-

So besides her hair not being blond and her robe not being pink there’s mainly minor changes with her. I think she was actually done the best out of everyone. However they did make her a lot more whiney then in the book... but I actually think this is more playing off Jack’s warped  perspective! As she’s nothing but caring and loving and frankly worried for the two boys in her life. Honestly Wendy is always perfect smh. I honestly think Shelly is the perfect Wendy, if the script would have been better I would have loved her even more.

Danny? Danny is a cardboard cut out. Really didn’t give this kid a thing did you.

Weird changes-

There’s a great amount of plot points and symbolism lost to the movie. Especially with the Whasps. Which is a MAJOR event, one of the first things that begins to unravel everything. Not to mention how they carry a theme though the rest of the book. Also the sort of reflection of the worst things from your parents. Jack sharing things and taking on the mannerisms of his abusive father when possessed, Wendy sharing traits with her horrible mother, Danny reflecting both his parents at times.

Hedge animals to a hedge maze? Which ends up doing very little.

217 becomes 237 with added unnessasary bad Jack

The Grady girls and the blood elevator??(the dog man part is actually in the book, no I’m not kidding)

Etc

Just over all it’s a massive headache I don’t mean to be one of those “the book is better” people but the book is better

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Visual Novel Review - OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos

If you are at all interested in Yuri or visual novels, you will have undoubtedly heard of OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos. The Yuri rom-com was one of Steam’s top 20 February releases, and it hit the trending page on the platform. These accomplishments are incredible, and it is lovely to see both a visual novel and a Yuri game get so much love and recognition. However, whenever a title succeeds and manages to make an impact outside of the Yuri community, it always brings up a few questions. Mainly, does it deserve to be one of the few Yuri titles to obtain “mainstream success” and is it a positive ambassador for the genre, one which can further Yuri’s popularity and pull new consumers into it? These concerns boil down to one question, is it good? Usually, this inquiry is pretty quickly answered, with most elements of a product either being positive or negative. However, OshiRabu delivers more of a challenge. There are some fantastic parts to this game which I applaud and gush over, yet there are also several problems, both major and minor. The dichotomy between OshiRabu’s highs and lows is possibly the strongest I have ever seen in a Yuri title.

OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos is the debut game of SukeraSomero, the new sister brand of the excellent Yuri studio, SukeraSparo. The plot follows Akuru Hayahoshi, an otaku with an obsession with her “husbandos” from gacha games and seriously bad luck. One day she bumps into a cute and bubbly student, Ren Furutachi. After Ren shows off her uncanny good luck to Akuru, a miscommunication sees Ren believing that Akuru confesses to her. For Ren, it is love at first sight, and she persistently negotiates her way into living with the older woman.

The rest of the game flits between comedic moments as Akuru and Ren live together. Examples include the girls shopping for a new bed, since Ren insists on sleeping next to Akuru, and Akuru creating boys’ love doujinshi with her friend Shino. There is, of course, a climax, which will not be spoiled in this review, and three possible endings, depending on two-player choices. An optional 18+ DLC expands on one of the endings and offers several explicit scenes.

There are some enjoyable aspects of this plot. For one, it is light and pleasant, never letting itself settle too much or grow stale. The situations are not hilarious but enjoyable and well suited to the with the characters’ personalities, and establishing several recurring themes and jokes, such as Shino teasing Ren and Ren accusing Akuru of cheating. There is an excessive amount of adorable fluff, which matches well with the overall tone of the game. These delightful moments cater to a variety of interests and fixations, so every reader is likely to find something they like. My personal favorite was a brief imagination sequence where Ren and Akuru have a child together, cute Yuri stories about women raising a kid are one of my weaknesses, and the reason Voltage’s Lovestruck has stolen hundreds of dollars from me.

The writing is also fantastic. The descriptive prose makes me laugh at the poor quality English translations we had a decade ago, and sometimes still unfortunately get. SukeraSomero deserves a great deal of praise for the simultaneous English, Japanese, and Chinese release. It is amazing that everyone got to experience this game together all over the world, without having to wait years for a possible license and translation. English translator Meru is one of the best in the business, and her work shines here. Her adaptation is amazing and fits the games’ modern setting and feel. I personally do not care for the amount of internet culture language included, such as Ren calling Akuru a “thot,” simply because such terminology tends to become dated quickly. However, I will defend the creative choices as accurate to Oguri Aya’s original story.

There is one more major compliment I have to give this game, and it is a big one. OshiRabu is extremely queer. While most Yuri titles exist as lesbian or lesbian adjacent content with little construction of LGBTQ identity, for example naming, displaying meaningful sexual and romantic relationships, or showing any aspect of queer culture, OshiRabu does all of these. I was floored when, early on in the story, Ren confesses to Akuru that she is a “lesbian.” The word lesbian is actually used directly in the visual novel, an unfortunate rarity for the Yuri genre. I even swapped the game into the original Japanese to confirm, and there again was the coming-out moment; the word “lesbian,” in all its glory, was planted right on the screen. This fantastic scene was not a one-off occurrence either.

Throughout OshiRabu, Ren continuously mentioned her homosexuality, which is usually juxtaposed by Akuru pondering her own sexuality, which she defines as an attraction to 2D men and nothing else. Although, her identity obviously changes because you know the women must end up together by the end. Some other excellent scenes feature queer representation. For example, at one point in the game, Akuru goes to a gay bookstore where another woman approaches her. When trying to explain that she is not interested, Akuru almost exclaims, “I’m normal,” a sentiment which she quickly realizes is hurtful and prejudice with some spectacular self-reflected narration. Moments like these offer nuanced and thoughtful presentations of LGBT culture and are the definite highlight of the game.

Sadly, not every aspect of the visual novel is as fantastic as these. In fact, many parts of it range from unfortunate to downright atrocious. First, the characters, while not awful or unlikeable, have some harmful qualities to them. Akuru is distant and introverted, which often leads to her being cold or even rude to Ren, which is never confronted or resolved. On her part, Ren is sadly the stereotypical aggressive lesbian, and frequently invades Akuru’s personal space, a topic which is again never reconciled. It is fine to have a character make problematic choices, but when their actions do not have consequences and conflicts have no resolution, it is a significant issue. The only character I unequivocally enjoyed was Shino, as she spends the whole game humorously teasing the two.

Speaking of conflicts, the final dramatic twist comes about as a result of Ren running away and refusing to communicate with Akuru. It turns out, minor spoilers, that she was testing her, which is a pathetic and ridiculous action which in real life can and should have serious repercussions or even end the partnership. Additionally, the topic of Akuru’s shared affection for Ren and her virtual husbandos, which is an immense source of stress for Ren, is not addressed in the base game, only the DLC. The extra content has its own set of problems too.

It is not uncommon for visual novels to include adult content in a separate patch so they can sell the base game on Steam. However, such adult patches are usually free, and OshiRabu’s is not, instead it sells for $4.99. This price is on top of the $24.99 base game, which means you are shelling out 30 dollars for the complete experience. An experience which, mind you. only clocks in at about 3 hours, hardly what I would call a value. It is an additional shame because the adult content is really well done. All the 18+ scenes, except for maybe the brief first one, showcase a tender loving relationship and skillfully written erotic content, although one or two metaphors did not land very well. However, not every player will want the 18+ content, and OshiRabu essentially forces them to play through it if they are going to see all the base game’s conflicts resolved.

There is also an unfortunate amount of service. While most of OshiRabu’s service is just sweet and cute moments between the characters, there is plenty of exploitative artwork designed to cater to specific players of a more perverted persuasion. Ren is usually the subject of such content, with shots featuring her panties and one extremely revealing cosplay outfit consisting of little more than two strips of cloth. Obviously, some players will enjoy these aspects of the game, but they did not work well for me, especially when I compared such clumsy service with the robust adult content.

However, this exploitative artwork, along with the rest of the game’s art, is phenomenally well crafted. Artist and character designer DSmile creates detailed and colorful illustrations that match the light comedic tone of the game. The adorable and vibrant artwork, drawn in a light watercolor style, makes my heart sing! There are also plenty of CG pieces, over 20, including the DLC, which adds six more. Given the games short length, this means you will see a new CG every ten minutes or so. The UI is also incredibly clean, easy to navigate, and blends well with the aesthetics of the art. My only complaint visually is that the sprites are entirely static. Except for different facial expressions and a few outfit changes, they are always the exact same, standing like flat mannequins against a backdrop. There is no animation or even alternative poses for them.

The voice acting is similarly high quality. Voice actors Nekomura Yuki, Kitaooji Yuki, and Waou Kirika all give fantastic performances in Japanese, and the quality of the recordings is consistently amazing. Even the adult scenes are voiced and showcase the range of talent present. The music is not nearly as good, but it does not intrude either. There are enough tracks to prevent the music from getting too dull, although the central theme and one of the tracks, “Let’s Go Out!” push this boundary a little far. Unfortunately, none of them are too memorable either, and I can guarantee that I will never be touching the BGM tab of the extras menu.

OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos is a highly polished and visually impressive experience. The visual novel contains incredible artwork and is well constructed, showing the promise and talent of SukeraSparo. The stellar, although unfortunately necessary, adult DLC, and inclusion of LGBT themes are superb aspects that could have made playing this game a blast. However, a poorly constructed story, weak characters, and a high price tag compared to the amount of content offered severely detract from the game’s success. If you do not mind excessive service or are interested in lots of cute Yuri moments, pick this one up when it goes on sale.

Ratings: Story – 5 (6 with DLC) Characters – 4 Art – 9 Voice – 10 Music – 5 LGBTQ – 10 Sexual Content – 5 (9 with DLC) Final – 5

The visual novel is available on Steam and MangaGamer

[viciousgracearc]

sh.adow & b.one thoughts ( contains spoilers! ) tw: racism ( this is just a thought dump and to explain why i’m not adapting the show’s racist elements in my portrayals )

disclaimer: just because i will not adapt the racist element as it appears in the show doesn’t mean i won’t acknowledge the book canon, in-universe prejudice and discrimination against the poc characters in grishaverse. 

so. the racism in shadow and bone. having watched all of the show, i now have some mixed thoughts about it. in the books, alina is assumed to be white for the most part. it is only at the end when we ( or at least i ) suspected that she is not entirely ravkan, and then the casting confirmed it. the kind of racism alina ( and mal ) faced in the show was never a factor in the books, despite rampant anti-shu and anti-fjerdan sentiment. the suli are painted as people who are displaced and mostly neglected by the ravkan government, and definitely treated with prejudice, but as far as i recall there is no specific slur directed at them either in book canon.

however, whereas alina’s ethnicity is vague in the books, it is crystal clear in the show that she is a biracial woman. i know that for biracial folk, experiences vary across the board, especially if you’re a biracial person and an immigrant or a refugee. alina is a war orphan. her mother’s country of origin is at war with her current country of residence. to an extent, i understand the level of animosity ravkans have against people who look like the threat / the enemy. people of color face racism and prejudice day in and day out, sometimes from white people, sometimes from fellow people of color. this is a grim reality with a long and studied history of racism and racial superiority creating divides between minorities and pitting them against each other.

was the racism necessary to the plot? it definitely adds layers to it. you have an orphaned girl of color in a mostly white people country. they discriminate against her and her best friend for most of her life, using slurs such as “rice-eater” and “half-breed”. but this country has a huge problem, and it turns out only this orphaned girl of color can save them from it, despite them alienating her consistently. now they need her help, now they call her a saint. this girl, who based on show-canon, feels so different and abnormal from the rest of her peers because her ethnicity is always pointed out and considered a bad thing. now she has to be a hero for a country that despises her... and not only that, now she has to do it under the tutelage of a white man. white man looks older than her; there is an obvious imbalance in their power dynamic, but he looks at her like his hope come at last and places her on a pedestal she doesn’t ask for. this same white man puts a collar around her neck and then effectively subjugates her by taking control of her power.

it... it kinda sounds bad, doesn’t it? it does. “but wait,” the volcra screeches. “via, are you fucking stupid?” it asks. “that’s not how the story ends! she overcomes!”

well, yes. but does it really make the rest of it any less insidious? alina is denied food, consistently picked on, and mocked, for being half-shu. it is prevalent in her show storyline and difficult to ignore. and thus it will be woven into everything that happens to her, and every decision that she makes will in turn, make us, the viewers, look back on it even if she herself doesn’t do so explicitly. i know the intent of including this racism element into her ( and mal’s ) story is to portray an accurate depiction of the POC experience as they maneuver white or mostly white spaces, or just spaces not catered to their specific ethnicity. but does it work? is it necessary? the irregulars, which is also a netflix show, did a great job at casting a young chinese woman in a lead role and a black man as dr. john watson without ever having to define their characters or their capabilities to move in the world by their race alone. as a half-chinese woman myself, it was empowering to watch a chinese girl able to take the lead and make bold statements and brave decisions without ever being bogged down by the limitations of her race. 

at the end of the day, it is a fantasy world. do you think if the racism isn’t there, the story’s going to be worse off than it is? personally, if they left it out, i think the story will be just fine. there are a lot of things that tie these characters together outside of their racial struggles, like... i don’t know, personality? circumstances? the need to save their country from a powerful tyrant? the struggle for survival in a constantly at-war nation? there is also the fact that this racism element they’ve introduced is inconsistent. so much directed against alina and mal because they want the viewers to sympathize with these two characters. some of it directed towards inej, another protagonist, whose story has a lot to do with how she was exploited because she is suli. but where’s the racism directed at zoya? at botkin? if there’s racism against the shu and if they call them rice-eaters, where’s the anti-fjerdan racism and what do they call fjerdans? ice-shavers? cold-dwellers? aren’t fjerdans ravka’s enemies too? but oh wait... fjerdans are white. nevermind.

speaking of zoya: in the books, especially in RoW, it was implied that she is white-passing, which is why she was never treated differently for being suli. however, show!zoya is NOT white-passing at all. she is very obviously a woman of color, and while i acknowledge that yes, poc can be racist against poc, i don’t really see zoya -- bully, mean girl, attention-starved, ambitious, ruthless zoya -- resulting to such a low blow. sujaya dasgupta herself admitted that in show canon, zoya experiences racism ( though it was never explicitly shown to us ), and consciously turns it against alina in the hopes of hurting another woman of color. don’t get me wrong, zoya is definitely a terrible person at the start of the series. she was classist and mean and she had a superiority complex, and that superiority complex comes from being a powerful grisha, something she worked hard for. she thinks alina doesn’t belong in the little palace, not because alina is shu, but because alina appears out of nowhere, is untrained but is already considered powerful / the solution to everyone’s problem, and has nabbed her old place as the darkling’s favored. the “you stink of keramzin” jab is more than enough to drive her point home and i don’t think “half-breed” is necessary at all. besides, from what it looked like, alina isn’t the only mixed-race grisha. grisha comes from all over, taking refuge in ravka because they’re the only nation that treats their grisha under acceptable conditions. so one would expect some diversity there, which zoya, having been at the little palace since age 9, would have been used to by now. i don’t really think there’s a lot of incentive for her in using a racial slur, and she’s lethal enough with words that she doesn’t need them to injure somebody. 

“via, stop barking and tell us what you’re going to adapt in your portrayal!”

okay, well. personally, i’m not interested in including the show’s racist element in any of my characters’ storyline ( alina, zoya, mal, ehri ). i acknowledge the anti-shu, anti-fjerdan, and anti-suli sentiments as they appear in book canon, but i will not use alina’s ethnicity as the basis of her “otherness” because i like the book canon explanation for that better. nor will i acknowledge that zoya called alina a half-breed, because my zoya is not white-passing zoya, and she knows infinitely better ways to inflict verbal harm than racism. zoya will also be grappling with being half-suli because she was exposed to anti-suli sentiments by her own mother as a young child. 

all my characters are of asian-adjacent ethnicities, and as an asian person myself, do you really think i am interested in reliving my traumatic racism experiences through the characters that i write in a fantasy world? with alina especially, it’s like she couldn’t breathe without someone pointing out that she’s half-shu. i think as much as it is important to show authentic poc experiences in art and media, it is also equally important to show poc solidarity, and to stop defining people by their race alone and to just let them exist as people. 

it doesn’t help that the show’s way of depicting racism is gratuitous, insulting, and feels like it’s catered more towards the white gaze than... you know, actual POC viewers? i understand people will disagree with me on this and that’s fine. this is just how i feel. given that shu-han as a nation didn’t even feature much in the books and we don’t know ANYTHING about them in a cultural context aside from the fact that their appearance is coded as east asian, the discrimination towards them really just hinges on shallow factors like how they look, what they eat ( ???? ), and how they are viewed as ravka’s enemy. it boils down to an east vs. west type of scenario ( and considering the barrage of anti-asian sentiment in our current political climate it’s... questionable at the very least ), and the racism element is not a profound expression of the poc experience but more like... a caricature version of it, once again, in my opinion.

“via, i can’t believe you used that many words trying to tell us you won’t include the racism in your portrayal.”

hey, i know. but a girl be having thoughts, a girl’s two brain cells be rubbing together, you know? this is me deep cleansing my brain by yoting my thoughts into the void. but yes, this is my take! i understand if you don’t feel the same way, but i just... i can’t feature the racist elements of the show in my blog, sorry (not really).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[soyosauce]

Cyberpunk 2077: Is This To Be An Empathy Test?

Cyberpunk 2077 is an adaptation and extrapolation of the popular tabletop pen-and-paper role-playing game Cyberpunk, originally published in 1988. The video game uses an extrapolation of the setting and Interlock system, translated to video game format.

When I finished the game, credits rolled. And rolled. And rolled. More than 15 minutes went by.

Now, days later, as I reflect on more than 70 hours of playtime, Cyberpunk 2077 feels like many people have had their hands in the pie. Its strengths and weaknesses stem from its massive ambition, marketing, and promises.

Different Experiences

I played CP2077 on a Ryzen 7 3700x with 32 gigs of RAM and an RX 2700 GPU. I was able to get around 35 FPS at 1440p without noticeable drops (except when looking in mirrors), and I played on ultra-settings without ray tracing on. I began playing it with the rest of the PC consumers with the day 1 patch.

As a crafted experience, I can say that it is the most impressive looking game I've ever played, and my playthrough seems to be a fortunate one, with maybe a handful of glitches or bugs across the entire 70 hours. None of which were remotely game-breaking. I was never unable to progress in the story. I never had a crash. The most annoying thing I experienced was sometimes crosshairs from a gun would continue to stay onscreen after it was holstered.

I mention this because I think a major component of why I come away with a positive experience is because my computer could deliver the intended experience. And Cyberpunk 2077 is unrivaled in its execution of a funneled narrative. Characters and environments have never felt more genuine and cinematic.

The sound design is some of the best I've heard, and it's perfect in every aspect of the game. From the sound of a throaty exhaust to the scraping of metal-tipped hands against hardwood, the sound is superb and adds to the immersion.

 The World

With a setting as old as Cyberpunk, there will be consumers who are familiar with the setting and have a grasp on the worldbuilding. For the uninitiated, however—of which, I think most customers will be—the aesthetic and gameplay elements the marketing team used in advertisements will be the primary hook. The game doesn’t go out of its way to communicate that it is anything more than that, either.

What was most compelling about Night City was the meticulous detail and care devs clearly put into every nook and cranny of the city. Distinct and disparate, no part of it feels reused or like its filler. It is the most gorgeous and well-realized environment I've encountered in a video game.

Yet the gangs, fixers, and side jobs located within it feel one dimensional when viewed from a macro, worldbuilding perspective.

Typical fixer missions are varied enough and have different small bits of story, but usually just elucidating that specific mission and its characters. You’ll find little bits of lore some of the time, which augment the siloed stories, but often don’t give a wider context to help situate the faction you’re interacting with.

The gangs seem to have a central theme, but I never learned why they were actually there from a worldbuilding perspective, beyond the fact that the game wants you to be looting and shooting.

Culturally, the gang elements are too often a pastiche and don’t feel real. They have scripted lines that are often dehumanizing and feel unrealistic. Some of them don't even make any sense. They'll find a dead body and start yelling for you to come out, "cunt", or some other misogynistic pejorative. How do they know it's a woman? Making them all say and act that way feels so cheap, encouraging you to take them out because they're demonstrably “bad” people. And it doesn’t matter what kind of mission it is. Context doesn’t matter.

With the bits of lore you’ll find all over the place (often repeated), it feels like a missed opportunity to not humanize and characterize the gang identities as a whole; even if you are spending most of your time mowing them down, at least you’d come to understand why the city is the way it is and what its general makeup is better than just knowing which gang claims which area of the city.

The world feels overly concerned with aesthetics that the player never gets context for, so it feels like a caricature used for aesthetic purposes only.

For instance, Arasaka, the megacorporation controlling/running Night City, has a highly traditional, tyrannical, Japanese businessman who has had his life extended with cybernetics. He’s over one hundred years old and controls Arasaka with an iron fist. The inference on my part is that locations in Night City with heavy Asian aesthetics are there because of this megacorp’s influence. But it still feels strange because, in other lore given, the city has been run by other corporations not that long ago and had other cultural influences asserted. So why is Little China, Japantown, and Kabuki a weird pastiche and the only place that seems to assert its cultural influence on the city? When you enter other areas, they don’t look like they’re trying to recreate foreign cultures. Is it because of the Arasaka influence? Possibly, but I never found any lore that explained it. Visually, this aesthetic dominated my playthrough.

The result is a siloed microworld that feels like it might be there simply to justify some of the predominantly Asian gangs, who seem to be basically just cyberized yakuza and come up fairly often in fixer missions. The main story also springboards off some of these locations, so the game really wants this look to make an impression on the player.

When you explore in-depth, all of the interactable, consumable portions of the city have a faux quality because you can only look at them. Sometimes you can buy food from a couple of vendors and clothes, but everything exists solely to be interacted with in a hyper-specific way, rather than extrapolated from a perspective divorced from what would be merely aesthetically interesting and actually realistic enough to let V feel like a character that is a part of this world.

You can sleep with and date a few different people, depending on your gender presentation, but the relationship's extent beyond that varies. There are some texts between characters, but you don't get to, say, go home and do anything with them. Their interactions with you in person are the same as though you had phoned them.

You can talk to people on the sidewalk, but they have a regurgitated one-liner and then go back to what they're doing. You can't go up to a gang member and talk to them because once they see you, they’ll attack you if you get too close.

The only things that feel genuinely next level are the prescriptive story elements. And that's okay! It just doesn't jive with the level of detail or how much you think you'll be able to interact with things when you first see them. Marketing makes it seem like the world at large may be something you can interact with, but those all end up being the curated narratives.

Because the worldbuilding framework is from a first-wave cyberpunk perspective, unfortunately, pitfalls like techno-orientalism are prevalent.

The themes around the commodification of those things that make us human, from our body, faith, and art, are all interesting themes present in the genre—but here they are skewed toward fetishizing minorities and subcultures, just as first-wave cyberpunk texts tended to do.

V is ostensibly a cyberpunk and it follows that they would be a part of the same subgroup as the minorities who are underrepresented and lacking nuance in the CP2077 world, but V is actually traversing the story with their only integration into a subculture being that they’re a mercenary. With few exceptions, they all seem to not really share punk values, either. Some take jobs from corps (you certainly can if you want), some don’t like the corps but aren’t particularly anti-establishment or pro direct action. Most just seem to hang out at a bar. You don’t hear about what they do on the news or in the world. You don’t get jobs from fixers that are ideologically aligned with being punk. And you don’t integrate with any other subcultures when out of the main narratives.

The exploitation of people and the world's general themes and sensibilities still feel firmly rooted in the late 80s, early 90s. It is not aware enough to fully realize an actual subculture or even the dynamics of criminal elements in the city, so it frames the story from a mainstream perspective for mass appeal.

The problem is that, with so many people consuming the game, this becomes the default that those consumers will adopt. It has a responsibility precisely because it is so popular and will become a part of the general intellect. Rather than be progressive with its themes and push mainstream depiction of cyberpunk to something in line with what can be found in literature today, it is regressive.

Ultimately, the worldbuilding is the most disappointing aspect of Cyberpunk 2077. The main narratives, however, are a different story.

 Story

Arguably, the most important thing for a role-playing game experience is the story. In 2077, you play V, a mercenary on the edges of society trying to make it big in Night City. In classic cyberpunk genre fashion, a chance at a big score drops into your relatively inexperienced hands, and you seize it. A heist is planned; it doesn't go as planned—and Johnny Silverhand, a long-dead anarchist and misogynistic jerk—basically a proto-typical embodiment of 70’s rock ethos—ends up in your head. He has his own agenda, and V can either go along, get along, or make their own decisions about what to do next. For the most part.

The story beats are as meticulously crafted as corners of Night City. The character animations are the most advanced I’ve ever seen—: they’ll smoke a cigarette for a portion of the conversation, stub it out, then get up and pace nervously while delivering their lines. Their emotions will be written on their face and flow naturally. They'll touch items or other people in the scene. They look and act like real people and sound like it too.

There’s a 4-part storyline with a trans character in which you just won’t ever learn their story unless you talk with them and earn their trust. You can go through the whole narrative and help them out (or not), and never learn much about them. But if you spend the time and ask questions, you'll always get something from these storylines, even if they initially seem to be just another gig on the map.

Because the game's worldbuilding, including in-game ads, is blind to its own defaultism, stories like this are absolutely vital. I wish there were more of them and I hope the free DLC forthcoming are things like this.

2077 is populated with genuine, human moments. They communicate why you should care about the city and the people you encounter. And most importantly: these moments define V as much as the main storyline.

Whether intentional or purely a byproduct of how each facet of the game was developed, these stories augment the play experience a tremendous amount.

What I remember most is finding out if Johnny can, and will, actually change or if he's just trying to manipulate me, discovering how my decisions alter the way he interacts with me, and going down a rabbit-hole, sex trafficking narrative that initially feels a bit too archetypical, only to have it morph into a multi-part story that rooted V's narrative in an emotional and impactful way.

These are the stories that you can actually, meaningfully change. And because I did them all before the main storyline, they all felt like they meshed well with my V’s overall story.

Of course, you could do the main story right away and then go back and do these side stories. I think the experience would be quite different because of the knowledge and relationship you have with Johnny at the end of the main story experience, though.

The main storyline has multiple endings; I've experienced four of them, and they all deliver fairly well on expectations. These endings do not consider anything that isn’t a main or side job, which is labeled as such in your log. Your relationships with the main characters do change the endings slightly, but they don't change the overall outcomes for V and Johnny. This made the game's main attraction for me the fleshed-out side narratives and a few other mysterious side jobs that crop up without a fixer giving them to you.

These other stories were more enjoyable because I felt like I really mattered and could actually mess them up. The main storyline is only preoccupied with whether or not you did X and, if so, you can see the Y ending. It felt like it had lower stakes.

 Conclusion

I do feel like 2077 is a new way to consume an immersive role-playing video game experience. It's unfortunate and unfair to many people that multiple promises the game makes cannot be fulfilled unless they can experience it on a particular platform (with a fairly sizeable amount of money in the investment). A decent computer to play it on is the best way, and it’s expensive if you want to max out absolutely everything. Next-generation consoles aren't even optimized for it yet. Last generation consoles are struggling. Crashes, bugs, poor textures, and framerates.

What is Cyberpunk 2077 when it can’t replicate the ideal delivery for its desired experience?

So much of what made the experience singular and noteworthy for me comes down to how life-like and human the people I came to care about the most in the game looked and acted. Take that veneer away, and the cracks in the façade appear.

Doing most of the side content before the main jobs gave my V a meta-narrative: they were a ruthless killer that would do pretty much whatever a fixer asked of them. Those were the expectations set by the world outside of the story. But then V morphs into a person confronting that life, questions who they want to be, and what it takes to thrive in Night City when you hit the main narratives. That’s why I had a positive experience. And that’s why I’ll return to the city and do things differently.

Ironically, Cyberpunk 2077's overall game experience relies on technology to build empathy between the player and the main cast. Yet, the world outside of the main narrative denies that same empathy to the denizens and factions it populates Night City with. If the platform you’re playing on can’t effectively utilize the demanding Red Engine developed for Cyberpunk 2077, the most likely outcome is an experience devoid of the only substantive thing it has to offer.

[doomedandstoned]

Southern Sludge Acolytes Midmourner Talk Roots, Drop New Sounds from Cavity Split

~Interview by Shawn Gibson~

Foreword by Billy Goate

It's been just a few years since I encountered MIDMOURNER at a show. The southern sludge band from Birmingham, Alabama was making a rare West Coast appearance and stopped in Eugene, Oregon to play an all ages venue called The Boreal (which sadly has since closed its doors). I was on hand with my trusty camcorder to capture the action and the sound turned out so well that the band issued it as a live album. For all the savagery of their music (and when you're standing right in front, just feet away, it is quite frightening, believe you me), I found the guys to be quite friendly -- reminding me of the fabled southern hospitality I missed most when I lived in the Bible Belt as a kiddo.

Since that encounter, Midmourner has been busy, most recently issuing a split with the band Cavity. Doomed & Stoned is proud to debut the song "When Knives Still Drove Conversation" from the Midmourner side of the record and, to accompany your listening, we've got an in-depth interview conducted by Shawn Gibson, who has made it something of a mission to document the unsung heroes in the underground sludge metal scene. Here, he speaks with fiery vocalist Shane Geoge and guitarist Bobbie Harris and they take an unexpected turn into the history of the punk scene in the southern states. A fascinating conversation in deed. Enjoy it while you soak in Midmourner's new track, "When Knives Still Drove Conversation."

Give ear...

An Interivew with Midmourner

Shane: Have you got a punk background? Because we do.

The first shows I went to were punk and hardcore shows in high school. That would be early to mid-nineties.

Shane: Beautiful, beautiful.

In school I listened to The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Exploited, Charged, G.B.H...

Shane: Oh, my god!

Misfits, Minor Threat, Day Glo Abortions. I told Billy Goate I love sludge and heavier doom just because it's some of the fucking heaviest styles of music.

Shane: I'm glad you can appreciate it. That's the thing, is people classify us as doom. All of us come from punk backgrounds. I think we hit our limit. Punks discovering metal. We add the heavy element to it. You've got to have the punk background, man. That's what differentiates between doom and sludge. I think that's why I gravitated towards sludge. It still has that "fuck you!" attitude. There is a lot of professionalism in doom that I can't subscribe to, you know?

Bobby Harris: It has a lot of punk D.I.Y vibe to it.

Shane: Exactly.

Bobby: You got old punk rockers who grew their hair long and have beards playing sludge. They dig the doom stuff. It's so metal and we are not metal. It's a little metal, more punk. We grew up in Birmingham Alabama punk scene. We'd go watch Cavity in the early nineties. I didn't know about sludge until I saw Cavity. Have you heard of ATP?

Alabama Thunder Pussy? Oh, yeah, I've seen 'em! Dude, I took my Mom to that show! She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and wanted me to go to The Grand Ole Oprey. "No problem, mom, you have to come with me to a GWAR show." I was not going to tell her about the fluids!

Shane: Everybody must see GWAR before they die!

We were in Charleston, South Carolina. She was in town and Clutch, Alabama Thunder Pussy, and Suplecs played at the Music Farm. I said, "Mom, we got to go to this" and she did. She always jokes, "What was the name of that band we saw?" "Alabama Thunder Pussy, mom!" We laugh.

Shane: All that comes back to Kilara. Eric from ATP played drums. There was also the drummer from Avail, which was the greatest punk band that ever fucking existed, in my opinion. We went to a show, Kilara and Cavity inside a record store one night. Dude! Blew the fucking roof off the place! I don't know if your into Cavity or not?

I have heard of them. I haven't heard their music yet. I'll check em out.

Shane: You need to check em out!

Bobby: Without Cavity, I wouldn't be doing this right now. That's how much Cavity had an effect on me as a kid. That made me realize there was more beyond punk rock. It was more pissed off than punk! How can you be more pissed off than punk?

I'd say punk's pretty pissed!

Shane: Midmourner is Cavity plus Grief. That is Midmourner. That's it right there, man.

Bobby: It's a big fascination with Cavity. It's a big fascination with Grief. Cavity has that pissed off, fast, aggressive sound. Grief has that crushing heavy sound, you know? Together that's what we dig.

Shane: That is why we are tickled fucking pink knowing that next year we are going to play with Come To Grief!

Bobby: This is going to be a dream come true! I've been a fan since 'Disrupt,' man!

Shane: That's definitely a bucket list check, you know? We've got Carl, the merch guy from Come To Grief, with us.

Yeah, I talked to him when I was getting some Midmourner shirts from the table. Good guy!

Bobby: He's awesome!

Adorned in Fear and Error by Midmourner

Shane: So who is your favorite sludge band? Let's hear it!

There's a really good sludge band from Tulsa, Oklahoma I love, Senior Fellows. What's up, James!

Shane: Never heard of 'em.

Bobby: I've heard of 'em.

Shane: Good shit?

Dude go check them out on Bandcamp. 'Ecclesiastical Servitude' (2013) is my favorite album, their first. Very bitter, very dry. Heavy! I think Carl and I were talking about "No Cross and No Crown" attitude and ethos. One of their slogans is "Religion Mandates Oppression." Very pissed off!

Shane: I could see that.

I would say Midmourner is some badass sludge that annihilates. Glad to see you guys live and rip it up!

Shane: What did you think of it? We are interviewing you. How about that?

Uh, wow. First time. Usually the other way around. (laughs)

Shane: We are interested in what you think. How did you get into this, ya know? That's what I'm interested in.

I got into this because I love music! I will always do this. I will always share music that I like and know other people that would love to hear the same music. Music brings us together for a small moment. We are part of a family in this musical scene and I want the world to take notice.

Shane: Beautiful thing. Beautiful thing.

It still feels like a scene for me. I caught the ass-end of tape trading, but I love it and want to keep some that going. Now it's digital. You share music all day, anywhere!

You are going back home and wrap up this tour real soon. You were at St. Vitus bar in New York, as well as Charleston and Birmingham. It is a small world! When you meet people and you go on tour next year with Come To Grief: "Holy fuck, Midmourner! I love you guys, man!" Someone will say that to you guys and they will be stoked to see you live.

Shane: We are definitely going to remember you.

The comradery. I don't think you have this much of a family with other styles of music.

Shane: People don't give a shit, man.

I love meeting people and making new connections. Meeting people that you'll keep in touch with for a long time, if not forever.

Bobby: It's getting to know people on a personal level.

Shane: That's the fun of this whole thing.

It's intimate. It's a bond that some people don't understand.

Bobby: Unfortunately, they don't. I don't get it.

Shane: Keep it small. Keep it underground.

(Billy Luttrell of Hexxus sits down and rolls a cigarette.)

Billy: I'm not interrupting, am I?

No not all. Join us.

Shane: We were talking about influences of Midmourner.

Billy: Molehill.

Shane: I don't know if you know Molehill.

No.

Shane: Sludge pioneers from 2000? '97 to 2000-something.

Billy: '98 to 2002.

Shane: That was the beginning of this. Me and Billy, who is our fill-in guy, we've been friends for thirty fucking years! We did a band called Molehill. We raised a few eyebrows. If you go back and look, you can find it on Bandcamp. Matt, who passed away, and Sonny, the guy taking pictures -- he played bass in Molehill. Now I'm 44 and still doing this shit. It's ridiculous. It's for the love of fucking music, man! That's why it pumps our nads to meet people like you, you know? Who enjoy listening to this shit!

I'm excited to listen to it, to be able to discover new heavy bands or obscure heavy bands that are definitely underground.

Bobby: Oh, we're definitely underground! (laughs)

That's why I'm glad to meet you, shake your hands, hear and feel your music live. We've been talking prior to this show about meeting up, being able to grab an interview in person, and especially grab some merch.

Shane: That is the most meaningful shit.

I've shared this show tonight for awhile now, psyched to finally be here.

Bobby: It was cool because I did know you from Facebook.

Shane: He said your name, I was like I know that fucking guy! Are you friends with Billy on there?

Uh...

Shane: Billy plays in Hexxus. Man I'm promoting all your shit today! He cut in three weeks before we were going to leave. We were going to cancel this shit! He came in and said, "Let's fucking do this, man."

Wow! Love to hear about stuff like that.

Billy: You don't have to twist my nipples to make me go on tour! (laughs) I do a lot of fill-in stuff because I'm self-employed. I can leave anytime. I do stuff in friends' bands. They hit me up two to three weeks before the tour and Bobby was like, "Can you fill in for this tour"? "Shit, bro. When do we practice? Let's go!"

I'm glad you did! I'm glad you guys trekked forward.

Shane: It's been a blast! This is the last night. I could go another six months, maybe.

Bobby: No! (laughs) You've run out of Molehill money!(laughs) He was homesick before he got to Ohio! (laughs)

Shane: I'm ready to see the wife. I'm excited! It's cool to be talking to Doomed and Stoned again, man! That's cool!

Yeah!

Shane: We were hoping that wasn't a one of a kind of thing.

Not if I have anything to do with it. I would like to keep in touch with you guys. I'd love to share or promote anything I can for you guys. Next year when your on tour with Come To Grief -- holy fuck!

Bobby: We are going to have a new album come out with Matt [Heath] on bass.

Shane: We have a CD coming out eventually. Excited! We were able to keep all bass lines and bass recordings. That was cool as shit. I am looking forward to that! Doing what the fuck ever! Try to have fun!

That's what it's all about, having fun. Life is too short.

Shane: Oh, exactly!

Live at The Boreal , Eugene, Oregon by Midmourner

You guys are from Birmingham? So Roll Tide?

Shane: Absolutely, man!

I'm from South Carolina, so I'm a Clemson fan!

Shane: Uggghhh, sorry man! (laughs)

I player hate on Alabama big time! I give em respect them even though Nick Saban is the devil (laughs)

Shane: I got to give it to you guys, you took it one year.

Renfrow sneakin in there! Whew!

Shane: Tua is the shit man! We're proud, man! It was good to almost see Clemson get beat by Syracuse again.

I was nervous as shit! They pulled it out. Lawrence had a concussion, Brice and the Tigers did it.

Shane: I'm kinda worried about LSU just a little bit.

I saw they beat Miami.

Shane: They beat Auburn, too. I think Georgia is going to fall.

On that note, I'm good with what I have from you guys. Is there anything else?

Shane: Find Midmourner on Bandcamp! Find the latest shit. We have a new CD coming out. We have a 10" split with Cavity coming up. Very fucking excited about that. They are personal heroes of ours! Somebody is putting out the new album on vinyl in Europe, so we will have a vinyl release which is fucking awesome! We are looking forward to the Coming To Grief tour. We got to find a bass player. If you know anybody that's interested. (laughs) Have the gear and the drive to do this shit and we can talk! It was fucking great talking to you, man.

Yes!

Shane: We appreciate it. We love Doomed And Stoned! Fucking cool man!

Bobby: Thanks for coming out!

Shane it was nice to meet you and finally see you guys live!

Shane: Very nice to meet you, too! It's nice to see the actual face behind the posts on Facebook. We have nothing but good things to say about Doomed And Stoned and Shawn Gibson!(laughs)

I've got nothing but nice things to say about Midmourner!

Shane: Thank you very much! It means so much more than people realize! You know, it keeps you going. Unfortunately, the post-tour depression begins now. We are going to get back out there and slug it out!

Hell, yeah!

Shane: Hopefully get back here. That's about it, appreciate the hell out of it!

Thanks again!

Shane: Thank you man! Doomed And Stoned all the way! There's Billy packing cigarettes! (laughs)

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[headlesssamurai]

Have you seen Altered Carbon? If so, what do to think of it?

Alright, I finally bucked up enough courage to do another honest, non-sarcastic, write-up for a piece of media. Just been somewhat bitterly reluctant to voice my true opinions on fiction, or anything else really, since it seems like lots of folks are quite intensely engaged in violent uproars of one kind or another. No need to add more noise to the feedback loop, if you know what I mean.

But you’re, like, one of a dozen or so dudes who asked me about this series. So I reckoned I’d write it up for you, it being such a popular subject and all. I’d also like to thank you for your curiosity. It’s pretty damn humbling to know anybody cares enough about what I think to even ask after my thoughts. I’ll make sure to offer a notary warning before I spill any spoilers.

I became acquainted with Richard K. Morgan’s Kovacs-verse a few years back, but accidentally read one of the protagonist’s later adventures before backtracking to the original novel. I found it to be a respectably well-written futuristic detective story in the grand tradition of vintage writers like Robert B. Parker, even if including the predictably pornographic sex scenes in the grand tradition of modern urban sci-fi/fantasy writers like Laurell K. Hamilton (maybe the ‘K’ middle initial is a code for graphic sex content). In preparation for watching the new Netflix series, I re-read Morgan’s Altered Carbon to refresh my knowledge of the future he created.

Now, I’d like to say I’m a prolific reader of novelized fiction and other books, but I’m not one of those “hardcore” purists who always cries “the book was better” while pounding my fist on the podium. Thus in my effort to avoid any such farcical nonsense, I’m going to sort of examine both the book and the Netflix series of Altered Carbon at once, and write about what I enjoy and dislike about both versions, instead of directly comparing them.

I’ve grown so cynical with modern film and TV, I tend to unintentionally generate lists of what I think they’ll change about a book’s story once they adapt it, and what they’ll add and leave out. Usually, these lists are fairly accurate. Game of Thrones, for instance: how depressing it is to be absolutely correct some times. Not that the books were much better, but a pinecone up the ass doesn’t make a kick in the nuts feel any better.

A lot of people would describe Altered Carbon as having cyberpunk vibes, and this is true, but I believe it fits more comfortably into the realm of biopunk than anything else. If you’re not familiar with the concepts herein, Altered Carbon involves a distant future in which humanity has colonized the stars over many generations using sleeper ships, and with a little help from recovered alien star-maps, but has not achieved faster-than-light interstellar travel. The central technology in this universe is the cortical stack, a type of neural backup which allows a person’s consciousness to be digitally stored in a “disc” and uploaded into a new body if they die.

The new bodies are referred to as sleeves, and the filthy rich clone themselves so their sleeves are all identical and genetically enhanced, but most common folk have to accept whatever body is available or is covered by their insurance, or even a synthetic sleeve (which in the novel is a cheap and distasteful thing, but in the series synthetics seem to have superpowers). People can only travel quickly to other star systems in the settled worlds (known as the Protectorate) by transmitting their stored consciousness into another cortical stack on their planet of destination and uploading into a new sleeve there (a process called needlecasting), but physically transporting anything still takes a really long time for ships to travel across the vast distance of space.

Straight out of the gate, this concept does not appeal to me at all. If there’s anything that drains your story of tension and thrills, it’s got to be the idea that everyone lives forever. The way the universe is constructed however, it ends up making the story far more interesting than what I had anticipated. Not everyone can afford to live forever, first of all, since re-sleeving can be an extremely expensive undertaking, and even those who have the money rarely feel the desire to live more than two lifetimes. Additionally there are complications which can arise, such as personality fragging, a type of insanity which occurs when a person is sleeved in one too many different bodies throughout their life.

Certain religious groups also vehemently resist re-sleeving, and for law enforcement various lengthy sentences of storage without the possibility to re-sleeve are the primary means of punishment for most crimes. There are even interesting concepts like criminals who copy their consciousness into several cortical stacks at once, making them difficult to apprehend once and for all. Other criminals and intelligence operatives also utilize virtuality to torture people in a digital environment, allowing them to subject victims to days or even months of agony which equates to only a few hours in real-time. Real death can also still occur, if the individual’s cortical stack is badly damaged or destroyed.

The actual plot involves a former soldier named Takeshi Kovacs, who is paroled early from a criminal sentence and re-sleeved by a rich tycoon who offers to exonerate Kovacs of his crimes if he can solve a murder. While reluctant to work for some rich asshole, Kovacs is almost instantly attacked by mercenaries which makes him curious enough to take the case. Kovacs then works to investigate the purported crime while getting himself into a bit of trouble with the locals, and trying to deal with extreme trauma from his combat experiences.

It’s surprising that in the case of Altered Carbon I was entirely incorrect in everything I thought the producers might add/change/amputate from the original story. I also could not have predicted what they decided to add and how they decided to change certain elements from the story of Morgan’s novel. I believe the series they crafted from his story is competently scripted, very well cast, doesn’t waste too much time with any silly subplots, and is generally a well-paced, adult-themed sci-fi story. Altered Carbon really wants to take itself seriously, in the same vein as things like SyFy’s praiseworthy diamond The Expanse, but its unique setting gets a little too bogged down in conventional tropes for my liking. Gratuitous T&A (as well as other, less commonly exploited extremities) and generous helpings of the fuck-words do not an edgy and intense sci-fi experience make. Good but not great, would be my general assessment of the series.

Don’t get me wrong here, Altered Carbon is plenty intense, even thrilling at certain points, but a somewhat bland smattering of writers and directors, thrown into the recipe with a few others who are brilliant geniuses, create a mixed bag of stylistic choices which don’t always fit together very well. So you’re often left with an unusually faithful adaptation of a badass novel, wonderfully enhanced in certain aspects, but grotesquely mutated in others, and some of the conflicting storytelling elements feel hurriedly stitched together. A Patchwork Man of a story, rather than prime quality tank flesh. None of Altered Carbon’s flaws are crippling however, and all-told I’d say the series is eminently watchable and very worth your while if you enjoy futuristic sci-fi stories.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead.

First the good news. This series stars an extremely talented cast of performers who own their roles with wonderful conviction, and very convincing poise.

Joel Kinnaman has been on my good side since he appeared in The Killing, and even his unfortunate role in the Robocop reboot didn’t water down my appreciation for him. I feel like his role as the newly sleeved Takeshi Kovacs was perfectly cast. Martha Higareda is just a little too cute to be such a badass, but she winds up playing Detective Ortega to that strong female archetype in a far less sensational and much more casual way than what you might expect from the modern trends of scripting for such characters. Though quite the opposite of Higareda in terms of the role she plays, Renée Elise Goldsberry brims with charisma as Quellcrist Falconer, a sort of futuristic Che Guevara if he had also practiced Zen and gong fu, and was a woman. Chris Collins is also incredibly memorable as Kovacs’ A.I. hotel manager Poe.

Ato Essandoh as Vernon Elliott became one of my favorite characters as the series goes on, and though I wasn’t totally sold on the arc of her character Hayley Law as Elliott’s daughter Lizzie completed a very nice trifecta of beautiful lead women who just happen to be racially diverse. The third of these ladies, of course, is Dichen Lachman who I’ve got to say delivers probably the most convincing and most nuanced performance in the entire series, having to run a wild labyrinth of different emotional expressions which all feel very genuine. As was the case with Sylvia Hoeks as Luv in Blade Runner: 2049, Dichen Lachman as Rei hooked me instantly and woudn’t let go. Maybe I just got a thing for sociopathic women or something.

There are also a few minor roles worth mentioning, Marlene Forte does a great job as the overbearing mother of detective Ortega, which again felt very genuine and not forced, Tamara Taylor as ambitious sleazy attorney Oumou Prescott gave me chills with her smug smile (again perfect casting), Kristin Lehman and James Purefoy seem a perfectly matched pair of megalomaniacs, Byron Mann and Will Yun Lee kick ass portraying Kovacs at very different stages of his troubled life, and there is some terrifically believable acting on the parts of child actors Morgan Gao and Riley Lai Nelet.

All that being said, not everything the actors are given to do is particularly well-written, in my humble opinion.

Takeshi Kovacs is something called an Envoy, a type of specially trained soldier who is mentally conditioned to be hyper-aware at all times, integrate and adapt to new environments and circumstances, and even manipulate his own bodily chemistry, allowing him to eliminate the pain threshold, instantly recover from debilitating drugs, and avoid lingering trauma from torture. The Envoys were created to help the Protectorate put-down political dissidents and rebels, which were running rampant throughout the settled worlds at the time of the Envoy Program’s inception. Many of these rebels often followed the outlawed “Quellist” writings of an infamously respected revolutionary leader called Quellcrist Falconer who fought, and lost, against the Protectorate hundreds of years before the time of the novel (and long before Kovacs was born). When she was born, Quellcrist Falconer, like Kovacs, also happened to be from Harlan’s World. In the novel, this reputation causes Harlan’s World to be viewed as a backwater source of rogues and misfits by citizens of more civilized worlds (which is fair, since it’s described by Kovacs as being overrun by crime syndicates and swamp gangs). But even compared to Harlan’s World, Earth is considered a polluted over-populated shit hole.

In the novel he was trained by the somewhat fascist forces of the Protectorate, and the Envoy Corps was an elite black ops group who could be transmitted to any planet and topple the regime in less time than it would take a massive army to win a single battle. In the series, Kovacs is just a random soldier burn during the time of the Quellist revolution, but Envoys were created and trained by revolutionary leader Quellcrist Falconer to combat the very fascist forces of the Protectorate, whom were too used to conventional warfare to properly adapt to Quell’s asymmetrical tactics.

The problem for me, with this particular change in the writing, is that much of the details have been glossed over. I never got a sense of how Quell was able to so efficiently condition her soldiers into such a formidable force, nor did her portrayal emphasize her military acumen in this manner very convincingly. Quell’s character is certainly charismatic and sympathetic to the audience, but I find it much easier to accept that Envoys are the product of sociopathic, strict, and brutal military conditioning than to grasp the concept that a fairly undisciplined group of freedom fighters were able to develop such a sophisticated method of training. If Quell’s rebels were portrayed differently, it might be easier to accept, but in the series they seem more like hippies with guns than hardened elite warriors.

This is one of my only major gripes with the series as a whole, and it wouldn’t even be that big of a deal to me if it didn’t play such a large role in the plot and arc of Kovacs as a character. I didn’t like the way it changed his backstory either.

See, in the novel Kovacs is a former Envoy turned career criminal since Envoys are generally feared by everyone despite their having fought for the Protectorate, so they don’t have a lot of options and their skillset is only useful in a limited context. He’s haunted by his combat experiences, regrets his role in assisting the government in putting down various rebels, and has a cultural misunderstanding of Earth because he’s from Harlan’s World. His criminal ventures could be seen as his own personal revolution, and Kovacs has spent about a century in and out of storage since leaving the military, but has only been consciously alive for about forty years. He isn’t portrayed as a morally centered person, but he has his own system of honor, and he selfishly accepts Laurens Bancroft’s offer because it’s a way out of a lengthy sentence. This gives him a nice arc, because he slowly becomes more morally invested in what he’s doing as certain things come to light, and ultimately risks it all toward the end basically to avenge the death of a prostitute and save a single life, which is a nice shift in contrast from the Kovacs we see leave storage at the start of the book.

In the series Kovacs is a lovesick puppy dog, who misses his one true love. He’s a former Quell revolutionary who also became a career criminal, but the moment he got caught they put him in storage indefinitely, because he’s the last of the Envoys, the rest of which were mercilessly butchered by stormtroopers from the evil Protectorate which has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. When the series begins, he awakens 250 years after he was captured and he finds that the galaxy has become what he always feared, a one-percenter’s paradise ruled by the rich, where the poor are exploited and marginalized and everyone with even the slightest sense of prominence is an irredeemable asshole. Politics aside, this change makes his character arc far less interesting to me, because he doesn’t want to help Bancroft but his reluctance comes from a very different place than the book, and ultimately Kovacs accepts the offer not out of selfishness but because the ghost of his dead girlfriend tells him to.

This also deeply conflicts with the first time we’re introduced to Kovacs, in his usual East Asian sleeve on Harlan’s World where he speaks of caring only for “getting paid” and seems like a typical devil-may-care bad boy. Then when he’s talking to Bancroft, he tells the tycoon “Some things can’t be bought. Like me.” So which is it? Do you only care about getting paid, or can you not be bought? This makes for a somewhat confusing characterization of Kovacs, who one minute is murderously avenging himself upon psychotic bio-smugglers and claiming he cares for no one, only to turn around and behave like a typical romantic the next. It isn’t entirely jarring, but for me it hurt the dark tone and mature themes to discover the central core of the series is a centuries-old fairytale love story.

Sorry. I like fairytale love stories. But I also like darkly thematic dystopian science fiction, and in my opinion the two mix about as well as apple liqueur and olive oil.

This is all, however, as I said one off my only major gripes about the series. And even the sum of its parts aren’t badly executed. Like I said, Quell is charismatic, Kovacs is haunted, and all three actors (Kinnaman, Goldsberry, and Kim as Kovacs in his original sleeve) deliver convincing performances as well as share a great sense of chemistry, so the love story is believable at least. Visual effects and set design are also wonderful, and for such a high concept sci-fi setting it all feels very seamless. Dialogue is well-scripted as well, and most of Poe’s interactions with other characters are some of the best scenes. It’s also nice to see a series that exploits the naked female form to a fault, yet also makes a point to ensure you get just as much if not far more male nudity to surprisingly counterpoint its shamelessness. I haven’t seen this many swinging dicks since the last time I read YouTube comments. Just makes you feel better when the characters finally ride the stuffed unicorn, know what I mean?

Many of the minor roles from the novel are also modified to make certain characters more important, and some of their roles have been altered so that they are completely different people. Some of these changes work better than others. Rei, as Tak’s sister rather than just some asshole crime boss he once knew, was a change in the story that had the reverse effect of how I felt about the altered Kovacs/Envoy backstory. It makes Reileen a more interesting character than just the Big Bad you might expect in such a story, and causes her motivations, maniacal as they remain, to be far more empathic and invested in the events of the plot. In that light, they made the villain stand out as memorable among the bland villains we often get in movies and TV shows now, thanks to the K-Mart quality antagonists so popularized by the Marvel movies.

While certainly not perfect, Altered Carbon still manages to offer fans of science fiction a fascinating world populated by characters who are easy to give a damn about, and a galaxy spanning story of heartbreak, betrayal, and retribution. I personally wasn’t that big a fan of the romantic warrior monk stuff in this particular story, but that doesn’t mean it won’t appeal to others. There’s enough mystery here to keep you guessing, and enough solid dramatic force to keep us wanting more on its own merits, not by virtue of any stupid cliffhangers. Much of the visual style and action sequences are just icing on the cake, really. Though, I confess, I almost jizzed my pants when I got to see the Phillips Squeeze Gun in action. And there’s nothing quite like one of those sci-fi stories where someone picks up a samurai sword, let alone during the finale.

All told, I’d watch Altered Carbon again, and you should too. Regardless of whatever I say, or my own personal preferences, it deserves your attention. Because it may be adapted from a novel, but a least it’s trying to be something different than most of what’s out there right now, even if its poetic love story doesn’t want it to be. So, ignore cynical bastards like me, watch the damn show and decide for yourself.

                    侍    headless                   

[nintendotreehouse]

Dragon Quest-ions Answered: Fujimoto-san Talks Dragon Quest Builders

Hi hi, everyone! Theresa from Treehouse here. Hope you’re still having fun saving the world of Alefgard, and keeping it out of the Dragonlord’s clutches.

With all of these sconces and braziers, you could say I have a thing for fire…

The Dragon Quest series is a powerful force in the world of Japanese RPGs, and Square Enix has quite literally rebuilt the experience from the ground up, creating something exciting for fans and newcomers alike. As for me, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of working with them leading into the launch of Dragon Quest Builders on Nintendo Switch, and as a fan of the game myself, I took a moment to ask the game’s producer some burning questions…

Theresa:

This game takes place in the world of Alefgard—the setting of the very first game in the Dragon Quest series. Why did your team decide to return to this important location in the Dragon Quest franchise?

Fujimoto-san:

We felt the objectives and setting of the game would be intuitive if the world from the first Dragon Quest had fallen into ruin, and you were tasked with recreating it as you saw fit.

The final boss of the first Dragon Quest, Dragonlord, has a famous line, “I give thee now a chance to share this world and to rule half of it if thou will now stand beside me.”

If you answered “Yes,” the world would fall into darkness. Game over. But Dragon Quest Builders takes that world clad in darkness and allows you to rebuild it as you see fit. This game challenged us to create an alternative, hypothetical world, one that progressed differently in important ways.

Also, we used graph paper when we were creating the 2D pixel tiles of Alefgard’s geography in the original Dragon Quest game. So, in a way, Dragon Quest Builders revives the original game world with both 2D and 3D blocks, and we hope everyone will play this reborn vision of Dragon Quest.

It’s difficult to pull off that look and look regal in an evil throne room.

Theresa:

The cities you rebuild, like Cantlin, are from the first Dragon Quest game as well. How did the development team go about choosing which specific cities players would get to rebuild?

Fujimoto-san:

We had an idea to reverse the order in which players visited cities throughout the original Dragon Quest story. The flow we ultimately chose starts the player out near the Dragonlord’s castle, sending them off to rebuild surrounding cities and finally revive Tantegel Castle, the starting area of Dragon Quest, only to return to the Dragonlord’s castle across the sea.

Theresa:

On the subject of building, this is a pretty significant step away from Dragon Quest’s traditional gameplay style. Why did you decide to reimagine an established RPG franchise as a building game?

Fujimoto-san:

The Dragon Quest numbered series continues to be created in the tradition of classic RPGs in which the hero saves the kingdom. While we use those traditional RPG elements as the focal point for non-numbered Dragon Quest games as well, we also use those titles to experiment with other ways to play in the Dragon Quest world.

With Dragon Quest Builders, we sought to create a play experience that had never been accomplished before—a marriage of Dragon Quest RPG elements and sandbox elements that lets you freely create things.

Sandbox-style games are not something that most Japanese players are deeply familiar with, and we developed Dragon Quest Builders with this in mind.

My immediate reaction to anything that was once dead and comes back to life. *insert repeated attack button presses*

Theresa:

Looking at this game, some people might think that it’s simply a building experience, but there’s actually a really engaging story here too. Can you please tell us more about how this story was developed, and how the building elements were integrated into it?

Fujimoto-san:

From the very beginning, we decided that the overall story would be about getting caught up in the Dragonlord’s trap at the end of the first Dragon Quest game, having the world fall to ruin, and then reconstructing the world. But we knew that charting out the plot and the building gameplay elements simultaneously would result in a half-baked, non-cohesive game. So, instead, we focused on designing the gameplay first, basing the mechanics on what we wanted the user to create at various points and what tools they would use to accomplish these builds. That way, even just the simple act of playing is fun and highly motivating. Finally, we then thought up details of the plot that would work well with these mechanics as we fine-tuned the gameplay.

The goddess has spoke-eth—I shall rebuild this land and claim it my own! …Err, fine, I’ll claim it for the people, I guess.

Theresa:

Since the game’s original release, how have you seen new players, as well as Dragon Quest fans, react to this “classic RPG-meets-builder" style of gameplay?

Fujimoto-san:

It feels like we’ve allowed Dragon Quest fans who haven’t played a sandbox style of game to easily discover the fun of this play style through this carefully crafted mix of RPG and sandbox elements.

This is the same type of reaction we received when the first Dragon Quest game expanded the appeal of the RPG genre in Japan 30 years ago.

Theresa:

Since Dragon Quest is such a long-running series, there was a lot of deep lore for the development team to draw upon while working on this game. What is your favorite surprise or Easter egg hidden away for fans to find?

Fujimoto-san:

There’s a lamp that you’ll need certain building material to craft. If you make this lamp and place it in a room, some sort of change will happen to the villagers. In Dragon Quest, this is a household element and one minor, fun item.

The Slime with the little beanie hat is my personal favorite throwback in this room. Super cute!  

Theresa:

While knowing Dragon Quest lore certainly adds to the experience, players don’t need to have played previous Dragon Quest games in order to follow what’s going on and enjoy it. How did the development team ensure that this game would be so accessible for new players?

Fujimoto-san:

For Dragon Quest itself, the game designer, Mr. Horii, always chooses mechanics that the player can instinctively understand, and puts his heart into creating something that anyone can relax and play without having to look at the manual. When Mr. Horii playtests a game still under development, he always plays it as if he was a brand-new player. Then we revise all the stumbling points.

Dragon Quest Builders was developed with similar tests in mind, ensuring that even those with no knowledge of the Dragon Quest series can freely enjoy the game.

Theresa:

It’s an interesting design choice to have the player start each chapter from what is essentially square one, as they teleport to the next town with the most basic equipment and no access to their previous materials and constructions. What made the development team decide to structure the game in this way?

Fujimoto-san:

Actually, the initial plan was not to split the game into standalone chapters, but rather to have everything connect in one overarching flow. But during the development process, the director, Mr. Niinou, suggested that we make a big shift in this plan. He proposed that we split the story into more distinct chapters to address a problem that occurred when all of the pieces of the narrative were more interconnected.

To illustrate this problem, imagine that you’ve just rebuilt the town of Cantlin and moved on to the next area. If you’re still able to access the location you’ve completed, then collecting the resources you need for the work ahead will be a very simple task. And there goes the challenge of the game! We realized that it would be too easy of an exploit to harvest new materials by continuing to build up Cantlin throughout the game. For this reason, we changed direction and split the story experience into chapters, so that the player would be able to create each area with a refreshed outlook.

In making this change, there was a concern that you wouldn’t be able to revisit your experiences from chapters you already played*. So, we designed it so that, as the chapters unfold, some sort of progression occurs. It’s a spoiler, so I won’t say any more than that… (laughs).

*Spoiler-Free Note from Theresa: Discovering fun details in Story Mode is really fulfilling! Normally, sleeping in a game is a simple act to restore health, but in this game, there’s something more to uncover. Also, after completing a chapter in Story Mode, you’re able to unlock similar areas within Terra Incognita, so you can gather and build things that you’ve encountered previously.

There’s a satisfying feeling in creating so many things, and that over time, you’re able to build better and more complex creations. And in doing so, you feel this nice progression for your skills in the game, which sets you up for the ultimate challenge near the end.  

I hear the next town’s gonna be a real fixer upper…

Theresa:

Fair enough! (laughs) Let’s change topics, then… This game features music from a wide selection of Dragon Quest games. How did the team decide which tracks to include?

Fujimoto-san:

Well, to start, since the game is set in the world of Alefgard from the original Dragon Quest, we created arrangements of all of that title’s music. From there, since the game was developed with creation at its core, we pulled in songs from the numbered series that are relaxing. And for the emotional story scenes, we used stirring music from across the series.

Theresa:

What was the thought process behind adding the Great Sabrecub and Dragon Quest Game Pak as exclusives for the Nintendo Switch version?

Fujimoto-san:

Terra Incognita (free-build mode) is a vast land, so we thought it would be fun to enhance the player’s ability to move about quickly, take down monsters, and gather materials. That’s where the Great Sabrecub mount came in.

In Dragon Quest, the Great Sabrecat often appears as a mount, but in Dragon Quest Builders, its head didn’t look quite right, so we decided to use the cute Great Sabrecub for the first time.

We also have completely recreated the look of the original Dragon Quest game’s cartridge on the Famicom. We had an idea of placing it in the land of Dragon Quest Builders, and from there, thought about the possibility of creating retro Dragon Quest themed blocks and objects.

Pouncy! Pouncy! Pouncy!

Theresa:

As a follow-up question, can you tell us more about why the development team decided to make this exclusive content only accessible in Terra Incognita?

Fujimoto-san:

If you use them in the story mode, it breaks the balance of the game. Since strange blocks and objects exist in the landscape of Terra Incognita, we made sure the exclusive content was only usable there.

Theresa:

Thank you so much for your time today! As we wrap up here, do you have anything else you’d like to say to the fans?

Fujimoto-san:

We’d love it if you used the in-game feature to upload the cities and landscapes you’ve created in Terra Incognita. We are very interested in seeing what sort of world you have created in Dragon Quest Builders. I’m sure there are those who have beautifully revived the cities, or others who’ve completely destroyed their world’s mountains and cities and everything... (laughs)

We are working hard to develop Dragon Quest Builders 2, so we hope you are looking forward to it.

Also, for those of you who haven’t played Dragon Quest Builders yet, please go try the demo.

Ever feel like your day is just taking you around in circles?

Theresa:

Thank you so much to Fujimoto-san and the rest of the team at Square Enix for providing us some of the gritty details behind the development of Dragon Quest Builders. For me, this game has been a great intro piece to the Dragon Quest franchise and a comfortable gateway into building-style games. I hope you all get to experience it and share your stories—as well as your building masterpieces!

That’s it from me for now. Tune in next time, fellow gamers! ^^

—Theresa A.

[tiridesignstorytelling]

Week 11/12- Blog Reflection

Within these final weeks of class we had short check-ins within the allocated workshop time with Anna and worked on polishing of our WIX Website. We used this time to gain feedback and make adjustments to our layout/ formatting of our website, add in credits and our visualisation, proof read and adjust texts to all be the same consistent font throughout. We worked together to bring all the elements needed to make our website structure clear and engaging and ended up finishing and handing in our group assessment well ahead of deadline. Here is a link to our final WIX website:

https://tiriri28.wixsite.com/aotearoa-data-bank

Overall reflection of the workshops and future thinking assignment:

Over this semester I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this paper. I have learnt so much about design storytelling and how important it is to help come up with unique, different ideas/designs and convey these to others. I have learnt how to use so many different tools including brainstorming, using a design fiction matrix and futures thinking toolkit which have all been super useful when considering ideas and expanding and further developing them. Through doing this paper I have learnt to delve deep into issues impacting our future which has opened my eyes to some of the big problems we currently face that may have long term impacts for us in the years to come. I really liked that we were able to decide within our group what we wished to focus on in terms of our design challenge, giving us the freedom to choose what we had the biggest interest in. For my group was technology specifically looking at personal information and data. Through completing this assignment I have been able to challenge my thinking, learn new skills and broaden my knowledge which has helped me to envision my groups possible future. As shown through my blogs I have put a considerable amount of time into researching and gathering information about technology (especially privacy and exploitation of personal data) to develop ideas and gain the insight that was needed to imagine and project how the future might look 30 years from now. I have learnt that looking at the past and speculating on the developments that have been made can give a lot of insight into what is possible for the future. A big takeaway I have gathered from this class is the importance of thinking outside the box as a way to come up with very useful, original and unique ideas. Utilising the tools and knowledge I have gained through completing this paper around communicating and developing ideas, could be useful for me in my studies and future career. Doing an Event Management Major, I feel aspects of this paper, especially around how to develop, create, speculate and communicate well through telling a story actually may play a big part in what is required by an event manager in order to create space/environment as well as showcase a theme/idea and show that anything is possible.

Overall reflection of group collaboration and final outcomes:

Overall this has been by far the best group I have had to work with. I found that everyone was very easy going, great at communicating, worked efficiently and that the workload was evenly distributed. We all had great time management and I never felt we were falling behind on the workload. After having some bad experiences with group projects this was actually lovely to experience and I loved how I got to work with people I probably wouldn’t normally work with. They all were super lovely and I felt we each brought our own skills to this collaborative project. With moving online I did find it hard to adjust but our group did exceptionally well despite this, still taking a lot of time to work together to get things completed.

Above is a screenshot of our Miro Board showing all the brainstorming behind the creation and development of our idea.

We used Miro for brainstorming, Teams for weekly calls and Facebook Messenger for any minor communications about the project. I found Miro to be such a great tool, I actually preferred working on this rather than doing the in class sticky note brainstorming that we did prior to transitioning online. All together I found Miro’s platform very easy to use and gather our ideas in one accessible place. We used Teams to call and I found it highly useful to have our own group channel where we could access files and speak to each other/Anna weekly. The only issue we really ran into and struggled with was setting up our website as we had trouble with Spark Page and had to switch to using WIX. This wasn’t ideal as it wouldn’t let us collaborate on the page all together, with it only allowing one person at a time. I feel like this is where it was most difficult and I wished there was another website platform other than these two options that we could have used. Probably the biggest part I didn’t enjoy was making the website, but I feel this was due to all the technical difficulties we faced. If this part was to be done online again I probably would have preferred an alternative option to showcasing our final idea and diegetic prototypes, maybe through creating something like a pamphlet, poster or PowerPoint slide.

Above is a screenshot of our Trello Board showing progress in completion for the assignment.

In terms of keeping track and time management we did set up and use a Trello board, however we didn’t really rely on it as we managed most of the work within the workshop time together. I feel through Facebook Messenger we kept track of how everyone was going so we didn’t feel it was very necessary to use our Trello Board much. However I can see how it would be a very useful tool if say a groups communication and co-operation is lacking, but thankfully this was not the case for us.

Reflection on creating blog:

I think creating these blogs has been a great way to keep myself accountable and up to date with all the class and group work. It has been a great way for me to reflect on what I have learnt in each of the workshops and has given me a place to put down all my ideas, inspiration and information that I have gathered over the 11/12 weeks. It’s nice to be able to look back on my posts and see the development of our design project refining from online privacy to personal data use and exploitation. Having never made a Tumblr blog before it was a whole new site to get my head around but once I did I thoroughly enjoyed writing each of these posts and getting my thoughts out. I definitely prefer creating blogs over set worksheets or other ways to document this whole process. I like that there are a lot of useful online tools and sites that we have learnt to work with whilst doing this paper.

[thisisnotdrbattista-blog]

Essay III: Get Out

For my third critical analysis essay on horror, I chose the contemporary movie, Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele. Horror is a broad spectrum, and the most effective pieces of horror find their success in playing off the insecurities of their audience.  This movie was considered a huge hit in its genre, and has such a unique and captivating story.  Get Out uses race and cultural differences to uncover the social failings of a society and to entertain at the same time. Using references from literary studies on the uncanny, zombies, and much more, this essay is going to take a deeper look into the power of genre and the cultural significance of this movie.

The first connection I was able to make to the coursework when watching this film was the similarity between the Haitian Zombie, and the way that the Armitage’s were able to create their own zombie slaves, if you will, through hypnosis. David Inglis provides a great definition of the zombie in his chapter Putting the Undead to Work: “The fear that is embodied in the Haitian figure of the zombie is not the Euro American one of the dead returning to visit a cannibalistic holocaust on the living, but rather involves dread of the body snatcher –the zombie master- who takes the living body and destroys the soul within it, creating a living dead being who endlessly obeys his will” (p. 42).  I think the term “body snatcher” can be easily applied to the work that the Armitage family was doing.  A perfect example would be the opening scene where the son throws a black man in the trunk of his car, who shows back up later at the garden party, but this time he does not seem to have his soul.  Following the same type of mentality as the witch doctor from White Zombie, the Armitage family is making slaves out of people, through hypnosis and surgery instead of magic, and selling them off as their own labor force.  

Another connection I made after watching the movie was the sunken place (Chris’ hypnotized state) and the subconscious, to Freud’s ideas on the uncanny.  Freud gives an insightful explanation on the relationship between human consciousness and the uncanny: “If this really is the secret nature of the uncanny, we can understand why German usage allows the familiar to switch to its opposite, the uncanny, for this uncanny element is actually nothing new or strange, but something that was long familiar to the psyche and was estranged from it only through being repressed” (pg. 148). Exploiting Chris’ subconscious by bringing up the topic of his mother’s death, she is able to repress the part of his brain that makes him Chris.  After the initial hypnosis, she almost has complete control over him with her teacup. We see throughout the film that these people with someone else in their mind controlling their body and consciousness are brought to the surface when exposed to a camera flash.  Meaning there is some hope for these people that have been turned, but we also see that the man taken over by the grandfather kills himself as soon as he is freed from the distressing situation of living his life as a spectator.

The term used to describe these people once they’ve been hypnotized is the “sunken place.”  Once put in this trance, Chris finds his existence to be as the passenger of his own life, he screams and struggles and gets no result or reaction from the people around him.  The sunken place is meant to represent the oppression of the system, and how minorities find themselves trapped, screaming as hard as they can without being able to get any sort of communication across.  Peele was trying to make a statement about the underrepresentation of black people in the horror genre, and how he was upset with the stereotype of them always being the first ones to die off.  Thinking about the film in that light, Peele really turns the tables around, by not only having the black protagonist survive, but having to murder his way out of the house to freedom.  

To bring this all back to the discussion of cultural significance, Get Out, tells a story of racism to a group of people that think racism is no longer a problem.  So what is it that makes this movie so powerful and such a good medium for a message that a nation desperately needs to hear?  Author Colin Dickey sheds some light on what separates good hauntings and horror from the sheep: “A paranormal event without a story is tenuous, fragile.  What makes it “real,” at least in a sense, is the story, the tale that grounds the event. The sense of the uncanny, of something not-quite-right, of things ever-so-slightly off, cries out for an explanation” (pg. 5).  Dickey explains to us that to deliver a message, especially to todays disconnected population, you have to ground the idea your trying to communicate with something that seems more interesting or entertaining to the masses.  Once you have captured their attention you are able to point out the reality and truth to them, the truth that they refuse to see by looking around.  Even genres of horror like the ghost hunters start off by establishing the history of the buildings they go through, as well as the tragic pasts of the ghosts they are trying to provoke.

Peele does an excellent job in Get Out of building suspense.  By creating those not-quite-right situations, as Dickey put it, he was able to use a realistic character.  Most horror films feature protagonists who are incredibly oblivious and don’t have the sense to pick up the phone and call the cops, or to get in the car and drive away. What is so brilliant about the suspense build up in Get Out, is that nothing too out of the ordinary happens that would make a rational person leave a girl he’s been dating for months, until its too late.

So what dose this movie say about our current situation as a nation? Looking at the bonus features on the film there was a Q&A panel with Jordan Peele and someone asked him about his favorite scene in the movie.  Peele responded, saying that he enjoyed the insecurities revealed in the garden party: “When you have older white people trying to connect with a younger black man the insecurities come out in a weird way.”  Watching the movie, you find out that the whole purpose of the garden party was for these people to evaluate the possibility of buying Chris at the auction, which only adds another theatrical layer to the racist situation on display. Every time Chris meets with a potential buyer they let out some awkward piece of conversation as their way of trying to connect with someone with racial and cultural differences.  All the other black people on the question panel agreed that this scene had a lot of truth behind it, and said that they do have to suffer through situations like this regularly

One of the biggest eye openers for me when I watched this movie is the character Rose.  She is a powerful persuader and a master of lies, and to me, she reveals the most about our culture’s divide when she tries to talk down Chris as a way to prove to him she and her family are not racist.  Rose will go on little tangents with Chris as her audience about her family having black servants, the way he was treated by a cop, or how her family and friends are just “so white.”  Hearing her overcompensate as a way to try and come off as sincere reminded me of the same thing I see on social media every day.  White people will see a video of police brutality on twitter and quote it with some witty caption and think that they have just made peace with the whole black community.  The way they go into great lengths online about civil rights and social responsibility reminded me of the same empty way that Rose would overcompensate so that her cover wouldn’t be blown.  I know that these people’s words are hallow because I spend time with them in real life and know for a fact that they are not actually doing anything to change the current situation, or to give up the privilege they’ve been born with.  

Overall, this movie is a great tribute to its genre and does a great job reflecting national anxieties and problematic attitudes.  Watching this movie again after in class discussions about zombies and Haitian culture, I was able to notice a lot of parallels between Get Out and movies like White Zombie.  A lot of the ideas and theories presented in Freud’s The Uncanny, are revealed in this film.  Peele does a great job of building suspense in this movie while delivering a powerful message at the same time, and I would recommend this movie to any fan of Horror.

Work Cited

“Putting the Undead to Work” David Inglis

“The Uncanny” Sigmund Freud

“Ghostland” Collin Dickey

[themainelylilliancblog]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-explained.html

From Time magazines “ Best Photojournalism of 2019 “ comes this first image, depicting a protester under arrest in Hong Kong. He is an antigovernment protester. There are several wonderful techniques used in this photo that make it a great depiction of the emotions surrounding the events surrounding the Hong Kong protests that had been going on for weeks. The protests were against an unpopular bill , the extradition bill. This bill was feared by protesters because they thought China would exploit the measure to extradite suspects for prosecution in China’s system. Using content identification, we can see that two of the people depicted in the image are police officers, based off of the clothing and gear they are wearing. The protestor is on the ground, sitting cross legged. Using figurative analysis , the stance of the men vs the protestor show a power dynamic, the police are in control while the protestor is being submissive. His facial expression is crucial to the meaning and effect of the photo - a look of defeat tells us that he may feel his efforts were wasted, and now he his freedom has been hindered as he is most likely handcuffed, based on the fact his hands are behind him. Using visual cues, the color and depth of photo makes it seem more dramatic being in black and white. It is possible that the photo may be slightly graphic, since color is often stripped from photos that may show signs of violence to make it more easily viewed by the mass public. The position of the cop farthest to the left makes it seem as if he is questioning the protestor, as his stance is firm and facing him with intent. These cues help to depict how the journey for any protesters ends, in capture.

This photograph shows the french president Emmanual Macron and his wife Brigitte sharing a private moment as the President is wrapping up some work before dinner. I was really intrigued by this photo because in todays world, we see so much negativity in everything. This photo really encapsulates something we need more of : love. The president is sitting at his desk, that seems to be burdened with paperwork and folders. His wife is standing above him, playfully hitting him with a piece of paper. We know this is playful based on the expressional elements. Both of their faces show smiles and laughter, which are also elements of visual movement that add interest and meaning. If their facial expressions/emotions were angry or hurt, we would have a very different perception of the photo. Knowing the context of the image is significant in our understanding, because we know that they are married, and that he is a high profile figure. It is most peoples understanding that a president is under a lot of stress, so this small moment captured of happiness shows that even the most influential people are still human. The photo is once again , in black and white, which gives us a more dramatic effect, focusing on the light and dark hues of the image. The categorical imperative is important here - the photo has a positive effect on the viewer. The smile, the innocence and happiness reminds the viewer that not all photos have to depict sadness, turmoil, or drama .

The above image was taken at Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign announcement in April of last year. The photo shows a crowd of supporters, several holding phones up to take photos, one even holding up a t-shirt that says Pete on it. Politics are a controversial, sensitive, and passionate topic for many people. Using metonymy from the gestalt law, we can understand that the overall feeling from the photo is happiness and hope. Several subjects in the photo are smiling deeply in appreciation. But the main emotion is depicted from the subject in the middle, who is clutching her chest and looking out with deep admiration and positivity. One could infer that she is even crying or tearing up, however due to the rain in the photo it is not entirely easy to decide this. Context is important for this photo. After several years of Trumps presidency that has stripped Americans of rights and hope, Pete was providing support for minorities and areas of life that needed significant improvement for Americans. Being gay , Pete was also a shining light for those who wanted to see more diversity in the presidential election. The images purpose is to provoke a feeling and show insight to the supporters of Pete, and how strongly they feel about him. Personally, I find this photo very powerful, but most importantly hopeful.

In this photo, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller prepares to testify before the House Committee in Washington D.C. The power dynamic in this photo is huge, it shows all the photographers crowded around the table in which Mueller stands, holding the chair with a determined and stern expression looking out at the crowd before him. The photographers give the viewer a sense of claustrophobia and an animalistic sense of awe. The cameras are all pointing intensely , hoping to capture a historic moment. Context is also important to this photo. Mueller was testifying before congress to comment on the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election of Donald Trump This was a highly anticipated event for many in America, and was widely watched on TV. Something interesting about this photo is the anticipation it provokes. This was captured literally seconds before he began, and the amount of cameras show the importance of the event. Something so publicized is usually high stakes.

This last image shows an older man, 65, at his home in Australia. Two elements are very important to note in this image : the television to the left, and the Jack sitting in the chair. The television is our main indicator of context, it’s depicting the weather report, specifically addressing the drought problem in Australia. The caption of the photo tells us that the drought has dramatically affected the sheep stock he has, by half. His stance in the chair is telling. With his head bent down and his hands on his knees, his face looks of true defeat. Farming and survival is hard enough, but with a drought occurring it is even harder to live. The sun is shining into his living room, which further enhances the drought imagery we have in our minds in looking at this photo. Although this is a generally depressing image, since we don’t know the potential fate or outcome of the man, it is a solemn yet beautiful image, with the light hues throughout the photo giving a sense of warm calmness in a situation that is stressful. The purpose of this image is to show the strife that the environment is causing many people in Australia, and really represents how environmental factors significantly affects everyones lives.

[stephaniejuhnay]

Prince On Every Tour: Parade

Alright peoples. It’s been a little bit since the last POET post (heh, I love that the acronym for this series is a real word). I intended to watch and rate my enjoyment today, but last night I somehow ended up watching the entire show. If you happen to be one of the few who pay attention to anything I do here (and I LOVE you for it because honestly, I am a real mess), you’ll know that I also just watched the Detroit ‘86 birthday show at the Cobo Arena while physically in Detroit this past Friday. Two shows in one. With that, here we are. Our next stop(s) on the POET train:

PARADE. DETROIT/STOCKHOLM. JUNE 7/AUGUST 22, 1986. LET’S GET INTO IT.

Overview: Oh Parade Prince. Probably amongst the most infuriating iterations of our beloved Prince. He is so unapologetically arrogant and there is nothing any of us can do about it. He changed up on us in a major way after cutting the PR tour short and putting out ATWIAD so quickly afterwards. 11 months after that, this man has another album AND feature film. Visually, he has forgone the curls that are near and dear to my heart for short, slickback that I cannot argue with. And it might have left some of us confused, shocked, wondering why he would take a complete left when the PR era was still in full swing. It’s because he could. He’d made it to megastardom and afforded him the flexibility he needed to REALLY throw us for some loops. This was the time for him to push the boundaries of his creativity in his music and his visual presentation of himself without too much worry of how it would be received. He already had us, and he knew it. 

Parade Prince is that guy that knows he’s fine, that knows YOU know he’s fine, and will exploit it to no end. Because no matter how much you might protest to his face, the reality is this: the the moment he makes eye contact with you during that particularly rude rendition of Do Me, Baby, you both are fully aware that you will be patiently waiting for him in his limo at the direction of his security guard after the show. Against all better judgments. And he delights in the fact that you (try to) resist him. He loves the conquest, especially when he knows he wins. It’s fine. Let him win. Enjoy the life changing. Cherish it for the rest of your life thereafter.

ESSENTIALLY, that is what the entire Parade era is. Prince having a grand ol' time as he quite literally does whatever he wants with no regard for our sanity. Meanwhile, we just try to pick up the pieces of our life as he continues to ruin it with each new era he ushers in. He’s running around looking like a vision out of a 1940′s noir, giving us new music that is very different but oh so great, throwing hip chains into a crowd of unsuspecting onlookers after what might be the most infuriating performance of Head known to us, and we are expected to deal with it. As if Purple Rain didn’t just take place. And no matter which side of the spectrum we fell on when it came to this new era - utterly opposed or completely on board -  we were still here for it in some way, willingly or begrudgingly. Just like he knew we would.

Prince starts these shows shirtless, so you know you're in for a ride. ATWIAD is GREAT live and a great song to open up with. It set the pace for the rest of the show: fun and full of grooves. And he does not hesitate to get into them. Christopher Tracy’s Parade, New Position, I Wonder U, Raspberry Beret are all in the first 15 minutes. We get songs spanning his entire career up to that point in both shows, and he is well aware of the fact that he has HITS ya understand? 

His confidence has transformed into unabashed cockiness ( *sings* I ain’t go no money - THAT’S A LIE). It’s in the way he moves, the way he sings, the way he plays with the audience, everything. I’m frustrated just sitting here thinking about it all. And yet, here I am, unable to resist the overwhelming charm of Parade Prince. One, because his face. Two, he's earned it if we want to be 100. The boy has put in insane work, and it finally skyrocketed with PR. Now he gets to enjoy it all. He deserves to be gassed. We’ll allow it.

Boyfriend didn't get sloppy or plateau here either when he probably could have gotten away with it. A true professional, after having reached that level of stardom but deciding not to just phone it in or coast. Production value is still great, although less busy than the PR tour. No poles to slide down on, no bathtubs to take a shower of pearls in. Costumes are still great, albeit, again, not as busy as PR. Band is even tighter now with the expanded Revolution. Their sound is more dynamic with the addition of Eric "Sith" Leeds, Atlanta Bliss, and Atlanta's God-awful ponytail. He was playin' tho, so I'll relax about it. They have proven that when it came time to execute on stage, they could handle the constant changes in sound and personnel quite well. But again, testament to his leadership and dedication to excellence. 

Then there is the addition of official dancers in Jerome, Wally, and Greg. I know some may have felt "but why" about them, but man, do they add a really fun element to the show! We have full on routines now folks, and there are few things I love more than to see Prince work it out on stage in a routine. Yes, we saw some minor coordinated steps previously, but we hadn't really had routines. With these three though, we see choreo that gives the show some more life,  Prince being part of some of them (the 1999 album medley in which they did the PR balcony dance to Lady Cab Driver is A+), and even incorporating the band into them. It's a real treat. 

Favorite Number: There are a few numbers I love from this tour. Detroit clearly has some great ones. Controversy/Mutiny is ALWAYS a fave, if not for the fact that they are good songs, then for the dancing during those numbers. Head...for very obvious reasons. It is already a jam, and Prince decides he has to one up himself every time he decides to perform it live. Of the four Parade shows I’ve seen, Detroit’s Head is by far the best. Paris gets an honorable mention though because there is a breath hitch that stopped me cold in my figurative tracks. It was...so authentic. Even if it wasn’t. Life Can Be So Nice was also another jam from the Detroit show, which was a nice surprise for me because it isn’t my fave from Parade. In the end though, I can confidently say that Pop Life is my favorite number from this show. I adore the live arrangement of this song so much. And he is incredibly cute during that performance, so there’s that.  Stockholm’s lineup is very similar to this one. But instead of Mutiny (sad about it), we get 17 Days, which, surprisingly I really enjoyed. 17 Days is one of my favorite songs ever, but it’s one of the few I prefer the studio version over the live version. It’s perfect the way it is, and for some reason, to me, the live versions don’t really capture the magic of that song for me. However, this one came close. And throwing in the I Wanna Be Your Lover instrumental at the end was a nice touch. However, vocally, visually....Do Me, Baby wins. It’s a song that P can never not SANG on, so it usually wins vocally for me. But then the addition of the horns and the breakdown at the end just really pushed me over the edge. 

I would like to give a shoutout though to that 1999 album medley I mentioned earlier because it JAMMED and I might have yelled when I heard Automatic. Also Anotherloverholenyohead from this show was phenomenal and deserves to be mentioned. Lisa unleashed an insane piano solo that really showed off her skills. The girl is bad.

Favorite Outfit: While I do love Prince in a crop-top, I am a huge proponent of the suits from this era. Even the unforgivable shoulder pads aren’t enough to deter me. Something about Prince in a tie..... The yellow suit from Detroit is iconic. Period. In Stockholm we were greeted with a nice blue one. Both 100 cuts above. Honorable mention to the polka dot vest from both shows. The man looks like a 5 course meal in polka dots. 

Still Would Rating: Angrily. Begrudgingly. Without a shadow of a doubt and no hesitation, honey. 

Overall Rating: If you’re looking for something to lift your spirits and also groove extra hard to, either of these shows are what you need. His carefree spirit during them is contagious, and you can’t help but share in the joy he puts on display. He’s serving us some LOOKS, some ridiculous and quite frankly irresponsible onstage antics, and some of my favorite music from him (I adored both ATWIAD and Parade). As the creator of the gif directly above so eloquently put it: “ Yellow suit and the band were rocking. What’s not to like?” Indeed. 

PREVIOUSLY, PURPLE RAIN                                            NEXT UP, SOTT

[marvelandponder]

Rainbow Power, Y’all

Happy (belated) Pride month, everybody! I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of how I wanted to talk about gay ponies. Mostly because I literally never shut up about it so writing a opinion-based Should MLP Have a Gay Couple? editorial would be kind of self-explanatory. Kind of really self-explanatory. 

Plus, we already have one. Lyra and Bon Bon might have to chant “best friends” a hundred times before they can make goo-goo eyes at each other, but that body language and even just the way they talk to each other in is pretty telling.

Damn, that’s pretty gay. 

Oh and also this happened last year on the official Facebook apparently:

God, I love this show. Taking into account the fact that the other two are married couples, this is a Valentines Day promotion, and that making someone’s heart “gallop” can’t really be misconstrued as platonic, I seriously love this.

So, I mean, I can’t exactly stop you from interpreting them as platonic, but I would consider them canon and I’m even glad for the subtlety. Not all depictions need to state the obvious, so long as it is obvious.

I think with these two the intention was to make it ambiguous enough for parents to decide if they want to explain the concept. Kids aren’t stupid, but I think the demographic won’t pick up on the context clues that this could be a romantic relationship when they’ve been primed with the words “best friends” a number of times.

So, at that point, it’s up to the parents who watch the show with their kids to decide (if they haven’t already) if this is how and when they’d like to explain the concept of a same-sex relationship, with this as a visual aide. If Lyra and Bon Bon end up being baby’s first gay relationship, so to speak, that’s awesome.

So, if I’m so satisfied with those two, why write this? Why push for more in an already accepting climate, especially when an effort has already been made? Isn’t that greedy? Or exploitative? Has my shipping brain finally lead me down the road to delusion?

I hear you answering yes to that last one, but I’m just gonna ignore that.

As to the question, it comes down to the word choice. I’m not asking if it should be done---it’s already been done. I’m not asking if Hasbro would allow it, because whether or not they’d show a lot of support, they have shown some.

I’m asking how it could be done with the intention of explaining why it would or wouldn’t add something of value. 

Because the landscape of children’s television is changing rapidly. From the time Friendship is Magic started in 2010 until good ol’ 2017, the number of kids’ shows that have incorporated LGBT+ characters and couples has only grown exponentially from before.

On top of that, I’m a little biased in my perception, but I’m not the only one whose noticed that this year’s pride month has been the most visibly celebrated yet. For better or worse, the amount of companies trying to support the LGBT+ community during pride has only grown. 

This year’s Amazon Pride float was Rainbow Dash and MLP themed in Dublin. Don’t know if Amazon got Hasbro’s permission to use their character in a parade, but they gave her a horn because unicorns apparently are gay (just as a rule) and now she’s an alicorn. 

By the way, they totally messed up those flags. If it had said My Little Pride, they could’ve been selling thousands of them. To me. Wasted potential, I tell you.

And again my bias showing: I can’t speak for other regions, but where I live all public schools, from elementary to universities and colleges, have rainbow pride flags flying.

All the schools I’ve gone to growing up are now flying pride flags for a full month.

That’s... I can’t tell you how heartwarming it is to see. And my elementary school services kindergarten kids all the way up to grade 8---some children as young as 5-6 years old are now growing up with that being a natural part of their environment throughout their entire childhood.

When we were growing up and I think in a lot of places around the world still, there was a question of when it should be taught to kids and whether the concept alone was age appropriate, but little by little, that’s just not the case anymore. 

From their shows and media to even some of their schools, more and more kids are learning about this in a natural way from a young age, to the point that it is just love and it is just who these people are to them. And for once I mean it when I say I think that’s beautiful.

But things evolve like this at different rates in different places, so we’re not perfect yet, and the push for more is out of a desire to see the progress continue and for more groups than the ones that are typically represented.

Would I be heartbroken if this was as gay as MLP ever got? Nah (besides, through the power of denial, all my ships are already canon!). But at this point the question is starting to become why not? instead of just why? so even if this remains a hypothetical discussion, I think it’s still an important one.

I’m going to forever cherish the subtlety of those Lyra and Bon Bon scenes, but it’s the first pride month that I’ve been out and I feel like celebrating. Let’s get gay.

Love in Friendship is Magic

Right off the bat, I think it’s important to establish that we’re not trying to change the show fundamentally. It’s about friendship, and while other relationships are shown to be deep and fulfilling as well (family and even romantic), the show’s focus on how meaningful friendship is great.

But here’s my thing with the “this show is about friendship!” argument. It’s not like we don’t already have other types of relationships. Several episodes have been dedicated to developing purely familial relationships.

And even beyond the platonic, Spike has (had?) a crush that factored into the plot of a few episodes, Big Mac now seems to have an on-going relationship, and there are a few prominent married couples. This stuff exists largely in the background, comparatively, but it’s not like romance doesn’t have a place in the show. It just doesn’t surpass the focus on friendship.

So, yeah, just because they have a romance doesn’t mean it has to take over the show, nor should it. 

If we were going to go the route of canonizing an LGBT+ couple, that would still be something to take into account.

It doesn’t mean that main characters can’t have a romance necessarily, just that they should work in a friendship lesson along with it.

If Starlight and Trixie were dating for instance (she said, as if it was a random example instead of her ship), a story would probably mostly center around their friends helping them through relationship troubles or preparing for adorable dates. Or, on the flip side, their friends learning the lesson of when not to interfere.

Or, now that Starlight’s cutie mark is on the map (indicating that other ponies can be called if necessary), perhaps a couple could be called to solve a friendship problem instead of two friends.

Basically, so long as there’s still some element of friendship, the writers can introduce a new kind of relationship and develop it in tandem with the friendships already present.

Or, as there is in The Perfect Pear (without giving spoilers beyond what the summary said, for those waiting for the US release), we could just have an episode with a bigger focus on a romance.

Notice how all these scenarios aren’t dependent on the idea that this romance be queer. I’m a bit torn on this issue, because I can see both sides, but I think I usually lean towards the idea that because there ideally doesn’t need to be a difference between straight romances and gay romances, there doesn’t need to be a story reason for them to be gay.

Like I said, I do see the appeal of stories that require the couple and/or characters to be queer, but there’s pros and cons to either side.

We don’t necessarily need to see a story dealing with homophobia in Equestria, in part because that contrasts so much with the Equestria we already know. It’s too loving. It took 4 seasons to address Scootaloo’s disability not because no one noticed, but because everyone accepted her for who she was (aside from DT and SS). It’s not like homophobia or hatred can’t exist in this world, but it’s just not widespread.

A really good reason to include romance in general and even “different kinds of love” so to speak is to give Cadence more screen-time and development.

I’d love to see the Princess of Love guiding her subjects! She could even help a character come out, which would be both a reason to have an LGBT+ character and/or romance in the show, but also make the concept relatable to young kids---a story about accepting who you are and what you love makes sense to them.

I think there’s definitely potential to take this in interesting places, develop pre-established characters and relationships, and all without stealing the focus from friendship too much. 

Who Wins the Dreaded Shipping Wars

On the right, Ashleigh Ball posting a fanmade picture of an AppleDash wedding for World Pride Day. On the left, IDW comic writer Jeremy Whitley arguing for FlutterDash... either way, I’m down for this.

Fan expectation is a funny thing.

We both crave for the show to address what we’ve long speculated on, and dread it.

In the case of the Apple family’s parents, there’s been countless emotional fan-theories, stories, and ideas, and yet The Perfect Pear remains one of the most anticipated episodes (for those who have yet to watch it).

With Slice of Life, we were surprised to find some headcanons confirmed and celebrated, but also some destroyed by canon.

I think when it comes to confirming LGBT+ characters and relationships, it’s really no different. We all have different ideas about who these characters are, and those of us who ship have ideas about who they might like.

So, yeah, even if we went down the road of confirming minor characters as LGBT+, if we already know them, it would likely step on a few toes. But honestly I’d rather step on those toes than introduce a new character for the sole purpose of them being gay. Sorta boils them down to just one purpose/one “trait.”

And in the end, as much as it sucks to have your ship sunk or your headcanons burst into flames, 1. If we never wanted the show to establish new things about these characters, why continue watching? and 2. My friends, I’ve been a shipper for a long time and I can say from experience: a ship doesn’t sink even when canon contradicts you. Denial and imagination are a fan’s most awesome tools. 

Oh and would you look at that, my transition is here.

Love in EQG

Just as a sidenote, because of what I ship, I’ve said before that I think the Equestria Girls franchise would actually be a perfect place to include LGBT+ relationships because the series already has a heavier focus on romance than the show.

If you’re going to have these high school drama romance subplots, which is a staple of the series now, might as well go ahead and make it gay! *Cough* Sciset still makes the most sense from a storytelling perspective *cough*

Queerer than Ever Before

I wanted to include a section like this because it’s something we’re still working on in animation as a whole: representing more than just gay and lesbian relationships.

I’m happy to report bisexuals and in and out of relationships are also now getting more love, but that’s about where the buck stops. Steven Universe has the closest thing to trans and bigender or androgynous representation, which is mostly not literal. As in, they have fusions of two different characters, and characters like Garnet who feel better in a different form, but as of yet there’s no straight up trans or non-cis-gendered characters.

BMO from Adventure Time could certainly count as gender-fluid, though, so it’s not all bad news bears.

Pansexuality and asexuality have yet to be represented in children’s animation (in adult animation, Rick Sanchez of Rick and Morty is canonically pansexual, though!) aside from Spongebob being confirmed to be asexual off-screen by the show’s creator “because he’s a sponge.”

We’re largely still figuring out how these people and more groups I haven’t even mentioned ideally should be represented, but trying is still the first step.

For example, Big Mac’s not trans, but while I reaaaally didn’t love that his cross-dressing was a joke in Brotherhooves Social, I can also appreciate the fact that everyone around him was aware he was originally a stallion but let him compete in the Sisterhooves Social anyway, a trans issue we’re still debating in reality.

So, the comedy of the episode is kinda transphobic (not because Big Mac is trans, he’s not in canon, but because the comedy comes from him being in drag), but once again Equestria itself proves to be a really accepting, tolerant place. 

And I think it can be hard to know how to represent these voices well (there’s also the fact that MLP theoretically could hire on a guest writer, as they do now every season, if they wanted to specifically have someone who’s non-cisgendered tackle a story of that nature), but hey, why not be the first to try? Wouldn’t it suit the show’s loving nature to be inclusive?

LGBT+ in Equestria

More and more these days it’s becoming the norm to include more ways to love others and oneself in kids cartoons. You could argue not every show needs to have LGBT+ inclusion, which I can agree with, but by the same token and especially for shows with an expansive world, no serialized ongoing plot to adhere to, and focus on love and acceptance already, the show doesn’t need to be entirely straight, either.

Ask why not, instead of just why.

There are ways to make romance relevant to the target audience without teaching them they need it to be happy, and there are ways of explaining these concepts to them without forcing a political stance. For kids, it’s simple. Love is love, and you are who you are. That’s really all there is to it.

I’d be over the moon if the show ever had the chance to represent more than they already have. In the same way I wanted to Applejack’s parents to be dead, I’d ideally want to see how MLP specifically would deal with this hard topic with its usual kindness, gentleness, and love. As in the former case, I think it has the potential to be something wonderful.

In the end, though, I of course can’t say if we will ever see more, or exactly would or should it would be handled. 

I suppose we can only hope to follow Lyra and Bon Bon’s example.

Other MLP stuff? Oh yeah, I’ve done that! I’ve got more editorials like this one over here, and episode reviews over here. But because plain old links aren’t pretty, have the last three things I’ve done with purty pictures:

Dr. Wolf Theory Reading, Parental Glidenace Review, and Celestia/Daybreaker Editorial

Year of the Pony

Visuals in this Post Wouldn’t Be Possible Without...

Pinkie Pie Vector by MPNoir Flag Vector by JayBugJimmies Lyra and Bon Bon Poster by BronybyException

Art from talented artists, what could be better? Hit up those links and check out their awesome galleries!

The Real Agenda Here is My Shipping Agenda