#did i contradict myself

[visforvii]

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[autism-corner]

LEVI STARTS ASMR CHANNEL??? NOT FAKE!!

(blank/betterQuality and reference under cut =w=bb)

[hotdrinkstudies]

Sending my love from the other side of the apocalypse

I’m telling you, Prime will do whatever it takes to torment C137

[kazu-naito]

not gon lie... after sitting with the information for a bit i think it's actually interesting that abh is in the hsu

yes it does take away liberties of writing your own world and creatures but it adds depth at the same time

hs1 and 2 never really gave us much info on the immortals, their powers and what they actually do. it was all very school centred and the tip of the iceberg we got to see of heaven and hell were too bland

we know the heaven hierarchy: angels → archangels → thrones → seraphs. but do we know who they actually are and what they actually do? nah. and we don't even know hell's hierarchy. the also only know about like 5 powers

it seems confined because hs was confined but there's still so much that was briefly mentioned and never explained that sasha and elena can have a field day exploring the loopholes and make something very interesting out of it that the readers will go "ohhhh now that makes so much sense"

[carry-the-sky]

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[uncanny-tranny]

It's really freeing when you learn that rationality isn't going to be feasible in the long run, not because rationality is this thing that only Truly Enlightened people get the privilege to experience, but because humans are just irrational.

You can know when you're being irrational, and sometimes, it is in big ways. But pretending like that irrationality doesn't exist or can only exist if you're "stupid" only sets you back from growing. Irrationality is part of the human condition - it is impossible to actually be this enlightened person people like to project themselves onto.

[pippersmcgee]

Hi I saw your review of mouthwashing and since nobody else is saying anything negative about I sort of also wanted to share my gripes with it and discuss it if that's ok!

I played the game yesterday and honestly I was very disappointed. I was intrigued by the random fanarts I saw on here, but it's telling that those fanarts had just as much depth as the actual game. It feels like the game bit off more than it could chew and can only pretend to have a deep understanding of the themes it tries to talk about.

Like for example, the rape of Anya even if it's central to the plot line is never talked about with any gravity. And I get it's intended, I get it's supposed to represent the workplace misogyny and dismissal of rape, but it just ends up creating a game that doesn't say anything. The only slight exploration you get is how men react to rape and the realistic reaction of them being like "my friend would never do that, he's not a bad guy". But that's all it did.

Then you play as Jimmy the rapist. And that's an interesting set up genuinely, I think playing as a rapist could lead to interesting explorations of why things like this happen and how they think. And it wants to be that but seems too afraid to even talk about its own theme. Like the rape is only ever implied even when you play as the rapist, and the game asks you to empathize with Jimmy. I find it insulting! Again, I understand it's because he doesn't want to face what he did, but then it just makes the actual game feel dismissive of Anyas rape by showing Jimmy struggling without telling you directly the weight of anythings that's happening.

In general, horror really struggles with sexual assault, I think it generally fetishizes it, makes it grotesque and insulting or, like here, (unintentionally) dismisses it to feed you the line that "everybody is human, even rapists, and that's the true horror" when it fails to acknowledge that what happened is horrific.

Anyway.. as a finishing note I find the community gross but that's expected from tumblr. The religious representations of Anya or the aesthetic art about her fetus inside of her gross me out. I also find it crazy that suddenly tumblr is fine with using terms like male socialization or the patriarchy when they accuse anybody using them of being a TERF, but at the same time they only use those concepts as a sort of way to take the blame off of Jimmy instead of trying to critically think about the world around them. It's just overall disappointing, good style tho.

thanks for sending this! "overall disappointing" is a good way to put it. Like you I saw some frankly breathtaking fanart and thought this game would blow me away. I was left wondering if I had somehow gotten a faulty copy of the game? Because I was clearly not feeling any of the things these talented fanartists were feeling. which is a shame, because the graphics, sound design, overall style of the game is fantastic.

cw for discussions of rape; this is also pretty long.

i will say that while i agree with your overall sentiment i'm not sure i'm 100% with you on the particulars. oddly, the game's handling of rape was really my least concern. considering who the protagonist is (a rapist!), it makes sense that the game is dismissive of what he did to anya. he wants to dismiss it. what gravity would a "nice guy" rapist give to the situation he caused? not much, probably. to add to that, his mental state does not improve over the course of the game. at no point should we expect him to acknowledge that what he did is in any way a problem -- in addition to being a shit guy he's also out of his mind. realizing that jimmy is a piece of shit is something that we, the player, are meant to discover on our own. (in that regard the game was successful!) I'd also like to take a moment and say that i'm not someone who cares about rape being portrayed respectfully, tastefully, etc, in media because rape in reality is neither respectful nor tasteful. and experiences with rape are so different from person to person that to say one piece of media fetishizes or makes rape grotesque is to deny the creative expression of people who don't want to communicate their rape in a certain way via their art.

trying to tie this back to the topic at hand: for me the problem was not that the game felt dismissive of anya's rape, or wanted us to excuse jimmy's behavior to a disturbing degree; it was that anya didn't feel like her own person. jimmy didn't feel like his own person. each character felt like the mouthpiece of a singular author and so failed to make an impression on me. personalities did not come through in the way the game wanted them to. the game does tackle some thought-provoking material, but the way it was written felt stale and even at times boring (which should not have been the case, given the subject matter!). it didn't have the wherewithal to tie these themes together in a way that was gripping, horrifying, satisfying, and so on. it had some issues with pacing.

the fetus stuff is weird to me too. the fact that anya is inspired by shelley duvall (i think?) and doesn't end up having a strong sense of character is depressing. "the game bit off more than it could chew" is also a good way to describe it. REALLY DISAPPOINTING! i wanted to like it!

[charmwasjess]

Still reading The Living Force. I'm actually much farther in now than when I took this pic over the weekend, before I got kicked out of the winery for throwing the book across the room--

No, no, I kid. In fact, there's lots to like about this book. Much of it is warm, funny, and full of Jedi details and lovingly crafted little scenes given to more obscure Council characters. Depa and Mace continue to shine.

I'm still... very much struggling with some aspects, some inconsistencies and contradictions that I can't tell are there on purpose to make a point in the narrative, or just unsuccessful writing. But I'll try to post an actual write up shortly when I'm officially finished.

[aphantimes]

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[itspileofgoodthings]

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[icedille]

all this to say objectively speaking i know i should try to continue going to therapy but she can't see me outside of my work hours so it will be a whole process of asking my boss and maybe i actually won't be able to work full time bc of that and i. don't wanna. also even if i could go i'm not even sure it would do anything at this point because i'm so bad at talking about the things that are actually a problem and i KNOW i should work on that but seeing how the last few times went i'm not sure it's entirely my fault either

[nikster1111]

Welcome to the cult

i played at launch and am level 64 currently but i stopped somewhere along year 1-2 😭

i remember logging back in for the egypt event for both the og (and pulled luke) and the rerun (where i pulled vyn)…. this event looks so scrumptious though

i also will not disclose the amount i have spent on this game…. yeah. just know i can’t uninstall out of principle 🤡

my uid is 200432881 if anyone wants to add me

[candycryptids]

They need to invent a hips and spine that hurt less. :/

[apathyfairy]

me at 13: by the time im 30 i will probably be married and maybe have a kid but for sure i will be living in my dream city and have my dream job. and also a lot of money

me at almost 30: i think i will treat myself to a corn dog this weekend

[pleuvoire]

dude i cannot believe ostensibly pro-palestine people were reblogging this without the rebuttal. yes it’s important to not fall into conspiracy-minded thinking (like that whole spotify wrapped thing that was dumb) but telling people to get their sources on the gaza genocide from haaretz and nyt (and jacobin lol) is like, come on man. come on.

citing and reblogging tributary? known zionist tributary? what a shock. no one could have seen this coming. truly, i’m flabbergasted.

[errorwarblesrr]

I want to design my own links, but I don't know a single thing about character design lol