#i dont know how many more it is what it is i have left

[falseficus]

if i may play the devil's advocate for a moment -- it doesn't really bother me that most of the fan posting around disco elysium on this site is more focused on the emotional aspects of the game than the political ones. i mean, firstly, it's well-acknowledged that fanworks tend to fill the gaps of unexplored potential in the original work -- ie, envisioning darkness in lighthearted works, re-imagining dark works as lighthearted. a lot of the emotional or relational aspects of disco elysium are left ambiguous, abstract, or at the very least dependent upon player choice and interpretation. this renders them fertile ground for speculative art. by contrast, the game's political statements are, if you have the context to analyze them well, complete. there simply isn't much more to say.

beyond that, those political aspects are also leagues ahead of many other pieces of media in terms of their complexity, nuance, and real-world analysis. that's part of what makes the game so great, and i do think may fans understand that. but, to be honest, being capable of engaging with those aspects of the game (just glance at reddit, and you'll see that many fans don't even reach that level) does not mean that fans are capable of generating that level of work themselves. like, it's simply more mental work to come up with a piece of creative art/writing that expands upon the superb worldbuilding and commentary of DE than it is to write about harry and kim getting goopy nasty. people know how to do the latter because it is a commonly exercised muscle of fandom. the former is almost academic.

that doesn't mean people *shouldn't* engage with the political aspects of the game generatively/creatively. but also... like... maybe it's better this way. seriously, look at reddit, guys. the DE subreddit is full of people *attempting* to engage with the game politically, and the analysis they're putting out is hot steaming dookie. i lose brain cells every time im forced to read another take that earnestly assumes the game positions moralism as the Right and Good Choice for Revachol. on tumblr, analysis is generative, practiced through art/fanfiction... and if i had to see the type of shit i see on reddit on tumblr in the form of fanart, id kill us all.

so anyway, i dont think the fanwork hyperfocus on relationships/emotion indicates that people aren't properly understanding the political points of the game, but simply that those points are much harder for fans to process in a generative way. their underrepresentation in fanwork doesnt particularly indicate anything about the way people are actually receiving and understanding the themes of the game.

except for the people inexplicably clogging the tag with jean viquemare. they do not understand the game and will not see the light of heaven

[aestheticreservoire]

Not the person you are addressing but I feel like theres more to be said I don’t see in the replies to the post and that I think adds context to fan fiction and fandom in general especially after reading other women talk about the generalisation stuff in the OP

- a lot of women start reading fic as teenagers and a lot of current fic readers and writers are per se autistic and obsessed with whatever media they’re writing about ergo why they make stories about it obsessively. This is not a new phenomenon, women wrote Sherlock and Watson fan fiction back then with the books and the first mainstream fandom as we understand it today was Star Trek: the original series in the 70s. At that point it was in fact a sort of revolutionary separatist space as a lot of the people writing, and publishing, fanzines were female. Fanfic continues to be female skewed in fact. Males were also Star Trek fans it’s the derivative writing space that was and continues to be overwhelmingly female.

You probably dont care but if you want data points I started at age 13.

- I personally haven’t disengaged entirely but I know a lot of people do (and I took distance) because of the current heavy control exerted community wise due to the increasing politicisation of fandom after the 2000s onward. This is nothing new, again, a lot of the fujos who shipped Kirk and Spock in the 70s legit used that as leverage to support gay rights, it’s just that by virtue of members being younger and more immature and the insanity that was cultivated since livejournal, into here, and onward to twitter and TikTok fandom has become like a pug inbred version of itself.

- because the girls writing this are straight. It’s the same mindset of fujoshi writing doujinshi in Japan. Two attractive men kissing and thinking about romance without all the implications of being a woman and your lesser place in society because of it. And of course a lot of the media they obsess with glorifying and exhalting men while making mediocre or irrelevant female characters. Female essayists were actually writing about this in the Star Trek days too.

-No, not really. As I said a lot of women into this are already autistic or otherwise “weird” personality wise and that usually carries its own batch of associated mental illness, some thru nature some thru nurture (bullying, exclusion causing depression and anxiety) there’s actually an analysis of how this impacts geeks in general, socially, called the Geek Social Fallacies and you will see them repeat in ambiances like liberal feminism and activist teenagers on tiktok: https://plausiblydeniable.com/five-geek-social-fallacies/ which boils down to, I was excluded and left behind, ergo I vow when I meet other nerds I will never leave anyone behind because everyone who leaves me behind are evil bullies who hate me just because I like media.

This is also why I believe so many fandom spaces are social justice oriented. They too see minorities being excluded that they have to defend no matter the cost which is why analysis is so black and white, un-nuanced, and generally ignorant of whatever minority is being defended. Which I've personally experienced being latin american in the anglo fandom internet. In the end, I think I agree with a lot of other people that women are criticised a lot more for these fandom things than men are for things that are far more harmful, especially considering the history of these places as women-led hobbies that permitted a space separate from men. However I also agree it is a hobby and a lot of it is self-indulgent slop, and you should go in with that mindset. The cult mentality of hyper political fandom is also incredibly diseased and wreaks havoc on your already fragile mental state. Like any subculture it can be a wonderful thing for you to connect with people or controlling torture depending on how you engage with it. But as an autist I can't deny the catharsis of being able to do what is essentially glorified playing with fictional dolls without scorn, as that is something that you are judged for, very often unfairly- like most women's hobbies, to be honest.

I don't hate fan fiction because it's not original material or whatever. I hate fan fiction because it seems like everyone who is into it has serious mental health issues.

And I realize that it's a chicken/egg situation so there's no way to tell if being immersed in it tanks your wellbeing or if you get into it at your lowest point. What I do see is that it doesn't make you any better and definitely makes things way worse.

[daystud]

I dont think its talked enough of since many times homura reset the timeline she bonded with madoka countless, infinite times in many different ways as homura slowly became more deranged and maybe they even grew very VERY close in some timeloops before she had to reset to save madoka again and thats what makes madohomu so canon to me

Aside from whats shown on screen that yeah theyre so yuri we have so many scenarios left to explore their dynamic

Imagine... an homura torn and blend between her past and season 1 self this close to lose it but still not as unhealthy as she becomes later, in her first stages of her obsession, and saw so many sides of madoka. She learns so many things about her in the previous timeline she didnt yet. Some madokas were even attracted and intrigued by this mysterious but sweet homura as she in her innocent eyes "seemed like an angel sent to protect her" (oh boy) and she would refer her as such in small things like "vanilla and strawberry seems like your favorite flavor, isnt it, madoka? It suits you." "wow homura you guessed it right! Maybe its just my hair ahah." Or "miki really is hopeless towards that boy" "mh? Yea she likes him a lot, i know! Wait, but how do you know?" "...You told me the other day. Its obvious to see." "Huh, i must have forgot about it..."

[nthspecialll]

how do you feel about mr pearson being a rat theory? i watched a youtube video about it and while i genuinely dont think rockstar made pearson a rat or even intended he be relevant in conversations about the rat, i still found it super interesting and almost convincing if i didnt already know it was micah!

I read up on it and there are some interesting points, but most of it is very circumstancial.

The main points are:

The name Aunt Cathy that he wrote a letter to being similar to Catherine Brathewaite.

Jack going missing so easily

Pearson leaving the camp and not staying.

Pearson being able to afford a shop in the epilouge.

Pearson asking for John's location and in the cut scenes of the credits you see the agents by Rhodes and then by Beecher's Hope.

I think the Aunt Cathy/Catherine is so circumstancial that it is stupid, it raises more questions that cannot be answered than it solves. Liek how did he know her before? Did he know Jack was going to get kidnapped? What is the letter code for? What does it say?

Jack going missing so easily. The video I saw by Waxy said it was so weird Jack could go missing from a small group of outlaws and suggested that Pearson might have somehow done something? But then again we literally have Kieran's testemory of what happened because he saw it.

Kieran does not leave camp, he hangs around the edge but he still sticks close so he can be seen, the fact he saw what happened means that the perpetrators was fairly close to camp and could draw Jack's attention to them while everyone else were focused on Bill and Micah coming running into camp with Sean's dead body.

Kieran also identifies the Braithewaite boys, although I don't know how he knows what they look like, he must have had some reason for thinking it was them and he was right. He thought they were just there for business so they must have acted fairly casually.

Now when it comes to Pearson leaving, the man is literally sobbing and crying in fear, he isn't a fighter, he is a cook, and he ain't the only one that left. Using him leaving as evidence is kind of silly seeing as so many others leaves as well.

As for the shop, it has been eight years and he has been through two wives, in the same timespan Tilly got married and pregnant, Mary-Beth became a bestselling author, Charles was between Canada and USA at least once, Sadie became a fairly known bounty hunter so on and so forth. Eight years is a long time, a lot can happen.

Now to the last bit, Pearson had a picture of the gang with John on it hanging on his wall and he did know John's exact location and could have told because he was scared of being hurt, but there are also a trillion other ways the Pinkerton's could have found John. They could have tracked him from his bank account, they could have tracked him from Strawberry where he made a mess, a random civillian could have ID'ed him or Pearson "ratted" of course, they are all equally possible but I think even if Pearson did tell the Pinkerton John's location, I wouldn't call him a rat.

The Pinkerton's would have found John either way, and the timing of them finding him does not really matter, they gonna wait until 1911 either way, it would have been the exact same result.

[inky-goddess]

I don't know how much longer i can hold out going to only the trade school and not a normal school since not being anywhere in the morning makes my anxiety worse but my school distrcit doesnt care about the special ed students especially those who are "problems" like me so they're going super slow and havent even sent out the paperwork for me to be enrolled in the other school so now im very close to losing the only chance I have to do something with my life and actually have a career

[hella1975]

so there's a reason my new job got back to me so quickly about my application and that's bc it's an absolute fucking shambles like actually perfect timing for me to decide to rewatch the bear bc i have never more felt like ive been thrown into a broke on-its-knees establishment trying to crawl its way up the ladder where i am somehow a godsend to them. my old job was crazy and shambolic in the sense that the industry is just Like That but this one?????? insanity. every 5 mins i am questioning what im doing with my life. ive already had a walk-in fridge moment

[lemongogo]

college … wasted on the youth (me)

[thedrotter]

I have a gift for y'all today !!! 😊 Ever wanted to find a line in Re:Kinder in a single place for the sake of reference?? How about multiple chunks of lines. how about all the little variations that arise in the text with it's many endings, item descriptions, text that comes from interacting with the enviroment, and character info from the menu without having to boot up the game and go through it at long minutes!!???

well i sure did😊 Since I do a lot of fanart and think up my own silly theories and thoughts that need me to reference the game lines a lot, i have made a transcript for it for convenience's sake. A weirdly thorough transcript handwritten and proofread by me including all character lines available in-game. And I'm sharing it with you all today for anyone that wants it !!! :3 To use as a reference for creative fanworks or a quick search for a line in-game, whatever you wish to use it for!!

It uses the english translation of the game by vgperson. So naturally all credit for the game lines available in here is to her and Parun who made the game.

I did my best to organize it in a way easy to digest. Do note that I'm still human, and there's still the chance for mistake in it no matter how much I've proofread it, since I'm not even an english native speaker ^^. But I hope it serves you well nonetheless if you wish to use it.

That's my gift for today!!! Not the usual art, but still a project I'm proud of. Enjoy!!! 😊

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[skunkes]

having struggles with hobbies and enjoyment and creativity again

[jalo-parker]

Bunch of mspaint doodles cause I think I've hit some art block :')

Ghost fans I have returned everyone rejoice (there's a big change I abandon you guys again for another few weeks 😁😁 I'm never fully gone though, just lurking)

In order of doodles + characters on canvas: sodo, my ghoulsona Zero, swiss, phantom, rain, mountain, aether, helsknight and my sona, and then owl guy and ryder (my ocs)

(leaving the cut off at the end of the tags it's funny to me)

[rouge-the-bat]

something i love discussing with others is the different ways people experience kin bc its so interesting the vastness of how everyones personal experiences with it can be. i really dont get people that will be like "kin is only ever LIKE THIS! everyone else is fake!" or trying to act like people with kin past lives (or anyone that "takes kinning too seriously") are crazy. like just!!! how do yall not enjoy the vast and unique experiences of other people!! how do they not fascinate you!!! its INSANE to me

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

i have to think about chilchuck and laios forever

[phagodyke]

the masculine urge to take a saucepan off thr draining board and bash myself repeatedly over the head with it until I pass out and no longer have to experience feeling Bad 😍

[ambersky0319]

New Employee aquired today

My manager: Hey Grace maybe you can show NE some things, but don't overwhelm her

Me:

Me: so like. make sure it's not a repeat of my first day???

[kneworder]

every year I think hang on maybe I have a handle on this whole school thing! and then every year I get assigned one (1) writing assignment and crumble under the weight of crippling executive dysfunction so bad I spiral into borderline suicidal despair