#i'm still optimistic

[illiana-mystery]

Same, Johnny. Same.

[annalyticall]

The criticism that the new dragon age game doesn't look like a dragon age game is funny to me when none of the existing dragon age games look like each other either

[tanadrin]

I liked this video from Jamelle Bouie a lot, and I liked it even more because he delivered it as a floating eyes and mouth over an apple.

I'm going to respond to this comment as an apple because I kind of like doing it. It's fun. And I'm gonna respond to this comment by way of a story.

So, all Americans know about the anti-slavery movement, the abolitionist movement. And the way we're taught about the abolitionist movement or the anti-slavery movement, whatever you want to call it, is kind of that this was inevitable--that obviously slavery is terrible and obviously there are people against it and it was gonna end. We teach it as a thing that was bound to happen. So the Civil War comes and slavery is ended, and it's sort of a very neat story.

But I'm gonna ask you to put yourself in the perspective of an abolitionist or an anti-slavery politician in, say, 1840 or 1848; and if you are one of these people, you have a deep-seated opposition to slavery. If you're an abolitionist, you may have spent the previous 10 or 20 years traveling the country, giving speeches, rallying people, doing everything you can to stir up moral outrage at slavery. If you're a politician, you have been working, doing a grind of politics--somewhat dangerous, because people may not like slavery, but they're not super thrilled about black people either--but you are in legislatures, you are filing petitions, you are building coalitions, you are trying to make whatever headway you can to, if not challenge slavery, then at least challenge some of the racist and anti-black laws that are on the books. Both--whether you're an anti-slavery politician or ablitionist--you do not think in 1848 that slavery is gonna be over in your lifetime. You hope that it might be; but you have no particular expectation that it will be. You are not optimistic about the end of slavery. You may not even be optimistic about the world as it exists, because you look around and you see human bondage and horrible brutality that's been there for hundreds of years, and for all you know will be there when you're long dead.

So the question to ask is, why do these things? Why did these people bother? Why did they continue struggling against slavery, despite not really having any optimism about the end of the institution? And the answer--beyond a deep-seated sense of moral commitment--is that these people didn't need to be optimistic in the ultimate outcome, they just needed to be optimistic in the ability of humans, of people to make change; they needed to be hopeful about human agency. That's what they needed, and that's what they had. And so they did not know how far they would be able to take the baton, but they worked and hoped that when the end of their lives came, they'd be able to hand it off to people who could take it even further than they could.

The abolitionists and the anti-slavery politicians were essentially living out what Antonio Gramsci called the pessimism of the intellect and the optimism of the will. I think the exact quote is, "I'm a pessimist because of my intelligence, but I am an optimist because of my will." What this is is recognizing the reality of the world around you, not looking at the world as if it's any better--or any worse--but any better than it is; but not pinning your hopes for a better world on some sort of linear change, linear move towards something better; but pinning your hopes on one of the true constants of human society, which is the ability of human beings to work their will on the world, and the ability of humans to push and persevere.

So, this is all to say that I am not asking anyone to be optimistic about the world. That's very silly; the world's a very terrible place right now--not the worst it could be, but pretty bad--and I do not contest that. But I do think that people should have a bit of this optimism of the will, and this optimism about human agency, and our ability to build a better world. And this is sort of where my very strong distaste for doomerism comes from, because the sense that it is the worst, and nothing can be better, is just fundamentally incompatible with any kind of optimism of the will, any kind of belief in human agency and belief in our ability to change the world around us. And it's also why you will find me on this account often pushing back against the most negative renderings of what is happening in our society, for example. Not because I think everything is great--I do not--but because I do think that the path towards change requires one to have clear eyes about the situation in which you find yourself; and clear eyes both means recognizing the bad, but it also means recognizing those areas where you can make gains, and where you can find success; and where you can win minor victories.

And you may say, well, what's the point of a minor victory? But I think what the anti-slavery struggle demonstrates, what the civil rights struggle demonstrates, what the labor struggle demonstrates in this country, is that minor victories become fuel for modest victories, become fuel for major victories, and major victories can be the things that fundamentally change the entire field of play. So. Pessimism of the intellect, my friend, optimism of the will.

[bixels]

What did/do you like about Pharah?

Uh, gameplay-wise, I really love characters in shooters who rely on three-dimensional movement techs. Chaining together hover and jump to stay in the air for as long as possible and keep momentum is so satisfying, and picking enemies off from the sky made me feel like a bird of prey. I was a good Pharah main.

Story-wise, there unfortunately isn't much to canonically go off because Pharah is so underutilized and neglected. Her personality's pretty boilerplate "heroic hero" (she's literally inspired by Captain America).

But it's the crumbs/bits and pieces that I really latched onto. Pharah's a confirmed lesbian; her short story with Baptiste implies she harbors a crush on Mercy (fucking thank you.). She's biracial Egyptian/First Nations. She has major mommy issues, having grown up both admiring and resenting Ana. She's the bridge between Old Overwatch, inspired by the idealized heroes who surrounded her childhood, and New Overwatch. She's one of the only inter-generational characters in the cast; someone whose experiences span the gap, which is why I seriously believe Pharah would make a great main character.

There isn't much to go off of, though; she's a very uncomplicated character (she's a soldier for a private military corporation, lol.). But that just means she's a blank slate character, so I've seen fanfic writers run wild and create some really interesting takes on her. My favorite interpretation of her's a dense, herbo gym-bro type (a lot of her liens are about work outs, exercising, and playing sports) who's easily excitable under her seemingly self-serious, armored visage. We see how she tends to gloat and hype herself up when she's on a streak too, so Pharah definitely has a competitive and boastful side under her more professional and militant performance.

Now Mercy? Mercy is a real complex character.

[cosmic-light-fics]

Before and after watching The Bear Season 3

[applecoreart]

Been awhile, crocodile 🐊 In all honesty, I was feeling kind of stressed about character design issues I was having, so for awhile I just put all that stuff aside and focused on understanding anatomy better. Also studied a lot of Milt Kahl animation frames for gesture and simple shapes in character design. I actually had a big grin on my face when I finished these tonight instead of feeling disappointed-- the proportions and shapes feel better, and the hair is more natural in shape and greasy like I always wanted it to be, but kept struggling to draw.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

If I could write stories as quickly and vividly as I can envision them, I would have written at least three lovely novellas in the last week. Two of them this morning.

[mennany]

Another animatic, and it's only been a bit under 2 months! That officially beats my previous record of 1 year between animatics! Woo!

[deliriousblue]

finished the episode of peaceful property and i'm still thinking about it an hour later.....the thought crossed my mind when home startled at the mention of the car but i didn't expect them to actually go there because when is a show willing to have one of the lead characters literally have killed the other and have gotten away with it freely.

up until now we've seen home's family taking advantage of people and we've seen the way that home treats others (e.g. forcing peach to perform when they moved in). but now we're forced to directly contend with home not just being complicit in his family's actions but actually having himself done something that is inexcusable.

and on top of that the way that peach's tremor is explicitly a physical manifestation of his guilt over (in his mind) causing chef hong to die, directly preventing him from being able to pursue his chosen career. meanwhile home due to his family's wealth and status was able to go on with his life as if nothing had happened! they're similar right up until they're very much not.

also just loved how setting the episode at the restaurant let us get insight into peach while still fulfilling all the right notes as a ghost-of-the-week and the way that this time peach was the one to receive solace and let go of his (metaphorical and literal) ghosts....really good episode.

[trek-tracks]

Not that I'll believe this movie is actually happening until I am in a theatre watching it and not a second sooner, but how are we feeling about the new screenwriter for AOS 4 being part of the writing team for the last four seasons of Supernatural?

Is the Enterprise about to go to...Superhell?

[a-map-of-gays]

I was a little mad about percieved lack of lost renaissance (one day I will learn to spell that word without autocorrect) but then I realised actually I've seen a lot of live blogging watching the show, and then I thought oh right. It's a long ass show and nobody is here yet cause they're all watching the damn thing

[kirby-the-gorb]

[thingscanalwaysgetworse]

Still not over Jumanji (1995). Imagine being trapped in a game for 26 years where you have to face all manner of deadly animals (plus a deadly hunter who looks like your dad), and then you get back to the real world only to realize that nearly everyone you know is dead except for two people, one of whom is now a cop who keeps trying to arrest you and one of whom has so much trauma from the first time you played the game that she's convinced you don't exist. Also now there are two kids who started playing the game and you all have to finish it together or else the kids will get stuck too and the nightmare will never end

and then?? you finally complete the game and everything gets fixed but you're suddenly 12 years old again in 1969 like nothing happened?? and then??? 26 years later the kids you helped save don't remember you because technically you've never met??? but you don't even care because they're alive and they have their family again, and you’re happy for them, even if they’ll never know just how much you care about them

[roscoehamiltons]

something about this post that merc made bothered me initially and i have figured it out after some thought. when i first saw it on my feed, i legitimately thought it was damage control and i'm not sure if it was their intention (i'm inclined to think that it is after lewis posted on his stories this morning), but whatever their intentions, to me it reads as insincere and trite. it sounds nice in theory like oh we will make the best of what little time we have together, but at the end of the day it's an empty statement. like when i see the sentence 'our journey together started 12 years we couldn't have imagined where it would take us' i would think that were would be some kind of follow up about some of those accomplishments that happened in the past 12 years. instead all we got was 'we are going to give it everything in the next 6 races 💪' like ok?? lol. i would think that they would and should be giving it everything they have whether or not someone has been on their team for 1 year or 12 years.

i am not asking for merc to post an essay about lewis' accomplishments (yet 😉) but i am asking for some effort to be put in what they are posting about lewis. there has been a lack of effort put into what the team has been posting about lewis specifically in the past 3 years, and i would not be surprised if the next post that they post about his teammate has more thought and effort put into it than the post i'm talking about. it is this discrepancy that we are seeing that is bleeding into the perceptions of the team, and how they have handled things that have happened on track and off. i will say that merc have improved in the past couple months, but it should not have taken 3 years to finally take some initiative. they shouldn't need people to remind and harass them into posting about lewis' accomplishments and milestones. i should not be writing a rant about how i want more than a couple sentences written about lewis' last 6 races at mercedes. they should and need to do better. i would hope that no one would call me unfair or crazy by saying this or criticizing them. but at the end of the day, it is their job and they have failed at their job, and we are seeing the consequences of it now with how badly the relationship between the fans and the team has gotten.

[dynamightmite]

I had a feeling the manga was going to go on for a while, and the confirmation fits well with both the story and Horikoshi's general writing preferences (aka, he likes working through emotional scenes and taking relatively long breathers after intense sequences). I know a lot of people are feeling skeptical right now, after waiting a long time to see the League and wanting to know what will happen to them, but personally, I like that he isn't rushing. We have all the time in the world :)

[kaythefloppa]

Enough time has passed to where I think we can openly admit how WK has gone through seasonal rot within its previous 2 seasons and how the hype of Season 7 along with the generally positive reception is a really green flag for the show's quality.