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that-ari-blogger · 11 months ago

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Stray Gods: The Role-Playing Musical

If I asked you to close your eyes and picture something that you have lived through, what do you picture?

Chances are, you are picturing a single moment in time, and feeling all the emotion that runs through it and connects it. Maybe it makes you smile or cry. But it's a single moment, crystalised in a wonderfully imperfect brain.

Life isn't about the great stories and sagas. Sure, that's what historians write down, but that's not what the life of a person is about. It's about falling in love, it's about a cup of coffee in the morning and a conversation with a friend, it's about crying in the rain, and it's about a moment of song and dance. Life is about the little moments, the things that you remember.

Stray Gods: The Role-Playing Musical is an epic, but it's also very much not. Stray Gods is about small choices and moments that add up. So, in this post, I'm going to be looking at some of those moments that I liked, and that some of y'all liked, and doing some analysis of what they say about the story as a whole.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Stray Gods is a video game. That's really important to the themes and emotions. Video games are often collaborative endeavours, the game itself often just serves to facilitate moments with the group. A perfect example of this is Ludohistory's streams with the crew from Overly Sarcastic Productions (Link).

I have played the game a few times over, with family members and friends, and on my own, and it's a lot less fun playing solo. Not that the game isn't fun to play on my own, but it felt like it was designed to be multiplayer.

The other benefit of the medium is Stray Gods' calling card. The story is interactive. You make choices and interacts with people within the game. When you convince people to give love a chance, that's your choices leading to an outcome.

One of the best examples of this happens twice. Once halfway through the first song, and then again later on in the story. You get to choose your primary character trait from Charming, Kickass, or Clever. And I think these three are interesting, because their names are misleading. Charming doesn't make you more charismatic, and clever doesn't make you more intelligent.

Instead, I read them as relating to the different driving forces. Emotion, empathy, and logic. I tried to map these on to Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, but it's not quite accurate. Pathos is emotion, Logos is logic, but Ethos is credibility, which isn't the same, but it's a neat idea. In any case, a kickass character is more likely to make rash, emotion driven choices and a clever character is more likely to step back and think, and that is reflected in the choices made available later.

@rosespark2 gave a different, more fascinating read of the concept (source).

I personally think that [the second choice of personality trait] is supposed to act in a way as Grace developing in the story. An example I could think of being maybe Charming Grace gaining Kickass trait later as her being a more open and compassionate person but seeing the injustices in the system become more glaringly obvious it starts to frustrate her and make her more aggressive.

I genuinely hadn't considered this, but it's fascinating to me. Specifically, because of how these choices influence the story. Your primary character trait lets you make slightly different choices, it affects the little moments later on down the line. For example, Clever lets you ask more questions or make different observations. Case and point, in Aphrodite's party, Grace gets asked if she knows the purpose of this event, and the clever choice is the exact opposite of another option.

You can say it's to forget, but if you're clever, you can say it is to remember. This gave me a chuckle the first time around, but on a second playthrough, it reminded me of something.

One of my favourite songs is Hotel California by the Eagles and part of the second verse goes like this:

"How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember. Some dance to forget."

A party can be for remembrance and for its antithesis at the same time. Because that's what this event is for, it's for keeping the good times and replacing the bad ones with new moments. It's a time to reminisce. And a clever Grace could work that tiny little detail out, and it could change your perspective on the entire story, a small moment having a big impact.

But as Rosespark pointed out, you get two choices of character trait, and they can act as character development. And the way that the story uses these choices works with this take. Because instead of your second choice superseding or supplanting your original, it adds to it. Because character development can mean losing parts of yourself, but it can also mean developing. Maybe you are clever and kickass, and that lets you make both clever and kickass choices.

This retroactively makes the Grace from the first half of the story feel incomplete, and that's exactly who this character is, she is young, and lost at sea, trying to find a way forwards. This is a character who needs to decide who to be, and that doesn't happen all at once, it happens gradually, in the smaller moments.

When you play a TTRPG (be it Pathfinder, or DnD, or Raccoon Sky Pirates), you usually play as a single character. And one of the fun things about those games is finding out in real time, who your character is, and it's influenced not just by your choices, but by those of your friends, and the rolls of your dice.

And characters are made in the little moments, because you cannot look at the wider story. I remember two separate occasions where characters went in completely opposite directions. One champion I made to seek out power wherever she could find it ended up being the redeemer of the group, and one alchemist I made to seek revenge ended up being a father figure. And those two characters came about not through looking at how the plot would play out, but by small decisions in the moment of play.

Stray Gods works a lot like that, and that's for one key reason. TTRPGs are reflections of life, in a way. They are spontaneous, and that's what Stray Gods seeks to achieve. It is possible to play the game with the intent of being specifically charming, but what happens when you get given a choice with no charming options. Most notably, do you side with Persephone or Apollo in Old Wounds? Character comes about in the small moments and the little choices that lead to a large outcome.

This all works for little choices within the game and within its music. The neat little instrumental association of the choices (Electric guitar for Kickass, harp for Charming, bass clarinet for Clever) is a cool choice that associates the choices with distinct moods that can really help to back up the choice as being charming or clever or whatever. And the repetition of this means that you end up associating those instruments with their choices. So, when a character other than grace starts singing with these instruments backing them up, you associate them with that character trait.

For example, Orpheus is the owner of the single coolest looking guitar ever made, and in The Throne, is preceded by this instrument. So, you immediately associate him with strong emotions, just through the music. When you finally meet him, he isn't particularly rash in action, but you are wary of him because of your intuition brought on by the guitar.

Another example of a small musical choice affecting the story is in Cast A Spell and was pointed out by @adragoncat (link):

[Asterion] might be singing a harmony, and when [Hecate] accepts his proposal, she starts singing a melody to compliment it.

It's a tiny choice in the grand scheme of things, within the entire musical, the Asterion and Hecate love story has no plot bearing. But I have gone into detail on the thematic significance in a different post.

But what I think Adraconcat is pointing out is that the music signifies the connection between the two characters. Asterion's singing is less than immaculate, and that is the point, but when Hecate joins in, she doesn't make his singing obsolete, but she adds to it. The two complement each other. Not only is Asterion's song more bearable with her addition, but his singing itself becomes a harmony as the voices intermingle and complement each other into something infinitely better than the opening fumbles.

Things don't have to be plot relevant to be remembered. You remember Cast A Spell because of the emotion you invest in the relationship, and if you don't invest, you don't remember. And there's nothing wrong with that. Memories are unique to the person. My favourite moment in the entire musical is a small line by Eros in The Ritual:

"My arrows are rusty, forget the bow"

The arrows rusted because they were metal, but forget the bow because it was wood and rotted away. (That may be obvious, but I thought it was cool). That bow, mythologically speaking, is what makes people fall in love. It gets used on Jason and Media, and it gets used on Psyche and Eros himself. Probably a mythological interpretation of the flightlines and unpredictability of love, it was a purpose for Eros, and this single line conveys a loss of purpose as time has shifted, and the song attributes that to the pain of Aphrodite.

This is especially powerful because Grace's entire journey is finding her own purpose, and she can empathise with that. If you get invested in Grace's story, there's a high likelihood you will empathise with this as well.

But the line that sums up the themes the most comes in The Trial:

"Give it time you'll find even an island drifts. You don't notice 'cause it only moves in teeny, tiny shifts."

Stray Gods is about the small moments, because Stray Gods is about choices. You make decisions, you accept the consequences. But sometimes you get so caught up in the small things and you don't understand or see what they all lead to.

You are defined by your choices, for better or worse. And sometimes you look back on yourself and don't recognise who you were or who you have become. And it's important to do so, because the moments keep coming. Even now, there is the choice to change for the better, even when all is lost, you can make a choice. And that choice will be remembered as a tiny moment that might just change your life.

Final Thoughts

This musical is phenomenal and my greatest respect to Austin Wintory for the music, David Gaider for the writing, and everyone else involved.

This is game niche, and that is a strength. It's a Greek mythology, murder mystery, musical, coming of age story, video game. But it zeroes in on its heart, that being the small moments and choices that make a life.

This game made me laugh and cry and sing along. It made me dance, and brought about some fantastic memories, and that's the best praise I can offer it.

Thank you to all those who have read my posts and fed my ego. I put out a request for y'all's opinions on this and while I admittedly overestimated how many responses to that call I would get, it was fun seeing what y'all thought and working that into the final analysis. I am eternally grateful to those who offered their thoughts. I might do it again for other series of analysis that I do.

But this isn't it for my analysis of musicals. In the new year, I plan to take a look at Wicked, so stick around if that interests you.

#rants #literary analysis #literature analysis #stray gods #character analysis #greek mythology #what's so special about...?#stray gods musical #grace x freddie #stray gods the roleplaying musical #stray gods spoilers #stray gods the musical #stray gods grace #life is lived in the little moments #meta #meta analysis

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sweatertheman · 8 months ago

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Susie and Dragon Blazers

so, you know how dragon blazers is meant to be this in-universe version of undertale/deltarune? and how the M.O. of the game deltarune seems to be deconstructing video games as a medium, and the way people interact with them?

right, so, susie has played dragon blazers. regardless of susie's home situation, its possible for her to be a "real gamer" because dragon blazers is played on handhelds (or at least has handheld ports.)

and i feel like, looking at dark worlds on the whole as an allegory for stories and video games, susie is the kind of player who connects deeply and emotionally with the stories she consumes, showing empathy for the sister character in dragon blazers 2, and treating her with respect despite her stats sucking. she treats darkners similarly, despite ralsei proudly claiming that darkners are a natural slave race. even if she were to learn that they are personirications of objects and abstract concepts, she would still likely treat them as though they are real people, and respect their desires and rights as best she can. Susie is the kind of person who plays Undertale, connects deeply with the characters, and doesn't pick it up again after beating true pacifist.

This makes sense. for a story about fiction, how it works, and how we relate to it, it makes sense to have characters in the story represent how certain kind of people interact with fiction.

i wonder if other characters line up with this concept?

#deltarune #susie deltarune

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intoloopin-archive · 11 months ago

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LOOP GOES DISCO #1 - "THE LAST PIT OF HELL IS AN ASSHOLE'S HOTEL BATHROOM."

A SERIES REWRITE OF DISCARDED SCENES USING DISCO ELYSIUM GAME MECHANICS/LINGO.

TWS: Drug use. Cursing. Self deprecating language. Fighting. Forced vomiting. Blood. Feelings being expressed weirdly at inappropriate times (???).

CONTEXT: This is rewrite of a missing scene from END AT ME: it's a glimpse at the Hell party that caused Minwoo to call Taesong on July 14th going 15th + what proceeded the final motel scene by 4 to 6 hours.

starring: Bang Minwoo. Xu 'J.J' Jiahang.

word account: 3.8K / 3,848 words.

writer's note: OKAY, SO! To anyone who's unfamiliar on how DE functions, fear not: this works as it's own thing. But to hopefully get you into the right mood, I'll link a video to the game's intro as well as the skill sheet out of detail so you can grasp what's being evoked here. Most skills have been adapted to fit this new setting and Minwoo's own psychology anyway, so understanding how they function in game or not (hopefully!) won't take away from any fun of this psyche dive. With that being said! Good read! This is the most fun I had all week!

THE ASSHOLE’S HOTEL BATHROOM - Filled with too many soap cabinets and a candelabra for a lamp – things of value but no *practical use* – the Asshole’s Hotel Bathroom looks exactly like you expect it to. To put it simply it's a fancy, cold and soulless shit deposit.

REACTION SPEED (Easy: Success) - Like your goddamn man.

EMPATHY (Challenging: Success) - Like *them*, your man’s ‘friends’, who share no traits with him. Not an hinch of loyalty to anything or anyone.

YOU - You inspect Jiahang, the said man – just a man, his own man – that you have an arm's hold of, dragging along behind you. He doesn’t want to come into the Asshole’s Hotel Bathroom, of course not. He doesn’t want to leave The Party and its Party People either, but he must be surgically extracted from them. He must be attended to, immediately.

ESPRIT DE CORPS (Medium: Fail) - You still have no idea why he jumped on to take what the asshole man offered you, why he tried to bargain your way out of the room at the expense of his already too dazed system, with a dry gulp of a too big pill ill meant for you, putting on a show so you could leave.

INTERFACING (Easy: Success) - As if you would ever choose to escape out of any Hell without him – as if you could make out of any labyrinth without your North Star.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY (Easy: Success) - God, he’s beautiful even while bone deep in physical discomfort. That’s art in real fucking staggering movements, all live, full color. He has mastered the sweet, sweet pain it takes to *be* music. He has beat you at your own game, Minwoo love. Beat you right up. *Beat you good*.

LOGIC (Easy: Success) - Whatever is that he swallowed, he needs it out of his system. Now.

YOU - You lock the door behind you, let his pulse go. You both stand in discrepant different examples of equilibrium at the center of the room.

VISUAL CALCULUS (Easy: Success) - The toilet has its lid already set open, like a paid extra.

“What were you thinking?!”

“You need to throw up. *Now*.”

No talking. No time to waste. Reach forward. Be of help.

YOU - You take an unfocused step forward, leaving two feet between Jiahang and you. The proximity accomplishes nothing: your fingers trail millimeters over his chest, failing to check anything, just shaking.

JIAHANG - "Minwoo hyung, c’mon… Calm down, okay, calm down… I can… take it, I’m alright…," Jiahang’s marijuana voice is something deeper in tone and lighter in sound, close to a whisper. He takes pauses to hold in anxious, misplaced laughs. “It’s not my… First rodeo, so… Calm down…”

LOGIC (Easy: Success) - He’s not new to drugs, that’s what he meant. Both in general, and with today’s doctor’s prescription: weed, cocaine, maybe, and the other thing, the white pill.

ENCYCLOPEDIA (Easy: Success) - You knew this already. You pretended not to, for someone’s sake – you don’t remember who, now – but it’s become obvious to you early on. How could it not when it’s *you*, a Guryo son who knows what to seek for when telling… *high risk riders* apart from any crowd.

LOGIC (Easy: Success) - And yet you did nothing to put a stop to it. You let it come to this. This is as much as your fault as it is the asshole man’s. You’re a fucking asshole man, Asshole Man.

YOU - Your head bends downwards, away from him, away from direct view.

INLAND EMPIRE (Medium: Success) - Because it pains you; the sight of him pains you. It always has. Every inch of his body is a light that cuts right through your retinas, close to being fatal.

DRAMA (Easy: Success) - By God, he’s made you just as blind as the piano and guitar have. *He really is music*.

“Why are you, out of everyone, making stupid fucking decisions?!”

Give me something else. I won’t say that.

YOU - Give me something else. I won’t say that.

HALF LIGHT (Challenging: Fail) - Oh? And why the fuck not?

It’s not what he needs to fucking hear now, shit Head!

The night’s been already harsh enough. Try to be kind or something, fuck Hell.

Please, *please* don’t make me say it. I don’t wanna say it.

YOU - It’s not what he needs to fucking hear now, shit Head!

HALF LIGHT (Challenging: Fail) - Well, fuck-o, this is all you got. Have you forgotten who you are? You’re a brute and ruthless son of a gun. Shoot-words-to-kill, that’s the Bang Minwoo pattern of speech. You know nothing else.

“Why are you, out of everyone, making stupid fucking decisions?!”

[COMPOSURE CHECK: IMPOSSIBLE (3% CHANCE).] Breath.

[LOGIC CHECK: GODLY (27% CHANCE).] Come up with something else. Something soothing. *Anything*.

LOGIC CHECK: FAILURE. - As you search your oceanic brain for a cohesive, less deadly set of words, you find nothing but a dark void and the defeating sound of static. You’re tongue tied. You’re jaw set. You’re furious. You’re terrified. You’re only half inside your own body.

PAIN THRESHOLD (Impossible: Fail) - The smell of urine and powder mixed together, coming straight off the toilet to your nose. The sensation of being too small, too impotent inside a big room that you’ve never seen so big. The body of a loved one shivering close, mad with fever.

INLAND EMPIRE (Challenging: Fail) - It’s all too familiar, isn’t it now, crack baby?

[-1 MORALE.]

THE AWARENESS OF THE LOOP - TIME IS A FLAT FUCKING CIRCLE, AND YOU DREW ITS LINE THEN, AND YOU DREW ITS LINE NOW!

“Why are you, out of everyone, making stupid fucking decisions?!”

[COMPOSURE CHECK: IMPOSSIBLE (1% CHANCE).] Breath.

COMPOSURE CHECK: EPIC FAIL. - Thinking of breathing only makes your breathing worse. Stop. Thinking. Of. It. STOP. IMMEDIATELY.

[-1 PHYSICAL.]

“Why are you, out of everyone, making stupid fucking decisions?!”

YOU - “Why are you, out of everyone, making stupid fucking decisions?!”

JIAHANG - Slowly, as if he’s hearing you with a 15 second delay, Jiahang looks up at you with his big stars for eyes, embedded in a sea of red. “What..?”

“You–! Jesus Christ, you fucking heard me, Jiahang!”

YOU - “You–! Jesus Christ, you fucking heard me, Jiahang!”

“I can’t deal with you having a crash, I can’t witness that sort of *shit*! You know why I fucking can’t!”

YOU - “I can’t deal with you having a goddamn crash, I can’t witness that sort of *shit*! You know why I fucking can’t!”

JIAHANG - The delay’s gone, it seems: in front of you, Jiahang flinches, withers, pressing his tiny lips close together.

AUTHORITY (Challenging: Success) - BE CALM. He’s scared, but not of you – only of himself, what he’s done, and what you might think of him now.

EMPATHY (Medium: Success) - And he’s ashamed of what he took you back to, now that he realizes – the razor sharp flashes of your once uncle seem to flow between you telepathically.

THE BLURRY PHOTO INSIDE YOUR WALLET - *GOODSPEED, BANG WOOHYUN – BELOVED BROTHER, ADORED SON, TRUE FATHER. AND MAY GOD LAY YOU TO REST KINDLY.*

CONCEPTUALIZATION (Medium: Success) - He’s always scared of what people might think of him. It’s his Achilles tendon. When it comes to you, the fear of letting down goes hand in hand with an old, too familiar grief.

UNTRACEABLE RUSH OF DOPAMINE - Tell him. Tell him what we think of him, now and always. It’s time.

“I just don’t get– You or, or! You’re supposed to be music, for shit’s sake! Whatever the fuck that means!”

Don’t make me do this to me now.

I don’t fucking know what I think, alright?! Not about him, not about anything anymore! *I don’t know!* And I don’t want to know! I don’t give a shit! I never fucking have!

YOU - I don’t fucking know what I think, alright?! Not about him, not about anything anymore! *I don’t know!* And I don’t want to know! I don’t give a shit! I never fucking have!

DRAMA (Easy: Success) - Alright, sire, alright. Don’t open the Pandora’s Box that is your stone heart, if you’re too much of a pussy to see what’s been growing inside. Suit your weak self, take the coward’s road. Just be careful not to fall too hard while embarking on this deep, deep sink of yours into that old, old Egyptian river.

ENCYCLOPEDIA (Legendary: Success) - That old Egyptian river is called the Nile river. Say it's determiner and name three times quickly out loud. The joke writes itself.

INLAND EMPIRE (Easy: Success) - Not a easier joke to decipher than *you*, of course, Bang Man.

JIAHANG - It takes him a while, but Jiahang eventually recovers; straightens his spine up, grows back to big. “If you can’t see it, then… leave, then. You can… do that. You brought me my bag, I– I took the *thing* for you, you’re free– free to go. So go on. Turn around, just turn– turn around, if that’s what… what you want so bad!”

[VOLITION RED CHECK: IMPOSSIBLE (0% CHANCE). YOU CAN’T RETRY IT.] Leave.

I can’t leave him.

“I can’t leave you!”

YOU - I can’t leave him.

PERCEPTION (Heroic: Fail) - Ah, yes. That you have no strength to do. It's as simple as that.

“I can’t leave you – not like this!”

“I can’t leave you – not with them!”

“I just *can’t leave you*!”

YOU - “I can’t leave you, Jiahang – not like this!”

JIAHANG - You see a frown show up on his forehead as he mouths ‘like this’, like it’s an insult, but doesn’t say it. What he does say is a frustrated, confused plea of, “Then what, Minwoo? Then *what*?!”

HAND/EYE COORDINATION (Easy: Success) - Oh, sire. You know exactly what you must do.

[SUGGESTION CHECK: FORMIDABLE (38% CHANCE).] Convince Jiahang to throw up. Keep talking. He’s giving in.

[REACTION SPEED CHECK: CHALLENGING (65% CHANCE).] Make him throw up. You’ve lost too much damn time already with all this fucking talking.

[PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT RED CHECK: IMPOSSIBLE (1% CHANCE). YOU CAN’T RETRY IT.] Shove him into the bathtub and turn on the ice cold shower. Let the thermal shock overwhelm him, then make him throw up there. It’s risky, but it feels like the way.

REACTION SPEED CHECK: FAIL. You raise your arms and grab him suddenly by the elbows, catching him visibly by surprise – and it all goes quickly downhill from there.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT (Challenging: Epic Fail) - Your limbs struggle to make him bend any way, let alone to the direction of the toilet or the floor. Under your feet, the humid ground keeps you from grounding yourself enough to make any of this work. Nothing’s in your favor. You realize your mistake too late.

RHETORIC (Easy: Success) - You should have thought this through. Jiahang is, after all, much taller than you – and much too cherished for your hands to dare squeeze or scratch.

YOU - Your fingers let go without you telling them to. Bad equilibrium disrupted, Jiahang slips on the wet tiles and falls sideways, head bumping with the toilet’s unforgiving ceramic, nose first, sound second: a horrible cry out of pain you heard just once.

[CRITICAL MORALE DAMAGE.]

[CRITICAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE.]

YOU - DEAR GOD. MY DEAR GOD.

EMPATHY (Medium: Success): DON’T SHUT DOWN – YOU CAN’T. IT MAKES YOU MORE VICIOUS. YOU DIDN’T MEAN TO: HE MUST KNOW YOU DIDN’T MEAN TO. RUSH TO PROVE IT– HELP!

JUMP TO HELP!

YOU - YOU JUMP TO HELP! You’re on your knees quicker than you’ve ever been, palming his back, his shoulder.

JIAHANG - He glimpses at you sideways, then hides his face away, turning it to the opposite side. A lonely stream of blood drips from his left nostril, and he rushes to cover it with his trembling hand. You notice; you hear a sob.

RETHORIC (Heroic: Fail) - You’re a wordsmitch, fuck face, or are you not?! SAY SOMETHING. FIX THIS.

“Fuck, you– You didn’t give me *any other choice*, like!!!”

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so sorry so so sorry I’m sorry sorry!!!!!!”

Fuck it. Focus on the mission. Put your fingers down his throat. Count damages later.

YOU - Make the worst worth it, you think, as you scoopes his face in.

LOGIC (Medium: Fail) - Will it even accomplish anything? The white pill’s been in his system for over 20 minutes, not to mention all the rest, a pool party of shit in his bloodstream. Anyhow: better safe than sorry, you assume – you pray.

YOU - You fight to get your fingers into his mouth, meet a wall of teeth, a resistence of tongue; it opens after you let out a small curse, like a castle’s gate.

SUGGESTION (Easy: Success) - So *this* is how it feels.

PERCEPTION (Medium: Success) - Under you, he’s stopped moving. Jiahang has no real strength or deep desire to push you out or hurt you. He might even understand the invasion, under the haze; be grateful for it, even.

YOU - You feel it when it comes, a stream of bile. You remove your hand and wipes it on your trousers, sees Jiahang bending over to sit and spill sick yellow vomit for seconds, a minute.

ENCYCLOPEDIA (Easy: Success) - Even though you’ve hurt him not a second ago – it wasn’t even the first time, either – he hasn’t bitten a single finger of yours off when he had the chance. Not a follower of the Eye For an Eye school of thinking, this pupil of yours, despite your suffocating influence. That’s good. You’re nothing but a bad preacher of a bad religion.

JIAHANG - When he’s done spitting and coughing, Jiahang begins to curl into himself, turning into a quiet small ball on the floor, too close to the release pool.

“I’m sorry. It was the only way– I’m sorry.”

“Jiahang-ah, please, let me take a look at you – Let me look at you, *please*.”

[AUTHORITY CHECK: EASY. 92% CHANCE.] “Show me your nose, now.”

AUTHORITY CHECK: SUCCESS.

YOU - “Show me your nose, now.”

PERCEPTION (Easy: Success) - He does, without a fight, lying on the floor with his head facing the ceiling. It’s bad, the bruise – the damage. You help guide him to sit up straight as he can.

YOU - You extend your hand to the side, up– The toilet paper dances off the holder as you push it, and it rolls away. You get enough of it to wrap it over your open palm three times, to make an amateur glove. You wipe the trace of blood off his mouth as gently as you can.

JIAHANG - “I’m such a… mess, just so–!” He cries, suddenly; a dam of tears, hot and uncontainable. “Awful, *awful* thing, disgusting fucking– fucking *thing*!”

“I know. I know exactly what you are.”

“That’s not all there is to you, baby, it’s not all there is to you at all, listen to me, honey, *listen*, **please listen**.”

“You could be worse.”

YOU - “You could be worse.”

JIAHANG - This gets his attention. “How even– Worse how?” Jiahang asks, mid hiccup, mid wail. “Give me one– One fucking example, if you… can. Can you? You *can’t*, can you?!”

SHIVERS (Medium: Success) - Around you and around him, The Party keeps on going, like a nonstop train. Your ears attune themselves to the purr of it – it's a habit. You’re too often outside rooms buzzing with life, only listening in through paper thin walls, missing the experience of it.

EMPATHY (Heroic: Success) - No one has come to check on him, you both have realized – Jiahang a minute faster than you. None of his Party People friends give a flying fuck. The reality is falling down on him like a skyscraper, crushing, breathtaking, killer.

AUTHORITY (Legendary: Success) - LET THE OUTSIDE WORLD GO QUIET. THERE IS SOMETHING HE WANTS TO HEAR YOU SAY.

[REACTION SPEED RED CHECK: IMPOSSIBLE (11% CHANCE.) YOU CAN’T RETRY IT.] Start listing the real world things that are worse than him. (There’s a ton, and you know them intimately – and you know him intimately. Give Jiahang something else to weep for.)

[DRAMA RED CHECK, IMPOSSIBLE (9% CHANCE.) YOU CAN’T RETRY IT.] Start listing the unreal, out of this world things worse than him – the ones you’ve seen in your open eyed dreams. (Not as many options, but a tad lighter. Make the sadness disappear, bring anything close to a laugh back. Be the mad man for a great cause.)

[INLAND EMPIRE RED CHECK: LEGENDARY (26% CHANCE). YOU CAN’T RETRY IT.] “You could be like me. I’m worse than you’ll ever be.” (The truth. It can only hurt you.)

Say nothing.

INLAND EMPIRE CHECK: SUCCESS.

YOU - “You could be like me. I’m worse than you’ll ever be.”

LOGIC (Challenging: Success) - There is nothing worse than you, False Prophet, Fake Noah. Obsessed with connecting melodies, speaking truthfully only through rhyme schemes on pieces of paper that meet no one, only the bottom of trash cans or the back of your hard pillow. You’re not functional. You’re no leading man. You’re no good.

INLAND EMPIRE (Medium: Success) - But it feels good, doesn’t it? To finally admit how rotten you are after a whole life of pretending you’re a giving three, a good soil.

EMPATHY (Challenging: Success) - To say to someone who knows it, understands it, and stays.

[+1 MORALE]

Wait, I gained a fucking morale point from THAT?!

YOU - What the actual fuck?!

RHETORIC (Medium: Success) - You’re neck deep into shit, pal. Just count your win. It’s only a consolidation medal, nothing more, nothingbless – kiddo needs his fake prizes to fill his kiddo fuel.

JIAHANG - “But… I feel like you already,” he tells you. “All the time, hyung… All the time, I feel like you– Angry, and upset, and– and so lonely.”

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT (Easy: Success) - Wait, what’s that taunting your face, blocking your neck…? Oh, fucking Hell…! You’re crying! You’re nodding at him and crying!

AUTHORITY (Impossible: Fail) - HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU CRYING?! You don’t do that anymore, you’ve forgotten how. Revoke it. Revoke it along with all this sweat taking over your body.

“Don’t you dare say that.”

“I’m sorry, Jiahang. This is not– Not what I wanted to happen.”

“Just– Give me a minute, God, give me a minute!”

YOU - “I’m sorry, Jiahang. This is not– Not what I wanted to happen.”

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT (Easy: Success) - The tears prickle your eyes, actually turn you momentarily blind. You blink, hard, adjusting to their salt. It reminds you of how hard to stomach you are, inside out.

PAIN THRESHOLD (Medium: Success) - And it reminds you of how much saltier you’ve used to be. The tears are already falling off your sad sockets, sire – let them.

[+1 PHYSICAL.]

JIAHANG - “It’s not so bad, right, I think, to have… Turned into *this*, because– You’re no longer… lonely, and… Neither am I, right…? We can both be happy with that, be happy…” He doesn’t finish speaking; just closes his eyes, closes his mouth.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY (Medium: Fail) - We like the visual he’s evoking, Minwoo love. Picture the two of you, holding hands, walking right into the dooming sun– Oh, oh! Romeo and Romeo, tongue deep into each other’s poison bitter throats!!!

EMPATHY (Medium: Success) - Your man’s not right. He’s fading. This isn’t the Jiahang you want; most importantly, this isn’t the Jiahang that *Jiahang wants*. This is no good, Minwoo.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY (Medium: Fail) - It’s as close as we'll ever get to having any Jiahang *at all*. Enjoy it! We should kiss him now. Seal this deal right up. Two shots of Marriage In Misery and a whole bottle of Honeymoon On The Floor (Animal Style) coming *right the fuck up*, sign it to the wingless lovebirds right there, near the piss jar!!!

EMPATHY (Medium: Success) - Let go of his hand. Check his eyes. Help him up.

INLAND EMPIRE (Legendary: Fail) - Or perhaps this is the time for you to leave. You shouldn’t have ever touched him, to begin with. You shouldn’t have spoken a single word beyond ‘Goodbye’ to this man when he was still a graduating boy. You shouldn’t have made him think that he needed to cling to ruination to shine. You shouldn't have come to know any of them.

Kiss Jiahang. (ANIMAL FUCKING STYLE!!!)

Check Jiahang up (medically.), then help him up. You both need to leave the Asshole's Hotel Bathroom and The Asshole’s Hotel all together.

Walk away – Just walk away. His shortness of breath seems contagious. It’s sticking to your lungs.

YOU - It takes no effort to untangle your hands from his, to place them both on his cheeks, tend to the temperature.

ENCYCLOPEDIA (Challenging: Success) - His skin is at 110 degrees, to be precise. The lucky-unlucky number, if you’ll believe it.

LOGIC (Medium: Success) - It’s a mind and body turmoil. I’m afraid you can do nothing about it.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, *DO NOTHING*?! FUCK OFF.

I can do something, I– I feel it.

I refuse to let him fall. I reject it.

YOU - I refuse to let him fall. I reject it.

INLAND EMPIRE (Medium: Success) - Cute, my lord, but still not enough. You might as well swear to become a whole different man, in your desperation, if you want to make this medicine of yours come true – transform into a superhuman, super empathic man suit. Like the Taesong Taesong thinks he is.

Good, I’ll swear on it, I’ll be it – I've been waiting for an excuse to tend to the internal damage and start a renovation. This is will be my new wallpaper.

No, don’t swear on it, fool – There’s no need to be extreme. *There’s no guarantee it will work*.

YOU - No, don’t swear on it, fool – There’s no need to be extreme. *There’s no guarantee it will work.*

ENCYCLOPEDIA (Challenging: Success) - Exactly. Hold your horses, Bang Man. Take this promise in. You never tried to be anything besides what you are now. You’re a 26-year-old hound – in dog years that’s 116 to 128 years of living. There’s no space inside your head for new tricks, new instincts.

DRAMA (Easy: Success) - You’re chained to a wall, my liege. You have to tear it the fuck down, and clean the concrete aftermath, and rise from the ashes of it – full Fenix style. Fail at that and you’ll be here again, if not in this asshole’s hotel bathroom, then another asshole’s hotel bathroom; if not with him, then with someone else, just as meaningful. You got the need for change, now? The need to compromise the fuck out of you?!

AUTHORITY (Heroic: Success): Say you got it now.

Fine. I guess I got it now.

I got it! I fucking got it, goddammit!

I understand.

YOU - I understand.

INLAND EMPIRE (Challenging: Success) - My, oh my… It seems you really do.

THE AWARENESS OF THE LOOP - *OH?* OH! THIS IS A REAL STEP, THIS IS SOMETHING – OH, THIS IS *REALLY SOMETHING NOW*, LITTLE MOON, WHAT A MAGNIFICENT EFFORT! THIS IS PROGRESS YOU’RE HOLDING THE HAND OF, AND IT’S PLEASED TO MEET YOU AT LAST, SO PLEASED TO MEET YOU! THE THING ABOUT IT– THE THING WITH PROGRESS, SHARP-TOOTHED ONE, IS THAT THERE IS NEVER ANY INGLORIOUS END – THERE’S NO END TO IT AT ALL!

[HIDDEN TASK, ‘TAKE THE 1ST STEP OF A 100 INTO METAMORPHOSIS’, COMPLETE.]

[+30 EXPERIENCE.]

[YOU CAN LEVEL UP A SKILL NOW.]

[END?]

[END.]

#&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ extras .#&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ writing .#fictional idol community #fake kpop group #kpop au #kpop fanfic #kpop oc #I'm just a girl having fun!!!!!

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zynart · 8 months ago

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empathy machines & other-selves simulators

this is an excerpt from the much longer essay: “book lovers” don’t love anything about books and it’s weird (or, defending classic novels)

the concept of the empathy machine was coined, to my knowledge, by roger ebert referring to movies. art forms in general have the power to be empathy machines, compassion machines, tenderness machines, sympathy machines. empathy as feeling what it's actually like to be someone else, compassion as understanding that someone else also feels things you feel, tenderness as feeling seen and empathised with, sympathy as sorrow and commiseration because you see someone else, maybe the exact way you'd define them might be different but let's phrase them clumsily like this. the machine doesn't operate by itself, it needs you to plug directly into it, and the machine works differently based on your own nature and what you put into it and how you engage with it. most art has the capability to be empathy machines for someone empathetic willing to engage enough, but the barrier of entry is different

the magic of books is that they are a special kind of empathy machine that puts you directly inside the mind of another human being, almost like an other-selves simulator. other-interiority simulator, other-inner-self simulator, whatever you'd like to call it. which makes them uniquely powerful as an empathy machine, even compared to other types of art. how it feels to be someone else is the most unbreakable, most fundamental barrier in existence. it's the AT fields from evangelion and the argument for the human instrumentality project, the impenetrability of that barrier is the reason for wallfacers in the three-body problem, its how sufis and ascetics fall in love with god when nobody else but the omniscient can ever ever truly know what it's like to be you and feel what you feel

this can't be conveyed in the same way in mediums like movies or plays where the medium itself is from an external point of view and is viewed through this barrier of the mind, and is harder to convey in structured forms like poetry which may not be able to capture the endless variety of form and expression within our thoughts and feelings and experiences (or, going back to kundera, the freedom of form within the novel as enabling polyphony). i think the closest art forms in that sense may be music, which also has a relative freedom of form and the ability to express depths of feeling both individually and through the interaction of music with words and even the sequencing of tracks across an album, and video games, which may not directly put you in the mind of someone else the way books do and which may at first glance seem like they belong alongside movies in being seen through the AT field but where the difference is that in a video game your character makes *choices* and you feel how it feels to make those choices as an agent — even if you're not inhabiting someone else's thoughts, you're feeling how it feels to be someone who experienced and did certain things and made certain choices. but i think there's still plenty about books that is unique. the empathy machine has to be collaborative, your imagination is a necessary creative or generative aspect for it to be a novel and not just a report of events

booktok/booktwt "book lovers" often act like books have some kind of sacred and mystical power but don't seem to be able to justify this idea in how they engage with literature, beyond this sense of books as an identity signifier or aesthetic or accessory. but books do have a certain sacred and mystical power — that they are invitations, almost portals, you could call them pensieves even, where someone gives you a window into another mind. (not just the writer's own mind — the mirror of books as an empathy machine is how even writing itself is an empathy machine of an activity that asks the writer to empathize up a creation — which is also partly why i think that to be a good writer you should also be a good reader).

in much of online, the idea that any book or piece of media that isn’t personally relatable would naturally be boring and impossible to connect with is so widely accepted that it’s never even really a point of dispute. i want to say it should be, and that we should start disputing it. because i think the magic of books and fiction in general is that it’s a way for you to exercise your empathy muscles. the characters or settings don’t have to be “relatable” for you to be able to relate to it: it’s just about stretching your capacity for empathy a little bit, inhabiting someone different from you with a life different from yours, seeing the world through their eyes, and ultimately learning something about yourself, the world, and humanity as a result. i think it’s important to make this argument forcefully and not let this narcotic view of art — that it’s natural and expected for us to only be able to enjoy art that is relatable, that relatability is a merit and unrelatability is a flaw in itself — not become even more hegemonic.

if you liked this, you might like some of my other pieces:

there are things we owe to each other (and calling selfishness “self-care” is a bullshit excuse) | humanity is worth loving, humans are worth saving | ok, fine, my social justice politics feel a bit like religion sometimes and that’s ok | i trained a neural net on 10,000 irony-poisoned tweets and it just gave me cringe? | stop complaining about SJWs and try a little empathy

what makes someone good, bad, cancelled, or redeemed? i don’t know either! | there’s no grand unified theory of morality that can tell me why i should forgive my mother. but i do | please tell me if you have a definitive answer on what makes someone a bad person

what makes it all worth it for you? (or: florence welch was right) | i just want to become someone who can find something that gives me peace | after the deluge (short story) (dispatch from an island state post climate apocalypse) | poetry piece 1

#literature #books #novels #writing #fiction #lit #literary fiction #booktwt #booktok #booklr

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skaruresonic · 10 months ago

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you can just taste the salt pouring from this man lmao. I only dismissed an entire medium as never being able to be art, why are you all whining

1.) Myst released in 1993, the same year as Sonic CD. Calling it an example of games "from the infancy of the form" following the video game market crash of the '80s is laughable

2.) "I particularly didn't want to play one right now, this moment, on demand" - uwu I just shittalked this entire-ass medium and now people are saying I should try to know what I'm talking about before I talk about it and I don't wannaaaaa

This is just. Rude? Idk how else to put it. Your friend goes to the trouble of offering to fetch a game and a console for you, installing everything necessary to set it up - even offering to send the console back to Sony when you're done so you don't have to spend a single dime - and your response is to make some excuse as to why you can't do it.

You could have just said "no," Roger.

yeah it's almost like talking out of your ass "purely on theoretical grounds" without engaging with the thing you're slagging off makes you seem too ignorant to hold a valid view on the thing you're slagging off. or something.

also "This is the gratitude you get for responding to comments at all" lol these salt levels could dry out the Dead Sea

my man has never heard of video games with linear narratives before

Billy cracked dick jokes, Ebert. Billy wrote his plays to appeal to the common people's interests, Ebert.

then why are you talking about video games if you don't want to be told to play one? real "I'm a Sonic fan who hasn't played the games, stop telling me to play the games you're picking on me" energy

The fuck is up with this weird capitalistic pitting of one art form against another? This isn't some zero-sum game where literature loses if video games win. Gamers read too, Ebert. In fact, many games take inspiration from literature, such as SH2 drawing inspiration from the themes of Crime and Punishment; The Witcher being based on Andrzej Sapkowski's book; and Metro 2033 springing from the self-published book of the same name.

I could name more. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (Harlan Ellison even voiced AM!). Classic RPG Parasite Eve is a spiritual successor to Hideaki Sena's 1995 sci-fi horror novel. Beev will probably want me to add Castlevania as an example as well, taking the titular character from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Category:Video games based on novels - Wikipedia

Acting like games and literature are two disparate mediums with no overlap is... frankly, deeply disingenuous. You spoke with fucking Clive Barker, Roger, you should know this. FFS.

Besides, anti-intellectualism runs a lot deeper than New Medium Bad. It has more fascist roots than simply "The kids want to play Fortnite all day and don't want to crack open a book!"

Roger goes on this tangent about how it's difficult to find a definition of art that would preclude video games. Even the one he settles on, his view that art ought to teach him empathy for other people - which... has its limits and when taken too far, borders on requiring moral didactism in art; my man has never heard of art for art's sake - doesn't necessarily rule out games. Because video games literally require you to step into the player character's shoes.

you are such a condescending ass, oh my God. could you not?

"I don't personally know how gamers can learn about other human beings despite the entire conceit of the medium requiring you to assume the role of another person, but whatever, I'll give you guys this one because I've run out of things to say. Perhaps one day gamers will learn to have refined tastes like me, the Movie Review Man. anyway y'all losers, I got better things to do despite the fact that I typed out this wall of text poorly defending my position"

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frostfall-matches · 7 months ago

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[ matchmaking... ]

@lxrsramix : [ match report ready ]

your match is…

✦ Charlie Morningstar

-> Out of the main cast, Charlie is the one who responds best to your personality. You two are rather similar in terms of personality, so it only makes sense that she’d be able to understand you a little easier than others might. Especially being in Hell, where even Charlie is ostracized to an extent due to her friendly, optimistic, and naive nature. Your shared kindness and empathy are important bonding points for you two, allowing you to see eye-to-eye with each other since your core values are similar. You’re calmer than Charlie, though, so this brings a balance to the relationship. She can get very excitable and energetic, and sometimes that isn’t ideal in particular situations - so you’re able to be a grounding presence for her when she needs it.

-> Considering how much you love animals, she’s happy to introduce you to KeeKee. She takes care of the cat demon and spoils her as it is, but it’s really no issue if you start to pamper the little creature as well. Honestly, what matters most to Charlie is that KeeKee at least tolerates you and that you treat her respectfully - so she thinks that it is absolutely amazing that you love her so much. You’re willing to put in the effort to bond with her. And KeeKee, who is very particular about who she interacts with, grows to be very fond of you and often begs for your attention and affection. If Charlie can’t find KeeKee roaming around anywhere, chances are the little cat-like creature has attached itself to your side.

-> She LOVES seeing your art, and is your biggest supporter. No matter what stage your drawings are at (whether they’re just vague ideas, preliminary sketches, half-way done, or completed works), she loves seeing them. And she always has something complimentary and insightful to say about your art, no matter the style or medium. Charlie loves drawing as well, so she thinks that little dates where you two draw and exchange sketches in order to finish them are super cute and fun. The process itself is fun, but her favorite part is seeing the finished works at the end. There’s something about seeing your individual styles either blend together nicely, or contrast sharply. Outside of these little drawing exchange dates, she’s also sappy and sweet enough to sketch portraits of you. She ends up amassing a little collection of them, some of which she keeps for herself, and some of which she gifts to you.

-> Charlie absolutely adores all of the handmade gifts you give her, and she loves reciprocating when she can! No matter what you give her, she is super ecstatic about it. If it’s any sort of drawing, sculpture, or some little knick-knack you bought for her while you were out shopping, she proudly displays it in her room. She loves being able to decorate her space with the things that loved ones have gotten her. Since you lean towards giving her gifts, she wants to return the favor! There’s something about handmade gifts that are super special, and will absolutely strive to make you something rather than buying something for you (though she will purchase you the occasional nice gift if something catches her eye that she thinks you’ll like). Quality time is super important to her, too, especially once things start getting hectic with the hotel.

-> Charlie is a good, attentive listener and an interactive conversation partner. She’d love to hear you talk about your interests, such as your favorite video games or the latest book or story you’ve read. The two of you like different genres (as you like horror and thriller, while she prefers stories with happy endings), but she still wants to hear about whatever you’ve enjoyed. If it’s important to you, it’s important to her! As talkative and rambly Charlie gets, she is really good about giving you ample time and space to talk. And you’re not just talking to a brick wall, either - she loves asking questions and nods or makes comments to let you know that she’s still listening to you.

-> She thinks your fashion style is very cute, very unique, and very “you.” She likes the way that you often blend things that are cute and delicate with things that are more edgy and alternative. It’s a lot different from her more classy, simple style, but she just loves seeing you pick out your outfit and get ready for the day. You also put a bit more care into your outfits when the two of you go out on dates, and it’s not uncommon that the two of you head out to a café, for example. Charlie has fun scouting out more atmospheric and cozy coffee shops to provide an amazing backdrop for your chosen outfit of the day.

#user matchup #request #hazbin hotel

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cybergoth-damsel · 1 year ago

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blab about video games as a moral medium please!

Woah I asked to be reminded of something and someone actually reminded me! Sweet. ^ w ^ I just generally take umbrage with the ways people overstate the novelty of games being able to "place the viewer within a story" and "react to the viewers' choices/input." There's obviously a truth to that novelty in a very literal, pedantic sense, but none of the gestures that it allows are truly new or unique to games. I think there are plenty of well told (non game) stories that present a moral dilemma through means that inspire direct empathy rather than "taking an unaffected role as a detached observer", and on the other hand plenty of people's experiences w/ games DO end up as kind of a detached observer because gaming culture actively seems to prefer that position.

On one hand a massive strength of games is their accessibility in this way - I think a big part of the reason YA games focus so much on ludonarrative/meta storytelling is because it's an avenue into questions about art that many people don't have the luxury of discovering in other mediums with greater required reading. For people growing up with an interest in art it's a very powerful thing to discover, but people were discovering this in their personal journeys since long before video games.

I'm not saying video games aren't particularly strong at this, but they also tend to find friction with sticking the landing because games are expected to be toys first and foremost.

Like yeah "Gamers" are kind of the worst, yeah - but that's partly because the industry of video games has been sandboxed in the toy market for decades before finally opening up to hobbyists and small artists. The language that defined how we interact with games, what they are, and what we expect our experiences with them to be (in order to justify it as a Purchase) evolved to compliment their role in the market above all else. All this to say I think video games being such a common commodity is kind of a complicated double edged sword! It's weird idk.

#Hopefully this makes sense and doesnt sound dumb as shit #THanks for asking!#ask #gamedev #long post #research.txt #geckygecko

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cyberpunkonline · 1 year ago

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Exploring the Enigmatic Realm of Cyberpunk: Unraveling the Questions It Poses

Introduction

Cyberpunk, a genre that seamlessly melds the gritty elements of punk culture with futuristic, cybernetic advancements, is more than just a form of entertainment; it's a profound commentary on the human condition. This genre, emerging in the late 20th century, has since infiltrated various forms of media, each contributing uniquely to the cyberpunk ethos. From the neon-lit streets in movies like "Blade Runner" to the intricate narratives of video games like "Cyberpunk 2077", cyberpunk challenges us with existential and ethical quandaries that resonate deeply with contemporary societal issues.

Literary Beginnings: Setting the Foundation

The roots of cyberpunk are firmly planted in literature. William Gibson’s "Neuromancer", a seminal work, poses questions about the nature of consciousness and the relationship between humans and technology. Gibson’s world, where the line between reality and virtual space blurs, makes us ponder if our perception of reality is as concrete as we believe. Similarly, Philip K. Dick’s "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", adapted into the iconic film "Blade Runner", questions the essence of humanity and empathy, challenging us to consider what truly makes us human.

Cinematic Ventures: Visualizing Dystopia

In cinema, cyberpunk takes a more visceral form. "Blade Runner" (1982) and its sequel "Blade Runner 2049" depict a future where synthetic humans question their creators, raising ethical issues about creation and the rights of artificial beings. Meanwhile, "The Matrix" trilogy delves into the concept of simulated reality, pushing us to question the very nature of our existence and the possibility of a reality controlled by AI.

Television and Anime: Expanding Narratives

Television series and anime have significantly contributed to the cyberpunk genre. "Altered Carbon" explores themes of identity and morality in a world where consciousness can be transferred to different bodies. Anime like "Ghost in the Shell" interrogate the boundaries between human and machine, while "Akira" exposes the consequences of unbridled technological advancement and societal decay.

Gaming Worlds: Interactive Exploration

Video games offer an interactive dimension to cyberpunk themes. "Cyberpunk 2077", despite its rocky start, immerses players in a world where cybernetic enhancements are the norm, confronting issues of corporatism, identity, and the augmentation of the human body. Similarly, "Deus Ex" series allows players to navigate a future rife with conspiracy, ethical dilemmas, and the consequences of human augmentation.

Music and Art: Auditory and Visual Symbolism

Cyberpunk's influence extends into music and art, where it adopts an auditory and visual language that communicates its themes. Bands like Perturbator and Carpenter Brut, through their synthwave music, encapsulate the neon-drenched, dystopian essence of cyberpunk. Art, particularly in the digital and graphic novel realms, often depicts sprawling, neon-lit cityscapes and cybernetically enhanced characters, visually representing the genre’s core themes.

Conclusion: Reflecting Our Current Realities

Cyberpunk is more than a speculative fiction genre; it's a mirror reflecting our current realities and anxieties. It questions the unchecked growth of technology, the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, and the socio-political consequences of corporate dominance. In every medium it touches, cyberpunk compels us to ponder our future, our humanity, and the increasingly blurred line between the two. Whether through the pages of a novel, the scenes of a movie, the episodes of an anime, or the interactive realms of video games, cyberpunk continues to challenge, provoke, and inspire.

- REV1

#cyberpunk #reality

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graciellasamma · 1 year ago

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RvB x KR Kiva: Frøy Kurenai

(All of this pics don’t belong to me)

Status:

Name: Frøy Kurenai

Nickname: Rouge, Cross, Kid, Brat

Name Meaning:

- Frøy: Freyja, the goddess of love and fertility in Norse mythology

- Kurenai: Crimson

Codename: Agent Rhode Island, CrossFire, Kiva

Alias: Kamen Rider Kiva, The Youngest Soldier, Hawkeye, Speedster

Age: 22

Birthdate: 25th December 2536

Pronouns: He, him, his

Sexuality: Male

Appearance:

Species: Fandiri (Half Human/Half Fangire)

Skin Tone: Fair Skin

Weight: 177 cm

Height: 67.7 kg

Scars: Burn mark from his left side of his body from his waist all the way up to his neck and to his left hand

Hair Color: Black

Hair Style: Short neck-length spiky and choppy with his bangs to the left side

Eye Color: Crimson Red

Capabilities: Magic trick, Trick shot, Pranks

Apparel: Long-sleeve black shirt, Long sleeveless red tail jacket, Long skinny jeans, High neck shoes, Black scaly scarf

Voice: Ohmori Motoki (JPN) / Sam Luff (ENG)

Stats:

Stealth: 8/10

Perception: 10/10

Agility: 8.5/10

Stamina: 8/10

Endurance: 7.5/10

Hand-to-hand combat: 8/10

Intelligence: 7.5/10

Recovery: 7/10

Luck: 7/10

Vision: 9.5/10

Hearing: 7.5/10

Social Skills:

Charisma: 7.5/10

Social Skills: 8/10

Confidence: 8.5/10

Style: 7.5/10

Humor: 8.5/10

Passion: 7.5/10

Empathy: 8/10

Kindness: 8.5/10

Honesty: 6.5/10

Loyalty: 9/10

Patience: 7/10

Flirtness: 0/10 (he doesn’t do flirt)

Equipment:

Weapon(s) of Choice: Bow and Arrow, Magnum, MA40 Assault Rifle

Secondary: BR55HB Battle Rifle, M7S SMG

Melee weapon of choice: Duel Sword, Dagger, and Combat Knife

Extra: Colored smoke bombs (for camouflage)

Armor:

Armor style: Just look at the picture (That picture is not mine)

Primary Color: Medium Sky Blue #88dae5

Secondary Color: Light Crimson #fa7393

Visor Color: Gold (Just pretend any of this color are)

AI Unit: Chruch (Alpha) & Issac (Felix): Analyzing, BioScan, Healing, Thermal X-ray, Hacking, Strength Boost

Armor Enchantments: Armor Lock, Grav Boots, Speed Boost, Holographic Projection, Stealth, Overdrive

General Information:

Weakness: Despite that Frøy known as the Ultimate Soldier for joining the military at a young age, he is still a child, not wanting his friends and family to die or fight each other.

Occupation: Freelancer (Formerly), Blue Team, Engineer, Weapons expert, Actor

Strong Suit: Weapons expert, Weapon, armor, and vehicle maintenance engineer, Freelancer training, Strategist, Archery, Sword fighting, Acting

Sexual Preference: Bisexual

Marital Status: Single

Talents: Escape Artist, Magician, Kenjustu, Kendo, Fencing, Parkour, Archery, Athletic, Acting, Musician (Violin/Guitar)

Semblance: Phantom Arms: An ability that can store items in a pocket dimension so he can summon it at any time, even during battle, which gives him a high level of flexibility in combat. He can also use it to change his clothing. He can also warp by throwing his weapon to move quickly around the field and damage his enemies.

Theme Song: Capabilities Unseen (ft. L), Supernova

Quote(s): - “Know your place!” - “The counterattack starts now!” - “Lying is the best way to protect yourself.” - “You’re right they are idiots, and I don’t mind it.” - “Have you ever tried asking if your leader needed help?” - “I only fight and take lives when I have to. And I don’t have to this time.” - “If there are feelings that are too hard to put into words, then put them into action!” - “What you truly want, will only be found at the end of a road you can stride down with pride.” - “The Kamen Riders that I know... Never compromise their values. They never lose heart. And they would never... Let anyone harm their beloved home, their people... And get away with it!”

Personality:

Likes: His friends, His family, Anime, Movies, Video Games, Weapons, Playing his violin, Hearing music, Pranks, Joking around, Trick shot, Snacks, Being a thrill seeker, Building weapon, Chicken, BBQ.

Dislikes: Pervert, Bullies, Director, Charon Hargrove, Aiden Price, Sigma, Hargrove, Wyoming and Gamma knock knock jokes, Seeing his friends and his family die or fighting each other, Jinxing, Don’t like people calling him a kid, People using his unfinished weapons.

Good Traits: Personality-wise, Frøy is a calm yet cheerful, and somewhat laid-back young man, especially around his friends, the Reds and Blues. He was considered relatively normal other than his unparalleled prodigious talent in acting even as a child and his quick wit and intelligence like reading complex books. Performing acting jobs was something he was open to and excelled at. He has a sharp mind and is perceptive, quickly adapting to any situation, and very good at studying, He makes sure he gets the job done by making sure that his friends focus on the battle, but still unsure about his future. Frøy frequently sacrifices himself for others, showing that underneath that arrogant exterior, there's a heroic and selfless man. He's also quick to point out the problems in a situation. As an actor, he is very diligent and is capable of studying and replicating any person or the character's demeanor fastidiously (from their mannerisms, speech patterns, and even thought processes), so much he was capable of triggering thoughts of the person or characters and others immediately after looking at him. Despite his childish act, Frøy's personality changes 180-degree making him calmer, calculated, and discreet whenever something is important or serious, if someone is in trouble, even a stranger, he talks to them and gives empathy and kindness, and gives them advice help them, this is to said to have a personality that draws people to him, inspiring friendship and loyalty through acts of kindness that could change a person’s world view and thus built meaningful relationships.

Bad Traits: Cocky, quick-witted, arrogant, impulsive, brashness, smart mouth, liar, childishness, and frequent attempts to pull pranks on his teammates. Frøy has a strong tendency for emotional outbursts in sour situations. When his emotions got the better of him, he became rather impulsive and reckless in his actions to the point of nearly being suicidal. This flaw negatively affects those around him, even as far as indirectly causing a few deaths. He is mostly quick to regain his composure and shows little to no fear in order to protect his friends and fight with his life on the line. Frøy is also known for being a liar, thanks to him being an actor and Wyoming teaching how to lie better for infiltrate and info-gather missions as well for his part-time job as an actor, it was thanks to his skills he was able to manipulate people for his and his friend's advantage.

Fears: Losing his friends and family

Relationships:

Parents: Otoya Kurenai (Father/Deceased), Maya Kurenai (Mother), Jiro/Garulu (Father-figure), Butch Flowers (Father-Figure), Allison Church/Beta (Mother-figure), Leonard Church/Alpha (Father-figure), Riki/Dogga (Uncle-figure)

Sibling(s): Taiga Nobori (Older Brother), Ramon/Basshaa (Little Brother-figure)

Children: None

Significant other: None

Friends: Washington, Tucker, Caboose, Sister, Doc, Carolina, Epsilon (Deceased), York, Delta, Omega/O’Mally, Niner, Sarge, Simmons, Grif, Donut, Lopez, South, Eta, North, Theta, Maine (Deceased), CT, Iota, Wyoming, Gamma, Felix, Palomo, Jensen, Bitter, Smith, Kimball, Doyle (Deceased), Megumi, Nago, Leo Vermillion, Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Aruto Hiden, Fuwa, Yua, MBJR family, Izuku Midoriya, Vice, Daiji Midoriya, Sakura Midoriya, George, Hiromi

Enemies: Director (Deceased), Counselor (Deceased), Hargrove, Meta (Deceased), Sigma (Deceased), Locus (Formerly), Felix (Formerly), Blue and Red, Chrovos, Zero, Taiga (Formerly), Bishop, Rook, Salem, Cinder, Giff, Deadmans, Imagin, MBJR.net

Allegiance(ally): Chorus

Backstory:

Frøy Kurenai is a Fandiri, a half-breed Fangire, thanks to his late-father Otoya Kurenai, who is a human, and Maya Kurenai, also known as the Queen of Fangire. He is known as the youngest soldier to joined Project Freelancer, and station to the Blue Base. When he was young his mother left him with little explanation and left him with his guardians, Jiro, Riki, and Ramon, who are actually the last survivor of Wolfen, Franken, and Merman because of Fangire King ordered his elites to kill them for some reason.

When he was at the age 7, he saw a photo of his mother and remember that his mother left him, wanting to know the reason why, he decide to leave his home and go on a search for his mother with his best friend and partner Kivat the 3rd, but without a bit falling out with his father-figure, Jiro.

During his search he was caught in a crossfire during the war, trying to help the people that also caught in the crossfire, Frøy decide to protect the people by grabbing any weapons he could find and used himself as a distraction to lead the aliens away from the people and kill them, he would have used Kivat in order to transform into Kiva but he can’t used it ‘cause the aliens can not know about the existence of the 13 Mazoku Clan as they need to be a secret.

Frøy continue to fight and kill aliens to the point of exhaustion, until he was saved by a squad of soldier from the UNSC and decide to joined the military so he could get stronger in hopes to help and protect himself and the people and maybe able to find his mom, plus, he doubt he could go back to having a normal life consider that he kill all this aliens, especially after what happen with his family after their fight and argument. After Frøy join the UNSC, he was given the codename “CrossFire” for able to fight in that incident, and he became a quick learner with weapons, combat, and engineering.

At the age of 10 he was recommended by the Director and the Counselor of Project Freelancer, thinking that he would be a huge asset for the project because of his skills and able to survive in any event as if he is an adult. Of course, there is a lot of people protest against this but Frøy decided to join the project hoping it would help him able to help people better, so he agreed and join the project as Agent Rhode Island, and was able to clime his ranks, and was able to join the Alpha Squad of the Project.

Not a lot of the Alpha Squad or any of the Agents liking that a 10 year old kid was able to show off, but as time went on, they started to warm up to the kid, even Wyoming and South started to like him, heck, Frøy started to have father and son relationship with Florida just like with Jiro, in the end, the Alpha Squad became his family. But that ended, when he was about to be 12 years old, when one of the mission that involves The Insurrection that caused him to have his burned scar and got half of his body crushed by the remaining building that collapsed during their escaped, making him suppose to be dead. (Think like Obito when first died in Naruto Shippuden)

After the mission, apparently Frøy is still alive inside of the rubble thanks to his Fangire genetic having more durable and their healing factor, so Kivat inform Jiro, Riki, and Ramon about what happen and decide to rescue Frøy consider he still alive under it. When Frøy woke up, he found himself in his room on his bed, and when he looks around he saw Jiro sitting beside his bed on a chair sleeping, he must have waiting for him to woke up. On the next day, Frøy have a meeting with his guardians to have a talk about why did they save him despite told them to leave him? Apparently despite the hurtful words, they still care for him and love him no matter how much he hates them, after all they are family, and since then, the Kiva family has been reunited at last, and Frøy decide to try going to school, to try to have a normal life and become a musician and actor just like The A-Squad wants for him, especially Florida.

The Blood Gulch Chronicles:

It has been 4 years, Frøy is 15 about to be 16 and was able to graduate middle school a year ago though he decide to do home-school instead, it has been peaceful with Frøy experience a normal life like any other teenagers do. That is until a message from his helmet from the project, that one of his friends Tex in need of help with something. Knowing someone in need of help he decide to pack some stuff and suit up his armor and go to help her, his guardians, of course, doesn’t like any of this one bit, but they respect his decision on wanting to help his friends.

When he was tracing the message, it lead him to place called Blood Gulch. That’s when he meet Tex and Church, which the both of them knows each other and Frøy. Apparently Frøy knows Tex because not only he knows her from the Project but also she is one of the soldiers from the squad who saved him from the Crossfire and he knows Church because he met him during his time in the Project when he knows him as an A.I. named “Alpha” when he’s bored or has free times to spare, he tends to spend it by hanging around with Frøy.

After that it went the same like in the canon, except when Church time travelling using the time distortion with Gamma, Church then check on Frøy and found out about him being an A.I. known as Alpha when he saw a file of evidence from the Project and his memories came back to him, and Tex met up with York and North when the Blues returned to Blood Gulch so they can help her protecting Church, Florida and Wyoming are still alive thanks to Frøy and his father-son relationship with Florida and was able make a deal with Wyoming that if he helps them making sure that Tex doesn’t have Omega then he gets to live on their surveillance, which they succeed on having Omega but Tex still explode with the ship.

After Tex gone with Gamma, Tucker son and the alien, things went peaceful for the Reds and Blues, Florida rejoins the Blue Team, York and Frøy decide to join the Blue Team while North and Wyoming decide to join the Red Team, it took time for the Reds and Blues trust on Wyoming, and him trusting on the Red and Blue, but after having a heart-to-heart with York, Delta, North, Frøy, and Church about losing Gamma, the only friend and partner he could trust, and told him about the truth of the Project, he decide to have trust on them and in exchange they trust him back.

When the relocating has started the Freelancer decide to split up to make sure that everyone is okay, York decide to join Church, North join Tucker, Wyoming join with Simmons and Grif, Florida join with Caboose, and Frøy decided to stay to keep an eye out with Lopez, Sarge, and Sister in Blood Gulch, he had a feeling that something about to get interesting here.

The Recollectioin:

It has been almost been a year since the Omega fiasco, and everything seems to be normal until Recovery One also known as Agent Washington came by in order to hunt down the Meta so he go to Blood Gulch consider there has been an A.I. sighting over there. That’s when he not only met Sarge, Lopez, and Sister but also Agent Rhode Island also known as Rouge or Frøy, they catch up until Wash explain to him his going to hunt down the Meta, and Frøy decide to help him on this mission with Sister.

Things still the same like in the canon only that Wash didn’t kill South thanks to Frøy and York stopped him when he was about to, and Church the Alpha and the rest of the A.I. fragments are alive thanks to Frøy able to convince with Wash not to use the EMP and let him handle on, and let him fight against the Meta with Church and Omega by using his enhancement unit that he made called “Overdrive.”

Overdrive, pretty much a state of hyper-focused attention and energy that enhances one’s performance and where the full extent of their talent can be expressed, when activated the users usual experiences drastic increases in sensory perceptions, coordination and reflexes, to the extent that the observable environment appears to progress in slow motion, and not only that even with single A.I. fragment, not only the users able to use multi enhancement unit but also the A.I. won’t be able to destroy themself, the down-side is that they have time limit and it only takes hour for the recharge to complete even with A.I. help, so it was a last resort sort of thing. But they were able to beat the Meta and Church was able to reset all the A.I.

After the battle Frøy and Church decide to take the fragments and return them to their respectful partner. Wash, who decide to stay making sure that they are okay and help them in anyway, came by and told him that he should go before the UNSC soldier came, consider that he is trespassing and destroy a lot of military property while Wash stay and report what happen here and if things went according to plan then Caboose should give Epsilon to the UNSC as evidence.

A year went by, and Frøy and Church reunited with the Blues, then the Reds and Blues are sent to Vahalla, South decide to join the Red Team, and everything are still the same in the canon but in this case CT or Connie is still alive thanks to a alien pod that allows her to heal any injury, and since the A.I. fragment are alive Frøy decide to have them partnered up with the rest of the Freelancer, Delta still partnered with York, Theta with North, Gamma still with Wyoming, Eta with South, Iota with Connie, Omega with Florida, and Church/Alpha and Tex/Beta with Frøy, while Sigma well let’s just Frøy and Church deleted him.

Project Freelancer:

Honestly there’s nothing change from here consider this arc mostly about Epsilon in the memory unit and a lot flashback of the Project. So yeah, everything still the same like in the canon with add my oc and all the A-Squad, minus Maine, are alive.

The Chorus Trilogy:

Nothing has changed in Season 11, other than that Frøy knew who’s Felix and Locus consider that those two were in the same squad who saved him during the Crossfire Incident, and during their separation the one with Wash group are: North, Florida, and CT while with Tucker group are: Frøy, Wyoming, South, and York.

In season 12, nothing has changed except that in my AU, Felix here is a bit difference not only he is a big Star Wars nerd and actually care for the Republic and the Reds and Blues, but also he is also the good guy in this AU because when the Reds and Blues reunited Felix accuse Tex of killing Siris who is good friend of him and Locus, their voice of reason and the glue to each other, thanks to the evidence that one of Hargrove mercenaries, Jackson (he’s pretty much like the Felix in the canon) gave him. But the truth is, Tex didn’t really kill Siris but Jackson killed him when Siris learns the truth of what Hargrove did to Felix by killing him and turn him into an A.I. and brainwash him, thinking he still a human and used him as nothing as tool later for experiment. Thanks with Frøy, Tucker, and the two Church of Alpha and Epsilon, they were able to expose the truth to Felix, the Feds, and the Republic, making Felix turn his back on Locus and Jackson, and stop the war between the Feds and the Republic.

In season 13 is quite the same nothing has changed, Epsilon still died to protect his friends and his brothers, Locus kill Jackson for turning him into a monster and letting his friends died, Frøy decide to give Tex to Carolina, Felix decide to joins the Reds and Blues and became Frøy second A.I. partner, and thanks to Felix, Frøy was able to upgrade the A.I’s making them able to run a multi-enhancement without destroying themselves and removes any limit.

Notes:

This was Inspired by this fanfiction: Friendship is Timeless by Seanzilla1988, Rosario to Kiva by Dr. Exposition, MBJR Heroes AU by Usagi_chan8, RvBvRWBY series by DocTokuMA and Ac3 Productionis, Going Native by thewhitepatch, You’re Alpha; You’re Church. by Athena_Yule, Unit Cohesion by Sroloc_Elbisivni, Finiding Washington by HBossWrites, Everyone Lives by urbaninja, and A Schrodinger State by notmadderred.

I’ll be honest guys, the moment I watch Red vs Blue, I love them and when I read the stories that inspired to make this I fell in love with them and can’t help of having a crossover of RWBY and the Kamen Rider series and their crossover fanfiction. And as you can see in the background there is no “The Shisno Paradox” arc, why? Well that’s because in this AU they don’t exist and has been replaced by an arc that I called the “RvBvRWBY Riders Horizon”.

This Arc is something like Seanzilla and his co-worker made in their Kamen Rider Crossover stories, but different? Basically, in the RvB world the Tokusatsu of Kamen Riders, Super Sentai, and Ultraman exist and there almost common knowledge, and one of the reason why the “Shisno Paradox” arc don’t exist because of who Kamen Riders I’m adding to this AU and yes, “Riders” with plural which mean I’m adding more than one Kamen Riders in this story because I couldn’t choose one of them because I love them so much, and they are: Kiva, Den-O, Revice, and Zero-One. So yeah, since the time travel with Den-O and the Shisno Paradox are a bit different, I decide to remove that arc in order to make sense.

In the RWBY world, Team RWBY and JNPR, and their newest friend Leo Vermillion, who is a Singularity Point, has been attacked by a Imagin and somehow the DenLiner appear out of nowhere and kidnap them, and before they knew, they somehow in the world of RvB and that’s when Leo and his friends meet with the owner of DenLiner and explain to them about Imagin, Den-O, and Leo being a Singularity Point, and that he has allies consider his not only one who is a Singularity Point only just they have a different power than Den-O.

When he become Den-O, that’s when they meet Frøy Kurenai as Kamen Rider Kiva and the Reds and Blues, Aruto Hiden as Kamen Rider Zero-One with the Fuwa, Yaiba, and the MBJR family, and Izuku Midoriya and Vice as Kamen Rider Revice with his adopted family, (and yes this is the Izuku Midoriya from BNHA, I really like that anime, so sue me for wanting this kind crossover) and together they became Team FLAM (Flame), and together they go on adventure where they help each defeating their enemies: Fangires, Imagin, MBJR.net, Deadmans, and Salem.

I also going to make their PKMN Team but that depends on my motivations, and have the time to make it.

I also made some short story of a scene from a couple of episode, I maybe going to make more of this but from a scene in a few of episode include the PSA episodes, so here are the list for the story if you like to read it. I hope you all like the story I made.

Previously On

Donut the Musical

#red vs blue #rvb #CrossOver #kamen rider kiva #kamen rider revice #kamen rider zero one #kamen rider den o #kamen rider #rwby #OC #Male oc #oc male #male original character #male reader #au #everyone lives au #everyone lives/nobody dies

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laciere · 1 year ago

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Bo Ruberg: In making video games about queer and trans characters, like We Know The Devil, do you draw from your own personal experiences? Aevee Bee: Yes, but it's more complicated than that. I've been thinking a lot about this idea of "empathy games." You're supposed to be able to experience what it's like to be this other person, right? To me, that sounds very similar to the confessional writing that a lot of queer artists get pushed into. It's like, "Tell us about your queerness" rather than "Create a new experience for yourself." I'm wary of confessional work, but also confessional work is just hard for me to do. I have other ways of getting at similar things. We Know the Devil is super autobiographical, but it's also about me unpacking that autobiographical history and finding alternative avenues out of it. A confessional story about my own childhood would be this static product, like, "Look at this. Here is a thing that happened. It's tragic and bad. Empathize with it."Instead, the game offers alternatives. It says, "Here's a thing that brings you in and allows you to both experience queer suffering but also to escape from it." In making a game like that, you can control and process your personal truth instead of just reproducing it. Rather than give an outsider ownership of whatever queer story I'm telling, I feel like I'm giving other queer people the ability to reclaim and control their own stories and their pasts. Maybe that's too idealistic, but a lot of people have interpreted We know the Devil as being about how they were able to process, understand, or control a queer narrative. The game has these tragic endings but then it has this really powerful, subversive final act that allows you to break through. I think that's part of the game's success. Ruberg: You make an important point about the value of designing queer games for queer players, rather than for the mainstream. Are you also interested in straight, cisgender people playing your games? Bee: I'm not trying to make games for straight people. At some point, I had the revelation that I didn't need to make work that was accessible for as wide an audience as possible. I was like, "oh wait, I can make this stuff for a niche audience and be successful." That was informed by my journalism around #GamerGate, because I was like, "Why are we making stuff for these people who don't understand, who don't want to understand, or who are actively trying to attack us for doing this sort of work?" We don't need to talk to them. Rather than putting all your energy into trying to convert the one person who is really angry on the internet, why not take that time and create work for people who actually matter? With that said, with We Know the Devil, I wrote a very honest and personal story that was true to myself and that is inherently accessible for others. The game is about women in love with other women, but a lot of folks who don't identify in that way still really relate to the narrative. If you're interested in making games, you should be thinking about it that way rather than trying to create something for some other person. Instead, be like, "I am creating this thing for myself and you are invited to participate. I am asking you to open yourself and leave behind certain assumptions." That's what good stories do. They invite you in.

"Aevee Bee: On Designing for Queer Players and Remaking Autobiographical Truth", in The Queer Games Avant-Garde: How LGBTQ Game Makers are Reimagining The Medium of Video Games (2020, Duke University Press)

#the queer games avant garde #aevee bee #we know the devil #reading log #interviews #video games #bo ruberg

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ninjastarsultimate · 2 years ago

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Why is Shadow's character so badly handled in canon modern sonic?

... is what I would say if I didn't overthink his character. Shadow the Hedgehog is oftentimes seen as a controversial character and oftentimes his lack of a defined and concrete representation leaves different canons and ideologies of Shadow the hedgehog through fanon and canon media alike.

Now, did I gather a thesis and do I have an idea of what I am saying? No. Am I an experienced fan of the Sonic the hedgehog fandom of long-term? Also no. But I like to analyze things and look over them and even research them once I get invested. My special interests conclude of majorly taking part of video games for years now.

My past experience with Sonic the hedgehog in prior years is seeing the franchise and characters from an outsiders point of view. Not fully knowing the lore or significance of characters, having the fans ideas and content being my only sources.

And honestly, the fandom is a mess. As are many fandoms. But I'd say the Sonic fanbase is a bit special. In the early years where Shadow The Hedgehog was introduced, he was shown as a character with an appeal to early teens and Angst lovers at young ages and so the fanbase took his character for what was at face value. Dark colors? Emo. Dark. Full of hatred and lack of empathy. Hates sonic. And so on forth.

And this wasn't a joke, as far as I can see, people genuinely received his character like this. Few pointed out that in reality he was more in a grey morality scale. And then, people wanted to see more of him. He died in Sonic adventure 2 as a hero, completing his story arc.

Sega was observing the fanbase. Sega was seeing how people interpreted fans by popularity. I believe they took the fan iteration of Shadow and when they went forward in making Shadow the Hedgehog, they saw the darker and more selfish exaggerated traits in the fanon interpretation of Shadow, so they adapted it. Which of course, led to a very. Very badly written choice story.

Now, Shadow the hedgehog had POTENTIAL

a game bringing back a fan favorite? Amazing. Plot twist even. But erasing all the development and hitting the audience with the SAME idea of a flawed memory? It leads to a sour taste in your mouth of plotholes leaking everywhere.

I'll make a post later focusing more on the game Shadow The hedgehog once I force myself to look more into it to give a better in depth explanation. But for now, I will just take what I know. DO NOT. TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. THIS IS MY OPINION. IF IT WERE NOT CLEAR.

Sega since then after the horrible characterization of Shadow in his own game, doomed the character of Shadow in pursuit. People realized once their fanon idea became canon, it just wasn't fun anymore. It was obvious and the matured audience who grew into the original canon Shadow were given a sore reminder of what everyone thought Shadow was. Future writers of newer games would look to Shadow the Hedgehog in order to write future sonic games including Shadow.

As fans continued being unsatisfied and complaining about his character and being split between Shadow's character in Shadow the Hedgehog versus the Sonic adventure 2 game was a prominent division including other ideas of how Shadow should be, and in all of this, Shadow soon became less and less prominent as a main.

And then. The Sega mandates.

In all truthfulness, I will continue this section in a separate post where I look more into them, but to brief it shortly, as far as I am aware, they put a certain set of guidelines to limit characters and how future writers set the characters as.

In this, they further push into the cold and distant Shadow we know today. Alongside with the aggression.

So. All this said, is his character in capability to revert to a medium? Unfortunately, fans of the original shadow will not be getting any of his older character back as far as I can see, but... there is a way to mix some of it in, meanwhile still maintaining within what sega wants Shadow to be.

Shadow has been presented to keep a calm with him in the second adventure game. Which is a trait that is seemingly erased. Shadow should have his calm attitude again. But show to be very dangerous when provoked. His overdisplayed aggression contradicts his cool demeanor he was presented with. Yes, he can be angry. But there is a difference between struggling with displaying emotions and outwardly reacting impulsively.

Speaking of impulsiveness, Shadow isn't one to be known to be impulsive. He worked with Eggman, found out about Rouge being a spy, and even planned to doublecross them all just to keep a promise he didn't understand.

Remember, Shadow was doing this with little understanding of earth. His only knowledge of earth was G.U.N, who murdered Maria, and Eggman, who was selfish and blew up the moon. Needless to say, his actions were not motivated for geniune evil, but confusion and loyalty.

Another aspect, loyalty. Shadow was endlessly loyal and loved Maria, being as siblings and no doubt regarding to her as a sister. His only family.

Yes, he can be selfish, but he is his only family left. He had yet to learn about other friendships and he had seemingly swore not to get attached to others.

If not outwardly, but implied.

Shadow does have friends, but perhaps he denies them as his fears of losing them are what he sees as a personal weakness.

Modern Shadow could have a sadness with him, not an anger. But a listlessness. A troubled mixture of emotions suppressed and swirling inside. His bursts of anger could be moments where there is a peak inside the fact he still hasn't gotten over Maria.

She was such a strong role in his backstory that an erasure of that could be considered capital sin.

His selfishness could be only a light affect of him being told his entire life he was The ultimate lifeform. But for what purpose?

He could see it as a formality, and in so he follows by acting the role he is given. His ego complex being more by habit and not being self-centered. As he has shown many times to care about others subtly (or not so subtly).

Again, I want to point out progression in the sense of a reversion to be able to justify his out of place behavior, and slowly connect it back. And Merge it.

Modern Shadow is confused. And no one has talked to him as if yet to help him. And he is stuck. If he gets a game or role now, he is most likely going to be the standard angry Shadow with no further explanation.

But in the other hand, if he were just to come back to normal, there is no smooth line between with no satisfaction.

What I like about frontiers are the subtle references stitching games together. Establishing a concrete lore long time needed.

Im going to conclude this rant soon, by lastly going over Shadow and sonic's rivalry briefly, as I will make a post about that as well.

In my next post I will actually go over Sonic's character himself, and how I believe it contributes to how others around him are portrayed and shown as.

In short, I might add more when given the chance to, but thank you for reading this little drabble. And please do reblog with your ideas and comments.

#shadow the hedgehog #shadow sonic prime #Sonic adventure 2 #Sonic adventure #Sonic the hedgehog #Sonic #Idw comics #Sth

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