#it's tech AND bones AND it's so fucking queer AND there's no romance just So. Much. Stuff that's completely fucked up

[creature-once-removed]

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[moku-youbi]

Fallout is seriously almost everything I could ever dream of or hope for out of an adaptation to my all time favourite video game series, and the game that was my gateway to gaming. It captures the soul of the games in a way that is downright astonishing at times, to the point that I felt I was playing the game at many points. Even hating Maximus felt appropriate, given how I feel about the Brotherhood of the Steel (fuck those assholes fr, fr). Titus the absolute tool, I'm over here like:

The way he's freakin' out, I'm like oh shit, it's a Deathclaw. Nope, just a yao guai. And you're in POWER ARMOUR, douchebag. You don't deserve it, that much is true. A little sad we didn't see Mirelurks, but that gulper was a thing of real beauty. My new favourite monster, sorry Cazadors!

Like dear GOD the vaults were so beautifully done. If I could walk through that set I would *cry* it's so real and perfect--the furniture! the wallpaper! the appliances! the SPECIAL skills! (Lucy, girl, let's talk about your stats tho babe). Also just dying thinking of what the antis are gonna say about all the incest and laughing my ass off. They captured Vault-Tech in all it's bastard glory. The entire time I'm on the edge of my seat like omg, what's it gonna be, what's it gonna be??

And the wasteland? All the background characters and sets--chicken fucker! Barv! Dale! The water filter guy was pure fucking genius. RED ROCKET??? GORGEOUS. NEW VEGAS??? Are we gonna see HOUSE??? (though sadly without Rene Auberjonois to play him, legit heart-breaking). and DOGMEAT, MY LOVE!!!! She is the *best girl*

And don't even get me started on the food, I was about to start crying. Do you know how long I've wanted to try blamco mac n cheese or YumYum devilled eggs (my wife was like unrefrigerated eggs wtf and I'm like shut your mouth I KNOW they're delicious, I KNOW IT IN MY SOUL)? To drink a nuka cola? To try Fancy Lads Snack Cakes? And it was all there on the screen looking so real!

And the pip boys and computers!! OMG, every time someone used their pip boy, or when they pulled up the records, and the hacking scene? I was like LET ME DO THIS, I AM SO GOOD AT THIS MINIGAME PLS!!!!

Coop doing his thumbs up???

Beautiful. Magnificent. Absolute Perfection, except...

WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE COMPHET??? From a game that was way ahead of its time with queer characters and allowing you to romance either gender regardless of player gender, and even offering perks related to being queer, and where romance isn't the focus anyway--like sure, you can woo most of your companions, but that's really only if you want to, and definitely not the point. So why shoehorn this AWFUL romance subplot into something that was truly perfect without it?? It made me distinctly unhappy at several points because it was so shoehorned and unnatural. And like, them boning? Okay, casual sex is a thing in the fallout verse. But making it this love story that made NO SENSE and wasn't developed at all, and relied on the ridiculous boy and girl make eye contact, so obviously they fall in love trope is so fucking lame. Lucy has more chemistry with Coop. She had more chemistry with HER OWN COUSIN. Come *on*.

Let's talk, Nolan.

[dgcatanisiri]

The thing that really bugs me with the BioWare writers saying that they don’t want to do the all-bi romances again because (quoting from tweets by Patrick Weekes), they were more comfortable with people being angry they couldn’t romance a character with a certain gender than being angry about the idea that gay/lesbian people don’t exist...

One, that misses a very obvious point, that you’re locking queer people out of stories they need to experience with those barriers (as I bring up, my example is that Cullen’s story hits home for me, the trauma, the PTSD, the recovery, but I can’t romance him with a male character, and it HURTS). You put up these barriers, you lock people out of seeing the story they need in the way they need. Because it doesn’t help me, a queer man, to roll a female Inquisitor in the name of romancing Cullen and seeing him recover with someone who loves him, because I will not ever find that with a woman. 

Two, the way this has been done locks the gay characters (specifically the men) into stories that REQUIRE them to be gay in order to function, which... Conceptually, I understand the gist of it, that it’s making them unapologetically gay. BUT these are stories that have been repeated over and over for gay people in media for decades now - even fucking GLEE did the “will my family accept my queerness?” storyline, and for multiple characters. You’re not breaking ground by playing the same story over and over and over and over again. To say nothing of the fact that Gil’s story is dreadfully homophobic, reducing him to a turkey baster acting to benefit his straight female friend who we learn more about than HIM... 

Like I said above, we NEED more stories. Right now, it’s like going to a buffet and being told we can only choose from one or two things, while straight players are able to access the whole menu - sure, something we like might be one of our options, but when it’s obvious we COULD have more, but it’s restricted to the straight people, it’s not helping anything.

And then there’s point three: If your two options are going to piss people off either way, go with the one that offers options to the most people, because that’s actually doing the work of trying to offer something to everyone. And then make side characters who are in same-sex relations, if you’re concerned about not representing gay/lesbians in the game.

Yeah, it’s impossible to please everyone. But you know something? The all bi romances offers at least the most options that do as much to NORMALIZE same sex relationships. Because Dorian’s story just gave another instance of “being gay sucks.” That’s great empowerment there. Yeah, okay, you might be reaching out to the closeted person afraid of coming out by having these characters whose whole purpose comes down to standing defiantly against homophobia, but if you’re out, all it does is reiterate the idea that the hardships in life you, as a gay person, will face all stem from the result of your sexuality, that all that you come down to is How Well You Gay. 

Because Dorian’s personal quest being about his father wanting to make him straight REDUCES HIM DOWN. This is the thing that Inquisition chooses to make the most important facet of him, the thing it wants you to walk away from the game knowing about him. His personal quest does not involve any of him being the Redeemer of Tevinter he was hyped as. It does not use him to explore the fact that Tevinter may be beyond redemption, given all the evils that linger and evils that it still perpetrates. Hell, if anything, Inquisition paints Dorian as an abuse victim WHO CHOOSES TO RETURN TO HIS ABUSER - he cites “Tevinter cares” as a reason he cares so much about it, and then in practice, if not in words, seems to all but dump the Inquisitor to go back there - sending stones or not, going off the epilogue slides, it’s only ever the Inquisitor who drops everything and goes to him. 

And, it bares repeating, Gil is actively reduced to an accessory in Andromeda, reduced to little more than a turkey baster for Jill, a character who’s in the game for all of two minutes tops, and is the literal worst friend ever, telling her “best friend” that he’s “part of the problem” by being gay and not having kids (which is bullshit - if anything, if/when he decides to have kids, he would actually be a guaranteed customer for her, the fertility tech), when the guy’s maybe barely THIRTY - this is not something that needs to happen RIGHTTHISFUCKINGSECOND - on TOP of the fact that, when she knows he’s impulsive, it’s a really shitty thing to push for him to become a parent - if you question him on this, unless Ryder’s his boyfriend, he effectively digs in his heels to say “I’ll show you!” and doing it out of SPITE. To say nothing of where the fuck is this kid (assuming he agrees to it) supposed to be while Gil’s on the Tempest? Do they make the cargo bay into a play pen? Does Gil take a dirtside transfer (something that the guy who is willingly putting in forty plus hour work days is probably not looking for)?

Hell, even Steve Cortez... Yeah, it’s great that his story is the kind that could have easily have been about a deceased wife, but... What do I know about him BEYOND “have I mentioned my dead husband?” That’s all that he gets in the damn game.

This is the idea of providing something for gay men? Yeah, considering the track record, I don’t WANT them providing for me. So far, the straight men and even the bi men get a lot more actual character growth and development. They’re not reduced to “I’m gay, and that’s all you need to know about me!” as the extent of their character arcs.

Until BioWare can prove to me that they can give nuance and development and character to their gay characters, I really don’t want them doing gay characters. Because they don’t build them up beyond that. Their dominant, even only, real trait of note is “I’m gay.” Give me a gay character with meat on their bones, fine, yeah, we can talk. But until then... No. I don’t want these. Stick with bisexual romances.

And yeah, THAT’S an issue all its own, that male characters who are written as female romances first are getting better and nuanced characterization, but I’ve ranted enough as it is, so...

[yourea--stubborn--man]

hmmm, maybe uhura would prefer musicals, but the others? they have other faves. Uhura would also like art documentaries, movies about the lives of famous artists and historical movies from about 1700 to 1900 (everything were there are corsets, pretty dresses, royal balls and the like)

Chapel prefers the sappiest romance movies you can think of, better if it’s a forbidden love thing or if one of the lovers dies. Think Ghost and various Romeo and Juliet adaptations.

Chekov has to keep up appearences, so he always chooses something related to Russia, but it’s not just for the jokes, he actually does enjoy them. Adaptations of Tolstoy’s or other russian rovelists’ books are faves. However, he does love comedies, specifically college shenanigans comedies with some kinda romantic subplot. He likes parodies and funny disaster movies too.

Sulu. They try to never let him choose the movie because it always ends up being a The Three Musketeers adaptation (I know of at least 3 so imagine how many there will be in the 23rd century). If cowboy movies make a comeback where they aren’t racist towards native people anymore, he would like those too. War movies are okay, but eh. It’s the duelling aspect that he likes. Regency romances where there is duelling for the love interest are also fine. Duelling and or swashbuckling is key (Cirano de Bergerac comes to mind).

Now Jim, Jim is a fucking nerd. Have you met him? A fucking nerd. Lord of the Rings 2001 is his favourite movie which, yes, is kind of like a gen Z kid telling you their favourite movie is an early, silent Charlie Chaplin one. Generally loves high fantasy and Star Wars-like sci-fi (basically, the protag loves freedom, is queer and fights an evil empire? that’s his jam). Romance-centric movies that also do have a strong supporting plot and some compelling themes are great too. Stuff where freedom, love and justice are central themes.

Spock always picks documentaries, but really he also likes (historically correct) historical movies, biographies, musicals and very much likes crime/detective things. He also likes medical-themed stuff because although they’re often scientifically inaccurate he pretends not to know that and teases Bones about how illogical human medicine is (the older the movie, the better).

Scotty likes so-called “hard” sci-fi, but not necessarily. As long as there is a lot of crazy technology in it, he loves it. It doesn’t matter if it’s scientifically accurate, he just enjoys imagining the possibilities and getting his engineering juices flowing. He would also enjoy stuff about the moral dilemmas connected with tech, like I, Robot and similar.

Rand likes action movies. Adventure too, just as long as there’s a lot of fighting and punching people. Martial arts movies and some anime ones are cool too. For more plot-driven stuff, she likes a badass female lead, like in Captain Marvel or Mad Max Fury Road.

Bones is a problem. No matter what they choose, he always complains about everything and comments on the lack of either tech or social justice in the past. If the plot is compelling and the dialogue is well-written he eventually stops bitching and gets sucked into the film, but I don’t think he’s much of a movie person. He much prefer a card game with some good saurian brandy and good conversation. He says at least once a week that’s it’s no good sittin’ around in silence in front of a screen anyway and humans should spend more time talking to each other.

what sorts of movies do y’all think the tos crew watches on the weekly movie nights because u know they have the best movie nights