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mitigatedchaos · 4 years ago

Text

Review: SAC_2045

(~3,700 words, 15 minutes)

This post will contain some minor spoilers for SAC_2045.

Summary: You may have thought SAC_2045 was a poor entry in the Ghost in the Shell franchise - actually, it's just intended for younger audiences.

Previously: Standalone Complex 202045:1-4 (superseded)

-☆☆☆-

And what did you think of the remaining episodes of GitS:SAC_2045?

[ @irradiate-space ]

Standalone Complex

There's a certain indescribable feeling associated with Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex as a work, an artistic touch related to the director associated with it, independent of other considerations. SAC_2045 has it, which isn't too surprising since Kenji Kamiyama is back.

SAC_2045 is Standalone Complex. For a brief moment, while watching it, I inhabited my pre-2016 personality and outlook. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Since the arrival of streaming I've tended to bingewatch series, but on the first run-through I decided not to bingewatch this one.

If you approach this show as season 4 of Standalone Complex (Solid State Society being season 3), it's underwhelming. Now, viewing it again, it's become obvious that a conventional season 4 of Standalone Complex was never the intent of SAC_2045 to begin with.

For those of you who have delayed until now, the English dub has been uploaded - it released without one due to the pandemic. They bring back a number of the voice actors from the excellent Standalone Complex dub, though having already watched it with subtitles, I didn't feel the need to confirm the dub's quality.

Sustainable War

To properly describe a new theory of war is the same thing as to invent it. While the idea of war as a for-profit industry has been kicked around for some time, it's generally assumed that this is a kind of parasitic relationship on the part of the war-making industry.

As time goes on, warfare becomes more abstract (partly because warfare happens where it can happen), much like society itself is becoming more abstract as information moves more quickly and humanity gains access to more energy.[1] In SAC_2045, "Sustainable War" is part of the context of the world and its current issues, but we aren't really told how it works - if it's similar to contemporary information warfare and a blurring of the lines between state and non-state actors, it's bound to be quite confusing.

I believe my earlier assessment of "Sustainable War" is correct. The key feature of sustainable war, the reason they say it's safe if you leave it to the experts, is likely that it involves AIs constantly forecasting against each other and moving units around with few direct confrontations. The goal would be to lock in a victory without having to fire a shot, except for small skirmishes that don't escalate to major incidents (due to the AI forecasting).

The presence of armed separatist movements even in Japan may also indicate that the ruling institutional bodies are engaged in a kind of Post-International Politics,[2] which treats all international relations as fundamentally existing between subnational entities - however, I believe that later information suggests this wasn't their original intent.

What makes it "sustainable"? Since if done correctly, very little is actually physically destroyed, the cost is less than conventional warfare, and thus the war can continue indefinitely. Why does it threaten humanity with destruction? Because there's an awful lot of military hardware waiting for someone to actually pull the trigger.

Season 1: Ep. 2

So what is the intent of the series' creators? I think they may be telling us through this dialogue between Togusa and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki in episode 2.

Aramaki: Seems time has toughened you up. Togusa: Is that supposed to be a compliment? Aramaki: It is if you want it to be. Togusa: Then thanks for the kind words. “I made the right decision by choosing this line of work over my marriage.” That’s what you’re saying? Aramaki: Perhaps. [...] Togusa: They're bringing back Section 9? [...] Aramaki: But my takeaway from the proposal is this: The PM's reason for the urgent reforming of Section 9 takes priority over his personal motives. I believe his true objective is meeting the Americans' demands for the dispatch of special resources. Togusa: So it's as the Liberals feared? An American-born Prime Minister would be no more than an American puppet? Aramaki: I've yet to meet him in person, so I can't really say. But this is an opportunity to have the Major and the rest of you undertake a major operation for me once more. Togusa: What sort of op? Aramaki: Over the past few years, I have searched for an answer on how to deal with a society in turmoil. I'd like you people to lay the groundwork that will help the next generation find that answer. Togusa: I don't know what a man in my position can contribute, but I'll humbly offer whatever assistance I can.

Those of us who cried, Kamiyama, tell us the future once more! based on Standalone Complex's prophetic analysis of a memetic crime wave were bound to be disappointed. SAC_2045 is less rooted in the near future than in the now - cyberbullying, endless war amidst historic prosperity, employment suppressed by automation, savings eaten up by the complex machinations of finance, and a breakdown of national borders? That's today.

Those of us who hoped for a Ghost in the Shell: Unicorn, a psychically overpowering work that synthesizes the full body of Ghost in the Shell into a single coherent form to elevate us to a higher level of understanding, should have tempered our expectations. To reach each new philosophical level is more difficult than the last - to achieve that with Ghost in the Shell of all things would have required a multidisciplinary genius near the limits of current understanding.

Kenji Kamiyama is just an anime director. And anyhow, Gundam Unicorn was a book before it was an animated series. And who among us even knew we'd have to write a book before 2015? Ghost in the Shell was well-understood enough, so I instead wrote 25,000 words worth of hypothetical country and became a blogger, like the infamous Scott Alexander.[3]

If we approach SAC_2045 from the lens that it's a humbler work designed for younger audiences, however, some of the creative decisions make more sense.

Purin

Just how old is Purin, the MIT grad who joins the team later on? If I had to guess, that's '23歳' on that profile she provides, and Ishikawa notes that she 'skipped a few grades' on her way to a PhD. But she acts like someone a lot younger. She's enthusiastic and we're assured she's intelligent, but seems to be lacking social training. For example, she makes the mistake of assembling an era-accurate music player for Batou combined with a playlist after consulting the Tachikomas to find out what he listens to. There are two ways to take this.

The first is that she's intended as a relateable character for someone who would make this class of mistake. It's the sort of mistake I might have made at age 13-14, meaning that the show would probably be aimed at someone that age or lower. Overly enthusiastic, doesn't understand romantic relationships, impulsive, poor reading of boundaries / poor modelling of others outside of certain domains, impulsive in a way that causes social screw-ups? Yeah that could certainly apply to an ADHD kid of about that age.

And all of a sudden the tone of the first five episodes with the gun-fighting, the literal Agent Smith, the decision to place the focus in America, and even the mystery of the series being much simpler than Standalone Complex 2nd Gig's plot regarding Asian refugees in Japan make a lot more sense. This is Ghost in the Shell for kids!

Wow, I didn't think that could be done!

...is what I should say, except that around the time I acquired the ability to futurist shitpost, and I used that ability to predict that it would.

Purin II

The second reading is that the youth of the future are fucked up. She probably has some tricked out modifications, both cybernetic and genetic. Now usually you would tell someone to try to become a well-rounded human being. But...

The global economy has crashed. Batou mistakes her for a robot - creatures that look like pretty young women are a dime a dozen. In the dating market, she would be competing with full sensory immersion VR pornography on the one hand, and at the upper end of society where cybernetics are more widely available, likely women with a similar appearance but decades more experience and professional standing.

Note that in the original Standalone Complex, the team take down an 80-year-old Russian spy with the full prosthetic body of a 20-year-old. Full cyborgs aren't common then, nor are they in SAC_2045 (though cyberbrains are ubiquitous), but if the economy recovers that may change, and the sector she's trying to get in to (full-time salaried government rather than marginal private employment it would seem) is going to be very tough to enter either way.

So Purin may have to be over-optimized even to just appear on the screen. In fact, she says,

"Just so I could work at Section 9, I moved most of my sentimental memories to external storage."

Youch! It's no wonder she's socially maladjusted. Just how much of her social learning (in particular key events necessary to rebuild logical inferences on the boundaries of behavior on the fly) has she locked away?

Purin III

But you know who Purin looks like? Notorious internet personality, Gamer Girl Bath Water seller, and IRL video game character Belle Delphine.[4]

Or rather, it's the other way around - 2D animation compresses real detail into suggestive abstraction, letting your mind fill in the rest. Going from those impossible 2D shapes to 3 dimensions creates strange results, like training your machine learning algorithm on the salient features of a cat's face, applying it to human shape, and putting pink hair on the result. Belle Delphine adopts that otherworldly kind of appearance as part of her act.

Technically, this a stylistic choice. Within the framework of SAC_2045, this is what "a 23-year-old female" looks like.

Purin is in fact so non-threatening that her big red coat obscures her figure. I'm gonna go with younger audience. Now if only I could remember what pronoun she uses.[5/☆]

Motoko

With a full prosthetic body, outward signs of human-like aging are almost an artistic expression, much like in a world with cheap tissue engineering, visible scars are a choice.

When she was first introduced in the original Ghost in the Shell manga, we don't know how old Motoko Kusanagi is. It was once said that her name is analogous to "Jane Excalibur," which in English would be an obvious alias. In the first movie (from 1995), she's cool, almost cold and robotic.

In the original Standalone Complex, Motoko has a more mature personality than in the manga, but she has a clearly adult look by the standards of anime. Seriously, check out this fantastic character design (combat suit), although admittedly the better-known "leather jacket and bathing suit" design is more ridiculous, fashion-wise.[6] (Fortunately, she gets pants in her much more stylish second season outfit.)

ARISE starts off with a young Motoko Kusanagi in a chaotic post-war period before the Section 9 we know was assembled. This shows in her character design, but it really shows in her personality. This was actually why I had joked about an even earlier Ghost in the Shell.

There is a sense in which the 2017 live-action movie's Motoko is even younger. Scarlett Johansson is a killer cyborg with amnesia. She doesn't even have one day of formal combat training.

Motoko 2045

Ilya Kuvshinov designed SAC_2045's Motoko Kusanagi.

Yes, that Ilya Kuvshinov. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a teenager that hardboiled assassins Saitou and Ishikawa in the background have been hired to bodyguard.

Despite this, Atsuko Tanaka has resumed her role as Motoko's voice actress. Standalone Complex's Motoko looked 25 and felt mid-30s. SAC_2045's Motoko looks 16 and has the voice and attitude of 40.

This may make more sense than you might think.

Through Whose Eyes?

Throughout much of Ghost in the Shell as a franchise, Togusa, the only non-cyborg on the team, who is pulled from a police department instead of a military background, tends to be character used to help the people of our time relate to the future. He's the guy that doesn't know the things we also don't know, so in explaining concepts to Togusa they're explained to the audience.

In SAC_2045, most of the team are off doing cool cyborg things in America. Aramaki (whose in-world function is to create the bureaucratic environment within which Section 9 operates) tasks Togusa with finding them. The original Standalone Complex first aired in 2003. It's been 17 years since it was created - a similar situation to finding someone that reached adulthood who was born after 9/11. And during this time, Togusa's life has changed - the family man is now separated from his wife. And the world has changed - Togusa is now working for a private security firm. Togusa's role in the first five episodes isn't to guide the new viewers.

His purpose is to guide or stand-in for the old viewers.

The New Viewers

"Do you still hold a grudge against the Major and the others for leaving you behind?"

For the original viewers, SAC_2045 is your world, too. Togusa is there. Togusa is you.

The new viewers are Purin. Enthusiastic and smart but awkward and not confident in their skills. How could they measure up to these much more talented and experienced characters? (Also consider who is going to watch any sort of Ghost in the Shell - it's probably going to be a moderately bright and introverted kid, who is the kind of person that may be more comfortable socializing with people outside of their age band.)

But Motoko is visually separated from the rest of Section 9. Batou, Saitou, Ishikawa, Boma... they all have a much more adult look in keeping with their appearance in previous versions of Ghost in the Shell. What gives?

Batou is sort of a cool adult male figure - this is actually a pretty natural use of the character and his sense of humor as previously established in other Ghost in the Shell properties. We especially see this come through in 「PIE IN THE SKY - First Bank Robbery」 episode, with the old folks and the 21st century bank robbery.

Motoko's difference in appearance is because she's acting as a bridge between the two. The new viewer (as represented by Purin) is supposed to grow into being like Motoko as they gain confidence and experience. (The characters aren't each limited to a single role, of course.)

But SAC_2045 is still a work that's shared between two groups, similar to how the excellent Into the Spiderverse features both the teenage Miles Morales and an older Peter Parker that has lost his way, with the loss of the vibrant young adult Peter Parker being what starts the plot going.

The Last Quarter

With this framework, the rest of the work should express its nature as targeted at a younger audience itself. Watch the last few episodes through this lens and you'll see how much sense it makes. One takes place at a school. Even the bizarre 3D style that resembles recent video games makes more sense. If we take Togusa's earlier conversation with Aramaki as a discussion of SAC_2045 itself, later on there's even a sort of acknowledgement that Ghost in the Shell is a difficult work for someone of a young age.

So with that context in mind, does it work?

Standalone Complex

If I remember correctly, years ago, when I was perhaps 15 or 16, I was watching a tiny CRT television some time after midnight, and I saw the thirteenth episode of the original Standalone Complex - NOT EQUAL. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was immediately taken by it. And, from what I remember, I immediately understood it.

It was as though it were made just for me.[7]

To me, Ghost in the Shell is like a textbook. I thought that as a creator who has reached a place where I am able to be involved in that kind of work, I'm in a position where I have to convey its contents to a younger audience. Well, I knew it would be a lot of work, but I figured it would be my way of giving back to Ghost in the Shell. I thought that I needed to accept the baton and offer Ghost in the Shell to a young audience, to the same degree that Ghost in the Shell raised me to be who I am.

- Tow Ubukata, in a 2015 interview, regarding ARISE

For many people, Ghost in the Shell is a profound influence. I felt that it lifted me to a new level of understanding.

SAC_2045

But what about SAC_2045?

I can't view Ghost in the Shell with new eyes. When I first saw it, I wasn't the kind of person that casually memes futuristic ethical dilemmas as a means of practicing politics.

Compared to the anime I watched back when I was 13, would I have watched SAC_2045? Yes. Is it more philosophically and politically sophisticated? Yes. Would I have found it memorable? I think so.

Would a 13-year these days watch it? That's difficult to assess. I bet someone who does data science for Netflix could tell us, if they wanted. I'm sure Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki are considering the same thing.

2017

How does it stack up compared to the rest of the franchise?

For most enthusiasts it's going to be one of the weaker entries, though it certainly does a better job explaining itself than ARISE.

Compare it to 2017's live action movie, however, and I think we'll find it isn't the weakest. The reason is that the writers of Ghost in the Shell (2017) decided to tell a story about bodily consent in which becoming a cyborg is a form of trauma. On some level this may have been a reasonable decision, but they didn't commit to the concept sufficiently fully to execute it well enough to carry the movie - and simultaneously, they dumbed down parts of the regular Ghost in the Shell material for American audiences. As a result the movie flopped both financially and artistically - except for the visuals.

In fact, I wrote a sequence of posts (1, 2, 3, 4) on how to rewrite the live action movie as an actual Ghost in the Shell property. I feel no need to do so for SAC_2045 - and I can't even think of what changes would need to be made.

I look forward to the second season.

-☆☆☆-

[1] It's short, but that's a concept in this post. "Advanced by Left-Wing theorists, Ninth Generation warfare sees all acts as existing on a spectrum of political violence. Most acts of ninth generation warfare consist of extreme pranks."

[2] If we accept the idea of "Fifth-Generation Warfare" as motivated by a desire to prevent the enemy from using their conventional military assets, then a corresponding theory of international politics would involve preventing enemy factions within foreign governments from taking control of those governments' institutions - effectively treating all countries as in continuous level of conflict analogous to a soft civil war.

[3] There is a kind of technique to this, but in my case I substituted ADHD for raw IQ and conscientiousness, which is part of why my posts are so much shorter than, for instance, Moldbug's. In any case, technically, Scott's blog posts on the matter amount to roughly a mere 11,600 words, and the book of the black forest amounts to approximately 26,000 words (which I'm told is entertaining reading), but I'm sure if we go looking we can find an additional 15,000 words worth of worldbuilding from a man known for writing 16,000 word blog posts.

[4] Would it be more of a legal liability to sell regular water with GGBW branding, or actual GGBW that could prove to be a potential health hazard?

[5/☆] There's some future strand lurking beneath the surface here that I can't quite put into words; a culturally divergent moe meltdown where an appearance this ridiculous becomes normalized among some sub-population. To quote the Funko Pop Hatred post,

There are questions about the anatomy of anime people and their internal organs, and particularly about what sort of impact-dampening alien meta-material their softer bits are made out of, but at least homo sapiens gokuensis looks like it’s a branch off a similar starting hominid! Whatever transhuman engineering company was responsible for manufacturing the creatures in the typical harem anime has some weird ideas about human beings, but we’re clearly in their ancient lineage somewhere.

Under Late Safetyism, everyone is a declawed catgirl.

Anyhow, I don't want to alarm you, but I can't guarantee that this won't be the future somewhere. Both Purin and Belle Delphine resemble Xiaoice, "The AI Girlfriend Seducing China's Lonely Men." (2020)

[6] Motoko's ridiculous outfits are a major flex on the non-cyborgs, who aren't indifferent to ambient temperature and whose natural bodies may have unflattering features. Similarly wild fashions can exist in places like Second Life, a 3D digital platform with mostly user-uploaded content. Presumably they're also a flex on every Japanese salaryman who still has to dress like a normal guy.

[7] "It's as though it were made just for me" is also how I feel about the original game Mirror's Edge. Its follow-up, Catalyst, is also a personal favorite of mine.

#miti does media #longpost #flagpost #ghost in the shell #sac_2045 #standalone complex #review

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juliabohemian · 4 years ago

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backhanded compliments & the art of commenting on other people’s creative content without being a complete twat waffle

WARNING: This is a long post.

I'm a word person. That's probably why, when I do find myself becoming irritated by someone else's unsolicited critique, it is almost always due to their choice of words. Words are important and very powerful. Words have different meaning to different people. Which is why we need to take care when choosing them.

Now, whenever possible, I will click on the profile of the person who left the unsolicited critique and try to get a feel for what type of person they are. Just so I can better understand why they might have left the comment in question. If it is clear they are not a native English speaker, I stop right there. Learning a foreign language is hard. English is one of the most ridiculous languages on the planet. So, mastering its nuances is a challenge for someone who may not have grown up using it. I’m sure I have offended at least one person with my Spanish, at some point. I’m working on it.

BACKHANDED COMPLIMENTS

When I say choice of words, I am implying almost exclusively to something known as a backhanded compliment. A backhanded compliment is a statement that seems, on the surface, to be positive, but is actually an insult. If you are not familiar with the backhanded compliment, I direct you to the mom from American Beauty who says to her teenage daughter "Honey, I'm so proud of you. I watched you very closely, and you didn't screw up once!"

There are a lot of reasons why people make such comments. It would be reductive to suggest they are all suffering from some form of insecurity, although many of them probably are. Some may genuinely believe that they are being helpful. Others may be jealous of the attention another person is receiving and want to either sabotage them or find a way to get in on the action.

However, it is most likely that the type of person to give a backhanded compliment is either very young, very sheltered or very privileged. And thus, they may not realize that their opinion about something may not carry the same weight on the internet as it does in other venues. Or they may not realize that the world is filled with people who are more informed and more experienced than they are. They mistake their opinion for objective analysis and therefore, offer it freely and without hesitation.

Now, I would like to state that if you see something and you REALLY think it is problematic, you should absolutely offer your critique. Note: if you dislike or disagree with something, that does not make it problematic. Anything that promotes the maltreatment or marginalization of any living thing is problematic. Even so, you should stop and ask yourself whether your critique will accomplish anything or if it would be more worthwhile to simply report the post in question and move on.

That being said, here is MY analysis of some of the backhanded compliments I have received over the years (amalgamated for brevity), and a guide to leaving more constructive/supportive comments for the content creators in your life.

ARTWORK (including photography)

“Definitely not my style, but beautiful.” Do we need to know that it's not your style? If you think it's beautiful, just say that.

“This is so great, but it would have been better if you had used yellow instead of red!” Color choice is a creative choice and its value cannot be objectively measured. Just say it’s great and move on.

“Wow, this is way better than your old stuff.” Do I need to explain why this is bad? I hope not.

“Wow, you're really improving.” Slightly better than the previous one, but still bad. This is a really good example of something that might even feel like a compliment, but actually isn't. Saying that someone is improving is basically saying that it needed to improve.

Unless you are speaking to your own student or a child, or a really close friend or family member who has openly shared with you their desire to improve as an artist, this is completely unnecessary.

It's important to remember that not everyone is doing things with the same objectives as you. Not every artist or photographer is aiming for technical mastery. If an artist creates something that is very personal and feels pleased with it, the last thing they want is for someone else to come along and tell them what’s “wrong” with it.

Really ANY comment that suggests that the piece of artwork in question would be improved if it were altered in some way is a no no. Unless you are an art teacher or someone has specifically asked for you to give them this information, or you are paying someone to make something especially for you.

FANFICTION (or really writing in general)

“Oh man...I was so excited when I saw your story summary, until I saw the pairing.” Do not comment on a story just to tell the author that you don't like their pairing. Ever. If you accidentally click on a story without seeing the pairing and you are disappointed, your feelings are valid. But there’s no need to let the author know.

"This was good but I don't think (character) would say (quoted dialogue)." Then, you should go and write a story with that character, but where they say different things.

"I noticed you used a semi-colon in the third paragraph. Semicolons are actually supposed to...." Critique grammar, punctuation, spelling and writing mechanics ONLY if you are the author's editor, the author's teacher, or if the author requested it. Period.

If you are commenting to point out what you believe to be a factual error, stop and ask yourself...is this really an error? Is the error intentional? Does the error represent the views of the author or the views of a specific character in a fictional work? Does this story have a reliable narrator? If not, might that narrator be misinformed or biased? And the most important question to ask yourself before correcting an author...do I actually know what the fuck I'm talking about?

Once, in a story, I referenced Copernicus and mentioned that he was imprisoned by the Catholic church. Which we know that he was. Someone commented to leave a long, bullet pointed explanation for how this is a common misconception and that the Catholic Church never mistreated Copernicus, along with many links to articles and videos as evidence. Guess who made all the articles and videos? The Catholic Church. SKIP!

When commenting on a fictional work, consider letting the author know how the story is making you feel. Speculate about what you think might happen next. Express excitement and anticipation. Ask a question for clarification about what you just read. And you can never go wrong by simply thanking the author for taking the time to provide you with free entertainment.

MEMES & JOKES

I love to make people laugh. I have been making people laugh since I learned to talk. This was actually bourne out of an inability to interpret facial expressions. I couldn't tell when people were angry or annoyed. But when they were laughing, I knew exactly how they felt.

That being said, people on the internet LOVE to tell me when something isn't funny. The only problem with this is that humor is very subjective and often very esoteric. I have made memes that I knew were esoteric and knew that not everyone would understand them. I have memes just for birdwatchers. Hell, I have made memes just for a dozen people who participated in a specific academic discussion. But it amazes me how people who don't get a joke are often most compelled to comment and let me know that it isn't funny. How can you know if you don't understand it? Is it so hard to imagine that things exist for which you are not the intended audience?

It's perfectly okay to comment and say you don't understand, and ask for an explanation. But if you look at something and think "I don't understand this, therefore it lacks value" you may have some growing up to do.

Before reblogging someone else's joke to add to the joke, stop and ask yourself whether your intention is to correct or improve upon the joke, or if you are attempting to laugh along WITH the OP.

We've all done this, I'm sure. I know I have. But it really inconsiderate to hijack someone's meme, meta or artwork with a completely unrelated discussion. I can't tell you how annoying it is to post something and check my inbox days later, only to find pages of notifications of people reblogging my shit over and over as part of some completely unrelated discussion.

Once again, if you're commenting to point out a factual error, ask yourself whether the error was intentional. I recently made a meme about the Star Trek films in which Data uses contractions. All of his dialogue is ridiculously out of character, in fact. Which is kind of part of the joke. But someone felt the need to reblog AND comment to let me know that Data wouldn't say that because he doesn't use contractions. Which I already know. Because, well, I’ve been a ST:TNG fan since the day it first aired on TV. I don't even know what to do with a comment that, to be honest. I kind of feel sorry for the other person for not grasping the joke.

So, how DO you compliment someone whose work you enjoy? Imagine yourself speaking to them in person. Imagine that they are emotionally invested in whatever they have created. Consider your objective. Are you expressing appreciation? Or is there something else going on.

And avoid qualifiers.

When a compliment includes words like "if" or "but" then it's probably not a compliment. You would be so pretty IF you lost some weight is not a compliment.

Choose words that are unlikely to be misinterpreted.

If someone's art or writing IS improving and you really want them to know, a good way to do that is to use the word evolving. Wow, I really like the way your art is evolving. This works because it implies that the art is changing over time, as the individual grows as a person.

I know what some of you might be thinking...ugh...it's like you can't say ANYTHING anymore! Aww...boo hoo, fam. As a person on the spectrum, I’ve spent my entire life dancing around other people’s feelings, navigating neurotypical subtext and struggling to say things without offending anyone. This is a cake walk compared to that. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if actually thinking about how other people feel BEFORE you share your opinion would require a great deal of effort on your part, it's possible that you're just an asshole.

TL;DR

Creators of original content are actual human beings with feelings. Don’t offer them unsolicited advice or criticism. Think before you comment.

#I know this is long and no one is putting a gun to your head and making you read it #these are just my views #backhanded compliments #unsolicited opinions #unsolicited advice #how to comment without being an asshole #theory of mind #unwanted critique #critiquing #commenting on fanfic #fanfic comments #I have autism if I can be tactful then so can you

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fyrapartnersearch · 4 years ago

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An AD for someone else

Thank you, for taking the time to read through this roleplay ad that is intended for a friend of mine.

You may be wondering why I am posting an ad for someone else. You may be wondering why this person cannot just post for herself. Those are fair things to ask about.

My friend is very loyal, and she takes abandonment very seriously. The reason she's not posting for herself is because she's been burned one too many times by having people ditch her.

If you have a history of ditching people right now would be a good time for you to scroll past this ad.

If you are relatively loyal, but have a history of disappearing because your partner one time just once didn't act the way you like this would be a good time for you to step out.

The girl I'm posting for is not perfect. She is going to have moments where she might seem like she's being overly emotional about things, and she doesn't pepper her text with a whole bunch of smiley faces all the time.

She shows you who she is completely on the surface. You are going to get the good stuff and the bad stuff as well. Most of what you are going to get is good, but sometimes she does have strong reactions to things, and she can at times get kind of caught up in a funk.

If you're the sort of person who is loyal, and can accept others for their flaws, then please continue reading and I will explain how she role plays, and what she is looking for.

First, this is going to have to be by email. My friend does have access to Discord among a few other things, but she has to role-play by email. If you try to talk to her through messaging apps she feels rushed and flustered to make replies which means that when her emotions get the better of her she doesn't always think before she sends something. Through email however, if something is bothering her then she has the ability to take time for herself, have a deep breath, and then get on to making a response.

Second, you must double. This is non-negotiable with her. She really wants things to be fair. She's very big on fairness. If you're not doubling that's not fair to her. Doubling means that both of you get to play your own character, and have your own crush.

Third, my friend is old enough to do smut. She is over 18. However, she does not seem to overly enjoy it. I have noticed that she seems to have brief moments where she's really into it, but then she seems like she doesn't want anything to do with it. If you want to have sexual themes in the role play this is another reason that doubling is a good idea. She will be more than happy to do that stuff on your side for you.

Fourth, she needs someone who is online consistently. This is the biggest barrier that another friend of mine, and I have when it comes to role playing with her. She needs someone that she can talk to a lot.

Fifth, she is not overly anal about how long of a reply she gets. I will say for sure that you should definitely keep it at 300 words or above. However, she is not the sort to write like a thousand words for every post. Usually if you keep it around 300 to 500 words per side as in your side and her side things are going to be fine.

Sixth, my friend is an American, who lives in the Central Standard time zone. That's just so you know what the time zone is.

Seventh, you have to be open minded. She may at times have outlandish ideas. Such as there is a chance depending on the series picked that she may want to have an OC that is more powerful than the main cast. Oh, but how will the RP be any fun? That's why you're doubling. Let her do her crazy OP stuff on her side, and you get your side. As again she's huge on fairness she'll pretty much give you whatever you ask for on your end.

Overall, I believe that if you are patient, loyal, understanding, and consistent the two of you will make very great partners.

I will now list off what she has told me she is interested in doing.

Top Cravings (This stuff is going to be a pretty much instant yes)

1. Original Superhero Setting

2. DC, with a focus on Batman, who she has seen, or read in pretty much everything. She'll also do Young Justice.

3. Marvel, with a focus on Spider-Man, The Avengers, and X-Men. She has seen the films, read the comics, watched the cartoons etc.

Middle Road (Stuff she'll do, but may want an AU or something on.)

1. Resident Evil

2. Halo

3. Mass Effect

4. The Evil Within

5. Soul Eater

6. Hellsing

7. Cowboy Bebop

8. One Piece

9. Dragonball Z (She knows the full series. Original DB, DBZ, DBGT, DB-Super, etc,)

Bottom Tier (This is the stuff that she can do, but won't be into, without a really good plot)

1. Naruto

2. Bleach

3. The Elder Scrolls

If anything catches your eye, and you believe you could be a good partner, send me a message, and I'll get back to her on it. Thank you.

My email is [email protected]

So yeah email me first, give me a little bit to go on, like what you want to RP, and I'll direct her to you, or you to her.

#oc rp #short term #long term #email #marvel rp #mcu rp #dc rp #submission

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sights-on-the-scifi · 5 years ago

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War and soldiers: How video games have shaped a perception of the military.

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Soldiers, conflict, violence, targets, hostiles, enemies, honour, duty, loyalty....

Video games have had a very long history in regards to depicting the military and soldiers.

Most of the games you have played have depicted servicemen and placed you in the shoes of one fighting in wars overseas or even outer space and beyond. In fact a lot of video gaming’s most celebrated and iconic characters have been men and woman of action almost exclusively, from Commander Shepard to Solid Snake, B.J. Blazkowicz, Marcus Fenix, Master Chief and many more.

These individuals for a long time have been the face of gaming in pop culture.

Many have mostly been white American males. Which tells you a lot about the cultural and historical lens these games are using to create their fictional characters in service positions. The kinds of expectations they have for what constitutes a soldier are ones mostly formed out of a post world war 2, greatest generation archetype or subversion on the modern 21st century contemporary soldier typically seen in media about the war on terror.

All these portrayals have provided you with MANY different interpretations of war and service members... But how many of them are true to any sort of reality or truths related to conflict and soldiers? Which of these games actually have anything meaningful or insightful to say about these kind of people and the wars they fight? Some may be more fictitious than others but they all universally fall under the same banner.

I have watched a lot of interviews and talked to soldiers both potential to be and actually in the service. They form a wide spectrum of belief, motivation, expectation and experience. All of them in some way or another share a relationship with the characters you see in this post but not completely, soldiers do indeed care a lot about how well they are portrayed in a lot of entertainment mediums, many also welcome healthy critique.

These are works of fiction with varying artistic intents. Some look at the soldiers and war reverentially, while others look at those same things in the opposite way be that sceptically for example.

PRO WAR.

MASS EFFECT.

Games like MASS EFFECT celebrate the soldier and their role in society, it is a soldier Commander Shepard your very own player character who discovers the threat of the impending Reaper invasion, stopping it for example along with other men and woman of action. Politicians and so on are viewed as a barrier to the war effort/getting things done and are treated with suspicion like the council or your very own ambassador. You share an empathetic experience with a combatant who is for all intent and purposes not only in a war with a Lovecraftian enemy from beyond the stars, but also your own civilisation.

This is a very conservative view of the world and it is surprising to see in a game with a “Idealised” future setting. This is why it is pro war.

HALO.

Halo depicts a universe where humanity is under threat of complete and total annihilation at the hands of the covenant, it is pro war in the sense that our species is on the defensive and needs to fight back against an aggressive adversarial extraterrestrial threat. It focuses almost exclusively on the war effort and the complexities of our enemy the covenant and their religious motivations, telling the story of the men and woman putting their lives on the line to protect earth and even the rest of the galaxy from not only a common threat but also itself through the fatally misguided holy war waged by the covenant that threatens all life in the galaxy. We share a empathetic experience with warriors not because they are above anyone else, but because they are doing a job that absolutely needs to be done to secure the future.

It shares a lot in common with the sentiments expressed by the greatest generation during world war 2 in that way.

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No where is this more evident than in the original three games themselves and the ad campaign for Halo 3 which depicts former marines reminiscing about the horrors and triumphs of the human, covenant war. This in a way is a mirror reflection of our own world.

THE WOLFENSTEIN REBOOTS: The Expression of a multi faceted perspective of war and soldiers.

The Wolfestein reboots going by the name of The new order, Old blood and The new colossus respectively. Are unique in their interpretation of this subject matter, they both celebrate the greatest generation perspective and are sceptical of war which is an amazing feat.

What does it mean to be a soldier in the afternath of your destroyed/half forgotten civilisation?

What does it mean to fight for you country when that very same country has supported forms of oppression comparable to the cruelties inflicted by your enemy?

If you want to get a sense for this fascinating complexity expressed by these games, just watch this very powerful scene from The new order and you will see what I mean instantly. It even features an alternate reality Jimmy Hendrix!.

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ANTI WAR.

CALL OF DUTY 4 AND SPEC OPS THE LINE.

Games like the original Modern Warfare and Spec ops the line have a decidedly less positive view of war, sharing a lot in common with anti war media in film such as Platoon, Apocalypse now and many more.

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These games were shaped from the cultural anxieties and movements against war during the 60′s and post 911 fears during the war on terror.

The horrors and consequences of war are these games focus.

They look at war and soldiers in a way that suggests that in a time of ever increasing technological innovation and dehumanisation brings with it the dilution of what it means to fight for your country and senseless destruction for causes that have no merit or meaning in a world that may not even require bloodshed anymore. In Modern Warfare a now famous mission depicts a US invasion force totally obliterated by a nuclear detonation in the heart of a middle eastern countries capitol, this is analogous to the anxieties and collective feelings of guilt and confusion Americans felt after the Iraq war. An Illegal invasion of a foreign country that did not attack the united states claiming the lives of 31,000 civilians.

The Iraq war was a disaster of epic proportions and what better way was there to communicate that to a player than to show a vision of the worst case scenario dreamt up by the presidency who started the conflict, to encapsulate it all in just a few short scenes?.

Spec ops the line taps into the sentiments expressed during and after the Vietnam war by putting you in the boots of a soldier who slowly but surely loses his sanity and commits unspeakable atrocities but still believing he is doing the right thing. The white phosphorus scene has gone down in video games history as one of the most powerful and shocking depictions of a real world weapon that the United states has admitted to using in the Iraq war and even today.

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Spec ops the line was also a response to the over saturation of modern military shooters that had dominated gaming sales from 2008 to 2013, in fact... It was so saturated that Modern military shooters became a genre in gaming, with it’s own tropes, mechanical and story cliches. The line provides meta commentary about the role of violence in games, turning things against the player that are typically intended to make them feel empowered in other games. It criticises those games tendency to treat the United state’s military adventurism as an inherent good when it is far from that in the real world.

So these are the perceptions of war you have experienced in the gaming medium, which ones have spoken to you the most? Which ones have formed your own beliefs about conflict and soldiers? Let me know.

#Mass Effect #call of duty #Spec ops the line #war #soldiers #military

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sharkiegorath · 7 years ago

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On Elias

[this is the third (3rd) time I’ve tried posting this since Tumblr’s mobile search/tag search keeps eating the post. because it’s perfectly fine with showing untagged personal posts and spam whenever you search for something, but randomly decides when to show Actual Content]

ok look I know people don’t always read the OP’s tags but I keep getting “I’M SURE HE’S EVIL” comments on a pair of gifsets with fairly obviously positive parallels and reblogging something just to definitively say “that mysterious character is eviiiiiiil” is Not Cool, even if it’s in the tags.

Yes, recent commentator, Elias definitely broke into the house. It's probably why he suggested that the Johnsons go out in the first place! But the common assumption is A) that he planted the books and B) that he did so for a malicious reason. It seems as obvious as it could possibly be while remaining unconfirmed. It seems so obvious in such a twisty show that I think it isn’t that straightforward.

Gosh, where to begin? Firstly, names and etymology are pretty good theory fodder and Easter eggs, e.g., ‘Hap’=haphephobia and all its ‘hap’-prefixed variants; ‘Khatun’ is both an old title of nobility and a modern word referring to any woman. 'Rahim' means ‘merciful’ or 'servant of the merciful'. 'Elias' is a cognate of 'Elijah'. Elijah was the Abrahamic prophet who sort of had a special connection with women and children; who was cared for by an angel; who resurrected the dead; who entered Heaven without dying at the end of his earthly life; who is sometimes believed to have become an angel. All of this information is available on Wikipedia! So even if Elias did plant the books, I don’t automatically assume he’s malicious.

There’s this interesting bit in an interview with The Atlantic:

Marling: [...] I think one of the original stories that was influential actually comes from Jewish mysticism. Do you know it?

Kornhaber: Is this leaving the door open for Elijah at Passover?

Marling: Yeah. It’s so beautiful. I think it’s amazing to try and use that as a reminder of trying to stay open. I struggle with that all the time. You get scared and you close the door. But I think The OA, she’s inviting them to let a new thing in.

(Principal Gilchrist's first name is another cognate of Elijah - 'Ellis' - and his surname means 'servant of Christ'. People have made the connection between Ellis and his "water under the bridge" comment to Ellis Island and the nearby Statue of Liberty, plus he has a snow globe of the latter.)

Elias’ potential connection with an ‘evil’ Rachel was probably debunked early by Zal Batmanglij on Twitter: the plants in her cell died because she refuses to water them as an act of rebellion. I'm too lazy to go through the whole thing about why her name being on the office wall in large Braille doesn't automatically mean she works there in the first place. I think she and Elias are connected (because of his car crash analogy and the “[My brother] never got to hear it”/”I’m a listener” lines), but I doubt it’s as evil agents.

Elias is shocked and defensive when he bumps into French in the house - but the scene follows French, so of course we aren't shocked and suspicious about French’s presence. Basically, the audience has had the same reaction to Elias breaking in as Elias initially has to French breaking in. Part of what makes Elias seem suspicious is his reaction. IMO Elias doesn't even imply or confirm that the OA was lying - he just doesn't correct French. The other 'suspicious' thing he does is...move his eyes while hugging French, which isn’t incriminating on its own since the emotion is ambiguous.

There's confusing reasoning behind why Elias would place the books in the first place. The books seem tailored to match major aspects of the OA's story. The immediate assumption is that if someone planted the books, they meant for the Crestwood Five to find them and conclude that she based lies upon them. But if that's the case, Elias likely had no way of knowing that French would break in, go to her room, thoroughly search her room, and look where he did. There was no guarantee that any of the Five would find the books, jump to the conclusion that OA was lying, then share the discovery with the others.

Alternatively, you could argue that Elias planted the books intending for someone else to find them during an investigation and use it as proof that OA was making up stories, and the Five would fall for it in the process. But in that case, why did he let French leave with all of the books? And remember, Buck kept one and the rest let him. It’s possible that they submitted the other books to the FBI offscreen, or that Elias replaced the books. But I’ve never seen the theory cover what happened to the books after the reveal, so I won’t play with that hypothetical situation here.

Maybe Elias planted the books for someone else to find and didn’t know French took them. After all, we don't know what happened after the hug. But that introduces a new set of logical problems. How would French sneak a big, heavy box out of the house? He could take it if Elias had already left or wasn’t watching him...but why would Elias leave French unsupervised? Does anyone think that Elias ensured French left, then French broke in again not long afterwards and took the books, all offscreen? And couldn’t his presumably nearby car be a potential giveaway?

So, the books don't make much sense as an attempt to disillusion the Five. Some people think French's reaction stretches audience suspension of disbelief, right - I think it's an even bigger stretch that the FBI would predict a break-in and his reaction. To a lesser extent, the books also don't make sense as an attempt to frame OA, because they end up with the boys and don’t seem to play a role beyond breaking their faith. As for how French took the books while Elias was there, Elias advocates strategic passivity and avoids direct persuasion; I don't find it outlandish that French would say something like "I need to show proof to the others" then take the box, and Elias wouldn’t protest because it's not part of his agenda either way.

The next most obvious explanation for the books is if they really are OA’s. They weren’t necessarily used to construct a lie.

In the previous episode, OA had a conversation with BBA about how cultures that suffer more loss tend to have more totems. OA knew this because of an exhibit that she loved so much as a child that she made her parents take her back twice. It made a lasting impact on her, as evidenced by the wolf hoodie that reminds her of Homer’s. BBA is not with the boys when French reveals the books, so she doesn't even have the chance to recall that conversation. We don’t know if BBA learned about the books after the boys did. And the books were specifically stored beneath the wolf hoodie. The Five may not be aware of the hoodie’s significance; Elias wouldn’t know the hoodie’s significance unless OA wore it to a session and he asked why she has a hoodie with a wolf on it, or she spontaneously told him, both of which seem a bit far-fetched. (Onscreen, at least, she never wore it to a therapy session.)

Ehh, miscellaneous notes:

It’s uncertain that OA can read English text. But the conversation with BBA says that the Thing Itself isn't as important as what it symbolises. (“Objects carry meaning in difficult times.”) She doesn't need to be able to read the books in order for them to mean something. Anyway, she might’ve been bilingual from a young age; she was 7 or 8 when she went blind and she seems fluent in English by the time we see her in the American boarding school. (There might be proof that she can write in English, since she signed the bottom of the note she left for her parents? It’s been interpreted both ways so idk.)

The Five getting discovered in the abandoned house probably wasn’t set up by Elias. BBA had previously slipped and told Principal Gilchrist about it while driving to save Steve.

I don’t strongly rule it out, but I don’t think Elias spied on the Five, because he only realises who French is when he tells him his name. Unless he’s pretending.

Why were the books under OA’s bed, under the hoodie? Maybe she hid her totems in case her parents found them, since Nancy already thought she had delusions that could easily be linked to The Oligarchs and The Iliad. It’s unclear to me, but there might be a moment in the first episode where OA shoves the video camera under her bed (starts at 29:15-ish), foreshadowing that she might’ve done the same thing with the books later.

The issues I have with my own theory are:

According to the label on the Amazon box, the books were delivered in September. That's at odds with how OA's video was posted in February 2016. But the FBI (or another organisation) ordering the books also doesn't make sense: they would’ve been planning to discredit her months before she returned or assembled the Five or told her story. Even if they knew about the experiments, Hap dumping OA on the road in February seemed entirely spontaneous; that itself was the result of a seemingly random event (getting caught by the sheriff). More importantly, I’d question why the boys didn't notice the discrepancy in dates, and why the FBI didn't realise it themselves. (Like, all they had to do was remove the label or use a different box.) How can they predict a very specific chain of events yet not be smart enough to remove a label? It’s not impossible in the broader scope of the story - maybe they have reality-warping powers, maybe there’s time travel involved - but right now it’s a big stretch just to support the basic theory that Elias planted the books. So I suspect the label is a minor production oversight. Considering exactly how briefly the date is onscreen and difficult to read even when the scene is paused, I think it wasn’t meant to be read by the audience. (Compare the length of the date’s visibility and its readability to earlier in the scene, when French looks at the newspaper clippings, or whenever a phone/computer screen takes up the frame.)

How did OA order the books? The hardest part is how she went online, but she could’ve placed the order sometime in the first episode before the router was taken away. It’s possible to order things from Amazon without a credit card and have them sent to a pickup point or post office, so that’s not a big issue if she had money somewhere (or stole it from her parents, which is 100% in-character for her). Sneaking the package into the house is another problem - but, then again, she’s cunning and her room is conveniently located so things can fairly easily go in/out of her window.

Elias suggested that the Johnsons go out for a family dinner. That somewhat complicates the timeframe he would’ve had for breaking in; if the outing had gone 'normally' they would've returned home before it was very late, yet still at an unpredictable time. (Again, he probably had no way of knowing they’d choose French's workplace, that it’d go badly, etc.) He was unable to break into the Johnsons' home on the night the OA finished her story, which is why he broke in later on, when French did. I guess Nancy and Abel went home after the incident at the Olive Garden and Elias saw the house was occupied, so he waited, and luckily for him they left the next day?

I’m not sure whether Elias lies when French asks if OA told him about Homer, the mine, and Hap’s studies. She told Elias specifics about the first and third premonitions, but it’s unclear how much she explained the second, Homer wasn’t mentioned by name onscreen, and we don’t know if she talked about the movements and angels. It’s worth noting that right after their last session, Elias does lie. OA explained her dreams, including the previous night’s. Afterwards, Nancy assumes Elias knows what happened last night...but he says no, seemingly to see how Nancy explains it. He’s capable of minor lies to Learn Things for ambiguous reasons. (Does he lie to Nancy for OA’s benefit? Or is it because he doesn’t trust OA, or is it simply an effort to hear different sides? I think the tone of the scene suggests he’s trying to help OA, but you might think it’s deliberately misleading. Anyway, they’re not all mutually exclusive motives.)

If the books really were OA’s, what was her reaction when she returned home and they were missing? She probably wouldn't tell her parents. But what would she think happened? Possibly she might be able to put two and two together since she’d previously helped Steve sneak into her room. Maybe she doesn’t seem sad right before the shooting because she deduced that the Five wanted to help her, and she didn’t know that the boys concluded she was lying.

We might be able to get general sense of where The OA is headed by examining Brit and Zal's previous work. Sound of My Voice is the most similar. One of the most common (and plausible) theories for SOMV is that Maggie was telling the truth and the 'FBI agent' wasn't actually an FBI agent. But there are other reused elements that were subverted: OA is much less intimidating and more personable than Maggie; the Five are inclined to believe her without being cult-like; the agent was trying to catch Maggie without her knowledge instead of possibly pretending to help her. I kinda hope it's a meta Red Herring planted for people who've watched both.

Elias was in the house for a reason. I think the video camera and all of the tapes might be a Chekhov's Gun. Brit Marling said something along the lines of "it’s worthy to question Elias’ motives"; he doesn’t necessarily have Good intentions. However, him planting the books isn’t a sure thing and we know nothing about whatever he did in the time gap before the shooting; there’s no indication that he helped or hindered OA in any way, if they’re still in contact, etc. So I think it’s a Bit Much to leap to "ELIAS IS EVIL" Not everyone who thinks he planted the books assumes he’s evil, which is nice. But it's Tiring seeing the evil accusation treated as if it's rare or a new theory, especially considering the depth of analysis that the rest of the show receives.

#elias rahim #the oa #oatheories #prairie johnson #oa #my oa theories #@ search function meet me in the pit you bitch #what are you doing? why are you so determined to smear elias' literally good name?#it's still not showing up??? i'm going to flip a table????

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virginiaprelawland · 5 years ago

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Making The Case For Johnny Depp

By Kayla Blevins, Liberty University, Class of 2020

May 21, 2020

Actor Johnny Depp is seeking a $50 million defamation suit against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, for defaming him with allegations of domestic abuse and another libel suit against The Sun for publishing Heard’s op-ed where she called him a “wife-beater.” (1) Heard published a tweet claiming that Depp “started hitting and punching me against a wall by grasping my throat and holding me.” (2)

Heard separated from Depp and filed for a domestic violence restraining order and published an op-ed in the British newspaper The Sun, accusing Depp of being violent and abusive.(3) Depp denied all claims and says that Heard was the abuser. The Daily Mail published audio recordings that chronicled Heard punching Depp, “Babe, you're not punched ... I don't know what the motion of my actual hand was, but you're fine. I did not hurt you; I did not punch you; I was hitting you.” (4) Later in the recording, she says, “God, I (expletive) sometimes get so mad I lose it…I can't promise you I won't get physical again.” (5) Heard’s attorneys admitted that she recorded the altercations to use as evidence against Depp. (6) Heard's lawyer said, “The fact that a woman fights or talks back does not mean that she has not been the subject of repeated domestic violence and abuse.” (7) Heard admitted in a formal discovery response that she would use her “body and limbs” against Depp and would “throw objects in Mr. Depp's direction” to protect herself when Depp “would violently assault her.” (8)

Additional evidence against Heard is the statement of her personal assistant, Kate James. James witnessed Heard speak of Depp despairingly, saying that she is dating an “old man.” (9) James also testified that Heard would “humiliate and shame” her in front of people and offered an example of when she and Heard missed a connecting flight due to the weather, “She was screaming abuse at me for literally hours as though I had made it snow and caused the disruptions to the flight.”(10)

Character Assassination

There are elements of defamation the plaintiff must prove:

1. The plaintiff’s reputation was harmed or intended to be harmed.

2. The statement is reasonably interpreted by at least one person as referring to the plaintiff.

3. At least one interpretation of the statement could reasonably be considered as defamatory.

4. The statement is false.

5. The statement is seen or heard by someone other than the plaintiff (publication).

6. A defendant acts with actual malice (if the plaintiff is a public official or public figure.)(11)

According to the Restatement [Second] of Torts § 559, the callous statement must harm the reputation of the plaintiff. The statement must be so believable, that those who read or heard it considered it to be a true statement. (12) Judge Holmes ruled, “If the [publication] obviously would hurt the plaintiff in the estimation of an important and respectable part of the community, liability is not a question of majority vote.” (13)

The second element requires that if a reasonable person stretches the meaning of the declaration to include the plaintiff, then that statement has not fulfilled this requirement. (14) The defendant does not have to openly refer to the plaintiff, just that a reasonable person knows that they were speaking of the plaintiff. (15)

The third element is where the plaintiff demonstrates that a sensible person would reasonably conclude the statement was made in a defamatory manner. (16)In other words, logical, intelligent people would know that there was a slanderous, derogatory spirit behind the published statement.

The Belli case explains the meaning of this element. In Belli v. Orlando Daily Newspapers, Inc., 389 F.2d 579 [5th Cir. 1967], there was a famous Florida attorney, Melvin Belli. A columnist for the Orlando Evening Star wrote an article claiming she had a private conversation with Belli’s private attorney. (17) Belli's attorney allegedly told her that Belli committed unethical actions towards the Florida Bar Association by charging a massive clothing bill to the hotel room. (18) The problem: the Florida Bar Association had paid the hotel room for Belli because he was supposed to speak at their convention.(19) The case eventually went to the appellate court and it ruled the article was defamatory because two things: it indicated Belli was both dishonest, and clever. (20)

In a different case, the National Enquirer wrote a disparaging article about Nancy Kerrigancalled, “Nancy Kerrigan in Love Nest with Married Man.” (21) In the article, Kerrigan was a “hateful, contemptuous, bitter woman,” a “homewrecker – a witch who deserves to burn in hell!” (22) Kerrigan sued for defamation, but the court ruled that reasonable people would not read that article and believe it, “[I]t strains credulity to believe that others in the community would read the article as literally as [Kerrigan] has.” (23)

Supreme Court decisions deem opinions as a privilege - butthe more precise an opinion is, the more likely the Court will deem it as a fact. (24) Publishing defamatory articles require the publication to be understood by reasonable people. (25) If a newspaper had reason to believe the material was true, then they are not liable. (26)

Finally, actual malice – or proving that the defendant had a reckless disregard for the truth, or the false statement was made, knowing it was false. (27) Reckless disregard means the evidence shows the defendant “entertained serious doubts” regarding the truth of his or her statements. (28)But the actual malice test is tricky because the Supreme Court has expanded the First Amendment to provide the media protection, instead of protecting individuals. (29)

Therefore, if Depp wanted to win in America, he would have to prove these elements. The first element is harm to reputation, which seems like The Sun and Heard did because people would reasonably believe her statements. The second element requires statements to be reasonably interpreted as about Depp, which seems satisfied. The third element could be satisfied because a sensible person would know the article could have been the result of a messy divorce and she wrote it in a defamatory manner. But most importantly, the actual malice standard seems met, because Heard said out of her mouth on the tape that she “get[s] so mad I lose it.” (30) Americans are used to men being the aggressor in relationships; therefore, since he accused her of being the aggressor, he would have to prove these elements.

________________________________________________________________

(1) Yasharoff, Hannah. “Johnny Depp's lawyer says Amber Heard 'perpetrated serial violence'; she fires back with abuse claims.” USA Today. Feb. 2, 2020. May 16, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/02/02/johnny-depp-amber-heard-perpetrated-serial-violence-lawyer-says/4639763002/.

(2) Twitter. “August 2015: Amber Heard claims that Johnny Depp punched her during their honeymoon on the Eastern Oriental Train. However, a fan photo taken with staff shows only Johnny with bruises to his face and around his eye.” Twitter. Jul 5, 2019. May 16, 2020. https://twitter.com/queenbpip/status/1147269470924226560.

(3) Yasharoff, Hannah. “Johnny Depp's lawyer says Amber Heard 'perpetrated serial violence'; she fires back with abuse claims.” USA Today. Feb. 2, 2020. May 16, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/02/02/johnny-depp-amber-heard-perpetrated-serial-violence-lawyer-says/4639763002/.

(4) Ibid.

(5) Ibid.

(6) Ibid.

(7) Ibid.

(8) Ibid.

(9) Walters, Mike. “Amber Heard's Ex-Assistant Testifies that Actress Was Mentally and Verbally Abusive.” The Blast: You Want it. We Got It. Mar 11, 2020. May 17, 2020. https://theblast.com/c/johnny-depp-amber-heard-abuse-assistant-kate-james-lawsuit-drugs-mental-verbal-trial.

(10) Ibid.

(11) Edwards, Stanley, J. (2016). Tort Law. Cengage Learning, p. 354.

(12) Ibid.

(13) [Peck v. Tribune Co., 214 U.S. 185, 190 [1909].

(14) Edwards, Stanley, J. (2016). Tort Law. Cengage Learning, p. 354.

(15) Ibid.

(16) Ibid

(17) Belli v. Orlando Daily Newspapers, Inc., 389 F.2d 579 [5th Cir. 1967].

(18) Ibid.

(19) Ibid.

(20) Ibid.

(21) Edwards, Stanley, J. (2016). Tort Law. Cengage Learning, p. 354.

(22) Soloman v. National Enquirer, 1996 WL 635384 [D. Md. 1996].

(23) Ibid.

(24) Ibid.

(25) Edwards, Stanley, J. (2016). Tort Law. Cengage Learning, p. 356.

(26) Ibid.

(27) Ibid.

(28) Ibid.

(29) Ibid.

(30) Yasharoff, Hannah. “Johnny Depp's lawyer says Amber Heard 'perpetrated serial violence'; she fires back with abuse claims.” USA Today. Feb. 2, 2020. May 16, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/02/02/johnny-depp-amber-heard-perpetrated-serial-violence-lawyer-says/4639763002/.

Photo Credit: Georges Biard

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daddygraves · 7 years ago

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Inktober Day 7. Confusion

Suuuuper late Day 7 submission!

WARNING: This fic contains mentions and explanations of intersex characters.

Also if you'd like to be tagged in all my future Inktober posts, just sing out! Hope you like this piece, it gave me so much trouble getting the tone and expression right! And I'm waaaaay over my intended word limit, this is close to 2.5K! Sorry!

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The first warning sign that your partner is being unfaithful, according to The Truth About Cheating by M. Gary Neuman, is when the notion pops into your head in the first place.

There would have to be some happenstance to cause such a thought, to bring this niggling idea to fruition. Such an idea would not appear out of nothing. And this unfortunate truth is why Harry Hart cannot seem to shake this hankering suspicion.

Eggsy Unwin is the love of Harry Hart's life. The younger man is utterly perfect, a pretty face with a heart of gold, as well as one of the best Kingsman proposals in near a century. It hadn't taken very long for feelings that weren't very platonic to develop within Harry for his protégé, however outrageous and inappropriate those feelings had seemed.

The two men had their fair share of drama, to put it lightly. Harry had been lying comatose in the Infirmary for a good portion of their acquaintance, and then, not long after he awoke, after a horrible row with Eggsy, he'd been shot in the head by a megalomaniac with a lisp in the middle of redneck USA. That had put a damper on things, for a year. Particularly since Harry had woken up sans left eye in the headquarters of the American spy agency, Statesman, with a healthy dose of retrograde amnesia.

But Eggsy hadn't given up on him. He'd come back again, and again, until finally little Hamish the puppy had pulled the strings of Harry's memories back together again. There's a shitfest in Cambodia, a dead nostalgic psychopath and an antidote for the Dancing Disease. Then, the surprise return of a robo-legged quartermaster and much-missed Lancelot, a newly rebuilt HQ and a consensually annulled marriage (Tilde, Crown Princess of Sweden, was ever so grateful to Eggsy for helping her ailing father gracefully abdicate).

Finally, agonisingly, there were no more barriers that stood in their way. So two backstage passes to Elton fucking John later, Eggsy Unwin ends up back at Harry's place. And this is not the sort of mentor-proposal sleepover that had occured last time. Martinis were still brewed, and a breakfast scene still occured, but there were far more confessions of love and a deal of heavy petting involved. The fact that Eggsy Unwin continued to come home with Harry every day and night since, and he was now fully moved in, was just a happy coincidence. No more wasting time- they were Kingsman, and in Harry's lover's words 'who fuckin' knows when one of us will get shot in the head proper this time'.

So with all of that to consider, Harry was firmly in the belief that they could survive anything the world threw at them. But then again, he'd never expected any dilemma like this to occur. Not even in his most haunting, wildest nightmares.

Eggsy was always so attentive, and never once failed to shower Harry with affection and reassurance. A casual hand looped with his at work, stroking acroos Hary's knuckles, and always a kiss and cuddle for luck before every op. At home, the boy was even more attentive, to the point that Merlin now actually refused to check the monitoring cameras at random, complaining that the sight of such 'excessive adoration, yeh twats' was giving him headaches. And then, of late Eggsy had taken up cooking in his spare time, meaning there was no short of oddly healthy, yet delicious food in the cupboards. Shouldn't Harry be over the moon? But M. Gary Neuman had taught him to see right through this glass window of false security. So unfortunately for the latest Kingsman chief, he was feeling anything but over the moon.

Because Harry Hart has a heartbreaking suspicion that Eggsy is cheating on him.

"It's only possible explanation," he argues with subdued certainty to Merlin,as the Scot shakes his head incredulously in the guest chair in Harry's plush office. "He spends all day glued to his phone-"

"Like every other millenial in existence," retorts the quartermaster, poking at his clipboard dismissively. "They're all glued to the bloody things."

"But Neuman, the author of the book on infidelity I'm reading-"

"Neuman can shove it where the sun don't shine."

"He might be organising something nice, for all yeh know," the tech wizard suggests reproachfully. "Is yeh anniversary coming up?"

"Was 3 months ago," Harry answers glumly. "He took me to watch Madame Butterfly." With front-row seats, no less.

"Now tha' don't sound like a man who's cheatin' on his boyfrien'," Merlin remarks, raising eyebrows knowingly. "Yeh worry too much, Arthur."

"My instincts are uncannily accurate thank you very much, Merlin," Harry responds, a hint of huffiness in his tone as he fiddles with a pen on his desk. "I wouldn't suspect something without reason."

"I bet he is planning somethin' wonderful, an' yeh gonna feel sick with guilt at doubtin' him," Merlin declares. "Tha' boy is utterly mad for yeh, yeh twat. He's probably plannin' on proposing."

Harry chooses to rebut this argument with the information that he had turned the house upside down, looking for a ring. And the fact that when Harry brought up the possibility over last night's pasta, his young lover had laughed, no hint of nerves in his tone, and suggested maybe one day, but not yet.

"You're an actual headcase, Harry," Merlin sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "For the last fookin' time, yeh boy isn't cheatin'. Now can I take some aspirin, and we get on with discussing the mission allocation for Mumbai?"

The concrete evidence comes several days later. As excruciating as the truth was, Harry simply had to know. He'd been taken for a fool before- he wasn't about to let it happen again.

When he hears Eggsy on the phone, calling someone 'love', his heart finally splinters in his chest. The bowling ball drops into his stomach, and Harry hovers outside the ajar office door, hand over his mouth to stop a cry escaping his clamped lips.

"Ta, darling. I'll see ya tomorrow, as planned? 11:30? Amazin'. See ya!"

M. Gary Neuman had been right.

Eggsy was cheating on him.

Harry hovers around the house for the rest of the night, brushing off Eggsy's various attempts at advances with soft, subdue rebuttals. Whose lips were crushing against Eggsy's when Harry wasn't around, when thise very same lips wrapped around a forkful of spinach quiche across the table from him? Whose wit was making Eggsy chuckle to himself on his phone as he curled down one end of the couch, Harry sitting rigidly up the other? Whose love was making Eggsy's cheeks pinker, and his skin glow, like it never had before with Harry?

"Arthur?"

"Come in, Lancelot."

Roxy takes the seat Harry proffers, waiting patiently as the man himself takes his own seat behind his expansive mahogany desk.

"You asked to see me?" The brunette offers, eyebrows quirking imperceptibly in apparent confusion.

"Indeed," Harry replies, taking a moment to steel himself as he stares down at the grains of wood beneath his fingertips.

"This is difficult of me to ask you, Roxanne, but it has been giving me a fair amount of grief these past weeks. And as Eggsy's closest confidante, and best friend, I trust you will be able to aid me."

"Anything you need, Arthur." Roxy's tone has more than hint of concern into it, and Harry doesn't need to meet her hazel eyes to know she is utterly focused on him.

"Let me be brief," he sighs heavily, wishing his next words would not bring him so much aching agony.

"Is Eggsy having an affair?"

Roxy appears to be choosing her words carefully, and a calm kind of numbness settles over Harry. It's all the confirmation he needs, the final nail in his lover's coffin.

"He's not,-"

"Please, Roxanne, your silence says enough. You may be a wonderfulasset to the Kingsman team, but when it comes it your loved ones, I see what Eggsy means when he says you cannot lie."

"Arthur, wait-" there's sheer panic in Roxy's eyes as Harry gets up from his chair.

"If you will excuse me, Lancelot. I have matters to attend to."

If only every step down HQ's halls did not feel as though Harry's legs were crumbling beneath him. If only every breath did not feel as though his lungs were stuck with thousands of needles as he strides on. If only the sheer suffering that wracked his body didn't hurt so much worse than when Valentine's bullet pierced his skull, as Harry stalks closer to the Galahad office. It's ten to eleven. If Harry catches Eggsy just before he leaves to see his mister, mistress, whoever they may be, it will give the boy several hours to collect his things from Harry's before Harry returns home for the night.

The first thing he had felt was sadness, just as Neuman had explained on pain 263. Misery that he, Harry, was clearly not enough to satisfy the boy's needs, even as a traitorous voice within whispered it was to be expected. That his love would never be enough for someone so young and beautiful. That Eggsy had never loved Harry as much as Harry had loved him. The tears he had shed in private, while Eggsy was half a world away, mourning what had and what could of been.

Then, there was the wondering. The questioning of why the boy had strayed. What had Harry done, or not done, that was not enough for him? The constant thinking of how long it had taken the boy to meet someone who held his eye, who wasn't Harry, and if he loved them. Of exactly who had made Eggsy so withdrawn, engrossed in himself, yet putting on a sunny front for Harry, hoping he wouldn't notice.

And then, last of all, Neuman had warned there was anger. Anger that Eggsy would think him so gullible, an old fool to be taken advantage of. To have the audacity to expect kisses goodnight, and the same level of intimacy, when he was taking a dip in another's pond. And fury, but mostly with himself- for falling in love so deeply and wholly with someone who had been destined to destroy him.

"Hey babe." Eggsy looks faintly surprised to see him, standing at his office door. He steps back, allowing Harry to stride inside.

"I think we need to have a talk, Eggsy." Harry is surprised by how calm he sounds, despite the rushing cyclone of emotions inside of him, ripping through the fabric of his consciousness.

"Uh, yeah, I think we do too," Eggsy says a tad guilty, rocking back on his heels. Was he about to confess?

No. Harry wouldn't give him that courtesy. It was time to cut the cord. Then retreat, pull back before salt could be poured on his deep emotional wounds, and hope he would heal.

"Haz-"

"Eggsy, I know you've been having an affair."

"And quite honestly," Harry continues, tone still mild, "I don't want to know who with, or why. I just want your things out of my home by eight o'clock tonight. Are we clear?"

Why was his heart hammering so painfully, and his throat swelling?

Eggsy stares, clearly dumbstruck. Before-

"What in the actual FUCK?!"

Harry's own anger swells exponentially at Eggsy's own furious expression. "Don't play dumb with me, Eggsy. I know. You can't hide it, I'm not entirely oblivious-"

"Are you actually fucking serious?!" The younger agent shrieks, eyes slits, body rigid with indignance. "What the fuck?! You actually think I would do that to you?!"

What?

"You've been glued to your phone relentlessly," Harry splutters defensively, finding his flame. "I heard you talking to your mistress or mister, I don't know, last week, calling them darling for fuck's sake, you've been taking more pride in your appearance-"

"You're an actual fucking idiot, you know?!" Eggsy spits, grabbing Harry by his upper arms. "What the fuck."

"Stop trying to deny it. Just get out-"

"I'm fucking PREGNANT, you massive wang!"

The oxygen is promptly sucked from Harry's lungs.

"You're what?" He manages, rather faintly, immobile.

"Yes," Eggsy's face is irritated rather than angry, but there's a slow, teary smile creeping across his face. "Pregnant, you fuckin' cockwomble. With your, our, child. Since April."

Eggsy's pregnant. Eggsy's fucking pregnant. His beautiful, beautiful unique boy, was just on 3 months with child. The parts he'd spent so long convincing the boy to love, that he was no less of a man because of what lay between his legs- those pieces of Eggsy, pieces of Harry, had made something wonderful.

Oh my god, oh my god, a dream come true- it's a miracle. Their little miracle, nestled inside the fleshed walls of a womb, slowly blooming to life-

"If I've been on me phone a lot, it's cos I've been Googling like mad," Eggsy explains, eyes meeting Harry's beseechingly. "When I first did the test I was mad scared, ya know- I was in fuckin' Osaka for tha' intel op, I called Rox an' cried my eyes out.

"I was freakin' out so bad, cos I didn't know if intersex people could even have kids- would the baby develop proper, be born ok? It was so fuckin' scary-"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Harry doesn't mean to sound accusing, but he's just had an atomic bomb dropped on him, quite frankly.

Cos I knew you'd freak out even more'n me, dickhead," Eggsy says pointedly, but there's not much bite in his words. "Ya worry enough as it is. Let alone a pregnancy in a womb tha's not sposed to be there- you'd spontaneously combust, you would."

And as shell-shocked as he is, truthdoes register in Eggsy's words. But there's still a question burning a hole in Harry's larynx.

"Then who were you calling darling on the phone?"

Perplexingly, Eggsy barks a laugh, smile stretching his mouth. "Darling is my gyno's last name, you twat." He rubs Harry's arm absently.

"Louise Darling, she specializes in intersex pregnancies. She's been having appointments wif me every couple of weeks, to check up on Bean."

"Bean?" Harry quirks an eyebrow.

His young lover blushes, seemingly embarrassed. "S'just what I'vd been callin' the baby," he murmurs quietly. "Cos it's so small still. Like a li'l bean."

"An before ya ask, I've been cookin' a shitload of stuff cos' it's all good for the baby, see? Gives me the 'pregnancy glow' All the stuff I been cookin has lots of vitamins in it, an' folic acid, cos Bean needs loads of that-"

But the words die in Eggsy's throat as Harry pulls him in for a crushing cuddle.

It all makes sense, all of it. Every single detail, that Harry blew utterly out of proportion. He'd been so blinded by his own stupidity he hadn't seen what was right in front of him all along. What an absolute fucking fool he had been.

"I'm so sorry, my dear boy, for ever doubting you-"

"An' I'm sorry for not tellin' you, love." Eggsy's voice is muffled into Harry's shoulder, but the tearful emotion in his tone is evident.

After a long moment, the pair break apart, and concern clouds the younger man's sunlit features.

"Wait. Ya do want this, him or her, right?"

Harry drops to his knees without a sound, onto the lush dark carpet of HQ and kisses Eggsy's belly firmly through the fabric of his bespoke, clinging to his partner for dear life.

"There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that I want more than this," Harry says thickly, a solo tear sliding down his cheek, as Eggsy's hand caresses through his pomaded hair."

"It- Bean- is ours. Our little one, a little piece of you and me and I am going to love it and you forever, my dear, dear boy."

He's going to come to meet this Dr. Darling, and see his little Bean fluttering away on the ultrasound screen, hear the sound of it's heartbeat. He'll rub swollen ankles, and run out at all hours of the night to sate whatever weird and wonderful pregnancy cravings plague Eggsy. He will hold tiny, designer, cashmere onesies to his cheek, and imagine the feel of a tiny little body wearing them, who will soon be resting in his arms. He can hardly wait.

"I fookin' told you he wasn't, Harry," a familiar Scottish brogue declares smugly over the office's intercom. "Told yeh. But congratulations. I formally reserve the title of Godfather."

"Noted, Merlin. Now do piss off."

But in fact, Harry isn't even bothered by the interjection. Because all he can do is hold Eggsy close, and cry happy tears into his boyfriend's smiling, equally tear-streaked face. He isn't being cheated on. He's going to be a father.

Let's see what M. Gary Neuman has to say about that.

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hedwigofrph · 8 years ago

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The Trans Experience Guide ™ by HedwigofRPH

Hello, I’m your host, Hansel, and this is the first in a series of articles specifically designed to help RPers who write or write with trans characters understand a little more about them. I consider myself uniquely qualified over the majority of roleplay helpers in that I am trans (I identify as genderqueer.)

Disclaimer: At no point am I claiming to know all the answers or that all trans people will agree or disagree with what I’ve written as the trans community is one of many varying opinions and peoples. If you disagree with something written here, please send me an ask explaining what part you take umbrage with and why and I’ll do my best to correct the misinformation and/or explain myself.

Without further ado: the first on Identities.

Most people, when they think about trans identities, think of them in a strict binary: either male or female, trans or cis, pre- or post-op. This is a problematic way of thinking about trans bodies (and people in general, to be honest.)

Why Binary Thinking Is Problematic

Because people falling under the trans umbrella not only can be one of any number of identities along the trans spectrum, considering someone to be either one or the other ignores the vast majority of identities in between and outside of the traditional gender binary. In addition, even people who are happy with their birth identified sex may have chromosomes that fall outside of a strict binary of male/female or XX/XY.

Additionally, this can invalidate trans people who are currently “between” in their presentation by implying that they can only be male or only be female, as well as intersex people who may or may not fit nicely into the binary. To create a more compassionate and understanding world, binary thinking needs to go.

Some Identities

binary (aligning with the gender binary of male or female.) trans male — in common parlance, this person was designated female at birth and is transitioning socially, mentally, and/or medically to a male presentation that is more in-line with who they are. Traditionally, this person would use he/him/his pronouns, but ask anyway. trans female — in common parlance, this person was designated male at birth and is transitioning socially, mentally, and/or medically to a female presentation that is more in-line with who they are. Traditionally, this person would use she/her/hers pronouns, but ask anyway.

non-binary (outside and/or in between the strict binary) Agender — this person is without a gender. Ask about their pronouns. Androgyne — an identity that is both male and female at the same time, but not necessarily in the same amounts. Some androgyne people may feel more male than female whereas others may feel both genders in question in equal ratios. This person may or may not identify with another term as well. Other related and more specific terms include femandrogyne (feminine androgyne), mascandrogyne - (masculine androgyne), versandrogyne (versatile androgyne, a person whose mixture of male and female changes), and neutrandrogyne (neutral androgyne, a person who feels very little or no amount of male or female.) Ask for pronouns. Bigender — someone who experiences two genders, either simultaneously or varying between them. This can include binary and non-binary genders. Persons who use this term could use it in conjunction with others such as ‘multigender’ or ‘genderqueer.’ Ask for pronouns. Demigirl — this person identifies partly, but not fully with womanhood/being a woman/girl/feminine. This person can be designated female at birth or male at birth. Ask for pronouns. Demiboy/demiguy — this person identifies partly, but not fully with manhood/being a man/boy/masculine. This person can be designated male at birth or female at birth. Ask for pronouns. Drag queen/king — this person is not necessarily trans but while drag is a topic for another article, this person could identify as any number of ways out of drag and can be used as a transitionary step between someone’s assigned-at-birth gender and their true gender, but is not necessarily/always so “drag queen” and “drag king” should not typically be considered to be trans identities. Genderfluid — this person can identify or present as more than one gender and moves between identities, presentations, and pronouns depending on any number of factors unique to that person. Ask about pronouns Genderqueer — someone who is not male or female, but may identify with parts of either or both. From Merriam-Webster “of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity cannot be categorized as solely male or female.” This term can be used as an umbrella, a standalone, or in conjunction with another gender term. Ask about pronouns. Intersex — this person is not necessarily part of the trans community, but intersex people are often mentioned in relation to trans people to either justify our existence (don’t do that) or as a complimentary identity. Ask for pronouns, but do not by default group with trans people unless you intend to address intersex issues as well as trans issues. Multigender — people who identify as multiple genders. This can include any of the other terms on this list or ones that have been left off and can be at the same time, concurrent, or a mixture of both. Ask for pronouns. Non-binary — someone who exists outside of the male/female dichotomy for whatever reason, be this because they are a mixture of both or because they’re neither. This person may or may not identify with this term as well as another. Ask for pronouns. Neutrois — a person with a neutral or null gender. This term can be used in conjunction with or instead of agender in that both describe someone who is neutrally gendered or genderless. Ask for pronouns. Questioning — a person who is not currently fully certain as to how they identify. This person may try out different identities while trying to find the one that suits them or they may be reluctant to take a label until they are certain which one is for them. Whether or not they eventually find the one that is right for them or create one wholesale for themselves depends on the person. Ask for pronouns, don’t be surprised (and don’t be a shit!) when/if they change or get amended. Third Gender — usually used as a catch-all term for all identities outside of the binary of male/female and wherever possible, the specific gender identity should be listed instead. Can mean one (or more!) of any number of trans identities. Two-Spirit — this term can describe one of many Native American gender identities. This term should only be used for Native Americans and/or First Nations persons as this term was created specifically for use by those communities. More research into which Native American or First Nations gender identity this person identifies with is highly encouraged as is asking for pronouns.

Closing Notes

For the most part, this guide encompasses common Western trans identities. There are others, such as hijra, that are culturally specific that may be used by muses from that culture, but should not be used by muses outside of that culture. The identities outside of what most Westerners would come in contact with have been left off as they are not for non-Western muses and should not be used by Western writers without extensive research into how those people are treated within their society, whether or not that term is offensive to the people it may apply to, and/or what cultures use what terms vs. what cultures do not (i.e. it is not acceptable to use a term from India for your Somali muse unless your muse shares a culture/heritage/background with India or the specific term in question.) When in doubt, outside research is always encouraged.

While some identities such as “genderqueer” are a compound word and should be styled as such when correctly talking about a person who identifies as such, others such as “trans man” are not compound words and should always be styled as separate words. Why? Because “trans” in this case is a qualifier to “man.” A trans man is always a man just a cis man is always a man with “trans” being a qualifier as to what type of man such as “blue eyed” or “brown haired.”

Despite the fact that all of these identities fall under the trans umbrella, not all people who identify as one of these terms identify as trans. This can be for a variety of reasons from feeling that “transgender” has become either too vague or too specific of a term to never feeling like “transgender” is a word that applies to them. There is no right or wrong way to be trans.

Other Sources/Readings:

http://gender.wikia.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/10/12/answers_to_all_the_rude_questions_about_transgender_people.html

Think something’s off? Want to tell me that my definition for one or more of these is wrong? Let’s talk about it.

#rpc #rph #rpt #rp guide #trans guide #rph guide #the trans experience guide #the trans experience guide by Hansel #I believe that love is immortal (Hedwig original)

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flickdirect · 6 years ago

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When Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg work together we, the moviegoers, are undoubtedly prepared for a fast-paced and excitement-filled movie ala Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor. We are also likely to be treated to an action film that is able to connect its characters to the audience.

Mile 22 delivers an action-centric, yet, otherwise, flawed, thriller. The film's taught, and tense opening sequence belies the rest of the movie's performance, never living up to the expectations set in the first 20 minutes.

We are introduced to James Silva (Mark Wahlberg- The Departed, Boogie Nights) and his Second in Command, Alice Kerr (Lauren Cohan- The Walking Dead, Supernatural). After a quick backstory, explaining the recruitment of the bright yet angry young Mr. Silva by the CIA, we learn the premise of the film from the inimitable John Malkovich, portraying the Overwatch Leader, Bishop.

The premise isn't original, and reminded me of Clint Eastwood's, The Gauntlet, but seems simple enough:

An elite paramilitary team called Overwatch is tasked with transporting a police officer (Iko Uwais) with vital information about a potential terrorist attack 22 miles across Southeast Asia from the American embassy to an airfield. With the help of high-tech communications expert Bishop (John Malkovich) and second-in-command Alice (Lauren Cohan), leader Jimmy Silva (Mark Wahlberg) and his team must outrun local military, police and gang leaders to complete their mission.

At just over 90 minutes, the film desired to deliver a taut, action thriller but falls a bit short in many of its intended targets, including providing us with characters that we can connect with. Being the first part of a three-part film series, this could have been on purpose to leave the backstory for part 2.

Unfortunately, there's not enough time spent getting to know the characters. Even after seeing Lauren Cohan's troubled relationship with her ex-husband and her separation from her daughter, at the end, after almost being killed, bringing Iko Uwais safely to the airport, she is told by Wahlberg to "Go be a Mom for 6 days" She replies, "I'll be back in 5." Really? Mother of the year, in training.

What is a bit upsetting is the limited use of Iko Uwais (Raid: Redemption, Star Wars Ep 7) martial art skills. His frenetic, explosive martial arts choreography was so heavily edited it looked amazing but not spectacular. While most of the fight set pieces were well choreographed by Iko Uwais they left us with a feeling of what-might-have-been.

It isn't an entire loss. Mile 22 provides standard action fare, with a bit of an unforeseen twist, and leaves off with the promise of a continuation, which we may never see, given the lackluster box office. Hopefully, it will do better in the home market and we get to see a sequel sometime soon.

The Universal Blu-ray provides us with an MPEG-4 AVC 1080p resolution and it looks great. The environments are sharp, even in the dimly lit interiors of the apartment building sequence; through the smoke and gunfire, we are treated to great clarity, especially up close fight scenes, the blood and drops of sweat seem ready to roll off the screen. What is a very nice surprise is when you redeem the digital code (iTunes Only) for Mile 22 you get the 4K version digitally.

The audio, while not Dolby Atmos, is DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless, and provides a solid atmosphere for an active playground. Explosions, gunfire, even the conversations in the Overwatch Command, as well as the Russian ops center, all provide a vibrant, rich tapestry, which plays well in surround sound.

The extras are short (none over 4 minutes in length) and to the point and lack the depth of many other special features we come to expect from a major studio release. A few of note are Overwatch, Introducing Iko Uwais, and Iko Fight. It was also interesting to see how Columbia doubled as the Far East. I really enjoy his other films and was looking forward to seeing him unleashed here. His talents are a bit hampered by the quick edits, but if you are a fan, you will appreciate him in this movie.

All in all, Mile 22 is a flawed, but fun action film. It could have used another 20 minutes to develop the characters and elaborate on the plot. Mile 22 doesn't deliver Jack Ryan or Jason Bourne but if you are looking for solidly acted, and a polished looking, action thriller, Mile 22 should satisfy; besides it's always fun to watch some knuckles get bloodied, and shiny things go boom!

Here's hoping for Mile 22 Part 2 and Raid 3!

Grade: B-

About Leonard Buccellato Leonard became obsessed with horror movies at the tender age of 7 when he first saw the movie Blacula (which quickly scared the Hell out of him). From there, all bets were off, from Grizzly and Jaws to The Thing and E.T, his love of movies took on a life of its own. His passion for movies is matched only by his love of writing and literature.

Read more reviews and content by Leonard Buccellato.

via FlickDirect Entertainment News, Exlclusive Interviews, and Film Reviews

#IFTTT #FlickDirect Entertainment News #Exlclusive Interviews #and Film Reviews

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 7 years ago

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Still need votes for this.

7O3X 1

As you can kinda tell from these notes, I love random trivia, so this was a hype show ever since I found out about it. Then again, I never thought a quiz anime would exist in the first place prior to the announcement of this.

Okay, question 1 – why exactly did some Japanese staff member saddle this show with a name that doesn’t match the Japanese title at all? So long as you know O is a correct answer, you’re fine…

I love how they’ve styled the credits to be like a Q and A. That really works in the show’s favour.

Headband girl’s name is Mari Fukami, right? How does she pose her legs like that?!

For some reason, I like Shiki’s name in the Western order more…

Interesting how Kuroda stands out more than Shiki, knowing anime tropes.

I’m not entirely up to snuff on Japan’s nuclear stuff, but the Descartes saying is fairly well known and I got it. The thing about quiz shows is that you have to want to play along, which I’m not getting just yet, but this is just the setup stage so I’ll keep going. Sahara…The Metamorphosis (I love transformation fiction, so to get a question about Metamorphosis so early on basically means you’ve won me over, LOL)…I think the deeper this goes, the more cliché it may seem, but I like it. Especially because I remember helping out at the library a lot (plus free pizza as a result…haha).

The books Shiki passes by include “The World of Literature You Don’t Know” and a parody of that Arukeyo Otome thing by Masaaki Yuasa that was released recently (which is based on a novel). Specifically, the name of the 7O3X version of the book is “The Morning is Short, Walk On Girl” (to use the sentence pattern of the original).

Ah, now Shiki’s a kiddo that gets me! I’ve never been too sociable to people and before I got too deep with the internet, it was just me and books, and as a result I specialised in everything English (bar writing, which I was average at). However, by the time I was 13, I lost my skills in English to essays. My love of anime made its resurgence around then so I suspect if I were still a book nerd, I wouldn’t be where I am today…

Okay, I think someone on the ‘net warned me about the panty shot. It’s a good thing Shiki is clearly uncomfortable with it…yeah. Moving on.

That club with the skirts really is disturbing, but I couldn’t help laughing like the brunette in front of Shiki.

Gakuto really made a great first impression. It wowed me. Unfortunately, the quiz show he referenced doesn’t exist, according to Google-sensei…”High School Quiz Show” apparently does, though.

I think there are specialised makers of those buzzers, Shiki. Or you could order them online or something, your call.

Please stop with the panty shot references…but sticking “April” in English really doesn’t make this question work out for me. So, to answer in Japanese, it would be shigatsu.

There are 50 stars on the American flag, right?…Yep. It wasn’t a trick question – buzzing in too fast can be a liability, so make sure you listen to the entire question before you answer!

I’d actually guess Gakuto is going to ask for “the nation with the most people”…Darnit! Oh well, I knew that one before the other guy buzzed in. Interesting how there’s Vatican Miracle Examiner this season though.

I suck at anticipating questions, but I’m good at answering like Shiki. “Et tu, Brute?” is said by Julius Caesar.

The guy to Mari’s left just seems to be fooling around. I’d know that sort of guy anywhere…*frowning face*

I don’t know about this “I fell in love” one…By the way, the text is here. That reveals the author is Dazai and Das Gemeine actually starts with “Back then, each day was the end of my life.” “I fell in love” comes after that.

Kaijou High School? Is this foreshadowing for a later opponent? Like, say, Mikuriya Chisato?

Stop it with the panty shot reference! Argh!

Wait, there’s a silhouette there in one of the circles. The long hair and colour of the circle indicates it’s most likely a girl, but probably one the staff want to keep secret…Interesting.

I’m kind of ambivalent, as this was one of 4 major hype shows for me. The number of panty shot references means they may refer to the event again in subsequent episodes, and fanservice has killed shows for me in the past. However, I’m slowly getting the hang of this quiz bowl stuff, even if I can’t always get in before the answer, and I know the emphasis is on quizzes, so I’ll give it another ep.

Saiyuki Reload Blast 1

Apparently, you don’t need to know much to get into Saiyuki so *shrugs* I’m gonna try it.

I think a more literal version of this ep title is “Sudden Storm”. “Squall” implies power as much as immediacy…

This reeks of DN Angel (late 90s/early 2000s) style, and I like it! Plus I’ve heard of the dragon/Jeep from other people who’ve talked about the series (notably there was an article on CR that convinced me to watch this and it mentioned the dragon), so…that was actually no biggie. Camera blood spatter is a bit questionable, though…

I have weird tastes in humour, as you might know from Kado. Therefore, when the woman appeared at the window, I laughed myself silly…

Shangri-la is China, so it’s natural that west China is different to east China. Kind of like how western America and eastern America are different…

I dunno why Gojyo is a water sprite, but that “diarrhoea sprite” thing is funny.

Gahh! That blonde (Sanzo) is too hot for me! No wonder people put characters on dakimakura, this guy looks right at home on one.

Well, I dunno what I just got myself into, but that was some good stuff! Next ep, please! (Plus, Granrodeo and Luck Life, the same duo of artists on Bungou Stray Dogs. That’s gotta be a good sign, right?)

Oh great, I left the ep running and it turns out there’s an after credits segment. Tsukigakirei’s after credits extras didn’t quite work for me, but since I laughed so much at the main show, this shouldn’t hurt, right?

G-Guh! The dragon can write calligraphy?! With its feet?! At least the joke works in Japanese and English…

That baldness joke works for me, considering I know Sanzo’s a priest…welp, if you get a lil’ background knowledge, it seems like you can conquer almost anything Saiyuki, and who knows what places it’ll take me in the future, eh?

Konbini Kareshi 1

I’m here for the VA talent, if nothing else. Nishiyama’s (Atsushi of Boueibu) getting a lot of side roles lately, which is great!

That running sequence took a good minute and a half, which is the same length as the OP. I almost noped out of there because that kind of thing is only compelling for about 10 seconds for me.

There’s something that’s a hybrid of Sagrada Reset, Denpa Kyoushi and Tsukigakirei here…which means it’ll probably get a low to medium rating, if anything. I can normally peg what sort of rating a show will get by its first episode,because shows tend to be consistent about what they do.

Interesting to note they don’t use shigatsu here.

The picture book is “The Mermaid Prince” (<- update: “The Merfolk Prince” is a better translation, so my bad). It was pretty obvious by the swimming sequence in the OP that at least one of these guys is a swimmer, or at least a PE nut (as some of the other things on his table suggest).<br>

I’ve never seen a younger brother be a morning person and the one to wake up a sibling. It’s always an imouto or a mother…

Wasn’t this straight romance, and not Hitorijime My Hero romance? Towa really has that bromance thing going on for him, the way Suna and Takeo (Ore Monogatari) do.

CS I think is a reference to BS Japan, one of the TV stations that shows Boueibu. Update: It’s actually highly likely to be CS-TBS, which shows the show. By the by, Nishiyama is Miki.

The red keion announcement vaguely pisses me off simply because I know that’s the light music club. I’ve seen small snippets of K-On, and while it wasn’t enough to warrant marking episodes off, catchy songs aren’t enough to keep me coming back.

This first meeting seems a little hamfisted for some reason I can’t put my finger on. However, it’s great Miki’s getting a lot of lines right here, although it’s still a side role…

The background scenery is beautiful in this show…

Here we go again…(basically, I have a very low opinion of this show, just as I suspected I would have).

I’ve got the volume on to evaluate Nishiyama, but the high-pitched teasing voice Towa just used is not natural at all. It would’ve worked better in his normal voice.

I get why the girls are fangirling over books, but I didn’t get who Michael Ende was until “The Neverending Story” came up, haha.

Glasses girl (Mami, right?) is reading something called “Glasses Man”, haha.

There’s a lot of voiceover here, as if the anime staff don’t quite care about their show enough to animate lip flaps.

As soon as she stepped on his foot and he didn’t give chase, that’s when I realised I didn’t quite care about these people. The pacing in this show, during critical moments, is just too awkward, that’s why…

Well, that was subpar. It has an opportunity to get better next ep, but I don’t care to stick around enough. However, there’s an interesting thing in the ED – there’s credits for scripting “Merfolk Prince”, meaning that may show up in a later ep. This ED sounds Coldplay-turned-Japanese, which is cool.

Knight’s & Magic 1

If you didn’t notice already, I’ve become so complacent with the premieres, this is my biggest season so far. If I finish watching every first ep I intend to watch as of the count I did for this commentary, I’d have 17 documented (7 more than on my hype list) because I have time, plus I’m relying on ANN to find me the good stuff this time.

What’s with that apostrophe in the title? As someone who likes their grammar to be correct, I just don’t like it.

I get the appeal of programming as an IT nerd, but it’s an acquired taste, plus it doesn’t have much payoff when you get frustrated at problems within your own code because it’s all a bunch of words and punctuation anyway.

Oh, it’s that effect where you-letterboxing! That’s what I was thinking of! (Reminds me of Erased.) Also, the ambient light is nice here, but the angled letterboxing is just plain weird.

CGI…bugs? That’s a pretty bad choice for monsters, IMHO.

ANN people have commented Erni’s past went too fast and I agree. Also, it’s just cliché after cliché with this show, ain’t it? Including the need to kabedon a girl.

Why does red eyed girl look like Atsushi of Bungou Stray Dogs? Plus, the wear on the mechas is nice.

Not every man – or every woman or other kind of person – dreams of robots, y’know?

“Trandorkis.” That’s the worst name I’ve ever heard in a while, and not just because it has “dork” in it, mind you.

Well, the look is shiny, bright and appealing and I can see this having a niche appeal to those who like giant robots. However, the backstory was too fast and Erni is way too OP for this world, so I’m dropping it.

Chronos Ruler 1

I’m familiar with only the first one or two chapters of the source material, so I was surprised this got adapted to anime…considering it’s a Taiwanese creator on a Jump manga though, it was kinda inevitable these days with all the Chinese coproductions.

That was a pretty interesting intro, even if it seemed like I’d watched the PV instead.

The battle there was good but a lil’ rotoscopy…hmph.

The colour scheme’s a lil’ dark…it’s a bit worrying, because Chronos Ruler normally has some pretty bright colours. I don’t want this to come off as a completely edgelord work like Big Order. I don’t seem to recall this dog though…

I’m pretty sure I don’t remember the forced humour spot, either, though it’s not as bad as, say, Bungou, where the director is known for his distinctive style of humour. Then again, my memory on this stuff is kinda vague.

This thing is starting to show cracks in its façade. Some of the movements are stiff and the CGI, while integreated well, doesn’t quite work with the 2D (although that’s shown up since the battle with the Horologue). “Cabalet” really adds to the cracks.

Every time Kiri speaks, I think of Kunikida (Bungou), so Victo is Dazai.

Adding the music to the show really adds another crack. There is absolutely no singing going on in this one singing scene.

Cue bad time puns. Puns are one of my specialties, y’know, so I don’t mind ‘em. Why else would I run LOL Yeah Shinichi, eh?

Victo, you remind me so much of +Anima’s Senri…and that’s just beautiful. Not many shows remind me of that. To anyone reading this, if you can get your hands on the old Tokyopop releases, +Anima is a gorgeous series, so go read it!

If Victo’s cards can fire at Mach 10, then he can’t beat Koro-sensei, LOL. (Ouch.)

Kids, don’t wear your hats inside. That’s an etiquette thing you should never forget, okay?

That was…strangely a much better premiere than I expected a Chinese part-production to be like! It’s better than the bunch of premieres I’ve tackled already and since good premieres are scarce, I’m taking it!

Update: Here’s another sign that doesn’t bode well for this show – it’s got the same director as Chaos Dragon (Masato Matsune), which I dropped after 2 eps. Chaos Dragon is known to be the epitome of road apples around the internet…

18if 1

18if was initially the only thing guaranteed to be out of Amazon’s greedy hands, so it’s great to see something so visually exciting ifnally be here for me. I know it’s based on a mobile game, which tend to be bad, but…c’mon, I’m struggling to find a good lineup here with what’s basically the death of Kaito x Ansa (it debuted on the 12th, but still hasn’t come CR’s way). Katsugeki’s good though, so at least that’s a lock for the commentary…

Quick –is this thing meant to be fully English? Or is this just Funimation being annoying?

Oh no, what a horrible first impression! Someone who speaks from their *erhem* and a chicken, aka cock…*muffles laughter* How dirty of me to even suggest it, but…well, it’s what we’re working with here.

The more I watch, the more confused I get.

Couldn’t Haruto have run towards the door? Or is this one of those non-lucid dreams?

This 16 frame simultaneous animation doesn’t quite work for me, but it’s an interesting hallmark of this anime.

Katsumi’s a Looney Toons Cat, sort of kind of…

The production values are mostly quite good, but unfortunately Haruto looks eyesearingly bad and I still can’t quite grasp the narrative thread of this show…

I just realised I completely didn’t care about Haruto getting his arm chopped off, not only because this is a dream world where anything can happen, but because heck, that arm drop wasn’t dramatic in the least.

“Anything can happen in this world”, eh? Including headphones being sliced off with a head, it seems.

Wait, so Yuko’s from his school? Haruto, please don’t encourage Yuko to skip school, as cool as that is.

Okay, I can see this becoming a harem crossed with The Royal Tutor…which would pretty much make this the Monogatari series. Unfortunately, because I still can’t quite detect what’s happened narrative-wise and the production values aren’t as great as they seem at first glance, I’m dropping this.

Boku no Hero Academia 27

Finally, we get out of that pool of mediocrity to get to the good stuff. Let’s go!

This new amazarashi OP is…great! Absolutely great match for this show…but as a musical choice for me, it’s kinda dull.

This old man is great humour-wise, but man, he’s basically Speed of Sound Sonic as an old geezer, LOL. The vibes between “little bro” and “big bro” are just too much.

Gran Torino really is a great old guy, basically Yoda, LOL (I had to make the comparison because even though I’ve never seen Star Wars, Horikoshi’s a fan). He can see weakness just from watching Deku on TV, which is what every great mentor should be able to do, right?

What makes movement flexible? Belief in one’s own strength and no fear for repercussions (not quite in the way Deku’s doing right now, but rather going all out all the time without having a subconscious fear drag you down). Also of course exercise and youth works in your favour.

Deku likes katsudon, LOL. No wonder he’s basically Yuri Katsuki’s little bro as well as Saitama’s, hahaha.

Best Jeanist is basically Aoyama gone pro (I’ll say ouch for Bakugou in advance).

Oh! Uwabami! I know she came from Oumagadoki Zoo, so it’s nice to see her animated!

Gahaha, Gran Torino is such a Mr Miyagi (even though I’ve never seen the original Karate Kid).

“Omazan”, LOL! This ep just keeps getting better and better!

Gahaha, I just made a comparison of Yuri Katsuki to Deku, and suddenly here come the food metaphors. This show became superhero!YOI with better comedy, and that’s just even more fantabulous than before.

This fairy tale AU, I dig it. Unfortunately, Mercy (@mercysorrows) spoilt prince!Shouto for me, but yes, this AU is just as great as the ep itself. Kaminari looks great in this, although I’m disappointed I couldn’t see Tokoyami. What a great twist at the end though, for it to be 1-A’s festival album…is that foreshadowing for a later arc, perhaps? (The All Might fire is both a fitting and a sad analogy, because All Might’s force is literally Deku’s sword and shield and All Might’s presence is what makes Deku a hero, yet it suggests Toshinori’s time as a buff man is limited…*feels all sad inside*)

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan 1

This one actually seems like it has some promise, and because I was a Detective Conan fan a few years back I’m a sucker for any new seasonal mystery series. By the way, let’s just call this “The Vatican Anime” and leave it at that, okay?

“This story is a work of fiction…” – The Vatican’s real, though, right? By the way, “succor” is, according to Google-sensei, “assistance and support in times of hardship and distress.”

The shaky camera doesn’t quite do it for me…There was similar stuff for Chronos Ruler, only that time they overdid their spinning.

I thought the door was an elevator, that’s how deceiving that doorbell was. Sheesh though, Hiraga looks like the dude from 91 Days when he’s tired (which is not a compliment!).

The Game of Angels and Demons seems to be reversi or something, Google doesn’t give me anything good on it.

*points at undressed Hiraga* Unnecessary, but wowee. Me likey.

“I’m the one who came up with the game.” – Oh, that explains why I had no proper hits on it…*sighs*

Biometrics? I thought we were in the 91 Days era, or at least another period in the past. Turns out we’re in the present (or somewhere very close to it).

Comparison to Youkai Apato here – both shows take care to state the obvious, but well…they’ve all got a good dose of (at least somewhat good looking) bishies, so I can live with that.

Okay, wait…they show Mexico on the map, but Google just keeps getting me hits for New Mexico (slightly off from the shown section of America) when I look for “aliens America 1945”, and Roswell was 1947 so uh…this really is a work of fiction, after all.

The most widespread religion where I am is Christianity, so it was optional for me to take RE back in the day. I’m not too familiar with Catholics (although there should be some if I bother to look for them), but…this smacks so much of my old RE classes yet doesn’t give me the same nostalgia as the recent Saiyuki did. Maybe it’s the cracks of subparness and the stating the obvious that are doing this.

This Jacob guy looks brainwashed. More than the other procession of priests we’ve just been introduced to, at least.

Bad CGI…then again, I keep these gripes because even Chronos Ruler does better than this and because Kado is its precedent.

“…follow the way like a little child would.”

So the show finally shows some promise! Why did it only start pulling out its big guns now? Probably lazy writing…

I know the AB negative blood is rare, but couldn’t there be someone else with that blood type around the Church? It’s not impossible, y’know?

Can someone verify the correctness of the Italian in this email?

I think we met Johannes already, so…it seems like this show has a propensity to introduce the viewer to a person twice over. That works when things are like Detective Conan (one story spread over 3 eps) but doesn’t work for 1 ep.

I get a sense of feeling of blasphemy from you guys (Hiraga and Nicolas) too, although I’ve pointed out my reasoning.

It’s a good thing it seems like the staff went out to the Vatican to get something that looks realistic, eh?

Wait, is Lauren a man?! Oh my…Also, from my version of the video (from Hidive/Sentai) I get the feeling the next ep preview got blended into the ED. Or was that just time constraints?

Wait, there’s a Horror Bunko? If I knew a Horror Bunko existed, why haven’t they started adapting stuff from it until now? I think people have been complaining about the lack of good horror works in anime…(Oh, I could probably answer my own question there – horror isn’t that popular in Japan itself. It’s popular in the West though…)

All in all, it’s not quite as Scooby-Doo as some people have pegged it to be, but not inspiring enough to continue.

Katsugeki 2

I’m pretty scarce on choice, so I’m doing what was previously never ever done before – I’m picking up one of my worst rankers (Hina Logi) to have a second look at. Mind you, we’ve had an overall stinker of a season so far.

(insert “Come at me, bro!” joke for Tonbokiri)

Huh, interesting – I’ve used female pronouns for the saniwa due to the female VA, but now that I properly listen to them, they do seem more like a dude. Does that mean that Touken Ranbu is specifically trying to go for a larger audience than just fangirls? Of course, for the fangirls, there’s Hanamaru, but Katsugeki’s way better.

Okay, Mutsu. 6 bullets is overkill, calm your gun-totin’ farm. Mutsu’s much like the typical anime protag and while he’s an alright sword, I never have been able to understand the appeal behind him. Maybe he’s for the people who like muscular bishies…? Tonbokiri and Yamabushi probably do that better than him…

LOL, these two. However, just comparing their stats, Kane-san edges over Mutsu a bit for everything aside from range…and that’s only because most swords have a short range.

When you talk about Tonbokiri, you often hear the legend, so it’s no surprise to hear it here. I’m just not good with sorting these swords chronologically though, so…Tonbikiri comes from the age of Nobunaga no Shinobi, huh? Interesting.

Daifuku.

The reason Mutsu carries a gun is because Ryoma Sakamoto was around during the dying days of the age of swords.

It’s kinda hard to hear what Mutsu’s saying from the way he talks, but the hot pot is specifically a nabe.

Noting that Tonbokiri’s ben out about 50 times, this saniwa really is a rookie and this era is probably the second or third map. Yagen isn’t too rare though, so he’s probably the biggest veteran here in regards to this saniwa. However, Mutsu’s number means that this saniwa’s starter wasn’t him…who was it, then?

Mutsu’s statement about daifuku is a pun on the fact “daifuku” means “great luck” as well as being a name for this mochi-like item.

Mutsu, weren’t you going to eat…?

What even is a Historical Restraining Force? Is that the group the saniwa is part of?…My bad, they just explained it.

One of the things that make Touken Ranbu so great is the propensity of it to go from battle action to serious drama or poignant melancholy at the drop of a hat.

This ED…was an odd choice, but has a nice singer. I realised the shots of people I don’t recognise show the swords when they were…y’know, swords. I still love the style of the next ep preview though (it’s even got the same BGM as the game!) and as expected, the citadel at the end of the ED is gorgeous.

Hina Logi 2

Good anime are scarce this season and magical girl shows that can be put through the commentary are scarcer, so…here we are.

“Rice Balls Over Flowers” is hana yori dango. Plus, hina means chick and since chicks are cute, I guess that’s where the aesthetic of the show comes from.

Someone likes the Osomatsu-san ED aesthetic, it seems.

How can you walk and not notice those breasts??? That’s exactly why I didn’t want to pick up this show again.

A qipao is a type of Chinese dress, the sort that normally has a slit up the leg and a skirt that doesn’t quite go to the knees.

Interesting, they’ve incorporated the panda hair accessories into the Trance.

For some reason, the production values here are quite nice, meaning either luck and Logic sells well in Japan or Bushiroad put a lot of their funding behind this…it’s probably a case of both.

She wants to stay with Nina, but unless she was either bored or maltreated at her home castle (which I don’t think was the case) I don’t really get Lion’s motivations…

Well, it actually was a rice ball (onigiri)! Geez, these puns…

Nina needing a logical answer is of course appropriate for a show based off Luck and Logic, LOL.

I seem to remember this Veronica lady from the original, which is funny, because I don’t remember Nina and Luck and Logic was very forgettable…

*tries to sneak away* Gratuitous boob shot? On a high schooler? Yeah, nah.

“small little town” – Small and little are the same thing though…

Trying to entice the lolicons with this ED is not good, y’know.

There really seems to be something hinted about Kagura-sensei, y’know?

I’ve termed this season “the race to the bottom”, but it was interesting to actually pull out a low ranker and give it a second chance. While I’m still not into Hina Logi as a whole and I gave it a 30 first time around, it’s probably better than that stinker Konbini Kareshi.

Hina Logi 3

*shakes head* Only in anime would someone ride a rocket like this. Only in anime.

I can’t see what Lion’s pointing to…

I am screaming profanities at my screen and shaking my head. Only in anime would a plotline like this happen. Only in anime!

I kinda understand Lion’s plight, since my dad used to go to my school to help out every now and again or have parent teacher interviews. Of course, that was when I was much younger, so…yeah. I think the staff are trying to get more younger girls involved in this by bringing in a “sexy dad”, but my tastes don’t skew that way.

Oh, now I understand Lion, but I still don’t get Mahiro, Yayoi, Karin or Karen.

Doesn’t spasibo mean “thank you” in Russian?…Yep. So Liones (country) is based on Russia, then.

Oh gosh, it’s one of those “There are two trains” questions…they bore me to death so much (and I can never solve them!) that as much as I like solving anime board questions, I’ll pass on this one.

The subber at CR decided to put their sub out of the way at the expense of being able to read the question. However, not being able to read the sub of the dialogue is a major problem! So I have absolutely no idea what the teacher was saying during the time she had that math problem up! (Also, that Foreigner question would depend on if you defeated the monster on impact or took extra time to properly defeat it.)

When there’s that screen with the four visuals on it, there’s a girl with a horned hoodie. I recognise her from the original series, but I don’t remember her name.

Here’s something on ezhiki, although there also appears to be a cookie variant.

Little kids always want their own independence, to the point where running away is one of those things most kids do, but then they come back. I don’t think I ever ran away from home, though. I was always too busy with studies and piano to run away…

I know these eyecatch-style screens are meant to be funny, but still…I never laugh at them…isn’t that sad for a show that wants to be a funny slice of life/fantasy…thing?

Last time I saw a bear in anime, it was Armed Girls Machiavellism…

Why would you ever need a bear repelling machine???

Who’s Belle?…Oh yeah, Belle is the squirrel.

Dasvidanya = goodbye. I’ve learnt more Russian because of anime than I ever would have without it (I read the entirety of Crime and Punishment thanks to that gorgeous Fyodor in Bungou Stray Dogs, y’know).

#simulcast commentary #katsugeki touken ranbu #chronos ruler #boku no hero academia #hina logi: from luck & logic #knight's & magic #18if #vatican kiseki chousakan #saiyuki reload blast #konbini kareshi #chesarka watches boku no hero academia #7o3x: fastest finger first #Chesarka watches Saiyuki RB #Chesarka watches Katsugeki

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cutiecrates · 7 years ago

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Cutie Reviews: Tokyo Treat 18 June 2017

Welcome Cuties. Sorry if I kept anyone waiting for this- I have to admit I was kinda putting it off for a variety of reasons. But I won’t waste time with that.

Before I begin, I would like to explain a letter that came with this months box. Last August a typhoon hit Hokkaido, which as some of you may know, is where many potatoes are harvest from. Since then there has been an on and off shortage of certain snacks. Since then, a lot of companies have been rushing to mass-purchase various snacks, and some have even stopped production for the time being.

Basically, due to this there was a snack originally intended in the box, the Shimi Choco Corn Soft Cream Flavor, which was replaced with the Shimi Choco Corn Milk Chocolate Flavor.

I really didn’t mind this change at all XD I never tried soft cream, but I have had the milk chocolate flavor before and it is GOOD ♥

Okay, so this months theme is: Rainy Day Snacks ⁝⁞⁝⁞ʕु•̫͡•ʔु⁝⁞⁝⁝

I love this cover~ It reminds me so much of the new Making Drama in Idol Time Pripara ♥ Plus I love rainy weather, so there’s that too...

This month Tokyo Treat was really feeling the rain theme. Not only with the design, but the booklet talked about great sight-seeing spots for hydrangea flowers (which are gorgeous, I love pink ones!), included adorable rain-themed Pikachu for the contest (along with a pikabackpack). For this months Lucky Treat I once again forgot to get pictures, lately this seems to be a problem for me. No idea why, but I apologize. The included items are

Sakura Miku nendoroid

Takara Tomy Jump This!! Miku Game

Gudetama Folding Umbrella

Pokemon Center Original Rainoat Pikachu Plush

Totoro Collectable Catbus Figure

Moegino Assorted Cookies

Ajishino Assorted Cookies

Totoro Pullback collection - Totoro’s handmade catbus

Attack on Titan Master Stars Levi Action Figure

Attack on Titan Colossal Titan Die-Cut Floor Mat

Super Mario Bros wii Warp Mini Sound Figure

Big Brave Gudetama Plush

Original Daruma Pikachu Plush

Totoro Water Bottle

Super Mario Bros Backpack

(Okay, those cookies look AMAZING, and Levi is my favorite character from Attack on Titan~ I also always wanted to get the Sakura Miku nendoroid but never shelled out the money for it. I would have loved this one! Except for the Colossal Titan Die-Cut floor mat. He creeps me the cutie-heck out; but I could have given it to someone who I know would like it ♥)

Here we have the Misc Items, including our special toy/trinket for the month, a One Piece Multi-Color Pen. Right away look how cute everyone is in chibi form ♥ I’m obsessed with one piece. The pen is small and practical with a string you can attach or wear to carry it around. Not only is it handy as a pen- but it makes a cute accessory!

I did test out the pen of course, and sadly as much as I like the design this is where I need to rank it...

You get 4 colors for the pen: Black, Blue, Red, and Green. It’s nice but a little bit boring, since they’re generic dark pen colors (although I do like the red, it’s like a dark pink). Sometimes it seems like the ink/pen doesn’t want to work with certain colors- but it might just have to do with where you use it or what it’s used on, because I tested it again before writing this and it worked much better than when I tested it back when I got the crate.

Honestly, the quality of the pen sorta feels like one of those cheap dollar store quality pens with a sticker of characters slapped on it. But you know what, I actually like it. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for anything OP, or maybe I like multi-color pens a bit too much. It’s not the worst pen I’ve ever used either, but I’m not sure how long it’ll exactly last, so... 3.5 out of 5.

Okay, so you probably noticed I had the DIY kit partially... I’ll be blunt, this is the ONE DIY Kit I NEVER wanted to get. I don’t like Shinchan and I find crude humor like this to be disgusting. I’m sorry if that offends anyone; but that is just how this Cutie rolls. I will still make the Shinchan Puri Puri Pudding, but I don’t think I have it in me to make it the normal way.

(btw, the two next DIY I have are both puddings! I actually don’t like pudding much- but I kinda tolerate it sometimes? At least Asian puddings and sweets I seem fine with.)

The final item in the Misc trio is the Tropicana Sakura Peach Taste. Are you guys sensing a theme yet? Tokyo Treat seems to really like giving us cutesy floral pink drink designs/tastes as of late. Not that I mind ☆～（ゝ。∂）

This 120 calorie drink contains a 100% fruit juice blend of apple, cranberry, peach, and raspberry. I pretty much only tasted a light apple juice (in fact it reminds me of Juicy Juice, a brand I like), but it’s very tasty, But I’m giving it a 4 out of 5, only because it’s a fairly average drink and I honestly didn’t taste Peach at all.

Here we have two random sweets that I didn’t think really fit with anything else.

First up is the Super HimoQ- Grape & Muscat. This is a gummy boasting a length of 126cm and only 98 calories. Will you share it or eat it all yourself?? Which flavor will you save for last??! I did share mine (a small amount to let someone taste it), and I had so much trouble deciding what to save for last. I love muscat AND grape together, and I find them to be equally delicious and refreshing.

If you never tried Japanese grape-flavor things, you are certainly missing out. American grape-anything tastes like medicine, but you get a more realistic taste with Japanese grape. Muscat is essentially green grape.

Now I didn’t eat the entire thing at once, but I found that even a few days later it was still super-soft and tasty. 5 out of 5!

Besides the Shinchan DIY, we also got these Chocobi Space Parfait, Shinchan’s favorite snack in a much more favorable type (I say that because in the first box I got, we were given these little hard chocolate candies I detested) released to correspond with the new Shinchan movie and some sort of anniversary or something.

These have a total of 136 calories and Space Parfait is essentially a fun way of saying 6-fruit flavor. You do get a surprisingly cute sticker with the box though, and this one I’m okay with.

The snack is very fruity in taste- it reminded me of cereal but it went stale triple times as fast. It was a bit on the sweet side, but not terrible unless you ate a lot of them. Not my most favorite thing, and I kinda hate how you only taste one thing. If you’re going to be made with multiple fruit, please taste like it; or at least include multiple flavors.

I only ate a few, but when I realized the taste was going at a rapid pace I only had one option...

(if you read this blog I’m sure you’ll recognize this bowl. I’ve become obsessed with it ♥)

Here we have 3 out of the 5 Dagashi Snacks in this box (the third item, the tube was not in the Dagashi). First is the Pudding Cola Gummy. Yes, you read that right. PUDDING COLA, it’s like a nightmare, combining my favorite thing with something I’m not devoted to...

but not really ♥ These sweet little squishy gummies look like a pudding and feel like one too (seriously, I probably played with them more than I ate them), but they taste like cola. The yellow portion has a fluffy marshmallow texture, so they are very soft~ For such a small bag, they’re only 98 calories. Definitely a 10 out of 5 sweet I’d eat every day if I could.

Next is an item that filled me with dread after already experiencing the grape flavor in my second box. This is essentially a Roulette Gum. For 38 calories (what I wonder is how the calories count if you don’t eat it...), you can play a “fun“ game with friends and family, or yourself by trying the gum. You get 3 in a tray: Normal, Sweet, and Sour. But the catch is that you can’t tell which is which!

I’ve heard people say usually the middle one is sour, but if I remember correctly, it was the 3rd one for me. I usually like sour candy- but I swear this would make me quit it. Fast. The sour candy isn’t sour at all! It just tastes like someone made it from PURE SALT ● ﹏☉ Last time I kept it in for a few minutes- this time I spat it out as soon as I could tell. It hurts your mouth and sucks all moisture from it; so be warned, if you’re betting in this game you should know the risks and make the bet a small/easy one to avoid public humiliation!

The Sweet one was the first one I got, which was pretty good, it tasted like average sour lemon candy. I got the Normal one third, which was a great relief after the first two. The gum quality itself is really good too, and the flavor lasts a while; but again if you don’t like sour things you might want to avoid it or have water and a tissue nearby... 4 out of 5.

Next is the Mix Fruit Soda Ramune Candies, something I’ve had the normal Ramune Soda variety of before and fell in love with. These are little powder pressed candies, each with it’s own fruity flavor of banana, peach, pineapple, and/or strawberry. They come in pink, blue, and yellow; some of them even have cute little faces on them~! I like candy like this and I love how cute they are, and they taste pretty good too; but I’m not big on banana and I still think I prefer the normal flavored ones to these. 4 out of 5.

The last item are these fun little pressed-powder whistle candies. They look like chubby lifesavers~

Whistle Candy is a fun and simple little two-in-one :D you get a toy, and a candy when it softens and breaks apart. The flavoring is average ramune (which isn’t bad if you enjoy it like I do ♥), and you usually get them in sets. Here we got 3 of them. It’s simple and fairly plain I’ll admit- but I like the "gimmick” behind them. 3.5 out of 5.

Now whose ready for some chocolate (o^^o)♪ If you’re addicted to chocolate, then you’re always ready~

First up is the popular Marble Chocolate, some yummy M&M-like candies that come in several fun colors and include these cute, dog-like characters on the packaging. Each tube comes with a sticker (which isn’t in the picture because I actually didn’t know where it was at the time. I found it after emptying the tube, it’s a cute Transylvania-esque scene with the doggies). Now, I don’t hate M&Ms, but I rarely eat them and now I now why. Compared to these, M&Ms taste artificial! 5 out of 5, if you get a chance to try these out I highly recommend it. You get a get sticker~

Next is the Sakura Kinako KitKat, which taste a lot like the Sakura Mochi Chocolate from Tirol I got a few crates back that I REALLY liked. The taste is hard to describe, it’s like a cross of light cherry and white chocolate. Kinako is a soy powder-like substance with a slight sweet but neutral taste. They pretty much go hand-in-hand ♥ like Peanut Butter & Jelly, Mayonnaise and takoyaki, Vanilla ice cream and french fries...

...don’t knock it until you tried it...

The last item in this picture is the Black Thunder Kaki no Tane. It’s the chocolate rice bar from Black Thunder, filled with Kaki no Tane, a salty pretzel treat with a small kick of spice. With this treat you get all of the major S’s (except for Sour) and to that I say: Sensational~

The texture and taste is fairly average if you tried other things like this. You get the soft crispy chocolate rice with a light bitter taste, mixing with the crunchy (fairly hard) pretzels. I liked it, but it hurt my mouth a little so I’ll probably avoid it. 3.5 out of 5.

These next treats were so big I couldn’t fit them in the chocolate portion! As I mentioned way at the start of the post, we got the Shimi Choco Corn Milk Chocolate Flavor, which is something we got back in December (in a very cute decorative bag ♥). I admit it can be disappointing to get an item you already got; but these things are really good. It’s a soft corn snack completely soaked in milk chocolate and baked. The texture is light and airy, almost comparable to bubble chocolate but perhaps dense? 5 out of 5, no questions.

We also got another type of Pie no Mi - PABLO Cheesecake. This time the Pie no Mi collaborated with the trendy cheesecake shop PABLO to create this delicious flavor. Not only that, but I’m utterly in love with the Pie no Mi box designs. They’re so elegant and cute~

Now I don’t know if I mentioned this before... but cheesecake is my favorite food! I was so excited to see this in the box, cause it’s kinda rare for me to get some really good cheesecake (I usually make it or buy small, singular slice packs in the store).

The top has a browned crisp while the inside has cheesecake flavored chocolate cream that pretty much tastes like a slightly sweetened cream cheese. I love it. It’s like no matter what Pie no Mi can NEVER do anything wrong. I even like their green tea flavor- and I don’t like green tea. This would be an 8 out of 5. Really. It’s better than a 5 but not a perfect 10.

The next item was another Dagashi treat, the Butter Cream Roll Cake. It reminded me of a twinkie essentially; but with a better, less-artificial taste. It was light and fluffy, but I can’t say it had too much taste, so... 2.5 out of 5.

I love saving my savories for last~ Speaking of last, the Umaibo - Teriyaki was the final item from the dagashi bag. As usual Umaibo fails to displease me ♥ Teriyaki is one of my favorite flavors of pretty much anything- and I definitely liked it better than the last 2 I got from these crates. It taste like slightly sweetened teriyaki broth to me, it’s probably tied with my most favorite Umaibo, corn potage (and the second one I will actively hunt down for more). 100 out of 5!

We also have Porippy Spicy Peanuts with probably the highest calorie count of 332! It’s surprising I even liked these considering how much I hate peanuts (Cutie-chan is very picky : P). The peanuts have a shell of honey, soy sauce, and spices with a small kick of heat.

If you’re like me and you really hate peanuts, you might like this one like I did. I rarely ever make exceptions (I also like spicy cayenne flavored peanuts), big time 10 out of 5! The scale is being broken several times today!

The final item of the month is another spicy, delicious snack (I wish we got more, I love spicy things!) O’Zack Sesame Chili Oil. You could get this or the Chip Star Mild Salt, something I’m glad I didn’t get because they’re pretty much plain/regular pringles and we recently got a Chip Star product in the crates.

Anyway, I really like these chips (btw, I also used my Sumikko Gurashi clip that I said I’d probably never use to shut them...), they’re a tiny bit thicker than most chips, but the crunch isn’t too bad on the mouth and they have a bigger kick than the Spicy Peanuts (but not a huge one, so it’s safe for those who might have a small heat tolerene). I like these so much I’m considering investing in getting some chili oil to experiment with ♥ another 100 out of 5!

And there goes the scale! Looks like I might need to get another one~

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Quality - 5 out of 5. This time my gumballs were not broken to cutie-hell and back. Everything was fine, nothing damaged. I pretty much did not hate a single thing in this box.

Content - 5 out of 5. I’m not entirely sure how these snacks relate to rainy weather (as I say this, I’m eating the chips while its pouring outside...), but I could see someone cuddling up with a cozy blanket and enjoying them.

Total Rank: 10 out of 10 Cuties! It was perfect! Nothing wrong in the slightest. I admit I’m not happy about the DIY we got (I don’t mean to sound picky or snobbish, it’s just personal opinion), but I loved everything in the box! This probably means I’ll have high standards for the next one; so let’s see how it does!

♥ Cutie’s Scale of Yummy ♥

1. O’zack Chili Oil/Teriyaki Umaibo - They were both amazing! I honestly can’t choose which one is superior!

2. Porippy Spicy Peanuts - Again I actually hate peanuts. But the spicy-sweet shell coating was flavorful and yummy~

3. Cola Pudding Gummies - I was worried at first since I assumed these were pudding flavored. Boy was I in for a surprise when I started eating one and realized COLA was written on the front!

4. Super HimoQ Grape & Muscat - I love fruity gummies, especially the ones that taste realistic.

5. Tropicana - Nothing special, but it was still delicious!

6. Pablo Cheesecake Pie no Mi - They were tasty alright. I only wish there was more of the chocolate cream inside~

7. Kinako Sakura KitKat - I really like this flavor, I’m not sure why.

8. Whistle Candy - it’s a game and a sweet, nothing beats that.

9. Mix Fruit Ramune Soda Candy - I don’t like banana, but I will admit the taste is semi-realistic, which is better than most banana candy. I still prefer the normal one to this flavor, but I did like them.

10. Shimo Choco Corn Milk Chocolate - these are really good, but I’ve had them before. I like to get new stuff :3

11. Marble Chocolate - Essentially they’re just M&Ms, but they taste better.

12. Butter Cream Roll Cake - It was soft and heavenly, I just wish it had more flavor.

13. Lemon Roulette Gum - As long as you don’t get the “sour“ gum, it’s really good.

14. Black Thunder - Again it was good, but it was too hard on my mouth.

15. Chocobi Space Parfait - They’re not bad at all, I just wish maybe it was a mix of fruit flavors. And didn’t taste less-than good after two days.

Cuties we’ve come to the conclusion of the post! I can’t wait to get to my DIY kit later on, it’s not the Shinchan one, but the Gudetama I got from Kawaii Box :3 I’m so excited! In terms of crates I got my last one for now, the Kira Kira Crate (since Doki Doki no longer comes for me IN the month its supposed to...)

Anyway, until next time, stay cute!

#rainy day #tokyotreat #tokyo treat #one piece #marble chocolate #pie no mi #shinchan #kitkat #tropicana #black thunder #umaibo

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include a GDC talk on 'the aesthetics of cute', the hidden story of TOSE, & the return to car wrecking of key Burnout developers.

Another interesting week of longer-form 'things', and I've been ruminating a bit on how these videos and articles intersect in weird but neat ways with 'breaking news' or 'hottest games'. Seems like you'll get at least _some_ bleed-through - for example, this week we have Battlegrounds, Signal From Tolva & Night In The Woods again, all of which are newish or interesting releases.

But many of these pieces are evergreen & exist separately of the 'hot reactions' grind. Which is good. Exist too close to the 24-hour hype cycle, and you'll miss trends and more thoughtful takes like some of these good folks. VGDC aims to reverse that. We hope you think we do a good job.

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Guild Wars 2’s art style passes from father to son (Philippa Warr / RockPaperShotgun) "Recently I had the chance to talk to ArenaNet (and thus Guild Wars 2) art director Horia Dociu about his work at the studio. One of the interesting things about his promotion to the role is that he succeeds his father, Daniel."

We’ve been missing a big part of game industry’s digital revolution (Kyle Orland / Ars Technica) "Last year, the Entertainment Software Association's annual "Essential Facts" report suggested that the US game industry generated $16.5 billion in "content" sales annually (excluding hardware and accessories). In this year's report, that number had grown to a whopping $24.5 billion, a nearly 50-percent increase in a span of 12 months. No, video games didn't actually become half again as popular with Americans over the course of 2016. Instead, tracking firm NPD simply updated the way it counts the still-shadowy world of digital game sales."

Warren Spector believes games 'need to be asking bigger questions' (Alex Wawro / Gamasutra) "Gamasutra sat down with Spector at GDC last month to catch up on how the process is going, roughly a year into his full-time gig at OtherSide. It was an interesting conversation, especially if you're at all interested in where games are at these days, where they came from, and what sorts of stories they're best at telling."

A Rare Look Inside Nintendo (Otaku / Game Escape / YouTube) "This clip is an excerpt from the French documentary film "Otaku" by director Jean-Jacques Beineix from 1994. It appeared dubbed on German TV some time later, which is the version you are seeing here. It has, to my knowledge, never been released in English. The subtitles are my own. Content is the intellectual property of the original rights holders."

An Interview With One of Those Hackers Screwing With Your 'Black Ops 2' Games(Patrick Klepek / Waypoint) "He's not there to ruin your stats. He's there to sell you software that'll let you launch a DDOS attack from your Xbox 360. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is crazy - modded Xbox 360s that find other player's IP addresses and can DDOS them?! I had no idea.]"

Put a Face on It: The Aesthetics of Cute (Jenny Jiao Hsia / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Hexecutable's Jenny Jiao Hsia explains why cuteness as an aesthetic may be worth exploring for developers who want to push against current trends in game design."

Proc. Gen. and Pleasant Land | Sir You Are Being Hunted (Robert Seddon / Heterotopias) "It was a perfect rustic idyll, in its way. Perfectly lovely, nestled between the grassy fields. Perfectly quiet, as only dead places can be. Perfectly still, because a player careless enough to create a disturbance might attract the robotic hunters. Big Robot’s Sir You Are Being Hunted had, through the digital governance of its landscape generation algorithms, somehow perfected the British countryside."

How video games were made - part 3: Marketing and Business (Strafefox / YouTube) "In this final chapter we cover the business side and marketing of 8 and 16 bit games. [SIMON'S NOTE: Lots of archival footage in here & SO much work cutting it all together - and the other entries in the 'how video games were made' series look pretty good too!]"

Video Games Are Better Without Stories (Ian Bogost / The Atlantic) "A longstanding dream: Video games will evolve into interactive stories, like the ones that play out fictionally on the Star Trek Holodeck. In this hypothetical future, players could interact with computerized characters as round as those in novels or films, making choices that would influence an ever-evolving plot. [SIMON'S NOTE: lots of responses to this all over the Internet - here's a couple of good ones from the Waypoint folks.]"

'Burnout' Series Creator Talks Remaking Crash Mode for 'Danger Zone' (John Davison / Glixel) "Spend longer than a few minutes talking with fans of driving games about which series they'd love to see revived, and invariably someone will bring up Criterion's Burnout. Unlike contemporaries that were leaning harder into realism and officially-licensed cars as a response to games like Gran Turismo, the first Burnout – released by Acclaim for PlayStation 2 in 2001 – was unapologetically action-focused."

Famitsu Special Report – The Mystery of TOSE (Famitsu / One Million Power) "This is the real story behind TOSE: The game development company that’s been making games for nearly 38 years (since 1979), but hardly any gamers know. [SIMON'S NOTE: Brandon Sheffield covered TOSE for Gamasutra back in 2006, but by and large, they've been PRETTY vague about what they work on - which is fascinating.]"

How Three Kids With No Experience Beat Square And Translated Final Fantasy V Into English (Jason Schreier / Kotaku) "One day in the late 1990s, Myria walked into the Irvine High School computer room and spotted a boy playing Final Fantasy V. There were two unusual things about this. The first was that Final Fantasy V had not actually come out in the United States."

Night in the Woods is Important (HeavyEyed / YouTube) "An analysis of the recently released game - this video contains very minimal spoilers but watch at your own discretion.."

Designing the giant battle royale maps of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds (Alan Bradley / Gamasutra) "For Brendan "Playerunknown" Greene, the creator of Battlegrounds, the vision for his game world was born from extensive experience creating and manipulating environments that direct players to play his games the way he intends them to be played."

All We Have Is Words (Matthew Burns / Magical Wasteland) "Sometimes I give the impression of knowing Japanese, but I really don’t. I have no claim to it. I never made a real study of the language, I don’t know kanji and thus can’t read at all, and even in speech I can’t exchange more than pleasantries or the most rudimentary logistical information. [SIMON'S NOTE: I believe this is a subtle 'subtweet'-style article response to the recent Persona 5 translation furore? Maybe?]"

Changing the Game: What's Next for Anita Sarkeesian (Laura A. Parker / Glixel) "Anita Sarkeesian’s talk at this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco falls at an unfortunate time: 10am on the last day of the conference – a Friday. Most attendees – a mix of indie programmers, mainstream publishing teams and media – are still bleary eyed from the night before. And yet, at five-to-ten, the small room on the third floor of the Moscone Convention Center is standing-room only."

The quest to crack and preserve vintage Apple II software (Leigh Alexander and Iain Chambers / The Guardian Podcast) "Why has the quest to hack old Apple II software become the best hope we have of preserving a part of our cultural history? How do these floppy discs – still turning up in their box-loads – shine a light on the educational philosophies of the 80s? And do a new generation of gamers risk losing whole days of their lives by playing these compelling retro games in their browsers?"

Video Games Help Model Brain’s Neurons (Nick Wingfield / New York Times) "Since November, thousands of people have played the game, “Mozak,” which uses common tricks of the medium — points, leveling up and leader boards that publicly rank the performance of players — to crowdsource the creation of three-dimensional models of neurons."

Longtime 'Star Citizen' Backers Want Its New Referral Contest to Die in a Black Hole (Leif Johnson / Motherboard) "Developers of multiplayer video games often host referral programs encouraging existing players to recruit their friends for a boost in cash flow, and in that regard, the new referral contest from Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games isn't much out of the ordinary. The same can't be said of the reactions from the players themselves."

Localization Shenanigans in the Chinese Speaking World (Jung-Sheng Lin / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, IGDShare's Jung-Sheng Lin discusses a wide variety of possible issues that can arise when undertaking Chinese localization for your game. These problems include grappling simplified vs. traditional Chinese, naming problems, UI & fonts, and China-specific policies that may relate to localization, political implications, and more."

Good Game/Tech/History Youtubers (Phoe / Medium) "[SIMON'S NOTE: this got birthed after a conversation I had with Phoe in the Video Game History Foundation Discord chat - he watches a lot of good retro/interesting YouTube, and there's a number of recommendations in here I was unaware of!]

Red Bull TV - Screenland (Red Bull TV) "Plug into the fresh stories within the world of video games and game design. The personal tales, wild new developments, and unexpected genres shed new light on what gaming means in the world now and what it could mean in the future. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is an entire _season_ of gaming documentaries, including with Frank Cifaldi (Video Game History Foundation), UK cult classic Knightmare, and lots more.]"

Tim Schafer tells the story of Amnesia Fortnight (Philippa Warr / RockPaperShotgun) "“I started feeling a little bogged down by the scope of [Brutal Legend],” says Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine. “It was really huge and I felt like the team had been doing it for a long time and had a long way to go yet. I felt like they needed a break.” That break was Amnesia Fortnight, a two week game jam during which anyone at the developer can pitch an idea and, if it’s selected, lead a team to turn it from concept to working prototype."

The Signal From Tolva: The Best Game Ever (Matt Lees / Cool Ghosts / YouTube) "New video! Matt dives into a spooky robot world, to talk about some of the cool design aspects of The Signal From Tölva. [SIMON'S NOTE: Can't emphasize enough that Cool Ghosts has some of the best game criticism on YouTube. Please patronize them! (On Patreon, not by talking down to them.)"

-------------------

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to [email protected]. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

#IFTTT #Blogger

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repwinpril9y0a1 · 8 years ago

Text

Joshua Kurlantzick on Books and Writing

Joshua Kurlantzick is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank. This interview has been edited lightly and condensed. You've recently published "A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA." Would you tell us a little bit about it? The book is intended to be the most comprehensive story of the secret, or twilight, war in Laos in the 1960s and early 1970s. It was, as I retell, the biggest covert operation in American history, and remains the largest. Starting in early 1961, a time when the Eisenhower administration (just leaving then) considered Laos one of the most important foreign policy priorities, the U.S. -- mostly through the CIA -- armed, aided, and trained tens of thousands of anti-communist fighters in Laos. The war would grow into a massive enterprise, and one that would then come to include widespread bombing by U.S. planes; Laos would become the most heavily bombed country on earth, per capita. Today, the country remains severely littered with unexploded ordnance. The Laos war went on for nearly a decade with minimal U.S. public, or congressional, oversight. A few Congresspeople did know a fair amount about the extent of the war, but most didn't, or chose not to; and many were shown only a tiny portion of the war. This kind of twilight war had serious problems and consequences, in some of the same ways that a global war on terror that lacks oversight does. And, the twilight war in Laos also changed and empowered the CIA in several ways, and I look extensively in the book at how the war changed the CIA. Thus -- the subtitle of the book. (The title comes from a quote by Robert Amory Jr, the former CIA deputy director, who recalled that many in the Agency thought Laos was "a great place to have a war.") The Laos war started the real transformation of the Agency from a primarily spying organization to one with a much more military/paramilitary focus. It also made the Agency much more powerful within the U.S. foreign policy orbit. Although reforms in the 1970s limited the Agency's paramilitary operations, they never completely vanished, and indeed many of the Laos veterans participated in operations in Central America and Afghanistan in the 1980s. And after 9/11, paramilitary operations -- drone strikes, aiding foreign militaries, targeted killings -- again became central to the CIA's mission. Spying and traditional intelligence work took a backseat. The war on terror, in many ways, is the latest incarnation of the shift in the CIA that began in Laos. Why did you decide to write this book? I lived in Southeast Asia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and was intrigued by Laos. Laos was even less developed then than it is now, and it was getting relatively few tourists. There was a minimal level of U.S.-Laos relations; the relationship is still rather minimal, but it was even more minimal then. The U.S. embassy was pretty sleepy and the capital city of Laos, Vientiane, was pretty sleepy. It was definitely highly repressive -- and it is still one of the most repressive regimes in the world, with no domestic opposition allowed and basically no freedoms of press, expression, or assembly. But it was also very outwardly sleepy; and, still, I learned about how this sleepy place had been a major component of U.S. foreign policy for a time, a major battleground, a place with the biggest covert operation in U.S. history. It seemed impossible, when you go to Laos and see how small it is, how isolated and remote much of the country is, how small the economy is, how far it is from America, etc. And the more I learned about the secret war in Laos in the 1960s and early 1970s, and contrasted it with basically near-zero U.S. interest in Laos at the time I started visiting, it just seemed almost crazy. How could Laos have been a central issue in U.S. foreign policy, as indeed it was in 1960 and 1961 and 1962 -- and then go to being basically irrelevant to U.S. policy? How did that happen -- what does it tell us about how policy is made and how it swings? What does it say about policy decisions? I found it fascinating and sad. And also I read a number of the books that were out on the Laos war, including the best one by far, "Shooting at the Moon" by Roger Warner, which is an amazing book. But most of them didn't have access to declassified CIA files, because they had been written too soon after the war; a lot of the files have just come out in the last few years. In Warner's book, he had to kind of put together his own structure of the Laos war, his own timeline, with little written documentation and virtually nothing written from the CIA. And he did an amazing job, but there was still a void. And now, with so much declassified about the Laos war in the last few years, I thought I could put together a book that used that declassified material, delved into what Laos meant for the CIA, use the CIA's own materials, and also tell a narrative story, since there were quite a few colorful characters in the Laos war. Vang Pao, the Hmong leader who was commanding the major contingent of anti-communist forces in Laos that received much of the U.S. aid, was a very colorful and, in some ways, tragic figure. Tony Poe, one of the CIA operatives I profile, was also colorful, to say the least. Some people think he was an inspiration for the Marlon Brandon character in "Apocalypse Now." He became more unstable as the Laos war went on, and was sent to a relatively remote part of Laos to train a new group of fighters. He seemed to go crazier and crazier there, in what was basically kind of his jungle hideout, like at the end of "Apocalypse Now." And he claimed he was killing people and cutting off their ears, mailing the ears to the U.S. embassy to show how serious he was about the war, putting prisoners in holes. Just losing his mind, at least for a time. But he also inspired fierce loyalty among some of the Laotian anti-communists he trained, fierce devotion -- he was an extremely tough commander, and later in life, when he was living in America, some of the men who had fought with him before (they had come to America as refugees after communist forces won the Laos war in 1975) visited him regularly and still had great respect, almost love, for him. Who is your ideal reader? I think the book has a wide audience, potentially. (I hope!) Anyone who is interested in spying, in espionage, in an interesting spy story, will hopefully like the book. Folks who are interested in U.S. history, in the history of the Vietnam War, will perhaps like the book. Policymakers and other people who focus on foreign policy, will be interested in the ways that the Laos war transformed the CIA and changed American foreign-policy making. Perhaps people who are interested, these days, in the war on terrorism and how it is conducted, and earlier precedents for it, will be interested in the book; there is a lot of overlap between the Laos war and how the war on terror is conducted. And anyone who just likes a rollicking narrative nonfiction story may enjoy the book, since it is driven by characters and narrative. I tried to appeal to as broad an audience as possible while still writing an investigative book that does cover a decent amount of history and policy ground. How long did it take to write? Do you have a writing routine? The book took fits and starts to write. I have some medical issues that sometimes can get in the way of consistent writing from day-to-day, but I usually can get around them, and I work very hard at it. Overall the research took about two years and the writing two to three years. I had interviewed some of the key players in the book even before I started on the book, though; I had interviewed them for earlier articles, books, and stories on Laos back when I was a foreign correspondent for a bunch of different publications and then a foreign editor at the New Republic. I don't have one specific writing routine. I live with a medical condition that can vary wildly from day to day although I can, overall, do as much as anyone. But I have to kind of go with what my body allows. The main thing for me, personally, is that when I'm physically doing well to roll with it and get as much done as possible in that window of time. Be totally focused, no distractions, and just hammer away, since I don't know how I'll feel tomorrow. So that sharpens my focus and keeps me from wasting time, I think. Everyone wastes time, especially in the Internet era, but I try to minimize. When I was much younger, I worked briefly for a newswire and was based out of Bangkok -- Agence France-Presse. The discipline of that, and also doing a lot of freelance journalism when I was younger, with tight deadlines, probably helped me with my writing routine. In those previous jobs, you just had to get the writing done. There wasn't a lot of time to prevaricate, so you got it done, or else the editor at the newswire would be upset, and the clock is always ticking at a newswire. You have to just write the copy and get it out and then think about the next piece to write. That experience was good for me, and helped me see writing as a job as much as an art form. Of course, for a really serious fiction writer, someone on a much, much higher plane than me, this viewpoint -- writing as a job as much as an art form -- might not hold, and they might not view writing as anything like this. I really don't know, since I'll never be at such a level. I don't know how Philip Roth or someone like that thinks and I have no pretensions like that. But for my type of narrative nonfiction or policy writing or op-eds it works for me to think of it as a job, put time in, and try not to think of it as different from other jobs. Put the time in daily and establish some internal pressure, and also take a lot of writing gigs -- a lot of commissioned pieces, for example -- to make some pressure on yourself. What do you read for fun? I read almost exclusively nonfiction books for fun, as well as a lot of magazines. My wife is always amazed by my interest in magazines; I really love magazines, and read all sorts, from sports to serious political ones to travel ones and entertainment ones. I occasionally read fiction, but very rarely, I guess. I love reading quality narrative nonfiction. I've probably been focused mostly on nonfiction since I was a small child. The topics can be very varied, but anything that is high quality narrative nonfiction, I'm interested in it. I also get about 15 magazines a month and prefer to read them in the old-fashioned, print format. I don't really like e-readers or reading a PDF at all. I also get three daily newspapers and I like the serendipity of a reading the newspaper in print, and not the digital edition, although of course I look at stories online. But I find that reading the print newspaper is more enjoyable, and that I'm much more likely to just come across some interesting story in the Health section or the Arts section or the Washington Post's Metro section when I read the print paper than when I go to the Post or New York Times online, or another news outlet online. I like finding these stories and I find reading the print edition I expand what I learn about and don't just tunnel into a few areas.

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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Night in the Woods is Important (HeavyEyed / YouTube) "An analysis of the recently released game - this video contains very minimal spoilers but watch at your own discretion.."

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#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Night in the Woods is Important (HeavyEyed / YouTube) "An analysis of the recently released game - this video contains very minimal spoilers but watch at your own discretion.."

-------------------

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes