#now the real question is do i post my little comparison to reddit or are these guys gonna tear me apart. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kob131 · 2 years ago

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https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/z877af/the_problems_with_gatekeeping_in_parts_of_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Now here’s the full deep dive.

Gee, I wonder why critics in general within the RWBY fandom are so maligned. It couldn’t be that on top of the vast majority of them being incapable of doing bare minimum quality control, you also lie about the show and creators constantly, attack both constantly and act in heinous ways like trying to use a man’s death to emotionally manipulate his co-workers/friends/family into complying with you. Not to mention said vitrol is directed AT the creators at a much greater frequency by self proclaimed critics who themselves cannot take even the mildest form of criticism themselves.

However, from time to time a trend and an "opinion" is spread or attempted to be spread in the community, and it is my belief that such things need to receive push-back before they become common-place, otherwise it can lead to.... Poor decisions as back in the past.

Can you really call it strange when the act of not doing it was basically seen as acceptance to act as horribly as possible to creators?

Dex, I do not care how much you preach about how innocent your fellows are. They are still the same group that has asked Miles when he’ll die so he can be replaced.

At the same time, there is the related issue of people seemingly thinking that criticizing a work means inherent dislikeability of it, which is a very wrong conclusion to draw in my opinion. And the last but not least is the somewhat strange sentiment that critics are out there to stop fans from enjoying the show.

What kind of conclusion would YOU draw at people doing nothing but bitching endlessly about the show, about things they misconstrue and about things that DIDN’T HAPPEN? All while declaring how much they hate the creators who make the damn show and demand that it be completely different huh?

Critics do not care if you watch the show

I think this claim should be addressed first despite its position in the intro. There has seemingly been an increase in a very peculiar sentiment, the sentiment that critics do what they do out of some kind of malice, or with an intent to get people to not watch the show.

I have seen RWBY ‘critics’ take sadistic glee in bullying the writers. I’ve seen outright BIGOTRY from them. You cannot argue a lack of malice.

Now, do not worry, i can tell you very simply and openyl. We critics simply do not care of what you do in your free time. Why should we? Many people here spend very little time on RWBY or being involved with the RWBY community, at least in comparison to the rest of our lives. For example, i log in multiple times a day, but rarely write unless a thread interests me, and i only have 2 days of making posts weekly. I have other things to do in my life like Cross-stitching as a hobby and of course, work.

Cool.

Now look me in the eye say that about the creators.

... That’s what I thought.

Let us be real here, what would any of us gain by getting other people to not watch or enjoy the show? Especially since it is something that we most likely would never even find out about? It just makes no sense.

Validation. Those people want validation for their feelings, to make it look like their feelings have a factual basis.

This has been especially prevalent during my critiques of RWBY: Arowfell, people were questioning if they should buy the game, or if i am doing the critique threads to stop people from playing the game. To which i could only say "I do not care" nor other critics. Of course, as long as it does not involve supporting a corporation like RT. Then we do care, but watching/enjoying RWBY content is mostly unrelated to that.

Gotta love that he brings up his Arrowfell posts, which DIRECTLY GO AFTER THE CREATORS MIND YOU, as he completely ignores an entire side to this conflict.

Look, there is no need for this self-victimization and thinking that critics are "out to get you", we aren't. Especially since many of us (With a few exceptions) still enjoy the show ourselves.

A. No, you fuckers usually target THE CREATORS. Your own fucking subreddit proves this. Type ‘miles’ into the search bar and watch as the first result is everyone bashing Miles Luna for liking tweets criticizing RT, trying to blame him even though it is VERY public knowledge that he alongside the other writers overwork themselves.

And B. I call bullshit. You bitch about so many things that have a more logical, positive interpretation so often I can only assume you WANT to see the negative. That and the times that, again, you bitch about shit that NEVER HAPPENED.

And just honestly want it to get better. Which actually leads to the next point.

I have seen your rewrites. All but one ALWAYS deviate majorly from the original to the point of barely being AU. Your definiton of ‘better’ is ‘panders to me’, which just underlines how self centered the lot of you are.

Yes, critics do enjoy the show, they express it differently, but they still do, at least most of them. Criticizing or only criticizing something does not show that a person is not enjoying the thing they are playing at hand. For example, go to any Paradox game forums and see what most often liked memes are, they are memes of either funny occurrences or some part of the game that is bad. And those are the games where people will spend 200+ hours playing, and thats the lowest estimate.

Cool. Now show me the ones where Paradox games try to get the developers fired so that they can place people more like themselves in charge.

At the end of the day there are too many ways to express enjoyment of a show or to interact with the fandom. Be it making fan-art, making AMV's, making fanfictions, rewrites. There are so many ways to engage with the fandom and a person can choose any of them. It is their choice to make and it does not indicate their enjoyment of the show.

Also gotta love that be brings up fanfics and rewrites as separate things,even though the latter would just be a more specific form of the former. Almost like he knows that rewrites aren’t made out of affection but rather entitlement and smugness.

An artist might even HATE a show that they make art for. Its possible, because artists do also get paid for their work. One cannot judge people just by their content, at least not entirely, especially with things like these.

Does the artist constantly say they are better the creators and that the creators are inferior people to them?

Not to mention. Where does this purity testing end? So if i mostly criticize a show im not a fan now? Ok. Who is next? The people who half criticize and half praise the show? The people who criticize the show at all? And before anyone accuses me of "Overstating" things, one of the main deciding factors of the critic sub forming was the belief that the main sub was hostile to critique post V6, which it kind of was and i experienced it myself first hand.

Gee, not like there was a sudden surge of people acting like amoral dipshits who constantly tried to browbeat the creators into making their OC versions of Adam canon or anything...

And again, ignoring the creator side of things really fucks you in the ass here because it sounds more like ‘So if I threaten the creators, lie about them and their work constantly and outright show that I know this is wrong when people do it to me- Am I not a fan????’

Hell, fan-artists have been harassed over the art they make. Cosplayers were harassed over characters they chose to dress as. These things can easily escalate. Purity testing is an never ending spiral of doom.

You’re right Dextixer.

... Too bad the critics started it in the first place, demanding that the creators weren’t pure enough themselves. How’s it feel getting fucked by your predecessors’ actions?

But we do have this nifty little thing called ‘basic pattern recongition’. Like ‘people do nothing but lie and be jackasses constantly towards thing and creators -> they no like thing.’

Also, if getting slagged off is rude- what do you call suicide baiting and racism? Attempted murder?

This kind of claim is usually tied in with the claim that a critic "must not enjoy the show" and that they should "leave the fandom for something they are fan of" and the like.

These critics constantly interpret the show and people behind it as negatively as possible, beyond any form of logic or reason. All while acting miserable and pissy.

They should.

To which i can only say...

Something does not need to be good to be enjoyable.

Cool. Not why so many hate critics.

Talk about how you treat the people responsible FOR said thing.

I do not think there is more for me to say about these points. Just to clarify, i am doing this almost as an "outreach" program from the critic side, basically trying to tell you that we arent these "scary" and faceless mass of people who want to stop people from liking RWBY. What i want to show is that we are fans like any other, just making different choices in our expressions. That is it.

You know, unless you criticize them or call them out for doing far worse shit than

Or if you commit the cardinal sin of ‘Being Miles Luna’.

Then you’ll be harassed and attacked and lied about and slandered until they think they’ve broke you.

Also, do be aware that this is not calling out the entire fandom and the like, this is me pushing back against some of the narratives i have been seeing recently, nothing more, nothing less.

Did you ever stop to think that maybe the narratives exist for a REASON? That maybe your community has crossed so many lines that no one cares about your pleas of innocence?

For fucks sake, the person you are indirecty referencing (Lilith Fairen) outright said she watched RWBY SPECIFICALLY because you fuckers got so loud and obnoxious that she had to check it out. She wouldn’t have come into the fandom if you hadn’t been such massive assholes.

Your bullshit caused your own boogeyman. Twice, considering that I originally came to the RWDE tag believing I would find some decent criticisms to discuss instead of a swamp of bile and toxic puke.

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dextixer · 2 years ago

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The problems with gatekeeping in parts of the RWBY fandom and the difference between quality of a product and its enjoyment value. (And extra)

While i am "cooking" my next batch of threads, mostly covering RWBY: Arowfell for now, i have decided to cover some issues that i am seeing rising up once again. Its not uncommon for critics of the show to be maligned in any and every way imaginable. However, from time to time a trend and an "opinion" is spread or attempted to be spread in the community, and it is my belief that such things need to receive push-back before they become common-place, otherwise it can lead to.... Poor decisions as back in the past.

What am i talking about? Well, first of all, the increasing sentiment of gatekeeping and some parts of the fandom seemingly deciding to choose who is a "fan" of the show or not. The strange purity testing that seems to be taking place on reddit of all places. At the same time, there is the related issue of people seemingly thinking that criticizing a work means inherent dislikeability of it, which is a very wrong conclusion to draw in my opinion. And the last but not least is the somewhat strange sentiment that critics are out there to stop fans from enjoying the show.

Critics do not care if you watch the show

The same applies to many other critics too. Many critics have jobs, some worry about education, others belong in other fandoms and visit them more often, or maybe they have other hobbies besides engaging with a fandom at all.

Look, there is no need for this self-victimization and thinking that critics are "out to get you", we aren't. Especially since many of us (With a few exceptions) still enjoy the show ourselves. And just honestly want it to get better. Which actually leads to the next point.

Gatekeeping and purity testing does not a good fandom make

Also, i have to say that accusations of people not being "fans" of the show because they criticize it to be rude at best. Especially since i do not think any of us unlocked mind reading powers just yet. This kind of claim is usually tied in with the claim that a critic "must not enjoy the show" and that they should "leave the fandom for something they are fan of" and the like.

To which i can only say...

Something does not need to be good to be enjoyable.

I think this is a concept forgoten by many people. A person does not have to consider a creation to be perfect for it to be enjoyable, i would know, i have prepared food and alchoholic coctains that i KNEW were very off the mark from what they were supposed to be, and yet they were still tasty.

All media usually follows the same pattern too. I dont think anyone on earth thinks that "The Room" is a good movie, that does not make it enjoyable. Harry Potter has huge amount of problems, especially with its world-building, yet it is an immensely enjoyable world.

Hell, i am a fan of 40k and my favorite Chapter is Blood Ravens, a chapter whose creator cant write for shite and a setting that has LOTS of silly writing in it. And yet, i still enjoy it.

Or look at Video games. Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim, they are not great games. They have massive problems. And yet they are beloved and cherished and enjoyed even now, more than a decade after their creation.

Almost every creation on this earth, if not all creation has flaws. We love things despite those flaws. A critic might point out how RWBY has many problems, and still enjoy it. Because we love things despite their flaws. Otherwise we would not even be in the fandom, at least most of us. There are exceptions of course, those who seemingly do enjoy the belief that RWBY isnt doing well, or that it will end badly, but those are exceptions rather than a rule.

But the RWBY community should really remember how scuffed the early RWBY volumes were, how many things we could say about them. Anyone remember the Cinder roof running? And yet we all enjoyed those Volumes. Despite their scuff.

The same applies to most of the critics.

Ending Word

Of course, any questions and additional discussion would be welcome if anyone wants to ask questions or add on with their experiences.

Also, do be aware that this is not calling out the entire fandom and the like, this is me pushing back against some of the narratives i have been seeing recently, nothing more, nothing less.

#rwby #rwde #rwby community #fndm #toxic fndm

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dianagracesworld · 1 year ago

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TLDR; Help me with advice on life after graduation and doing things to improve my resume (designing a personal website, encouragement, certification courses advice etc.)

Long rant ahead.

Hi guys,

So this is the first time I’m posting here and I’m looking for some advice from the community I’m most interactive with (you guys). This is a real life advice request from you guys so feel free so don’t feel obligated to help me out if you think you can’t for whatever reason.

After many years of struggling with university, I’m finally going to graduate after this summer. Yay! For reference, I’m a maths and economics major at a top university in Canada.

However, my grades are not so good overall because I felt an incredible pressure (and guilt from underperforming my expectations) during my first three years at university. Ultimately, I got severely depressed at the end of third year and got placed on academic suspension for a year at the end of the my ‘third’ year. Then, I came back after that year off and worked really hard but only performed about average in comparison to the rest of my cohort for the last two years (had to redo many courses from that failed third year 😅).

Now, I’m on the brink of graduating but I don’t have any relevant job experience in my field (finance) and no job experience since 2019 (before Covid). The market is cooling down for now and I’m not sure how the economy in North America/ Worldwide is going to be in the next few months.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t know how I will be able to find a job in my sector given all of this since jobs are so competitive. I’m eventually looking to get in the investment banking sector (get that 💰 lmao).

So my plan is that I’m going to beef up my resume by doing some certification courses such as the CFA, Bloomberg Market Concepts, Bloomberg ESG, possibly a course in Python (PECP) and some other courses on LinkedIn on Excel (particularly VBA in Excel). I’m also going to make a personal website using Wordpress where I will try to not shitpost as often (ahem 😳). Among all of these, the biggest challenges are the CFA (which has 3 levels and takes 3 years to fully complete) and the time management of it all. Even finishing Level 1 in the CFA should give me a slight edge compared to other starter people in the industry.

The timeline I’ve decided on is based until November (I have the funds to support myself until December). It’s going to be hard, but ultimately (if many things right) it should be worth it.

Here are the main questions I have-

When do I seriously start applying for jobs? (1st round a month ago went miserably)

Am I possibly taking on too much?

If I finish all of this in record time (6 months), am I going to be competitive for these kinds of jobs?

Is all this work worth it? (Don’t give me politically correct advice/ No b.s.)

How do I get some relevant industry job/work experience asap?

Can someone advice me on how to build a personal website (design aspects)? How much personality to show? How do I make myself come across as a well balanced person with interests which are strategically aligned with finance a little bit? Do I include other interests such as literature and stuff? I’m obviously going to include all my research papers on it as well so should I include research papers I’ve done in courses other than maths and economics?

Sorry for the extra long rant. Any advice or support will be helpful at this point. Frankly speaking, I know this is a lot to ask from strangers on the internet but at least I’m not asking on Reddit 😅😂.

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lightns881 · 4 years ago

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DTeam Tumblr Demographics Survey Results (Part 1):

The Gifted Child Syndrome is Real with this One...

*Rubs hands together in preparation for some juicy data and in-depth analysis of the typical member of the DTeam Tumblr community*

Ooooooooh boy! Here we go!

I want to start of by thanking you guys for over 400 responses to the demographics survey! Y’all have no idea how much I appreciate it! We have so much to cover, so I’m going to divide up different sections of the survey into several posts to make it more digestable and do justice to each topic explored in the form! We’re going to start of with, you guessed it, personality types!

Strap yourself in because we’re about to thoroughly dissect your sub-conscious innerworkings and find out how the typical DTeam Tumblr Fan thinks! (And judging by the majority personality types, you guys will probably enjoy it)

The Delicious Data

From the 449 responses we received, this is a pie chart displaying the personality types of all respondents.

Image Description: INFP (40.5%), INTP (15.1%), INFJ (8.9%), INTJ (8.9%), ISFP (6.9%), ENFP (4.2%), ISTP (4.0%), ENTP (3.8%), ESFP (1.6%), ISFJ (1.6%), ENTJ (1.3%), ENFJ (1.3%), ISTJ (1.1%), ESTP (0.4%), ESFJ (0.2%), ESTJ (0%)

In comparison, this is a pie chart displaying the personality type percentages of the population as a whole according to the MBTI website.

Image Description: ISTP (14%), ESFJ (12%), ISTJ (12%), ISFP (9%), ESTJ (9%), ESFP (8%) ENFP (8%), ISTP (5%), INFP (4%), ESTP (4%), INTP (3%), ENTP (3%), ENFJ (2%), INTJ (2%), ENTJ (2%), INFJ (1%)

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sensing a tiny difference here... Oh, right!

INxx’s on the Loose!

It’s funny. When I first found one of the 18+ DTeam fan servers through Tumblr, I asked everyone what their personality type was. I was pleasantly surprised when a lot of them told me they were INFPs like me!

It actually reminded me of MatPat’s (Game Theory) survey for one of his Life Is Strange theories that found the majority personality there was also INFP...

Funny enough, can you guess what the second leading personality on that survey was? The third? The fourth?

You probably guessed it right. MatPat found that out of the fans who responded, the leading majority was INFP while INTPs came in second, INFJs came in third, and INTJs came in fourth. The exact order for the personality types in DTeam Tumblr.

But why is it that some of the rarer personalities of the world are dominating DTeam Tumblr or Game Theory’s fanbase? What is it about these communities that attract the rare introverted Intuitive Perceivers (INxP) and Intuitive Judgers (INxJ) of the world like magnets?

The Gifted Kid Syndrome

To answer this question, first we have to examine our leading personalities. As we can see from the data, INFPs and INTPs make up 55.6% and INFJs and INTJs make up 17.8% of the total respondents. That’s nearly 3/4′s of the DTeam Tumblr population made up of INxx types!

Now, here’s me calling y’all out.

A lot of you probably relate to the quiet kid sitting at the back of the classroom who’s put into some type of TAG, gifted program, or some authority figure has probably called you smart and/or “gifted” at some point in your life. Academics probably came easy to you at one point, maybe they still do.

You’ve probably felt your chest swell up at the shower of compliments about your intelligence and at another... you’ve probably felt like people put you in a pedestal and overrate you so you’re stuck with this inherent fear of failure, and it causes you to completely shut down when the things that came easy to you at one point no longer do so.

It’s gifted kid syndrome hitting you like a brick to the face. And if it hasn’t yet, oh you’re in for a surprise, honey.

And I’m sure many of you have come across funny, relatable posts like this:

And you want to know why most of you relate?

Image Description: INTP, INTJ, INFP, anf INFJ’s rate the highest in a giftedness per MBTI Type chart

No. You’re not hallucinating. It’s not even a joke at this point. It feels true because it probably is true.

(Granted, the study that captured similar results to this graph is long lost to the internet, but the best source I found with it was a reddit post I will be citing in the reblog.)

Now, my next point is where we find a split.

INFPs and INTPs and their Need to Question Everything (even if it’s about one sentence [insert creator here] said that one time during a 4-hour long stream)

The strongest connection I found between the two leading personalities of DTeam Tumblr is they share Extraverted Intuiting (Ne) as their auxiliary cognitive function.

I’ll use a quote that explains Ne better than I could ever explain it in my own words:

“Extraverted intuition or Ne is very much focused on patterns and making connections from information they gather... Ne dominant users enjoy being able to explore things in a much more open manner, not wanting to feel closed off to the possibilities around them... They are also highly imaginative people, who enjoy being able to come up with unique hobbies and experiences... They are not afraid of imagining things which seem almost impossible to others... [For INFPs,] Ne is what creates this detailed and incredible thoughts process which keeps them busy for long periods of time.”

And another:

“Auxiliary Ne manifests in people constantly questioning the world around them, but unlike ENxPs, they can be more pick and choose about this. But generally, they don’t take people, things and events at face value.“

Now, think about the community you’re in right now. Think about the post you’re reading at the moment.

DTeam Tumblr is full of over-analysis posts, whether about Dream and George’s secret love for each other or about the inherent problems with Dream’s shipbait and gay jokes or theories about what’s going to happen next in the dream SMP lore and the dramatic betrayals and creator’s descend into madness and more theories about sexuality and charts depicting creator’s personalities and what they’d be likely to do in different scenarios and... ooof, I’m out of breath here. You get my point.

DTeam Tumblr is literally a group of ex-gifted or gifted introverted people who love to read or write analysis, theory, and discussion posts about sweaty Minecraft Youtubers because they’re probably too overwhelmed by real life and find joy in obsessing over “dumb” things.

That’s it. That’s literally the post. I might as well end there.

But I won’t.

Because obsessions is exactly what I want to focus on next.

The Inherent Nature of the INFP and their “Micro-Obsessions”

This is me having a one-to-one conversation with all my INFPs reading this.

Do you sometimes just set your mind on a goal--like, let’s say, writing a book--and you spend so much time obsessing over it to the point where you burn out and suddenly it never sees the light of day because you move onto your next goal or obsession because now you’re getting ready to launch your freelance website so you can start a business on [insert new hobby here]?

Or do you just suddenly find a fandom or a show or a channel you really enjoy and you spend the next few months doing nothing but engaging with it and reading fanfiction and drawing fan art or making dumb analysis posts on your main Tumblr account where suddenly you get an influx of followers from that community and now people are expecting you to just post about MCYT!?

Oh, sorry, I got a little carried away at the end there...

Anyhow, my point is, do you ever develop an obsession over something all the sudden only for it to just disappear when you find something new or just fall into the deep crevices of your mind only for it to maybe reemerge a few years later after you get a deep sense of nostalgia remembering it?

I call them micro-obsessions. And I recently found out, I’m not the only one who does this!

Here’s another quote for you:

“According to Carl Jung’s theory of cognitive functions, when an INFP makes a decision, Ne comes in second to another process known as Introverted Feeling (Fi). Fi does not use logic to make a decision. It uses how we feel about the decision according to our values. In other words, it asks, “Which choice feels right for me?”

Ne, on the other hand, craves new ideas and experiences to explore, which causes INFPs to always be on the lookout for something novel.

Unfortunately, INFPs can get stuck in a loop, going back and forth between their Ne and Fi. They search to understand their values by constantly trying new things. They ask themselves, “Does this feel right?” then throw it over their shoulder as they move on to something else.”

So, you’re probably asking right about now, Light, how the heck does any of this have anything to do with the Dream Team and MCYT!?

Well, my friend, it has EVERYTHING to do with the Dream Team and MCYT and DTeam Tumblr as a whole.

Because INxx’s are predisposed to end up in places like this--fandoms on Tumblr, channels that speculate whether Mario is evil, watching dramatic Minecraft smp wars and elections as opposed to looking at the news that depicts Murphy’s Law as 2020′s new favorite epigram.

The introvert in them causes them to prefer socializing in small communities online where they’re not forced to engage in conversations if they don’t want to or put into uncomfortable situations where they have to talk to that one friend of their friend who wants to make meaningless small chat.

Their Intuition causes them to wonder into places like Tumblr where they can engage in deep discussions about their newest obsessions, and they won’t be judged for writing a 500+ word post about why Dream’s shipbait tactics are a genius algorithm strat or simping over sweaty Minecraft boys.

DTeam Tumblr is a safe haven for INFPs and INTPs who might be placed in the “other” category or marked as weird for being interested in “childish” entertainment or being different from the general population overall, whether that’d be sexuality, point of view, age, gender, etc. A place where you can fully be yourself and not have to worry about disappointing people.

INFPs are predisposed for drowning themselves in their micro-obsessions to avoid all of the madness in the world--even if that means giggling like a little girl while reading memes about your favorite Minecraft YouTube creators.

That is a deep-dive into the mind of a typical DTeam Tumblr user. What do you think? Is it accurate at all? Is it completely off? Let me know in the comments!

And with that, I digress. I’m not sure whether I’ll be covering general demographics next week or diving into the topic of ships (could be a mix of both), but I will be posting about it eventually, so make sure to hit the follow if you got to the end of this post and enjoyed it or learned something new from it!

Friendly reminder that this survey and post is in no way supposed to be taken 100% seriously. These are just the ramblings of a math major INFP with too much time on her hands and way too big of an obsession for MCYT. My asks are always open for literally anything, whether if you want to ask me about this or any DNF related subject, my own opinions, or just criticize the whole of this post and tell me it’s complete trash! I’ll answer as long as it’s appropriate!

And, again, thank you everyone who filled out the survey. Without y’all, this post wouldn’t be possible. I really enjoyed writing it! Adios!

#dteam #dteamblr #dttblr #mcyt #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #sapnap #dreamnotfound #dnf #dream team #dream smp #dteamblr demographics survey #analysis

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pinelife3 · 4 years ago

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An investigation: if supermodels are so dumb and vapid, how do they pull artistic geniuses?

This is a picture of Nick Cave and his wife leaving the inquest into their son’s death. Their 15 year old boy fell from a cliff after taking acid and becoming disoriented.

I cannot even conceive of how terrible it must be to lose a child. The drugs and the cliff make it an episode of Skins (or Euphoria for the zoomers) but that’s your little boy. It was a stupid accident and now you never get to see him again. A teenaged tragedy. Unendingly unfair.

Ghosteen, the 2019 album from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, is a complex, existential album in conversation with the death of Nick’s son and his feelings of loss and grief. Nick Cave is an artist - his life’s work is to share how he feels and what he thinks. What he’s expressing with Ghosteen is sorrow and longing - and some larger angst about the purpose of existence.

Through all this tragedy, I’m sure you couldn’t help but notice... who’s the babe with the shiny hair and the fabulous gazongas? That’s Nick’s wife, man! Susie Bick - or sometimes Susie Cave. She was a major model in the 80s and 90s. A model and an artist - it’s actually fitting.

And what’s more, Susie is the founder of The Vampire’s Wife - a label which has become super popular in the last couple of years. (Fashion people eyeroll The Vampire’s Wife because every dress has the same silhouette, but that’s out of the scope of this blog.)

There is a perception that models are are vapid and unserious. Their job is to look good, keep their mouth shut, and move merchandise. They cannot offer anything profound because their value is surface level. Men and women both push this way of thinking.

youtube

For example, when Brad Pitt was recently revealed to be dating 27 year old model Nicole Poturalski, people were disappointed. Brad Pitt has been a cultural fixture for decades - after all this time, people still find him fascinating. And they expect him to date someone who is equally compelling. Clooney married a human rights lawyer - why is Brad dating someone who makes posts like this on Instagram...

This was Lainey Gossip’s take on the new girlfriend:

A model, younger, it’s so predictable it’s almost boring.

Nice! I guess we’re all feminists until the woman in question is young and hot.

It's easy to assume the worst of a person who is unknown to us, but is beautiful and hooking up with someone famous. A million mean thoughts spring to mind. “A model, younger”. That’s scorn. You know exactly what she’s saying: hot but dumb. An uninteresting person. We know what Brad really wants her for...

If Brad Pitt is compelling to you, how compelling must Nicole Poturalski be to have won and held his attention? Brad Pitt has not been celibate in the four years since he separated from Angelina Jolie, but not until Nicole did we have confirmation of someone who he was definitely seeing. He allowed himself to be photographed with her en route to his French chateau. And what ensued was a weird story - she’s in an open relationship with some old German restaurateur and she has a son? She’s a sugar baby? Why would Brad fucking Pitt get publicly involved with someone who has a messy personal life: why hook up with a married 27 year old and weather months of stories about her open marriage if he didn’t actually like her? Why even be seen with her? The relationship is a little weird - but the reporting on it has been nasty. The new sugar baby angle which has emerged in the last week (late October 2020) is basically calling her a whore. This is the level of suspicion and derision directed at a model dating a public fixture like Brad Pitt. The notion that Brad Pitt would pay for female company or sex is patently absurd.

If our assumptions about models are correct, why do so many models end up with artistic geniuses? I don’t care about the Victoria’s Secret models who hooked up with the bassist from Kings of Leon. I’m talking about beautiful women who made it with icons, the premier humans of the past century:

MUSICIANS

Nick Cave and Susie Bick

David Bowie and Iman

Kanye West and Amber Rose

Bob Dylan and Sara Lownds

Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall

Mick Jagger and Carla Bruni

Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin

Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd

George Harrison and Pattie Boyd

Madonna and Jesus Luz

MISC. POWERFUL PEOPLE

Salman Rushdie and Padma Lakshmi

Donald Trump and Melania (lol)

Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni

Evan Spiegel and Miranda Kerr

Hitler and Eva Braun (What?! She had a brief career an artist’s model...)

Michael Jordan and Yvette Prieto

Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall

ACTORS (perhaps not artistic icons... but still creative and interesting)

Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves

Johnny Depp and Kate Moss

Bradley Cooper and Irina Shayk

Bradley Cooper and Suki Waterhouse

Robert Pattinson and Suki Waterhouse

Vincent Cassel and Tina Kunakey

Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubrey

Leonardo DiCaprio and half the VS roster

Huge congrats to all the models with more than one entry on the list. You’ll note that there is a dearth of female icon/male model pairings - this is kind of interesting but not something I feel like getting into.

To some extent, the prevalence of the artist and model pairing makes sense. Men like good looking women. Rich, powerful men are high status and have access to good looking women. Plus, an artist needs a muse.

Many of the models in the list above are actually iconic in their own right. Like, when someone is having a great day on RuPaul’s Drag Race and looking sleek and skinny and flawless RuPaul might compare them to Iman. People pay $10,000 USD for handbags named after Jane Birkin.

Conversely, in the case of Amber Rose, she became the most desired woman in the hip hop industry c. 2010 because she was with Kanye. And most especially because she broke Kanye’s heart. Everyone wanted the girl from “Hell of a Life”. People point to that song as being about Kim - it was prophetic, yes, but not written about her.

Anyway. Could an icon, a legend, a genius, make it work with someone who had nothing to offer but a fast metabolism and a beautiful face? Do poreless skin and puffy lips make up for never finishing high school?

Wouldn’t being with someone superficial or unserious mean the artist was fundamentally boring in some way too? This is increasingly the assumption about Leonardo DiCaprio - seen above photographing his 23 year old model gf for her Instagram. Even Reddit mocks him for his age gap relationships with models.

And here’s where I try to make my point:

Kate Moss’ daughter, Lila, recently had her modelling debut during Paris Fashion Week. It was big news because she’s celebrity spawn - and of course her mother is one of the most iconic models ever. She was eviscerated.

On The Daily Mail, the comparisons to her mother flowed. What’s interesting is that Daily Mail readers do not like Kate Moss but they will defend her 90s modelling career with their life. They laud her bone structure, her waifish figure. An irresistible, undeniable face.

It seems silly to praise someone for the shape of their head and the way their skin fits over it... it’s not a talent, is it? Maybe it is! There is no shortage of hot girls in the world - but there may be a shortage of girls with preternatural charismatic beauty. Lila Moss (left above) is attractive - she even looks quite a bit like her mum. Perhaps in the pic above she even looks hotter than her mum (right above). But Kate Moss is more interesting: less perfect - half her eyebrow is missing, she’s less manicured. She exudes some kind of darkness, newness. Lottie Moss, Kate’s younger half-sister, is a similar story. Obviously attractive, obviously interested in modelling - but she’s lacking something.

Bella Hadid came from a similar-ish background to Lila Moss (Bravoleb parents, frequent appearances on Real Housewives of Beverley Hills in her teen years, groomed by her ex-model mother) but Bella Hadid has it. She may have risen through the ranks due to nepotism and cosmetic surgery but she is someone people want to look at. She is sought after - not foisted upon us. Again, it’s not because she’s the hottest woman on the planet. She is gorgeous, but on top of that, there’s something beguiling about the angles of her face.

What’s this thing that clicks in your head telling you that Kate Moss’s face is more interesting than her daughter’s? It’s an intrusive thought: her skull shape is pleasing, let your eyes linger. A command: you will not forget that face.

Iman has it. Look at her. On meeting Iman, Bowie said: "I was naming the children the night we met... it was absolutely immediate." How many beautiful women had Bowie met in his life? How many had this effect?

Can you imagine trying to keep David Bowie or Bob Dylan interested in what you’re saying? Or Madonna? Or Michael Jordan? Most of us do not have a single thought in our head which would be of interest to these people. The models I listed earlier transfixed them. Mick Jagger could have romanced every woman on the planet - but he only wanted Jerry Hall (pls disregard affairs so I can make my point).

When a model hooks up with an artistic genius, it’s illogical to assume she’s vapid or that the icon is with her for shallow reasons. What we should assume is that she is the most interesting woman that icon has crossed paths with in a long time - which would make her very interesting indeed.

#david bowie #iman #brad pitt #nick cave #amber rose #Kanye west #kate moss #lila moss #leonardo dicaprio #bob dylan

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imaginaryelle · 5 years ago

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Wei Wuxian, Mutism and Non-Verbal Communication

I am making a fresh post because I’ve been having issues with asks and especially read mores in asks, and this post is definitely going to require that. So. (edit: this is now also available to read on AO3!)

@tamyourue asked:

For the prompt request thingy - I'm a Sign nerd, and I've read quite a few mute!lwj, which is not that surprising. But what about a mute!wwx? I think it would be interesting to explore that with the way his family and lwj would handle it, if he was either born this way or acquired a disability later in life. How would HE handle it, being such a lively and talkative person? I planned on writing a fic of the sort but you do awesome meta, and another person's pov would be really fascinating to me.

Thank very much for asking! This immediately grabbed my brain and yanked me face-first into headcanons and possibility permutations. I’m going to try to focus on something more meta-style since you mention that (and aw <3 thank you! I have lots of fun writing my meta so I’m glad you like it!), but if you write fic on this topic I would love to see it. I am 100% certain you know more about sign language than me (I know very little but this whole thing has rekindled my interest in learning, if you have suggestions for resources!) so please do correct me if I make some erroneous statements or assumptions here. Also, I feel like I should note here that I got a little carried away (this is ~7k folks) and some of the things here are probably ideas you’ve already thought about as general concepts of non-verbal communication. I’ve included them anyway because they helped me process all my other thoughts. As always, I welcome additional input on my meta.

Okay so first off, I did some research, because I love research. (Possibly this should go without saying, and I’m sure you yourself already know this, but just in case, for general context and because this is a public post: I do think it’s important to treat things like this—any form of disability or illness or othering—with respect for the real life people who deal with it every day. Let’s not romanticize these things, right? Or just use it to woobify or infantilize characters or write disability tragedy porn? And let’s do make sure we’re doing our research and consuming media (essays, blog posts, videos, etc) created by those people about their experience? Good? Good.) Some non-comprehensive sources I consulted:

This masterlist of resources (includes deaf, mute and blind character writing resources compiled from real life experiences—trigger warning on the “21 People Reveal” link: trauma, depression, rape mention)

This I Am Mute AMA on reddit

This British Psychological Society Research Digest on adults who experience selective mutism (in their own words)

Wikipedia’s Mutism page (I promise the link is there), which lists various conditions that can lead to someone not being able to speak

I also attempted to research a bit about the history of sign language in China, but most of what I found was either comparison to ASL (here’s a video on family terms) or the fact that there are two different sign languages: a literary sign language that reflects written Chinese, and a natural sign language. Also most of what I found was focused more on the Deaf community. The history of mute people in China turned up even fewer results, unfortunately, so if anyone knows good sources for that, let me know!

Jumping off all of that, things that matter for writing a Wei Wuxian who is mute: is Wei Wuxian the only mute person he knows? Are there other mute or deaf people around who use any kind of sign language? When did he become mute? How? Is it physical or psychological? Full-on cannot speak at all or selective based on environment? And is this more novel-verse, or more drama-based? (This meta is going to reference the drama more than the novel, primarily because we get to see body language and some relationships are more fleshed out, but I believe most points should work for both canons.) Questions to be answered on an individual fic basis, of course, but let’s consider some possibilities.

Character-wise, one of the biggest things here for me is that Wei Wuxian hates being ignored. It’s not exactly that he needs to be the center of attention at every single moment, but he’s a showman. Even if the protagonist of the story was someone else, he’d still be there, attracting attention and calling people out on unfairness and generally being that combination of nuisance and talented genius that we love. And he already lives in a world where he can be silenced and isolated—people drown him out, talk over him and dismiss him on a regular basis in canon, and of course there’s the Lan Clan silencing spell.

Multiple people (especially various Jin family members, but also Madam Yu and a few others) use social class and rumor and perceptions of power to shut him down throughout the story, even though he is entirely capable of speaking and often doesn’t keep quiet when it might be beneficial for him to do so. Being mute is only going to exaggerate that ability for others to disregard him, but he’s still going to be that dramatic, fiercely opinionated guy, even if he can’t communicate verbally. He tries to talk through the silencing spell practically every time it’s put on him as it is (and really, what is the Lan Clan going to do to him if he already can’t speak? That spell now becomes a totally useless punishment for him). He’s still going to disrupt Lan Qiren’s class and volunteer to show off and make noise and draw attention to himself. He might be ignored more easily, and consequently get frustrated more often, but he’s still going to do it, because being dutifully silent or nonreactive for more than a single conversation pretty much means just not being Wei Wuxian. So how does he communicate?

I do think it matters here, when he becomes mute and whether it’s selective or not. If he’s born unable to speak, or develops muteness in early childhood (say, after his parents die but before Jiang Fengmian takes him in), I think he’d develop his methods of communication in different ways than if it were to happen later. In the case of childhood mutism I think he’s more likely to use (or develop) actual sign language, and to depend on other people (such as his siblings) to speak aloud for him in some situations. I mostly base that on 1) the trust-building between him, Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli in those early-life flashbacks 2) how much more often he talks to merchants than anyone else (more on that later) and 3) how much nonverbal communication he uses already (it’s a lot. He’s very expressive). If he becomes mute as a teen or adult, I think he’ll deal with a lot more like he deals with the loss of his golden core: deflection of worry, insistence on independence as much as possible, and lots of inventive solutions (but still lots of body language, of course).

Okay, with those trends in mind, here are some general possibilities (in no particular order) that mix real world tactics and mdzs setting specifics and can be applied to a variety of situations:

1. As mentioned above, he might use expressions, body language, generally understood gestures or actions. Wei Wuxian tends to be pretty physically expressive in canon already, so this is likely to be his first instinct when he reaches for communication tools. Let’s look at another silencing spell gif.

Wei Wuxian is extremely expressive every time this is used on him. He makes faces. He waves his arms. He stomps and grabs at people. Where other people hit with this technique frown and look confused and touch their lips or neck, Wei Wuxian complains. He pouts. He makes a production out of how much he hates it. His moods, in general, tend to involve his entire body. So I take that as pretty strong evidence that gestures, facial expressions and miming are going to play a pretty big role in his communication style. Here is a fun youtube video for CSL of the Tortoise and the Hare story, which I think has bearing on how much he could get away with just using his face and miming. Making faces and grabbing Lan Wangji’s wrist or sleeve isn’t going to change here, and he might in fact get even handsier, if that’s possible. As a cultivator, Wei Wuxian would have access to a level of physical adroitness that most people don’t, which could also tie in to how he uses his body to communicate. In general, these are things that are going to make it difficult for him to hide his identity after his resurrection if he’s mute beforehand, but they help a lot with conveying basic ideas so they’re definitely going to be involved somehow, no matter what else he does. Something of a contrast to stories about Lan Wangji and muteness, perhaps.

2. He might communicate through his siblings/other people. Jin Zixuan gets by with saying extremely little because he almost always has other people around who are more than willing to speak for him. Jiang Cheng, pre-Sunshot Campaign, does some of the same (he’s so surprised to be called on and have to speak for himself during that first victory banquet), and of course we sometimes see this play out between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian in canon already: Wei Wuxian will voice things that Lan Wangji is feeling or agrees with, but is unwilling to actually say. So it’s conceivable that Wei Wuxian could get a lot of communication done by having his siblings or close friends (depending on where in the timeline the story takes place) speak for him, as he communicated with them via some other method (at its most basic just an understanding of his pov and what he would want to say, extending into body language, personal signs or sign language, notes, etc.). The best candidate for this is going to be Jiang Yanli, as we do see her stand up and speak for him in drama canon, when people start questioning whether their being alone together is appropriate. I think Jiang Cheng would do his best, but he’d also be inconsistent about it sometimes in situations where he didn’t think it was important or didn’t agree with Wei Wuxian, because he can be a moody dick when he wants to be and he’s not that great at talking himself. I forsee lots of brotherly shoulder punches and slaps upside the head. So many. More than usual. Jiang Fengmian might do a little, as might other Jiang Clan disciples (they certainly seem to like Wei Wuxian well enough to try).

As you might be able to tell, I think this method of communication is much more likely to be used if he’s mute while growing up. If he’s injured as an adult, or loses the ability to speak after he’s resurrected, he’s going to have to build all this context from scratch and it’s going to be much more difficult for this method to work smoothly. It could still work to a certain extent, but it probably won’t be as fluid. On the other hand, if Wei Wuxian was mute as a child, he’d likely be almost immediately recognizable to anyone who regularly interacted with him before his death, especially in the drama, where he has the same body. Jiang Cheng won’t have a moment of doubt when Zidian fails to banish Wei Wuxian’s invading spirit from Mo Xuanyu’s body, because he’ll have had that particular flick of two fingers or turn of a hand with accompanying scowl, etc., acted out in front of him every day for over a decade, and Wei Wuxian will have a much more difficult time hiding that, because it’s muscle memory as well as a form of communication. Which could be a very interesting plot development!

Another possible plot divergence is that if Jiang Yanli starts speaking for her brother at a younger age that might influence her to speak up more just in general, which could hugely affect the story. If she gets used to speaking for Wei Wuxian and herself (and even Jiang Cheng!) rather than letting Wei Wuxian step in as we often see him do, she might involve herself more actively in Sect politics. Which means that she’d likely be attending cultivation conferences more often. Which means that she could be in an incredibly powerful position when stuff starts going down with Wei Wuxian and the Wens. Jiang Cheng is young and stressed and insecure about his place. He doesn’t know how to say “yes, these people helped us, and they don’t deserve what you’re doing to them.” His instinct is to curl around what’s his and protect it, which is exactly what he was raised to do as the future Sect Leader of Lotus Pier. But Jiang Yanli cares about people because they’re people, in much the same way Wei Wuxian does (see: her treatment of Wen Ning during the wedding dress visit, as one example). If she’s at that conference and used to speaking out? She’s going to make a difference, because she has an excellent relationship with Jin Guangshan’s wife and his heir. Jin Zixuan is actively pursuing her at that point. She’s gentry, from a good family (unlike MianMian). She is right on the cusp of marrying into the Jin clan. If nothing else, she has enough influence that if she speaks out, Jiang Cheng will support her, and possibly others (such as Lan Xichen, sitting there looking uncomfortable but not saying anything as long as Wei Wuxian stands on his own). That could be a fun ripple effect to see played out.

3. He might communicate through music. This would be a fantastic place to use the Chinese literature technique of poetry allusions. Different songs or melodies might be associated with different lyrics, or plays, or poems, and so just a short musical phrase could convey a fairly complex (if sometimes more allegorical or symbolic) meaning. This particular method of communication might be most effective in conjunction with the Lans and Nie Huaisang just because they’d be more likely to make quick connections and respond to them without further explanation necessary, but in the right circumstances it could work for most cultivators, since they seem to pride themselves on their literacy. I’m still just barely dipping my toes into this stuff so I don’t have any concrete examples here, but I think it could be a lot of fun to incorporate more music into Wei Wuxian’s life before Chenqing, since he certainly learned to play the dizi somewhere before that whole coreless-in-a-death-trap adventure, and also I think travels with Lan Wangji and the juniors might be fun with some musical references peppered in. Which I might keep in mind even for fics where Wei Wuxian is not mute.

This next song compares Jin Zixun to all the fools of history and legend and finds him lacking.

4. Talismans! Wei Wuxian, being Wei Wuxian, seems to like to use talismans both to get attention and to convey meaning even when he doesn’t have any particular difficulty speaking in canon (I adore the butterfly talisman, okay, I will never be over it). And using talismans doesn’t necessarily mean conveying ideas in words, even though magical glowy writing can very cool.

[insert image of Wei Wuxian writing on his palm, clapping his hands together and then separating them reveal a glowy orange insult to Jin Zixuan’s ego held between them because he’s blunt like that sometimes]

Again, symbols and poetic allusions could be used. Whole landscapes, steaming bowls of soup, he could run wild with his artistic talents. Also he’d probably be able to figure out a sort of magical white-board situation with writing and erasing and re-writing script easily, though it would consume spiritual power of one type or another so it might be more difficult for him to pull off for a longer conversation, or after he’s lost his golden core (there’s another fun plot hook to play with: figuring out new ways to communicate as well as necromancy during the Sunshot Campaign). We do see him erase a talisman in the drama during the Yi City stuff, so that’s very nearly canon already. Basic writing would also be an option here (as we see Song Lan use) but I think the frustrations of needing ink and a brush or writing on the ground and everything would get to him pretty fast—Wei Wuxian is not a very patient person most of the time, so unless it’s actual letter-writing or a book of pre-set phrases he carries with him (probably a good idea for emergencies anyway) I don’t think that’s going to be his go-to.

Another talisman option is: let’s not forget that Wei Wuxian is a genius inventor! He could do so many things with cultivation. To pull from a real world technology example: Maybe he makes a talisman he can wrap around his throat that will convey the vibrations of his vocal chords (provided he has fully developed ones of course). Maybe he combines talismans and fireworks to get attention and write sparkly messages at the same time. To pull from things already in the canon: Maybe he uses Empathy for really important situations. Maybe he can literally steal other people’s voices momentarily, as he does control of bodies, or, post-Burial Mounds, maybe he can speak through the voices of spirits and fierce corpses. How freaking creepy would those be? One is like the reverse of the Lan Clan silencing spell: you can’t speak, but I can use your voice, potentially out of your own mouth. The other is just going to make traditional cultivators break out in hives: Wei Wuxian showing up to the war and every time he wants to speak he summons a fierce corpse or a ghost to scream his thoughts into annoying people’s faces.

Those last two aren’t going to win him any friends but oh wow do they look fun.

Imagine Wei Wuxian roasting Su She and exposing his whole plan in Su She’s own voice.

One last thing here that just occurred to me: Wei Wuxian has on at least one occasion in the drama used the paperman to talk to someone. He does it with Wen Qing, to ask if there’s any way she can arrange a break for Lan Wangji when he’s walking on a broken leg. Is that a telepathy thing? Or a voice thing? And would his ability to do it be affected by his relationship with spoken words? Food for thought.

5. Context or partner-based signs. These would be signs he makes up or develops in conjunction with friends and family, but which are based on shared experience and reference points rather than a full sign language. Could be pretty much anything as long as they mean something to his audience, but are going to be useful mostly for those cases where he’s having a one-on-one conversation or trying to get someone else to verbalize for him in a larger group. Counting on fingers, waving, summoning, the three-finger swear Wei Wuxian uses on that rooftop during the Sunshot Campaign etc. would be examples of generally socially known gestures so this is mostly just an extension of that. I would like to think that he would have personalized sign nick-names for people, probably related to puns or in-jokes. This is a fun place to play with context and relationship complexity, because different people are going to have different levels of fluency in “Wei Wuxian.” Perhaps that’s part of the wedge that drives itself between him and Jiang Cheng even: after months on end with the Wens, Wei Wuxian has mannerisms and signs Jiang Cheng doesn’t know, which just make him feel even more distant from his brother.

6. He might use an actual established sign language of some kind, probably one usually used in trade contexts (because there are many dialects and languages in Ancient China so trade sign could very easily be a thing) unless you build more of a social network (and more general social acceptance) for mute and deaf people into the world. Which could totally happen! But if you don’t tweak the world-building then sign language as a language beyond trade sign is going to be minimally useful to most individuals who would need it, because they’re mostly going to be communicating with people who don’t use it (as can often happen in the real world, of course). I think a general-use sign language or trade sign + personal signs could be a lot of fun, especially between close family and friends (how much would especially drama!Wen Ning love that added level of connection and communication?)

Look at them. Look at this ridiculousness.

But outside of that it’s probably not going to be something anyone but especially kind souls will actually use with him beyond actual monetary transactions. This is not a canon that’s generally kind to people who are marked as different. Most of the big cultivators probably wouldn’t even learn much trade sign, especially not the Jins and Wens, because they have servants to negotiate prices for them if necessary, but the Jiangs might learn both because they’re closer to their trade-port commoners and for Wei Wuxian’s sake. Anyone who travels alone would want to know some, at least. Lan Wangji might know a little and learn more specifically to communicate with Wei Wuxian? Could go a lot of directions.

7. Clapping, tapping things together, stomping, whistling, and maybe laughter, vocal crying or screaming, humming and whispers. These methods of communication will depend a lot on why a character is mute and whether it’s physically or psychologically-based. Clapping, tapping, stomping and whistling should be generally possible; the rest depend on vocal chord development and certain nerves being functional. Interestingly, this means that Wei Wuxian still has total control over simple fierce corpses and spirits even if his vocal chords don’t work or are damaged. Which is cool. Clapping/tapping/stomping would allow him to engage in morse/chinese telegraph/tapping code styles of communication too, if such a thing exists in Ancient Fantasy China (Why not? They already have chilies and potatoes and fly on swords). A whistle code for night hunting would just be a useful thing in general, for everyone. Limited speech might also be a thing. In some cases of selective mutism people can speak with certain people (a feeling of safety seems to be a big factor, though sometimes I saw reports of people saying they could speak just fine if it was on stage/part of a theatre production but not for day-to-day stuff too), or at low volumes. This might be more taxing than other forms of communication, or not, depending on the specific situation. It might lead to things like Wei Wuxian being able to talk to his family and possibly close friends like Lan Wangji, but not in large groups or to “outsiders,” which might in turn lead to more resentment on some people’s parts and more accusations that he’s just being rude or arrogant, etc.

8. Fan code. Because it should exist, why is Nie Huaisang the only person in this canon with a fan. Should be remedied, obviously.

Think of the things he could be saying if he had anyone to talk to this way!

9. The telepathy spell from fighting the Tortoise of Slaughter. This is a drama-exclusive thing, and I love it! So much! But. Telepathy is a very common workaround for characters who are unable to use verbal language and personally I think it’s often used to just totally erase that non-verbal communication or any of the difficulties actual mute people experience. So. It might be more interesting, and more respectful for real people’s lived experience, to introduce some further obstacles. What are the spell’s limits? Distance? Duration? Can it involve more than two people? Does it consume energy from all parties or only the person who initiates it? Who knows it? Is it a Lan Clan specialty? Is it only for highly ranked disciples? Did Lan Wangji invent it? Do the Lan juniors know this spell? If they do, would they use it? If yes to both those last two questions, that eliminates a lot of barriers for resurrected Wei Wuxian. Both Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi seem like they would willingly (with varying levels of sass of course) take on the task of relaying Wei Wuxian’s thoughts, at least sometimes. But again, it matters when Wei Wuxian becomes mute, because language and how you communicate shapes how you think. What if one of them or Lan Wangji uses the spell, and Wei Wuxian’s thoughts don’t come across as direct words? How does that impact their ability to communicate in this way?

Also, I invite you to picture: Wei Wuxian is back from the dead. He has been reunited with Lan Wangji. He can’t talk, verbally, but he can speak with Lan Wangji telepathically. This is a new development related to his resurrection. Lan Wangji is now faced with a dilemma, because he kind of depends on Wei Wuxian to do all the talking in a number of situations as the plot moves forward. How do they maneuver those situations now? The confrontation of the second Burial Mounds siege? The reveal of Jin Guangyao’s crimes? Also, depending on how the spell works and their communication style before Wei Wuxian died, it’s totally possible that he now just has Wei Wuxian chattering at him inside his head rather constantly, to make up for the fact that he suddenly can’t speak aloud. How does that affect their changing relationship as they go on adventures?

A possible example of this scenario.

Okay, time for some character implications. You know that thing Wei Wuxian does where he has to prove that he is at least as good and usually better than everyone else at whatever he can manage even though he’s an orphaned child of non-gentry parents? Yeah. That’s probably going to get cranked up all the way past 11 to like, 17 or something. A lot. Because if Wei Wuxian can’t verbally speak in a culture where oratory is such an ingrained part of daily life and cultivator culture, a lot of people are going to use that to assume he’s also stupid or unskilled. We see repeated examples of Wen Ning and Jiang Cheng being disregarded or manipulated through their inability to give speeches the way other people do, and the ability to speak well is mentioned as a distinct and admirable ability in reference to both Jin Guangyao and Ouyang Zizhen. It’s something cultivator politics pretty much requires, after a certain point: the ability to speak, clearly and with authority. Not being able to is going to tick Wei Wuxian off to no end. Frequently. And also (I believe) add even more fuel to his “I’m better than you” antics.

He’s still going to be this dramatic asshole, and he’s still going to be better than Jin Zixuan.

Speech doesn’t affect any of those gentlemanly skills he’s learned (provided we assume he still ahs the opportunity to learn them). It doesn’t affect his archery, or his swordsmanship, or his cultivational power. I don’t think it would affect horsemanship, but it might depend on how the horse was trained and what sounds Wei Wuxian is able to make. But either way, with the skills he does have I think it’s possible he would flaunt them even more, especially in front of people he thinks look down on him. He might also get into more physical fights, since he already has a tendency to do that as is when he’s offended enough (most obviously illustrated by his Cloud Recesses confrontation of Jin Zixuan). He might just walk out of more conversations, as we saw him do during the Sunshot Campaign, even before he loses his gold core. He might get even more unconventional in his ideas even more quickly, because he doesn’t fit in as well from the start and never will. The appeal of becoming a rogue cultivator or trying to seek out Baoshan Sanren on his own might be pretty strong. Lots of canon divergence and AU possibilities there.

As far as inter-character relationships go, if he’s mute from childhood I don’t think his relationships with his adopted family would change a whole lot. Madam Yu is going to throw his muteness in his and everyone else’s faces on a regular basis because it’s another handle she can grab onto. Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli might be more protective of him, but I think their personal dynamic with him would remain largely the same. Same with Jiang Fengmian. Jiang Yanli might speak up more often and Jiang Cheng might be forced to develop more patience and eloquence at a younger age, which could certainly ripple out into bigger things over time if you wanted to go that direction. Similarly, Lan Sizhui might have vague memories/ an increased ability to pick up the meaning behind “Mo Xuanyu’s” gestures and signs, which in turn could lead to his own identity being revealed sooner as well. It really depends on how deep you want to go, and how far you want to spin things.

Wei Wuxian’s relationships with the rest of the cultivation world, on the other hand, might be drastically different from a younger age because there’s always going to be that hint there that he’s lacking something, even more than he already gets with his birth status. I could absolutely see it being used in a very similar way to how mentions of Jin Guangyao’s parentage are used. In addition, Wei Wuxian’s going to have a harder time charming his way through situations, because the pacing of his conversations is going to be different. A lot of people are going to avoid him even before he turns to demonic cultivation because they don’t want to deal with learning new ways to communicate, which might contribute to his desire to show off more often and more drastically. (Some people of course are going to hate him even more because of this, and say things that involve phrases like “despite his shortcomings” but they hate him anyway. So how much that increase in irritation affects plot would depend on how far you wanted to take it.) Many relationships (especially more superficial ones) might have to be built a little bit slower, or a little more indirectly. A single first meeting will make less of an immediate positive impact unless he develops some specific strategies. Is he going to be remembered? Absolutely. But he’ll have to work harder to be remembered as “that charming, skilled Wei kid” instead of “that mute guy from Yunmeng Jiang.” It’s definitely a challenge.

This pun-and-flirting-based conversation, for example, would be very difficult to pull off.

With Lan Wangji specifically… I think it could go a lot of directions. I do like to think that one of the things that he finds attractive about Wei Wuxian is that Wei Wuxian makes it obvious he wants to be around, and be friends, but he accommodates Lan Wangji’s moods and actions without the need for very many verbal cues. He pays attention. All the time. He reacts to everything Lan Wangji does, whether Lan Wangji is talking or not, and he wants Lan Wangji’s attention in return. They actually have a lot of non-verbal communication going on already. They click, on a certain level, especially in combat situations, and can convey a lot of communication without very many words. So I don’t think that part would change much. Maybe more whistles and gestures and music, but it already involves a lot of touching. Nor would that aspect of Lan Wangji trying to figure Wei Wuxian out change a lot—the puzzle part might even be intensified, which could be fun to play with and lead them to be closer from an earlier time, especially in the novel setting. What might change is that Lan Wangi might start picking up more of Wei Wuxian’s ways of expressing himself, because another part of what I personally see in their relationship is that Wei Wuxian is often a catalyst for Lan Wangji realizing he can approach a problem from a totally different angle. If Wei Wuxian uses music to communicate as well as in cultivation, Lan Wangji might pick that up, or he might pick up certain gestures (signs can sometimes be more efficient than spoken words, especially if someone is used to them, and I think that would appeal to Lan Wangji’s economy of expression), or ways to use talismans (as we see him use one of Wei Wuxian’s talismans as a distraction in the drama). So yeah, if Wei Wuxian is mute when they first meet I think they would develop some slightly different lines of communication, but overall the shape of their relationship would remain largely the same. (Exploring those slightly different lines could be a lot of fun, even so :D)

A lot of the things I’ve written here are primarily based in the idea that Wei Wuxian is mute in childhood. If Wei Wuxian lost the ability to speak as a teen or adult, that would be pretty different. His frustration levels would be even higher than if he was dealing with it most of his life, especially since, as I noted above, I don’t think he would have as much of a chance to build a working knowledge of signs with very many people, if anyone at all. If his reaction to being trapped at Burial Mounds and becoming first a war hero and then a social pariah are any indication, he’d be dramatic and angry about it, and probably actively use it as a blind to disguise his lack of a golden core as much as possible. I think in any case where he became mute after growing up speaking, his chosen methods of communication would be a lot more direct and voice- or writing-based, whether through use of resentment-fueled voice-borrowing or talismans and glowy writing, or inventions like the vocal chord vibration thing. He’s going to be much more resistant to relying on other people if he can at all avoid it, and much more impatient about round-about methods of communication like music. He’d probably also employ a lot of exaggerated facial expressions and emphatic (and probably often rude) gestures. His adulthood is pretty stressful to begin with, and this is only going to make it moreso.

For character reactions in that situation—I think there would be a lot of concern from his siblings and Lan Wangji, and depending on when it happened there might be a lot of connections drawn between his inability to speak and his adoption of demonic cultivation. (I see four major points where he might become mute as a teen/adult before his death, and they’re all pretty close together: 1) during the Wen indoctrination camp, 2) when he wakes up from his coma after fighting the Tortoise of Slaughter 3) when Lotus Pier is invaded and destroyed, 4) When Wen Chao captures him and throws him into the Burial Mounds. Potential option #5: in a battle during the Sunshot Campaign.) On the one hand, in these situations Wei Wuxian already has established relationships based mostly in respect with a lot of people, so he might meet with more patience (but also more pity) for a while. On the other, people like Jin Guangshan are absolutely not above using something like this to shut him out of politics entirely.

But okay, among people he actually likes: I think Jiang Yanli and Lan Wangji would put in the most effort for actually communicating with him and helping him find ways to cope, as we see them do in the drama with the golden core situation. They and Jiang Cheng might possibly also narrow in focus pretty hard on finding a cure, if possible, since that falls in line with their reactions to his giving up the sword (something to be careful about in writing, as the difference between “magical cure” and “recovery through speech therapy” can be pretty important on a sensitivity level).

In a case of selective mutism—I think only Jiang Yanli would react well at first.

I cry over their relationship so much.

At this point Jiang Cheng is well and truly into his “why are you making my life harder” phase so Wei Wuxian being able to speak with him in private but not in public might start as a relief and then quickly become annoying as fuck. It might take Lan Wangji a while to figure out it’s even happening, especially if he’s one of the people Wei Wuxian still speaks aloud with. He might just think for a while that Wei Wuxian is trying to be better about controlling his mouth in public settings. But once he did figure it out, he’d probably adjust pretty quickly because he can relate to it a bit—we see him speak in small groups or one on one way more often than in more public stage situations, even though he is generally fully capable of speaking. I do think there would still be an undercurrent of worry there though, especially since at that point in his life Wei Wuxian is pretty close to spiraling out of control at the drop of a hat.

This sort of thing might be a lot more common.

Post-resurrection, Wei Wuxian himself would probably be really, really confused to suddenly be alive again but unable to speak. I think he’d spend some time going “wtf??” and then shoving his way into situations with wild hand gestures and body language and facial expressions. Think about that first confrontation in Mo Village, where he’s acting “mad”? That sort of exaggeration, and deliberately provocative physical contact maybe. He might play really annoying noises on grass or his poorly-made flute to get people’s attention. Whistling is highly probable. There’d probably also be some related depression, too. All of these things are obviously possibilities for if he developed mutism earlier of course, but I think if it came with the resurrection he’d have a lot more questions about it, and focus a lot more on being able to make noise at first.

I will make everyone else aware of my personal annoyance in any way possible.

He might end up doing more instead of trying to lead the Lan juniors to the correct conclusions, because he’s going to have way fewer communication tools than he would under other circumstances. He’d be less able to immediately insult Jin Ling at their first meeting, and less recognizable to Jiang Cheng. And once he met up with Lan Wangji, I think Lan Wangji would worry a lot about his silence in this case, because it’s so unlike him and they don’t know why it’s happened (unless Mo Xuanyu was already known to be mute). Finding a cure or a way to practice and build up speech again would be pretty high in both their priorities, I think, and Lan Wangji would watch Wei Wuxian a bit more closely, to make sure he stayed safe (because if this has changed, what else has changed?).

That oversight could influence the plot a fair amount. It might mean that they don’t catch Nie Huaisang at the Tomb of Blades. It might mean that Wei Wuxian tries to run away more often, or more determinedly, because he feels like he’s being smothered. It might significantly impact their ability to communicate during the Yi City fights in the fog, unless they’ve developed or adopted a whistle or clapping code by then. Wei Wuxian picks up on A-Qing’s tapping quickly enough that he’d probably come up with something a little more sophisticated, given time. They might spend a lot more time in the evenings and while traveling working on ways to communicate. Writing. Music. Empathy-the-technique. Establishing gestures and tapping codes, designing new talismans, etc. but for a while there Wei Wuxian is going to be extremely dependent on Lan Wangji (and possibly sometimes Lan Sizhui) to interpret and speak for him, which is a major change in their relationship that could be really interesting to explore. Does Lan Wangji start speaking out more often? Or does he employ intimidation or position or the silencing spell to make others wait for Wei Wuxian to communicate in other ways? How does that effect Wei Wuxian’s hidden identity? Does this experience resolve their friendship-to-lovers plot faster, or does it provide just provide even more opportunities for miscommunication?

The possibilities for fic are very nearly endless, I think, but my personal favorite options would be either something with the voice stealing and fierce-corpse-yelling (the consequences would be huge but individual moments could be very satisfying) or a fic focused on Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian working together, building new communication tools and deepening their relationship through shared context, because I am a Wangxian sap at heart <3.

#wei wuxian #the untamed meta #mdzs meta #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #chen qing ling #lan wangji #jiang yanli #jiang cheng #alex writes #alex writes meta

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cruddyborderlandstheories · 4 years ago

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this DLC has me FUCKED UP and i keep screaming

spoilers for Bounty of Blood under the cut, keep reading at ur own peril. Also some Guardian Takedown spoilers for anyone who hasn’t beat it yet

tl;dr: a comparison between something taken from BL2 and a thing taken from Bounty of Blood. more spoilery tl;dr below the cut.

also the siren thing is not spoilers so i’ll share it here for anyone curious, it’s just this: siren tattoos are blue but when lily absorbs eridium in 2, they turn pinkish/purple. just like how vaults do from bl1 to bl2. they’re white/blue in bl1, then purple-pink in bl2 (and tps), y’know, after Eridium begins erupting from the ground. just a neat little detail i noticed that im not entirely sure was intentional but im gonna believe it is.

tl;dr: Gythian Blood = Core and the Ruiner is of Eridian Origin even tho everyone in the DLC likes to say it was created with Jakobs’ bioengineering. disclaimer: idk if I’ve found every hidden ECHO so I may be missing a few things but I have done every side quest and took ample screenshots of all important dialogue in the DLC : )

“man i just sat here for like 15 minutes staring at my keyboard mentally comparing core and eridium like the dumb bitch i am.

it's not like we can do an actual comparison because we have no idea what the natural fauna of gehenna was like before jakobs came and mutated everything with core unlike pandora where we know what skags and rakk and shit were like BEFORE the eridium crust erupted.

altho!!! there's a neat comparison between joey ultraviolet and rose. like obviously he wasn't getting tattoos and was just doing lines of crushed up eridium but the point stands they both have glowy eyes and unique powers so i don't necessarily think this means rose is a siren just because she has magic powers especially when we know she got the whistling passed down to her from her grandmother.

especially because we've never seen a siren interact with core before. altho that leaves the question we have seen core tattoos now what are eridium tattoos like? actually rose's tattoos were on her right arm obviously she isn't a siren as we know them right now (I saw a post on reddit where people thought rose was a siren)

of course that brings up the point perhaps siren tattoos ARE eridium tattoos. but then we hear the general's log about how the devil riders were tattooing a man with core and blood so obviously they're not ‘naturally’ occurring unlike siren tattoos. so odds are they're probably not equivalents but something interesting i thought of while thinking about this is how well siren tattoos compare to the Vaults from borderlands 1 and borderlands 2″

anyway. this is all ive been thinking about. yes yes i know guardian takedown post but! >:( im still salty even tho this update has been lovely (outside of Blane not getting his correct damage scaling ‘till today......). so i’ll do that at my own damn pace. now let me elaborate so i can sleep at night lmao

Eridium

refinement produces slag, which weakens people and can mutate things

has mutating properties, mostly with imbuing elements into shit- possibly causes insanity

seems to be connected to another dimension, likely the one the Eridians are from

Core

has a secondary form of Infused Core

has mutating properties, mostly regarding a thing’s body and mind

apparently radioactive

there are some things i wanna note

1) People throughout the DLC say the Ruiner was created by the Jakobs corp (the company) thru bio-engineering but I’m 99% sure that’s not true. The paperwork seems to me like they found the egg somewhere on Gehenna and decided to roll and experiment with it like all corporations do when they find weird alien shit. so maybe they experimented with whatever was inside the egg, but I don’t think they actually created it entirely

“Excavated from [REDACTED] ... Local legends speaks of a [REDACTED]. This theory is not endorsed by our research personnel.

2) The Ruiner’s design reminds me a lot of the Warrior.

3) Core immediately reminded me of Gythian Blood from Guns Love and Tentacles and I don’t think that’s coincidence to have 2 back-to-back DLCs where the big bad is focused on green death juice. I think Gythian Blood and Core are of the same stuffs.

4) Therefore, I think the Ruiner is (mostly) of Eridian origin (if you haven’t already guessed).

This gives us an amazing look into how the Eridians actually create their beasts!!! And I’m so happy they showed us this.

(side note, Interitus Regina (the long name for Ruiner) literally means Destruction Queen and I think that’s beautiful <3)

i mean the idea that they plunge them from orbit to create an explosion similar to a nuke is fucking horrifying (but holy shit I love it so much ahhh it’s so cool!!!!)

the one side line from Oletta about how the company couldn’t control the Ruiner deffo makes me double down on this theory. I’m not entirely sure how Rose’s grandma knew about the whistling (I don’t think I’ve found every echo log in that area YET), but I would bet it was part of the testing given how many fuckin’ tape players they have throughout the facility. The Warrior was controlled by verbal commands via Jack, so it’s possible that the Ruiner was intended to be controlled similarly, but Jakobs intervention (or something like the way Rose hatched it) fucked it up.

now we know the Warrior was created to protect the Vault of the Destroyer (hmm.) so what the heck was the Ruiner created for? Ruiner is a name given to it by Jakobs/the people of Gehenna so we can’t really assume, but then again the monster names are pretty apt in this series even tho they probably technically shouldn’t be.

it was only an egg, so maybe it was another test of Core? A Vault Monster incubating until it was ready to protecc and attacc but was never hatched because the Eridians ‘sacrificed’ themselves before it could? (I’m still not convinced the Eridians are the good guys. Listen. LISTEN. The guardian takedown is something to think about, BUT it doesn’t disprove that theory and I’ll stand by it because I 100% trust the Overseer more than bitchpants mcgee over here who thinks he’s soooo special for no reason fuck you and your dumb ‘I did what the Watcher could not’ bull you haven’t done shit.) ok sorry im done he just angers me. stupid guardian man. your whip is stupid and you should feel bad. oh also I totally called us actually being Guardians thru Guardian Rank before the game came out aha yeah.

I definitely think Gythian was a test/use of Core from the Eridians. We see in Bounty of Blood that core seems to mutate more the physical (and occasionally mental) parts of people, like with the crew challenges u do for Juno with all the weird hybrid people and whatnot. Gythian had the whole ‘the heart still beats’ thing going on (which is definitely a physical mutation if i’ve ever seen one), plus the whole, you know, mind control and shit. Which is p similar to what the menta gnats can do when charged with Infused Core. And keep in mind in BLaT we see DAHL notes on what happens to test subjects when injected with Gythian Blood. They mutated physically and went insane.

What im saying is Sirens and Eridium and Elements are connected, so what does Core equal? body/mind sure but are there unique creatures for core (yes holy shit I’m not talking about h2o au for once and FINALLY they gave us a canon name for the green stuff!!!). If not, I’d love to see a Siren interact with Core to see what it does to them. seriously why hasn’t tannis interrupted us yet. horrible excuse for a science lover (kidding kidding, I love her). I’d also really love a fuller rundown on what the hell Rose’s powers were. Because the whistling thing seemed to just be her grandma’s thingie passed down to her from her mom

but the core stuff

her gun seems to be infused with it. So did her sword thing. I didn’t really get a good look at it i was too busy trying to see thru my blurry tears of LOVE for this DLC.

Strangely while her tattoos are (mostly) green I actually don’t know if they’re core infused bc look at this

n look back at hers. hers aren’t very lime.

anyway

her eyes

I’d love to know if the core gives her immediate future sight or just increased perception or reaction times. there’s a huge difference but she seemed to be able to shoot the gun outta the sheriff’s hand near immediately and it seems kinda implied its because of the core (or at least because her eyes are glowing green)

there’s a possibility she has some unique core powers/possibly implants because of her relations to the project in the first place, or as leader of the devil riders after looting the facility. it’s really hard to say without more info and like i said im not sure if i missed an ECHO or two or not regarding her backstory :(

Her hair is also green which I just noticed. Maybe she has core powers bc her grandmother got suuuuuuuuper irradiated/influenced working on project horizons and it passed down thru her n Rose’s mom, to Rose. Tannis does have a line about Sirens having unique hair colors and, if Sirens are linked to Eridium, perhaps those linked to Core also have unique hair color. Could also explain why only Rose seems to have those whistling powers. That said we don’t really see anyone else trying that whistling thing out afaik and idk if it was, like, a special ability or a certain tone/ditty or w h a t.

i know being vague with everything gives them more creative freedom to create amazing characters and scenarios, but dammit I want A N S W E R S.

All THAT said man I’m so glad magic is real in the borderlands universe. oh, sorry, “magic”. It’s magic. Science it, tannis, I dare you. either way, I win. Either it’s magic and H2O AU is canon, or it’s science and I finally get my goddamn answers. Hey gearbox can you make a book just explaining all the science and eridian stuff. please. I’d love you forever. please. pleaheheheheaaasseee it’s all i’ve ever wanted.

oh also can i just say, suuuper disappointed we didn’t learn anything about anshin. Really wish non-fan favorite corporations would get the spotlight/lore for once. Like, I like Jakobs as much as the next guy, and I get WHY they did it (can’t have a corporation looking too good!!!) but they now have 3 DLCs (Jakobs Cove, GLaT, and Bounty of Blood) and also a hefty chunk of the main game. Like... we all know Jakobs fuckin sucks, look at what they did on Pandora. I really just want info on a medical corporation 😭 I have to do everything my damn s e l f. but SERIOUSLY IMAGINE the possibilities that could come from a medical corp getting its hands on eridian tech. like, yeah obviously the weapons corps are gonna use it for weaponry and stuff BUT WOULDN’T THE MEDICAL CORPS MUTATING PEOPLE MAKE MORE SENSE??? ldfhgldfshg I have to do everything my damn self...

anyway all that aside, this is definitely by favorite borderlands dlc by a LONG shot. Nothing comes close. Ahhh the lore, the nuclear aspect, the a e s t h e t i c (seriously, have I mentioned how much I adore Trigun???), the art, the music, the cryoslinger, the fact I can bust out going beeEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAans like Ray Chase at any time and it will MAKE SENSE. I love all of it.

oh, also, Rose is totally not dead. C’mon, they couldn’t find her body. She pulled a Lilith. “Are you sure she didn’t just suffer a wound that LOOKS fatal, only for her to come back in a blockbuster sequel...?” is a line from mr Jones himself (the movie guy)

I just hope when she comes back she gets to meet Captain Scarlett. I’d love to watch their interactions plus pirates and or ninjas. That’s 2 DLC villains now that have vanished without a trace. And I like Captain Scarlett way more than Rose (seriously I spent the entire beginning of the DLC complaining about how her voice bothered me- I was so happy she was a villain, I was hoping that was the case).

oh yeah, reminder, the people of vestige were living next to highly radioactive egg for likely years. i feel really bad for them :(

also!!!

this made me smile

#im tired #good night #bl3 #borderlands #borderlands spoilers #spoilers #bl3 spoilers #borderlands 3 spoilers #bounty of blood #bounty of blood spoilers #dlc3 #dlc3 spoilers #dlc 3 #dlc 3 spoilers #i don't want to spoil anybody please lemme know if there's any tags i missed!!!!

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natsunoomoi · 4 years ago

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Oh yeah, addendum to the other post from earlier because I went to bed after I found it, but yeah. I found the spot where it talks about it finally. But just annoyed because I think it was an issue with like textual clean up or my phone browser at the time screwing with me as I went back and forth to the translation notes that it probably wasn't as clearly input into my memory the first time around. I don't have ad blockers on my phone so when I was originally reading it I was having formatting issues that I think distracted my reading sometimes. I still managed to remember quite a lot of details in general for the plot, I think, but I remember it was frustrating to try to get to the end. Checking now on my desktop and the formatting issues are near nonexistent so it's easier to read and jog my memory that oh yeah I did read this part.

But also still annoyed that it's improperly cited on the wiki cuz ugh, that's not how you write a wiki. Proper chapter citations, yo. It is in 81 not 92. *facepalm* Still kind of wondering where that other part I read when I started this book was mentioned? Still haven't seen that at all.

I think also I remember I was a bit more concerned about the overall meaning of what the ending meant too than what Qinghua was saying. Like the way everything turned out in the book it was really sweet and all and I like Qingqiu and Binghe together, but I was and still am really concerned that they only really work as a couple in this book specifically because of the circumstances of the book. I can understand people IRL are repressed or don't think about their own sexuality and maybe discover it later or under the right circumstances, but at the same time the way things unfolded also gives me some concerns. It's more possible that someone who is straight might only think so because it's just the normal accepted type of relationship we see in our modern society so they don't question or explore it so they don't know, but at the same time, I'm also concerned because your sexuality doesn't just change because of one person either. IRL if someone is not into you, they're not into you. I'm a little worried as well that the relationship between the characters is also a little coercive. Like when we're talking about enthusiastic consent IRL it means for all partners and both people in a relationship should thoughtfully respect the other's boundaries and needs, and unfortunately, Binghe tends to not respect boundaries. It makes for good comedy and cuteness in a fictional work, but a lot of young people also read this book and it worries me a bit what some people might learn about relationships in that regard.

Like this maybe a separate thing, but like thinking about the consent in the relationship in this book reminds me of a Reddit post I saw where this one guy was asking for advice about a situation with his gf where his gf would only sleep with him if he put on Sasuke cosplay and she wore Naruto cosplay and basically they acted out her BL fantasy. And like he was very kind and onboard with her roleplay because he wanted her to be happy, but also like when he asked to maybe not do the cosplay, she would get upset and refuse to be intimate with him in any other way. And like, yeah, the situation is very funny, but because this is a real life couple you can see how when only one person bends to their partner's desires and needs, it can leave the other person feeling unheard and empty. As hilarious as it sounds, a lot of people were very sympathetic for the guy and feeling for him cuz like he was doing everything right and giving it a try for her and then also just approaching her maturely and trying to talk about his own comfort in that regard and she wasn't hearing him. So similar to how I feel bad and afraid for that guy, I actually feel kind of concerned and afraid for SY/Qingqiu a little. Like if both of them were my friend IRL, I would legit be worried that Binghe wasn't always listening to Qingqiu's needs. The relationship needs to be an equal give and take or at least balanced, but one side tends to take more and act more selfishly, and it's like, you only feel worried and want them to talk to each other more and grow because you want them to be able to last together.

Still kind of getting into the other books, but in comparison the other relationships in the other two books seem to be more positive and supportive. Like TGCF seems to be the most healthy and functional as an actual relationship.

Also a bit concerned that Airplane's original outline was a teacher x student relationship. Like we can argue it's okay for SY cuz he's not really Qingqiu, but that relationship being the original outline is also risque and that is NG at worst and a huge risk at best. Like it was viewed bad enough already that Qingqiu was written to eye Ning Yingying, it wouldn't be viewed any better if that part of the original outline was in it too. On the plus side the way SVSSS plays out Binghe is an adult already when the situation happens and it is at a more appropriate time, but the optics are pretty bad just because of like ideas of society that a master is like a parent and a disciple is like a child. It's also related to the titles and such that they call each other like shixiong, shidi, etc. They have family dynamics with each other so it's not great. It's not like there aren't some situations IRL where teacher and student become a couple, but in many circumstances it's highly inappropriate. The underage issue is the normal problem. But if they are grown and it is later when you are no longer their teacher I've seen some couples where it worked out, but it's a situation of consenting adults at least. Still a little concerned about the power imbalance dynamics. In IRL situations that's a big thing too. Other than age, one person being able to affect other parts of your life on a whim is a huge stressor on a relationship you don't need. I can kind of understand how it would have worked out in a positive if like Qingqiu had shown empathy for Binghe when they first met because their lives mirror each other's, but like a lot of the other things Qinghua added into the story like the extent of Qingqiu's traumas being played out as asshole behavior became huge barriers. Like I mentioned, with just his traumas it would be very difficult for him to be able to have even a deep friendship with other men, which is similar to how IRL people in real life don't have a chance to explore themselves because of various issues and stuff in society. But also Binghe being ultimately unhappy by just doing what the world thinks he should do and not what he wants on both an in-world level and a meta level. We don't get a whole lot on Shen Jiu, so I'm really curious how that would have actually worked on his end because he seemed really broken, but it's impossible to parse out what of the original plot we can imagine to remove to understand the original outline and how it would have happened. He was very alone and even though the pipa player called him a friend, it doesn't seem like he was able to have a close enough friend to talk with or confide in at all. But is that isolation part of the original outline or part of the PIDW plot?

Anyway, it's things like that that I think about all the time and that's why I end up going into dives into the wiki cuz I want to like think about something and want to check notes real quick to make sure I'm thinking about it right. But the wiki is unreliable. Like also there was one part where it says that the bad cultivation manual was only something the other disciples did to Binghe, but in SJ's POV chapter he literally says that he gave him the shitty one. The wiki also claimed that him pouring tea was also actually an application of medicine misunderstood, but I haven't found any evidence of that either and it's just stuff like that that send me into a rabbit hole that derail me from my original thoughts I'm trying to work out.

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botslayer · 5 years ago

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The questions raised in MK11′s story mode:

So here's everything as it came up in order, in my mind just as I was thinking of things, SUPER heavy spoilers ahead, I just want the fan consensus, please help a confused fan get his bearings, why does everyone praise this story mode when I'm just seeing more holes than a cheese grater? 1. If Gods are immune to Kronika's time tampering, How does she stop Shinnok's blood, which was still pouring from his neck, from flowing on that table? I know this one may be a bit nitpicky but that's just a little one that sticks out and is very visually present. 2. Where do the Kollector's people come from? Probably Outworld but pulling yet another species from thin air for that realm is kinda cheap, okay? 3. Why does everyone from the past look so different from how they did in MK9? It's like jarringly different, especially when Kung Lao JUST supposedly beat down the deadly alliance, something that is only established to happen in the reboot timeline. So what happened there? (Other cosmetic changes would take too long to point out individually, so I won't.) 4. Follow up, there must be a pretty big time gap for Johnny, Sonya, and Jax, because Jax has his mech arms but in the MK2 ark of MK9, he had to be rushed out of Outworld because Ermac blew his real arms off. 5. Follow up 2, why does Jax seem to have deaged? In MK9 he looked to be about thirty+ Whereas here he looks like a really big Twenty-something, his arms are even different. So what happened there? 6. Why does Dark Raiden vanish? The game throws out the explanation that "Immortals" operate on a different timescale, more or less, but if he's unaffected by other time distortions, how was he pulled forward in the first place? 7. Why aren't more people from either side, including Smoke, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, Reptile, Ermac, Goro, Mileena, and Kintaro, ALL OF WHOM (Save for Smoke) are Loyal to Shao Kahn, not also summoned into the arena? And "She can only summon people who are still alive" isn't a workable answer because of Baraka, Skarlet and Shao Kahn himself. She later says that she's finding people not happy with the course of history, but I doubt two of the most ambitious characters in the series (The Deadly alliance) would be all that happy about being dead. Nor, I'd wager, would Kintaro or Goro, form the prideful warrior race of dragon people? 8. Why is future Erron Black completely mute? Yeah. In every scene he's in (a few different ones in the coliseum) he never says anything but past Erron has loads of dialogue. 9. How does Raiden know about there being other Temporal nonsense going on elsewhere in not just the realm he's in, but Earthrealm? I know he's Earthrealm's protector but how in the high heaven does he know? 10.As a Little one: How is it that past Johnny is sitting on the other side of the room looking at his nails and then is immediately walking by Sonya and Jax with future Johnny? She was looking in kind of the same direction but how quickly did this guy get up to pull that off? 11.Raiden says he's been getting the premonitions for "MONTHS" But MK9 established pretty roundly that he only got them night one of the 10th tournament. Now, by the time of the MK2 ark in MK9, no more than a week or two could have passed, at least as presented, so how does that make any sense? (I will elaborate if asked but this is already long enough) 12. Why does past Jade have an English accent and why does Revenant Jade not? (Other voice inconsistencies from within this trilogy would take to long to point out, so again, this is just persistent for all of them.) 13. The Cyber Lin Kuei (Who I will call "Tekunin" from here on out because I just like that better) are still a thing, Kronika pulled Sektor into the present too, I can buy that. But why not also try and recruit another realm like Seido? Imagine having Hotaru and the help of his forces. It'd make for some cool scenes, especially at the end when all the Oni are fighting Raiden's army, it'd make things a lot more chaotic, which would look cooler. Why not Chaos realmers? Zaterrans? Vampires? Centaurs? Kytinn? She brought the Tarkatans back completely so how hard would any of these other virtually extinct armies be harder to bring back and sway to her side in comparison? What about the Red Dragon? 14. Raiden apparently knows some of the history of this altered timeline which just makes me wonder how much he could realistically be briefed on, especially when he reacts with shock when he finds out that Sub-zero is friends with Hanzo Hasashi. And yes, the Cyber Initiative was a thing in MK9 but Sektor wasn't the grandmaster when that was going on or when Raiden and co were pulled from time. So what does he know and not know? And why did no one think "That crazy fire ninja is on our side" Was worthwhile info? 15. Why isn't Noob just the past one? He straight up says that he survived the soulnado, not that he's a different version. He never showed up live in the comics so it makes zero sense for him to have full stop survived. 16. How does ripping out two bundles of wire "Reformat" anything? 17. Future Kano references the idea of the Black Dragon being on top of "Not just the black market, Every market." What does that even mean? Is there gonna be a black dragon funded super corporation? That'd be cool, TBH. Shame that's never elaborated on. 18. When Kronika freezes time, is it only local? Or does it hit an entire Realm? Because in the scene where she's talking with Future Jax, and come to think of it, the one with Shinnok's head, What the hell is her bubble of influence? 19. Jade mentions Sheeva "Respecting Kitana's opinion more than anyone else's." Where, At all, in either timeline was that ever represented? Because up to now, if memory serves, their only real interactions were Sheeva telling Kitana to suck it up and die with honor in MK9. 20. What up with Jade's Retcon into being Kotal's girl? It's just kinda weird. 21. When and how did Revenant jade learn to control giant bugs? 22. What is Cetrion even the god of? Raiden, and later Kitana, mention she's a god of Virtue but why then is she able to control the Earth? "Elder god" Maybe but Raiden in the OG timeline got that title at the end of MK 4, then stepped down and he was no more powerful for it but that seems to be what happened with Cetrion, IDK. 23. How far back did Kronika have to pull Past Kano and Kabal from? Because Kabal is still apparently working for the black dragon, whatever age she got him from, but he still has his post-burn super speed. 24. What was the point of blowing Sektor up other than to just lose a major power player for your own side? 25. (Ultimate nitpick on this one) Why is Skarlet and one line from Baraka speaking Tarkatan the only ones that get subtitles? Why not just either A. Say it in English, which they seem to understand enough of, or B. Just not add these translations if they aren't translating the rest of the Tarkatan speech we see? What is the point? "So we understand it." I think you're underestimating people's ability to get the concept of "They said a thing, they did a thing, that must be what was said." 26. In the fight with the Tarkatans, How did Liu Kang and Kung Lao have the time to change back into monk clothes? Where was Kung Lao keeping his hat? 27. What the hell was Shao's last name? at a time "Kahn" was probably just the answer until it became retconned to mean "Emperor of Outworld." But what was his full name? I'm honestly curious, less of a nitpick, more of a "Hm." 28. Why does Future Kano feel a hit to the gut? I understand Johnny's Scar in one way or another, but a hit to the gut, painful as it is, especially when he's showing no sign of feeling any of Past Kano's minor injuries, shouldn't feel like anything after 25ish years. 29. Why does Future Kano have a delayed reaction to "Death by Missing hunk of brain?" The wound instantly manifests but he stands and seems to try to talk for a few seconds before collapsing into sand. Wouldn't it make more sense for him to rot into nothing really fast? Then again, Time travel is always a nightmare in any media that attempts to talk about it. 30. How does Revenant Kabal mistake Past Jax for Future Jax? 31. When Scorpion saves Hanzo, why didn't he just split D'vorah's skull with one strike? Two in a pinch? If he's putting enough force behind it to cut her stabby limbs off, or just generally be a useful assassin, why not just go for the neck even? (This one was answered on a reddit post I made, so whatever) 32. Why doesn't Scorpion just surrender when he goes to the Fire Gardens? Wouldn't it be best to just sit down inoffensively and wait for people to show up? Even if Sub-Zero wants to fight, he could just put his hands up and start disarming himself, Not beat the Holy Snot out of Sub-Zero. 33. If Kronika can just appear out of thin air, freeze all the humans in a given location, and pluck one from the ground, why not just use one of her minions like Geras or Cetrion to help kill them all while they're frozen? 34. Kronika mentions "Playing out all possible Scenarios." How many resets have you done, lady? Millions, I'd wager. How has your utter defeat not come up at least one other time? 35. Where are revenant Nightwolf, Sindel, Smoke, and Stryker during all of this? I find it deathly strange that Kronika couldn't find a use for FOUR undead super warriors. At least three and a bloke with military and police backgrounds that make things like strategy a bit easier, probably. 36.Kronika just MAKES a massive battleship or two, so what was the point of Cetrion building the bridge or asking Kharon to help in the first place? Just make a boat. Barring that, D'vorah mentioned that all she had to do was render Kharon unable to help Raiden's forces during Kharon's introduction. Why not just kidnap him, load him onto a boat, tie him to an anchor, and then just drop him in the blood sea? Rather than this "Slowly torture" BS. 37. How does Future Jax yeet himself onto the upper deck of one of the ferries? 38. Frost says that Raiden "Ignored her, her entire life." Since when is she the Tsundere of the MK universe? Or more seriously: Is this a line that only makes sense when you read the comics? 39. Why would the Tekunin be rigged to Frost's brainwaves? One good conk upside the noggin, or stab, shot, what have you, and what? Do they all drop dead? 40. Why does Past Kang live through having his own soul stolen, something that is always instantly fatal throughout the series? 41. How does Revenant Liu Kang yeet himself off a small boat and onto one of the ferries full stop?

And that's everything, any answers are appreciated. Am I being nitpicky with a few of these? Probably, Do I care? Not so much. I’m just getting sick of people praising this story when THIS MANY holes are present.

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script-a-world · 5 years ago

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Skin Colour

Hi again! I am so sorry for giving you guys a horribly written question.

First, aliens did not interfere with genetics anything more advanced than today. They interfered only with advancement of civilisation and knowledge.

Secondly, the generations part. To summarise:

Alien planet year 0 = technology and human’s knowledge equal to Earth 150000 BC

Alien planet year 3500 (after 50 generations) = technology and inhabitant’s knowledge equal to Earth 2000 AD (after 3000 generations)

On Earth, dark skinned humans slowly moved north/south for thousands of generations and skin turned lighter. It was impossible to see a light skin at the equator and dark skin way up north/south until people learned technology to travel fast enough to spread.

On my alien world, x skin inhabitants had learned the technology to travel fast and went far north/south way way earlier than Earth. They’d keep their x skin right? Not enough generations to slowly adapt to another colour.

Is my thinking correct? That in my alien world that’s how skin colour would work? Maybe I’m thinking only about melanin, and it only works this way. But say they had grey skin, or blue skin.

Thus, perhaps I need to completely drop melanin and think something way different? I have no real idea how animal skin colour works.. but on Earth we do not get dark skinned animals at the equator and light skinned animals far north/south. Who says my I can’t create my species that way too, just because I’m making humanoid species.

This is a follow up to: https://script-a-world.tumblr.com/post/185522126817/hi-so-human-skin-colour-evolved-over-hundreds-of

Tex: Ah, that makes much more sense, thank you for the clarification, and don’t worry about coming back to do that!

Today, humans can meddle quite a bit with genetics - while CRISPR-Cas9 is rife with errors (ResearchGate), the newly-discovered CRISPR-associated transposase (CAST) technique is much more stable and can insert entirely custom genes into DNA (Phys.org), so the genes behind melanogenesis - among probably every other gene in existence - is perfectly able to be edited by your humanoid species with very little fuss.

The 50 generations thing is still a sticking point, unfortunately. Why are these generations so comparatively condensed compared to a human 3,000 generations? What makes these generations so compressed - is it strictly technological development (tools, textiles, etc), is it strictly genetic (epigenetic factors), or a mix of both?

How fast is fast travel? @writersblockbuster made an excellent post on calculating travel times, and she has estimated that a human “could manage almost 25 miles (40 km) in 8 hours” at walking speed depending upon a variety of factors. Provided that only eight hours is taken per 24-hour period to walk at this pace, uninterrupted by other factors, then it would take a human about 40 days to traverse 1,000mi/1,600km. Where does your method of transportation fall in comparison to that?

Melanin is the product of what is, quite typically for genetics, a convoluted process. It’s produced by melanosomes, which are produced by melanocytes, which are produced by neural crest melanoblasts - so all of this begins in the brain! There’s a lot of players in the body that make sure melanocytes are delivered to places like the epidermis, and melanin in epidermal cells seems to primarily exist as protection against both UVA and UVB radiation. (Citations 1-5)

Now, there are two main types of melanin, of which humans have both (PDF): eumelanin and pheomelanin. The range for these would be the typical range of human natural hair colors. Plants may produce biological pigments which refract all but which they reflect (i.e. a blue flower absorbs all wavelengths except for that particular blue, which is what is refracted back; WebExhibits), but animals are unable to produce the more “exotic” colors in their epidermis and must rely on either their diet or structural coloration (such as the iridescence in some feathers), instead (WebExhibits). A notable exception to this would be the Ayam Cemani chicken from Indonesia (Wikipedia).

Exposure to UV radiation does not come strictly from the sun - freshly-fallen snow can reflect up to 80% of UV radiation and can cause photokeratitis (Wikipedia). Polar bears have black skin, and only look white because their hair strands are hollow and refract light back that looks white (World Wildlife Fund). Zebras, too, have black skin (Wikipedia), and currently I’m presuming that it’s for much the same reason as polar bears.

Eumelanin, at least in hair, can produce a grey color, though I’m uncertain how a grey skin color would come about without the inherent design of structural coloration within the epidermis to diffuse… probably eumelanin, I think, into what could be perceived as grey.

Blue is rare in nature (YouTube), but if structural color doesn’t appeal to you, then the idea of cyanomelanin for skin and hair has been discussed in such places as Reddit and Zompist’s Almeopedia - there’s also a slim possibility of copper oxyanions or other copper compounds (disclaimer that biochemistry isn’t my strong suit, and that an actual biochemist would be a better reference on this). If a biological blue pigment is the case, then the visible light spectrum for your planet might also need to be shifted in order to accommodate this (PDF).

Melanin is a good foundation for your idea, but you’ll need to rip out the specifics of melanogenesis and determine what the pigment synthesis pathways would be that would create grey or blue skin.

My particular vote is to utilize both structural color and biological pigmentation; a blue base that may or may not be diffused by multiple layers in the epidermis, so you can get a grey skin color if that’s more preferred than blue, would be the most feasible method that would be genuinely alien to human physiology. Something closer would be a base layer of eumelanin-rich epidermis that has some upper layer of structural blue (possibly the foam-based one mentioned in the YouTube video) that could be diffused out with an extra layer to get you a type of grey.

But to bring back to one of your original questions - no, 50 generations is most likely not enough time for your species to naturally adapt to a different skin color, however many ways there are to make grey or blue aliens.

Citations

PDF - Brenner, Michaela, and Vincent J. Hearing. "The protective role of melanin against UV damage in human skin." Photochemistry and photobiology 84.3 (2008): 539-549.

PDF - Roméro-Graillet, Christine, et al. "Nitric oxide produced by ultraviolet-irradiated keratinocytes stimulates melanogenesis." The Journal of clinical investigation 99.4 (1997): 635-642.

Abstract - Salim, Saima, Ayesha S. Ali, and Sharique A. Ali. "Insights into the physiomodulatory role of histaminergic receptors in vertebrate skin pigmentation." Journal of Receptors and Signal Transduction 31.2 (2011): 121-131.

PDF - F. Solano, “Melanins: Skin Pigments and Much More—Types, Structural Models, Biological Functions, and Formation Routes,” New Journal of Science, vol. 2014, Article ID 498276, 28 pages, 2014.

PDF - Videira, Inês Ferreira dos Santos et al. “Mechanisms regulating melanogenesis.” Anais brasileiros de dermatologia vol. 88,1 (2013): 76-83. doi:10.1590/s0365-05962013000100009

Further Reading

Melanin - Wikipedia

Topic: Eumelanin - ScienceDirect

Topic: Pheomelanin - ScienceDirect

Melanin biosynthesis - WikiPathways

PDF - Braasch, Ingo et al. “Evolution of pigment synthesis pathways by gene and genome duplication in fish.” BMC evolutionary biology vol. 7 74. 11 May. 2007, doi:10.1186/1471-2148-7-74

PDF - Sturm, Richard A, and David L Duffy. “Human pigmentation genes under environmental selection.” Genome biology vol. 13,9 248. 27 Sep. 2012, doi:10.1186/gb-2012-13-9-248

PDF - Quillen, Ellen E., et al. "Shades of complexity: New perspectives on the evolution and genetic architecture of human skin." American journal of physical anthropology 168 (2019): 4-26.

List of examples of convergent evolution - Wikipedia

PDF - Esposito R, D'Aniello S, Squarzoni P, Pezzotti MR, Ristoratore F, et al. (2012) “New Insights into the Evolution of Metazoan Tyrosinase Gene Family.” PLOS ONE 7(4): e35731.

PDF - Vladimir N. Babenko, Dmitri M. Krylov, “Comparative analysis of complete genomes reveals gene loss, acquisition and acceleration of evolutionary rates in Metazoa, suggests a prevalence of evolution via gene acquisition and indicates that the evolutionary rates in animals tend to be conserved,” Nucleic Acids Research, Volume 32, Issue 17, 1 September 2004, Pages 5029–5035

Abstract - Horemans, Nele, et al. "Current evidence for a role of epigenetic mechanisms in response to ionizing radiation in an ecotoxicological context." Environmental Pollution (2019).

PDF - Aguilera, Felipe, Carmel McDougall, and Bernard M. Degnan. "Origin, evolution and classification of type-3 copper proteins: lineage-specific gene expansions and losses across the Metazoa." BMC evolutionary biology 13.1 (2013): 96.

#pylons #submitted ask #skin colour #follow up reply #submission #actually submitted by anon

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lightns881 · 4 years ago

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DTeam Tumblr Demographics Survey Results (Part 2):

What does DTeamblr look like, what does it have to do with MCYT history, and why does it look like a rainbow?

I’ll make an educated guess here and say y'all enjoyed my last post (totally unrelated to the way I gained almost 50 followers overnight). Anyhow, thank you so much for the overwhelming support! I’m so glad a lot of you felt you could relate to my deep-dive into the leading personality type on DTeam Tumblr. It took me so many hours to write and research, and as a math major and honors student, it’s no easy feat, so I’m so grateful for the attention it got!

Today we’re discussing the general demographics of DTeam Tumblr and why they might look the way they do. Number 8 will blow your mind! So make sure to keep reading and hit that little grey heart and arrow at the bottom if you like it, so more people get to see it! Thanks for your support! Now, let’s jump straight into the post!

Your Daily Dose of Data

From the 449 responses we received, these are some pie charts displaying the gender, age, and sexuality of all respondents.

Image Description: Female (52.8%), Non-Binary (37.4%), Male (9.8%)

Image Description: 16-17 (37%), 13-15 (31.4%), 18 and over (29.4%), 12 and under (2.2%)

Image Description: Bisexual/Pansexual (54.1%), Homosexual (16%), Asexual (14.7%), Other (7.8%), Heterosexual (7.3%)

Mmhm, delicious! Y'all ready to dig into these stats? Because I don’t know about you, but they certainly don’t strike me as what the general population looks like!

Welcome to Tumblr, the Only Community Where Straight Men are the Minority

So these statistics certainly didn’t take me by surprise. Mostly because the DNF Shipper Survey I took some time ago revealed a similar trend. Not to mention, Tumblr is probably the QUEEREST internet community on the planet.

Funny enough, the survey revealed a shocking number of ZERO heterosexual males respondents. I’ll say it louder for the people in the back. ZERO straight males were recorded out of 449 respondents for this survey!

Now, this isn’t surprising for the Tumblr community by itself, but I can say I’m somewhat surprised in terms of the MCYT Tumblr community. (Obviously, the survey specified DTeam Tumblr, but there is a big overlap between both communities, so I will be using them interchengably when it seems relevant.)

Let’s break this down. The survey reveals the largest age population is 16-17, though it’s not by a great margin in comparison to 13-15 and 18 and older, which doesn’t surprise me either. Some of the major critics of the DTeam Fandom and other MCYT Fandoms love to claim the fanbase’s majority age range lies with children and pre-teens. While it’s an undeniable fact children are drawn to Minecraft, it’s also a misconception to paint it as solely a community for younger viewers.

In the MCYT Tumblr and DTeam Tumblr communities, specifically, we see this is not the case. Only 1/3 of the respondents of this survey are under the age of 16 (you could attribute part of it to the fact younger people might be less inclined to participate in this survey, but it is still a notable difference). I can’t say these age ranges are similar in other parts of the community like DTeam Twitter, Tik Tok, or Reddit, but if I had to make a guess, I’d say Tumblr lies toward the older of the bunch, with Reddit being the oldest and Tik Tok being the youngest (I do hope to perform this survey on some of the other communities, so please stay until the end if you want to help with that).

One of the likely explanations to why the ages for DTeam Tumblr look this way is the fact a big chunk of the community has likely been watching MCYT for a long time (even with breaks in between). I, myself, used to watch channels like PopularMMOs, Aphmau, and PrestonPlayz as a kid, and I presume many of you are familiar with them as well. With the resurgence of MCYT in the past year, it likely drew a lot of the older viewers in addition to the new ones.

But enough about age. What I really want to highlight on this post is the attraction of queer individuals to DTeam Tumblr and MCYT as a whole.

Why is the current MCYT Fandom so queer in comparison to the previous generations?

This is a huge open-ended question and considering I can only capture so much of the DTeam and MCYT community, the rest of this post should be taken solely as a theoretical analysis as opposed to fact.

With that out of the way, let’s start by discussing the shift MCYT has undergone over the years (I promise this will circle back to the question of queerness in the MCYT fandom, but we need some background before we can come up with a decent theory).

When Minecraft was first released, it proved to be a monumental change in the gaming industry. This simple little indie game took the world by storm. It was so vastly different from what the general population generally viewed gaming as (first-person shooters, story-driven games, action games, etc.) Not to mention, it didn’t exactly solely appeal to only a small margin of gamers, those being white cis males.

The gaming industry has notoriously been known in the past for its heteronormative community and general prejudice toward minorities. Though it has gone through a significant change over the decades, we certainly can’t say it’s fully gone.

Yet for whatever reason, the recent MCYT has taken the interest of so many queer people in comparison to other gaming YouTube communities. Why? Why are queer people so drawn to this community? And, more precisely, why does it feel so different than the old MCYT? Lastly, how does this relate to the conclusion about the leading personalities of this fandom we made in the last post?

The Niche Communities of MCYT Over the Years

MCYT has always been a huge, over-saturated genre of YouTube with content appealing to a variety of audiences. It’s dominated gaming content for years, and I think we can all safely say it’s never been bigger than it is today.

So why is it that just now it feels like the queerness of the fandom is popping off? Why now as opposed to say five years ago when MCYT was at another one of it’s strongest stages?

It seems like the community has made a tremendous shift in relation to breaking gender norms and LGBTQ+ subjects, not only in the fans but within the creators themselves. Was flirting and calling a pretty-boy streamer pet names as normal in the past as it is today? Were straight gamer guys putting on dresses and a full-face of make-up as supported back then? Were “marriages” and “pregnancies” within Minecraft boys an everyday occurrence like they are now? How is it that MCYT has dominated a Twitch dating show where flirting with the gay host and among straight contestants themselves is just another bit of entertainment? Where is this all coming from?

Recently, I watched a 2 hour documentary depicting all of the stages of Minecraft YouTube and how it has changed over the years. If you haven’t seen it and you have some time to spare, I HIGHLY recommend it! It’s very informative, and it honestly gave me such a strong sense of nostalgia that makes me choke up every time I think about it. I’ll link it below.

The documentary does a great job at exploring the different niche communities that dominated MCYT since it first took off. Some of such communities include the basic Let’s Players, the team-based Let’s Play channels like How2Minecraft, the roleplay story-centric ones like Aphmau and Samgladiator, the tutorial, building and technical side like Mumbo and Grian, the PVP-centric Bedwars or Hypixel channels, the Machinima community, the comedy side like ExplosiveTNT, the parody music videos, and so many more. All of the mentioned communities have dominated Minecraft at one point or another, many of them still having a rippling effect and/or a loyal community today. All of these communities have certain aspects that define them, some of which parallel the current overtaking content in the present.

How can we compare MyStreet to the Dream SMP?

Taking Aphmau as an example, her MyStreet series had a TREMENDOUS success a few years ago, racking in millions of views and bringing in a lot of money that eventually allowed her to hire voice actors and increase the production of mentioned episodes. The roleplay series was so successful it ran for six seasons!

Now, let’s compare that to the Dream SMP. It seems like a big comparison to be making considering they appear so different at first glance. For once, Aphmau is just one channel whose audience caters toward girls and younger people who enjoy romance. The series is set-up in an episodic-format that resembles more of a TV series than actual Minecraft videos.

Meanwhile, the Dream SMP is a collection of content creators with a mix of improvised storylines and the occasional regular video that resembles more of a Let’s Play series than a RP series.

You could say the only true comparisons to draw out of these two are the popularity they had/have and the profit they brought to their respective creators.

However, there’s two other key similarities that you’ll find not only within these two specific examples, but many other channels and communities as well. Story and characters.

MyStreet’s story aspect is fairly obvious seeing as it’s a episodic series that focuses on a fictional story. The Dream SMP’s story aspect isn’t as clear, but it’s evident there is a story playing out in the foreground and background, whether intentional or unintentional, or improvised or not.

Character is where some of you might start to question me. It’s obvious MyStreet has characters. I mean, it is a fictional story, after all. But the Dream SMP? Light, they’re obviously people!

Well, my answer to that is yes and no--sort of. The Dream SMP’s story heavily relies on roleplay, bits as you might call them. Events that aren’t necessarily planned out as a fictional plot like the typical MyStreet episode is, but they aren’t exactly real. Schlatt is obviously not a villain in real life, he just likes to impersonate as one for the narrative. Wilbur isn’t crazy, but it’s a way to spice up the heroic story surrounding Tommy and him.

It’s video-game improv. Except the actors behind the content just so happen to be real people playing off the personalities and “brands” they have obtained.

Brands. It all boils down to this. In the entertainment business, without a clear vision of your project and a clear way to brand what your consumer intakes, your project will likely not find a lot of success.

There’s a reason why Tommy plays off his loudness, using an overexaggerated laugh that although may not be completely fake, it is likely not the laugh he uses everyday. Or why BadBoyHalo is this supposed innocent muffin who doesn’t understand the crafting table meme and other references that are fairly easy to google and find the meaning of. Or why Sapnap is this chaotic being who loves starting pet wars and we love to paint as an arsonist in the Dream SMP. While all of these personality traits may be a part of their true selves, they’re played up for the camera--for the story. They act as the personas that define their characters in the narrative.

They have a clear brand and vision that appeals to the audience and makes them tune in on the daily to see how they all come together. It’s like roleplaying a more extreme version of yourself, one that brings home the money.

Story and characters run across every entertainment outlet. They define their brand. Aphmau has her characters and series. Hermitcraft has a set of memorable personalities and episodic videos that formulate its own story that is less like a narrative and more of a history of the server. ExplodingTNT has his recurring cast and comedic sketches. Most of these niche communities have a form of story and character defining them. It’s how they achieve a clear sense of branding and cater to a specific audience.

Queer Theory in MCYT

Having said all that, why does the MCYT of today draw in so many queer viewers?

Let’s think about this. In my last post, I ended by mentioning DTeam Tumblr is a sort of safe haven for INFP and INxx types who might be placed in the “other” category by society. INFPs, specially, are predisposed for escapism--one common form of it being fiction and entertainment. Not to mention, INFPs are feeling types who, as introverts, seek a personable connection. It’s why it’s so easy for them to obsess over book characters or fall in love with content creators.

Now, let’s imagine a whole community of LGBTQ+ INFP and INxx types. Actually, scratch that, we don’t even have to imagine it.

It’s what our community looks like today.

And why are so many so drawn to the DTeam and Dream SMP of all things? It’s a personable storyline that essentially forms a direct tie to the viewer. Unlike pre-recorded fictional TV series you tune into on your device, the Dream SMP is a whole load of chaos that blurs the lines between reality and fiction where fans can directly connect to creators and get to know them as people through a storyline that features sub-textual queer themes and non-conforming behaviors.

The MCYT content creator community of today is more non-conforming than ever before, and knowing this whole fact, knowing that many of them might place themselves in the “other” category or at the very least aren’t afraid to break the norms and be seen in that light, is a comfort in itself for LGBTQ+ INFP types. Once again, it’s a safe space that helps you escape from the troubles of real life, one you relate to.

Okay. So although this does answer why the fans look like they do, what about the creators themselves? Are we really supposed to believe this all came through naturally? That a bunch of straight guys suddenly decided wearing dresses was something they wanted to do?

I don’t mean to sound cynical here, and I’m in no way trying to insinuate creators have solely some sort of corrupt ulterior motive. Things are never as simple as they look. However, the truth is, a part of it lies on the attention it’s gotten.

I’ve talked a lot about DreamNotFound and the way Dream uses it as a marketing ploy. I stand by my point. However, he’s not the only one who does this in the MCYT community. Why did Finn suddenly go from wearing a dress to cross-dressing as a girl for a whole week? Why are so many creators suddenly deciding wearing dresses is fun? Why does every freaking straight MCYT actively want to flirt with George nowadays?

Let’s just let Techno’s favorite word answer this for us: clout.

It gets attention from one of the largest historically underserved minority community in the entertainment business. We might not be able to see gay flirting in every Netflix TV show or guys not minding dresses and getting fake marriages, but you are certainly going to get at least one of those in every Dream SMP stream and video you tune into. It gets attention. It brings home the money. And do I blame them? Not really.

Interestingly enough, there’s a lot of analytical posts on the MCYT Tumblr community that discuss the dangers of these tactics and why gay jokes and the way queer subtext is treated by MCYT creators is harmful. Despite this, it still attracts such a huge community of queers. So why exactly would queer people actively watch something that’s offensive or harmful to us?

I have a lot more to say about this topic and the morality behind Dream’s tactics, but I’m out of breath for today, so I’ll talk about it in my next post. What better way to start the conversation about the DNF and Karlnap questions of the survey than a good ol’ discussion on the morality of queerbaiting and the likes?

If you got this far, I’d appreciate it if you liked and reblogged this post if you enjoyed it and/or learned something new! Also, important news, I would really like to perform a similar study on the DTeam Twitter Community to measure the differences in demographics across platforms. I would REALLY appreciate it if you guys could go like, retweet and share the link I posted on my Twitter about it (tweet will be linked in the reblog below) so it reaches more of the DTeam Twitter community!

However, if you filled out the survey yourself here or you associate more with DTeam Tumblr than DTeam Twitter please DO NOT fill out the survey again! I’m trying to make sure it reaches the audience that mains on Twitter, but I need a little help with that since I don’t have as big of an influence on Twitter than on here for obvious reasons.

Anyhow, thank you so much for all your support! I really appreciate y’all and make sure to hit the follow if you want to lookout for the next demographics post! <3

(Pssst, I’m releasing a MCYT DNF superpower AU longfic next month... You should totally go check out the post on that if you’re interested in it...)

#dteam #dteamblr #dream smp #dttblr #mcyt #dreamwastaken #dnf #mcyttblr #georgenotfound #dreamnotfound #dttwt #dream team #dteamblr demographics survey

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whitewolfofwinterfell · 6 years ago

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What do you think of how TWD has become? Personally I recently just stopped watching since Lauren left. Before that every episode became a chore to watch and then it just became a show I analytically judged and cringed through. And I’m really not one to stop watching shows after years of being loyal. So I was wondering if it’s the same for you. And if so what it who or what is still keeping you to watch.

I literally couldn’t have received this ask at a better time - I’ve spent the last half an hour or so browsing through Reddit to hear people’s opinions on why they feel TWD has declined in quality and what the best/worst seasons are (yes, I know, I’m sad haha). To answer your question about what I think of what TWD has become - I’m very disappointed with what it’s become and I feel exactly the same way you do. There are so many amazing elements of TWD that make it one of my favourite shows and I will always love and re-watch the earlier seasons, but it’s gotten so bad. Like, so so so so so bad. I haven’t watched the show since the end of season 8 but I’ve still seen snippets of season 9 from the TWD blogs I follow and have no desire to pick it up again. I’m like you and I find it very difficult to give up on shows that I’ve loved and followed for so long, but it gets to a point where you have to prioritise enjoyment above loyalty and it got to a point where I felt the same as you and that watching new episodes was a chore. When it gets to that point with any show, it’s time to quit, because watching shows should be an enjoyable experience, not something you’re forcing yourself to do and that’s putting you in a bad mood afterwards (which TWD often did for me before I stopped watching).

I began to lose interest in the show during season 6 with the introduction of the Hilltop and the Saviors. Personally, I’m not a fan of the focus on human conflict and community vs community, this is a zombie show and zombies should be the main conflict not petty squabbling between humans (plus, we already had that plot in seasons 3 and 4 with the Governor). I had no interest in Negan and the build-up to his reveal was so dragged out that I cared even less by the time we finally met him. The circumstances of Glenn and Abraham’s deaths angered me beyond belief (like it did for many fans), and losing Glenn was a massive hit for me. At that point, I considered stopping watching, but I was willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt and committed to watching season 7, which was undoubtedly the worst season of the show by a mile. Nothing even happens in season 7, it’s all filler (what even is that god awful episode with Daryl in the cell with that annoying song that replays constantly?), there’s too much focus on Negan, the core croup are divided for a majority of the season (again) and 99% of the characters are utterly detestable. Honestly, the only reason I kept watching at that point was because of Rick and Carl. When Carl was killed in season 8 I was sure that was the point at which I would stop watching, because I’d only been holding on by a thread for two seasons. Again, I forced myself to watch until the end of the season partly out of curiosity as to how they would handle the aftermath of Carl’s death and what would happen to Rick, but mostly because I was clinging to that teeny tiny little chance that Carl wasn’t really dead and it was all some cruel trick. When I realised that Carl really was dead (and saw the shit-fest that the rest of season 8 was) I just had nothing left to watch for.

TWD is a dark and depressing show and a big problem that has led it to the place it is today (aside from atrocious pacing, poor writing decisions and a bad format) is that it systematically kills off all of its characters who represent hope in a universe that is hopeless. Sophia, Hershel, T-Dog, Beth, Glenn and Carl all symbolised optimism and hope in some way because of what they represented and/or had overcome. Carl’s death, in particular, was such a huge blow for me, that I couldn’t recover from it. For me personally, Rick and Carl are the foundation of TWD and without them it simply doesn’t work. That father/son relationship is at the heart of the show - Rick is the main protagonist, he is the hero who is responsible for rebuilding a new world and his primary motivator (excluding Lori) is his son. When you take Carl away you take away the heart of the show and the show no longer makes sense without him. Fans watched Carl grow from a young boy, witnessed all the traumas he suffered through and regardless of whether we liked him or not, we were invested in his well-being and rooting for him. As a child, he was the symbol of innocence, of the future and he was the one character we wanted to see still standing at the end, we wanted him to be the one that beat the world, just like Lori said on her deathbed. Without Carl who’s going to take Rick’s place? The whole point of the show was for Carl to grow into a strong, brave leader who could one day step into Rick’s shoes and continue down the same path. Rick’s character no longer makes sense without Carl, and as endearing as his relationships with Judith and Michonne are, they are no substitute for his relationship with Carl.

So, if Carl had survived perhaps I’d still be watching the show right now (I might’ve even been able to deal with Rick’s absence with Carl still around, although I would’ve found it very difficult), but I’m doubtful that even Carl and the Rick/Carl relationship could’ve kept me watching since I grew to dislike every other character and aspect of the show before I stopped watching. All of my favourite characters have been killed - Lori, Shane, Beth, Hershel, Glenn and Carl - and the new characters that have been introduced are not adequate replacements at all. Even the well-liked Jesus is a bland character that I have no emotional investment in at all. As for the other long-standing characters like Daryl, Michonne, Maggie, Carol, Rosita and Tara, I don’t like any of them anymore because of the way they’ve been written. That’s a huge problem, because TWD is a character-centric show and the characters are what keep people invested. That’s particularly the case for me, because I’m a very character-orientated person. Like, I’ll commit to watching shows I don’t even like just because I love the character(s) (e.g. The Punisher).

Putting the characters aside, there’s just no plot there anymore either. Granted, I haven’t watched season 9 so I don’t know whether it’s improved (although I’m assuming it hasn’t if you’ve recently stopped watching), but there’s been no real story except the Rick vs Negan plot for the last 3 seasons and it’s so dull. I know Negan is important in the comics and people would’ve rioted if he hadn’t been introduced on the show, but I just think that his entire arc has ruined the show. People are seduced by his character because of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s performance (and their love for comic!Negan), but the character has no substance and is a poor antagonist in comparison to the legendary Governor. Also, where the hell is the story even headed now? I don’t know and at this point, I’m pretty sure the writers don’t know either. There’s no coherence or sense of vision. That’s largely because it’s such a popular show that it has been given the luxury of having as many seasons as it pleases, but it’s also a curse because it means that the writers hash out episodes and seasons with no end in sight, because they don’t know when it’ll end. TWD is supposed to be unpredictable, so no one could ever guess what the ending would be, but back in the day I could at least picture a feasible ending in my mind (which involved Carl, obviously) but now I can’t, because what’s the end goal? If Carl is gone, it’s not going to end with him in the “new world” continuing Rick’s legacy (which is what I always imagined it to be) and they’ve already found a safe haven and established a community built on friendship and cooperation with other communities which was another primary goal for the characters, so what else is left? What is a fitting ending for the story given the direction it has taken now? On any other post-apocalyptic show the basic goal would be to establish a cause and cure for the disease to attempt to save the world, but we’ve already been explicitly told TWD isn’t a show about finding a cure (which makes no sense, because honestly, who would just accept it and go ‘okay, this is the way things are now’?), so it makes no sense. It’s very difficult (if not impossible) for people to continue watching a show like this where all of the characters they become invested in eventually die and there is no sense of purpose or meaning. It’s an apocalyptic world, meaning is all anybody is really looking for, we don’t really care about the survival aspect (although that’s interesting), we want to see them find a new purpose and place in a world that has been ripped apart at the seams.

Sorry, I’ve gone off on a complete rant about this, I just have a lot of feelings about TWD. It makes me sad what’s happened to what was a once great show and it’s all because the people involved are so greedy. They don’t care about telling a brilliant story, they care about dragging it out for as long as possible to bleed every last dollar from it that they can. I’ll still most likely watch the last ever episode of the show, because I always do with shows that I’ve been a long-term fan of but stopped watching (such as TVD), just to get some closure. Also, since I love Rick’s character so much (and based on what I’ve seen he’s not dead so will eventually return to the show), I won’t be satisfied until I see how his story ends (and it better be a damn happy ending, because there’s been enough heartbreak on this show lmao).

Thanks for your ask :)

#answered #my meta #twd meta #itsmyblogandicanblogwhatiwantto

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greysbuild · 2 years ago

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0 input delay pickaxes

#0 input delay pickaxes how to#

#0 input delay pickaxes full#

#0 input delay pickaxes series#

#0 input delay pickaxes crack#

It has to separately deliver the mana crystals to the school area elsewise the elemental trains get robbed of them before they can deliver to the shrines. To further complicate this, the 'Coal' train does more than just coal. Setting input.output caused other troubles. Switching the load/unload blocks around was a nightmare for all trains. 'Coal' would deliver them as intended on the but then pick up whatever didn't make it out the door yet as soon as the train hit the block. In this initial setup I set all station slots to storage. The pickaxes are drawn from the train station and belted to a crate, distributed from there by belt/wagons. All product is inbound from barns used as consolidation points for local production. Every rail car is filtered for it's intended cargo. Every train has a unique label, no filters on the loaders. Other trains (each labeled for it's element) pick up mana stones, two pick up ethers. May be I'm missing something.Īt one station my train picks up coal & mana stones, drops off pickaxes. I'll try to keep it simple enough not to write a novel here. It works well enough if your task is binary (this item in, that item out). Now my little flock of steam locomotives are chugging around like they know what they're all about. My mistake was setting inbound and outbound items together in a station assigned as 'storage' rather than _input_ and _output_ items. Yes, I did manage to figure out the train stations. I'm having a great time figuring it all out (and so I try not to ask too many questions) Yes, they've had many years with a much larger staff to develop so the comparison isn't warranted. I've built maps in Factorio with hundreds of trains so perhaps I'm just a bit spoilt where selectivity is concerned. Maybe I'll just run a delay timer on a blocker to hold the train long enough to fill what I want. It appears to be trying to load 'everything' even when the train's cars' filters are set to other things.

#0 input delay pickaxes full#

The hold until full function of the train station isn't real intuitive. I'm still fussing out the logic but hoping it will come clear eventually. Also, you managed to address the capacity issue of the rails before I asked the question. I like the way you did the buttons for adding cars. Originally posted by Erik Asmussen:How'd it go? (This isn't a question, I'm not sure how I missed this instruction, but maybe someone else stupid like me will be struggling with this as well and will find this thread).

#0 input delay pickaxes how to#

I tried digging through the steam and reddit forums, googling directly, and couldn't find any advice on how to do it.įinally I watched a 40 minute youtube video about steam engines and halfway in I saw that you DROP the mine cart DIRECTLY ON TOP OF THE ENGINE ITSELF, and it automatically jumps to the back of the chain. I tried laying on the floor and crying and eating Nutella straight from the tub with my fingers, and although satisfying, this also did not fix the problem. I tried making the mine cart run into the back of the Steam Locomotive figuring they'd "click" together on impact, but that didn't work either. The blade is carved from a single Zero Point crystal.I went through the tutorial on Steam Locomotives, which was very informative, but it didn't explain exactly HOW to connect a mine cart to a steam locomotive.įirst I tried just building them in a line, but as soon as I hit "go" the engine ran off leaving the carts behind. All Batsickle.Ĭlimb your way to the top with the mountaineering inspired Cliffhanger Pickaxe.

#0 input delay pickaxes crack#

Take a crack at harvesting with the Batsickle. Infused with the mystical power of the forest. However its only usable on the Predator.Įxpertly crafted by picking up that stick that was in a mountain stream.Ĭhannels Carol's energy for maximum punch.Ĭontrol your emotions - Don't let them control you. In Chapter 2 Season 5 the first Legendary Harvesting Tool was released as part of the "Predator" collaboration.

#0 input delay pickaxes series#

They can also have special Rarities depending on which series it belongs to. Most Harvesting Tools usually come in 4 basic Rarities of Common, Uncommon, Rare,and Epic. The first Dual-Wielded harvesting tools were the Ripe Rippers and the Harmonic Axes. Season 9 also brought the introduction of Dual-Wielded Pickaxes, which are small harvesting tools with one held in each hand. They can also be used to damage other players however, they are quite weak and only deal twenty damage per hit. Harvesting Tools (commonly referred as pickaxes) are items used in Battle Royale and Save the World to break structures and obtain wood, stone, and metal for building.

#0 input delay pickaxes

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ybyg · 6 years ago

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So the new episodes will premiere tonight and once again I’m late on this. You should know that I know ZERO about what I’m talking about, hence I call this my ramblings. I ramble without substance. Contains The Guest and The Ghost Detective spoilers.

TG, Horror and Gore

tldr: Imbalance between the depiction of horror and the characters' conflicts. Exorcism scenes are the sole attraction that other scenes become dull. Thanks to user kech-k's tags on my last review and theories, I'm starting to realise this. After watching the latest episodes, The Guest has become boring. There I said it. It's one of the most ambitious projects that I've seen in K-dramaland (except for Descendants of the Sun, Goblin and its mainstream likes), and yet as of episode 6, it's been quite disappointing. It's as if we're watching this drama solely for the horror. Let me preface this with I'm quite familiar with OCN's dramas. With the added benefit of being on cable, they're generally more charming -- mysterious, dark, dangerous, edgy and gory to some extent, but there is always something that will keep the show going. In a previous post where I've had a back and forth about pacing, I mentioned how characters need some time to find ways to solve dilemmas (slower in pace in certain parts or the whole episode) and then the execution (the part where it makes your heart falls out). TG has been one of the most exhilarating and cathartic dramas I've watched. I've not watched many K-dramas in my time, but so far, TG has ticked the scary, gory, and mysterious boxes. Sure, it looks... pretty to the eyes. Well-shot, well-directed, well-acted, but it falls short in the writing department. I wouldn't say that it's terrible -- it has been good -- but it hasn't been engaging. The number of times I had to pause just to look at my phone out of boredom for ten minutes is insane. To write a story, a writer needs to understand the characters, or at least foresee these characters before they are materialised: their characterisation, the way they interact with other characters, their body language, their choice of words, their objective, and so forth. But what about the plot? My idea of a plot, in this case, is a story that will balance out/ties loose ends at the end of the episode or the series itself. Characters have to deal with their own issues and the conflict the face alone and/or together. I'm not saying they didn't explore this aspect because of course, they did, but the characters’ stories pale in comparison with exorcism scenes. TG has spent more time perfecting horrific scenes than paying attention to the characters' story. Yes, the story is still moving at varied paces, but you barely see how the main characters evolve but feel hostile towards each other. It's understandable why Kilyoung hates Yoon/Mateo and Hwapyung albeit working with them. It's understandable why both Yoon and Hwapyung have the desire to track Park Ildo and reluctantly agreed to band together to find it. There isn't a real connection between our trio and with themselves, but their common goal. What TG needs are more scenes that make us empathise them, for example, Hwapyung and Kilyoung's lunch scenes, Hwapyung's relationship with Yook Gwang, and Kilyoung's reminisce of her mother. These scenes ground our trio, making them livelier characters than their overt and hostile (flat) selves. Yes, it's a scary drama, and they've done so well with it, but exploring the characters gives depth and balance to it. It's just as relevant as exorcising a demon. TGD, for instance, though fluffier, we get to see the characters interact, reciprocate, and try to understand each other. We see a balance of horrifying things that happen: murdering without remorse, manipulation. Each character has at least one thing they have to deal with, and they address it many times to reinforce it. 1. Dail wants to help Yeowool to avenge for their loved ones' deaths and struggles with limited abilities. 2. Yeowool desperately wants to avenge for her sister's death. 3. Sangseob assists them with gaining leads, but he has lost his best friend and business partner. 4. Chaewon supports them with the supernatural aspect of the case, but she has a dark history and holds many secrets about herself. 5. Jungdae, as a person in the police force, is in disbelief of Yeowool's antics but wants to help Yeowool though he doesn't understand it and it goes against his morals as a policeman. 6. Common objective: defeat Hye since she terrorises everyone. 7. Hye's past and she's vengeful of what happened to her.

These are what our Korean Scoobies (I'm a BtVS fan and noticed some similarities between the two shows, so leave me alone!) face. These conflicts highlight their weaknesses and have allowed the characters to grow, and we learn alongside them. It gives the characters depth, and none of them is 'flat'. There is a balance between the horrors, the investigation and the 'normal' interaction between TGD characters, hence the characters appear to be livelier. I'm not quite sure if it's too early to say anything because I'm aware we're only 6 episodes in for TG and we have ten more episodes to watch. Maybe they’ll improve and we’re just warming up. But if TG continues to focus on the exorcism (which takes nearly half of the episode, including build-ups), it's just going to be a horror drama and nothing else. Let's hope it improves in this department.

Is Chaewon the most Mysterious character in TGD? We know how eccentric Chaewon is, and within the first second of her appearance, she instantly became the character that we all fell in love with but do have many questions about. We've managed to gather that Chaewon is a psychic who’s great at her job as a coroner, and she happens to be a former shaman. She gave up shamanism and stopped seeing ghosts at fifteen. At this point in the story, we've learned that she could see Dail's silhouette and feel him. She had the experience of being possessed, and at the same time, was being used by another shaman. Due to her past involvement with shamanism, she has extensive knowledge about ghosts and is Dail and Yeowool's textbook on the matter. But in the latest episode where she was tasked to discover about Hye's condition, she apparently could see and speak to the ghost grandpa. So, can she see ghosts or can she not see ghosts? I've replied to a thread on Reddit as u/hngryforramen regarding this:

1. She’s not telling the Korean Scoobies the truth about herself 2. She probably is able to see ghost grandpa because they’re blood-related (this is a bit flawed since anyone can be called grandpa) 3. Rookie ghosts like Dail aren’t able to manifest themselves for her to be able to see them 4. She is the one who has the power to choose who she wants to see (ghost grandpa told her that she had been ignoring him all these while, and she said she didn’t ignore him.) I'm personally leaning towards the first point, as I feel that Chaewon's a character who feels she has the liberty to hold on to certain things about herself and when she wishes to reveal them. If there's a word that I'd use to describe how the writer wrote her character, she's mysterious. Very mysterious. You find out more about her from an omniscient view (or her own POV, that depends on how you see it), ergo not necessarily through Dail's, Yeowool's, Jungdae's or Sangseob's eyes. (Examples: the scene when she touched the dog and the scene where she had a private conversation with Dail when they 'met' for the first time and she quickly acted as if nothing happened when Jungdae and Yeowool re-entered the crime scene.) Let's not forget the two other characters who are just as mysterious and their mysteriousness are yet to be answered (there will be some overlaps, bear with me!): Dail: I've tweeted a thread on why Attorney Baek Dahee and journo Kang Eunchong aren't part of the gang for now and why they're just allies as of episode 14. So what's Attorney Baek's and Eunchong's interest in Dail? Who is she reporting to? Remember that Attorney Baek said she wasn't the only one who's been researching about Dail for five years. Who are these people and what did Dail do that drove many people to be on his tail? Sangseob: When he was attempting to commit suicide (under Hye's influence), she said to Dail that she was 'showing' him the reason why he has to drink before going to bed. Dail via Yeowool tried to pry this information out of him but didn't force it out of him. We saw Sangseob's edginess and reluctance as he brushed it off as an addiction. Our conclusion here is he's not just a private eye, a business partner and a loving friend, but his arc involves something darker.

I'm enjoying the mysteries behind the characters, so hopefully, they'll answer these questions in coming episodes.

What the fuck is happening to Dail? (aka Evil!Dail)

In my previous review/theory post, due to his newfound powers, I speculated that our beloved good ghost guy Lee Dail will somehow turn evil and I'm dying to see him as an anti-hero. We found out that he wasn't only told twice about the oh-so-vague consequences, but thrice, and the third person to drop the consequences speech on Dail was the tunnel ghost which... at that point... was a little too late. I enjoyed that they've given special attention to the outcome of the event, especially with Dail. When I say aftermath, the keyword to remember here is the butterfly effect. It began with Yeowool going rogue, but without making her choice to go rogue, we'll not be able to see Dail choosing to learn how to touch out of desperation just to save Yeowool. Without saving Yeowool, he will not have realised his actions, especially when it potentially will contribute to his evil side. What TGD has done with the point of view so far has been incredible, with the Subway scene between Yeoowol’s POV and Sangseob’s POV, and now the extreme close-up on Dail's disbelieving eyes. I wouldn't say he didn't have any idea what he had done when he became evil the span of a couple of minutes, but probably the evilness overtook and controlled him. He had enough courage to sacrifice himself to save Yeowool, but to drive a knife into Hye was another thing. Though I wouldn't doubt that he feels be indifferent to whack it into Hye even when he's good!Dail, but the 'guilt talk' he had with Yeowool reinforces that being a little evil is necessary to carry it out. In my post, I expressed my wish to see Dail's duality, one where he's just good and righteous, and the other one to lose it all so he could kill without an ounce of remorse. I think this theory partially checks out, because a) he knew from the start what had to be done, and his evil side did the deed for him, and b) he is still aware of the impending guilt and is quick to remind Yeowool of it when she tells him that she was the one who was supposed to kill Hye. Since we've established what he's done, about the vague-ass consequences and how Dail might feel about his actions, let's talk about how his actions will affect the Korean Scoobies in later episodes. Bear in mind that the keyword here is the butterfly effect. In order to save Yeowool from being the one to murder Hye, she has left her presence all over the place -- CCTV footages, Dail's missing car, and her DNA are all over the ward -- so, that was beyond saving. Yet, he still did it. The more he meddles with his living friends' fates, the aftermath will snowball and cause even more problems, for example, Yeowool was taken into questioning regardless she drove the knife into Hye or not, and as a result of Dail 'killing' Hye, Hye's now alive and kicking and killing. (Sidenote: since it's the butterfly effect and it is proven that their actions will snowball into something far worse, both of them have lapses in judgment about what kind of action they should do to Hye. Dail wasn't just taking a bullet on Yeowool's behalf; both of them were equally convinced that they were the one responsible to end the Hye. Dail sacrificed himself to gain the power as if he's got nothing to lose, and Yeowool's impulsive decision to go rogue. This proves how effective Hye's manipulation skill is if she did lie to one of them.) But what about the consequences Dail will face? It's a given that he will have to pay the price and this possibly means that he will turn evil. But he doesn't really care, does he? Now that we've seen how his evil side plays out, he might be able to switch it on/off à la The Vampire Diaries, or there will be something to provoke the evil out of him, like Angel/Angelus in BtVS. If we're going with this, we might be able to see both Normal Ghost!Dail (in which he's indispensable as he will be the one to map out and rationalise their investigation), while Evil!Dail will be responsible to carry out the dirty jobs. So what do you think? Did any of these theories check out, or is there anything you wish that will happen/be uncovered?

#the ghost detective #ocn the guest #the guest #qila rambles

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notwhelmedyet · 7 years ago

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More than Meets the Eye, beginner’s guide / resources

This guide is long. Use the headings to find the information you need & if you’ve got resources this post lacks send them along!

Has anyone pitched the comic More than Meets the Eye to you yet? It’s a very gay action-adventure comedic drama with robots and you would probably love it (especially if you’re lgbt and/or have good taste). Here’s a few posts/articles that will tell you why you’d love it:

This article review/retrospective was what got me to read MTMTE. (warning - it has a bunch of spoilers, that didn’t bother me but might bother you)

My semi-jokey MTMTE sales pitch

@zzxid’s salespitch with dancing rats

This full entire page of radical space socialist philosophy

15 Reasons Why MTMTE/the sequel is The Best Transformers Comic (warning - has spoilers, though some will prob go over your head as a new reader)

Kiss me, Chromedome - retrospective article by The Guardian, contains some spoilers

How/Where to Read

Okay, maybe you’re convinced. Now you want to know how/where to read MTMTE. Got you covered:

Detailed guide by @gaymilesedgeworth: How to start reading Transformers Comics

My very short answer: just read MTMTE in trade paperback form. That way all the issues are in order and you get all the extra stuff (there are prose stories after a couple issues that are very important so don’t skip them!) They’re available that way as both physical and digital books.

Here’s some ways to get access, legally (US centric, sorry):

If your local library has Hoopla (digital library subscription service), you may have access to some of the MTMTE trades that way. They’d be here; but check if you library has Hoopla first.

Your local library very well might have physical copies, so check their website!

If not and you’re very patient you can often request inter-library loans (your library borrows the books from another library) or request your library purchase materials.

You can buy digital trades via either IDW or Comixology. Comixology also includes the first 5 volumes in their comics subscription service. I’ve seen the series go on sale on both of these sites at least 4 times in the past 6 months, so keep an eye out! (Sometimes IDW participates in humble bundles, which are great, but those sales are far more infrequent)

You can also buy them in trade form from wherever you can buy books/comics. US links: Amazon, B&N, Comic Store Locators

Character Guides

So you’ve picked up this comic and oh boy there are a lot of robots. You’re a little intimidated. Maybe you’re having a hard time telling them apart.

If you have the paperback, there’s a guide to the characters on the back cover/the last page of the digital volume. See a copy here.

It’s okay if you keep reading not knowing who these robots are. For real. You’ll get the hang of it. Don’t worry if it takes you awhile and you’re confused. Everyone’s a little lost the first time through.

Some helpful posts in case you’re struggling:

Here’s a guide that matches appearance -> name, and one that matches name -> background info (both spoiler free for issues 1-22)

A visual guide by @squireofgeekdom and @kscinewt: here

Another helpful visual character guide by @bluering8: here

If you’re confused and need help, please ask! I’m willing to answer questions, I know @gaymilesedgeworth has volunteered to answer new reader questions. (Willing to help out new readers? Lemme know and I’ll make this a list)

Lore & Background Info

Okay, so maybe now you’ve gotten into it. You want more information, you want to know all the background lore, you want to dig deep. Awesome! Got you covered!

The holy grail of Transformers information, TFwiki. A slightly snarky, overly-minutely-detailed wiki for the digital age.

They’ve also got a tumblr if you’ve got questions.

And Chris McFeely, one of the main editors, runs a Youtube series called The Basics where he explains characters/concepts across continuities

The podcast Sound.wav has episodes talking about every issue of MTMTE in great detail.

The writer of More than Meets the Eye, James Roberts, answers fan questions on his twitter. I’ve archived a lot of those questions at @jrtweetsindex.

More than Meets the Eye has a soundtrack, because of course it does. People have made playlists collecting it on spotify and youtube.