#political can of worms

[the-glorious-evolution-fanart]

what’s your take on this whole “viktor is czech” controversy im seeing so many posts about how we can’t say viktor is russian or any other Slav anymore because of harry lloyd saying he did a czech accent

(I'm answering immediately since this is kind of an active topic that will probably quickly die. Please first read my entire post.)

I am of the opinion that everyone is allowed to headcanon a character however they want, and that it's not nice to insist everyone else adopt one's own interpretation especially if it's not canon. Even if things are canon, people can always choose to purposefully ignore canon in favour of what they prefer. This says nothing about quality - that can go either way. Sometimes the original writing is bad, other times it's good and fandom interpretations are of low creativity/low understanding/quality.

This accent discussion is not a controversy, it's just a tug of war between some fans. Lower the bullying and arguments everyone! It's okay. There's not much point fighting between fans, when companies hold all the power.

~

The reality is more complex than "what canon actually says".

Previous League version

Originally, Viktor the Machine Herald was designed to on the surface quickly read like an Eastern-European mad scientist engineer, with "vibes" from the Red Scare (and things like Red Alert). It has roots in ideas about scary effective heavy machinery. He was made to have a stereotypical Hollywood Slavic accent. If people read into it as Russian, it wouldn't be incorrect, thought the company. That doesn't mean he's hard-coded as Russian. There's the opinion of the lead writer Praeco being shared online in which he says:

He makes the fast mental jump (just like many viewers/players) and lands on the surface-level stereotype, which he thinks is all there is to it. This is false. Viktor's original, release lore from 2011. has no cultural hints towards Russia nor those stereotypes. It is a great basis for developing a more detailed story, which people would certainly love if it was done in an animated medium.

What the lore does have, are similarities with Nikola Tesla, a Serbian engineer and inventor who was conned by Edison, had his work stolen and often been viewed as crazy. Viktor's in-game abilities are inspired by some of Nikola Tesla's hypothetical inventions. His staff has a Tesla coil on it.

I personally write Viktor as being Serbian-inspired due to this, and it's also easier for me as I'm Serbian, so I can make up a headcanon about old lore old Zaunites speaking this language thus explaining the accent when they speak Common; and not stress over messing up a translation. There's also the fact that we are very underrepresented in pop-culture, and even when we are, it's most often as unintelligent criminals.

That doesn't mean that people headcanoning League Viktor as being Russian-inspired are automatically incorrect.

2. Arcane Viktor

Here's the interview with the voice actor. There's a couple of things here to be noted. He says a "frail Eastern-European scientist"... meanwhile Czechs are Western Slavs, not Eastern. This tells me the Americans leading the show didn't pay much attention to ethnicities, as those things don't matter to them.

Then Nikola Tesla is brought up again - proving the original core archetype. But Nikola Tesla was Serbian, who are South Slavs, not Eastern nor Western.

To Americans, we are all interchangeable. They really don't care. They hired a British voice actor, despite there being countless Slavic voice actors they could have contacted. I can even reach a bunch of them.

The voice actor they hired had only practiced a Czech accent in one of his previous works, and it was "close enough". And what I can say is that he doesn't sound neither Russian, nor Serbian to my ear. Our accent is way more heavy and explosive (actually pretty similar to original in-game Viktor! Just less dramatic) while Russian would be way more softer. I've seen some Czechs say he does indeed sound Czech, and I think that's completely valid! But Arcane Viktor is Czech not by design, but out of necessity.

Czechs (Česi!!!!!) are also very little represented in pop-culture. Basically non-existent. They have also historically been behind the Iron Curtain, so you must understand their position. I think people have the right to headcanon Arcane Viktor as being Czech-inspired, despite what all the inconsistencies and frankly bad mixups have been said by the production crew behind-the-scenes. And they absolutely should not be bullied and forced into headcanoning Arcane Viktor as Russian or any other ethnicity! What's in the work itself sounds Czech, not Serbian. That said, I also think people have the right to personally headcanon Arcane Viktor as any ethnicity-inspired as they wish. Just know the state of things like I shared here, say what your personal headcanon is and don't vaguepost or bully other people. Those throwing rocks first should stop.

3. In the end, I personally view Arcane Viktor as Czech-inspired, League Viktor as Serbian-inspired, but it's not even wrong to consider him generally Slavic-inspired, as these nationalities really don't exist in Runeterra. Political situation aside.

[mathlann]

Marazhai and Yremeryss make me insane and will probably continue to in ways I can probably talk incomprehensively about forever but this:

Has been rotating in my brain for awhile now just for the implications of what it says about "family honor" as Drukhari may have it, and how it conflicts with rank. Marazhai seems to argue his being wronged on the basis of Yremeryss disregarding what he is owed as her brother. At least from how he talks about his mother and some of his other dialogues about Yremeryss, there's a measure at which sibling loyalty matters against other Drukhari. As he says,"only an Aezyrraesh has the right to take the life of an Aezyrraesh." Therefore, Yremeryss tossing Marazhai in the Chasm to die as arena meat is a sign of grave disrespect. But by that same measure, Yremeryss is Archon of the Reaving Tempest and as long as she sits in the chair, her word is law. Marazhai is refusing to be a proper subordinate in the way his Archon demands by refusing to get out of her way once she felt like it was time for her to move on to bigger schemes than him.

And, it's interesting to me how their sibling dynamic also creates this fragile internal stability in the Kabal...for awhile. Marazhai will always scheme against Yremeryss, and she will always be guarding against him, but that game (as Marazhai sees it) is a game of siblings and nobody else is allowed to join in. No other families could rise to challenge the Aezyrraesh if Marazhai made sure all the rival Dracons were bribed, intimidated, or suddenly discovered the joys of dirt naps. And in that way Yremeryss had at least a modicum of "safety" in that regard because so far as internal threats went, Marazhai wasn't going to tolerate any that didn't involve him. He was, a good functional brother and subordinate for as much as that was worth. But that internal stability became an external liability once they hit a political fork. As the only Dracon, Marazhai sat as the primary rallying point for any opposition to Yremeryss' plans, and thus needed to be gotten rid of. Marazhai, as any good Drukhari would, was itching for a chance to overthrow his sister especially if she was going in a direction that was politically inconvenient for him the Kabal. And, you know, maybe he was a bit overconfident about the reaches of brother privilege if things went wrong. Which left a good opening for someone like Nazrakhei, who had the rank and power to offer both sides what they wanted, an easy crack to exploit that unraveled the whole Kabal (for bit, true success ending dependent ofc).

[clowningcrows]

[severus-snaps]

just to celebrate the UK general election results today, a young sev demonstrating his right to freedom of expression

[felonytaxevasion]

Can I hear more about the worm vs the boys please if you want to expand on it on tumblr? I love worm and I don’t really like the boys and I can't quite explain to myself why

Yea absolutely! Im sure there's some other Wormblr posts out there that go into this in more depth but I can paraphrase what I was saying to my friends.

We were mainly discussing the concept of "edginess" and excessive anger, violence, and shock value in media and I brought up Worm and The Boys as examples so that I could sort of warn my friend about the tone of Pact without directly spoiling anything. My main thesis is that Worm is incredibly super duper edgy, however it doesn't come across as nihilistic and misanthropic like The Boys does.

I feel as though too often The Boys is usually taking the stance of "well humans suck so if you gave humans superpowers they would find unique ways to suck and the only thing separating normal people from monsters is power. So no one should have power" which I don't inherently disagree with to an extent. It's an exaggerated critique of capitalism and celebrity. But it's also such a gross way to look at humans/the nature of humanity.

Contrast with Worm that says "bad people with superpowers will use their powers to do uniquely horrible things. But good people with superpowers will also be out there doing uniquely and incredibly good things for the benefit of humanity. Every human as the potential for abhorrent cruelty. But it is just as true that those same humans all have the potential to do good."

I think it's really important that the two final and most major antagonists in Worm are motivated by nihilism and hatred of humans. Jack Slash and Scion both have the philosophy of "Humans are cruel. The parts of humanity that are good are losing out to cruelty. Why try and fight it. It's easier to just kill everyone". Contrast Taylor who, I'm 99% sure, never for a second questions if humanity is worth saving. Everyone around her in Gold Morning says "there's nothing we can do so we should at least die happy" and Taylor says "I cannot die happy unless I spend every second of my last day fighting for the miniscule chance to save humanity from extinction". Taylor and the fucking insane lengths she will go to save humans when she doesn't even like them all that much is the heart of Worm. (And like don't get me wrong worm is also about Taylor fucking failing to not partake in human cruelty at basically every opportunity. Quite possibly the worst anyone's ever done it. But that doesn't change the fact that she is trying and in the doing is pushing the audience to try as well)

And on the other hand I think the attitude of The Boys kind of just IS Jack Slashs. I honestly cannot even fathom what the take away is meant to be beyond "people are fuuucked up dude". If I wanted to be especially cruel I would say that I think a large majority of fan base for The Boys was generated on the basis of shock value and the incredibly strong performances from the cast. It's easy to get in to season 1 because it presents a horrible world with no redeeming qualities but you can assume in later seasons "they're gonna figure it out! Good will win out! Or at least good will lose for reasons that connect with the audience and make it a tragedy" but three seasons later theyre floundering to find a message and a reason people should care about the world and it's characters.

At the end of the day TLDR I think worm works because it has something to say and uses edge to support the thesis. The Boys exists more as a framework to explore cruelty in fiction and I just don't think it has a lot to say outside of that.

[rabarbarzcukrem]

To be honest.... I've never thought that hard about ships like Yuezula or Azuki, I thought they were nice simple girlboss x girlboss femslash pairings. But it has just occured to me how much potential they have...

Azula and Suki are both strong, confident warriors who don't take anyone's bullshit. At the same time their experiences, worldviews and approaches to leadership are different enough to provide an interesting conflict between them (Also it's pretty funny if you include the fact that Suki "stole" Ty Lee from Azula in their dynamic, and I don't think I need to explain how hilarious it would be to see Sokka losing his girlfriend to the fire nation princess who kidnapped her....) I think their relationship would be pretty intense and include a lot of rivalry, at least at the beginning. I like the idea of them using sparring as a way to resolve disputes.

Meanwhile Azula and Yue are both young princesses and have to deal with societal expectations that come with it (not to mention that the writers were also planning for Azula to be in an arranged marriage, like Yue). But these cultural expectations differ - Yue needs to be passive, gentle and self-sacrificing, Azula needs to be powerful, intimidating and dominating. It'd be interesting to explore how their respective upbringings shaped their personalities and how that would influence their dynamic. I imagine they'd start off very judgmental and disapproving of each other, only to gradually realize how much they have in common.

[vivika-ka]

something something MHA catering largely to a Western (sans its Japanese) audience ended up inspiring the most puritanical and authoritarian takes I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

something something the cop and military propaganda flying through many Western fans’ heads.

something something discussions about the societal issues the manga quite literally highlights in the first page and forward are taken with a grain of salt, if that at all.

something something the internet is largely Westernized and whenever someone fits the outlier, they’re either relentlessly ostracized or demonized.

they merge at some point 🤔

[theridgebeyond]

genuinely open to people’s thoughts, but what’s the vibe re: third party candidate who isn’t running on genocide but could split the vote for the left?

[lazyveran]

ive decided to create an elaborate childhood backstory for azulon and his mother. specifically to make sozin look even more incompetent but also bc time is a flat circle and i want to torture that man AND azula

[name-that-isnt]

My thoughts on a matter that no one asked me about

[lakesbian]

Never read Worm, but should I read Worm? Its concept n characters intrigues me greatly and I enjoy your posts but the fact that even the fans hate it is making me hesitate lol

the fans don't hate it they hate the author, who is some cunt on the forums with bad opinions on his own writing. the book is excellent and we like it very much or we wouldn't still be posting about it ten years later. go read it

[dark-star-exe]

fucj im tipsy and now im thingming about how much i hate my sister’s sperm donor and most jehovah’s witness’ by proxy

[im2tired4usernames]

Ugh I was excited for today until I found out I'd have to spend it with people that actively make me hate being alive hate the future and drain me off all energy physically mentally spiritually like a vampire I can't stand to be around her she is the definition of stupidity and even then that's generous as fuck this bitch has filled her brain with so much garbage I watch her brain cells die at alarming rates every single time she uses her vocal cords her giggles make me want to jam a sewing needle into my ear repeatedly so I can never have to hear it again its a friendly reminder that my parents decisions this time my dad's constantly makes me want to die

[by-any-other-pen]

You know how extremists spent the last decade flooding US social media with bots that subtly targeted and influenced the gullable into full on fascism.... think we could collectively use that strategy in reverse?

Like could we create an army ai bots that infiltrate the maga spaces and deprogram them, adjust their algorithm, and lead enough of them out of that mindset? I think it could be done.

[linka-r9-vysocina]

I know this is gonna sound like, fake or shallow deep (hehe shallow deep) but the more i read about the history of the baltic region (i am studying for my finals) the more i am thankful for today's european politics and the european union. I mean, criticize it however you want, but I am so glad that as of today and in europe, war is not just another means of doing politics. I am noit going to pretend that everything is okay in today's world and in today's europe etcetera, but... I can't imagine living in that time. Territories constantly changing hands, every few years. Armies going through your homeland several times in your life. States attackign each other whenever someone senses weakness in the other, trying to bite off pieces of land. (A part of me feels like today's Russia got stuck in this thinking as well as the guy in former Trump's administration arguing that "the US should buy Greenland".)

And while I can somehow understand that yes, this was a quest for power etc. etc., I can't help but feel like that was so, so damn stupid. Maybe someone with a history degree could explain all of that to me a little better, but I feel like any of those lands would have been better off if they had focused on what they already have and not lost countless lives and resources on wars. I don't want to act like a smartass or pretend that "oh what an enlightened time we live in", because in many ways, people and times did not change. But I am really thankful for the ways they did. I am glad Germany is not trying to seize our Czech asses whenever our government falls.

[servuscallidus]

.