#sufering as entertainment

[invincible-selfxmade-punk]

I hate this game I hate being bombarded with these images after completing every level of every game I play.

Since when has human suffering become fodder for a game?

And I'm wondering if being bombarded with these images thousands of times a day is a desensitizing kids to human suffering and being able to show kindness to others we just not require any type of skill level.

[mrmllde]

[Image ID: a thigh-up digital drawing of Antarcticite, Phosphophyllite and Cairngorm from anime Houseki no Kuni (eng. Land of the Lustrous). On the left side of drawing are Antarcticite and Phosphophyllite, on right side isCairngorm . Antarcticite and Cairngorm are wearing their winter uniform, Phosphophyllite is wearing their moon outfit. Antarcticite is bending sligtly to their right side, left arm raised and head tilted down, look of bewilderment on their face. Phosphophyllite is mostly hidden behind Antarcticite. They are hugging Antarcticite from back, their golden arms clutching Antarcticite mid, head peeking under Antarcticite raised arm. Phosphophyllite has teasing expression on their face, sticking their tongue playfully at Cairngorm. Cairngorm is standing to the side next to them. Cairngorm has arm crossed over their chest, hand turned to side to stick tongue back at Phos, look of childish petulance on their face. Overall mood of drawing is Phos teasing Cairn over their close bond with Antarc

/end ID]

so. i had this wip for about 7 years, since hnk anime rolled and Phos hadn't sufer that bad. Antarc's demise was still fresh wound and Cairn hadn't faced their identity crisis. I've entertained some naive ideas of them being partners and such, and it was fun while it lasted

And with the start of 2023 i thought it would be fun to actually finish some of my 200+ wips that were hoarding in "maybe-later-but-not-today" folder, and with some random picking mechanism that wip was raisen from oblivion

first draft under the cut. i suppose it's a progress.

[thedevilsrain]

Loving your blog on eroica, your art is beautiful btw.

It's nice to see you talking abt the problematic political stuff the manga deals with, i read for the drama and gay ness and how the tropes are well executed. May i know your most fav and least fav arc and why??

thanks so much i'm so glad! i actually started reading it for the gay stuff as well but it awakened my seven year hyperfixation on the cold war

i've actually answered this before but now i've read these chapters more + i have a new Least Favorite Arc. so lets go

so, i don't know how much of a consensus this is, but my favorite arc is definitely the alaskan front, full stop. i also love eau de cologne and the free shooter/der freischultz

but i think that alaskan front captures FEWL's essence perfectly - the comedy is great, the characterization is at its' best, the art is gorgeous - the perfect balance between aoike's shojo artstyle and all the gun and machinery - and every character has a chance to shine, from agent Z, to the forgotten mr. jones, to mischa and to, of course, dorian and klaus.

plenty of my favorite panels and scenes come from this arc alone. one of my favorite scenes in the manga is one where eroica and his team manage to outsmart the KGB and even NATO, to the point that when dorian tells eberbach he had the KGB hospitalized (through giving them laxatives), he doesn't believe him

there's also some classic moments, like klaus saying his love of nescafe (just 'instant' here lol) for the first time, mr. bonham calling eberbach nato old man (or nato geezer lol), and whatever the hell this third picture is

i just find it great, all around. it struggles with pacing, as most of these longer eroica chapters do lol, but it still manages to be entertaining as you're building the web of spies in your head, and watching the funny interactions throught. this too is one of my favorite scenes ever. absolute great ride 🌹❤️🐗

now! my least favorite. this i won't expect to be a consensus, but it's seven days in september. readmore cos it turned out too long. here's some dorians from the alaskan front as a mental preparation

so right from the start, seven days follows midnight collector, the story about dorian's past interluded with im trying to steal the man in purple and another painting (i should mention that while the story about klaus' backstory doesn't have dorian, the major has a whole subplot in dorian's chapter), and as the arc proceeds, it starts a recurring theme of eroica's story being cut short/overshadowed by whatever's going on with the major.

i would only find this mildly annoying, if it weren't for the fact that the stories can become slow at best and boring at worst without dorian's more campy and, let me just say it, gay energy

this arc also starts another recurring thing for FEWL: very long and convoluted arcs. by the second half of seven days, we have: major and eroica crashing a plane in a convent, mischa and his KGB guys and salim and his misogyny and a brief appearance by lawrence and the SIS. they've already traveled three countries, and honestly by here i was already lost. it just gets to a point of too much information where the only thing keeping you going is the gags

(we can get into salim another day lol)

another thing that begins to suffer in this arc is the characterization. it's prolly somewhere around this arc that you might start to think 'wow, it's been a long time since eroica and the major have had a soft moment', and it's all downhill from here. there is such a focus on keeping eberbach as an asshole with zero development that their characterization actually begins to sufer -- klaus is more and more unbearable, and dorian is more and more stupid.

in this arc, there's a scene where, after dorian fails to get klaus drunk (story for another day) and klaus is the one that gets him drunk instead, he does a striptease, before klaus takes him to a bathroom. klaus tells him he hates him and threatens to beat him when he's asleep, but when dorian actually blacks out, klaus buttons up his jacket around him so that he isn't half-naked in a bathroom.

but! the scene is then completely ruined because shortly afterwards klaus and mischa (the bear cub) literally WATERBOARD dorian when he's still blackout drunk, in a scene that's actually hard for me to read

and again, it's really all downhill from here. seventh seal is another arc i really dislike, bc it follows this trend of eberbach manipulating and tricking dorian, and dorian's affection towards him stops being this funny if unlikely thing, and starts being more... sad lol

i had to get that one out of my system BUT. this is Not The Worst Yet! this arc features the single WORST scene in the ENTIRE manga and i will not be taking criticism about this

mischa, knowing the major's dad was a... tank commander... in the german army. in ww2, brings klaus to the el alamein desert, where a nazi generla or whatever lost a battle to the allies, with the intent of humiliating him. and it actually WORKS -- and once mischa obviously loses to eberbach in the end, it's supposed to be this moment of... reinvidication, almost? klaus says he doesn't care, but mentions how it hurt his pride, you know?

i find this one actually gross to read JFGJLKJGLGF its so incredibly bad either way you read it -- the major is offended mischa would remind him the germans lost the war, or mischa, a mischa, clinging to the past when the russians won the battle, but now in the current day the germans are better.

by this point you'd think we'd be over the 'major's dad was a soldier in ww2' thing or at least consider it an obvious Bad Thing -- but here's aoike, in 1982, still coyly playing up how germans are good and noble and all that

there's plenty other pretty bad eroica chapters -- insha'allah with its' messy orientalism and.. child brothel, midnight collector's messy handling of dorian's trauma, the seventh seal having dorian 'trick' a man in drag, the panda's maze everything etc. but seven days in september still remains at the top of me for having a moment where eroica actually stopped being fun, a moment where i actually had to stop to think about the author's politics and how they end up being cast over the story.

anyway read the alaskan front lol

[jr4cats]

but what if doesn't? what if your beliefs about why people are religious is wrong, and turns out even after theres is no more suferring, people still want religion, still want their spirituality and still be against their beliefs being turned into entertainment, what you suggest should be done then? because, like it or not, your rethoric sounds a lot like the one of missionaries that hold food over poor peoples head and tell them to pray for it. And don't try to say this is just "noise without meaning" like you did with @lordadmiralfarsight, try to to care this time.

Your arguments sum to "In my perfect world, there will be no Jews, no Shinto, no Hindu, no Sikhs, no nothing other than a vaguely Christian-ish 'default culture'. This to me is a positive," and you don't understand how everyone else is appalled and taking it as a negative?

Very strange that you assume "Vaguely Christian" to be a "default culture", sounds like you have some internalised Christian hegemony to deal with!

[andy-deer]

Its not mythology, but here goes some interesting lore not much people knows about. Transformers: Megatron.

Many see him as a BBEG big bad evil guy from the transformers saga, but truth is he was a miner with no name forced to work a slave job mining the ores the Cybertronians are made, when aristrocast and high cast of the society got bored they started running a Gladiatorial Coliseum.

There the lowest cast fighted to death for money to entertain the higher casts.

Soon one of them gained some fame, due to his strength and ferocity and the crowd hailed to him with the name of one of the primes bots. Megatronus Prime (the fallen)

As he gained name and fame he started a revolution to overthrow the cast system and those above.

He met the council of aristocrats thretening their position with promises of maihem and revolution. In that exact moment, in that exact room a data clerk of the high cast Optimus sugested an slow and progresive change.

The council proclaimed Optimus with the title of Prime and gave him power and the matrix of leadership.

Megatron once again cast away only for a burguesse to take his righteus place, meanwhile he see his class die in slave work and gladtorial circus with no names, and not even burrials as they where used as spare parts, had no other option than starting a war, now under the name that the coulcil gave his people in a degrading maner but he embraced as his true nature; Decepticons.

Forced to use empowering drugs and modifications to be able to withstand the primes, along with all the dmg he has sufered through his battles, both physical and pshychological, he is now reduced to a beast, the remnant of a grudge, an everlasting hatred now meaningless as his only obsesion is to defeat the autobots and killing the primes is empty, he cannot recall of the cause he was fighting for, he only knows that he has to fight, and that he will, no cost to high.

Hope you like it, sorry for the long text, and sorry in advance for the grammar if its to bad.

See ya <3

As someone who has never seen transformers content what the fuck

[senstia]

Hiiii, I have a prompt for Andreil please!!!!!! The team finds out Neil can sing and Andrew is SuFEriNg™ Bonus points if it's in public Thank you 💜💜

I love this!!! And lets be real Andrew is always suffering when it comes to Neil. Also Andrew is definitely a broadway stan change my mind

“How about instead of movie night, tonight we do karaoke night?” Nicky asked excitedly as all the foxes were gathered in front of the TV.

Aaron groaned, “If we are about to do karaoke i’m gonna need way more alcohol.”

“I second that,” Kevin said and got up to grab a bottle of tequila.

“Is that a yes everybody?” Nicky asked.

Everyone in the group gave their yeses but Neil and Andrew stayed silent. Andrew knew there was no way in hell he was going to sing a thing, but it could be slightly entertaining to watch the rest of the team embarrass themselves. Neil had never sang before. He had barely listened to music. Life on the run didn’t exactly include music and singing.

“Neil?” Allison asked, looking over to Neil.

“Um yeah, sure, I guess. I’ve never really listened to music or sang before though,” Neil replied.

“First time for everything,” Nicky said and winked.

~

About 30 minutes later all the foxes excluding Andrew and Neil were taking turns singing horrendously to a wide variety of different popular songs. Neil was delighted to find out that there was something that Kevin Day was absolutely terrible at. Nicky was thoroughly disappointed to find out that none of his foxes had any singing skills whatsoever, even though he was just as terrible himself. The night had slowed down a bit and their songs had gone from very loud and obnoxious rap to actual music good for singing.

“Who’s next?” Matt asked as he had just finished butchering Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles.

Allison nudged Neil on the shoulder. Neil looked back at her in bewilderment. He didn’t understand why everyone wanted him to sing so badly. He had avoided taking his turn for this long but he doubt he could any longer.

“It’s Neil’s turn!” Allison shouted.

Neil groaned as the foxes shoved him to the front of the room, “Guys I don’t sing, I don’t even know any music, really. Can someone else go?”

“Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll play a song all the way through so you can hear it, and then you sing it after with just the music behind. Deal?” Nicky asked.

Neil groaned and looked to Andrew for help. Andrew just raised his brows at Neil. Andrew had to admit he was curious what Neil’s singing voice would be like. Andrew had heard him hum quietly in the car every once and while, but never more than that.

Neil sat on the chair at the front of the room and pouted, “Fine,” he muttered. Nicky just smiled happily and passed him a microphone and headphones. Nicky let Neil listen to his song over in the headphones before it was time to really sing. Neil listened intently, memorizing the lyrics and the melody.

When he was done he took the headphones off, “Okay, i’m ready.”

Andrew watched Neil intently as the music began to play. Nicky had decided on Vienna by Billy Joel, apparently. Neil cleared his throat and began to sing. He sang quietly at first but as he got into a rhythm his voice came out louder. Andrew felt his heart start to race as he listened to Neil. His voice was breathtakingly beautiful. It was the perfect mixture between Ben Platt and Jonathan Groff’s voices. (Yes, Andrew likes broadway, what about it?) Andrew felt a flush on his neck and ears, he felt his pants tighten. He was gonna kill Neil. He needed him to shut up. He needed to kiss him, he needed to touch him. How could he just sing like that?

All of the foxes were in awe as they listened silently. His voice was perfectly clear, he hit every note with ease. He sounded like a professional. As Neil finished the song, he got up to make his way back to his seat.

“Noo Neil! You have to sing more!” Matt said enthusiastically.

“You have the most beautiful voice Neil. Please please sing another one?” Nicky begged.

“No,” Andrew said firmly, “We’re going to bed.”

All the foxes made suggestive looks at Andrew, they knew why he wanted Neil alone. That voice was a panty dropper if anything was.

Neil just shrugged an apology to the group and followed Andrew to their bedroom. As soon as the door was closed Andrew crowded Neil’s space against the wall.

“Yes or no?” Andrew asked roughly.

“Yes,” Neil said breathlessly. Andrew shoved Neil against the wall in response and kissed him, hard. Neil was surprised by Andrew’s sudden aggression but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t enjoying it. Andrew was kissing him like he had the first time. Like it was the fight of their lives, like nothing existed except for Neil’s mouth. Andrew gripped Neil hard at the waist, grinded into him against the wall as he kissed him.

Andrew pulled back from Neil slightly and growled, “What the fuck was that Josten?”

“W-what?”

“Since when do you sing like that?”

“I-I don’t know I- wait. You liked it?”

“Shut up Neil.”

Andrew leaned in to kiss Neil again but Neil sidled out of the way. He grinned wickedly.

“Did my singing voice turn you on Drew?” Neil asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Shut up Neil. 400%,” Andrew said and kissed Neil into silence before he could reply.

Neil just laughed against Andrew’s mouth, “I’ll try to sing more often if this is gonna be your reaction.”

“If you don’t shut up...” Andrew warned.

“Okay, okay. I’m done,” Neil laughed. But he gave himself a silent reminder that Andrew really really liked it when Neil sang and that he should sing for Andrew as often as possible.

[cafeleningrad]

21st-century-flapper a réagi à votre billet “umpopuar opinion but “USS Callister” missed the point of technology...”

Dear God I hated Bandersnatch. "Sorry, but nothing you do will ever get you out of this misery, all you do is cause pain and it would be best if you had died"? What kind of sick message is that? Especially when aimed at depressed people? If I had been in the mental state I am in now, getting my inner thoughts reflected back at me and praised as oh so clever could have had some really bad consequences. But hey, who cares, as long as a bunch of edgelords can feel clever.

Exactly. Additionally, the episode in fact never dealt with the concept of free will at all, or at very least never decided to open a broader discussion of the counter-deterministic side. (Which was the one of the psychiatrist, but that’s the “it’s all meaningless because everything was a set up anyway, so still determinism” or “you can onyl do art if you suffer, suffer, sufer for our entertainement”.)

Anyhow, I think all the cricitism of edgy media should have come sooner than the final GoT-season. S04 and the extra-episode were lacking so much nance, the core thought but who cares, it only needs to seem deep.