#there will also be DISCUSSIONS with their superiors

[rosy-crow]

Since this is kinda exploding everywhere on Twitter and here and there are definitely some confused about what EC is doing lol, I kinda wanted to point out that the Shinra kids discussing digital currency (which we as the audience are well aware is bad for the environment) is essentially the same thing as them discussing the distribution of mako in canon (which we are also aware is bad for the environment), and I think that’s the entire joke here. And frankly, I find it pretty funny.

A buddy on Twitter pointed it out and they basically discuss the flow, tracking, and need for surveillance in the exact way Shinra handles mako. So like. Yeah, they do this in canon too. Matt and Sephiroth discuss efficiency while Angeal mentions keeping a good relationship between the government and companies and the tech itself. This the propaganda-brainwashed Shinra family in a different font.

No, they’re not asshole 4chan cryptobros, but their superiors like Pres. Shinra, Heidegger, Palmer, etc., are definitely the nasty shillers we all despise…like in canon…..and these kiddos are buying into it like the star pupils they are and won’t question it until their 20s when they defect, die, burn out, explode from getting too many emails, set towns on fire, quite their jobs, lose faith in humanity, kill people, and so on. You know. The usual high school to post-university pipeline.

It’s hard for me to take this seriously, but in a nutshell, your favs aren’t crypto-bro reddit incels, they’re just the same misguided kids they are in canon and EC is making a joke out of it.

Also, they’re still just nerds trying to solve their stupid lil au problems and it’s really cute to meeeee okay bye I can’t do this anymore skfjfj

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I'm writing a character who experienced a severe TBI in the past. Her main character arc is about learning that people who will support and accomodate her are out there. I based it on my own disability journey of finally finding people who accepted me and took my needs seriously.

However, I don't personally have a TBI - I am disabled in other ways. I wanted to ask - are there any notable tropes or writing pitfalls I should be aware of with a character like this? I want to be careful with this subject matter.

Hello,

The biggest pitfall is the people who don't do research on the brain and wind up giving their character symptoms that make no sense. The brain is an extremely complex organ made of a bunch of tiny parts that all do different things. Damage to one thing causes one symptom, damage to another thing causes another symptom. Usually, with a brain injury, those two things that were damaged are right next to each other or, if the brain got jarred particularly bad, on opposite-ish sides of the brain (though that second option will lead to far more than two damaged cortexi.) I'm going to get into something called neuroanatomy, the study of the structure of the brain and what little areas control what plus where everything is positioned.

Let's say we have damage to the auditory cortex on the left side of the brain. This would usually also come with damage to the limbic system region, Wiernicke's Area, the superior temporal gyrus, and possibly the middle temporal gyrus, which are all immediately next to the auditory cortex at least on the left side of the brain. But the character won't have symptoms that indicate damage to those areas, they'll have symptoms that indicate damage to the very front of the frontal lobe. And there will be no symptoms associated with damage to the areas around the area they damaged. Getting hurt like this, damage to these two general areas, is possible if you get hit in the right way, but there would be damage to the areas around the area they've affected, even if they managed to get stabbed through the head and create sharp-force trauma to these two areas (an injury that would probably be lethal unless you're going for Phineas Gage.) That's one of the biggest pitfalls here- not doing research. Is the average reader going to notice this? No, probably not. But it's still poorly-thought-out representation even if no one catches it. I know this research is going to be complicated because the brain is extremely complicated, but at the very least learn the general lobe where the damage is located and stick to symptoms related to injuries to that lobe. Do not WebMD this, WebMD has symptoms associated with damage to a bunch of different areas to the brain and if you give the characters all of those symptoms, unless they managed to get hit so that their brain literally rolled across the inside of their skull (I've no idea if that could be surviveable,) that's super unrealistic.

The evil person who becomes evil for TBI reasons is another trope that's frustratingly prevalent. They get knocked on the head and now they're evil and start doing villain things they never would have done before the knock on the head. Look, massive personality changes and mood swings can be part of a TBI, but doing them in the way this trope does is both insensitive to the few cases that are this extreme and often unrealistic, as a pacifist getting hit on the head and suddenly becoming a spree killer is almost always (I want to say 97% at least but there's no actually research there so take my opinion with a grain of salt) unrealistic and harmful to people who actually have TBIs. At least it's definitely always harmful.

The grief trope, which has been discussed ad nauseam on this blog for all kinds of disabilities, is also something to be avoided. Is this something that happens? Yes, absolutely, it'll happen for pretty much everyone who remembers the "before" time, the time before their injury (not everyone can, either due to the trauma or because they, like me, were too young to remember the time before their TBI,) but it's hard to do respectfully and gently and I'd prefer if this topic was only approached by people who've actually been through this process. If you absolutely need to include the aftermath of the TBI and you can't avoid writing the grief, get a sensitivity reader with a TBI, maybe a few, read our experiences, ask us a lot of questions, and be open to critique from people who've actually gone through this. Usually, writers approaching the TBI grief plot don't bother. Please, please bother.

Please do not treat our existence as a tragedy. You have no idea how many times people have told me they would rather die than live like me the second I say I have a TBI, and the tragedy trope plays a significant part in that. Yes, our lives can be hard. Often, our lives are definitely hard. But our lives are not tragic and should not be treated as such. They're our lives. We have sorrows and joy as everyone does, the fact that we have a TBI does not mean that our sorrows are a tragedy. Yes, there are people with TBIs who do feel that their lives are a tragedy. That does not mean this trope is something that should be done by someone without a TBI.

And please just make sure to write Character with a TBI, not TBI. You are not writing the traumatic brain injury, you are writing a character with a traumatic brain injury. She should have likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests, friends, enemies, a personality- don't get so wrapped up in writing the TBI that you forget to make her an actual character. People with TBIs are more than just our brain injury, we are people. That's a surprisingly big pitfall, people taking the person part out of disabled person. Don't do that.

Mod Aaron

[a-mel0n]

Buck and Eddie really do just have the same fight over and over again. And if Buck wasn’t close with Chris, I think Eddie would pay about as much attention to him as he does Hen and Chimney. He just uses Buck to help him out with Chris when he f*cks up. When Eddie was talking about Chris losing Bobby, I couldn’t even recall the times they interacted.

There’s just so much on the show that’s superior to Buck + Eddie in every way, even taking shipping out of it.

Hen and Chimney’s friendship — when they were discussing her reticence about him proposing, and he brings up, so gently, her cheating on Karen. There was no throwing it in her face.

Athena and Chimney have such a good story going on right now, and I feel sad that they’re not getting their flowers for it.

Buck and Jee-Yun: Like, there was pre-arranged babysitting and asking for Buck to help out with stuff. Not just showing up and being like, “My kid with cheer you up.” No offence to Chris, who’s a cute, smart kid that’s way more emotionally intelligent than his father.

it's so weird because it felt like season 8 had the perfect setup to finally move these characters forward, and to a certain extent they have, but they've also regressed them in other areas. like, eddie's back to being stuck on shannon's death, and now they're not even addressing that. buck's having problems with his love life again. custody and adoption issues with henren, madney accidentally got pregnant again.

like... god i wish i could be a fly on the wall in that writer's room.

[decomposingfungi]

There are also millions of people still using twitter, instagram, and amazon, despite the very real material damage caused by Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos, and that's a MUCH more direct cause-and-effect than simply talking about Harry Potter because using those platforms LITERALLY lines the pockets of those individuals. I will say that if you're on twitter telling people they should stop talking about Harry Potter I simply will not take you seriously loll 😂

This needed to be said, I fear.

Also I think there's a slightly worrying tendency on the liberal 'left' (which is typically the majority in most fandom spaces) to shut down conversation and discussion in general, particularly if those conversations are uncomfortable. You see thought-terminating clichés frequently deployed in such spaces and I think it's just not helpful. Seeing posts from supposed leftists trying to convince people that it's morally wrong to even THINK about Harry Potter is pretty wild to me, tbh. I think that for a while now there's been much more of a focus among the left on idealism over materialism, to the point where material reality is totally ignored in favour of, essentially, trying to get everyone to think the correct thoughts. To me this just isn't a productive or intellectually responsible approach.

Listen, as a trans person who left the HP fandom a few years ago because of JKR's transphobia, it's wild to me how utterly devoid of nuance any conversation around this issue is handled in online spaces. I do think you shouldn't give her money (don't watch the new show!) because she is using that money to support laws against trans people. But is it really more harmful to talk about HP online with your friends than, for example, use Twitter, a platform that gives money to a man who also uses his wealth and power to support laws against trans people (and against immigrants and women and poc and-)?

OP also said this in another very insightful post that I think explains the issue at hand very well:

Because, tbh, if you're someone who isn't particularly interested in HP it's basically free morality points. It's easy to do absolute fuck all and then point at others and go "see? I'm morally superior to them because I'm not sacrificing ethics for a kids book!"

The trouble is that all of us are in some way 'sacrificing ethics' all the time in order to maintain the lifestyle we've grown accustomed to. And I'll add that in ways that are much more flagrant than simply talking about a book online. I don't see these people being nearly as gung-ho about everyone giving up amazon or twitter or else they're evil, when using those platforms has a DIRECT, completely unambiguous effect on our society. The reason they're so intense about this in particular is because not caring about HP is something they're already doing without expending any effort whatsoever, therefore it's an easy, cheap way to feel better about themselves at the expense of others.

The thing is they have sell us that our morality and our values are what we consume and how we consume it. You are the show you like and the clothes you buy. They tell you that you are what you consume but what you consume is all poison because we are trapped in a world of exploitation. The show you like has abusers behind it. The clothes you bought were made by children. What you pay for has been made with forced labour and death and blood and tears. You cannot base your values in what you consume because capitalism is inherently exploitative.

THIS SAID please stop giving her money. Don't watch the new show. There's no ethical consumption under capitalism and what you consume doesn't reflect your values but sometimes you can take a stand that has some meaning. It's very easy to stop giving her money. You can enjoy HP without giving her money. There's no ethical consumption under capitalism but there is kindness. You can always choose to be kind.

What your opinion on all this talk of leaving the hp/marauder fandom because it directly/indirectly supports JKR? Do you have any desire to leave?

Well my opinion is that I can understand it completely if people choose to do so, but personally I have no desire to leave nor intention of leaving. I understand that it might bother individual people but I'm not asking anyone to look at this blog; in fact the reason I started to use this sideblog is so I could keep everything HP-related away from people who choose not to see it. While I think HP's cultural relevance today is such that it's impossible to avoid entirely, I do empathise with people who'd rather not see it. If someone wished to block me for continuing to blog about HP, I think that might be the healthiest option for everyone involved.

Anyway, I understand why this is happening and I think it's important to discuss. But that's the point. It's important to discuss, not stick our fingers in our ears.

I think this is a great post about it! Here are my own (long-winded) thoughts:

Personally I fundamentally disagree with the idea that we should stop reading and discussing works written by bad people. I don't believe that's a constructive or healthy way to engage with literature. If nobody's left to discuss something as culturally relevant as HP (or LotR, or whatever) critically, then what is the point of literature in the first place? Is it pure entertainment and therefore easily discarded? Ftr I'm also firmly against banning (even socially 'banning') literature of ANY sort, for ANY reason. "You shouldn't read X because it's morally wrong" is to me ultimately a conservative belief.

Anyway: I find it pretty obvious that JKR said 'if you like my books you agree with me' PURPOSEFULLY to cause this kind of a reaction, because she knew it would cause her detractors to become hyperfocused on pointing fingers at each other and thought policing each other over a kids book rather than focusing on what's actually going on. I don't think we should be playing into it, and I don't think even JKR believes it herself-- I think it was deliberate. And tbh from what I can see it has had the exact effect she intended.

The other thing I'll say is that (and tbf I can't say for sure) but I suspect that the online HP fandom might be exaggerating its own importance a little bit. Tbh I think that even if the online (and more liberal) fandom disappeared overnight there would still be tens of thousands of kids (the target audience, after all) discovering and reading Harry Potter for themselves across the globe. Scores of parents and aunts and grandparents who know nothing about JKR buying those books for the kids in their family. And that's not counting the people who actually do agree with JKR. Yes fandom disappearing might have some small impact, but tbh I think it would be all but insignificant. It would be much more, like infinitely more, materially significant for people in fandom to donate time and/or money to trans organisations in their own countries. ((I also think what would be somewhat helpful is for fandom to take responsibility in encouraging people not to watch the HBO series. The success of the series is imo more contingent on online opinion than the books.))

There are also millions of people still using twitter, instagram, and amazon, despite the very real material damage caused by Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos, and that's a MUCH more direct cause-and-effect than simply talking about Harry Potter because using those platforms LITERALLY lines the pockets of those individuals. I will say that if you're on twitter telling people they should stop talking about Harry Potter I simply will not take you seriously loll 😂

I guess there is probably some amount of people who discovered HP through, idk, Marauders tiktok and decided to read the series, but how significant is this number? It's incredibly difficult to grow up in most countries around the world and not come across Harry Potter in some way. For good or ill I do think HP is en route to becoming a children's classic. If tumblr goes down and my blog and all the blogs I interact with on here disappear, I don't think this would change.

On the other hand, simply for posterity I do think there's some value in continuing to discuss it-- all of it, including the reality of who the author is, the cultural relevance of HP, the text itself and what this all means given its significance in our culture. And it's important to discuss it critically, honestly, and constructively. It's remarkably easy with HP to avoid giving money to the author, which is something I believe to be worthwhile, so tbh I can't bring myself to agree with 'it would be better if we stopped talking about it' in a general sense. Personally I don't think the only people left discussing it should be right wing maniacs lol-- again, for posterity if nothing else.

Also I think there's a slightly worrying tendency on the liberal 'left' (which is typically the majority in most fandom spaces) to shut down conversation and discussion in general, particularly if those conversations are uncomfortable. You see thought-terminating clichés frequently deployed in such spaces and I think it's just not helpful. Seeing posts from supposed leftists trying to convince people that it's morally wrong to even THINK about Harry Potter is pretty wild to me, tbh. I think that for a while now there's been much more of a focus among the left on idealism over materialism, to the point where material reality is totally ignored in favour of, essentially, trying to get everyone to think the correct thoughts. To me this just isn't a productive or intellectually responsible approach.

What is the material benefit of all of us simply shutting up about Harry Potter forever? How does this actually help anyone beyond yourself and your own conscience? To me it seems like ultimately a performative and virtue signalling action that is pretty meaningless when you're not doing anything else, and is particularly meaningless when you're not applying this to literally anything else in your life. Fandom isn't activism, but by extension NOT-fandom also isn't activism haha. Personally I dislike Marvel films and think they're barely-disguised propaganda for the American military-industrial complex, but I don't think it's evil for people to write their Bucky/Steve fanfiction or whatever lmao. And I certainly don't think it's wrong to discuss Marvel films, the opposite in fact, I think they should be critically discussed.

So, basically, I think it's perfectly understandable that people would want to leave the fandom. But ultimately I think that's an action you're taking for yourself, and I don't think there's much to be gained from refusing to discuss things deemed 'morally wrong.' I think to a certain extent it's natural and probably healthy to feel some guilt about it all, but also perhaps it's worth questioning why we feel such extreme guilt about this, which is really just people talking to each other about books, and not about the 486948736 other much more unambiguously destructive things we do with our time and money on a daily basis.

As long as we're willing to discuss this topic honestly and constructively, to be conscious and empathetic towards others, and to refrain from spending any money on HP-related products, I don't think it's wrong to remain in the fandom tbh. To deny HP's impact on today's literary landscape would be, imo, dishonest, so therefore somebody has to discuss it. And I'd much rather there be a variety of opinions within that discussion.

[critter-wizard]

ep 43 had me tearing up in a fucking shopping centre ‼️‼️

b+w alt version that I truly couldn't decide if I liked it more . Also I included a lot of thoughts in the tags but they're somewhat incoherent<3

[avichor]

many thoughts about vampires and how consuming their media with a strict, humanistic moral lens defeats the purpose

[feminurge]

unrelated to anything i just spent too much time reading strangers' posts on the for you page. when people complain about other people's depiction of a certain trigger... how do you know other people haven't gone through it. if it makes you uncomfortable it's one thing, block and move on? but. why would your opinion on it be better than anyone else's, considering they might be victims as well. and by asserting they don't have the lived experience to justify their writing/expertise, aren't you forcing them to come out. isn't that much worse and harmful than a wrong starter on a dumblr blog

[jamtamart]

i wanted to add my thought process on this piece as i had such a blast painting it. i want to explore lawrence and vincents dynamic even more now that i've dipped my toes in

thoughts under the cut- its quite long so!

Theres not many individual elements actually in the piece to go over, but i wanted to talk about how i actually ended up painting the subjects as i did, as i was quite purposeful with the small amount of details i did end up using

So my very first point of inspiration was the fact that vincent discovers hes intersex through appendix surgery in the film. This detail always stuck out to me in multiple ways- its a very mundane way to discover something that, for vincent, could disrupt his very being- especially in comparison to the way he discovers it in the book, being injured in an explosion in Baghdad. When rewatching i kinda immediately made the connection between the placement of appendix surgery scars and the five holy wounds, specifically the one christ receives on the side of his chest from the holy lance.

From there i thought about the wound itself- what do i actually want to say by showing vincent like this? Theres the obvious generic connections of christ and sacrifice but i wanted to say something more, which is when i thought about thomas’ point of view in the room of tears.

Thomas has an interesting perspective. Thomas’ view of women and sexuality has always intrigued me, especially in the shadow of the institutional power dynamics that surround him and others in the church. Theres a lot i could say, but in the context of vincent, i always think about how he would see vincent after the room of tears. A man that was his brother, his equal, now his technical superior, is… something else? Thomas obviously has a very rudimentary an biased understanding of gender and sex, and its obvious in the room of tears scene he is grappling with this in real time. His ignorance towards women and his own desire almost manifests into denial of the new holy father. 

With this, i thought of doubting thomas. Kind of an obvious place to go when doing a depiction of christs side wound and you literally have a character called thomas whos whole thing is doubting his faith, but i wanted to do more with that!!!!!!!  i wanted to push the typical depiction of doubting thomas thrusting his hand into the side wound into something more sensual, intimate. lawrence’s denial of sexuality, especially how prevalent it is in the book, is so interesting to me.

I had recently read an article, which i’ll link at the end of this, that discussed the medieval depictions of these wounds and the uses behind them. What stood out to me was the discussion of sacred/secular imagery and how they were used as one in the same, both points in prayer. That love, romantic and sexual, could also be used in a sacrificial sense, forming union with christ. What got me even more was the imagery of jesus’ wounds given to women specifically. Prayer books that invited women to lick and touch his wounds, presumably having the books in their laps and they bent forward to engage with prayer. Images that put the women in jesus’ place, to experience the sin with the sacred. 

I highly recommend reading the article to get the full grasp of the details, but i felt as though this paired with a figure representing a doubting thomas spoke well to what i wanted. Lawrence is a man who is not sure he holds faith anymore, and yet still is ultimately defined by his faith, its everything he is. He goes to bed in the same pose he did as a boy to not give in to temptation, however over time its transformed into something else, something regretful. He holds so much desire, not necessarily in a lustful context, but desire manifests nevertheless. 

This is why i decided to depict lawrence not just touching vincents wound, but pulling it apart, consuming what it leaks. I wanted to place lawrence in a similar position to the aforementioned women (and men, though there is a focus on women having these personal pocket prayer books) and their personal prayers, subjecting himself to the wound, to vincent.

There is also evidence that historically the imagery of the side wound was purposefully made to resemble that of a vulva in places. This and the direction to directly interact with the wounds made me want to push the sacred/secular even more. I purposefully painted the innards of vincents wound to mimic this imagery, just so slightly. I didnt want it to be obviously in your face, more just so a subtle nod to the theming as a whole, as well as the fact that in the book its said vincent’s surgery was a clitoroplexy and labia fusion correction, different to the hysterectomy we’re told of in the film.  A quote in the mentioned article caught my eye, “looking down at the wound places the viewer in a similar position to christ on the cross… the female devotee is a hybrid herself; part christ, part grotesque; part male, part female.”.

I wanted to leave vincent’s gaze looking unimpressed, slightly uncomfortable. I think of how he’d feel in the papacy, unable to go home and resume his aid, surrounded by people that look up to him in a way he hadn’t experienced before. What he’d think of the man he believed should have been in his position kneeling in reverence, consuming whatever would come from him. 

Lawrences perspective in the piece is one of submitting to faith and attempting to connect to the unknown, his doubts pushing his desire. Vincent must bare himself open, prove his being and become an object of admiration. Though he is the holy father, he must also submit to the people. part christ, part grotesque; part male, part female.

the article here

doubting thomas

[unproduciblesmackdown]

winston my quant of billions

[ribombeee]

obviously there is value in feminist theory that focuses its efforts on men and masculinity. that being said any discussion of masculinity that valorizes the suffering of men as more severe or more abstractly important than the suffering of women is utterly and completely worthless. also not a hot take! the idea that men suffer more than women, either because they bear the “burden” of fully participating in society or because they are simply more complete human beings with a higher capacity for suffering, is a deeply deeply historically ingrained patriarchal sentiment

the reason that concepts like the “male loneliness epidemic” and the “male mental health epidemic” and the “burdens of masculinity” come across as deeply corny is simply that most of these discussions blatantly value the emotions and problems of men higher than those of women, and phrasing this idea in the language of feminist theory doesn’t change that fact. you are not re-evaluating your views on men and women you are simply re-phrasing them lol

[sotangledupinit]

i’m obsessed your honor

[dani-luminae]

Ripping off EAH is a bad idea. The makers WILL sue!!

Bold of you to assume that Mattel cares about the franchise they gave up on. It's not even a candidate for rebooting like Monster High.

Also can we stop acting like EAH was some treasured passion project of a struggling indie developer or something? It's owned by Mattel! The company that just put out the Barbie movie! The company literally could not be doing better.

Besides. “Daughter of the Queen of Hearts” and “daughter of Cinderella” aren’t copyrighted by Mattel (in fact, Darling Charming isn’t the daughter of Cinderella! The EAH Charming family specifically has no relation to Cinderella.) There’s enough established in Descendants to argue that all similarities are just coincidence. Sporty girls with swords? Done before (see: Lonnie in the second movie.) Besides, Lizzie and Darling never actually had an adventure together I think...

There's also that Ever After High isn’t the only “school for children of fairy tales” there is. There's The School for Good and Evil (a six-book series likely more well-known for an astoundingly subpar Netflix adaptation) and Regal Academy, among others. EAH vs. Descendants aside, no company *owns* the idea of “school for fairy-tale/public-domain characters kids.”

Which, yes, literally all the parents of EAH are public domain. Disney had the opportunity for using Disney trademark names like Maleficent, Lady Tremaine, etc. but their character bases are still public domain (Sleeping Beauty’s 13th fairy and Cinderella’s stepmother, respectively.) Descendants also gets to involve some Disney-specific tales like 101 Dalmatians. But EAH also got to pull in some tales that Disney never covered, like Jack and the Beanstalk (...whatever happened to that Gigantic movie?), Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Thumbelina.

Also if you expect me to believe that some EAH designs weren’t Disney ripoffs to begin with, no. Because look at this:

This is original concept art for Rosabella Beauty, daughter of Beauty and the Beast! But wanna see what she looks like in the actual cartoon?

Oh would you look at that!!! I wonder why they gave her brown hair suddenly but so clearly wanted to keep the yellow scheme! Couldn't possibly be because they wanted people to think of Disney's Belle, right?????

And also:

Purple? Check. High collar? Check. Menacing accessories? Check. Significant widow's peak with spiky crown? Double check. Also Raven's actual mother in the series looks like this:

And not actually, you know, like Raven.

EAH was also relying on a healthy handful of Disney ripoff designs to get their characters noticed. It shows. Not to mention the entirety of Epic Winter clearly banking on the Frozen craze because it didn't even get "The Snow Queen" story right.

(And sure, Descendants featured some designs that were a little bit too close to EAH, see: Mal's purple Cotillion gown vs. Raven's Thronecoming gown, evil!Audrey's entire color scheme compared to Spring Unsprung Briar, etc.)

Doesn't mean that mocking it is a classy move on Disney's part, but unless they're stupid enough to straight-up use a patented name from EAH, I highly doubt Mattel can or will do anything about it.

[m0thlegs]

y’all learned the term “media literacy” and have not shut the fuck up since

[ebitenpura]

everyday I experience whimsy thinking about how Eight went from the perception of a diabolical mysterious mastermind to (• ̫ •) in the span of a few years. imperial dissolution turns the hardest operatives into the fluffiest companions

[afklancelot]

the more i think bout it, the more i realize i didn't really like scp-6001. besides the bland references to previous scps, it just felt way too idealistic, especially with all the groups of interest coming together to one big organization, with one group specializing in one thing (paraphasing and remembering off the top of my head).

i think the reason why it didn't work for me is that the "twist" is that there really is not much wrong with the society, like it's not a crapsack world in disguise. and im actually glad that wasn't the case! but it would've been nice to see at least some problem within 6001 actually be explored in a section. maybe it could be overpopulation or occasional government incompetence, but it would've been nice to have a message that even 6001 isn't completely perfect, that it still has it's own problems but is handling them relatively well. from what i can remember the only problem that i saw was dragons, which could've also been nice to explore, but alas.

and if i remember correctly, the entrance to 6001 is in Japan. this seems intentional, and seeing as how 6001 is a near perfect place, the placement of the entrance to 6001 being in japan implies a correlation. but japan also has its own batch of problems, be it in its work culture, judicial system, or- as i said before- government incompetence from time to time. this isn't to say the author had to be aware of shit like that when writing, but the placement specifically being in japan just feels over-idealized, from the eyes of a tourist. and maybe that's the point, since the main protag is technically a tourist being guided by the cat scientist.

but hey, it was still better than scp-6000

[beestying1-blog]

Oh god.

They’re multiplying.