#they don't really seem to understand why it's frustrating

[crowroboros]

I went Carl first. My initial impressions from his route were:

TJ/Flynn/Leo did not have much given that they weren't in Carl's route much. TJ seemed traumatized about "what happened at the lake" and was very much the "goody two shoes" Christian kid; Leo didn't seem to be able to let go of the “perfect get-together” idea; and Flynn seemed kind of like a dick but because he knew something was up about the Lake incident.

Carl's situation was both frustrating but also really understandable. I completely get how debilitating anxiety can be and him being born into a rich family doesn't change the trauma and struggles he experienced. Though it is frustrating cause he is born into a rich family who coddle him and only back up his inaction; Carl needed to get help with his anxiety and his parents didn't even make much of an effort to try to assist him in that journey. Debilitating anxiety and self-esteem issues aren't a “just get your shit together” sort of issue, you don't just wake up one day and go “I'm better now”. It takes work and a support system Carl didn't have a drive to do that work, nor did he have that support system (minus Flynn) prior to his route.

I did not (and still do not) see his parents as being anything more than superficially supportive. They clearly care about him and his well-being, but not in a way that's truly beneficial to him or his growth. His parents are definitely a massive step up from Jenna's, but I don't see them as particularly spectacular or anything. They're just rich. A big part of Carl's self-esteem issues is that his parents never actually supported his interests. They didn't outright show hatred like Jenna's, just complete indifference. They showed him that while they do care about him, they couldn't give much of a shit about what he actually likes and wants to do in life. Whether they meant it or not, they gave him the impression that his art career and personal interests were "lesser" things not worth taking seriously.

I doubt they actually wanted to make him feel that way, but with how Carl talks about his own art; his initial desire to major in art, which was vetoed by his parents in favor of business; and his story arc over his route, it's my own interpretation that Carl's issues stem from being treated as his family's successor and heir to the business rather than his own person. And part of his route is overcoming that (something I also talk more about in this ask).

And so on a similar note, Jenna's frustration with Carl is completely understandable cause she was born into the exact opposite circumstances and managed to progress in life in the exact opposite way than Carl. She grew up poor with a very abusive family life with parents who didn't give a shit about her. She's right in a lot of what she says, but fails to fully grasp the extent of Carl's mental health struggles, seeing it more as a moral failing and laziness on his part.

It makes sense why she thinks that, as with the information she's presented, that's how she interprets the situation. It isn't like Carl is the most open about how he's feeling and about how things are for him, so why would she know? It's like what you said in the Jenna character analysis post you made; It’s obvious to her that the town breaks people and if they were smarter they would know they should leave; if they were stronger or just tried harder they could leave because that's what she did.

Beyond that though, I saw Jenna as really independent and steadfast in her own interpretation of the world. She's a fascinating character.

First Route

I'm curious; what Route of Echo did you first play and what were your impressions of each of the main characters, just from that route?

I did Flynn's route first.

Chase: Despite the reveals and some of his behavior, I actually liked him. Super flawed, but still relatable and somewhat tragic.

Carl: Had a big part in Flynn's Route; I thought he was a bit of a goof, but well meaning. Felt pretty bad for him when the interview went south. Was definitely weird seeing him in other routes without Daxton to bounce off of.

Leo: I ended up picking all of the Daxton option, so Leo was muy loco here. Still didn't tip me off to how his route was going to go though. Mostly I just felt bad for him (if a little scared) because it was very clear choosing not to talk things out led to this.

Jenna: Jenna came off as overprotective, but even though she was overly harsh with Flynn, I did get where she was coming from and couldn't judge her too hard. She also redeemed herself (and her relationship with Flynn) when he trusted her to use a gun, and she shot the monster on the road (and the ending with little Jenna left me loving her and her relationship with Flynn).

TJ: I kind of feel like this is TJ's strongest route; he tells Leo and Jenna to shut up and stop babying him and willingly tells Flynn what happened. While he spends the rest of the route scared out of his mind (understandable), he's still less comatose than he is in Leo and Jenna's routes. I'd say he left a pretty good impression.

Syd the Kid: I think I'm slowly coming around to the idea that kid Sydney is my favorite character, and I've replayed his scenes more than any other part of the game. They're just so good and they give you such a good sense of who this child was. I know he bullied TJ (and the tragic backstory doesn't excuse that), but I still love him (and what he could have been).

Flynn: Man of the hour. One of the, if not the most tragic character in the game. Chase wanted to know what his deal was, and this route sure did tell us his deal. None of this excuses how he treated TJ (or the others), but knowing his motivations (and what he's done) makes his actions in the other routes, particularly Jenna's, much more meaningful. Came out of this really admiring the complexity of his writing and how he never stops being an asshole, but is an asshole you root for. (Disclaimer, Flynn is the character I most relate to, so I might be a little biased.)

[isfjmel-phleg]

🌋

[sskk-manifesto]

(*・ω・*)b♪

[oblivious-aro]

So in this particular case I was complaining about teasing, specifically in the Ace Attorney franchise (I lied for to give this post more mass appeal, sorry for being a sellout), because MAN is it a problem from the third game onward. My exact words were "I can't stand teasing", and my sister responded with "sounds like a you problem".

My sister is a weeb who approaches media criticism like a Steven Universe fan in 2018. In other words, she does not respond well to negative criticism of things she likes. That being said, she hasn't played any of the Ace Attorney games, she just reacts that way to any negative criticism of anything from me (she's one of those people who has to say "in my opinion" 50 times before saying anything negative). To summarize years of sibling drama, we used to fight about Steven Universe (and other stuff, but that was the main one) as teenagers who, in hindsight, both really could've used some therapy. I definitely said some dumb stuff I'm not proud of, but I like to think I've at least gotten a little more skilled and considerate of the way I talk about media since then, but my sister still views media criticism the same way she did as a teenager (and not to be tactless, but not a very emotionally stable teenager at that), which among other things, means her go-to is "your framing your opinion as fact!"

And the thing about framing your opinion objectively vs. subjectively is that it's just a very juvenile thing to focus on. It's a low effort criticism that doesn't actually engage with what the speaker is saying. Which sucks because 9 times out of 10, I've put a fair bit of thought into the opinion I'm presenting, and you've just shot me down completely with a single thoughtless retort.

Calling someone out for 'framing their opinion as fact' is like putting tomatoes in a fruit salad. Congrats, you're technically correct, but your fruit salad sucks.

Not only is it smug and nitpicky, it's also dishonest. They don't want to listen to your opinion, but they can't admit that that's a then problem, so they try and make it seem like you're fault they're not engaging.

Imagine you've gone to the trouble to make a new interesting meal for supper, only for them to refuse to even try it because of the garnish. Sure, I don't expect everyone to like everything I cook. If you don't want to eat it, you can just say so, but you're not even going to try it and act like it's my fault?

No, that's stupid. I generally try to be accommodating, but I refuse to bend to such a petty and disrespectful request. Pick the garnish off yourself. I know you can do it if you want to. It is not hard.

But there's a reason they won't do it. One night, I forgot to put the garnish on, and do you know what happened? That same person said they weren't interested in trying the meal because there was no garnish.

Honestly, I want even mad. Well okay, I was a little mad, but I wasn't surprised. As I said, the garnish is easy to pick off, just like mentally switching someone's word choice from "is bad" to "I don't like" is easy. It was never anything you did, they never wanted to engage with your opinion in the first place, so they pull out whatever excuse is available to paint their refusal to engage as your fault. It doesn't have to be good, they just need something, anything, to reassure themselves that their refusal to engage is your fault so they don't have to examine themselves.

What are they trying to avoid examining? Well they're are two possibilities. The first is that they are too attached to the media being criticized, and can't handle the prospect of someone seeing it as imperfect, so they must prove them wrong to protect their perception of said media.

The second is that they just don't like the person speaking, so they'll take whatever route to frame them as wrong or get them to shut up. My sister's done her fair share of the first (ie. Steven Universe), but considering she hasn't played (or watched much) Ace Attorney, her attitude tends to fall in the second category regarding me (in case it wasn't obvious, or relationship is...less than stellar). She once told me off for being "too negative" for complaining about Young Justice, but I later heard her making similar complaints about the show to our brother.

You may also notice this attitude regarding certain popular youtubers and other celebrities. It doesn't matter how flimsy the reasoning, just as long as they have a "reason" to write you off.

Don't think I've gotten that one, but I can see it and oof that sucks :/

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that someone complaining you "frame your opinions as fact" has no intention of engaging with you honestly, and you straight-up just shouldn't bother with them. They've got their own shit to sort out.

Me: "Shows that do that trope are terrible."

Them: "You're framing your opinion as an objective fact, so that makes you automatically wrong."

Me: "I hate it when TV shows so that trope."

Them: "Wow, sounds like a you problem."

[databent]

why the fuck is it that some people cant seem to acknowledge that people can just... be disabled. not through any fault of their own, not because something "happened" to them, just because, you know, sometimes people have disabilities. like, come on

[accursedthing]

This election was decided by a Democratic candidate that refused to campaign on anything but "I'll do as little as possible to change anything" to an overwhelmingly dissatisfied population. You can blame every individual voter who didn't do what you wanted them to, or you can blame one actor we all knew was doing it wrong, who was yelled at for months that they were doing it wrong, and did it anyway. Are we really going to blame the political actors and system that created this situation or a public whose voice is repressed at every opportunity? Be serious

[fragglerockopinions]

.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

I think I've been touchy lately about my feelings of access to/participation in generativity. I've been feeling really overwhelmed lately by how much needs doing and how much disparate but necessary information I'm keeping in my head. I should probably get back into my thought maps for the work on the yard and house, because I think that will make it easier for me to empty my head when I'm not actively trying to work on something.

[datastate]

i'm sure it's unintentional, but a lot of things w akiyama's story really do seem to indicate he's trans.

[monster-noises]

I am experiencing... frustration.

[lunarninja613]

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[hexastitchimera]

Genuine observation, no sass and no disrespect, but being someone who is chronically OFFline & an active volunteer/activist for over a decade, and seeing what people say is "crucial discourse" online is... Quite the trip, honestly.

[showmethestarlight]

So I think my thoughts on The Tortured Poets Department are that I'm a little conflicted. I think it is a good album, the sound is a bit Midnights and folklore and evermore, which is a bit messy but it kind of works. I think it's more of a matter of which kind of albums you prefer for where it falls in your rankings but the albums that are mostly slow songs that stay at the same level/tempo aren't my favourites so this isn't my highest (I love Speak Now for example for songs like Haunted) but I still had a good time listening and I still had a few I liked a lot on the album. I liked the sound and storytelling of But Daddy I love Him, I think Florence and Taylor's voices are really good together on Florida!!! I liked My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys, and I loved the dark and deep atmospheric feeling of Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? And I thought Clara Bow got its message across really well. There are some songs I'm confused by and I think I'll need some time with to understand like Fortnight and Fresh out the Slammer and some odd little lyrics here and there that I think maybe could have been cut because they just felt out of place or unnecessary. And I just don't think I'll ever be much of a fan of Guilty as Sin? I think I like Cassandra but at the moment it feels too much like mad woman. I think those are all my thoughts so far, I probably need a few more listens to process everything.

[tododeku-or-bust]

What I need for White Americans (ppl in general really, but I'm talking to the U.S.) to understand about Americans of Color is that You don't know Us, but We know YOU.

We've spent generations upon generations of our entire lives learning YOUR social norms, forced to assimilate to YOUR idea of society. We live and learn entirely separate cultures, but we also learn from birth what it means to have to cater to Whiteness in America. It's why I can name so many famous movies with white casts, but most white people didn't even know where "Bye Felicia" came from. It's why I was raised to professionally Code Switch from childhood, but grown white people struggle to even grasp the basics of the grammar of AAVE. It's why people who speak different languages think they have to give up their own mother tongue just to function in this country.

It's why you all are so uncomfortable with the idea of people of color questioning and rejecting what seems "normal" to you- and to be honest, I actually think older white generations are better at admitting this than younger ones. It's because what you know as normal is usually not "normal"- it's White. Whiteness is just as loud as any other presentation of race in this country, you just don't see it that way because everyone else has been forced to maintain your comfort. The entire system is built around it, and you don't even know it.

It's why it frustrates white Americans of some marginalization- queer, disabled, neurodivergent- because you do not have access to the "norm" as it is shown to you. But that frustration- literally everyone of color (who shares those identities btw) lives under that understanding.

Idk, I didn't really have a direction. I just think it's wild how so many conversations require this... Constant Verbal Leveling of the Playing Field simply because Whiteness blinds white people to what things ACTUALLY look like out here.

[unadulteratedtyphoonmaker]

Image Description: tags by @blackbeardskneebrace

#nothing will get people to use they/them pronouns for you like being trans and not using they/them pronouns

wearing a trans pin this week because I think I've been passing too well with my students/chaperones thus far (I'm in an extremely trans friendly area and environment, and a lot of my students are also trans- I want to be visible to them)

so far the biggest difference I've noticed is that suddenly, they're all using they/them pronouns for me.

for some reason.

the trans pin is next to a "he/him/his" pin.

[sasuketruther]

jjk, to me, is most boring when megumi is not present