#unless stated otherwise by said real people shipping real people shouldn’t exist or at the very least be a common occurrence
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raepois · 2 years ago
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i’ve gotten to a point in my life that, when it comes to fandoms, i genuinely do not give a shit about what the fuck people are doing, as long as it doesn’t harm people (especially the people that are being written about when it comes to fanfic), involve minors or animals in adult situations, contain graphic SA as a plot device or k!nk, along with other horribly immoral things.
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love-takes-work · 4 years ago
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Notes on SU Commentary Tracks
I watched the commentary tracks on the Complete Steven Universe DVD Set and I took some nerd notes.
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The episodes with commentary tracks are “Reunited,” “Change Your Mind,” and “The Future.”
I’ll bold stuff that was maybe bigger news or more surprising for easier reading. And yes, some of this was already known from podcasts, other Q&As, or interviews, but I listed it if they said it again here.
Read on after the jump to read these and other highlights:
Steven’s original wedding speech
Older ideas on dialogue for Lapis when she came back to the beach
Scrapped concepts for the scene that ultimately included Steven communicating with the others in a mindscape
Discussions of earlier concepts for White Diamond having a power to “freeze” Gems into statues to make them perfect and having a gallery of them on Homeworld
Pink Pearl’s original fate
The translation of the writing on Obsidian’s sword
The origin of Pink Steven’s design
What Rebecca did to pitch the “SHE’S GONE” scene
Earlier plans to include Shep in “Change Your Mind”
An unused concept of how Steven feels about Biggs
The inspiration for the Heaven and Earth Beetles’ healed design
How Volleyball/Pink Pearl was almost a mini-villain
Discussion of how they did not get to share the origin of the Diamonds
Jasper’s scrapped participation in the movie
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“Reunited” - 
Commentary with Rebecca Sugar, Ben Levin, Matt Burnett, Hilary Florido, Joe Johnston, Ian Jones-Quartey, and Kat Morris.
In 2015, an episode idea called “If You Love Yourself So Much” was discussed but rejected. It included some early ideas that ended up getting incorporated into “Reunited,” most notably Garnet marrying herself and putting rings on both hands.
The idea of the Cluster arm wrestling was planned for a long time. A scrapped idea of Steven banging his fist on a vending machine to get some Chaaaaps was supposed to visually parallel some of that scene, but it was axed.
When they got pushback on the wedding idea, they kept adding more and more “high entertainment value” items like a big musical number so the episode would be absolutely unmissable and appealing to everyone.
The song at the beginning of the episode was meant to check in with the entire cast and sort of remind you they exist and what their state of mind is going into the wedding.
Ian made a comment joking about “All 15 people in Beach City” being in the audience.
Just about everyone on the Crew touched this episode, despite that there are four main storyboarders credited for “Reunited.”
In 2016 Ian Jones-Quartey proposed marriage to Rebecca Sugar. They felt like the characters based on them (Sapphire and Ruby) HAD to get married in the show now because otherwise it wouldn’t be honest. But then their characters got married before they did.
They really love the idea of having characters get married who have known each other for a really long time, versus the fairy tale trope of movies ending with weddings between people who have met very recently.
Steven’s speech as officiator at the wedding used to be longer in its first draft--it was described as being weird and full of jokes, and there would have been a scene with Pearl getting weepy and pulling tissues out of her pearl.
Ian mentions loving a joke Jeff came up with having Greg play one chord to make Steven fall asleep--it’s sort of a “dream” chord you hear in cartoons a lot before a dream sequence.
The Crew discussed what it might be like if someone had never seen the show before and started with this episode.
Ian really wanted Steven’s psychic powers to figure into the episode.
Blue using a sadness wave to attack the Gems was a very old idea they’d planned for a long time. So was Lapis’s arrival.
There was a discussion of having Lisa Hannigan performing her lines as Blue VERY early in the morning.
Ian was happy the sword got broken because it was so momentous but it was just a sword. And later appeared on a shelf in the house as an artifact.
Miki had drawn a torn dress for Garnet at one point so she could be shown fighting and moving around more accurately, and this led to a long discussion of whether Gem clothing can even actually get torn the way human clothes can. They concluded that no, it shouldn’t be torn, so they backed up and gave Garnet an open-front dress from the beginning so the fighting version would make more sense.
Lapis originally might have had a longer speech upon arriving back on the beach. They eventually decided to just have her say “Hey.”
The barn falling on Blue Diamond was an intentional Wizard of Oz reference.
They point out that Steven even once said “drop the barn on the beach” (in a previous episode, “Can’t Go Back,” which was also a Miki episode).
Destroying the house was a big deal, and they always thought they’d end up doing it but backed away from it until “Reunited.” They almost even did it back in “Coach Steven”! But it just ended up with a little damage to the porch.
The Crew thinks Miki is really good at drawing ensemble shots.
Rebecca was always overwhelmed whenever she got to have Patti LuPone record for Yellow.
Originally the giant figures of everyone’s statue bodies in the mindscape were too dark and had to be revamped so they could be seen.
An earlier idea of Steven’s “psychic-ghost-situation” had him as a ghost actually trying to interact with the other characters during fighting action, but it was pulled back to this mindscape so there wouldn’t be as much confusing action to keep track of and more focus on what Steven was doing to encourage his teammates and contact the Diamonds.
Hilary was glad not to have to block out a fight.
Ian mentions loving having Bismuth back in the group.
They originally wanted the “Diamonds sensing Pink’s energy” plot to happen when Steven was in the palace somehow, but everything got moved to this scene--which the Crew all agrees turned out incredible, like how cool it was to have Steven essentially reminding each character why they fight and summing up their whole arc in a sentence.
“Change Your Mind”
Commentary with Rebecca Sugar, Ben Levin, Matt Burnett, Hilary Florido, Joe Johnston, Ian Jones-Quartey, and Kat Morris.
They like to refer to this episode as “The movie before the movie.”
They loved incorporating “princess tropes” into Steven’s time on Homeworld, which is why there were so many references to “mice” (well, Pebbles) making clothes, being locked in a tower, being reminded of his manners, loving animals and freeing imprisoned pets, etc. 
Deedee did the voice of the rainbow worm pet. She apparently didn’t find it memorable and was surprised when she was reminded she did the voice.
Rebecca was super excited for the confrontation with Blue.
There was some discussion of how Steven would have died of starvation if he didn’t have someone practical like Connie to remember to bring food.
They love working with the huge scale the Diamonds present.
The Crew always wanted to put someone in Blue’s hair loop. Originally they wanted Blue to tuck Greg in there when she kidnapped him, but they didn’t end up being able to do any hair-loop-carrying until this episode.
The Crew bantered back and forth about what the heck those Pebbles’ names were and how hard it was to track them.
They agreed that Paul draws the best Yellow Diamond, which makes sense since he also drew the first episode with Yellow (and her stink face). 
The scene where Yellow asks Blue to stop using her powers on her and then realizing she’s crying on her own was one of Rebecca’s favorite scenes to get to finally.
Steven Sugar thought Gems would spend a lot of time in their own chambers/rooms just not really doing much of anything unless they had to fulfill their purpose.
Some of the Homeworld ideas were based on a Soviet artist’s concepts, Boris Artzybasheff, and also many ideas were inspired by Busby Berkeley regarding how people were objects and furniture.
The mech was an old idea. Once they had the hand ship from “Jailbreak,” they knew there had to be bodies somewhere.
They focused a lot about what could be the coolest and funniest way for something to happen. The concept of the yellow and blue spaceship arms appearing out of the sky to smack the White Diamond mech around was one of those.
Rebecca really wanted things to look more and more cartoony and bizarre as you get deeper into Homeworld.
They spent a very long time trying to decide on characters’ new outfits.
The trash can lid is said to be a reference to “a flying bear cartoon” and they dance around speaking a direct reference because they’re not sure they’re allowed to say its name.
In discussing the powers of the Diamonds, there were debates on what White’s power would be; with Yellow being physicality-based and Blue being emotion-based, they thought White as identity-based made the most sense.
Different ways to express this were played with before settling on the idea that she thinks she’s perfect and others’ colors make them less like her and less perfect. But then she becomes a hostage to her own beliefs about herself because if she does anything that reflects on everyone else, so it’s best to do nothing.
They had some cool earlier ideas of White’s powers making statues out of other Gems and having a gallery full of frozen Gems, frozen by White to make them perfect.
They also weren’t sure what fate befell the original Pink Pearl and discussed whether she might have been destroyed. 
Rebecca discussed how creepy it was to have White Pearl speaking in Christine’s voice and not Deedee’s--that we should find it fundamentally disturbing at this point.
Tom Herpich came up with the crack on White Pearl’s face.
In real life, pink diamonds aren’t understood as well as yellows and blues. It’s more known what makes a diamond yellow or blue, and some of those facts Rebecca researched were originally woven into the speech White gave about their “impurities.” But it turned out to be too dry and most of it got cut.
Rebecca loves having Lapis with pants and sandals for easier cosplay.
Ian had to draw the scene where Steven is falling and fusing with inert characters--he wasn’t able to properly explain it to Rebecca so she had him draw it.
They really wanted Rainbow Quartz 2.0 to have a scarf, but they couldn’t figure out how to get that into Pearl’s design. They miss the scarf.
It was really important to have these Fusions display call-forwards of the Gems’ new outfits which we hadn’t yet seen.
Rebecca points out that Sunstone’s design breaks a design rule and she feels like Sunstone should have Garnet’s pant leg colors on their legs, but at the same time she understands the rule of cool and likes it like this.
It’s discussed how none of Steven’s fusion weapons are exclusively offensive weapons either.
Rebecca still really wants a suction cup Sunstone toy.
Sunstone’s ability to transcend reality and break the fourth wall was a joke that exploded in the discussion room among the Crew. As soon as the idea was pitched everyone kept coming up with ideas. Sardonyx’s fourth-wall-breaking is more snarky, but Sunstone’s is helpful.
Rebecca was disappointed that the rule about Steven’s clothes wasn’t always followed with having his clothes appear on Obsidian’s hand, but she was delighted that you could see them in one scene.
They spent a lot of discussion time on making sure Steven-Obsidian was different somehow from Rose-Obsidian. The hair is different.
Old versions of Obsidian were drawn with wrapped-together Twizzlers legs, which sort of is reflected in the present design.
The sword had been planned forever--and it first appeared in “Bubble Buddies.”
Miki worked on the Ninja Turtles show so Rebecca was really excited to see her depictions of Bismuth and Sunstone.
An early plan to have Obsidian draw the sword from their mouth was complicated because fusion weapons should be combinations, so they finally reached the solution of having them combine to make the hilt, then get the blade out of Obsidian’s mouth.
The blade of the sword is thought to say “We’ll always save the day,” but you’d have to ask Steven Sugar.
Another really old idea was climbing into the White Diamond mech eye.
Rebecca was disappointed that some of the merch made of White Diamond did not feature her cape sparkles.
There were many debates early on about where Rose might “actually” be. There were tons of references to this fundamental question throughout the show--introducing Lapis as a Gem trapped in an object, having Pearl ponder pulling Steven’s Gem out as a baby, straight-up wondering what would happen to him in “Bubbled” when Eyeball was trying to take his Gem, etc. They all decided Rose was definitely gone but that the idea of her possibly being inside him should be on his mind a lot, leading to disturbing images like dreaming about coughing up her hair.
Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond both challenged Steven about things he was very confident about, but White’s question of his identity got to him because he in fact is not confident about that.
The black and white eeriness of the fuzzy background and the other characters having their colors washed out helped make the scene in White Diamond’s head so disturbing and creepy.
The split screen showing Steven’s two perspectives was exciting to Rebecca, and was a pretty old idea. And she points out it sort of “breaks the show.”
The Gem Steven, Pink Steven, was represented by a slightly modified version of his model sheet. Everyone laughed when they saw what was getting used.
They decided that an earlier idea of Pink Steven looking angry should be replaced by an emotionless version of him. All the emotion should be with Organic Steven.
In the pitch meeting for this episode, Rebecca herself screamed “SHE’S GONE!!” and shocked the hell out of everyone. She pointed out how no one expected this of her because she’s pretty quiet, but she just wanted to shock everyone the way Steven would in the show.
They point out this is the first appearance of the geometric shield that got so much use in Future.
The fact that Steven is Steven is the ultimate reveal of the show. Usually in fantasy shows there’s some other kind of revelation, but Steven just being amazingly human and amazingly Gem and amazingly himself is wonderful here.
They like having the pilot reference with “What’s your excuse?”
If Rose had somehow still been alive in him, all of this would have been cheapened.
Ian loves that you can faintly hear Sadie’s concert from way out in space as the camera approaches Earth.
They got a lot more use out of the Beach-A-Palooza stage than they thought they would when it had to be designed for “Steven and the Stevens.” There was a joke about how at one of the conventions a real Beach-A-Palooza stage was constructed and they had a thought about how oh good, it’s getting reused.
Sadie having green hair in the finale was a late change but they liked showing her progression. 
They had originally kicked around the idea of Sadie already having her new partner Shep at this point, but decided to develop that in Future instead.
They compare White Diamond’s stepping gingerly into the fountain to skeptically getting into a public pool.
Some silliness they didn’t get to use was that Biggs would be “beloved by everyone” except Steven. They never got to cover it, but originally Steven was just going to not really understand why everyone loves her so much and doesn’t personally much care for her.
The Heaven and Earth Beetles are based on the Mothra Ladies.
The healed Gems’ horns are supposed to be side effects of the corruption that they continue to bear in the present.
Larimar and Orange Spodumene ended up different in the ending scene than they became in Future. Many of the designs were retroactively pulled into this scene after being designed for the movie.
Rebecca wrote “Change Your Mind” as a personal song to express her feelings surrounding her fight for the wedding.
“The Future”
Commentary with Rebecca Sugar, Kat Morris, Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Hilary Florido, Joe Johnston, and Ian Jones-Quartey.
The animatic for this episode ran SO long--they’re supposed to be just over 11 minutes but this one was 17 minutes.
Steven’s calisthenics routine, a callback to “Future Vision,” was on the chopping block to make the episode shorter but Rebecca wouldn’t allow it to be cut because she wanted to show that Steven’s been taking care of himself.
They were very excited to get a chance to cover some of the things in Future that they couldn’t squeeze into the original show, like the unbubbled Rose Quartzes, Volleyball, etc.
The new writers on the show also helped bring forward the idea of Steven finally making some of his OWN mistakes to fix.
This also helped construct the idea of Steven essentially being the “final boss” of his own battle.
Usually stories that involve someone being in a fight and winning don’t explore the effect just being in a fight has on a person, regardless of whether you won. 
Rebecca really wanted to play Ocarina of Time after beating it so she could go back to all the places and see how people were doing. She wanted this epilogue series to explore that a little too.
Little Homeschool is sort of a Tiny Toons reference--older cartoons teach younger cartoons how to be cartoons, and this is Gems teaching other Gems how to be Gems on Earth. 
Lamar came up with the silly joke about receiving that art set with all the different media types in it--the one artists are always getting from a well-meaning relative at holiday time.
A scrapped plot idea involved Volleyball/Pink Pearl as a sort of “mini-villain,” with a focus on her activating the un-activated Pearls.
There’s discussion of how victimization turns people into villains sometimes. But since showing that happening with Volleyball wouldn’t have served the interests of Steven’s arc, they couldn’t fit it in.
There was also a “very specific” Gem origin and Diamond origin story that’s quasi-religious in nature--it’s very cool and complicated. But they do not tell us what it is.
Ian and Joe both really wanted to have Jasper living alone in the woods and stacking rocks. They’re glad they got this series to do that with her.
There was originally an idea for a B-plot involving Jasper in the movie. They don’t discuss the specifics.
There were many ideas they didn’t get to work on because they would have started new arcs and Future was not about kicking new plots into gear.
“Mr. Universe” was the last episode they wrote/finished.
Miki really wanted to include a kiss between Connie and Steven to show their relationship was okay. Among the Crew everyone knew their relationship was basically eternal but Miki wanted to make sure WE knew that.
Steven driving conveyed momentum for Future; in the original show, we always came back to the laundry hand, back to home, but in Future that’s changed and home isn’t what it was. 
They were really excited that a gourd family made it to the crowd scene in Future.
Thanks for reading!
Note: The movie had some commentary tracks too, but the one on this DVD set is the same as the one released on the original standalone movie DVD, so I did not outline it here. Here is my post about the DVD commentary from the movie.
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aeiiope · 5 years ago
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romance headcanons
name:   Jean Claire Everett (surname subject to change via verse)
nickname:   Really depends on the person tbh. Ofc there’s her class title of ‘Patrol’ or ‘Scout’, but also she was known as ‘Daisy’ back home to a select few
gender:   Female
romantic orientation:   Bisexual, but honestly? She’s been burned a few too many times to really be actively looking for a relationship beyond a one night stand, and while part of it is a conscious decision due to a variety of factors in her life, a more subconscious part of her tends to get really nervous ( almost anxious ) when things start to get serious because there’s no telling what’s going to happen; Are they going to hurt her too, or is it actually ok? Who knows. She doesn’t. That’s what worries her on a deeper level.
preferred pet names:   She really likes being called ‘babe’ or some variation of that. Nothing too sappy though like ‘sugar’ or ‘angel’ though unless y’all’re like teasing or joking around thank it’s ok, but day to day??? Please Don’t
relationship status:   Single, but not opposed to the occasional one night stand, or maybe being taken out. Either on a date or for dinner or by a sniper. Surprise her
favorite canon/fandom ship:  Oh definitely the ship I had with a fem!medic a long while back, like-- They were really sweet and complex with each other, and Jean would have Died for Fredda either by taking a bullet for her or like, on the operating table. Which ever was needed/more convenient at the time just?? God I still think about them a lot because it was amazing
favorite crossover ship:   Don’t have any atm, but willing to try anything tbh
opinion on true love:   Once upon a time, she definitely believed that it existed; That one day she’d find the one, and things would work out and everything would fall into place just as soon as she found them. In her defense, she was a kid when she believed it in, but dear god she held onto the idea for a long time to help her cope with how her life was between an uncaring or hostile home and being drilled with the idea that she was expendable by a gang she shouldn’t have had anything to do with, but did. Just the idea that maybe she’d meet the one and they’d help her make sense of things and make her feel important to them just. Helped her get through things.
However, she got older and more experienced with things, and from her late-teens on, she figured it was a sort of bullshit concept in a romantic sense; Love is more something you work on and hope it doesn’t burn you in the end, and even then, there’s never going to be that sudden click or spark that instigates a relationship that’s never going to fail or have it’s qualms, and considering that’s how true love operates, it’s something that can’t exist because it’s just. Unrealistic. People are jerks or at least they can be, and that causes problems. So true love can’t be real. But affection? Sure. A relationship that takes work to maintain? Why not?
Now, that’s not to say she doesn’t believe in love; On the contrary, she thinks it’s a force to be reckoned with, but more so in a platonic or familial sense than romantic. She felt so homesick for Ruby and Frankie and the dancers when she first became a mercenary, and that’s how she knew that love had to be real in that sense above all else since she thought she’d be able to leave home without a regret or second thought, only to feel sick to her stomach for not saying ‘bye’. In addition, she’s developed some familial relationships in her time as a mercenary that really drive that point home for her, and she cherishes those relationships almost above all else.
opinion on love at first sight:   If there was one word that could summarize her feelings on it, it would be ‘fake’. Like, maybe she really believed in it when she was younger and fell victim to it a handful of times, but as she grew older, she figured that, if anything, it’s more attraction at first sight if anything. Not so much ‘love’ as it is ‘would go down on them’ on first sight, and besides, when first meeting people, she’s more concerned with different things;
How many exits can she get to if things go sour? Can she take them in a fight if it were to happen? Which side looks the weakest? Can she get to the knees and kick them out? Could they have company? Are they armed? Could they be armed? Ect.
More important things than ‘do I think I love them’?
how ‘romantic’ are they?:   It’s a mixed bag to be honest;
On one hand, she doesn’t particularly like doing grand sweeping displays of romance because for one, it’s just not in her personality to do so, and for two, she prefers teasing and ‘messier’ displays of affection with banter and playfulness. Anything grandiose feels kinda stifling and stiff since there’s no chance of  flexibility with it. No chance to really decline for whatever reason, or laugh or anything really. It’s Boring. It’s Stiff. It’s not something she’d do.
On the other, she’s all over and about the smaller gestures and softly sentimental things; Ways she can show her affection without really having to say it, but it shows because she’ll be pretty quick to get something if asked, or remember that her s/o needs something and do her best to find a way to acquire it legally or not depending on what it is, but?? She wouldn’t make a big deal out of it, and would be more prone to leaving it where she knows they would find it if she doesn’t run into them first, and even then, it would be a pretty simple ‘hey, I remember you mentioning this a few weeks ago, and here you go’ before handing it off. Or even more basic things like making sure her s/o takes care of themselves above all else. Like, reminding them to sleep or eat or just checking in on them from time to time to make sure they’re ok if they’ve been quiet for a long, long while.
Not to say she can’t be a touch sappy because she can be with little notes and just. Really sappy phrases and stuff that she knows is sappy, but it’s just true in the moment, and had to be said. She’s a sort of honest person sometimes.
ideal physical traits:   Nothing really in specific tbh? Like, she’s willing to give anyone a try if she starts to fall for them, but she has a preference for people with a nice laugh and ( a weird one ) nice hands. Like I said, it’s a weird one, but you can tell a lot about someone just by looking at or feeling their hands, so it’s just a thing she likes because it’s telling I guess
ideal personality traits:   She really does love people who can keep up with her; People that she can tease and are willing to tease right back, and keep up banter, and just a good sense of wit about them without turning dickish in the process. People who can match her fire and competitiveness, and be willing to join her on her exploits. but also she has a real soft spot for people who can see the world as it is and understand that it can be fucking shit, and still manage to find some form of good in it somehow, and people that can make her laugh.
unattractive physical traits:   nothing of note tbh
unattractive personality traits:   People who are so quick to turn on others that they’ve taken the time to know, and so quick and willing to throw away the trust they’ve been given. Someone that has absolutely no code they abide by ( she’s a bitch and willing to use murder as an answer but even she has her lines drawn somewhere ). People who flaunt whatever they have ( whether it’s talent or material possession ) in people’s faces, even more so if they use it as a way to ‘prove’ themselves better than herself or others. People unwilling to listen to reason ( though she’s a touch hypocritical on that point ).
Just, she hates being talked down to in any form because she knows she’s not the smartest person in the room ( dear god she KNOWS ), but that’s no reason to dismiss her claims because she’s got experience with things. And she’s been betrayed a few too many times to ever be able to tolerate someone doing it to people that trust them ( though its a touch hypocritical because she CAN see it as a need in some cases for like. professional or work business but in personal life? fuck no ).
ideal date:   She honestly doesn’t have an ideal date. Maybe just one that goes well tbh because she’s had a few that Haven’t, and she’s usually pretty happy to just be with her s/o in whatever they’d like to do, so. So long as it goes well, it’s pretty fine by her though she’s not a fan of stuffy places like. fine dining or whatever.
do they have a type?:   So far, while rping, it’s been people who are way smarter than her in terms of book smarts? But besides that? Not really??? She’s tried a bit of everything so far, so really doesn’t have a ‘type’.
average relationship length:   A few months? Her longest was a year or two I think, but she’s also had one night stands and ones that last for only a few weeks to a couple months, so??? The longer end of a few months maybe???? If not otherwise stated, she’s typically in it for the long haul.
preferred non-sexual intimacy:   Honest to god, I know I joke about it a lot, but being able to sleep next to someone without having to worry about being stabbed in the back ( literally OR figuratively ) is the pinnacle of non-sexual intimacy for her because there’s just that pure trust there, and she’s so used to keeping herself awake even if she’s near collapsing on her feet because other people are awake, and she doesn’t want to let her guard down just in case.
And overall, she’s just really touch starved, so any form of touch is good to her; Leaning on each other. Sitting next to each other. Even simple brushes are amazing in her opinion, but maybe her favorites would be a tie between having her hair played with // playing with her s/o’s hair, or running nails gently over backs. Like, she’s a very tactile person, so anything with proximity is fucking amazing for her. Just-- No talking needed. Just a sense of safety or some vague security.
commitment level:   She’s Ride Or Die Baby. She could never imagine breaking the trust of someone like that, and if things aren’t working out, she’d be pretty straightforward about it instead of running around behind their backs
opinion of public affection:   So long as it’s nothing too sappy or gushy, it’s all good to her. Like, don’t get her wrong, it’s nice that people find their s/o’s and really love them and all, but if she can hear the two of them baby talking each other on the other side of the building or room even, then it Needs To Stop.
But really lowkey stuff like hand holding? Wrapping an arm around them? That’s the kind of shit she’d be into, and would probs do on her own anyway so long as her partner was ok with it. Like, above all else, for her, their comfort outweighs her just being tactile.
past relationships?:   yep. many.
tagged by: @enccrypted​ ty kit,,,,,,,,, for allowing me a platform to ramble abt jeans love life lmao tagging: @fraulinekritzkrieg , @veiliisms , @pcrticlvcid , @violetviolxnce , and whoever else wants to do this my dudes
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a-polite-melody · 6 years ago
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You keep acting like antis are saying fictional pedophilia is on the same level as acting on that irl. Nobody is saying that. We’re just saying pedophilia is bad in all ways. You also keep bringing up censorship, when we literally just want people to not look up to things they shouldn’t.
For example, no jack horseman is an excellent show. I relate to bojack in many ways. I like his character, but I do not like him as a person. I do not want to be like him. Me telling others that they shouldn’t want to be like him is not censorship.
You’re purposefully misrepresenting what I’m saying, and that doesn’t look good for you. Nobody is saying all problematic media should be blacklisted or some shit. We are saying that, rather than using characters to validate the bad parts of yourself, use it to learn. Enjoy the media, but don’t model yourself after bad people. And we aren’t doing anything or calling for any laws or whatever to force people to be good. We’re just actually talking about the media we consume, the good and the bad
Y’all are like those people who whine about “the cringy sjws pushing for diversity” There is nothing wrong with criticizing media!
I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to answer this string of asks. And honestly, the anon who sent these might not be checking in on my blog anymore. But these have been sitting in my inbox and stewing in my mind, and it’s... really getting to me just how much I’m being misunderstood in this conversation. Which I truly hope wasn’t malicious and just happened because this is a very emotionally charged topic, but regardless, I want to make my stance more clear than how I seem to have come off to this person.
And I think the best way to do that is to break down these asks, because doing so allows me to go into... pretty much everything.
“You keep acting like antis are saying fictional pedophilia is on the same level as acting on that irl. Nobody is saying that. We’re just saying pedophilia is bad in all ways.”
No, people may not be saying exactly that. But nearly a year ago I was put on a pedophilia apologist block list for simply stating that I wouldn’t put shipping on the same level as real harm. And that very much still colours the way I see how antis view things. If you, and even most antis are actually not equating those two things? Good. But because I’ve personally been demonized by antis for saying that? Certainly makes me think that line of thinking exists within the anti community.
“You also keep bringing up censorship, when we literally just want people to not look up to things they shouldn’t.”
I keep bringing up censorship because it’s the only logical path for in any way putting in place rules or guidelines to be followed in fandom.
How can you know when people are looking up to “things they shouldn’t”? There’s, of course, them outright admitting that. But that’s rather unlikely in terms of looking up to things that have harmful real-life counterparts.
And so, how do you go about making sure people don’t look up to “things that they shouldn’t”?
Well, one way is education. And education doesn’t tend to work when the educator starts out with extremely hurtful things against the person they’re trying to education and false accusations of supporting real-life abuse, rape, pedophilia, etc. And, even then, you still rely on admission from individuals of if they are looking up to “something they shouldn’t”.
So to actually prevent the issue, all you have left is censorship. And I’ve seen antis specifically calling for censorship (just not with those words) of certain themes in media - well, specifically fan-created media, but that’s another issue altogether.
“For example, no jack horseman is an excellent show. I relate to bojack in many ways. I like his character, but I do not like him as a person. I do not want to be like him. Me telling others that they shouldn’t want to be like him is not censorship.”
You’re right, that isn’t censorship. I’ve not claimed that saying people shouldn’t look up to toxic characters is censorship. I’ve only said that the only way to stop anyone from wanting to be like those characters - to be sure no one is consuming that content immorally - is censorship.
And I understand people’s want to get that message out there - that a character is a bad or immoral one - because there are people who have shown themselves to be looking up to those characters. But doing anything more than saying what you just said would require censorship, and not censoring the media those characters are from means that there are always going to be people who do look up to them.
Basically, there’s nothing wrong with pointing out these things, but saying that people have to consume content morally can’t have any kind of actual meaning without censorship.
You’re purposefully misrepresenting what I’m saying, and that doesn’t look good for you. Nobody is saying all problematic media should be blacklisted or some shit. We are saying that, rather than using characters to validate the bad parts of yourself, use it to learn. Enjoy the media, but don’t model yourself after bad people. And we aren’t doing anything or calling for any laws or whatever to force people to be good. We’re just actually talking about the media we consume, the good and the bad
1. Most of this is addressed in other stuff.
2. There... actually are antis who want to completely remove “problematic content” from fanfiction websites and who mass report works (and users on tumblr) that don’t meet their standards. And who extend that to media beyond fanworks too (just not with direct action, because it’s much harder to do against people with notoriety than people creating fan works for small audiences) like, say, Killing Stalking or Lolita. So... no... there definitely are people saying that problematic media should be blacklisted.
“Y’all are like those people who whine about “the cringy sjws pushing for diversity” There is nothing wrong with criticizing media!”
I... fail to see how that comparison makes any sense.
And not once did I say that there’s anything wrong with criticizing media. There isn’t. It’s good for people to do that. But I think that anti culture is almost necessitating that criticism be in public where everyone can see it, because otherwise they’re considered to be not doing it. And when you do have the more... radical of the antis suicide baiting, doxxing, threatening, etc. people who at all express enjoyment of problematic media, criticizing media in public is risky because unless said criticism lives up to what those antis want, which for certain types of media is essentially, “this is irredeemable and shouldn’t be enjoyed by anyone,” then, even if you ‘call out’ the problematic stuff, if you still say that you enjoyed reading/watching/etc. that content you’ll still be attacked. Hell, you don’t even have to say it, as long as you imply by way of not going out of your way to say you hated it that you enjoyed it they’ll go after you. This is particularly seen with shipping and not media overall, but still.
Anyway, I’m still not over the fact that this particular anon has been actually purposefully misrepresenting what I’ve been saying, a la this ask [x] which, if you go through my blog, you will never, ever see me saying that is accusing me of purposefully misrepresenting what they’re saying when, what’s actually going on here is that my arguments have been not connecting with the right points or I’ve failed to specify “more radical antis”.
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yeonchi · 5 years ago
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Doctor Who Series 12 Review Part 1/10: Spyfall Part One
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Air date: 1 January 2020
Bond. We’re going James Bond.
Series 12 started off with the first of a two-part episode with spies and guest stars alike. This is the first two-parter I’ve encountered during the course of these reviews, so there will be things that don’t make sense for the time being that will hopefully be answered in the next episode.
This is my spoiler-free thought for this episode: “It has to be something else.”
As usual, spoilers are coming after the break. This time around, I want to make this clear - please make sure you’ve watched the whole episode before you continue reading.
Bad (Aussie) airtimes
Before I go into the episode proper, I want to vent a little bit about air times and how the move to Sundays have spoiled a few aspects of it. As you may know, I’m Australian and as such, we are about half a day ahead of the UK. Viewers in the US will be able to watch it on (practically) the same day on BBC America because they’re hours behind the UK, while for us, we have to wait to the next day.
In 2018 for Series 11, episodes were broadcast on ABC at 6 PM on Mondays, which is the day after broadcast in the UK. However, with the first episode being broadcast on a Wednesday in the UK, it will be broadcast on the ABC on Thursday at 7:30. Here’s the real kicker; where subsequent episodes would be broadcast on Sundays in the UK, the ABC will be broadcasting the second episode next Thursday, but at 8:00. I don’t have anything else further than that, so I’m presuming that it will be the case for the time being unless I see otherwise.
Until the end of Series 10, episodes would be broadcast on the ABC at 7:30 on Sundays, but with the UK premiere being moved to Sundays, I can see that the ABC is having some difficulty finding a good time for it. This week, that is, for the week of 29 December, Grand Designs Australia is being repeated in the 6 PM weeknight timeslot, while for the week for 5 January, which is next week, there are two shows in that same timeslot, namely the ABC Evening News and Summer Drum, the former of which is also broadcast on the ABC News channel and keeping in mind that the usual ABC state bulletins are at 7 PM.
I’m not really complaining about this per se, but you can see where I’m coming from and why that time might be inconvenient for some people when the school year starts at the end of January to the start of February. Even if I had something to complain about in regards to this, my whole argument is rendered moot thanks to the popularity of streaming and catchup services over the past decade. The episodes are on ABC iView by 7 AM the next day, essentially right after the UK broadcast, but even if delays or time zones screw us over, we’ll somehow find ways to watch the episodes eventually.
Defying all expectations
The initial enemy in the episode is something called the Kasaavin (according to the credits), who are apparently monsters not from this universe that come out of walls, can hack technology and even walk into a closed TARDIS. It feels like when you’re prepared for everything you already know about, you’re not prepared for anything you don’t know unless it’s too late. This is a trope that’s been repeated many times and yet it still keeps me interested.
Daniel Barton is shown to be affiliated with these monsters, but to what extent (and how he only has 93% human DNA) is unknown at this point. We also see them attacking spies across the world (because they were investigating Barton), but how their DNA was jumbled up we have no information for yet.
O, the elephant in the room
Hopefully everything up to this point was enough for you to confirm that you’ve watched the episode. Anyway, I’m just going to come out and say it - I refuse to believe that Sacha Dhawan is the Master.
Sacha Dhawan was initially rumoured to be playing another incarnation of the Master. Rumours also state that John Simm could be returning because some Vote Saxon posters were spotted in Cardiff back in April.
The only way I can believe that Sacha Dhawan is the Master is if that incarnation is between Saxon and Missy or even before that. There is no confirmation of this as yet, but if so, that could explain the character discrepancy in regards to Missy turning good. In my personal project, I used the gap between Saxon and Missy to implement two additional incarnations. I initially thought it didn’t make sense because they weren’t linear to the Doctor’s timeline, but then I remembered the Series 10 finale two-parter. Saxon’s incarnation came from after the Tenth Doctor’s time and met the Twelfth Doctor and Missy near the end of their lives. He then became Missy and confronted the Twelfth Doctor since the start of his life.
When we (apparently) last saw the Master, the Saxon incarnation shot Missy with a full blast of his modified laser screwdriver, which apparently prevented her regeneration. If Missy regenerated into the O incarnation now, it wouldn’t make sense because of this. Maybe Saxon lied and he didn’t actually give Missy the full blast, but then the question lies as to how Missy’s next incarnation would manage to leave the Mondasian ship with no TARDIS of their own.
There’s also the problem of the Tissue Compression Eliminator, which he used to shrink the original O on his first day at MI6. The last time the Master was seen using it on screen was in the classic series episode The Ultimate Foe. During his Saxon incarnation, he used a laser screwdriver while Missy used a multi-purpose device and later a sonic umbrella.
In all honesty, either the Master shouldn’t have been killed off (by Moffat) or should have stayed dead, given that his story ended in The Doctor Falls. You know what would have been a better choice to bring back if we’re looking for old enemies of the Doctor? The Rani. Nothing has been mentioned of her in the revived Doctor Who, plus if the Doctor and the Master regenerated into female incarnations, there’s no reason why the Rani can’t regenerate into a male incarnation. But could the Rani behave more like the Master, though, given that she is an evil scientist?
Look, these are just my initial thoughts on this. We’ll hopefully get more context next episode.
Other general thoughts
After the series premiere was announced, Stephen Fry and Sir Lenny Henry were revealed to be guest stars in this episode. I haven’t really followed them, particularly the latter, in other works, however I felt that they were pretty good, and so was Sacha Dhawan, who had previously played Waris Hussein in the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time.
This time around, I feel like we’ve gone back to what Doctor Who was before the end of Series 10, in terms of tone, themes and writing. I wasn’t able to find any tokusatsu parallels or references, nor was I able to find any SJW red flags. If the problem of racial representation still exists, then I think that has been solved (at least in this episode) by the performance of Lenny Henry and Sacha Dhawan. Keep in mind that this is only the first part, though.
At the start of the episode, I thought I was seeing Ryan’s dyspraxia in action when he missed the ring, but then he goes on to state other things that I realised were excuses for his travel with the Doctor. It’s good that they haven’t forgotten about it, at least, but this also serves as a reminder that the Doctor’s companions have their own lives to live as well and that for many of them, her adventures take them away from it. In this series, the only exception to that rule seems to be Graham; he’s retired and following Grace’s death, has no other known family with the exception of Ryan. Clara during Series 7 also comes to mind; unlike other companions who seemingly travel with the Doctor full-time, she is only able to go on adventures on Wednesdays. During Series 8, we see her having to juggle her life as a teacher with her life as the Doctor’s companion.
The text for the locations looks better than they did on Resolution. That giant Impact font was really jarring, eh?
According to C (Stephen Fry), MI6 does not accept the possibility of alien life. However, according to the Doctor Who Wiki, they have had quite a bit of involvement, particularly in the comics, where they formed a division known as Wonderland to combat alien threats.
UNIT and Torchwood were also mentioned in this episode as organisations that MI6 leave alien work to, but the Doctor mentions that they are now gone. Man, they’re really trying to distance themselves from the Davies and Moffat eras, aren’t they? I can buy the Doctor thinking that Torchwood is gone given events that happened in their series, though their audio adventures are still ongoing.
The TARDIS console room has also been redesigned a little for this series. There are more round things on the columns, plus there is a second crystal pointing down to the central column.
Summary and verdict
The Chibnall era is essentially a clean slate for Doctor Who, with UNIT and Torchwood being out of the picture. Series 11 was apparently an experimental series going back to the historically educational nature of the First Doctor’s era, but in Series 12, the returning enemies and monsters (that started with Resolution) are signs that signify the series returning to the tone and pace it did during the revived series.
Like I said, I’m still not sure about the Master, but my feelings may change by the next episode. It’s not even confirmed yet whether O really is the Master at all, so there’s something to find out when we get there.
This essentially acts as a New Year’s Special for 2020. The rest of the series will continue on Sundays.
The next episode seems to be a historical episode as according to Cultbox, a part of it will take place in 1943 Paris. We will also be seeing three historical figures, namely Noor Inyat Khan, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.
Rating: 8/10
The story continues on Sunday (or Monday) as I review the second episode, Spyfall Part Two. Hopefully, all our questions will be answered then...
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trendingnewsb · 7 years ago
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5 Real World Problems That Are Straight Out Of Black Mirror
The future! Rocket ships, lasers, robots — it is truly a far-flung, fantastical place. Except, uh … we have all those things right now, and have for some time. The future isn’t some vague, to-be-determined period of existence; it’s literally tomorrow. So today, humanity has to address issues that would have been inconceivable a few paltry years ago. And frankly, some of this stuff still kind of sounds like someone got stoned and then tried to pitch a Black Mirror episode.
5
Fitbits Are Giving Away Military Intelligence
Nowadays it’s routine for people to wear a fitness tracker, but by allowing our data to be shared, we’re also allowing our habits to be shared. That normally shouldn’t be problematic, unless your spouse is learning that your weekly jog takes you straight to the strip club … or you’re exercising on a classified military installation.
Read Next
Britain Just Created An Immigration Crisis Dumber Than DACA
Thanks to a map that shows the jogging habits of the 27 million people who use Fitbits and the like, we can see splotches of activity in otherwise dark areas, like Iraq and Syria. Some of those splotches are known American military sites full of exercising soldiers, and some, by extrapolation, are sites that the military would rather keep unknown. One journalist saw a lot of exercise activity on a Somalian beach that was suspected to be home to a CIA base. Someone else spotted a suspected missile site in Yemen, and a web of bases in Afghanistan were also revealed.
StravaYet another example of why we at Cracked continue to condemn exercise in all its forms.
By analyzing the data, you could theoretically figure out patrol and supply convoy routes, and make educated guesses as to where on these bases soldiers eat, sleep, etc. That’s a lot of useful information for someone planning an attack. You could also track individuals, potentially important ones. One researcher claimed they tracked a French soldier’s entire overseas deployment and subsequent return home.
This wasn’t an evil ploy by a terrorist cell in league with Big Fitness; you can turn that data tracking off. It’s just that no one even thought about it until someone finally pointed out that it was a huge security issue. American rules for fitness trackers in the military are now being “refined,” which we assume is PR speak for “Goddammit, turn that shit off.” But it’s only a matter of time until another seemingly innocuous technology accidentally gives away state secrets.
4
Space Commercialization Might Contaminate Planets
Elon Musk set a new precedent when he launched a car into space, and not only for tacky egotism. The rules about what corporations can and can’t do in space are essentially nonexistent, because the government’s authority ends somewhere around the thermosphere. Governments, however, have legal responsibilities listed in the Outer Space Treaty — one of the few things America and the Soviet Union agreed on. Most of the world has signed as well, and in addition to promising not to put nukes on the Moon or claim all of Jupiter for the proud people of Denmark, adherents agree not to send Earth germs to other planets like the interplanetary version of coughing on the guy next to you at the movie theater.
That sounds a bit silly, but there’s a real point: If Earth microbes accidentally end up on other planets and moons, it becomes impossible for scientists to tell if their “discovery” of life on Io is native, or if it originated from someone sneezing in a Tesla factory. So NASA and other government space agencies follow a strict anti-contamination protocol. American Mars rovers, for example, had all of their parts heated to 230 degrees before launch, and they are routinely sterilized with alcohol. Even if your mission is only to orbit a planet (or swing by one), you have to prove that the odds of an accidental crash landing are equivalent to that of winning a fair-sized lottery.
Kim Shiflett/NASA“Like, Powerball odds. No Pick 3 crap.”
In theory, governments are also responsible for ensuring that any corporations within their borders follow the same rules. But once you move beyond launching satellites into Earth’s orbit, the government’s ability to enforce the law is about equal to your ability to enforce a responsible bedtime on yourself. Maybe that flying Tesla was carefully sterilized, or maybe Musk went out of his way to fart it up before launch. We don’t know. And as more and more corporations talk about going to the Moon and Mars, we may have a germ problem.
There’s also the issue of debris. While we like to think of space as a pristine void, the Solar System is starting to resemble a freshman’s dorm room. Space missions are supposed to be as clean as possible, and a mission to another planet should either purposely burn up in the atmosphere or land when it’s done. Musk’s car was heading toward Mars, where plans for it were sort of a vague shrug. It could have eventually broken up and left debris around the planet, or it could have infected the surface. But instead, it went off-course toward the asteroid belt … where it could also very well hit something and break up. Worst-case scenario, we end up with a bunch of junk floating around that could take out a future mission. Even if his car never hits anything, Musk still broke bold new ground in space litter.
3
Moderators Have To Watch All The Heinous Garbage That Gets Posted On Social Media
Try to imagine the worst job possible. Sewage sampler? Elephant masturbator? How about social media moderator? It sounds like a joke at first: “Facebook has moderators? Then explain all the crap I see every day!” Then you learn that their job is mostly to filter out pornography, and it sounds awesome. Aren’t you supposed to get paid to do what you love?
But then you learn about the truly awful shit that moderators see as they cruise through a thousand flagged posts an hour, and you want to give them all hugs and raises. Child pornography, bestiality, hate speech, extreme violence … if you can imagine something awful, someone has put it online. Specific examples included a man’s testicles getting crushed, a boy getting his legs mangled by a truck, someone getting hit by a train, a man shooting himself in the head, suicide bombings, a man hurting and possibly killing small birds by having sex with them, and a woman whose body had been blown in two. Imagine dealing with images like that for 40 hours a week. It’s like playing roulette, except the closest you get to winning are shots of consenting genitals smashing together.
youtube
Imagine being forced to watch Logan Paul videos and considering that a good day.
Over 100,000 people trawl through e-trash to keep Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other major sites (relatively) safe to use. And you can’t click away the moment you can tell a video is getting nasty — you have to verify that the content is real, and learn as much as possible so you can try to destroy it at its source. And while you will become somewhat numb, dealing with the worst of what humanity has to offer day after day can haunt you. Turnover is high, and there are few resources for moderators who need counseling. Which, shit, has to be all of them, right?
2
Facebook’s Fake News Problem Is A Feature, Not A Bug
Despite the fact that you probably took at least one break from reading this to check your Facebook feed, we still think of the site primarily as a vehicle for vacation photos where the worst thing that could happen is getting into a bitter argument with some friends about how to pronounce “GIF.” We’re all too smart to get suckered into politics, right?
But Facebook’s politics come after you. Ten million users saw “Russian-linked” ads placed during the 2016 election, mostly focused on big, controversial issues like immigration and gun control. Facebook also admitted that they placed about $100,000 in ads from “inauthentic accounts.” The issue isn’t ads spamming “Vote for Clinton / Trump / X’algax, Destroyer of Souls!” Everyone already saw those a million times; they’d sway no one. The problem is that they spread stories like “FBI AGENT SUSPECTED IN HILLARY EMAIL LEAKS FOUND DEAD IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE,” which linked to a fake newspaper, quoting a man that doesn’t exist, who lives in a town that doesn’t exist (they spelled the town’s name wrong).
The Denver PostAt this point, we’re starting to doubt the existence of Denver too.
If you see that stuff in your feed, wedged in between a cat video and your friend’s new spaghetti sauce recipe, you don’t click through to verify it. So it weasels into your brain as something you vaguely remember that may or may not be true.
Facebook has also become a playground for trolls, regardless of whether they have a political agenda or just want to watch the e-world burn. If you can think back to the Las Vegas shooting (before all those other shootings removed it from the headlines), a slew of hoaxes spread from the moment the news broke. Some people invented fake dead and missing victims solely to see how many likes they could get. Others claimed that the shooter was still active, invented fake perpetrators, assigned nonexistent motivations to the shooter, or claimed that he was a Democrat, a left-wing activist, or a recent convert to Islam (in reality, if the shooter had any political motives, he took them to his grave).
It’s the cruelest and most devious form of misinformation, because it’s hard to keep your bullshit detector functioning when you’re in shock. Maybe some of those moderators could get a well-deserved break from the animal torture to focus on this crap instead?
1
Someone Could Steal Your Face And Make Porn
We have the technology to swap someone’s face onto someone else’s face in a video. That’s fun if we’re putting Nicholas Cage into Raiders Of The Lost Ark …
youtube
… but it’s a problem if someone is making it appear that a person said or did something they didn’t really do. And that problem gains an extra level of creepiness when someone’s face is slapped into a porn video. All it takes is some training, some raw footage of the subject, and a few spare hours. And if you’re the sort of person inclined to make fake porn, you’ve probably got a lot of time on your hand.
Reddit had an entire community dedicated to this “hobby,” until it was shut down, but that only made enthusiasts migrate elsewhere. Called “deepfakes,” after the Reddit user who pioneered the practice, they started editing the faces of celebrities onto preexisting porn. Some of the fakes ended up on porn sites being pitched to viewers as real, because porn is now a genre of fake news.
While it’s unlikely that anyone would believe Taylor Swift was suddenly so hard up for money that she appeared on FuckBrothers.biz, it’s still an ethically off-putting mess. It’s not limited to the living. Someone made a video “starring” a young Carrie Fisher. And it’s not limited to celebrities, either. Anyone armed with a scraper can pull photos from Facebook and Instagram, combine them with any of several search engines that look for porn stars by facial recognition, and make a fairly convincing video of anyone doing pretty much anything. Reddit users were making videos of their friends, co-workers, classmates, and exes. They were “only” for private use, but what happens when someone wants to manufacture revenge porn? So there you go: We’re reaching a point in history where we can’t even trust our pornography. And then what’s left to believe in?
Mark is on Twitter and has a book.
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hogwartselementumrp · 7 years ago
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Congratulations Raluca, the queen, on your acceptance as Sophya Domitrova. This has been a long time coming. I mean a long time coming as can be seen from remnants like calling Delphina Jon’s “soon to be wife” and it is worth the wait. I could rain praises but let me keep this short and say every detail breathed life into her and made her your own original take while not invalidating any of the unique Sophyas that have come before,  and I can’t wait to have her on the dash.
OOC Information
NAME/ALIAS:
Overdramatic aggressive war-loving raccoon who respects no authority* and just wants to be part of the Murder Club
* = I respect Beth
PREFERRED PRONOUN:
If you respected my preferred pronouns, I’d be queen to you by now. I’m giving you one more shot at this, though. You know what I mean.
AGE:
Depends on who asks *winks*
TIMEZONE:
EST+7, sometimes GMT-5+7. Queen of being confusing on simple sections, am I not?
ACTIVITY LEVEL:
I gave you my soul already.
HOW DID YOU FIND THE RP (NEW MEMBERS):
I opened www.tumblr.com and I was logged on this account. Shocker.
Character Information
NAME OF THE CHARACTER:
Sophya Anastasia Domitrova (S.A.D like her future being one of my characters)
  And, for future reference, in case we’ll get another Russian fermale character in the future, their family names work differently. Anna Karenina’s family is Karenin and if she were a male, his name would be Andrei Karenin and blah blah, you got it. It’s #Russian. That being said, it’s Mercy Lavrentyeva.
DESCRIBE THE CHARACTER IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
  She is empty and apathetic in silent ways as if the blue in her eyes is an ice wall between her struggling heart and everybody else. She would cry alone and cry at roses, but never in times of tragedy and always for aesthetic reasons, the way an art critic would. Not that her there is art in her heart unless literally, but because her mind links the most abstract thoughts to everything that should never make anybody cry, like poppies on a field. Russian to the core, there is a certain harshness and rough edges that she involuntarily possesses, from the way she speaks - no matter how much she swallows the last letters of the words going out through her teeth, the accent breaks through and she has to clear her throat for minutes to go back to faking a British one - to the practical way she thinks. If she liked something, she would take off the heels she only wears to copy Mia Selwyn and chase it with glimmering eyes shamelessly. She doesn’t know how to walk in them anyway, always tripping, always stepping like she’s pushing the ground away. The fact that she would get tired too soon, get distracted by the next shiny thing and move on with grace is just as true - for she lacks the determination to get anything more difficult done.
  She wears menswear when she can and when nobody she cares about sees, but can paint the pureblood picture if needed, flaws only here and there. Nothing simpler than that - she is still fighting not to trip, although the crystal shoes are numbers too small for her feet and she has never learned how to walk properly. She has a quick quill and tall legs, and doesn’t know how to purse her lips against each other, dismissing serious talk regardless of context. When asked, despite every trait of her personality proving otherwise, she does see herself as an old, realist, wise soul and expects to be treated as such. Loneliness is her element, stronger than air, and what she’s breathing, but it’s carbon monoxide still. Not lovable or reasonable, not a person one can understand, Sophya loses all the effect of her charm and humor - two things she could have possessed if her harshness didn’t block them. But there is something deeply funny about her, a dose of crazy boyishness and practical approach that passes by delicateness spitefully. It isn’t grace, but ambition and a clumsiness she would be perfect at approaching if she wasn’t trying so damn hard to imitate girls with long necks.
  At first, she was in love with the sunkissed boy, charming in all the three languages he was using cursively in Durmstrang and with a sharp tongue she turned red dreaming about. Sophya wasn’t a girl who kept diaries and tattooed ‘Sophya Marks’ on every piece of parchment she could put her quill on. Sophya saw love as a contract because he taught her to, but it was the only concept she came with from back home, wanting to spite two parents two married for love and have always been disgusting at dinner parties. Jonathan Marks represented the epitome, the idealism of every duty her family skipped from the pureblood book and she sighed in rose gardens as she was pressing her knuckles against the thorns to break them, because he would never be hers. That was, to her, love - harsh, cruel, cold, motivating. She was dreaming, but not a dreamer. She knew pale girls like herself wouldn’t reach for the sun, for their skin would burn before even her first finger rose to the sky, but she dived in anyway. The love affair in her mind didn’t have to stop. Jonathan was giving her a rose, freshly cut to avoid any thorns. Jonathan was pressing his lips against the back of her palm, marking her and causing her to sleep on her hand for nights in hopes his perfume miraculously stuck. Jonathan was smiling ambiguously and suddenly, she had a purpose.
  Later on, at Hogwarts, she saw the resemblance between her, Mia Selwyn, and the moon for the first time. She wanted to be Mia and envied her with green fire, so the imitation game began. Sophya started wearing her hair in a bun, although too curly to ever be tamed, dark red lipstick looking like blood on her bleached face and every detail of Mia - even and especially those she didn’t feel fit with her spirit - became part of her. Soon, her obsession with mirroring Jonathan’s right hand in order to take her place or at least join as his left one turned into an obsession with Mia in and outside of the things that Jonathan admired about her. Soon, it wasn’t that she wanted to take a step toward him, but toward her, and she decided that moonlight is better. They were taking ballet classes together and the other girl’s bare neck was the only poetry she would see on pas de deux. Although not a romantic, she knew that the only things worthy of affection were those she worshiped, and as much as still conflicted about it, she does no longer reject the idea of wanting to kiss a girl on the lips so the lipstick would spread, coming to terms with it. With a weakness - her only one, as she would like to think - for both, she memorizes by heart every word coming out of their mouth and makes it hers, repeating thoughts and concepts she not only doesn’t understand, but doesn’t relate to either. After all, she has always been better at learning by memory than by logic.
  Her legs are long, but plastic, which is why ballet looks like kazatsky when she’s the one dancing. Her feet are always hurting and she would kill to wear sneakers forever and be considered pretty and graceful despite that. Alas, it’s impossible, and she is stuck between what she is and what she should be in order to be a girl.
  She became a parrot quite some time ago. Having her own opinions was something she lost as a child, if she ever did possess such a thing even then. Yet, she aspires for greatness and wants power to drip from her fingers like honey. Little does she know that, in spite of her best efforts to mirror Mia’s act and state Jonathan’s opinions, she cannot make Sophya Domitrova great by being somebody else. Little does she know that reciting and knowing other people’s words by heart - word by word, without a blink, without a comma added by her - wasn’t turning her into a woman that is articulate and coherent. At the end of the day, she was still a weak, pale girl with only good-will to follow. Not that she ever minded, as long as the lie was sweet enough to swallow, and Jonathan in particular always knew how to make his words bloom in the insides of her heart.
ANY CHANGES YOU WISH TO MAKE?:
  I would like to rewrite her biography and pick a different birth date and traits for her, if possible. The new biography could easily be the ABOUT section, and as in for birth date, I want her to be Scorpio and born on the 21th of November. Thank you!
DESIRED SHIPS, IF ANY:
  Jonathan/Sophya but never as a real couple; Mia/Sophya in the same conditions; possible Roger/Sophya if chemistry exists and your reposted Roger bio won’t be too far from what I thought of; Chemistry, but I don’t think a Sophya ship would be satisfying after all. What’s more beautiful to me about her is how she’s not somebody lovable or loved.
TITLES:
  Parrot extraordinaire, personal clown and entertainer at pureblood soirees
RELATIONSHIPS:
Jonathan: He is her mentor, before everything else (and she finally came to terms with it), her drive, her lover and her guide through life. She met him years before maturing, and for that, he grew on her as she grew herself, like ivy, becoming part of her. She doesn’t know herself without him and he had defined her in many ways, carving her mind beautifully and helping her understand that she shouldn’t let anybody - not her family, not the other children at school, not muggles - step on her as if she was nothing but a marble floor. He taught her that mercy was a gift and that it was to be used sparingly. He taught her how to raise a wand, how to win a fight even without one and what to speak to whom. Sophya was an extension of him and he was her compass in life. She couldn’t function without him, relied on him to always be around and, even in the cold register he used with everybody without exceptions, considered him her closest and dearest friend. Where Mia was the moon and she was merely a pretty star, Jonathan was the sun and everything revolved around him. She forgives him for Delphina and knows that he is doing the world a favor by marrying somebody British, somebody influential and well-liked (the way she could never be liked, not with the sharpness or the hole where compassion should have been). She forgives him for Alexei and wishes her brother would understand, where he is now. She forgives him for the burn on her wrist and thinks such a mark even looks pretty, distinctive, especially because of who its artist is. She forgives and loves him even more when he does her wrong and she wouldn’t mind if he walked into the Domitrov living room and ripped her mother’s heart out of her chest.
Mia: Mia is neither as diplomatic nor as tactful as Jonathan and at first, Sophya minded her harshness and how unwelcome she made her feel just with a glance - not even a glare. But she got used to her too well, and she likes to think that the other girl did too, and now she knows her quirks and only colors within the lines not to upset her. She knows her by heart and can tell what she would do in any situation, like a proper trainee following her idol everywhere with awe and secretly wishing to be her. Sophya can’t tell when her wish to be Mia turned into a wish to hold her hand, but she tries not to elaborate such strange feelings the Selwyn heiress would never forgive her for. As uncertain it is how her feelings split into half for both her and Jonathan, but the fact that she does love anybody but him to begin with is enough to cause Sophya a headache.
Roger: It is funny how somebody so broken in ways she doesn’t want to admit she’s sharing could make Sophya accept him with such warmth, but she does, and she grew to allow him his slips and even collect his bottles when they get too many, or grab a tissue to clean his sweaty, lovely face. She has no romantic feelings for him rather than a wish to nurture and hold him tight, because in spite of everything, he is smart and lovable and important even when the others don’t agree. Roger awakes the only motherly impulses she has ever felt, but she feels deeply attached and tied to him in platonic ways. When she misses the rose gardens and Durmstrang, he is the most lively memory that she can get, as much as after his graduation, they stopped talking as much as before.
Darius: Whatever opinion Jonathan has on Darius at the moment is Sophya’s opinion on the man, and it oscillates from pity because somebody with such broad visions had been perceived so poorly by the society to awe because he had what it took to act and display openly the hatred for lesser bloods on his face. Yet, Darius has failed where she, where Jonathan succeeded, and that was saying a lot as far as the girl is concerned.
Allard: Allard is charming and every word coming out of his mouth is soft, smooth flattery, which catches Sophya off guard no matter how pragmatic she claims to be. His company is worth seeking, although he lacks the truth and the grace to ever steal her heart for more than an instant blush and a crystal chuckle from time to time. Where she is a realistic young woman, he is too cheesy, too eccentric for her taste, but she does consider him attractive enough, not that any deep feelings could ever come into question, for he seems shallow and not as erudite as Jonathan or Mia.
Claudia: Personally, Sophya has no business with Claudia, but because of the Andelina incident, she still has a urge to hiss at her and call her incompetent because Jonathan briefly must have thought it too, and because Sophya never forgets or forgives if you count out few notable exceptions. She is confident she would have done a better job in her shoes although her hands still tremble thinking about the night she dared raise her wand upon the deaged auror.
Tyler: What an abomination walking behind her and her perfect group. Tyler outrages her because, in their nature, muggles and muggleborns should have all approached the faux saint ‘I have never done anything to deserve this’ attitude and wear hypocrisy on their filthy faces like masks while shouting in town squares for an equality they already got too much of. She can’t even hear herself think when he is around because she has to glare as strongly as possible and huff every time that the scum has an idea - no matter what sort or if Jonathan allows it. Her hatred, exaggerated, doesn’t allow her to see past his blood status, and at times she finds herself wanting him dead before all the other good muggleborns that act as if they aren’t trespassing sacred ground by using her and her ancestors’ magic.
Delphina: She is absolutely horrified by everything that this young woman is. She wants her horrible red head on a stake as decoration in her beautiful castle-like room back home. She wants her skin to make a pretty coat out of it - or maybe she just wants to be in her skin. Toward Delphina, she is distant and hardly ever speaks - for she has never exchanged more than ten words in one conversation with her not to snap in front of Jonathan’s precious soon to be wife, but she despites her to pieces, to the point where she no longer likes it. Mia can fake a smile and pretend to be interested in her ridiculous pieces of advice and comments, and she admires Mia for this too, but she can’t control her anger in that extent, and her smile looks to forced to ever practice it in front of the dense woman. It would have been both easier and harder for her if Delphina was a charming, attractive and intelligent person, but this way, she rests in peace knowing that Jonathan can’t possibly love her truly for who she is, but is frustrated because he deserved so much better.
Mercy: Mercy was the first person that she ever hated, because of how she was making Jonathan’s eyes glow. Truth be told, she now has to accept that she was something special, but still, she can’t help but resent her strongly anyway. Mia’s preferred friend, until very recently ago, and the one woman who stole an unique first seat in her Jon’s heart. And the fact that she could have easily been Mercy - blonde, Russian and, oh, so smart - makes her pulse boom uncontrollably with envy. She is happy she is out of the picture and honestly hopes it will stay that way because she is the only one she can’t agree with in spite of both Jonathan and Mia’s opinions on her.
FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS:
Alexei: Sophya treated him as if he was her poor autistic brother just because of the image Jonathan painted of him. Sure, it was her duty to know him by heart and trust her flesh and blood before the charming stranger constantly creeping onto her bones, but Jonathan sounded so right and she was already indoctrinated to the core by the time Alexei became a real obstacle. Deep down, there is no question: she loved him greatly and rather than to disappear and fade into her past, she wanted him to see things her way and wake up to the fresh view she approached that he refuses so greatly. Even when there was still time, she was doubtful Jonathan would ever be as forgiving and tried to press her lips together with skepticism and play her little role. At least the disappoint was real. Then, he died and she knew she was supposed to feel more, but her brother had been lost for a while now and she was busy. She loved him, she did, but feelings have always been inconvenient. It’s frustrating, upsetting, but not conflicting enough to raise real worries. What needed to be done had been done and she was trying to be the perfect soldier through the sweat and the heartache. Strong. Immaculate. Icy. Her brother’s death would strengthen her too, in the future.
Parents: We, both Sophya and I, collectively do not care about this section one bit. She’s an only child now and doesn’t want to see another family dinner again, with that one chair empty.
PARA SAMPLE:
DISCLAIMER: Just to clear out a thing or two, I chose to write about moments of Sophya’s life that are canon and at first honestly made no sense to me (why would you attack an auror with a Quidditch trophy, sweet child? Why would you allow Melinda to be Mia when she would never in three eons do her justice?), but as I was writing it all clicked in my mind because it’s not so nonsensical after all.
i.
  The uniform disgusted her. She avoided mirrors and didn’t look down at her sleeves just so the shade would stay out of her reach, but Jonathan Marks walked in that dark red as if blood dried on him and he was modelling for murder and she was suddenly a fan. She wasn’t the invisible girl sighing in the hallway. No, she was the bright spot, finding it impossible to hide because she was too loud to ever be suppressed. Back then, it was a virtue, because it caught his attention. Now, she can’t swallow all the blood in her mouth from biting her tongue to calm down some of the nerve. Although the next day, she told her brother - no, she let Alexei know - that he had to make a best friend out of the magnetic boy in his year, it was her big teeth and nonchalance that befriended Jonathan Marks. After that, she tried to become clay and make herself into what she learned he wanted, but her spine was too rigid and her edges too solid to be cut from. No matter how much she practiced in the mirror, ignoring the ugliness of the uniform because of a greater concern, she couldn’t change her laughter.
  When they had to leave Durmstrang, it wasn’t his fault. If anything, it was Alexei’s. If anything, Jonathan just got rid of the terrible uniform color and the boredom of the Norwegian sky. She understood only bits of the reason why - and it was better she had it unclear in her mind, because otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to stop her mind from rambling about it to her parents who would never understand. What her mind was running was Jonathan’s hand around her wrist, trying to stop her from going away - reasons romanticized - when he burned a bracelet-shaped portion of her skin on it where his fingers were clenched. So his fingers would always be around her wrist. What her mind was running was how Alexei was there, too, and how they threw the blame on the only fire elemental present. Somebody then let the headmaster know about the secret books. Somebody got expelled and they were all sent away. Everything was in a childish blur, in the spirit of her first seven Christmases, recorded in her brain superficially, split into bits that glue together despite being years apart. And it didn’t even matter. She wasn’t going to let the inconvenience keep her awake at night.
  She wasn’t the girl he would marry. She was the fraud he promised to marry one day - empty words, or perhaps a miscalculation, back when she was still trying to fit into dresses - but when she followed him to war without a question asked, blindfolded and ready to throw herself in front of any hex so he wouldn’t take it, she wasn’t the obedient wife. She was the human shield, the warrior, and by the time she figured all that out, her name was written on the bridesmaid list for Delphina West’s wedding. It was fine. She wasn’t the girl he would marry. She wasn’t seventeen yet when that became fact, clear to her.
ii.
  She didn’t have to do it. She knew the wand rolling between her fingers could have stayed in its stand, but that was her main drive. She didn’t have to do a thing. It wasn’t a task, it wasn’t a request performed on her palm, drawing circles with his finger, it wasn’t part of a mastermind strategy she wanted and pretended to understand. It wasn’t the assignment of the month or Jonathan needing her for the most insignificant job of the year. It was all her, proving that she could cut too. The excitement pumped into her veins at the thought of acting on her own was making her hands tremble, but she didn’t once rethink it. Alexei’s words still echoed. The only words she ever heard coming from her brother’s mouth - for once, not a chain of blah, blah that her mind was taught to ignore automatically - were the only truth she would reject with stubborn vehemence. Alexei wasn’t right that she was being used. The strings around her wrists were knots she tied herself. And in no circumstance was she stuck inside their instructions. Mia’s word wasn’t the only letter of law. She had free will. She had intentions. It just happened that hers mirrored theirs to perfection.
  The idea had brilliance in her mind. She crowned herself as an instant genius for thinking about it, as if, in any other conditions, Jonathan would have been the one to come up with it and ask her personally to deliver the result. And so, the little girl who wanted to be big for once, turned off the light and planned it out as poorly as one would have thought it was humanly possible, and as well as her age allowed.
iii.
  Her teeth sank bravely into her own skin, as her nails have been chewed to extinction already. There was no better combination of words for a lie. She could already see Mia’s graceful, spotless body walk ahead with her chin up, ready to give the wrong Marks her world in an empty, disgusting promise. Sophya swore she would never marry the moment the second Marks engagement became common knowledge. It has been in her knowledge, the stupid pretext for a brilliant plan, for a while now, but, as with a cloud, she didn’t believe it was real until it rained on her wet delusion. Tears she didn’t have in her.
  She could see Mia playing out the perfect scheme to the end, feigning surprise and worry when needed. Those were Mia’s features she saw frown and shudder, as unafraid as she always seemed to be (though Sophya knew better and couldn’t miss the occasional tremble that gave her away and made her deliciously human). But she knew it would have to be her mind inside. She would tighten the corset on another woman’s body, doll-daughter playing dress up, and learn to stand with her back straightened just for her, but Sophya was no performer. She couldn’t see herself in those shoes, though she was the understudy who spent her teenage years learning from the best how to be second. It was her moment, and she was horrified. She wanted a cape made of silk, not one made of human skin. She wanted to hold her wand high and shoot, faceless. Two faces, she couldn’t handle. When that treacherous clown girl stole away the spotlight, she was glad to be as irrelevant as Elektra Willow for once.
  And hours later? He was gone. There was nothing else to the story, not a good-bye, not a notice: a newspaper left cold on the kitchen floor, screaming for his name. She wanted to scream too. She wasn’t a chaser when it came to him. She outran with precision everything she wanted, long legs winning everything over, but Jonathan she didn’t go after, she didn’t even blame for leaving her behind, because it was in her nature not to question anything he did or said.
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symbianosgames · 8 years ago
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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
A little more than 2 years ago I came to the realization that my decade long career in game design was likely coming to an uncerimonious end.  Times had changed.  Both from a personal standpoint (family, kids) and an industry standpoint (shift to differing business models.)  These observations led me to compose what was essentially my career obituary in a blog post here titled "Death of the Game Designer."  (linked below)
http://ift.tt/1IF7AJj
It was a blog that garnered WAY more attention and reaction than I ever expected.  Many readers reached out to me personally and shared similar stories regarding the challenges folks face in the gaming industry.  Challenges such as being typecast or experiencing ageism.  Some folks seeing their job shipped overseas.  Others relating to layoffs and the difficulties in finding work again.  Many, including myself, asked the big question:  WHAT'S NEXT?  Do I continue?  Is it time to move on?  If so, WHAT SHOULD I DO?
When you've lived the game dev dream, when you see the end coming, when this industry is all you know but you feel like it has turned its back on you, what do you do for a second act?  IS there a second act?  After all, having "Ace Systems Designer" or "Badass Level Designer" aren't exactly skills that'll land you what I call "real" jobs (you know, cooks, doctors, truck drivers and the jobs I'm REALLY thankful others do.)  
We all come to these crossroads at times in our lives.  The stakes are high.  Families depend on us.
Be encouraged.  Other avenues for game designers DO exist and I'm proud to say that 2 years after my "Death" as a formal game designer, I'm living my second life as a Game Design TEACHER.......and I couldn't be happier.
Last summer, here on the Gamasutra job boards, I found a posting for a "Video Game Design Teacher" for a new program starting up for High School kids out in Bakersfield, CA.  
I was intrigued by the idea of going the education route.  I was intrigued by the idea of staying "in" game design, while not beholden to all I disliked about the gaming industry.  I was intrigued by the altruistic idea of impacting young people (in a way that DIDN'T leave them poor....I'm looking at YOU for-profit institutions looking to make a buck off young folk hopes and dreams), and I was intrigued by the idea of building a stable home life for my family.
This opportunity in Bakersfield (home of oil, agriculture, and the WORST air quality in all of America) certainly didn't FEEL like much of an opportunity at all when I went for my on-site interview.  Let's just say Bakersfield isn't known to harbor a lot of wealth and the surrounding areas (and the school itself) didn't exactly look like Silicon Valley.  
Impressed by the school's administration and the prospects of building a game design program from the ground up, I took the job.  So here I am.....in Bakersfield, CA.....where no gaming industry currently exists.
PROGRAM LINK
http://ift.tt/2mb7qQZ
PROGRAM PROMO VIDEO
[embedded content]
(As you can see in this video thumbnail, excitement in class is palpable.  Settle down, kids.  Settle down.)
I teach 2 classes daily.  Each 3 hours long.  I've been on the job for about 120 days nows and have info, thoughts, etc. to share for those thinking of making a similar transition out of the game dev trenches:
Expect a Pay Cut
This shouldn't come as a surprise.  Especially for anyone who has accumulated some time in the industry and has built up a Senior level of expertise or above.  If you're looking to make a transition out of your current position, there's a good chance you'll take a cut in pay.
Expect a Better Schedule
On the flip side of the expected pay cut, expect a better schedule.  No more of these shenanigans...
[embedded content]
Since I left the gaming industry proper, my life has gotten 10-fold better.  I know what to expect when I get to work.  I know what hours I'm going to be there.  I know when I'm getting home.  My family and I have family dinners now.  I know, it's strange huddled around a home-cooked meal with your loved ones as opposed to rushing to the break room before that last slice of Canadian bacon is claimed, but hey, I'm good with that.  Did I mention being a dad is pretty cool too?  Highly recommended.  
Expect Additional Expenses
With any career transistion, I think it's fair to say some expenses are inevitable, but I had no idea to what extent.  To move into education, I had to move (an expected expense.)  I also had to buy some new clothes (my typical t-shirt / shorts get-up ain't exactly educational attire.)  I ALSO had to sign up and take a bunch of teacher credentialing courses required by the state of California.  Those don't come cheap!  And the credentialing coursework sucks away much of one's weekend.  We're not talking "GAME DEGREE!!!!" level of college theivery here.....the expense IS manageable....just not desired.
Expect To Learn
Through TEACHING, you actually come to know the subject matter better than you ever have before.  In my class, I'm teaching the kids the basics of Unreal Engine 4.  You would be amazed at the far corners of the engine the kids have already explored.  Through sheer exploration they've ventured places (in the engine) I hadn't yet been to.  They've encountered problems I'd yet to encounter.  They have ideas I'd not yet thought of.  In short, they will push YOU to be better and to learn more.  It's outstanding.  I love it.  
If you've ever felt stagnate in the trenches - doing the same thing over and over again - teaching is a great way to reinvigorate one's growth.
Expect New Stressors
No job is without its pain points.  Teaching is no different.  Whereas designing a game may involve periods of solitude thinking through a design before working with your team to implement, such moments of solitude are not to be found in the teaching realm.  You run the show.  Everyday.  There is no let-up.  There are no moments where a member of your team can bail you out if you've got brain lock.  It's up to you to keep the train running.  Students depend on it.  The constant of being "On" can drain you mentally (especially if introverted.)
Other stressors in the educational realm include...
Dealing with students who may not care (MOST all of mine do, some don't)
Adhering to state standards / guidelines (yes, yes there are rules to follow)
Did I mention being on point ALL THE TIME!?!?
(Yes...yes we did recreate arcade classic "Pac-Man" in class.  
NEXT UP:  Other titles way too old for most of my class to know or appreciate.  You're welcome American youth.  You're welcome)
Expect to be Reinvigorated
I remember my 1st year as a game designer, my first E3, my first game launch, all of it.  Those were great (if naive) times.  I was excited EVERY DAY to come in to work.  I didn't understand the politics, the motives, the nonsense that sometimes went on behind the scenes.  To say ignorance is bliss would be true.
After 11 years in the industry, I felt burnt out, jaded, used and abused.  I had signed "bonus contracts" unaware that such signings were part of a greater condition of a company getting sold.  I was given gifts for performance without realizing there were often strings attached (loyalty.)  I'd been promised stock options and incentives that often never materialized.  I saw the dark heart of man and it saddened me.
Things are different back in school.  Students are wide-eyed and excited.  Their enthusiam not dampered.  Their fire reignites mine.  I feel hopeful again.
Closing Thoughts
Game design and teaching are not so different.  In both cases, you're trying to find the best, most effective and efficient ways of reaching your target audience.  Metrics are used to gauge performance.  I communicate daily with said audience to get their thoughts and feelings on how things are going.....where the pain points are, where things could be better.  It has been a natural transition.
Outside the game dev trenches, do I miss working on games?  Do I miss the teams?  Do I miss the camaraderie?  Hell yes.  The creative in you won't die.  
But I do not miss the layoffs, the wondering of one's future, and the stressors it would suddenly place on one's life.  
As dark as some of those days can be, rest assured there are paths outside the trenches for game developers.  Perhaps some of those paths better align to your skills and ideals.  In the end you might find yourself happier on the outside looking in.
Interested in connecting and speaking with my students about your experiences in the gaming industry?  Feel free to contact me at:  [email protected]
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trendingnewsb · 7 years ago
Text
5 Real World Problems That Are Straight Out Of Black Mirror
The future! Rocket ships, lasers, robots — it is truly a far-flung, fantastical place. Except, uh … we have all those things right now, and have for some time. The future isn’t some vague, to-be-determined period of existence; it’s literally tomorrow. So today, humanity has to address issues that would have been inconceivable a few paltry years ago. And frankly, some of this stuff still kind of sounds like someone got stoned and then tried to pitch a Black Mirror episode.
5
Fitbits Are Giving Away Military Intelligence
Nowadays it’s routine for people to wear a fitness tracker, but by allowing our data to be shared, we’re also allowing our habits to be shared. That normally shouldn’t be problematic, unless your spouse is learning that your weekly jog takes you straight to the strip club … or you’re exercising on a classified military installation.
Read Next
Britain Just Created An Immigration Crisis Dumber Than DACA
Thanks to a map that shows the jogging habits of the 27 million people who use Fitbits and the like, we can see splotches of activity in otherwise dark areas, like Iraq and Syria. Some of those splotches are known American military sites full of exercising soldiers, and some, by extrapolation, are sites that the military would rather keep unknown. One journalist saw a lot of exercise activity on a Somalian beach that was suspected to be home to a CIA base. Someone else spotted a suspected missile site in Yemen, and a web of bases in Afghanistan were also revealed.
StravaYet another example of why we at Cracked continue to condemn exercise in all its forms.
By analyzing the data, you could theoretically figure out patrol and supply convoy routes, and make educated guesses as to where on these bases soldiers eat, sleep, etc. That’s a lot of useful information for someone planning an attack. You could also track individuals, potentially important ones. One researcher claimed they tracked a French soldier’s entire overseas deployment and subsequent return home.
This wasn’t an evil ploy by a terrorist cell in league with Big Fitness; you can turn that data tracking off. It’s just that no one even thought about it until someone finally pointed out that it was a huge security issue. American rules for fitness trackers in the military are now being “refined,” which we assume is PR speak for “Goddammit, turn that shit off.” But it’s only a matter of time until another seemingly innocuous technology accidentally gives away state secrets.
4
Space Commercialization Might Contaminate Planets
Elon Musk set a new precedent when he launched a car into space, and not only for tacky egotism. The rules about what corporations can and can’t do in space are essentially nonexistent, because the government’s authority ends somewhere around the thermosphere. Governments, however, have legal responsibilities listed in the Outer Space Treaty — one of the few things America and the Soviet Union agreed on. Most of the world has signed as well, and in addition to promising not to put nukes on the Moon or claim all of Jupiter for the proud people of Denmark, adherents agree not to send Earth germs to other planets like the interplanetary version of coughing on the guy next to you at the movie theater.
That sounds a bit silly, but there’s a real point: If Earth microbes accidentally end up on other planets and moons, it becomes impossible for scientists to tell if their “discovery” of life on Io is native, or if it originated from someone sneezing in a Tesla factory. So NASA and other government space agencies follow a strict anti-contamination protocol. American Mars rovers, for example, had all of their parts heated to 230 degrees before launch, and they are routinely sterilized with alcohol. Even if your mission is only to orbit a planet (or swing by one), you have to prove that the odds of an accidental crash landing are equivalent to that of winning a fair-sized lottery.
Kim Shiflett/NASA“Like, Powerball odds. No Pick 3 crap.”
In theory, governments are also responsible for ensuring that any corporations within their borders follow the same rules. But once you move beyond launching satellites into Earth’s orbit, the government’s ability to enforce the law is about equal to your ability to enforce a responsible bedtime on yourself. Maybe that flying Tesla was carefully sterilized, or maybe Musk went out of his way to fart it up before launch. We don’t know. And as more and more corporations talk about going to the Moon and Mars, we may have a germ problem.
There’s also the issue of debris. While we like to think of space as a pristine void, the Solar System is starting to resemble a freshman’s dorm room. Space missions are supposed to be as clean as possible, and a mission to another planet should either purposely burn up in the atmosphere or land when it’s done. Musk’s car was heading toward Mars, where plans for it were sort of a vague shrug. It could have eventually broken up and left debris around the planet, or it could have infected the surface. But instead, it went off-course toward the asteroid belt … where it could also very well hit something and break up. Worst-case scenario, we end up with a bunch of junk floating around that could take out a future mission. Even if his car never hits anything, Musk still broke bold new ground in space litter.
3
Moderators Have To Watch All The Heinous Garbage That Gets Posted On Social Media
Try to imagine the worst job possible. Sewage sampler? Elephant masturbator? How about social media moderator? It sounds like a joke at first: “Facebook has moderators? Then explain all the crap I see every day!” Then you learn that their job is mostly to filter out pornography, and it sounds awesome. Aren’t you supposed to get paid to do what you love?
But then you learn about the truly awful shit that moderators see as they cruise through a thousand flagged posts an hour, and you want to give them all hugs and raises. Child pornography, bestiality, hate speech, extreme violence … if you can imagine something awful, someone has put it online. Specific examples included a man’s testicles getting crushed, a boy getting his legs mangled by a truck, someone getting hit by a train, a man shooting himself in the head, suicide bombings, a man hurting and possibly killing small birds by having sex with them, and a woman whose body had been blown in two. Imagine dealing with images like that for 40 hours a week. It’s like playing roulette, except the closest you get to winning are shots of consenting genitals smashing together.
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Imagine being forced to watch Logan Paul videos and considering that a good day.
Over 100,000 people trawl through e-trash to keep Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other major sites (relatively) safe to use. And you can’t click away the moment you can tell a video is getting nasty — you have to verify that the content is real, and learn as much as possible so you can try to destroy it at its source. And while you will become somewhat numb, dealing with the worst of what humanity has to offer day after day can haunt you. Turnover is high, and there are few resources for moderators who need counseling. Which, shit, has to be all of them, right?
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Facebook’s Fake News Problem Is A Feature, Not A Bug
Despite the fact that you probably took at least one break from reading this to check your Facebook feed, we still think of the site primarily as a vehicle for vacation photos where the worst thing that could happen is getting into a bitter argument with some friends about how to pronounce “GIF.” We’re all too smart to get suckered into politics, right?
But Facebook’s politics come after you. Ten million users saw “Russian-linked” ads placed during the 2016 election, mostly focused on big, controversial issues like immigration and gun control. Facebook also admitted that they placed about $100,000 in ads from “inauthentic accounts.” The issue isn’t ads spamming “Vote for Clinton / Trump / X’algax, Destroyer of Souls!” Everyone already saw those a million times; they’d sway no one. The problem is that they spread stories like “FBI AGENT SUSPECTED IN HILLARY EMAIL LEAKS FOUND DEAD IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE,” which linked to a fake newspaper, quoting a man that doesn’t exist, who lives in a town that doesn’t exist (they spelled the town’s name wrong).
The Denver PostAt this point, we’re starting to doubt the existence of Denver too.
If you see that stuff in your feed, wedged in between a cat video and your friend’s new spaghetti sauce recipe, you don’t click through to verify it. So it weasels into your brain as something you vaguely remember that may or may not be true.
Facebook has also become a playground for trolls, regardless of whether they have a political agenda or just want to watch the e-world burn. If you can think back to the Las Vegas shooting (before all those other shootings removed it from the headlines), a slew of hoaxes spread from the moment the news broke. Some people invented fake dead and missing victims solely to see how many likes they could get. Others claimed that the shooter was still active, invented fake perpetrators, assigned nonexistent motivations to the shooter, or claimed that he was a Democrat, a left-wing activist, or a recent convert to Islam (in reality, if the shooter had any political motives, he took them to his grave).
It’s the cruelest and most devious form of misinformation, because it’s hard to keep your bullshit detector functioning when you’re in shock. Maybe some of those moderators could get a well-deserved break from the animal torture to focus on this crap instead?
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Someone Could Steal Your Face And Make Porn
We have the technology to swap someone’s face onto someone else’s face in a video. That’s fun if we’re putting Nicholas Cage into Raiders Of The Lost Ark …
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… but it’s a problem if someone is making it appear that a person said or did something they didn’t really do. And that problem gains an extra level of creepiness when someone’s face is slapped into a porn video. All it takes is some training, some raw footage of the subject, and a few spare hours. And if you’re the sort of person inclined to make fake porn, you’ve probably got a lot of time on your hand.
Reddit had an entire community dedicated to this “hobby,” until it was shut down, but that only made enthusiasts migrate elsewhere. Called “deepfakes,” after the Reddit user who pioneered the practice, they started editing the faces of celebrities onto preexisting porn. Some of the fakes ended up on porn sites being pitched to viewers as real, because porn is now a genre of fake news.
While it’s unlikely that anyone would believe Taylor Swift was suddenly so hard up for money that she appeared on FuckBrothers.biz, it’s still an ethically off-putting mess. It’s not limited to the living. Someone made a video “starring” a young Carrie Fisher. And it’s not limited to celebrities, either. Anyone armed with a scraper can pull photos from Facebook and Instagram, combine them with any of several search engines that look for porn stars by facial recognition, and make a fairly convincing video of anyone doing pretty much anything. Reddit users were making videos of their friends, co-workers, classmates, and exes. They were “only” for private use, but what happens when someone wants to manufacture revenge porn? So there you go: We’re reaching a point in history where we can’t even trust our pornography. And then what’s left to believe in?
Mark is on Twitter and has a book.
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