#when the people who supposedly represent the rest of us

[nabaath-areng]

Fuck Sweden as a nation for turning the woobification of our history and culture into one of our greatest exports, pretending to be wholesome and peaceful while profiting from conflicts elsewhere. For never having the fucking spine to take any stance ever and acting high and mighty for being "neutral", all while frothing at the mouth to get a piece of that colonial cake from the cool kids table where the superpowers are seated. For recognizing Palestine's sovereignty only to then consider a withdrawal of said recognition in response to the current genocide. For allowing islamophobia to get to the point it is now and then pointing fingers at jews as a whole. For giving less of a flying fuck about swedish jews during WW2 and until now, yet patting ourselves on the back and taking credit for heroic deeds done primarily by individuals.

I wish nothing but absolute hell and misery for Ulf Kristersson, who is even more spineless about his inaction than I thought possible. Who had nothing to say about the burnings of the torah and quran, only to claim that he stands for fighting antisemitism. Who puffed up his chest and was acting so tough about the things he would do once he became prime minister, only to hold up on none of his lofty promises in true conservative fashion. Both he and his lackeys (as well as their fanclubs of raging screaming bigots) deserve nothing but hurt and hell for continuing to destroy the lives of all marginalized groups in Sweden, all while shamelessly increasing their own salaries blatantly in the open, to then have the sheer and utter gut to declare that actively supporting genocide is within our best interests.

This country's audacity is one that only became possible because we sacrificed our neighbours safety for the sake of maintaining our own, because when your most recent war was in 1809 it's apparently not possible to even try and comprehend the horrors of modern warfare. That is, besides producing the tools for it to happen elsewhere.

[jellyfishsthings]

The five times you left Spencer speechless (or how I like to call it, in quiet awe)

Warnings: reader wears glasses but no biggie, reader can fight and use a gun because why not, bau!reader, smitten Spence, nothing happens just feelz, Spence's drug addiction... I think that it

1. The first meeting

It had been a long week. People were crowding the small space of the bullpen. It had been the first case after Gideon's return, and Spencer had been buzzing with excitement to work with his mentor again. The case hadn't been particularly easy, and almost one agent named Elle Greenaway had been lightly injured, who would from now on work with them. His eyes were burning, and he gave into the temptation to wear his glasses as he looked into the nearly filled report in front of him, containing at least seventeen pages worth of information. Madame Strauss claimed that his reports were unnecessarily detailed, how that was a problem he couldn't tell. The hours seemed to blur together as he continued writing his report, losing many minutes trying to form his handwriting into something more presentable.

That was the moment. The time he first laid eyes on her. He had read many romance novels, which he wasn't going to admit, that the moment someone met the one, time seemed to slow to near non-existent and his reality at the moment seemed like something coming out of a book.

She was wearing a chunky white pullover with huge sleeves that strangely represented bells and a light brown plaited skirt that reached just at the middle of her thighs. Long legs that seemed to be going on for miles ended at a pair of black Mary Jane's. And sure, her appearance was incredible, but that was not what made him make a double take. He was sure he was hallucinating as he saw the most beautiful face he had seen in his life, looking as if it was something that came out of a Renaissance painting. Her hair was in a braid resting on her shoulder, and wire-framed glasses sat on her nose, making her eyes appear slightly bigger. A tattered pair of wired headphones framed her face, and for a second, Spencer forgot how to breathe, the most cognitive function, the one he had been able to do since he first entered this world. His ears were buzzing, and his brain was running in endless circles.

A hand was moving in front of him, and he stared at the angel that was standing in front of him. Her mouth was moving, probably talking to him, and he willed himself to pay attention.

“S-Sorry.”

“It's alright.” The angel answered him; maybe he had finally overdone it with the sugared coffee he was drinking as if it were his primary source of hydration. “ I am looking for Aaron Hotchner.”

“R-Right. Umm…”

“Good, you are here. Come with me.” Hotch's voice echoed in the empty room, and Spencer's cheeks flamed an angry red as the girl turned and kindly waved at him as she quickly climbed the stairs and entered the conference room. Spencer had half a mind not to turn his chair and stare at her. With an unnecessary loud cough, he turned back at his report and thanked his luck for Morgan's absence because if he had witnessed this, he was going to hear the end of this anytime

2. The lesson

A month had passed since he first saw her. And yet, he could recall her vividly, the deep-set eyes, the rosy lips. His birthday had been a blur as he celebrated them in the office and invited JJ in a lame attempt to ask her out which just resulted in a long evening where JJ and Penelope talked endlessly and he couldn't comprehend the sport he was supposedly watching.

He was waiting in Hotch's office as a stand-in. He was teaching a young agent to join the unit and he was thrilled when he heard that the student was just a few months shy of his own age. At the moment, he was trying to move a huge board to the office when someone lightly tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around way too fast and came face to face with the angel he saw, the one he thought he willed into existence.

“Do you need help with that?”

“No, no. I got it. Are you Hotch's student?” He asked and immediately regretted it. Of course, she was his student. Why did he have to lose half of his IQ around her? He gave one last hard shove to the board end and then aligned it with the desk. “So um… Hotch asked me to be your tutor for today if that is alright with you. Um… What material are you studying?”

“Mostly psychology. Which I am not very good at, by the way.” She retrieved a huge book from her bag and a small pencil case that was filled with just a pen and three markers, red, yellow, and green. Just as she opened the book, he could see that its majority was colored and that it had notes in the margins. His heart thudded louder in his chest.

“What do all those colors mean?” He asked curiously as he approached her.

“Well green means that I understand it; yellow means that I am working on it and red … I just have no clue. It's just mostly yellow at the moment, though the notes help.”

“What's red?” She looked at him in a strange way, and too late did he realize that she was studying him, his question had been earnest and probably too forward, and he rushed to explain himself. “ I just - I asked because I have a PhD in the subject.” He could see her eyebrows lifting before they settled in a scowl and whacked his brain to understand what he said wrong.

“You are Doctor Reid, right?” She asked quietly, and he stupidly nodded as an answer to her question. “Well there is … I don't understand some differences between some categories of killers; they have much in common, so why are they in a separate category?”

“The answer is actually way simpler I'd you think of it in a Venn diagram.” He rushed to the board, and drew a few circles, and he started writing on it as he explained its category separately. He talked for what seemed like hours, and he embarrassingly looked at his watch. He must have been talking for over an hour, and he turned to look at the girl only to find her writing on her book, still in the margins looking at him expectantly. The way she was staring at him almost had him stammering once again, and he felt his knees weaken for a strange reason. So he carried on.

When he was done, he turned to look at her; she was still writing something before she whispered. “You need to tuck your chest in when you are firing a gun.”

“I'm sorry?”

“Aaron said that he was having trouble with one of his agents' firearm training, and it must be you. You have a long torso, so your weight center is different from the diagrams in the training books you must have read. That's why you keep missing.” And just like that, she was gone again wishing him good night and a nice weekend.

His head was spinning as he walked towards the training room, and he wore his earmuffs and protective glasses. Tuck your chest in. And so he did before aiming and pressing the trigger three times. His shots were the best, but he hadn't missed. Pride swarmed his chest; he was going to do it.

The next day, he failed his exam. He had lost his gun.

3. The first case

Small-town cases were always the most thrilling in his humble opinion. And any time somehow a cult or demons were involved, he worked ten times harder to prove them wrong. Only this time, their team had a new member. Gideon did seem to take a liking to her, in contrast with Spencer, who was incredibly warm to her the moment she entered the room. Maybe it was because he had met her before, or maybe it was because whenever she was around him he felt like a firework ready to explode. Somehow, his conversation with Morgan had turned to the explanation of attraction in the neurotic sector.

“Chemicals, such as dopamine, may cause one to be giddy, euphoric, and even to experience suppressed hunger and sleep cues. You may recall a time when someone made your heart thud erratically in your chest, heat rise in your body making you blush, and the sensation of being tongue-tied or not able to form coherent thoughts. These are the characteristics of attraction.”

“Is that what you feel around her then? Because you don't act like yourself around her. I mean, come on, you are a germaphobe, and you were the first to shake her hand.”

He’s a germaphobe, he is, and that doesn’t just go away when you meet someone lovely, but he did shake her hand. She surprised him too quickly to think beyond taking her hand, letting it happen. Their formal meeting, the one where they acted as if they hadn't spent an evening together in this same room. Hotch gave him a funny look. Mostly impassive, but not quite, and he was definitely on to him. In the duration of the case, he tried to keep his distance, which didn't go that well when he found himself staring at the barrel of a gun that was aimed at him. Everything went by too quickly as she dove toward the UnSub, without a second thought tackling him to the ground and disarming him in a few short seconds. He wanted to be impressed, yet he had seen her in the training room with Morgan as they had hand-to-hand combat. She moved with agility, and her every move seemed calculated and strategic. He had felt his heart stutter in his chest as she helped him stand and checked him for injuries.

He was lovestruck as Penelope teased him. His silly crush on JJ had been entirely forgotten.

4. The Lila Archer incident

He was an idiot. It was the first time he would characterize himself in such a way. And hopefully the last.

When you guard a beautiful actress, Spencer, don't jump in the pool with her.

Love,

Spencer

He could identify the disappointment in his colleagues' faces from the very first second, yet the one that pierced him the most was hers. She barely spoke during the discussions about the possible type of the UnSub, no matter how much Elle or Hotch urged her on. She had been stuck with him for pretty much all of the cases and he had to admit that she was a brilliant young woman. The others interpreted her quietness as an inability to profile but her insights were what had helped him make some major breakthroughs on the last cases. When they congratulated him for that he simply smiled stating that he didn't work alone yet the others probably thought that he was just trying to cover his partner and not share mutual credit for their work. It unnerved him how she seemed incredibly distant and stoic always five paces away from the rest of the team.

Yet this time she seemed furious, it was the deathly kind of quiet, the one that sent a chill to his bones and left all the apologies that were spewing up in his brain die on his tongue.

Frustration was welling up on him and he tried to muster up the courage to talk to her, only to find her crying in Morgan's arms. He couldn't understand for the life of him what she was saying and a selfish, terrible part of him hoped that, maybe, she had been crying for him.

5. The drug addiction

Tobias Hankel was going to be a name that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Sometimes deep into the night he was still at that cabin fighting for his life, the one time his intelligence wasn't enough. What drew him to steal those few bottles of Dilaud from his pocket, why he used them, why he formed his addiction. He didn't want to be a drug addict but it was his new reality. He desperately tried to stop it, tried to hide it and always felt ashamed when he relapsed to that horrible habit. He would sit in his bathroom sweating, crying and begging a higher force, a higher being to end his torment, despite never being a religious man, only for his phone to ring demanding his presence because of a new case and for him to fall back to his old routine.

It was a tough journey and he wanted to talk with his friends about that, he needed their help, yet they ignored his problem as if it didn't exist, even though the signs were clear. He was always lashing out, having terrible mood swings and when they tried to confort him about it he lashed out. He had met an old friend of his and he had been the only one he had been brutally honest about his … condition. Gideon knew, his mentor knew, he had the confirmation, yet he turned a blind eye to the situation. Everyone did, except from her.

Everyday she would bring him his extra sweet coffee filled to the brim with stevia and not sugar, because sugar was just as addictive. When he craved, he played with his fingers, tried to distract himself but to no avail, a long strip of hard licorice sweets would appear in front of his face, after research be learned that the flavourful of licorice was extremely distinctive and strong and its hard texture led a person to chew endlessly at just one piece. It was the best food to consume to distract yourself. Every night after a case she would show up at his place with Greek takeout, which was apparently the best cousine, and demand longtime marathons of a show or series of movies, which wasn't something unusual for the two of them. She visited him because she knew that he would never use in her vicinity. He had never known true love until that moment and he recalled a quote by Jane Austin.

To be loved is to be known.

words: 3.007

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Shuichi, Himiko, Keebo, and Maki represent our fave characters in general. They’ve been made aware of their existence as characters and are horrified by the way they are being written.

Tsumugi represents companies that continue to milk franchises dry because the public keeps consuming the content. They don’t care about the significance of the story, they care about what sells. So, they keep coming up with all these ridiculous storylines to keep the show going, even though it’s at the expense of the characters we love.

The DRV3 in-game fanbase is the other main villain since they’ve lost appreciation of the story. All they want is more blood and lewdness, they don’t care about the characters and their journey. The thing is, the loss in appreciation happened because the company (aka Tsumugi aka Team Danganronpa) keeps churning out content for people to consume.

So it becomes a vicious cycle of the company not understanding the significance of the story they’re telling, which makes the audience care less and less about what they’re consuming. Tsumugi LITERALLY takes the form of previous Danganronpa characters just so the audience can go, “OMG, it’s my fave character from the other game!” There’s no other reason why Makoto and Kyoko show up, they’re just there for us to cheer as cameo characters.

And how do the villains justify their treatment of the heroes? They tell them that it’s all fiction, so it doesn’t matter what they do to them. Who cares if we kill off all your favorite characters, it’s just fiction bro. You’re just there for people’s entertainment, so do what the audience wants. Say the line everyone likes, or make their favorite ship canon. It doesn’t matter how much we torture you (read: “butcher your story” / “assassinate your character”), we can do whatever we want to you since it’s all fiction anyways.

And how do our heroes fight back? They tell Tsumugi and the audience that their lives matter and that fiction can change the world. That we need to remember that the media we consume has meaning and that we shouldn’t treat it like disposable material. It doesn’t matter if they’re fictional, they matter to someone out there.

/

/

Perhaps I’ve been too harsh on V3. People were so up in arms about the game supposedly dissing the fanbase when the ending was warning us about the dangers of companies destroying their own IPs by not letting them rest, as well as toxic fanbases losing appreciation of the series they’re a fan of. And they did it by having the characters themselves speak about how their lives are being ruined by the people writing/influencing their stories.

This is straight up something Black Mirror would make. In fact, they kinda did with Bandersnatch.

Okay, it’s official. V3 is my favorite Danganronpa. It’s got a lot of flaws, but I give it props for the vision.

[meanbossart]

do you have any thoughts on cazador as a character? personally i really loved the parallels between him and astarion & the way that the master/spawn relationship is used as an allegory for cyclical abuse. the scene with cazador’s master’s skull where you find out that he was once victimized in the exact same way that he later victimized astarion was really a lightbulb moment for me re: what vampirism represents in this game.

BOY DO I, i don't think much of it hasn't already been said, though. He's a tragic character in his own right of course, not that that takes away from the awful man he is.

Me and my boyfriend make fun of him a lot, we call him "the best BG3 character" as a little inside joke between us and come up with ridiculous scenarios of things that might have occurred throughout those 200 miserable years the spawn had under his command lol. Maybe he had a month where he was really specific about the shoes everyone wore, maybe once every other decade he had a weird week where he tried to be "nice" only to become frustrated when his efforts weren't immediately met in kind by the rightfully-terrified spawn, maybe between all the torture and horrific-ness he just did some plain weird shit like making someone crouch by in his fainting couch and wait by open-handed for grapes that he dramatically chewed on and then spat right out since he can't actually eat them lmao

And that's hysterical but I think we also started doing that because when you meet Cazador, when you first hear his voice and see his demeanor in person your immediate reaction is probably somewhere along the lines of "THIS is the clown you were so scared of, Astarion?"

And the answer is, of course, yes. This embarrassing little man stuck in a cage of his making instills fear beyond comprehension in Astarion and all his siblings. This man who undoubtedly showed all these spawn, inadvertently, the strangest, most arguably "human" aspects of himself at some point or another during these two centuries they had together is also an absolute monster. And i really like that! I think its far more effective and fitting for his story than if he was, lets say, a Ketheric type.

(this got very long so, more under the cut)

Look at Ascended Astarion in the epilogue now, for example. Everyone agrees that he's an absolute fucking dork - and I think we all also agree that he will go on to destroy the lives of many people beyond repair, especially his own, until the day he is killed.

In the topic of vampirism as an allegory for abuse, I both agree and also don't, at least not exactly - i just think it's deeper than that. I've spoken about this in another post but i find it incredibly refreshing how, to me, it seems like Baldur's Gate 3 has no interest in painting vampirism as sexy or fun past a surface level. It's a curse that nobody asks for unless put in a situation where they feel as if they have no other way out, and it shapes and haunts you for the rest of your undead existence.

Even if you enjoy its benefits at first, that has a time limit. You will see your family and loved ones die, you will see culture evolve while you stay perpetually the same. You will experience so much hurt and pain because the only thing that makes life truly sweet is knowing that it is finite, and eventually it will wear down all of your humanity. And since you can't die unless you are scorched by the sun, staked, or dismembered, you must live with the knowledge that you will never have a peaceful death - and since you won't have a peaceful death, you better not die - and if you don't want to die, you better not be weak - and if you don't want to be weak, you must seek out power at all cost and slash things like love and friendship out of your life.

And what is funny, is that in his attempt to be more like a mortal - to eat, drink, walk the sun, such incredibly simple desires - Cazador (and Astarion, if he ascends) is accidentally only drawing further away from the person he supposedly once was, because that fear of weakness has already utterly corrupted his soul.

That's quite a grim way to look at it, of course. But I genuinely think that it is the natural conclusion of something like immortality.

That's why I quite like that, even after Astarion has found happiness, even after he finds his peace, he still doesn't exactly embrace being a vampire - because It's not something he should be expected to embrace. I think it's a very unique take on the trope.

I also want to leave here this message written by his character writer, which really got me thinking about him on a deeper level since i saw it months ago. It is specifically about the sexual aspect, but I think it branches beyond it too, when you think about it.

[ewingstan]

I certainly didn’t appreciate it on the first read-through, but one of the biggest background characterizations of Alec is among first things we learned about him: that he painted the Undersider’s symbols onto the doors of their hideout.

The loft reads as almost ridiculous when you first read about it. Whatever you’re expecting the hideout of a bunch of hardened criminals to look like, your not expecting “the rich kid’s house with all the best video games.” It almost took me out of it; it felt like such a teen wish fulfillment of a supervillain base that I thought Wildbow must be pretty young—and didn’t really take in what it was telling the reader about the Undersider’s mindset. Because it is a teen wish fulfillment, filtered through the practicality of what cost, secrecy, and Brian would allow for. Its the derelict old building you dare your friends to go into to find some rumored amazing or horrible secret—but this building does have a secret, and its a pizza party with a sweet flatscreen setup.

For the most part, it is an especially cool hangout spot that would appeal to your average teen—and not necessarily your average villain. Taylor gets told to use the other’s civilian names while hanging out here. They wear street clothes instead of their costumes. Its built to be appealing to the non-cape side of your life, a welcome reprieve from that world. For the Undersiders who don’t have much of a real life outside of capedom, its something like a place to play make-believe. That’s part of why its so effective as an initial pitch to Taylor when she’s looking for friends and doesn’t want to be a villain, why its important for ingratiating her to the rest of them and making her backstabbing plan that much harder to follow through on. Its part of why getting her own lair, built for the specifications of Skitter the Warlord instead of Taylor the kid, represents such a big change in how Taylor sees herself and her goals. Its why there’s presumably dozens of Undersider fics of them just casually hanging out in the loft, away from any major cape shenanigans. Its why Rachel's first full appearance is her coming up into the room and breaking the bubble—ruining Brian’s pitch of sweet teen digs by bringing the violence inherent to cape life into the supposedly separate space. Because the loft is supposed to be for the Undersiders to be themselves as civilians, instead of capes.

But at the same time, everyone’s personal room has their symbol painted on their door. And the first real thing we learn about Regent is that he’s the one who painted them.

Regent did not get to have a double life. His cape stuff and his family stuff were inherently intertwined, and it was all bad. He’s arguably the only undersider to have a secret identity in a traditional, important sense: not just “you have a civilian life, and everyone’s gonna respect that its separate and not go after anything related to it,” like @artbyblastweave​ outlined here, but “your specific other identity is important, in a sense outside of just being something to target” way. People finding out who Skitter is means they know there’s an identity there to exploit—her enemies can trace her to her school, she can’t continue to go back to her old house, etc. You’d be able to get the same advantage by finding out the civilian identity of pretty much any cape. But not with Alec. People finding out who Alec is means they go “oh fuck, its Heartbreaker’s kid—” the effect is much more like finding out Taylor is Skitter, rather than vice versa.

And that’s important, because the persona of Regent is, to a large extent, his chance to live out the life he wants. Brian and Lisa both have circumstances that don’t allow them a typical childhood, and so they construct spaces to go through the motions of one. To roughhouse and play video games with friends, to plan shopping trips and visits to Fugly Bobs. They’re looking for a respite from their normal state, and that respite to them looks like civilian life. Alec is looking for a respite from his awful childhood, and that respite has a lot of the same things, but it also has the symbols and aspects of his cape persona. He draws his crown on his door, he uses his powers casually on Brian—he’s using the space to let him be Regent, in the same way Brian is pitching it to Skitter as a place where she can just be Taylor, where Tattletale can just be Lisa. This is pretty huge for understanding Regent early-on: Taylor obviously has a pretty expansive double life, as does Brian, and Lisa clearly wants to get into some non-cape-related shenanigans. We’re introduced with a clear divide between cape and civilian identities being the norm. Rachel is presented as bucking a trend, her lack of second identity making her an outlier. But if you read into Regent’s decorating choices, you realize pretty early that you can’t separate his cape identity and his current civilian idenitiy, because their both effectively the same thing: a persona where he can be something other than a Vasil.

Sheesh, now that I’m thinking about it there’s a lot to be drawn from each of the undersider’s lairs. I already talked a bit about how Skitter having her new base be a proper “villain lair” instead of “hang spot” represented a shift in perspective, and how Rachel being unable to behave the way your “supposed” to in the loft shows that she both can’t live a double life and has no interest in doing so (unlike Alec, who is very clearly interested in making a “new” life for himself with the Undersiders as Regent). But how about how Brian won’t take a room in the loft and insists on sleeping in a separate apartment he’s planning on shairing with Aisha? He obviously wants to be able to draw an especially clear line between his cape and civilian life, and doesn’t want Aisha to get involved at all. How about how Lisa’s eventual separate Coil-provided villain lair is a disguised community center she was pretending to work in, showing both that she has some interest in a life outside of capedom and that she’s inherently drawn to working with/having control over civilian culture? She doesn’t just want to hold territory, she wants to be an institution—not just someone the other capes have to play ball with, but who the mayor and civilian agencies have to go through. She separates capedom and civilianhood to an extent, but not to the same extent as Brian, and her goals are much more “civilian-oriented” than most.

I forget the specifics of Alec’s eventual Coil-base, but I know that it was a group of buildings (a campus, maybe?) with few people in the surrounding area outside of puppets—presumably not so different from the compound he grew up. But I do remember that one of the last times we see it is near when Taylor says something about his connection to Heartbreaker, and him getting upset by it. I wonder if it changes in the intervening two years, especially with Imp’s influence. I’m kinda sad we never get a chance to see it.

[botgal]

California Bills To Watch For

I'm sure by now that many people are aware of the dangers posed by AB 3080 (discussed in my post here), but for those unaware, there are yet other bills in California that pose a danger to free use of the internet which we should also keep on the forefront of our minds. 3 of the 4 bills I will mention here will be going up for a hearing in the California Senate Committee on Appropriations, one of the bills is currently being held in suspense file until the suspense file is read and thus will not be up for discussion in the same way as the rest. So that one will remain more on the back burner but still good to call your representatives about nonetheless. (A link on how you can find your reps here).

CA SB 976: Protecting Our Kids From Social Media Addiction Act (Senator Skinner et al)

Building on the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, this bill seeks to make it unlawful for the operator of an addictive 'internet-based service or application' to provide an 'addictive feed' to a user unless the operator doesn't have actual knowledge the user is a minor, has reasonably determined the user isn't a minor, or has obtained verifiable parental consent to provide an addictive feed to a minor user.

Essentially a very complicated and roundabout bill which would be difficult to enforce and would necessitate the usage of age verification for nearly all users. Especially when the alternative is that parents would have to also give up their identifiable information to allow a child to use an online platform. And also limits the ability of a minor user to receive notifications from a service or application during times assumed to be for school attendance or for late night usage. Great potentials for privacy violations and potential dangers for minors in abusive households where parents can exercise greater control over them and what they do. Also does not limit this specifically to social media platforms.

Overall a very unnecessarily complex bill that attempts to solve issues with perceived addictive social media features in inefficient and privacy violating ways.

Currently set for Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on May 13th.

CA SB 1228: User Identity Authentication (Senator Steve Padilla)

Requires social media platforms to verify the identities of people with large social media followings and influence in a tiered system. Nominally to minimize the spread of misinformation during an election year.

"Influential users" are defined as people who either has content that has been seen by more than 50,000 users within a seven-day period across all accounts the user controls on the platform, those with accounts over 15,000 followers, or ranks in the top 6% of users by amount of content viewed by users on the platform within a seven-day period across all their accounts on that platform. These users would be required to provide the platform with their name, telephone number, and email address in order to be considered authenticated.

"Highly influential users" are defined as people whose content has been seen by more than 100,000 users within a seven-day period across all accounts the user controls on the platform, those with accounts over 30,000 followers, or ranks in the top 3% of users by amount of content viewed by users on the platform within a seven-day period across all their accounts on that platform. These users would be required to provide the platform with their name, telephone number, email address, and government-issued identification in order to be considered authenticated.

Supposedly there would be safeguards and rules saying that any information taken to authenticate a user would not be stored or used for anything besides authentication. And they would be marked as authenticated, with the option to block non-authenticated users. But also allows social media companies the option of requiring either of these things even for those who aren't considered influential or highly influential.

Essentially another identity verification measure which should not be allowed to pass, and unnecessarily complicated and unlikely to work in its attempts to prevent misinformation.

Currently set for Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on May 13th.

CA SB 1444: Let Parents Choose Protection Act of 2024 (Senator Stern)

Requires large social media platform providers to create, maintain, and make available third-party safety providers through which parents or guardians are able to control what appears on their child's social media feed.

Another bill which by its sheer existence would put the identities and information of users at risk, both adults and minors. And would likely lead to further age or identity verification measures which would be wholly unnecessary and highly invasive.

CA AB 1949: California Consumer Privacy Act of 2020: collection of personal information of a consumer less than 18 years of age (Assembly Member Lowenthal)

Would remove the conditions that an online business have actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 16 years of age, and would prohibit a business from selling or sharing information of a consumer less than 18 years of age unless the consumer or their parent/guardian has authorized the sale of the personal information. Also requires businesses to inform the consumers of what information is being collected and sold and will not collect additional information. Allows consumers the right to opt out of any sale of personal information, but by default none under 18 may have their information sold.

Also runs the risk of invasive age verification becoming the norm for internet websites, rather than wholesale allowing the opting in and out of sale of personal information to be default for all.

Currently set to the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Suspension File.

With all that said, while I know it may seem like a lot, please look into these bills as much as you can, and send messages to your representatives letting them know you're in opposition to all of them and what they could potentially mean for our internet freedom, privacy, and safety.

[bellaaldamas]

I just wanted to say, thank you and the other fans from this part of the GoW fandom.

In a place full of trolls and gamerbros who turn characters that they deem annoying into irredeemable, useless bitches (Freya, Angrboða) and characters they do like are reduced to either prize for someone (Thrúd, Sif and somehow, Freya again) or into their masculinity idol (Kratos, whom they only accept as the testosterone caricature godkiller and his development seen as creators turning him soft. This claim is at it's peak with Ragnarok, but it was there back in 2018 such as wanting Kratos to beat or even kill Atreus for "acting like a brat". What a horrible mindset!) - It's nice to have a side with people who are welcoming, creative and genuinely fun to interact with.

Your analyses - both fandom and in-game inputs - are a delight to read. They're beautifuly written, intelligent and well formulared, I always feel smarter after reading them.

Apologies if you prefer to discuss this in DMs, I wanted others to read this too.

I wish you a wonderful rest of your day/night 💛

Thank you so much for this message, this kind of feedback truly makes existing in this - and, admittedly, other fandoms - worth it. Your summary of my ramblings genuinely took me by surprise as I haven't been "conventionally" active in the fandom intentionally due to negative past experiences with other fandoms. Those occasional inputs I do come up with are mainly hastily written bursts in broken English.

I don't make a secret out of the fact that in my experience all fandoms, definitely not just Gow(R), are toxic to varying degrees due to trolls employing the very same tactic everywhere they go. For one, it's creating the illusion of dominance of their opinion in terms of quantity (as they have no arguments to back up their stance other than canon twisting nonsense they clearly realize that "quality" is not their strong suit). To attain that, they resort to a number of other tactics typically used by abusers both online and in real life.

As such, whenever trolls see intelligent and thoughtful people refuting their "points" they know they cannot come up with a single canon compliant rebuttal. Therefore they dog-pile in droves as to wear down the opponent who inevitably has to stop responding to them at some point. Because a logical person who dedicates time and thought to formulate an argument, fact checks and brings up evidence and quotes from the source material simply cannot withstand a wave of unhinged trolling coming at them left, right and center. They certainly cannot respond to each ridiculous one line statement of the trolls (such as the types of statements you bring up, in the vein of "Freya is a b1tch, she should've DyEd instead of He**d*all!!11!!") by typing out a thorough and researched response each time. As it would require not just spending hours on it but repeating themselves numerous times over.

The above behavior from trolls is what caused me personally a burnout from the fandom culture overall and led to my taking a distance. When I engage with people in online communities I tend to avoid blanket statements and try to always back up my points with examples from canon. Trolls don't need any of that and always dismiss those points or, at best, make it look like they acknowledge them (by quoting back). But instead of replying with canon facts they resort to Strawman Arguments or Ad Hominem.

In Gow(R) and other gaming fandoms there's also the matter of the trolls looking for "backup" in the form of big bloggers/reviewers who express, in some respects, a view of the plot and characters similar to them. Which trolls use as another "proof" their opinion is supposedly held by the majority. But the uncomfortable - for them and those reviewers - truth is that YouTube community (a cesspool of trolling as of now) represents hardly even 1 percentage of the general audience (one that pays actual money for the games). Which at most passively watches some of those videos, mainly when they have a click baiting title.

A prime example is that "viral" video with millions of views about Atreus supposedly "having a crush on Thrud". Looking at the comment section it becomes obvious that the people leaving humorous and lighthearted remarks don't take the video or the title statement seriously. Whereas the actual trolls who consider Atreus a "selfish little runt" (c) but somehow good enough to be a prize/reward for Thrud (whom they either sexualize or treat as their girlboss self insert); and who deny that Atreus and Angrboda is the only canon budding romance arc in the series are the same four or five people/nicknames. Who can be observed under other Atreus/Angrboda videos with their nonsense.

Furthermore, trolls actively participated in making the "Atreus and Thrud" piece viral in the comment section for at least one Atreus/Angrboda tribute video by mentioning the AT video and the amount of views it has. And openly insisting it somehow "proves that the fans want" Atreus and Thrud as a romantic arc for Atreus - the very same character they consider unworthy of being a secondary protagonist let alone becoming the main lead of the series or having his own spin off. But, as noted, they believe him to be acceptable enough to become a trophy man for their preferred girlboss.

That in turn brings us to another issue of male characters absolutely also being susceptible to objectification and being reduced to love interests and plot devices for female characters whom fandom minority treats as a part of their personal power fantasy. Atreus hating trolls originally didn't even deny they hated Angrboda "by association" with Atreus - thus even they initially admitted she was intended as his potential romantic partner by the narrative - because women to them are just men's extensions/accessories. But when they realized this argument makes it very easy to dismiss them for the bitter misogynists that they are they changed the tactic (also classic troll pattern) and started to distort canon in order to invent "arguments" to justify not just their Atreus hating but also their Angrboda hating stance.

To "warm up" they originally started calling Angrboda a "woke points character" which I cannot stress enough is utterly laughable when coming from Atreus/Thrud shippers. Because if there is a woke points or fan-service character in GowR it would be Thrud and Heimdall, respectively. They're the only ones who could be either removed entirely (Thrud) or replaced/have their screentime reduced to one or two scenes and the story would've been exactly the same. Thrud's Valkyrie aspirations have no influence on the plot whatsoever and are a complete filler. I'm saying this not because I dislike either of them but because it's an objective fact that smashes troll arguments flat.

Then there is the matter of the trolls being unable to stand the fact that interactions with Angrboda is Atreus's healthiest and most positive relationship in the story. It especially challenged them that Angrboda always valued Atreus's personal choices and didn't once question him (even when she disagreed with his train of action), his moral character or his right to take his own independent decisions (on the contrary, Thrud questioned his every move and deemed him untrustworthy the moment he made one, genuine mistake with Garm - and the trolls deemed it admirable because "finally someone put that little runt in place"; they don't actually ship Atreus and Thrud, they ship their own aggression and disdain towards Atreus projected onto Thrud).

Angrboda let Atreus exercise his agency (another troll nightmare as they cannot stand the very idea of Atreus having any) even when his actions went directly against her mother's words about the giant marbles or against the prophesy itself. That is, despite Angrboda considering the prophesy which killed both of her parents her lifeline. And believing that delivering said prophesy and the giant souls to Loki was her one and only mission in the existence full of loneliness (years of not speaking to another person, per Angrboda's own admission). As well as full of hard labor she had to engage in daily at a strikingly young age (purely out of love and sense of responsibility for every living thing in Ironwood) because there was no one around to help her (Atreus understandably expressed astonishment and admiration at that which Angrboda appreciated but - which is no less important - pointed out they're the same age; implying that she knows and acknowledges Atreus/Loki has gone through a lot himself and fared well). Even Angrboda's grandmother broke due to challenges that only made Angrboda more caring and compassionate.

Which is another point worth addressing about fandom culture because it tends to put down gentle and vulnerable girls and women as "unfeminist". Modern "feminism" has little to do with woman empowerment or rights and is a repackaged patriarchy that praises women/female characters as strong and independent only when they take the aggressor and conqueror mantle from a man.

Kratos fell a victim of a similar thinking on part of both the gamebro AND the "progressive" segment of the fandom. I realize Tumblr is not ready yet for that conversation, but masculinity is not inherently toxic and neither is femininity. What both gamebros and woke types cannot handle is that Kratos's development and Angrboda's character represent the type of masculinity and femininity, respectively, that isn't imposed on them by the sexist society but that is based completely on their free will and life experience. Moreover, Thrud is the one who was heavily influenced by the toxic environment she grew up in. Therefore considering her a "feminist icon" is both factually wrong and unwise (even if we discount her "treacherous ex wife" comment in regards to Freya because that was ALSO a part of Odin's toxic influence that she can now, hopefully, work through and move on from).

But the most delightful part is that none of those troll views and arguments have proven to matter at all. GowR developers went on to do literally every single thing trolls dreaded. Freya was not made into a "big bad b!tch who deserved to be killed by Kratos for being a less than perfect mother" (even though not only was Kratos the furthest thing from the father of the year in Gow18 but as you note, the very same people wouldn't object to physical violence against Atreus at his hands). Kratos continued to work towards healthier existence and carving a better path. Angrboda remained an emotionally mature, loving, caring and independent person with a potential of her relationship with Atreus going further in the following installments. Atreus is clearly set up to have his own spin off or remain a secondary protagonist or even become the main protagonist next game. That in and of itself is a prime example of how irrelevant trolls and their entitled demands are in the grand scheme of things.

That being said, as I always point out, we should keep in mind we cannot control media we consume, only our experience with it. A healthy emotional distance from it is the only way to avoid stress if/when the writers come up with decisions we might not like or find offensive. Mental well being should be our priority and media created by others should never define us.

Thank you again for this positive and inspiring message. Have a great and fulfilling time yourself <3

[plants-and-poetry-and-punching]

my many thoughts on: “you win. you made me into this” vs ‘throw them into another dimension for the rest of their lives lmao’

I am FRESH off finishing the finale, so i can’t guarantee the hottest takes, but they’re fresh picked from my brain. no research, no rewatch, we sniff death dust like UNIT.

long rambly post! you’ve been warned!

I understand that ‘if you kill a killer you’re just as bad as they are’ isn’t the most… convincing argument. if you think about it, is the act of killing someone (or something) that wiped out billions and billions of people on the same moral level as committing that same unimaginable evil? is being killed a worse fate than being locked away, alone, for the rest of your life? (or for eternity- remember what 10 did to the mayflies? shit was fucked up!)

maybe the show really does want us to come away with “killing bad no matter what uwu*” but to me, I think it’s more important to think about this in the context of who the doctor is as a character. ‘no killing’ is his personal moral code, and it’s something he truly believes in. yes, it can get a little bit absurd when they’re sending people to forever time prison, but strong feelings and beliefs are very, very good at causing characters (and real people) to act irrationally. plus, he’s a gazillion year old alien. I think he can have a little blue and orange morality, as a treat.

friendly reminder: the doctor has canonically committed war crimes!! they pushed the big red button on gallifrey- there’s a LOT of blood on their hands**. they were always a pacifist at heart(s), but I think the time war really cemented the fact that they never wanted to kill again. the doctor expressed guilt several times this season for supposedly bringing trouble and death wherever he goes, and the whole finale was a distillation of that! countless lives wiped out, and he believes it’s because of him. no wonder the guy lost it***.

mercy is all they have. they can’t undo the deaths that still haunt them, but they can make damn sure that not one more soul dies by their hand- even if the alternative is arguably a fate worse than death.

I believe that, past a certain point, refusing to kill a foe isn’t about being merciful or having the higher moral ground. it’s just the doctor desperately trying to avoid taking any more lives, no matter the cost. it’s not rational- it’s emotional self-preservation. that single soul might just be the straw that breaks them apart.

no more. everybody lives.

the doctor didn’t admit defeat when everyone and everywhere he knew was reduced to dust. (tbf, universe ending catastrophes are an average friday for them.) he grieved, but then he got to work, and he and ruby fixed it.

stopping suketh was a victory. and yet, the doctor admits defeat right before he cuts that line. it’s right there in the text- to him, this is a loss, because he was forced to break the moral code he’s been carrying for thousands of years.

I think it shatters the armor they’ve built around their own self-perception. the doctor wants to be seen as someone who represents life. they want to be able to see themself as someone who represents life- and I believe that they’ve been struggling with that for a long, long time****.

there’s a reason the doctor doesn’t talk about themself, or their past, or loved ones they’ve lost- it’s all tainted by death. at least, I think that’s how they see it. this bitch is traumatized! (maybe they refuse to kill even the most vile enemy because a part of them feels that they’re just as bad? good dalek etc etc)

I don’t think the doctor is thinking all of this consciously, of course. (he’s definitely thinking some of it, though). I just think all of this stuff is a major part of their character.

I really hope that killing sutekh has some serious consequences next season. as big as the scene was in the moment, the end of the episode was more focused on ruby’s story than the doctor’s emotional fallout. (I’m not complaining about having the focus on ruby! shit made me tear up!)

I want to see how the doctor feels about breaking his one rule. I crave angsty character exploration! and maybe an scp end of death type scenario

tldr: I think the doctor deserves to make weird moral decisions every now and then*****. also they’re the sad wet little meow meow ever and I want to put them in the plot equivalent of a hydraulic press.

*I do believe that one of the show’s central themes is the sanctity of life, and that saving lives the most important goal someone can have. I just don’t think it’s here to preach the exact minutiae of what is or isn’t justified.

**I missed most of 13’s run, but it sounds like some serious shit went down there too. I’m gonna go back and catch up soon!

***that said, I hope they continue losing it now and then, because unhinged doctor is my favorite doctor. don’t read into that.

****I know that 14 supposedly fixed himself, but like… no he didn’t. I mean, I hope post-bi-generation 14 is doing great in therapy, but if he is, I don’t think 15 is getting any of the benefits. “maybe I’m the bad luck” in his very first episode?? this bitch lied directly to his own face and he’s kinda iconic for that

*****dear beloved piss on the poor website: the doctor is a fictional character. I do not endorse murder, war crimes, or trapping people in forever prisons irl.

[tieflingkisser]

Israel jails Grayzone’s Jeremy Loffredo, releases him pending investigation

The criminal case against the American reporter fell apart after an Israeli journalist testified that his own article containing Loffredo’s full video report had cleared military censorship. Yet Israel refuses to let Loffredo leave the country.

On October 11, journalist Jeremy Loffredo was ordered released from Israeli jail. Israeli soldiers arrested the Jewish-American reporter and three other journalists at a checkpoint in the West Bank on October 8. According to one of the jailed reporters, @the_andrey_x, the soldiers blindfolded them tightly, roughed them up, drawing guns on them at one point, and hauled them off to detention in Jerusalem. “The soldiers… illegally requested that the journalists hand in their phones, and when they refused, the soldiers pointed a gun at one of the journalists, hit him with their hands and the barrel of a gun, then dragged him out of the car and slammed him onto the concrete. When lying on the ground, they pointed 2 guns at his head. The rest of the journalists exited the car and the military raided it, confiscating phones, cameras, and personal items,” said @the_andrey_x. Andrey recalled that in the course of abusing the journalists, “The soldiers told the female Israeli photographer that she should have been raped by Hamas.” While Loffredo’s colleagues were released after 11 hours, the “Judea and Samaria” division of the Israeli police opened an investigation into Loffredo for supposedly “aiding the enemy in a time of war.”

[...]

Though [Judge] Lomp ordered the journalist be released, she gave police until October 20 to continue their digital strip search. Until then, Loffredo will remain without his passport and will not be permitted to return home to his family in the US. Just what Israeli officials hope to uncover in their search of Loffredo’s cell phone remains a mystery. Also unclear is why the investigation focuses exclusively on Loffredo, and not on any of the numerous other reporters who reported the locations of the Iranian strikes. 

[...]

The Grayzone published a statement on October 10 unequivocally rejecting the Israeli police’s outrageous accusations against Loffredo. We repeat that we stand by Jeremy’s report. The claim that Loffredo and The Grayzone represent Israel’s enemy in wartime merely suggests that the Israeli government views the American people and free press as a legitimate target. Indeed, we are an independent outlet with no relationship, financial or otherwise, with any foreign country or political organization. As we fight the fraudulent charges against Jeremy, we ask readers to contact the US State Department and urge them to act in his defense. The US has an obligation to defend its journalists without political prejudice, particularly when they are fulfilling the vital task of providing the public with facts on the ground.

[outrunningthedark]

There's literally zero suggestion that Ryan is uncomfortable portraying a queer character compared to Oliver. IDK what your anon is talking about. Like you said he acknowledged the difficulty of getting a storyline like that out to the GA due to toxic masculinity and homophobia but those are just the facts on the ground not an indication that he's personally opposed. Oliver's good at giving diplomatic soundbites to the fandom and cultivating a persona online, Ryan's more blunt and he answered honestly that's the key difference here. Their chemistry has never been denied, Oliver didn't say anything particularly revolutionary, the question is whether there's a serious intent to act on that to create a romantic storyline and I would have to say I agree with Ryan I don't see it happening. There's really no need to be like oh we know Oliver's cool but who knows about Ryan because it's like based on what exactly? Him stating facts that none of this was planned and it's unlikely the writers/creators will pivot?

Honestly I get a little uncomfortable with the way some people ascribe certain views and attitudes to Ryan while simultaneously blowing smoke up Oliver's supposedly enlightened ass, it feels a little prejudiced and in bad faith.

(This isn't aimed at you, I think you're very fair and I agree with you almost all the time. It's just a comment at the language I see used and the implications when this is brought up)

Just want to thank you for reiterating my point because it's something I think is going to have to be repeated over time as each season passes without Eddie being Repressed or Buddie going canon. We don't know how Ryan feels about the Buddie as a legit ship, whether he wants the show to go for it or not, because he doesn't approach the subject the way the fandom wishes he would. He's matter-of-fact. He's realistic. He's seen enough within the industry and in his own life (upbringing and friends he may have made along the way) to understand the tough spot the show put itself in by making neither Buck nor Eddie queer from the start. TBH, R "vs." O is not unlike the way older members of our fandom try to interact with/educate the younger ones. So many here have grown up in a time when queer representation is becoming "the standard" even if TV shows aren't making it past the second season. But those of us who remember the *really* dark days aren't scared to talk about the ages of the folks running these networks or the demographic they're making the shows for impacting how they envision a story line and ensure it plays out. Oliver represents the younger fandom. He understands why fans he's interacted with love the ship and would say yes in a second. Ryan is the rest of us going "Do you hear yourself right now? Do you really think Buddie is as popular IRL as it is online?" There is value in Oliver publicly supporting Buddie, absolutely. But there is also value in having someone speak in a way that aims to prevent fans from getting their hopes up over a story line that may never come true. Ryan is not trying to discourage you. He's trying to protect you and your feelings.

[lhostgil]

Just a little food for thought...

[I know I've been away from here for a while, but it's a bit because I've been all over the place with work and life, as well as not feeling much for posting anything in here. Nonetheless, here I am with a little...post. Featuring a conversation topic I've had with a close friend or two re the recent and ongoing trajectory of the X-Men comic writing.]

Perhaps it's just my personal upset, but the way the writers are handling things feels inconceivable to me because it's not the kind of stuff I am used to. In very general terms--this is somewhat related to Asian vs Western writing when it comes to takes on gods/god-like beings. In Western writing, everyone and their grandma seems to want to become god (or god-like), or to enforce the worship/reverence of a god. [See also most of the motivations of the leading mutants of the Krakoa era, as well as those who are already considered to be of a level that puts them as good as 'godlike']

And really, I don't get it. Because as a non-western reader, from my perspective and cultural background; just speaking very generally from the position of someone who grew up with predominantly Asian writing and media:

In Asian writing, everyone and their grandma can become a god...but just as gods can ascend, so can they fall. To that, what everyone and their grandma wants more than to become a god--more than becoming a supreme being--

Is to slaughter the gods.

//I'm sure most people would be familiar with such a trope especially in Asian media--books, shows, games--somewhere along the line you will definitely fight god(s) and kill them. JRPGs are notorious in the implementation of this trope.

And the reason isn't anything complex: it's just very simply that gods are allegory in Asian writing as representative of oppression and oppressive ideals--especially in the context of failed social systems.

Slaying a god is the equivalent of freeing yourself from their oppression; overthrowing their authority and saying "on what grounds do I have to subject myself to the whims of another? Just because someone is supposedly better, stronger, more powerful...then it is only right that the rest have to lie down and take their abuse? Suffer the consequences of their shitty acts and choices?"

Which leads to the natural progression that is: if you want a world that is supposedly built, created and as close as were everyone is equal --a human-made paradise where everyone grasps their own fate and destiny-- the first thing to do is to start at level one; to rebel and to kill the gods. That's how anyone can begin to move away from the past and walk towards a future that truly belongs to them.

[Admittedly, I do somewhat see this as part of the reason why I was fairly confused by people being upset with Kurt's arc in Krakoa; in a world where they are trying to establish themselves as free from the past, what he did actually makes the most sense in comparison from to the rest of his compatriots.]

Though I suppose, I also can't ignore that there is cultural difference when it comes to viewing the idea of defying a supposedly supreme divine being. As well as the concept of divine/god(s).

[argumate]

(spoilers for Glass Onion)

the first Knives Out told the tragic story of a fucked up family, and family is always a convenient justification for a bunch of messed up people to be hanging out together and one that most of us are all too familiar with in real life.

Glass Onion told the story of a bunch of college (?) friends who hung out together at a particular bar, when one of them brought in a smooth talking idiot loser who must have had superpowers of some kind as he hooked the rest up with successful careers before becoming a billionaire himself based on her work and then betrayed her with the support of the others who defended him in court.

that's already a little weird! "a reclusive rich guy invites a group of people to his private island for a dinner during which someone will be murdered" is a classic premise but having the people all be college friends from way back doesn't add anything when they're already tied together by the fact that they committed perjury to defend the rich guy in exchange for his support!

business partners falling out is a solid premise (The Social Network) and if they were lovers (were they? I'm actually not sure) then that adds even more drama, but having this quite disparate bunch of characters be college friends only matters if you delve into their relationships and group dynamic, which the movie has little interest in doing.

and it's such a wordcel movie, oh my god, it could not be less interested in how a billionaire becomes a billionaire or what distinguishes a good idea from a bad one, it doesn't try to take its own premise seriously at all, unlike the first movie which was at least about a writer who writes books, solid wordcel territory.

look at the characters:

a fashion model / designer who tweets ethnic slurs, except of course she's not racist, she doesn't realise that they're slurs, that's a much worse crime: she's ignorant! she thinks that "sweatshop" is where they make "sweatpants"! classic bluecheck attitude where actual racism doesn't exist and economic exploitation is accidental and the worst crime someone could commit is being unaware of the proper shibboleths.

a Joe Rogan / Alex Jones MRA type ("sorry feminists") who of course is a manbaby pushed around by his mother; obviously he has to die.

the Elon Musk / Adam Neumann billionaire CEO who is both genius opportunist and shambling moron who can barely speak; unclear whether his garbled explanation of "disruption" represents the intellectual bankruptcy of actual disruptors or the writer's lack of comprehension of the term.

a black scientist who is very smart and plays basically no role in the movie; it's unclear why he would commit perjury given that he's the smartest character and could just go work somewhere else, hopefully not the implication that structural racism prevents him from doing so and the bad guy is the only person who will give him a job (???).

a female politician who commits to a (dangerous?) powerplant design in exchange for campaign funding, the closest time the movie comes to actually touching on a meaningful issue before quickly skittering away.

technology is writing "AI" on a napkin and having that be worth billions of dollars, while knowing the right words to say and how to say them is a Prized Skill that is actually Important.

(it's notable that the woman who is supposedly going to start the next Google ("Alpha") moves to the well-known tech hub of New York after finishing high school, not San Francisco!)

now these may seem like silly points to harp on for what is a silly murder mystery movie but the lack of sincere commitment to the premise undermines the emotional arc of the characters: it could be a comedy about them finally breaking free of the self-interest that has kept them loyal to the bad guy, or a tragedy about the ramifications of failing to break free and continuing their descent into hatred for each other and themselves, but both of those possibilities fall flat if the writers don't really care as why should we.

the hero and protagonist of the story ends up being the victim's sister, but the victim herself is barely given the chance to speak, let alone to explain what she saw in the bad guy, why she made that deal with the devil, and what other compromises she made to create a giant AI tech empire (!).

there are better stories here waiting to be told.

[thatludicrousdisplay]

okay okay okay okay okay i've been rewatching it crowd this week and rn i'm watching s2ep1 again. this must be my 20th rewatch at *least* by now, but this time i was struck by how much the conversation between moss and phillip could be seen as a metaphor for moss being gay coded (save all the other parts of the episode, of course)

moss: phillip, who are you talking to? me or Jen?

is there history between moss and phillip? do they know each other outside of their obvious connection through jen? if they do, i would not be surprised at *all* if moss was looking for an in. don't get me wrong, he doesn't pick up on social cues very well (very much due to him being likely canonically autistic), but i think he definitely knew that phillip was talking about a date.

phillip: do you like the theatre?

moss: never been

i think phillip picks up on moss' vibes here, and decides to use the theatre as a metaphor as he tries to figure out if moss is gay or cockblocking him with jen. his body language in this scene is quite important: if you watch closely you can see he angles his body more towards moss, gestures towards him and makes clear eye contact, whereas before he was angled towards jen and only kept glancing towards moss when talking. and again, moss' response suggests that he's never really been in a gay relationship, which, let's be real, isn't that much of a surprise. i've always personally thought of moss as someone who be confused as to his identity not through repression necessarily, but through sheer not knowing

moss: but I've, uh... I've always liked the idea of the theatre - the smell of the grease, the roar of the paint

it's men. he likes men guys.

moss: I've often thought if I hadn't ended up in computers, I would have gone into the theatre.

this line stumps me a little btw. maybe something about the nature of their (meaning moss and roy's) job separating them from the rest of the building and therefore the reynholm industries dating pool? or it could be him saying "yeah i could've been a little whore but i like computers so eh". if you have any thoughts please god let me know

phillip: but you've never been to see a play?

moss: no

phillip: why not?

is it just me, but does phillip sound almost disappointed when moss says he's never been to see a play. this could easily be misconstrued as a theatre lover's pity, but i think it goes deeper than this. i feel like 'play' is being used as a metaphor to represent being with a man in the (non)biblical sense. and notice how moss takes a moment before answering, almost as if he's considering what he's going to say. if someone asks you if you've ever been to see a play, you don't take that second or two, you probably know right away. once again, phillip is talking directly to moss. when roy interrupts a few moments after this small interaction he looks up and seems almost surprised to find other people in the room, including the woman he's supposedly wooing.

moss: never had the interest

moss could definitely be asexual or demisexual. he takes a small moment again, but seems confident in his answer. i don't think he's lying to phillip to try and make himself seem aloof or holier-than-thou, but i think he's being honest with a man with whom he is experiencing a level of attraction (whether that be romantic or sexual). of course i do personally think there is a long-standing will-they-won't-they situation with moss and roy, but i do think he's being truthful. maybe he's trying to be a little bit flirty. i could see him trying to do that, trying something he's seen on tv perhaps? idk i just love him okay <<<3

seriously tho i love this idiot little man so much and i just want him to be happy and comfortable in his sexuality

[rockinlibrarian]

Your husband sucks and you should leave him. Politics are personal and there will come a time when his violent beliefs get turned against you. Really, by actively supporting causes meant to specifically disenfranchise you, he already has. You are not above this.

Maybe I should put a note on that post linking to answers. I appreciate that people are worried. We're all worried. But you're misunderstanding what I'm trying to say, and honestly I'm kind of sad for everyone who has such strict black and white views about people that they've cut off so many potential connections. The ironic thing is that that's exactly what the GOP has been trying to do in their campaigns lately-- trying to Other entire groups of people. Illegal immigrants (and even just immigrants). Trans people. People who live in those Crime-infested Cities (ie non-white people). But you know they do that already. That's why you hate them.

You can't allow yourself to be like that, even in opposition to them. The GOP party is an authoritarian nightmare right now, and yes, voting for them is dangerous, for some groups more than others, but for all of us in the long run. But it wasn't always this way-- and I'm not even talking about how the parties switched which was the liberal one and which was the conservative one in the mid 20th century. I'm not saying there weren't always horrible people IN the Republican party (but it's not like there haven't been horrible people in the Democratic party either-- heck, Trump himself used to be a Democrat), but they weren't so BLANTANTLY TRUMPETING the awfulness, so lots of, yes, GOOD people were and are Republicans.

NO, HEAR ME OUT.

My grandma, several of my aunts and cousins-- kindest people you'll ever meet-- they firmly believe(d) (my grandma's long gone now) that abortion is murder. They're fierce Pro-Lifers. Now, they'd never bomb a Planned Parenthood clinic or even harrass people going to one-- and in before you say "Yeah, but they're on their SIDE so they EFFECTIVELY support those actions" -- I KNOW THAT, and I also know that criminalizing abortion just gets MORE people killed and offering AID to struggling mothers through progressive programs actually prevents way MORE abortions so it's BETTER to have progressives in office if you REALLY want to stop it-- but that's not my point! My point is these women in my family are so passionate about stopping what they believe is wanton slaughter of the innocents that they've fully bought into the propaganda that paints organizations like Planned Parenthood as heartless murderers, that people who say "I don't think abortion should be illegal" are condoning murder, and it paints their political views. They so believe that they're SAVING lives that they frankly don't BELIEVE that anyone on their side about abortion could be responsible for SO MUCH MORE DEATH through the REST of the party's platform.

(This is the one that gets me-- we're Catholic, right? You gathered that with my fiercely Pro-Life family members? The official Catholic Pro-Life stance is NOT just anti-abortion, not even just anti-abortion and anti-birth control-- it's ALSO anti- death penalty and pro- protecting the environment! Do you EVER see the supposedly "Pro-Life" politicians fighting for THOSE last two issues???? OF COURSE YOU DON'T, because it's all political propaganda serving the politicians themselves! But that doesn't erase the GENUINE feelings of Stopping the Slaughter that these devotedly Pro-Life women I know have!)

Propaganda is designed to take advantage of people's emotions. It's designed to make people support bad things by convincing them that the things are good instead. Take, for example, a political ad I heard the other day that really riled me up. It was trying to get people NOT to vote for the other guy (it was a state representative race I think? Not for my county) by saying "He signed a bill allowing BIOLOGICAL MEN to compete in girls' sports and even SHARE A LOCKER ROOM with OUR GIRLS!" I actually yelled at the radio, "Did you SERIOUSLY just SAY THAT? Right there on the RADIO?" The thing is, I'm on Tumblr all the time, I KNOW how offensively that statement warps the concept of letting trans girls play girls' sports, but someone who DOESN'T actually know any trans people or follow trans rights matters is not going to see through these carefully chosen words so easily-- the use of "men" vs. "girls," as if all the kids involved weren't the same age; the use of "OUR" girls, positing these so-called "biological men" as outside forces endangering OUR FAMILIES, never mind that those "biological men" are all someone else's "our girls." But if you don't know the truth, it really sounds like you're protecting your loved ones by embracing what is actually anti-trans rhetoric.

No one is immune to propaganda, as the meme says. If you don't have experiences to challenge it, if you don't make a point of recognizing its techniques, you'll fall for it, and a lot of good people have fallen for it. That's just one example. There's hundreds, thousands of instances on all sides of politics and even in matters that aren't considered political-- advertising in general really. The one that suckered my husband in is "socialism=Communism=Fascism." We grew up during the Cold War, and he loved/loves the action movies of the time, in which the Bad Guys were basically always The Communists. A steady diet of all that and now you cannot convince him that there's a difference between a progressive government-run assistance program and Stalin-- so much that he's now, despite his wife and two kids' insistence otherwise, certain that the current Democratic party, because it supports government aid programs, is a bigger threat to freedom than the party embracing the guy who outright promises to punish all his political enemies and holds up dictators as his role models. Because SOCIALISM IS COMMUNISM IS ANTI-AMERICAN.

That's where he's messed up. Yeah. I am not for one second saying his belief is valid. I am not for one millisecond saying his votes or anyone else's votes for those fascists won't have very dangerous consequences. And I'm not happy about it! But that still doesn't turn him into a stereotypical wife-beating gay-bashing neo-Nazi ("you just haven't had the chance to see him that way! You just wait!" I've known him 25 years. I've seen him grieving, drunk, furious, overjoyed, giddy, you name it. You don't even know what his name is).

The reason I insist on replying, and on even reblogging that initial post in the first place, is I want us all to be real clear on who the enemy is here. We're in a scary place in this country with people being pitted against each other. If the tyrants win the election we're all in deep trouble. But if they don't, they're going to rile up their party into thinking they've been wronged somehow, they're going to encourage violence, and some people will act on it; and here's where we get to my point: MOST conservatives, who've been sucked into the party for one seemingly justified reason or another, ARE NOT GOING TO BE THAT WAY. You honestly think my sweet-tempered aunt is going to storm the Capitol with a pipe bomb because she believes abortion is murder? Even my husband the gun nut disapproved of the January 6th debacle.

But if WE, the ones who already know how badly their support of the current GOP sucks, refuse to love these moderate Republicans anyway, insist that they're no better than the worst of their party, turn them away, make them our enemies? Where are they going to turn? Right, to the extremists, who will say "We told you so, we were RIGHT to hate those Lefties, see? JOIN US IN OUR QUEST FOR VENGEANCE!"

Yes, they are already supporting awful proposals with awful consequences. But how will they ever see the error of their ways if their only friends are the ones who will encourage them to be so much worse?

The enemy is not the average conservative. The enemy is the "news" organizations, the billionaires with agendas, the power-hungry politicians, who have brainwashed the average conservative into believing electing a megalomanic idiot is actually a good idea. If you are actually in an abusive situation with a gung-ho conservative then by all means GET OUT. But chances are there are many more conservatives who just need to see that there's a better way, and who's going to show them that way but you?

[holydrakes]

I saw a writing somewhere before rereading SE awhile ago that Soul Eater supposedly owed its popularity with female readers despite being shonen and has a whole lot of the usual uncomfortable fanservice thanks to the romance and attractive males, and I was like, huh, romance? You mean between Soul and Maka? Didn't their relationship stay platonic tho, you mean the 'shipping'? But I can name other fandoms (of non-romance works) more obsessed with 'shipping' (as in there are loads and loads of different fanon ships and all of them equally insanely popular. MHA is such a fandom and I've never seen MHA being referred to be popular with female readers because of the 'romance' but because of the 'shipping') and in SE SoMa is like the one ship people overly focus on and write endless metas about throughout its run because frankly their bond is the most focused on due to being the co-protagonists. The other ships are just kind of taken more casually and people seem to ship them more for fun...

And then I rewatch and reread the series and started thinking: uhhh, yeah...now I noticed that even from the very first chapter the story already kind of frames the nature of their technically just professional relationship as supposedly no different to a romantic one (lumping together 'loyalty' between work partners as supposedly the same as 'loyalty' between romantic partners. Out loud.) and then this odd way of treating their relationship as if it's no different to a romantic one didn't really stop since it got brought back again later in another arc that's supposed to test out the bond of their relationship (there really was no need to frame Soul getting partner requests as akin to him getting many female admirers who asked for his partnership with love letters and what looked like to be love confessions) How some of Soul and Maka's moments of intimacy had to use borderline romantic tropes like sharing a dance inside the mind during a dangerous battle, how when they share a mind space to showcase how they're partners connected by the soul they are made to wear matching fancy outfits as if they are a couple about to share a waltz, how the evolution of their soul resonance is represented by them sharing more and more intimate hand-holding and physical contacts, how their bond is explored and developed by them navigating dysfunctions in their relationship, including accepting each other's differences, and becoming closer and understanding of each other better that way and by the end of the story, these two are pretty much set to becoming partners for life for how deeply they understand each other and how their differences mean nothing in the way they treasure and love each other's company.

There's also how after a certain point, Maka and Soul did start exhibiting what looked like to be hints of actual romantic attraction with one another what's with Maka outright wishing her relationship with Soul can be a bit more like that of an in-universe romantic couple in nature and Soul showing that he doesn't seem to be against the idea right after, all of this represented with both of them blushing (bonus points that this particular instance did mark the time their relationship started having more romantic undertones for the rest of the manga along with them starting to share more intimate levels of physical intimacy that were unseen before such as the increased focus in their hand-holding)

With all of this, I now understand that Soul Eater, when you read it mostly for Maka and Soul in particular, does seem to be a romance story (or at least it'd be no different to it) it got all the important parts that people look for in a romance (mainly the focus of two people's commitment and understanding and choosing each other above all else) just without the things that would make it identified as such (no explicit declarations of romantic love, no explicit grand of romantic gestures like kissing etc)

[talenlee]

A Conspiracy's Theory

Something that a few friends have been surprised to learn with the recent Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond product, is that I for some reason, am someone who is familiar with the deep lore of Assassins Creed. Oh, not the current games – in fact, after Assassins Creed 3 the only Assassins Creed game I played at all was Assassins Creed Liberation, meaning that I’m something of an originalist in the extremely silly space that is Assassins Creed.

Now, if you’re like me and think ‘oh yeah I know about Altair and Ezio’ and think that you checked out of Assassins Creed at that point and therefore you’re familiar with ‘a lot’ of Assassins Creed, you’re really, really out of date. That period of five years represents maybe six games, and the franchise has since then kept spilling out to 14 ‘main’ games and 17 ‘spinoff’ games. Which is to say, that period of history, the ‘start’ of the franchise story, covers about a fifth of the games in this sprawling franchise, and are the defining framework that the rest of the games follow.

What I think is remarkable then is the idea of ever caring about any of the games after that point strikes me as an interesting non-starter.

In a time when people seem to be thinking deeply about the sanctity of the history touched upon by this incredibly stupid franchise, because they want to use the word ‘DEI’ as if it was just the n-word, it was the first time I was given a reason to think about this series and what it meant to me, as someone who had played a lot of them and then done a hard stop.

I have a theory about this.

It is literally a conspiracy theory.

Spoilers for all of Assassins Creed up to Assassins Creed 3.

First there was the Creed. Assassins Creed releases in 2007 on a bunch of platforms, and it was, generally, heralded as good. It was good in a way that showed ways it could be developed. Some elements of the game were very strong and some elements were a little weak. There was resistance, there were limits, but the technical challenges of what the game was and what it needed to get made meant that there was a certain kind of air of prestige to it. Assassins Creed was promoted as both something special in terms of how it got made and what it was trying to do. Real history, real geography, what an impressive and cool thing it was, and it even got to stand in that weirdly respectable space of talking about Muslim culture without being necessarily enormous assholes about it.

Make no mistake: Assassins Creed would not give you useful insights or historical context for what it was like being a Muslim in Syria in the 1100s. Even though he was stated as being born to a Muslim pair of parents, I don’t think as a player who has indulged in a lot of Altair-ing around, that I learned anything about his faith and beliefs as a Muslim. Despite this though, this was 2007, it was a big swing to depict characters from the region at all as not inhuman monsters and to present Crusaders as actually bad.

Anyway, it arrived, it was a game that we call good by all the useful metrics and it was exciting. It presented in its first piece a mystery story and a promise of more. Because yes, this was the story of Altair Ibn-La’Ahad, but it was a story you accesed through the story of Desmond, a schlubby bartender from the modern day who was supposedly descended from the Assassins and it was left somewhat ambiguous as to what was going on.

It’s been years since this was new, since this was still a mystery, but at this point it was a point of genuine uncertainty as to whether or not Desmond was an Assassin who was being turbo-upskilled by his memory diving, or if he was Just Some Guy who had the right genetic thread, and the first game wasn’t clear on that. In the process, he got the attention of one Lucy Stillman, who worked for Abstergo, the head of the Templars, and in the last moments of Assassins Creed, Lucy revealed herself to be a secret member of the Assassins and broke him out of Abstergo! You went from playing the Assassin things through the interface of the Animus, with all the videogame trappings, to play without that interface and instead play Desmond doing all the cool assassin things.

There was the promise! Suddenly, we had a new story, expanding, and the Animus was out of our reach! What would be our next development?

Anyway, then we get Assassins Creed 2, which was pretty much exactly what you expect of a sequel. It was a bigger game, it had more stuff in it, it was largely better in all the ways people care about, and because it was being made by people with access to all the experience and skill of making Assassins Creed 1, it wasn’t hard to recognise the ways it was better. Consider the boss battle finale of Assassins Creed 1 which is fighting Al Mualim in an open field (who cares) and in Assassins Creed 2, you fist-fight the Pope in the Vatican.

The story had a clear set-up. Desmond dives into a more recent period of history to take on the role of Ezio Auditore, who was an Assassin who was renowned for his ability to fight, and the experience of diving into his memory was meant to be a training experience for Desmond. See, they were preparing Desmond. He was getting ready to start fighting. You see, there was a very clear direction in Assassins Creed 2 for the story to focus on and then, then, then…

Nothing happened.

What we got next was instead of Assassins Creed 3, we got Assassins Creed Brotherhood, which felt like a mission pack for Assassins Creed 2, a sort of temporary stand-in-space where the story builds a treadmill then starts running on it. Then we get Assassins Creed Revelations which is the same treadmill, with a lower incline because there’s less nowhere to go to.

But that’s not to say nothing happened in those two games. One very important thing happened, which is Kristen Bell stopped being a sorta mid-league actor who could be afforded by the crap factory at Ubisoft. It was that special price point where Ubisoft’s story department would pay for like, a Star Trek actor, but not an actor actor. And that meant the story arc being built up in Assassins Creed 1 and 2 got to take a sudden hard swerve to the very important task of completely cutting out the Lucy Stillman plot, by killing her then revealing she was all along a Templar, and at this point, at this point, I started to consider that maybe in fact, this story wasn’t going anywhere. Maybe there was never going to be a Desmond game where he was the protagonist even if I didn’t like him.

If you go back and listen to me on old podcasts from ten years ago, you might find that I didn’t like Desmond and I think that that’s still a fair impression. He was both boring and annoying, someone who both lacked enough personality to carry a game and someone who only showed up in the story to interrupt me from doing something cool I liked doing.

And yet.

And yet.

When I got to Assassins Creed 3, I played it for just long enough to get sick of America, a culture that I think we can all accept is just a flat-out mistake, right? Anyway, that’s where I tapped out. I tapped out and watched the story on Youtube and saw how the narrative I’d spent five games and six actual years of my life paying attention to, farted out wetly. The culmination of this story is that Desmond spends some time being mad at his dad, and then gives his life to save earth from an exploding sun.

It is a complete out of context narrative at that point. What started as a mystery about retrieving information from the memory of the past, is now instead about Ancient Aliens making machinery that will blow up the sun in accordance with a prophecy that works on a functionally arbitary timetable.

This was what Assassins Creed was ‘about.’ This was the story that the games were built towards and it was also supposedly a billion dollars in overall game production costs. And the thing is, when I talk about storytelling in videogames, I normally bring up Assassins Creed when I want to point out that the mechanisms of the triple A game industry don’t have the means to create a meaningful story.

And this is where I veer into my theory.

I think Assassins Creed 1 succeeded. Then I think Assassins Creed 2 was successful enough that Ubisoft changed the parameters and decided agnostic of the games that they needed to make more games in those parameters. It was the kind of mindset that said there wasn’t going to be a game about a story but instead units of game produced within certain genre parameters. It’s a consideration of games as a sausage factory where the tube gets cut and twisted at different points and that’s how you got two more games that were, realistically speaking, perfectly fun games in their own way, but which if they were divorced from the ‘story’ elements of it they’d be better games.

My theory is that whatever Desmond game they were working on got pushed down the line to make room for the most recent Ezio game. Whatever it was doing was more ambitious, freerunning in a modern or cyberpunk city, that got harder and harder, that got more and more challenging compared to mapping historical cities. And in the process, it became less and less and specific, until there was this chunk of a game, this demand of a game that didn’t have anywhere to be or anything to do.

I think that Desmond Game got spun off and eventually reused for parts to be made into Watch_Dogs.

This is, all of it, a conspiracy theory. It is unprovable and unfalsifiable. Anyone who wants to talk about the inner workings of Ubisoft in 2007 is not likely to be able to give entirely trustworthy information. Any of the institutional memory is degraded. There is probably proof of things like Watch_Dogs existing before that point, even as just a hypothetical, and the disjointed story of Assassins Creed, pissbowl knockoff of Chariots of the Gods it wound up becoming.

It does make sense to me, though and whenever I think about it, I just get a little embarrassed how much of the lore of Assassins Creed I bothered to remember given how little it seems to care about what it’s supposed to be.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!