lady-raziel

[lady-raziel]

i generally think it's not a good way to live to hold grudges against people for unimportant things, but i also think it's extremely funny to have beef with someone over something so minor that they probably didn't even know it happened, especially if that person barely knows you exist in the first place. like forgive and forget, unless you are among my notable nemeses such as "man who didn't hold the elevator for me when i was carrying a large package," "chairman of the house budget committee for the US house of representatives," and "well known filmmaker and director M Night Shyamalan."

#one of those nemeses is made up and the real twist is that it isn't even shyamalan

[lady-raziel]

My favorite interpretation of the Ghoul from the Fallout show is that he acts like he doesn’t give a shit about anything anymore to mask the fact that he actually gives many shits about every single thing but the latter is too painful to deal with 🫠

#fallout #fallout prime #the ghoul

[lady-raziel]

me writing: i am a god and reality bends to my whims

me proofreading: im too stupid to be alive

[lady-raziel]

Firmly believe that the best and funniest perk they could add to the Fallout games that would also be an amazing reason for character motivations would be “Canadian citizen.”

#fallout #like it isn't even that much of a stretch if there are perks that make you gay or a cannibal #it would be amazing if you had a character so totally dedicated to defeating the enclave and also the ncr and bos (emulating prewar america #and at the end someone is like 'so why do you hate these guys so much?' #and the character is like 'i'm from fucking manitoba' #and then beats someone to death with a hockey stick

[lady-raziel]

this frame from the fallout tv show is so funny i nearly puked watching it

[lady-raziel]

that middle aged white woman is a karen to YOU. to me she's a shonen protagonist. hope this helps

[lady-raziel]

I’m going to credit Unus Annus’ Hunting Heehoo documentary for teaching the internet that television quality content doesn’t have to have an inflated budget

#they had drone shots. they had professionally recorded voiceover. it was more cinematic than anything christopher nolan has ever made. #and it didn't break the bank because they infilled the rest of unus annus with drinking their own piss and looking at memes from the reddit #hunting heehoo deserved an oscar and it's GONE. you understand? #this is what i'd become the joker over i think

[lady-raziel]

For those who might not know; good. you don't want to.

#this was my roman empire

[lady-raziel]

tucker carlson inspires less visceral horror to me as a person if i pretend he is merely a fallout npc i see echoes of in the game before ultimately finding his skeleton later on in a comedic yet poetic tableau that reflects the folly of pre-nuclear war america. unfortunately reality is not authored by todd howard. perhaps this is a blessing. perhaps it would be better if i was able to load up my hoarded belongings and violently launch them at people i don't like and the main problem i faced in life was finding a lost relative. who's to say.

#fallout #fallout 4 #i know y'all don't agree but i've been laying down banger posts today one after another #and ring a ding ding this is one of them

[lady-raziel]

@statictay you understand the vision

didn't read this headline fully as i was scrolling through my homepage and for a few seconds fully lived in a universe where zack snyder was remaking the twilight saga

[lady-raziel]

didn't read this headline fully as i was scrolling through my homepage and for a few seconds fully lived in a universe where zack snyder was remaking the twilight saga

#would pay to watch robert pattinson batman fight robert pattinson edward cullen tbh #jacob v edward: dawn of justice would be fire lets be real

[lady-raziel]

i'd make a great soothsayer that lives on a distant mountaintop that you have to travel many days and nights and endure countless trials to reach because my answer to a lot of complicated questions in the world is "it doesn't matter. you must let your heart decide, and that will be the truth." alas i work at a budget office, and the economy is in shambles because too many venture capitalists apparently believed the same thing. turns out the answer to the national debt crisis is not "believe your own truth." a tragedy.

[lady-raziel]

if i was in a book i'd be considered bad representation for all communities im part of

#“this asexual aromantic woman thinks arthur maxson from fallout 4 would be an ideal significant other. task manager; kill this disgrace.” #that would be what they say about me before anything else

[lady-raziel]

For the record does the Watcher thing going on mean it's immoral to consume Watcher content now?

this is a strange ask, and i'm also aware that this was sent before the update video came out and the news might change whether or not you care, so assuming this is a genuine question that you're asking because you really want my take on it (people try to ask "gotcha" questions in asks all the time, so you have to take things with a grain of salt), i will answer this genuinely.

it is not up to me, or anyone else for that matter, to decide what media in your life is "moral" or not. morals are complicated. morals are squishy. morals can and should change as you grow and evolve and sticking to one steadfast idea of what is right and wrong has gotten a lot of people in trouble for basically the whole of human history. it's up to you to decide what you believe in, while taking care to make sure that the same things you're standing for aren't the ones you're going to fall for. it's really important that you make up your mind for yourself about how everything from your politics and religion to what you buy and yes, what media you consume, fits into your own sense of morality. big picture shit-- that's how you become a well-rounded person who doesn't get taken advantage of by the countless people who want to sell you their ideas of right and wrong to serve their own motives.

it's hard, i get it, to not just say "well, xyz group of people says this thing is bad, and i agree with them about other stuff, so i'll just go along with them." we all bandwangon to a certain extent, whether for the sake of convenience or to be accepted by those we respect or many other reasons. i do this too, certainly-- there's no need to share every opinion you have on the internet with everyone even if it's not controversial.

but please, if i'm able to impress on you anything that you can take away from my silly blog, it would be that you shouldn't let other people decide what media is "right" or "wrong" to watch based on THEIR moral sensibilities. Use your best judgement and decide that for yourself, based on what you believe. Someone is always going to disagree with you. Sometimes a lot of someones are going to disagree with you. Don't let that stop you from exercising your right to have your own opinion.

Consuming a certain type of media does not automatically make you a good and/or bad person. Lots of bad shit happens in the bible. lots of moral shit can happen in a porn-filled 50-part destiel omegaverse mpreg deconstruction of gender norms too. (i'm making that second one up, but i have no doubt someone will send me an ask later wondering if i'm referring to a specific fic. no. but godspeed.)

i'm pontificating now. i like to take small things and make them into big, important things. that's my poison of choice. but yeah. this is a question you have to answer for yourself if you want the answer to mean anything real.

#do i put this in the main tag? #i think...everyone has heard enough from me today #i will let the big questions of life remain comfortably on my blog for the dedicated follower willing to slog through markiplier memes

[lady-raziel]

Hey I’m loving all your thoughts on the Watcher situation (I know I personally can’t stop thinking about what a WILD decision this was from them and am glad someone else is staring at the situation like a cat watching a bird outside the window) and now that they posted an actual Response as of like an hour ago, I’m curious to your thoughts on it. It seems like a step in the right direction to me and certainly a walk back from the initial video

hi! yeah-- i posted a full long response which you can find here. to sum up what i said there, it's a good response despite the fumbles. as i've said this whole time, i don't have any ill will towards them and while i'm not going to say "wow! this apology solves everything and we can all just forget the last three days happened!" i think it shows self-awareness and potential for growth, which are both very good signs. i've never been one to see someone mess up and think "i guess they're bad forever now," especially when this really was just a poorly thought-out business decision. when someone shoots themself in the foot i'd rather call an ambulance and sign them up for a gun safety class than let them bleed out on the floor, but idk.

#watcher

[lady-raziel]

long reaction to the update

ok. so they put out an update video! since i've been commentating for the last three days i might as well subject you all to more of my thoughts today.

main takeaway: this was a good apology video. i mean it. short and to the point, no overproduction, heartfelt and honest (and not a ukelele to be seen. thank god.) they took ownership of the situation, apologized, and restated how much they value their relationship with the fandom.

their solution is to make the watcher tv platform into kind of an iteration of patreon where content is available for early access before it is released onto youtube later. this is clearly a better option than paywalling everything for everyone. i'm not sure what the relative breakdown of costs turns out to be when you compare how much they were making on patreon after the platform took their cut VS how much it costs in overhead to run and maintain their own platform (how much it costs annually to contract via Vimeo, essentially). but i'm sure that's part of the calculation.

all things considered, that does seem like the best option out of all the alternatives. it allows them to not completely abandon any of the pans they have simmering over the fire for the time being. i don't think i ever thought they were going to just say "oops, forget about the streaming thing! let's pretend that never happened!" because at this point they've invested quite a lot of time and money into it, and i don't disagree that keeping it in some iteration may help them make up some of the funds they're lacking.

i would say, it's fine to keep the streamer. this is one of the ok outcomes, all things considered-- but if they're going to do it, they've GOT to do it smart from this point forward. listen to both the fans and the consultants intimately. both are going to have valid points, and both are going to be right. listening to too much of either side will sink this thing because each has motives and expertise that the other doesn't. if the fans say $6 is too much, listen to them-- but have conversations with business consultants about how much you realistically need to charge to make things work.

also, i'd use this whole situation as a learning experience. watcher is a young company, and it's literally inevitable that mistakes will happen. what's different is that the watcher crew haven't really been in a position before where they've been on the receiving end of the internet-angry-justice-hammer to this extent. it's one thing to watch it happen to others, but it's a position of extreme privilege (and a bit of hubris) to think "but that won't happen to me, because i'm built different." naw, man-- two things in life are inevitable: death and fuckups. the callout posts get us all in the end.

what's really important is that they use this as a wakeup call that even the most loyal fandoms will only follow you so far to the cliff's edge, and you don't want to push that. you have to strike a balance between the passion projects that you think are worthy and the stuff that maybe doesn't excite you as much anymore but the people want to see. a little fanservice keeps the lights on, as unfair as that might seem. i'm gonna make 50 markiplier choccy milk memes just so i can make one niche political joke once and a while for 6 likes. it is what it is.

i'd also use this as a chance to take a very careful look at company structure and finances. it's not fun to do and nobody likes it. trust me-- this is hard whether you're a single adult trying to pay the bills or the freaking US government (speaking from experience on both-- i have to read the president's budget for work frequently). but you all have to ask hard questions about the ratio of creative staff you take on VS staff for administrative and other business roles, as well as the costs and benefits of everything you spend money on. how many staff members are essential to location shoots? can this video be shot with 2 cameras instead of 3 and thus you don't need another cameraperson? you might even have to come to the decision that instead of pitching a new show it makes more sense to use those funds to hire your essential non-creative roles or contract firms or freelancers.

paying staff a fair wage with benefits speaks highly of what watcher wants their values to be. it's hard to find such a position in a creative role and still actually get to work on things you care about. but it would be much worse if watcher didn't make realistic decisions about finances and it lead to the death of the company and everyone losing their jobs. the whole watcher company can work, in my opinion, but not without some sacrifices. they're going to have to run it more like a business and less like a youtube-channel-turned-business in the future if they want to survive.

last thing i'll add is that while i do think this was a good apology video, i still think they hurt themselves by not putting out some sort of statement on Friday or Saturday just to say that they were formulating a response. As i've said in other posts, it's ok and in fact beneficial to not make a kneejerk reaction, but it's also very important to communicate that you SEE what's happening. you SEE what people are saying and THAT'S why you need more time to respond. saying nothing and leaving the angry public to wonder if you dropped your phone off the Hoover Dam or just don't care? that's a fumble. it's a common mistake companies make in a crisis, but that doesn't mean it doesn't erode trust fast.

this could have been handled better in many ways. we see that, and i'm glad watcher says they see that too. crucial going forward is taking all this and patching the errors that caused all this to fall apart and learning from the experience.

tbh at this point what i'm most sad about is that the watcher crew have probably been too stressed out and upset to appreciate some of the absolute bangers people have been laying down to clown on them. i think if it wasn't about them they might be touched by the collective attitude and creative spirit. /j

#watcher #watcher tv #after this post i have got to actually not spend time writing long reactions about this anymore because i too #have fires caused by my own fuckups to put out #alas

[lady-raziel]

raz ur so smart and ur takes are all so true and wise. i love you

i'm going to print this out and submit this to those grading my thesis in lieu of my actual thesis. this is what they need to know and of course should be enough evidence for them to grant me my degree no questions asked. thank you kindly.

#i love you toooo