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tragicbeauty1991 · 14 days

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So I know I’m extremely late to the party, but I FINALLY got around to watching Wish now that it’s up on Disney+ and…I genuinely don’t understand why it got so much hate?? Sure, maybe it wasn’t on par with things like The Lion King or Frozen in terms of the lasting effect it’ll have on pop culture but it was still a good, fun film with original characters and plot and catchy songs. While I can see where some of the complaints are coming from, I feel like ultimately most of them blow the issues out of proportion. As for my personal thoughts on the film…

- The songs were good overall. Maybe not as memorable as some of my favorite ‘90s Disney jams, but topping Phil Collins and Elton John is admittedly hard to do. Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine were great, though. I honestly had no idea Chris Pine could sing so well. “At All Costs” was by far my favorite song of the entire film. I would have loved to see it as a love duet rather than singing to the wishes but regardless, it’s beautiful. “This is the Thanks I Get” got a lot of flak, but honestly, I thought it was catchy and fun—rather reminiscent of Gaston’s pub song about himself.

- Speaking of Magnifico… More backstory, please! I would love for a sequel to do what they did with Frozen and explain all the things that were not fully developed in the first film. I want to know details on what happened to Magnifico’s family… But man, oh man… Was I EVER happy to get a “real villain” again with more of a classic Disney feel—dramatic, over the top, a little unhinged…and just FUN. I think the reason so many people seem to be having a problem with him is that they don’t quite know how to categorize him, though, before his ultimate downward spiral after being possessed by the book. (I think after that point, no one would argue about him being a villain.) But before…while he’s definitely narcissistic and has a temper…he’s not straight-up evil. There’s a big difference in being a bit of a jerk and being someone who makes you legitimately fear for your life. In fact, we have several heroic characters in the Disney canon who at least start out their story in a similar vein. Prince Naveen, Peter Pan, and Emperor Kuzco, for example, are all full of themselves and entitled…but they ultimately choose to do the right thing when it comes down to people they care about. That is to say, Magnifico’s less than ideal character traits we see early on in the film shouldn’t automatically qualify him as a villain. He could frankly go either way. And then when he does “go dark” it’s ONE stupid decision on his part (going for the book) that ruins any chance he had of being like the aforementioned characters. Personally, I like the complexity…and the tragedy of what it means for Queen Amaya. Which reminds me…

- Yes, a villain power couple would have been fun. But honestly, I think I like this better. Partly because of the angst potential here. For all his faults, Amaya DOES genuinely love him, and watching him slowly lose his mind and himself to the power-hungry monster he becomes has to be absolutely heartbreaking for her. Also…maybe it’s just because I identify with Amaya here. I have been in a bad relationship where I did truly love the other person and thought they loved me…but ultimately, they seemed to love themselves more. And I made excuse after excuse for his behavior for a long time because I couldn’t see what he was doing to me…didn’t want to see it…because I loved him. People say Amaya had to have known sooner that something rotten was going on but I don’t know that she ever allowed herself to think anything other than the best of him. Amaya has a good heart…and sometimes those people see the best in others even when it isn’t there. What I really would have loved is to have Amaya and Magnifico sing a short reprise of “At All Costs” in which Amaya is asking, “Really? You’ll hoard all these wishes for your own selfish reasons even at the cost of losing your people’s love? Of losing me?” And Magnifico is just…stoically resolute. That would have hurt but it would have been so good!

- Similarly, I don’t get the complaint about Star. I wouldn’t mind seeing Star Boy like he was in the concept art and having a romance with Asha. But also…Star is ADORABLE, okay?? He may not speak but he has so much personality. Makes me think of like…Pascal in Tangled or even Tinkerbell.

- I know a lot of people complained about there being too many references to other Disney films but this just seems like a silly argument to me. Disney has always liked to leave little Easter eggs in their films and have some fun with crossovers. I am thinking of the Genie imitating Pinocchio and pulling Sebastian out of nowhere in Aladdin. Hidden characters in the background of other films like Flynn and Rapunzel showing up in Arendelle. Hidden Mickeys. And of course shows that were all about a Disney multi-verse that sort of pokes fun at itself like Once Upon a Time, House of Mouse, and even Ralph Breaks the Internet. With this being a special anniversary film, of course we ought to expect more nods to other films and Disney animation history. I thought it was cute. Especially Magnifico’s jab at Asha’s little moving drawing. (“Is that a talent?”) Made me literally laugh out loud.

- I think the one complaint I do agree with at least in part is the, “But Magnifico was right, though??” Some dreams shouldn’t come true. Especially if it’s a wish you’re making when you’re 18. There are definitely things I wished for at 18 that I am glad I did not get in hindsight. Sometimes what we wish for isn’t what’s best for us or others. And while Asha’s wishes are selfless and for others…she seems to assume that everyone else will also have equally harmless, selfless wishes. It’s sweet but perhaps a bit naive. Also…Asha has good intentions but it is rather funny and frustrating as the adult to watch this teenager come in and try to upset the whole system thinking she knows better than the person who has been running the kingdom for years. That said… Asha isn’t totally wrong either. The wishes do ultimately belong to the people who made them and it’s better even if it’s painful to have a dream in your heart than to be lacking purpose. It may be easier to forget the wishes entirely but certainly not healthier. Ironically, if only these two could have worked together, they actually would have made a great team.

Overall, I liked the film. And I think if I was still a child myself, I would have enjoyed it even more.

#wish #disney wish #wish 2023 #wish asha #princess asha #king magnifico #queen amaya #ariana debose #chris pine #Disney

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writingquestionsanswered · 5 months

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Concerned About Bad Faith Readers

Anonymous asked: Hello, I’m the anon who asked about the bad-faith readers. I'm also concerned about my own worldview or lived experiences not being the same as the bad-faith readers and them pouncing on me for that, which is something I’ve seen online. I’m an Indian Muslim who grew up in a very urban and progressive family, and my experiences with life and especially my religion are very different compared to many other Indians or Muslims (Indian or not), to say nothing about non-Muslim British/American readers who form a large part of the English-language readership. If I create a character based on my own experiences or relationship with my faith, my concern is that people would accuse me of “representing Muslims badly” or “not including X experience” or “not including Y group” in my writing because they’ve seen it in their country. But I’m not from that country and I’ve not had those experiences, so it’s not necessarily something that would be a part of my character’s story if they’re based on me. So that’s something that I’ve been concerned about. Thank you!

[Ask edited for length]

Bad faith readers go into books looking for something to hate or criticize. Their complaints can't be qualified by concerns about representation based on different lived experiences or differing worldviews. They're there only to tear a book and author down.

Bad faith readers don't choose random targets. They typically go after authors who run afoul of the reading community due to bad behavior. For example: poor response to being called out for representation issues, showing up in review spaces, arguing with or complaining about reviews/reviewers, or perpetuating harmful beliefs. If you're not out there doing those things, you have little to worry about from bad faith readers.

This is quite different from readers who take issue with your representation because it falls short of their lived experience, excludes or minimizes important representation, or is harmful in some way. This is not "bad faith." It's a qualified concern coming from someone with a different background who is demanding better representation. Without these voices, readers wouldn't have made the strides it has. And there's still so much more work to do, so these voices are just as important now as ever before.

In Anon's particular situation: consider why other Muslims might see your portrayal as bad representation. Is there anything you could do to clarify that this isn't misrepresentation but representation of a different experience? Consider why people might be concerned that you've left out X experience. Is there a reasonable expectation that this experience should be represented in your story? (For example: If I'm setting my story in a real world neighborhood in a real world city, and that neighborhood has long been populated by immigrants from a particular country, and they have been fighting gentrification for the past decade, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge and include this group of people and their fight against gentrification in my story.) Consider why people might be concerned that you left out Y group... is there a legitimate reason why people might expect Y group to be represented? (For example: If I'm writing a story that takes place in a small Louisiana town, I'm not going to feel bad for not having a character from the Scandinavian Sámi culture, because it's not reasonable to expect Sámi representation in a story based in Louisiana. However, if I'm writing a story that takes place in Arctic Europe in an area where there's a large Sámi population, there's now a reasonable expectation for Sámi representation in my story.) If the reader doesn't have a reasonable expectation for you to include X experience or Y group, don't worry about it. Just make sure your story is reflective of the real world and the time, place, and people of your setting.

At the end of the day, it really isn't possible to write a perfect book that pleases every reader, but we can try. Here are some things you can do to help minimize concerns about your representation and to avoid running afoul of trouble if you inadvertently make a mistake or fall short:

1 - Look at your story and consider how your lived experiences, privilege, colonial mindsets, preferences, and biases impact your representation of a character or situation and how that could potentially be harmful to readers from different backgrounds than yours. What can you change to be more inclusive or avoid anything harmful?

2 - Employ beta readers and sensitivity readers from a variety of relevant backgrounds to help improve representation and minimize harm.

3 - Stay out of review spaces. Reviews are for readers, not for authors. If you do see a review or rating that you disagree with, do not reply or otherwise comment. Do not message the reviewer. Do not complain about the review or rating on social media. Not even in a way that you think is subtle or veiled. Just do not comment. It isn't there for you.

4 - Avoid "hot takes," "unpopular opinion," and other knee-jerk reaction type posts on social media as you're far more likely to say something that's harmful in ways you don't realize. Instead, just as an exercise for self-improvement, write the thought down and analyze it... consider the ways in which your background, experiences, privilege, and biases might be blinding you to ways in which this mindset is unkind or harmful.

5 - If you're called out for representation issues, listen to what people are saying and learn from it. Apologize. Vow to educate yourself and commit to do better.

I hope that helps! ♥

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wh0refornikolailantsov · 6 months

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Prompt: "Choose something, babe. I got nothing to believe, unless you're choosin' me."

Song: You're Losing Me - Taylor Swift

For Tolya x Reader??

Softer Words No Poet Spoke - Tolya Yul Bataar

Content Warnings: Contemplations of Desertion, Cowardice, Faith, Devotion and Loyalty. Explicit Language. Mentions of Canon Complaint Violence, War and Threat. Angst. "I Cannot Fight My Nature," "Cannot Or Will Not?". Hurt/No Comfort. I Am Going To Add Angst Again So We Are Clear. No Beta Reading.

Loving someone can be easy, so easy when you're on the same side, when you want the same things, when you believe the same things. It is not that you have ever stood directly against what Tolya stands for, you'd never have gotten so far if that was true. But his loyalty, his faith is so unwavering, and yours... the same could not be said. The only loyalty you've ever found yourself close to swearing to, is his. He is the only thing in all these years you've wanted to believe in. But with wars waging and the tides looking so far against being in your favour. You can feel the urge creeping into your mind, the twitch in your muscles as you try and bunker down for another night.

You want to do what you always do, you want to protect yourself. You want to run.

But there is Tolya.

By all the saints there is Tolya.

And therein lies the issue. You do not want to leave him, it is the only thing that has kept you here this long. You've survived by keeping moving, you've survived by instinct and trusting yourself. You've survived by avoiding the fights. Not for cowardice, you know how to hold your own, but for practicality, for survival, for the sake of one less scar.

But Tolya... Tolya's faith, his devotion, it's the loudest part of him, which for a man built like a tree, who has such a deep love of poetry, is to say a lot. In all the time you have known him, fought beside him, you've never once seen his motivation shift. He fights for his king because he believes in him, he fights for his faith because he believes in that too. His faith is unwavering. No matter the damage, or the danger or the risk, Tolya has faced it all with the same certainty. He does not fear the death that this war could so easily deliver him to, because he believes in what he is fighting for more than anything.

The only time you remember seeing Tolya feared at all, is when his sister was at risk, and even then his faith that she could make it out, that she was stronger than what the world was throwing at her.

He also has a faith in your that you never expected, an understanding of you that even you weren't convinced you had. What he sees in you, you do not often see in yourself, but he has a way of making you believe it is there.

You have very few reasons to stay, to fight, to pick a side that feels like it's losing, but he is almost every single one of them.

Yet, you had packed your bags and sat in this open window many a night, and never found it in you to leave, no matter how bad it has gotten. He has always been the reason to stay. So you chose him, over your senses, over your instinct, over everything else, time and time again.

But tonight you feel the call louder, the wind is behind you, pushing you out the window and off the ledge and into the darkness, instead of keeping you in, where it is warm, and comfortable, but far from safe.

"Going somewhere?" His voice reaches you before your foot can step off the stone and down onto the ledge, before you're more than a foot out of the door.

His voice is normally like honey in your afternoon tea, this sense of welcome and comfort that you can afford yourself, but feels like such a luxury no matter how many times you divulge. But now, it creeps into your ears and you feel a cold jolt right the way through your nerves. You've played this out in your head again and again. This cannot go well. This could never go well.

How else did you think this would end? You ask yourself. You fell in love with a man that loves only his books and his faith, and he trusted someone whose only guarantee in life is that they will run from danger. This could only end in someone getting hurt, and the most likely answer is no one leaves a burning building unscathed.

"Tolya," you sigh, and turn your head over shoulder. He is leaning in your doorframe, taking up every bit of exposed space, you don't remember leaving the door open, but that doesn't matter now. He is here, and you have to make the choice, the one you have been tittering on the edges of for so long now, and you cannot just run from this one.

His eyes look darker in this light, and you want nothing more than to watch them turn that gentle golden as he smiles, but you know that you cannot walk away from this, and you cannot lie to him, and that means this plays out one way. "You are leaving," he says, eyes glancing you over. You do not know if it is your expression, or your heartbeat, or simply the bag strung over shoulder that gives you away, but you do not care, all roads lead here.

"I am," you admit.

"Without saying goodbye?" he asks. Your mouth feels dryer than it did with the dust in your lungs from the tumble in Shu Han, and you've got no excuses now. Only your own guilt like a deadweight on your tongue. Your silence is screaming in your ears, but Tolya steps forward, trying to fill the space, trying to turn the room softer, trying to recognise any semblance of the person he has come to know in the ghostly figure of you before him. "How long were you planning on being gone?"

"Tolya, when I pass the gates, I am not looking back," you tell him honestly, and you fight the ache in your throat, and the sting in your eyes, determined to make it through this without leaving too much of yourself in this room, trapped forever in a memory.

"You're leaving..." Tolya looks so puzzled that you want to scream. He doesn't understand it all, he has seen nothing that would tell him how close you were to running. Because you're so good at playing a part, that even you had begun to believe it, so you cannot fault him for also falling for the trick. You had been falling for it too. Even if that had only meant falling for him, which you knew from the start would only hurt you.

"This fight Tolya, it's not one I think we can win, and I cannot wait around and be led like a lamb to slaughter, not when I have fought this hard to stay alive, I can't do it, I won't do it," you tell him.

"But you stayed all this time," his confusion is almost as painful as the act of leaving itself. Tolya feels endless in his knowledge, between his books and his heartrending, it feels like there are few things Tolya doesn't recognise in people, but this is something different. This feels like betrayal, and that's something he had never had cause to really feel until now.

"I cannot fight my nature, Tolya," you say. You want to explain you stayed for him, you did everything until now for him but you had to finally do this for you, but you know that would leave him with the question, the one you cannot answer: what changed?

"Cannot or will not?" he asks. You look at your feet, watching the shadow of the night swarming around you, welcoming you back into the darkness, calling you away from the light that you've only ever known stood next to Tolya. The light you would bask in forever, if things could be different. Tolya never had to love you, not like you love him, that didn't matter to you, not really. But all the things Tolya is willing to give up for his cause, himself... his life. Those are costs you are not willing to pay, and you cannot stand beside him as he pays them, because you know he will pay them.

"What does it matter in the end?" You ask. "It's all the same."

"I cannot ask you to stay," he says. You know that, you know he wouldn't which is part of the reason you wanted to leave before he realised, so you didn't have to know he was watching you go, and caring enough that he wouldn't ask you to stay knowing how badly you wanted to go.

"And I shouldn't ask you to come with me, to leave with me," you say, "because I know how much this all means to you." You lean back on your heels. "But you've always been the better of us."

Your name manages to slip past his lips before you get your courage up enough to say it, but you don't let him speak. "Please Tolya, please, if you care for me at all," you can feel your heart restrict and strain against your words, begging you not to, begging you to just try, but you ignore it, "Choose something, babe. I got nothing to believe, unless you're choosin' me."

Tolya cannot find the words. And you know them all anyway. "Tolya your faith is everything to you, and you will die for it, happily, but I cannot watch you die for it, I cannot watch you die for a cause I do not believe in, not when I love you as much as I do," you say, "I would rather disappear back into my darkness and cold existence and remember you like this, than stay and watch you fall in the name of a king and some saints who I have never thought of more than once. Tolya, you showed me a life I never knew could exist, and I know now that I cannot have it, and I am grateful to you, and in that gratefulness, in that friendship and comfort and hope, I fell in love with you, in ways I did not know I could, in ways I know you could never return and I would never ask you to. I tell you this only so you understand, so I know that you know... I am leaving because I cannot die for this and more than that I love you too much to watch you do exactly that."

You do not let him respond, knowing that if there is the smallest chance his words can change your mind, you cannot risk those odds. Tolya for all his doubts can put all his favoured poets to shame. So you do as you planned and you just step back and onto the outer ledge and before you can let the sound of your name reach you, you move forward into the darkness. Your hand wraps around the gate in no time, and like you promised, you keep your eyes on the dark ahead of you, not daring to look back.

#shadow and bone #grishaverse #tolya yul bataar #tolya #tolya x reader #tolya my darling i adore you #seriously my dudes #this one is angsty

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shuttershocky · 11 months

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Out of curiosity, what was the problem with Overwatch’s maps? I definitely found them frustrating at times, but I don’t know enough about game design to tell Why.

I only played the initial selection of maps (if I remember correctly, they were Hanamura, Hollywood, Dorado, Route 66, Gibraltar, King's Row, Ilios, Nepal, Lijang Tower, Volskaya, and Temple), but from memory, most of them—Hanamura, Volskaya, and Dorado especially—were poor fits for the gameplay Overwatch wanted to have.

Many were a series of very simple killboxes, just these big squares of death connected by only 2-3 possible paths, most of which connected close to each other. This meant Defenders only really needed to be facing one way to see everybody coming in, so choosing to go in from one route or another often felt pointless. Most matches would have you spend long periods in a stalemate with very little progress, with you sitting behind your tank as both teams rammed at each other endlessly.

This wouldn't necessarily be so bad: stalemates can be intensely fun standoffs with a lot of action so long as they don't last for too long or progress both positive and negative visibly occurs for a tug-of-war feeling, but this did not fit well with Overwatch having ultimates.

Ultimates were wide, flashy, very deadly moves that normally would serve to keep the game moving, but the issue was that unlike say, the Medic's ubercharge in TF2 where it was only limited to one character and could be stopped by killing the medic before activation, everybody in Overwatch had Ultimates. This meant that these stalemates often just had players attempting to play safer and build their ultimates in order to be the big hero that breaks the stalemate, while the other team was doing the exact same thing. Back then, Mercy's ultimate also revived all fallen allies on the field (this was later removed because even Blizzard realized that was fucked up), so in case one team actually managed to get a clear victory in their skirmish, one character could actually do a full reset.

The combination of the map design with the combat mechanics made Overwatch's battles feel creatively dull. It was all flashiness (sometimes too much flashiness to the point of unreadability when multiple ultimates were popped at once) with very few ways to actually feel engaged in terms of tactics. You need to feel like your decision-making or raw technical skill is what led you to victory, and in many times in Overwatch it could feel like you simply lucked out in that smorgasborg of ultimates.

_____

While I'm here, I might as well point out my complaints with Overwatch's approach to character skill expression as well.

A high range of skill expression is why Lucio was actually one of the better designed and fun heroes: his ability set was simple but flexible, with an incredibly high skill ceiling due to his special mobility passive that let him run horizontally across walls. This let Lucio traverse the maps in ways others could not, and probably in ways unintended by the developers. He could flank the enemy, outmaneuver them when caught, and surprise them in ways like no one else could despite his original intended role being as a support character. For example: in Lijang Tower there's a bridge between two areas that a good Lucio can cheese the enemy team with. By gliding along walls, Lucio can approach the enemy from a completely unexpected angle, then use his right click push ability to shove them all off the bridge and into their doom.

Overwatch, being a character-centric game, needed to embrace more of this kind of combat where characters could pull off feats that no one else could do in spectacular fashion, often without even needing to rely on an ultimate to get Play of the Game. This gave them a unique personality through gameplay, and leaning more into this would have made the game far more enjoyable in my eyes. I was unhappy when Blizzard instead repeatedly nerfed characters with such high skill ceilings to try to bring them down to the line of everyone else.

Did you know that Genji could animation-cancel in the first month of Overwatch? Very high level Genji players like Seagull were pulling off very flashy moves with it early on. You could use his superior mobility to approach weaker targets on the enemy team, and then right click > standard melee > shift in order to do his shuriken spread, followed by his melee attack, which would then be animation canceled by his dash ability. This did a lot of damage, often enough that a low HP character like Tracer would die from the bleed inflicted by the dash, making for a badass assassination combo where you don't even need to look back at the enemy to finish them off: once they realize what's happened, they were already dead.

And then Blizzard was like "fuck that's a lot of damage" and then removed the bleed on Genji's dash almost immediately (no more opponent dying a few seconds after you dash through them, you had to kill them with the dash itself which was much more lame), then removed the ability to animation cancel Genji's melee attack with his dash soon after until Genji was just hopping around throwing shurikens and waiting for his ultimate to be able to dive.

TL;DR - The initial 12 maps were often just a series of killboxes glued together by a handful of routes that were often meaningless flanks. The problem was exacerbated by ultimates, and I did not like the direction Blizzard went for balancing the game.

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mdhwrites · 6 months

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THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS!... Is Good.

And that understated response is also kind of my condemnation of it. That as an independent, Youtube dark comedy series, it's just about what you'd expect. Really in your face with some elements, lingering a bit too long on others but in general pretty enjoyable. After all, if a series about existential dread and parodying game development for its comedy and horror sounds appealing to you, you will probably like this.

youtube

BUT if that thumbnail makes you squint like I did, you might not come away with an amazing opinion of it. I actually saw this thumbnail when it first came out and IMMEDIATELY dismissed it as not for me. Like I said, I actually did end up liking it, its visuals are much better than this thumbnail suggests, but it is kind of in your face with how 'weird' it is, at least times, like you'd expect from this picture.

But I did like it. I'm just in this weird limbo where I like it... But I don't feel inclined to really praise anything. Nothing in this wowed me. The biggest compliment I feel like giving, no caveats, is that the animation is genuinely good. How it's being used isn't always for me but I can respect the craft and effort put into it. A couple errors here and there but honestly nothing that I wouldn't let slide in a bigger professional work for the most part (there's once where the glitch effect on Pomni's hand is just gone when it shouldn't be as an example).

I have two main complaints so far that worry me going forward. The first is a pacing issue. You could cut four minutes out of this, lose nothing and really help there be some amount of snappiness to this. Have the comedy and horror both flow better because it's rarely trying to build a bunch of tension or atmosphere with its slowness, it's just... Slow. Period. Not to the point of being bad but to the point where you start feeling how long things are taking.

The other has to do with the main character: Pomni. She has no personality currently. Narratively that's actually fine. She's effectively just accidentally dropped herself into purgatory and that's a pretty shit situation and where a lot of the existential dread is from. There's no way out and very little to do. That is HARD to handle. The problem is she never gets to break the image of a trauma doll for the entire episode. At best she shows that she's willing to abandon this place for self preservation which could lead to her choosing the inhabitants over herself later... Or just as well be for emphasizing a 'natural' reaction to the place. I don't know because as far as who she is, a tweaked out expression with little thought behind the eyes is kind of all we have.

I do want to give one scene a shout out as a change of pace from these two critiques though: The scene when Pomni comes back to Ragatha is actually really good. The glitchy animation is great, the voice acting on Ragatha is really good, Pomni apologizing is a good sign that she'll grow to care for these people and while I won't say the scene couldn't have been done more quickly, the slower pacing actually did allow for the unsettling elements of the corruption to seep into the scene rather than just feel like a gimmick. The show does have genuine promise and that scene was easily the standout of the episode for me.

The final thing is a personal one. I didn't find Nier Automata very compelling but I don't find existential dread that interesting unless you DO something with that question. If your whole point is "Doesn't monotony and entropy suck?" (not saying that's Automata's point, just that that's how many sidequests felt) that I just don't get into it. I don't find that by itself interesting. The plus side is that the cast is actually made in a way where they could be a bunch of archtypes just put together for an ensemble... Or they could be various responses to trying to deal with this dread. To showcase how one handles the concept of eternal monotony and repetition.

I just don't know if that's actually what they're doing. I don't really know what this show is doing besides "Everyone wants to get out of this game dev purgatory." That's not a bad concept but I wouldn't call it a great pilot. It is good enough that I'll be keeping an eye out for episode 2 and I might try out the studio's previous outing, Murder Drones, which I've been recommended by my Discord before.

And if literally any of this sounds even intriguing to you, I really do suggest trying the show out. It's good enough that it deserves your support as a very well made, indie animation project and I hope it gets better and better as it goes forward.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#Pomni #tadc #The Amazing Digital Circus #Youtube

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robo-dino-puppy · 1 year

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my thoughts on burning shores if anyone was interested (spoilers obvs, also loooooong, so long and rambling, don’t feel like you need to read it lol):

first of all - that final fight with the horus was EPIC. i LOVED the multiple sections that basically take you through all the game mechanics - stealth, ranged, climbing, swimming, platforming - all just really cool. SO AMAZING and FUCKING CREEPY to see a horus crawling/walking around. also props to sam witwer to being a great over-the-top villian lol. the final fight with londra in the head section felt a bit cramped and it took me a few cycles to understand what to do (like it took me too long to realize i could shoot the mines yikes i’m dumb) but once i did i liked the design of it. (although i felt aloy should have been more terrified of the horus waking up? she and seyka seemed pretty chill and jokey throughout the whole thing considering the situation - i feel like she should have been more scared, at least at first?)

second of all, little complaint - the sounds of the waterwing are EXCRUCIATING to me. really, honestly awful. well not from a sound design perspective, they're fine as... sounds... just not sounds i have to listen to frequently. but i'm very sensitive to noise and i have misophonia, so... maybe that's why. i wish it would just stop making noises. so many noises. all the time. in my mind steve (my sunwing) flew off to hang out with some burning shores sunwings and the moment i go back to a sunwing site i will recognize him and override him again and then we will go back to adventuring together and i will abandon the waterwing unless i need one again. also they added a noise to the barrel roll on the sunwing and that is not cool, don't like, i would like steve to be quiet(er) again pls.

third, an issue - i can't complete cauldron theta because every time i kill the bilegut my game crashes. TT-TT i go through the whole fight, aloy says "it's done!" and the game closes and i get an error. i have fought that bastard three times now and i WILL NOT be doing it again until i have reason to believe it’s fixed lol. the rest of the cauldron was pretty cool tho!

other things:

GILDUN! OMG. i loved that whole quest. i felt bad but i listened to all his commentary behind the door before opening it :D i also felt bad because he's so friendly and optimistic and his delving partner was a jerk, and while i didn't want to lie to him i chose the heart option for aloy's response, and i don't think i could choose the others. and he gets a focus and a hug! AHHHHHH it was great. you’re our friend gildun! (i did get him talking on aloy's focus once when i went back to the main game, so i wonder if there will be random comments like that sometimes? v cool)

NORA LOOKOUT ARMOR! holy crap i forgive them for not giving us the banuk sickness eater bc i did not expect to get the lookout. AMAZING. i will have to do a run with her wearing the lookout the whole time. the quen armors are pretty great too (and lots of dyes, but still only four dyes for the oseram armors? like, why? why didn't the oseram armor get the ng+ dye? WHY GUERRILLA)

ZENITH WEAPON! i was ambivalent about this idea before bc i wasn't sure how zenith weapons would work with the others we have, but i honestly love it. i also like the little clinky noise it makes when she puts it on/stows it :D some of the new weapons (like the shredder) in hfw felt kind of ratchet-and-clank-y, which i loved bc i *adored* r&c growing up. the zenith gauntlet also feels a bit like r&c and i’m digging it. now aloy just needs a topiary sprinkler lolololol (just kidding).

ZENITH FACEPAINTS! ok i would not wear these full time but they are honestly beautiful with the gold. also didn't expect these. and some new quen ones and the new valor surge one and the pangaea one. (are there more? i haven’t finished the delver’s trinkets or the aerial vantage points) i have my work cut out for me for my facepaint series!

i'm... not sure how i feel about aloy and seyka. as an ace girl who was hoping (however foolishly and vainly) for at least the choice of ace girl rep in aloy, it didn’t hit for me the way i’m sure they wanted it to. (i realize she still could be ace, just not aro, but to me it didn’t feel like they were telling an ace story, if that makes sense.) and i like seyka but she wasn't as immediately endearing to me as many of the other side characters - altho maybe my opinion will change on a second playthrough.

but i *am* glad that aloy is 1) letting herself be emotional/vulnerable around others 2) is more relaxed and happy after hfw’s whole story and 3) actually voiced aloud how her early life as an outcast impacted her ability to form friendships. (or wait... was that only in the brain flashpoint dialogue, which is the one i picked? idk) so anyway not mad about it even if i wasn’t really feeling it, and i’m happy for the ppl who wanted aloy to be canonically into the ladies. (which imo it always seemed like she was)

the map is beautiful and the clouds are too. the sky in the new map omg!!! the color of the sky/clouds is definitely unique from any of the other areas. it does feel a biiiiiit too bright in places tho. several times the environment or aloy was completely blown out, highlights-wise. i didn’t change any settings on my game or tv from before, so i don’t feel like it’s on my end, but maybe i need to check.

speaking of sky have you flown up into the cloud layer? like it's a small thing i guess but it is BEAUTIFUL, it literally looks like one of the luminist paintings they said they were inspired by, but it's 3d. so, so pretty.

i did feel it was a bit short/fast especially compared to how the frozen wilds felt, but i may have just rushed it bc i was able to sit down and binge and i wanted to avoid spoilers.

why no tallneck? :( the frozen wilds tallneck was so great...

the jurassic park references made me laugh :D

the whole thing londra was doing to the quen, and the conversation with nova, was extra gross and creepy. also i thought we'd get nova as an AI ally like CYAN but oh well.

again the horus fight was amazing 10/10 boss fight v cool. the only thing i would have added was somehow shooting from the waterwing before gliding down to the ground. with two riders one can shoot and one can steer right?

but the side quest with the three waterwings on the island? HHHHHOLY fuck that was annoying. i used practically all my resources to kill those bastards. "weak to fire" my ass. they have like mile-wide aoe attacks and they are FAST and i kept missing their bodies while my ammo was going through their wings... super, super annoying, did not like, 0/10.

i hope they un-mirror the ammo selection, i was constantly picking the wrong arrows lol.

i walked up on some sandpipers on a beach and i scared them off and it was so REAL i just stood there and watched them fly away. and then they landed further down and started doing their little sandpiper-y thing again. SO COOL.

LEGENDARY SPIKE THROWER WITH DRILL SPIKES! thank u gildun i love it and will cherish it forever.

i'm not sure about the aerial vantage points (whatever they're called) bc i haven't finished them yet but the ones i have done are more emotionally along the lines of the original vantage points, so that's cool.

i did the stormbird in the cloud before i had the waterwing override and the stormbird KILLED STEVE so i reloaded a previous save where steve was alive and waited to do that until i was riding a (super-noisy and annoying) waterwing lol.

i am SAD that all our companions have left the main map. :( i mean they didn't do anything besides stand there in the same spots but... they were there...

sylens, ahhhhhh. that final convo made me tear up a little. i wish aloy had said something before she walked away, even a sarcastic "thanks" would have felt better imo. he didn't see her smile and he didn't hear the comment she made later. just considering the real-world stuff with lance reddick, oof.

also, visiting varl’s grave T_T

aaaaaaanyway i personally felt it was *well* worth $20 and i’m sooooooo excited to see what guerrilla does in the future!

#text post #burning shores #hfwbs #burning shores spoilers #hfwbs spoilers #thoughts!

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prolibytherium · 10 months

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proposing a 'tumblr blackout' protest where the you just log out for 48 hours, on short notice (end of june), spread by reblogs, etc is not going to do anything. it will not reach enough people to put a meaningful dent in their userbase. it has never worked in the past and will never work unless the organizing methodology changes. (also a protest where the demands are every single user complaint ranging from 'this UI update was bad' to 'get rid of the bot problem and bring back porn' is not going to be effective..)

the reason reddit could black out so effectively is that a proportionately tiny number of the userbase control subreddit access, making the blackout feasible to organize and maintain. tumblr is not like that.

like i would suggest deleting your tumblr mobile app permanently forever and just using your mobile browser. open firefox or chrome app or whatevef you use on your phone and type in tumblr.com . ive used this site for 11 years and never once downloaded the mobile app and its fine. web versions of tumblr have their issues too but so many of your complaints will go away if you simply choose not to use the mobile app.

#granted i think if enough people deleted their mobile app to affect tumblrs bottom line the more likely outcome would be #limiting functionality on the web version and going 'oopsie doopsie you need to download the app for that!!!!!!!'#but then again it actually was like that for a while and they reversed on that so... idk

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themainspoon · 6 months

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Thinking about the misery that is Silent Hill: Ascension again. And also consequentially thinking about how fucked up it is that gamers aren’t all staunch anti-capitalists again.

Like, I love video games, and I agree with people who say that they can be art (I may go a little harder on that belief than most, thinking that games should therefore be criticised as art, and that since games are art they therefore don’t always need to be fun or enjoyable to be good. [yes, I’m one of those people]). But if video games are art, than what is true for all other art is also true for video games, in that capitalism is bad for them.

If video games are art, than the Silent Hill franchise deserves so much better. Silent Hill has a huge legacy within the medium, Silent Hill 2 alone is a major source or inspiration for many later works, and a work that had cultural impact much greater than any capitalistic metric focused on sales or profits could ever show.

PT wasn’t even a full game, it was a teaser, and yet it was revolutionary. PT was a trendsetter and a trailblazer that stood as a powerful demonstration of the potential that video games as a medium had for horror as a genre, and for evoking powerful emotional experiences. It is a work that should have been preserved, archived for it’s immense cultural impact, made easily available for everybody who wanted to experience it. And yet, it now exists only on a few old PS4’s that are slowly deteriorating and that are inaccessible to the general public. The only way to get this game now is through piracy and jailbreaking a PS4. If video games are art, than a work as influential and important as PT being inaccessible is unacceptable.

If you truly believe that video games are art, than the current state of the medium should horrify you. No other artistic medium gets so cynically and consistently desecrated as video games do. We may think of this medium as one with immense artistic potential and value, but those who run the industry continue to show that they don’t. Witness what they have done to what was once one of the most important horror properties in the entire medium, it is not just bad and embarrassing, it is symbolic of how those in control of the medium view it. To shareholders and CEO’s, video games are not art, they are content to be cynically produced and consumed, not appreciated. To make money, and nothing else, Silent Hill: Ascension is merely an extremely egregious example of this fact.

As many before me have said, fuck Konami. But if we love this medium, than we have to realise that Konami isn’t the real issue. The real issue is that we live in a system that is actively hostile to art, and a medium as young as video games, and that requires as much effort to create as video games do, is one that is uniquely susceptible to the worst of what art becomes under capitalism. Artistic vision stifled for the sake if profit, bland and inoffensive taking precedence over bold and expressive, profit over creativity, consumerism over preservation and archiving.

Developers, the artists and creatives behind games, are treated horribly. We’ve all read the stories of inhumane crunch conditions and inexcusably cruel abuse that come out of big studios. We all have at least a vague understanding of just how hard being an indie developer is, we’ve all seen the good but flawed games released by double A teams who had to choose between releasing an unfinished game or watching their offices power get shut off. And we’ve watched as more triple A games get released in buggy, unoptimised, and incomplete states because greedy shareholders and corporate entities demanded their profits asap, with no concern for the quality of what was actually being released.

This is by no means a new or uncommon take, but the fact that every issue video games face as a medium, almost every valid complaint that the people who play them make, is unambiguously the result of capitalism cannot be overstated. And it really does beg the question, how do gamers not all become staunch anti-capitalists after seeing the effect this economic system has in their favourite artistic medium?

#a certified themainspoon classic

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goneloot · 1 year

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Badges, Medals and Mementos

Here’s a system I’ve always really enjoyed: Badges.

In most traditional RPGs you get a set of equipment that may or may not have added effects. So you end up replacing low level equipment as you progress with the game. Did an old weapon have a really cool secondary effect? Too bad, you can’t use it now. With Badges, you get to choose those added effects every time, and most badges stay useful the whole game!

Badges allow for so many fun strategies. Do you want a build that’s defensive, offensive, one based around being at low HP? The sky’s the limit! And since you can change it any time, you don’t have to commit to a “build” for the whole playthrough. And with the BP system, you can balance it fairly well! You can make simpler effects cost less while broken ones cost a ton, and even make some utility or challenge equipment pieces cost 0.

With that said, I have some issues with the way it’s implemented in Paper Mario, and TTYD. The first one is a smaller complaint: The level up system.

When you level up you get the choice to level up HP, FP (Flower Points, the thing that allows you to use skills) and BP (Badge Points, the thing that allows you to use more Badges). My problem is twofold: BP is much more fun than a simple stat increase and it is more useful, as you get HP Plus and FP plus medals that allow you to level up those stats anyways, so BP becomes the best and most fun option, rendering the choice not actually one.

The second one is more important: the game doesn’t encourage strategies. Sure, you could make a really sick strategy of managing HP and FP to do some massive overkill damage. But why would you do that? You can just use the Attack up Badges and call it a day. It’s not a matter of difficulty, it is a matter that there aren’t that many interesting options. The only true well-defined strategy is danger/peril/low-hp, which is the best by far. The system is great, and it’s just fun to mess around with even if it’s not “optimal” to do so, but I wish it encouraged you to mess around with it a bit more.

So, that’s something I wanted to solve.

The first one was easy: every level up you get MP (Memento points) and can choose whether to upgrade Health, Love or Time, which are just base stats. Not only does this make the choice less clear-cut as to which one is better, I can make the game a bit harder since players will always get stronger stat-wise AND equipment-wise.

The second one is much more complex. For this, I took inspiration from many sources. Bug Fables, Paper Mario Dark Star, The Binding of Isaac, Friggin’ shonen anime and more. So I will explain the design philosophy I have figured out.

There are two types of mementos: what I call “General” and “Core”.

General mementos are ones that do a very simple thing that’s always kinda nice: Heals some Health every couple of turns, increases defense a bit, gives a new skill, increases Time gained each turn, etc.

Core mementos, on the other hand, are ones that basically require you to base your strategy around them or they will not provide much use: Increase attack, but only at low HP; increase defense every even turn, but decreases it every odd turn; gives more moves per turn, but only if your partner has fallen; etc. These are very strong, come in groups (The “Danger” mementos, the “inter” Mementos, the “Lonely” mementos) to really encourage you to use them, but they come with a drawback, a condition, a risk.

You might even think this distinction is “obvious”, but I invite you to go though Paper Mario’s badge list and consider which ones could be considered “core” (and which of those are actually good). I don’t see many, personally. That’s something that Bug Fables and Paper Mods get: they give you more “core” strategies to play around, like status effect builds, “do nothing” strats and such. It also help that they are harder (specially the mods) so strategy is often mandatory.

Something else I think is crucial: make the mementos synergize. Don’t just make a “Danger” strat, and a “Lonely” strat. Make it so you can try and do a “Lonely-Danger” strat too!

A Memento that requires you to have Low Time to activate? Now if only there was a Memento that increased your attack by making it cost Time... A memento that increases your defense every other turn? If only there was a memento that increased your defense when you used the “Wait” command so that you could negate the stat drop...

Of course, not every memento or strat goes well with every other one, but by designing a series of mementos this way I hope to give not only a lot of choices, but make them easy enough to start with so the player gets wacky with it.

Maybe at some other point I will show more individual mementos, but I think this post is already very long.

Oh, yeah. The little pick-up quote when you pick up any item? That comes from Isaac. I think it adds that little touch of personality (and maybe lore???) to each memento without having to flood the item description.

And why are they called mementos? First one is because I wanted a name that started with M, so it was similar to Medals. The second reason is plot related! If you want to find out, you can play the game here!

#paperverse #Indiegame #paper mario #I like the cardiac arrest icon its just a little guy

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majoraop · 2 years

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Sanji and Luffy - Whole Cake Island arc analysis

I remember reading so many complaints about our dear Sanji when this arc was still ongoing!

Sure, he acted weakly at the beginning, but wasn't his humanity the main point of it? And what best defines the frailness of human beings if not weakness and the fear of death? This arc showed Sanji struggling with human issues and insecurities, which derived from the lack of love from his father and the bullying of his brothers. He was even driven to suicide thoughts at some point before he finally reacted and started to oppose a fate that had appeared ineluctable to him.

And what could I say about Luffy? Many analyses have been written about him, and all of them pretty much agree on the fact that he's one of the most egoistic characters ever created. People in the OP universe are lucky that he's so good-natured, otherwise, the story of this manga would have been a completely different one. But Luffy knows the importance of having other people around: being alone is the worse pain for him, as he stated as a child. Still, he values freedom over anything else. Instead of being a loner, though, he expects other people to achieve freedom as well (without turning into a forcibly idealistic character: he isn't a hero, but a pirate). Even if, to achieve it, you need to rip your own hands or put at risk the safety of the people you love, as in Sanji's case in this arc.

Because, from Luffy's point of view, Sanji would never be happy living like a tool in the hands of his family.

Losing loved ones is terrible, but submitting to abuse and tyranny is even worse for Luffy. It would mean being dragged into a spiral of desperation where life loses its meaning. Luffy is an extreme character, but only such a character can become the King of Pirates. However, Luffy needs his comrades to achieve that. With them, he's honest from the start: once someone becomes his comrade, he doesn't give up on them. In this, Luffy is similar to Big Mom, who doesn't let his family and allies easily leave her crew. But he's also her opposite: he doesn't threaten his comrades; rather, he chooses to starve to death to make his point. Luffy is a stubborn, even childish character, but also a character that you cannot corrupt or enslave.

A fellow OP fan once told me that Luffy is pure craziness; you can't stop someone like him. So, since Luffy knows that Sanji's greatest joy is cooking and Luffy himself needs a cook in his crew, he doesn't want him to give up on him. Later, when Sanji finds a starving Luffy by Kingbaum's "corpse", his smile is beautiful: Luffy had kept his promise to him, hadn't given up on him no matter the price to pay (and Sanji knows too well what it means to be starving).

Unlike the most popular opinion in the fandom, I started to like Sanji more during the Fish-Man Island arc and onward. It was there that Oda began showing Sanji's most human side, imho. His innocent (yes, perverted, and yet still innocent and pure in his way), even romantic side. Sure, Sanji may act sexist sometimes, but that's beyond the point. Characters, unless specifically created for that purpose, aren't "social justice warriors". Characters can represent good, bad, and everything in-between concerning values, thoughts, and so on. Characters can also represent outdated chivalrous behaviours. Characters can have their silly moral codes and flaws and even act irrationally sometimes. And an author—a mangaka in this case—should be free to represent everything they wish in their own story. Besides, as much as I admire Oda as an author, he's "just" a single person. He can't address every single real-life issue in One Piece no matter how big a story it is. He has his bias, preferences, and limits as anyone else. When reading a story and about its characters, we must remember that they weren't created in a vacuum. And Sanji is probably inspired by some kind of men that do exist (or existed).

One last thing: while reading the Whole Cake Island arc, I had started to suspect that Sanji would eventually "awake" his modified genes. This happened later than when I had expected, but I was right. Does this make him less human and more like his brothers now? I don't believe so. I don't think someone can just get rid of their empathy—surely not someone like Sanji.

Characters (well-written characters) would be far from being perfect human beings if they were real. There is nothing wrong with that. They can make mistakes and can be not strong enough to make the best or right choices, to say the right thing, or simply be an example. They can be created as just entertainment, or to provoke thoughts in the readers (or both).

The bottom line is that Sanji is a great character also because of his flaws, and so is Luffy.

@onepiece-bingo: posted for the “free” prompt of my bingo card! ^^

#opspoilers #sanji #vinsmoke sanji #luffy #monkey d luffy #opanalysis #one piece character analysis #onepiece #one piece #majoraop #suicide tw #abuse tw #queued

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xxgoblin-dumplingxx · 10 months

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I've been on the internet for a long, long time (longer on the internet than many people are old lol) and what embarrasses me the most is how thing like this happens year after year. why do people expect strangers to respond the way they are used to? By the way, do you really live with people? this is serious, sometimes a second interpretation makes things clearer for you, mature your perception of things and protect yourselves people. don't let every part of you be so fragile, that goes beyond what is said on social media. I work in an area that analyzes speeches/linguistics and communication and what I see is always the same thing.

be responsible for the things you consume but also commit to how you prepare yourself to receive certain things and to say certain things too. I don't want to go into it too much but in short. this comment could have turned into a wrecking ball real quick... and you could have voiced your complaints privately, if you really had good and sincere intentions (which I highly doubt since you decided to send it on a channel where it would be shared with others people) don't expose yourself like that

I feel like they might have not had bad intentions, honestly.

They may have just had trouble discerning tone, which unless people have been here for a second can seem a little abrupt or curt. It happens. 💜.

Or they might just be very young and used to creators that lean harder into the parasocial aspects of their online presence and my refusal to be available and more flexible or accommodating about some stuff just seems rude. Who knows?

I'm choosing to assume they're in earnest and I'd be happy to discuss their issues privately if they so choose. But right now I took my meds and I'm getting sleepy. So.

Thank you all for your kindness, patience, and grace. I love all my guys, gals, and non binary pals. Stay safe, stay hydrated, and stay gold

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thnxforknowingme · 2 years

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To Tag or Not to Tag

Over the past several months I've been thinking about fic tagging practices on AO3 - specifically about which relationship tags to use, and when, and why. I've seen a variety of posts and complaints and comments about this, but I still don't have a clear answer as to what works best.

I think the fundamental issue here is that tagging works both as a way to help people find the content they want to find, and warn them about the content they want to avoid - but sometimes those things work against each other.

Let's use an example - say I go to the Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel tag on AO3, because I like that pairing and want to read about it. Maybe I see a fic that is about Klaine, and includes endgame Klaine, but also has Kurt Hummel/David Karofsky tagged. I personally don't enjoy that ship, so even if it's not a major element of the fic, if that pairing is present it lets me know "hey, maybe this story isn't for you, because it has something you don't like in it." That's the tag working as intended, isn't it? It's informing me about what's in the story so I can choose whether or not to read it.

Now, on the other hand, maybe another fic reader goes to the tag for Kurt Hummel/David Karofsky, because that is a ship that they like and want to read about. They see the title of this same hypothetical fic and get excited. However, when they glance at the tags and summary, it becomes clear that this is a fic primarily about Klaine, and the Kurtofsky parts are a past or initial relationship, or an obstacle that must be overcome for the primary ship to succeed. I totally get how this reader might be disappointed to see that content in the tag for the ship they like, especially if they like a ship that is often a background element or doomed to break up to be replaced by a different ship.

I'm generally of the opinion that more tags are better (okay, within the realm of reason). More information about what kind of fic is presented means readers can make better choices about what they choose to read (today I was reading a fantastic fic, and partway through, one of the main character's parents died. The fic wasn't tagged for character death, and maybe that's an authorial choice to not spoil something, but it also meant that I was reading a chapter mindlessly while cooking dinner, and then suddenly had to stop because I knew I wasn't in an emotional state where I could read a funeral scene and not start tearing up. And I had to make dinner, so...). But I also get that if you're a fan of a less popular character or ship, seeing your tag clogged with fics where the thing you're searching for is not the main focus of the story could be frustrating.

There are some workarounds for this, which put the onus on you to put more effort into the AO3 search function. You could search for your relationship tag with the additional tag 'otp:true' in order to just pull up fics where that pairing is the only relationship tagged. You could exclude certain tags - in the prior example, I could choose to exclude the Kurtofsky tag from my Klaine searches. The Glee fandom also has the particular option of using the "Not Blaine or Klaine Friendly" tag (which like....the fact that that tag EXISTS is a whole other buckwild thing but whatever that's not what we're talking about here), which I could filter out of my searches. It feels weirdly counterintuitive to be searching in the Klaine tag and have to filter out anti-Klaine fics, admittedly. But on the other hand, people who are searching in other relationship tags might want that information - that there is Klaine in this story, but that they are not portrayed in a positive light.

I read and write both Klaine and Kurtbastian and for whatever reason there is just...so much bad blood between many of the fans of those two pairings. I'm grateful that I can steer clear of the Not Klaine Friendly fics when I'm looking for Kurtbastian content, because I don't want to read stories that bash characters I like. When I was writing my most recent Kurtbastian fic, I was in this weird position with regards to tagging. A major element of the story is that Blaine and Kurt meet and start dating - that's the catalyst for Sebastian to realize he has more than friendly feelings for Kurt. I am literally never unkind of Blaine in this fic. I love the boy, and his relationship with Kurt isn't bad - it's just ultimately not what this particular iteration of Kurt needs in his life at this particular moment. So, I tagged the story with both Kurtbastian and Klaine - making clear in the summary that Kurtbastian was endgame. This way, Kurtbastian shippers who don't like Klaine know to avoid the story, because it isn't their thing. However, this also meant that every time I updated, my fic was being bumped up to the top of the Klaine tag. And even though I was nothing but positive about Blaine in this story, I also know that people looking for Klaine content shouldn't read that fic - it's a Kurtbastian fic. I felt bad for having that in the Klaine tag, but also felt it was valuable information for potential readers.

Maybe the issue is that on AO3, tags function as pieces of information, and not as communities. On tumblr, tags are where you go to find kindred spirits and content you'll enjoy and communities you want to participate in. Negative content generally goes untagged, or is tagged as "anti" whatever. But on AO3, negative content is still content, and that information gets logged, whether you want to see it or not.

So I don't have any kind of solution for this - it's just something that's been on my mind a lot. I'm curious what other people think and what guides their own tagging practices.

#fic writing #fanfiction #ao3 #tagging

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rememberingtheunremembered · 4 months

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Further Recom. + Notes: Humanizing sex work (SW) & the threat of the law

youtube

The Nordic Model, partial decriminalization…How it relegates sex workers to a space of precarity?

(Sweden, Norway, Iceland, N. Ireland, Canada) — selling sex is not illegal but buying sex or profiting from the SW of somebody else is… sometimes referred to as “ending demand” & “exit services” are set up to try and help get SW out of the industry — it is seen by many as a very progressive & feminist way of protecting SW

Issue: a worker could come forward with complaint but a client couldn’t (say especially if you want to report a child being used) + ^selling of sex itself is not a problem but all the parallel activities are criminalized, which leads SW living under the constant threat of police violence & the danger of black market

Whereas legalization would require a lot of licensing, maybe specific venues, and tends to lead a sort of brothel system… creates a two-tier system where if you don’t have the money to afford the licenses & fees or the the right ways, then that leads to criminalization or the pressure to work for some wealthy capitalist who has the money to own a brothel & pay for all their licensing in exchange for them to be under his thumb

^ impacts marginalized communities (trans, queer, LGBTQ+ communities, homeless, immigrants, racialized, disabled)

Although public health is often a concern when it comes to SW, it’s usually approached only in terms of risk of STD… there isn’t much discourse about police violence, deportations, evictions, and poverty, all of which are hazardous to health (less about the health of the workers themselves but more about the imagined health of the community)

Wider structural problems: main issue is the stigma, eviction, lack of healthy mental health care facilities, gynecologist

AGAINST DECRIMINALIZATION: not about morality!!!

There is an argument that if the money is the only consent (you wouldn’t do it otherwise), then all SW is rape… but could we say the same for the lack of “enthusiastic consent” as actors? Difference between sexual intimacy as job v sexual assault at workplace

SW don’t do “productive work,” so, they shouldn’t sell themselves since there is nothing valuable produced except for $$ — emotional aspect is also part of the service world, thinking of labor of only in terms of products & manufacturing is bs

concern of sending a bad message — it sends the message that women’s bodies are for sale to men (ignores all the women who pay for sex & all the men who pay for sex with other men, & all the people who pay SW for things that aren’t really sex)... even if a women chooses to do it… still doesn’t mean it’s a feminist cause, if you’re choosing to buy into this very patriarchal & misogynistic industry, you’re reinforcing the idea that women exist for male consumption (which isn’t just an abstract concern about optics but an idea that regularly gets women of all backgrounds harassed & even killed)

Post WWII in N. America, there were heightened concerns about the future of the nation that coalesced in concerns about the proper sexual development of teenagers

A strong nation = strong families guided by a monogamous, heterosexual, reproductive/procreative couple

Role of sex ed.:

Abstinence-only: often argues that sex before marriage is harmful & that having more than 1 sex partner is wrong & destructive

Abstinence-plus: highlights abstinence as the only sure way to avoid pregnancy/STIs (teaches about safe sex practices but rarely pleasures)

Importance of comprehensive sex ed.: teaches about safe sex practices, LGBTQ sex, casual sex (some curricula teach about pleasure but not all)

Florida’s “Don’t say gay bill,” legislation to outlaw the teachings of LGBTQ

The conservative pathologize, if not criminalize — sex & sexuality as a threat

^these political/religious narratives lead to laws criminalizing non-normative forms of sex — sex work

Riley Reyes, adult performer, chair of Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (a labor group by and for adult performers — APAC)

SWERF: sex work excluding radical feminist… entering popular usage & leftist spaces

In the book, “Prostitution Policy in the Nordic Region,” scholars May-Len Skilvrei & Charlotta Holmstrom say that there really isn’t such a thing as “the” Nordic Model… pimping is legal yet landlords & friends of SW are vulnerable to pimping charges since the law cannot distinguish between the third parties who are helping & the law parties who are hurting

Inconsistencies in law protection can be better understood from thinking of Nordic model as a philosophical approach than a legal one

SESTA & FOSTA are federal bills in the US that have criminalized certain kinds of sexual speech on the internet — illegal to talk about sex or SW on online platform & they’ve made the platforms liable for that speech — say selling sex on YouTube, then YouTube could be criminalized… that is why craigslist shut down their personal ad section & why tumblr is no longer a place where sex exists

Book “Sex at the Margins,” anthropologist Laura Agustin — how “trafficking” & “rescued” are used synonymously — in actuality, you’ve been arrested, imprisoned, your wages have been confiscated, & you’ve been deported back to a country you didn’t even want to be in without trial or even charges… “anti-trafficking operations”

^ if the law wants to cut down on migrant SW & immigrant workers of all kinds, being exploited & endangered, decriminalize the human moment — no more detention centers, visas, language tests, income requirements…

Decriminalizing SW… sex trafficking would still be fully illegal, labor rights violations are labor rights violations, & people under SW would be able to report

Some do it for enjoyment, some do it for money (poverty or SW)... survival

LEGAL to buy & sell sex… but if you do it in a flat with someone else (brothel-keeping), illegal… outdoors (solicitation), illegal… advertise (depending on where you do it), might be illegal… help a SW book gigs because they can’t use a phone, if you borrow money from a SW, if you’re a driver or a bodyguard of a SW, then you’re profiting from someone else’s SW & technically that is pimping, which is illegal

ILLEGAL… working in a flat with someone else & having a security guard would be safer but it is against the law. If you’re working outdoors and want to talk to clients about prices and condom use before you get in a stranger’s car… must do it in a rush since if you’re spotted, you could be charged with solicitation or hit with a prostitute’s caution, which will show up on a background check

Is money taken away if police suspect (not prove) that it is based off of SW? Renters cannot rent to SW (illegal… eviction)? In Northern Ireland, you could face a potentially unlimited fine, eviction from home, be charged — all w/o trial for doing something that is completely legal.

Testimony on being arrested in the video (migrants being deported w/o trial, arrested w/o clothes)

There’s an unspoken assumption I think that arrest, imprisonment, or threatening somebody with those things is morally neutral… but they are forms of violence since the SWs are harmed by it.

Book: Playing the Whore, Melissa Grant

Note that since the 70s & earlier, many SW consistently identified the police, not clients, as the major source of violence in their lives.

“It doesn’t feel like that these laws are there to protect people since they clearly don’t, it just feels like they want to see SW disappear”

There’s distinction between “SW is violence” — no amount of SW is ever okay & some kind of criminalization is the only answer — v “the sex industry features violence & exploitation” — we can have a chat on ways to reduce it

Radical feminist Julie Bindel & many others argue that SW is bad in itself… a lot of SW acknowledge their exploitation, not wanting to do SW, & yet argue that decriminalization is the best way to reduce them… if you want to be an abolitionist, it is not enough to say Sex industry features violence but that SW is violence

How SW accommodates disabled communities

Oliver discusses the complicated patchwork of the demonizing, patronizing, and problematic American laws against world’s oldest profession with a rather humorous undertone. He refrains from moral policing sex work and argues that it is inarguably labor (LastWeekTonight). His critical and human-rights centered approach allows me to apply

Oliver touches on the absurdism of the “legality” which is established based on camera presence, how consensual sex for money or goods off camera remains illegal (LastWeekTonight).

Oliver critiques the wrongful premise of the impossibility of consent in practice and reduction of all sex workers to exploited “victims,” the cliché of sex work being synonymized with trafficking, police and white supremacists selling themselves as “the saviors,” and the hyper-surveillance and mass incarceration of sex workers (LastWeekTonight).

Oliver recounts how the legal processes and policies harm those that they claim to protect — the irony of police sting operations in the United States since they are fundamentally arguing that police should be able to have sex for their jobs legally to stop other people from having sex for work.

The threat of arrest for people of color, the provision of prohibition against loitering for the purpose of prostitution (a stop & frisk policy for sex workers — NYPD has interpreted completely legal activities like talking to pedestrians or dressing “provocatively” as the basis for an arrest... seized condoms and used that as evidence of prostitution or charged with the misdemeanor of possessing an instrument of crime/criminalizing condoms... unsafe sex), and how criminal record limits sex workers’ future for both people who want remain or leave the field — for example, a woman in Alaska has a record as a sex offender since was charged with trafficking herself because the law changed from “promoting prostitution” to “sex trafficking.”

that just like with any other job, fundamentally the only way to make sure that people have a choice in the way they earn money is to make housing affordable, healthcare accessible, and to not burden marginalized people with a criminal record

#Youtube

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jenningspeta · 8 months

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frankdowling · 1 year

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