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blood-choke · 6 months

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hi! i have a question, but before that i just wanted to thank you for giving such amazing sapphic rep in both of your games. as someone who's sapphic (Im a bi girlie) I'm always a little bit disappointed when the female sapphic characters are given not as much thought even when it comes to both female gender locked ros and the female/nb counterparts of gender selectable characters in comparison to the male characters/male counterparts of gender selectable characters in other ifs. i absolutely adore both of your games and the fact that you take such great care with each of the characters' identities, even if they share the same sexuality or gender, they express their gender and sexuality in different ways and i also love the stud rep with hana. And I love that your gender selectable ros in tnp present in a similar way regardless of gender, yet there are still differences in the way that they express it or experience it. my first language isn't English so if i get any terminology wrong please lmk. ❤️

as for my question I was wondering what your thoughts were regarding sapphic ros in IF. do you think gender selectability could be used in a better way to explore a characters' identity in some circumstances. i am curious as to what you think regarding gender locked and gender selectability especially regarding to female/nb ros. i always love to hear your thoughts on different topic so i thought i would ask. ❤️❤️

thank you so much! 💗 now, get ready for a really long-winded response!

honestly, my opinion on genderselectable ROs tends to fluctuate. it's kinda a love/hate relationship, hahaha. there are a lot of games that i think do a fine job handling it, and overall i prefer having the option as a lesbian because typically we don't… get sapphic/gay female characters… like, at all.

now for my controversial opinion: i don't really think most of these female genderselectable characters are actually sapphic. they're just playersexual. and this goes for the opposite, as well, for the male versions. they're not gay or bi they're just playersexual. genderselectable characters can only work if the author is willing to make an effort & flesh out both/all versions of a character as well as acknowledge their sexuality. if one version of the character is meant to be a bisexual woman, then you should be writing her as a bisexual woman. unfortunately i'm sad to say i've seen more than one author publicly admit that this is "too much work," but i suppose i can commend them for being honest about it…

it's been interesting to see this kind of stuff in the IF tag recently. for a while it seemed like we were actually moving more towards favoring genderlocked characters, with set sexualities, and then suddenly it feels like we've ended up in a worse spot than we used to be. i see some really egregious gender essentialism with some genderselectable ROs, down to even their sense of fashion and tattoos changing so the female version can be more feminine and dainty. it's very bizarre, and i really, really do not like it.

i don't necessarily think it's a bad thing for selectable characters to be different. it makes sense in some cases, like if you had a character that was gender nonconforming in all variations. it would make sense that their clothes would be different and their experiences would be different. i even think it can be interesting to explore how certain characters are affected differently by society because of their gender. if you had a character like Lea that existed in a misogynistic society like ours, their experience as a butch would be very different from their experience as a masculine trans man or androgynous nb person… and they would also share a lot of similar experiences, too! but this is not what i usually see. it's usually just… woman: wears pink, is shorter and skinnier, has long hair. man: wears blue, is big and muscular, has short hair. nonbinary (if there even is a nb variation): thin and androgynous artbreeder mashup of the other two. and then in every other aspect they are the same. unfortunately, that's as far as some authors are willing to take it. the rare times i do see someone add in differences it's always just the female version experiencing some form of misogyny that her male counterpart does not, with very little elaboration or reflection.

i don't really think i need to explain why that kind of characterization is a problem.

i do think there is a lot of potential with the gender selection mechanic. i've tried to do something interesting with Lea, and i like to think i've been successful with it. but in my honest opinion, if you want to write a story about gay and/or sapphic characters, you should just genderlock them. for one, the IF audience at large is always going to favor the male version of your character. that is just a fact. if your only female or nb characters are selectable, they will be erased by the wider IF audience. i know this sounds kind of cynical, but this is my honest opinion & my experience as someone who has been involved in this community for almost four years now.

i think if you are someone who is setting out with the intention of writing a sapphic RO, you are doing them a disservice by making them genderselectable. just genderlock them! you may get people that complain, but they can suck it up or go play something else. and i don't think i need to tell you this but just to be clear, genderlocking gay or trans characters is not the same as a game with an all straight or all cis cast. it just simply is not. cis, straight, & white people are already considered the "default." most games already cater to this demographic. it is not the same to genderlock or even lock your characters race or ethnicity to something other than cis, straight, or white. cis, straight, white people are not a minority. you are not underrepresented. there are millions of games out there for you to play. & it's irritating when people pretend like someone getting upset at the exclusion of gay people (or any other minority, for that matter) from a game is somehow comparable to another game "excluding" straight people (or white people, or cis people). arguing this is just blatantly ignoring the reality of our misogynistic, racist, homophobic & transphobic society. again, straight people are not underrepresented. you are automatically included in almost everything except the gay media that gay people create themselves.

gay women especially are repeatedly left out of IF. unless you want to go read yuri VNs (which, no offense, but little anime girls are entirely sexless to me. i do not feel represented by feminine, bug-eyed little anime girls) you're pretty much shit out of luck. there are very few lesbian ROs out there, fewer gnc women, almost no butches and definitely no studs that i've seen in this specific tumblr/cog IF space.

so all of this to say, if you do really want to make your characters genderselectable, then just take your time with it. really think about how their gender may change their experiences within the world of your game. does it change anything at all? maybe not. there does not need to be a drastic difference at all if it's not applicable. don't loop back around into gender essentialism. but you should still think about it, and consider what the gender selectable mechanic can offer as a narrative and characterization tool.

what is my plan for this character? what am i trying to accomplish with them and their story? does making them genderselectable add to that narrative or does it hinder it? how can i explore the potential differences between these versions of this character without falling into and reinforcing harmful stereotypes? how does their sexuality impact their experience? i think these are some of the questions authors should ask themselves when deciding if they want to make their characters genderselectable.

#it's so hard to talk about it bc i DO like the gender selection mechanic #but i dislike the way its typically used #a lot of people just use it for brownie points/to catch a wider audience #but then dont put in any work to actually earn those brownie points or keep that audience #and to be completely frank i just don't respect that mindset #if someone is going to make their characters genderselectable and claim theyre all bisexual then i want to fucking see it on the page #not just in asks on their blog #not just in the lamest way possible where this RO is a girl now cus she has long hair and is feminine and uses she/her #no i want her to be a bisexual woman!!! i want to SEE that in the text #and if that's 'too much work' then just dont bother #genderlock them one way or the other #anyways. sorry i have a lot of opinions about this LOL #ask #anonymous

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thereareeyesinsidethetrees · 3 months

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a bit late, but i did say it was coming today. behold, a general introduction to my gravity falls limbo au (under the cut. warnings for talk about death- nothing graphic)

basic summary: a ‘malfunction’ (for lack of better term) occurs for a short span of time in the multiverse. the result of this is that upon death, certain individuals within certain dimensions will be transported into a sort of limbo dimension that is isolated from the rest of the multiverse. for (probably obvious) reasons, these individuals are variations of stan pines and ford pines from different dimensions. because of the nature of the multiverse, some of these twins have been in the limbo for a very long time and some only just got there. the limbo has varying affects on those within it. 4.5 sets of stan twins end up in this limbo before the malfunction resolves itself (unfortunately, all this means is that no one can end up in the limbo anymore) none of them know how they got there (aside from it probably having to do with their deaths) and none of them know how to get out

the first stans are from the mullet stan & researcher ford era. they were killed via bill’s shitfuckery (he also died soon after, but they don’t know that. he’s not in the limbo because he doesn’t exist anymore). they don’t care much about the whole limbo thing (if they do, they certainly don’t show it). they mostly spend their time sailing

the second stans are from the post-portal era, prior to weirdmaggedon. ford died due to some incident regarding the metal plate in his head (he doesn’t remember the specifics of it). stan went soon after, though he doesn’t know how. they’re just trying to get a lay of the land currently (and stumble-stutter their way into mending their relationship. they’ve got a long way to go)

the third stans are from just after weirdmaggedon. they’ve been there the longest. others may know the limbo better, but they know the actual layout the best. how to get from this place to that place, what happens if you go in there, what this specific thing does- things like that. they tend to be guides for the others. this ford died in an anomaly attack. probably. he’s really just guessing. stan has no idea what happened with him (and he’s not opposed to keeping it that way)

the fourth stans are from the sea grunk era. out of everyone there, they know the place best (and it has the most affect on them). they can go anywhere they like and they’ve been practically everywhere too. no one knows how they died or what they’re doing, and honestly they probably don’t know either. they travel around a lot, talk to the other thems a lot (well, stan mostly does the talking. the others are very unsettled by his brother). they check up on the last stan(s?) a lot. mostly out of curiosity, because what the hell caused that to happen. they catch glimpses into other dimensions sometimes

the last stan(s?) are from the mullet stan & paranoid ford era. they just want to figure out what happened, what’s going on, and how to get out. if this were a fic, the story would take place from their perspective

#death #mention of death #i’m not writing anything for this au #which means that anything you learn about it is going to come directly from me talking about it #(i have no idea how often i’m going to do that)#also! i do have actual reasons for focusing on the stan twins aside from just being biased as hell

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exilethegame · 2 years

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Writing Update (06/20/2022)

Hello everyone! Yet another good writing week-- this time I managed to churn out 47k words, meaning Chapter 5 is currently 133k words long.

I did not expect this chapter to be so big-- but honestly I’m not complaining. A good chunk of it is horizontal length (through scene variations and choices), but thanks to the expedition scene from Chapter 4, I feel a lot more comfortable writing all those variations. The goal is to make each branch feel unique based on your relationship with characters without having to completely rewrite everything (and therefore never actually complete the chapter or game) but I think I’ve been doing pretty okay in those regards.

Word count wise, I’m speculating Chapter 5 is gonna be ~270k to 300k words if I just double the half-way count. I’m also two scenes away from being halfway done with Chapter 5! If I can write just as much in July as I have in June, there’s a possibility I might be able to finish the Chapter at the end of the month 👀

Of course there’d still be all the editing that goes into it, and I don’t like to set hard deadlines, but it is a sort of lax goal I’m gonna try and see if I can make.

Otherwise-- I’m currently working on two sparring scenes with two very different companions, one of which I’ll reveal to be Nikke...

This is the first sort of “real” combat scene that I’m writing-- aka. it’s the first scene where I have a solid grasp on how I want the system, stat increases, and stat checks to work.

In general, MC will always be able to kick the ass of most people they encounter. MC might get a couple bruises or new scars along the way, but it’ll never really be a matter of losing since they’re... well, The Commander. However, in Act 2 of the game, MC’s still growing in power and will encounter fighters who are on par with them. For example, Syfyn is a powerhouse and is roughly on par with MC physically even when MC is at their best (though she lacks MC’s ability to make hard decisions). Nikke’s quick, sneaky, and able to predict MC’s actions now that he’s seen them fight a few times. There’s mythosi out there that could give MC a run for their money at the moment.

All of those fights will have the possibility of MC losing. They won’t die, b/c I don’t like game-overs, but it will undeniably be a loss in-game. And, in each of these boss fights, it won’t always be a matter of picking your highest stat and spamming it.

I’ll be using Nikke as an example just because his scene is the one I’m writing. Like I said before, Nikke is great at predicting and copying someone’s fighting style once he’s observed it enough times. And, by Chapter 5, he’s able to mimic The Commander’s fighting style. Because of this, if you fight him, you might be able to get away with spamming strength (especially if you’re a werewolf) just because of how much of an advantage you could have on him physically.

Otherwise, you’re probably going to lose if you take that strategy. He’ll know The Commander tends to rely on strategic fighting, and as a result, will adapt to do the same. He’ll know The Commander sometimes falls back on charisma if they’re pushed into a corner-- and he’ll adapt to that, too. Your best bet when fighting him is to choose some of your worst stats. It’s not a matter of doing them well, but of taking Nikke off-guard, which will then give you the opportunity to strike that he would’ve otherwise denied giving you.

All the “bosses” in-game are going to have different methods of fighting, and it’ll be up to you and your general Commander build to figure out how to defeat them. There’ll always be a hint somewhere-- and some of your companions might be able to make up for any mistakes you make if you have good enough affinity with them to want to take a risk for MC.

Otherwise, that’s all I’ll share for now! Thanks for reading, and may the next week be just as productive as this one! :)

P.S. for antagonistic Nikke lovers: You will given the chance to flirt via. fighting next chapter <3

#writing update

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invisibleraven · 6 months

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20 questions writer meme!

I wa tagged by my beloved @bananakarenina <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? In total across 5 fandoms, 124, 84 of those are JatP, and 5 of those are prompt fill compilations.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 1,674,136 uploaded as of right now, and I know that over 1 million of those words are JatP.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Currently just Julie and the Phantoms, but in past I wrote primarily for Glee/Glee RPF, and Teen Titans. There's no other fandom really interesting me enough to write for it at moment.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I'm going to limit this to my JatP fics, but if you wanna check out my stories in my previous fandoms, well here's my AO3

And giving yourself to me can never be wrong my collection of smut prompt fills with 235 kudos

I Know Who I Want To Take Me Home the first installment of my Semisonic Sunset verse with 192 kudos

But came the dawn the show goes on (and I don't want to say goodnight) my PeterPatterLina soulmate AU with 169 kudos

Maybe this news can wait Part three (and the only non smutty part) of Semisonic Sunset with 124 kudos

Better walk the line my single dad Reggie PeterPatter fic with 124 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Honestly no I don't. I tried, once upon a time, but I just felt like no one really cared what I had to say, and then I didn't have the spoons for it, so I stopped. I know I should though, my brain just doesn't seem to like letting me.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Hands down it is Haunted by the moments of what we used to be because every comment I got on it was some variation of how very dare you.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Generally I try to give all of my stories a happy ending, but for this one, I'll go with Yellow Wood because it gave everyone a happy ending, no matter the path taken.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Currently no, but when the blacklist was a thing that happened, my name was second on there, so that kind of sucked.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Out of my 84 JatP fics, 24 are rated E, and my smut prompt fills are currently sitting at 80 something chapters, so you tell me. In honesty, I don't write smut as much anymore, as I find it a little more difficult to write and the response to anything rated above a T is vastly lower than anything else. But when I started in this fandom, it was what I was known for; see my point regarding the black list.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I actually kind of hate crossovers? If I'm looking for a fic to read on AO3, I always click the Exclude Crossovers choice. I'll write any and every AU I can, and I might add minor characters from said AU, but that's rare, and that's as close as I get.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Unfortunately yes. There was a person on WattPad who went and stole a bunch of different smutty JatP fics over a year ago, and one of mine was amongst them. They were reported, and the fic was taken down. This is why now my fics on AO3 are only available to registered AO3 users.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but if anyone ever wants to do a translation or podfic of any of my stories, they have my permission as long as they credit me and send me a link afterwards!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, and no one has ever asked. It's something I'd love to try if the chance ever came along, and had the right idea.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? I mean I can't pick just one, I've been involved in fandoms since I was a teenager. Like for Teen Titans Raven/Beast Boy will always own a piece of my soul. In Glee, Kurt/Blaine was such a formative part of my life. And even with Jatp I don't think I could choose between Rulie and PeterPatterLina, they both mean so much to me. And those are just the fandoms I've written for!

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? *looks at my GDocs which is a WiP graveyard* Oh gosh there's so many.

16. What are your writing strengths? My brain is not being kind to me ATM, so I don't think I have any? Like maybe how much I write? Does that count?

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Everything. Editing especially.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I have done this quite a bit, even if it's just plugging what I want to say into Google Translate. So I know it's not entirely accurate, but I think I have been getting better about it.

19. First fandom you wrote for? The first fic I ever wrote that wasn't done like on a dare was a smutty fic for the anime Trigun that still exists on my ff.net page if you find it (no I'm not linking it) that I wrote in high school. It is Not Good.

20. Favorite fic you've written? I give the same answer to this question every time: But came the dawn the show goes on (and I don't want to say goodnight) and I don't think that will ever change.

Honourable mentions

-For better or for worse (Even if it's just tonight)

-So Close To Reaching That Famous Happy End

-Yellow Wood

-Dress You Up In My Love

Not tagging anyone, but if you wanna do this ask game, go to!

#answer time #tag games #my writing

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l-egionaire · 2 years

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The Owl House vs Harry Potter magic: Execution vs Construction

So, in the past I've mentioned before that I think that Harry Potters magic system is better than the Owl House's main magic system (the one with the spell circles) because the Owl House's magic system just feels too simple to actually be interesting. I still hold true to that, but I have come to a new conclusion about my opinion regarding the two systems: I think the Owl House uses magic better than Harry Potter a lot but on the flipside the Harry Potter series has more interesting magic.

What I mean by that is that, The Owl House series tends to use magic in a much more interesting way then the Harry Potter series. Especially when it relates to magical combat. All of the magical duels in the series are fast paced, bombastic and have the characters using magic in interesting and creative ways. Just look at those two duels between Eda and Lilith.

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Now compare these to the duels in the Harry Potter series.

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For duels between wizards, they're honestly very dull. Mostly consisting of two people just jabbing sparks at each other. It's not very interesting to watch because the same thing sort of happens every time. Even though we see a lot of different spells in the series, the characters kind of stick to using the same few with little variation.

But, in return, the Owl House's normal magic system....is honestly not very good. In fact, if I'm being blunt, it's one of the worse ones I've seen. This talk from Eda is kind of the only real explanation we get on how the Owl House's magic system works and its....way too simple.

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Witches just cast magic through making spell circles. That's its. That's the only real explanation of the magic we get. And...that's really boring. It's hard to really want to learn more because....well, there's never really anything added to it. We never get any more explanation on how the magic works. And then we see characters do things that go outside of those simple rules of magic that have been already been established, like bards or Lilith's ryhme spell, that just confuse things more. Because we're not given a good understanding of what the rules of magic are. It doesn't make me want to explore this magic system and makes it hard to grasp why anyone would have difficulty with it if its so simple.

Compare to that Harry Potter. There are some pretty concrete magic rules and when the magic is explained, it's shown why it might be difficult. The pronunciation of the spell, the wand movement, the focus of the caster, and the casters emotional state are all things that might effect how a spell is cast. Like this levitation spell scene.

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The explanation Flitwick gives is more interesting and helps get a much better idea of how the magic works and why it might be difficult for these to grasp it, even if it's supposed to be simple than the explanation of Eda gives. It makes me want to learn more about how the mechanics behind how other spells work and what the requirements might be to cast them.

Ironically, the systems seem to have the exact opposite flaws to me. I like seeing the effects of the Owl House's magic system, but the actual system is too dull and vague to really be interested in learning more about. Whereas the Potter series doesn't do much interesting stuff with its magic, but I find it's magic system more complex and interesting to learn about.

That being said, I do think LUZ'S magic system (her glyphs and comboes) are just as if not more interesting than Potters....but the spell circle system just doesn't do anything for me.

And I know, some people might say "well, is the magic system really that important? It's not the point of the show." And I'd say yes. The magic system is very important. Any fantasy series that focuses on magic like this should have a good magic system, especially when most of the main characters use it. You need to make it interesting if it's a big part of the show.

If you want a good example of how a magic system is done perfectly? Go watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. Because they nailed it. Like they nailed everything about that show.

#The Owl House #Owl House #ToH #Harry Potter #HP #Harry Potter series #Harry Potter analysis #Owl House analysis #Youtube

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sanstropfremir · 9 months

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hi hellooo pleasure to be here again!! i have come to rant

so last night i went a bit through your blog because i vaguely remembered that at some point there was a conversation about "stage presence" and how only kpoppies give a shit about it. and i found some asks from last year about this youtuber who made like a whole classification on stage presence with all this masculine overt dominant whatever categories. and i was mindblown because just yesterday i got recommended one of their videos and i was watching that stuff like wtf. that took me back to my early kpop days (which is like 2018 lol) when i also discovered the term stage presence and i thought i did something. anyway

i actually came here to talk about shinee's recent comeback!! from the little i've seen, there's some beef among shawols regarding wether shinee is really "shinee" anymore and i've seen some people saying they've unstanned bc of hard. like you do you ig

i've been thinking that i genuinely like the song, but indeed it doesn't have that classic shinee vibe. (also satellite best bside???) to me it's just like taemin key onew and minho got together to sing a song, but it's not "shinee" per se. and that's okay.

regarding performances i only watched the studio choom dance version and tbh for the first time in my limited shinee eras knowledge i thought that minho takes the cake for this one. idk if it's the fact that he's more stereotipically masculine (or at least coming across that way) or what, but honestly his part in the second chorus is my favorite. key is second favorite and again his part in the last chorus suits him a lot imo especially with the different choreo for it. as for taemin i'm glad he's bringing his poppiest pops forward because i swear i feels like that man's bones are snapping inside his body but other than that honestly i don't think he's enjoying this era too much fdjdvscg

hi hello again!!!

alksdjflksdafj not that youtuber again....they're a fucking plague i need them to read a fucking book for the love of god. just so profoundly uninformed, its mind boggling.

i've seen variations of this take since before the song even came out and honestly? i don't agree. you can not like the song for any number of reasons but the fact of the matter is that it IS a shinee song. what makes a shinee song is that it's their voices. that's all that makes a shinee song. for a group that has an extended history of genre experimentation, for fans to get mad or say it's "not them" when they DO do something experimental is cowardly and embarrassing. just admit that you don't like the song and move on. there will be a time when EVERY artist you love makes something that you don't. that's fine and normal. don't hide behind incorrect assertions like "it's an nct reject" or that it doesn't sound like them. they're artists that still want to explore and grow and they have agency to do that. it's not a failing to admit that you don't like something that your faves made, and i also think it's rude and denies them identity and agency to say that 'it doesn't sound like them', especially with this particular group.

personally what i think people are subconsciously getting at when they say a song doesnt sound like shinee is that it sounds incomplete because it's missing a voice. the same discourse circled around with dcm came out and people are not acknowledging that shinee is never going to sound the same as they did pre 2017 (2018 technically bc jonghyun's voice is still on tsol). they just aren't. the chemical makeup of the melodies is going to be different forever and people need to acknowledge and accept that. the four of them are doing their best to fill in that hole and theyre doing a great job, but there is still a hole.

#the ire here is not directed at you obvs lol ive just been seeing a lot of ppl saying stupid things and it's annoyed me deeply #obvs everyone is entitled to their own opinions and i think it def hasnt helped that jinki isnt here so it sounds especially incomplete #but personally i think its so disrespectful to them to say that its not a shinee song when they always talk about wanting to push themselve #musically and artistically. if you dont like the genre or think they did it badly whatever i dont care about that #but to deny them artistic agency is rude af esp for a group that wants to keep making different types of music #and also to say that they dont sound like shinee (without jonghyun) is like.......................................#extra disrespectful imo. to them and to him. theyre STILL shinee. its gonna be a different shinee but they ARE shinee #text #answers #shinee w #n e ways. nice to hear from you again! i hope youre well!

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onlytibki · 8 months

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Yelling into the void about OPLA

Spoilers ahead!

Neutral: Some major scenes that outlined certain themes of the original story were changed, which is fair. Some things were added in certain areas, which is also fair. There's pros and cons to these things in various directions so I'm keeping it all under 'neutral'--by the same token, my disappointment about it not fitting the original story is tempered by how much just knowing the original story made me excited to see these characters and places in a live action. The two things kinda cancel, so, neutral.

Pros:

Set building. Urgh,, this summer has been a highlight for physical sets as opposed to greenscreening things. It was GORGEOUS and it paid off SO WELL.

Make-up. Again, physical make-up (I think) not CGI'ing a face, and it went so well. The Fishmen are high-key terrifying and honestly it fits the narrative. (The CGI was also amazing, though)

Fitting like 50+ episodes into 8 hours. A LOT ended up on the cutting room floor but the result was cohesive and coherent and that could not have been easy. And yet, even with so much on the floor, I think they only completely culled two or three characters? (Johnny and Yosaku (tragic) and the Island of the Rare Animals dude (but his island was shown in the maps)

Cons:

Fight choreography. There was a lot of variation in quality, imho. Kuina was incredible, as well she should be, but in some of the major fights there were moments of stillness in the background, etc. I should not have seen Luffy just stand there with his fists up while Zoro engaged Cpt. Morgan.

Make-up. If they did the Fishmen, and Merry, so goddamn well, why the hell are we missing Sanji's eyebrow and Usopp's nose? Usopp's nose might've been distracting but it didn't have to be ridiculous.

I'm not sure if it's cinematography, or editing, or directorial decisions, but I feel like they wasted precious time on a few scenes, whose minutes would've been well-spent including short, more cinematic shots. Ex: scrap kid!Sanji's "Day 2", replace with a shot of grown!Sanji bowing in front of the Baratie. Quite a few of Oda's iconic double-page shots would've translated SO WELL to the screen. Why not use them??

Side Notes

ZORO WAS IN GOA KINGDOM holy shit the things that could've changed. I wonder if Johnny and Yosaku were there too? Also his scar wasn't big or bloody enough.

Helmeppo was there. I somewhat had an opinion on him by the end of the season, which is an impressive achievement.

Scratch that, my opinion on Helmeppo is that Zoro's cutting of his hair was hilarious but the butt shot was unnecessary. Ditto Sanji being shirtless to rescue Luffy. This is OPLA why the fan service.

Nami was in shackles until age 12. :( But Bechdel test, passed!

Also this version of Nami would've absolutely tried to get with Kaya before stepping aside given the Usopp/Kaya romance.

Mihawk was PERFECT. Like absolutely iconic. Honestly the whole cast was, obviously, but you don't see as many people gushing about this fact regarding Mihawk

What the hell happened to Gin. He ate the food and then vanished from the face of the earth.

Garp's development/arc was an interesting take, and honestly it was a chunk of the really engaging part of the watch for me. I guess in canon he was too busy doing Marine things to chase after Luffy after he left Dawn Island so this is a good take.

On a related note, it does take a bit away that we didn't go through 250-ish chapters before learning about any of Luffy's family, but obviously that wasn't going to happen anyway. Also, kinda wish we'd seen him yell out 'Fist of Love' or them both fall asleep at the same time post-Enies Lobby arc style, but he was definitely using haki so it's fine.

On a different related note, actually VERY upset that we (1) didn't get Garp saying that line about how he left Luffy with Dadan so he could grow up to be a respectable Marine, and have Loof respond with Garp's training and (2) had to listen to Garp telling Luffy that the GL isn't a game, given that Luffy's already lost Sabo to the world and (3) didn't get any mention of Luffy's brothers or Dadan at all, actually.

Quick Summary: I do think a degree of enjoyment was both added and subtracted due to my knowledge of the original story. Not sure if I would've sat through the whole thing if I wasn't already tied heart and soul to the crew, but I am and I did.

But it was definitely fun and really well built. 8/10.

#one piece #opla #one piece spoilers #spoilers

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egg-emperor · 2 years

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Saw your post talking about Eggman doing Evil things, I honestly feel like it depends on which eggman. Like we see multiple variations have absolutely no limits like that one creepy looking Eggman(the show had no real title ;-;) while Boom Eggman is just,, yeah, he’s him. Every one is loved in this house though <3

I'm always talking about game canon Eggman unless stated otherwise, he's the one that owns my whole heart and is always on my mind! It's where I fell in love with him and he has absolutely every aspect I love to see in the character in one version, with the kind of balance of them that isn't really done to my liking as much in other non game canon media/versions in different universes.

I assume you're talking about SatAM, haven't watched it in years as it's not my cup of tea so I only have vague memories but yeah, he was presented in a super serious and evil way and didn't have limits from what I recall. As much as I love fucked up evil Eggman, compared to game canon he was missing a lot of the other aspects of his character I love for him to have just as much.

Then the complete opposite side of the scale you have Boom, barely evil and never felt intimidating and threatening, he was too cute and funny for that. I'm not as interested in him personally because I love the fucked up evil, it's as important to me as the humor but he doesn't have it. Especially because he even had implied softness and actually just wanted friends and attention.

Game Eggman hasn't been shown to have moral limits. He'll target children and innocent people, hurt, manipulate, and use people, cause tons of catastrophic destruction with no regards for inhabitants, wildlife, or the environment, and is apathetic and sometimes sadistic towards damage he causes. His only limit of sorts is the entire planet being completely destroyed so he dies/can't rule it. It's not a limit based on morals, it's for selfish reasons.

Game canon Eggman is funny and charming with tons of passion for his interests and a unique goal of the Eggman Empire and Eggmanland but he's also a very evil, threatening, fucked up bastard that will do whatever it takes to get what he wants with no moral limits. The humor and charm gives the evil that he's capable of more impact and makes him even more fun and entertaining to me. He has the most range of all the versions Imo 🥰💜

SatAM could do all the same evil game Eggman does but it'd be without the charm, humor, and charisma which makes it even more thrilling, so it'd feel like something is missing. And Boom has the humor SatAM lacks that I like but wouldn't do all the evil game Eggman does, he'd probably think it's way too far as the not so bad guy he was implied to be. XD So it feels something is missing there for me too.

SatAM or Boom are two good examples of what has more of just one or the other of evil and humor, while game Eggman has them combined and balanced, he can do fucked up shit and sometimes be sadistic about it like SatAM could and he has the humor of Boom (but doesn't share his hidden goodness/softness) which is the best of both aspects and makes him the most interesting, entertaining, and lovable to me.

If there was a scale of evil to humorous versions, SatAM would be on the evil side, Boom would be the humor side, and right in the middle would be game Eggman for being both equally. The ideal in my eyes is right in the middle, but to each their own. I'm entertained by the balance and how much there is to explore with it, endless possibilities that SatAM or Boom couldn't do all of in the same way and some not at all.

I'm personally picky when it comes to my favorites in design, personality, portrayal, and media- I'm not the biggest fan of most other versions and I don't think about the ones I'm only neutral on much either. Game Eggman takes up all my mind space and interest more than anything lol. But I understand that every version has their differences of presentation with their own likable aspects for different people to enjoy and that's great. ^^

#dr eggman #eggman #dr robotnik #dr. eggman #asks #sonic boom #analysis #my post

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docexe-mx · 1 year

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Some belated general thoughts regarding the Super Mario Bros. movie after the trailers and other footage they have showed so far (not to mention, the TV ads that… ehem… leaked):

The animation and art style looks impressive. From a visual standpoint, it’s probably the prettiest movie Illumination has produced to date.

The characters’ designs weirded me out at first, not because they looked bad but rather because they actually looked very faithful to the game renders while still being very different in key respects (particularly in the facial shapes). That combination of “familiar yet also different” caused me a reaction akin to an “uncanny valley” effect of sorts, but by this point I have become pretty accustomed to the movie designs so I don’t really mind them anymore.

Talking about faithfulness, I’m honestly (and pleasantly) surprised by the amount of cues the movie is taking from the games. So far we have seen references that go from the mainline Mario platformers (both 2D and 3D), to Mario Kart, to Super Mario Maker, to even Donkey Kong Country and Super Smash Bros. Considering how the original live action film (not to mention several other videogame movies, for that matter) took lots of questionable liberties with the source material, seeing this one being this faithful it’s actually refreshing.

The story seems like it’s going to be relatively simple: Bowser wants to conquer the world and is invading other kingdoms to obtain the Power Stars, Mario will go through a “Chosen One”/”Fish out of Water”/”Zero to Hero” journey in order to stop him. Nothing particularly original or out of this world, but I think it ultimately works well for a Super Mario movie.

The above being said, there are two things that I do find fascinating regarding what’s been shown so far of the movie’s story. The first is that they are going back to the OG backstory of the Mario brothers being Italian plumbers living in Brooklyn who accidentally end up in the Mushroom Kingdom while doing their jobs. I saw some people online confused/annoyed by this “Isekai-like” take, but that’s actually the original background the characters had in the arcade Mario Bros. game, and which was later used in both The Super Mario Bros. Super Show cartoon and the original live action movie.

The second thing that caught my attention is the apparent role inversion between Luigi and Peach. It seems that, this time, Peach is taking a more proactive role in actively defending her kingdom and will be Mario’s primary companion at the beginning of the movie, while Luigi is going to be the “distressed dude” whose kidnapping by Bowser will incite Mario’s quest to stop the villain. It’s an interesting variation on what we usually see in the mainline games. Of course, given this is still a Super Mario movie, I’m expecting Mario will reunite with Luigi at the end of the second act/beginning of the third act only for Peach to be captured instead, which will then lead into the final confrontation with Bowser. That would be slightly disappointing if it happens, but it wouldn’t surprise me given that, again, it’s a Super Mario movie.

So far it seems that the humor will be comprised primarily of self-referential jokes and slapstick. It probably won’t land with everyone, but I think this style of comedy is appropriate for a Mario movie and some of the gags do have made me chuckle. Mercifully, there hasn’t been a single fart joke so far, I just hope that remains true during the entire film.

Regarding the slapstick, I also have seen some people annoyed that Mario looks so bumbling in the footage shown so far. It certainly clashes with his general depiction these days where he is presented as a hyper-competent and confident hero, but given this is supposed to be an origin story of sorts, I don’t mind his clumsiness that much. It kind of mimics the pitfalls (heh!) people tend to find when they play platforming games for the first time, and besides, some of the ads that have leaked imply that he becomes more skilled later on.

The overall online discourse regarding the film still revolves a lot around the casting situation (which is annoying for reasons I have already pointed out before). The only thing I will say on this matter is that Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key and Charlie Day are all killing it in their respective roles, while Chris Pratt and Anya Taylor-Joy sound unimpressive, not because their performances are particularly bad so much as that they sound extremely flat. Mind you, Pratt does sound better in the footage that was shown at the Game Awards, but it remains to be seen if his performance will be better in the final reel.

All things considered, I’m very excited for this movie. I’m not exactly expecting something out of this world, as Illumination is not exactly one of the best animation studios in the business (although I also don’t think they are actually as bad as the Internet tends to paint them, Minions notwithstanding of course). That being said, what has been shown so far looks really promising and it seems like it will make for a good time at the cinema. So, fingers crossed.

#super mario #super mario bros #the movie #nintendo #analysis #criticism

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iamacolor · 1 year

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omg i don't know much about fashion history (it's very interesting but all my knowledge comes from youtube) but i find what you said very relatable because i really miss being in uni and getting to discuss things i'm passionate about with people who also research similar things. in my case it was literature, mostly 19th century 🥲

catherine was a fascinating woman and they were apparently madly in love but marriage was out of question. stanisław poniatowski was also not a bad king... he would have been an amazing one under different circumstances. he wanted to turn poland into a modern country but there were too many fractions fighting with each other and he was too weak. the constitution and his other reforms came too late.

to me it's interesting to hear about the congress kingdom because we don't really use this term. we know poland didn't technically exist but we still call all polish lands where polish people lived "poland".

i also know what you meant about france because poland used to be very multi-cultural. people spoke different languages, practiced different religions. all of that changed because of ww2 and now poland is a very homogeneous country (at least on the surface). right-wingers love to pretend that it always used to be like this but it's honestly such bs.

omg poor chopin... he was born and raised in poland, had a polish mom and a french dad. there was nothing austrian about him 😂

annas are popular here!! we would be so powerful if we all came together!!

there are quite a lot of good ressources on youtube about fashion history so that's a good place to start (and that's where I got to know about another polish person, karolina zebrowska who has really fun and interesting content - also she does a lot of sewing and so do I, although more modern in style), I love fashion and more generally textiles for the crafts but also (and that's why fashion history is also super interesting to me) because it tells us so much about how we live, how we divide ourselves into categories, how we work, how we interact with each other, with our bodies, with colours, with nature, with technology and progress etc etc

did you focus on polish literature or in another language? since you speak so well english I thought maybe you'd studied english literature?

ah it's interesting to know how you guys talk about it! it made me want to go and see how far back in time poland was called poland and I learned about the polans tribe from which poland's name was derived!

even though I mostly heard about poland in regards to ww2 and the treatment of polish jews and it did highlight how big that community was (and how much it lost), yeah that's kind of the image I had gotten of modern-day poland that it's very homogeneous and that there seems to be a strong catholic influence on society.

tbh paris - and at large france - is still very multicultural (in some areas say more than others) but although a lot of foreigners work here, I wouldn't call it a safe and welcoming space for migrants anymore like it was for artists and intellectuals in the 19th, and more and more cultural and religious diversity is threatened (because we also have right-wingers who want to bring back/preserve the "real france" when we've always been a country made of multitude of cultures lol)

sorry to chopin, the fact that he was actually half french makes it worse omg I know nothing 😭 what's funny is that I just had. quick look at his Wikipedia page and had a picture of one of his addresses in Paris and I used to work super close to that street and often took the subway back home not far from his place lol

funnily enough here anna and its variations (Anne , Annie) is a name I mostly associate with my parents' generation lol my mother's called Anne and two of her friends are called Annie and Anna and there are many others but no one my age that I know

#my mobile browser's latest searches are mostly poland related it's so funny #taeminnomuyeppeo #love how we're having like 5 conversations on different topics all at once hihi #mutuals #i've got mail

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liedownquisition · 2 years

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I saw the guandao post and I was wondering if you could go into a bit more detail on the differences between the weapons (beyond their areas of origin) and what this means for how they're wielded?

DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert I’m just a fan of polearms and at times I can be wrong, but I have some knowledge. also be warned that while I uh, am looking stuff up to confirm the things I already know/get some more details esp wrt construction, I, admittedly, don’t feel the need to source everything since I don’t expect this to travel far enough to be a big deal. (famous last words, I know)

First of all, an admission: it is, in fact, not uncommon for guandao and similar “knife/sword-like blade on a stick” weapons to be called “Glaive weapons” which is something that has never sat right with me. So in regards to a “classification”/more generalized term, they’re technically not wrong. But at the same time, modern French uses the term “glaive” for short swords like the roman gladius. So, honestly, it’s a bit of an annoying term that categorizes too many different things while *also* referring to a specific weapon and I hate it used that way.

So, with regards to that, this is admittedly a largely personal linguistic beef that I stubbornly refuse to call things “glaive” in the broad sense and prefer the term “sword staff.”

Now, onto the weapons themselves. the most obvious difference between glaives and guandao is construction:

- Glaives have a more consistent/standard construction where they usually have a blade about 45cm/18 inches long and are affixed on a pole about 2m/7 feet long. It is wielded similarly to things like quarterstaves/halberds/bills/partisans. Between the size and the other weapons in its class you can kinda get the idea that it’s a weapon you aren’t doing fancy spin tricks with. The blade is affixed via socket-shaft and it’s a bit more of a chopping kind of deal with a bit of stabbing. It also sometimes has a guisarme - a hook on the opposite side of the blade to catch riders and pull them off their horses. (can also be used from horseback). Guisarme is a term with two meanings - one for a weapon that was so incredibly effective that there were calls in the 13th century to be banned from the battlefield, and one that just is the term slapped on the back of any other weapon that had a hook on the side of their blades.

- Guandao has a lot more variation, and you have to account for if you’re referring to an older version of guandao or the more modern versions. Older ones usually had poles around 1.5-1.8m/5-6 feet and I can’t find anythig about the length of the blades but looking at examples there seems to be a LOT of variety. Some look less like what’s usually considered polearms and more just, giant swords. The ones that looked mroe traditionally polearm-y are rather similar to Glaives and, honestly? I’m pretty sure we don’t know how they were actually used in combat? There are conflicting sources on that, potentially due to the variety of their construction? By the time of the Qing dynasty it wasn’t really used in battle anymore? which is possibly why most of the older ones are known to also be incredibly heavy since they were used for testing and lifting/moving extremely heavy weights was a thing they had officers do.

That one, obviously, is a more modern one which I’ve always found so distinct from Glaives that that’s why I always, hate it. Modern Guandao can have poles ranging from 1-1.5m/3 to 5 feet with blades between 30-45cm/12-18 inches long. It’s typically used by martial artist and is, I have heard, a great weapon for training/conditioning the body. I’ve always wanted one tbh even if I’m relatively certain I’d manage to injure myself trying to learn it. A striking difference between Glaives and modern Guandao is the macehead on the opposite end, which also acts as a counterbalance to the blade.This is necessary for, well, everything the modern Guandao is used for. Its usage involves much more slashing and bashing and the idea is to always keep the blade in motion. Certain schools of martial arts also affix cloths to the side with the macehead because they use the weapon more for disarming and confusing their opponents than actually attacking them. How accurate that is to its actual uses in battle is up for debate since the earliest knowledge of Guandao are uh, either tied up in Folklore (Supposedly invented & used by Guan Yu) or is otherwise debated (to my knowledge).

In conclusion: Modern Guandao is significantly cooler if you like drama, spins, and flashy fighting.

#I've been mostly on mobile the past few days bcs my chair broke #so I only just saw this and idk how long ago it's from since I know that post was in my queue somewhere #This isn't the most comprehensive but I am not an expert #And also definitely not procrastinating anything #No sireee

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spanishskulduggery · 3 years

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Hi! I'm very curious about something regarding the Spanish language. I'm currently studying A2 Spanish but I had this question and my teacher did not seem too willing to discuss it. Here it goes:

I know that Spanish has, something my Spanish teacher says, linguistic gender. I was wondering how do the people who don't align themselves with the gender binary (masculine and feminine) speak/write in it? I have read this article about Spanish speaking people from US adding "x" Or "@" and people from Argentina using "e" to make the words gender neutral.

Thank you so much for responding, whenever you get to it. Also love your blog. ❤

Short answer, in general speaking terms people are tending towards the -e now because the other two are very hard to actually speak, and because Spanish-speakers feel the -e is more authentic

What you're most likely to see in Spanish is masculine plural as the default, or in written things you might see todos y todas or like un/una alumno/a "a student", or like se busca empleado/a "employees wanted" / "looking for an employee"

If it's something official or academic you typically include both [todas y todas] or you go masculine plural [todos] unless it's specifically feminine plural

Related, linguistic gender applies to all things, not just people. Why is la mesa "table" feminine, but el libro "book" masculine? Just linguistic gender. I can tell you that most loanwords (that aren't people) in Spanish are masculine, and that there are certain words that come from Greek are masculine, and that -ista words are unisex most of the time... And I can tell you there are some words like testigo or modelo that are unisex and don't change for gender. Aside from that, speaking about nouns and grammatical gender... those particular things are harder to parse for regular people, but if you go into the field of linguistics you can explore that more deeply. Some of it is source language (i.e. "it came from Latin this way") or things like that. And in general when talking about nouns it's unimportant and not considered sexist, that's just how it is.

There is such a thing where it gets a little too far the other way and people will say "history? what about herstory" which is a nice thought but the etymology has nothing to do with gender there

When it comes to people - and when it comes to gendered attitudes - that's where it gets more confusing and more complicated.

I believe there was an experiment where people had French and Spanish speakers [I believe it was Spanish] try to identify how a "fork" would sound. French people gave it a more feminine voice because "fork" is feminine in French, while Spanish speakers gave it a more masculine voice because it's masculine in Spanish.

Whether we like it or not, certain gendered things do influence our thoughts and feelings and reactions. A similar thing in English exists where the old joke was something like "There was a car accident; a boy is rushed to the ER and the surgeon but the father was killed. When they got to the ER the doctor said 'I can't operate on him, he's my son!'" and it's like "well who could the doctor be?" ...and the doctor is his mother. We associate "doctor" as masculine and "nurse" as feminine.

There's a gender bias in our language thought patterns, even though the language changes. And that does exist in Spanish too, to different extents.

There are certain cultural and gendered stereotypes or connotations attached to certain words, many tend to be more despective or pejorative when it's women.

For example - and I know this has changed in many places or it isn't as prevalent - el jinete "horseman/rider", while the female form is la amazona "horsewoman/rider". Because la jinete or la jineta was sometimes "promiscuous woman".

There were also debates about things like la presidente vs. la presidenta or what the female version of juez should be, whether it should be la juez or la jueza

Most languages with gendered language have varying degrees of this, and all languages I'm aware of have gendered stereotypes related to professions or cultural attitudes in some way, and not just for women, and not all in the same way with some of them being very culturally based

The longer answer involves a bit of history, and I'll be honest, some of it is contested or considered a little controversial in Spanish-speaking countries particularly in the conservative parts (which honestly should come as no surprise)

The first symbol that I know of that came about was the X

First piece of contested history: As far as I know, it was the trans/queer and drag communities in Latin America who started the trend of X. When there were signs or bulletins that had the gendered endings - specifically masculine plural as the default plural - people would write a big X through the O. This was a way of being inclusive and also a very smash the patriarchy move.

Some people attribute this to women's rights activists which may also be true, but a good portion of the things I read from people say it was the trans/queer/drag communities in Latin America doing this.

I've also read it originated in Brazil with Portuguese; still Latin America, but not a Spanish-speaking country.

Where it's most contested is that some people will say that this trend started in the Hispanic communities of the United States. And - not without reason - people are upset that this is perceived as a very gringo movement.

That's why Latinx is considered a very American-Hispanic experience

The arroba (@) is relatively new. I remember seeing it in the 2000s. I don't know if it existed earlier for gender inclusivity.

People used it because it looks like a combination of O and A, so it was meant to be cut down on saying things like todos y todas or niños y niñas in informal written speech

I remember quite a few (informal) emails starting like hola tod@s or muy buenas a tod@s or things like that

I think of it more as convenience especially in the information age where you never knew who you were talking to and it's easier than including both words, especially when masculine plural might be clumsy or insensitive

Still, it's practically impossible to use the @ in spoken Spanish, so it's better for writing casually. You also likely won't be allowed to use the @ in anything academic, but in chatrooms, blogs, or forums it's an option

I love the E ending. And the gender neutral form in singular is elle... so it's él "he", ella "she", and elle "they (singular)"

The -e ending is I think became more common within the past 10 years though it might have existed longer than that. These sorts of changes tend to come from the queer or trans communities and tend to be more insular before becoming more of an outside thing that then the general population finds out about

It came about because there are some adjectives in Spanish that end in -e that are unisex. It's not an A, it's not an O, but it's something grammatically neutral for Spanish

It's not as awkward as X, and E exists very firmly in Spanish so it's not perceived as some outside (typically gringo) influence

The good news is, it's pretty widespread on the internet. Not so much in person (yet), but especially in Spain and Argentina at least from what I've seen, particularly in the queer communities and online culture.

The only issues with it are that for non-native speakers, you have to get used to any spelling changes. Like amigo and amiga, but to use the E ending you have to add a U... so it's amigue.

That's because there are certain words where you have to do spelling changes to preserve the sound; gue has a hard G sound like -go does [like guerra]... but ge has the equivalent of an English H sound [gelatina for example]. Another one is cómico/a "funny" which would go to cómique. Again, because co has a hard C/K sound, while ce is a soft sound more like an S or in some contexts TH/Z sound; like centro is a soft sound, while cola is a hard sound

Unless you make it to the preterite forms where you come across like pagué, alcancé, practiqué with those types of endings... or subjunctive forms, pague, alcance, practique ... Basically you'd have to be exposed to those spelling rules or you'd be really confused if you were a total beginner.

It all makes sense when you speak it, but spelling might be harder before you learn those rules

The other drawback is that the E endings are sometimes not applicable. Like in damas y caballeros "ladies and gentlemen" there's not really a gender neutral variation on that, it's all binary there. And while la caballero "female knight" does exist, you'd never see a male variation on dama; the closest I've ever seen is calling a guy a damisela en apuros "damsel in distress" in some contexts where the man needs rescuing, and it's feminine una/la damisela, and it's very tongue-in-cheek

There are also some contexts like jefe vs jefa where I guess you would say jefe for "boss" if you were going the neutral route, but it's a bit weird because it's also the masculine option.

I can't speak for how people might feel about those if they're non-binary or agender because every so often you kind of get forced into the binary whether you like it or not

I totally support the E, I just recognize there are some limitations there and it's quirks of the Spanish language itself

Important Note: Just to reiterate, E endings are the ones most Spanish-speakers prefer because it's easiest to speak and doesn't have the American connotation that X does in some circles

Where it gets very "Facebook comment section" is that you'll see many Latin Americans traditionalists and conservatives claim that "this is just the gringos colonizing our language" and "grammatical gender doesn't matter in Spanish". They'll say that the "gender movement" is an American feminist movement and that it's a gringo thing and doesn't reflect actual Latin Americans or Spanish-speakers

Which on the one hand, yes, English does have a lot of undue influence on other languages because of colonization, and American influence and meddling in Latin American politics is a big important issue

But as far as I'm aware of the X (and especially the E) were created by Latin Americans

The other issue I personally have is that any time this conversation comes up, someone will say something like somos latinOs and claim that masculine plural is gender neutral

To that I say, first of all, "masculine plural" is inherently gendered. Additionally, there is a gender neutral in Spanish but it's lo or ello and it's only used with "it" so it sounds very unfriendly to use on an actual person... and in plural it looks like masculine plural and everything applies like masculine plural

Second, the reason masculine plural is default is because of machismo. It's more important that we don't possibly misgender a man, so it has to be masculine plural. It's changed in some places, but growing up when I was learning Spanish, if it was 99 women and 1 man you still had to put masculine plural

I'm not opposed to there being a default, and I understand why it's easier to use masculine plural, but some people get very upset at the idea of inclusive language

...

In general, my biggest issues with these comments come when people act like non-binary/queer/trans people don't exist in Spanish-speaking countries, like English invented them somehow. So it's nice to see linguistic self-determination and seeing native speakers using the E endings.

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evanescentjasmine · 4 years

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Writing Egypt and Egyptian Characters: Rusty Quill Gaming Edition

I’ve finally caught up with the Cairo arc of Rusty Quill Gaming, which I was anticipating and dreading both. Fiction set in my country usually reduces it to a caricature of itself, especially when it takes place in the Victorian era, but considering everything they’ve said in their metacasts I was hoping Rusty Quill Gaming was the exception.

It wasn’t.

I’m aware the game world plays fast and loose with history and setting, but the problems in this case are more than just inaccuracies. However, because I want to help fic writers and artists be able to portray Hamid and his family well, this resource will be split into two parts. The first part will tackle details I’ve been asked about with regard to the setting; it may touch on things RQG went wrong, but I’m writing it primarily as a resource for artists and writers. The second part will be my criticism of RQG, and why I found the Cairo arc actively harmful. This includes discussions of Orientalism and some racist text.

I should also preface this by saying I’m not a historian. Everything I say in this resource is a combination of what I grew up with and what I remember from school, supplemented by Google and guesswork. I’ll be explaining my thought process throughout, which can help you see what’s actual history and what’s my extrapolation.

Part One: On Egypt

Historical Context:

Figuring out the history of Egypt in RQG terms is a bit complicated, so bear with me because this will take a while.

In real-world history, Egypt was a Roman then Byzantine province from 30 BC to around the mid 600s AD, at which point the Arab conquest swept through and Egypt became Muslim.

What this means is that when the Meritocrats took down Rome and took over the world, Egypt was still a Roman province. That gives us a several hundred year gap before the Arabs that may have maintained the same culture? Or morphed a little back to some pre-Ptolemaic Ancient Egyptian, given their Meritocrat, Apophis, is named after a great Pharaonic serpent?

Either way, given Hamid’s name and the fact they live in Cairo, the city built by the Arabs, we can assume the Arab conquest still happened somehow, despite having a Meritocrat in Egypt. Maybe a Meritocrat out there is Arab and settled in Egypt for a bit with or before Apophis? Maybe it took a couple-hundred years for the Meritocrats to get all the previous Roman areas under control? Maybe there was a whole war and the Arabs won and settled and eventually they got to a truce or got absorbed into Meritocratic lands?

Many Muslim dynasties ruled throughout the period from the mid 600s to the 1500s. Given the lack of Islam in this world, probably the Arabs were unified by some Pre-Islamic deity/deities and brought them over as well, because I refuse to just sweep everything under the broad Greek God rug.

In the 1500s, another Muslim dynasty took over--this time, from outside of the country, which is why it’s considered separate from all the rest. At this point, Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire until the 1800s, which is when the Mohammed Ali dynasty started to try and secede and rule independently. And there was a brief blip of the French occupation for two years around then as well.

And, of course, we can’t forget about British colonisation, which started in the late 1800s with a veiled protectorate.

Presumably, since France and Britain are also Meritocratic and it seems like Apophis is currently ruling, we can disregard everything from the Ottomans onward. This changes, or should change, a ton, because Ottoman rule informed a lot of things from fashion to slang to nobility and so on.

What we’re left with is most likely a Cairo that is still Arab but with much more Pharaonic influence, as Apophis is in charge, as well as continuing Greek influence due to the Gods. I am not a Coptic Christian, so I cannot speak to how these changes in history and religions would affect the Coptic language and culture, but no doubt it would still be around.

There would also be a bigger, more long-standing connection to other Meritocratic countries. This explains why Hamid was British-educated and so many people speak such good English without a British occupation to create the power disparity that would make that necessary to rise in Egypt and such a mark of status.

However, this presents several confusing and contradictory aspects of the world building:

Why doesn’t this go both ways? Why aren’t there people in England and France who know Arabic or are influenced by Egypt? All we get is that the Tahan family are big. That’s it. If these countries are equals, it sure doesn’t look like it.

If Apophis is pharaonic and Ancient Egyptian culture and knowledge are so ubiquitous...why would they hollow out a pyramid to put a bank inside? It’s a tomb. It’s made to bury dead kings in a way that follows possibly still-existing cultural and religious beliefs. It’s the equivalent of someone building a bank inside a mausoleum. It’s bizarre.

Relatedly, if Ancient Egyptian culture and knowledge are so ubiquitous, why is Carter mentioning the Rosetta Stone? Why would the knowledge necessary to translate hieroglyphics have been lost?

I mention these questions so fic writers can keep them in mind while writing and, of course, it’s entirely possible to create a workaround. For example, maybe the Rosetta Stone is supposed to be translating something else, like an ancient hidden magic?

Describing Cairo:

I want to make one thing very clear: Cairo is not, despite Alex’s description, like Vegas. While we do certainly have hotels and casinos, to reduce the city to only that is very harmful for reasons I’ll go into at the end of this resource.

Cairo is a very old city with a mix of architectural styles and is very heavily Muslim in real life. In Arabic, its tagline is often “city of a thousand minarets,” so clearly RQG Cairo will be fairly different. Given Apophis’ influence, Ancient Egyptian styles might be more prevalent in Cairo, but very likely not in the form of pyramids unless those pyramids were for the dead. In real life, some buildings do incorporate Ancient Egyptian flavour, usually just in the form of lotus columns or hieroglyphs. These would only be found in public institutions, however, or, frankly, tourist-bait.

Residential buildings tend to be clustered very close together and, since it’s an old city, streets are crowded and winding as the city keeps building on itself and spilling out of its previous bounds. Estates do, of course, exist, but I’d suggest against using Bryn’s example of Alhambra as a setting for the Tahan home. Alhambra is a palace fortress in Spain and, although it’s Andalusian and therefore influenced by Muslim architecture, it’s very different than anything in Egypt. It’s as absurd as saying a posh British character lives in a house that’s basically Versailles and leaving it there. I’ve included images of some Egyptian residential estates below, all from the 1800s to early 1900s.

And here are some photos of Cairo in the 1800s:

As you can see, not quite Vegas.

A fic set in Cairo can certainly still have the Cairo strip with all the casinos, since that’s an aspect of canon, but a place like that would probably be geared more to tourists and foreigners than locals. So long you’re aware of this while writing, and that Cairo would exist beyond it, you should be fine. It might also be worth having characters explore the actual city.

Weather:

The stereotype is that Egypt is just hot and sand year-round. It isn’t. The further south you go, the hotter it will get, so that Upper Egypt (which is in the south, yeah), is hotter than Lower Egypt, which is where Cairo and Alexandria are. Alexandria, by virtue of being on the Mediterranean, has fairly cold (for us) and rainy winters and mild, humid summers. Cairo gets very occasional rain and has harsher summers but is also dryer.

And, of course, a thing to remember is that even in the depths of the desert, the morning might be quite warm but the night will be quite cold as well.

Sandstorm season (called khamaseen) takes place from April - May but in the middle of Cairo it’s more of an annoyance than anything else.

Language:

Since they speak Arabic, it’s important to note that spoken Egyptian Arabic is very different from written Classical Arabic. Egyptian is a mishmash of Arabic, Coptic, a bit of Greek, and a bit of French (and, in the real world, some Turkish too) all smashed together. Accents differ from city to city, and Cairene Arabic is best known for the fact we pronounce the letter jeem as geem (so all soft Gs are turned into hard Gs) and tend to replace the letter qaf with a glottal stop.

This means that a Cairene wouldn’t be called Jamal, they’d be Gamal. A Cairene would pronounce burqa as bur’a.

Since religion plays a big part in language, RQG Egyptian Arabic may be a bit different. For instance, the greeting most people associate with Arabic is “Assalam alaykum” but that’s very specifically Muslim or at least associated with Islam, and might not have been as wide-spread given...y’know, that Islam doesn’t exist. I’m not saying it’s incorrect to use, just explaining the context.

Alternatives could include “Sabah/masa’ el-kheir” which means “Good morning/evening,” and “Naharak/Naharik saeed” which is, “May you have a good day.”

Fashion:

Although this didn’t really feature in RQG, I’ve received a lot of questions about the period’s fashion and honestly it’s my favourite thing ever so I probably would have touched on it anyway. I’ll only go into broad strokes, as there are plenty of regional variations and, again, I’m no expert

Women

Egyptian women covered their heads and sometimes their faces not out of religiosity but out of a cultural expectation of modesty. This may well have come about as a result of the Arab/Muslim cultural majority, as to my knowledge this wasn’t the case in the Greek and Roman periods, but women of all religions covered their heads so that would likely still be the case in RQG’s Arab Egypt.

This isn’t with the hijab we know today. It may have been a cloth or kerchief tied over their heads and then the melaya laf (which is larger cloth, almost a sheet) that they wrap around themselves and over their head, as follows:

The black face-covering was called a burqa or bur’a (not the same as a Muslim burqa, which serves similar modesty functions but is a separate thing) or a yashmak and may have been opaque black, white, or netted, such as in this picture:

Underneath the melaya they would be wearing a long, loose, patterned dress:

Upper class Egyptian women tended to wear Western dresses with a white yashmak that covered their faces and heads. A yashmak is Turkish, however, and without Ottoman influence this style and name might not have caught on in Egypt.

Men

While the melaya laf and yashmak have disappeared from Egypt, the traditional men’s gallabeya and ammama, or turban, are still seen widely today. The gallabeya (or jellabiya, outside of Cairene Arabic) is a long, loose garment with wide sleeves and no collar. It’s in muted, neutral colours, usually lighter ones like white or beige in the summer and navy blue or grey in the winter. You’ll have seen examples of it in the pictures of Cairo above, and here’s another one:

Middle to upper class men and civil servants, however, tended to wear English suits with a tarboosh, or fez. Since fezzes were also a result of Ottoman rule, RQG Egyptians might not wear them.

And yes, impressive moustaches were also very much the fashion.

Names:

The running joke is that Hamid’s name is unnecessarily long, but my name is longer, and I don’t think that’s particularly unusual. We don’t usually go around introducing ourselves with all of them, admittedly, and I’m not sure whether Hamid does this as a way to indicate he’s overly fancy or because Bryn doesn’t realise it, but four names is not long. My ID boasts five, and I know of at least one more.

Arabic naming conventions use patronymics for all children, regardless of gender. What this means is that my name and my brother’s name is identical except for our first.

Mine is Jasmine + Dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name

And my brother is also First name + Dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name.

Egyptians do not typically have last names, but an important family may all choose to identify under a name and use that as their last, such as the Tahans. In my case, I use my fifth name as my last name and introduce myself in everyday life as Jasmine Fifth Name. Notably, my brother does not, and goes by First name + Dad’s name instead. This isn’t unusual. On paperwork, however, we still have the same name.

Additionally, Egyptian women do not take their husbands’ last names in marriage, nor do children take any of her names.

I’m not sure why, according to the wiki, Hamid’s sisters seem to have taken their mother’s name. Following Arabic naming conventions, they would all be First Name Saleh Haroun al Tahan, and their father would be Saleh Haroun al Tahan. A possible workaround might be that halflings have their own naming conventions that mean daughters have matronymics and sons patronymics.

A note to podficcers: please google name pronunciations beforehand because Alex and Bryn’s are actually often wrong. Ishak, for instance, is not pronounced Ee-shak. It’s Iss-haaq or Iss-haa’, because of quirks of the Egyptian accent I mentioned earlier.

Part Two: Criticism

I understand it can be difficult to portray a country different from yours with accuracy. I understand the RQG crew will not have had the perspective on Egypt and Cairo that I do by virtue of living here. I do also acknowledge that I’m sure none of this was actively malicious or on purpose.

But it doesn’t have to be on purpose to hurt, frankly, and given how often the RQG crew have talked about their responsibility with a game that’s intended for an audience, I expected better. Bryn has spoken about not wanting to fall into stereotypes for Hamid and, to be fair, by being a non-religious fancyboy Hamid does neatly avoid the religious zealot and the noble (or ignoble) savage routes. Unfortunately, he falls into another, which was hammered home by the portrayal of Cairo and the Tahans as a whole.

Our first glimpse of Cairo, after the sandstorm clears, describes it as “basically Vegas,” with hotels and garish casinos catering to the rich all along the “Cairo strip.” From then on, our only other images of Cairo are vast estates and a pyramid in the desert.

The only named Egyptians we meet are the Tahan family, who are introduced through an absurdly lavish estate compared to the palace fortress of Alhambra, a gambling problem that apparently runs in the family, murder, and corruption, as the head of the family who has already covered up a crime for one son then turns himself in to protect the other.

Then, to top it all off, Hamid is apparently utterly incapable of understanding why letting his brother get away with murder is an issue until the paladins point it out.

Do you see the pattern, here?

I understand this was aiming to be a criticism of the rich and powerful, but the fact remains that the Tahans are the only representation of Egyptians we get. While this may not be harems and hand-chopping levels of Orientalism, the image presented is of Cairo as a den of excessive wealth and vice, and Egyptians as corrupt and immoral.

This isn’t new.

The Middle East and North Africa (as well as India and China and everywhere else considered “the Orient”) has often been tied to images of wealth and overt splendour, usually hand-in-hand with the Oriental despot and corruption. This view went beyond just fiction and influenced the policies with which we were ruled.

Cromer, Consul-General of Egypt, wrote books called Modern Egypt. He had this to say about us:

“The mind of the Oriental, on the other hand, like his picturesque streets, is eminently wanting in symmetry. His reasoning is of the most slipshod description. . . . They are often incapable of drawing the most obvious conclusions from any simple premises of which they may admit the truth.”

In his opinion, our inability to follow logical reason led to us being inherently untruthful and, therefore, immoral. Similarly, British statesman Balfour was of the belief that:

“Lord Cromer’s services during the past quarter of a century have raised Egypt from the lowest pitch of social and economic degradation until it now stands among Oriental nations, I believe, absolutely alone in its prosperity, financial and moral.”

Egypt was under British colonial rule from 1882 - 1952.

You can see, I hope, why a storyline focused on an Egyptian family’s corruption in an Egypt characterised almost entirely by its casinos and one lavish mansion was very uncomfortable. The fact Azu was one of the people trying to explain morality to Hamid keeps it from sliding into a clear East vs West dichotomy, but the fact remains this is a British show featuring British players and this is the story they chose to tell.

The rest was just salt in the wound, really.

I expect mispronounced names and pyramids and jokes about camels in most media, but rarely do the makers of said media then go on to pat themselves on the back for doing their “due diligence” on a metacast about sensitivity.

I see weird naming conventions and mispronounced names and “basically Vegas” and “crocodile steak” and “camel’s milk froyo” and I do not see due diligence.

I see a setting that barely looked past Cleopatra and I do not see due diligence.

I see a storyline that shows only excess and immorality and corruption and I do not see due diligence.

I see a disregard for me and mine, and I do not appreciate it.

Literature I’ve referred to in writing this criticism:

Orientalism (1978), by Edward W. Said

Orientalism in the Victorian Era (2017), a paper by Valerie Kennedy

Orientalism in American Cinema: Providing an Historical and Geographical Context for PostColonial Theory (2010), a thesis by Samuel Scurry

Popular Culture, Orientalism, and Edward Said (2012), an article by Robert Irwin

#rusty quill gaming #rqg #hamid saleh haroun al tahan #resource #criticism #orientalism #representation #long post

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