#because they claimed the drugs would not have been in the horses system at the time of the race

[coridallasmultipass]

TW for racism and genocide of Native Americans

Today I learned that the original "The only good _, is a dead _," was "The only good Indian, is a dead Indian." And it really sucks that now I know this information.

Looks like it's speculated to be attributed to one specific Union general due to his actions, but it was more likely just a common anti-Native sentiment of the time held by a lot of the settlers, not just one person.

Like I know I hear 'the only good snake, is a dead snake' most often since I love being in snake discussion groups, which also sucks because I love snakes, and they shouldn't be killed.

But I've also heard like 'the only good Nazi, is a dead Nazi.' And like, I So agree with that, fuck Nazis, but I don't want to think about the original phrase being reclaimed like that for a laugh, no matter how much I agree that Nazis suck.

It should stay as horrifying and sickening as 'the only good Indian, is a dead Indian' in my opinion. I think we should retire the phrase entirely and just note that, that was the origin of it - the continued genocide of Native Americans during the 1800s when settlers were eager to get rid of us so they could claim property for themselves while forcing us into insufficient reservations as US America expanded westward.

This book I'm reading describes that the usual retaliation for the theft of a cow would have been the execution of an entire Indian village. One specific horrifying example given, is from accounts of a traveler that joined a group of Mexicans pursuing Indians (Chumash) in possession of stolen horses. They come across a group of some old Indians, women and children, drying the horse meat. Every last one was killed, and their ears cut off as proof for the priests that they made every effort to retrieve the horses.

This shit is so sickening. They were hungry and trying to survive.

It also describes how the accounts of Indians from my tribe before the mission system were all about how generous and welcoming they were. (Though, it was through the lens of the Spanish who saw us as ideal candidates for conversion because of this.) Then after the collapse of the missions and post-assimilation, the accounts simply describe the Indians' drunkenness and disorder. What did you expect???? You assimilate a group of people so they're entirely reliant on you (the rigid structure of the mission system and the dismantling of their previous tribal villages), and then suddenly turn them out to a world without their previous villages and social order. Of course they're going to struggle and suffer and abuse the drugs (alcohol) you introduced them to.

I hate this so much.

The book also mentions how, during the mission period, anyone who ran away from the missions to go back to their original tribal lives, would be dragged back to the missions and cruelly punished with restraints, lashing, or stocks, and they couldn't understand why because punishment was exceedingly rare before Spanish rule.

Ugh. Anyway.

I'm going to bring this up any time I hear anyone mention that phrase, because the horror of that time period should not be diminished in its modern reclamation. ('Diminished,' because I, a 30yo Native American, did not even know the origin. I thought it was a modern phrase. Our local Native history was always glossed over in school to focus on the mission system. I didn't even learn of my tribe's revolt until like 2016 when I went to a lecture my tribe held.)

I get that reclamation is supposed to be like a good thing, to take away the power of its original use, but I personally don't think that's appropriate for this phrase that was used as a rally for genocide.

Maybe I'm just being a sensitive baby, though, who knows! I'm crying while reading a history book about my tribe. This shit really hurts deep, though. It always has.

#native #native american #n8v #ndn #the only good indian is a dead indian #history #american indian #indigenous #chumash #california #idk what to tag this bro #racism #genocide #prob gonna get this post blacklisted for that word with the current world events ugh #ill just leave it at that for now im not done w the book yet so i might post more when i get to the actual purpose of the book #this is just like part of the intro to set the historical background the book is focused on our cave art and i havent gotten there yet #Cori.exe #Post.exe #maybe this was something obvious to other people but i literally had no idea i dont watch westerns or anything... #...like that where i couldve heard the original phrase before today #this is the shit those 'parents rights' nuts dont want youth educated about #but we need to learn this even when its extremely uncomfortable because this is how life was for people in the 1800s #anyway ill leave it at that i wanna get through this book its already been renewed once and i still have a lot more to read

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

been thinking about this a lot cos i see a lot of Disk Horse about it, but there's like 2 opposing popular views when it comes to queer representation in media.

the first is that current queer media trends are overly sanitised. they say that these queer stories are devoid of any real sense of queer experiences, that they exclude portrayals of sex and attraction in favour of 'uwu'ification (a term that i just made up but go with it lol) homophobia/transphobia in these kinds of stories is either a non-issue or defined by just a few bad eggs, rather than a systemic issue. the reason for this kind of media is that a more sanitised version of queerness is more palatable to a non-queer audience and, more importantly, to advertisers! so the same way we're seeing sites like youtube and tiktok censoring so-called 'adult' topics like 's3x' or 'unalive' so that companies feel comfortable about putting their ads on the videos, queer characters need to be brightly coloured bubblegum and unproblematic versions of queerness to appeal to that same kinda thing... i often see these people talk about how they want more 'fucked up' queer representation, queer characters and stories that are 'problematic' or 'evil' to counteract the sanitised disney-fied stories that they say dominate the queer representation market atm...

the other viewpoint is one that says current queer media is actually overly sexualised, with too much of a focus on explicit scenes as well as drug/alcohol abuse being the norm in media that has young people as its target audience. this is often the same crowd that complain about sex scenes in media, not just queer ones, saying they're unnecessary and uncomfortable to watch. and when a queer media comes out that doesn't focus on sex (and drugs/alcohol/etc), they praise it for being more 'wholesome' than other media. this is often the media that the first group see as sanitised btw... they are often first in criticising queer characters and ships as perpetuating harmful stereotypes or being 'problematic' in their eyes, claiming that the villainisation of queer characters leads to villainisation of real queer people...

the first group calls the 2nd group puritanical in their views, the 2nd group calls the first perverted in theirs. so... who's right?

well... i think both groups have incredibly valid critiques of current queer media. but at the same time, both are wrong in how they want to solve these issues.

current queer media, particularly stuff within the mainstream, is a lot more sanitised. companies like disney only use queer characters in order to help with marketing, whilst at the same time actively funding incredibly homophobic legalisation (for e.g. the don't say gay bill) and also blocking or under-promoting stories that feature queer characters or stories (for e.g. that film strange worlds(?) that came out last year). but to say this is representative of all queer media is massively disingenuous imo! not only are their very prominent and popular mainstream series and films that feature 'fucked up' queer characters and stories, but you just have to look beyond hollywood at foreign or indie cinema to see some super interesting and strange queer media being told by queer creators!

i always say, but if you're looking for interesting or nuanced queer stories in blockbuster superhero movies then i think mayyyybe you're looking in the wrong place lol...

as for the 2nd view, i actually tend to agree that a lot of queer media (both new and old) is overly focused on sex and substance abuse. growing up, i didn't have series like heartstopper that portrays a much more 'innocent' version of young queer people, most of what i saw was stuff that was either made for older audiences or featured more 'adult' themes (and i know that this was mainly because back along media featuring queer characters at all was immediately deemed as inherently 'adult' anyway). and like, i personally didn't mind, though i would have longed for a film like the half of it! i also think something within this discussion that gets lost is the fact there's so little media that centres ace or aro stories! there's often the odd mention of ace/aro characters within larger narratives, but not as much in terms of them being the main characters!

despite this, i'd again say that trying to claim that the only stories being released are hyper sexual ones is plain wrong lol i've literally mentioned 2 things in this post that are more 'wholesome' with less focus on sex and still focus on young queer people! there's also a significant increase in queer media made for kids as well as in cartoons/animated films! there is so much more 'family friendly' queer content out there now than ever, which i'm so happy about! and the existence of this kind of media doesn't erase the more adult media that also exists currently!

i think, ultimately, people need to take a step back and realise that we live in a sorta golden age of queer representation. it's not perfect by any means, and a part of that is that we need an increase of queer people both in front and behind the camera, particularly queer people of colour (since a major critique that i don't see nearly enough is the lack of queer media with non-white people people!)

i also would say that as important as queer representation in media is, i don't think it can be presented as a form of activism. because the fact of the matter is that queer characters and stories have been in both mainstream and indie cinema for a longggg time, and despite the fact we are more visible in the things we consume, there has been a massive increase in anti-queer sentiment within the whole world in the last few years alone! anti-trans views and legalisation, as well as a notable increase of violent hate crimes, are just amongst a whole lot of queerphobia existing in the world at the moment that is not going to be magically fixed by queer media or representation!

tl/dr (or in conclusion...): there is a whole bunch of queer media that's being released all across the world every day, many of which is being written by or featuring queer people! there's a long way to go with queer rep, of course, (especially with less represented communities like ace/aro or trans/nb people!) but the claims that it's either overly sanitised or overly sexual are just plain wrong in my opinion, particularly if people are willing to watch things other than hollywood blockbusters or the latest netflix series' lol! it's also important to remember that queer media and representation isn't going to fix our queerphobic world, and the over emphasis on the harm and/or benefit of queer media is missing the forest for the trees lol...

#ive definitely already talked about this before in tags and what not but i wanted to make a proper and complete post talking about it #rant #queer representation #queer #hopefully this makes sense lol??? #i just see both of these views being talked about online and it frustrates me cos like ... #you're both right but also so so SO wrong lol #my other advice that i didnt feel fitted with this is: watch stuff from prior to 2010 lol #there's so much older queer media that is genuinely so good and a lot of queer people aren't watching it #because they're just sitting around waiting for new stuff lol... #also if you want me to give you recommendations of older queer stuff just message me!

[jojolovenotes]

Hurt/comfort vibes hitting me like a train rn, n e ways

So I imagine that upon first meeting one another, Lavanda and Abbacchio aren’t on good terms, like at all. As Abbacchio describes it, Lavanda is “stuck-up with a savior complex” due to her former occupation as a therapist, believing she puts herself on a moral high horse in order to feel better about herself. Lav resents that Abba was formerly part of a justice system that failed her, because a former therapy group of hers had formed a suicide pact, her name appearing in every single note, which resulted in her being charged with six counts of assisted suicide. Upon Bucciarati having taken her in, the police had just dropped her case out of nowhere, leaving her to have to find out the truth for herself (she later finds out that the pact had nothing to do with her and was drug-related).

Well into the LavBruAbba relationship, this sentiment of disdain is just kind of thrown under the rug and never gets properly addressed. Until one night, Abbacchio stumbles upon a realization. A few months into the relationship, Lavanda had stopped calling Bucciarati by his last name in private or personal moments, only using the formal way of addressing him whilst in a professional setting. Otherwise, she’d call him Bruno. However, no matter what setting they found themselves in, Lav would always address Abbacchio by his last name. No matter how personal or intimate the moment, or whether Bruno addressed him as Leone, Lavanda seemed to refuse to address him as anything other than Abbacchio. This initially upsets him, and he confronts her in a fit of rage, claiming that even if she’s doing so out of respect, it just proves she doesn’t really love him.

Lavanda bursts into tears at this accusation, unable to form a proper sentence or explain to him her reasoning, which leads to a mostly one-sided yelling match. Leone calls her weak, insisting that no wonder her therapy group left her if she can’t even handle a confrontation with her own romantic partner. She must have been burdensome at her job, and he questions if she even deserves to call herself a part of Passione. This accusation hits Lav like a train. She contemplates leaving her partners and the organization as whole right there.

Bruno has been listening into the argument the whole time and finally takes it upon himself to step in as a mediator. He asks Leone that he excuses Lav for a moment, and pulls her aside to comfort her. Lav explains to him the tension that’s been building between Leone and herself, ever since they had first met, along with the fact that a member of her therapy group had shared a similar name with him, which was the ultimate reason she could never bring herself to address Leone by his first name. Leone overhears this, an overwhelming sense of guilt immediately befalling him. Now it’s his turn to question whether he deserves the love of his partners, especially Lavanda. Lavanda meekly opens her arms out to him, almost begging him to accept that she has always and will always love him, and that she’s incredibly sorry that her trauma kept her from something as simple as addressing him by name. He very hesitantly crawls into her embrace, and Lavanda desperately promises him that they’re going to push through this and emerge stronger than ever.

“I love you, Leone.” Is the last thing Lavanda is able to audibly say before she bursts into tears once more. The three of them just hold each other for the next half hour straight, and when everyone is calm they finally address the tension and gain closure, enabling then to strengthen their love for one another.

Uwaaaaaa that was a lot I hope you don’t mind TwT I just had to get it out bc it’s been racking my brain

Tysm for taking the time to let me gush as always it means the world to me

Oh gosh T^T Hurt / comfort is always so good... Just having all those intense emotions being released and then being able to just be held and comfortable. It’s so good T^T 

#received transmission ✨ #gushing✨ #suicide mention tw #ships: Abbacchio #ships: Bruno #lavbruabba #zetavendetta

[thebadboyfanclub]

The Dream (Geralt x Reader)

Do I have other requests I need to write? Yes, however if I didn’t get this off my system I can’t focus on anything else, so here it goes. Enjoy!

T.W This is my interpretation of nymphs, I don’t want to hear if it’s accurate or not.

Being a Naiads nymph meant to be in tune with nature and water, maintain the peace and harmony with the river, protect it and worship it like it deserved and anyone would pity the man that harmed the rivers and lakes that are protected by them. However the ones that respected it meant that they would in the nymphs good graces, to drink of the water of the naiads river meant to be inspired, madmen, barbs and prophets had told a plethora of stories about the enchanting delicate nymphs.

(Y/n) loved her place in this world, her sisters and the other creatures lived a peaceful life, yet something was missing. A lot of them had witnessed some couples that found sanctuary near the water and had seen them intertwine and let the fiery passion take over them, oh to be in love and worshipped.

“Geralt you might be all indestructible and all but your blood is staining roach”

The lively barb joked loudly enough for the nymphs' to hear. Without even discussing it they all took cover and hid as quickly as they possibly could, of course the humans were aware of the nymphs existence, nonetheless the cruel ones have been known to try and kidnap or harass them.

Geralt was feeling the pain from the wound get more and more intense and it was just his luck that he had just ran out of healing potions, he did not expect that vicious creature to be such a fighter. Dawn was slowly approaching and was hot on their trail, they wouldn’t make it to the next village before dark and thieves could be waiting for them.

“Fine, we stop here”

“Excellent, at least we can wash on the water”

“Don’t even go near, naiads are guarding the water”

“Naiads? What is that?”

“Nymphs fool”

“Nymphs?! Oh it must be my birthday, I heard they are the most beautiful of creatures”

The childlike Jaskier claimed happily, as Geralt got down from his horse and neatly tied it on the tree he wished to have never showed kindness to the annoyingly optimist barb that was calling the nymphs and was taking off his shoes to jump in the crystal clear river. Geralt was just on time to grab him from the collar mid air and pull him back to ground, Jaskier misstopping and falling down on his back with a thud.

“What was that for?”

“You fool, you have to ask them permission and let them show themselves or else they will drown you”

“That’s not very nice of them now isn’t it?”

“Don’t make me throw you in the water Barb”

As nightfall completely took over (y/n) watched them from afar, hiding behind the bushes and half of her face out of it to take a good look at the two men, specifically the white hair muscular man. She could smell his blood, he was severely wounded and tired, her little heart was starting to beat faster every time he spoke with that deep voice

“Sister, get back here, they could be dangerous”

“He respected our river sister, he respects us”

“He is a witcher, he kills creatures”

“Harmful creatures, he protects us from dangerous beasts”

“Don’t tell me you have gotten interested in a mutant”

Her blond hair sister questioned  (y/n). Her sisters were all aware of her desire to fall in love, to be like the couples, she had the chance to marry demi gods yet she raised her nose to them and denied herself, she wanted nothing to do with those stuck up pesky little men.

“He is hurt”

“He will survive it’s what they do... fine, stay here and watch”

And that’s what she did, stayed and watched them slowly drift off to blissful slumber. That is when she got the brilliant idea, she would help him, heal him, he had respected her grounds, saved his mortal friend from punishment, he deserved her help. 

She approached them silently and swiftly through the other side of the river, her breath getting uneven the closer she got to him, he looked so handsome from afar, he was even more perfect when she got next to him. His hand was over his wound on his stomach, a nasty deep slice that looked like it had just stopped bleeding not even moments ago, his face was not peaceful, his brows were furrowed and he would let a groin from time to time, even at his sleep the cut was torturing him

As she gently took his hand off the wound she placed hers over it, feeling the power run through her delicate fingers and to his body.

“Who are-”

“Shhhh, I’m not here to harm you, I mean no harm”

Her voice was like sweet honey to his ears, you can imagine his surprise when he felt a hand to his body and opened his eyes to meet an ethereal creature, her hair fell so effortlessly in her face, yet her eyes pierced his soul, those hues that showed such kindness and purity that lived in her, her sweet smile that made those perfectly shaped lips of hers curl could be the source of the sweetest nectar anyone in this world would ever taste. Her skin glistered under the moonlight, she was an angel sent for him in his dream.

“Rest witcher, you are safe here”

She couldn’t resist anymore, her hand almost acted on its own when she reached to caress his cheek with the back of her fingers, slowly and gently. His hot skin made hers crave more than just a once in a lifetime touch, his flesh was like drug to hers. 

He went to speak when they heard Jaskier start shuffling, a big chance of him waking up startled her. She quickly turned to Geralt and placed a kiss on his Forehead, it could be the last time she ever saw him she had to let him off with some sort of intimacy.

“Goodnight”

“No wait”

Before he could even move the girl was gone, vanished from thin air and leaving him high and dry, he groaned as he let his head touch the ground once again. It was even a minute before he went back to sleep, wondering what was that creature that had helped him and swooned him with just one look.

-

“IT’S A MIRACLE”

Geralt woke up by the defeating voice of the barb. As he opened his eyes a few strands of sunlight hit him in the face, he was almost ready to feel the great pain in his abdomen when he realized the pain never came. 

“Geralt I have to give it to you, I wasn’t sure if you could heal that time of wound. Look at you! All cleaned up and ready to go”

“What?”

As he sat up he took a look at his stomach, the tear in his clothes was there, yet no scar, no blood, like it was never there. He was healed, just like the girl in his dream said

“You know I was scared, you were talking in your sleep”

“I did?”

“Yes, in a... girly way. You almost fooled me I thought we had company, yet when I woke it was just you”

“The dream”

“What dream now?”

“I saw a girl, an angel"

All that was heard was the laugh of Jaskier, he had grown tired of being the only one that talked about a lady and being met with the dissapointed look of his witcher friend Geralt.

(Y/n) on the other side of the river felt her heart stop when she heard him call her an angel, of course the nymphs were known for their beauty, she had heard compliments that would make any woman blush over the years, still it was different when it came from him. It meant something to her when it came from him

"An angel, you were hallucinating Geralt? Well I don't blame you, that cut was nasty so it probably took all your might to heal it"

"Or just a thank you to your healer"

That sweet voice. Geralt turned his head immediately when he heard it, it was her, the girl that he saw at night, the angel in his dream, she was now in broad daylight approaching him. Jaskier that was standing was now seated, completely stunned by the awfully gorgeous woman that was quickly coming to them.

As she rose from the river Geralt and Jaskier felt her immaculate presence and their eyes fell almost simultaneously to her body, she was covered by a piece of see through white dress, that barely covered what was necessary. Her body was as perfect as the rest of her, it was like a woman out of a painting came to life, as her hair fell in front of her breasts, teasing them.

"Holly.... They weren't lying"

"excuse me?"

"the prophets, the songs, nymphs are really"

"you haven't seen a nymph before?"

She questioned. Her voice was more melodic than anything any bard- especially Jaskier- had ever sung. She stood in front of this men, so graciously that she made them feel uncomfortable by just being around her.

"no no I have not. I'm Jaskier"

"oh yes, the eager barb that wanted to jump in."

It was the first time Geralt had ever seen Jaskier blush, he was thankful of that blush because it made the girl laugh, her laugh was also like the best of music, she was a fairytale to look and be around to.

"It's alright dear, my sisters will allow you to go in. Right sisters?"

As she said that, the men saw other girls letting themselves out of their spots, one by one came closer and some of them giggling at the baffled man.

"this is.... Exquisite, excuse me dear"

As he kissed her hand he was gone in a bling of an eye and in a few seconds you heard the splash he made when his body hit the water.

Geralt had just gotten on his feet, no doubt the other nymphs were pretty as well, gorgeous as one would say, yet he was mesmerized by the one standing in front of him. She was looking over at the river, her profile was all he could see when he made a few steps to come near her

"I thought you were a dream"

"I didn't want to wake you... Geralt"

He had never been more excited to hear his name come out of someone's mouth. The gruff, cold man was now swooning over a female he had only seen once in his life.

"Thank you for healing me"

"you respected us, it was the least we could do"

"is that the only reason?"

She turned to look at him, she wasn't that much shorter than him. If he could be certain no one was watching he would had gotten her on his horse and hit the road with her, what has gotten into him? Just one look from those... Diamond like eyes and he was ready to leave with her. As he kept looking at her he felt a smile forming in his lips, his usual stiff characteristics had soften, all because of her

"Such pretty eyes"

She whispered to him. It was the first time he had received a compliment for his eyes, the color of his eyes was a sign on what he was, of what he did.

"what's your name?"

"(y/n)"

She introduced herself as she made a step, filling the small space between them. As he felt her skin against his clothes he tried to not show any type of emotion, he was enchanted by her. She once again reached and caressed his face, her skin felt so soft against his, making him relax and enjoy it.

"I've never met someone like you Geralt"

"A witcher?"

"A noble witcher, you are so rare"

Part two

#geralt imagine #geralt of rivia #geralt x reader #henry cavill x reader #henry cavill x you #geralt of rivia oneshot #geralt oneshot #geralt x oc #geralt headcanon #the witcher headcanon #the witcher imagine #the witcher x reader #the witcher oneshot #the witcher #the witcher x you #henry cavill imagine #henry cavill oneshot #henry cavill #geralt of rivia imagine #geralt of rivia x y/n #geralt x you #geralt x y/n #henry cavill one shot #henry cavill appreciation

[himboarcher]

reasons i've seen folks say that grad critics hate grad:

they hate travis (in fairness, i’ve def seen some comments of people shitting on trav for the sake of shitting on trav, but it’s not super common and typically gets downvoted into oblivion on reddit.)

it's not balance / travis isn't griffin (???????)

they hate neurodivergent people (again, in fairness, i have seen a handful of comments that could come across this way! but most of the time when travis being ADHD or his NPD is brought up, it's by defenders saying that criticizing travis is ableist because he's neurodivergent or, in one particular comment, infantilizing him bc of it and literally comparing grad to putting a kid's artwork on the fridge. there were some comments early on that pointed to him being a narcissist as the reason for things people disliked about grad, but everyone seems to have realized that that's a shitty train of thought and left it behind.)

they're just toxic haters (again, there are a small handful of people like this because this is the internet, but the genuine criticism greatly outweighs their bullshit. i 100% think that the people, which is mostly just one dude who is also insufferable on reddit, who have been responding rudely to positive tweets under the episode announcements lately are out of line and need to stop. there's been an influx of that lately, presumably because people are frustrated that after over a year of grad going on, there's been no improvement to most of the major issues. that's still no excuse to be a dick to folks, though.)

vs some of the actual reasons i don't like grad:

the racism / racist tropes, and the way that they’ve straight up ignored this criticism and will likely never acknowledge it. pretty wild considering a core tenet of their brand is their willingness to acknowledge when they’ve messed up and do their best to course correct.

clumsy attempts at inclusion that are shallow and often end up being fairly offensive ("...ask me about my wheelchair," anyone?)

on a related note: i don't think that travis had bad intentions, but as an nonbinary person, it feels othering to me that travis only has enby characters give others their pronouns unprompted. i'm thinking specifically of kai here. having listened to their introduction, i don't think it's as bad or awkward as some people have said, but i can't remember travis ever having another NPC tell the PCs their pronouns, especially not a cis character. it's not a huge deal, but it's something that rubbed me the wrong way. admittedly, i don't think it would bother me so much if travis hadn't dropped the ball so much with performative inclusion in the past.

okay i'm putting the rest under a read more because even without getting into all of the problems i have with it, this got Long.

little to no player agency. player choices are ultimately meaningless and have little to no effect on the world. even when he seems to go along with a plan they come up with, it always ends with them having to go back to travis' pre-written script (see: subpoenaing the xorn, but not really because they had to go with travis' original plan of "send the xorn home through the rift".) the players repeatedly get told things about what they think or feel or what they've been doing to an unnecessary degree. fitzroy is the only one who really gets space to play and decide things for himself, and that's only because travis has decided he's the main character.

the NPCs are all too nice and willing to give the PCs anything they ask for and more, unless the PCs are trying to follow their own plan and then the NPCs are completely useless. but honestly, aside from gray, all of the NPCs are just.... nice. travis refuses to even let his antagonists be mean or cruel or even more than just slightly rude, because that'd be a bummer and we don't want that! the "twist" of gordy the lich king actually being polite and chill is not a twist at all because everyone is like that in this world. the NPCs are also wildly overpowered, but then suddenly absolutely useless when the PCs actually want their help.

too many cliffhangers that are dropped immediately at the beginning of the next episode. i feel bad for travis because so many of these cliffhangers actually set up good momentum and seemed like things were gonna get interesting, but almost every single time he just dropped them at the beginning of the next episode. like when althea showed up to interview the boys and the next episode started with travis being like "actually you went to sleep, she said she'll be back tomorrow!"

that time travis specifically said in his exposition dump that the thundermen left their horses behind because they thought the centaurs might be offended by them riding horses, only to later on rag on them for being surprised that the centaurs had horses they could ride.....

also the centaur arc in general, but i already listed racism above, so.

the way that the toxic positivity and parasocial tendencies in the mcelroy fandoms have made a large portion of the fandom take ANY criticism as a personal attack on travis and/or on themselves for enjoying something others consider bad, either morally or just quality-wise. it’s okay to admit that something you like has problematic elements or just isn’t as good as it once was. you can and should engage critically with the media you consume.

related to above: the way travis has handled genuine criticism, which is to throw public tantrums on his twitter or make weird passive aggressive tweets & ultimately ignore all the genuine criticism and advice he's been offered by claiming it's all subjective, even after he specifically asked for it and set up an email for folks to send in genuine, objective advice for him (after he threw a tantrum on twitter and replied to someone's criticism publicly, which resulted in his followers dogpiling on that person bc how dare they insult their internet best friend). while i was writing this last night, he actually announced that he’s taking a break from Twitter and acknowledged that he’s been using it as an echo chamber where he can easily get validation from folks, and honestly i’m happy for him that he’s recognized this problem and is stepping away for a while! i hope he’ll genuinely use this time to reflect on how he’s been behaving and find a more healthy way to use social media. i’m leaving this point in because i think his Twitter being such a positive echo chamber was encouraging him to do stuff like this, and him somewhat acknowledging his behavior doesn’t mean it can no longer be discussed.

rainer. extremely cool concept in theory and i was very into it until that awkward "does anyone want to ask about my wheelchair?" moment. also when travis had her use her mobility aid to RAM INTO A DOOR instead of just fucking knocking???? also all the times travis has tried to force a romantic relationship between her and fitzroy, despite fitzroy displaying no interest in her in that way. also, just to clarify: as an ace person, i don’t think this is aphobic! (and it’s kind of a stretch to call it that imo, especially since griffin never explicitly said that fitzroy's aromantic!) i just think it’s weird and awkward and a little uncomfortable for me personally, mostly because it reminds me of the times i’ve been in similar situations.

less of a problem than a lot of the other stuff and more just bad writing, but the forced emotional moments. in general, nothing in grad feels earned (why are the boys heading a war? when they have multiple actual heroes with combat experience on their side and a supposedly powerful secret organization? and the thundermen are like 21 years old max and have only had like ~10 fights in the entire campaign?) but there've been a couple times where travis has tried to force unearned emotional moments, presumably because he knows people enjoyed those with the last campaigns. but the difference is that in balance, the big emotional moments happened because they were earned. in grad, it's just travis throwing a baby pegasus at us for a few minutes and then the next time she shows up, it's supposed to be a tearful goodbye.

there are absolutely no stakes. remember when the thundermen got told that if they left, gray would kill 10 students? and then they left and came back and it turns out that what gray actually meant was, "i'll tie ten students who are mostly nameless NPCs to a tree and throw some dogs at them that you can easily stop in time, then throw a tantrum because how dare you but i'll leave before you can really do anything to hurt me lol" travis did have fitzroy's magic get taken away, but like. it didn't really do anything? also all he had to get it back was be coerced into using drugs by an authority figure and trip in the woods?

we're told that the school is weird and the hero system is corrupt, but the world of nua is still presented as more of a liberal utopia than anything? althea getting fired because of a corrupt villain is the only time we've somewhat seen corruption, but even then, she was still allowed to get (what seems to me, anyway, but admittedly i don't know for sure bc nothing about the HOG makes much sense) a fairly important job from the very people who stripped her of her hero license or whatever the fuck heroes need?

travis doesn't actually seem to understand how capitalism or bureaucracy works and just chalks up everything to "red tape." also more on the rest of the boys than him specifically, but the "let's destroy capitalism!" thing turning into just pushing some filing cabinets over................... okay.

and one last piece of extremely subjective criticism: it's just kind of.... boring. i think a lot of people, myself included, would be willing to overlook 90% of the problems with graduation if it didn't feel like such a slog to get through.

also people saying that we can't or shouldn't criticize graduation because it's "free" is absolutely absurd for several reasons. first, something being free does not make it above criticism. second, there ARE people who directly financially support the show with monthly donations. three, there's a difference between something being free and something being not for profit. podcasting is their full time job. they make their living off of money made from TAZ and MBMBAM (and probably their other shows to a lesser extent). this not a fun home game that they are graciously recording and sharing with us. it is a product they are producing that they make money off of, both from ads in the episodes and merch & books based off of these podcasts. they have marketed themselves as professionals, and both griffin and travis have been on panels where they are marketed as professional DMs and appear alongside other professional DMs (which makes it incredibly frustrating when people say that travis is just a newbie DM and we can't criticize him because of that. if he's a newbie, then he should not be taking part of panels as a professional DM where he speaks as an expert). TAZ is free in the same way that an episode of NCIS is free. i may not pay for it directly, but the creators are paid to create it and profit off of me consuming this product. so saying we should be grateful for any mcelnoise that the benevolent good boys share with us and that we're not allowed to criticize it "because it's free" is absolutely wild.

#negativity cw #i guess #anyway this is not meant to say that you cannot enjoy grad. #but i'm tired of folks on this website acting like there aren't genuine problems with it #and saying that people just dislike it bc they hate travis etc etc #taz graduation #i genuinely don't expect anyone to read this bc it's so long #but here ya go. #long post

[anarcho-smarmyism]

How would prison abolition deal with murderers, serial killers, paedophiles, torturers,kkk members,neo-Nazis and terrorists? Some people are a legit danger and cannot be allowed to roam society.

So I didn’t answer this at the time, because the anon who sent it is almost definitely the racist troll sending me shit I’m not going to publish (so like uhhh bear that in mind lmao), but I’ve blocked them now and it’s been a few days, so hopefully they’ve fucked off by now. Plus, I’ve been thinking about this question a LOT since before I received it. It’s a question that I think most people have about the concept of prison abolition and reparative justice, and not everyone with these concerns is asking in bad faith. Besides which, with the recent attempted coup and the way it looks like people who participated are actually going to face legal consequences for it (which alone was somewhat surprising to me tbh), I’ve been seeing a lot of leftists discoursing over whether it’s morally okay and intellectually consistent to be happy about cops beating up, killing, and arresting KKK members and Neo-Nazis, so it is now actually topical! Under the cut due to long response~

So the first thing I want to point out, is that literally every single one of the groups of “legit dangers who cannot be allowed to roam society”, are already out there right now. In our current “justice” system, it’s common knowledge that monsters often get off on a technicality, or because they just have the money to throw lawyer after lawyer at the charges, or because they outright bribe someone, or countless other ways to get around the law. You can look on my own literal tumblr blog and watch me argue with grown ass adults who will bold faced admit to consuming child porn with half-assed excuses, and you’ll find more open pedophiles on sites like twitter, reddit, or 4chan, or porn sites where “teen” is usually one of the most popular categories. Besides which, have you ever looked at the average sentences for convicted rapists, wife beaters, or pedophiles, as compared with the sentences for getting caught selling drugs? In middle school I had to walk a mile or two to get to school through a neighborhood we’d been warned had a convicted pedophile in it, who had just been released after less than 15 years. In that same city, I heard a story about a woman shooting and killing her rapist, and prosecutors were discussing giving her the death penalty for it (she was bragging and laughing about it on video, it was definitely premeditated, but still). Have you ever looked at the statistics of how many rapists and abusers aren’t reported, or if they are reported aren’t prosecuted, or if they are are prosecuted with a slap on the wrist (remember Brock Turner????) Also I notice how you didn’t even mention domestic abusers or rapists in your list of people who need to be locked up lolololol shows where your priorities vis a vis “public safety are I’m sorry, but the system just does not work the way you think it does, the we are taught it does.

People who make this argument always act like the systems we have now are efficient and nigh on flawless when it comes to “not letting dangerous people roam society”, but it isn’t and it can’t be and it never will be. That very fact ought to be enough to shake your faith in the idea that society will become a nonstop Purge of indiscriminate violence if everyone who’s committed a sufficiently despicable act of violence isn’t locked up for the rest of their lives -but you might say, “okay, but those are flukes, the system still works because most of the people who are “a danger to society” are usually locked up.” I’m not completely sold that that’s even true (have you ever heard of the opportunities cops had to bring in serial killers and murderers, who just didn’t care enough to try? Jeffrey Dahmer is a good example of this), but I’ll assume it is to move on to my next point.

Even if we assumed that the system as we have it, worked flawlessly as designed, that doesn’t change the fact that a lot of the categories mentioned here are people that are actively running the very systems that this rhetoric is defending. It’s well-documented that American white supremacists of various stripes have infiltrated law enforcement and the military for the express purpose of not just “roaming free”, but getting to exert the power of the State over people of color. Cops and soldiers kill people all the time, and not only are they not penalized, they’re celebrated for it. Agents of the State fucking torture people all the time, and I don’t just mean Guantanamo Bay or war crimes by soldiers; cops have been caught on camera spraying protesters with pepper spray and beating them once they’ve already been handcuffed or while they’re chained to trees or whatever -not because they think they “need” to, because they want to, and they know they’ll get away with it. Cops also systematically torture people in prison with solitary confinement. Heads of state drop bombs on civilians for “politically motivated reasons”, they do all kinds of shit that would be called “terrorism” if anybody but a State did it; and people might disapprove, but they don’t (generally) claim that the politicians and generals who made that call are “a danger to society” that need to get life in prison. If you genuinely believe that whether these acts of violence are “legal” or not changes whether they’re okay, or that a person who engages in illegal violence is “dangerous” but people who engage in legal violence aren’t... I’m honestly not even going to try to refute that here lol, prison abolition is level 5 shit and you’re at level -1, study how authoritarianism in general works before trying to understand prison abolition (not trying to be a dick here, it’s what i would tell my younger self when I believed the same thing). 

It simply does not hold up to rational scrutiny to believe that society will collapse into an orgy of violence and mayhem if we abolish prison (or that we’ll have to resort to medieval punishments instead??? lol funny take i remember from some racist troll or other over the years), when those dangers are already present (and in some cases widely celebrated as “heroes” and given the power to indiscriminately brutalize “acceptable targets” with the State’s monopoly on violence) under the current system.

The next thing people need to understand is that contrary to popular belief and despite how counterintuitive it sounds, even the brutality of our current prison system is not an effective deterrent to crime (linked a Guardian article that looks like it has some good info on this, but I recommend a book called Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice by Adam Benforado for more information). Let me say that again: the threat of prison has been empirically shown to be INEFFECTIVE as a deterrent to crime. Do you really think that a serial killer or someone who wants to blow up a building full of people is going to be more likely to follow the law for fear of prison, than regular people doing regular people crimes like selling drugs or getting into drunk fights that go too far? 

I don’t think anyone is actually willing to argue that prison “rehabilitates” anyone, or does anything besides make regular criminals into angrier, more antisocial, more desperate criminals with more criminal connections and less options for any kind of a legitimate living, so I’m just going to point out that having such a large prison population arguably creates more people who have shitty lives of poverty and are surrounded by people who are in and out of prison. It’s not like that “makes” anybody into a serial killer, but I feel like you’d have to willfully ignorant to act like it’s not a factor in increasing violent crime in affected community.

So, I’ve so far argued that prison is an ineffective solution to the problems it claims to exist in order to solve, and that in many cases, it actually makes the problems that lead to these sorts of dangerous people (”regular” murderers and the radicalization of Neo-Nazis and KKK members in particular, I think) becoming dangerous, or at least more dangerous, in the first place. What I haven’t done, is talk about what I believe is the real core of the issue when it comes to prison abolition: nobody wants to fucking peacefully rehabilitate these people. I am arguing for a system that would handle these people basically as gently as possible, with the goal of releasing them back into society eventually, and I still believe these things mostly intellectually, not emotionally. I don’t want the men who sexually assaulted me and/or my loved ones to get off scot free (they did, of course, but that’s beside the point), much less serial killers or Nazis, and I’m not about to get on my high horse about wanting revenge on people who’ve committed these kinds of atrocities. The reason I’m a prison abolitionist in spite of these feelings is that I do not believe the desire for revenge, for punishment for punishment’s own sake, is an impulse we should indulge when creating social and political infrastructures that have ultimate power over millions of lives. In the words of someone talking about abolishing the death penalty, the question isn’t “do they deserve to die”, the question is “do we deserve to kill”; and here, the question is not “does anyone deserve to be imprisoned in this system”, the question is “do we deserve to brutalize people in this way for virtually zero practical benefits to our society”. What any person “deserves” is a subjective moral and philosophical question, one that no conceivable human justice system could ever actually answer. We as a society need to build alternatives to prison (and police!) that can actually address these problems, actually prevent the conditions that create and enable monsters, and actually rehabilitate (to whatever extent that is possible) criminals -even the ones we, personally, despise. Any long-term incarceration that may end up being 100% required should be designed to reduce the suffering of the person in it, no matter how despicable of a person they are. Trying to solve “the problem of evil” instead of trying to create a more functional and just society is a fool’s errand that can only lead to more evil existing, in the end.

At the end of the day, the “irredeemable” people you listed off as justifications for the continuing existence of prison, are only a tiny fraction of the people in prison, even the ones with life sentences. A full understanding of the horror and oppression the prison industrial complex enacts on the people in it and their communities (and how the system is designed to make a profit off of human suffering and death) is something you’ll have to read some actual books about in order to acquire. However, I don’t think it’s controversial to say that any horror we as a society deem “acceptable” to do to the worst of the worst, will also be done to regular criminals, as well as to innocent people who are wrongly imprisoned. Any brutality you design with a serial killer in mind WILL eventually be a punishment for a petty thief or drug dealer or sex worker, or a person who didn’t commit the crime they were incarcerated for. Is it really worth it? Is it really, really worth all the misery and oppression prison causes, to satiate our sense of justice? I don’t believe that it is. I believe that we have a responsibility both to the incarcerated and to their communities to base our policies and institutions on actually solving these societal problems however we can, and leaving our “eye for an eye” mentality in the dark ages where it belongs.

If you are interested in prison abolition as a concept, I can recommend some good books on it. You also need to understand that concept of “reparative justice”, which I’ve alluded to here but not really explained because OH MY GOD THIS POST IS TOO LONG ALREADY. Short explanation of it is that it aims to repair the harm done by the crime and rehabilitate the criminal through through therapy and trying to get them to actually understand what they’ve done and empathize with who they’ve hurt, while also providing therapy and resources to the victim of the crime (when it’s something violent and the reparation can’t just be “give them their money back plus extra for damages” or something). The point is not to satiate anybody’s sense of justice or revenge, but to proactively try to solve the problem the crime has caused and prevent the offender from doing it again. It would need to work in conjunction with the abolition of police (and replacement with better infrastructure for the few things cops do that we actually need done) and various other social programs and measures to prevent the circumstances that lead to crime. This sounds like a long shot because it is, but just because it hasn’t been done on a wide scale before doesn’t mean it can’t be, and just because it will be difficult doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.

#prison #prison abolition #reparative justice #anarchist #anarchism #prison industrial complex #asks #anonymous

[prorevenge]

Ridiculed, accused of lying and incompetence, I shoved burning facts down their throats and made a successful business in the process.

"The best revenge is massive success." -Frank Sinatra

TL;DR; Told I was lying and didn't know anything about game design. Made a spite video game that became a huge hit. Jackass is also forever immortalized within the game credits.

PREFACE

This is a very unusual story compared to the typical posts you've read here. There's a lot to unpack but I'll try to summarize everything as best I can.

I hope you'll find it as entertaining as I did. And, what's great about this story is that it happened very recently, it happened here, evidence is searchable, and it's still kinda on-going. It's a tale of trolls, video game addiction, self-righteous arrogance, harassment, winning an impossible bet, a viral hit in Russia, and massive success with even some little revenge sprinkles for added measure.

Quick background about me: I've worked with game developers for decades and I'm an avid researcher and supporter of unorthodox and ethical video games used for educational and clinical purposes.

HOW IT STARTED

Two months ago, there was a new reddit post about "using video game to ease depression" that caught my attention.

The reason it caught my attention was because it was a game & study that I had in-depth knowledge of (from over a year prior.) Unlike everyone else in the thread, I was the only one who had actually seen the game, played it, knew the developers, and even had the original technical game design documents.

The article discussed a variety of topics but never addressed exactly HOW the video game was able to ease depression. So, I provided a quickly summary of what the game actually did.

[SKIP THIS SECTION IF NEUROSCIENCE & GAME DESIGN DON'T INTEREST YOU]

A quick side note about this article, for those that like extra details: One of the cool properties of ketamine is that, not only can it provide rapid and temporary relief for depression, it also actively heals damaged brain circuits. Then there's dopamine. A chemical that we internally produce, that has similar but less potent effects. There is no cure for depression, but these are promising treatments for some. The article focused on what's called "flow". Using certain game design methods you can induce a "flow state" by causing a sustained dopamine release. When used ethically, it can be highly beneficial in stimulating/training the brain to perform certain activities, improve or learn memorization, adapt to challenges, learn new concepts, exercise motor skills, and meanwhile rebuild pathways/synapses. While all of this is happening, the user is receiving pleasurable rewards without realizing it. This process can create new pathways, repair old circuits, and increasing their neuroplasticity. Increased neuroplasticity means improved cognitive functioning, reducing impairment of the reward process, and improving the effectiveness of antidepressant medications. Video games can be a unique non-drug option to accomplish this while easing symptoms. Research has already shown that many popular games can already accomplish this (unintended effects by the game developers). By comparison, the game design they used in this theoretical study was highly limited in scope, so permanent benefits were negligible compared to the temporary respite brought about by basic dopamine release. Science is still barely scratching the surface of neurotransmitters and flow state. There are still many unknowns, but dopamine isn't just a pleasure chemical that the media would like you to be believe. It can do quite a number of things. Research has shown that "flow state" can modify synaptic plasticity, improve connectors between cells/synapses, ultimately helping cells in the brain communicate better as a network and improve neural system intrinsic properties.

My summary posting was fine for a while, until predictable trolls arrived led by an "armchair game developer". Dr. Armchair definitely did not appreciate my post. It was an affront and insult to his profession. Within a few minutes, it dropped 30 karma. I don't care about imaginary internet points but I don't like being accused of lying. Dr. Armchair and his pals started with the usual "do you even lift?" Then it was quickly asserted, from their armchairs, that I knew nothing about flow, psychology, dopamine or game design at all. From their high horses, they contributed nothing useful; only taunts, defamation, attacking my character and physical appearance, and accusing me of being a liar and incompetence.

Apparently it was a very sensitive topic. Who knew?

It quickly devolved into Dr. Armchair gleefully, and repeatedly claiming, that he won, he was right, and I was wrong. He demanded that I essentially write a 300 page peer-reviewed study to prove him wrong, and when it couldn't be provided within 5 minutes, there were more gleeful cheers of "HAHA! I WAS RIGHT! I WAS RIGHT! I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU LALALALALA.."

Obviously, it was going to be impossible to reason with Dr. Armchair and his buddies. But actions speak louder than words.

So, I claimed that I would provide undeniable proof in the form of a video game "a few months from now" that he could actually play for himself. Once again, claiming that I was lying and it was impossible. And more of the usual "It's been 5 minutes, where is it? Oh, you can't do it can you. HA! I was right! I BEAT YOU! I BEAT YOU!"

It was weird.

Eventually the mods had enough. Dr. Armchair and his cronies harassment, ad hominem attacks, accusations and inflammatory attacks resulted in multiple posts being removed. But my promise still stood and I fully intended on keeping it.

THE BOLD CLAIM

The plan was simple:

Create a proof of concept that demonstrates just the critical neuroscience principles that induce flow. To prove it beyond a doubt, I intended to also prove that MOST COMMON INGREDIENTS of a game are completely UNNECESSARY to accomplish this.

So, I made the very confident claim that the game would still be fun, addictive, and demonstrate flow state, even after ripping everything out:

No extras or frills. Built within a short period of time.

No music. No sound effects. No animations. No story.

No expensive art. In fact, hardly any at all: I would use ONE SINGLE ART ASSET for the gameplay (plus some lines.)

No feature creep. No sign-in system. No gacha mechanics.

No level design. No achievements. No RPG gamifications.

I could get at least a couple hundred people to play it.

I should have also mentioned that it would be built with ZERO BUDGET and NO MARKETING.

If this sounds like a strange way to make a game, it is. For a typical game developer, this would raise many eyebrows, and they'd consider it highly risky or improbable to achieve any success with both arms figurately tied behind your back while blindfolded.

HOW IT ENDED

While I was preparing to stress test the game online, it was discovered by .ru bots that were scouring the web for new games. Even before the game was ready, they published the game link on several Russian gaming sites.

The game exploded.

It has graphical similarities to Tetris, so it was a nice coincidence that the game essentially launched and did so well in Russia at first. After that, other game sites started discovering the game on their own too, even before I had a chance to submit the game myself. Most importantly, the proof of concept and everything I claimed worked (high ratings and retention). It proved so effective that the game is currently being played by hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. And it's a clear demonstration about the importance of combining psychology and game design.

I suppose you could say that there are many layers of revenge happening here, maybe even karmic justice or backfiring on their part, it's really hard to classify. The best kind of revenge is always massive success, and shoving it in their faces, however. But, on top of that, I also fully kept to my promises while proving these ignorant individuals so wrong they look like fools.

I also added some extra salt to the wound. I figured that success of the game was partly due to Dr. Armchair's ignorance. It was only fair that I included his name within the Game Credits. So, I officially gave this very wonderful human being a very "special thanks" for their support in making this success possible.

(source) story by (/u/postfu)

#prorevenge #by /u/postfu #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

[sb-sratss-obsession]

SWB vs. SRaTSS: Ep 1

STAR WARRIOR BISMARK (星銃士ビスマルク, SEIJŪSHI BISMARK) VS. SABER RIDER AND THE STAR SHERIFFS

1 "The Space Adventurers" (宇宙の冒険野郎) vs. 1 "Star Sheriff Round Up"

NOTE:

There are various ways to translate or transliterate Japanese. You might find the transliterations I used not always match the ones used in the subs. That’s because back in the faaar past some official transliteration were given and I’m using them. Also, occasionally, I used transliterations offered by Japanese fans which matched more the original intentions of the authors of the series. Anyway, for your own enjoyment, I’ve also written down the Japanese version of the names so that you can decide by yourself what you would prefer to use.

SUMMARY OF “STAR WARRIOR BISMARK” EP. 1 “THE SPACE ADVENTURERS”

Year 2084 (according to official sources).

We’re shown an image of Jupiter (木星 ‘Moku-sei’).

The camera then pans below it, to show a spaceship, Freighter 102 (貨物船 102 ‘Kamotsusen 102’) of the Earth Federation (地球連邦 ‘Chikyū renpō’), about to land on spaceport A (A基地 ‘A kichi’) on Ganymede’s southern hemisphere (ガニメデ星南部 ‘Ganimede-sei nanbu’). However, as Freighter 102 is about to touch the ground, the Deathculas (デスキュラ) attack it, completely destroying it.

We move to Earth (地球星 ‘Chikyū-sei’) at the Earth Federation Government (地球 連邦政府 ‘Chikyū Renbōseifu’), where Secretary-General Charles Louvre (シャルル・ルヴェール ��務 総長 ‘Charles Louvre jimu sōchō’) informs 6 of his co-workers of how the Deathculas attacked Ganymede once again, leaving no survivors.

Louvre proceeds then to remind them how, 15 years ago (in 2069), an enormously heavily armed alien force called Deathcula attacked them and they had to fight for 48 bloody hours so, despite the heavy losses for their Solar System Federation (太陽系 連邦 ‘Taiyōkei renpō’), they managed to strike a heavy blow to the Deathcula and chase them out of the Solar System. The Deathcula though have rebuilt their army and has began an invasion of Ganymede. Louvre thinks if they don’t strike back they might end up defeated.

Commander-in-chief Walter (ウォルター 総司令官 ‘Walter Sō shireikan’) reminds him they lack sufficient military power, as they would barely be able to cover the outskirts of Earth. Chief of staff Hoffman (ホフマン参謀総長 ‘Sanbō-sōchō’) joins him saying they can’t deploy troops on Ganymede to risk leaving Earth undefended. Barboni (バルボニー) though counters if they don’t act the Deathculas will only expand further so they’ve to do something. Louvre says he’ll put into motion Operation Bismark (ビスマルク作戦 ‘Bismark Sakusen’). Walter agrees but asks who’ll be the one who will work as the main pilot of Bismark (ビスマルク). Louvre replies that he’ll be the son of the late ace pilot, Hikari Shinjirō (輝 進児郎), Hikari Shinji (輝 進児). Hoffman reminds Louvre Shinji should have been facing a hearing for disobeying trainers. Louvre replies the sentence hasn’t been decided but Barboni points out how Shinji left the training ground during the hearing and is currently missing. Before Louvre could reply he’s informed his daughter, Marianne Louvre (マリアン・ルヴェール), wants to see him for an urgent matter. Marianne explains him she found out Shinji is competing at the Mars 24H Race (マルス 24 時間 レース ‘Mars nijūyon-jikan race’) on Ganymede.

We move again back on Ganymede, where Shinji, with his Road Leon (ロード レオン), is leading the race when Bill Wilcox (ビル・ウィルコックス), on his Arrow Striker (アロース トライカー) cause him to lose control of his car. At Shinji’s protests, Bill warns him the other cars are going to surpass him. Shinji resumes running while Bill recommends him to win and, once he’s done racing, he’ll deliver him back to the Earth Federation and get a big bounty for it. Bill flies away and Shinji manages to win the race in 23:18:16:23, breaking the race’s record. Shinji enjoys his moment of glory.

At the spaceport two criminals are escaping. Cornered, they rip a little girl from her mother’s arms and use it as an hostage while the protesting mother is hit and falls on the ground. Although the 3 Airport security guards (空港 警備兵 ‘Kūkō keibi-hei’) aim at them, they don’t know what to do. The criminals try to escape but someone shoots the gun the one holding the little girl was pointing at her head. The gun of the other criminal flies away as well and he drops a bag which contained white dust (or better drug). The Airport security guards secure the criminals then turn to see who shot, which turns out to be Richard Lancelot (リチャード・ランスロット) with his rifle, all while still being on the saddle of his robotic horse, Donatello (ドナテルロ). People wonders who he is, while Richard leaves with Donatello and lands in front of the Royal hotel (ロイヤル ホテル). To the man who comes to take care of his horse, he informs him Donatello is of a noble line so he has to take good care of him.

Once in the hotel Richard introduces himself as a friend of the British Royal Family but he’s told there’s no free room. As he protests the room should have been booked in advance, he’s told the Champion insisted on having the presidential suite for himself. Shinji enters in the place right then, as people claps their hands at him and Richard is informed he’s the champion. He protests he made a reservation but he’s told the champion holds more weight than the royal family there. Richard doesn’t care and tries to rip the room’s key from Shinji. They start a tug war before being interrupted by Bill, who asks him if he has the prize money with him. Shinji recognizes him for the guy who interrupted his race. Bill aims his gun at Shinji and introduces himself. Shinji recognizes him for the head pilot of the Space Impulse squad (スペース インパルス 隊 の チーフ パイロット ‘Space Impulse-Tai no chief pilot’). Richard too knows Bill as the winner of pilot contexts in all sectors and as an infamous bounty hunter (賞金 稼ぎ ‘Shōkin kasegi’). In that moment Cristina (クリスティーナ) barges in, calling Bill and hiding behind him. Short after her father, Pedro (ペドロ), barges in, rifle in hands. He thinks Bill wants to take advantage of Cristina and flee to Earth. In response he starts shooting at Bill, causing him to escape, then he drags Cristina away.

Back to Shinji, he recovers his key and Richard informs him if things were to take a turn for worse he would have had Shinji’s back. They introduce to each other then Richard makes clear he wants Shinji’s room and that he’ll accept to share it, only if he’ll be the one getting the bed. The two walks toward the elevator, Richard informing Shinji he’s there on a mission by order of Her Majesty herself.

EPISODE BREAK

Bill is flying outside of the hotel, planning to capture Shinji as the honour of the Space Impulse squad is at stake. However, as he peeks at the windows, searching for Shinji, he hears a Deathcula spy (デスキュラ の スパイ) talking to the phone, saying that the crew at the Ganymede garrison is throwing a party for the newly arrived from Earth and are all drunk so that’s the best moment to attack. He orders to send there all the mobile units but Bill recognizes him for a Deathcula and attacks him. He manages to walk out of the room, to end up fatally wounded and disappear, leaving only ashes, under Shinji and Richard’s gazes. Bill informs them it was a Deathcula spy. Richard explains how, according to the English government’s data Deathculas can disguise among humans by way of cell-restructure. As, when they’re in disguise, they require a lot of water, this might be the only chance to spot them among common people. Bill explains how the military base (警備隊の基地 ‘Keibitai no kichi’) is in danger as the Deathcula spy has contacted a strike force. Richard counters they’ve to warn the base and so Bill runs away to do so. Then he tells Shinji since the base will be warned they can relax so he’ll go take a shower while Shinji claims he’ll go to the front desk to take care of something… but as soon as Richard closes the door, Shinji runs away.

Meanwhile Richard leaves from the window, calls Donatello and uses it to fly toward the base. Shinji also, with the Road Leon, runs toward the base. Meanwhile the desk clerk informs Bill he can’t reach the base as the phone seems to be cut off so Bill too runs toward the base.

Shinji is the first to arrive as the attack is ongoing. Richard also gets there and starts destroying alien ships. Shinji joins the fight a bit clumsily. Though he destroys a good amount of ships ultimately is saved by Bill who complains they left without warning him.

Meanwhile Shinji meets Marianne, who expected him to come for help and who has brought there the Bismark machine (ビスマルク マシーン), which her father built and which Louvre wants Shinji to drive. Marianne climbs on the Road Leon and Shinji tells Bill and Richard to follow him. The group reaches Bismark, a machine designed and built by Federation’s Secretary-General Dr. Louvre. Marianne shows them how to get inside it and entrust the Center Console (センター コンソール)  which control the Main Control System (メイン オペレーション システム) to Shinji and the Right Console (ライト コンソール) which control the Operation System (オペレーション システム) to Bill. Shinji asks Richard if he can handle the Intelligence System (インテリジェンス システム) to which Richard answers sitting in the left console (レフト コンソール) and replying the House of Lancelot (ランスロット卿 ‘Lancelot-kyō’) attained a pedigree as the head of the British Royal Intelligence Service (英国 王室 特別 諜報 部長 ‘Igirisu ōshitsu tokubetsu chōhō buchō’) for generations. Marianne takes for herself the Rear Console (リア コンソール) and realizes a Deathcula Giant Mecha (デスキュラ 巨大 ��カ ‘Deathcula kyodai mecha’) is approaching them, so the group starts Bismark and makes it fly out of the base. Meanwhile the mecha has arrived and attacks Bismark. As they can’t manage to fight back Marianne informs Shinji in case of emergency he should press the red button in the middle. Shinji does and Bismark from a Spaceship turns into a Robot. The Deathcula mecha attacks again but now Bismark can defend itself and strike back until they destroy the enemy mecha.

Shinji, Bill and Richard are impressed with their accomplishments, then Bill asks Shinji if they can handle that beast on their own. Marianne interrupts him saying she got a message from Louvre, which says Shinji and Bill are to be designated as the handlers of Bismark. As she does she show them her Team ID Card (チーム の 身分 カード ‘Team no mibun card’). When Shinji points out there’s a hearing against him, Marianne says they’ve taken care of it and Shinji is freed of all the charges and Marianne’s first goal in coming there was to inform Shinji of this. Bill is happy Shinji is the first bounty that escaped him. Richard informs them he too is part of the group, showing them his card.

The episode ends with the group looking ahead as Shinji tells the Deathcula to come face them.

HOW ALL THIS WAS ADAPTED INTO “SABER RIDER AND THE STAR SHERIFFS” EP. 1 “STAR SHERIFF ROUND UP”

One of the main drives of “Saber Rider and The Star Sheriffs” was to make Saber Rider (Richard Lancelot) the new team leader and main character. As a result, the beginning of this episode is completely redone.

Gone are the attack at Freighter 102 and all the meeting at the Earth Federation Government in which we were introduced to how humans were attacked by Deathcula aliens 15 years ago as well and Louvre’s decision to chose Shinji as the main pilot for Bismark.

This episode starts with a Saber Rider’s monologue presenting the series as if it was him narrating his adventures as Star Sheriffs and explaining us the setting. Among other things we’re shown the Outriders (Deathcula) attacking humans but the images aren’t taken from the attack at Freighter 102 but from other episodes in which the scenes had a more western look so as to give us a more western feeling.

The monologue is pretty long, so as to explain, instead than just show the situation, with a clear implication at black and white morality (Ramrod is a ‘Special FREEDOM Fighting Unit’ and ‘a PEACEKEEPING vehicle’, the Outriders are ‘bandits’ and ‘EVIL creatures’) and references to ‘positive themes’ (it was not Ramrod but the human Star Sheriffs who made the differences).

“It was not so long ago that we, Star Sheriffs, first assembled our Special Freedom Fighting Unit. We nicknamed him Ramrod, a peacekeeping vehicle shaped like a huge cowboy. We used him to protect the settlers out here on the New Frontier. We needed the Ramrod vehicle to help stop the lightning attacks of the Outrider bandits. They were evil creatures who crossed into our dimension and raided our Cavalry Outposts. They used battalions of Dimension Jumpers and Vapor Beings who moved freely from their world to ours. We thought that Ramrod was our only chance to stop them, but in the end it was not the Ramrod vehicle but the human Star Sheriffs themselves, who really made the difference. I should know, I’m their leader.”

We can also see how the setting is no more the Solar System and, more specifically, Ganymede, but the New Frontier, military bases becoming Cavalry Outposts.

We might miss it at the beginning but introducing the Outriders as vapour beings from another dimension is a convenient way for the series to remove death from the story. In fact later it will be revealed when hit the Outriders don’t die and turn into some sort of dark brown mush but vaporize and go back to their dimension.

Saber monologues goes on.

“I remember when it all began; my orders were to find Vanquo, an Outrider with ghostly eyes and a long pale face. I knew they were bounty hunters seeking him so I alerted the head of operation Ramrod, a very special operative named April. Her father was the leader of the Western Sector of Cavalry Command.”

We see some other major changes, the spy we saw in this episode is now given a name, Vanquo, because they plan to turn it into a recurring character in the American Only episodes.

April (Marianne Louvre) is now the head of operation Ramrod (Bismark), a role previously held by her father and a very special operative (whatever that means).

Eagle (Charles Louvre) moves from being the Secretary-General of the Earth Federation Government to the leader of the western sector of Cavalry Command. It’s worth to mention his name won’t be given in this episode.

Fireball (Shinji) won’t be part of their discussion. Since part of the goal was to make Saber Rider the team leader this ended up affecting Fireball’s characterization a lot. One of the most relevant changes was to turn him into just a civilian, unknown to Eagle and April (Shinji and Marianne were childhood friends).

With the introduction of April the story finally starts to use footage from episode 1 of “Star Warrior Bismark” but the atmosphere is completely different.

Where in “Star Warrior Bismark” Louvre originally wanted to put Marianne on hold as she shouldn’t have interrupted their meeting and she only came to him to deliver information about Shinji, in “Saber Rider and The Star Sheriffs” she seems to be free to march inside her father’s office to inform him of how they think a spy, named Vanquo, informed the Outriders about the existence of Ramrod, and of how she’ll leave for Yuma at once.

Eagle can only wish her good luck as here, his role is extremely minor and he exists more in function of introducing April.

Among the interesting things though, it’s worth to mention that, although April was meant to be more authoritative than Marianne (we should probably also remember Marianne is meant to be 15 while April is implied to be much older as she’s a seasoned Star Sheriff), she still calls her father ‘daddy’, with no regard for how they’re at work, while Marianne uses the very formal ‘Otō-sama’ (お父様) which is a very polite way to say “father”.

Saber resumes his narration to inform us about how both April and he reached Yuma at the same time while the Yuma Grand Prix is ongoing with a pilot nicknamed Fireball (Shinji) leading it.

They kept the scene of Colt (Bill) attacking him but, this time, it’s because he has mistaken him for Vanquo, the Outrider spy.

Among the other differences it’s worth to mention at the spaceport the criminals won’t hit the mother, we won’t see them aiming at the little girl’s head and one of the security guards will order to hold the fire. When they’ll get hit they won’t drop a bag filled with drug.

To underline how amazing Saber Rider is, the people now lavishes praises on his shooting ability, claiming only the LEGENDARY Saber Rider could do it, therefore recognizing him (while they wondered who Richard was).

As for Saber, instead than pointing out his robotic horse’s pedigree, now he will ask for a lube work and a lump of sugar for it.

At the hotel Saber will asks for a room, without claiming relations with the British Royal Family which makes clear how, this time, he hasn’t booked one first. It’s Fireball who has booked a room and the Desk Clerk doesn’t want to give Saber his room exactly for this reason. Saber insists, claiming the room should be given to him because his mission is important, and tries to steal Fireball’s key.

Colt interrupts them here as well, but this time it’s not to arrest Fireball but because he wants the room too. Colt doesn’t introduce himself, but he informs Fireball he’s searching for Vanquo.

As for Bonnie May (Cristina), apparently Colt only had a square dance with her or so he says.

Once Colt leaves, Fireball and Saber don’t introduce each other but Saber makes veiled threats and insists they should share the room. Fireball is forced to agree but, this time, it’s him who demands Saber will sleep on the ground. As they walk to the elevator Saber informs Fireball if he doesn’t find Vanquo the planet they’re on will be blown up to bits.

Back to Colt, they added a scene in which he wears his armour and then flies around the hotel to search for Vanquo, whom he overheard giving away Ramrod position. In short the attack is specifically directed at the frontier outpost because Ramrod was there, not because the defences were low due to the soldiers being drunk (the series will erase any reference to people drinking alcohol).

Once he’s hit, Vanquo assures he’ll be back and we get an explanation on how the shoot merely sent him back to his dimension by turning him into vapour because that’s what he’s made of. No mention of how Outriders need a lot of water, though this will turn out later in the series.

Saber complains since Colt shoots Vanquo, he can’t get from him the information he needed, at which Colt reveals what he overheard. While in the original they pointed out the base should be warned about the incoming attack, here none of them act as if they care the outpost will be attacked, Colt claims he has a bounty to collect, Saber wants to go take a nap while Fireball wants to go for a walk.

Of course they all care, with them racing to the outpost and Colt trying to warn it and discovering he can’t, same as in the original.

During the attack, of course Saber gets recognized by the soldiers and gets some extra scenes. They also add a scene of Bill aiming at a spaceship before shooting it and have Fireball run more around the place to reach Ramrod.

When Fireball finds April, as she now doesn’t know him, she wonders if he was sent there by the Star Sheriffs but Fireball never heard of them. April decides since he’s on a racecar he must be a pilot good enough he could be of some help. Before everyone will get close to Ramrod they’ll add another scene of Saber destroying an Outrider ship.

Then they’ll add a scene in which Saber declares he’ll take charge and the boys argue April would want them to do so. April states she’ll need the three of them when they’ll go in challenge phase.

Once inside Ramrod April explains the saddle units are interactive and then assigns the one for the land controls to Fireball (in the original he got the main control system). Colt decides he’ll get the quick drawn one (in the original he got the operation system) and Saber tells them the Cavalry Command taught him how to use the Maverick flight dynamics one (in the original he would get the one controlling the intelligence system). Fireball points out he never heard of the Cavalry Command either. April takes the rear saddle unit telling them she’ll give them instructions.

Again, Fireball says he never saw an Outrider mecha so he’s told that one is a Renegade Desperado Unit.

Later, when April decides Ramrod will have to transform, she implies everyone will have to push the red button and, since Saber is the new leader, they’ll have him give the signal on when doing it.

They added two lines which will be regularly repeated each time Ramrod transform.

April: Ramrod will now take navigational control.

Ramrod: Acknowledge April, navigational control on, Ramrod challenge phase, one. Head ‘em up, move ‘em out. Power stride, and ready to ride.

Although through the original series we have more than one transformation sequence, for “Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs” they decided to use only one so the one in this episode gets replaced.

They also show Ramrod only using his gun against the Renegade (adding an image showing Ramrod shooting while it was night!), when originally it also used the cannons on his chest.

It’s worth to mention through all the fight they added dialogues in which the boys described what they were doing when originally you could only hear background music during the fight.

The dialogue at the end is also changed.

Fireball is worried Outriders might come back, Colt seems to think they’ve defeated them forever, Saber informs them this is not the case and April explains them Saber knows what he’s talking about as Saber is a special agent of the secret Star Sheriffs and adds that they might need Fireball and Colt too, so she asks them if they want to join them.

Colt is interested because he wants a silver star but he’s told there aren’t many left since the Outriders took over the silver mines but we use these E.B.U., Electronic Badge Units. Saber adds it normally takes years to train a Star Sheriff but it’s an emergency so they’ll issue their E.B.U. right away. Fireball asks about his racing career and he’s told he’ll have to quit but who cares? Ramrod is the fast thing he could drive and she might even get silver stars for them. This sell the deals so the episode ends with Saber Rider resuming his narration:

“And that’s how all began. The bounty hunter, a racecar driver and a beautiful girl from cavalry command. Together we've made a commitment to the spirit of the frontier freedom fighters. Wherever danger leads us, wherever the people need us, that's where you'll find . . . the Star Sheriffs!”

“STAR WARRIOR BISMARK” & “SABER RIDER AND THE STAR SHERIFFS”: MY TWO CENTS ABOUT BOTH VERSIONS

So both versions chose an interesting way to start, SWB going with an apparent calm that gets broken by the attack and SRaTSS by presenting the story as the memories of his main character. However the info dump that follow is pretty long for both.

In SWB I’ll actually argue that ‘the attack of 15 years ago’ was something they could completely cut from the plot as it’s poorly developed through the series (it only serves to make a hero out of Shinji’s father, point out why Domes doesn��t want to join forces with the EFG and to explain why Hyuza has a cybernetic body all things that could have been accomplished differently) and the explanation of it is outright boring and the unpreparedness of the EFG sits ill with the fact they should have knowledge they could have been attacked again.

In SRaTSS the choice to go for a black and white morality with childish undertones insisting on the Outriders being ‘evil bandits’ serves poorly to the further developments of the plot that actually wants part of the Outriders to want peace and, therefore, not being evil.

On another note I get SWB wanted Shinji to look like a rebel but the whole thing of him having to face a hearing for disobeying trainers that gets completely brushed away because he’s chosen as Bismark pilot with Louvre listing as only reason to choose him he’s the son of the late ace pilot Hikari Shinjirō doesn’t really sit well on me. I would have appreciated it more if Louvre had pointed out how he’s an amazing pilot. What’s more, the whole Bismark team is insanely young (Richard is 18, Shinji is 17, Bill is 16 and Marianne is 15) which isn’t that rare in robot series that usually counts on genius pilots to explain the young age… but the young pilots usually have adults supervising them. Here the boys will rarely get adults supervising them… don’t take me wrong, they do handle things well but it seems a little unbelievable everyone was okay with pushing such a heavy task on such young people without adult close supervision (only Richard is of major age and only barely for crying out loud!) so I’ve to say I appreciate how SRaTSS raised ages so that Saber and April have finished their training and are therefore adults and there’s a general implication the same works for Colt and Fireball.

On another note though in SWB they had at least chosen the 4 pilots beforehand (although not shown during the reunion Richard and Bill were already designated as Bismark pilots, Richard even already having the Bismark Team ID Card), though it’s kind of ridicule they hadn’t formed them first, not even giving them a test drive of Bismark, while one of the biggest weaknesses of SRaTSS is that there were two vacant places on Ramrod as Fireball and Colt get recruited completely by coincidence and should have no idea how to drive a mecha. So it’s hilarious April asks Fireball ‘Did the Star Sheriffs send you?’ only for the truth being that the Star Sheriffs only sent Saber Rider despite Ramrod needing 4 pilots. But I’m running ahead.

While the first meeting between Shinji and Bill is visually cool the fact he almost caused him to crash and then let him go only to catch him later on feels like an excuse to show their abilities. In SRaTSS though, they made the scene even worse if possible. Why would Colt exchange Fireball for Vanquo? For a series that wants to badly to show the Star Sheriffs as examples of virtue they failed entirely to carry around this idea in this episode as the first thing Colt does is to put Fireball’s life in danger by flying too close to him and causing him to lose control of his car… and it’ll only get worse later on.

The race with Shinji/Fireball establishing a new record time though was a good idea instead to make sure we got what an amazing driver he is.

The introduction of Richard/Saber is good as well, though I’ve always found puzzling why they had him use his rifle which he normally hardly uses being much more a sword guy. The taming of the actions of the bandits is not a big deal in SRaTSS, if anything I found a bit annoying the remarking of Saber being a legend but okay, not a big deal.

The discussion between Richard and Shinji over the room at the hotel is clearly meant to be played for laughs in SWB, remarking how they’re young and based on a legitimate reason for them both to argue over the room. Bill coming to arrest Shinji made sense and it’s a good way to introduce the viewers to Bill’s abilities… though what doesn’t make sense is how Bill could aim a gun at Shinji and no one panicked and called the police (Bill hadn’t introduced himself as a bounty hunter). Pedro shooting at Bill without anyone calling the police is even worse as he could have hit someone else.

I’m not really sure if Richard is threatening Shinji to shoot him or if he’s threatening him to arrest him to collect the bounty as Bill wanted to do. I’ll go with the second option because it seems to make more sense in the narrative. I also like how Richard didn’t tattle out why he was there but remained vague. What feels a bit dumb is for Shinji to want to remain there like a sitting duck now that he knows Bill, a bounty hunter, is trying to arrest him.

SRaTSS didn’t really manage to adapt all this well. For start Saber is demanding a room he hadn’t booked, basically attempting to steal it from Fireball with the excuse he has an important mission. This doesn’t really help to paint him as a paragon of virtue. The fact that Colt comes in and does the same, pointing his gun at Fireball to force him to comply makes matter even worse… and it doesn’t help that, once Colt is chased away, Saber also threaten Fireball… and then casually reveals if he doesn’t find Vanquo the planet will probably be blown to bits, as if this wouldn’t cause mass panic in a normal situation.

SWB creates a huge coincidence when, by trying to arrest Shinji, Bill ends up overhearing a Deathcula spy and shooting at him just in front of Shinji and Richard’s room, who conveniently leave it just then. It’s not a big deal, but I’ve to say it works better in SRaTSS with Colt specifically searching for Vanquo and not finding him out of a lucky chance.

Both series uses the shooting of the Deathcula/Outrider to give us an info dump on their nature. I would say the one in SRaTSS felt better than the one in SWB but it might be just me (I mean, Richard randomly tossing in how the Deathcula can disguise himself as humans doesn’t feel natural and Shinji, who was being trained and is even chosen as Bismark pilot, not knowing Deathcula need water doesn’t really feel logical). On another side, despite the info dump feeling a bit odd in SWB, Richard sharing those info doesn’t feel bad, as he’s not revealing things that has to stay secret and anyway he knows Shinji and Bill are part of the army. In SRaTSS Saber informs everyone of how Vanquo knew about a secret defense system called Ramrod… with the result he informs Fireball and Colt, two civilians, of its existence as well.

However SWB recovers when it shows Richard worrying about warning the base and Bill running to do just so. This makes it acceptable they might claim there’s nothing else for them to do, with Richard pretending on not being interested because he doesn’t want to reveal to be a Bismark pilot. I’m not sure why Shinji would be doing the same but whatever.

SRaTSS instead doesn’t have them worrying about warning the base, with Saber merely acting as if he wanted to discourage Colt from going there and overall seeming disinterested in doing something and Colt pretending to be interested only in the bounty… why? To act as a cold person when in truth he attempts to warn the Outpost? But really, the worst deal goes to Saber who should have suggested warning the Outpost and had no reasons to hide the fact he rushed there. I mean he’s the ‘legendary Saber Rider’ why would he wash his hands clean of people in need of help?

The fight is not bad and I can understand SRaTSS attempt at putting more focus on Saber by giving him more fighting scenes than the ones he originally had.

However SRaTSS slips when they have to handle Fireball’s dialogues after he meets April. I’ve already mentioned how bad it was the series implies the Cavalry Command never worried picking up two other pilots for Ramrod but something that they really messed up were Fireball’s lines. Fireball doesn’t know who are the Star Sheriffs nor what’s the Cavalry Command or a Renegade Desperado Unit. Now, I get they tried hard to downplay Fireball so as to make Saber shine and he plays a stand in for the audience so as to pose the questions we would pose but they’re making him look like he lived under a rock up till that point. I mean, the existence of the Star Sheriffs and of the Cavalry Command isn’t secret and newspapers probably talked about how the Outriders used Renegade Desperado Units (and everyone else in the series know about them) so Fireball’s lack of knowledge feels really weird. I guess I should also mention nor Fireball or Colt ever heard of the legendary Saber Rider so really, this too isn’t played well.

SRaTSS added a lot of dialogues during the fight and one can have mixed feelings for them as they made the fight less dramatic and kind of more fun… so I guess it depends. On another way they give the feeling the team is… well, working as a team during the fight so this is nice.

The ending is pretty different in both series but overall I enjoyed both. I already spoke about my complains regarding Shinji’s charges being conveniently waved away as well as of how it was dumb not for the Cavalry Command not to have designated two more pilots for Ramrod so that Saber and April recruit in a rush Fireball and Colt without even a background check.

If I’ve to add something, a side of me appreciates the info about the Outriders getting the silver mines… though it feels a bit unbelievable as SURELY they didn’t have a single silver mine, did they? …but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea April, to hire Colt, suggested she could get a silver star for him… especially when it’ll turn out Colt is often blamed for his greed because a Star Sheriff may not indulge in his personal greed.

To sum it up… SWB starts on an interesting premise, depicting a colonized Solar System with far west elements and moving the war on Ganymede but it would have benefitted of some more work to smooth some corners and give it a more complex plot… though it’s also worth to keep in mind that the target audience was meant to be young, hence the boys young age.

SRaTSS had to mostly work with pre existing footage so they had to work around it… which was not easy at all since the footage wasn’t aimed to support story they had in mind.

The young age of the Bismark pilots required them to act in an often immature way that clearly wasn’t a paragon of virtue unfit of the more adult characters SRaTSS wanted to use and of the supposed high moral standards Star Sheriffs were meant to have.

Their efforts at downplaying Fireball to raise Saber up and at explaining everything to an audience that was intended to be even younger than the one of SWB often end up backfiring spectacularly… though the intended younger audience might not realize.

Still they managed to work out an interesting idea with intriguing elements.

As a result both SWB and SRaTSS give us two nice first episodes, with strong points and weaknesses. Neither is perfect but they’re both enjoyable and could be improved.

#Seijushi Bismark #Saber Rider and The Star Sheriffs #Saber Rider #April Eagle #Colt #Fireball #Richard Lancelot #Marianne Louvre #Hikari Shinji #Bill Wilcox #Eagle #Charles Louvre #Walter #Barboni #Hoffman #SWB vs SRaTSS

[cassie-darlin]

Penis, penis people, and used-to-have-a-penis people are and will always be male, no matter how many surgeries they get or how many pregnant horses they torture for their hormone pills. Cry more about it.

Your basic, deeply flawed knowledge of biology makes it distinctly clear that not only you havent properly thought about or researched anything regarding biology since your 9th grade science class, but that you have been indoctrinated by the transphobic people you hang out with to the point that you are so complicit in your own bigotry that you wont even google anything about it. And if you do you only read the things that pad your ego and let you keep living with the lies you've been fed without having to engage in any type of self reflection or critical thinking. Biology is much more complicated than penises and vaginas, chromosomes and hormones. All human beings are an ever-evolving mosaic of male and female cells.

But besides that, if someone who you would consider "biologically male" expresses a desire to be referred as female and show herself to the world as a woman, that does not effect you. If it genuinely means that much to you and you are really that upset by someone expressing themselves and changing how they dress and potentially their physical body to make themself feel happier and more comfortable and confident with themselves, cut them off. stop interacting with them. blacklist the word "trans" and go back to your life pretending you know better than science. That woman will be drastically happier and have a better life without you in it.

The hormone therapy that doctors prescribe to trans women is not taken from horses, it is synthesized from a plant chemical found in yams and soy. What you're thinking of, Premarin, is an estrogen replacement drug prescribed to post/menopausal cis women. Some trans women buy Premarin from grey-market sellers online because it has the same effects on their bodies and acquiring it is much more simple and cheap than going through the reccomended medical process. Which is difficult partially because people with the same or similar beliefs as you have lobbied for it to be near impossible for these women to get the medication that not only should be her choice wether she wants to take or not, but is reccomended by actual scientists and psycologists for folks with gender or sex dysphoria.

It is true that the horses who's urine is used in this medicine are not treated well and that animal abuse in the medical industry must be stopped. However, being mean to trans people on tumblr is not going to do that. Here is a link to an organization that is trying to stop the abuse of these horses. (tw: animal abuse)

I genuinely hope that this has sparked some kind of interest in you and you will reach out to me. I am not a biologist but because of people with the same or similar belief systems to you I have been forced to research and familiarize myself with the intricate details of both biology and psychology since I came out when I was 12, so that I could justify my existence to my peers and to the people who similarly to you reached out to me with hateful intentions.

I fact-checked all the sources linked for these claims using snopes.com

#transmisogyny tw #transphobia tw #animal abuse mention #torture mention #long post #genitals tw #science stuff #anon #anon hate #goose.txt

[bgnmagic]

Shining Strong

Summary:

Merlin and Arthur are hunting a beast and things just keep going from bad to worse. Merlin has to use his magic to save them but there is an odd side effect.

Notes:

This is from a melee prompt for Moon.

Also it could be read as merthur if you want. Sorta left is open in that regard. :) Hope you all enjoy!

Work Text:

The sound of rushing water reached his ears first, followed by his feet getting swiftly overrun with the icy cold stuff. They’d run out of time. Climbing down into the depths of this cave had been a bad idea, not that Arthur would have listened anyway. Now, Merlin had to figure out how to save them from the beast they were attempting to slay, and from drowning! What a trip this was turning out to be.

“Arthur! We need to go back; the water is only going to get deeper the further in we go!” Merlin hissed as he held his torch tightly. He’d tried to use a magic orb to light their way earlier, but the King visibly paled at his use of magic so Merlin had reconsidered. Thankful that Arthur hadn’t decided to kill him when he’d found out a few months ago, Merlin was still trying to be careful about how he used his gift in front of his friend.

“Just a little further, I know it came this way,” Arthur replied still focused on the path in front of them despite it filling with water.

“I’m not interested in swimming with it!” Merlin shouted in frustration.

Arthur scoffed and kept sloshing through the waters that were now knee deep. “There’s a bend up here, if it’s not hiding back here then we can go back,” he grumbled.

Why did Arthur have to have a sixth sense when it came to hunting down things? Of course, the bastard had been right. Turning the corner revealed the beast clinging to the rock wall, its red eyes trained on them both. In a flash the thing leapt at Arthur and Merlin barely reacted in time, slinging the beast away with his magic.

The King had his sword out and rushed forward to attack. The blow he dealt did damage but also angered the beast. This time Merlin wasn’t prepared. He’d gone to step in front of Arthur to deflect the next blow with magic, only to be flung quite hard against the rocks. Things devolved quickly after that.

Merlin was dimly aware of the beast continuing its attack. The blurry scene before his eyes was lit only with Arthurs remaining torch. Merlin’s torch had been extinguished, lost to the rising waters.

Wait, rising?

They hadn’t moved so why was there more water?! Suddenly alert Merlin drug himself upright and took a deep breath. Drawing on as much magic as he could muster Merlin pushed back the waters and the beast with it. The reprieve only lasted a few seconds, the water quickly rushed back in around them and the beast howled from somewhere nearby.

“I had it!” Arthur yelled as he slogged over.

The adrenaline coursing through his system prevented Merlin from actually rolling his eyes. “We need to go! You’ll sink in all that mail!”

Arthur didn’t reply but turned to go back. They’d only made it a few paces when a horrid cracking noise erupted. The rock around them was showing cracks and beginning to shift. When the first bit of earth tumbled off Merlin’s shoulder he’d already thrown his hands out. The world paused. The only sound Merlin was aware of was the blood rushing in his ears. His magic was powerful, but using this much at once was trying. Arthur was there shouting at him but Merlin couldn’t hear. His mind was hyper focused on one thing, stopping death from claiming them.

Holding the rocks in place was in of itself a simple task, but the energy it was draining from Merlin was monumental. The water had been temporarily pushed back, leaving Arthur and he standing on a dry island of dirt. The beast was thrashing behind him, intent on causing more harm. Reaching out with his magic Merlin found the beast’s heart and stopped it. Quick and painless and the threat was gone.

“ –lk! Merlin! Can you walk?!” Arthur shouted again.

Willing his legs to move wasn’t working. Merlin was about push Arthur to safety with his magic when he felt something on his arms. Two strong hands were gripping his biceps and guiding him forward. Merlin kept their path dry as Arthur pulled him along. The space was lit with a golden glow, highlighting the errant dust in the air from the slowly crumbling cave walls.

Merlin didn’t know how much time had passed before he felt the push of the earth recede. Then, as quickly as everything had gone to hell it was calm again. The night sky appeared before them from entrance to the cave, and Merlin knew they were safe, at last.

Stumbling out into the clearing, Merlin collapsed to his knees and took a moment to breathe. The woods looked so beautiful covered in dew and shining in the moonlight. The stark contrast to what they had just endured made the sight that much more striking.

“Merlin? What’s wrong? Is the beast still alive?” Arthur asked in a panic.

Why was Arthur worried? Also, when did Arthur get that close? Had he always been next to him in the grass? Temporarily blinking the exhaustion away Merlin managed to look up and hold the King’s gaze. “It –it’s dead. Why?”

“Oh gods, you can’t tell can you--,” Arthur whispered with an expression Merlin couldn’t quite place.

“Huh? Arthur, I’m tired, what the hell are you going on about?”

“Your eyes, Merlin, they are still gold.”

Oh. Shit.

“Sorry, shit, that’s not, uh--,” Merlin gave up trying explain his stupid body and ducked his head closing his eyes so Arthur wouldn’t have to see.

“Hey, hey, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad about it,” Arthur scolded gently. “I just assumed something was still wrong, since, well, since I only ever see you use magic when we are in danger.”

Still keeping his head down Merlin attempted to process things. It wasn’t until a firm but kind grip landed on his shoulder did he try looking up again. “Sorry, I must have used more magic than I realized.”

“Don’t apologize, you saved us. Otherwise, we’d have been eviscerated by that beast, or drown in the water, or crushed to death by rocks, none of which sound the least bit appealing.” Arthur added with a wild look.

Arthur’s tone caught Merlin off guard and he laughed despite himself. This action caused his back to twinge, right; he’d been tossed around like a rag doll earlier. Wincing at the pain he could clearly feel now that his body wasn’t on high alert, Merlin sagged slightly. “I think I’m dying,” he mumbled halfheartedly.

“Nonsense, you’re fine, little rest and you’ll be right as rain!” Arthur exclaimed.

“You might have to leave me here and come back in the morning; I don’t think I can move.”

“Bah, come on let’s head back. I found the beast and you slayed it, our work is done.”

Good thing Arthur had energy because he practically had to carry Merlin to the horses. It didn’t take but a few paces, once they’d mounted, to realize he wasn’t going to stay upright. Deciding he could ride draped over his mare, Merlin was surprised when Arthur halted his steed and made him ride with him. Merlin doesn’t remember much of the ride back to Camelot. Arthur had insisted he ride in front like a maid, which resulted in him falling asleep.

Something lightly tapping his face woke Merlin some time later. Groaning he opened his eyes to a castle turret in the distance. “S’everything okay?” he slurred.

Arthur’s voice sounded from behind, “Yeah, I wanted to make sure your eyes were blue again before I rode through the gate.”

“Are they?” Merlin had no clue; it wasn’t something he could determine without the aid of a mirror.

“Yep,” Arthur answered easily. “How’s your back?”

“Bruised, but I think it’ll be okay. It doesn’t hurt to breathe anymore.”

“I think you’d benefit from a soak in a nice hot bath.”

“M’not lugging water around right now,” Merlin muttered nearly about to fall asleep again.

“Idiot, I’d have another servant fill it up for us.”

“Us?”

“What? You think I’m going to go to bed smelling like wet rat?”

Laughing at the image of Arthur with rat ears Merlin finally agreed to the plan. “If you say so sire, but I feel bad for the servants we are going to rouse from sleep to accomplish this task.”

“I think they are already awake Merlin, It’s nearly dawn.”

Groaning at the fact that they’d been out all afternoon and night trying to not die, Merlin closed his eyes once more and feigned sleep. “Do I have to go to work today?” he mumbled softly.

“Merlin, I think you earned a day off this time,” Arthur replied kindly.

Lifting his hand in a small victory wave Merlin tried to gather his energy. He did need to make it inside eventually, a hot bath sounded truly wondrous. Especially if he didn’t have to prepare it!

Right before they dismounted Arthur squeezed his arm and leaned forward to catch his eye, “Thanks for saving us.”

“Anytime, besides I didn’t want to get eaten by that thing either.”

Arthur barked out a laugh as he helped him to the ground. Taking Merlin’s arm and slinging it over his shoulder they both made their way inside. They’d survived, now they could rest, and maybe Merlin could get Arthur to tell him what is was like to see his eyes glow gold for so long. Being open about his magic with Arthur was freeing in a way Merlin had never anticipated.  Maybe his magic would fit into court life better than he realized.

#merlin #fanfic #merlin fanfic #i dunno what goes here #no one will see it anyway #but i had fun writing it #so thats what counts

[imspardagus]

The Treasury Solicitor takes Tea

Or The Case of the Rugely Poisoner

Part I – Dr Palmer’s cure for debt

On Saturday, 14th June 1856, Dr William Palmer, dubbed by the press “The Rugely Poisoner” or “The Prince of Poisoners”, was publicly hanged at Stafford for the murder of John Parsons Cook at the Talbot Arms, Rugely.

The tale of Palmer’s crime and eventual conviction reads like a Victorian crime thriller. Not surprisingly, because that is precisely what it was. And, but for a chance encounter over a cup of tea, he would have walked free.

The story of Dr Palmer’s life abounds with ugly rumour and speculation but in sufficient quantity for a conclusion to be fairly reached that he was not a nice man, and certainly not the “Saintly Billy” described by his doting mother.

The earliest speculation surrounds a drinking contest that he had with a man who, later, went home to his bed and “died of convulsions”. Palmer was known to be interested in the man’s wife. With rumour spreading of his involvement in the man’s death, Palmer moved on to Rugely, where he married another woman, Ann. Her mother, who had a fortune of £5,000, came to stay: and promptly died “of apoplexy”.

Palmer loved to bet on the horses and he ran up large gambling debts. He was helped out by a large loan by a friend. The man subsequently died at Palmer’s house, apparently in agony. Palmer, as the doctor in attendance, attributed the death to “an abscess in the pelvis”.

That four out of Palmer’s five children died in infancy could be no more than a sign of the times. That Ann, his wife, then died at the age of 29, “of cholera” could be true; there was a cholera epidemic sweeping England at the time. And the fact that Palmer had just insured her life for £13,000 may have been either shrewdness or a coincidence.

Palmer had, by then, squandered his wife’s inheritance and accumulated debts of £22,000 (you can multiply that by about a thousand to get the current equivalent of that sum). That Palmer’s brother Walter then died after Palmer had taken out a huge insurance on his life may have been another coincidence. The insurance company did not think so, sent in investigators and refused to pay out.

But however unlucky Palmer was with the horses, he was more fortunate in life. When his wife’s and brother’s bodies were exhumed they were too decomposed for the cause of death to be established.

And so we come to John Cook. Cook was a rich young man who shared Palmer’s passion for betting on horses but was rather more successful at it. They became friends and Cook loaned Palmer money. Dr Palmer took charge of Cook’s health, which started to deteriorate.

The last few days of Cook’s life were spent at the Talbot Hotel with Palmer in attendance. Cook claimed one night that that there was something in the brandy they were drinking and that it was burning his throat. Palmer made a show of tasting it in front of other guests and declared it good. That night Cook began to suffer spasms and other symptoms. Dr Palmer called on the services of a local doctor who prescribed an opiate to relieve the symptoms. Dr Palmer insisted on administering the medicine and took charge of what Cook ate and drank.

A servant at the hotel later testified that she had tasted some of the broth that Dr Palmer had prepared for Cook. “I suppose I drank about two table spoonfuls, the effect of that was to make me sick in about half an hour, or it might be an hour—I was sick violently all the afternoon till about 5 o'clock”.

Witnesses gave evidence of Cook’s final hours. “I observed that his body, and head, and neck were moving, there was a sort of jumping or jerking about his head and neck—sometimes he would throw his head down on the pillow, arid raise himself up again—the jumping or jerking was in all his body—his breathing was very bad, and the balls of both his eyes very much projected—I observed a gasping when he spoke. It was difficult for him to speak, he was so short of breath—he screamed again three or four times while I was in the room, that was while that violence was—he was moving and knocking about all the time—he called aloud, "Murder!" twice.”

The maid said, “I heard Mr. Cook make a request about being turned over; I believe he said, "Turn me over on my right side." Then Cook died.

Dr Harland was called in to conduct the autopsy. As he arrived, Dr Palmer joined him. He recalled Palmer saying, "I am glad that you are come to make a post mortem examination; some one might have been sent that I did not know, and I know you.” Harland asked, "What is this case? I hear there is a suspicion of poisoning" and Palmer replied, "Oh, no, I think not; he had an epileptic fit on Monday and Tuesday night, and you will find old disease in the heart and in the head."

Later, Palmer, attending the autopsy, fed brandy to the student carrying out the examination of the body and had nudged his arm. The surgeon to whom the vital organs were sent for examination complained that they were so damaged and contaminated that he could draw no conclusions as to the presence of any poisons.

Cook had kept a “betting book” in which he recorded all his bets and what he was owed. The maid remembered its being by his bedside. But when Mr Cook’s brother inquired after the book” Dr Palmer said that it was missing.

Then it was discovered that Dr Palmer had bought for six grains of the poison strychnine shortly before Cook became ill.

Though the evidence against him was circumstantial – so much so that it could not even be shown that Cook’s system contained poison - Dr Palmer was arrested and charged with murder

Part 2 – Justice served in a teacup

In Part 1, we saw a mounting number of deaths surrounding Dr Palmer as he pursued his life of reckless gambling and debt. Despite his financial interest in their demise, nothing could be proved against him. But with the death of John Parson Cook, Palmer’s friend and benefactor, suspicion reached a level that could not be ignored and he was charged with murder.

In 1850, strychnine’s discovery by two French chemists was barely more than 30 years old. The deadly quality of the biological source of the poison, a genus of trees native to Asia, Africa and Central America had been know for some time. Nux Vomica (a substance used by homeopaths but in such microscopic quantities as to be incapable of doing either harm or good), derived from the seeds of the trees, was used as a rat poison but the active chemical strychnine had not been isolated until 1819.

Cases of strychnine being used as a murder weapon were rare (or had gone unidentified) so that establishing its administration as the cause of death was forensically difficult.  Few had witnessed the progress of the poison.

Few but, sadly, not none.

In October 1848, Caroline Hickson was a nurse in the family of Mrs Serjeantson Smith. On 30th October, Mrs. Serjeantson Smith was unwell and a prescription was sent to Mr. Jones, a local chemist, to be made up for her. It was in the afternoon, about 6 o'clock, that the medicine arrived. It was a mixture in a bottle. Hickson gave her mistress the medicine, about half a wine glass full, in her bedroom the following morning, at around 7 o'clock, and saw her take it. She then left the room but was alarmed by the ringing of the bell about five minutes after, or it might be ten. When she went into the room she thought her mistress must have fainted. Very soon after, Mrs Smith started to suffer from spasms. Hickson sent a servant to bring a doctor. In that short time, when she returned to the room, her mistress was lying upon the floor, screaming with pain but through tightly clenched teeth. Her arms and legs were drawn up tight to her body, her feet turned inwards. A short time before she died, the last words she uttered were, "Turn me over" and seemed more comfortable.

Shortly afterwards, the chemist, Jones ran up to the house in a great state of alarm. He had made up the wrong prescription. Mrs Smith had, by accident, taken a fatal dose of strychnine.

The awful tragedy was reported in the papers. But Nurse Hickson was so distraught that she broke down. She left the family and disappeared without trace.

When Dr Palmer was arrested, the Treasury Solicitor was Henry Reynolds. This was before the advent of a Director of Public Prosecutions and the Treasury Solicitor had the task of supporting the Attorney-General in the conduct of major prosecutions. The trial of Dr Palmer – moved by special Act of Parliament from Stafford to the Old Bailey because local feeling against Dr Palmer meant he was unlikely to receive a fair trial - fell to them.

The Attorney General and the Treasury Solicitor, convinced as they were in their own minds that Dr Palmer had poisoned Cook with strychnine, were none the less concerned that the evidence was not sufficient to persuade a jury. Without proof of its presence in Cook’s body, the link between Palmer’s purchase and Cook’s death was speculative at best. What they needed was evidence that would demonstrate that Cook’s manner of dying was only consistent with the unique pattern followed by strychnine poisoning. But because of the drug’s novelty, such evidence was conspicuously absent.

The sad business of Nurse Hickson eight years earlier came back to Reynolds’ mind, but all efforts to find her had proved fruitless.

The matter was preying on Reynolds’ mind when he went to tea with Lady Caroline Gamier. The forthcoming trial had so captured the public imagination that it naturally formed a topic of conversation and Reynolds told Lady Caroline that there was only one link missing in the chain of evidence, vital to convicting Palmer; the evidence of a woman named Hickson, who had witnessed the fatal effects of strychnine at first hand. The Treasury had, he said, made every inquiry for Hickson, but she could not be traced.

Astonishingly, Lady Caroline replied, "Hickson is at this moment in my nursery."

At the trial, the poor nurse bravely relived the nightmare of when she accidentally administered strychnine to her mistress and gave a graphic account of the course of her dying, the spasms, the arching of limbs. They all matched the evidence of Cook’s end.

And then there was the call to be turned on her side as the only position of any comfort, followed by breathlessness and asphyxiation. Its correspondence with Cook’s own last hours was striking.  The jury convicted Dr Palmer of killing Cook by administering strychnine and Palmer was sentenced to death.

As a footnote to history, English vernacular is peppered with colourful but obscure phrases, many with nautical or colonial origins. Those of you who have ever wondered where the expression “What’s your poison?” – a macabre invitation to to take a drink - came from now have your answer. So powerfully did the case of Dr Palmer, the Rugely Poisoner whose modus operandi was to spike the drinks of his friends with strychnine, capture the imagination of the British people that the “What’s your poison?” entered the language and remained long after Dr Palmer was forgotten.

If you are interested in this case, you can find a transcript of the entire trial at the Old Bailey on-line: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18560514-490-offence-1&div=t18560514-490&terms=william|palmer#highlight

#true crime #tea

[prorevenge]

Ridiculed, accused of lying and incompetence, I shoved burning facts down their throats and made a successful business in the process.

"The best revenge is massive success." -Frank Sinatra

TL;DR; Told I was lying and didn't know anything about game design. Made a spite video game that became a huge hit. Jackass is also forever immortalized within the game credits.

PREFACE

This is a very unusual story compared to the typical posts you've read here. There's a lot to unpack but I'll try to summarize everything as best I can.

I hope you'll find it as entertaining as I did. And, what's great about this story is that it happened very recently, it happened here, evidence is searchable, and it's still kinda on-going. It's a tale of trolls, video game addiction, self-righteous arrogance, harassment, winning an impossible bet, a viral hit in Russia, and massive success with even some little revenge sprinkles for added measure.

Quick background about me: I've worked with game developers for decades and I'm an avid researcher and supporter of unorthodox and ethical video games used for educational and clinical purposes.

HOW IT STARTED

Two months ago, there was a new reddit post about "using video game to ease depression" that caught my attention.

The reason it caught my attention was because it was a game & study that I had in-depth knowledge of (from over a year prior.) Unlike everyone else in the thread, I was the only one who had actually seen the game, played it, knew the developers, and even had the original technical game design documents.

The article discussed a variety of topics but never addressed exactly HOW the video game was able to ease depression. So, I provided a quickly summary of what the game actually did.

[SKIP THIS SECTION IF NEUROSCIENCE & GAME DESIGN DON'T INTEREST YOU]

A quick side note about this article, for those that like extra details: One of the cool properties of ketamine is that, not only can it provide rapid and temporary relief for depression, it also actively heals damaged brain circuits. Then there's dopamine. A chemical that we internally produce, that has similar but less potent effects. There is no cure for depression, but these are promising treatments for some. The article focused on what's called "flow". Using certain game design methods you can induce a "flow state" by causing a sustained dopamine release. When used ethically, it can be highly beneficial in stimulating/training the brain to perform certain activities, improve or learn memorization, adapt to challenges, learn new concepts, exercise motor skills, and meanwhile rebuild pathways/synapses. While all of this is happening, the user is receiving pleasurable rewards without realizing it. This process can create new pathways, repair old circuits, and increasing their neuroplasticity. Increased neuroplasticity means improved cognitive functioning, reducing impairment of the reward process, and improving the effectiveness of antidepressant medications. Video games can be a unique non-drug option to accomplish this while easing symptoms. Research has already shown that many popular games can already accomplish this (unintended effects by the game developers). By comparison, the game design they used in this theoretical study was highly limited in scope, so permanent benefits were negligible compared to the temporary respite brought about by basic dopamine release. Science is still barely scratching the surface of neurotransmitters and flow state. There are still many unknowns, but dopamine isn't just a pleasure chemical that the media would like you to be believe. It can do quite a number of things. Research has shown that "flow state" can modify synaptic plasticity, improve connectors between cells/synapses, ultimately helping cells in the brain communicate better as a network and improve neural system intrinsic properties.

My summary posting was fine for a while, until predictable trolls arrived led by an "armchair game developer". Dr. Armchair definitely did not appreciate my post. It was an affront and insult to his profession. Within a few minutes, it dropped 30 karma. I don't care about imaginary internet points but I don't like being accused of lying. Dr. Armchair and his pals started with the usual "do you even lift?" Then it was quickly asserted, from their armchairs, that I knew nothing about flow, psychology, dopamine or game design at all. From their high horses, they contributed nothing useful; only taunts, defamation, attacking my character and physical appearance, and accusing me of being a liar and incompetence.

Apparently it was a very sensitive topic. Who knew?

It quickly devolved into Dr. Armchair gleefully, and repeatedly claiming, that he won, he was right, and I was wrong. He demanded that I essentially write a 300 page peer-reviewed study to prove him wrong, and when it couldn't be provided within 5 minutes, there were more gleeful cheers of "HAHA! I WAS RIGHT! I WAS RIGHT! I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU LALALALALA.."

Obviously, it was going to be impossible to reason with Dr. Armchair and his buddies. But actions speak louder than words.

So, I claimed that I would provide undeniable proof in the form of a video game "a few months from now" that he could actually play for himself. Once again, claiming that I was lying and it was impossible. And more of the usual "It's been 5 minutes, where is it? Oh, you can't do it can you. HA! I was right! I BEAT YOU! I BEAT YOU!"

It was weird.

Eventually the mods had enough. Dr. Armchair and his cronies harassment, ad hominem attacks, accusations and inflammatory attacks resulted in multiple posts being removed. But my promise still stood and I fully intended on keeping it.

THE BOLD CLAIM

The plan was simple:

Create a proof of concept that demonstrates just the critical neuroscience principles that induce flow. To prove it beyond a doubt, I intended to also prove that MOST COMMON INGREDIENTS of a game are completely UNNECESSARY to accomplish this.

So, I made the very confident claim that the game would still be fun, addictive, and demonstrate flow state, even after ripping everything out:

No extras or frills. Built within a short period of time.

No music. No sound effects. No animations. No story.

No expensive art. In fact, hardly any at all: I would use ONE SINGLE ART ASSET for the gameplay (plus some lines.)

No feature creep. No sign-in system. No gacha mechanics.

No level design. No achievements. No RPG gamifications.

I could get at least a couple hundred people to play it.

I should have also mentioned that it would be built with ZERO BUDGET and NO MARKETING.

If this sounds like a strange way to make a game, it is. For a typical game developer, this would raise many eyebrows, and they'd consider it highly risky or improbable to achieve any success with both arms figurately tied behind your back while blindfolded.

HOW IT ENDED

While I was preparing to stress test the game online, it was discovered by .ru bots that were scouring the web for new games. Even before the game was ready, they published the game link on several Russian gaming sites.

The game exploded.

It has graphical similarities to Tetris, so it was a nice coincidence that the game essentially launched and did so well in Russia at first. After that, other game sites started discovering the game on their own too, even before I had a chance to submit the game myself. Most importantly, the proof of concept and everything I claimed worked (high ratings and retention). It proved so effective that the game is currently being played by hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. And it's a clear demonstration about the importance of combining psychology and game design.

I suppose you could say that there are many layers of revenge happening here, maybe even karmic justice or backfiring on their part, it's really hard to classify. The best kind of revenge is always massive success, and shoving it in their faces, however. But, on top of that, I also fully kept to my promises while proving these ignorant individuals so wrong they look like fools.

I also added some extra salt to the wound. I figured that success of the game was partly due to Dr. Armchair's ignorance. It was only fair that I included his name within the Game Credits. So, I officially gave this very wonderful human being a very "special thanks" for their support in making this success possible.

(source) story by (/u/postfu)

#prorevenge #by /u/postfu #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10