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silverjojo08 · 1 year

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On video games and writing and Fire Emblem Engage

Mainly just me musing about how I don't think the story is bad. Sorry for being annoying tbh. This is meant for my personal circle of mutuals, but maybe other people can get something out of it. Please be nice to me; I am not a professional reviewer and don't claim to be writing anything objective or anything lol. I'm also not really editing heavily for grammar or anything (if anything I try to keep a bit of order structurally but I love a comma splice idk lol).

This piece has gone through many versions in my head as I try to nail down exactly what puzzles me about the perception of the writing as being "bad".

Initially I think I was going to do a full plot breakdown and point out how logically every moment fits together and how foreshadowing + late reveals enhances certain previous moments. As I write this down, I don't think that I'll be doing that here. I almost considered a deep dive into the themes of motherhood and found family presented in the game. Not sure I'm going to do that either. At one point I also considered fully getting into common complaints (particularly some brought up from one of my folks who I deeply respect, Mr. Forte himself), but also I don't think I'll really do that.

So, what am I writing here? Maybe it's a mix of all of the above. Maybe it is none of the above. I don't really know. But I do want to talk about how this game just really vibes for me; and while I don't intend on necessarily changing anyone's mind, I want to at least provide some perspective on why I personally enjoy it so that others can understand my perspective at the very least.

Perhaps I will succeed in that. Perhaps I will fail. Let's find out together. (Again I'm doing like very minimal editing. Please excuse grammatical errors/typos. If anything is unclear, ask and I'll try to clarify. But I'm bad at tumblr so either tweet at me or send it through an ask please.)

Prologue: Who? What? Why?

To start, I'm in my early 30s. The video game that made me love video games was Super Mario RPG, and my earliest gaming memories include me watching my dad beat up the robot evil Santa at the end (also him playing some NBA game on SNES). FE games I have played start to finish: 8 (Ephraim), 11, 12, 13, 14 (all 3), 15, 16 (all routes), and 17. FE games I have played a bit of but didn't finish for various reasons (mainly I got distracted and forgor 💀): 1, 4, 5, 7, and 9. None of this actually matters that much, but maybe there's a generational and/or fandom divide of some sort and this provides useful context.

I am not a writer by trade nor hobby. Writing is actually one of my least favorite things to do (this is potentially related to OCD brain "just right" stuff), to the point where I chose my college major specifically based on which had the least amount of classes that I could actually complete without having to write essays. I am a math person. I do like consuming and dissecting written fiction though.

This piece is meant to be mostly explanatory. I want to give my perspective as best I can. I decided other writing styles would be too combative for what amounts to something we're consume for enjoyment. I just want to pass on some understanding of how I feel.

I think the best way to do this is generally avoid spoilers, but I will include a specifically marked section where I discuss all spoilery things that come to mind (anything that I intend to come back to in this spoiler section will be marked with a *). Any non-FE games mentioned will not be spoiled beyond kind of a general "a reveal happened in a way that bugged me" type of stuff, if even that is a concern here's a list of the games vaguely mentioned so you can crtl+f: Tales of Zestiria, AI The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies. It all happens within two paragraphs, so you can just skip them if needed.

(Also I may accidentally use he/him pronouns for Alear because M Alear was the one I played with first, but I do generally think of FE avatars as the same being regardless of gender and try to use they/them when speaking to things both versions experience, which is like everything besides the hair colors being flipped and class options?)

Chapter I: What Is "Bad Writing" To Me?

Ok if you're reading this I assume you are at least in high school, and for that reason I'm not going to walk anyone through that level of analysis. In no way is this meant to be a lecture and I'm not trying to give any particularly deep literary analysis. That feels kind of like a pretentious thing to do in this situation.

So, bad writing? To me the biggest thing I consider bad writing is when an idea is not communicated well. This could be contradictory messaging, poor delivery, puzzling execution, etc. Obviously this can happen to various degrees of "bad", but I will not consider a story to have bad writing unless the writing breaks the experience in some way.

A broken experience is not the same to me as a negative one. To me a negative experience is just a matter of taste in the end and not a matter of "bad writing". Boring writing is not the same as bad writing even if it makes the experience painful. A broken experience has to be bad to the point where you just do not understand what they were attempting at all.

One game that comes to mind on this is Tales of Zestiria. I loved the characters in that game, and the main story itself is largely logical. But it was written so messily that there's a point where it becomes truly incoherent. To this day I have no idea what was going on with Dezel and Rose's personal histories despite a major climax of that game being built around the moment things get revealed for them. Again, it was overall a fun game, but it was definitely one I would claim had some bad writing.

Another situation that comes to mind that can be a spark for bad writing is when a reveal sours previous experiences. Misleading an audience can work really well in some ways. Ace Attorney 5 (Dual Destinies) has a reveal that has made me not want to replay it at all, but I don't believe the reveal is poorly done. Conversely, Somnium Files 2 (Nirvana Initiative) had one reveal that invalidates a significant part of the playing experience in a way that's hard to describe without going any further, but I think playing with audience expectations can only go so far until you make the audience feel like you've stolen part of the joy of the playing experience by severing an emotional connection.

I've been trying to describe this all in objective terms, but obviously it is very subjective. It's totally a "I know it when I see it" thing in the end. This section might be pointless. I don't know.

(There were too many blocks of text so look at Alfred; he's so nice and funny and good. I will give him the pact ring every time I play as M Alear lol.)

Chapter II: What about Fire Emblem Engage?

I guess this is kind of my point. I don't understand how any of this is applicable to it. The plot is fairly simple especially to start. You go from point A to point B with plenty of easy to follow narrative. Characters behave in logical and understandable ways. There's nothing functionally "wrong" with the story.

I think there are some pacing issues with the last stretch of chapters in that things happen too quickly for the player to properly respond even though the concepts are cool*. There's a lot of infodumps in these last chapters too that feel a little misplaced*. I agree that the tea supports (and shared gimmicks in general among certain groups of characters) are a bit overwhelming to unlock in succession. The DLC sucks* and only small parts of it truly add to the main story's narrative. There's the usual Fire Emblem incest and pedophilia grossness trying to peek its head through*. It's not a perfect game by any means.

I think I need to break up overall story discussion and character usage discussion, so I'm going to do that right now. If you've read to this point you generally get my point maybe on why the writing works fine for me and can stop here if you don't want a full peek into the deepest and most illogical recesses of my mind?

If you're not stopping here, together we ride or something idk did the title for this song come from Smash? Whatever.

Chapter III: The Story

***SPOILER WARNING, SKIP TO THE NEXT PART IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS***

Alright so I lied when I said I wouldn't go into this fully dissecting the plot or other people's criticisms. I'll do that a little bit here.

The biggest moment of "controversy" I think that happens early on is the loss of Lumera. What I've seen is that many people feel it didn't land well with them due to the game having not built up the relationship all that well. And I intellectually get that perspective. If a story beat doesn't land well to you then I can't tell anyone they're wrong for feeling a particular way about things. But while I understand people may feel this way, I truly do not understand that viewpoint. That we don't know Lumera is kind of the point. Alear also doesn't know her well at that moment. You're supposed to feel like it came too suddenly and is weird for it. The full gravity of the moment is not clear until later on in the game, and I think it was executed very well because the entire game revolves around this specific concept of chosen motherhood and family.

But maybe I'm moving too quickly. Backing up a bit, another criticism of this early game situation is I've seen people say they don't "have reason to care" how Alear is feeling this early on. And like, I truly don't know how to help you with that. When I start a game I generally don't start at 0 waiting for the game to make me care about the main character. I am already on their side and hoping for the best for them? I went in mainly thinking Alear looked goofy but like a nice kid who deserved nice things and the game did build well on it for me.

I think there are some questions on the nature of the emblems and the rings that go somewhat unanswered. There's a lack of clarity on how the rings function, and how stealing the rings after winning a battle works. Given that we see them levitate at numerous times, I suspect that is mostly the answer. But I do understand if that's a point of contention for some since it's not directly clarified.

The emblems are similarly somewhat explained as kind of heroic essence put to form, which genuinely is enough of an answer to me. But I do understand some may find that lacking. There are also many issues with the writing of the emblems which I sympathize with especially as a comic book fan who hates it when my faves are misrepresented in other titles. That's a genuine flaw that could have been corrected by having people working on the script who cared more about accuracy.

The pacing absolutely becomes an issue in the later chapters of the game. The Zephia and Griss death scene is extremely touching and well-written, but to have a scene that long and that complex in that moment of the game is very awkward. It would have been better suited as a Memory Prism type of bonus scene like FE15 had (for several characters there were scenes that added context but did not exactly fit in the main story such as a flashback discussion with Emperor Rudolf). It is necessary to understand the characters, but there's not a truly comfortable place to put it that doesn't seem insane especially given the length. This deeply ties into how I feel about the DLC as well, which is that Good!Zephia/Zelestia gives crucial insight to the effects of positive nurturing and actively choosing to build bonds, which is perhaps the strongest and most important theme of the game. Every instance of chosen family in this game is framed and shown to be a truly critical event for the individuals, as are the instances of chosen neglect. The usage and execution of this theme to me was extremely powerful in execution and just worked without feeling too cringe or forced. It's good stuff. I love love love what they did here, and I say this as a person who has never wanted to be a mother of any sort.

To go on a bit more about this: Griss (and by extension Gregory, but focusing on Griss here for simplicity) and Alear are such strong reflections of one another. There's some obvious aspects like how Griss is visually edgy and Alear is visually bright, Griss is rude and confident while Alear is kind and doubtful, etc. But the strongest comparisons and contrasts between them involve their mothers, and I think it's just incredibly well done. Comparisons include both of them get their sense of fashion from their moms, get their unit classing from their moms, somewhat blindly follow the words of their moms, had terrible upbringings and cling to their moms as their first emotional support, etc. But the contrasts? Oh baby. Zephia adopts Griss because he's a standout while Lumera adopts Alear because they're a failure (by Sombron's measure, not literally). Griss spends years by Zephia's side learning from her while Alear has to mostly guess at what Lumera had planned for them. And perhaps most starkingly: Griss gets to die alongside Zephia while Alear and Lumera are always mourning one another. Griss is such an incredibly well done rival character. It's no wonder he's the one who gets the special cutscene where he reveals the truth to Alear. Forever my GOAT!

Sadly though it's time to switch gears and talk about the DLC: it truly sucks. I said it on twitter after beating it, but I really think that they messed up on anticipating what would be a compelling scenario for the players to play through while also coaxing themselves into a snafu regarding spoilers. There's some good stuff there, but it's almost directly undercut by necessitating that it can be played early in a playthrough before the player has gotten to the revelations about Alear's biological parentage.

The DLC does attempt to carry over the themes of the main game, but without being able to openly acknowledge that these are some of the last of Alear's siblings (even if not by blood exactly) it becomes hollow. The only real payoff on the theming is the Nel and Veyle support chain where even if they aren't sisters in the traditional sense, Veyle is desperate for that kinship as she is so young and has spent so much time alone. It's very touching and something that could have been touched on with Alear as well if only the writers weren't forced to write a detached arc to avoid spoilers.

Yes this is probably where I should get into the alt Alear being the "twin" of the main one. They needed to either go all in with that and have Alear confirmed as sort of a multiversal set of twins or back up off it and confirm that they're only narrative parallels because doing literally all of this and then having Nel have feelings for the other Alear is gross. They did so well avoiding weirdness with Veyle in the main game, and then completely blew it in regards to Nel. It makes no sense you can romantically S support her and invalidates all the themes about family presented to that point if characters who literally share a father and share similar traumas don't find healthy kinship with one another.

But beyond all that, we don't really get to see enough of Nel and "Nil" to be convinced by their dedication to one another especially in comparison to other familial relationships like between the recruitable royals, Four Hounds, and Four Winds. It feels like things are just happening to happen without feeling the gravity of terror that we are told Sombron caused them. Again, the obvious parallel to Alear being forced to fight Veyle purely due to their father's machinations isn't allowed to be explored due to the spoilers thing. Subtlety can be a structurally clever thing, but this doesn't even feel like the DLC writers were aware of that basic fact. This is the only aspect of the whole game that I feel truly misses the mark for me. It feels like a bland copycat of the main game written by someone who only skimmed a wiki article of the main story. I truly really believe they would have been better served making it a proper postgame arc because then maybe the emotional connections could have been fully explored.

I also almost feel as though they'd have been better served writing a story set in the past around red Alear. I understand that would have made it difficult to have playable units from the DLC in the main campaign, but I would have gladly missed out on them if that meant adding to the main universe instead of mostly meaning nothing in the end besides an edgy boy (and I genuinely like Rafal, he's funny) realizing he isn't as edgy as he thought he was.

Back to the main game though. Alear becoming Corrupted and begging their sister to not give up was extremely cool and dangerous and insane in a GOOD way (though again, the cutscenes were somewhat long but long for the sake of the main characters is different than long for side villains). Then you play the actual chapter and nothing truly significant is happening that makes the experience feel noteworthy. I think the design and gameplay are more of a problem with this than the specifics of the writing itself, but both of those generally work to the benefit of storytelling in this game so to have an obviously contradictory moment like that undercuts the drama of the scenario. It's a great idea done in kind of a "just ok" way. Would have been better off omitting that chapter entirely and just jumping to the emblem-izing of Alear immediately. Maybe the writers were just too ambitious with the idea of using the Corrupted for a good reason, and couldn't bear to cut it out? I don't dislike indulgent writing, but I dislike when I can tell the writers are just doing something because they thought it was cool and no one felt like being the one to say "ok this doesn't quite fit".

Another gameplay and storytelling problem is the final boss fight. Bringing back the other final bosses as evil emblems was brilliant, but to not bring them back as recognizable models, not give them their portraits, and not give them their voice lines (and correct me if I'm wrong, but they all have voice actors from their own games or Heroes) made it difficult to identify who was who without looking up their classes online. That really undercut most of the drama in them being used in that battle. I understand this may have all added costs to the game that they maybe didn't want to pay, but that lack of detail made a very cool inclusion feel kind of middling.

And the boss himself? Sombron is actually an interesting dude to me. But again, all his backstory and evil plans probably should have been dumped in a monologue separate from the final battle. I think this is yet another case, similar to the Zephia and Griss scene, that would have worked better as a memory prism than as just a character telling the audience directly in what sort of feels like an inappropriately detailed explanation. I appreciate that they did not force this into being another story centered around multiversal crossovers in a media landscape that is currently overwhelmed by such stories, especially if the "Zero Emblem" hook has no intention of being followed up on. Though arguably that's yet another thing the DLC needlessly complicated. Is there just an infinite number of Sombrons looking for an infinite number of Zero Emblems? Even more proof that the DLC should not have happened as it did.

Last thing worth addressing in detail is the pedophilia that has been sadly very prevalent in the series and arguably emboldened by the introduction of the S support system. Even if one wants to disregard the internal age data, characters like Anna, Jean, and Hortensia should not have been romanceable in any language. I thank the English localization team for scrubbing out most of this and making them as platonic as possible.

Ok I think that's basically everything about the plot I can think of right now to address directly. Solm royals could have gotten more, but whatever. I thought they were fine as the hyper-competent Batman-like country that's like 5 steps ahead of everyone. I don't have any other things to speak about on the main story events.

*** THE SPOILERS ARE DONE, CONTINUE READING HERE ***

(Your reward for reading all those paragraphs is a nice picture of my daughter Veyle, who is precious and good. I was so worried they would be weird about her and barefeet aside they thankfully were not.)

Chapter IV: The Other Characters

There's a couple of obvious social groups of characters who have largely overlapping gimmicks. Tea time enthusiasts (Celine, Louis, Jean), aesthetic obsessives (Goldmary, Rosado, Hortensia), gym rats (Alfred, Etie, Boucheron sort of). Firene has perhaps the biggest problem of having so many gimmicks done so close together. There is still a lot of depth in those supports still (notably in the A levels after many might have given up, such as Alfred-Etie, Alfred-Celine, Celine-Alear, etc). I don't really have a defense for this, but I do understand why especially early on it would cause people to write off the cast of the game. It didn't bother me much maybe because I benched everyone but Alfred and Louis right away (I needed to keep Clanne and Framme around, they're really funny lol).

But overall I didn't mind any of the characters for their gimmicks besides Seadall (his disordered eating being treated as a joke was just extremely offputting and it was really 50/50 on whether a support might focus on it) and Goldmary (she is just an asshole and to me it wasn't funny, not every joke will land for everyone I suppose).

The cast felt extremely likeable and well-rounded. I will sound like a broken record here, but again they really reminded me of what I enjoyed about the FE8 cast. Just pretty much all likeable and good characters.

Chapter V: Everything Else

Here's like everything else that comes to mind but I don't have enough in my brain to properly write sentences on them and I kind of want to be done with this lmao:

Yes, I think it's a little silly how some characters manage to get away without the game directly stating how. Alear and co are nice and not brutal so you can assume they allowed the escape, but it's still weird at times. Poorly choreographed.

I will never unironically use the term "ludonarrative" (no shade if you do, but it's not me). However the introduction of the Lucina ring bringing back hope to the crew while being a supportive ring for gameplay purposes and all is just really special stuff. It's good. Similarly, the ring you get at the end of chapter 17 is an amazing moment.

I'm not particularly bothered by the rings being former characters. I don't feel they were used poorly or anything. They're wise old heroes helping the new gen, and they serve that purpose well. Only Marth has a bit more to him than that due to his history with Alear, and I think it plays out well without being reliant on prior knowledge. Again very sorry to Eirika fans, I've seen the essays there on the inaccuracies and you're all valid.

The time travel is very clean and properly defined imo. Much more limited than in Three Houses in-universe which is good, however the best explanation for the rewinds will continue to be Mila's Turnwheel (in that there is no time travel, just some premonitions that allow the characters to evade danger).

I love Pandreo and Zelkov so much. Oh my god. They're so funny and just good men. Excellent dudes. Amber, Rosado, YUNAKA. The cast is just lovely. I love them.

Sommie is so cute for real. Just brilliant idea to include a nice pet for your home base. If anything, they should have given it more wigs for the main royals or some of the emblems. Also Sommie is totally the Zero Emblem.

Chapter VI: Conclusion

Let me get TMI here. I do understand that personally I experience and perceive emotions in an unusual way compared to most people. I've not been diagnosed with anything specific to that level of wiring (just OCD and anxiety), and as far as I feel it doesn't seem necessary. But it is what it is, and I am who I am. Maybe all of this is pointless to write and it truly is just a matter of taste and personal emotional expectations. I don't know. I just know I liked the game, and what worked on me really worked. Hope this was fun to read even if it doesn't give any particular insight.

I did not intend to compare any other FEs in this piece mainly because it's not about them. Legit sorry if I inadvertently cause some sort of discourse.

tl;dr It's Peak Fiction™

#fe17 #fe engage #fire emblem #essay

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star-scrambled · 2 years

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This might have already been discussed somewhere, since I doubt I’m the first to have thought about it but.. I can’t help but wonder, does time work the same way on earth as it does on Sonic’s home planet (Mobius?)? The echidnas shown in the first movie are very reminiscent of the Sonic Adventure tribe, who were alive hundreds of years ago. What if, for every year that passes on Earth, another 10-100 pass on Mobius.

It could explain a few things, like Tails saying “I hope I’m not too late.” Late as in, Sonic might have already passed? Maybe he assumes Sonic is old and experienced, which would set the stage for a hero complex and potential arc in the story, learning to see Sonic as just another lost kid and not this great big hero from the past.

Knuckles says “It is my destiny to destroy you.” Which almost implies Sonic to be some sort of ancient evil told throughout the generations within the echidna tribe, until eventually, Knuckles is the only one left. Imagery of ancient Owl carvings also appeared in the original Sonic games, again could imply Longclaw was the last stand of a dwindling rival tribe to the ancient echidnas. There’s also a carving of a blue hedgehog, which could also explain some things. Besides, Sonic seemed to have been isolated on Mobius, I doubt he’d be able to tell the difference.

Also, what makes Sonic so special? Knuckles seems to have a similar ability.. Does Knuckles only have his powers because of his close upbringing to the Master Emerald, like exposure? Maybe he works more like,,, taking chaos energy (I’m assuming chaos energy anyway) and using it, while Sonic generates it, like a battery? Maybe he’s actively absorbing some of Sonics power in the first trailer, since he only goes all flashy after having caught Sonic’s energized spin dash? BUT that would go against his whole “Do i look like I NEED your power?” Arghhhhhh I have so many questions for the new movie! Anyway sorry for the long ask, just wanted to share some thoughts :)

WOW THATS. A LOT TO UNPACK...and I obviously mean that in the BEST way possible because MAN YOU PUT YOUR ALL INTO THESE PARAGRAPHS!! LOVE THE SHARED EXCITEMENT- okay, thoughts time!

Unfortunately, I am...VERY bad with the concept of time and understanding tropes where measurements of time work differently between locations. Might be the dyscalculia, idk! So I don’t think I’ve COMPLETELY understood your idea, but I’ll respond to what I can anyway because I do like where you’re going with it! Especially the idea surrounding Tails seeing Sonic as this great hero “from the past” prior to meeting him, oughh. I think either way we may get something like that if he’s just as aware of this “destiny” stuff as Knuckles to some extent? So that’s cool!

I think your concept on how it would affect the Echidna and Knuckles, while understandable, would still be able to make just as much sense even without the altered time theory (or at least without the difference being as long as 100 years?). Some people interpret the imagery in S3&K to not represent Sonic himself, but maybe a different hedgehog like Shadow, amongst many other theories and concepts, so there’s clearly been a lot of leeway taken from that huge mural. We don’t know if that will be replicated in the movie ruins, but at the very least we have said hedgehog carvings in the walls of it, as seen on the IGN poster. These carvings are even vaguer than the S3&K mural, as they aren’t even blue, so that same subjective nature could come into play, if it turns out that imagery has existed longer than Sonic and the Echidna we saw combined. Knuckles still could’ve had stories of Sonic passed down to him, assuming he was also a small child around the time the Echidna’s ambush on Longclaw had taken place, or at least have that information left behind for him in the form of stuff such as the imagery in the ruins (esp since it appears in more places than just surrounding the Emerald altar, like similar owl imagery throughout the island Sonic grew up on).

I don’t know if any of that made sense or anything (again, I probably don’t understand your idea completely, and that’s on me for being bad with this subject lol), but I enjoy your theory and you consider a lot of important things that I highly believe will be addressed canonically anyways!

NOW as for your last paragraph, I can talk about this with a little more confidence.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot too, because I’m getting the vibe that there IS a notable difference between Knuckles and Sonic’s powers, but I don’t know if I’m reaching based on our limited footage or catching something intentional. I actually made a voice memo of me trying to work out my thoughts, so I’ll just listen to that and write my opinion here simultaneously.

First of all, I don’t think Knuckles has that direct of a connection to Sonic’s power, like the conclusion you made near the end. He charges up a little earlier than when he catches him, and made it clear that he didn’t desire Sonic’s power, so all of that checks out. HOWEVER...here’s a detail I think is really interesting.

Keeping in mind that trailers for movies can intentionally hide things and steer viewers into the wrong direction with their predictions, this analysis could age bad, but...notice that Knuckles’ quills and eyes don’t charge up like Sonic’s in their first encounter, but DO later on when they’re fighting around the Master Emerald. And the difference is kind of apparent.

oh, hey, let’s look at that third image above for a sec! you know what this shot reminds me of?

This part of the first movie where Sonic drains the power of Robotnik’s vehicle, potentially gaining more energy from it. It adds up, considering his powers were treated as very electric-y all throughout the first movie, even being the cause of a state-wide power outage. Maybe Knuckles, whilst having powers with a similar electric aesthetic, can do a similar move with a different element (the earth?). If this were to be the first time we see him REALLY charged up like this, the implications of that would be interesting, considering Sonic doesn’t even need to rely on external sources to that extent most times in order to reach high power. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the point, considering what Sonic’s supposed to learn in his first battle with Knuckles is that his power doesn’t substitute for experience and skill. Maybe when he gets a handle on those strengths, that’s why he’s able to beat Knuckles? Who knows! I do think them fighting in a close vicinity to the Master Emerald will most likely impact their powers and potentially their control over them, though. I wouldn’t know how, but presumably the logic is in my previous points. What I do know is there is absolutely no way Knuckles wasn’t as charged up during the home invasion because he was holding back. He’s against Sonic completely here and was absolutely putting a lot of effort into kicking his butt, so it HAS to be a matter of him not being able to access his powers full potential until he’s more “in his element” at the ruins near the M.E.

Ok I think I ran out of brain juice. Final words: Yes. You’re asking the right questions.

#APOLOGIES LONG READING HATERS ME AND ANON ARE JUST RAMBLING INTENSLY!#I got way too excited seeing a whole essay in my ask box HEHEHEHE #TYSM anon!!!#I needed this I’m having a sick day #vics silly brain zone #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic movie 2 #sonic the hedgehog 2 #sth #sonic movie #miles tails prower #knuckles the echidna #lets be safe and spoiler tag this one #sonic 2 movie spoilers #sonic 2 spoilers #sonic movie spoilers

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bookofmirth · 3 years

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after rereading the series and finally finishing silver flames ( which i truly enjoyed, even when there were points which felt disappointing and a little incoherent ) i feel like i can finally pinpoint what is so jarring to me regarding this series. It just seems so disjointed, which becomes especially apparent after reading MaF and the immediately reading WaR.

We move from the first two novels of the series, which are coherent and clean, to WaR - which is hoenstly just a mess, something which was so blatant to me on the reread. during this time, it’s clear that sjm made several massive changes to link this book to the future spin offs, and also obviously changes her original plan to pair mor and azriel - which monumentally changes the way that the previous book is read, and the perception of their characters.

Even with FaS - setting up for cassian and nestas story, sjm completely changes direction between this release and silver flames. And all of that lead up with the Illyrian rebellions and cassians not being respected as a bastard, and his mission fighting for Illyrian female rights - amounts to absolutely nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, I really really enjoyed silver flames, and perhaps some of these ideas will crop up in azriels book and therefore won’t be wasted. But it just makes the series feel disjointed and leaves me at least, feeling unfulfilled.

Sjm is such a good author, in ToG the plot was expertly executed and when you reread the series, you can see hints and foreshadowing even back to book one. She knew exactly where she was going almost from the beginning, and each decision and plot point was used to create impact and build up to the ending. I don’t get that with acotar.

There is so so so much build, and almost no pay off - and I really got that sense in acosf, I loved it as a stand alone - but when we look at it through the perspective of the entire series, there were things which grated and a lot of things which I felt were built up to and nothing happened... Tomas, Cassians mother ( was so sure we would learn where she was buried at least ) the Illyrian rebellions and the Illyrians hatred and disrespect towards Cassian, Mor and Nestas relationship, CASSIAN AND MORS RELATIONSHIP ( I understand that the mor situation will be something which is focused upon primarily in azriels book, or hopefully her own, however their relationship involves Cassian as much as them both and I really wish Cassian had actually confronted the part he played in that whole situation - a part he played for 500 (!!!!) years. It’s a role which he was unable to relinquish in ACOWAR, and actively rejects Nesta to act as a buffer multiple times, seeing it as an obligation almost - and then in SF, pays it no attention at all. Feyre and Nestas relationship also isn’t really touched upon, as if that final act healed everything - what about that interrupted conversation in the library, when Nesta was cut off ? Why Nesta always favoured Elain, even Amren and Nesta - we still don’t really know what happened there... argh there’s just so much potential and so much set up, and it just seems forgotten about ? It makes the book seem disjointed and a bit of a let down.

Yesss I totally get what you mean here. ToG is honestly the superior series, and it’s because it has the cohesion that acotar doesn’t. Everything feels like it’s meant to be there, each character, each worldbuilding detail, their histories, everything just comes together in a wonderful way that just wrecked me when EoS came out and then was resolved perfectly in KoA.

Compared to that, acotar feels like sjm is figuring things out along the way and it is seriously driving me nuts. I’ve had multiple conversations with other people in Discords and they’ve said similar things. acotar at this point feels like sjm is just coming up with random ass ideas and throwing them in. No book in the series feels more like that than acowar. And it was that point where we knew that there would be more books, right? So combined with the fact that she pounded that book out and it got rather half-assed editing, you’re probably right that a lot of things were changed in order to set up the other books, even though it didn’t make sense with what she’d written before.

I agree with you re: Mor and Az, and I feel like I’ve been seeing more people say that lately? That there is a feeling that they actually were supposed to be together and she changed her mind? I wrote a bunch of fics for them back in the day and they’ve gotten a bit more attention lately. But once acowar came out I was like, I’m gonna reread, and I’m gonna find all the clues, I’m gonna see where all this build-up was, and.... considering how often people say that sjm is so “good” at foreshadowing, I’m sorry, but not in this series. In ToG, yes, because she had a clear goal at the end! She knew where she was going and she stayed on that path. In acotar, idfk. Anyway my point is that I’ve reread the series a couple of times through since acowar came out and I’m still over here shrugging because up until that point, Mor and Az could be read in completely opposite ways. (Maybe it’s an Azriel thing, given the current discourse, idk.)

I will say, however, that we had clues that there was tension between them and I had noted that Az is quiet troubled and even pre-acomaf, I would not have been surprised by his extra in acosf. But all of that could have been addressed with Mor and Az still being together? We all had plenty of explanations at the time for the tension, and Mor being queer was like 1 of 100 of those explanations.

If we look at Mor’s character through the books we have so far, I still see almost zero signs that she’s queer except for her literally saying “I like women and Rita’s has a lot of women and here’s my gay story”. Other than that, there is like..... nothing that feels organically queer about her!!! And I love her and I want her to be gay af!!!! But I wonder if my forgiveness of how acowar went down was more about my personal reaction than how well the story was actually done.

And the fact that, like you said, there is still no resolution to the fact that Cassian is supposedly a buffer between Mor and Azriel? Like???? We were all sitting here after acowar thinking “okay, well if she’s gay then someone knows. Someone has to know. She can’t just be gay and NO ONE WHO LOVES HER KNOWS.”

Then in comes acosf with a big “fuck you, y’all thought” which just.... to me, it signals that her queerness was an afterthought. It’s still an afterthought because her queerness is limited to Mor and women blushing at her and Mor has her corner of the world in which she can be gay, but that gay never spills out into any other aspect of her life. It’s just conveniently isolated so that it doesn’t touch or affect other characters.

In terms of continuity, acowar was such a huge shifting point in the series that people left in droves. It was a huge mess in the fandom. And then acofas was just fluff with no real point in pushing the story forward - even the Nesta stuff was a sneak peek, it had nothing to do with acofas itself. And now acosf comes in ignoring things she had set up previously, with almost zero nuanced discussion of the Cassian/Azriel/Mor thing, which means she still (?) doesn’t know what’s going on there. And I think that we did get some answers with Nesta’s reflection on her relationship with her mother, but the deal with the Illyrian rebellion was just in the way so let’s nix that, and then let’s focus on Eris (🤮) just because she feels like it even though she’s set up all these other characters whose stories need more. (Much like acowar, this paragraph is a MESS LOL)

And yes I KNOW that the series isn’t over, clearly, but she keeps setting things up and then letting them go nowhere, or making them seem important and then resolving them off-page, or changing character relationships (Mor and Az) but then having the characters involved act exactly the same, as if nothing had changed (by having the “buffer” situation still exist as a real thing).

I did enjoy the book, a lot, it was a fun read. But tbh we have so many arguments and disagreements within the fandom rn because things have been so left open to interpretation that we it’s not even a matter of “oh I saw this slightly differently”, it’s “WHAT book did these people even read???” That’s kinda weird, to me. There is reader response, and then there is what we have now, which is people having absolute opposite reactions to what they think happened in acosf.

#acosf #acosf spoilers #spoilers #sjm critical #ask #acotar #wow you got me started lol #anon

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couslandofhighever · 3 years

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Elf (/Mage) hyperidentification

I'm back to trying to play Dragon Age 2 after having quit last year when things got difficult in my personal life, making it hard for me to find time and space and to do so. And once again I am thinking about something that I have found hard to articulate but finally think I have found the words to express. CW: discussion of fictional racism, #discourse

So, I know some people go bananas about elves across all fantasy genres. They identify with them in the way that a person might identify with werewolves or vampires or other humanoid but not-quite-human creature that one might wish to be. Elves have an association with magic and often with nature. They are unusual-looking, but among fantasy creatures/races, they are often the closest to human standards of beauty. Liking elves can have a lot of different meanings. Some elves are small and basically the lithe and magical counterpart to more muscular and practical dwarves. However, just as with the trend of sexier or more elegant vampires, most elves in fantasy tend to be on the tall and elegant, LOTR side of things. On the other hand, I know people who resent elves for some of the same reasons. Specifically, the fact that they are the "pretty" fantasy creature in such a way that it tends to be juxtaposed to a lot of the other choices. Basically, I know people (at least one personally) who sort of has a little bit of a prejudiced view of elves and their fans from a defensive position of... like... not wanting to need to be the "pretty one" or whatever. I tend to lean slightly more toward the second viewpoint these days, but I sympathize with both, and I don't think Liking Elves in general is bad. And neither do I think liking Dragon Age elves is bad. Let me be clear about that. But I think I got to the root of something that bothers me about the ~fandom~-within-a-fandom that is focused entirely upon the ~Elvhen~ or whatever. Let me also say that, as a fan, I am a mostly-cis-gendered white woman, and I am bi. I understand that part of my identity is marginalized while another, significant part of it, is very much not. I feel this is important to say because I want to acknowledge that I think some of what I am about to say and kind of complain about may come from a place of people seeing themselves reflected in the Elvhen. Dragon Age elves draw loosely from several real world cultures including Native Americans/First Peoples and medieval European Jewish and Romani populations. I get that, and I acknowledge it, and if you are related to one of these real world demographics, please know that my whining is in absolutely no way directed at you. You have a hard enough time finding direct representation in media, so if you hyper-identify with Dragon Age elves for this reason, then I am glad you have the outlet. That said, I don't think that anywhere close to a majority of this "Elvhen First" branch of fandom within Dragon Age fandom is made up of anyone covered in my previous paragraph. I could be wrong, and if I am I preemptively apologize. But basically, the thing I am complaining about is when a Dragon Age fan latches onto the Elvhen plight, struggle, culture, history, etc., that they start relating it as a 1-to-1 correlation with real world, modern day struggles faced by real marginalized people. Furthermore, even if they aren't currently talking about it like it is a 1-to-1 correlation, even in Escapism Land, I have sometimes encountered this tendency for people to basically merge their Dragon Age Fan identity with being their Elvhen characters so much that it's almost... inseparable from their appreciation for or criticism of the Dragon Age universe as a product or work of art? And I think that, sometimes, it comes across to me as, like... cosplaying being an oppressed, marginalized minority for... emotional catharsis? Or to feel that one is on the right side of Thedas history? Something like that. And that makes me really uncomfortable from the perspective of a white person who isn't, to my knowledge, related to any of the real world inspiration sources for some of the stuff the elves have been through. I just... don't think that - if you are not uniquely positioned to personally understand some of the inspiration material and rarely see it acknowledged, etc. - a fan should basically jump into the role of an elf on all DA-related thought and arguments to the point that it almost becomes a felt... aggression if someone doesn't agree with the elves of Dragon Age all the time. Actually, the exact same thing can be said about the plight of Dragon Age mages. I think I find it uniquely uncomfortable as a definitely not-racial-minority fan to see other fans who might be in similar situations to me deciding to perform racial activism on behalf of elves on a computer screen from the perspective as if they were said oppressed fantasy race. Magi and superpowers being used as a metaphor for sexual identity is not new (X-Men is a common example), so I guess I find it less egregious as an exercise in empathy that perhaps goes too far into other people's experience of escapism. It doesn't seem like cosplaying something that might be offensive if you as any kind of marginalized person identify with the plight of mages as presented in Dragon Age. But it's still a problem if your emotional relationship to an escapism world means that you find other people having a different opinion than you about some social issue in Thedas to be... Idk... objectively evil. Tl;dr: Identify with elves or mages all you want but don't cosplay oppression when you could be doing better things with your energy, maybe.

#dragon age #dragon age meta

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cornerstorebitch · 3 years

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am i wrong or wasn't tran$ surgery originally intended to "straighten-out" gays? do you know the history it hurts my heart to look into this and i feel like there's a mode effort to paper over history with tran$ narrative which is difficult to wade through

also it seems like there was some joke to play it straight within gay circles by calling gay men sister or queen and calling gay women stud or boy? (i'm talking about idk the 80s or something before any of this new church tran$scripture) -- i don't see this as necessarily having anything to do with changing genders, more like bending perception humorously because society's already bent? can you shed light on this

also especially if the previous paragraph is even sometimes true isn't it sort of violent to twist normal homos into people who would've happily chopped their bodies apart

as far as the history of SRS goes, i'm not anywhere close to an authority on the subject but i imagine the answer to your question probably depends on the country. in the US, as far as i know, transsexuals were mostly seen as having a mental illness and when SRS took off it was mostly discussed in these parameters. but transsexuals were also considered to be basically exclusively gay, so do with that what you will. if you watch or read anything made around 1985-1995 involving trans people you'll notice the difference in attitude compared to now tho. think the scene in silence of the lambs where they say buffalo bill will have been rejected by john hopkins for srs on the grounds that he's not actually trans.

gay people have really always intentionally emulated opposite gender roles. people get squirrely when you talk about it like that but i mean, its true. theres plenty of dudebro lesbians who go by male names and sometimes pronouns and the opposite for gay men. i dont think any of that has anything to do with dysphoria or trans people, i think its just a reflection of the difference between straight & gay cultural attitudes.

#gay people treat gender toles like a fame which is so sexy of us

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tinkiisms · 4 years

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HOW I RUN MY BLOG.

SPEED: I’m not a speedy RPer tbh. If I’m really pumped about a current thread and my partner and I are both online replying, I might shoot back and forth, but generally it takes days to weeks to put out my replies to any given thread. I have a job irl--and I 100% treat this as a hobby and don’t want to let it stress me out by writing with people who expect me to reply instantly--otherwise I would just stop.

REPLIES: I prefer mid-length to long threads (not novella level tho), especially with partners who I’m rather comfortable/familiar writing with. I tend to enjoy exploring what my character is thinking and feeling, so one-line dialogues can be fun to quickly develop a rapport between two characters for an initial meeting or a little side-thread to enjoy a ship dynamic...but for threads that I’m really going to be interested in and want to reply to most, they are the plotted ones that are multiple paragraphs. Single or two paragraphs are my regular mid-length threads.

STARTERS: I will write a starter for anyone who I’ve plotted one out with, or by request/call without much plotting if I’m familiar enough with their muse that I know how I would want to set up a plausible meeting with them and Tinker Bell. If I’m not quite familiar with a character I might be less inclined to write a starter and rather my partner writes one for us to begin with. And I treat starters written for me with priority!!!

If somebody makes me a starter and I don’t reply to it within a few days--unless I’m not replying to anything in which case I’m low activity at the time like right now lowkey--LET ME KNOW. Writing a starter someone asked for and it being never answered is very frustrating and a way to make me quickly lose interest in RPing with someone, so I never want to do that to anyone else. (Weirdly, I care way more about ignored starters than dropped threads. Like if you drop a thread I’ll probably forget about it, but I never forget who liked my starter calls and didn’t answer the starter I gave them....)

INBOX: Always open for IC & OOC memes from my memes tag. Always open for IC & OOC questions for/about my muse! I don’t reply to everything immediately honestly. I’ll reblog some memes and not answer all of them, but then go back later when I’m feeling the inspiration again to get to them. It’s not my primary/preferred method of starting RPs, so not my first concern to answer--but if my partners want to continue them into threads, that’s also kind of what they’re for!! I answer them more as jumping off points to reply to rather than little drabbles of my characters reaction. So I’m always willing to turn them into threads, never hesitate. Assume it’s a go.

SELECTIVITY: Not super selective. I consider myself semi-selective because I’m technically open to RPing with non-mutuals--but at this point I basically follow back every blog that looks decent (not full of OOC and un-cut posts, has about/rules page that’s not just a link to a wiki page) whether I know the muse or not, so that tends to be all the ppl I’m willing to thread with anyway.

(I’m still not mutuals-exclusive because I can imagine a situation where maybe I enjoy an RPer’s style and am interested in their character and writing with them, but they regularly reblog stuff that I don’t like. I’m not bothered to thread with them even tho we’re not mutuals, bc I’m just here for the writing rather than following their inspo posts lmao)

WISHLIST: My wishlist tag is here, but instead of scrolling through it...My wishlist is honestly just finding RPers whose writing really clicks with mine so I find it easy and relaxing to reply to threads with them, instead of trying to force myself and get stressed for not being able to make it flow when this should just be for fun? There are ppl who I really want to write with, whose blogs/muses I like, and who I enjoy talking to OOC, but then when I actually get to our threads I’m like....eh, idk what to say here. And others who I want to have a hundred threads with because every time I go to reply, it just comes easily and I’m inspired.

+ Our characters have interesting dynamics and plots, potentially we ship our muses so I can squeal over them! It’s not something I can exactly just point at and say “who wants to do this specific plot with me?” It’s like, once you find a good partner, keep expanding your verse, your muses’ relationship, your plot ideas, and your friendship OOC to make this hobby really worth the time.

HONEST NOTE: I’m not the best writer. I’m not the best role-play partner. I take a long time to reply to things, and I drop threads if I’m not feeling it, but it never means I don’t WANT to write with you or that I have no interest in our threads. I just don’t want to let this become a stressful activity for me, because I can only write when I’m feeling the inspiration. I can’t just grind out replies like that, because my imagination is very picky, I guess?

And I’m very much a perfectionist in the self-sabotaging way so if I’m trying to write something and don’t feel like it’s good enough to share, I’d rather just not do it at all...(like taking a 0 instead of a higher but still failing grade bc if u didn’t try then u didn’t really fail, which is ridiculous but i’ve always been like that even in school--anyway my point is DON’T STRESS ME OUT I HAVE ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION)

My honest note is just, I’m always ready to plot and discuss and try to thread, but please don’t expect too much from me and end up disappointed bc I don’t live up to expectations as an RP partner. I’m just doing my thing here and putting in the effort I realistically can with my mental state. I want to have fun writing with all of you, just give me patience and time and enjoy what we do get to see from our characters, and I also won’t judge you for being slow with replies or dropping things.

tagged by: stolen from dash

tagging: anybody who wants to do it why do we have to be tagged or tag ppl like just do the mun and muse memes you wanna do??

#⊹*⋅✧ | ᵒᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵏᵉᵗᵗᶫᵉˢ (ooc)#⊹*⋅✧ | ʸᵒᵘ ʷᵒᶰ’ᵗ ᶠᵒʳᵍᵉᵗ ᵐᵉ﹖(rp reminders)

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iamtonynowhere · 5 years

Text

So today I got up about 10 and hung out in the kitchen for a while showered, got my stuff together to study and eat breakfast for about half an hour and then had to leave for the meeting with my communal reversal/workshop space group, I took the electric skateboard which was so good to do 4 miles on it, the meeting went great and I'm gonna work on being fund raiser lead, I have a few plans for different styles of events and we have a good idea of rough budget and what we'd want from the space and meet some of the really cool creative's that are going to be involved which I personally love. Its going to help so much with the play project and doing more creative things with people. And for training great and I can make a climbing wall ah so good. Its gonna take a bit of work and ill have to work on it over a few days the events I mean, anyway as its late and I could type about this for ages, here's the paste from the group that I created today.

So for gaining funding...

In the meeting today we discussed a few options and things we could do. There are some things I need some help with but I'm taking lead on fund raiser events. I am in need of people with experience, some people who are willing to be lead on aspects of the events and, people to be involved with shows, immersive theatre, workshops, food, legal stuff, finance stuff,

I also need suggestions of spaces which we could do these fundraisers either free or cheap, what people would like to bring and if you have any ideas. I'm open to suggestions and collaborations to gain as much funding as we can to make this space a reality as quickly as we can so. We shot around are

Gofundme incentives, free workshop £5 one free month £20 free workshops for a year £100 use of the space for an event £200

Patron account same but no incentives long term fund raising

Fundraisers

First idea, 6 hour immersive event for families with a winter theme, walkabout, immersive workshops, art installations, tea, cakes, light dinner bbq/nibbles snacks, tuck shop and cabaret with the kids in it made up of what they learnt in the day..

Evening meal event, bachous (sp Greek/roman god of feasting and wine) theme, food wine nibbles, feast of the senses performance thing with a Greek tragedy style stage show to culminate. Done in three hours.

All day event, warehouse space many rooms winter theme, installed art, workshops, walkabout immersive stuff, drinks and snacks in the day, installed experiences like mixology, art auction, cabaret/renegade/open mic in the eve, pot luck dinner, bring in something or donate to eat, bar and disco evening, some dance workshops? Like jungle ballet, dancehall movement fitness stuff?

These would all make good content and evidence so we can gain community or arts grant funding.

So yeah a few ideas, some things I need to work on so lists and venues, working on it happening in the next few weeks and work if it will make money...

I then skated to tufnel park and got the bus to uni, as it was my first day I have notes on that entire process and my reading notes that I'd like to paste here but overall the experience was good and I'm look in forward to the module to understand feelings and other peoples feelings better so I think that insight is gonna be good

Paste here the sonocent notes and my reading notes.

Oh yeah I'm also supposed to start creating a psychodynamic journal of my reactions to feelings, so today I felt very anxious for the new school year due to the lack of organisation from the uni side, because of the new people, the large group dynamic, the lack of contact from DSA and disability. I've also been feeling really proud of the work I've done learning about autism and my autism, I still don't care for my diagnosis but getting rediagnosed is not the same as recognition as my current certificate gets me the assistance I need without having to balance it out so I'm super proud of all of my autistic talking today about how I corrected my lecturer about it being a difference and not a disability.

Anyway here's another copied and pasted thing from an climate change post as I want to read the sources.

“lower growth” is an odd thing to say: GDP is a fairly bonkers measure of success, when homeostasis is what evolution seeks to achieve.

Yeah, living standards will dip - but if standards = limiting the choice of 15 fondant filled chocolate bars to just five (hyperbolically facetious to make a point), is that really handicapping human progress or capping human happiness?

Sure, some people (naming no names) may have to start pulling their weight, working long(er) hours, declaring their income, and contributing to a nations tax take and “selling their soul” - but the luxury of non-compliance and opting out has always been an exclusively elite luxury, largely restricted to the west, and largely built (ultimately) on a capitalist foundation of wealth expropriated from corporate or imperial hegemony (whether that is East India, Knox-Darcy (latter BP), or Kellog Brown Root, IDK and IDC).

Basically Sean, your argument is rich in rhetoric but, in spite of your vehemence, doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny - yeah the global average of financial success is up (gross dollar average per capita)- but the global disparity in wealth is also up (global per capita). So the system is inherently less fair.

Yeah, ecosystems are expanding - but biodiversity is contracting. So the system is inherently less stable.

I don’t know where you got your meme from - I couldn’t find the author in my admittedly lazy 1 min search - but the meme’s bias and the author’s agenda is almost hilariously transparent: particularly the last paragraph - helpfully highlighted blue.

This isn’t a zero sum game. Just because actions to alleviate climate change cost the economy $x, it isn’t to say $x would be available if such action weren’t taken. E.g. in my local area, flood defenses cost >£10m over the past 15 years and another £20m is forecast over the next 20. If this money isn’t spent, the highly productive farmland on the floodplain will be lost - aside from the loss to private capital (in fact, losing farmland will prob increase GDP - which is one of the bizarre and Machiavellian flaws of that calculation), it will decrease food production - which means that not spending money on climate change will both reduce capital available and reduce food surpluses. And this is just one small locally observable metric in my immediate area. What about Holland? Same situation, factors bigger. The comment in the OP (highlighted blue) is not just blinkered, it is propagandistic in its bias.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say - no doubt you will continue to bark at the night, but I’m off to bed. I just didn’t want your dangerous propaganda to go unchallenged. "

"industrial farming and the industrial fossil fuel industry are probably the main reasons, for why the population has grown exponentially in the last 100 years.

Imagine if we only could live within sustainable means, it would be a better existence for everyone in the long term. How can you deny that?

If we continue on this trajectory of consumption, deforestation, destruction of our environment and pollution of just plastic, let alone every other material we use, it is pretty obvious we will be living in a pretty rotten world. We can already see the rot now after all.

Therefore is not our duty as a civilisation to have a hypothesis that we can make a difference, in the long term with a global strategy on the subjects we have been discussing intensely;

Pollution, global warming, C02 emissions, fossil fuels, Deforestation, etc."

Anyway I have the dentist in tower hamlets tomorrow morning so I'm kinda done for tonight goodnight I'm gonna make some food to eat now eat a good breakfast and just buy out tomorrow.

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whiteanti · 5 years

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sry if that's gonna turn out long but i really want your onion on it. in relations to that anon who asked you abt white passing people - what do you think about "west asians" loool. like caucasians, not white europeans but people from the caucasus like armenians georgians azeris etc. personally i could never consider them poc lmao first of all demographic region such as west asia doesnt exist, most countries from that region are middle eastern and the ones who are not are BETWEEN europe and asia

and not to bring that up but armenians have been legally classified as white like 100 years ago, ntm how they never looked racialized in the first place its just that white americans considered anything that’s not white american as impure. like even white southern and eastern europeans. and cool you could say they’re white passing poc but there are not Any specific racialized features that make you go oh thats a poc.. its not fucking 2012 anymore we cant still push that race is social bullshit

(i think tumblr ate the 3rd or 2nd ask so im rewriting it) even if it was its still made to not only benefit them but put them on top. with tht circassian beauty shit that was spread among both europe and the global south w circassian women and their “big beautiful hair” as the beauty standard while black women were and still to this day are abused degraded etc for their hair then you have white ass circassians and other caucasians using as an argument about not being white that white russians call thm bl*ckies or the white version of the n word lmaooo can you believe… and like ok your ppl faced genocide and ethnic cleansing from white russians but how does that contribute to you being racialized ESP in the modern day world.

not only that but so many of them have pale skin, blue eyes, blonde hair like straight up cracker and they still insist on being poc just cuz they’re not Straight from mother europe. its just a caucasian online thing to claim the racialized experience for white ppl jokes access and extra oppression points.

if you ask the average middle aged lets say armenian person what race they are they’re gonna tell you white. and with the amount of anti asian sentiment in their communities how tf do they expect to be accepted as asian like they’re truly playing with us.

also wht bugs me is how they cant tell the difference btwn racism and xenophobia/ethnophobia sjhgahsj how do you insist on facing racism without being racialized? they face as much discrimination in white countries as any average white foreigner would but go explain that shit to them that if you’re not racialized you cant use the terms racism and xenophobia interchargeably.

to me the only asians are east, southeast, south, central and north, also anything mixed inbetween. all these crackers lite from the caucasus mountains can go fuck themselves and shove their forced victimization up their asses cuz at this point i’m so tired of their white asses trying to prove me they’re on the same level as us whn it comes to discrimination.

like yes s and se asians are way more discriminated than the rest of us but we (east central north) do face racial discrimination unlike caucasians lmao. and sure they face intergenerational trauma from the genocides of their countries but so do we, in way bigger amounts. thats why im so sceptical abt terms like visible poc cuz you either are a poc or not… they have so many tactics as a gotcha to racialized asians to make us seem as if we’re bigots who invalidate their genocides and talk so aimlessly abt it when all we want is for them to acknowledge their whiteness, white privilege, white guilt and self victimization against us. but anyways im so sry for making it this long but i needed to get if off my chest and you’re like the only person i know who can understand it and give a well thought out opinion. i rlly wish you all the best and good luck on all your exams 💓💓💓

btw for the previous asks i only said “mixed inbetween” bc i talked about monoracial asians specifically not that someone isnt asian if they’re mixed w black or anything else, also idk much abt indigenous ppl from oceania or how they identify so that’s why i left it out

ok so I reformatted some of the asks to make them easier to read (as in I changed where paragraph breaks were bc wow there r so many) but my answer is below the cut!

[EDIT] since a few ppl r asking me abt this no I don't fully agree w this anon. I don't think arabs are white. I don't think Iranians are white. I don’t know if Armenians or other ethnicities from the Caucasus region are white I think thats an ongoing discussion w in their communities, but as far as I knew I thought people saw Armenians as white. again I could be wrong but that is what I think the general consensus is. if you want to have in in-depth discussion abt this topic pls ask someone from within those communities or at the very least has researched it in-depth.

ok so just from what I know a lot of ppl from the caucus region classified themselves as white during segregation, etc in order to escape racial discrimination. Armenians as far as ik r generally classified as white? the Kardashians are Armenian and I don’t think anyone has ever said they’re poc. geographically Armenia is in west Asia so technically they’re asian but does that mean they’re poc? but if u say Armenians r white then r arabs white? Armenians do face discrimination and they have faced a genocide which is denied by the Turkish govt. but most ashkenazi jewish ppl r also white so….. idk.

as for in Europe they would definitely be seen as poc or at the very least not white. basically anywhere east of turkey (ofc excluding Russia) is seen as Big Scary Middle East full of ppl who want to invade Europe. but again in America I’m not too sure bc race relations r definitely different there.

I think its a rlly complex question w a complex answer and tbh I don’t know enough abt any of this to b able to give a cohesive opinion. what I will say is that I think this is a different discussion completely from whether mixed white poc r poc or not. this is a discussion is to whether a whole ethnicities of ppl who look ‘white’ are poc or not. its complicated bc race isn't ‘real’ as in theres not way to divide humans into 5 groups. ppl like from the caucasus region don’t fit neatly into white or asian and if u look historically the region is closely tied w Greece, Iran and the Mughals in India so again… theres no definite answer. but as far as ik they definitely have a large degree of white passing privilege but I would still say to a lesser extent than full white europeans. they’re also mostly racialised in europe or at least demonised to a certain extent. more than Eastern Europeans and less than poc but like idk lol. I hope this is an ok answer bc to b honest my brain is so fried rn

#asks #anon

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herotheshiro · 3 years

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ok i didn’t do a review of the phoenix wright trilogy but i’ll do a mini-write-up on apollo justice which i just finished earlier. this is mainly due to me looking up apollo justice/ace attorney afterwards and seeing ppl talk vaguely abt how and where the series and characters go after this... i wanted to add my 2 cents to the void of the internet i guess lol

spoilers for aa4 below

i think as a story, apollo justice is quite good but definitely a bit lacking in writing compared to the 1st trilogy. i feel like this is pretty much the common fan opinion, esp since the 1st trilogy was written all together as a 3-game-set and apollo justice has to conclude everything within 1 game. i think this game did real good at revealing info over time... i remember when they revealed the troupe gramarye poster and i was like WAIT... THAT’S SHADI SMITH... HOLD UP... personally though, i think the ending was not very strong for me -- i feel like we nailed kristoph almost a bit too easily at the end without much i guess concrete evidence linking him to everything even if basically everything was really pointing to him. [EDIT: lol ok reading summaries on aa4 and yeah apparently this is the point and why it being a jurist sys trial was so important… and the realization that he really could get nailed for the crime that he’s been paranoid abt for years made him break down at the end. Ok that makes sense I guess, I was just used to things playing out like the 1st trilogy where you would last min get decisive evidence lol] other than that, there was quite a number of loose ends that didn’t get tied up

so what happened to valant? i think the implication was that he was gonna turn himself in out of guilt even if he didn’t actually kill magnifi (sp?). and also w trucy having the rights i guess it would be complicated for the 2 of them to work that out. that whole aftermath wasn’t entirely clear to me esp since they didn’t give him a post-credits scene

so we’re not gonna get an explanation for why thalassa left her not-even-1-yo son to fend for himself? that was like my no. 1 thing i would’ve liked to get a reason for but the ending is just her being like oh yeah i remember now he’s my son and that’s it. no explanation for why she left him behind and returned to troupe gramarye w/o him. like at least a “oh it would’ve been complicated to bring a literal baby to raise back into that traveling group” would’ve sufficed, esp since we’re supposed to get the impression that lamiror is a kind woman. yet she left her damn kid behind with only a bracelet. were we just supposed to assume the explanation i gave above? i mean yes i’ve looked it up vaguely and i think we get more info on apollo’s growing up in later games but i’ve heard w very little mention of thalassa. which i mean i get, thalassa left him when he was around 1yo so he prob wouldn’t remember shit but man we never gonna get that explanation huh. it’s kinda messed up to leave this baby behind who i assume you care about; it’s another story if she didn’t want the kid and therefore didn’t care what happened to him but she left a bracelet w him which implies she does care

also the loose end of them not telling apollo and trucy they’re siblings. i’ll save this for a later paragraph though

also side note but when i was finishing the game up and before i saw the ending, i literally had a passing, very brief thought like “oh what if lamiror was actually trucy and apollo’s mom lol. what a crack thought” but then it actually happened... i mean it’s good to wrap up that mystery of lamiror’s past, plus they were insinuating so hard that maybe thalassa wasn’t actually dead lol so yeah you knew the mom was gonna pop up fr by the end

apollo himself as a character. now i’m not gonna nit-pick as much here bc he does show up again in later games w more backstory and character development as i’ve heard, but yeah he is very much a mystery character in aa4 i feel. he has basically no given history throughout the game, and the lack of detail made sense at first when you slowly started connecting the dots that he and the gramarye power were related, but then they never really shed any more light on him at the end. they really only reveal he and trucy are related just to explain why and how he has the power to perceive, not even to really indicate anything abt them as characters. i kinda forgot about this as i played the game, but i read a write-up by someone else being like “oh yeah phoenix you know his motivations as a defense attorney but apollo has basically none” and i was like yeah that’s right huh. bc the 1st trilogy reveals p early on that phoenix had a certain motivation to be a defense attorney but apollo you don’t get that, he’s just an attorney just to be an attorney i guess. which i mean is fine, you don’t always need a reason to do stuff sometimes, but it does make him a weaker character. i think maybe in the beginning they were like oh apollo respects kristoph as a lawyer but then they don’t really develop mpre backstory there like how they met or why kristoph decided to take him on. i thought the latter was gonna be a point that was gonna come up, like maybe kristoph took apollo on as part of his large masterplan or something bc i think kristoph does mention being aware of apollo’s “power” but yeah they didn’t delve further into that. anyway i’ll go less on this bc i’ll just assume they had plans for him to show up in later games therefore they didn’t fully flesh him out here. otherwise that means they just didn’t bother on him other than him having the perceive power and having a personal relation to the whole gramarye case

how did drew misham or vera idk who painted it know abt all of apollo’s 3 cases? i thought it was gonna be like oh phoenix or kristoph saw all this coming and somehow told misham abt it who drew it but uh that didn’t happen. was that bc drew misham was following phoenix in the news and saw the stuff happening w apollo and was inspired to draw his cases? that was a dramatic reveal when apollo/trucy/ema found it out but i mean i guess it was just to show that misham was connected to them/the overall story more than just a simple jurist sys test case

the last writing thing i’ll mention is abt trucy and apollo being siblings. after the whole phoenix x maya crap in the 1st trilogy i suspected they were gonna do the same with apollo and trucy... thankfully they didn’t which was good bc i liked them a lot as a platonic duo, also since i actually thought apollo was 25yo for a while so that age gap is pretty weird too if you do it romantically. i suspected they were actually related p early on after discussing my playthrough w my sis who upon googling info said ‘lol i did say why not ship them but i will not say that anymore’ so i was like lol it’s prob bc she found out they were related or something. regardless i mean i would have suspected that anyway bc the game pushes the ‘oh this perceive power is really only seen in trucy’s family line’ so hard so it’s like not that hard to draw the line bw them, esp when they’re super vague abt apollo’s history and how he even got that bracelet in the 1st place. anyway i think it’s cute to imagine two siblings running all over town to solve shit. as expected tho, there are still ppl out there who ship them even after knowing the truth which is meh but i mean what do you expect of fandom/the internet.

although one of my biggest disappointments is the fact that apparently even in later games, the two never find out they’re siblings. i mean i guess it’s not a major plot point that NEEDS to be addressed as covered in point #3 above, but come on? their mom is literally still alive? a mom and her children reuniting and developing their family relationship again? i mean she’s been so distanced from them for so long that a family reunion would be awkward sure but zak literally made phoenix promise to tell trucy apollo was her bro so i’m surprised he never told her even before his conversation with thalassa at the end of the game. like i thought for sure they were gonna reveal their sibling relationship in aa4 but sadly my imagined revelation scene never happened

(i literally thought up a funny scene too... them seeing thalassa and both being like “MOM??” at the same time and then looking at each other in confusion before thalassa confirms that yes she is both of their moms. although this makes less sense on apollo’s part since he prob wouldn’t remember what she looks like but i mean same bracelets)

otherwise, gameplay was pretty interesting this time around. music was bopping tbh, i played aa4 right after finishing trials and tribulations and wow the music quality improvement was so obvious. the perceive thing was pretty cool and their tutorial on how to use it was super cute lol (apollo: that’s cool but i’m freaking out a little here // trucy: yeah your eyes are kinda bugging out); although absolutely hilarious on how apollo "explained” it in court... imagine a lawyer looking real hard at you and then being like ‘actually you swallowed weird when you said this therefore you’re lying’... i cannot even imagine how that sounded the 1st time to the judge and klavier... anyway i also thought the MASON technologies chapter was really interesting, w phoenix going back and forth through time and using evidence from the future for the past and vice versa. fun time traveling stuff!

ok and that’s kind of all i wanted to say i guess. i’m prob gonna try to stay in the dark on fan content stuff like i was purposely doing before playing aa... i was looking some stuff up and i was like ‘huh... i didn’t get this impression of apollo or the apollo/klavier ship when i was playing aa4...’ i don’t want to get my own opinion of these characters warped by fan content/others’ opinions so i might just take a bit of time to solidify how i feel about/characterize each of the characters before i trek out into fandom land. also it’s prob bc i haven’t played apollo’s later games since he supposedly gets more character dev later. tbh idk if i will bc to be frank i’ve been using emulators to play aa so far and i don’t think there’s a rom out for the later aa games on 3ds. i mean if there really isn’t, i’ll prob just watch a playthrough on YT so i can continue the aa story since i did like apollo as a character despite his lack of backstory.

i was considering skipping edgeworth’s games to go right to dual destinies and continue on apollo’s story/the aftermath of that game, but tbh i’m less incentivized to since i’ve heard that the story/character continuity aspect kind of goes out the window in later games (also the point abt apollo and trucy still being in the dark abt them being siblings. even though yes it wouldn’t change how they interact w each other, i would also prefer the fact to be known officially in-universe so characters don’t be freaks as apparently there are some lines in later games that are a little weird). i mean i could end up having a different opinion abt the continuity, but yeah seeing those comments did put a damper on me diving straight towards dual destinies. so i might just play edgeworth’s games first as i originally planned anyway since they were developed right after even if they take place before aa4

#hopefully i don't have to censor the series #i don't say anything controversial in this but idk. sometimes ppl just want to have beef #i'll just say i've only played aa1-4 so just keep that in mind if i say something that doesn't sound right abt apollo #gaming

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