#cause there are many things i dont think are objectively bad. but so many people out there will be like oh this is unlistenable and im like

[taakosleftshoe]

i wish people were more open to saying "its not for me" rather than being like "this is objectively bad and here's why"

#sierra speaks #this is about the taz subreddits but uhhh also about things in general lmao #i notice this shit so often and it is the one thing that grinds my gears #bc there are valid critiques of things but theres also recognizing that maybe it just didn't sit with you but maybe there are good things.. #like im sorry you hated devo... they were trying to tell an interesting story lmao #i get that people miss taz being a comedy but like... the mcelroys have changed w that ! they want to tell stories! #there are still goofs but there are also stories #and like... i fr think ethersea is just as interesting as balance #anyways this is just a view even outside of taz that has been very real to my mind these past few years #its like im.. extremely sick of negativity in general? i think we can critique things!! but it doesnt have to be an awful hellscape yk. lik #we CAN enjoy things or just.. not partake in them... #cause there are many things i dont think are objectively bad. but so many people out there will be like oh this is unlistenable and im like #idk dog i had a good time #i definitely think ethersea is the kind of season that is most fun when binged and less so when it's airing #whereas steeplechase feels the opposite! idk just what im feeling rn :]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Don’t Be Evil

Tonight (November 22), I'll be joined by Vass Bednar at the Toronto Metro Reference Library for a talk about my new novel, The Lost Cause, a preapocalyptic tale of hope in the climate emergency.

My latest Locus Magazine column is "Don't Be Evil," a consideration of the forces that led to the Great Enshittening, the dizzying, rapid transformation of formerly useful services went from indispensable to unusable to actively harmful:

https://locusmag.com/2023/11/commentary-by-cory-doctorow-dont-be-evil/

While some services have fallen harder and/or faster, they're all falling. When a whole cohort of services all turn sour in the same way, at the same time, it's obvious that something is happening systemically.

After all, these companies are still being led by the same people. The leaders who presided over a period in which these companies made good and useful services are also presiding over these services' decay. What factors are leading to a pandemic of rapid-onset enshittification?

Recall that enshittification is a three-stage process: first surpluses are allocated to users until they are locked in. Then they are withdrawn and given to business-customers until they are locked in. Then all the value is harvested for the company's shareholders, leaving just enough residual value in the service to keep both end-users and business-customers glued to the platform.

We can think of each step in that enshittification process as the outcome of an argument. At some product planning meeting, one person will propose doing something to materially worsen the service to the company's advantage, and at the expense of end-users or business-customers.

Think of Youtube's decay. Over the past year, Google has:

Dramatically increased the cost of ad-free Youtube subscriptions;

Dramatically increased the number of ads shown to non-subscribers;

Dramatically decreased the amount of money paid to Youtube creators;

Added aggressive anti-adblock;

Then, this week, Google started adding a five-second blanking interval for non-Chrome users who have adblockers installed:

https://www.404media.co/youtube-says-new-5-second-video-load-delay-is-supposed-to-punish-ad-blockers-not-firefox-users/

These all smack of Jenga blocks that different product managers are removing in pursuit of their "key performance indicators" (KPIs):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

We can think of each of these steps as the outcome of an argument. Someone proposes a Youtube subscription price-hike, and other internal stakeholders object. These objections fall into two categories:

We shouldn't do this because it will make the product worse; and/or

We shouldn't do this because it will reduce the company's earnings.

Lots of googlers sincerely care about product quality. People like doing a good job, and they take pride in making good things. Many have sacrificed something that mattered in the service of making the product better. It's bad enough to miss your kid's school play so you can meet a work deadline – but imagine making that sacrifice and then having the excellent work you put in deliberately degraded.

I have been around Google's orbit since its early days, going to the odd company Christmas party in the early 2000s and giving talks at Google offices in cities all over the world. I've known hundreds of skilled googlers who passionately cared about making the best products they could.

For most of Google's history, those googlers won the argument. But they didn't do so merely by appealing to their colleagues' professional pride in a job well-done. For most of Google's history, the winning argument was a combination of "doing this bad thing would make me sad," and "doing this bad thing will make Google poorer."

Companies are disciplined by three forces:

Competition (the fear of losing business to a rival);

Regulation (the fear of legal penalties that would exceed the expected profits from a given course of action);

Self-help (the fear that customers or users will change their behavior, say, by installing an ad-blocker).

The ability of googlers to win enshittification arguments by appealing to the company's bottom line was a function of one or more of these three disciplining factors. The weakening of each of these factors is the reason that every tech company is sliding into enshittification at once.

For example, when Google contemplates raising the price of a Youtube subscription, the dissent might say, "Well, this will reduce viewership and might shift viewers to rivals like Tiktok" (competition). But the price-hiking side can counter, "No, because we have a giant archive, we control 90% of searches, we are embedded in the workflow of vloggers and other creators who automatically stream and archive to Youtube, and Youtube comes pre-installed on every Android device." Even if the company leaks a few viewers to Tiktok, it will still make more money in aggregate. Prices go up.

When Google contemplates increasing the number of ads shown to nonsubscribers, the dissent might say, "This will incentivize more users to install ad-blockers, and then we'll see no ad-revenue from them." The pro-ad side can counter, "No, because most Youtube viewing is in-app, and reverse-engineering the Youtube app to add an ad-blocker is a felony under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. As to non-app viewers: we control the majority of browser installations and have Chrome progressively less hospitable to ad-blocking."

When Google contemplates adding anti-adblock to its web viewers, the dissent might say, "Processing users' data in order to ad-block them will violate Europe's GDPR." The anti-adblock side can counter, "But we maintain the fiction that our EU corporate headquarters is in the corporate crime-haven of Ireland, where the privacy regulator systematically underenforces the GDPR. We can expect a very long tenure of anti-adblock before we are investigated, and we might win the investigation. Even if we are punished, the expected fine is less than the additional ad-revenue we stand to make."

When Google contemplates stealing performers' wages through opaque reshufflings of its revenue-sharing system, the dissent might say, "Our best performers have options, they can go to Twitch or Tiktok." To which the pro-wage-theft side can counter, "But they have no way of taking their viewers with them. There's no way for them to offer their viewers on Youtube a tool that alerts them whenever they post a new video to a rival platform. Their archives are on Youtube, and if they move them to another platform, there's no way redirect users searching for those videos to their new homes. What's more, any attempt to unilaterally extract their users' contact info, or redirect searchers or create a multiplatform client, violates some mix of our terms of service, our rights under DMCA 1201, etc."

It's not just Google. For every giant platform, the threats of competition, regulation and self-help have been in steady decline for years, as acquisitions, underenforcement of privacy/labor/consumer law, and an increase in IP protection for incumbents have all mounted:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

When internal factions at tech companies argue about whether to make their services worse, there's a heavy weight tilting the scales towards enshittification. The lack of competition, an increase in switching costs for users and business-customers, and broad powers to prevent users from modifying the service for themselves all mean that even when a product gets worse, profits can still go up.

This is the culprit: monopoly, and its handmaiden, regulatory capture. That's why today's antimonopoly movement – and the cases against all the tech giants – are so important. The old, good internet was built by flawed tech companies whose internal ranks included the same amoral enshittifiers who are gobbling up the platforms' seed corn today. The thing that stood in their way before wasn't merely the moral character of colleagues who shrank away from these cynical maneuvers: it was the economic penalties that befell those who enshittified too rashly.

Incentives matter. Money talks and bullshit walks. Enshittification isn't due to the moral failings of individuals in tech companies. It's possible to have a good internet run by flawed people. But to get that new, good internet, we have to support technologists of good will and character by terrorizing their venal and cynical colleagues by hitting them where they live: in their paychecks.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/22/who-wins-the-argument/#corporations-are-people-my-friend

#pluralistic #microeconomics #incentives matter #microincentives #enshittification #corporate discipline #big tech #competition #too big to fail #too big to jail #ip #dont be evil #google #institutions #locus magazine

[ganondoodle]

sorry i keep coming back to totk rants, but something that utterly baffles me from a game design perspective especially is

who, in their right mind, would think to put similar objectives with the same characters in the EXACT same place as its previous game when already reusing the same exact map (no, single rocks springkled around isnt a meaningful change, fight me)

like from a purely logical point of view its just ... not logical?? and TWICE so when most players will have played the previous game, so now that the exploration, which was the main driving point of it, isnt as satisfying simply bc you know most locations and what is what, the thing you need to do is subvert it as in you go to that location and theres something else now or something that leads to a new reveal, but not NOTHING either, bc you likely cared about what youd find- the satori mountain was such a cool mysterious place, so now you head to it to see what is now and its nothing but maybe an obvious treasure chest? thats both lazy (i realy use that since its way overused by people missusing it) and just ... it might be meant as a lil nod so that there isnt nothing at all but to me it feels even more condescending as if there were literally nothing instead

satori isnt here anymore? thats weird if its always been there, so you go find a cause, maybe theres a fissure somewhere you can enter a large cave system, an hidden entrance to the underground that reveals there is something corrupting the place somwhere nearby but not exactly in the same spot- make it into a bossfight at which end satori gets cleansed- maybe it got captured and taken somewhere else, to a place that was kinda neat but didint serve a big fucntion in botw like maybe it was dragged somwhere into the big tabantha canyon, or to the forgotten temple

you try to visit rito village but the snow and cold there got so bad that you cant even reach it without special gear, and when you do reach it its utterly frozen in thick ice and not a single soul is there, the perch of vah medoh is knocked over building a bridge as a subtle hint as to in what direction perhaps, its intriguing bc clearly they have to be SOMEWHERE, maybe they tried to use vah medoh to evacuate but bc its losing power and doesnt have a skilled pilot they crash land it into the mountains, now trapped there and due to the storm not able to send anyone out to get help, maybe some did but they didnt make it and you can find them on your way and rescue them, and bc of the storm being so bad no one can get out and no one can get in (except for our special boi linky ofc) and even after the storm has weakened they dont immediately go back and act like everythings normal, maybe theres an extra mission afterwards helping them rebuild the village but not exactly the same as it was but fortified, different to account for things like this happening again, establishing the crashsite of vah medoh as a second outpost, or a temple, to thank it for bringing them out of immedaite danger but couldnt go all the way

theres so many places that are so clearly modeled around botw that are entirely unused now bc they had to remove all things shiekah for no reason, the holes they left jsut being holes where somethings clearly missing or some chest with a gem in it while the new shrine thing is within view distance a few meters away, might as well have put them in the exact same place bc it really doesnt make a difference

(like alot of those ideas im using for the rewrite which changes many things but you get the point right??)

and its even worse imo with the building stuff, bc now you dont even have to journey there you can fly glide and literally drive there instantly like a giant skip button so you cant even appreaciate the way to it, you skip to one important part to the next

and then points of interest are REPEATED AGAIN, like with shrines and lightroots and settlements and big mines- that is the opposite of satisfying gameplay, you dont have to explore shit bc its all in the same place which is probably why they only did tiny changes to those few spots and nothing else bc they knew most people would run right to those so it gives the illusion of changes (which are half reversable or barely a change at all) and even those are STILL meaningless

its right up there with having even MORE grind with less substance to it than in botw, the shrines and krogs got a lil old but at least the environment, its subtle storytelling etc were something- and totk just bloated everything with more little meaningless collectables while not changing anything meaningfully (and instead pretends that some things where never there and those new boring things were always there)

more shriens with shorter puzzles or none at all, more krogs with the same reward system, over a hundred tiny caves that all blend together bc they are all so similar and you really only do them for yet another colelctable for old gear and ONE cool new one with a bad effect after which the things collected become uselessreally, souls to collect to buy you a single armor set, rewards being largley reused old stuff from botw (imo you should have a chest in your house, yes YOUR house, that got most of the standard versions of botws armor in it so you dont have to buy it all again??? but you gotta think of going home first and dont have to use it- make new versions of them alternatively so you can choose if you want the old one or new one and also LEAVE ONE AT YOUR HOUSE WITHOUT HAVING TO SELL IT SO YOUT INVENTORY ISNT AS ENDLESSLY SCROLLING AS YOUR STUPID ARROW BAR)

theres new effects from food and armor thats largely useless (like the attack when hot?? why wouldnt you you jsut combine an armor and a potion- put on hot armor and drink an attack potion? its way more efficient no?? idk i found it to be yet another effect thing to bloat my inventory especially when NPCs keep giving you shitty effect food)

the whole sonanium (zonaite?) collecting with multiple ways to convert it into yet another currency??? huh???? AND have it be the thing for you to autobuild with?? when you need it upgrade your battery which takes an insane amount of those stones?? wells, while finally an actual well are NOW ALSO LIKE A COLLECTABLE and im gonna take a wild guess that the reward is utterly disappointing too

the fairies are all blocked by much more annoying means than in botw (like i wouldnt want to carry those NPCs three meters away in their little cart antoehr time please) and the amount of material AND MONEY NOW you need is so much higher for no reason (if its their attempt to make the game harder its the lamest way to do it)-

all while instead of expanding on the foundation of botw they ripped it out to build a new one while pretending they are both there (im so so slaty about this .... a sequel like this should expand upon the stuff of the first game, both in theme, narrative, mechanics and more and not ... replace it with slightly different versions of it while abandoning everything established before and really only using it as a way to skip having to make you care about some characters bc you might still care about them from the other game)

i could go on, as always lol, anyway, i really really dont get why this got into the final game ..

#ganondoodles talks #zelda #ganondoodles rants #totk critical #*cracks knuckles* time to rewrite and design #no but literally #putting the same objectives into the same places with the same characters ........ and then repeating important places AGAIN in the- #-undergound is just so ........... thats the opposite of what you should do wtf #like im only an aspiring gamedev but ............... right???? #like theres so many things #make the zora not be able totalk bc they are all poisoned by the goo so you have to understand them via weak fignerpointing #also have the champs be around the actual dungeon already so you can literally find the dugneon yourself AND do it right away #without having to go to the town- ask where is- get told where is- get little fight- get little puzzle- get dungeon that is often worse- #-defeat way to easy boss thats also found in depths- gets SAME CUTSCENE EVERY TIME- all problems go away- town normal again #there is quite literally no permanent change to anyone

[genderkoolaid]

so many people on ur incel post thinking that a Bad Person doesn't deserve any compassion, and any and all punishments become justified, despite those punishments being totally incompatible with feminist ideas.

this is the same thought process behind denying incarcerated people their rights

Also like... I am 10000% sure that, especially online, there are young boys in those communities who are there because they feel like shit and think it's the only community that they can have that will support them. See this reply by @havinganormalone

Most of these guys are not mass shooters or murderers. There's a good chance they are assholes of varying degrees of severity, and pretty much guaranteed to be some level of misogynistic.

But I don't want anyone to end up hurting themselves out of self hatred!!!!! Sorry but I don't!!!! I want them to stay alive to have the chance to become better people!!!! I don't enjoy wishing for the deaths of people in hate groups. If there is no other way to protect vulnerable groups I'm not against it, but ideally I want them to grow and change as people. And I am committed to seeing people's humanity and suffering, because pain is where the vast majority of shitty actions come from. So we can't deal with those shitty actions without confronting the fact that the people who do them are not mindless robots of evil, they are people who are hurting. We can hold people accountable AND acknowledge their pain.

& people keep saying "we don't hate them for their dysmorphia we hate them for being incels" but why do you think a lot of those guys ARE incels?? A lot of them view themselves as inherently ugly & unlovable. And you are mocking their self-hatred. That's not helpful. If an incel, like, gets punched by a woman for being a misogynist and cries about it online, I am gonna think it was well-deserved. But this is about them self-harming as a result of self-hatred, which is deeply concerning when it happens to anyone. & I very much did see people saying things which encouraged the idea that their dysmorphia was justified or mocking them for not just getting plastic surgery. Just like how people mock incels for being fat neckbeards!! Which people also justify by saying "well they are a hate group!!" so they dont have to think critically about why they are okay with bodyshaming when its against "bad people".

Incel ideology as I understand is built on the pessimism of men who feel they are inherently less than conventionally attractive men. They view themselves as inherently lesser people because they don't fit conventional masculine standards. And blame women for this because they are misogynists who haven't critically examined their misogyny and so they ignore the way the patriarchy is the one doing this to them. But if you are going to fix an issue you need to address the root cause. And the root cause here is self-hatred. Incels self-harming because they think they need a certain bone structure to be attractive isn't a coincidence, its fundamentally related to their incel-ness. & again I can't imagine there will never be a young boy who isn't even involved in those spaces who will see that or smth like it and feel like it would fix his self-esteem issues.

& you are very right about the incarcerated thing. The idea that "bad people" deserve no compassion & deserve every bad thing that happens to them is how horrific abuse in prison gets justified. And some of those people are innocent or jailed for objectively stupid crimes, but many aren't. And they don't deserve that abuse, especially since many of them are criminals because of some sort of suffering they experience.

Tumblr in general encourages revenge & dehumanization of "bad" people. Its no better than the criminal justice system in that regard, telling us that revenge is helpful, punishment is helpful, and we should all feed our gut desire to see bad people suffering as much as possible. & I do not subscribe to that. I don't think you can really be a prison abolitionist and subscribe to that (& in a larger sense I dont think you can hope to built a better society than we have currently and think like that). It's hard work sympathizing with people who do awful things but like I said, you can't let dehumanization thought patterns take root in your mind. I am very devoted to having compassion for everyone & once again people are surprised when that includes EVERYONE.

I'm not even really doing this for incels. I don't get in debates with people unless I believe they will actually listen to what I say and consider it in good faith, and many incels won't. But I'm not going to be a person who encourages this kind of self-harm, and I especially don't want to be someone who does that and justifies it to myself because they are "bad people" who "deserve it". I'm no cop or prison guard. And if there is someone who might be open to that kind of deprogramming, I want them to see my blog as a space that has compassion for their suffering. I want them to get better, not kill themselves and never get that chance. You can't have both.

#m. #ask box

[its-the-sa]

it is serious. the ship just comes off as nasty to me and i dont understand it

oh, then I'm sorry for being dismissive. I thought you were just a hater lol.

but in all seriousness, if a ship seems nasty to you, then a logical explanation of it is probably not going to change your mind. squicks are just gut reactions, so it doesn't really matter whether or not you understand the thing that squicks you. and that's ok! if the ship makes you uncomfortable, you should just block the rw regicide tag (or in my case you should probably just block me entirely lol )

but since you did ask sincerely, I'll at least try to explain why I ship it:

basically, I'm just a sucker for the 'enemies to lovers' trope and the 'villain redemption' trope. show me any two characters who fit both of those, and I'll probably ship it lol

I like villain redemption, because I like tragic villains. I like villains whose actions are inexcusable, but understandable. villains who lash out due to grief and end up doing horrible things in the throes of rage. and I like making them feel bad about it. I like villains who know they are monsters, who know they have done despicably evil things and truly hate themselves for it. and I like giving them a second chance. I like to see them feel remorse and turn away from evil and try to become better people.

and I like enemies to lovers because... well, for a lot of reasons that would probably take several thesis papers to unpack, lmao. but basically there's just something really intimate about two characters who can handle each other at their absolute worst, when no one else can. arti is like an unstoppable force of rage until she meets scav king, who is like an immovable object to her. he's willing to fight her and kill her as many times as he needs to, but he never strikes first, and he always gives her the chance to back down. and since he does have min aggression and max sympathy, I see him as the type of person who would easily forgive someone who is genuinely remorseful. he doesn't want to keep the cycle of violence and hatred going; whenever arti is ready to let go of her rage and stop the bloodshed, so is he. when she's ready to face the consequences of her actions and try to become a better person, he would rather support her than condemn her. he doesn't necessarily expect his people to forgive her, and he doesn't try to make excuses for her or downplay any of the harm she caused. i just think he could personally look at arti and find someone worth caring about underneath all the rage and hate, and in turn she could look at him and find someone she can trust enough to let all that hate go and admit she was wrong.

obviously, this type of relationship could never happen in real life (or if it did, it would be a fucking toxic disaster). but they're just characters, so their relationship doesnt have to be realistic, and I just want their story to have a happy ending I guess.

idk if any of this makes sense to you, but it's fine if not. you don't always have to understand why people like things that you don't like, it's ok to just block them for your own peace of mind. so if this ship still makes you uncomfortable, feel free to block me, I wouldn't take offense. stay safe and remember that fandom is for having fun , so dont stress out about it too much!

[minas-linkverse]

At a risk of being controversial: I really dont enjoy the fanon trope of making Hylia a villain. I dont claim people who do that are evil or sexist, there's obivous writing potential there and people are allowed to explore it. I personally however find it uncomfortable, and I want to speak out in case someone else feels the same and would be relieved to not be alone.

Hylia as a character is a ...fairly new addition to franchise. We first learn of her in skyward sword, a game that's story aims to explain the reincarnation cycle's excistence.

I think due to that, and how in botw we see the first canon story that potrays the cycle as bad, its easy for new and old fans to point at hylia and go: I dont trust this. (It doesnt help Hylia is connected to vague christian imaginary and people have their own issues with religion.)

Again I dont blame people for this, some fans are new, some are coping with religious trauma, and some just wanna explore the cool concept that is reincarnating heroes.

However, my discomfort comes from a few facts in this matter that I want to put out there for people to consider.

My first issue is that Hylia is not the person who started the issue. We know the evil force that is Demise existed before the cycle, and for some reason or another Hylia nor the other goddesses could not stop him. Hylia made her plan in order to seal demise away for good, and it didnt work. It just didn't work.

It doesnt matter if demise cursed the reincarnation thing or if Hylia decided it'd repeat forever. The fact is that theres a malicious unquestionably evil force that a goddess tried to stop and failed.

You can dislike her plan all you want, but hindsight is 20/20 and all that—

Okay, breather, I am passionate about this but I know my opinion isnt the objective fact. Maybe Hylia could stop this cycle and try something else, maybe she is inhuman in mind and spirit and doesnt comprehend the horrors she has caused. We don't know and you can fill these blanks as you see fit.

But uhm, this does bring me to my second opinion, which might be harder to take seriously it you're disagreeing with this post already.

I think there's sexism around how fans treat Zelda and Hylia, not helped at all by Nintendo's own actions.

I see people be put off by skyward sword Zelda, perhaps writing her unemphatic and clueless of Link's battles to find her. So much so that we ignore the fact she too was ripped from home, told she has to be someone else, and forced to drag her best friend along so the world wouldnt end. She is a victim too, but why do we forget this?

In my opinion it's partly due to the bad writing of women Nintendo keeps doing. Zelda is written so... perfect. Nintendo refuses to aknowledge her flaws as a person and instead is like look how pretty she is, she apologises and Link forgives her, so you should too! ...When, if you dont do so, it feels like you're being manipulated or dismissed whenever she is on screen.

An issue that repeats with Hylia as well. With many Zeldas in many games.

To react to that tonal dissonance with writing Zelda/Hylia as evil is... normal, I think. I don't blame people for feeling that way.

But,, That seems unfair to me. A female character with potential to be complex and good was failed by the writers, and now we as fans continue from that point with making her even worse.

I dont dislike fans who do this, you're just participating in fandom the way you see fit, but I cant enjoy it, it makes me upset. These women are not evil, Link isn't the only character being hurt deeply, and if you could please consider female characters beyond how they hurt ya boy, I'd be so relieved.

...

I'll repeat what I said at the start, I dont claim people who do this are evil or sexist. People are having fun in fandom, and ngl demise sucks as a villain and Hylia is way more interesting to explore.

I just... I think its worth asking yourself why her. Why you don't or do like Zelda. Engaging in things you love with an analytic eye is genuinely good for you and the media you're enjoying.

This in no means is meant to come off as an attack, Im just requesting we look at another angle of things, maybe just to say we did.

I uh, thanks for reading.

#Loz #Hylia #I dont know if I rly wanna tag this that much #I dont like confrontation... #Long post

[hell-raven]

absurdly long tangent/analysis

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: this isn't to dissuade anyone from interpreting the canon as they want i just wanted to share my personal opinions based on the preexisting canon that may or may not be very passionate, please just have fun do whatever you want none of this is fact

i really hate how utsuho is flanderized to death and constantly boiled down to "the dumb bird girl" because if you actually sit down and Read her dialogue instead of relying on secondhand information you learn quite a few things about her (when i say this is absurdly long i mean it so keep reading at your own risk)

extrapolating from her own dialogue:

she actually wanted to blow everything up in th11 for real and it wasnt just a "hehe whoops" kind of thing. she was bestowed an extremely powerful ability and deliberately wanted to use it to cause destruction/take over gensokyo

she is extremely knowledgeable about her ability and job (anything related to nuclear power and regulating the flames of blazing hell, or just things about former hell itself)

she takes her job very seriously and supposedly does it very well

but there are a few things that get people: she has poor memory, other characters refer to her as "birdbrained" or "empty-headed, and there are a select few instances of dialogue from hisouten/gouyoku ibun that catch peoples attention. its one of those things where because other characters (and people) say shes stupid, it influences everyone else! in my opinion, i think her own actions straight from the source are much more indicative of who she is rather than the quick judgements of other characters.

=======================

the first major point before i get into the specific dialogue in the fighting games: "kanako needed an empty-headed hell raven, and utsuho fit the bill"

what exactly is meant by "empty-headed"? this is going to be more of an abstraction, so definitely take it with a grain of salt. we dont know much about utsuho before she gained her powers, just that she worked as a lowly hell raven that helped around the palace of the earth spirits/hell. to me, it sounds like an incredibly mind-numbing job that really doesnt require much thinking to begin with, so of course you wouldn't expect some kind of supergenius from it. im also going to go out on a limb and say that utsuho was a candidate for kanako's plan because she's also considered a pet. many unfortunately conclude that pets can't be intelligent, and even the title of "pet" carries the connotation of inferiority. even if she was truly empty-headed as previously suggested, this doesn't mean that she stayed as such with no change at all. when i first played th11, i would have never guessed that she would be "the stupid one".

small note: ZUN's comment on her theme ("even a fool that possesses great power can't cause too much harm")

the problem i have with this is that she really would have caused a lot of harm if the protagonists hadn't stopped her. you could say shes a fool for letting the power get to her head, but objectively i cant exactly point to anything in th11's dialogue/scenarios that suggests she's foolish unless you really want to count bad memory-retention as such. not gonna argue this too hard, but it seems like "fool" is a word thrown around very freely with little thought to how you can actually apply it to a situation.

=======================

IN HISOUTEN: sanae beats her up and afterwards says "youre trying to help me, actually" to which utsuho is like "Oh Ok". you could argue this is probably her dumbest moment, but would you really not follow or listen to the person who defeated you in battle? its not the most defensible point, but she didnt even seem completely oblivious either when she was asking sanae about the incident. my personal interpretation is that she has a bit of a short temper related to how important her job is. there are plenty of other 2hus who are generally sillier than this, it doesnt make much sense why utsuho is the only one who gets this treatment.

IN GOUYOKU IBUN: utsuho doesnt notice reimu before she starts blasting her to bits, which to be fair reimu wears all red in Hell (her fault honestly) + correct me if im wrong but is the power of nuclear fusion not extremely blinding? supporting this, in the events of GI its also implied that shes being overworked due to the oil incident, and we already established that she takes her job very seriously, so to me it makes sense that her first thought is to "remove the contaminant" and to use a lot of her energy in the process. a lot of people in general sometimes get wrapped up in their own work to the point of hyperfocusing, i say the bird can do it too

i also havent brought up the fact that we dont exactly know wtf eating a god does to your brain, whos to say it didnt fuck with you a little bit?

past all of this though i still think utsuho is funny as hell with her particularly bold and uncaring personality, its just that people seem to think that a couple of goofy moments make up her whole character and its just mildly annoying to me.. subterranean animism will probably be my favorite portrayal of utsuho because of how seriously they all treat her (mostly) but overall i wish more touhou fans would actually indulge in the source material and think a bit deeper about this neat little piece of fiction that i am WAY too passionate about (also its just way more fun to look at characters from a complex perspective)

#raven.txt #touhou #long post sorry #i realize how funny this looks from tumblr user Hell Raven i promise im not mad i just have many thoughts

[oscconfessions]

so sorry for talking about tacomic discourse even though theres already been a morbillion asks about it and the topic died like a week ago.

my take: as long as you arent glorifying toxicity or presenting a toxic relationship as being good and desirable there is literally no issue?

people act like you can’t write character personalities or plots differently than what’s canonically presented and thats CRAZY. people do it ALL THE TIME with everything else, have you SEEN how many AUs exist??? why is it a problem with tacomic?

like the whole point of writing ship dynamics and making fanart and fanfic is that the characters will literally never act this way in canon (cause object shows rarely have canon ships). as long as you arent shipping illegal stuff theres literally no problem.

and honestly i think i have to have this outlook on it as a floorphone shipper(SORRY FOR BRINGING UP FLOORPHONE AGAIN BUT I SWEAR ITS RELEVANT), otherwise i’d be a hypocrite. basically yada yada mephone wanted sooo badly to get rid of floory in ep 12 but then they end up becoming cohosts, and like their dynamic does a whole 180 canonically because of this. That just proves, yeah, its possible for two characters to be written in a way where their dynamic starts as 🔥enemies🔥 and then they becomes friends or lovers, even. guys the enemies to lovers trope is soo overused but its also soo epic.

but yeah people who act like its impossible to ship something unless the characters were best friends from the very start or never did any harm to one another are actually bonkers. like are we forgetting the fantube divorce? i dunno man the way test tube was acting toward fan was prettyyy toxic. what about sodapack? canonically they’re pretty awful for each other but a large majority of the fanbase continues to ship them (myself included lmao). even fireafy has toxic traits and thats one of the most popular bfdi ships. personally i think a ship is better and more believable when there ARE disagreements or occassional bad things that happen. that doesn’t necessarily make a relationship unhealthy, every relationship will have the occassional ups and downs. thats just how it is. and to act like everything HAS to be perfect or else it’s unhealthy is just. ugh. that makes it seem like no one should ever ship anything ever again.

i know people are gonna be like ‘but taco was only ever manipulative toward mic!!!’ and yeah i agree, but you’re forgetting my earlier point. you can write things differently lmao.

the amount of fanfiction I have written that COMPLETELY IGNORES canon is nuts. guys it’s no fun to have to follow canon to a t, go crazy be silly write the funny fanfic where literally everyone is ooc and the plot makes no sense, i love stuff like that.

does this make any sense? i dont think this makes any sense.

anyways this is coming from someone who doesn’t ship tacomic, so it’s truly an unbiased news source.

goodnight america.

.

#confession #/ii #/ii/microphone/taco #/ii/microphone #/ii/taco #/ii/floor/mephone4 #/ii/floor #/ii/mephone4

[ciagent8]

UNDERTALE YELLOW TECHNICALLY NOT LIVEPOSTING. PART 2!!! SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT

part one here if you guys like my rambling

we're back! we must continue the journey after . killing a lot of people.

this reminds me of that thing in undertale with the uhh. lesser dog snowmans. HONEYDEW RESORT ENTRANCE!!:

interesting. i wonder who runs this place? it looks cozy

(will ruin the atmosphere via murder) oh my GOD WHY IS THE WIND BLOWING. thats horrifying!

What.

I KNEW THERE WOULD BE A HIDDEN ENTRANCE IN THE BACK AHAHAHHAHAH

oh my god

who the hell killed everyone LAST time???

well. not for long. (slowly pulls out gun)

you dont FUCKING say huh

how is coffee better than ice.... oh . it isnt. nvm

so wait why would i use the coffee ammo??????? is there a reason or

oh man, im so happy i finished that puzzle!

(realizes i have to do it again) fuck

we are struggling YAY WE DID IT martlet fight(?):

oh you poor poor soul

girlie we are a Homicidal Child

Killing you

WHY IS STILL TRYING HELP US. WE ARE GOING TO KILL YOU

unfortunately, yes martlet, we DO try to kill everyone

yeah

HER MUSIC IS SO GOOD??? BUT AHHHHHHHH WHAT THE HELL ARE HER ATTACKS AHHHH-

oh my god

it took me 7 TRIES!!!! YAHOOOOO.

fuck. she retreated. is that supposed to happen?? i feel like maybe im on a neutral route now. im not sure if she was supposed to retreat or not, she also mentioned how like. shes glad we attacked early cause she would've told us where everyone else is. you know what i think im gonna retry the battle

interesting... if i apologize multiple times i get new dialogue. is she gonna spare us?

nevermind it doesnt do anything special it just. skips her boss and puts on neutral i suppose?

im gonna try apologizing and getting to her LAST line of dialogue and just. shooting her . eheheh

update: almost gave myself spoilers trying to see if there were any strategys (specifically for the part with the falling objects. god i hate that part)

so i just wasted time repeating the bossfight AND almost gave myself spoilers!! ..uwahhh

so. since i wasted so much time on martlet. i'll give some personal insight onto how the attack is.

God awful

most of her attacks are easy, *especially* since if you look at the crosshairs, it shows you what direction the attacks will go in/come from.

so all you need to do is just stand there.

with the boxes, you just have to stick to the ground. its safest, just make sure not to get crushed by objects/incoming boxes. the WORST attacks in my opinion would be the feathers exploding into 3 extra feathers attack, and the wind attack with falling objects.

the first of the two is easier, just stay away from the big red feathers and treat it all like a bullet hell.

i still havent figured out a strategy for the wind attack, i honestly just hope i dont get a bad combination of objects and usually heal right before the attack arrives.

but, yeah! i also noticed if you apologize and then attack right after, she seems to skip a line of dialogue and also maybe an attack? its hard to tell.

so yeah! apologies for rambling

moving on!

i like the fact you can see flowey during this cutscene

too bad we. crash. the boat.

whoops

YEAHHHHHHHHH desert!

i'd also like to ramble once more; i like how all of these locations and characters clover meet are kind of implied to exist at the same time as the other monsters?

like, the dark ruins: frisk wouldnt encounter it because she never falls into the dark ruins.

the other part of snowdin? it makes sense it exists; we took a different exit out of the ruins, and if you look at the base game, you can overlook a HUGE forest. who knows how many more monsters there are around?

i think im gonna feel the worst about killing him. look at him. a little guy

OH NO I JUST REALIZED

HIS ATTACKS ARE AFFECTED BY HOW DAMAGED HE IS..

CAUSE ON THE ATTACK WHERE HE GOES UP AND DOWN THE SCREEN HE JUST. STAYS AT THE TOP WITH A SAD EXPRESSION..

NOOO-

also for some reason they remind me of. binding of isaac enemies. i dont know why.

one mORE thing i'd like to wonder: where is mo????

is mo gonna like.. come back? im just curious cause like he got a whole intro, theme song, everything. so surely hes gonna come back right??

you've gotta be kidding me

this. this is just sad.

the singular tree in the desert

on a lighter note i love the sprite artwork though!!!

OH MY GOD MO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MO- DID HE JUST RIP OFF HIS SLEEVES??

hes like. trying so hard to be cool. and its kind of cool in a way if that makes any sense at all

hell yeah mo time

wait does he know we killed everyone

hell yeah mo

love how he doesnt care that he killed everyone he just wants money. i love mo. fuck i do NOT want to kill him

damn i just realized he leaves when you buy his stock. i wonder if maybe on a pacifist route that'd be how you befriend him?

too bad he's gonna. erm. probably die. damn i do not wanna kill him

i have one again reached my image limit so i am taking a break. thats all folks! hope you enjoy my ramblings

#undertale yellow #undertale yellow spoilers

[sophieinwonderland]

your response to that post is kinda making me understand why a lot of us are starting to say you’re bad, too… your almost good at making it look genuine but that just isn’t right. you really dont care about people who have did or any of us except for you… i dont think any of us have it harder than people like cult survivors.. and they said it doesn’t do justice i agree it just keeps arguing going. but i am starting to realize you dont care and just want the arguing ti keep going. i am sorry it took me this long to see it fully. i started when the language thing started and as a parogenic system it was hard for me but i see it all now. you are not a good person. :(

i dont think any of us have it harder than people like cult survivors.

And?

When did this become a game of oppressionlympics?

It's possible for two different groups to both be oppressed at various levels. Although it's generally best not to compare it at all and just accept that oppression is oppression and therefore bad.

Why do you feel like you need to compare your oppression to that of another group to validate it?

You're entitled to your opinion of me. I'm going to fight for what I believe is right, and if bridges get burned along the way, so be it.

I do want to say this though.

The accusation that I don't care is bullshit.

I'm sorry but I wouldn't be investing this much time and energy into something if I didn't are. I would voice my opinions that I believe are right, even in the face of overwhelming opposition and harassment.

But I do believe I'm right. I believe that this cause is worth fighting for. That systems are worth fighting for.

But many in the system community are institutionalized to the oppression so thoroughly that they can't even recognize it for what it is.

They're willing to accept it while I'm not.

And so I appear as a radical for saying "yes, systems are oppressed, we don't deserve to be, and the way the world treats us is wrong."

I believe that there's a future where plurals won't have to hide. Where masking won't be expected to find acceptance. Where individual headmates won't be FORCED to identify by the body's name.

I doubt we'll live to see that world ourselves. I've mostly accepted that. But maybe the next generation will. (Unless the AI apocalypse happens first.)

But I think the only way we'll ever reach that world is if we can look objectively at the one we live in today and realize how much it hurts systems, forcing us to mask, and denying our personhood at every possible opportunity.

And this, to me, is something worth fighting for.

If you think fighting for plural rights makes me a bad person, then so be it.

I'm okay with not everyone agreeing with me. I'm okay with you not agreeing with me. My hope though, is that through this conversation, at least one more person will recognized how society is hurting systems than did yesterday. That another system will stop blaming themselves for how society treats them and realize that it's society itself that's wrong and needs to change.

#syscourse #pro endo #pro endogenic #sysblr #multiplicity #system discourse #ableism #pluralphobia #discrimination #oppression

[bulbabutt]

listen im not trying to be a hater i just think tf prime represents something of the moment in time it was made and i dislike it a lot. it clearly is trying to be like the bad movies, stylistically and character wise. it loses its own identity in trying to make a cartoon out of that concept, because it cant.

its full of so many words that it tries to give meaning to, all being names or objects from previous shows, even using song lyrics from the 86 movie, while its central conflict becomes about politics it barely understands. trying to make me care if the decepticons or autobots press the magic button that will restore their home planet because whoever does so will have a POLITICAL edge when the other cybertronians return home (they never do)

it barely grasps what the source of the war was. what starts as revolution against an oppressing class became a war between two guys with differing beliefs on how to achieve justice. but when the difference in their politics is literally 'i will get justice even if it resorts to violence' vs 'i dont believe in violence' and then you HAVE A WAR SO BAD IT CAUSES YOUR PLANET TO DIE you need to grapple with the consequences of that. the characters should bring that up. the vibes between optimus and megatron should be more familiar than they are. like a magneto and professor x thing, a former brotherhood turned sour, but knowing each other better than anyone despite their opposing views.

(rambled on for a while so cut)

in other shows we're left wondering what the history is, seeing these two titans who have been fighting for millions of years, we rarely see any specifics and so we're left to make our own conclusion based on the relationship we see. here its more about making the lore heavy than it is about how the characters back story relate to how they act.

to get into how the characters as a whole interact it seems less interested in making characters seem like real people than the g1 cartoon, which by all accounts was just a silly toy commercial. there is no sense of brotherhood among the autobots and no real love for earths living creatures outside of these 3 children (and the us government). none of the autobots feel like characters, they have no real personality or individual quirks (besides ratchet) and optimus most of all feels like he is just here to stand in the corner of a scene and give a good soundbite line. something vague that somewhat relates to whats being said, it feels like 'well we have peter cullen lets let him say something cool'. style over substance.

meanwhile the decepticons despite being so bloodthirsty and brutal, constantly forget and forgive each other for literally attempting to kill each other every episode. in one episode megatron tells starscream if he doesnt find him worthy of rejoining the decepticons that he will kill him. then we see him watch all of starscreams betrayals from over the course of the entire show, we see no reason he should ever forgive starscream and then at the end he simply.... doesnt kill him. he forgives him and keeps him around. this is supposed to be the scary bloodthirsty megatron who was a gladiator and has no problem with violence, yet he lets the character who stole victory after victory from him live. it makes no sense in this 'the more serious show'. but then it works out cuz starscream just stops being who he was and then just genuinely follows megatron. so. idk i guess the goal was scare him. thats the end of that whole plotline then.

starscream specifically seems too goofy here because he constantly fails at everything. theres a part of how you make this character work thats fully missing here, and thats his sense of self preservation. he doesnt have one. he makes decisions that make no sense, he betrays everyone and walks into traps set by them despite knowing they want him dead just to make him as pathetic as possible. when he loses his t cog its especially apparent because he just. went to the guys that wanted a t cog after destroying bumblebees and hes like "whoopsie oh well" and then is surprised they turn on him and take his. comparing this to the g1 version and saying 'this one makes more sense' kills me. it doesnt. g1 knows when to fold. thats why it feels like knockout feels more like starscream to me, hes the only one calculating and staying quiet until he sees the power shift.

the show is frustrating to watch because it just seems like characters waiting around doing nothing but reacting to things, but in the meantime theyre not really being characters at all, theyre not being enjoyable or lovable to watch outside of their names reminding you 'they are iconic IP, please buy these toys.'

and they dont look very good either, clearly trying to mesh together the overly complicated ugly mess that is the b*yverse with cartoon proportions. specifically anyone designed in that first 5 episode. the designs are all top heavy, their faces so flat mouths so plain, but everyone has these very detailed eyebrows to emote with. in arcees case she even gets detailed eyelashes.

and dont get me started on the 'arcee cant be pink cuz thats a girl colour and shes a girl but shes not a GIRL' problem. you put pink on her as her secondary colour. you put pink IN HER EYES. she has a skirt. she shows off an insane amount of robot midriff (somehow, cuz they painted her like that) her flat face for some reason has lips (which dont even look good, like warped metal around her mouth). so are you trying to design a girl character or not? be fucking honest about it. youre both embarrassed of pink arcee while also doing the same thing, making her small making her clearly the feminine one. and narratively ohhhh dont get me started (also this show decided to keep saying two wheeler in a way that meant girl and thats......ugh)

basically i just think when you try so hard to be so serious you end up being sillier than things that know theyre silly. if youre embarrassed of the media that came before you why even make it?

oh right. brand synergy. to advertise your new streaming network. to show off what cartoons can REALLY be like now. SUPER SERIOUS. SUPER CINEMATIC.

but i think it just didnt say anything about anything. it didnt represent anything. didnt make me care about anyone or any plight. any stakes it tried to add didnt matter. didnt do anything new, didnt really understand anything that came before. threw out ideas stolen from better shows. threw a new paintjob on hotrod, called him smokescreen, but then didnt have the balls to kill off optimus to make that character matter. kinda represents a lot of what i mean just in that regard alone.

i just think ive seen a lot of these shows now and this one has made me the most mad, cuz it is so 2010, its so cynical and mean spirited, its so lazy and cash grabby, its full of in name only references to make you point at the screen and go I KNOW THAT THING! without knowing why you ever cared about that thing.

and while im not trying to say its the worst one objectively (i dont rank shit like that) i am saying at least when it comes to something the masses would consider a 'worse show' like energon or bm or rid, at least all of those have their own identity and theyre not pretending to be something theyre not. theyre not trying to be cleverer than they are.

basically the people who wrote this are the people that wrote the first transformers movie, and that is where this plague of creating soulless reboot/remake/sequels to your favorite nostalgic media that hollywood has been stuck in ever since started, and you can TELL.

#long post #you ever watch a show that made you so mad for the state of media #if i throw up all my thoughts about this one maybe ill stop being so mad and calm down enough to watch something else #the tf binge thoughts

[honeytonedhottie]

Hi! I hope your day has been good 🥰

I need some advice but it’s okay if you don’t wanna answer.

So my brother hasn’t payed his bills on time for quite some time now and he told me about it just a couple of days ago. Since he didn’t pay them, they sent it to the company that handles with people not paying their bills. And when this happens it’s bad. Really really bad. It’s gonna affect/effect (idk which one it is sorry) his life, it’s gonna get harder and there are many things he won’t be able to do because of this.

The thing is, he has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, he sometimes procrastinates and pushes things away so to not think of them bc they cause him stress, anxiety etc. And that’s what happened with this, it’s why this all happened.

I’m doing my best to help him bc our parents don’t know and I think he’ll do everything and anything to make sure they don’t know bc our parents are special so he’s terrified of them knowing. His birthday is in a while so he’s gonna get some money, I’m gonna help too even if I don’t have that much.

The reason I’m here is bc I don’t know what to do. How can I manifest this away? I know that I have to assume that it’s been resolved or something like that but it’s so hard when I see him crying and stressed about this. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act and behave in the 3D. I’m just overwhelmed and idk what to do. He’s the best and he doesn’t deserve this and I wanna manifest this away, however it happens but idk how. I’m scared that when I affirm and do everything right, nothing will change. Or I’m afraid that no matter what, no matter how hard and bad the circumstances are, I will never be able to persist, have faith and do everything right even though I have all the knowledge of loa and can manifest this away.

Do you have any advice?

And I’m sorry if this was too heavy and such, you don’t owe me anything so if you don���t answer pls don’t feel guilty!

thank you for asking this and i'd love to answer to the best of my ability and hopefully give some guidance 🫶🏽💗💗💗💗

its normal to be overwhelmed when the 3d is in ur face like this. i totally get it. u dont have to ever worry about the "how" every thing, person, every atom in this universe will bend to show u what u believe to be true. its the law. it always works without fail, the only variable in it is you.

ur doing EVERYTHING right, just focus in on ur goal/objective, think FROM the state of being so happy because your brother is paying his bills on time and hes in a good state of mind and being. and perpetuate/sustain that new belief. no matter what, it WILL harden into a fact if u persist in it.

when it gets tough, show urself compassion and take a break if it'll help u, when the 3d is in ur face take deep breaths and remember that u are the source and that ur LIMITLESS💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

#law of assumption #advice #honeytonedhottie

[neptune-ian]

meant to add for my ask about relationships / soulmates etc. that society has made it so complex nowadays in terms of finding a partner, I do think older generations had it easier in that area as they did not have to try so hard and I do think so many women or girls try so hard to get guys attention or say they maybe want to manifest idols being their relationships it is like no one tries being single anymore or everyone is in such a hurry to get a partner even if they are young or naive. I kind of laugh sometimes when theres young idols and tarot readers make it sound like they go through girls faster than tissues if I were them dating would be the last thing on my mind as they have eons of time to date later on in life but again I think fomo is so real these days.

If someone else has an item then everhone else has to have it as well, if someone else has a partner then so many others want a partner and if someone else looks a certain way then everyone else tries to look or dress that way. like people are scared of being by themselves or if they dont have a clique they dont belong somewhere or if they dont have a relationship they must be always on trend or they have to have latest brand names, so no one tries to stand out anymore or just be themselves. and even tho we are often told to be ourselves it does fuck all to be honest cause like no ones going to give u any attention cause someone else will always be trying to get it instead

I remember being in school and seeing so many girls just getting into makeup and thinking I dont know if I need makeup im not overly pretty then my "friends" bck then would always be trying to get guys numbers and this was in mid 00s mind you so we were still somewhat using old phones and school wouldve been bedlam or hell if we had have smartphones back in those days. iPods were our main entertainment or distraction but even so there was still some

Social media, dating apps, going outside, LGBTQ+ clubs etc… for you to higher your chance of meeting « the one ». I don’t believe society completly made it harder but I’d say people did made it harder and less meaningful but I got you ✅. Example : (not exhaustive)

Dark feminine energy

(My butt yes…)

That’s one of the most stupid things TikTok/spiritual community and women have put in a high position. How come you have/should break men hearts because they are bad and you are good??? Why would you have to manipulate??? Why only showing your strenght and acting like a superhuman when you in fact need to be vulnerable (atound trustworthy people) and accept your emotions? Why fo you have to be « dark » to be powerful???? What’s the point of all that???

IT’S THE SAME SH*T AS « Alpha Male » 💀

Also the « baddy », « lady boss » thing where you only need money and to show off that you are « better » than every other human being and nothing else…

Light feminine energy

Same thing. Why would you have to be submissive to whatever people tell you? Why would you mostly refer to your womb and reproduction capability? Aren’t you more than just a walking huge belly? Or a poor docile looking thing? Aren’t you allowed to fight for yourself even if that means being alone against the world???

Tell me HOW are you supposed to create a genuine and long lasting bond when all you got to do is breaking people’s heart, treating them like less than human, your sexual objects, your slave, your toy, your garbage, your opposite and inferior being? Explain me how you are supposed to be open, vulnerable, giving, loving and supportive when you just act dense and indifferent toward the opposite gender (or same sex in some case though it’s seems more rare?)??? That does not make any freaking sense. Think a minute : will you dare tell me that being the dark feminine energy people brag about will actually help you having a good self esteem AND relationship? For the first option it may work but mostly on a superficial level ; you are not listening to your own needs. The second option? Dont even daydream about it cause it won’t happen.

Are you not allowed to dive into your OWN energy (be it masculine/feminine/androgyne)???? And stop showing how strong you are and finally allow yourself to open up to genuine people (that will one day or another come into your life)?

That’s what stops people from finding a partner, all they want is to perfectly fit into a « cool » and trendy category just to show off. That’s so stupid and I personally feel bad whenever someone rely (and relates) to those trendy things. (Dark/light feminity/alpha/omega/baddy/boss lady/mascu/incel…) - it also keeps perpretrating gender stereotypes.

#neptune’s talk #neptune’s anon ask

[thefanofnanbaka]

Lets rate Vanitas no carte characters ! [First the "objective" version and then my point of view x)] (Btw I cant do all VNC characters bc it'll be too long TwT)

Vanitas:

Objective: 7/10

Bad side:

•He has a bad temper, doesn't care about anyone and doesn't think about others (at least that's what he shows) he's stubborn and doesn't really think.

Good side:

•He is very kind and always helpful, he protects those he loves, does not like someone being hurt by his fault.

Bad/Good side

•He doesn't really show affection for what he likes but I think that's because he himself hasn't really received affection.

I rate him as a 9/10 [and he's handsome ✨️]

Noe:

Objective: 9/10

Bad side:

•I saw that many VNC fans find him too whiny or caring. Also, he is still far too traumatized with Louis, it can make him cry anytime compared to Vanitas who has a more traumatic past and who shows it less.

Good side:

•He doesn't like violence and always tries to settle things by talking with these enemies. He caring for those he loves, he is very kind.

Bad/Good side:

•he acts childish very often and is very stubborn in his own way.

I rate him as a 11/10 (XD) [Seriously I love him sm and Im sure he love Vanitas, but he can be cruel towards him]

Jeanne:

Objective: 8/10

Bad side:

•As a "Bourreau" she can be very (too much) violent and brutal. she does not know what to do when she receives affection. She has a complicated past that can affect her present. [I know that's not a bad side but I hate her romantic/lover side]

Good side:

•She protects Luka and the others at the cost of her life, and very helpful and kind ! She's strong as f*ck ! She's a great woman [when she's not romantic with Vanitas! :')]

Good/Bad side:

•She always feels obligated to protect others, as she is indebted to them.

I rate her as a 4/10 [bc she's strong, very pretty and kind. But I don't like her at all. First cause she love Vanitas and its boring, second cause I still dont know if Noe had a crush on her XD But she's a good characters]

Dominique:

7or8/10

Bad side:

•Her past and Louis continue to haunt her and it's complicated for her. She would agree to kill herself so that Noe would no longer have to worry about her.

Good side:

•She's strong and cool ! A real girl boss ! She took care of Jeanne, and accepted Vanitas in her life. She became "friend" with Mikhail too Lmao 💀

Good/Bad side:

•SHE IS TOO STICKY WITH NOE ! It would be great if she would stop caring about Noe. And that goes for him too x)

I rate her as a 9/10 cause she's my Girlboss 😩 [The only thing I don't like is his too sticky side towards Noe]

Louis:

6/10

Bad side:

•He is certainly nice towards his sister and Noe, but he can be rather cruel sometimes. He keeps these problems to himself (which will cost him his death) and he too easily accepts the death of these "cursed" friends [and then he is monotes x)]

Good side:

•He is still nice to Noe and Domi, he acts like their big brother and protects them, he can be cute sometimes. He is very smart and cultivate.

Bad/Good side:

•He makes jokes that make Noe and Domi cry, and doesn't assume afterwards XD

I rate him as a 8/10 ! [I love him, he's literally Domi's male version x)]

Mikhail:

6or7/10

Bad side:

•He is extremely cruel, and does not hesitate to want to sacrifice Domi ! He forced Noe to drink his blood, and Vanitas blood. The battle between Vanitas and Noe is literally because of him :')

Good side:

•He likes nice people and adores his big brother Vanitas. He didn't really want to hurt Domi. He acts like a kid (he's literally a kid) He want the Blue moon vampire came back for have a normal family again.

Good/Bad side:

•He's too obsessed with his brother it gets weird XD He's also not at all brave and very crybaby unlike Vanitas, as seen in his past in the lab.

I rate him as a 8/10 [He's too cute and Crazy, he's my child 😭🥲]

#Vanitas no carte #vanitas no carte vanitas #vanitas no carte noe #vanitas no carte domi #vanitas no carte Jeanne #the case of vanitas #Vanoe #les memoires de vanitas #vanitas no carte theories

[37q]

not even being resentful or engaging in bad faith here i genuinely think social justice voyeurs on tumblr got burnt out on reading critiques of stuff they didnt have the energy or drive to negotiate with in their personal lives.

this happened around 2017 ish, maybe before the twt exodus, when at some point the voiceless masses stopped reblogging those deeper critiques based on years of foundational build-up bcuz so many ppl were, until then, just suspending their disbelief for their "listen to marginalized voices" performance, and whatever that breaking point was made them shift from "nuanced interrogation" to "passive survival".

like during the pandemic for ex people got upset and were very smart sometimes, and then people got so mad at people getting upset, and then we all sucked back in to our most comfortable self-affirmations like how humor was one of the only things keeping intangible friend groups together. sure as hell cant bond forever over complex trauma.

my god the elevation of humor as like a social object over all critique and action... the virology of privately shared memes, the black and white publicity of thoughtfulness; if youre not fully entrenched in or committed to alternative lifestyles then the role humor plays in your group identity formation will be of status quo comfort.

humor pulls the ends of something we know and plucks it to make the sound of our laughter, with the distance and tension between the poles producing the frequency. and the thing about comfort is that... well actually i dont care to get into it like that. all i know is that nostalgia and comfort are crazy for anyone under, like, 45-50 at this point, and any kinda of meme can serve that purpose.

we dont see these objects of humor as any thing. they exist only in our appreciation, a prompt without cause. its so odd to me because i feel like it was only yday that ppl were unafraid to get long-winded about something seemingly innocuous, but now anything serious over a joke is just totally inappropriate.

i feel like so many ppl have jettisoned their critical compassion for the sake of small pleasures. sometimes i dont blame them because if i could find a cheap laugh somewhere id take it, but then i come back to my reality where cheap laughs are blatantly reactionary. it makes me wanna throw up a lil what my friends friends can detach from enough to laugh at.

see thats the thing about humor being elevated to its status as a social object -- we dont see anything for what it is or what it does, we detach it from social life but now our social life from it. we need to push back against "maybe the curtains are just blue", because its seriously meddling with ppls willingness to interrogate how we ourselves interpret seemingly neutral messaging!

its not intentional, because nobodys signing up to shill for their prison anymore, but we carry with us all the funny little stigmas that feel good to pluck, and it feels even better to pluck them in an orchestra! we "propagandize" ourselves and each other: the "cop in our head" seeks safety and order, and she conditions our social instincts to decay and stasis instead of growth. be skeptical of comfort!

we are given the tools to make meaning and play with it, but so many ppl are just too tired to consider who made those tools! the value we derive from humor and its conditions comes from somewhere, and its our responsibility to trace the ethical lineage of our actions imo!

[prisonguards]

@astronomical-bagel

I am. SO terribly sorry about how long this took to reply to, my brain wanted to sit down and write an Essay for u but Ive been. SO BUSY. But seriously Ive been treasuring and hoarding this ask :) its SOOOO so so nice that other people enjoy them as much as I do and Im so happy I could help collect us a little with the tag ^--^ we are all friends now <3 EDIT ALSO TUMBLR ATE THE FUCKING ASK???? I did have screenshot of ur ask thankfully, Im soooo pissed tho idk where it went

So Im gonna go into my history with them a bit cause I kinda got into them backwards ig augshsg. Or at least different from how most ppl in the tag/posting abt them rn are. I was primarily a Traffic and Emp S1 smallidarity guy for the longest time! Funnily enough I was a late adopter of Emp S2 smallidarity (enemies to lovers usually isnt my thing) but the way the community latched onto it and got everyone talking about them really, really got me invested (also getting kin feels helped /shot. Who said that.) I think the other funny thing is that smallidarity is a dynamic where I like the platonic version (almost) equally as much as the romantic—I push for the romantic just because its easiest to collect ppl with a shiptag (although I did intend Smallidarity to be both a platonic and a romantic tag, ftr. Post both! Any! All!) and because I enjoy Complicated dynamics that are easier caught/categorized under a “romantic” lens sometimes even if they arent Necessarily that. But I just love when theyre important to eachother in general.

I actually have Such delusions abt their Traffic dynamic. Im so insane abt it. I think theyre good friends with Joel having slowly building romantic feelings for Jimmy throughout the seasons, which Jimmy is… pretty much aware of and would reciprocate—if Joel would ever ask (he never will). The Last Life dynamic in particular is one that haunts me, because it. Feels like their most amicable Traffic dynamic, at least in my memory, and in no small part of that is Joel pledging to avenge Jimmy (and Mumbo but this is a Smallidarity post isnt it). That small comment profoundly impacts my Traffic Joel characterization and Im planning to incorporate little objects of remembrance for Jimmy into my late game Joel designs. Traffic smallidarity… like many Traffic dynamics that captivate me… its about the missed opportunities, its about the lack of time, its about Tragedy… I just have such bad Last Life brainrot on the mind rn so this has been whats living with me Daily rn.

I also think their 100 Hours is one of the most funny and most OBVIOUSLY flirty dynamics, though I may get into that a bit more with another ask that I got recently, and, well. My Sorry Sir compilation covers a lot of it.

Double Life is what actually converted me but I cannot think of what the Exact moment was. I went back to my messages from when the eps were coming out and.

They immediately got me.

Theres so many good Traffic moments. One day I will make that clip compilation. I swear.

EMPIRES S1……… theyre best friends… I think it would be funny if Joel is independently dating both him and Lizzie and Then they all find out Jimmy and Lizzie are siblings and Joel is like. Oh jesus Christ my type is Even More specific than I thought. Fishkisser boy. Joel making the joke romantic montage of Jimmy before declaring hes gonna be proposing to Lizzie made me. Drop dead. This dynamic is Everything I craved out of them, watching this directly after Double Life and during Emp S2, when theyre most antagonistic, made me fully insane. I LOVE when theyre nice to eachother. So much. Best friends who kiss. Little design headcanon for them is like. Joel is Fully embellished by pearls he gets from Jimmy and Lizzie. I should give Jimmy n Lizzie azaleas to wear in exchange too auughh..

Okay finally circling back to Where We Are Now. Emp S2. These fuckers.

So Im delusional and like it best when theyre Soft right? So even though S2 lends itself So well to toxicity (and dont get me wrong. Sometimes I Gotta indulge) I rlly like making it cutesy as fuck. Joels obsession and complete infatuation and cute aggression is everything. Hes so infatuated with this guy he doesnt know what to do with himself and just is Relentless. schoolyard “hes bullying you because he likes you” type beats. Hes my moron hes my annoying king. I cannot remember if Ive talked abt my design headcanons fully but Im big on the Jimmy Was Human but Joels god powers are Changing That. I think its subconscious, hes not doing it maliciously, reality just bends to his will too much.

Also. Found my decision moments… these are from July 3rd.

I think. Overall the most enthralling thing about them is the care that underlies everything. That despite the endless teasing and bullying, Joel really genuinely care about Jimmy in a way he struggles to express sometimes. I think its really special and charming and compelling. I just have illnesses about them

#smallidarity #prisspeaks #asks #solidaribeans #empiresshipping #trafficshipping