there's an interesting statement being made about identity if you accept all of the wolf 359 characters are equally themselves as of the finale: eiffel is form without memory; hera is memory without form; lovelace is both, but without continuity of experience; minkowski is both with continuity - and she's still not the same person that goddard recruited. if we're never the same people we were, but we're always ourselves, then the only way the self can be defined is through its own assertion - and maybe it can be argued that "my name is-" (and later, being able to say "my name is hera" reintroducing herself to pryce) and "i am captain isabel lovelace. no matter how hard you try, you are not taking that away from me" and "without me, who are you?" / "renée minkowski, and that is more than enough to kick your ass" are all the set up for (and part of the answer to) "am i still doug eiffel?"
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Hey, am I the only one who does not like the idea of Luke's new Jedi order allowing romantic relationships, marriage and having kids?
Like, George Lucas even said that the reason he did not give Luke a love interest in the end was because Jedi do not marry? And he even gave us a clear example of what happens with that in the Prequels?
I just don't understand this whole "Luke's Order was better because people could finally love" or "That's why the old Order fell"
Yeah sure buddy, they ceartenly did not fell because they had a freaking Sith Lord as head of the Republic who orchestrated one of the greatest evil plans the galaxy had ever seen, no no no, they fell because they didn't let Jedi to marry. sure.
The Order had the rule of non attachments for 25,000 years, and it's a rule that makes sense, we even saw what happens when Jedi form attachments and are unable to let go.
So I don't understand how a new Order without this rule would be better than one that survived for that long with it.
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This is probably a wildly unpopular thing to say, but I see chatter and takes concerning Hyrule and the Hylians and Hylia where the fandom dissects them as white European, or more often British coded. I've seen it be argued that this is because of surface level European (like Greco-Roman and Celtic) aesthetics are commonly used for them, though these are pretty shallow wrapping paper at best in game. Not that similarities can't be drawn! I'm saying this with all my Irish distaste for Britain! But it seems to be more of a symptom of ignorance or unfamiliarity with Japanese culture and history, and its own tilt at Imperialism.
Which I get! The average Western Fan's closest touchstone to Imperialism is likely Britain.
But Hyrule represents Japan. It's narrative is deeply rooted in Japanese Shinto beliefs regarding the relationship between man, nature and spirits-- including spiritual purity and impurity-- as derived from Buddhist concepts. Hylians are a fantasy race of elves who are Japanese coded, their Royal Family and Imperial structure and attitudes reflect a Japanese Nationalism that is deeply tied to Shinto. Hylia reflects aspects of the Goddess Amaterasu and her role as a progenitor of Emperors in Japanese myth.
I fully understand that many criticisms that apply also pertain to British Imperialism and their own Divine Hegemony, which is valid. But I think it's also falling short to critique and dissect the meta and intention behind this franchise without bothering to have the context of Japanese beliefs and history, and without bothering to really seek it out.
JP Imperialism formed as a response to the Western encroach and their subsequent focus on forced unification of the east in order to defend against it is deeply reflected in how Hyrule operates. The localisation of games like SkSw and TotK have wildly missed their mark in the impression that they give of certain concepts to especially the North American audience, and entire concepts and references to cultural beliefs and history (and what they might imply within game) are simply invisible to many who do not have that context to connect back to.
And I'm not trying to say that what anybody takes from the story they personally received isn't a valid impression based on their own experience with the games and media around them. There are many interpretations and themes that you can take away and play with.
But I don't think that saying Hylians are just white people coded or following Christianised themes or 'basically Britain' and calling it a day is quite good enough if you want to meaningfully and accurately discuss and dissect the narrative and intent of the Zelda franchise. Being able to critically read it with both external and Japanese context is really important in having the full conversation about what it reflects on real world history, religiosity and nuance.
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it's crazy the level of discourse there is about antis/pros and how teenagers just devolve into purity culture so quick. I'm sure I used to be like that, but somewhere between dating gang members and reading copious amounts of philosophy the world became a lot more gray to me when I entered my twenties and I've realised three things that I think are important for teenagers to know:
To quote my favourite childhood book series: "People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict." Sure, going to car meets, selling drugs, drunk driving, stealing cars, playing chicken with cops are all examples of bad things that you shouldn't do but am I going to sit in my lovers bed and tell him that this life he was born into that saw all his friends die in drive bys and that saw his own dad pull a gun on him when he was a kid makes him a shitty person? Even though I can see all of the good in him, and can tell he doesn't want to do this, I should ignore it and focus on the negatitives? We have all done bad things, we all do bad things, and we all will do bad things. It doesn't make you a bad person.
Purity culture hurts everyone. There's a great book about this called the History of Sexuality that delves into how purity culture and the censorship of sex is at its essence the capitalist authority controlling the means of reproduction. At large scale 'pray the gay away' and 'contraception is a sin' make it so that men and women couple up more (instead of same sex coupling) and have unprotected sex. On a smaller scale 'AO3 is evil because it has pedos' and 'watersports is the grossest thing ever' do the job of the capitalist authority on a more digestible level. Us vs Them no longer is 'alt right vs communism' they use your words to make it 'pure good hobest people vs pedos who like piss play.' you are making bullets for your enemy and handing them your own damn gun. I promised I wouldn't make this whole post this one point tee hee sorry if you want me to elaborate just ask lol
Fetish ≠ real world experience. I'll build my own pyre as an example: I love me some good CNC (consensual non-consent) in my fanfics but in real life sex I have a praise kink so bad I have cried during sex multiple times. I am into tooth rotting sweet stuff and the kindest people in the world in real life. The media you consume 1000% has an effect on you, I'm not arguing that. I am however arguing that if you have media literacy and know what media is and is not harmful to you, it shouldn't effect your real life drastically unless you have other shit going on. I know this is rich coming from the "I have dated people in gangs" guy because that may show what kinda guy I'm into but prommy that's not a sexual attraction thing, it's 100% a lifestyle thing that again I will elaborate on if you want. Point being, porn ≠ reality and what gets that blood flowing isn't necessarily a reflection of how good or bad you are (ofc there are kinds of porn that are bad but that's beside the point and a very complicated thing for me to type while I'm this sleepy)
thank you for coming to my ted talk. pls I am begging on my knees for people to stop having black and white world views but i also know that's just a product of being a teen so if you are a teen pls! go out there and! consume media from different cultures and people with different lives to you! the world is at its best when it is wide!!! and full of love <3
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Sometimes I find a YouTube video recommended to me and I'll like the idea of it but something will bother me, but it feels wrong to really hate the video for it. In this scenario, the video was about the infantilization of women. And like nothing said was really wrong but it just felt odd to make it a woman issue, the things mentioned. Things like people using phrases like adulting because it's a digestible way for millennials (in this case that's what she was referring to and the studies she references uses) to approach being an adult because things like finances and milestones are harder to hit now.
This lines up. I fully do think that the growing lack of ownership and wages not reflecting the growing price of living has caused a phenomena like this, but I kept considering how this isn't just a woman issue. If this is happening it's affecting literally every young adult - adult alive in the west right now. But like the premise and title is about women so who am I to be bugged by it.
Y'know? It isn't like the YouTuber is really obligated to talk about men going through similar mindsets.
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thinking about the arkham series again and how i actually just adore that 3 games are about arkham as a philosophical concept and an entity, as an answer to "what should be done to criminals" and a powerbase. and how it reflects the beliefs of those who created it.
then arkham dies in City. the idea of arkham comes to its natural, intended, solution. bombed to ash, the problem it was built to solve barely impacted in the long run. a failure of its whole philosphy.
Then Knight rolls around and in marches in jason, arkhams final victim and the only remaining shard of it, the symbol on his chest and arkham in his name. and he brings his own whole philosphy to it all, a much more personal and visceral thing.
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a new philosophy tube video came out and i have a lot of thoughts. i left this all as a comment on youtube, but i figured i might get better discussion elsewhere so im posting it here too. i put it under a readmore cause its kinda long and i dont want it to clog up ppl's dash, especially if discussion turns into a reblog chain (which would be nice!!!)
specifically this is thinking about what she said regarding gender dysphoria and pathologization and stuff
i started hrt in february 2020, so before any changes could be easily seen the world went into lockdown. i also got top surgery in april 2021, less isolated but still not especially opened back up yet
i don’t see my extended family very often just due to geography, so with covid it became even less frequent. the first time i spent time with some of my aunts after starting T, I think was thanksgiving or christmas 2021. So, at that point a lot of changes had happened and I imagine for my extended family it was much more sudden than for my immediate family and friends. That probably contributed to why gender and transition came up in conversation.
One of my aunts is fairly tall for a cis women, and she wondered why people choose transition over a different way of being their agab. she shared a memory of hers from growing up, how she felt like she wasn’t Correctly Female because of her height. But at one point she joined a tall womens social group, and was actually only just over the minimum height requirement. There, she was actually shorter than most of the other women and it helped her feel better in her own womanhood.
That’s a very nutshell retelling of it, but her full explanation sounded to me just like gender dysphoria, based on both my own experience and on what i’ve read of the experiences of others. It wasn’t the point of her question so I didnt bring it up, but it did (and obviously still has) stuck with me
Later, I went into a trans-focused discord community and asked others whether they thought cis people could feel dysphoria. The consensus from answers i received was ‘no’, and that surprised me.
For a while now I’ve also been feeling that the line between ‘cisgender’ and ‘transgender’ is a false binary, just like with the male/female binary.
I’ve recently been going back to Contrapoints videos, and in one of them she talks a bit about how her conception of gender and transness has changed, particularly with regards to trying to categorize it. She said her current mindset was that some things about human existence are just irrational, and will always defy attempts to group them. So rather than endlessly try and make them make sense, it’s better to just accept them.
I feel like this could apply to gender dysphoria, if we approach it in the more linguistic sense like when Abby Thorn used the word to summarize her feelings when someone asked “how are you”. Sometimes when a person is feeling dysphoric, the solution is adjusting her view on tall womanhood. Sometimes the solution is taking bioidentical hormone therapy. Sometimes it’s hormone replacement therapy, sometime’s its surgeries to change sex characteristics like breasts or genitals. Sometimes it’s just a feeling that we have to cope with and eventually let pass, like nervousness or sadness. There’s no way to systematically decide ahead of time what the outcome of ‘feeling dysphoric’ should be, and when you try to make that system you can end up with the clusterfuck going on in the uk.
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