#i think its a very interesting approach

[wicked-cat]

man, bdubs was insane for deciding not to make episodes for limited life but seeing what he does only from others' perspective is so interesting.. if he ends up making a single montage in the end is gonna be a masterpiece

#it's like #distance makes the heart grow fonder #yknow? #limited life #bdubds #i think it was a hard decision to accept #but a good one #i watch too many povs all together i would end up not enjoying it as much #instead he mixed it up a bit #i think its a very interesting approach #myminestuff

[ourhouseishaunted]

people acting as if laios can Do No Wrong and infantilizing him because he is autistic are annoying as hell. especially because laios belongs to my favorite genre of character: "person who desperately wants friends and deep relationships because they're lonely, and while part of their problems stem from people not wanting to understand them and refusing to meet them where they are, they also genuinely come across in a way where you Completely Understand why others can get turned off from them"

#.txt #dungeon meshi #laios #like. okay. i think its a very autistic experience to Want People In Your Life So Badly but because you act differently and have a hard time #with social cues you dont get that easy friendship and it sucks and youre lonely as hell #<- source: im autistic #but ALSO. i think some people forget that missing social cues genuinely makes you rude. even if you dont mean it #intent goes a long way but sometimes the autistic experience is realizing that Unfortunately You May Have Been A Dick #or that being intense or overbearing or disregarding boundries you dont know are there Drives People Away #like idk i think wanting people to look deeper and see whats worthwhile about you while also realizing youve unintentionally #driven people away #and that you can be misunderstood AND need to improve how you treat people #is an interesting story (growing as a person while also understanding that you were worthwhile the whole time even if others didnt see it) #on TOP of being a. idk more true to life autism expereince at least for me #and characters who have these kinds of arcs are really fascinating to me and i think theres a lot of nuance to them #and idk it sucks when people try to act as if lack of malicious intent suddenly means everyone who doesnt love you unconditionally is wrong #to be clear sometimes its not the Neurodivergentisms that drive ppl away sometimes its smth else #but idk i find more nuanced approaches to characters like this feel much more engaging to me and its lame when it seems like ppl go out #of their way to remove nuance from characters :/

[szappan]

university.. university leave me alone

#heres the situation: for my cognitive literary studies class (quite fun) we had to pick primary material and a cognitive angle to analyse it #from. and the deadline was coming up and i who have been thinking very intensely about robots for the last half a year picked #yeah you guessed it. fucking PIERS PLOWMAN. which is not fun for me but i panicked about the deadline #so now i have to do something about piers plowman and its cognitive literary properties #and im in hell this is hell i have been extremely stressed about piers plowman for a month. to the point where ive been in physical pain #AND I CANNOT. THINK OF ANYTHING. ABOUT PIERS PLOWMAN. #and the teacher for that class is so nice and chill and she was like you can pick anything at all. and i went with piers plowman #like it's interesting but from what COGNITIVE angle can i approach piers plowman. #ive been thinking about saying exactly this that piers plowman is more for historical linguists and theologists than narratologists but im #also positive plenty of scholars read piers plowman for the plot #so then i thought about the characters and whether you can Connect with them and whether they help you Immerse yourself in the story and #other terminology i learned in cognitive literary studies class. #theyre allegorical and very 1 dimensional and there could be something about whether we from 2024 understand them in the same way #people from the 14th century did. like this was what i put in my proposal when i made it #but now i actually have to make the slides and use cognitive literary papers for this and it's just not going at all. i cant do it. #i cant do anything i cant enjoy the daylight and the warmer weather i cant think about anything other than im not making progress on this #and it's bad for me!! it's bad for my health i feel bad. why did i go with piers plowman why did i not pick watership down #my post #i have plenty to say about watership downm cognitively. #also about old possums book of practical cats #maybe i could email her and tell her id like to change it.. no #ive also been reading the tombs of atuan which is incredible

[brobotsbro]

Litchrally like one of the top three things that are Very Important to me about OP (tfp) is the bit where he was, for all intents and purposes, a Decepticon. My IDEAL dynamic is basically

The kids, Orion Pax arc: wait, so Optimus was a Decepticon?!!

Ratchet: ACTUALLY, that's HIGHLY SIMPLIFYING a COMPLEX MATTER. back then there WERE no autobots and decepticons. we were not at WAR, so there were NO FACTIONS, so NO, he was definitely NOT A DECEPTICON. the IDEA. the NERVE.

----------------

The kids, post Orion Pax arc: so.... You were like the OG Decepticon?

Optimus: yeah

#like i don't necessarily think hes....proud of it but i think he'd be like YOU KNOW IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS A NOBLE CAUSE #and ratchet being like ARE YOU SURE. ARE YOU SURE #basically i just like any version of op that's not like..... squeaky clean morality. like i think home dog is like. #like there was a fracture where they split but i think its important and fascinating to consider that HE AGREED WITH MEGATRONS APPROACH #AND IDEALS BACK IN THE DAY. THATS SOOOO INTERESTING #basically the concept of og decepticon orion pax being a facet of autobot leader optimus primes personality #is very important to me lol #the road to hell is paved with good intentions and i think if he and megatron hadn't fallen out hed still be walking that road

[kithj]

started reading what moves the dead by T. Kingfisher and im enjoying the gender & language stuff so much and also wow her writing is so fun to read

#also coming from an anthology of work from like the 1930s-1980s it's very refreshing #no offense to older written horror its just like. i mean it's kinda slow and boring sometimes innit #which is funny cus ive seen ppl call this book and the mc boring meanwhile i think theyre so charming and fun #i went into this completely blind LOL i didnt even know this was a retelling of the house of usher #and i definitely didnt know anything abt the mc and their Gender #the language and use of pronouns thing is kinda blowing my mind im ngl this is so genius... such an interesting way to approach it

[lucabyte]

✨

#(taking inventory) hmmm basically all of my isat stuff is postcanon huh. unintentional but interesting behaviour from me #<- not used to making fanwork and is intrigued by my gravitation toward this #id suppose it's because im more of a character studies person than anything? like.... #isat very thoroughly explores its characters ingame. i have no real speculation to add there. its very airtight #but leaves the characters with very intentional next-steps-in-life to explore. #+ i in general approach texts as like... a challenge to get the most 'accurate' read on the characters as i can #hense my mumbling about my fancontent potentially feeling 'rude' to me. ie if i read the characters wrong ive failed at task #of exclusively substantiated reading. and thus hense the tension between 'unbased speculation inherent to fan work' and #'textual basis for character analysis'. its interesting #and fun! i do find it fun. but it is something about me that i take this to be an intellectual challenge first and foremost #you can REALLY tell im an oc guy sometimes i think lol. im very used to keeping myself on the straight and narrow #trying not to let characterisation drift.... its so easy to accidentally flanderise or soften the edges off of a character especially.... #anyway. ramble over. just interesting to me to take stock of my output #lucabytetalks

[bonebabbles]

Since Ginga's a little topic right now I do just want to be clear it was like, incredibly formative to my personality and remains one of my favorite action animes. If I speak harshly about it, it's entirely because I have such a personal affection for it.

#the first time Gin pulls off the battouga properly at the end of GNG........... effervescent #When it comes to inspiration for how I approach BB's reworks #I'd have to credit a good amount of my personal philosophy to the Ginga series #Particularly in how I handle deaths and action #I've said before that I think you actually learn a lot more from obviously flawed art than extremely good stuff #And Ginga is such a good example of that #It's almost refreshing how obvious its misogyny is. It's Right There. #You can SEE how it caps otherwise really good arcs for female characters #But it's also just an absolutely fantastic action series #I think it's actually the property that made me realize every fight is a story. #Or... should be one #imo. #You're telling a little miniature character arc with every fight. #You're showing how the characters solve problems and how the opponents regard one another #Just a very very interesting series imo

[eldritchamy]

What the shit. Fighting a god in hand to hand combat as a gold dragon using immovable rods goes so fucking hard and it’s the backstory for a character that’s just in the main backstory???????? AMY???

You know how a lot of people, when making DND characters, make the mistake of having their level 1 PC have an elaborate backstory where they're super badass and already recognized as a hero?

When I made Ash I did the opposite. Her backstory is elaborate, yes, but in very mundane ways that inform her personality and how she perceives the world around her, and build up the logic of how she makes decisions.

I made everyone AROUND my PC a super powerful character who had done incredible things, and I gave Ash anxiety about it.

She feels, constantly, that she is inadequate by comparison. Her entire frame of reference is shaped by a bunch of women in her life that are outstandingly powerful, and she's just a quiet girl who makes leather goods and sells them for a living. She thinks of herself as the NPC in other people's more impressive lives.

Her mother, Lailah, is a nearly seven foot tall divine warrior created in Elysium to destroy Pit Fiends. She's an angel of lightning built like an MMA fighter, and she wields a weapon like piece of a lightning bolt (not stylized, I mean a real, glowing crackling arc of electricity that she holds like a staff and can be used like anything from a polearm to a spear to a whip, and when thrown it acts like a Lightning Bolt spell). She is built, both narratively and in game stats, to be an unkillable holy destroyer, capable of fighting MULTIPLE PIT FIENDS simultaneously, and winning. She's a CR 10+ magical creature (she's a homebrewed mix of Deva and Erinyes stat blocks with some unique flavor) with eighteen class levels, 16 in Zealot Barbarian and 2 in Fighter. She has a strength of 27 and a constitution of 25. She's designed to deal HUGE amounts of damage, tank unfathomable amounts in turn, NOT DROP WHEN SHE HITS ZERO HITPOINTS, and keep swinging until every devil in her way is a pile of dust, then use bonus action Second Wind to bring herself back above 0 so she doesn't incur the auto-death caveat on Zealot Barbarian's Rage Beyond Death ability. One of her attuned items is also the very simple uncommon item "Periapt of Wound Closure" which automatically stabilizes you at the start of your turn, thereby resetting the death saving throws she would theoretically have to make each time she gets hit below 0. Also, as an angel, she's innately immune to auto-death effects like Power Word Kill, which closes almost all loopholes that get around her build. She is UNSPEAKABLY badass. I ran a simulated round of combat with her once, and she could potentially one-shot a CR 15 Skittering Horror (228 HP) in a single turn. Her theoretical maximum damage output is like, 456 damage in a turn (granted this assumes all crits and rolling max damage).

So that's Ash's mom.

Aria is interesting. She was always strongly attuned to the forces of nature, and her magic grew quickly. Where Ash grew up with someone she knew would always be there to protect her from anything, Aria did NOT have that safety net, and spent her formative years learning to be more self-sufficient in terms of relying on her own power. So eventually she got sucked into an adventuring party consisting of herself (a tiefling Witch subclass with very strong druid flavor), a tiefling zealot barbarian, and a couple of elf twins who were an Arcana cleric and a Celestial Warlock. Sometime after they had made a name for themselves, they were tasked with stopping a suspected fledgling vampire who had been kidnapping girls and killing a bunch of people. When they arrived, they met Cass, who was very much NOT a new vampire. She was almost 150 years old and had been protecting women from abusers and overzealous debt collectors, and things had gotten a little messy with one or two of them, leading to a lot more attention than she normally got. They start off fighting Cass (Aria polymorphs herself into a dire wolf and lunges directly for the throat, which Cass found amusing and impressive) but realize in the banter that Cass wasn't the real problem, and she ends up being a sort of a lesson for the group in terms of whose word they trust and who they take jobs from (YES THE BACKSTORY'S BACKSTORY HAS NARRATIVE ARCS AND MORAL LESSONS THAT LEAD TO LONG TERM CHARACTER GROWTH OKAY I CAN'T HELP MYSELF). Cass, having a particular rapport with Aria, ends up joining their party as a dhampir Soulknife Rogue/Shadow Monk.

Yes, that's all backstory that I made up for an imaginary campaign that exists entirely as a set piece for Aria as one of Ash's story NPCs. This doesn't even touch on the fact that I liked Cass so much as a character that I gave HER an entire backstory of her own. I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM.

Anyway the team only makes a bigger name for themselves for handling things that other groups can't. Eventually, they just happen to be in the Tenth District when the War of the Spark happens (major established event in the MTG canon), and I basically added some extra "scenes" to it that didn't violate existing canon so I could have that be the climax of their imaginary campaign. One of Aria's partners was a new planeswalker at the time and her spark got harvested by the Dreadhorde, specifically by the god eternal Bontu.

Gods in Magic The Gathering aren't honestly that special? They don't seem to have THAT much power, all things considered. Ravnica's gods are mostly powerful magical animals, and in the most recent Magic Story one of their gods (Anzrag the Quake Mole) was captured in an "evidence capsule" (basically Magic's version of a Pokeball). The most powerful god in MTG is probably the Ur Dragon honestly, unless you count the Eldrazi, but that's a whole other conversation since neither of those actually have the "God" creature type.

Anyway, Bontu was one of the gods of Amonket (basically a plane based on ancient Egypt), which had been conquered by an Elder Dragon planeswalker named Nichol Bolas. HE was the one who actually killed all but one of Amonket's gods, and then another planeswalker named Liliana Vess (extremely powerful necromancer) raised them as zombies for his army, because Bolas had a ton of complicated leverage over her (magical contract that he could invoke to kill her if she betrayed him). So Bontu was a god zombie.

Here's a reference:

Well, Aria was a level 18 Witch at this point since this was the climax of their campaign, so she had access to the Shapechange spell, a 9th level transmutation that lets you become any creature with a challenge rating equal or lower than your character level. And the best candidate for that was an Adult Gold Dragon (CR 17). So Aria goes full berserk and stands up on her dragon hind legs and picks a fight with a dead god that she's determined to make deader, and has a Godzilla vs King Ghidorah standoff with her.

So how do you fight a god that can suck your soul out and instantly kill you with a single touch? You don't let it touch you.

What Aria did was basically inspired by this gif of a Wildebeest trying to charge at a lion:

Or this:

And to be clear, yes, I'm saying Aria was the lion in that situation. She basically did a big dragon threat display to get Bontu's attention, and used the Gold Dragon's weakening breath to give Bontu disadvantage on Strength checks and saves. Bontu charged at her, and at the last second Aria dropped to the ground and then shot back up, clamped her teeth around the god's throat, and used her weight to throw Bontu around and knock her off balance, and her superior strength to grab her by the wrists and wrestled her to the ground so she couldn't get a grip on Aria. She had every part of the god that could have killed her pinned, and used the claws of her wings to pull Bontu's armor apart and tear at everything she could reach while thrashing her around. It was Fen, the Arcana cleric, who thought to use Immovable rods to pin Bontu down so that even if Aria lost her grip, Bontu wouldn't be able to immediately one-shot any of them. So Athena (barbarian) and Cass (rogue/monk) as the two martial classes were the ones who got close enough to handle that while Fen and her sister (Gwen) used whatever holy magic they could to help from a distance.

Now CASS had a problem, because she's a DEX based martial class, not a strength based one. She needed a boost to be able to get this job done. So she drank some of Bontu's blood from one of the wounds Aria had left on her arm to give herself a burst of strength. Except. She had to get real close to do that. And Bontu managed to get a loose grip on her, and tried to suck out her soul.

The magic that makes Cass what she is is very old and very powerful. It binds her soul to her body in a much stronger way than any living creature, fusing the two together to prevent her from dying (i.e. by having her soul separated from her body; Cass can recover from almost any conceivable physical injury as long as there's life energy, in the form of blood, for the magic that keeps her alive to feed on and maintain the seal between her body and her soul). BECAUSE SHE WAS FEEDING ON THE BLOOD OF A GOD AT THE TIME, the magic holding her together basically fought against the magic that was trying to rip her soul out, and it had enough fuel to hold on until Aria's thrashing forced Bontu to let go. So Cass survived the Elderspell thanks to a very weird and unrepeatable set of circumstances (which allows something narratively impressive and legendary to happen without being gamebreakingly overpowered and violating the established rules of the world).

Because of how her magic draws energy from other things, though, there was a side effect: she also accidentally took in one of the planeswalker sparks that Bontu had harvested. So when Cass had healed enough for her soul to no longer be dislocated, her spark activated and she became a Planeswalker. (I imagine a soul is connected to a body mostly through the nervous system, because that's how a brain holds consciousness in it, so a "dislocated" soul is like something glued to every nerve ending in your body being pulled on with an enormous amount of force, trying to sever that connection; imagine trying to pull yourself off the ground when every nerve ending in your body is superglued to the floor by something akin to the Strong Nuclear Force. It SUCKED.)

The team ended up being forced to retreat because of Cass' injuries, so Aria didn't actually manage to kill Bontu personally (or die trying, which in her grief-rage she was fully open to). Right about this time, my bottle scene ends and Magic canon comes back into play: Liliana betrays Bolas and turns the Dreadhorde against him, and Bontu ends up being the one who bites him and rips out HIS spark. Due to the enormous rush of energy of consuming all of Bolas' stolen Planeswalker sparks (tl;dr he was trying to become a god), and with the added bit of lore that it was Aria's team that heavily injured Bontu just prior to this, Bontu exploded in the process.

This resulted in Ravnica playing a game of telephone in the chaotic aftermath of the War. Aria fought a god. She's still alive and that god is dead. Rumors spread and now Aria is misremembered as the one who killed Bontu. Half the plane thinks of her as the "god killer." All she wanted was to avenge her lover or die trying.

Neither outcome happened, and now she's credited with the very thing she sees as her greatest failure. And that trauma has haunted her ever since.

#so my backstory has a backstory with its own backstory #this is a normal and healthy way to approach storytelling I think. #so anyway Ash is surrounded by badass women and doesn't recognize her own potential #because her entire frame of reference is the most outrageous statistical outliers #Ash #Aria #Lailah #Cass #eldritch OCs #Uneiverse #I have one character whose backstory goes back over 6000 years have I ever mentioned that #y'all don't even KNOW the shit that lives in my brain #also I invented god from scratch so TECHNICALLY I made backstory for the universe itself and it goes back billions of years #when I say that I don't mean I made up A GOD from scratch. I mean I reinvented the CONCEPT of what 'god' even means. #and built a universe around that concept #I also have some cool thoughts about the nature of time and fate that I haven't talked about yet #the inside of my brain is a very interesting place. try not to get lost. the exits are not clearly marked. #what if I gave my characters *T R A U M A* #anyway I'm glad you thought this sounded cool enough to ask about. I hope you feel the same about the rest of the story someday.

[doctorwhoisadhd]

so wait, since i was just reminded of the recorder thing donna talked about in the giggle, i now have a question for uk ppl: do yall learn the recorder in school? like in a music class? and like how much do yall have music class over there?

#this is a very interesting topic for me as a music educator from the us #ik a guy from ireland and he said there was no music class in schools for him and like not the same country BUT same island #(as northern ireland. not the others in the uk but still) #and its so wild and fascinating music education is a fascinating field and the way we do it in the us seems to be largely vvv unique to us #for clarification on how things are different so ppl have a better idea on how to answer my question lol: #in the us music class is standard in elementary schools and most places have general music until abt 5th/6th grade (year 6/7) #(general music = basics- music games learn recorder SOME notation-reading; often classroom instruments eg boomwhackers claves maracas #orff instruments if you're lucky/from a school district that isnt poor. also some world music) #its less standardized after that and not every school will have music after middle school but concert bands and choirs are both huge here #choirs start right on the heels of general music classes (sometimes start earlier + students elect to be in choir instead of general music) #bands USUALLY start in 4th grade (year 5) but sometimes can be later 5th/6th (year 6/7) or even 7th (year 8) (WAY less common) #depends on the state generally 4th is most common i think (choirs start at around the same time i think so probs 4th but choir isnt my area #orchestras are weird bc theyre a lot less common but can commonly start younger bc of one of the big approaches to music ed (suzuki method) #so like maybe 3rd grade (year 4) maybe 4th w/ band (year 5) but i have a friend who teaches at a private school #& said they have 1st/2nd graders (year 2/3)!! orchestra is also not my area though #also marching bands: vv common! usually just in hs (starting 9th grade / year 10) bc it supports the football team at games #but starting in 8th grade (year 9) is also common (sometimes even 7th / year 8) #theres two different styles: collegiate/show band and competition. former is very rah rah pop music etc; competition is more abstract #show bands are clearly designed to entertain whereas competition is designed to be more impressive and tell a story #so more impact moments abstract shapes/lines on the field and has movements - opener ballad closer (fast-slow-fast)

[majimemegoro]

how long are fans like you gonna make excuses for kiryu's deadbeat parenting. as long as it's a hot male lead, he can do no wrong? even when it's hurting children? sickening.

wake up babe new copypasta dropped

#im sorry i dont usually react to ANy responses even silly ones like this in a salty way but im very tired #it's not serious. i think kiryu is an interesting character and i like him partially because of his flaws #and he is also a paradigmatic funsilly dad character. both of these things can coexist. #okudera hates bears and its also much more complicated than that. #we are just having fun please go do something you enjoy #also controversial opinion i dont personally find kiryu hot anyway #but ye im the first to criticize kiryu's approach to parenthood EXCEPT WHEN THERES A POLL TO WIN ANYWAY KIRYU SWEEP LETS GOOOOOO #memecomradeoriginal

[mihai-florescu]

Hm... i do wish it was normalized to talk about how yes you can have an interesting meaningful story involving characters with ocd coded or intrusive thoughts towards younger characters and it can be an important character trait that doesnt define them or one that is indicative of a set of values etc but you as a fan need to simultaneously be aware of the context of the story. Why do you think i lament being forsaken to like gacha games stories. The choices are made with intent to sell and appeal to an audience that will pay. I just think it's important to keep it mind that, and it pains me to see people who express concern at intentionality being labeled "freaks cuz they thought of that in the first place" i promise you theyre not the freaks for being concerned. So while i do think HE is definitely trying to appeal to new younger audiences with modern teen characters and the use of tiktok, it is important to keep history, audience, and possible further interests in mind too. Well from the bottom of my heart i hope none of the new characters ever get cards like that one hyena aira 4* but it is always good to stay cautious. I dont understand how ppl parrot being "critical of the media we consume" but then not being ok with talking about such fanservice that is undeniably there. Yet i understand reluctancy to admit you're not the target audience, and the willingness to just ignore anything you dont like... i might've been guilty of it myself at points.

#delete later #topic makes *me* uncomfortable but i feel like conversations about it are never really conversations its someone expressing concern- #and someone else jumping in with some caps lock “you need better media comprehension skills if u think x is a shotacon” #well. isnt context awareness of the game's position also part of media comprehension... #yes in universe i can explain x y z things i can very much do so #doesnt mean a certain audience wont project themselves or gain gratification from it as it is #i have been more and more aprehensive of engaging in fandom activities. well you see me talking abt my interests and interacting w a few ppl #but im realising more and more i fundamentally dont like the fandom minded approach to enjoying media #but i do like observing it... #fandoms. like an anthropologist. and then i try to look at stories both as narratives but also as things that have an impact on people #that's the crux of my entire graduation project in a way isnt it. well you dont know im shy to talk about it. but it is #once again delete later

[gideonisms]

I think I tend to read htn as muir playing with tropes commonly used in tragedies to examine what we think is a tragedy/what tragedy even looks like when death isn't the end. That's the most shakespearian thing about her writing imo. I know I am constantly on about how htn is basically a shakespeare play but it IS and that's because she is doing a similar thing with her stories within the story. She is throwing out potential endings left and right and then subverting all of them. That's why I don't think everyone's encouragement to harrow to give up on keeping gideon safe really can be taken at face value. It's like. To use one example (but you literally could insert 5 different plays here) it's like when Isabella thinks her brother is dead. It's forcing the audience to think about the consequences for that but the terrible part is more that there was someone in power who could easily order a death or stop it on a whim. The point is not that harrow needs to learn to let gideon go for moral or self-actualization reasons imo. The point is that the death is a site of potential for harrow to either be manipulated into upholding john's goals or for her to reject the whole premise behind them by deciding gideon's life is more important

#when i finally write my harrow measure for measure henry viii manifesto. then you will see!! #i think where i disagree with many htn readings is that #i don't think it's a story about learning to let go of people/let things die #or at least 'stopping' as cytherea put it is not equivalent to accepting other people's deaths that's not the same thing #letting go of power over someone is not the same thing as letting them die. that's a very simplistic way to put it and it's not exactly the #main point i am getting at here. but it approaches that point #the aus are doing something too. it's like. story within a story within a story #is this how it happens? but for gideon's death #the people in harrow's life are trying to get her to accept her loss but i don't think that's what the narrative itself is doing #because the narrative is very interested in examining the conditions surrounding gideon's death #and whether it would have been possible to do things differently #with cristabel alfred & loveday it's like. this is how the story usually goes #but i don't think that's the only way it ever goes bc she is poking around at different ways to subvert that tragedy #tlt isn't a tragedy at least not a classic one. that's just not the structure #that is the structure of its 15 fakeout endings but they're there for flavor. once again thank u shakespeare

[spitblaze]

Not that Returnal is bad per se but I see the words 'roguelike bullet hell soulslike co-op' to describe a single game and my eyes glaze over

#spitblaze says things #to be fair. its not a soulslike. nobody who is actually into soulslikes thinks it is #its a very hard game and thats enough for a lot of ppl to slap the label on it #anyway ive heard very good things about this game i will never play in my life #mostly bc im Not Interested in any of those things #(i like dark souls but again. its not actually a soulslike) #ill probably watch a 100% playthrough but i would for sure ragequit within two hours if i played it myself #or i could do what i did thr last time i played something actually approaching a bullet hell #and throw myself at the exact same brick wall for hours a day over the course of two weeks before just giving in and watching a playthrough #i could not beat true hero undyne. she won #i watched the rest of the chara route and when flowey was like 'maybe you're watching a playthrough because you're a COWARD' #i was like 'jokes on you idiot im just bad at video games' #uh. anyway #im sure returnal is great but boyyyy do i not like how anyone except jacob geller describes it

[dreampearls]

for all that i might compare colleis writing to scara with scara working as a weird sort of mirror world alternate look into collei if she wasnt smited by misogynistic writing decisions. scaras writing is not all that good either

#like his whole thing w rebirth and tying that into sumeru as a whole + paralleling nahida is well done #but if youre to take his quest at face value it think it can very easily and very dangerously come across as going #''well. Killing myself is the answer.'' and then that . not actually being meaningfully refuted #<- which okay arguable. they do take the time to say he was wrong for it. which is. a whole other thing on how genshin handles #suicide/self sacrifice in the first place. but i digress. its just the fact that materially him attempting to erase his existence #..did kind of absolve him from his problems. WHICH. AGAIN. complicated topic. ik its meant to tie in with his rebirth thing but wholesale #divorcing him from his past without any catharsis of punishment or consequence probably isnt the best way to go about it #like i dont think everyone forgetting their memories of him is in of itself bad writing tbh its a very interesting angle #to approach a character who is obviously seeking self punishment but being being denied it at every turn #but we all know genshin is not approaching his character from this angle

[ruinikaido]

I began to watch euphoria to calm myself down because i was spiraling (a distraction) and i just finished the second episode and i think its good albeit exploitative in its graphic content but im taking care not to call it completely "unnecessary" perhaps it does have a point perhaps not (Remembers sam levinsons barely disguised fetish of mentally ill women) Okay maybe it doesnt have to show everything it does

#Really giant disclaimer i do not condone the sexualization present in the show if that isnt clear i think the fact that they couldnt have #even tastefully censored it is incredibly stupid etc etc #Despite that though (levinson you are going to hell) it has good pacing and writing and visuals #The characters are very compelling i really like how their minds really get dug into in the show. Its all very interesting and i will #continue though i am mindful of the content warnings and like unforgivably strange stuff in it so dont worry im approaching it with #a brain #i have some thoughts and criticisms but i wont get into them

[asanjou]

i saw a play with a theatre major friend maybe a year or two back and i remember having a conversation with him about how i felt like i was bad at understanding more abstract theatre because i feel like metaphors tend to fly over my head a lot of the time and he said something like "well in things like interpretative dance it's not supposed to be about what the choreographer intended you're supposed to apply your own meaning to it" which was kind of bizarre to me... to me art is about like. what are you the artist trying to communicate to me and what does the way you communicate it reveal about the lens through which you see the world. which is part of art being subjective i spose. can you tell im avoiding cleaning more by talking shit on tumblr dot co dot edu LOL

#post tag #ive been thinking about how different artists understand forms on a technical level a lot recently so i guess this #is a more conceptual extension of that #TO BE CLEAR THIS ISNT SAYING HIS APPROACH IS WEIRD OR INCORRECT its just very different to the way i see things so it suprised me #expanding world views etc etc... #really interesting to talk about things with someone who interprets in a way completely different than you do #iron giant art! dot jpeg