#media talk

[vforvalensa]

Rereading Dungeon Meshi and it's such an interesting series in how it's a deeply gamic story, but often the way it deploys game logic will be in ways that's rare to see in actual games. I think a lot about chapter 5, the one where Chilchuck really gets the spotlight for the first time.

This chapter does a lot to drive home the importance of party comp in this setting. Like at this point we've already seen Laios, Marcille, and Senshi be competent and useful in their own roles as fighters, mage/healer, and dungeon survivalists, but here's where we get to see why a thief archetype is important for a party to have.

It's super cool to see all the thief shit Chil needs to do to keep the party from dying badly from traps, but most games, especially multiplayer ones tend not to have elaborate digressions about trap disarmament.

Like sure lockpicking mini games are everywhere and some older crpgs like the early bioware games will have bits where you have to click on a bunch of traps on the ground, but any adventure game with combat where another gameplay approach, like stealth or something, isn't the main focus will tend to subordinate those systems to combat. I think a big part of that is the lineage of dungeons and dragon that established that adventuring in rpgs primarily looks like swinging swords and casting spells, but to be fair to dnd in a game with very distinct character classes like that having any one class with a complex mechanic the point is that the other players dont have the expertise to deal with (like the trap bit in dunmeshi) would make for a weird play flow.

But a manga like Dungeon Meshi doesn't really have to worry about player experience so it gets to do game things games dont get to do. It's really interesting to me and I'd be super curious to see if a game with the type of breadth of dungeon meshi could work

#dungeon mesh #delicious in dungeon #dunmeshi #chilchuck #chilchuck tims #manga #media analysis #valensa talks #media talk

[raviosprovidence]

This is such a dumb fucking post because holy shit, IT DID! Y'all saying it didn't either ignored the entire first four seasons, or just straight up think gaslighting, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and forcefully mind controlling someone and fantasizing about how you'll make them kill their friends is perfectly fine (yes, the latter thing did happen within the show, check out the episode White Out)

The problem is that CATRA SAYS 2 SHITTY APOLOGIES AND THATS IT. There is barely any acknowledgement on 90% of the bad shit she did. Nothing on calling adora stupid in a derogatory way. nothing about the excessive amount of violence or the insane amount of gaslighting done within the show. Hell, they didn't even acknowledge the fact that catra nearly destroyed the world out of spite and thus, *indirectly killed someone*. Never acknowledged!

We DO like less sanitized queer stories! When they're actually given the weight they deserve and characters doing shitty things aren't constantly excused or told that they're in the right. Gen V is pretty gruesome and that's very lgbtq+ friendly and not sanitized. Arcane is leading towards a lesbian romance and it's FAR from sanitized and child friendly. Everything Everywhere All At Once (though not technically a queer focused story) casts a lesbian AS THE ANTAGONISTIC ROLE against a straight woman and no one had a problem with that! Bottoms! Exists! The fact that it exists and got as popular as it is shows that this is just wrong.

Y'all just didn't watch the She ra . I unfortunately paid attention. Having a character get brain washed, apologize twice vaguely, and then kiss the main character doesn't excuse all the prior abuse that character committed.

#media talk #media criticism #she ra #anti catradora #anti catra #queer stories #also im so mad that 14 minute video showcasing all of the abuse #got taken off youtube #anyways we do like less sanitized queer stories #we just like good ones #she ra doesn't count

[spicebiter]

Horizon Zero Dawn spoilers but I don't think I can ever really be over Zero Dawn as a project and the truth behind Operation Enduring Victory and just everything it amounted to.

Like at the end of the fucking world, a year and change left to live, and a group of people dedicated that time to making sure Earth could have some manner of future. That even though everyone still alive had to suffer for one company's greed and stupidity there could still be something *someday*. It's such a testament to the part of humanity that wishes the best for its successors even if they can't ever gain from that 'best'. But on the flipside the secrecy that Zero Dawn had to exist under because they knew that no one wants to fight a hopeless war, not to mention the fact that people that worked on Zero Dawn were promised time with their families before everything really ended, it's sad but I have to argue that *surely* some people knew. Even if they didn't want to believe it or think about it had to see what they were up against or engage in one battle and realize just what was happening, and still have to have hoped there was something they had planned. And how Zero Dawn worked, technically. It gave humanity a new chance. Even if it's not all they intended, there are plants and animals and people and they're really living. They have such a rich culture so separate and so entangled with the old world and even if it's 'wrong' I know those that fought for Enduring Victory and worked on Zero Dawn would be glad something good came from all that effort.

And the cradle facility you visit kills me. Apollo failed and they couldn't enter and they could never *learn*, they could never grow past those lessons meant for children, and the servitors couldn't learn to treat them like adults because they were still children. They grew without ever learning anything new and they couldn't even know *why* because they were never taught how to handle that grief and the servitors saw them as kids you can't tell that kind of thing to. You can't tell them that they're the children of a lost species that's been dead for centuries but loved them so so much they lived and died for them to exist. And they were let out into the world with nothing! Their first time seeing the sun and yet it was cold and they were hungry. Everything was new and terrifying and they had to be so angry but they still lived and they did it. They made something new. They struggled and survived. Like, fuck, man. It's so heavy.

#spiced #media talk #horizon zero dawn #hzd spoilers #i won't lie this shit makes me want to cry when I think about it for more than 2 seconds at a time #idk i've been playing the game for my roommates and I just love this game so much #i haven't stopped thinking about the cradle and zero dawn since we got to those sections

[analysisroulette]

Welcome to Analysis Roulette: a new podcast where we take a hatchet to media theorising. Each week, we'll be taking a randomly-selected media property and school of #analysis, and doing our best to make it work. Meet the hosts and learn more in our teaser!

#podcasts #podcast recommendations #podcast recs #analysis #meta #media talk #Spotify

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

media (anime) talk time

watch fate/apocrypha & not really understand anything (half because plot genuine confuse part disability), but want talk disability for bit. not sure how english speaking ppl call characters so just go with whatever here

sister who wheelchair user (look up & name Fiore?) complicate feel about (mostly bad, on disability not about person) make worse by when look up name keep see “confined to wheelchair” but let not talk about her

berserker from black side, think most people actually just call frankenstein even though technically frankenstein’s monster? just. lot relate. see self in. explain self through. like representation (even though never meant be). lot feeling don’t know what is but comfort.

relate. as nonverbal person who communicate lot through grunt & noise & gesture (right now outside screen, that 95% communication rarely AAC). how she communicate exactly like how me communicate.

know she entire different reason mostly not speak—and she do speak few word, so by definition not nonverbal maybe minimally verbal (although in real life not how minimally verbal present bc usually real life MV only able mouth speak few simple words like yes no eat want etc). but because few and special time so pretend ignore. but when speak, obvious choppy.

and maybe because not speak much expected of berserker class. but. don’t care. people around. not seem very upset frustrate not talk try make talk (also prob bc “not talk” not made disability pathology lens). especially her master. understand communication. communicate w her. understood. understood!!!!! talk back forth!!!!!!!!

relate. who angry all time. am angry all time. angry about how be treat. mistreat. not understood. abuse. because everything unfair be fail by everyone. deep deep deep pain. violent many because angry frustrate. because so frustrate and cannot communicate and only way express is violent. and very very ashame because both angry and violent.

she angry. and, maybe can say violent at times. all visible. because natural berserker class, but also because. be mistreat. be see as monster. not understood. intense intense hurt.

but also gentle. like flowers. (contrast!)

gentle at heart & made angry forced angry and become entire identity angry entire consume. like me

relate. because she wear bridal dress (contrast!!) and i lolita. she pretty. she eyes covered and good for me autism no eye contact. because she have unicorn/narwhal horn & i like n have self inset characters in past with that.

after past “life” & mistreat, she have good master who gentle who support and listen and give agency all through very very very end (literally one of best use of command spell in fate anime series have seen).

and. me, want that.

#long post #media talk #🍞.txt #fate apocrypha

[the73rdpostscript]

By the way, for my fellow horror fan mutuals, the news about the Suzy Izzard horror movie feels like a great time to promote this person: logan-ashley kisner

He's been researching and trying to create the first comprehensive list of every trans character in horror, and because of the nature of film, the project has also become one of preservation.

You find all it's work here: https://linktr.ee/transhorror

And if you want to listen/watch a pretty decent rundown of how the work was going a year ago, he's recorded one 2 hour video detailing the movies he had watched at that point and their place in the historical timeline/eras of trans representation in horror: https://youtu.be/rmKiBNGMy_k

The video includes some pretty great insights about trends in both bigotry and storytelling across the history of horror - but it especially highlights the positive aspects of some trans horror stories that might get generally dismissed as "problematic" without context.

This whole project is INCREDIBLY cool and informative. I really hope my fellow horror fans check it out and maybe show him some support.

#media talk #good media #history #logan-ashley kisner #a bit of terror is good for the soul

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Any zombie-style media with instantaneous symptomatic infection or minute-long switch from infected to full zombie bitey times always kind of gives me a sense of... discordance. Like I don't know a ton about infection but I know enough to know that, say, fungal infection takes a while to wear the body's immune system down.

Now, granted, all of it at heart is essentially a species wide traumatic genetic memory of the very worst plagues - the Great Mortality/Black Death famously caught men well at breakfast and had them dead by dinner. But even then, most people didn't die that quickly. The Spanish flu also was able to take people out with shocking rapidity, but the conditions of sanitation, healthcare, and the War had a lot to do with that.

Fungal infections are fighters for sure, but they take a while because the human body fights like hell, too.

But every game or show or movie that shows sudden nearly instant infection to zombie always just... Distances me from what should be, I think, a far more visceral horror. Because internally I'm like, well... that should have taken at least some hours...

#ash rambles #zombie fiction #media talk #tlou series #vaguely #28 days later #very bad about this #fandom #zombies

[jadethest0ne]

Questions related to redemption arcs;

1. Was there one you thought was well planned out, took its time, ect?

2. Had there been one you felt was too rushed?

3. We're there any characters you felt did or didn't deserve them?

Hmm... Redemption arcs are tricky, but I do enjoy them a lot

I honestly think one of the best redemption arcs I've ever seen in a piece of media is Zuko's from Avatar: the Last Airbender. Literally the gold standard of redemption arcs.

Easiest one I can think of was Baron Draxum from Rise of the TMNT. I'm sure there are others, but this one comes to mind simply because I think it had merit, but I wish more time was given to develop it.

I think "deserving" redemption is often a misunderstanding of what redemption arcs should be, if I'm being honest. Redemption isn't about deserving forgiveness, it's about the character seeking to actively change themselves and to make up for what they have done in the past. Whether or not they deserve good things as a result of that is irrelevant. I tend to dislike "redemption" arcs that hinge on another party forgiving them or the narrative giving the character some sort of "reward" as a result of redemption.That being said, it bothers me that there is a large amount of "redemptions" of terrible parents or family members against their child (or similar storylines) where they are forgiven "because they're family." That's not redemption. That's forgiveness. And they are not (or shouldn't be) equal narrative (or real life) concepts.

#ask #jadethest0ne #redemption arcs #media talk

[dyspunktional-revan]

*shakes some writers by the shoulders* not every story about a man who is scary and some way and a woman who is trying to Fix him in some way is Beauty and the Beast

(For a little context, I am not talking about the stories’ endings and meta conclusions, I am talking about premises and general context and themes, and authors *saying* that their story is Beauty and the Beast when it’s. not. please.)

#leviathan.txt #media talk #verbal cliche cw

[system-of-a-feather]

As much of a cool badass TM I can be and all, the media I like literally is best summarized as "unapologetically every teenage boys fantasy on crack" - that summarizing in shit like John Wick and DMC. Just give me shit that is unapologetically fanservice to the teenage ape brain I have and Ill slam that shit on my favorites list, I promise.

Yeah I have my moments of refinement and pretentiousness like this whole system does, but really, I'm a pretty basic ass bitch in terms of things I like and I really don't think theres anything wrong with being a basic ass bitch - especially when you are dedicated and committed to said basic ass bitch

-XIV

#alter: xiv #media talk #dmc posting #john wick posting

[vforvalensa]

Day 4 of my One Piece Re-read. I'm on chapter 160 so I'll see how this turns out, but I feel like Luffy never learns the lesson Shanks tries to teach him about deescalation in the first chapter.

An this isn't like a failure of storytelling, but it's weird. Luffy goes through this formative traumatic experience that ends up with Shanks losing his arm, caused almost entirely by his failure to understand why Shanks wouldn't immediately respond to petty hostility with violence, and the for the rest of One Piece whenever Luffy meets a rude asshole he almost always immediately responds with violence. It's like if Spider-man never internalized "with great power comes great responsibility," but still ended up a superhero.

I'll see if im forgetting anything or if there's a case in the stuff after i stopped reading historically, but to my memory Luffy never deescalates a situation he's in ever. At best he can recognize when he's in the wrong or when he's not dealing with an irredeemably evil villain and not make things worse even if they're rude to him. Like that's what happens after he shoots a cannon ball through the Baratie and they make him be a chore boy, and that's my read of why Luffy is so non chalant about Nami telling the strawhats to fuck off during Arlong Park.

I also think that this gets complicated because Luffy always gets proven correct to immediately beat the shit out of every dickhead he comes across. Like this behavior is exactly what leads Luffy to become one of the greatest single forces of revolutionary liberation in the One Piece world almost entirely on accident.

I'm really looking forward to whenever Luffy and Shanks meet up again, cause while I don't have perfect knowledge of current material, I do know that Shanks has only been made more important and I'm so interested in seeing if this contrast between the two of them is ever addressed.

#one piece #luffy #monkey d. luffy #red hair shanks #shanks #op #eiichiro oda #manga #anime #media analysis #media talk #shonen #anime and manga #long post #one piece reread

[raviosprovidence]

i got blocked by someone over this but critiquing media that has sex in it/critiquing the sex itself is not automatically puritan. Sex negativity is not pointing out that most popular pieces of media that have sex in it are overwhelmingly white, straight, cis, and able bodied. Sex negativity is not pointing out that it is a problem that swathes of people (usually younger women) cannot read fictional books without there being some sort of ~spicy~ scene in it. What IS puritan is someone saying all sex is bad INHERENTLY/there shouldn't be sex depicted anywhere in media at ALL.

#anti booktok #booktok #booktube #media talk #media critical #media criticism #purity culture #purity wank #might expose them for being unable to read my argument after they accused me of not being able to read #and go off about what my actual argument is #but i need to keep to the art of being an ethical hater

[spicebiter]

Well I watched Hazbin Hotel (pirated ofc) because I saw the first bit of it was done and I prefer to know the source material than take others word as gospel when something is being talked about. There's interesting aspects and certainly some things are done pretty well mostly with the voice acting and some sequences being well choreographed and every now and then a catchy tune. But overalllllll I get the vibe that some things were fleshed out that weren't in the original blueprint and they really stick out from what rings of the pilot and Vivienne's past work. Perhaps some things were edited to be better when she got to be a better writer and the rest was left in the dust but I'm more inclined to think the heavy lifting in the writing portion was done either by or at the behest of others.

Even with what I thought was pretty good about it in mind it doesn't tip the scales quite enough, though. Vivienne's solo worked has always smacked as fairly shallow and using shallow work as a foundation to try and make something genuine and well intentioned tends to leave you with mixed results, I think. The pacing and tone suffer quite a bit trying to balance intrigue and genuine feeling with the trademark edge and overpopulated style, making many scene transitions a bit jarring and uncomfortable. For all of the well done animation and artwork it's still a bit of a headache to look at and, although it doesn't always happen, many shots are far too close to either look good in general or convey action properly. I suppoooose its an acquired taste all in all but it just doesn't really have any sticking power as a whole

#i always gotta have shit to say ig #hazbin hotel #spiced #media talk #wonder if i have a chance of getting hate on this like i did for drakengard 2 #that one threw me for such a loop i cant anticipate what gets people pressed at all

[gorillacampflow]

TreeHouse "FRIDAY NIGHT" LB x FLOW

#youtube #treehouse podcast #Flow #LB #live recording #music #hiphop #rap #freestyle #2022 #urban report #community #media talk #social issues #life #family #struggle #motivation #humble beginnings #420 club #smokehour #independent label #gorilla camp records #upcoming artists

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

ran out of free anime am interested in to watch and not stay long enough for pay (because shortest time pay is month) so guess back to rewatch fate/zero (aka imo best fate series anime have watched)

#also please no advice on where pirate because those suggestions won’t work for where am anyway #+ …for legal reason. have not tried options #🍞.txt #media talk

[the73rdpostscript]

My fellow Trans horror fans, I present for your consideration: The Binary Monster House Double Feature.

1. Dog Soldiers (2002)

2. The Descent (2005)

2 films about groups of close companions who enter the home of monsters and then have to face the consequences. You get only 2 flavors: boys and girls. Everyone is a dirtbag, regardless of gender. Everyone is loyal to some degree, and the impact of gender on loyalty in crisis makes for good audience discussion.

I did this double feature with a friend today, and not only did we have an amazing time enjoying 2 competent, entertaining horror films. We had a fascinating conversation about the way the director of both films, Neil Marshall, chose to portray these various people. (The Descent has always been famous for being one of the few horror movies About Women Friends. But paired next to Dog Soldiers the approach to gender and friendship is both more stark and more satisfying.)

You could also call this double feature "Believable Monster Costumes" and "Neil Marshall used to be good at movies"

#a bit of terror is good for the soul #media talk