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milesluna · 5 months

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My Favorite Games of 2023.

Hi. Hello. Thanks ever so much for clicking on this page. Happy to have you.

First thing's first: I'm a little freak when it comes to video games. I don't feel the need to beat most games I play. From Software is one of my favorite studios in the industry and I've never finished a single one of their games. This means, fortunately, that I get to play a LOT more games than the average bear.

I've written up some blurbs about my top ten favorite games from 2023, but before that here's the list of every game I remember playing this year that left any sort of lasting impact on me (in no particular order):

Dead Space Remake Resident Evil 4 Remake F-Zero 99 Humanity Dredge Metroid Prime Remastered Anemoiaplois Alan Wake 2 Baldur’s Gate 3 LoZ Tears of the Kingdom Counter Strike 2 Hunt Showdown El Paso Elsewhere Jusant Slay the Princess| Remnant II The Finals Street FIghter 6 Lethal Company BattleBit Remastered Don’t Scream Homebody The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog Pizza Tower World of Horror Super Mario Wonder Mr. Sun’s Hatbox Fifa 23 Sea of Stars (Demo) Half-Life (25th Anniversary Update)

And the games I played that were NOT released in 2023:

Unpacking Persona 4 Golden Picross 7 The Order 1886 Shovel Knight Dig Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Spider-Man: Miles Morales Pac-Man Championship Edition DX Project Zomboid Quake LoZ The Minish Cap Drill Dozer Wario Land 4 Pokemon Pinball Resident Evil Revelations Summer of ‘58 Trackmania TwinCop We Were Here Visage Cursed Halo CE Half-Life 2 (I probably play this once per year) Witch Hunt Red Dead Redemption 2 Cyberpunk 2077 Borderlands 3 Brutal Legend Cultic Slay the Spire PUBG Rez Infinite Batman Arkham City Alan Wake Alan Wake: American Nightmare Max Payne LoZ: Majora’s Mask 3DS Metroid Prime Metroid Prime 2 Tunic Everhood Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII Remake GOODBYE WORLD Yakuza: Like a Dragon Critters for Sale Dome Keeper Phasmophobia Hades Nintendo Switch Sports

Now that you understand the kind of freak you're dealing with…

Let's dive into my top ten favorite games from this objectively fucked up year.

10. El Paso Elsewhere Developed by Texas indie studio Strange Scaffold, El Paso Elsewhere is a Max Payne-clone with vampires, an opinionated narrator, and lots and lots of bullet time. As a small studio punching well above their weight class, Strange Scaffold leans into abstract, PlayStation 1 minimalism when it comes to visuals and pairs them with a soundtrack that will make your hands sweat. The vibes are here and they're ready for the end of the world. I'm personally also a big fan of everything this studio stands for.

9. Mr. Sun's Hatbox I want you to imagine Metal Gear Solid V. Now I want you to imagine that game as a 2D, level-based, slapstick platformer you can play with up to three friends. If you think that sounds stupid, you'd be right. And it's beautiful. As you build up a secret army of soldiers with various skills (and disorders), you'll start to develop *favorites*. This game constantly asks if you're willing to send those favorites on a harrowing mission and risk losing them forever… or if you'd rather send an idiot you recently captured who blinks constantly and can't kill anyone without fainting.

8. Dredge Every year I feel like I find one game that falls into the “just one more round” category, and baby… Dredge was it for 2023. As a weary fisherman in strange waters, you'll make the most out of your 12 measly hours of sunlight only for your daily voyages to inevitably pull you into the darkness of night, and night is when things get weird. Rocks emerge from the fog that you swear weren't there before, your equipment malfunctions, and you're pretty sure you just saw something in the water… something big. Despite only containing a small collection of islands, the world of Dredge manages to feel vast - perhaps vast enough to swallow you whole.

7. Resident Evil 4 Remake I was curious to see what sort of changes would be made to the timeless classic and father of modern 3rd person shooters, Resident Evil 4. I wasn't let down. RE4 Remake takes all the things that didn't age well about the original, tossed them out, and replaced them with only good things. And MORE things! It's campy, fun, and better than a game of bingo.

6. Jusant I really feel like this one didn't get the recognition it deserves. Jusant is a rock climbing game that combines the quiet contemplation of Journey with the mechanical specificity of Death Stranding. Unlike Death Standing, though, there is very little story to interrupt your flow. There are plenty of collectible bits to find for those curious to learn more about what happened before the events of the game, but the environmental storytelling does most of the heavy lifting. For me, the joy of the game comes from how it feels. Right trigger controls your right hand grip, and left trigger controls left hand grip. Plan your route, manage your stamina, and climb high above the clouds in search of answers.

5. F-Zero 99 This. Shit. Slaps. I've never been a big F-Zero guy, but this MADE me one. The “battle royale”, 99 player format is the perfect fit for the ruthless, high octane world of the game. Races last about three minutes, and friend, they are the most intense, white-knuckled three minutes of your life. The decision to make your boost meter the same as your health meter started in F-Zero 64 (I believe), and it is so much more HARROWING in this game when another player could side-swipe you mere meters from the finish line and blow you to bits. Sadly it's only playable via Switch Online, but it made me cheer, laugh, and scream enough this year to earn a spot in my top 5.

4. Alan Wake 2 Remedy makes weird games that also manage to exist in the AAA space and for that I will forever love them. Although Alan Wake 2 resembles a 3rd person shooter survival horror, I'd honestly say it's more of a narrative game than anything else. There's sidequests, there's puzzles, there's upgradeable skills, but at the end of the day the characters, world, and story are what kept me playing. If you haven't checked them out recently, you should definitely watch a story recap of the original games before diving into this sequel, but the wild swings for the fences this game takes are well worth that small price of admission. There's a god damn musical number, for Christ's sake.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom I've really got nothing to say about this game that most people don't already know. It's incredible. The fact that Nintendo made a game that redefined an entire genre and then made a SEQUEL to it that ups the ante is remarkable. To be honest, I've only cleared the Rito, Zora, and Goron cities. I got a bit tired of exploring the depths and guiding Koroks to their friends, but I can't deny the sheer level of complexity and polish on display here. I saw someone on TikTok build a functioning Mecha Godzilla in this game. Good God. I've heard that the ending of this game is one of the best in the franchise, and if I'd seen it this year then it may have wound up higher on my list, but for the time being I'll continue picking up this masterpiece from time to time, chipping away at it until the day comes that I can finally smack the tits off thicc Ganondorf.

2. Half-Life (25th Anniversary Update) I know I'm gonna get shit for this, but I don't care. This year was the 25th anniversary of Half-Life and Valve released an update that made playing it (and it's online Death Match) much more accessible. I threw it on my Steam Deck out of curiosity, expecting to play for 20 minutes. I could not put it down. It is unbelievable how modern this game still feels. I simply had so much fun sprinting through the corridors of Black Mesa with a dozen weapons strapped to my back, blasting aliens and military Spec-Op chumps as a 24(?!) year old theoretical physicist.

1. Baldur's Gate III This game is fucked up, man. The sheer amount of writing in this game scares me. We can all talk about how BIG this game is, it deserves it, but the thing BG3 does better than any other role playing game I have ever experienced is actually encourage roleplaying. I've played through Act I four times now, with four different groups of friends, and it has felt fresh every time. I have seen the same events play out in so many different ways that it boggles the mind, but in every one of those play sessions I see players asking themselves “What would my lil guy do here?” rather than "what is the best thing to do here?" The game rewards players constantly for just trying shit and the D&D 5e rule set means playing like the character you said you were from the start leads to frequent Points of Inspiration. Maybe one day I'll see the end of this story (probably not), but I don't have to in order to feel a connection with BG3's world, characters, and most impressively, the characters I made myself.

Honorable Mentions for 2023

5. Dave the Diver 4. Homebody 3. Sea of Stars 2. Humanity 1. Super Mario Wonder

Top 5 Favorites NOT from 2023

5. Metroid Prime 4. Final Fantasy VII Remake 3. Cursed Halo (Halo CE Mod) 2. Red Dead Redemption 2 1. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (3DS)

Games I didn't have a chance to play from 2023 but still want to when I find more time...

Viewfinder Venba Chants of Sennaar Thirsty Suitors Hi-Fi Rush Moonring Armored Core VI Laika Aged Through Blood Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

OKAY THANKS BYE!

#video games #2023 #GOTY

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majimemegoro · 9 months

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Yakuza OC registry

The idea is to reblog this post and list your OC with just enough basic info so that others can easily name drop or reference them as an easter egg! feel free to also link any other more substantial informational posts you have; for this thread let's keep it nice and quick! I'll go first

Name: Kadokura Kenshi

Likely locations: Sapporo, Tokyo, Osaka

Active period(s): 1970s+. Depends on AU. hes alive or dead whenever he needs to be

Role: powerful CEO of Sapporo-based arms company Rachi Heavy Industries. Has ties with yakuza, but more or less a reputable businessman.

Likely first/quick impression: smiling, sharply dressed businessman.

More detailed impression: very strong jawline, short wavy black hair, gregarious and friendly—in a way acts more American than Japanese. Expressive hands.

Likely scenarios: being polite to service workers/giving good tips, schmoozing with powerful people, speaking foreign languages, getting very intoxicated at clubs or parties, (rarely) serial killing a homeless person or someone else 'no one will miss.'

Canon relationships: friends with Sagawa and Andre Richardson. Close professional relationship with Kitakata Daizo. Ties with Jingweon before the massacre. Knows all the yakuza brass in both Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance. Koga Matsuhisa started out as an intern with Rachi Heavy Industries and they're friends now.

What can you do : no holds barred. kill him brutally if you want. i will laugh heartily.

#yakuza oc #yakuza #ryu ga gotoku #rgg #kadokura kenshi #why am i putting this in the main game tags am i insane #we just need a yakuza OC network idk #you can find lots more about kadokura if you search his name in my blog i guess #memecomradeoriginal #im supposed to be working rn but my book is drying

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cybxr-nem3sis · 7 months

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[UPDATE]

CALL OF DUTY: MW OC: Azura "Doberman" Lee

Former Navy Seals and also, trained to became CIA Agent by his adoptive parents, Doberman was one of the agents that CIA has ever had, He was highly effective agent with every mastery in every aspects. Until he graduated from Navy Seals and join CIA with his adoptive parents and take a second job as Cybersecurity specialist. For five years, Kate Laswell recruited Doberman to Task Force 141, to join them for another assignments.

GENERAL

Name | Adriansyah Saputra Nadhirizzky I Gusti Agung Putra Aditya Adhiarja Redjosentono

Alias(es) | Azura(nickname given by his adpotive parents), Ardi or Mas Ardi( by his neighbours and friends)

Callsign | Doberman

Occupation | CIA, Navy Seals(formerly, discharged) Task Force 141, Matrial arts instructor, Cybersecurity Specialist/hacker.

Gender | Male

Birthday | February 14th

Nationality | American

Race | Mixed races, half Indonesian-American, half korean-japanese

Rank | Lieutenant(TF141), Operations Officer(CIA)

Place of Birth | New York, USA

Spoken Languanges | English is his second languange, He is mr. worldwide himself because he's a polyglot.

Sexuality | Bisexual

APPERANCE

Eye color | Ruby red

Hair color | Natural black

Height | 7'0/213cm

Build | kinda-bulky muscular

Blood type | A

Scars | on right eyes, left cheek, and side of his lips

Tattoos | Full on both arms and hands, 4 on the waist, 1 on the chest, and full back tattoo on his back

Fancast | Hiroyuki Sanada

FAVORITES

Color | Red

Food(s) | Jjangmyeon and katsudon

Drink | Rosemary tea

Song | Doin' time by Lana Del Ray

Flower | Rose

Hairstyle(s) | Manbun for casual days, ponytails for missions, and untied for works.

PERSONALITY

James bond like Personality, ISTJ | Doberman is highly intelligent, exceedingly cunning and diabolically independent. He also sensiable, calm, mature and sly. Although everyone always saw him as stoic and intimidating indivisual.

Loyal and Strong | Doberman is someone who consistently demonstrates honesty, reliability, and integrity. By keeping promises, maintaining confidentiality and acting ethically.

Intelligent | He is a man who is flexible in his thinking and can adapt to changes, he think before they speak or act, snd able to effectively manage his emotions.

Intimidating | Doberman always described as intimidating figure often overly domineering and cause others to feel threatened, overwhelmef or even scared.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Fighting style | Taekwondo, Karate, Commando Sambo, Capoeira, Brazillian jiu-jutsu, Pencak silat, Krav Maga, Judo

Weapon | Glock and Beretta gun

Distinct weapon | M-9 Bayonet for a fast movement and agility

Special Skills | Flexibility, communication, Espionage, exploiting computer hacker, Translator.

FAMILY

Status in family | Second oldest

Adoptive siblings | Jessica Smith Anderson, Liam Smith Anderson, Lucas Smith Anderson, Oscar Smith Anderson

Father | Evander Smith Anderson, retired CIA Agent, and iscurrently working as bartender

Mother | Ava Smith Anderson, retired CIA Agent, and is currently working as Doctor

Relationship | Being second oldest after Lucas, Doberman truly loves his family so much, he always understanding and protective indivisual to them. as become CIA Agent to grant Evander, his freedom.

Pet | Has a Doberdane (Doberman-Great dane mix dog) named Bolt.

CHARACTERS THAT BASED TO;

James Bond from James Bond series

Balalaika[Sofiya Pavlovna] from Black Lagoon

Jotaro Kujo fron Jojo Bizarre Adventures

Yor Forger from Spy x Family

Caveira[Taina Pereira] from Rainbow Six Siege/R6S

Black Widow from Avengers

Jessica Rabbit from Who Censored Roger Rabbit

John Mclane from Die Hard

John Rambo from Rambo series

Kiryu Kazuma from Yakuza series/Ryo ga Gotoku

TRIVIA

Doberman is a man, who has big and unbelieveable appetite, he sure eats alot of foods, buy he also aware to keep his body stay healthy

Despite his intimidating and stoic exterior, Doberman is good with kids! They're always see him as father/brother figure

a big an of metal bands and kpops

He likes to cooks! he can LITERALLY cook anything, Doberman wouldn't mind to cook you a meal

Sly as a fox and smart as a snake, that is everyone say to Doberman's personality. He always cunning man, who always clever at planning what he wants

After graduated middle school, Doberman and his adoptive parents decide to moved to Indonesia, Jakarta. Where Doberman continue his Junior ighschool to University.

Join a Paskibraka in Indonesian when he was 15 years old.

While staying in Jakarta, when he was a little boy, Doberman always like to plays in the middle of the rains with his childhood friends, until he get sick.

Spicy foods lover, especially Seblak.

When Doberman accidently hurt or suprised, he always let out a cursed in each languages, mainly Indonesian or Japanese.

Doberman likes to tied his hair than let it rest on his shoulder.

Background Story

Born and abandonned in the Street of New york, Azura had always felt like an orphan, left in the street of New York City since he was a newborn. Growing up on the streets, he was no stranger to a life of hard knocks and never knowing where he would find his next meal or a safe place to rest.

He eventually joined the Navy Seals when he came of such young age. His skills and determination earned him a reputation of excellence, and a discharge with honors. He settled in America and soon enough his dedicated attitude was noticed by an unlikely source - ex-CIA agents.

The agents, impressed with his military background, saw the potential in him and decided to do something extraordinary. They adopted him. This was the start of a new, more secure life for Azura and a chance at a better future.

The missions he undertook were never easy, and his courage and skill saved thousands of lives. Thanks to Azura's converted status and adopted family, his life had come full circle.

Trained in the ways of espionage, Azura quickly rose through the ranks to become a full-fledged CIA agent. His ability to crack codes and negotiate peace was second to none. Yet, he felt something was missing. He decided to take a second job as a cybersecurity specialist. His work brought him into the public eye, and soon enough he caught the attention of Kate Laswell, the leader of Task Force 141.

Laswell begged him to join the elite unit and promised that his skills would be put to good use. Azura agreed and for the first time, he felt a real sense of belonging. Sworn to secrecy and honor, he worked alongside the greatest minds in the world, protecting the freedom of the people of the United States of America.

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

#call of duty #cod mw2 #call of duty oc #cod oc #oc art #oc: doberman #illustration #original character #original art #dark aesthetic

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olderthannetfic · 1 year

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Being in online book fandoms are always just really, really wild because on the one hand, there are the toxic YA people who use #ownvoices and "representation" as a bludgeon to attack anyone who doesn't pass their purity test because they read or write books with transgressive themes. Then on the other side, there are the pseudo-edgy, pseudo-intellectuals who think they're better than the tenderqueers because they don't write or read "squeecore" in AO3 House Style (thanks for naming that, btw) and they like sex and gore in media. But now there's an article tearing certain book spaces apart because of the journalist being a real asshole to famous author Brandon Sanderson--but this is okay, I guess, because eventhough he's tried to learn more about queer people and depict us honestly in his works, he's Mormon. I have my own dislikes towards mormonism, but so many of the people heckling or Christians and Catholics... How exactly is that any different? If you have to jump through hoops to justify in your mind why it's fine to treat someone like a human being, you might be one of the reactionaries you hand-wring about. Turns out, the uwu-too-precious-tenderqueer-antis/"American Feelings Yakuza" and the pseudo-intellectual-antisqueecore people are two sides of the same coin on book twitter. Both sides refuse to let people grow and change, and both fall back on moral posturing to make anyone else shut up. Slightly different, but ultimately the same.

Twitter is for people with the attention span of a gnat.

Books are the opposite.

Book twitter was a mistake.

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sirthisisa-wendys · 1 year

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stomp on my heart with a final part? What’s Rindou’s choice? I’m on the edge of my seat 🥲🥺

I appreciate you and your work❤️

Life is...: Rindou Haitani x Fem!Reader

Life Is Lonely Lovely (part 1)

Life is Lovely Lonely (part 2)

masterlist

wc: 983

tw: fluff

Rindou stares at the doors of the prison, waiting. Waiting. Waiting. The beep that signals his release finally goes off after what feels like eons, and he moves forward, sort of fleshed out in his old clothes.

I needed him to come to the prison.

Rindou shuffles forward with ease, sighing as the cool winter air hits his body.

There was something you missed.

Another step, another breath. He touches his unkempt locks with reverence, noting their blonde hue briefly before he picks his feet up again. A few more paces and he would be free.

But as he walks, Rindou recalls the re-trial that led to this moment.

"Mr. Haitani," the defense attorney spoke, looking from her papers to Rindou's eyes. "How did you come to know your family was being held captive by your brother?"

Ran, there was something you missed.

"He visited me in prison," Rindou said into the court's microphone, a slim little thing he thinks might miss his voice. "He showed me a picture of them."

"And what did he tell you when you saw the picture?"

"That I abandoned him."

"Did he say anything else, Mr. Haitani?"

"He told me that in order to get out..." Rindou paused, looking at his shaking hands. "I had to divorce my wife and return to Japan with him." The attorney nodded her head sympathetically, and Rindou felt the sympathy of others in the audience.

"And why didn't you do that?" Flashbacks of Bonten's horrors made Rindou's heart rate spike. Images of bodies, blood-stained concrete floors, and Sanzu's maniacal laugh replayed like a bad record in his mind.

"I don't want to go back to that life." His voice was small, as if he had reverted back to a child in less than a second. "I just want my family back."

Family Of Three Held Hostage In Japan by Yakuza Boss

American Family Kept in Syndicate Boss's Home

Rindou read each headline as the jury decided the facts. Pictures of his family - him, you, and your two boys - were splashed on the front pages of large-scale newspapers. His name was everywhere. At one point, Rindou would have paid a pretty penny to keep his name out of publications. But it seemed he couldn't get enough attention.

Acquittal for Husband Accused of Making His Family Disappear

"Mr. Haitani, how do you feel about your brother's actions?"

"Mr. Haitani, is there anything you want to say about Bonten this evening?"

Mr. Haitani, Mr. Haitani, Mr. Haitani...

Rindou didn't care about the questions or the people who wanted to know his side of the story beyond what he could say in court. All he wanted was...

"Dad!" Rindou's mind focuses back in on the present, and he spots his children - so grown up - standing just outside the prison gates, holding a poster board with stick figures and a sun and--

Rindou gasps, feeling the tears prick at his eyes before he can wipe them away. The final buzz to the gate rings out in the empty prison yard. Every nerve in Rindou's body screams for him to stop, to pause for a second, and assess his new-found freedom. But he breaks off at a run, holding his arms out for his boys and squeezing them so tight that he's sure he'll never let them go.

Tears and kisses on cheeks and foreheads are exchanged in rapid succession. "You are so big," he croaks, looking at his children's faces with awe. "You haven't been giving your mother any trouble, have you?"

"None," the youngest affirms, showing his missing teeth despite his snotty face. "We've been good, dad."

You forgot one thing, Ran. They're American citizens.

Extradition had been all but assured.

Ran found himself abandoned by Bonten when his secondary crime came to light, and the same prison Rindou had been freed from moments before now houses his older brother. By Rindou's request, of course.

"He's still my brother," he told the judge. "Despite what he did, I'd still like to see him from time to time. Maybe I could help reform him."

"You're optimistic about a convicted criminal," the woman sighed. "But your request is granted."

As the boys finish their reunion, Rindou sees you leaning on the car, your face split in two by your grin.

"It's been a while, Mr. Haitani," you tease, crossing your arms over your chest. "Blonde hair suits you."

"You think?" Rindou wonders, chuckling. You take a step closer to him and take something out of your jacket pocket before handing it to him. Rindou looks down at his old glasses, the ones he wore before he switched to contacts.

"You'd also look good with these on." You place them on his face without asking, and Rindou's eyesight adjusts ever so slightly.

"All the better to see you with, my dear." He pulls you close and kisses your lips, relishing the feeling of your warm skin and floral scent. "Thought I would never see you again."

"I knew I'd see you again," you reply, smoothing his unruly hair away. "If there's anything I learned while on your brother's property, it's that you've always found a way out."

You kiss him one more time and then usher the boys into the waiting car. Rindou takes the passenger seat and buckles up, inhaling the scent of freedom and settling into the feeling.

"It won't feel like you're free for a while," you state, adjusting the rearview mirror. "But I'll be here to remind you now and again." When the radio comes on, Rindou feels some of his worry and fear slip away into nothingness as you take him away from the prison and back to your loving home.

You forgot another thing, Ran, Rindou writes in his first letter to his brother. Don't you know that a man will do anything to be with his family?

#rindou haitani x reader #rindou haitani #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyo revengers

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skrunksthatwunk · 5 months

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yakuza: dead souls - american vibes, bigass guns, and why zombies are super weird to have in ryu ga gotoku thematically/ideologically speaking

so i've been playing dead souls recently (hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah) and although i'm having the time of my life with it, there was something about it that kinda felt off to me, and i think i've figured out what it was, but i'm gonna have to walk you through a bit of my thought process to get there.

my first instinct was that it felt... american? and upon further examination i think that boils down to a couple of things:

everyone suddenly has lots of guns and also way way bigger guns

high emphasis on individual heroism (this itself is quite typical for rgg, but it manifests differently here; more on that in a bit)

military/government incompetence, which must be solved by the right individuals having the biggest and bestest guns

[for the sake of transparency i will note that my experience with zombie media is pretty limited and skews american (and i myself am american), so that may create bias. however, the 'this feels american to me' instinct is a rare one for me even in genres where i have seen little/no non-american media, so i think the fact that it did occur to me is notable. what about dead souls triggered that response when little else has? that's why i examined it and, truthfully, i think there's merit in the idea itself.]

the first point is pretty self-explanatory. america's got more guns than it does people, and its gun worship is infamous. japan's ban on guns (aided by its being an island state) means there's far fewer guns in the country, as well as far fewer people with guns (and likely far fewer guns per gun owner, excepting arms dealers/smugglers) than somewhere without such a ban. obviously, there are guns anyway. due to their illegality they are clustered within the criminal population, which explains their presence within organized crime within the series. very few guns will be sitting around in the homes of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

and yet, when the zombie outbreak hits kamurocho, plenty of civilians suddenly have access to quite an arsenal. everyone has the knowledge they need to aim, fire, and reload smoothly and quickly; ammo is infinite for certain guns. characters we've never seen using firearms before suddenly have shotguns under their couches (looking at you, majima). it's not only very different from reality, it's very different from guns' place within the series up until this point, when they were limited weapons used primarily by the enemy.

and they're making a zombie shooter, so of course they would have to do this. it has to be unrealistic to be simultaneously in this setting and in this genre, in the same way that yakuza solving their problems with bareback fistfights instead of guns is itself both unrealistic and necessary to being the kinds of games rgg are.

my point is that this is a kind of focus on and valorization of gun ownership and competency unusual for the series and setting. further, it serves as an argument for why an armed, competent populace is crucial typical in american media.

which brings us to the third point (we'll get to 2 in a minute). guns are often marketed as self-defense weapons. the implication is that the government's defense of the individual (via law enforcement or the military, but particularly the former), are insufficient. this is objectively true. if someone pulls a gun on you at the gas station, will a cop manifest out of thin air to intercede? no. that's impossible. but if you have a gun, or if some bystander has a gun, you or they may be able to do something with that gun to stop the armed person. thus, there is an undeniable gap in the effective immediacy of such responses.

many gun advocates also point to the incompetence or insufficiency of law enforcement, even when they are present to stop an armed aggressor. the fact that law enforcement do not have a 100% success rate in protecting the citizenry is also objectively true.

so, when you are in danger, arming yourself increases your chances of being able to put down (or at least take armed action against) a present or potential threat. whether it is viewed it as a supplement to or a replacement for law enforcement, it is meant to make up for the shortcomings of the government's ability to completely protect all its citizens. it's a safety net for state failure.

back to dead souls. rgg has always centered political corruption in its stories, including politicians, the police, and sometimes even the military, though usually the former two. sometimes this is treated sympathetically (i.e. tanimura, a dirty cop, whose dirty-cop-ness allows him to work outside/against the law to help disadvantaged people, not unlike how kiryu views being a yakuza), and other times it's simply a matter of greed or lust for power (i.e. jingu).

however, something that's almost never touched on so clearly is government incompetence. when the government fails to help people or hurts them or does corrupt things, it's usually due to a competent, malicious bad apple who is removed from power by the end of the game. this implies holes in the system because it keeps happening all the time, but that's on a series-wide scale, a pattern ignored by the series in favor of the individual game solution of "this guy's gone now :) yay".

but in dead souls, the SDF's barracades fall, their men are killed, they are unable to help protect the people outside or inside the quarantine zone. they are weak in a way the government usually isn't in these games. and who is stronger than them? our individual good guys with guns. so we need to be armed because the government is weak and can't protect us. boom. america.

returning to point 2, i'd like to say that dead souls is not particularly more individualistic than any of the other games in the series (other than, perhaps, y7). rgg is an incredibly individualistic series, actually. its protagonists are usually men who defy, oppose, and skirt around the law as a way of helping others and doing what is truly right (with a few exceptions, like shinada and haruka). the romanticized view of the yakuza as a force for helping the community in the face of government incompetence is a real one, and one that tends to manifest itself most in kiryu and how the series treats him. it shows us yakuza who aren't willing to kill, yakuza who cry about honor and justice and humanity and brotherhood, yakuza who never dip their hands into less palatable crimes, or only do with intense regret (and only ever as part of their backstory). the beat-em-up style emphasizes this as well. i mean, what's more individualistic than a one-man army?

put more clearly, this series is about men defying legal and social laws and expectations to live in a way that feels right to them, and about making themselves strong enough to combat those who would get in their way. the individual is placed before the society in importance, (though generally in a way that benefits the community, because they are good guys who want to use that agency and power for good).

all of this is true in dead souls as well, technically. those who live on the outskirts of society are the ones who actually save the day, and the ones who go in there and save people rather than just walling them off and pretending like they don't exist. they have the guns, which are illegal and mark them as criminals, but this broken law is what gives them the power to save themselves when the government will not, and to save their community if they so choose.

where dead souls differs is in the nature of that strength.

rgg places a lot of emphasis on self-improvement, both of one's body and of one's character. do both of these, and you will be strong enough to back up your ambitions. what allows someone to carve their own path in life is the ability to put down ideological and physical resistance by having resolve and the ability to tiger drop whoever won't be swayed by your impassioned speeches. you make yourself a weapon. you make yourself strong. in dead souls, that strength comes from an external, material possession. strength is something you buy (or that you take from someone else). who is able to survive the apocalypse comes not from the heart, nor from rigorous training, but from who has the most, the biggest, and the most bestest guns. it's an intersection of capitalism, militarization, and individualism. simply, deeply american.

[when i was talking myself through this a few days ago, i spent a lot more time on the capitalism + individualism stuff, but i think i'll keep this moving. consider this aside the intermission]

dead souls also differs for a few other interlocking reasons. it can be described with this equation:

zombification of enemies + lethality of guns = loss of emphasis on redemption

if your best friend turned into a zombie, could you shoot them? or your child? or your lover? it's a common trope, but it's a damn good one. watching your family, your neighbors, your town, everyone turn into a husk of themselves, something that looks like them but cannot be reached, is deeply tragic. it's even more tragic when these husks are trying to kill you. unable to be reasoned with and unable to be cured, you must incapacitate them before someone innocent is hurt--or hurt, then themselves made dangerous; each loss adds to the number of threats surrounding you. your life is seen as more valuable than that of your zombified friend, not only because the zombie is attacking you and it's self defense, but because they are no longer a person to you. to be a zombie is to no longer be human; zombification is dehumanization.

and so in a series so focused on connection with one's community, on saving innocent civilians, often on saving kamurocho specifically, one would expect similar tropes to occur. even if one's friends aren't turned, perhaps the cashier at poppo you chat with sometimes is. it's the destruction of that community and of the members one has tertiary relationships with that i expect would occur most within a kamurocho zombie story, since they are likely unwilling to axe anyone more important than that, even if dead souls isn't canon. i'd especially expect to see that in the beginning, before the need to kill zombies rather than contain or redeem them becomes apparent.

this does not happen.

i cannot speak for the entire game, but i can speak of gameplay choices that affect this, and ones i think will not be subverted throughout, even if they are somewhat contradicted by plot events i am presently unaware of.

kamurocho is not a community to protect, nor is it filled with your fellows. it is a playground filled with infinitely respawning, infinitely mow-downable, infinitely disposable zombies. you are meant and encouraged to kill them by the thousands, and never to hesitate or consider whether they may be cured or who may be mourning them. who may be unable to identify their loved one because you were trying to reach a headshot goal from hasegawa. you are not meant to consider them as human, nor beings that were once human, nor beings that could be human again, in the eyes of the zombie shooter. they are merely bodies, targets, and obstacles.

the zombies are contrasted with the true humans, those barricading themselves within the quarantine zone or those living in ignorance outside it. humans are meant to be saved, zombies are meant to be killed. the player character is the only one who can truly help with either of these goals, because the other humans are cowardly, ignorant, or unarmed/helpless. you must be their savior. to be a savior is to eliminate zombies, who are less than human.

the black and white nature of this is also emphasized by another gameplay characteristic: the lack of street encounters. when you traverse the peaceful parts of kamurocho, you are never attacked. you are also never directly attacked by the humans within the quarantine zone. kamurocho feels very different without its muggers and hooligans, but it's because this is a zombie shooter, not a beat-em-up. in a normal rgg title, you'd subdue threats by punching, kicking, and throwing them. you'd use your body in (supposedly) nonlethal ways. dead souls does not have a combat system meant for civilians. you have your guns. you subdue threats by shooting them, preferably lethally. the game doesn't want you to do that to humans, so you never fight humans. this furthers the black and white divide between the salvation-worthy, noble humans and the death-worthy, worthless zombies. combat is only lethal, and only used against the inherent other.

this leads me to the part of dead souls i find most conflicting with the ethos of rgg broadly, and perhaps its greatest ideological/thematic failing.

because the enemy are incurable, dangerous, and inhuman, you must kill them to protect yourself and others, others who are still human. humanity is something that is lost or preserved, but never regained. once someone's gone, they're gone, and you not only must kill them, it is your duty and your right to kill them. you should kill them.

in dead souls, there is no redeeming the enemy.

and that's a big problem.

rgg is about a lot of things, but a key one is the ability of people to change for the better. its most memorable, beloved villains are those who see the light by the end and change their wicked ways (usually through some form of redemptive suicide, though that's another essay in itself). its pantheon of characters is full of those who come from questionable backgrounds struggling to be the best people they can be, to live as themselves authentically and compassionately. it's about the good and the love you can find in the moral and legal gray zones of life/society, and the potential/capacity for good all of us have, no matter how far we may have fallen. it is a hopeful series. it is a merciful series.

this is something bolstered by its gameplay. countless substories are resolved by punching a lesson into someone until they improve their behavior, either out of fear or genuine remorse/development. the games don't just discourage killing your enemies, they don't allow you to (yes, we've all seen the "kiryu hasn't killed anybody? umm. look at this heat action" stuff before, and while they've got a point, i believe it's the narrative's intent that none of this is actually lethal, based on how laxly it treats certain plot injuries (cough cough. y7 bartender) and the actual concept of taking a life, the gravity it is given by the text, particularly when it comes to characters crossing that threshold into someone who has killed. explicit killing is not an option open to you, even when you're being attacked by dozens and dozens of armed men. conflicts are resolved by simply beating up enough guys in this nonlethal manner.

but dead souls is a shooter. to avoid conflict with the series' moral qualms about letting its characters kill, the enemies cannot be human. furthermore, the zombie shooter genre can only fit within the series if its zombies are completely inhuman. this means their pasts as humans cannot be acknowledged, nor the possibility of a cure, nor the characters' own potential conflicts about killing them; or, at least, not in a way that impedes their or the player's ability to gun them down afterwards.

if you can't kill humans in your series, then it cannot be possible to save (in this case, rehumanize) zombies. this is especially true in a game where you are unable to fight humans, and thus human lives are universally more valuable than zombie lives. because if you kill a zombie that can be cured, you are, in a way, killing a human.

and so, in a series where you should always assume your enemies (and everyone, for that matter) are capable of reason, compassion, change, and redemption, and where they are always worth that effort, even if they reject it in the end, dead souls' enemies are irredeemable and only worth swift, stylish slaughter. there are only good guys and bad guys. good guys must be protected, lest they be turned irreversibly into bad guys. good guys are only protected by killing bad guys, and the only way to save good guys is to kill every last one of the bad guys. do not spare them, and do not ask whether or not it's right. only kill.

i love dead souls. it's a silly game. i like seeing daigo in decoy-drag and majima gleefully cartwheeling his way through zombies and ryuji with his giant gun arm prosthetic. it's fun. but when i was trying to figure out what felt off about it to me, one of the words that came to mind (besides american) was indulgent. that, too, felt odd, because i love indulgent media. i am not one to scorn decadent, hedonistic, beautiful high-calorie slop type media. if dead souls was just fan servicey, that wouldn't really bother me. i am a fan and boy do i feel serviced. it rocks. but i think my problem is in what dead souls is indulging.

i think dead souls indulges in the desire to cut loose, and to see these characters cut loose. thing is, they're cutting loose all over kamurocho, and all over the bodies of people they used to (at least in concept) care for. with lethal weapons. it is catharsis via bloodbath, not by pushing your body and mind to the limit in man to man combat, but by pulling a trigger before the other guy can hurt you, or even think about hurting you, for the crime of existing as the wrong kind of thing.

and i just don't think that's in line with rgg's beliefs.

yes, it's probably fair for dead souls' characters to kill zombies. i'm not against that. i'm also not against games letting you do purposeless violence. i spent a good amount of my elementary school years killing oblivion npcs for shits, like. that's not what bothers me about dead souls.

rgg as a series has always taken a hard stance in both its game design and narrative choices against killing and for the potential for redemption in its enemies. and i think the lengths to which it goes to promote that despite the probably-lethal moves you do and the improbability of a harmless do-gooder yakuza is one of the most endearing things about the games. so for this one entry to disregard that key theme for the sake of a genre shift that flopped super hard, well? i dunno. it feels weird i guess. it's out of place not just because it's a dramatic shift in gameplay and style and also zombies are only a thing here (and the supernatural/fantastical are thus only prominent here), but because of what those shifts imply.

so, uh. yeah. my pre-dead-souls thoughts that dead souls wasn't that out of pocket bc rgg's just kinda weird? turns out it was actually super weird to have a zombie shooter in there, but for way way deeper reasons than anyone gives it credit for.

(footnotes in tags)

#1) i deemphasized the physicality of shooting to emphasize my points about the viscerality and personal nature of rgg #brawls and the colder more detached nature of gun use relative to that but i do NOT mean that shooting has no physical component to it #obviously it takes a lot of skill to shoot quickly and accurately and lugging a bigass gun around kamurocho would tucker me out for sure #2) no i don't think all those things i said were american were usa-exclusive. it's a big world out there. i'm just saying those things #combined feel like a particularly american flavor of thing to me #3) there's probably more to be said about the connection between wanton killing and american styling or anti-immigration theming in zombie #stories or dead souls But i figured that was a bit too disconnected to the funny zombie game. this shit was a lot anyway y'know?#4) also i don't think most of this was intentional on the part of rgg studios. i genuinely think they just wanted to make a fun zombie #shooter and didnt really think about it all that hard. whenever you make smth there's gonna be implications you never considered. it happen #5) is it ballsy to write a giant essay on a game i'm like 1/4 the way through? yes. i've done smarter things. i'll revisit it when im done #if i'm wrong then i'll figure it out probably. but like. i don't think they'd set up the hasegawa objective stuff or have akiyama just #unflinchingly start shooting zombies and then later challenge that. we'll see but my hopes aren't high y'know? i know rgg #6) i should also clarify that violent catharsis is a) a part of all rgg games and b) cool as hell. it's the lethal bit that doesn't fit with #the series y'know?#rgg #ryu ga gotoku #yakuza #like a dragon #yakuza dead souls #dead souls #classic skrunk 4 hr middle of the night impulse essay hooorayy

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cookinguptales · 9 months

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Oh, travel ask! Did you make that call (i think it was?) about if they were cool with your dad in the spa for his tattoos?

Oh, I didn't think I'd get travel asks! I'm always happy to talk about travel, haha.

I had to fuckin SEARCH, tbh. I did find a phone number, but I don't have great hearing so I struggle with phone calls sometimes. I always prefer to communicate via text when possible. (I also know a little JSL, but that wasn't really helpful either lmao.) I kept looking for emails or question forms at the tourism board for the little onsen town.

Eventually, I went to their IG and sent them a DM in Japanese like "okay, we're American, we're visiting, and my dad has a couple small tattoos! are there any inns in town/public baths that will allow him in?"

(The fact that we're visibly non-Japanese was actually useful information here; people offer visible foreigners a lot more leeway with this rule because they know you're operating off of different cultural standards. Japanese tattoos are often evidence of, if not criminal activity, then... I guess a person choosing not to visibly separate themselves from people involved in that lifestyle. (Yakuza, etc.) But if they know you're coming from a very different framework, they won't feel that you're trying to frighten/offend anyone. It's kind of complicated, I guess.)

And I'd kind of resigned myself to getting no answer because the IG was not often updated, but I did finally get an answer!!! We were really lucky because only two inns out of the entire town did allow tattoos and by chance I'd chosen one of them. Phew!

That said, I'd kind of worked a backup plan into the reservations if they weren't going to let him in day-of. I booked an inn that had a private bath you could book! So no one would even see the tattoos. :)

More and more ryokan and public baths are allowing tattoos, especially when they're on foreigners, but we're still bringing coverup bandages just in case. Sometimes they're fine with it as long as you cover them up.

#the idea of anyone finding my father's tattoos scary is... kind of laughable tbh #one of them is just straight-up little totoros so...#one is a zipper tab that he had placed at the bottom of a large scar as a joke #to make his cancer surgery scar look like a big zipper #and one he got on his shoulder when he was in New Zealand #apparently he went to a Maori tattoo artist and was like #'I love your art but idk what's culturally respectful as a white person so can you help me choose something'#and the guy talked to him a while and found out dad's an avid fisherman so he gave him a stylized fish hook on his shoulder #and that's it. :)#the travel bug #replies

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everglow-synth · 30 days

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@mortau asked way too many questions 6, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22

Damn, dude. Alright, let's do this.

Other characters/muns you’re interested in roleplaying with?

Frankly, if I had to pick one group of characters, it'd be Yakuza. I want to get more use out of my Yakuza muses over on my multimuse. That being said, as far as characters and muns go, I'm usually pretty open and I really enjoy OCs.

Would you get along with your muse?

I'd like to believe so. I won't go as far as to say that Matthew is a self-insert(I mean for starters, he's Brazilian-American, I'm white as shit), but I do have a lot of similar interests to him. Now whether that was intentional or just a side effect of him being my muse is up in the air, but I have a feeling he and I would be pretty chill.

What’s your opinion on blog themes? How do you feel about your own?

I feel like blog themes can be neat, but I think they're a pain in the ass to deal with. I'm kinda neutral on the ones I'm using right now, and I think the coolest one I have right now is over on the reboot blog, @everglow-synth-reboot, but even then because of the HTML lock shit that tumblr implemented, I've just moved onto using a Carrd anyway. It's gotten to the point where my newest sideblog, @golden-lynel, doesn't even have a theme, and is dash only.

What’s something that would make you unfollow a mutual?

Truth be told, there aren't a whole lot of things? I tend to be fairly chill, and I also more or less vet my potential mutuals? But as a hypothetical thing it'd probably be just outright harassment as a big thing. There's a whole slew of others I could think of, ranging from stuff like actual predatory behavior to just being a petty piece of shit, but I don't think I've really run into that problem overall.

Three big no-nos to do or say to your muse. (their ‘berserk button’)

Hurting his friends is a huge thing. Hurting anyone definitely due to his heroic nature, but those closer to him are much more precious.

Threatening the Lounge itself. This is his baby, he put in a lot of work to make the place a comfy spot for people, and he's not going to let it go down without a fight.

To a lesser extent, "You won't; no balls." Because then he'll do it, and when he succeeds, he's going to be super annoying about it.

Three interesting little tidbits or facts of your muse.

Matthew, and Polycus as a whole, was made based off of a Dungeons & Dragons 5e supplement known as Lasers & Liches. It's very fun, I highly recommend it if you play 5e. It turns the whole game into a silly Saturday Morning Cartoon, complete with new classes based on stuff like Sailor Moon and Kamen Rider. This is why magic is a huge part of the world, as well as stuff like dwarves, elves and orcs being present in Neo Arcadia.

He once swallowed a quarter on a dare. It took three minutes of him choking, drinking water, and nearly throwing up to get it down. He doesn't know what happened to it. He is still scared to this day.

Despite living there most of his life, Matthew still gets lost in Neo Arcadia sometimes. It gets so bad that he literally needs to climb up the highest building he can find just to get his bearings, usually meaning following billboards and business signs to get around.

#;distant beats (ooc)#mortau

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andmaybegayer · 11 months

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Project “Let’s watch every single Fast & Furious movie”

This was. A very, very stupid movie. Easily the most influential one we've done so far but it is NOT good.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

This movie starts at a high school so we're already off to a bad start. Sean, the most American human alive, gets into a petty street race and to avoid going to jail is sent to live with his dad in Japan. He immediately starts getting into street racing somehow involving not the Yakuza, but a guy whose uncle is Yakuza. I bet his other uncle works for Nintendo too. The most American man alive is constantly bewildered by this strange oriental wonderland but not so bewildered that he does not Americanly barge into situations and make high stakes bets that he has zero idea how to pull off.

His ass is not 17!

You simply cannot efficiently blend "The actual Yakuza are here moving tens of thousands of dollars" and "17 year olds getting into fights over MP3 players".

Sean here has the most impossibly American accent, every time he opens his mouth you're like what in the goddamn was that, where did that come from. I have no idea if that's just how the actor talks or if he's affecting it.

This movie trades very highly in flash, exoticism and admittedly well shot driving scenes. The first race in Japan is stupendous car gore, absolutely wrecking a very fancy Nissan Silvia that feels like it was designed to make everyone cringe. Drifting is just implicitly cool, even if the bizzare chase-drifting used in some of the action scenes looks extremely silly.

There once again is an absolutely banal plot! Sean gets into debt with Han, one of the Drift King's lieutenants who is also secretly betraying the Drift King. Han is extremely gracious about letting Sean pay off his debts because... I guess because a brazen American is the only person who is willing to get into races with the Drift King. It's not entirely clear. There's a good run of training montages as Sean learns to drift, which is pretty much the core that holds this movie together, everything else is wild.

I'm not sure if this just feels bad because it's in comparison to the pretty solid movie that was 2 Fast 2 Furious but I feel like it's also bad when taken in isolation.

The rapper they put in this movie is Bow Wow who plays another 17 year old nicknamed "Twinkie" who is just called Twink by everyone all the time. It's. Certainly a writing decision you could make.

Tokyo Drift culturally was Initial D for the masses, it introduced the concept of drifting to a much, much wider audience, and you can see those effects take hold almost immediately. Need for Speed Carbon came out later the same year and introduced drifting as a major mechanic, you started seeing a lot more drift demos at car shows, and two years later Red Bull would have the 2008 Drifting Championship.

There's so many plot threads that just never resolve ever in this thing. Sean moves in with his estranged dad who is a navy man. He alludes to "his mistakes" and there's all kinds of setup for them to go back and forth and resolve their separation but it doesn't happen ever. There's a love interest who mostly serves as a source of friction between Sean and the Drift King but whose complicated history is kind of just smoothed over in a single scene. I think they tried to fit a good story and cool race scenes and realized they could only fit one, and went with race scenes. A lot more minutes of the movie are dedicated to driving shots than before.

I must once again stress that in theory this cast is mostly teenagers. It's not even that they look like 26 year olds, they are also constantly out driving at high speed surrounded by adults who don't seem to care that they're teens so it's like. What was the point. Why did we do this? Was it just to appeal to The Teens? You could fabricate any reason for an American driver to run away to Japan and have to learn how to drift, making him a teen was absolutely not necessary, and they don't do jack shit about them being teenagers! They all just act like adults who sometimes have to go to school for some reason! Bizzare choice.

There's no screenshots here because the only interesting scenes are driving, which are really meant to be seen in motion. That's basically the verdict. 3/10 good driving scenes.

#fast and furious #2 fast 2 furious #furious book report

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beatrice-otter · 1 year

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buddy, not all ships will resonate with all people. you can just admit this is ship war nonsense rather than leveraging moral contagion at people who ship things you don't like

Anon, did you read my post before looking for something to be outraged about? Where in the world did you get the idea that I don't like the big popular pairings? I am a polyfannish polyshipper, I like pretty much everything and have since I joined fandom. I read omnivorously. I do tend to write rarer characters and pairings, but even there I don't have one or five or even ten favorites, I have hundreds of them. This is not about me getting my fee-fees hurt that my blorbo isn't everyone's blorbo, and trying to find a Social Justice Buzzword to 'prove' that my blorbo is Morally Correct and everyone else's blorbo is Evil And Proves Your A Bad Person For Liking Them. People like that do exist! There are a lot of them! They're called "antis" and I love the new term "American Feelings Yakuza" because it is so accurate. But I am not one of them, and never have been.

I started reading fanfic online in the late 90s, and finally found a community I could connect to and get involved in in the mid 2000s. I have been hanging out in fannish spaces for over twenty years in one way or another. Spend that much time in a community, and you start noticing patterns. And one of the things that keeps happening is people keep saying "don't be negative, just love your fave and be positive and produce content and your corner of fandom will grow! if you build it they will come!" Which is mostly true (as I said in the post you're responding to), but there's a lot of nuance that almost never gets acknowledged, and I was trying to point out some of that nuance.

One. This sometimes works, and sometimes works in a huge way (I could name ships where a single fic launched a community that got people writing literally thousands of other fic about that ship). However, it doesn't always work. To people who have been in fandom pouring their heart and soul into really high quality creative work for their faves for years, saying "oh, if you're just nicer and try harder, you'll do it!" is patronizing at best. Some acknowledgement that it's not going to work that way for everyone would be good.

Two. Fandom, for all it prides itself on progressivism, is not immune to the biases of the larger society. And one of the ways you can see this is in the fact that certain types of characters--characters who fit the standard tropes, characters who have traits society values in regards to race, gender, class, and other factors--are way more likely to become popular than other types of characters. People are not bad for liking what they like, and shipping is not a moral imperative. You are not a better person for shipping a character of color than for shipping a white character. However, when we try to pretend that race and gender and all the rest don't matter, and that our fannish tastes aren't shaped by the racist and misogynist and ableist world around us, then we are failing to acknowledge reality as it exists.

Which is why, as an aside, I noted that "you should just be positive and produce content" has been used as a silencing tactic for people trying to discuss racism in fandom. Because in this context it says, either implicitly or explicitly (and yes, I have seen it used explicitly this way), that there is no racial disparity in fandom, and if there is, it's only the fault of fans of color. If they were nicer, if they produced more content, if they stopped pointing out when other fans are racist towards them, then fandom as a whole would care about their character. As if the only reason fandom doesn't like Black characters is that Black fans aren't positive enough, don't create enough, don't make a welcoming enough environment for white fans. I have seen this. More than once. In fact, I've seen it pretty much any time fans of color want to discuss racist trends in fandom or racism in fannish works.

I want to point this out so that people can be aware that this is a thing that exists. I want people to be aware of it. I want fans to be positive, and I want fans to create, and I want fans to love their faves whoever those faves might be and for whatever reason they might tickle your fancy. Just remember that being positive and creating great content are not the only factors! Sometimes a character or pairing is not going to be popular no matter how much a handful of people throw themselves into it. Please don't be patronizing to those fans. And also, please don't let this be an excuse for pretending that prejudice and bigotry don't exist within fannish spaces.

You: "Obviously, the only reason anybody could talk about any of that is that they're mad people don't like their blorbo and want to paint ships they don't like as evil."

But as it happens, while moral and ethical arguments in fandom are often weaponized by antis (and used in nonsensical ways that don't actually fit modern research on trauma, ethics, sexuality, race, etc, but fit perfectly with Victorian thought and also with 20th Century Moral Majority Conservative Christians), that doesn't mean that every person who points out moral and ethical issues in fandom is an anti who's just trying to disguise the real reason for their ship war.

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