If Eidos isn't going to give us more dream squad content, then i guess it's up to me.

@grotto-tome malik content

Original audio is from danielthrasher's tiktok

It has caught my attention that this week is Transgender Awareness week.

At FEMA, we strive to create a safe, welcoming, and supportive workplace for transgender individuals. We offer accommodation to support the needs of transgender and gender-diverse individuals. We make it clear to our employees that they will be respected and valued, regardless of their gender identity.

We will not accept any discrimination or harassment towards individuals of a non-conforming gender. Consequences will follow.

Happy Transgender Awareness Week.

So I heard you like free transmasc psychological thrillers with unkillable bastards surviving hell and finding HEA

In 1997, New York City, a petty criminal named Alex Voss is about to die via bullet shot right between the eyes by his criminal employer: Boris. But was he really a petty criminal, or something even stranger? As all roads lead to death, he recounts his tragic life one last time; murder, sex, drugs, rock and roll, losing his mind and failing at being a true hero. There’s no escape from his tragic ending. At least, that’s how it’s meant to play out. As events fail to line up, is Alex’s mind breaking the fourth wall, has he finally succumbed to madness, or did a deus ex machina from the future save him from himself? It might just be all three, actually.

Hi Tumblr bookworms. I've been sitting on INDIGO VOSS for over a year and I think it's finally time.

If you'd like to champion indie trans literature, please signup for the ARC of INDIGO VOSS. Score an eBook, read, and give me your honest thoughts. Please note there are CWs on the landing page. This is a complex novel about hope against all odds and learning to transcend your damage. Good luck. 💜

Read INDIGO VOSS, Free

as a transgender person and as a hater what i have to say about the trans rep is that it’s massive step in the right direction and i love the overwhelming positive representation but also i hate that they basically said you have to be a metacrisis alien to be transgender as if normal people aren’t trans all the fucking time. like it’s not some mystical thing. people are trans in real life. also i hate that they basically said “you’re just a man you could never get it” to the doctor as some deus ex machina at the end of the episode bcos we literally saw IN THIS EPISODE that he’s got some gender fuckery going on. and as a trans man i’m kinda tired of masculinity being a fucking punchline because how the fuck are we still doing this bioessentialist “women have magical powers that men could never understand” MAYBE WOMEN AND MEN ARE PEOPLE AND WE SHOULD NOT VIEW GENDER AS A RIGID BINARY. also why did they deadname rose. i’m gonna kill you with hammers.

If anon is looking for western AAA games there’s like red dead redemption assassin’s creed fallout franchise mass effect tomb raider watch dogs deus ex etc. most of those are already open world RPGs of different genres. Most rpgs published by major companies go for open world nowadays.

I still suggest sailing the high seas for AAA though unless you’re supporting them for their diverse content or wait until they go like 50-70% sale. In this economy those prices are not worth it for the amount of content they give and the increase in sales doesn’t even really go to the dev teams anyway its more direct to the company. For me its just a metric to tell the companies I want more diverse content. Support Indie devs steam has its own indie tag to make it easy to find!

or if AAA isn’t a necessity open up steam and search by tag. I got 1200 results checking fantasy open world and rpgs on steam.

Some particular suggestions that I haven’t seen though I guess its because its been like 4 years since their release?:

- The Outer Worlds open world rpg scifi shooter is made by a AA company which is known for Fallout New Vegas Pillars of Eternity and SWTOR KOTOR II. The player character doesn’t get a romance but you do get a companion who is a sapphic asexual and you can help her get a girlfriend. Its has choices and relationships in a similar style to FNV

- Tell Me Why is a narrative adventure game by Dontnod who made Life is Strange. It features a trans man as one of the leads and Dontnod had this on their FAQ https://www.tellmewhygame.com/faq/ : “Trans, nonbinary and gender non-conforming staff at both DONTNOD and Xbox have made countless key creative contributions to Tell Me Why, including in character design, narrative and dialogue, building inclusive online spaces for the game, and much more. To ensure that Tyler’s character would resonate with a wide and diverse audience of trans people, the Tell Me Why team worked closely with two of GLAAD’s transgender staff: Nick Adams, Director of Transgender Representation; and Blair Durkee, Special Consultant for Gaming. For over two years, Nick offered foundational guidance on story and character, consulted on casting, and reviewed scripts at all phases of production. Importantly, August Black, Tyler’s voice actor [who is trans], also made significant contributions to Tell Me Why’s dialogue. During recording sessions, August provided edits to the script if he felt a certain line or moment did not do justice to Tyler’s story, making him an invaluable part of the creative process. August’s personal experiences also inspired key moments and lines of dialogue.”

I say why go for a game who names a trans character in the same ignorant way it named Cho and Kingsley when you could go for games that have creators who genuinely care for and listen to the perspectives and rights of the people they’re trying to represent right? In addition to all the other issues.

if magical systems in particular are a need aside from open world rpgs:

- Tiny Tina’s Wonderland – if you’re more familiar with borderlands this is a spinoff but spellcasting instead of guns

- Pillars of Eternity is fantasy from the same studio as outer worlds and is really good. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire was the latest release

the TES games have been mentioned but I wanted to reiterate that there are 5-6 magic schools and 100+ spells for those games. Worldbuilding and roleplaying is very fun and makes it quite repeatable so worth the money. They all also have quite a prolific modding community especially oblivion and skyrim and it isn’t that hard to download mods to personalize the game. But even without mods its still fun to replay and go on sale along with ESO often enough

Most JRPGs in general have magic systems and are largely open world. All of the final fantasy games have magic. Adjacent is kingdom hearts. I’ll just add the Shin Megami Tensei series which is related to Persona. The Atelier series brand is alchemical magic. The “Tales of ____” of bandai namco series allows you to main the magical casting characters if you wish. Ni No Kuni is again fantasy setting. Valkyrie Elysium was recently released. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 too was released last year.

Forspoken is a recent game published by SquareEnix so its technically jrpg but its setting is western with a black main character that was rendered based off the VA who is half black caribbean. The main character is based in New York then gets transported to a fantasy world where she gains magic and mixes that up with parkour style movement. if you can’t afford it yet wait for a sale.

Check out golden week for sales since they tend to really go low for JRPGs during that time more than any other sale

Some indie games that have witchy elements:

Flying Neko delivery – if you like studio ghibli and kiki’s delivery service why not fly around on a broom as a cat making deliviries?

Little witch nobeta – you play as a little witch to explore ancient castles. The magical system is a bit limited but at the price you’re getting it I think its a good deal

Little Witch in the woods – 2d pixel art in the style of old school rpgs you play as a witch and make potions and cast spells, help people and refurbish your house.

Potion craft – not an rpg but its an alchemy simulator

Kena: bridge of spirits – not witchy but it has magic and exploration. Not quite open world in that you tend to travel linearly but you’re free to go back to places you’ve explored before. The gaming company partnered with a vietnamese animation studio and they based the animation on the environment of SEA/East Asia so if you’re from there and find the environmental aspects familiar in a fantastical way like buildings and the way the characters were conceptualized that’s why. from where im frm Kena costs the equivalent of $15 but it seems like its still expensive on steam US though as it costs $40? it tends to get 50% off on epic stores though so you can wait for its sale there

some upcoming indie games aside from witchbrook:

kitori academy – should be coming out this year. You’re a magical apprentice going to school to learn magic.

Lawmage academy – 2d pixel art old school style where you go to an academy to learn spells and craft potions

finished my rewatch of ATLA and LoK and here's my takeaways this time:

• Actually it makes perfect sense that Toph and Aang would grow up to be bad parents. The entire Aang Gang was basically parentless! Zuko and Toph both had parents but they were abusive (Toph's being too strict and Zuko's, well, you know), and Katara and Sokka had one dead parent and one that went off to war when they were little. Aang outright had no regular familial structure, but even the family he had was lost to him when he was frozen. Add on top the horrendous traumas they all experienced and being thrust into celebrity status, and of COURSE they'd have flaws in parenting! I get that we want to reject it because we love these characters and they're caring, but caring alone does not a good parent make.

• However, Toph becoming a cop makes ZERO sense! She was SERIOUSLY anti-rules the entire first series! It would have been much more believable if she'd ended up inventing pro-bending. Also she woulda come out as trans and become a big buff dude, but obviously there was no way they coulda gotten away with that. Still, they could have at LEAST made her not a cop!

• Zuko's arc is 90% of what makes ATLA the great story it is! Its incredible how perfectly his story mirrors Aang's, and how the two of them slowly begin to accept the other. They're both trying to reclaim something they feel they've lost, and they both must confront their pasts to do it. Its a shame that it happens off-screen, but the fact that LoK confirms that Aang and Zuko became best friends eventually made me so happy.

• The plot writing in LoK was KINDA terrible! They covered it up with good character writing and of course flashy bending sequences, but Season One was a mess and Unavattu was only defeated by a bunch of deus ex machinas. I could go on! Not the worst writing but after rewatching ATLA it really is a step down in that department

• Also, the first-series cameos were a BIT gimmicky by the end! I'd say that in particular, Zuko and Iroh (the original Iroh not the general of the united forces Iroh) were unnecessary to still be around. Both of their roles could have been completed by other characters easily. Toph made sense, as did Katara, and flashbacks to Sokka and Aang, but Iroh should have died peacefully in his tea shop instead of going to the spirit world, and Zuko should have died peacefully after fixing the Fire Nation's problems.

• The number of characters who show up regularly in LoK are about double the number of characters that show up in ATLA. I think that might be why the character arcs for so many (cough cough Mako) are so unsatisfying, theyve got too many character arcs to complete.

• The mech-suits were EYE-ROLLINGLY cheesy. Sorry, I know its a nerdy nitpick I just think that if everything else is 1920's-1940's style technology, having something thats completely not doable by modern standards just kinda breaks the world for me a bit.

• I know I know, they were limited by the executives and breaking new ground, but the Korrasami ending was REALLY underwhelming compared to subsequent examples! They LITERALLY just hold hands to hint at it. Still important that it happened, but wow, how far we've come, you know?

• The politics of LoK were so very clearly neoliberal centrist its EXTREMELY eye-rolling. Cops are treated like superheroes instead of oppressors, and those who do call them that are shown to be villains. Amon and Zaheer are both VERY CLEARLY shown to be right about their respective ideologies, but are made into villains by having them be wildly zealous, and their ideologies are never really defeated. And neither of them are treated with compassion, yet Kuvira, the fascist dictator with an atomic bomb-analog, DOES. Exactly like centrists who think we should be nice to cryptofash conservatives but treat anyone seeking a more equitable world as monsters.

At least, those are my takeaways this time. Admittedly I was watching while working on homework 90% of the time so i may have missed key moments which change this all, but gosh it was overall a little underwhelming of a rewatch for LoK! For ATLA though it was like revisiting a bunch of old friends.

Ask game! Share 10 different favorite characters from 10 different pieces of media in no particular order. Then send this to 10 people (anon or not, your choice). Have fun! 💖

I did this yesterday but I got a few more anon ones and also from you and @saintgarbanzo so I decided to do like an unnecessary deep dive into why I love each of the characters I listed.

Draco Malfoy fanon draco is such an excellent example of the ownership readers have over text. Stories are both the smallest unit of life and the biggest most all encompassing serious thing, and that gives readers this extraordinary authority to reject either the author's treatment of a character as a person, who has evolved from a something into a someone, or to reject the story's treatment of a character in the capacity of some benevolent omnipotent force that can pick and choose life's twists and turns. the first drarry fic i read was what we pretend we can't see and that draco is just so immediately redeemed, so fully human and idiosyncratic and such a ridiculous, likeable creature, and that impression of him followed me through everything i've read since. i've dealt with a lot of placed and unplaced guilt and shame in my life, along with this lingering feeling of having done something completely irredeemable and irreversible. i adore how fanon draco shoulders all of that and how he still manages to find a place for himself, how people find a place for him guided by this beacon of his humility and wit. when i buy new shoes i go out and get them dirty right away. i prefer worn in things. like me, like draco some things are better a little dented.

Loki like a lot of people who've ever felt pretty trans and a little feral, and orphaned in any capacity, i've always loved characters who just let themselves get as close to evil and insane as their little heart will allow. i liked loki in the comics and films, but when i started reading fics, i fell in love with this fanon dimension of him that's infinitely exposed, laid bare and waiting for love and approval. that thinks he's unfixable and smarter than anyone, and is taken aback by the effect that mundane delights and mundane heartbreaks have on him. he's also just so...sparkly. like he seems impossible not to love, and he's just tiny and brave and smart and emotional, and so broken that he's ready to resign himself to the worst punishments. but he's a part of a whole, and thor is always going to be there to miss him and love him and save him and be saved by him, and there's something so comforting about a character that can only go so far alone, because they belong to some mighty huddle.

riddler he's a crazy little lonely person who loves words, hates power structures and spends a lot of time on the internet. what's not to love

will and hannibal

i love characters who can do anything. like yes nuance and good writing and complexity are all super sexy and important and What We’re Here For but i just love when one of the characters in a ship is so competent and smart and strong that it’s a little deus ex machina-y. it’s just so charming. like how fanon hannibal is incredibly strong and knows literally everything and can keep fighting if badly injured and has infinite money and resources. it’s just so cool, there’s a child reader in me that gets a huge rush from that certainty that Things Will Probably Work Out because this character is there, no matter how bad it gets. and then in contrast to this extremely exaggerated magical man is an extremely Regular Guy will, who's anything but regular - just cutting and hilarious and insightful and Over It. And despite being shown as this traumatized, snarling little creature, he finds love and chases it literally over a cliff, because there's no tiredness and terror that would be worth losing that spark. it's so romantic. i also like couples who don't need anyone else.

5. Q

smart little gay boy. my favorite thing in fic is how hardworking he is, but also that he's always like... very social and socially apt? like he's the normal person and bond is this feral old cat that he sort of tames? it's so charming

6. crowley from good omens

i fell in love with him when i was 10 and i never stopped loving him. i love characters who fight against their heritage, but what i like in particular is that his life story is the thing i'm always most afraid of - that i've accidentally done a lot of little bad things and that this path can't ever be retraced, that i've sauntered vaguely downwards. which he has, but he discovers that it doesn't matter at all, that it's still you, and your love, wherever you are. i also love people who love deeply and desperately, ted mosby and jim from newsroom and the office and those sorts of people. crowley is one of those.

7. arthur from inception

he's extremely neat and clean and uptight. i don't like a lot of characters like that, they usually piss me off, but there's something so endearing and sometimes a little heartbreaking, how much his fanon interpretations fear disorder and feelings and how he fights against it. my favorite quote from an arthur/eames fic summarizes my love of him very well: ""I've seen things," said Arthur, because the word no made him break out in hives.""

8. jay from okja

i have a weak spot for messianic righteous characters and jay is just such a delightful iteration of one of those. i love that he wears a suit because he represents A Cause, I love that he adheres to a moral code, I love that he's violent in funny ways, and how sincere he is. i love that he protects animals. i've always wanted to have a singular cause. also i'm obsessed with translation and linguistics, and he that he thinks translation is sacred, which just absolutely kills me.

9. cherry from sk8 the infinity

like loki, cherry is a part of a whole. he's also extremely intelligent and it holds him back from certain things, from intimacy and hoping for good things for himself, which i find very touching. also, like hannibal, he's one of those characters that can do anything - his presence is sort of infinitely reassuring. i also love that he's a man with long pink hair, it makes me excited to maybe one day do that.

I’m a tad bit late to the party, but John Egbert said trans rights.

Adam Jensen says Trans Rights

I don't know, that part never seemed to be transphobic to me. They had reasons to be so, and when they made other decisions to be someone, I was glad. I don't know how you will consider it, though. Will you analyze it through and through, or will you just look at the surface? It is similar with Kanji's case. He doesn't necessarily have to be gay, but everyone always say he is, just based on his shadow, which are ridiculously exaggerated versions of the person's negative thoughts.

I couldn't reply to this before for obvious reasons, but now that I got through Naoto's dungeon: oh boy. It's pretty late here so idk how much sense this will make but here we go

The thing is, the concept of talking about the sexism in the police workforce isn't bad - it's a pretty good thing tbh, and I can see that they went further with the theme in p5 - like, yeah, address the sexism in workplaces and all that, but the problem is, they gave Naoto the trans subtext and then they ripped it off, just like they did with Kanji and his sexuality - and I think it's pretty hard to separate these two since their arcs pretty much follow the same basic, which is queer subtext > queer subtext now gone, they're back to the 'norm'

Let's go with Naoto first, because seriously, when you have a character linked to gender identity and "body alteration procedure" - come on. You know what they're referring to, and they immediately did an u-turn by having Naoto say that no, they've been a girl all along, despite all the subtext going on and uugghh. The thing about being themselves and no one else is beautiful and I love it, but taking into consideration what was said earlier, it just doesn't sit right. It's right, it's a good message but - it's not right at the same time, for the implications it seems to carry ( and you know the implications of fitting in the norm are there, because this is persona, and we can't have someone who isn't 100% straight unless it's p2 apparently.)

Same thing with Kanji - his dungeon is supposedly all about facing his inner thoughts and ideas about masculinity, but the subtext of Kanji's sexuality is literally all over the game AND it's not even subtext. He's been crushing on Naoto since he first saw the guy, when he was still presenting himself as a boy - might not make Kanji completely gay, but he's at least MLM coded, and not like. Other characters who have vague hints. This guy has been crushing over another guy for half of the game, but then oh, surprise? The guy isn't a guy. It's a girl. Technically, Kanji doesn't even have the mlm subtext anymore on paper (except he still does)

"He doesn't have to be gay, but everyone always says he is, just based on his shadow, which are ridiculously exaggerated versions of the person's negative thoughts." > yeah see, the thing is, it's not even that far off what a person might actually think while questioning themselves. Hell if I didn't think the most awful shit about myself when I was questioning my sexuality, especially when you have grown up in a society telling you that if you deviate from a certain norm you're just broken and there's something deeply wrong with you. Which is why this whole writing thing is just bugging me a lot - because the way their shadows are talking to them, it feels like they're just kids trying to figure out themselves, just to have some homophobic deus ex machina take that away from them. The way they belittle their thoughts and rip to shreds the idea of what they could be resonated with me and it's. It's hard.

Also this is p transphobic but I would honestly give it a pass if it was a "kid growing up with internalized transphobia gives himself transphobic speeches"

It's all about putting it in the right context really, and the thing is, the game throws this stuff at you, then hides the hand behind its back and pretends nothing happened

Anyway

Bi kanji and his trans bf naoto

I just thought of something pretty obvious to me.

Deus Ex War Paint is LGBTQ+ friendly.

Selene grew up not only with her parents, but also with her uncle Artair and her mentor Damian.

I don’t think it needs to be said, but, yes, I want to show through my story that I support the adoption of a child by two people of the same sex.

Selene is pansexual, regardless of her personal background. One of the girls she had sex with after moving to Prague with her uncle was a trans girl: in Selene's opinion, that girl was a woman, no matter what.

Damian Fisher, Selene’s mentor, is homosexual. Artair, Selene’s uncle, is heterosexual. In my own interpretation of Adam Jensen’s character, I have “established” that he is also heterosexual, just as I have “established” that Vaclav Koller may be bisexual. The original character of Nathalie Girard is also bisexual.

I’ve never felt it necessary to say this, but taking a clear stand on the topic is important to me.

I don’t mind losing possible readers over this statement of mine.

It’s the right thing to do.

RE: Hordak and Representation

During a recent stream, a few things happened. This post compiles the events and sets the record straight on a few misunderstandings. I can’t comment on the racism, or the use of the d-slur (even though, as that post points, out, it was part of the title of another podcast that the host of the podcast was promoting, whose creators presumably were okay with the name of the podcast being read in full). But I can talk about Hordak.

Hordak’s disability is presented in canon as a genetic defect that took time to fully materialize and start tearing his body apart. Before that he was a respected general in Horde Prime’s army, but was cast out due to his “imperfection.” This directly motivates nearly every action Hordak takes to try and prove himself worthy by the standards of the one who created him.

Now here’s the part where I tell you I have Type-1 Diabetes.

Diabetes is a degenerative autoimmune disorder in which the pancreas stops producing insulin, the chemical which helps the body process sugar. It’s very often genetic, and my family history with it dates at least as far back as my maternal grandfather. The effects of this disorder can absolutely ravage the body. It ate the muscle tissue in my legs to the point where I could barely walk or even stand up straight, and the nerve damage in my feet and legs is so bad I literally couldn’t fall asleep during the worst of it. It can also cause vision loss, and in extreme cases it can necessitate limb amputation. I qualify for accomodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act, and while Hordak and I are nothing alike, I know how it feels to have your body betray you.

But is he good disabled representation? It depends. I don’t feel represented by him, but what started this whole kerfuffle is that a fan wrote in and said that they thought he was good representation. Noelle neither confirmed nor denied whether this was the intention and instead talked about his development in very general terms. She’s been very hesitant to claim any sort of representation that she doesn’t personally have life experience with, as evidenced by how she said she would have cast a trans voice actor if they’d intended for Bow to be trans from the beginning (even though she loves the headcanon), and that the crew headcanoned Catra as latina, but because it’s not addressed in the show itself it didn’t feel right to claim that.

There is no escaping the fact that Hordak’s disability--his body literally falling apart as a result of a genetic time bomb--is directly linked to the actions he takes to prove that he is “not a failure.” This is complicated. My diabetes manifested at a time in my life when I was already confident in myself and who I am, and I don’t feel like it makes me any less of a person. I’m more annoyed by it than anything. But part of the standard battery of questions my doctor asked me is if the diagnosis made me feel depressed or worthless, because that is a common reaction. It’s perfectly natural for someone to feel the way Hordak does about what happened to him, especially considering the ideology he was born into.

But uh... that doesn’t mean he had to become a colonizer. He chose that. Yes, on some level he was just regurgitating the ideology he’d literally been programmed with, but he had a fresh start in a place where he never had to deal with Horde Prime again. The reason he tried to conquer the place is because he’d already been drinking the Kool-Aid so enthusiastically that he wanted to do everything in his power to get back to where he was.

Even when he betrays Prime in the finale, his motivations are not altruistic. He cares about Entrapta specifically, but his goal is really just to take over, to conquer, to keep spreading Horde Prime’s imperialist bullshit virus of an ideology because it’s all he fucking knows. He just wants to keep his pal alive so she can, idk, rule at his side or something. It’s not until after Adora cleanses him that he remembers a time when he wasn’t quite as much of a bastard.

And as much as I’d like to say that his disability has nothing to do with that... it does. It set him down that path. He grew more and more resentful because of it. And while that’s certainly a realistic reaction (I wasn’t exactly thrilled when I got diagnosed), it’s still not a good look for the show because it’s some of the only disabled rep in the whole series. Entrapta does encourage him to think of his imperfections as beautiful, and is an example of a character who deals positively with her disability, but as I discussed above, he doesn’t actually develop into a better person because of this. It takes the closest thing this show ever gets to a deus ex machina for him to even have an epiphany.

So idk. I definitely think this specific part of the stream was taken out of context and blown out of proportion, but I also don’t feel like Hordak is good representation. That may just be me, but I have a feeling it’s not.

But couldn't it just be a case of him not being able to carry out the rest of his plans before meeting his end? Maybe he HAD plans for Winterfell, White Harbour and the Karhold and so forth before Euron shows up?

I feel like I’ve just wandered into a conversation halfway through, and it’s a conversation with me, which makes it twice as weird. 

Nevertheless, I shall attempt to divine its meaning...

If your argument is that Balon had a plan for subjugating the North but never got to execute on it because of his assassination, I would argue that we know what his plan was and saw him executing on it:

Lord Balon rode over him. "The lords are gone south with the pup. Those who remained behind are the cravens, old men, and green boys. They will yield or fall, one by one. Winterfell may defy us for a year, but what of it? The rest shall be ours, forest and field and hall, and we shall make the folk our thralls and salt wives."

Ser Kevan Lannister cleared his throat. "As regards the Starks . . . Balon Greyjoy, who now styles himself King of the Isles and the North, has written to us offering terms of alliance."

“He ought to be offering fealty," snapped Cersei. "By what right does he call himself king?"

"By right of conquest," Lord Tywin said. "King Balon has strangler's fingers round the Neck. Robb Stark's heirs are dead, Winterfell is fallen, and the ironmen hold Moat Cailin, Deepwood Motte, and most of the Stony Shore. King Balon's longships command the sunset sea, and are well placed to menace Lannisport, Fair Isle, and even Highgarden, should we provoke him."

"And if we accept this alliance?" inquired Lord Mathis Rowan. "What terms does he propose?"

"That we recognize his kingship and grant him everything north of the Neck."

“...King Balon’s longships are occupied for the nonce,” Lord Tywin said politely, “as are we. Greyjoy demands half the kingdom as the price of alliance, but what will he do to earn it? Fight the Starks? He is doing that already. Why should we pay for what he has given us for free? The best thing to do about our lord of Pyke is nothing, in my view. Granted enough time, a better option may well present itself. One that does not require the king to give up half his kingdom.”

That’s it. That’s the whole of the plan. We know this to be the case, because seven months pass between the Iron Fleet setting out for the North and Balon’s death and nothing else happens: Asha hangs out at Deepwood Motte, Dagmer’s surviving force hunkers down behind the walls of Torrhen’s Square, and Victarion watches as the crannogmen slowly bleed his army to death. No relief force even bothers to try relieving Theon at Winterfell, at at no time does the Iron Fleet try to march on White Harbor or trans-ship over to the Bite to menace the east coast from the sea, Asha doesn’t even bother to try to take Bear Island right next door!

As I have said before, this is a profoundly stupid plan, made by a man who is wilfully ignorant of the land or people he’s trying to conquer. Far from yielding or falling, the lords of the North come a hairs-breadth away from retaking Winterfell and only fail due to Deus Ex Martina, they execute a brilliant guerrilla against the Iron Fleet at Moat Cailin, and they retake Deepwood Motte with Stannis’ assistance. Meanwhile, Tywin doesn’t even bother to dignify Balon’s political strategy with a response, because Balon executed on his offer before it was accepted. 

What I hope to see from Avatar Studios

So the last couple days have been fun - I started rewatching ATLA (for like the third time in the last six months), got a new Avatar graphic novel omnibus in the mail, and learned about Nickelodeon's plan to launch ‘Avatar Studios’ to produce EVEN MORE Avatar content in the future! Since all this is so fresh in my mind I wanted to just talk about some of the things I hope to see from the franchise going forward.

Things I hope stay the same:

Attention to world-building and continuity: Obviously this tends to be one of fans’ favorite parts of this franchise. I hope that whatever comes out in the future will maintain and build on what’s been so painstakingly built up by entries up to now.

Encouraging the audience’s imagination: On the other hand, I’m not looking for them to address every little detail that has been left unexplained. In my opinion one of the best parts of the original series is how well it was able to set up its world and characters to inspire audiences’ imaginations and then provide opportunities to apply that imagination.

Introducing its audience to diverse ideas/themes: The original ATLA series came out around 15 years ago, and even though obviously people who see it for the first time in recent years still enjoy it, I think that maybe they miss some of what attracted so many people to the series when it first came out. For me and many people my age, ATLA served as an introduction to a lot of ideas/themes from Asian cultures that seem much more widely-known in the U.S. today, including anime, meditation, martial arts, philosophy, etc. I hope that they will take this opportunity to continue to innovate in this area.

Complex characters and moral themes: In the original series Zuko is the character that to most people stands out as having the most compelling character arc, and that’s largely due to his moral complexity. I hope that they will continue to pursue this idea, without feeling the need to try and “recreate” another Zuko.

Things I hope change:

Representation: When ATLA came out it was praised for its representation of women, elderly people, and people with disabilities, which I think is well-deserved. As additional entries have been released we’ve also been getting more and better representation of gay/lesbian/bisexual people, and I hope that trend continues. However, there has been scrutiny over the show’s representation of people of color - there’s technically a lot of it but it isn’t always “good” or well thought-out. Additionally, at this point the lack of gender identity diversity is frankly unacceptable (we deserve a trans Avatar).

Cultural appropriation: My biggest criticism of the Avatar franchise up to this point is its tendency to liberally borrow from Asian, Native American, and other cultures without committing to telling stories or creating media that empower people from those cultures. This has to do with on-screen representation as well as “representation” in the people who are making the show. From what I’ve read there has always been some diversity in the team behind the show, and I get the impression that it’s moving in the right direction, but I hope they will take this opportunity to fully and explicitly commit.

Specific topics/ideas I’d like to see:

More intimate look at Air Nomad society: Most existing stories in the Avatar universe take place after the Air Nomads were wiped out. In the Kyoshi novels the little time spent at the Air Temples is from the POV of an outsider. Most of what we hear about Air Nomad society and culture comes from a) a literal 12 year old child or b) outsiders. This and the fact that Air Nomad society is characterized by “purity” makes me think there’s got to be a “dark side” to it. For example: it’s known that “all Air Nomads are airbenders” but I have to wonder if that’s because every child that’s born to Air Nomad parents has airbending abilities or if its because only people who happen to have airbending abilities are able/allowed to be considered “Air Nomads”. In the real world “purity” often comes at the price of exclusion. I’d like to understand why Kyoshi’s mother was so willing to leave a so seemingly-perfect society, beyond the fact that she fell in love with some dude.

Water Tribe development: With the above, it seems like the Water Tribe serves (or could serve) as an interesting foil to the Air Nomads - both societies rely heavily on bending for their everyday way of life, but while 100% of Air Nomads are airbenders, presumably the Water Tribe follows the given “standard” of only 10% of the population being waterbenders. That dynamic in and of itself is fascinating to me - in ATLA in fact we see that the top leaders of the Water Tribe are non-benders (an interesting contrast to the politics we see later in Republic City in LOK). I haven’t read the graphic novels that deal with the Water Tribe, so maybe it comes up there. Something else that I might just not be familiar with there is the long-term history of the society: How did they end up moving from their original Lion Turtle to the North Pole? Where did the Swampbenders come from? One aspect of the original series that receives a lot of (well-deserved in my opinion) criticism is the fact that the (Northern) Water Tribe is shown to be significantly more misogynist than the other nations. This was re-confirmed in the Kyoshi novels. I hope that they either abandon this idea, or if they’re bound to it for some reason, maybe use it to illustrate how these ideas develop and how they can be dismantled (usually it isn’t enough for one girl to beat one guy in hand-to-hand combat). If we look at the “ancient” Water Tribe society, maybe misogyny is absent. Maybe the same circumstances related to them ending up at the North Pole are related to the introduction of these oppressive ideas. Also, there have presumably been female Avatars from all nations who have mastered all four elements - where did they learn waterbending?

Focus on non-Avatar characters: The Avatar sort of functions as a walking deus ex machina due to the Avatar State pretty much always being available if it’s really, truly needed. Even just being the Avatar provides the character with material and social benefits with both humans and spirits. Part of what makes the series great is that it is able to maintain stakes by developing really strong relationships between characters: Aang has the Avatar State to rely on, but not Katara, Sokka, Toph, or Appa. In the Kyoshi novels this idea is even more explicit with Kyoshi and Rangi. I love this dynamic and I hope and expect it to continue, but I think there are other options worth exploring as well. For example, what if the Avatar was an obstacle to the protagonist? 

So, it's been a month, and I have finished Cyberpunk 2077. Time was I would have chewed the game up and spat it back out in less than a week, but now I have children and a house to run. I'm not here to talk about the conditions of its release, the human cost, the et cetera. I'm just here to give my thoughts on the game.  If you want a spoiler-free review, here it is: thanks to my mother-in-law for buying it for me for Christmas. If I'd paid money for it I might have been disappointed. As it was, I had a perfectly fine time. Spoilers follow. (Also spoilers for Witcher 3, which is more than five years old now.)

Let's get this out of the way: should the game have been more progressive? Well, yes, but here's another question: what the fuck is cyberpunk even supposed to be? After all, initially, punk itself was created to sell leather jackets and records, and its defining trait was being subversive. It wasn't about being progressive, just offensive, about bucking whatever Standards there were. It's been refined, and redirected, but there's a reason 'Nazi punk' is a thing.

I personally wasn't expecting this game to be a bastion of progressive thought just because it has the word 'punk' in it. They should have done better by people who wanted to play trans or nonbinary characters. They should have done better with a lot of things. But they should have done those things because that's just what we should expect as people who engage critically with media, not because the game has the word 'punk' in the label. Was I sitting there shaking my head at the fact that V can work with the police? No. You're a mercenary, you go where the money is. The game wasn't advertised as an Antifa 2077 simulator, it was advertised as an RPG where you play the role of a merc who will do pretty much anything for that cash.

Here's the other question: is it cyberpunk? I say no. Cyberpunk as a genre is about human beings trapped in exploitative systems which commodify everything, even our bodies, and the lengths we have to go to in those systems to remain human - or not. The game has a lot of stuff in it showing this commodification and exploitation of everything, including our humanity, but it doesn't really have much to say about it. There are no significant choices in the story about how many pieces of yourself you're willing to cut away for power. Fill up every slot with cyberware or play as natural as possible, makes no difference at all to the story or the endings you get.

So it’s not really cyberpunk. That’s fine, a game can not be a thing and still be good. What’s the story, then? The story is about V (who is supposedly you, but they definitely are a distinct entity unto themselves, this is not a blank-slate Bioware situation) and Johnny Silverhand, and who is going to end up occupying the brain they’re forced to share for a while because of an experimental personality-upload chip that gets lodged in there too good to remove. Johnny Silverhand is an asshole version of Keanu Reeves, and I happened to really like his performance. A lot of people didn’t. That’s down to YMMV. Having finished the story and gone online to read about the endings I didn’t get, I feel that it’s… fine. They give you a decent number of ways to address the issue. I was more invested in the side stories with people like Judy and Panam than I was in the Big Plot, though I definitely warmed a lot to Johnny and Rogue near the end.

I never got the Big Feels, though. Like, Witcher 3? I agonized over the amazing chemistry Geralt had with both Yen and Triss, and had serious debates with myself over who to romance, because I may be a slut, but I’m ethical, dammit. I got big sad when Geralt found Ciri, thought she was dead, and just collapsed in on himself. I got even bigger sad when Vesemir died, and felt very vindicated when I murdered the dude that killed him. All of this from a game whose predecessors I didn’t even play! Cyberpunk never hit the same highs for me.  The most invested I ever was in a mission chain, by the way, was the one where the plot goes full Ghost in the Shell with memory editing and "what is a personality really" and truly vast conspiracies, and then the chain ends and just kind of peters out and you're back to all the other stuff that isn't Ghost in the Shell.  So that was... not great.

What about the *game* part though? Is it awesome? Does it suck?  I mean, the game is also fine. The gunplay feels alright, alright enough that I definitely regretted my initial desire to be a katana ninja person and went pretty hard into guns by the end. I give it credit for the systems being robust enough to support that kind of mid-game playstyle pivot.  The melee is deeper than it’s been in other games, but uh… look, I’m pretty sure Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 had better-feeling melee combat, and that game came out over 23 years ago. Might have something to do with the fact that you had an option to switch to a GODDAMN THIRD-PERSON CAMERA. After seeing the story and playing the game and doing the stuff I am prepared to Pronounce on this, and my Pronouncement is that the first-person camera definitely is more immersive, particularly given the story they wanted to tell, and perhaps you should stick with it during cutscenes if that’s your jam, but Goddamn, give us the third-person mode for melee. Anyway, the game, yeah. The stealth is cookie-cutter basic. The hacking minigame is dumb, and the hacking itself is useful, but underwhelming.

What about the vehicles? What about them indeed? I got a motorcycle from one of the first side quests after the world opens up and never used anything else. Everything drives like shit, but at least the motorcycles let me weave through traffic and get those rare glimpses of the toon I spent an hour carefully creating. Of course, most of the time, she would look ridiculous, since you have to continually equip whatever latest thing gives you the most armor, and there’s no transmog, so it’s only at the very end of the game where you *maybe* stop looking like an extra who wandered off of the set of a quirky indie film about near-future hip-hop dancers.

What about the city? Yes, it’s an enormous open world and it’s crazy detailed and there’s so much to do and so many icons to visit, but look, they didn’t need to go this hard. They could have told this story without a GTA-style open world. They could have told this story with Deus Ex-sized hub areas. Perhaps then the game wouldn’t have taken eight Goddamn years to make and destroyed so many poor Polish game developers’ lives.

I’m a thousand words in and I feel like I could write several thousand more, but let’s wrap it up. Here it is: did the 64.6 hours I put into the game entertain me? Yes, but I was ready to be done well before the point of no return, and still I kept hitting up all the side character stuff because I was invested in them. Am I going to play it again? Not right away, no. I’ll wait and see what DLC they drop, what bugs they fix. I have other games to play, and other things to do. And most tellingly, for this past month, I have never been doing real-life adult stuff and just been thinking the entire time, “I could be playing Cyberpunk right now.” I would play it when I sat down and felt I had sufficient time for something more involving than a run in Hades or Slay the Spire. It did not get hooks in me the way the Greats have done.

Cyberpunk: not a whimper, but not a bang either.