#HIGHLY recommend if you are a predator fan
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I just watched Prey and uh.
Holy fuck it's perfect. 😭😭
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THE BEAST.
Oura Thorn’s powers are based of a character from a movie, but unfortunately that movie is King Kong Skull Island, so expect scary thing. If your not a fan of death, cannibalism, yummy digestive facts and good scary CGI, i wouldn’t recommend reading the part called “THE INSPIRATION” and skip right to “WHAT IS THE BEAST?”.
The space rider au belongs to @onyxonline
THE INSPIRATION.
Alright! Oura Thorn’s power is based of two entities, the SkullCrawler from King Kong, for body, strength and speed, and Jörmungandr, the world serpent for purpose.
SkullCrawlers were my main source of bodily anatomy guide for the Beast. A massive, horrific bulky beast built like a tank and filled with an unstoppable desire to kill. This creature was intelligent, fast and ruthless. Not to mention metal as hell. The stomach acid in this thing was strong enough that the Skullcrawler eats someone, whole, and then regurgitates the bones thirty minutes later! That’s some strong ass acid. It is described by the Gojipedia that :
“Skullcrawlers are subterranean pack-hunting predators with insatiable appetites that are the results of their heightened metabolisms. Because of this, it is suggested that male and female Skullcrawlers will almost always devour each other after mating. They are highly aggressive, as well as incredibly persistent in pursuing their prey.”
And trust me if you haven’t see the movie, you do NOT wanna end up alone with even one of these freaks.
Jörmungandr is a creature of Norse mythology, also known as the Midgard Serpent or World serpent, and is an unfathomably large sea serpent or worm who dwells in the world sea, encircling the Earth (Midgard) and biting his own tail, an example of an ouroboros. In some scripts and stories- Jörmungandr is described as a Lindworm, which is a subspecies of dragon. Jörmungandr was the middle child of Loki, the Norse trickster god and the giant Angrboða. It was foretold that Odin took Loki’s children and removed them from Asgard. For Jörmungandr, they were tossed into the great ocean that encircles Midgard. There, in the ocean, the serpent grew so large that it could surround earth and grasp its own tail. Jörmungandr and Thor, the Norse thunder god, have a on-going feud and see each other as arch foes. During Ragnarök, Jörmungandr and Thor are foretold to fight each other to the death.
As recounted in Snorri's Gylfaginning:
“The sea will flood and the serpent will thrash onto the land. It will advance, spraying poison to fill the air and water, beside Fenrir, whose eyes and nostrils blaze with fire and whose gape touches the earth and the sky. They will join the sons of Muspell to confront the gods on the plain of Vigrid. Here is where the last meeting between the serpent and Thor is predicted to occur. He will eventually kill Jörmungandr but will fall dead after walking nine paces, having been poisoned by the serpent's deadly venom.”
It is said when Jörmungandr releases its tail is one of the signs of the beginning of Ragnarök (the final battle of the world, or the ‘end of the world as we know it’).
WHAT IS THE BEAST?
The Beast is a bipedal Lindworm with only two frontal limbs and a long thick tail for balance. It is covered in thick armoured plates, with jutting spines down the length of its neck, and the back of its head / cheeks, like Thorn does. Equiped with thick horns and a thicker skull, it can about ram down anything in its path with enough momentum. It is thin and nimble, and tanks a lot more than it looks like it can, using the large muscles in its arms and tail to be able to move fast, or catch prey. Its maw is filled with forward facing teeth, like a canine, but its throat and back of its mouth is filled with backwards facing spines, to grip prey and prevent escaping. Its tongue is long and flexible, capable of snagging someone and dragging them straight into their toothy demise.
The Beast only forces it’s presence when it senses an extreme unbalance in the world around it, forcing itself into control to eradicate any ‘pests’ or ‘weeds’ that would corrupt the survival of the world they are on. Although, just like Jörmungandr, eradicating the pest, also means the ‘end of the world’- destroying large amounts of civilisations, and killing many innocents in the process. Luckily, for Thorn, that hasn’t happened, yet. It is an animal- when it is in control there will be no reaching Oura Thorn, they are good as dead until the Beast has calmed- whether that means tearing the entire base apart to find the lack of balance or not.
However, not is all sorrow and death the minute the Beast is free. Like the World Serpent, there are times where the beast can exist and be calm. Though, usually, it will let Oura Thorn continue with their life by then, and fall back into slumber deep within them. Were a rider to disturb the beast before it slept, it would continue to exist, and often take the time to hunt, or look for a new problem for it to fix, ignoring the little critters around it. (Although, there may be a chance that though Oura Thorn, it may recognise you)
CAN IT BE STOPPED??
In terms of wounding the Beast- it’ll be hard, as a creature designed to force balance to any world.
The beast can’t swim very well, the heavily density of its muscles and bones make it sink and therefore, drowning it. Killing it would be hard in terms of combat, with its armoured scales. Its underbelly is less armoured and the skin along it’s neck where it’s spines emerge are a weak point but good luck getting close enough to touch it. And despite its brutal animalistic behaviour, this creature is smart. Tricking it with poison or having it swallow grenades ain’t gonna work here, just like with the Skullcrawlers. The best bet to killing this thing is having its arms and tail pinned, so it can no longer get away, and then hacking at it.
Keep in mind- if you’re not doing anything bad, and stay away from it, it shouldn’t actively seek out space riders to harm. If you get hurt, you’re in the way, lol.
WELL, IF SPACE RIDERS ARE GOOD, WHY DID IT APPEAR IN THE DOCKS?
Excellent question, figurative person!
Now, I’ve covered how the Beast works, if you’d like, go back to the OG post and see if you can figure out why you think Thorn lost control at the docks.
Ready? Alright. So the Beast only takes the reins when it senses ‘unbalance nature’ around it. Obviously it wasn’t the other staff, not the mail, but the cultists that were mailed to the base. But Infinite! They’re just Critters! Why would that upset the beast?
Another excellent question! The Cultist themselves, didn’t upset the Beast- but rather, the red smoke that they were breathing in.
That is the ‘unbalanced nature’ that has caused thorn to struggle to control themselves and keep the beast contained- the red smoke. And well understood with Onyx’s upload on Z’s planet- that stuff destroyed the entire world!! There is a specific reason that the red smoke is such a massive trigger for the Beast, but that would spoil a plot point I’m holding onto that I’ve been subtly hinting at. So you’ll all know laterrrr ~
WILL THORN BE EVER ABLE TO CONTROL THE BEAST?
No, unfortunately that will never be a reality for Ouřa Thorn :<
I love Thorn very much, but I find overly ‘op’ characters to be too unrealistic in my opinion. Thorn will never be able to control the Beast, or gain any other powers than that. The closest thing to ‘control’ Thorn will ever achieve is being so overwhelmed with one, or a mix of emotions, that it influences the Beast’s actions slightly. This can be seen in the dock accident, were instead of being careless and destroying everything, and probably eating the cultists, The Beast was influenced by Ouřa Thorn’s only two thoughts- to protect the other workers, and to ensure no one got hurt.
Thankfully, those two thoughts were just enough in comparison to the tiny amount of red smoke to keep a full rage at bay, keeping everyone safe.
(However! We do get to watch the Rangers + other critters do there damn best to try help Thorn tame it lol)
WHERE DID IT COME FROM??
There are records of other critters that had Oura Thorn’s power, old talismans and rock craving dating back to eons. Little is understood as to how it started, or why. Some are convinced it’s because of the prototype- the damage that he has caused with the red smoke has awoke a primal magic that is more dangerous than anyone knows.
#♾ art#my art#space riders au#smiling critters oc#oc#oura thorn#smiling critters#space riders oc#oc space riders au#SR! Oura Thorn
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Has any Yautja come to love a human?
Canonically speaking? Uh....it hasn't outright happened like we haven't gotten a straight up love confession or anything of a yautja and a human hooking up...(yet)
First off I want to state what IS canon about how yautjas view humans in general.
A majority think of us as cattle, and most likely VERY appalling.
They have stated that we are "soft meat" and compared to the tanks that they naturally are? Yeah we are :')
It's important to them to breed with the STRONGEST And most oomans will find it hard to impress a yautja without being in a near death situation 💀 and somehow survive said encounter
Also the fact that I think it's impossible to even crossbreed with a yautja so....
1 not being nearly as physically capable as them and 2 not being able to ensure a bloodline with them (that would be accepted in yautja society) ???
Again the odds of hooking up with a yautja are SLIM I'm talking 🤏 but in HALF
But of course we all knew that.
I guess the prime example of a yautja and a human even having CHEMISTRY was very much in Alien Vs Predator (2004)
I don't wanna go into too much detail since I recall their being a post about them somewhere on Tumblr
BUT the way they simply interacted with each other was just!!! Sus!!!
Sadly this movies script was cut VERY short due to the filming deadline the crew had and what we lost was some very cute Scar and Lex interactions!
Again I'm sure you can find an article about what the interactions were (bc I can't remember) but I remember them being a tad bit more intimate!
Even just the way they were staring at each other in this scene like yeah! Lex had proven herself to be a great warrior! But come on!
She earned his respect and he gave her an honorary marking! (If that ain't romantic idk what is)
But yeah again Scar being actively in love with Lex has never been stated as being canon I think? (God I hope I'm wrong)
They weren't even the first to have such a chemistry! The OG ship is of Machiko Nagochi and Broken Tusk!
Another instance of a human female proving herself to be a great warrior and a yautja marking her because she has earned his respect!
If you haven't read the original alien vs predator comics I highly recommend them!
I don't want to spoil anything regarding that epic story 🥺♥️
But yes that is all that I have on this topic
Everything else is just more speculation and fan canons!
I do love that Yautjas are simply just a natural threat to humans and id prefer them to stay that way!
I love that a majority of them would simply ignore humans and have little care for them unless proven otherwise! It makes earning the respect of one a big deal!
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Saw your racism allegory reblog and thought I'd ask because I'm unsure
Do AUs and Fanfics count as racist if they did what you listed? If they changed the lore and didn't base it on real life black people racism but something fictional instead and had those "furry" funny moments?
Long post ahead.
Now this is a tricky one.
I'm saying this as someone who will DEFINITELY chuck that whole allegorical shit into the abyss in their own rewrite/AU, that it's a depends. Because in terms of AUs, we're looking at someone taking out the bullshit from RT and reconfigurate the narrative to hopefully be more respectful and nuanced.
Again, you can try and make it like Beastars in an AU; the author did a really fine work making a story that comments on social discrimination WITHOUT making it allegorical (this is my preferred route for rewrites), because why the hell would anyone compare the predators in Beastars to black people? You know, the predator characters who faces a unique in-universe issue of abstaining themselves from mauling and eating their prey peers while still being perceived as inherenly dangerous by said peers who live in constant terror of being devoured?
If this was in anyway comparable to the black Civil rights movement in real life,,,yeah, you see the problem right?
Inversely, you can continue to go the "don't compare Faunus to animals" route. Just do the proper research and portray the nuances of such narrative respectfully. @rwbyazre did this in Luke's AU, and it's a phenomenal read, I highly recommend it.
But for AUs, the fan creator has the control now; this is an alternate universe not meant to adhere to canon's problematic implications. Just put down the solid foundation and guidelines for that universe and be respectful with them.
Fanfics are more tricky. If they're adhering closely to Canon and its guidelines, yeah it's racist even if unintentionally. Canon stated constantly that comparing Faunus to animals is racist, and the RWBY FNDM just loves being racist for some reason. That's why I don't like the majority of the fanfic, they tether too close to that ledge and still had the gall to pretend it ain't fucked up.
Fanfic treads on the canon-AU border really, REALLY dangerously. But when you see the fan creator making racist ass implications in their fanfics, you'll see the difference (hint: they still follow closely to canon while sprinkling in their own antiblack rhetoric along the sentences).
Like, you can have the silly nekomimi shenanigans. Just don't be an idiot and make it a commentary on any specific racial group. Just write the latter then.
#answered#anonymous#rwde#rwby critical#fndm critical#anti rooster teeth#beastars#you can have it as allegorical or you don't#not both
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Other TTRPGs I Recommend
While DnD is a fantastic system, I feel like it’s attention within the media and it’s popularity overshadows a bunch of other fantastic TTRPGs that are just as great (if not better) as any of the DnD editions! In light of this I want to spotlight a few others that I personally have played, or have kept my eye on to play as recommendations!
1) Monster of the Week
This one definitely may be one of the more well known smaller TTRPGs thanks to The Adventure Zone, however it’s my favorite so it’s absolutely my number one recommendation.
Monster of the week is specifically designed for short campaign arks and perfect for groups who may have sporadic schedules! This ttrpg is extremely reminiscent of the TV series Supernatural, and can accommodate a wide variety of campaign settings. Each session is centered around a situation designed by the Keeper and players must work through puzzles, problems, and combat to stop whatever creature, event, or mystery is ailing the area.
This TTRPG is perfect for people who prefer a less combat centered playstyle and want a system that allows flexibility in scheduling. It can easily be played as a one shot mystery or an entire campaign of fun investigating.
2) Bunnies and Burrows
Have you ever wanted to be a small woodland creature, living your life in the forest day to day surviving? Then Bunnies and Burrows may be for you!
This TTRPG is a roleplay heavy game that focuses more on problem solving rather than combat. You play as a small woodland creature living and enjoying your day to day in the forest avoiding perilous humans, environmental dangers, predators, all while trying to survive by staying fed and hydrated.
The leveling system in this game is very reminiscent of old school video games where the more you use a particular skill, the more you have a chance at leveling it up. It’s a fairly easy game to grasp and fun for those who want to experience a cute survival like TTRPG.
3) This Discord has Ghosts in it
This is probably the most unique “TTRPG” on this list. Rather than playing on a traditional tabletop setting, this system takes thing into a discord server to solve the mystery of a haunted house (discord server) as Investigators uncover the tales of the ghosts that call it home.
This is a fantastic system for long distance friend groups and allows everyone to interact as a player either as a ghost or an investigator. This system isn’t very campaign friendly and is meant to be played in one sit down session, but it has a lot of replay-ability and makes for a night filled with both fun and scary moments. The rules are easy to follow and the guide book even walks you through how to set up the discord server.
This is a fantastic system for large friend groups that may not be able to get together in person, and only has a limited amount of time to play.
4) Night Witches
This is a FANTASTIC ttrpg for any history buff. Play as a woman in the 588th Bomber Regiment in World War two as you stand against fascism while also dealing with sexism at the hands of your own servicemen.
This system deals with a lot of heavy topics, but is an absolutely beautiful tribute to some of the most inspiring and toughest women in military history. This game is designed for both single sessions and fleshed out campaigns and is a good system for those who wish to experience both the role of a game master and a player.
This is a Powered by the Apocalypse adapted setting and has all of the characteristics of a highly emotionally evocative game that has real anchors in actual historical events. This is a system that I have yet to play myself, but one I am extremely interested in and one that I do recommend solely on what I have heard from it.
5) Ten Candles
If you are a fan of horror rpgs with real world mechanics then this is the system for you! This system requires no pre game preparation and specifically designed for short one shots with a small group.
Playing by the light of ten real candles, discover what happens to your characters as you try to survive within the dark. This system is unique, as it leans heavily into a story telling horror rather than a survival system. At the end, after the last candle has burned away, every character will die to whatever fate awaits them. Every session is meant to be as unique as each scenario you play out as you discover what exactly happens to your group of characters in the dark.
If you like storytelling rpgs and like the idea of actually burning this as a game mechanic, then this system should be at the top of your list to play.
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Imagine us running away from a Maggot Mommy full of accumulated sexual energy while plays Black Betty in the background. In my head it sounds hilarious.
I´ll admit, I had to look that one up on Youtube - don´t judge me! As soon as I heard it, I recognized it. 😅
But omg, what have you done. Now I just can´t unsee it. 🤣🤣
Like, imagine Maggot Momma trying her very best, exerting herself, to get a hold of you but she´s just not able to cause you´re such a slippery little thing, you-
But don´t you think for a moment that this will deter her - on the contrary. It makes her tingle in all the right places, gets her going, awakens the predator in her, urging her to give chase and snatch you right up-!
But speaking of music, I do like listening to a few songs myself whilst writing. 🤭
For one, I LOVE JT Music. In case you don´t know them I highly recommend checking them out. They do all kinds of songs for different games and movies etc. 🥰
Now for Maggot Momma and her special someone I like listening to "Hungry For Another One" - inspired by the game "Little Nightmares" - because what our little Drama Queen is experiencing is basically a nightmare (to them). Granted, not all of the lyrics fit the situation but it´s the overall tone and atmosphere I enjoy. It really helps putting myself in a certain someone´s shoes, so to speak.
The other song I´ve been listening to for the past few days is "Daffodil" from Florence + the Machine.
Again, I´m a huge fan of Florence + the Machine. Her voice is just phenomenal. 🥰
But with "Daffodil" it´s, again, just the overall atmosphere, I love it. It sounds so sinful, almost forbidden in certain parts and it does talk about resurrection and awakening the dead sooo...
So whenever I wanna write from Maggot Momma´s POV I tend to listen to "Daffodil". It just makes me feel...a certain type of way.
Thanks for that ask and the mental images. 😂🥰
#evil dead rise#ellie evil dead rise#maggot mommy#deadites#alyssa sutherland#evil dead rise...but gayer
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The Beginner’s Guide to The Void
(by caspiancomic)
The Void is my favourite game that I’ve never played.
Released in 2008 under the name Tension, it’s the second major release from Russian studio Ice-Pick Lodge, following 2005′s Pathologic. If you are familiar with this foreign indie art game, you are probably full to bursting already with indie gamer snob cred, but I implore you to help yourself to a bit more. If you’ve gone so far as to play it, you’ve got more snob cred than even I, so congratulations on that. For those of you interested in experiencing it, which will hopefully be all of you, it is available to PC users on Steam, but for the rest of you, I recommend CannibalK9′s spectacular Let’s Play.
Let me repay my debts right away. In this essay, I hope to open your eyes to some of the thematic through lines of The Void, encourage you to experience the game yourself, suggest that in the future you think more fully and deeply about the thematic core of your chosen games, and maybe expose you to a beautiful, little understood, and criminally under appreciated diamond of a video game. But if all I accomplished with this essay was CannibalK9 reading it and learning how much his LP affected my ability to read and appreciate games, media generally, and life, I would still consider it an unqualified success. CannibalK9 speaks beautifully, a trait I admire in others and seek to cultivate in myself, and he has a great deal of knowledge and wisdom regarding this game. Many if not all of my own ideas are indebted to his observations of and reflections on the game. If you know him, or are in contact with him, send him this way. I’d love a chance to thank him for everything he’s done for me.
And before we get down to it properly, one last thing. Ice-Pick Lodge is, at the time of writing, running a Kickstarter to fund their next game, called Knock-Knock. If you’re a fan of either The Void specifically, or atmospheric horror games generally, I’d highly recommend chucking them a few bucks. They’re only looking for a modest $30 000 to fund the game, and even a tiny donation gets you access to the finished game, so please do go check that out.
But enough sentiment for now, eh? Let’s get down to it.
Once, when asked what Neon Genesis Evangelion is about, I cherished the opportunity to glibly respond with “everything.” It’s an answer that only makes sense to those already familiar with the series, and as such, was completely unhelpful to the person who asked me. But I maintain that it’s true. On a textual level, of course, Evangelion is about children who pilot giant robots to fight against alien invaders. But thematically, Evangelion is about religion, death, parent/child relationships (and as an extension, God/creation relationships), sex, puberty, loneliness, identity, free will, science, and basically anything you care to name. The Void is similarly weighted with thematic theses. The primary difference is that even on a strictly textual level, The Void is borderline incomprehensible, particularly on a virgin playthrough.
Still, that’s all just stage setting. I’m here to provide as in-depth an analysis as I can manage for a couple of The Void’s thematic hearts. Like Evangelion, The Void has a lot to say, and it says it quietly and clearly. For the purposes of this essay, I will be examining The Void’s relationship with death and the afterlife, and feminism and patriarchy.
But first, crib notes! The Void is dense with information, and I’m going to be referring to characters and concepts by their names from now on. The section that follows is more comprehensive than a “Beginner’s Guide to The Void” probably should be, but nowhere near an all-encompassing overview of the game. Some of the elements of the game that are not of importance for the discussion to follow- like glyphs, the presence and role of predators, etc- have been excluded from this explanation to keep the focus tight and the length tolerable. Also, where multiple characters give conflicting information on a topic (which happens all the time in this game), I’ve either attempted to include all the information, or focus on whichever version of events ended up being most true.
It features what you might call spoilers, but in order to progress through this discussion it’s important that we all know the characters and terms I’m about to discuss. So if you’re hellbent on a blind playthrough (the best way to play, according to CannibalK9), go play the game and come back when you’re done, the essay will still be here. As for the rest of us, let’s dive on in.
How do you feel? Dizzy? Overwhelmed? Confused? Well, believe me, it only gets worse. This information is presented gradually, obliquely, and resentfully by multiple characters all whispering different lies and half-truths in your ear over the entire game. Detangling this particular Gordian Knot has taken a lot of careful examination and consideration of the game’s glut of information. Even so, I am 100% open to the idea that I have misinterpreted or otherwise misunderstood some element of the game and its mythology. Necessarily, any summary of the events of the game is going to involve some conjecture, a bit of artistic interpretation, and your own interpretation may differ from my own. This is as close as I could come to the “truth” about this game, but the beautiful thing about The Void is that finding your own truth amid the cacophony is one of the most satisfying facets of the story. If the above summary doesn’t mesh with your interpretation of the events of the game, I’d love to hear about it. Otherwise, definition of terms aside, we can now jump into an examination of the thematic undercurrents of the game.
The world of The Void is married to death. The first character you meet, the melancholic Nameless Sister, is called Sister Death by her siblings. Throughout your journey, when you are approaching death, it will be Sister Death who warns you. Towards the end of the game, Sister Death will also make the ultimate sacrifice: she rips out her final heart and surrenders the last of her Colour to you to aid you on your quest. This act of generosity deeply disturbs the Sisters and Brothers, and I don’t mind telling you it deeply disturbed me. The characters of the game were shocked because “giving” in this world is either impossible or taboo, depending on who you ask. I was shocked because I didn’t realize until her sacrifice how much I really cared for Sister Death, and how much she obviously cared for me.
But for all Sister Death does to keep you alive, it is implied from the very beginning that our character is dead already. The Sisters, or at least Sister Death seem to believe you fell into the Void from above, while the Brothers insist you came up from below. Brother Triumphator insists that the Guest is “not alive, he’s quite dead.” In any case, Master Colour makes it perfectly clear (if his word can really be taken on the subject) that the only way to travel between Limits is to die. In the final leg of the game, Master Colour will also tell you that you are the soul of the Void- that you are the reason the Void is dead. Should that be true, you would be the wandering spirit of the well and truly deceased Sleeper, and therefor quite dead indeed. No matter how you cut it, the Guest is almost certainly dead, as the accounts of the various factions of the game only disagree in this respect on where you came from.
In spite of your posthumous nature, the threat of death still looms large over The Void. The sprigs of Colour you harvest to survive will periodically tell you that “there is no death in the Void.” This is, of course, patently untrue. Sister Death warns you early that beneath the Void is the Nightmare, the realm of Absolute Death. Should your hearts empty, you will sink into the Nightmare. In addition to this, Brothers can be killed in combat, and Sisters can be cannibalized with Aya’s Vampire glyph. At the end of the game, you will allow a Sister ascend, and if Colour is to be believed, travelling up to a new Limit requires death in the current one. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s made unambiguously clear that one Sister will ascend to the detriment of her siblings: everybody but the selected Sister, including the player character, must die for her to reach Breakthrough.
When we examine these elements of The Void’s mythology, then, we can reach a conclusion about its thesis regarding not only the afterlife, but life. Let’s sum up. In The Void, reality is described as being like a chain of Limits, one above the other, travelling up infinitely high, but with a definite bottom in the Nightmare. Travelling between Limits is only possible upon death, and the deceased will either travel down, or with a great deal of effort and sacrifice, up. The Brothers, nightmarish creatures themselves who believe yourself to be one of them, and believe you ascended to the Void from the Nightmare, refer to the Void as Paradise. The Sisters, beautiful human women in appearance, aspire either secretly or obviously to reach Breakthrough and ascend. Sister Ole and Sister Yani, the uppermost Sisters in the Void, occupy chambers almost uncannily similar to the Limit above, and Sister Yani even claims she has been there. From these elements we can draw the conclusion that afterlife and life are, essentially, one and the same.
What we perceive as the world of the living is merely our own Limit, and upon death our spirit will either sink into the Limit below, which we will perceive as either a purgatory like the Void or a kind of hell like the Nightmare, or we will travel up, to what we might call Paradise. The Void suggests that there is no after life: only life.
There is, however, an interesting caveat to that unique interpretation of the after life. The chain of Limits has a bottom, the Nightmare, which we could call Hell, but it is infinitely tall. The Brothers (who, it is my belief, ascended to the Void from the Nightmare) refer to the Void as Paradise, in spite of the fact that to our eyes it is miserably bleak. From this we can infer that the Limit above our own would be perceived as a Paradise. In fact, ascending a Sister with the Rite of Devotio is said to create a world “for” or “from” that Sister- a world both created from and perfectly suiting the ascended soul. This is all evidence that the Limit above our own is equivalent to the concept of Heaven. But, the chain of Limits is infinitely tall- meaning that “Paradise” is, essentially, relative.
In a couple of ways this is sort of depressing. First, it implies that something approximating “perfection” can never be achieved. Sister Aya refers to Breakthrough as “creating a life from mere existence”, but no matter how high you manage to ascend, you will never reach a sort of “Absolute Life” to counterbalance the Nightmare’s Absolute Death. The second way this chain of Limits can be interpreted negatively is the implication that there is a Hell, but no Heaven. The Nightmare is a very real and definitive dead end on the chain of Limits, but no such finish line exists at the top of the chain. This means traditional western concepts of Heaven- perfect happiness, tranquility, peace, and togetherness with God- simply do not exist in the world of The Void.
And yet in spite of this, I personally can’t help but interpret this positively. Consider it a facet of my- to borrow a phrase from CannibalK9- “gratingly optimistic” personality. For a start, as an atheist the idea of Heaven isn’t compatible with my belief system. But more than that, the idea of a final resting place in which souls spend the rest of time in perfect harmonious bliss is not in keeping with the tone of The Void. The Void is about struggle- tension, if you like- and it values hard work and dedication above all things. The idea of struggling your entire life to make the world around you a better place, and being rewarded with a higher Limit to work your craft on, is much more appealing to me than a kind of winner’s circle in which spirits congratulate themselves for the rest of eternity.
In his Let’s Play, CannibalK9 makes an inspired comparison between the infinitely tall chain of Limits and creative pursuits: you can always improve, but never perfect, your given craft. Perfection is dull. Everything interesting in life comes from tension, from learning, practicing, struggling, trying, failing, and succeeding. Why should the after life sanitize the most rewarding elements of life? In the cosmogony of The Void, there is no resting on laurels, no pats on the back, and no air of self congratulation. The end of every life represents a new opportunity to improve yourself and the world around you. How often have you looked back at your own life in abject embarrassment, wishing you knew then what you know now? Have you ever looked at something you wrote or drew several years ago and been repulsed by your own inexperience? Are you haunted by the time you were cruel or inconsiderate to someone who trusted you? Did reckless mistakes you made when you were younger have a disproportionately strong effect on the course your life took? In The Void, the end of every life represents an opportunity to approach the whole ordeal again with more and better wisdom, inspiration, trust, intelligence, and kindness. Consider it a New Game Plus mode for life. How many people here would prefer that option to an eternity spent strumming on a harp?
You might think it’s strange that a game in which a host of powerful male characters protect and repress a sorority of helpless little girls could be considered feminist. Is it possible for a game in which women are literally bound, have no power except their beauty, and depend on a male spirit for sustenance, could have a healthy and sympathetic tone for women? What are we to think of a game in which the only female characters are forced to provocatively pose and strip in exchange for the substance they need to live, like a gentleman’s club where the dancers beg for food stamps? Well, it’s my opinion that this game has deep, strong feminist themes in its very DNA.
When feminism and video games enter the same conversation, more often than not attention is drawn to female characters with strength and conviction. Well, no, when feminism and video games mix more often the result is entitled children throwing their toys out of the crib and making fools of themselves. But in the more civilized corners of the internet (they do exist), great attention is payed to Lara Croft, Jade, Samus- the girls who kick ass and take names. And rightly so- a woman who can accomplish any task a man can and doesn’t make a big thing out of it is commendable progress in an industry that is overwhelmingly male-dominated.
However, while these characters and games are great examples of feminist game icons, I think they all fall into the same category: feminist power fantasies. There’s nothing wrong with a good feminist power fantasy, of course, but it’s only a single facet of what could be a much larger jewel. The Void has a more subtle, more literary feminist streak. It’s my belief that The Void can be very satisfyingly read as an allegory for modern feminism- a woman’s eye view of life amidst the patriarchy.
The Void’s gender politics are extremely obvious, and impossible to ignore. The Brothers and the Sisters have gendered names even as factions. They are totally segregated by gender, and the Brothers are the exclusive wielders of all the power there is to be had in the Void. With the exceptions of Echo and Aya, the sisters are prisoners in their chambers, each one both guarded and dominated by their respective Brother. Even those ostensibly “liberated” sisters are only free to move about the Void at the behest of the Brothers. In other words, the women in this game are utterly repressed by the men. This isn’t a coincidence- the singularly male ruling class keeping the female population in their place is a literal manifestation of the concept of the patriarchy, silently handicapping women to benefit a small ruling class exclusively composed of men.
Although women in video games being attractive by traditional standards is nothing new, the way the Sisters’ loveliness contrasts with the monstrousness of the Brothers is significant. Divorced from its here strictly physical manifestation, The Void seems to suggest in this way that all women are beautiful (intelligent, courageous, selfless, inquisitive, creative, etc) while all men are ugly (vain, egocentric, hypocritical, self-righteous, pompous, and so forth). This is an extremely strong stance to take, and contrary to the opinions of many a Youtube comments section feminists do not believe that women are superior to men, and certainly not to the degree seemingly hypothesized by The Void. But, The Void does not strive to create an allegory representative of the real world, remember. The Void represents the patriarchy as viewed through the lens of its female victims.
As long as we keep this in mind, the loveliness of the Sisters and the striking grotesqueness of the Brothers will make more thematic sense. Through this lens, many of the character decisions made by Ice-Pick Lodge will come into focus. For example, the fact that the Brothers consider themselves the infallible champions of the Sisters, or that the Brothers consider the Sisters somehow dangerous or threatening, or even that the Sisters resent rather than fear their Brothers. Using this interpretation we can also make sense of the seemingly problematic concept of the Sisters being unable to free themselves: one of the core tenets of a functioning patriarchy is that it is a system in which women are powerless, subservient, and subordinate. If the Sisters were capable of fighting the Brothers themselves, The Void would cross over into the above mentioned “feminist power fantasy”, and would not be representative of a “pure” patriarchy. In order to represent an airtight allegorical representation of the patriarchy, the female characters are necessarily powerless.
There are two factions still to incorporate into this formula, though: Colour, and the Guest. Colour is certainly a masculine presence, and Colour in The Void is representative of power. The patriarchy is so entrenched in the Void that the very voice of “power” is male, and what’s more, power itself desires to remain exclusively in the hands of men. In the final leg of the game, Colour begins speaking to Golden Eyes constantly and aggressively. Although Colour introduces the player to the concept of Breakthrough, and teaches you that this rite ought to be performed on a Sister, as the game progresses Colour at first suggests, and then demands with increasing annoyance, that Golden Eyes perform the Rite of Devotio on himself. It is never suggested that a Brother could achieve Breakthrough- although they are explicitly referred to as being able to “take”, they consider Nerva to be poisonous- so Colour’s only option for keeping power in male hands is to ascend through his male vessel, the Spirit.
The final piece in this particular puzzle is the Guest. The Guest is by all accounts outwardly male. He has a masculine body when you view his hearts, and he spends much of the game successfully disguising himself as a Brother. However, the Guest lacks many of the qualities The Void associates with masculinity. He doesn’t speak, which contrasts him with the Brothers and their interminable self-righteous tirades. He also, strikingly, lacks genitals. Don’t dismiss this as censorship or authorial restraint either: any one of the Sisters will stand as naked as a newborn should you unlock all her hearts, and all their sex organs are clearly visible. In these ways The Void differentiates between a character who is a pillar of the oppressive patriarchy- the Brothers and Colour- and a character who is simply male.
But why is the Spirit male at all? The suggestion to me seems to be that overthrowing the patriarchy and creating a society in which women are truly considered equal to men is the responsibility of everybody, including men. In the Void, Colour is power. In a power-unbalanced society, evening the odds requires the empowered party to sacrifice power to the powerless party. The relationship between the Guest and the Sisters is collaborative- it represents men willingly and happily draining their own privilege and power and offering it to women. With this interpretation, it makes one male character offering power to women under the disapproving gaze of ten empowered men that much more significant: according to The Void, the power equalization between men and women is going to come slowly, from a dedicated minority of male feminist allies, and is going to be met with outrage and violence from the vast majority of men.
This makes Master Colour’s description of the barriers between Limits as a “glass ceiling” much more meaningful. By willfully surrendering his own power to a woman, against the wishes of the ruling patriarchy, the Spirit allows a Sister to literally break the so-called glass ceiling, and ascend to a position above that of even the Brothers. Now that we accept that it is the responsibility of men and women both to overthrow the patriarchy, we can make more sense of the Spirit’s systematic elimination of the Brothers. The Void’s contention is that for women to truly ascend, feminist men need to not only empower women, but actively destroy the patriarchal elements in their society and themselves. The Guest- the male feminist- literally destroys the patriarchy in his quest to empower a Sister.
Finally, the ultimate goal of The Void is coloured, if you will, with feminist (or at the very least, feminine) themes. The Rite of Devotio will allow one Sister to ascend to the Upper Limit- creating life from mere existence. This is tantamount to a kind of birth. If the Upper Limit is where true “life” occurs, then the Void is not only an afterlife, but prelife. You could call the Void a kind of womb, in which there exists the possibility for many different lives, but only one can be chosen. Even the concept of the Void- vacant, hollow, accepting- is symbolically vaginal. The layout and design of the Void even echoes the appearance of a uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. The Sisters in their chambers could be said to be unfertilized eggs. In this analogy, then, Colour becomes seminal. It’s the substance used to fertilize a Sister so that she can ascend to the Upper Limit to be born. After all, in order to perform Breakthrough, the Spirit must reach a state of Turgor- turgidity, the opposite of flaccidity, being the state of tissue that has become rigid with the absorption of fluid. In other words, for humans, an erection. In this light, try not to think too hard about the fact that the oldest Sister is nineteen.
Well, that represents just about the sum total of my most concrete theories regarding The Void. The Void is a spectacularly nourishing experience, and I had to trim away several potential avenues of thematic exploration to save on space and time. In the future, I may return to The Void, and use it as a jumping board to discuss art, love (platonic, familial, romantic, sexual, it’s all there in some form or another, and every player will have a different reaction to every Sister), religion, truth and lies, how we define ourselves against those around us… essentially any topic you care to mention can be meaningfully addressed using the language of The Void. For today, though, I hope I’ve managed to enrich your understanding of this and all games, the way CannibalK9 nourished my own understanding of this and all games. Once again, I’d like to implore you to check out Ice-Pick Lodge’s Kickstarter, and for any PC users, don’t forget that The Void is available on Steam. If you good folks have something to add about The Void (and anybody who has experienced it must have something to say about it), whether you’re building on or tearing down something I’ve said above or you’d like to pursue your own avenue of thought, please feel free to drop a comment, or even contact me personally. I could discuss this game to the end of time, so it certainly wouldn’t be an imposition.
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Booktok is ruining books?
I am currently rereading the Inheritance Cycle so I can pick up the 5th book, and it's kinda crazy to remember this was written by a 15-year-old? The revelation is extra startling because I read fourth wing a few months ago-they have pretty similar premises: dragon riders, telepathic connection, special powers, evil empire, etc. Obviously, they are aiming for completely different crowds but if someone would have advertised Fourth Wing as for fans of the inheritance cycle and acotar I wouldn't bat an eye. The common premise got me thinking a lot about what I didn't like about Fourth Wing, and I'm very struck by how much better constructed the story is in Eragon. The world-building makes more sense, the character's voice is more distinct and overall the plot has an actual arc and the pacing is much better!
(Granted I'm not acting like Eragon is peak literature, it's derivative and trope-ridden and has a classic hero's journey that we've seen a thousand times. However, as a middle-grade novel it works well as an introduction to fantasy and throughout the series finds ways to differentiate itself. Moreover, it is just a better-polished work)
There is also this other conversation about the declining quality of books since this Bloomsberg article came out: TikTok Is Turning the Publishing World Into Fast Fashion & to say its sparked a lot of conversation would be an understatement, but much of the article focuses on the release of Iron Flame (Fourth Wings much-anticipated sequel) in particular, and I can't say I agree 100% with it.
1. The title is obviously meant to catch your attention but now that I keep seeing people repeat it I just want to clarify that the biggest critique of fast fashion is that it is unsustainable, promotes overconsumption, and relies on cheap and unethical labor practices, so like no I don't think comparing publishing to that is 100% warranted instead the issue is mostly surrounding lack of quality, misprints, and the fact that many books read like unedited first drafts.
2. The article spends so much time focusing on Yarro's appropriation of Scottish Gaelic, and the obvious lack of research that went into it, and while yeah I agree its poorly researched. I also don't think this is some new phenomenon like authors leach off other cultures all the time for aesthetic purposes, especially from the middle east and people don't really seem to care then soooo....
What I do think can be gleamed from Yarro's success and the strategy used by her publisher Red Tower is that TikTok is definitely having an effect on publishing, relying a lot more on hype through influencer marketing and special editions than the actual craft and quality of the writing, so it makes sense they would blow more of their budget on marketing, sprayed edges, and extra arcs than spend the time or money on editors or sensitivity readers. Furthermore, it is difficult to do either of those things when you are fighting an algorithm that only spotlights a book for a good 2 weeks or so before it moves on to something else. It's no surprise then that publishers like Red Tower would crack this formula through their special editions, influencer marketing, and forced scarcity, and its also no surprise that once the FOMO wore off and the hype bubble popped people realized the writing was actually kind of shit.
In terms of overconsumption, TikTok is always going to promote it. You need to post on the site almost every day for the algorithm to work for you and bc it relies heavily on videos rather than photos you need to own a lot more to make decent content. In general its bad, but unlike clothing that goes out of style and is tossed in the bin, people do tend to hold on to their books, and large personal libraries do predate Tiktok. I highly recommend you support your local libraries whenever you can!
Honestly, I think there is so much more to be said about the pressure Booktok puts on people to read more and how this leads people to skim or avoid more challenging books, and the rise in anti-intellectualism but I think I have rambled enough.
#books#bookblr#reader#Fourth Wing#Rebecca Yarros#mine#rants#Booktok#Eragon#Red Tower#publishing#These are just my thoughts lately its not a very coherent argument but rather just whats been on my mind as of late#I
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hi 1 quastion do you have any personal recommendations for what predator content I should look at first after I watch my last movie :0 either helpful build-a-boy materials or just stuff i can sink my teeth into
BOY DO I-
comics: fire and stone is really good! i've read it once but just started rereading it. asshole human scavenger ends up stuck with grumbly old yautja, shenanigans ensue.
hunters has been good so far! i remember reading the first issue a while back but the rest of it hadn't been uploaded yet so i'm curious to see where it goes.
i think the numerous AVP comics might like, have a certain order? but i don't honestly know since I just read them based on Vibes.
Big Game apparently predates Hunters with the same human character, I literally discovered this while typing this ask because I /thought/ big game was the one shot about the yautja that fights a grizzly bear and loses.
Books: IF IT BLEEDS is a compendium novel of short stories that I only initially bought because the author of newsflesh had a one shot in it and i knew it would be good enough to justify the purchase if the rest of the book flopped. I am pleased to say it did not!
Concrete Jungle/Cold War are two stories that I got as one novel on the ebook version that are pretty good, too. It follows Dutch's brother. I can say that while I enjoyed them well enough, I don't see where I'd reread them, while I was already thinking about rereading If It Bleeds, and for me rereadability is important for how good I judge a book on.
The Rage War has also been so good. I was hesitant because I get Weird abut new authors, even if it's for a franchise I enjoy but it's been good as hell for lore stuff. The implication that there's a WHOLE CLAN of disabled yautja that go on to continue doing things for the species after being unable to hunt? I am FEASTING.
Videos/Films: BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE, Predator: Dark Ages is a fan film that, frankly, had no right to be as good as it was for being independent and fan made. This One I recall being fine, IIRC it has yautja killing nazis and we always like to see nazis get killed.
For Build-A-Boy purposes i highly suggest checking out the studioADI youtube channel, they've done the bulk of the VFX across the franchise, lots of the OG's at ADI worked under Stan Winston. I like seeing the VFX portion because I'm super into creature creation and in another life would probably be doing it for a living, but it may be helpful for figuring out what kind of design you want!
There used to be a really cool behind the scenes doc for the original movie, I'll have to look and see if it's even still up because it has not only a lot of stuff about the design but also so much stuff about fucking bonkers it was getting that movie made.
There's also been several games throughout the years, and I think Hunting Grounds finally got a PC port? it's a shame that word of mouth has said that game flopped but most of the people saying it are gamer bros so I take it with a grain of salt. I could honestly, care less about gameplay I'm here for making a Boy and then Killing People.
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Hi, nice to meet you, I'm your fan of the books and drawings of "What do you want?" and other shipp frisk/sans books. And I would like to talk to you about shipp frisk/sans books, what would you recommend if you please.
Good Evening Dear Heart, and thank you for the ask! 🫰🤍🖤
I'm so glad to hear you're a fan of WDYW! Before I get into it, if you haven't read “Baby Face” or YWIW I highly encourage you to read those! I also have that one Christmas one shot “We'll See” if you want to check that out.
So on the topic of fic recommendations... Y'all this is embarrassing and also, y'all are gonna crucify me for this. The truth is, I... I actually don't read fanfiction? I only write fanfiction for the most part. I'm just really picky about what I read and watch (that goes for books, shows, movies, fanfic, etc). This goes for Frans and Undertale especially because I have a very specific idea of how the characters would act and behave. I currently have a whopping Eight whole bookmarks on AO3.
So. Here are some tentative recs from me, the illiterate author.
Sooner or Later You're Gonna Be Mine is a classic at this point and I did read it back when it was still having regular updates, but it also ends in a pretty wild cliffhanger and unfortunately hasn't been updated for years. Also... This is kind of a Hot Take in the Frans community buuut... I don't consider it a romance! Listen, it's really hard for me, personally, to root for a love interest who is depicted the way Sans is depicted in the beginning, aka, a Sexual Predator. Sexual Predators aren't really appealing to me. It's definitely more of a Mafia Thriller for me. Still really well written, so I def recommend it, especially if you like WDYW, but that's just where I stand on that fic.
The only recommendations I have for Frans, are for fancomics on Tumblr. For instance Feline Bad by @sharkowskii is incredible, I love it a lot. Also, Kingdom of the Crystal Sky by @kodizzzle is a fun read, and I love the way they draw Frisk.
I've heard Songfell by Ikustioa on Ao3 is really good, so you could probably check that out! Also I've been meaning to read When Flowers Wilt by FransGivesMeLife on Ao3
Now that being said, I do have Undertale fic recs but they're not Frans, crazily enough! There's Bone and Marrow by my good friend @washi-undertale and also My Big Fat Fish Holiday Party by Andreabandrea on Ao3. Again, these aren't Frans fics, in fact they're not really ship fics either.
I don't know, I'm not really the person to go to for fic recs. The only fandoms I read fanfic for on a regular basis are The Dark Knight and Lord of the Rings.
If anyone else more well read in Frans fanfiction wants to chime in and leave some good recs, please be my guest haha.
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#guys guys guys#...#listen#I can explain#I'm just#illiterate apparently#listen they said write what you want to read so I did!#my special interest used to be reading... and now it's writing#ask and answer#thank you for the ask#fanfic recs#i am ashamed
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As a lover of fast-paced thrillers, I was excited to finally get my hands on Michael Connelly's latest novel, The Dark Hours. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint!
The book follows LAPD detective Renée Ballard, who finds herself in the midst of chaos on New Year's Eve. While working the graveyard shift, she's called to a crime scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally shot in the middle of a crowded street party.
As Ballard investigates the murder, she quickly realizes that it's linked to another unsolved case that was once worked by Detective Harry Bosch. Ballard is also on the hunt for a pair of serial rapists known as the Midnight Men who have been terrorizing women and leaving no trace.
Determined to solve both cases, Ballard teams up with Bosch, and the two detectives must navigate a police department that has been hampered by the pandemic and recent social unrest. But as they dig deeper, they realize that the predators they're tracking are willing to kill to keep their secrets hidden.
One of the things I loved about this book is the way Connelly weaves together multiple plotlines. While the murder and the Midnight Men cases are the main focus, there are also plenty of other twists and turns that keep the story moving at a breakneck pace. I found myself on the edge of my seat, desperate to find out what would happen next.
Another standout element of The Dark Hours is the character development. Ballard and Bosch are both complex and compelling protagonists, and their partnership is a joy to read. Ballard is a driven and determined detective who refuses to give up, even in the face of adversity. Bosch, on the other hand, brings a wealth of experience to the table, but he's also haunted by his past mistakes.
Together, they make a formidable team, and watching them work together to solve the case is incredibly satisfying. And while the focus is on Ballard and Bosch, the supporting cast of characters is also well-drawn and adds depth to the story.
In terms of writing style, Connelly is a master of the genre. His prose is lean and evocative, and he has a knack for creating vivid, atmospheric settings. Whether he's describing the rain-soaked streets of Los Angeles or the tense, claustrophobic atmosphere of a police briefing room, he brings everything to life with precision and skill.
Overall, I absolutely loved The Dark Hours. It's a gripping and well-crafted thriller that will keep you hooked from start to finish. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good mystery, and especially to fans of Michael Connelly's previous work. Trust me, you won't be disappointed!
Don't miss out on this life-changing book! Click now to purchase and start your journey towards personal growth and success. Or, if you prefer to listen, sign up for a 30-day trial of Audible and experience the book through your headphones. Don't wait, start today!
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Jurassic World Evolution 2 Adds Tarbosaurus, Concavenator & More!
There have been rumours afoot for a few weeks that our next DLC for Frontier Development’s Jurassic World Evolution 2 would be around the corner – and those rumours are now confirmed with the announcement of the brand-new Cretaceous Predator Pack!
This pack will be available in Jurassic World Evolution 2 on November the 30th, and brings four new animals to the roster – the Gigantoraptor, Utahraptor, Concavenator and Tarbosaurus – the latter taking inspiration direct from its appearance in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: Hidden Adventure.
It’s awesome getting the Concavenator and Tarbosaurus in the game at long last – and I love how the Gigantoraptor and Utahraptor both grow the menagerie of feathered animals which we have present within the game.
That’s not all, however! As we have come to expect with any new pack addition to the game, this update will also come with an accompanying Free Update – Free Update 8! This pack adds a ton of quality-of-life features to the game – but arguably more exciting is the addition of five new dinosaur variants to the game.
Inspired by films directly in the Jurassic Universe, we have a new 2022 variant for the Allosaurus, a new 2022 variant for Dimorphodon (curious to see how this one differs to the DLC version), a new 2001 variant for the Pteranodon, a new 2001 variant for the Brachiosaurus, and lastly but by no means least – a 1997 variant for the Stegosaurus.
Alongside new dinosaur variants come a slew of new features added to the game. These include (but are not limited to):
New Decorations in the form of bins, benches, plant pots, fountains and more.
Capture Mode additions allowing you to change the weather and time of day in-camera without affecting your world.
New pre-built layouts on sandbox maps – something I think will be ideal for quick capture mode sessions.
Additional features such as Species Unlock Shuffling, new Chase Behaviours and Automated Hatcheries.
A full forum post will be shared on the Jurassic World Evolution social media channels – and we highly recommend you give it a read!
This new update adds some fan requested dinosaurs, and equally, some fan requested features in the form of the new decorations which are being added here. It’s fantastic to see that Frontier continue to listen to the community, and make additions based on direct feedback. Bench and Bin fans rejoice – you have been listened to!
Both the free update, and the paid Cretaceous Predator Pack will release on November 30th. Will you be picking the DLC up and playing the new update? Let us know in the comments below!
Huge thanks to Frontier Developments for entrusting us with access to content ahead of time to bring you this coverage. This would not be possible without their support.
Written by:
Tom Jurassic
#article#steven spielberg#steven spielberg mattel#mattel creations#mattel creations jurassic park#mattel creations steven spielberg#steven spielberg toy#jurassicworldchaostheory#campcretaceous#jurassicworldchaostheorytrailer
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Review: Pageboy by Elliot Page
I was so excited to read Pageboy, I think I waited a few months on Libby to listen to the audiobook edition. I've been a fan of Elliot Page since the first time I watched Hard Candy on HBO when I was in middle school. That was the first time I felt empowered, watching someone my age exact revenge on a male predator for their friend. Another favorite movie he starred in is Whip It. That movie started the obsession I had for years with female roller derby teams. More recently, I loved seeing Elliot play Viktor in The Umbrella Academy. I've been a My Chemical Romance fan since Bullets album and read Gerard's comics as a result. Victor's subtle transition mid season 2 was beautifully done. If you haven't watched either of these movies/show or read The Umbrella Academy comics, I highly recommend them!
But this review isn't about movies, I don't have a lot to say about Pageboy. But I do want to talk about the two reasons for why I didn't love it the way I wanted to.
The first reason: the timeline was so confusing. A chapter would start with a few paragraphs about a movie set Elliot had been on and things that happened around filming and then it would shift to a memory of being in the city and doing something as a child. No dates or ages mentioned close enough to the change to understand when the events were happening. Like I said in the intro, I listened to the audiobook, but narrators will still read everything on the page (in this case it was narrated by the author like most memoirs) so I can conclude that dates and ages were just not mentioned at all.
Maybe it wouldn't have mattered if the book were written in chronological order but the timeline we got was just chaotic and made it hard for me to follow. Sometimes I would be well into a chapter before realizing exactly when said event was taking place.
Anyway, the second reason: maybe I'm cherry picking here, I haven't read many memoirs before this one. But Pageboy just lacked depth. It's so clear from Elloit's history and the things he wrote about in the book that he has been through so much. I knew about the hypersexualization from articles I've read, one that comes to mind is the controversy surrounding Beyond Two Souls and how a nude model of Elloit's pre transitioned body was snuck in without him knowing. There are so many examples of this happening in the memoir, but he grazed over them and it just felt like it lacked emotion. I could guess that maybe he didn't want to re open old wounds and still be able to talk about them in a perspective outside his own. But it all felt disconnected for me.
I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to anyone, of course if you're a fan and just want to read it for that sake then, yes do read it. But it was just not that for me, I still love Elliot Page and it doesn't change my opinion of him, I just couldn't get past the timeline and dryness of this memoir.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐
#authors#book#book blog#book review#bookish#books#bookworm#currently reading#goodreads#read#memoir#autobiography#nonfiction#elliot page#pageboy#3 star read
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hey splatoon fans, while you're waiting for side order i highly recommend playing TRON 2.0
it's a FPS sequel to TRON that came out in 2003. it's about the now-adult son of two of the main human characters from the original TRON movie getting sucked into a virus-infected computer, and in the process of trying to disinfect the computer, he uncovers a plot from the company taking over his parents' company to use their laser technology to digitize armies of humans and take over the world.
do i have you hooked yet?
if i don't, consider this: i'm recommending it in huge part because it's largely a story about jet, the protagonist, learning to reconnect with his dad after they both lost his mom, who died in a workplace laser accident and was most likely partially digitized. the digitization laser was her own life's work. the digitization AI, MA3A, takes on lora's voice after her death (and is voiced by lora's actress from the original film), and there are workplace rumors that it's because alan incorporated the digitized portions of her remains into MA3A's code. jet spends a lot of the game defending his mom's digital/digitized ghost from external threats.
what i'm getting at is that if you're excited for side order because of how it's hinted at dealing with themes of grief in a y2k digital landscape... they're mostly subtext in TRON 2.0 but i still think the game is seriously up your alley.
if you're a splatoon fan who hasn't played many other shooter games before, TRON 2.0 is a great introduction to the PC shooter world imo. if you're squeamish about blood/gore/giblets flying everywhere, there's none of that in TRON 2.0. if you're a splatoon fan because you like shooters but you've never given TRON 2.0 a chance, this is your sign!
some pros of TRON 2.0:
it looks fucking awesome
TRON 2.0 has a very turn-of-the-century take on the aesthetics of the original TRON. it predates tron legacy by seven years and it doesn't have any of that apple-store aesthetic. it's got all the juicy colors of the original film, with lots of crisp details that the original animation hardware couldn't handle. the digital world of TRON 2.0 only gets better every year with age. meanwhile it's got a (for its time) state-of-the-art glow mechanic that gives the game a very comforting soft feel.
and these are just the ones i've got on my own PC! (the last one i dont know if it's my, screenshot but the rest are from my own screenshots folder).
it can run on basically any PC
no, fr, this required some pretty good hardware when it came out... but the game turned 20 this year. i managed to run TRON on my old laptop after it very nearly split in half like a 2ds and took half an hour to boot by using my parents' TV as a monitor. it didn't even drop that many frames! this was in 2020. it didnt even have a graphics card.
yeah i was a grown adult when that photo was taken. no i dont care that i look 13. my car had just burst an engine rod in the middle of the desert about 48 hours before this was taken, so my fit wasn't really at the top of my priorities. (don't ask.)
you can get it DRM-free
don't get the steam version y'all, i can vouch for it being super glitchy. i can basically only run it while using mods to launch it without contacting steam. get it from gog.com.
ethics note: pirate the TRON movies as much as you want but im pretty sure the original company still gets some bucks when you buy 2.0 legally, and disney fucked them over pretty bad when it comes to the rights to TRON 2.0's characters and story, and they ripped off half the plot of the game to make the movie (and the movie is worse). if you don't wanna drop $10 wait for a gog sale and drop $3. (and honestly, if you're paying $20/year to get disconnected every 15 matches in splatoon, even paying $10 for a good retro game isn't the worst financial decision you've ever made.)
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just incase you haven't seen.. she is so sick it's disturbing
https://www.tumblr.com/queenimmadolla/725681861523816448/pw-also-ships-erica-and-dustin-if-you-scroll
Thank you anon! I did see this earlier and it’s just mind boggling how they’re not realizing how wrong this is. I truly don’t think they understand how bad sex crimes are, on top of being done to children. I don’t think it’s recognized how deep that shit goes.
I don’t give a shit if it’s not real, this is sick and needs to stop. I don’t even know what to say anymore I really don’t.
I live down the block from a registered sex offender, an elementary school is across the street. My neighbor had her car tires slashed because she saw him ass naked in the fucking window. That’s the reality of this shit. These people don’t deserve to see the light of day, and contributing to that with fan fiction, a safe place for many minorities of various identities, is VILE.
I highly recommend Stephanie harlowe’s 2 part series on Jared from subway. It was very informative while maintaining the dignity and respect of survivors involved. It can be triggering at times, so only watch if you’re in a safe head space. It is very heavy and disturbing, but sheds light on exactly what goes on with these predators.
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I had a thought recently about the reasons WHY they hide their relationship. Some of them seem obvious: they enjoy the privacy and intimacy of the public not knowing, they don't want external pressures on the relationship, they don't want it to affect Smosh's content, they don't want it to diminish their own individual accomplishments at Smosh...
The darker conversation that I don't hear people talk much about is SAFETY, specifically Courtney's safety. I think this is something we as Shourtney shippers all need to think about:
Courtney has already mentioned a stalker, one she's taken legal action against. It's maybe implied that this stalker was a Shourtney fan. What exactly went down is unknown, but it speaks to a larger issue that women and fem influencers face: PARASOCIAL PREDATORS.
The Christina Grimmie situation quite literally rocked the influencer world (if you're not familiar with the story, I highly recommend watching a video on it or something). It was the biggest warning to every woman and fem in media that there are people who watch them that could become SO parasocially obsessed with them, who become SO entitled and disillusioned over a person they watch online, that they are willing to do dangerous things to try and actualize that.
Amouranth, a huge Twitch streamer, has talked about being stalked, how someone literally tried to come to her house, how awful it was. I can't remember the full details, so sorry if I misspeak, but I think part of the story that she didn't talk about was how when rumors started circulating that she was married, it likely tipped this person over the edge and drove them to try and come to her location.
Another example of this is Alanah Pearce (former Funhaus member, huge figure in the gaming industry). She had someone form a parasocial relationship with her and cyberstalked her every move, and she goes into good detail everything this person did. The thing was, when it became known that Alanah was in a relationship at the time, this creepy bastard FLIPPED and got even more unhinged. If this person had been even an iota more deranged, who's to say they wouldn't have tried to find her in person?
That's the dilemma women and fem face in media. It gets SCARY. Courtney's already been stalked, and it makes me think that person might have found out they were in a relationship and couldn't handle that their parasocial girlfriend was taken. Does Courtney really want to open the floodgates to EVERY one of her parasocial creeps who could freak out and do something potentially worse?
Something to consider 🙏 as always, keep it respectful, call out shitty behavior, police each other, and live your own lives. Nothing about the people you watch online is THAT serious; you don't have any sort of relationship with them beyond you giving them ad revenue and them saying goofy shit to a camera. Appreciate Shayne and Courtney, appreciate the idea of a cute relationship between these two humans, and move on with your day. Much love ❤️
Damn, that’s a long one friends! I always think that the external pressure would be the main reason why they don’t want to go public. They’re both basically the face of Smosh and all the eyes will be on to them instantly if they gone public. It will create so much pressure to both them and it might even break them all together.
Also, I do think they tried to at least let the fan know with something like the selfie that got deleted on early 2022 but i’m not sure why they decided to just deleted it. Maybe it’s accidentally post on public instead of closed friends only? Or they just want to stirred the fans a little bit and delete it after? Who really knows tbh. lol
But other than that. Your point on safety and parasocial stuff is pretty much spotted on and I hope that it will not happen again when they decided it’s time to let everyone know. No matter tomorrow or 1-2 years or whenever. Because this is real life and not a TV show. We basically growing along with them and they’re both just normal people working 9-5 job. They have up and down just like the rest of us. Treat them (and everyone) with empathy and kindness.
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