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aeruthien · 1 year

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Now we've seen Whitestone, I want to comment on Culture in Critical Role, and how there are some fundamental aspects of DnD which make it unsuitable for exploring cultural differences.

I've seen some very valid posts about how Marquet in C3 isn't used to its full potential as a cultural setting, among others because most of the PCs are not native to Marquet. But while I fully agree, I want to broaden the argument even further: neither were Wildemount, Xhorhas or Tal'dorei.

I believe that Dungeons and Dragons is ill equipped to explore cultural differences, because there are key aspects of culture that it actively ignores: language, food and weather.

To start with language. In almost all versions of DnD or fantasy, everyone speaks common. This solves one of the main issues in world building, because it allows the players to travel the world without the issues that stem from not speaking a language. However, language is one of the main tools people use to distinguish themselves from others. Language, accent, tone, vocabulary and even grammar change based on who you are, where you come from and whom you're speaking to. But because everyone in Exandria speaks English like the cast do, they have a uniform culture, whether they are from Wildemount, Tal'dorei or Marquet. Even Caleb, who comes closest to breaking this pattern, is not truly Zemnian, because Liam (and Matt) doesn't actually speak German. Apart from the German accent and some German words, he doesn't speak like a non native German English speaker would.

Next up, food. Apart from some quick mentions of breakfast or dinner, food is almost always an afterthought. The Bell's Hells do not stop for lunch, and rations are almost never a problem. However, food is intrinsically linked to culture. What food is served, when food is served, and with whom food is eaten differs from place to place and from class to class. Is the food imported or is it grown locally? Is food served at 6PM sharp or much later? Do you eat with the whole family and is there always a surplus or do you have to fight for the scraps? What is the street food like? What spices are used? How does Xhorhas' cuisine differ from Wildemount, given that they live in perpetual night? But ultimately, the pie in Marquet is no different from the pie in Byroden, because again, the default will be the casts' default.

Finally, weather. While it might seem arbitrary, weather influences almost all aspects of our lives, from our homes, to our clothes, to our relationships. Is it warm enough to sit outside during the evening? This will encourage parties and late bedtimes. It is cold and rainy? People will sit inside pubs to stay warm. Colder and warmer climates, hot and dry climates, each of these influence when people are active and how they behave. Apart from the extremes, like the snow in Eiselcross, or the heat in the Fire Plane, the characters never have to deal with rain, or mist, or cold. They don't have to take shelter, they don't wake up cold, they don't need to keep a fire going or set up tents. And as such, there is no difference between a warm and hot jungle surrounding Jrusar or a high mountain trail in Zephrah, nor are the people who live there different.

There can be much more said about each of these three aspects of culture, and there are probably more examples to be given. And this is not intended as a excuse, or a reason for Matt not to try better. But sadly, DnD as a system glosses over most of the day-to-day interactions that make a city a particular city, or a culture a particular culture. And the default will always be the players' default.

#critical role #cr meta #dungeons and dragons #dnd meta #I have no solution for this #but it struck me as I saw the valid criticisms #matt is good at differentiation between say nobles and common folk #but not between cultures #and dnd does not make it easy #for example #trent ikithon and caleb who speak with a notable zemnian accents #what does this mean for people's perception of them?#are they seen as smarter because they are from old blood?#or are they seen as stupid because they are from rural areas?#there is nuance there that isn't explored #same with imogen #is her southern accent native to marquet?#we can't even describe her accent without mentioning the in real life place were it is from #so how is this linked to exandria?

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ashleyloob · 11 days

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every time I see non Asians go by Asian names online I get whiplash bc I'm like o shit another one of me!! then I find out they are a white weeb from Arkansas going by Haru that can't name more than 3 countries in Asia

#ppl used to make fun of me for my ethnic name so now i go by a western one....#but now i guess ethnic names are cool again as long as ur not that ethnicity? we have come full circle #huge difference between cultural appreciation and surface level fetishization btw #this is specifically talking about those that dont actually respect asian culture & use it as an aesthetic or accessory

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snawleyy · 29 days

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late night study

#rough sketch bc i dont want to fully render it #aurebesh: something about mandalorian culture #getting that education between battles as a child soldier #star wars #ahsoka tano #star wars art #star wars fanart #ahsoka #my art #snawleyys art #sw tcw #clone wars ahsoka #clone wars fanart #clone wars #star wars tcw #togruta #digital art #krita

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langernameohnebedeutung · 1 year

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ngl, I'm beginning to take issue with how in conversations about anti-intellectualism almost automatically, the face of girls and women will be slapped on the problem.

#'all those tiktok girls who only like marvel films and' - why do you always say girls and women? are the guys filling opera halls instead?#'women in their mid 20s who still only read YA novels' okay sure that's an example and relevant discussions can be had #but it reminds me of the mocking tone in which people speak of 'chick-lit' to use women's interest as an indicator of lower value #while in fact women are reading more than men in EVERY single genre of fiction. Women are doing a lot of (often unpaid) labour #supporting libaries supporting theatres supporting cultural events #meanwhile there is a pretty big overlap between toxic masculinity and anti-intellectualism #(especially misogyny and homophobia)#especially when it comes to things like ballet or opera or musical or generally dance #in fact it is often the female investment in specific things that makes them less 'valuable' in general consciousness #for thousands of years the theatre was well-respected and a high form of art - and now it's a 'wife-thing'#the father who will teach his son that theatre and dance are for girls - how is that never an example for anti-intellectualism

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live-from-flaturn · 1 year

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American Television after 5 years of pushing for queer representation: I hope you wanted unnecessary drama, angst with a maybe resolution, and three unfulfilling seasons of questionably written flirtation. And that all comes before anything is half-confirmed with a singular lukewarm kissing scene between two conventionally attractive, white bisexual women!

Thai Television .3 seconds after they figured out queer content is marketable: Did you want something kinky, soft, or stupid? Did you want cat ears? We’ve got cat ears! We’ve got safe/sane/consensual OR off-the-charts bad etiquette BDSM. We’ve got college students out the ass! As long as they’re an engineer or architect, choose your flavor. Do you want an age gap or classmates? Something for adults? Teens? Everyone was childhood besties, how about that??? This is a short order restaurant and I will flip you some gays like they’re hotcakes, just tell me what you want.

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zluty-spendlik · 7 months

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Edmund: Its so strange to see another human in Narnia that isnt my sibling, but im glad youre here

Caspian: I can imagine

Edmund: I mean, finally theres someone who understands all of the human culture who I can talk to without bickering, but still, when I saw those two Telmarine guys I was like "JESUS CHRIST THERES MORE", haha, you know?

Caspian: ... yeah...yeah I get it, I understand everything... everything human- just a quick question uh... whats a jesus christ?

Edmund: s-

Edmund: sorry what

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Peter: oi mate could you pass me a bo'lo'wa'er please

Caspian, crying: SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT HES SAYING

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Lucy (on the dawn treader): Well thats quite a storm, its raining cats and dogs out there!

Caspian: ... I...Im pretty sure its raining water

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Susan, struggling to string her bow: *quietly* fuck

Caspian: whats a 'fuck'?

Susan, whos bared witness to all of his confusion and had to explain everything for the past 72 hours: I dont have time for this

#edmund pevensie #caspian x #prince caspian #chronicles of narnia #narnia #i love for the cultural differences between telmarines and our english folks #lucy pevensie #peter pevensie #pevensie siblings #susan pevensie

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cinnamon-flame · 4 months

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Starting off the new year with I think the most background heavy piece I've ever made! I think Rainwings and Nightwings would celebrate their traditional holidays together after the events of The brightest night. So this drawing is meant to show their cultures kind of blending together during a very joyful time. I remember talking about this concept with someone on tumblr a year ago but when I went back through my posts I couldn't for the life of me find it - so if your reading this, I remember you and this drawing stems from that conversation so thank you!

Close-ups:

#They are celebrating the brightest night that's why there's so much moon symbolism in the decorations #I hope I translated my thoughts well enough so you can get the vibe of their celebration #I was split between drawing a tree glows from the lights that were hung up upon it #or a night rave with neon lights #because I think those two situations would result from blending nightwing and rainwing cultures together #also I wanted to show this like organised chaos of the different decoration styles of both rainwings and nightwings on the tree #Moon and Kinkajou are there too!#also you don't see the spearmaster looking nightwing #it just kind of came out looking like them? by accident #continuing my weird obsession with drawing giant trees I have to draw one every year so I might as well just check that now #wings of fire #wof #nighwing #rainwing #moonwatcher wof #kinkajou wof #dragon #art #cinnamon's doodles

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meteors-lotr · 4 months

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Thorin cooks Bilbo a meal as a type of thank you for the help and he refuses to take any gold or anything but the lad really loves food so let’s give him that, and he presents it to Bilbo all excited but Bilbo doesn’t eat anything he just stares at like the three course meal that’s in front of him and Thorin gets super nervous because oh no is it bad I’m so sorry Bombur prepped me for like a month for this don’t hobbits eat everything did I somehow manage to cook something that even a hobbit won’t consume oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck but Bilbo isn’t even noticing his panic because his brain is trying to catch up to the fact that Thorin just proposed to him

#I live for cultural misunderstandings in fics between these two #but I’ve seen a lot about Bilbo accidentally doing something romantic to dwarves but not a lot of Thorin doing it to Bilbo #lotr #lord of the rings #the hobbit #bilbo baggins #thorin oakenshield #bagginshield #Thilbo

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coquelicoq · 7 months

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what i like especially about the pronouns in the goblin emperor is that this language doesn't just have the T-V distinction (aka informal vs. formal second-person pronouns, in this case 'thou' vs. 'you'), it also has informal and formal first-person pronouns. having BOTH of these distinctions in the same language lets you fine-tune your tone by mixing and matching. with only one axis of formality, when you use informal pronouns, are you being familiar in an intimate way, or in an insolent or dismissive way? when you use formal pronouns, are you being polite or standoffish? you can't tell just from the pronouns; there's ambiguity. but a language where you can use a formal first-person pronoun in the same sentence as an informal second-person pronoun allows you to distance yourself (via the formal first) while also being familiar (via the informal second), thereby achieving the conversational tenor known to linguists as Fuck Thee Specifically.

#just kidding i don't know what linguists call that tenor. or any tenors. i'm not totally positive what a tenor even is #but i can't let that stop me from writing a jokey post on tumblr dot com #register is a very interesting area of linguistics that i know very little about #so i'm probably revealing the depths of my vast ignorance here to all the sociolinguists who surely hang on my every word #but i've always thought of the formal/informal pronoun thing as being about two things: intimacy-distance & rudeness-politeness #and of course you can usually tell from context whether a formal pronoun is meant to indicate distance or politeness #(plus distance and politeness are related to each other (to various degrees depending on culture))#but it seems like it would be cool to have a built-in alignment chart of sorts just for pronoun combos #instead of prep jock nerd goth...why not try intimate self-effacing polite superior?#the goblin emperor #pronouns #register #sociolinguistics #my posts #f #anyway i know i said i wasn't going to reread the goblin emperor...but guess what. lol #and i edited my tags on that earlier post but fyi the language DOES distinguish between plural and formal singular pronouns #i had said i thought it used the same pronouns for plural and formal but i just wasn't paying close enough attention #so anyway i just reread the part where maia is talking to setheris in formal first and informal second #and you can see setheris going ohhh shit. oh shit oh shit oh shit #i'm in biiiiiig trouble #you sure are dude. that's the Time to Grovel signal #it's interesting because at the very beginning of the book when i first saw the formal first used i just thought it was the royal we #because i knew the main character was supposed to be royalty #but then EVERYONE was doing it. so it's not the royal we it's just the formal we #however. this does make me realize that the way the royal we would function in a language that retains the t-v distinction #is the same way i'm describing here. it's just reserving that particular tone (i'm better than you and am displeased with you)#for royalty only. which makes sense given royalty's whole deal

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lgbtlunaverse · 8 months

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So since mxtx has said that in novel canon nie huaisang is eventually going to end up being chief cultivator we can presume the headshaker thing, while based on his existing personality, was in fact an act and he is way more competent at his job than he's let on. And with Jin Guangyao dead and gone he has no reason to put on that act anymore.

Imagine being an Nie cultivator. Your flopppy incompetent sect leader comes home from traumatic events after it turns out his older brother's sworn brother- who's been over to your sect basically every other week for years now- is the one that killed said brother and you're fully prepared for tears and dramatics. And while you definitley don't like lianfang-zun since it just came out he killed your last (way more competent) sect leader he was sorta the one holding the sect together so you're bracing yourself for the worst, and instead he's... stoic? Paperwork is suddenly getting done well and on time without help. He's not wailing during negotiations anymore and you're getting actual good trade deals for the first time in over a decade. He answers questions now? With something other than "I don't know i don't know i really don't know!"

And even if you had none of the revelations wei wuxian had in guanyin temple, slowly the realization creeps up on you that all his earlier embarassing antics that cost your family their comfortable livelihoods and your sect their good name was on purpose. And from there it's not that hard to put two and two together. The rest of the cultivation world assumes the shock of jin guangyao's betrayal has finally forced the headshaker to grow up a little but you have worked side by side with him for a decade, probably even watched him grow up under his brother's rule. You know better.

How do you feel at that point? What can you even do? He's your sect leader. And he's finally doing his job, things are looking up, shouldn't you feel relieved? It' not like his incompetence really caused any deaths among the nie, just wiped out generational wealth and reputation that will take years and years to build back up. Is it really reasonable to only start hating someone for something when they've stopped doing it? Thereby proving that they were capable of stopping all along?

#mdzs #nie huaisang #mdzs meta #sort of?#oh the urge to write a fic from the pov of a nie cultivator oc feeling INCREDIBLY conflicted about nie huaisang #the absolute generational culture shock between the nies that grew up under lao nie and nmj who watched the sect decline in adulthood #the nies that grew up under flop era nhs and have only ever heard of their better days until things start improving again #and the ones that will be growing up under chief cultivator nhs who kind of can't imagine that he was ever THAT bad.#the rumours must be exaggerrated right?#like 13 years postcanon a 15 year old disciple a 27 year old cultivator and a sect elder are all gonna have DRAMATICALLY different opinions

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thattheater-kid · 1 month

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You know what’s wild about being a fictive? Missing your old life even though it was shitty because it’s a shittiness you were used to. The life you’re living now is a new kind of shitty that feels unpleasant in a different way.

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poorly-drawn-mdzs · 1 year

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That's the face he makes when he's feeling silly.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #I tried so hard to squeeze in the fact this bar boy was 100% down to take on wwx's surname.#Unfortunately for him...sitting at the table is a man who's biggest dream is to hyphenate his surname with that very same man #though as far as I'm aware taking on your husbands surname is culturally a very different process in this setting #but in modern times I think the surname thing would genuinely be a point of contention for these guys.#wwx of old would hate taking someone else's name. And wwx of 'i want to be an attic wife' future would want nothing less #lwj of 'we are equals and I want to represent that as much as our bond' would argue his point like a law case.#lwj of now has to sit at a table and see someone living his dream and he's too lawful of indiscriminate killing. But he's thinking about it #It's like the relationship between you & your laptop & your cat. lwj is the cat that is *going* to make you pay attention to him.#apologies for soft-skipping an upload yesterday. I had to redo a few comics and it set me back B*(

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mlc-melons · 19 days

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Cheng Yi on wuxia fight scenes.

“my understanding of fight scenes, and i've talked about this with the director, is that a martial artist is a sage. if i fight you, why do i fight? i don't fight for the sake of fighting. it's more of a creative expression, it expresses a character's personality, it's a different state of mind. when the audience watches a fight scene, they (should) get why the character is fighting and what their state of mind is in that moment”

I first fell for Cheng Yi's acting in Love and Redemption. One of my favorite scenes is where Sifeng fights his evil self to escape from the Tower of Oblivion. He really doesn't stop serving face during fight scenes and treats it as another means of creative expression for the character. The desperation from Sifeng contrasting with the malicious glee from his evil self was just *chef's kiss*.

He does this in MLC as well where the brilliant fight choreographer + the actors were able to show the audience so many different flavors of fight scenes.

Winner-take-all (aka foreplay between 2 martial arts masters)

Clinical

Savage

Nonchalant

Self-indulgent

Cathartic

Contemplative

#mysterious lotus casebook #cheng yi #li lianhua #wuxia #give the fight choreographer a raise #tbh we were robbed in the LLH vs ZYF fight #CY is good at sword fight scenes and ZWH is trained in sword dancing #fight choreographer why no fancy sword dance fight between LLH and ZYF >:(#documenting the cultural reset that is mlc

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veiligplekje · 7 months

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Dutch Traditional costumes photographed by Jimmy Nelson from his 'Between the Sea & the Sky'

From top to bottom: Land van Axel, Marken, Volendam, Arnemuiden, Various Friesian costumes.

#probably the priciest book i have but oh so worth it #obviously i've been immersed in our regional costumes for many years now but the book really reminded me of the stunning variety #especially for so small a country #the netherlands #dutch culture #dutch tradition #folklore #traditional clothing #traditional fashion #folk costume #europe #heritage #jimmy nelson #between the sea and the sky

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heartrender6 · 3 months

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simon from lord of the flies is a criminally underrated queercoded character from classic literature. "my poor misguided boy, do you think you know better than I do?" what do you mean by that. "you like ralph a lot don't you?" what do you mean by that. why does he spend all his time frolicking in the forest and enjoying the beauty of nature. why is he stereotypically feminine. why does he break the heteronormative gender roles that the other boys conform to. why does he have religious trauma. why does he become "the beast" in the eyes of the other boys as they follow the growing up allegory. why does he think about ralph smiling at him for so long that he literally crashes into a tree. don't be shy william golding you can tell us

#bonus: why does he randomly reference a female pop culture icon in that one scene. who the fuck is berengaria FAIRY #and before u come at me with 'all of them are kinda gay' THEMATICALLY there is a DIFFERENCE between HOMOEROTICISM and QUEERCODING #bishangzoy #lord of the flies #classic literature #queer coding

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vinyls-and-valentines · 1 month

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Technically speaking, Old Man Yaoi is a valid killjoy name

#i do think the decontextualization would be funny especially in the context of like. how antithetical preservation of pop culture elements #is between my version of the zones and the lobby #n e ways. off i go back to manga and anime land. trying to fend off the impulse to read the jujutsu kaisen manga now that i've caught up #with the anime. it has barely been a month since i finished binge-reading haikyu so my brain is still mildly frazzled #danger days #killjoys #ttlotfk #boo's shitposts

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