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.

Blue Eye Samurai Rant

So I'm cursed with the knowledge that the creators/wikipedia page/every single instance of media coverage of Blue Eye Samurai explicitly made Mizu canonically fEmALe and I hate this?? I've read the Jane Wu interview and everything and I understand where she's coming from and the show's worth watching and there's a lot of obvious talent and writing chops that went into making it but it also woulda been so much cooler and frankly more compelling if the creators weren't CIS like frfr how the hell are you going to put so much painfully, glaringly obvious queer/trans coding and transmasc trauma into quite literally every aspect of a focal character and then deny me trans Mizu with all these quotes about how "She's an unconventional woman suppressed by the oppressive patriarchy of her time"?? I don't care how reasonable this complaint is I'm fucking ANNOYED, this is a MAN and the world owes me this much

a rly underrated thing about crazy ex girlfriend imo is that it's one of the rare shows i know of that really spends time on exploring what the process of having children is like for queer ppl/for those who go about it "non-normatively". it's not even rly a main storyline but i still find it rly well-handled and touching.

so the new companion is a foundling and the very first episode is about goblins kidnapping babies... are they gonna spin an actually interesting story out of the whole timeless child backstory?

like the Doctor and Ruby are BOTH FOUND AS CHILDREN and got then cared for by someone other than their birth parents, and both in a way adopted i guess. Maybe Ruby is going to search for her birth parents and they're gonna explore the trauma of adoption and displacement and the Doctor may emphatize with and learn something about himself from his new friend and the other way around and wow that would be so cool actually?

"This show is SO good, you should watch it!!"

I gotta be honest. If I look at a character list on Wikipedia and get five characters down without seeing a single woman, it's probably not for me.

no children

I’ve never seen any Dracula movie (I knew some of the general story from being alive for 30+ years and I’m now doing Dracula Daily), and seeing your posts about the awful choices the adaptations have made make me really happy with my life choices of not having watched any. I need the Muppets to make an adaptation; they haven’t let me down yet.

Okay, but when are we going to get an actually textually accurate Dracula adaptation instead of the endless schlock we have been foisted with to date? We have a legion of new Dracula fans who are INTIMATELY informed about the book thanks to reading it closely in small (or uh, not so small) chunks every day and writing extensive analysis about it afterward, so I am just saying. There is a market for this.

Is that even allowed in Star Wars?

cbs ghosts perplexes me so thoroughly. i feel it's very easy to hate it because it's american and we don't want those americans stealing our good british artwork but in this case it's bad precisely because it got hit so hard with American Morality that it just becomes bizarre

OK I just discovered ANOTHER blog that blocked me this month.... that's 3 now... honestly wild

just watched notting hill which is supposed to be like an epitome of a good romcom and... Well. Let's just say i highly disagree

Got thinking about something during my guitar practice today and now it's haunting me so gonna get it out. As a person who's kinda on the autistic/ADHD spectrum I've been noticing how this daily (well, almost daily) practice is working for me in ways that confirm the message of posts like this. How getting my hands on the instrument gives me enough happy brain chemicals to at least try to do sth about my to do lists, how my feasible progress (no matter how far I still am from where I wanna be skill-wise) helps me not just carry on with my day but sometimes even pull me out of my head and give a little bit of motivation to work on stuff I wanna work on. From just spending a couple of hours tormenting my poor old acoustic with music that is meant to be played on sth capable of emitting way heavier sound than just that.

And I can't help but think how the same thing would explain (not that it needs much explanation) so much about Eddie Munson's excellent guitar skills and his passion about music, especially in context of him also displaying quite a few ADHD traits and having failed to graduate high school twice. And the odds are that he's self-taught so he had the freedom to engage in this hobby and learn this skill in ways that make sense for his own brain, instead of having to conform to how disciplines are taught in ways often colliding with how neurodivergent minds work, instead of having to deal with someone else who'd pressure him into living up to expectations at the expense of himself and scold in case of failure or missed deadline.

No, this is something Eddie learned entirely on his own volition, something he can easily pour entire hours of concentrated effort into, something that reminds him that he's not as much of a failure as everyone else says he is. So naturally it's endlessly interesting to me how exactly him regularly playing music works with regards to his brain chemistry, and alas it's not something I've ever seen explored in fics yet, though it's always fascinating to read how other people write him as having ADHD even without making it intersect with music. Which shouldn't probably be surprising, given how much this niche kind of thing might be tricky to actually write unless informed by experience, but still. It may be niche, yeah, but it has quite a lot of potential for offering some insight for what makes Eddie tick and what exactly this admittedly large part of his life means to him. And this is, again, endlessly interesting to me

Shiv stans will literally think infantilising her to remove her from any responsibility of her actions is a hot take lol. Mf, Shiv is an adult like everyone else on this show, she's responsible for her actions. She's not a little feminist angel who has no agency.

i've been in the kane chronicles fandom for over ten years now, and not to keep belaboring this point, but as a white-passing mixed race person,

it really annoys me when people will use the existence of people like me to justify erasing sadie kane's black identity

i am not your justification for antiblackness. fuck off with that

Can't come over today I'm busy psychoanalyzing societies that don't actually exist, yeah tomorrow too, sorry

about the ask game, I'd love to do Aja Killian...

the wasted potential one so strongly btw her backstory is So so interesting and then nothing happens with it