#there’s no space for racism on the continent
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Can you elaborate on what you think would be the minimal needed changes to fix what you see as an issue in Civ? Civ has done fairly large shifts in some mechanics before, and "civ like" is still an interesting game space that can scratch certain itches
yeah i mean as i said, the baked-in racism arises from a certain set of core assumptions that i think lock it into that position, which are that civ is a
1) symmetrical
2) 4X
game about
3) 'real world civilizations' (deeply loaded terms ofc but that's how civ envisions them)
4) trying to 'win the game'
5) with a global
6) and transhistorical
scope
so, in its role as a symmetrical (1) game with victory conditions (4), civ as a text has to take positions on what constitutes a 'successful civilization'. as a (2) 4X game this definition also has to include some variation on the profoundly loaded eponymous Xs, 'explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate'. furthermore, as a (1) symmetrical game with a global, transhistorical (5, 6) scope, it has to necessarily create a model of what 'a civilization' looks like and apply it to every 'civilization' it wants to include, at all points in their history.
this all kind of naturally leads into civ being a game in which the colonial european imperialist powers are the default 'civilizations' and all other cultures are basically just like them -- a game where technology progresses linearly and innovations are made in the order they were in european imperial history -- a game where all cultures fundamentally work in the same way and hold similar values, a game where all religions are based on christianity (i mean, just look at civ vi's system, where every religion has a 'prophet', 'apostles', 'missionaries' and 'inquisitors'), a game where not only do cultures have teleological overarching 'goals' but where these goals are shared and these goals are fundamentally based on imperialist visions of 'victory'.
to drill into some specific examples: you can't play a game of civilization without founding cities. you will constantly be founding cities. when you're playing as 'the mongols' or 'the cree' or 'scythia', this makes no sense! these were peoples who historically had rich culture, science, arts, and certainly a notable military history, but were (to varying degrees, at varying times in their history, i don't mean to create a new and similarly heterogenous absolutist category here) nomadic!
similarly, to advance in civilization you must invent 'the wheel'. 'the wheel' is necessary to many later innovations, while of course the andean peoples represented by the playable 'inca' never made significant use of the wheel because the lack of suitable pack animals and environmental factors meant that it did not, in fact, prove a suitable tool for transporting large quantities of heavy goods. for an even more glaring example, a lot of early military technology is locked behind 'horses', which is pretty absurd considering that several of the game's playable civilizations, in the real world, developed plenty of military technology despite living on a continent without any horses!
so having established what i mean by 'the issue', which is that the game's core assumptions lock it into imposing a eurocentric, imperialist vision of 'civilization' onto cultures where it doesn't make sense, here's a few different jenga blocks you could pull out to resolve it:
SID MEIER'S EUROPE
the pillar you knock out here is #5. keep the game engine and core assumptions just as founded on eurocentric imperialist societies as they are now, and just make it about european empires doing imperialism. now, i think we can immediately spot some problems in there -- how are we going to represent the rest of the world? after all, this kind of just creates a situation where, either as NPC factions or as outright exclusions, all other cultures in the world are deprived of any meaningful agency in "history". this one just kind of gives you a new problem and also from a gameplay standpoint results in a game that just Has Less Stuff On It. i think this is a bad one
SID MEIER'S ELYSIUM
now here's one you can get if you knock out pillar #3. keep the same assumptions and gameplay and transhistorical global narrative scale, but remove the 'real-world' aspects. you can get real silly with it and add fantasy stuff to it, or you can be a relatively grounded 'our-world-but-to-the-left' situation. now to some extent this already matches a lot of the features already in civ games: after all, unless you specifically load in a 'true start location earth' map, you're usually playing on a strange parallel world with semiplausible but wholly original continents! now, you also need to get some fucking Nerds and Geeks working at your company to build out your fictional world, or you'll just end having pointlessly pallette swapped a bunch of factions that are now just Schmance, Schmina, and the Schoman Schempire, and not really have avoided the issue. but if you do that, and invent a deep and rich fictional history to riff on, then you could create something really cool and incorporate alt-tech or fantasy or retrofuturistic elements or all sorts of cool shit.
the downside of this is that it makes your game less accessible and appealing to a lot of people. a big part of (at least the initial) appeal of civilization is pointing at the screen and saying 'hey i recognize that thing!'. it is instantly more accessible to someone who isn't super invested in strategy or fantasy dork shit to say to them 'you can be BRAZIL and nuke FRANCE while at war with CHINA and allied to BABYLON'.
more importantly than that, i think some parts of the historical theming (because let's be honest, it is ultimately theming, i don't think civ is interested in 'history' in any serious way) serve a pretty load-bearing role in the game's information economy. it's a pretty tall order to ask a player to remember the unique abilities of dozens of factions and unique wonders, and the historical background makes it a lot easier. e.g., it is a lot easier for a player looking at wonders to remember 'the pyramids need to be built on desert' or 'broadway will help me make more culture' than it would be for them to remember the requirements/effects of 'under-eusapia' or the 'wompty dompty dom center'. i think this is one of the number one things that, if subtracted, would meaningfully create something that is no longer 'sid meier's civilization'.
SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI
now if you cut out #3 and #5 and #6 on the other hand... sid meier's alpha centauri is not technically an entry in the civilization franchise, but i think most people correctly consider it one. it has similar 4X gameplay to the series, and its (very bad) spiritual successor beyond earth was an official entry. instead of 'civilizations', the playable factions are splinters from a colony ship that fell into civil war as soon as it landed, each one representing a distinct ideology. now, y'know, this doesn't mean it's free from Some Problems (the portrayal of the Human Hive in particular is some of the worst apects of 90s orientalism all piled together) but i think they're problems it's not at all locked into by its design!
SID MEIER'S THERMOPILAE
by cutting out #5 and #6 -- making a civ game about a particular time and place in history you could achieve something much more richly detailed in mecahnics while also being able to handwave a lot more homogeny into it. giving the same basic mechanics to, say, every greek city-state in the peloponnesian war is far less ideologically loaded than giving them to every 'historical civilization' someone who watched a few history channel documentaries once can think of. it also lets you get really into the weeds and introduce era-and-place-specific mechanics.
the scale needs to be smaller conceptually but it doesn't really have to be smaller in terms of gameplay -- just make maps and tech trees and building more granular, less large-scale and more local and parochial and specific. this also gives you the advantage of being able to do the opposite of the last two options and really lean hard into the historical theming.
if this sounds like a good idea to you, then good news -- old world does something pretty similar, and it's pretty good! worth checking out.
SID MEIER'S LOVE AND PEACE ON PLANET EARTH
what if we take an axe to #2 and #4? instead of putting all these civilizations into a zero-sum game of violent expansion, make it possible for several civilization to win, for victory goals to not inherently involve 'defeating' or 'beating' other factions. now, that doesn't mean that the game should be a confictless city-builder -- after all, if you've decided to be super niceys and just try and make your society a pleasant place to live, that doesn't mean that the guy next to you isn't going to be going down the militarist-expansionist path. hell, even if all you want to do is provide for your citizens, a finite map with finite resources is going to drive you into conflict of some kind with your neighbours in the long run.
to make this work you'd have to add a bunch of new metrics -- 'quality of life', for example, as a more granular and contextual version of the 'happiness' mechanics a few games have had, or 'equality', game metrics that you could pursue to try to build an egalitarian, economically and socially just society where everyone is provided for. after all, why shouldn't that be a goal to strive for just as much as going to mars or being elected super world president or whatever?
SID MEIER'S DIVERSE HISTORICAL CONTEXTS
ultimately, all cards on the table, if i was made god-empress of The Next Civ Game, this is the option i'd go for: jettison #1 as much as practically possible, introduce as much asymmetry into the game as you can. some civilizations keep the established settler-city model -- others are nomadic, building their units in movable 'camps' -- maybe the 'colonial' civilizations, your USA and Brazil and so on, can be like the alien factions from the alpha centauri DLC, only showing as NPCs at the appropriate point in the timeline when other civs are colonizing other continents, or putting you into an accelerated-forward version of the game if you choose to play as one.
you could combine this with a more interesting version of humankind's civ-choosing system, where you lock certain civilization choices behind specific gameplay events. this would let you do crazy shit with the balancing -- imagine an ostrogothic kindgom civ with crazy strong abilities and units that you could only choose to play as if your capital is overrun by barbarians, or a hungarian civ that requires you to have started as a nomadic civ and invaded somewhere, or a soviet union civ that requires you to lose a revolution, or a usamerican civ that requires you to split off all cities on a foreign continent from your original civ -- you could add so much variety and so many new and bizarre strategies into the game with this!
as for the universal aspects of tech and the narratives of linear progression contained within, there are lots of approaches that already solve this! stuff like stellaris' semi-random branching tech paths, or endless space 2's circular tech web, could allow civilizations to take tech paths that make sense for them, rather than imposing one single model of 'technological progress' on the wole world.
obviously there's limits to this, right -- civilization isn't going to be a detailed historical materialism simulator any time soon. but i think abandoning the idea that every faction has to play fundamentally the same and introducing some severe asymmetry as well as choices that you can make after starting the game would work wonders to wash out some of the racist and colonialist assumptions built into the game's foundation, while also (imo) creating a more fun and interesting game.
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You mentioned that snakes in Africa are under-prioritised, and that you did your internship there. Why are they under-prioritised compared to snakes from other places? Are they just under-prioritised in research, or in other aspects like care/treatment/etc as well?
Thank you for inviting me onto my soapbox!
Snakes from Africa are historically under-prioritized in herpetological research, but that certainly can skew towards how we care for African snakes as well. This is down to two major factors.
Historically, more funding has been allocated to research projects focused on describing new snakes in the Americas. Despite it being realistically more difficult to find and describe new species in, say, the Amazon, there's a common belief that "we've seen pretty much everything there is to find in Africa." We haven't!
The field of herpetology has historically ignored the testimonies of African people. It took decades for snakes in the Atractaspid family (the stiletto snakes) to be described as anything more than a single species because academia ignored the people who lived in their range telling us they were there and there are observable differences. Like, herpetologists even just a couple decades ago were going over, saying "hey what do you know about this," the locals would be like "oh yeah there are like fifteen of those here's what they look like" and then the researchers would be like "neat thanks" and just. Not take any of that into account. Just perpetually running all accounts from Africans through a billion layers of racism and mythologizing everything they say and it's ridiculous.
There are so many misconceptions even in academia about African snakes it is insane. I have had other herpetologists tell me to my face that ball pythons are only "in a narrow strip of Africa" and it's like.
I understand if you have no idea how big Africa is that seems "narrow" to you. But that's a wide range of habitats and conditions across a huge area and we need to account for that in the research of the diversity of python species and their adaptations. There's just an insane misconception that snakes from Africa all need "similar care" even though this is a huge continent with huge variations in environments.
"Oh, it's actually okay to keep African pythons in less humid conditions, Africa isn't humid"
Not all of Africa is has the same climate, for one, and not all of Africa is like just a desert. Ball pythons, for example, like it humid because in the wild they like to curl up inside termite mounds, where it's hot and humid.
You know, termite mounds, these things. Tell me again that it's okay to keep ball pythons in tiny boxes with no enrichment or climbing space.
This makes me so mad it's not even funny. I had a great time in South Africa but all my mentors (I was with the African Snakebite Institute, check 'em out, they're a great resource) were constantly having to fight for funding and dealing with misconceptions.
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Antisemites are really enjoying End OTW Racism because it allows them to be outwardly antisemitic without having to worry about being called out for it. If they are, they can whine about how the person calling them out on it is doing whataboutism and shifting the topic.
Fandom spaces are dictated by USian preferences and discourses, which means that all discourses also have to be filtered through modern USian lenses, to the point that even historical revisionism can and must be considered okay as long as it fits the current narrative.
If the current USian narrative doesn't see Jewish people as belonging to their own ethnicity, one that is still recuperating from a continent-wide genocide that took place less than a century ago (as well as belonging to one of the most persecuted ethnicity in the entirety of human history), this means that all antisemitism is then no biggie, a joke, and any Jewish person who wants to squeeze a little space for themselves into the issue of racism (in this case, on Ao3) is just taking space from the true POC, the ones who actually suffered in the course of history.
It's the kind of antisemitism that was very well illustrated by that disastrous moment on The View in which Whoopi Goldberg said that the Holocaust wasn't about race, therefore demeaning a genocide that took the lives of approximately six million Jewish people to "white on white crime," something that just happened because white people are silly and bored.
The underlying message is that the Holocaust, a genocide which targeted for the most part Jewish people, wasn't about race until Romani people and the few Afro-German people who hadn't been forced out of the Third Reich were brought to the camps too.
It's a horrifying dismissal of the horrors of that period of history, as well as being a complete misunderstanding and rewriting of it in favor of current day US standards of racial narration.
It's extremely worrying to see so many people espouse this logic, but I have to say that I'm not surprised to see that most of them are also married to the End OTW Racism manifesto: they believe in race in the most US centric way, believe it can be talked only in the most US centric way, and consider the US centric way to be the standard for the rest of the globe.
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Was wondering about what you said in your latest post— so basically, you agree that an entire people can't be held responsible for the acts of a few?
I'm not from the US but I've seen some American POC call ALL white people a plague, or say that all white people need to be pushed out of the continent, or say there is truly no white person in the world— and I wanted to ask, isn't that counterintuitive? I'm not trying to argue that reverse racism is a thing, somehow. I'm just confused that if blaming the acts of a few on everyone that shares the same attributes doesn't help the overall fight to change things, why do some minorities still say things such as that?
I... Would understand if it was because of anger. And minorities in America DO have the right to be angry. But America seems to be more divided by the day and it seems no one is willing to attempt to stop that division in order to focus on the stuff that threatens everyone.
Minorities, in many senses of the word have the right to resent white people, but if you resent and hate them all so much, is it really wrong for white progressives to not get involved with POC progressives? (I don mean the causes you're fighting for, I mean as a group. Getting involved with spaces where they seem to not be welcome at.)
I'm just... So confused.
You really came to my blog, a solidarity blog to ask me why some POC hold all white people responsible for things.
And then said that seems counterintuitive of them to do?
You know what, I'm not even gonna get into that.
Anon, they say that because the thing causing division is white supremacy. You know who benefits from and perpetuates white supremacy?
White people.
So you know who's job it is to Stop fucking doing that?
White people.
Every single white person alive benefits from the comforts white supremacy buys. And so each individual white person is responsible for dismantling it.
The same way every single American is responsible for what's happening in Palestine because it comes from our tax dollars. That's our fuckup to get accountable for and allowing to happen.
To that point: we all agree for the most part that Palestine deserves support, that it's on us. most of us accept that and are actively doing everything we can from where we are, right?
But how many white people do you know that are actively dismantling their internalized white supremacy and holding meetings to organize how they can better dismantle white supremacy?
Do you know any?
That's why everyone blames white people cuz instead of doing anything productive (at fucking all) y'all do shit like this. Message natives on Tumblr going "but how come everyone is mean to me, isn't that a little hypocritical to do to the master race?"
Like you didn't message me specifically because of how much more knowledgeable than you I am about race. Guess why that is?
Y'all aren't doing the work.
You're not.
That's why everyone blames you. We are all trying to go to recess and move on and y'all still haven't answered the first question on the worksheet cuz you're too busy talking about "why's everyone mad at me :("
DO THE WORK.
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Hey Proshippers, Listen
You know, as someone who has been in fandom so long that I helped produce local fanzines and my childhood internet browser was Mosaic. I feel like I need to say some things.
Proshippers would get a lot less flak if y'all tagged your stuff better. Most folks are mad at proshippers because a ton of y'all include the general fandom tags, so graphic incest/rape headcanons and problematic ship art shows up in normal searches, and folks get squicked at best at triggered at worst. And y'all have way too many variations of the 'proship' tag, so that gets around tag blocking.
Also, I've seen a lot of proshippers picking fights by flooding antiship tags with proship content. Meanwhile the proship tags have like, one or two haters. Y'all are kind of the aggressors here.
And for the goddess' sake, stop acting like someone hating an incest or lolishota smut fic/headcanon is somehow analogous to nazi book burning. It's REALLY not.
I think most of the problem is that the unyielding hand of capitalism forced all of fandom to interact when in the old days it was a bit more spread out. Certain content had its own locked communites or even separate websites. The idea that incest and to be frank pedophilic ships were more 'welcome' back in the day by wider fandom is because that stuff wasn't right out in the open. You had to actively go looking for it via websites or groups dedicated to the pairing. So the groups around it were naturally more blasé about it. It was literally by design. Meanwhile general fandom could theorize and make silly crossovers and gen fics. Nowadays, fandom is a continent worth of ecosystems in four of five public parks. We need separate spaces again. It was healthier that way. Then you can theorize in one space and head on over to another for the spicy content you want. And Gen folks couldn't stumble on said content as easily.
But in the meantime, stop the victim complex and baiting and tag your stuff properly. (No general tags, keep to your ship tags). Then your 'anti' problem will drop by a good bit. Get your edgelord (picking fights on purpose and actively try to trigger folks) problem under control and the number will drop further. Youll still get death threats, because this is the internet and because both sides have a serious edgelord problem. But, go pool your resources and make your own version of the lemon archive with a nice forum. Then when the death threats come, you can literally go 'why are you here then?' AO3's tagging system is neat in the meantime, but it still has issues.
Also, before the threats come. I'm not an 'anti' (unless it's RPF, which is ACTUALLY dehumanizing). I know certain fiction ain't going anywhere, even if I consider it gross. Just tag it better, ffs.
BTW, y'all REALLY need to learn the difference between media criticism and 'ban this filth' puritanical screeds. I lived in the Bible Belt during the Satanic Panic. I KNOW what ACTUAL censorship cries look like. And yes, fandom does have some serious issues. Especially with racism and misogyny. You can also criticize things you like, because nothing is perfect.
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Been watching Lilo and Stitch and the way Nani treats the entire situation, it's so funny to me.
Nani is busy working and keeping Lilo out of the hands of the former CIA child worker with the name COBRA BUBBLES, who regularly visits her home. She also tries to keep Lilo happy, but Mertle and her friends are continously mean to her, even if she did nothing wrong herself. Lilo is lonely, and Nani wants to adopt a dog for her.
Lilo then adopts a completely blue dog, capable of speech, that causes mayhem and destruction everywhere they go and ruins every interview Nani has after she loses her job due to something Stitch and Lilo did ( and racism ). Lilo, her 7 year old sister, spends her days teaching her dog how to dance, surf, and play the ukelele. Stitch gets better as he goes, but he is still not sure about his ohana.
Then it turns out your dog is followed by intergalactic scientists and military. Just as you lose custody of your sister, this armada kipnaps her, causing you to ask Stitch and the scientists coming after him for help. You know that Stitch can talk, but when he does, you hit him with a tree branch. Then, after a scuffle in spaceships and Stitch launching himself into space, Stitch calls you his ohana, after which Lilo manages to keep him with you. Because of this, you now have official caretakers and two alien companions. This means Bubbles is no longer a threat.
So, in the span of like a week, you lose your job, adopt a dog, find out this dog is an intergalactic alien fugitive and built for destruction, lose custody over your sister, have a space battle, and then regain custody, adopting an alien and two of its caretakers as part of your ohana.
The fact that Nani isn't already exasperated / has put Lilo up for adoption by the end of it is honestly a show of character.
#lilo and stitch#funny things#don't tell me nani isn't the best sister in cartoon history she raises an alien and her sister by herself at 19#nani pelekai#lilo pelekai#experiment 626
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Compliation of HYV's disparagments towards Black and Brown people in Honkai Star Rail
Let me be clear I'm no big hater of this game, but as a Black dude who has continously tried to enjoy and immerse myself in it, I've grown rather tired of its success and reach with the shamelessness and unnecessary bigotry of the developers.
As such I’ve compiled a list of one of their main faults which is their unnecessary racism towards brown and black people.
1st. Carole Peppers. As explained in the following presentation, yes she was scrapped from Star Rail despite being in its original concept trailer with Welt. She’s a walking cariacture.
2nd. Arlan. The only melanated character in the fantasy space game with talking robots and dragons(????!?). As we know he’s unsurprisingly the worst character in the game and is the only one who doesnt use skill points.
3rd. Penacony. Based off the Jazz Age. You’ll never guess who invented and popularized Jazz.
Ill update this as I compile more of their shameless writing. Not a single content creator seems to care so I thought itd be beneficial to have in depth issues on slides.
Ill see if I can make enough of these and circulate this info in a way that FORCES either content creators or the game team themselves to address this. The goal I have is to air out this stupid pattern of racism before they try to hypnotize everybody with their anniversary rewards 🫤
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The Generic Green (vs) The Cultivated Wilds (vs) The True Wilds, and Why People Don't Really "Like Nature" Like They Say They Do
“I love nature. I worship the Earth and the natural cycles” they say.
Meanwhile: Everything they do, right down to their holiday cycle, is based on an ecosystem and climate on another continent entirely, in a country they’ve never actually visited or ever lived in- and from another century not even remotely like our own, no less; they know nothing about their local ecoregion or microregion, let alone their own agricultural or pastoral culture (past or present, any of it); and the vast majority of them have little to no legitimate experience anywhere outside of a city.
In other words: I’ve found that most people don’t really “like nature” like they claim to … They like the generic green- and that’s not at all the same thing.
ETA: People frequently don't understand what I mean when I say “the Generic Green”- and that’s fair. But stuff like “Houseplants” are about as far from what I’m talking about as a bird is from a bee; similar form, but a completely different and frequently unrelated function- and an entirely different role to play.
When I say “the Generic Green”, what I’m talking about is people’s perceptions of nature revolving around the concept of the cultivated wilds. Specifically around an overly generic and romanticized idea of what “nature” and “wilderness” looks like, peddled predominantly by eco-spirituality books, and repeatedly perpetuated by people who’ve never actually stepped a single foot into a truly wild space.
The Holy Wild is honestly a great example of a shitty eco-spirituality book that perpetuates the hyper-romanticization of the Wild by people who don’t know what they’re talking about on any level … Though it is a slightly more extreme example of what I’m talking about, compared to what most people do and / or believe.
“The Generic Green” is essentially the equivalent of a stock photo of nature; a highly fictionalized and romanticized idea of a single highly localized type of nature, widely spread about as the epitomical image of what untouched nature looks like in its purest state. One which people latch onto and uphold as “nature” regardless of their own location or relative experience with any particular ecosystem.
It's a romanticization of ecosystems, and their various components, that the individual will never actually experience, because they’re not theirs and do not actually exist in relation to them; in the vast majority of cases they have zero relationship to it what-so-ever, and never will ... It's a landscape which exists, certainly, in a real corner of the world (or, at least, may have at one point in Human history). But for the vast majority of people? It will never be anything more than fiction for them. And yet still, somehow, it is upheld as the ultimate ideal that everyone aspires to create nature in the image of.
Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, this image- this stock photo- is heavily entertwined with white racism, white supremacy, and white colonialism. And eventually this is something we will also have to recon with as well.
The problem comes, largely, in that people interested in the Generic Green rarely ever actually step outside of that stock photo to get a legitimate look at the nature which exists directly around and in relation to them; they can’t identify a single tree of their own (though they might be able to identify a couple common flowers, or a couple common birds- that capability is usually by sheer luck and oversaturation, however). They don’t know what their Ecoregions are, let alone what Bioregion they’re a part of. They’ve never volunteered with any sort of wildlife services, or visited an open-boundary reserve. They have no idea what animals are native to their area, or what their habits are; etc, etc, etc.
That’s not to say that any or all of this is required to claim you “like nature”, mind you. You don’t have to know any of this to claim you “like nature”. You just have to be properly aware of what nature actually is ... And it’s pretty safe to say that you don’t actually like "nature" nearly as much as you think you do if your idea of nature is basically a stock photograph; if you've never really experienced the real thing beneath your feet or put a foot into proper nature to begin with, in any actual capacity.
If that’s the case, you don’t actually like nature itself ... What you like, arguably, is the idea of it (a very specific, highly factionalized and romanticized, ultimately colonialist idea of it, at that). And that’s really, genuinely, not at all the same thing in the slightest.
ETA: I think some people have the mistaken idea that, because I’ve spoken about the differences between the “Generic Green”, the “Cultivated Green”, the “Cultivated Wilds”, and the “True Wilds” (and the weird hypocrisy of modern Paganism in regards to nature and the misrepresentation of their connection to it in light of those differences) ... That I’m some kind of a purist snob who thinks that the True Wilds are superior or something.
That isn’t the case. I’m not opposed to the Cultivated Green at all ... I'm literally a Master Gardener, and my very first Plant Spirit Ally was the Peony. My second was the Rose. Both are plants that’re very much cultivated to the point that hardly any of us have ever seen a genuinely wild cultivar, let alone see them as anything other than Ornamentals (though the Rose has retained significantly more of its metaphysical and medicinal history than the Peony has).
I am opposed to the Generic Green on some specific levels. But the Generic Green, to me, is still an okay starting place- an acceptable enough gateway- for people to initially step into “nature” through; to pique your initial interest in actually getting to know the natural world around you ... But it's one that should, ideally, eventually be discarded as one progresses; it's not something that should be held onto, or allowed to form one's entire idea or image of nature and what it's meant to look like, how it's meant to function, etc.
There’s also a lot to be said about the Generic Green itself, and its overall development and meaning. Additionally, there's a lot to be said for the irony and hypocrisy inherent in Paganism’s latching onto the Generic Green in particular and never actually letting go of it — or, if it does let go of it, trading it out for what is arguably a misrepresentation of the Cultivated Wilds instead (and, in turn, incorrectly positioning the Cultivated Wilds as the True Wilds when they're far from it). Likewise, there needs to be open discussion about the misunderstandings and misperceptions, and the blatant misrepresentations, of the True Wilds as a whole- especially by those who’ve never actually experienced them in the first place. And all of these discussions must be frank and deeply self reflective.
But it’s genuinely not that I uphold one as any more superior than the other, or think of any as inferior. The Cultivated Green, Cultivated Wilds, and True Wilds all not only have their own place in the everyday landscape and ecosystem, but also in spirituality in general. However: If you want to claim a spiritual connection to and emphasis on nature? Then you do need to understand these distinctions and what they mean not only for yourself, but also for your practice- and you need to know when you’re properly operating in one over the other.
Relevant and related tangent, here
This account is run by a Dual Faith «(Converting) Masorti Jew + Traditional NeoWiccan» & «Ancestral Folk Magic Practitioner» with 20+ years of experience as a practicing Pagan and Witch. If that bothers you, don't interact.
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A bunch of movies and some new fiction!
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So firstly, I dug into some self-examination the past few days and made a list of regular themes and character archetypes I play with across my body of work. It's not a complete list of everything I could possibly think of, but it's a lot to be getting on with.
So Predictable: A Big List includes examples of a whole lot of different themes and story tones and regularly recurring archetypes I use, and I'd really love to hear people's responses and takes! Any archetypes you think I've missed, or more you think I should add to certain lists? Any themes you think I regularly do that I haven't mentioned here?
This was a really fun exercise to do, especially because I've got such a large body of work and so many different characters, and while I realised I regularly do certain ones again and again, it was still different to see them all written down together.
A bunch of media recs this week, so let's go through them:
The History of Africa Podcast - I don't normally listen to podcasts as I struggle to concentrate on them, but I've been enjoying listening to some episodes of this! Obviously Africa is a massive continent with hundreds upon hundreds of disparate cultures and histories, but this cast is very upfront about that reality whilst also covering as much ground as possible in deep detail, and it's really fun.
The Kominsky Method (2018-2021) - These three series are Netflix originals, starring Alan Arkin and Michael Douglas, and are written and produced by Chuck Lorre, who was responsible for the likes of Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, Mike and Molly, etc. For how mean-spirited a lot of these shows tend to be, I was really surprised by how deeply human this show is - there's a lot of self-examination and self-reflection going on where Lorre is explicitly exploring his own body of comedic work, and that makes a lot of sense given that this is largely a series about the grief and the difficulties that come with growing older and looking back on the legacies one leaves.
A lot of this series has genuinely made me laugh, especially Alan Arkin's role as a crotchety old bastard to whom I unfortunately relate - it also feels like a very honest look at an older cishet white dude who is kind of doing his best to not be a piece of shit re: marginalised communities, but isn't very good at it, whether he's trying or not?
It attempts at times to be "tongue-in-cheek" while making commentary about racism, antisemitism, homophobia, and other bigotries within the show - one thing that really stood out to me is that in the absolute first episode Michael Douglas is talking about whether an actor is a he, a she, and then looks at a white person with a short haircut and is like "they?" and they nod, and he's like, "a they" or something... And that person never has any dialogue for the rest of the show. Which is hilarious. In general, I would say that where most of the show is not hugely dickish (esp not in comparison to other Chuck Lorre shows), there's an ongoing theme of it attempting to grapple with nonbinary ideas, genderfluidity, neopronouns, and so on, including Morgan Freeman playing a nonbinary reboot of Doctor Quincy, and while it's not as bad as many shows and honestly doesn't come off as mean-spirited as most nonbinary references in a show, it's not great.
Despite those aspects, I do still recommend it, and I actually really love his cast of acting students, those scenes are probably my favourites.
Red Eye (2005, dir. Wes Craven) - You know, I really fucking loved this movie, it's such a fun little flick - I love Rachel McAdams, I don't always like his roles but Cillian Murphy always gives an interesting performance, and like... So much works in such a tight and constrained space in this movie, the script is so fucking clean with such sharp performances, there's a bazooka... It's class. It's great.
The Founder (2016, dir. John Lee Hancock) - This movie was interesting, definitely took some turns I wouldn't ordinarily expect. It's really fucked up, honestly, and it takes how fucked up its story is and runs with it, paints everything in feel-good colours whilst being clear that it's not remotely feel-good in concept, and I really loved that juxtaposition. Michael Keaton often feels kind of false and oily in his roles anyway, and that comes off perfectly in this when he's meant to come off that way.
Also, I don't recommend Hope Springs (2012, dir. David Frankel) with Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carrell, and Meryl Streep, and I don't recommend it, but I did review it here.
New Works Published
Fiction Short: The Ring
A young man misses his departed boyfriend.
Rated T, 5k, M/M. Tragedy and horror and ghosts in this one - note CWs for different kinds of domestic violence implied throughout, infidelity, death and references to suicide and self harm.
Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium
Erotic Short: Ridden Hard
A trans man is trapped between his boyfriend’s strap and a powerful vibrator.
1k, T4T M/M, rated E! Featuring a vibrating wand, rope bondage with the arms pinned behind the back, vaginal and anal, objectification, a smattering of dirty talk, multiple orgasms, and overstim.
Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium
Erotic Short: The Mermaid and the Fisherman
A wanderer meets a mermaid, and the two of them work to understand each other.
7.3k, rated E, M/M. A young man fleeing home has taken up residence in an old fishing cabin on the west coast of Scotland. He is observed, very closely, by a mermaid from beyond the maerl beds nearby.
Featuring cultural differences, humour, oviposition, cervix penetration, mild chem sex from the mermaid’s aphrodisiac, some rough sex, some mildly dubious consent, stuffing, belly bulge.
Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium
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I saw a cute video on instagram of a white kid insisting she wasn't white. She was pointing at something (something plastic I think, I don't remember) and then at her arm saying "are these the same colours?" and when her mama was explaining to her "that's an object, but in terms of skin shades you are white" she was like "yeah but answer my question is this (my arm) white? (like this object)?" jhgxfz I thought it was cute but also made me reflect sooo much on what was historically perpetuated by the west. What was done was a bidimensional division between "the whites" (the west) vs "the non whites" (literally the rest of the world). The most horrendous crimes were allowed in the name of it. Isn't it sad to think a single kid has more logic than what an entire continent (europe) has had through the centuries?
but then again racism is illogical isn't it. it was born into ignorance, un-historical and limited visions. now we're used to think of geography as a scientific discipline on its own, but ancient people like the greeks and the romans never separated geography from literature: a geographical space wasn't the same as a "place" - a space is just a space, a piece of land. It becomes a place when you put a narrative on it: when you describe traditions, costumes, religions, body features of its inhabitants. If we study ancient history through the lens of ancient greeks and romans, who thought they were at the center of the earth as a "place" - how inevitable it was to think that was the direction the west was going for...thinking of everyone else as barbars, as savages, as not worthy.
#growing up in europe means studying in europe of course. and this is literally all you study.#you study the world through them. and even at uni I've always studied the world through them.#if this everything the education system has to offer how do you give kids instruments to realise this is not the center of the world?
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1. Climate change a key consideration for EU citizens, though not companies
With the world's climate changes becoming impossible to ignore, many living in EU Member States are taking a growing interest in the environmental credentials of companies – especially when looking for a job, the European Investment Bank's (EIB) annual climate survey reveals. Read more.
2. New IPCC report: A grim and final warning on climate action
The world’s leading group of climate scientists delivered its most dire warning yet: the planet is nearing catastrophic levels of heating and immediate, radical action is required. Governments around the world have seven years to half greenhouse gas emissions to avoid irreversible change. Read more.
3. Decolonising the mind: Afro-Belgians to be honoured in public spaces
Racism is still deeply rooted in Belgian society, largely the result of 75 years of the country's colonial rule on the African continent. Belgium is now looking to decolonise people's minds by boosting the representation of people of African descent. Read more.
4. 'Explosive growth': E-scooters in Brussels both practical and problematic
The use of e-scooters in Brussels has soared in recent years, and with it, the number of accidents. The region has now launched an awareness campaign when the use of e-scooters rises as the days get warmer. Read more.
5. Franchised Delhaize on Boulevard Anspach shut down due to 'undeclared work'
The AD Delhaize on the Boulevard Anspach in the Brussels city centre has been judicially sealed off since Monday evening following a check by the social inspectorate over reports of undeclared work, confirmed union secretary Myriam Djegham (CNE). Read more.
6. Ashton Kutcher spotted in the European Parliament promoting children's rights
A high-level panel was held in Brussels on Monday for EU regulation to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation. The panel had guest speakers including MEP Hilde Vautmans and the Hollywood actor and entrepreneur, Ashton Kutcher. Read more.
7. Hidden Belgium: Tervuren street art
Take a walk around Tervuren to spot the twelve electricity boxes that have been decorated by local street artists. The artists have transformed the dull functional boxes into artworks with scenes inspired by local history, wildlife and the vast Zoniënwoud forest. Read more.
#nunyas news#that opening question about parents#your parents asked the same one#possibly theirs as well#depending on your age
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Wordy rant incoming! Wondering how you feel about this, but totally feel free to ignore, its a bit rambly
I'm so conflicted about the American style of viewing race/race dynamics. Because on the one hand I understand with respect the particular focus on the black/white dynamic and colonization, considering Americas history with slavery, segregation and horrible treatment of Native Americans.
But on the other hand, I sometimes find that their analysis does not fit as well in other areas of the world that don't have that same history (naturally) Its just more complicated than that! To many Americans, brown+muslim= always opressed minority, and as an Eastern European, I must disagree lol
While we are very aware of our ethnic/cultural differences and see each other more or less as distinct peoples, Americans view us all as more or less the same flavour of whyte. I saw one of those ancestry test on youtube(must have been buzzfeed or smth lol) where one guy acted disappointed that he was a mix of north, central and south European. Saying "oh no, just boring white" As if those areas don't differ culturally from each other in major ways, as well as within their distinctive countries(not to mention all the smaller ethnic groups that exist regardless of modern national borders)…Its like when people think Africa is a country, and not a huge continent with wildly diverse cultures, customs, religions and peoples!
And they should google a little before they end up embarrassing themselves by freaking out about stuff like Sami characters in Frozen not being brown enough, as if most Sami aren't completely indistinguishable from the Scandinavian population. I've had an American white girl ask me if my Gerdan necklace was cultural appropriation of Native American culture… My GERDAN :')
100%! These types of people say they support "intersectionality" until it's about other countries. Just because their own model works and empowers (I hope) it doesn't mean that the exact same plan will solve racism and xenophobia problems in other countries with very different history and lens. Maybe when these people say "intersectionality" they mean they recognise it only within their borders, because they don't seem to recognise it anywhere else 😂 (For example, this girl thought that no other people on the planet have used beads to create necklaces 🤦🤦🤦) It is very myopic.
Even many sub-Saharan Africans call out this shit after seeing the way they are treated in the US by the progressives (aka, as if they are the same as every African American just because their skin tone is similar). And I'm only talking about the progressives here because it's the side that has the widest acceptance rhetoric, and they are supposed to be keeping watch about misdemeanors on cultural appropriation.
From time to time in this blog this issue is brought up you can find similar posts and asks from anons in the tags #race in greece #race in Europe #greek speaks and #uscentrism. We've been discussing this for years and I am clad more people in the US-centric western internet spaces join and express their concerns.
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hot take? rantish and long and whiney? sorry i have to get this off my chest
is it wrong but i kinda think or well believe that as a WOC from america, maneskin would benefit if they began to look at and think about racism the way MOST americans do from my own experience i have face different levels of racism but the stories you hear about BIPOC over in europe is close to a real life horror story at times, i am melaninated for reference and generally where i am people can AWFUL but MOST are kind and knowledgeable especially the younger crowd let me explain (rant ahead, this is written by a woc with intersectional identities, i basically check nearly every box)
we have WAY more BIPOC here in the states than over in europe, were more exposed to different cultures in many parts of the country and i mean think about it country that is MAJORITY white vs the USA
ive had white europeans tells me they never fear the cops in their country. . . like no duh ur not their target dumbass in general it is VERY easy be ignorant to an issue in a place where you, your family, your friends and peers arent affected by that issue and that makes it easier to believe it doesnt exist and/or be ignorant to it since most likely there isnt anyone or anything challenging the problematic values or mindsets especially in a place like europe where entire communities reinforce certain racist ideals because its a mindset that gets passed down even now and if they are brought up to believe that its okay and the only way anyone ever thinks in their minds, why change it? so often when it is challenged its either seen as a threat to a whole way of world perspective taught and reinforced by everyone around them and even online depending on what corner they occupy and the idea of them as a good person since that way of thinking is how "good" people think or it is seen as an opportunity of some sort to change and expand (this can happen anywhere btw but more often in europe)
in my experience americans are much more willing to do the latter depending on the person of course because not talking about an issue or never being negatively effected by it does not mean it doesnt exist and we are much more willing to admit that we have issue of some kind for the most part while many europeans in my experience deny it outright or only acknowledge it to some extent since they often have NO CLUE what the issue truly encapsulates and looks like or believe its an issue that can be justified, often there is many instances of virtue signaling hiding the racism/islamophobia/anti-Semitic/anti-roma behind the over-focusing on things they have that we do not like gun laws and free healthcare and "not having trump" as if that makes up for the horrors that the continent as a whole is responsible for the continent that colonized and enslaved majority of the world and either directly or indirectly contributed to the suffering and inhumane treatment of the people who were violently colonized and enslaved and also was also the site of many horrors
the USA has done horrific things that isnt even acknowledged and we are not perfect but at the very least many are willing to admit this fact and admit that many are trying to improve
condemning the USA more than one would condemn a European country leads to the belief that one is better, smarter and more civilized than the other buying into the stereotype of the civilized european vs the savage american which turns racist VERY QUICLY and will/already has bleed unto other countries being lesser than a european countries not only that but anti-american xenophobia turns to racism extremely easily and quickly because of how we have a larger BIPOC population in comparison
side note how tf were yall so racist publicly and privately and to a point yall made a biracial black woman move BACK to america
rant over back to maneskin
i think if they did, many things would improve and they would be more outspoken and just understanding of what exactly they have done wrong, they are great people they just need help and to be educated on these issues where they might be lacking or ignorant of since they are 4 white europeans who have a grasp and ideas on the basics of not being racists, but i as a WOC feel there is room to improve especially being a WOC in the fandom the sheer whiteness of the fandom and spaces in events makes me uneasy and at times afraid of experiencing hatred
maybe its me being whiney but i kind of hope to see them move on to anti-racism and improving where i feel they lack they are not racists but thats not enough and i know they can improve, they are amazing talented and smart people they just need a little boost and push in the right direction so they can fix the things we are aware of that they have done wrong and make amends and take accountability because at times i see them say one thing or repost something but i instantly remember the things they have done wrong and it makes my mind wander to what they say or do or have said and done in the past or when theres no other marginalized people around
i also have anxiety and other issues so maybe i am being whiney and looking too deeply but i love them so much and i want to see them grow and improve and take the world by storm i just wish they could get over this one thing you know?
“as a WOC feel there is room to improve especially being a WOC in the fandom the sheer whiteness of the fandom and spaces in events makes me uneasy and at times afraid of experiencing hatred”
^ this!!!
Definitely not whiny at all. White people make POC feel like they’re complaining when really they just don’t want to be faced with the consequences of the racism they perpetuate.
Maybe it’s because I’m a cynic by nature, but anon has for faith in the moral compass of these four funky Italians that I currently do. Or maybe I’ve lost perspective because I’m still livid at Damiano for selling out in this interview.
youtube
“And of course we don’t wanna, like, influence anyone with political ideas.”
It’s a modern fucking miracle he could even fit into the car that drive them with the size of that privilege.
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Restoring Regina Twala to her rightful place in history.
Regina Twala is one of those towering intellectuals that you never hear about. But now, thanks to the efforts of Stanford historian Joel Cabrita, the story of Regina Twala is finally hitting the newsstands.
In her book, Written Out: the silencing of Regina Twala, Joel Cabrita examines how both systemic racism and systemic sexism and their gatekeepers, conspired to disappear from public consciousness one of the 20th century's most important thinkers.
In many ways, Regina broke the mould of what an African woman is supposed to be. She was the second black woman to graduate from the University of Witwatersrand, and the first to graduate in social science in South Africa. She was also a popular newspaper columnist, a role in which she examined the misogyny as well as social and racial disparities of her society.
Regina's active politicization began in 1948 following an election that ousted the more intellectually minded Jan Smuts, and changed the course of South African history by ushering in D. F. Malan and his nationalists who'd install 40 years of racist apartheid government in South Africa.
As an IDP from rural Natal courtesy the Native Lands Act of 1913, Regina's new life in Johannesburg allowed her to rub shoulders with the city's intelligentsia. Regina became intimately acquainted with the likes of Nelson Mandela, she travelled the continent as well and met with Pan-Africanists such as Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah.
With South Africa's political space shrinking every day, the country's black elite massed to the African National Congress (ANC) where they took to protesting against apartheid. In 1952, Regina was herself arrested for participation in the non-violent resistance movement. Shortly thereafter, Regina left South Africa for neighbouring Eswatini where she remained until her death from cancer in 1968.
But Regina wasn't just a political activist, she was also a talented researcher and academic. As the recipient of a Nuffield grant, Regina pursued anthropological research into Swati women, their response to cultural evolution, and the weaponization of African culture with a view to keeping women in their place.
And like all true revolutionaries, Regina had her crosses to bear. She was constantly buffeted by two forces; the ignorance and chauvinism of her fellow Africans, and the envy of so called liberal white academics and mentors. The latter either resented that she'd outgrown their patronage, or stole her work. Athropologist Hilda Kuper for instance, effectively quashed the publication of Regina's final work titled "A study of Swati women." Swedish historian Bengt Sundkler on the other hand, plagiarized Regina's research on indigenous Zionist churches and published it as his own.
But whatever she endured in life, Regina remained true to her ideals. Even whilst in exile she was still working to bring about social change. In Eswatini, Regina became one of the founders of that country's party politics, she confronted royalists and criticized the excesses of the powerful, but she also quickly realized that Sobhuza (the paramount chief of Eswatini who'd become the world's longest reigning monarch) had no intention of expanding democratic space for ordinary Swazis.
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I really feel for Harry. To spend all this time choosing/having to close off his real self from the public. And the one thing that he is actually honest about, gets misinterpreted and turned against in him. When he says that 2022 changed his life and that things like this don't happen to people like him, I think he's strictly talking about his career. Because that is in fact the only part of him we really see. We see Harry styles TM not "H" his friends and family know. He repeats the same thing over and over because it's safe to say and because he's genuinely thankful for it.
Him working in the bakery is a running joke in the fandom but Kid mentioned it when introducing Harry. Why would he do that? Maybe because Harry still sees himself as that 16 year old boy who entered a singing competition and is continously in awe of what his career has turned into. And that specifically includes 2022 which was a monumental year. Watch the heartfelt thankful speech he gives in wembley to a crowd of 90k people. Career Harry is what we see as an audience because that's the only part of him he allows us to see. So I take what he says at face value. I don't try to infer what else he could be talking about, like his queerness. And unfortunately the general public put words in his mouth after the grammys which is a hundred times worse and that's why I just feel so bad for him. Because that one thing he was being sincere about, how harry feels about how far his career has come, he'll now have to worry about how he shares again for fear of random haters accusing him of white privilege. If I had to guess, I'd say this will cause him to be even more guarded in how he expresses himself.
So I disagree with quite a lot of this anon.
I don't think the general public put words in his mouth at all. People (including you and I) were responding to what he said. The fact that he wasn't clear about what he meant, left a lot of space for people to respond to.
I also want to strongly push back at your framing that what happened was 'haters accusing him of white privilege'. That's a totally non-serious approach to understanding racism and our world. Harry has white privilege - that's not something that anyone can accuse him of. People describing the way racism work are not haters.
The only other thing I'd say - is that I think you over-egg the truth of what Harry says about his career. I do think that he feels like things like this don't happen to people like him. But I also think he feels and thinks and does a whole lot of other things. And calling what he said being honesty and sincere about his career erases everything he's not saying.
#I also disagree with your assumption that 2022 changed his life#having to be about his career (although it might be)#I think Harry is totally prepared to be oblique about his life#he's prepared to tell us things we won't understand#we can see that in his songs
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To be honest, after that last interview I’ve seen a lot of negativity on my dahsboard regarding Nopes and Fodlan in general and...
TFW I couldn’t join the salt fest earlier :’(
Did IS or KT work on Nopes?
“Yes”
Well, through that interview...
I know I’ve been racking IS over the coals lately, because I’m a filthy “elitist” and I still remember the Tellius, Magvel and Elibe eras and I deeply miss them. Even if we all hate how IS seem to fall on “tried’n’true” tropes like brainwashing (especially women) so it means a character #didnothingwrongitwasntthembutmagic -
That interview, about Nopes, tries to sell the “everyone has a point and valid reasons to fight” and...
I really thought more than I should have about a stupid shitpost project I wanted to post, but I realised it might leave a bad taste in some people’s mouths and I don’t want to make anyone feel ill at ease when shitposting about this “game” but - I thought that nonsense about a “civilizing mission” is now commonly accepted to be utter nonsense, and just a stupid leitmotiv to justify conquest, imperialism and, because those two always go along, racism.
The shitpost idea was to “replace” France in this with a certain Empire and copy-paste Faerghus, Leicester, Brigid, Dagda (but not the lizards, in an ideal world they are, “finally gone” from Fodlan) - but no, it’s a real poster that really existed and displayed a mentality that also existed during dark times, and if I can shitpost with Lion King memes, I won’t do the same with that thing.
But damn if I wasn’t expecting the FE series to take the “With 79600 Men France brings peace and the benefits of its civilisation to its 60 millions of indigens” 1931 propaganda seriously, or at least portray the person who support this “opinion” as someone who has a valid point of view, clashing “ideals” with the rest of their world.
Still, who am I talking about, Supreme Leader or Clout ?
“Yes”
Adrestia wants to bring its “reforms” and “enlightened” ideas about how the world should be beyond its frontiers - that shouldn’t exist in the first place because once upon a time Adrestia encompassed the entire continent so MAGA.
Clout? Wants to “free” Faerghus and its king from “antiquated” notions like chivalry, loyalty, devotion by conquering the land, nearly waltzing on the capital and killing a beloved benevolent figure.
And so...
Why is it suddenly an issue? I mean, I love games where people fight for “reasons” and not because we need a final boss else we can’t close the route, nope.
Beyond talking about games and the messages they convey - I expect more from this “conflict” than *shrug*, *memeshrug*, *sigh* and “okay okay let’s say I agree now just please shut up I don’t want to interact more than necessary with you”.
If the conflict is based on “irreconciliable ideals”, then why don’t we see those characters argue about say “ideals”? We only get a glimpse of it in AM, and then the topic switches to sandwiches because merchandising needs to sell and Shinon can’t make people pots of earl grey or half-naked cipher cards.
In Nopes? Everyone (sort of) agree that the “Rhea Piñata” is bad and they could just get rid of it, then nothing bad will happen.
Clout drinks a Kool-Aid off-screen and no one, after some “mandatory” eye raising from Judith, even asks explanations, nope.
Nopes erased Supreme Leader’s belief that non-humans shouldn’t rule over humans because they, as a race, have no regards for human life.
And Dimitri is hit the hardest with the *shrug* + *memeshrug*, not even voicing any complains about this kool-aid because, just, let’s get over with this nonsense.
So why are they fighting?
“No U” was already used in Nopes, so here they need a Deux Ex Machina and a lot of idiot plot balls to, say, ask Supreme Leader why she wants to conquer Fodlan and remove Rhea from the surface of the continent - no sir!
Why Dimitri doesn’t kill them both the second they’re out of space, because they’re trampling his country and killing his men for no reason?
We all laughed about “no U” and thought it was something exclusive to Supreme Leader because, well, Supreme Leader and marketing means she can’t be challenged - but it was actually in this verse’s DNA!
We don’t see Clout challenge Supreme Leader when she offers Kool Aid - he drinks it off-screen.
Dimitri doesn’t challenge Clout or Supreme Leader about their invasion of Faerghus - he evens sips Clout’s Kool Aid !
Where is Elincia “You cloak your desire to rule with pretty speeches, but it is petty avarice nonetheless!” to the two persons invading a third country for, uh, reasons, or “to civilise them”?
I know I’ve been talking a lot about this game as of lately, because imo it’s a mirror of what we could have, but in TS -
When three people argue about which path to choose, “sacrifice the few for the sake of the many”, “Bootstraps!” and “sacrifice the many for the sake of the few” - those three characters argue, and shout, and fight, and defend their opinions, and ARE challenged by, well, the characters supporting the other options.
In FE16 we had “no u” and “sandwiches”.
In Nopes we have “maybe I’ll stop chasing you and trampling your country if you stop running away teehee ~”
Dimitri accepted to shelter Rhea and the Church because they requested help? “Okay okay maybe you have a point maybe they’re bad and they should be gone”. Where’s the progression between “I’ll accept to help them because even if it means war with Adrestia - provided they weren’t MAGA’ing our way no matter what we did - because that’s the right thing to do, they helped us tremendouly in the past and now, so today, I’ll help them too” to “mkay Clout you’re maybe not wrong” ??
Back to this interview, it finally appeared clearly -
FE16 and Nopes - Fodlan - isn’t a traditional FE verse.
IS worked with KT to make FE16 and Nopes (maybe Nopes is more KT’s bby than IS’s).
Water’s wet, what of it?
From what I could read around, and from a friend who played more Musous games than I did - Musou games aren’t supposed to tell a story with a “complicated” or “serious” plot, it’s a beat them all where you combo randoms with the units you like the most. No earl grey, it’s just to have fun!
FEs... are T (or S?) RPGs, a story based type of games. There is a verse, characters, relationships between those characters, etc etc. Earl grey can exist, because characters are written in a way to make them “interesting” to the player who’s supposed to interact with them in their world.
So what is Fodlan? A Musou or a FE verse, or the worst of the two?
We have a conflict where people will always fight (FE?) so you have to pick a side (FE+Musou?) to see where/how the story is going to end (FE)?
But contrary to “traditional FE”, the characters in Fodlan leading the factions... don’t interact. There is no opposition between them à la Elincia v. Ludveck or even Chrom v. Gangrel, we only have “no u” or “teehee~”.
Why?
Why ???
Because the 3 factions have to be different and refuse to side with each other, even if it is super artificial (FE16′s Gronder Battle v.2 says hi) ? And this artificial “opposition” is even more important than the plot? So even when a Red Emperor does Red Emperor things, for this reason we will still have 3 factions?
To still have the choice to pick “your faction” to “beat the others”?
FE16 tried to cook up and come with an explanation, even everyone hated Clout’s myopia in Gronder.
Nopes drops all pretenses, all leaders have “reasons” and their routes are just “their POV” about how to change things.
Even if those reasons are really reminiscent of Paris’s 1931 Colonial Exposition.
It wouldn’t be an issue if Nopes was an usual musou game (Ganon does Ganon things!) but since Nopes wants to be a FE game?
It is an issue. In FE Giffca roasts Ashnard, in FE, when Lundgren offers Kent a chance to surrender Lyndis to become one of his knights, Kent (tries to) kill him. When Nergal/The Black Fang ask Eliwood to abandon Ninian to them and they promise they will let him leave? Eliwood draws his sword.
No U doesn’t work. In FE, where those things are said, usually, it doesn’t work well because the Lord/Hero/someone you’re playing as gets rid of the person making those outrageous claims.
Ultimately, we’re left with people who have to fight against each other, but who can’t... really hold any animosity against each other, leaving the illusion of a posibility where they could have talked (and not warred... for an artificial reason). Does this feel foggy enough?
Tl ; Dr (because this is already long enough) : Sorry to Pat, but FE16 (and Fodlan?) has always been thought as a nod to FE4 and Belhalla’s Academy, i.e. how Sigurd, Quan and Eldingan used to go to the same school together and became friends. And how tragic it is that they have to fight against each other.
However, FE4 built up this conflict, and... Quan sided with Sigurd.
In FE Fodlan? People oppose each other for... reasons that aren’t built upon and we’re supposed to be sad that they fight each other? Why? Did we hear about past history between them when they were friends? Or saw it on-screen? Why should it be a tragedy?
FE16 tried to give an answer, and it wasn’t convincing.
FE Nopes... per the devs, doesn’t even try. It’s just here, they all have their POVs and reasons, and they fight because they fight, and it is sad that they have to do so because. Look, they could have been friends under other circumstances (maybe if one of them didn’t try to invade the world to MAGA, or if the other didn’t start a war on the other with a third party involved but we’re not going to talk about that) but it doesn’t so here you go.
So while I wanted to say Nopes is a 66% KT product and the “two writers” meme could really imply that IS wrote AG (and AM in FE16) while KT wrote SB and GW -
At its core, FE Fodlan is not a FE verse, but a hybridation of KT’s approach to games and stories with FE’s approach, and just like a liger, it spectacularly failed.
Why, it’s not wonder so many people actually liked the Fodlan cast in FEH (or in their first apparitions) there was no pretenses or illusory conflicts/friendships to be had, Supreme Leader’s words and “ideals” could and are challenged, something that never happened in FE Fodlan.
Could FE Fodlan have been something really nice/good with IS being only dev ?
...
Ultimately, I don’t think so, FEH is... imo, the best window we have on IS and... well. The writing sucks, but moreover... IS wants to make money through this gacha game.
Some people already wrote a lot about it, but Supreme Leader’s partly designed to sell alts in FEH. So, judging by how everyone hated Supreme Puppet and her “Deedee?” - I’m not sure FE Fodlan, made exclusively by IS, would have been a better thing.
----
Real Tl;Dr : If KT works on the next FE game, I’ll seriously consider not buying it because, for me, this crossover was an utter failure.
If IS releases a new FE game right now, I’m still going to be doubtful and wait to see if people have a good opinion on this game.
To be clear, the only FE game I’m going to buy with closed eyes at the moment is a remake.
#idk what i'm writing lol#i think i forgot what i wanted to say#FE16#3 Nopes#FE series#i want to avoid tasteless memes#but damn at times when you consider#in your beloved franchise this appears? and it's played straight?#We're not playing GTA here#the FE series has a history#and themes#you can play with them#but not burn them to make money in a gacha game
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