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Never forget Earth-8096
Actually Autistic writer, fan of the Unstoppable Wasp and Helper
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Lisan al-Ghaib
The Hellsite has a thing against White Savior narratives, and for good reason. The idea that general-purpose Natives have some elixir for mindfulness, mental health or even sociopolitical stability is nothing new. It's as tokenistic as you think if you take it at face value, but I think the more classic examples in the genre like Dances With Wolves or, God forbid, Avatar (a revised copy of the previous title, in many ways) tend to focus on something that's a smidge more positive - namely in that the Other - not the Noble Savage, so much as someone with an entirely external perspective - has the power to help us progress. A very debatable posture.
In effect, the classic examples in the genre contend that it's not really about "saving the Natives" or even becoming their saviour, but rather about the unformed or troubled protagonist finding themselves thanks to the Natives' input. I've always thought that Wolves' Sioux never needed Dubar, Dunbar needed them. The Na'vi never needed Jake Sully, some other member of the people would've eventually filled in the blanks and become Toruk Makto. Instead, Jake Sully needed the Na'vi to fix himself. There's nothing magical there, despite the First Nations spiritualism that mostly coats the genre, ripped out of its context and sort of propped up the same way mindfulness is now pulled out of its own context and served up to the masses, as if living with a little anxiety or stress were somehow a symptom for something more insidious. The world forgot Herbert's object lesson, and suggested that for some people, especially damaged goods, the only way to find purpose is to subsume yourself in another culture. You emerge as the saviour, kill the monster, and fulfill your role in the story.
Taking up someone else's problems to fix yourself isn't an actual solution; I think any two-bit psychologist could tell you that. Even if Dunbar and Sully emerge whole and healed from their own tales, they're behavioural abnormalities. Power doesn't allow you to stay humble. Power corrupts.
Ask Shaddad. Ask the Bene Gesserit. Ask the Harkonnens, who never saw their end coming.
Back when Frank Herbert first wrote Dune, Eastern mysticism was taking off much in the same way we're seeing meditation and yoga. He pulled an interesting bait-and-switch in showing us a protagonist who seemed set to go from a mostly nameless aristocrat to your typical conquering hero - but he realized that some faiths can be noxious. Some currents can twist the mind. After all, Paul Atreides' own stories addresses the fact that he comes to align with fundamentalists, and does so willingly.
In many ways, George Lucas tried to play the same melody with Anakin Skywalker being set up as the Force's hero, only for the will of the Galaxy to be made manifest through his son, instead. The problem is, unlike Herbert, Lucas lacks subtlety. The danger of messianic thinking more or less deserves a dream-state vignette on Dagobah, where Luke beheads Vader and sees his own face in the depths of his father's mask. Herbert, in comparison, makes those fears concrete. Paul was on shaky ground the moment he embraced the moniker of Muad'Dib, and slipped into something I might as well call psychosis, after drinking the Waters of Life.
Chani lost the man she fell in love with. Paul Atreides lost himself.
White Savior narratives aren't meant to be seen as the Civilized Man saving the day. They're meant to be seen as an outsider protagonist needing an external point of view to face the abyss, more or less.
If you're an optimist, the protagonist is thankful for the wisdom he's received and plays his part, not for prophecy or for Ego - but for basic care and consideration. Consider Shogun's Blackthorne, by the end of the series. He wasn't one to calculate his next move - he's clearly a man of passion. Japan gave him something to hold onto - and then squeezed around him like a vice made up of niceties and political manoeuvring. Yoshii Toranaga, on the other hand, is the chess player. Blackthorne's fate is the grimmest of the brighter ends of the White Savior genre. He didn't save anyone or anything; he merely proved useful.
If you're a pessimist, you turn to Dune or to any of your local Fire-and-Brimstone preachers.
Considering, when I hear the Hellsite dismiss Dune as just another story written by a White guy about some other White guy saving some vaguely Middle-Eastern-coded people; that tells me a lot of armchair critics haven't picked up the books or watched the movies.
If anything, Dune's very premise gives reason to those of you who decry Colonialist rhetoric. Dune isn't just a seminal science-fiction classic; it's also a warning about what happens when faith goes haywire, and of what happens when the balance of power tips in the worst direction possible.
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The Capybara
The Capybara is the largest rodent in the world. It reaches a length of around 100 to 130 cm, and 50 cm in height and weighs in at around 50 kilograms, or 110 lbs. It has a large head with large eyes and small ears, and it is almost completely tailess.
It has four toes on the front feet and three toes on the hind-feet. The hind-feet are webbed, it spends a lot of its time in water, feeding on mostly aquatic plants. Like a rats teeth, the Capybaras teeth are constantly growing and need to be worn down.
The Capybara has a gestation of 4 to 5 months and an annual litter can have between two to eight young which are independent after a few months but do not reach sexual maturity for a year or more.
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I think the Errol Flynn swashbuckler type is the archetype closest to Conan's that is also machine designed to piss him off the fastest
Conan the Barbarian 120
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sometimes ultraman leo is a beautifully sad story about loss, loneliness, and finding somewhere to belong in the universe and sometimes ultraman leo is about dan moroboshi explaining why women belong in the kitchen while throwing boomerangs directly at gen’s head as hard as possible for “training purposes”
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People have gotten way too comfortable risking serious disability just because they feel they have the right to selfish.
Do you want to kill your parents?
Do you want to disable your partner?
Do you want your friends to lie in bed wishing for death?
Wear a fucking mask.
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You, a heroic paladin have successfully slain a fearsome dragon. But the dragon warns you that death is but a door, and dragons don’t die, they reincarnate. You paid it no mind….until your son was born with golden, slitted eyes.
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Somewhere lies the perfect love child of the Rocketeer costume and a Ranger costume
Where's THAT crossover, IDW
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Boom: lets use this idea!
Boom next issue: scrap it. It no longer amuses me.
It's more like "let's use this idea! and this idea, and this idea, and this idea......hey wait, what happened to that first idea?"
(though going back to the first year of this run, I'm kind of thinking that M/tt was originally going to have a bigger part in this event that got scrapped. The fact that he had such HUGE focus that got dropped after the reception of his Green With Evil 2 plot was mixed to negative makes me wonder.)
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Kaiju Weeks in Review (April 14-27, 2024)
Kazuhiro Nakagawa has directed a new Godzilla short, although you'll have to travel to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to see it properly, as it's projected on the surface of the building! Failing that, here's the best-looking video I could find on YouTube. Godzilla: Attack on Tokyo runs about seven minutes and pits Godzilla (Naoya Matsumoto) against an upgraded Super X2.
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Chibi Minilla has made her (yes, her) debut in Chibi Godzilla Raids Again. It's an interesting situation where the character isn't specifically gendered in Japanese but is definitely female in the English translation; Wikizilla has the details. Also, the episode itself has serious Godzilland vibes.
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I forgot to mention that Godziban (which is still releasing specials; unknown when they'll get to Season 5) introduced Gojita and Zillala, based on the Final Wars Godzilla and Zilla, respectively. 2024 is truly the year of pink Godzillas. This week's episode brought Varan to the fore.
IDW solicitations included the 14th Godzilla Rivals issue, Godzilla vs. Manda. Nice to see a C-lister like Manda in the spotlight, as Rivals has mostly stuck to higher-profile creatures. Jake Lawrence is writing and illustrating. The logline:
Late into the night, the crew of a small fishing trawler off the coast of Australia is keeping busy by telling stories of the sea. Little do they know, they’re moments away from happening upon a mysterious shipwreck… and the fearsome sea dragon Manda going toe to toe with Godzilla in the middle of the most brutal ocean brawl any sailor has ever seen. Can this small crew make it back to shore safely in the midst of this all-out kaiju battle? Join Jake Lawrence (Teen Dog, A Nice Long Walk) on a thrilling adventure on the high seas to find out!
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Hello! I'm looking for an RPG that's set underground with a focus on mining and modern vehicles/technology, in the vein of Lego Rock Raiders and Power Miners. If nothing comes to mind, any systems you know that you think might be easily adapted to an underground mining setting works too!
THEME: Mining, Technology, Underground.
Hello there! I've got a few solo and a few multiplayer options for you, some about mining, some about tech, and some that might have to be tweaked but I think could still fit the bill!
Stoneburner, by Fari RPGs.
In his will, Brokur has bequeathed to you the cursed mines of the Long Belt, its dilapidated settlement, and the leadership of House Grandrock.
However, other dwarf houses seek to overthrow you and take control of the valuable minerals hidden deep within those cold tunnels.
To complicate matters further, most of the mines’ galleries are haunted by fire spitting demons from the underworld.
Cleanse. Rebuild. Survive.
Stoneburner is a sci-fantasy solo-friendly demon-hunting community-building tabletop role-playing game.
Inspired by the new school revolution movement, players take on the role of a group of dwarves who must assume control of a demon haunted mine, along with its accompanying settlement. A settlement which they inherited after the death of their distant relative. The game focuses on the dwarves' journey as they navigate the challenges of their new responsibilities, rebuild a new thriving community, and clear the mine of its fire spitting monsters.
Technically the mines of Stoneburner are in space, rather than underground, but I think there’s going to be some similarities nevertheless. The game is a combination of combat, survival and base-building, using the items that you find to create things that will help you hold your own. There’s machine upgrades, expeditions across a map, and problems that will show up every time you take a break. I think it’s definitely worth checking out!
Robo Goons, by Unknown Dungeon.
It is the distant future, humanity has disappeared from the surface of the Earth, and nature has taken back the planet. All that remains are overgrown man-made structures returned to the wild, vicious beasts that stalk the surface, and sentient robots who pick through the ruins of civilization for salvage. You are one such robot.
Robo-Goons is a lightweight, tabletop adventure game where the players take control of randomly generated robots and explore the ruins of humanity in search of upgrades and salvage. The core rules fit on a single page and all that's required is a pencil and paper, two six-sided dice, and some friends to play with.
Robo Goons uses the setting of a ruined civilization, with an added detail that your robots have solar batteries that need to be re-charged. If your robots are continuously salvaging from underground, or even just beneath heaps of scrap, then you have a natural cycle of going down and up again, giving you breaks as you play. The game also comes with a map, which represents the ruins that your robots will explore, with plenty of roll-tables to determine what kinds of places they’re exploring, and what threats might show up.
Astro Miners, by 7 Card Stud.
Astro Miners is a TTRPG about mining in space.
You are an robotic mining worker with a human brain. The only problem is your brain was wiped of all memory. You don't remember your name, your old life, even your sexuality and gender are all lost. You are a robot.
If you can mine enough material you'll earn enough credits to regain your memory and buy your freedom from the company if you want.
Astro Miners is built for 3 players, but if you don’t mind doubling up on character classes, you can probably play with 4 or 5. Since the game is built on LUMEN, I’d expect your characters to be hyper-competent, with plenty of room for upgrading and customization. There are dropships that you can call in order to be able to sell things you’ve found and buy things you need, and you can also buy robots to help you carry things, fight things, illuminate dark areas and more!
Numenera: Destiny, by Monte Cook Games.
This is the Ninth World. The people of the prior worlds are gone—scattered, disappeared, or transcended. But their works remain, in the places and devices that still contain some germ of their original function. The ignorant call these magic, but the wise know that these are our legacy. They are our future. They are the Numenera.
Set a billion years in our future, Numenera is a tabletop roleplaying game about exploration and discovery. The people of the Ninth World suffer through a dark age, an era of isolation and struggle in the shadow of the ancient wonders crafted by civilizations millennia gone. But discovery awaits those brave enough to seek out the works of the prior worlds. Those who can uncover and master the numenera can unlock the powers and abilities of the ancients, and perhaps bring new light to a struggling world.
Discovery (the base game) is mostly about exploration, but Destiny, the biggest and most useful supplement, gives you character options for building and crafting, as well as plenty of interesting machines and vehicles for you to build and use. Numenera isn’t explicitly underground, nor is it about mining, but I think there are plenty of places within the world that you could start building an underground base in, or at least something similar.
DELVE and UMBRA, by Blackwell Writer.
DELVE: A Solo Map Drawing Game is a map drawing game that puts you in control of a dwarven hold as you discover the horrors that lurk below. This 44 page zine has everything you need to generate natural formations, forgotten ruins, enemies, wyrd magics, and ancient monstrosities. It has a simple turn-based combat system, rules for building your hold and optional challenges for a harder experience.
UMBRA: A Solo Game of Final Frontiers is a map drawing game that puts you in control of a sci-fi colony as you struggle against starvation, the void, and the many threats that will assail you from above and below. This 48 page zine has everything you need to generate natural formations, alien ruins, enemies, technologies, and forgotten terrors. It has a simple turn-based combat system, rules for building your colony and optional challenges for a harder experience.
DELVE firmly places itself in fantasy, but it is first and foremost a game about delving underground. In contrast, UMBRA is about mining in space, while fighting of alien threats. You draw cards from a deck of playing cards to find resources and discover landmarks, while combat takes the form of a tower-defense format. There are a lot of supplements available for DELVE, as well as a Cyberspace and a Stations expansion for UMBRA.
Other Games You Can Check Out
Underground, by emmy.
Dark Delve, by Fedmar.
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Unlearning How White People Ask Personal Questions
http://www.samefacts.com/2014/05/culture-and-civil-society/unlearning-how-white-people-ask-personal-questions/
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My villain origin story will be paint companies advertising that I need to bring "vibrancy" and the "colors of Nature✨🌼🌸" into my life and then showing me the most off-white greyige tones I've ever seen in my life.
They put it up against the actual sea and sky and have the nerve to tell me that's blue???
I'm chewing through drywall, la Croix wishes it could bottle a flavor as bland as I heard the color of blue described once as a sickly Victorian child before the consumption got me confined in this windowless white room lest the miasmas take me too soon
I hate it so much!!! Give me indigo and turquoise! Give me lapis lazuli and cerulean!! Let me have real colors for the love of God. If I get advertised something as "room brightening" again I will start biting
My kitchen is currently sky blue with indigo accents because BLUE IS ACTUALLY MY FAVORITE COLOR
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