Keracts Art Place

[cd-call-official-blog]

You're one of the few people I see actually going to bat for elves as a fantasy trope. Why do you think they're often written so badly and what can be done to write them better?

Elves, or really any fantasy race, are often written badly because they're written entirely with their relation to humanity in mind.

Most people don't write elves because they like them and want to explore their culture and the nuances of how they live.

Most people write them because they want to have a long-lived, snobby elite around so their self-insert human character can show them up and beat all their records and humiliate their king and seduce their women.

In that scenario, the elves exist to make the human male character look special.

Whenever you hear someone say "The typical fantasy elves/dwarves are so boring" it's important to remember that the seemingly unwritten rule that humans MUST be the center of the universe is WHY they're boring.

I would love to see a fantasy story that subverts this specifically by making the "snobbery" something that the humans made up because they're insecure and racist. Like an elf rolls her eyes at a human, and that guy just starts flying off the handle at how "haughty" she's being.

But that's a touch on the nose.

One of the reasons I love the blood elves is because they don't exist in orbit around the humans. Since they're part of the Horde, they define themselves around the Horde. They fill a number of niches the Horde didn't have and their culture around survival and cold fury was always so interesting.

Also their architecture?

I don't know who on the Burning Crusade dev team decided "Hey, the elf kingdom? Let's base that off the middle east" but it's SO FUCKING GOOD! Silvermoon is still the most unique city in the history of the fantasy genre. Elves are usually Celtic, but for some reason Blizzard decided "Nah. Ottoman Empire."

This is also why the recent decision by Blizzard to focus all their time and attention on their pwecious Alliance High Elves is so fucking boring, because the High Elves only exist as an exotic companion for humans. Their entire existence orbits around humans the way shit fantasy like Forgotten Realms or Dragon Age does.

It's like having gold in your hands and throwing it away to play with the mud.

[shemdraws]

Need to get back into drawing so here's a quick Mina bc I'm enjoying the game

[cd-call-official-blog]

You often make fun of zoomers, but what's the difference between what you're doing and what boomers are doing?

I make fun of zoomers when they behave like idiots. Boomers think zoomers are going to be the death of society. Ironically the same attitude the zoomers have about everyone.

When it comes to basically any discourse about "Gen Z" people have this nasty habit of over-pathologizing the things zoomers do, as if there needs to be some kind of societal explanation for why a bunch of 17-22 year olds have the manners and social morays of a dead wasp nailed to a spider.

Remember that "Gen Z Stare" from last year? There were articles and videos trying to explain the complex social web behind why zoomers just stare at people like they're buffering, but then you hear actual zoomers explain what they think it is, and you realize they're trying to look at you like this-

-and fucking it up because they're not a cartoon character and have no idea what their face actually looks like without seeing it in a phone screen.

Listen to them explain it: The think they're giving you deadpan, and the funny part is they don't know they aren't.

And there's no deeper secret behind this: When you are the special combination of a douchebag and an idiot, you think behaving like a sitcom character is cool. You think it makes you look charismatic when you mimic a fictional character, when in reality it makes you look dumb as fuck.

And that's a universal thing among stupid kids. My brother spent most of his teenage years mimicking John McClane to the point that when I first watched Die Hard I thought "Why does he remind me of C******?" before I realized that was what he was doing.

Hell, my sister tried to threaten me by quoting Metal Gear Rising two years ago. Some people never grow out of that.

And making fun of stupid kids is a time-honored human tradition.

But... unlike the Boomers and Zoomers, I don't think we're in any danger from this. Kids being stupid isn't a new thing, it's practically mundane. Kids were throwing tantrums over the Nintendos of yesteryear just like the Ipads of today. We're going to be fine. They'll grow up and cringe at how they behaved. Most people do.

Zoomers are no different from any other generation, and that's the most emotionally devastating thing you could tell them.

[cd-call-official-blog]

Where does criticism of a developer end and criticism of a company begin? I ask because of all the complaints about Viconia and Sarevok in BG3 were directed at Larian, but Larian said their hands were tied by canon

Larian lied. Viconia, Sarevok, Jaheira and Misnc's stories in BG3 are unique to this game and creations of Larian.

Viconia in particular had her actual ending (destroying her enclave after a betrayal and telling Shar to go fuck herself) retconned to not happen just so they could give that exact story to Shadowheart.

Sarevok's canon story after BG2 is that he was dead. He committed suicide. Furthermore after losing his essence he can't pass it on to anyone else.

Jaheira left Faerun never to return, and Minsc died of old age.

None of these endings have ever been contested. Only by the books, where everyone was dead.

When Larian said they were limited by canon, they lied.

[cd-call-official-blog]

All this garbage with patricia taxxon and you has me wondering why people are so quick to shout about supporting imperfect victims, yet violently turn on them the instant they see one?

Their stated values were lies.

They don't care about abuse victims. They only want to hurt people. It's right there in how they talk. A lot of people don't care about justice, they just want blood.

Have you ever wondered by the American prison system continues to exist despite all evidence showing it only increases the risk of reoffending? It's because Americans are sadists and enjoy the cruelty. They'll weaponize empathetic language about "mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent" but the reality is they don't care about the innocent. They don't care that it's only making crime worse. They're happy about it: More people for the meat grinder.

The reason you're having trouble accepting this is because you follow an ideology that says people are inherently good. That all cruelty is the result of capitalism. You're not ideologically prepared to accept the depths of human cruelty in people you would otherwise consider "normal."

A lot of you guys did this when Courtney was crashing out as well, being just so darn confused at her behavior. I, of course, had already gazed into the pitch-black abyss that is Courtney's ashen soul so I had no issue processing the sheer wanton cruelty she exerted on those kids who followed her into her little groomer hidey hole.

In a sense I find that childhood bullying is extremely honest, because it's done purely for the rush of power that committing violence gets you. It's not about trouble at home, or a loss of agency, it's because they were big and you were small and it made them feel good to hurt you.

Think about the kind of bargaining people do in their 20's. Calling themselves "gossipy bitches" like it's a positive thing. They are freely admitting they enjoy hurting people.

That's what people like Brittany and Ant and Sai and Crim are. They enjoy hurting people. It gives them a rush and power they don't have otherwise, and there's no explanation behind it other than pure sadism. If you were to put them in power they would be monsters. And there are many MANY people like them.

People get confused when they ask me what should be done with pedophiles and my answer is "Psychiatric Hospital" and the reason I feel this way is because despite the sarcasm or hyperbole I take no actual joy from hurting people. I didn't even have the nerve or the will to kill the woman who had been raping me for years when the opportunity came.

I own a gun, but I'm all talk. It's for bluffing. If a mugger or assailant called my bluff I wouldn't have it in me to shoot them because hurting people doesn't bring me any joy. I'm not a bad person.

So I prefer solutions that actually solve the problem rather than slake bloodlust I don't have.

Talking about having empathy costs you nothing. Talking about having empathy for good people is the easiest thing in the world. And these people's empathy and leftism leaves their body so fucking fast the instant they have anything close to an excuse that lets them absolutely lose it on someone.

Stop taking people at their word and being confused when they lie.

[cd-call-official-blog]

What would you say to someone who is pro death penalty?

You ever see the film The Green Mile?

There's a guard on the Mile named Percy who enjoys having a power trip over people. He's cruel, sadistic and giggles at the torment he causes.

He's also a cowardly little shit who can't handle the consequences of his own cruelty.

There's a moment in the film where he scares Delacroix, causing him to trip and hit his head on the floor, and laughs about it. He is promptly grabbed and groped by Wild Bill, and is so terrified that he pisses himself.

When he's put in charge of Delacroix's execution, he leaves the sponge dry so that it hurts more. But when Delacroix screams, smokes and eventually catches fire, he can't handle the results of his own cruelty and tries to look away before Paul forces him to watch.

I think about Percy when I think about people who are giddy and eager for blood. You think you are, but the reality is that the moment you get it you're not going to like it because you are not prepared for what it means to take the life of another human being.

You're simply a posturing little coward who will piss himself if someone says boo to him. And even when you get the blood you want in a safe and palatable way, it's never going to be enough for your cowardly ass.

[cd-call-official-blog]

What is this whole thing about tourists anyway?

"Tourist" in terms of fandom is a No True Scotsman fallacy. It mostly arose in anime fandom as a way to dismiss people who made criticisms of anime that weebs didn't like hearing (mostly regarding the misogyny).

It's really popular among uncritical fans who consume mindlessly and never think about anything as a way to demonize people who make them think about things they don't want to think about.

In more niche fandoms, it's a way to preserve groupthink and demonize people with unpopular opinions.

What people are doing when they call people tourists is exactly what they're doing when gamers say certain video games aren't "real video games." They're not just invalidating an opinion they don't like, they're invalidating the very presence of a person in their space. It's a very distinct form of othering, and excluding them in such a way they don't ever have to be listened to.

As a way of denying the legitimacy of a critic, it's about as aggressive as it gets. If you're someone like me who criticizes the tropes and problematic element of a genre, and the community has collectively decided (based on nothing) that you just hate that genre outside a few aesthetic preferences, they've put the job of discrediting your work on easy mode.

Elves are my favourite fantasy race, and I've gone into EXTREME detail as to why. But all that gets erased because it's easier for some unwashed neckbeard to just say I "have a fixation."

It's why those few anons were surprised I had no interest in Frieren even though it stars an elf: They were operating on information that wasn't true.

A lot of this gatekeeping that fandom gets on, from the "Fake Gamer Girls" of yesteryear to the "Wokeism" and "Tourists" and "Puriteens" of today is largely bad people hearing something they disagree with, and clapping their hands over their years going "LALALALALALALA!"

It's just that these days it all has to be couched in vaguely academic sounding language because otherwise they become painfully aware of how stupid they look.

[cd-call-official-blog]

would you mind explaining the red flags of someone making a false accusation? for future reference so I can hopefully recognize them from the start and not months later when they've already done heavy damage

Refusing to Show Evidence - This is self explanatory.

Emotional Blackmail - If someone responds to requests for proof or doubt with a big emotional spiel about "Believing the Victim" that's a massive red flag. Victim and Accuser are not synonymous, and this kind of emotional blackmail is unnecessary when you have an actual case. This goes double for "But if it's true then it's really bad!" That warrants more scrutiny, not less.

Mockery - Turning the subject into a punching bag casts doubt, because sexual abuse is a serious topic and should not be funny. And if the accuser is treating it as a big joke, it's clear they already had a bug up their ass about the accused before these came out.

Hyperscrutiny - Spending more time scrutinizing the response to the accusations than presenting evidence. Again, if you have proof you don't need to do this.

Association Fallacy - If the proof of accusations is just shit from their social media the accuser is twisting into "self reports." Proof of actual wrongdoing is the only acceptable thing to submit.

Gish Gallop - A hundred unfounded accusations combined with the above two. You don't need to drown someone in accusations if you have actual proof.

[tpwrtrmnky]

Analyzing the politics of a work that's meant to be apolitical is actually a really interesting exercise because it asks you to critically examine what the creator considers to be "political" in the first place. Which ideas are just How Things Are, and which ones are Political, and how is that influenced by the creator's beliefs?

[takashi0]

Usually this just ends up with you looking like a moron btw

[tpwrtrmnky]

Angrily lashing out at the suggestion that it's possible to do basic media analysis was foundational to the ragebait ecosystem of the 2010s, from which we got basically the entire culture of modern far right politics, btw.

[iteh3xael]

I genuinely believe myself and others are being so sincere and literal when we say TOUCH GRASS

[tpwrtrmnky]

I went outside and got an education, that's where I learned that you can obtain knowledge and insight through analytical methods, then noticed that some people who sit on the internet yelling at strangers get really mad about that constantly.

[irishironclad]

So actually if you really wanted to use your analysis skills you'd realize that what people are annoyed about is the implication that there's never a story or creative work they can create that can escape people like you attempting to assign political meaning to it when they just don't want that. That in fact people's presumptions about life are not, in fact, political (at best they are cultural, which is not an inherently facet of politics). And that by you people arrogantly pushing this idea you are intruding on the fact that a lot of people use fiction as escapism from politics and insisting that "urm no actually your favourite cartoon actually has politics cause no human being is 100% unbiased" is in fact, supremely fucking annoying

[tpwrtrmnky]

"Stop having fun wrong, it ruins my fun when you have fun wrong, it's not enough for me to just scroll past the analysis I don't like, if anyone anywhere is saying that the cartoon exists in a political context that's undermining my enjoyment of it!"

That's you. That's what you sound like.

[cd-call-official-blog]

Basic English class bringing out the vintage gamergate blogs lmao

[avenarts]

soleil

[osaoris]

"Mother used to say that however miserable one is, there’s always something to be thankful for. And each morning, when the sky brightened and light began to flood my cell, I agreed with her."

Meursault posting

[tfh-arts]

House of Woke

[cd-call-official-blog]

Happy Pride month! May I ask a Disney related question? Do you think the songs written by Howard Ashman (Beauty and the beast, Little mermaid) were actually meant to express the 1980s LGBT experience? Or is that simply something people interpret into his work due to Ashman passing away from AIDS?

Being unhappy with your current status quo was the running theme of a lot of classic and 90's era Disney films, and is the experience of a lot of LGBT people pre-2000's and post-2016.

However, it's also the experience of MOST marginalized identities, which is why white LGBT people have a nasty habit of saying a story has "q***r subtext" when it's actually about racism.

[cd-call-official-blog]

Why does it seem like people are so split on the Silvermoon story in Midnight? What's wrong with it?

When it comes to stories for the Blood Elves, it splits down faction lines.

Alliance players want the Blood Elves to reunite with the High Elves and become neutral.

Horde players want to explore the bond the Blood Elves have with the Forsaken and the rest of the Horde.

The problem is that one of these is extremely natural and easy to do (the second one) and one of them relies and a dozen things breaking in half in order to do it.

The writers, being extremely Alliance-biased, went for "elven reunification" in spite of the fact that "we're all elves" is an extremely weak concept. In real life we're all humans, yet you try telling a Russian that the Americans are their kin?

The fact is, so many things had to break down in order for the High Elves and Void elves to matter at all in the story.

Where is the Horde? They're conveniently absent because otherwise there's no way in hell that the Sin'dorei would call Alliance paladins to aid them.

Hell, just to keep this on the elves, there would be absolutely ZERO reason to call the Void Elves, High Elves or Night Elves to retake the Sunwell if the story remembered that the Forsaken Dark Rangers are a thing: Elves that are more powerful, have an advantage against the Void, are on much friendlier terms with Silvermoon, and are literally right next door.

Under that situation, the Blood Elves, Nightborne and Darkfallen basically got this in the bag. No Alliance needed.

But since that doesn't get the High Elves back in Silvermoon so all the Alliance players (and writers) can call Quel'thalas "basically neutral" and shout over any Horde player who argues otherwise, the Darkfallen are conveniently forgotten.

The writers only remember Horde characters exist at the very last second in March on Quel'danas when a Horde character nearly gets a perfect headshot on Xal'atath without looking.

Midnight's elf story is an egregious exercise in authorial fiat. A lot of WoW's writers have wanted Silvermoon neutral for a long time, and Metzen was the only one stopping them. They're of the same breed of bitchy Alliance main who is still angry that the pretty white people (the Thalassians are Asian and Muslim but I digress) on the dirty, smelly mud hut faction because Alliance players are comically racist all the time.

Game mechanics kept them from retconning anything, so they just focused exclusively on Alliance elves for the end of time. Now with Midnight they could make a separate phase of Quel'thalas and section off the old one away in an expansion nobody goes to and make it as neutral as game mechanics would allow.

The writers wanted a particular conclusion (Silvermoon as neutral as possible) and bent over literally every single aspect of the story and common sense to make it happen.

And a lot of the playerbase will argue in its favor

Speaking as someone who actually plays a Blood Elf, no I don't want any of that. I wanted Elves bonding with Orcs over cultural syncretism. I wanted Thalassians reuniting with their undead family members. I wanted to see Tauren taking trips out to see the grove where Thas'alah used to stand and weep for the loss of such a majestic bounty of the Earth Mother.

I wanted to see Elves bonding with Trolls for the first time ever.

I wanted the Blood Elves to define themselves as something unique from Lord of the Rings elves without just being punching bags or arm candy for HFY protagonists.

You know what, I'm going to say the quiet part out loud: Alliance players fucking suck. They're racist, misogynistic, illiterate, and their tastes and desires for WoW are boring as piss.

Can't go five fucking seconds in this game without some Human or Nelf player shrieking about mud huts or ignoring the entire plot of Warcraft 3, or actively shrieking that they should be allowed to commit genocide "as a treat." Or some Velf player crying about wanting playable High Elves and going on AI-generated rants about how Silvermoon joining the Horde was narratively absurd.

They're the nadir of people rending stories in two for personal catharsis at the expense of everything else, it's just that their personal catharsis is some weird Azerothian version of the setting of the neo-Wolfenstein games where the Nazis have taken over the world with super-robots.

And the fact that a lot of the writing staff at Blizzard are of the same breed is fucking disgusting. Why are we still getting Christie Golden writing AFTER Golden's fascist ass already left?

[shemdraws]

Excuse me sir, there must be someone you've confused me for!

[eemiejab]

The apricity of the sun does not compare to your warmth.

[gotinterest]

Gonna be honest a lot of people deep down view cheating as worse than abuse which is why so many people view downright controlling and manipulative behavior in a relationship as 100% permissible so long as that behavior is centered around either preventing or discovering cheating.

[cannibal-flowerbomb]

It's especially fucked up in my mind because the alternative to being abusive and controlling over your partner is... Being communicative and confronting your own insecurities. And being comfortable without codependency.

But so many people would rather literally abuse the one they're supposed to love instead of self reflecting on their own flaws or be even mildly uncomfortable at any time.

That's genuinely what it comes down to for me. You have to be willing to talk about these things with a partner (or partners let's be inclusive) or you won't be able to find a healthy balance in your relationship. And if you can't tell your partner shit?? Just fucking break up. You're not ready to be in one and that's not your partner's problem to deal with.

People really would rather be abusive and codependent than accept that they might need to do a bit of personal reflection and growth before they start dating.