#bit rambly

[solarclaw]

AvA 12: Hacker small thoughts

Spoilers under cut. Thoughts are bit discombobulated, so no real review, just opinion(s)

Honestly, while the lore + world building is going CRAZY (especially love the little bit of Orange just feeling the victim -> H4CK3R name change), I found myself more interested in the fights the RGB went through against the mercenaries

Of the 3, my favorite was Green (not just because he's my fav). But like, it just felt like his was a bit more showcasing skill, with the only extra bit being the broom. Was hoping for a comedic (horror?) moment of swiping Primal's face with it, though that might count more towards horror if thought about deep enough. But that top swing into slamming Primal's head onto the corner of the stair rail? *chef's kiss* Immaculate! (as well as that drop kick)

Red was more dodging and brute forcing the door passcodes than getting actual hits in until the end. Then again, Red was up against what was essentially a Weapons Master with a built in arsenal. I loved that clothesline with the blowtorch tho. A bit confused on why Pixel wouldn't just like...break down the walls around instead of the door itself. Then again, iirc the big lazer tracked against the hallway and floor based on its angle and didn't do any damage either. Yeesh, the walls must be really tough but the other doors have bent/got poked through....Meh, either way. You do you Red, you troll.

Blue's fight was a bit interesting for the lore (return of the clones~) and for really showcasing what Hazard/Sign could really do. It also highlighted Hazard really do be flat and the weakness that can be, as Blue took advantage of. Also, little detail, but you can sorta see the back of the monitor facing outward when Blue was wielding it. Which means that she was holding the monitor screen...by its screen. wtf xDDD The use of the pretty much unborn corpse was rather morbid to think about and I actually had to speed up that portion for me. Maybe if the clone looked more like a mannequin dummy....

oh lol, both Red and Blue ended on a bit of funny; at least, their bit of comedy post-fight got a snort outta me. The sheep was more a nice surprise that it's still around and apparently has its own room with open air. But Green just booked it outta there after winning

Side note: Concerning the Alan vs H4CK3R fight, it was cool and kinda rather expected. There's really nothing that those inside the digital space can REALLY do against Alan/those outside. Not unless he was on like....Life support or soemthing since the lights in the room were affected. The plug was gonna be pulled eventually. I was more sad that the cute drawing of sad!Alan being comforted by the Colour Gang was also destroyed. I bet that Alan DID have his stuff backed up, but was more panicking to save the PC since last time a Stick Figure (2 of them) destroyed his PC, the motherboard was actually fried so he probably didn't want to have to go through that expense again of getting the parts and rebuilding

Also neat that H4CK3R's scanner target-icon gives us some eye movement, an extra bit for expression on these faceless Stick figures.

[the-world-annealing]

So the reddit-tier takes that Disco Elysium 'is an apolitical game that makes fun of all sides' are obviously wrong, this game is incredibly left-leaning and a basic familiarity with the text should make that clear.

But what makes Disco Elysium leftist is the problems it discusses more than anything. The game asks questions about corporate power and labor and How We Can Finally Build Communism, and even where it presents these cynically, the very fact it's asking those questions and not others is what makes it a leftist game.

(libertarian disco elysium would have a 2-hour plotline about the moralintern's gun laws, fascist disco elysium would do the same about race, etc etc)

Anyway, it's tempting to see a game ask the questions leftists ask and go "Oh, we know the answers to those" because if you're politically engaged and on tumblr you probably have a favorite brand of leftist politics and a degree of familiarity with its proposed solutions. I've seen a few posts that try to analyze disco elysium by going "Alright, so keeping in mind that Hoxhaism is obviously correct, where did the characters go wrong?". I think those posts represents a failure of the same kind as the mindset quoted in the first paragraph: a desire to apply one's own politics to the game beyond the degree warranted by the text.

But that's the point where you have to take a step back and look at the broader message of the game, because We Don't Know How We Will Build Communism (But Must Try Anyway) is a core theme as well! No, disco elysium does not specifically endorse syndicalist anarchism, it does not specifically endorse marxist-leninism, it does not endorse Sanders-style democratic socialism, it will contain a counterargument for all of those movements. It's a leftist game asking leftist questions, but there's many movements trying to answer those questions in their own way, and elevating one above all others makes for poor analysis of the text.

[shaykai]

May I ask what young Vat’il (and his family) would think of future Vat’il?

Have a WIP that feels like it ties into that

In short, they’d be horrified! Bit more under the cut

Young Vat’il doesn’t really know what he is/why he wants to hurt things, and he tries pretty hard to ignore his Urge/tries to mitigate it as much as he can (I have a comic I’m debating about making for that, actually! Not sure if I want to do it though, it’s like. High key disturbing) so seeing an older version of himself that’s fully given into the Urge is essentially his worst nightmare (bonus points if he gets to see his Bhaalist family, which is so beyond fucked up- or Gortash, the actual worst person, who he’s basically infatuated with)

As for his family, they’re terribly disturbed and horrified both for and of him. They all know that Vat has violent tendencies, but they really have no idea just how bad it is. (And said violent tendencies don’t extend to people- until later on, of course) Also worth mentioning that they know him outside of being violent- they see him when he’s kind and curious and gentle, etc. and he is very much a part of their family, so seeing him like that TM is less than pleasant

[indiumrubber]

Favourite Blur album?

Very excellent question. I’m usually stuck between Blur and 13, but weirdly, even though I like each and every track on 13, and there’s about three on Blur I usually either skip, or want to skip, Blur has the better unified feel to me? I also love its artwork, and on the whole, the songs I do like from it I like better than those on 13, so Blur. I think….

[nickbutnodick]

as if figuring out my sexuality wasn't hard enough i have the added bonus of feeling guilty about being queer at all so i feel like making up for it by being straight and also being raised hyper-religious making me feel guilty about anything even remotely sexual

[littlebabyyodas]

I have mixed feelings about 2016 bc it's been a fucking awful year for the world but on a personal level it's been kind of incredible like I clawed my way up from rock bottom at the start of the year and had counselling and worked in a primary school and went to the other side of the world volunteering in the summer in Fiji and travelled the length of California and went back to uni for a second attempt and like it's been a really good year in a lot of ways I feel like I've grown a lot and I'm in a way better place now but the world has got a bit shittier around me

[comicsblogg]

"The World of Bizarros!" from Action Comics #263 (1960) Written by Otto Binder Art by Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye

"BIZARRO CODE Us do opposite of all earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!"

The Bizarros are one of the most interesting characters of this era. Like the stock criminals I've been talking about for the last couple days, they represent something that goes entirely against established "wholesome" society. For a society and time period that idealizes it's sense of justice and order, it's threatening to run into an entire planet of people whose society is the complete opposite (at least when it comes to aesthetics and silly things like when to eat dessert).

And so Superman's reaction when coming across Htrae (Bizarro World, get it?) is a sort of ethnocentrism. After wandering around making dismissive thought bubble comments, he "fixes" some Bizarro homes.

"These pathetic creatures have a crazy sense of values! I'll show them how to do things right by fixing those broken-down homes! I'll borrow somebody's carpenter tools!"

But to the Bizarros, he ruins the homes by fixing them up, and so he is promptly imprisoned, where he meets someone who must be the inspiration for Zibarro of All-Star Superman:

"Good gosh! They've been convicted for behaving like good, decent folks!"

While Superman never quite manages to truly empathize with the Bizarros, he does seem to recognize their right to govern themselves, and when he's eventually released, he kindly sculpts Htrae into a cube to make it less Earth-like. Superman doesn't force Bizarros to conform to Earth standards of beauty, and he doesn't even free the Zibarro-prototypes. The Bizarros and their world aren't portrayed as evil, just amusingly mixed-up.

And so, oddly, the Bizarros come across as more sympathetic than common criminals. In thinking about why that might be, I came up with a couple of factors.

For one, the Bizarros are safely distant. As long as Bizarros stick to Htrae, they pose no threat to Earth values. When they (or anyone who looks like them) do come to Earth,  everyone hates them and shoots them until they leave:

"The Superman Bizarro!" from Action Comics #264 (1960) (same creative team)

"Bizarro is still invulnerable to bullets, but keep firing at him! Maybe he'll take the hint and go!"

Secondly, Bizarros are constantly dehumanized. Characters continuously point out that they're made of "lifeless matter" and therefore aren't really people and their deaths don't mean anything.

"The Battle With Bizarro!" from Action Comics #254 (1959) Written by Otto Binder Art by Al Plastino

"How can a Thing that isn't alive lose its 'life'? He's made of unliving matter! It's just like a robot or a machine getting wrecked!"

All of this reminds me of how media of this time period treats Native-Americans or African tribes. They invite you to laugh at the kooky savages, but if they're to participate in society beyond that they must be "civilized."

Htrae offers a welcome break from the squeaky clean white 50s false utopia of Metropolis, and there's really nothing that makes the Bizarros "villains" at this point except that everyone thinks they're ugly and weird. But apparently that's enough.

[writteninjade]

Thoughts (spoilers)

Just saw it this morning so... Now Team Hero thinks Zelena wants to change time and get all the good shit, have a mom, get to be Rumple's apprentice... Mostly, seems legit, but if she wanted Rumple in her life (which seems right with how upset she was when he faked passion to try Nd get,the dagger back. He did say he was the thing she loved most before), she didn't think this entirely through. Or there's some things she doesn't know... She offered him his SON. Change the past, get his son back... He muses on never giving him up in the first place and she didn't seem against it... Which is a problem if she wanted to be trained by him. There's no guarantee that would happen in the changed world where Rumple's got Bae. The whole point of training "Cora's daughter", i.e. Regina, was to cast the first curse, which he wouldn't need if Bae was still with him. He only wanted it as a way to get to the world where Baelfire lived. So without Bae leaving to the Land Without Magic, the curse is not needed, and neither is Regina. Now, because of his fake out, the curse would be needed in the past. But would "Cora's daughter" still be the key to curse with Regina never being born? That means Zelena would have to be miserable/enraged enough that cursing everyone will seem like grand idea. If Zelena's playing for a happier life, is she planning on that part? Cora's shit just got revealed as more complicated... And horrible for Regina. It's not just Eva involved in this, but Leopold... Ugh. "I almost married this guy. Imma kill his wife, stage an incident with his daughter to get his attention on MY daughter... Now she can marry him. It'll be like i finally did in a way!" -.- Snow says Eva "made [Cora]" give up Zelena... Eh. The whole thing in the first season was giving up your kid to give that kid their "best chance". Realizing that maybe they would have a better life away from you, because of the circumstances surrounding you at the time. Cora tells tiny baby Zelena that she's giving her up so that CORA can have her best chance. Even then, every thing was for her own betterment. If Cora kept Zelena... She wouldn't have gone to that ball... Met that prince... Claimed to spin straw into gold... Met Rumple and learned magic... Would Zelena have had such strong magic without that? Maybe. The training? Who knows. (Wait... I must be a bit off today. Zelena was born before Cora learned magic. Imna leave this here but I see my mind scrambled a bit... bah) Zelena can't be nearly as knowledgeable as she thinks with all this shit to think about. She's only thinking "it'll all be better" but she doesn't know how much that may not be true. Snow's words to Regina about "feeling thing with your whole soul" makes me remember... Something about Tinkerbell being so small that she could only feel one thing at a time. That when she was good, she was all good, but when she was bad, she was all bad. Lol So is it not "the laws of magic forbid it" but "no one has been able to do it"? What the crap is it about this baby that can make this work? Is it because it's Snow's baby? Something with the bloodline and the past we just saw? A True Love born baby? Just a new born baby? A being of true innocence? WHAT?! So... a "resilient heart"... Zelena believes her heart to be resilient? Not saying anything about the truth in that, but more the fact that Zelena sees it such. She sees Regina as someone who has had everything and yet believes she's been through enough to have a proven resilient heart...? That's all for now. (Holy crap, typed this up on my phone, didn't realize how long this was until seeing it on a bigger screen...)