#meta: asks

[videogamesincolor]

The 'Life is Strange' fandom and the Power of Spinning Nonsense Narratives

[Written September 16, 2021 - 8:44PM]

About four days ago (September 12th, 2021), I got a bunch of weird anon asks from someone that brought up an old ask from six months ago (from another anon) prior to the release of True Colors, expressing grievance about white LIS fandom doin' what it usually did: Focusing most of its attention of the franchise's white characters, minor and major.

A minor character named Steph (from Life is Strange: Before the Storm) was going to appear in the franchise's third full-length game featuring the franchise's third non-white protagonist. An Asian-American (Chinese/Vietnamese) girl named Alex Chen.

These messages came in rapid-fire succession. To where afterwards, I turned the inbox off for a little while, and when I turned it back on, the anon was right back at it. It was annoying, but most attention-seeking behavior on Tumblr is.

Anon from four days ago really seemed to think I was more concerned about Steph's role in Chloe's story in Before the Storm (I'm not), and then did pulled the famous anon-to-go by saying "most of the [insert show/book/game/etc] fandom is [blank] of color" (it's not? Esp not on Tumblr in the year-of-our-lord 2021, a time wherein most Black bloggers have either left for Twitter and Instagram or had their accounts nuked), then did some serious projection onto my commentary regarding the LIS fandom's racism during the initial release of Life is Strange 2.

The thing that bothered me the most was this passage:

"[...]as an afrolatina lesbian who hates men, I'm not touching LiS2 with a 10-foot-pole and that's that on that. stop telling wlw they need to engage with stories about men when most of us hate them and bonded to the original characters because of the ways in which they were also traumatized by men."

As a Negro™, one who was in the middle of the conversations about the content and storytelling of Life Is Strange 2, this is bullshit pulled out of the anon's ass. I have zero respect for the so-called lesbian reaction to the game being about two brothers being (1) boys and (2) Mexican-American. It's not only dishonest, it's also blatant cosplay, and it manufactures a narrative about something that was never said or done (esp in my response to anon ask).

"[...]And Sean & Daniel Diaz are largely more well-loved than Max, Chloe, & Rachel, from what I've personally seen."

When this game came out, the white LGBT fandom went above and beyond to minimize and dismiss the sequel because it wasn't about the white protags of the original game and DLC. They twisted themselves into pretzels about why the game was sapphic erasure and how Sean's sexuality didn't matter because it wasn't part of the overarching narrative (as if Max/Chloe wasn't also extremely cosmetic and Chloe wasn't someone you could actively sidestep). To this day, I still see people in the tags talking about how Sean and Daniel were downgrades compared to pasty-ass Chloe, Max, and Rachel. Like, fucking miss me with that "they're more popular" shit.

They were not part of the actual criticism(s) of the game, namely that the violence and racism within the narrative wasn't exactly a story to be told by a bunch of white French devs. The broader discussion was about how white creatives never seem capable of telling stories about Black and Brown characters unless they can also write about explicit violence done to them.

You weren't and aren't being demonized. You were being called out for acting the fool.

August September 16th, 2021 (IIRC), another anon (probably the same anon, lets-be-real) also put in some serious not-reading of the six month old ask, and seemed to think I was "shitting on LIS 2" when I was talking about the LIS fandom's whiteness problem "showing its ass" about Life is Strange 2 (because the game didn't star, and wasn't about two white female characters).

To reiterate, my biggest problem Life Is Strange 2 will always be the decision to tell the story they chose. I always say, as a Nergo™ who's leveled similar criticisms toward non-Black writers who've written stories about Black characters, that this was not their story to tell. I'm not interested in how well and how explicit they were about putting the onus of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment on their white characters. If others found value in that, I don't begrudge them that. But since I was talking about the blatant racism the fandom was throwing this game's way, anon's grievances were misplaced.

Like, again, this six-month-old ask was defending LIS 2 and Alex Chen. The level of projecting and failure-to-read-the-ask-post here is incredibly mind-boggling.

The journey concludes with the anon finally unraveling in a back-and-forth with themselves wherein I'm told, yet again, to stop "shitting on LIS 2" (when I wasn't) because I apparently "prefer True Colors" (I don't), and LIS 2 means something to people, and the anon insisting that I was "demonizing wlw" for preferring a story about girls in love over brothers (I wasn't), with the added cherry of trying to use personal trauma references as a cudgel of silence.

All these asks, and my casual glimpses into the LIS tags since True Colors came out, tell me is that nothing has really changed about the LIS fandom's whiteness problem, or its preference for not reading basic text in favor of their own interpretations of what was said.

Some things to underline from this nonsense, though:

(1): There is no fandom on Tumblr (or elsewhere) that is predominantly "of color". If such a space exists, bet your bottom dollar it's as deader than a doornail (see: Sleepy Hollow).

(2): A fandom being predominantly LGBT (which is also unlikely) doesn't exempt or protect it from being racist.

(3): Being Afro-Latina and not liking LIS 2 doesn't mean the racism aimed toward that game from the predominantly white LIS fandom was imagined or faked.

I've been in the LIS fandom. I was there day one (when it was barely considered a decent game). Made the first fanblog for it and maintained through all the subsequent releases. Even back in 2015, it became pretty apparent that it had a whiteness problem. One that's still trying to defend its shitty behavior via anon asks.

Again, the fandom is racist, sexist, ableist, and it often uses "queerness" as a shield to deflect criticism of its racism. It's anti-Black, it's definitely anti-Asian (y'all wanna talk about you fucking acted about Brooke Scott in LIS1?), biphobia runs amuck, and there's definite abuse-apologia (and no, I'm not talking about Chloe or Rachel as friends).

Again, Life is Strange 2 has its issues (I've criticized the game on this very blog for its story choices), but the fandom's attention was never on its narrative choices. Instead, its racism was on full display just because the game was about two Mexican-American brothers.

Sean and Daniel were public enemies for most of the game's release history, and that sentiment still hangs around in fandom with the constant re-frame "LIS 2 should've been about Pricefield!".

Meanwhile, Pricefield is getting comic books and merchandise out the ass while LIS 2 is struggling to maintain an audience because of this sentiment (on top of DONTNOD's release schedule).

A sentiment born from misplaced entitlement, and the presumption that a game that marketed itself as a story about teenagers, was going to be only about girls, about white girls, when Dontnod Entertainment never made such statements nor promises.

And mind you, none of the ire directed towards Life is Strange 2 was ever aimed at the Captain Spirit mini-game (a game with a white boy protagonist). Not before, not after. I still hear people say they wish the sequel were about him and not the Diaz brothers.

So, yeah, a lot of the crap LIS 2 continues to get is really all about whiteness losing center stage in a sequel about two brothers, and one whose romantic love life was not the focus of the narrative.

And Alex Chen is popular now. Now that the game is out, and there's actual content for people to produce beyond promo pictures, and 60-second clips. But that wasn't the case six fucking months ago, and the anon deciding to say something about it makes that clear.

If you're taking to heart, taking personally, any criticisms made about the LIS fandom's racism, especially from a six-month-old ask during a point where there was barely any rumblings about True Colors, then I will consider you part of the problem.

I definitely miss the time when Tumblr allowed you to block users who used anon to harass folks.

[shockyeahmiguelohara]

Sorry if this is annoying but how do you feel about Miguel's new suit in ATSV instead of his og suit?

You're good, it's no problem.

I don't have any particular issue with it. It's close enough to the original Rick Leonardi design without being completely radical. I even like the distracting visual effect in the red of his suit.

I'm always gonna miss the tattered webbing cape and wish it showed up more. Most artists seem eager to do away with that aspect of his design (which is a shame imho).

It's fairly close to how the suit looked in Spider-Man: Edge of Time from 2011, which was the first time I realized that a lot of artists (including Leonardi himself) viewed the color of Miguel's suit as blue and not black (which is how I always saw it).

If I have any issue with Miguel's design in ATSV, it's how hulking huge they made him compared to how they designed him for the post-credits scene for ITSV.

Like, I'm not gonna pretend that Leonardi and Wil Sliney didn't also play into the Statue of David idealism with Miguel, especially in the suit, but

my guy was a character with a proportionately "slim" and "athletic" figure for most of the time they worked on their respective SM2099 titles. ATSV decided to give him the Johnny Bravo treatment and make him top heavy (most likely to play into the "scary" and "animal" bits of their characterization in opposition to Miles, which, again, is extremely racialized).

[blackwomeninstarwars]

Naomi Ackie said to vf magazine that Finn Jannah scenes was romantic to her and it confused me because of popular fandom idea of them being twins (i saw somewhere Jannah age is around 21, Finn is 24 now)

So far as I know, the Visual Dictionary for TROS only says she’s in her “early 20s in standard years”. You’re in your “early twenties” until you hit 25-26, then you’re mid-to-late.

That said, the fandom idea that Jannah and Finn were related largely stems from the Jedi Praxis leaks that were circulating on Reddit a while back. The user’s credible source was telling them that Jannah was Finn’s sister, but also warned this tidbit should be taken with a grain of salt.

Oppositely, a source close to Making Star Wars Editor-and-Chief Jason Ward, told him that Jannah was actually Lando’s kidnapped daughter and that this was something he was going to confess to Finn at some point.

According to the artbook, The Art of Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker, a version of the script written in October 2017 intended for Finn to find his sister on a Junk planet (a discarded story idea from The Force Awakens) and that his sister held the key to destroying the First Order.

Jannah as Lando’s daughter lasted through the film’s theatrical run, until Matt Martin made it clear they were never hinting at it in the least. Still, a fair number of people believe they attempted to go that route then got cold feet and backed out of the plot entirely.

The “Jannah is Finn’s sister” thread seems to have legs because a lot of Finn fan’s are just tired of talking about Finn as a romantic interest, and Jannah clearly appears to be a remnant of that sister storyline that also got merged with Finn’s stormtrooper past after the rewrites widdled down both character’s opportunities in the plot to relative nil.

Naomi Ackie has been fairly explicit about the fact that she was not interested or wanted to be a relation of Lando or Finn and was far more interested in Jannah being Finn’s love interest, that much is true.

Both Boyega and Ackie posted an Instagram video making fun of the fact that were folk speculating that they were related, largely because they’re both Black.

I don’t think she would’ve had a choice in the matter if they pursued that route. Ackie’s sentiments are similar to Oscar Isaac die-hard championing Finnpoe despite knowing LucasFilm/Disney executives were telling him to knock it off (at the same time they wanted to benefit from it in press junkets). 

No one was on the same page this whole trilogy, had wishes, desires and expectations that were clearly not met or acknowledged remotely by the people in charge.

[humanmoodring-retired]

Meta: Does your character have recurring themes in their nightmares?

//Before she was possessed, she mostly had nightmares about getting lost in crowds and places she wasn’t familiar with. She would look for something but never find it. Too many people, too many voices. Now, those fears are still there, but there’s new ones, too: possession, lost time, a loss of control. She’s so scared of losing herself again. More than that, she’s afraid of actually being conscious for it all. Some nights, she dreams she’s possessed again, only aware of what’s going on; she knows her body is doing and saying these things, but she isn’t in control. Some nights, she dreams that she wakes up years later, once again losing part of her life.

[shockyeahmiguelohara]

Hello! I love your blog and find your posts really insightful I was wondering, what do you think is a key aspect of Miguel's character that makes him challenging for writers outside of Peter David to write? Some people told me that the key part of Miguel’s essence that ATSV failed to portray is that he’s a rebel is that true? I hope I'm not bothering you with the question I'm just fascinated by your perspective

what do you think is a key aspect of Miguel's character that makes him challenging for writers outside of Peter David to write?

The short version: I think a lot of writers try to make Miguel O'Hara a version of Peter Parker that works for them or that they grew up with. It falls in line with the idea that there is only "one true Spider-Man" of the franchise that fuels the backlash to Miles Morales. But instead of overt racism, you end up with a milquetoast version of Miguel that's closer to Peter Parker than a genuine iteration of Miguel.

Some people told me that the key part of Miguel’s essence that ATSV failed to portray is that he’s a rebel is that true?

I think Miguel is a collaborator by nature, but rebels when something directly opposes his principles' and moral compass (and usually after he cannot ignore it any longer).

Take for instance, the catalyst that led to his becoming Spider-Man. Alchemax experimented on a human being without any real authorization, and Miguel's cooperation led to the senseless death of Mr. Sims.

The only way he felt he could hold himself accountable for his part was quitting and putting distance between himself and Alchemax. Tyler Stone undermined that by spiking his drink with an addictive drug that would eventually kill him. The aftermath of an deliberate attempt to murder him basically gave him the means to fuck up Stone's corporation and make some kind of amends for his complicity. But it also left him with disabilities (extreme sensitivity light being one of them).

So, in general, I think Miguel is a team player when it counts, but prefers to do things his own way (which, I guess is a rebel depending on the context).

Other elements that make Miguel 'difficult' for other writers is

1): Generation Gap and the Passage of Time

In particular, Spider-Man 2099 came around the time of the much derided "extreme era" of Marvel Comics, and comics in general. Which was nothing, if not a reaction to the Comics Code Authority and its particular brand of censorship (ah-la BS&P), and the desire to cater to a much older audience of readers.

So, the end result was overcompensation and a lot of antiquated ideas that remain fairly prevalent within the modern industry's of comic book publishing (see: Ultimate X-Men, Ultimatum, One More Day, Dan Slott, Comics Gate, etc.).

Spider-Man 2099 is very much a reflection of that "extreme era" ethos, from its character design, writing, and particular depiction of the future. It's Robocop or Judge Dredd flavored, so to speak. I also think it's easy to forget that Spider-Man 2099 was apart of a larger comic book series that included Ghost Rider 2099, Hulk 2099, Punisher 2099, and etc. It was beta Ultimate Comics.

The original Spider-Man 2099 debuted in 1992, and ended in 1996, officially putting the character on ice. Even as one of the better received titles of their 90s catalogue, with a cult following, it's hard to ignore the fact that Marvel treated their 2099 titles like damaged goods, something they had to run away from to recuperate their image.

As a result, they intentionally never did anything else to really promote Spider-Man 2099 so that he'd become a household name.

A similar thing happened to May Day Parker and the Spider-Girl franchise. Despite being relatively well received, Marvel as a company did its best to basically make sure she'd never become a household name.

So, by 2014 you've got 22 years of nothing happening with Miguel O'Hara. Then Dan Slott's Spider-Verse title debuted, and introduced a bunch of a Millennial and Gen Z era readers to all of these Spider-Mans they've never heard of, or only knew in the vaguest concept.

Almost immediately after, Peter David gets to write two more volumes of Spider-Man 2099. Except this time, he more or less does away with original continuity and all its narrative ties to cater to newer readers.

2): He's treated like a novelty or an aesthetic

The cancelled Spider-Man Unlimited series from Fox Kids, a reaction to Batman Beyond (Kids WB), was initially shopped around as a Spider-Man 2099 series. But because the general audience didn't know Miguel O'Hara (a consequence of the lack of promotion), Marvel decided to use the trappings and ideas of 2099, and created another Spider-Man series with Peter Parker. They treated the series like a spiritual sequel to Spider-Man: The Animated Series (a show they cancelled).

Prior to Spider-Verse, we got things like Timestorm 2099, Shattered Dimensions, and Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Like an extension of Unlimited, with instances like Marvel's Spider-Man that uses Miguel's costume as an alternate skin to unlock in the PS4 game. It's why The Amazing Spider-Man production process wholesale lifted the design scheme of Miguel's costume as a possible final costume for their version of Peter Parker (see: the film's concept art), but never considered, maybe, making Miguel an actual character. (But honestly, given that its TASM, that's probably for the best.)

Thirteen years after the original comic, Timestorm 2099 was some kind of an attempt to introduce Miguel O'Hara to another generation of readers (Ys and Zs). I guess, to see if they could turn a profit with him. It's one of the few SM2099 titles not written by PAD. It solidified my belief that no one at Marvel, except PAD, really considers Miguel a unique character, just a reskin of Peter Parker.

Timestorm 2099's Miguel is a really bland version of teenage Peter Parker, whose dad is a genius scientist, and no elements of his family and life from SM2099 vol 1 (Gabri, Conchata, Xina, Dana) exists in different/alternate forms. The story basically exists just to get Peter to meet teen Miguel, and not much else. It's a less entertaining version of Spider-Man 2099 meets Spider-Man.

Exceptions to the rule are Edge of Time, a story co-written by PAD. It treats him like a whole and fully realized character, it uses an iteration of his universe as part of the stakes for Miguel and Peter, whose futures are altered by Dr. Sloane. It builds on their back and forth through dialog that doesn't just fill game-time space, but informs their character. And they do this with, arguably, the most recognizable Peter Parker voice actors of their time (Christopher Daniel Barnes, and Josh Keaton).

Were it not for the game's less than stellar performance, I'd argue that was a solid selling and starting point for newcomers to Miguel that Marvel could've really pushed. If I can say anything about Dan Slott, he kept trying to make his "fetch" idea (Spiderverse) happen, and it was, in part, the reason why we ended up with more PAD-helmed 2099 stories for Miguel.

But even with that in mind, the novelty aspect of Miguel's universe as one that Marvel constantly reinforces. It refuses to give 2099 its own space to exist outside of sporadic moments. To a large degree, Across the Spiderverse is very much a representation of how Miguel is treated like a niche or kitchy idea.

And you'll notice, with Miles (the one alternate/legacy Spider-Man they're capitalizing on, however disengeniously), the way they legitmized him is by keeping him trapped within the sphere of Peter Parker (specifically, alternate or cloned versions of Peter Parker).

[videogamesincolor]

I read a post of yours where you noted that in the book "Devil May Cry Graphic Arts", there's no indication that the concept artists had any particular ethnicity in mind for Lucia, and that she falls under the trope of "racial ambiguity". As far as I can tell, that conclusion is 100% correct, but I do have some information that, assuming you did not know already, may be of some interest to you, whether it changes or further confirms what you think about the character.

The following text is from the Devil May Cry 2 instruction manual. It features lore regarding the island where Lucia lives, which goes by the names Vie de Marli, Dumary Island, the Island Where Holy and Evil Merge (according to the fan wiki, Vie de Marli is written in a fictional language, and I couldn't find anything contradicting that when searching the internet). What's curious to me is that I'm not aware of any references to non-fictional locations in Devil May Cry, except this passage which is full of them.

"In ancient times, a religion arising somewhere east of the Mediterranean Ocean split into many different factions. Its disciples quickly carried it to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa. As time passed, some gods from the various sects were forgotten, others were assimilated into other religions, and still others were shunned as evil. For one reason or another, the gods all but disappeared. What few people continued worshipping them were branded as heretics. The dissenters were forced to turn their backs on their own homelands in order to continue in their beliefs. Venturing farther and farther away, the outcasts eventually found themselves adrift in an unknown land floating on the outskirts of the New World. This was Dumary Island.

Hordes of refugees of different races, beliefs and languages crossed over to the island. The first to arrive followed the sea routes of the old Viking explorers, around the North Pole and through the Pacific Ocean. Following them came runaway slaves seeking sanctuary. The newcomers all had a single common point – belief in a pagan religion. Tribes that had historically skirmished over old differences running deep in their cultures now lived together peaceably on the same island. As the generations passed, the former strangers blended together into a single people. Their mix of different languages, ethnic customs and various gods gave birth to new, totally unique religions. The gods worshipped by the new blend of people were an ancient family of beings inhabiting a different dimension. They wielded strange powers and existed outside the concepts of right and wrong. Deities that were considered evil or pagan in the old world were, on Dumary Island, simply thought of as "other gods" – there were far too many of them to count. Rites performed in honor of these idols often resembled exorcisms and demon sealing ceremonies."

I'm not certain what this means for Lucia, but given that the sorcerer that created her and the other Secretary demons holds his corporate headquarters in Vie de Marli, and that Lucia believed herself to be her Matier's biological child before learning the truth, it's likely that she at least resembles the humans that are local to the island.

And this is from the DMC2 instructional manual? It would give Capcom's writers leeway to play about with "ambiguity".

[shockyeahmiguelohara]

I wonder if Tempest might appear in the last Spider-verse movie? In that scene with Miles and the canon events (talking about how letting a person fated to die just die is messed up), there's a wash over the characters where each character's face (particularly Miles) is half green/turquoise and half pink (Honeybee's color scheme).

Honestly, I'm leaning on the side of "no".

Like most things that deal with Miguel's particular Spider-Man universe, almost nothing that isn't him (lately), a reference to (or literally) Lyla, and some variation of his classic costume is ever carried over into other media.

Nothing I've seen, even in the newer comics, deigns to even bring his brother, ex-girlfriend(s), or his parents into most of his current and then-current stories. And when they do, they kill them off real quick.

And I'd argue it's because comic books have become less about the day-to-day life of a superhero and more about structuring issues like blockbuster events.

I say this as someone who enjoyed Miguel's 2010s series with PAD, but it truly sucks that most of his universe is almost always left behind in favor being stuck in the past or another universe with whatever iteration of Peter Parker is running around. The explicit messaging is that he's the only thing worthwhile to reimagine and engage with for modern audiences. It's the same problem I have with Miles Morales' general lack of world outside of Peter Parker.

So, I feel like Tempest has less of a chance of appearing in the Spiderverse media than Xina and Gabri do. Again, I say this as someone who would love to see all of Miguel's world and relationships brought into his modern narratives.

Would it be cool? I dunno, maybe. I have an issue with how ATSV handled Miguel, so the idea of any his sweethearts appearing in future SV media just makes me concerned.

[videogamesincolor]

You heard about Ada Wong's new voice actress being harassed?

No, but after a cursory search on the subject, I can't say I'm really surprised.

Voice actor who played Ada Wong in the Resident Evil 4 remake wipes her Instagram after harassment

Fandom was a mistake.

Sounds like the usual doldrums of racism, and in specific, anti-Asian racism. Lily Gao (Welcome to Racoon City's Ada Wong), who might be the first Asian actress to actually voice act for Ada, isn't doing what I would call a "stilted" or even "horrible" job. I don't even think she's been given bad direction.

I like her performance better than the previous voice actor, Jolene Anderson (RE2R). For me, Ada just sounds like an incredibly guarded and controlled (or closed-off) woman. She's more "secret agent (dragon lady)" than a "sultry sexy secret agent (dragon lady)... in a red dress". She also doesn't have the same history (or romance) with Leon S. Kennedy, so, of course, her whole demeanor is going to be different.

(If I could complain about anyone, I feel like Leon's voice actor, Nick Apostolides, is doing his best to imitate RE4's Paul Mercier, something I've said about RE6's Paul Mercer as well.)

This is the video gaming community we're talking about, and specifically, the Resident Evil fandom - which has a pretty storied history of racism when it comes to the franchise's non-white characters (and actors). When Resident Evil 5 came out, one of the complaints lobbied at Sheva's voice actor (Karen Dyer) was that she was "awful" and "annoying".

The sticking point (or motivation behind) the harassment here is that I suspect that Gao is simply just not Sally Cahill (Ada Wong from RE2C to Darkside Chronicles). This was also something RE fandom gnashed their teeth about in the RE2 remake (which IIRC, used non-union actors).

Things also aren't helped by the fact that there's a pre-existing subset of [OG] RE4 die-hards that are against the remake on principle, so, of course, they're lashing out at the Asian actress.

The accessibility of actors on social media is the only thing different about Gao and Dyer's circumstances, and perhaps, the mainstream visibility of fandom itself. I can imagine Gao's harassment going under the radar or outright ignored if this happened in 2009.

I'm not all that interested in boiling this down to a moment of "fandom was a mistake", because this is a very specific behavior (racism) that extends beyond the chambers of gaming fandom and exists also in gaming media.

It sucks that Gao has to deal with this.