MCR fans: Danger Days is the most important album of our generation. So ahead of its time. We must never forget its powerful message of resisting tyranny no matter the cost.
Also MCR fans: Do everything your government tells you to do and don’t you dare question their motives. They’re just trying to protect us.
“As soon as any philosophy begins to believe in itself, it always creates the world in its own image. Thus, philosophy is the tyrannical drive itself, the most spiritual will to power.”
—F. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, §9 (edited excerpt).
There once was a man from the Court Who wore his robes way too short Presenting his case Caused a public disgrace And his arguments got no support
There once was an Archon of War Who thought Kyros was a great bore When he tried to rebel Kyros gave him due hell Now he doesn’t complain anymore
There once lived an assassin called Mark Whose demeanour, though funny, was dark People dared not breathe air If they thought he was there For his bite was way worse than his bark
Now the Court, it had a great Judge But damn, could that man hold a grudge! If you strayed off the path He’d slap you with Wrath And he’d drag your name through the sludge
There once was an Archon of Song Who hadn’t been in power too long When she started to belt People’s faces would melt And the rest followed her in a throng
@christinedabae, welll… I’m not quite sure about that, to be honest. It would be undoubtebly great to get DLC, though I’m 90% sure Obsidian won’t provide us with romances - neither with the party memders, nor with any other character in the game. I’m not a game dev, sure, though I think it takes enourmous amount of thinking and writing to create a romance - and it would have taken even more efforts to fit new content in the gameplay.
Also, as far as I remember, the devs clearly stated that they’re not going to create romances in the game, though I can’t call to mind the exacts statement and reasons for such a decision.
There’s still hope, yes, if there will be an addon - then an explanation like “We’ve known each other for some time and I think I’ve developed very certain feelings towards you“ would seem at least somehowlegit.
But in regard to Mark… It’s quite hard for me (though it’s only my opinion, you may think whatever you like to :) ) to imagine him being an officially taken man. He’s about… How old, 300-400 years, right? There is a very high possibility that he had abandoned not only his previous self (there’s a line where he tells you that he wanted to cease being what he used to be), but also all the traditions and customs of his land. That shackle may as well be just a leash to control him, and the act of giving it to you? Maybe an attempt to get rid of this leash.
Though he definitely showed somewhat curious fondness towards the Fatebinder - and it may serve as a base for relationship. I can’t imagine him being a family man, and the role of a faithfull husband doesn’t seem fitting either, BUT I can easily imagine him at least being a paramour. If a Fatebinder puts enough efforts into surprising and exciting him, and getting under that cover of mistery of his, they probably can find a permanent place in his dark heart.
Still, I highly advice you to be ready to possible adultery. If you could ever expose it. :D
@firvenn; ahaha! oh, i’m sure of the same and i’m certain they won’t bring in romantic subplots. that was just me joking and my weird flanderizing brand of ‘humour’. :’) yeah, i’m 100% convinced in-game the shackle was meant as a leash and him thinking that he’s gonna be free of kyros and tunon if he hands it over or something idk. the whole big whoop over “WEDDING SHACKLE” came from people seeing a scan of the tyranny art book where it mentioned mark’s shackles had once been marriage-related. (at least, i think???) and that was enough for people (me included) to be all “OHOHOHO, OH MY”. i could never see the whole family stuff, like that’d just be so out of line with the rest of the game. BUT LIKE, IN FANON, AS OPPOSED TO CANON, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. (right, @evilrevan? ;D ;DD ;DDD)
though i’d never say no to possible adultery. agreed on that. xD
like i’m actually glad they didn’t implement romances. personally, i live for the ~hints~ and the ~maybes~ and having to read between the lines and interpret dialogue to infer character’s deeper thoughts and feelings. leaves way more room for the imagination! plus, now everyone and their mom is thirsty and that makes for good fan content.
but what i really want from a dlc or a next instalment is to go toe-to-toe with kyros…
(actually, now that i am thinking about, i think the only companion you can express romantic fondness for is verse! you can tell her that you like her as more than a friend, and she says something along the lines of ‘lol we’ll see after we’re done’. and that was a gem, that was the perfect tiny hint of ~affections~ and ~maybes~ my wintry heart needed.)
also on an unrelated topic, i’m still reeling with laughter at the flower crowns + archons :’D
Aha, it’s perfectly okay, I also was all OHOHOHOing, when I found that out. :D And there’s nothing bad in pondering over theoretically possible romantic encounters? I mean, I’ve always thought that romance is a great way to see a different side of a character, to now something new about them, etc.
Personally, I regret they gace up the whole romance stuff, but, well… It’s not that I can do simething about it, and I’m def not going to rant hysterically. It’s indeed better to dive in hints. :)
Ohhh, Kyros.That MUST be something good or… Dunno, the whole impression will be ruined? I guess so. If there’s a direct battle, it has to be EPIC.
LOL, glad you liked it, though I should thank @barkghest for the idea. :D
@christinedabae, welll… I’m not quite sure about that, to be honest. It would be undoubtebly great to get DLC, though I’m 90% sure Obsidian won’t provide us with romances - neither with the party memders, nor with any other character in the game. I’m not a game dev, sure, though I think it takes enourmous amount of thinking and writing to create a romance - and it would have taken even more efforts to fit new content in the gameplay.
Also, as far as I remember, the devs clearly stated that they’re not going to create romances in the game, though I can’t call to mind the exacts statement and reasons for such a decision.
There’s still hope, yes, if there will be an addon - then an explanation like “We’ve known each other for some time and I think I’ve developed very certain feelings towards you“ would seem at least somehowlegit.
But in regard to Mark… It’s quite hard for me (though it’s only my opinion, you may think whatever you like to :) ) to imagine him being an officially taken man. He’s about… How old, 300-400 years, right? There is a very high possibility that he had abandoned not only his previous self (there’s a line where he tells you that he wanted to cease being what he used to be), but also all the traditions and customs of his land. That shackle may as well be just a leash to control him, and the act of giving it to you? Maybe an attempt to get rid of this leash.
Though he definitely showed somewhat curious fondness towards the Fatebinder - and it may serve as a base for relationship. I can’t imagine him being a family man, and the role of a faithfull husband doesn’t seem fitting either, BUT I can easily imagine him at least being a paramour. If a Fatebinder puts enough efforts into surprising and exciting him, and getting under that cover of mistery of his, they probably can find a permanent place in his dark heart.
Still, I highly advice you to be ready to possible adultery. If you could ever expose it. :D
It does indeed, and it’s fascinating. I have to admit that voice acting in games means a lot for me both in terms of the whole playing and making opinion about characters (that goes for everyone, I suppose), thus listening to Mark’s melodious intonations was a true pleasure.
I mean, the game’s great but waaay too short, the ending seems hella rushed, and we’re given this sparkling Kyros-is-coming-after-you-hint that goes to… nothing? Really?.. It would be quite interesting to watch how the anarchist Fatebinder going to solve all the problems that will soon befall them. There’s also a hope that maaaybe we will be granted with more interactions with Bleden Mark. No offence, I liked the guy, but there was too little of him for me to become all hyped. He’s intriguing at least (and let’s be honest, that statement about sleeping peacefully under his watchfull eye is both dubious and suggestive, okay?? >///<) and it would be a shame to have such character just left even less that half revealed. AND I also want more Lantry! That ol’ man is a pure treasure. :D
“You cannot have it both ways. If you claim the right to pick and choose the nice bits of the Bible and sweep the nasty bits under the carpet, you have sold the pass. You have admitted that you do not, as a matter of fact, get your values from an ancient and authoritative holy book.You are demonstrably getting your values from some modern source, some contemporary liberal consensus or whatever it is. Otherwise by what criterion do you choose the good bits of the Bible while rejecting, say, Deuteronomy’s clear injunction to stone non-virgin brides to death?
Wherever this contemporary liberal consensus may come from, I am entitled to appeal to it when I explicitly reject the authority of my ancient text - the DNA - just as you are entitled to appeal to it when you implicitly reject your - rather less ancient - texts from human scriptures. We can all sit down together and work out the values we want to follow. Whether we are talking about four-thousand-year-old parchment scrolls, or four-thousand-million-year-old DNA, we are all entitled to throw off the tyranny of the texts.”
There are (at least) two different models for building a movement, only one of which does Joreen acknowledge: a mass organisation with strong, centralised control, such as a Party. The other model, which consolidates mass support only as a coup de grace necessity, is based on small groups in voluntary association.
Joreen associates the ascendency of the small groups with the consciousness-raising phase of the women’s movement, but concludes that, with the focus shifting beyond the changing of individual consciousness towards building a mass revolutionary movement, women should begin working towards building a large organisation. It is certainly true and has been for some time that many women who have been in consciousness-raising groups for a while feel the need to expand their political activities beyond the scope of the group and are at a loss as to how to proceed. But it is equally true that other branches of the Left are at a similar loss, as to how to defeat capitalist, imperialist, quasi-fascist Amerika.
What we definitely don’t need is more structures and rules, providing us with easy answers, pre-fab alternatives and no room in which to create our own way of life. What is threatening the female Left and the other branches even more, is the ‘tyranny of tyranny’, which has prevented us from relating to individuals, or from creating organisations in ways that do not obliterate individuality with prescribed roles, or from liberating us from capitalist structure.
I read “The Tyranny of Structurelessness” yesterday, so I thought it would be fitting to read a critique of it today. I like Cathy’s emphasis on cultural change and building friendships to prevent burnout and relieve “feelings of personal shittiness”, but I think those things can also exist in a structured organization. I think she missed the point Jo made about structure – not as a monolithic organization commanded by a few, but an acknowledgment of power that inevitably arises in groups.
I was completely turned off by her metaphor of sex and organization: “Men tend to organise the way they fuck - one big rush and then that ‘wham, slam, thank you maam’, as it were. Women should be building our movement the way we make love - gradually, with sustained involvement, limitless endurance - and of course, multiple orgasms.” First, that’s exceedingly stereotypical and moderately offensive. I’ve also been thinking about the gender spectrum and what it means when feminism presents a dichotomy of “man” and “woman”. Later on, Cathy says that feminist revolution “means destroying the masculine and feminine roles which make both men and women only half human”. I find it difficult to reconcile the condemnation of binary gender roles while being dependent on some sort of definition of “woman”. When we remove social constructs like gender, what does feminism mean? The more I read, the less I feel like I know; going to add a bunch of social constructionism and feminist theory articles to my reading list now.
I am not a story by Galen Strawson Some find it comforting to think of life as a story. Others find that absurd. So are you a Narrative or a non-Narrative?
So say the narrativists. We story ourselves and we are our stories. There’s a remarkably robust consensus about this claim, not only in the humanities but also in psychotherapy. It’s standardly linked with the idea that self-narration is a good thing, necessary for a full human life.
I think it’s false – false that everyone stories themselves, and false that it’s always a good thing. These are not universal human truths – even when we confine our attention to human beings who count as psychologically normal, as I will here. They’re not universal human truths even if they’re true of some people, or even many, or most. The narrativists are, at best, generalising from their own case, in an all-too-human way. At best: I doubt that what they say is an accurate description even of themselves.
But Nietzsche is more specific: ‘perhaps by what they are and by their sequence, they will yield… the fundamental law of your true self.’ Here it seems I must either disagree with Nietzsche or concede something to the narrativists: the possible importance of grasping the sequence in progressing towards self-understanding.
I concede it. Consideration of the sequence – the ‘narrative’, if you like – might be important for some people in some cases. For most of us, however, I think self-knowledge comes best in bits and pieces. Nor does this concession yield anything to the sweeping view with which I began, the view – in Sacks’s words – that all human life is life-writing, that ‘each of us constructs and lives a “narrative”, and that ‘this narrative is us’.
This is related to the story I read a few days ago, Seeing Myself: In Search of the Inciting Incident, where the author tries to make sense of his own story, and the related article, Life’s Stories, which states quite boldly, “How you arrange the plot points of your life into a narrative can shape who you are—and is a fundamental part of being human.” This is exactly what Galen is arguing against in his article.
It’s really interesting to me because I had taken narratives as a given – one of my favorite things is to read and listen to people’s stories. On the other hand, I haven’t assembled a coherent life story for myself. The eleventh question in The 36 Questions That Lead to Love is, “Take four minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible.” When I did this, I fumbled my way through it. What’s there to say? My mother birthed me, years passed, and here I am now. I don’t have a narrative, and I suppose I always assumed I was too young or naive to assemble one yet.
Thinking on it some more, I have always felt a bit weird when people tell the story of their life; I enjoy hearing singular experiences, but stories that try to wrap up the magnitude of a life through one coherent theme have always felt too facile. They feel too one-dimensional. If I am experiencing life in so many conflicting ways that I’m unable to form a narrative, I expect others to be as multi-dimensional and unsummarizable as I.
“Born This Way” Or Not: No Justification Required by Adam Turner The “born this way” position is very much like the “right to privacy” and “live and let live” justifications for same-sex marriage. All are largely missing the more radical goal of making human relations — sexuality, marriage, employment, etc. — more gender neutral.
Saying “I was born this way” in the context of sexual orientation still suggests that there is something about “this way” that needs to be explained, excused, or justified. Sexual orientation should require no more justification than hair or eye color, music preference, or height.
The problem is, “born this way” is complicated and hard to take a step back from. Why?
First, biology is quite convincing and difficult to get past. This is an issue the disability rights community has been dealing with perhaps even more than the gay rights community. It is very hard for us, embedded as we are in our culture, to step back and see how many of our assumptions aren’t “natural” or “obvious” — two words that often denote biological explanations.
Historian and disability rights activist Paul K. Longmore argued that “for the vast majority of people with disabilities, prejudice is a far greater problem than any impairment: discrimination is a bigger obstacle for them to ‘overcome’ than any disability.” This perspective on the border between “difference” and “disease” is similar to arguments against sexual orientation discrimination. Eve Sedgwick notes, for example, that there is almost no strong or explicit defense of being gay or lesbian as a positive good; at best it is often accepted only as a tolerable reality. Most efforts to “understand” or find the “cause” of homosexuality are often based in a desire to “fix” it. Neither sexuality nor disability is a “natural state of corporeal inferiority, inadequacy, excess, or a stroke of misfortune.” The tendency to link such characteristics to particular embodiments is the result of a set of cultural processes with a long history.
Most positions depend on trying to explain, justify, or excuse a characteristic that should be value-neutral. Sexual orientation, along with race, gender, (dis)ability, and countless other identity categories, is a difference that ought to be celebrated not explained. I have faith that we can do it. Historically speaking, we’ve come quite a long way, but we still have a long way to go.
I like this. We often conflate being different as being wrong. I’ve been liking “GSM” (gender and/or sexuality minority) more and more these days because it’s more inclusive, it doesn’t specify an identity, and it emphasizes that being in the minority is absolutely okay.
I’m sorry for my shitty country. I didn’t want my government to make such a barbaric crime. People like me try to resist, but, y'know… it’s pretty hard and dangerous at dictatorship.
My country kills freedom. My country kills its own nature (search about Irkutsk Region, Siberia… this is insane). My country kills ukrainians just because “how dare they live in freedom” (not exactly like this ofc their arguments are stupidier but I’m not surprised because I’m not a human for this country too, just because I’m a lesbian, just because homophobia, domestic violence, misogyny and other funny topics are our heritage). And my country… stole a future of my youth. A part of progressive youth, not that ones who are zombied just like our boomers. Television propaganda is insane and alternative information sources are blocked. My peers are howling from their brainwashed parents oh gosh just hack Ostankino break the spell of everlasting darkness please—
I can’t draw anymore. Yeah, I can draw for myself, but I can’t monetize it. I wanted to be a freelancer. I wanted to do incredible works and explore many things. But now my ambitions are going to hell. Just like our whole “nation”. Yeah, I’m trying to stop it. My peers are trying to stop it. Independent media who works only on donations and can be read only with VPN… are working on its last legs because government oppresses them and maybe their existence won’t last longer.
Help us. A little bit. At least with information. I have some links here:
Portrait composed of #Nurses and #Doctors who died of #Covid19 in their struggle to #saveourlives. We are living a nightmare here in the US. Can someone please invade us and install a rational government? #covid #wearedoomed #fucktrump #tyranny #enoughisenough https://www.instagram.com/p/CC1diPUJ4hU/?igshid=1p6x1w517p4lq
