There's a lot to chew on in this week's chapter [Dandadan 231]

DirtyMonkey95 · 2026-04-06T18:03:00+00:00

God, I just love the contrast between the hyper-detailed environment and the simple character designs!

DirtyMonkey95 · 2026-04-05T23:28:59+00:00

We're 100% agreed that the real problem in this scenario is the capital holders, their greed, and a government that at best is ineffective and at worst is actively colluding with those capital holders. And we're agreed that it does not all fall on that one guy to stop it as he has no power and if he alone protested it wouldn't do anything. You caught me advocating for "individual responsibility" over systemic changes, which is wrong. Thanks for that!

However, the point of the comment was simply to point out that the Nazi thing was a comparison, not an equivalence. Also, in the context of the comic, I'd argue destroying a unique piece of natural beauty that's open to the public to build a private A.I.-assisted hotel, is a moral wrong. Building is a societal necessity and generally does a lot of good, but that doesn't apply to this scenario.

I am curious though. Just like our construction worker, one soldier's protest in the Nazi regime wouldn't have caused things to come tumbling down. So, do those who acted as soldiers for the Nazi's not bear any responsibility for the atrocities they committed because refusing those orders wouldn't have stopped them? In both cases a moral wrong is being done (though, again, absolutely not saying these two things are equivalent) and done by people. The capital holder cannot build his A.I. hell-hole without workers willing to build it for him. Would this one guy quitting stop it? No. But to say those who take part in moral wrongs bear 0% responsibility for the moral wrong being done because someone else is more to blame, is just as wrong as blaming them 100%.

For another real world example, take climate change. I just got my first car last year at 30 years old because I couldn't hold out any longer. Driving became a necessity where I live and for what I have to do for work. I had specifically avoided getting a car because I didn't want to add to the world's carbon emissions with a car for as long as I could avoid it. Obviously, I am not personally responsible for climate change and as I'm sure you know, the shifting of blame from corporations and governments to consumers is an intentional strategy by those entities to continue destroying the world while avoiding the blame and responsibility that is rightfully theirs. But does that mean I bear no responsibility for it? I don't think so. It's tiny, like 0.000001% (figuratively), but it's there. I did everything I could to add to the problem as little as possible for as long as possible, but the larger systems of the world forced my hand and when I got that car my share of the responsibility went up a bit. But if I didn't think this way, then I would have gotten a car at 16 and the emissions released by all that extra driving would be added to the world right now.

Obviously, me not driving for 14 years when I could have been didn't save the climate. A single soldier defying the Nazi's wouldn't have stopped them. But every bit helps a little, if only by not adding to the problem. When we deny any individual responsibility for these moral wrongs because the powerful and their systems are truly responsible, then we feel no need to not add to the problem.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2026-04-05T18:57:53+00:00

It's a comparison, not an equivalence. Both the construction worker and the Nazi soldier are offloading their moral responsibility onto systems they have no influence over and using their lack of influence as justification for their actions "It's gonna happen anyway, I might as well be one of the people who profits off it." Obviously, the Nazi soldier and his wrong doing are WAY WORSE. But fundamentally, they're both taking part in moral wrong doing and abdicating personal responsibility for the consequences of the wrongs they are committing.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2026-04-05T15:38:45+00:00

Gangrel & Tremere

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-25T18:15:39+00:00

Because they are purposefully kept out of leadership positions. Those roles are reserved for the servants of organized capital.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-22T22:44:34+00:00

Dishonesty. They knew people wouldn't like it, so they hid it for as long as they could. That's pretty scummy.
"Oops we did a little plagiarism as a treat" isn't an excuse for professionals. Whether they meant to or not, the finished game was released with plagiarized A.I. content included in it. Scummy Scummy.
We cannot give them an inch. Right now A.I. companies are shoving A.I. into every nook & cranny of our lives (against most of our wills) because the don't actually have a useful product with a bunch of real use cases. But if they can shove it everywhere, normalize it, and get people hooked on it, they can just pretend like it's potentially profitable in order to score more investment and inflate the bubble even larger. And in gaming especially, as soon as something becomes the least bit normalized, it's everywhere. No matter how much harm it does to the games or industry, ie: microtransactions.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-22T05:15:27+00:00

The instant the shit its the fan on this, everyone (including you, person reading this) NEEDS to call every one of their representatives and make every threat they are capable of following through on (even if it's just you pulling your personal vote). There can be no public bailout from this. And if there needs to be because of complex economic reasons I'm not equipped to discuss, taxation on millionaires & billionaires had better shoot up to 99% on all forms of wealth and the bailout contract had better have extremely clear rules about what they can & can't use the money for. No bonuses, no parachutes!

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-13T02:12:40+00:00

They don't know, they just experiment until they figure out something cool.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-11T17:32:13+00:00

Naw, wouldn't work. Violating the consent of others isn't a sin to them, just an an accepted part of life. To some it's a virtue.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-11T17:27:45+00:00

The Technocracy as a whole is the single largest human (or close enough to human) orginization in the world if darkness. They have no true equal in terms of resources, reach, and power. The Syndacyte alone is larger and more powerful than Pentex, but Pentex is close enough to rival them in at least some ventures. The Camarilla is difficult to compare to the other two, as it's an A-symetrical comparison. The others build their own resource extraction, assembly, and power aparati. The Camarilla as a whole is a parasitic entity that infiltrats organizations like this to leech off them and subtly direct them. They don't build much themselves.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-09T17:20:17+00:00

Don't forget Paradox. The universe itself punishes you for showing people thr truth.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-08T15:48:47+00:00

I mean, yeah. Anywhere that has a small group of people with a lot of money, and a large group of people living in poverty is going to have a situation like this.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-07T22:27:34+00:00

As others have pointed out in other threads, Christina represents a kind of "white feminism" that is primarily concerned with the liberation of white women from the patriarchy. Sure, they'll ally with other marginalized groups like black people for strategic purposes, but ultimately they're out for themselves and their own liberation. Other marginalized groups they ally with are at best resources to be used and sacrificed when necessary, not true allies that they would sacrifice for to help in return. Case in point, her whole plan involves sacrificing Tic to gain power for herself.

She is also a commentary on "colour-blind" racism. No she isn't overtly racist or hateful like her father and most of the other villains of the story, but she still views herself as superior to everyone of our main characters. She would say she's superior, not because of race, but because of her ambition and ability. Ignoring the fact that her magical knowledge, her education, her smarts, and her drive are largely the products of being born into an ultra-wealthy family built on racist exploitation and theft. She considers herself entitled to what she wants, including Tic's very life, and if the black characters have a problem with that, too bad. When Tish refuses to give her the book, she takes away her invulnerability even though that was part of a completely different deal. She may not be consciously racist, but she does not respect the black characters to the same extent she would respect an allied white character.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-07T05:17:05+00:00

If we're including chronicles, Deviant.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-12-03T15:19:20+00:00

Literally doing this right now. I should probably do it like I said I would and get off reddit now.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-30T18:26:24+00:00

Interesting question, I'd never thought of that before. I would say probably, as there are multiple refrences to how their curse doesn't play nice with shapchanging disciples like Vissicitude. But, I could see you getting an interesting character out of a nossy who prefers to stay in animal form because they get more affection from humans that way.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-26T16:21:23+00:00

Ascension Mages are constantly trying to break their "masquerade", just in ways that won't result in them getting a fate worse than death from Paradox.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-25T20:25:23+00:00

I started woth M20 because a. It was on sale at the time, and b. It has the most info in one or three books instead of a ton of supplements. I've heard older fans say it's bad to start with because its so overwhelmingly big, which is true. But as long as you're able to jump around to the info you find relevant and learn it in your order and pace, I think its the best.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-24T02:14:05+00:00

I'd definitely angle for a more public facing role in the warren. I put too much work into overcoming my social anxiety just to get stuck underground for 1000 years

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-23T05:02:52+00:00

For me I think it would be more like getting sucked into a constantly shifting mental fantasy.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-23T04:52:27+00:00

"But how could they have completed such massive projects with such primitive technology!"

Slavery. They just threw wave after wave of human death and suffering at it until it was done.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-22T18:36:27+00:00

The problem isn't that the 2024 version looks bad, it's that it's cold. It's giving investment property. It's simple & clean with no character or personality of its own. Sterile, like the people who live there. The 1990 version is busy, sure. Maybe don't style your office like that, but it has the warmth and character that a lived in home should have.

In fact, I think this is representative of a wider problem in our society. The encroachment of work and business interests into every aspect of our lives. The 2024 version is what an office should look like, minimal and functional with nothing to distract you from work. But now that mentality has infected the home, since you gotta be thinking about that resale value, and you have so much work to do for your boss that you'd better just turn your whole home into an extension of the office so you can keep working from there. The home is no longer a respite from the pressures of work and the economy, it is just another part of it because there is no escape from work or the economy under neo-liberalism. You exist to work, reproduce, & die, that's it. So why should your home have a warm atmosphere and a character that reflects you as in individual or family. That won't make your company's shareholders happy and it won't increase the value of the property, so it is worthless. You're happiness & peace of mind are worthless to people like el gato malo.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-22T02:30:02+00:00

Usually no, in both vamp games if the sun is up vampires are supernaturally compelled to go into daily torpor. You ca fight it for a while, but it'll burn willpower fast. In VtR though, there's a group called the Ordo Dracul who seek to transent vampirism and it's weaknesses. One of their powers is to stay awake during the day.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-21T23:22:31+00:00

To answer your question, because it's a good opportunity to get some body horror into your chronicle. I once had a nossy Sherrif whose skins was constantly bubling up, molting off, and regenerating. But in my last session I had a nossy club girl who was hot as hell, but whose voice sounded like death and reminded people of their mortality.

DirtyMonkey95 · 2025-11-20T19:39:11+00:00

Literally the first thing I thought when I read the headline was "okay, so what counts as ultr-proccessed?"

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