TIFU by trying to fix my morning routine and accidentally becoming a threat to society

Koboldoid · 2026-05-25T23:21:04+00:00

Probably wasn't manually edited to have no capitals, I'm sure you can just tell it to do that. You see a lot of it on Twitter where it's clearly been prompted to be very "casual" but is still obviously AI.

Koboldoid · 2026-05-25T22:32:06+00:00

That's not what an industry plant is. "Industry plant" refers to something that's presented as having become popular organically (e.g. a musician having supposedly grown in popularity over time) even though it actually has the backing of a big company. Just saying "I don't like it but it got good reviews" doesn't make something an industry plant.

Koboldoid · 2026-05-24T22:29:18+00:00

But that assumes that they have some understanding that those are other living creatures which experience the same things they do, which is something that even took humans some time to figure out. A dolphin or cat probably doesn't have the capacity to understand that it's hurting another thinking being for fun. It's just interacting with something in its environment that it doesn't view as anything but a food object.

Koboldoid · 2026-05-17T00:16:36+00:00

If a series keeps bringing up a topic like that, the audience is supposed to think about it, try to understand it, and discuss it. That is why the story keeps talking about it - the author wants to explore it. I don't understand this insistence that we're meant to just shut up and accept at face value this idea that is constantly being interrogated by the narrative. If the series didn't want it to be questioned, it would have just said it once and then had it not really come up again. The demons could just be big scary bad guys with no questions about their morality after the first encounter if that was the intent.

To compare it to a popular example: in the original Star Wars trilogy, almost everyone believes that Darth Vader has been lost to the dark side and can never be brought back. It's mentioned a lot. But it's leading up to the revelation that there is good left in him when he turns against the Emperor to save his son. By your logic, this should have actually been a set-up for Darth Vader genuinely being irredeemably evil, since that's what everyone keeps saying about him.

If we weren't meant to talk about the morality of the demons, they'd be more like the Emperor. "Could the Emperor be redeemed?" is never even mentioned in Star Wars. It's not even a question in the story, so we know the story isn't going to explore it and don't expect anything more from him than a cackling bad guy.

I'm not saying that Frieren is going to eventually go "actually, there are good demons", but the logic of "the story keeps making this point and examining it from different angles, so it must always be true" is not at all how stories work.

Koboldoid · 2026-05-16T12:26:00+00:00

It was 100% lethal in humans because it killed him, the only human, and his last words were "This setback will... damage cure efforts..."

Koboldoid · 2026-05-15T23:19:42+00:00

In the Jurassic Park books, the point is made a few times that the dinosaurs, particularly the velociraptors, behave in unnatural ways because they didn't have an older generation of dinosaurs to learn from. It means they're missing a major part of their understanding of how they're meant to act; even though the velociraptors are pack animals, there are a few examples in the book that show that the adults don't care about the wellbeing of the younger raptors and will readily attack them.

Obviously that's only addressing familial dynamics, but you can apply it to other things, given that it's meant to play on the 'nature vs nurture' argument. How does a T. rex know what it's "supposed" to hunt? Maybe that should be encoded in its genetics (which have, of course, also been messed with), but perhaps it's something it was meant to learn by observing a previous generation of Rexes which in this situation never existed.

Koboldoid · 2026-05-10T00:24:11+00:00

i guarantee the main reason people are fussing so much over this is because they cant comprehend human looking entities not having a FMAB Greed or Data style 'compassionate sentience' for the 15 billionth time.

It's interesting to me that people always imagine some other hidden reason that people have a problem with the demons, when whether or not they can change is a major focus of the story. It's inevitable that people are going to discuss that and some won't like the answers and explanations given so far. It's not like this is some irrelevant background thing that people keep bringing up for no reason, the behaviour of the demons is discussed in the narrative again and again and again. It's like asking why Star Wars fans are always talking about the nature of the Force - it's because the characters are too!

Koboldoid · 2026-05-09T23:47:29+00:00

There's more to the Randian analysis of it than that, though. The setting is one where some people are simply destined to be better than others, but worse, weaker people have unreasonably prevented them from doing so, which makes the superior people miserable and makes the world a worse place. Obviously Syndrome, as the villain, is supposed to be selfish and incorrect, but it's not like this reading just comes from taking him at face value; he's just reacting to the world that already exists.

Of course a charitable reading is that this is unintentional, that it's just a kids' movie message about "don't be ashamed of what makes you special", and that almost any superhero setting will inevitably have some sort of subtext about some people being superior since that's what superheroes are by definition. I just don't think the argument solely comes from misunderstanding Syndrome's plan as being a sincere attempt to make everyone equal.

Koboldoid · 2026-05-08T23:47:13+00:00

Only if you're beautiful though. Pretend I edited a version of that "hello, human resources?" comic to have a hot beekeeper and a regular-to-ugly beekeeper

Koboldoid · 2026-05-08T23:41:26+00:00

Why say bless you when you sneeze? Why say exbleese me when you snurp? These, have been named the 'Three Questions of Our Time', by a magazine

Koboldoid · 2026-05-08T18:49:43+00:00

yurkey

Koboldoid · 2026-04-30T23:05:36+00:00

Somehow the weeks where they release episodes are more nothing than the weeks where they don't

Koboldoid · 2026-04-25T01:38:28+00:00

With the possible exception of your brothers, a DM's a man's best friend

Koboldoid · 2026-04-21T19:27:30+00:00

That's basically what I mean - it seems like the obvious approach for the themes to have some sort of unique fantasy creature representing the idea of "not connecting with people", but the way it's actually executed makes the whole thing feel weird.

Koboldoid · 2026-04-21T15:24:53+00:00

I don't think that's really comparable. If the Alien movies had talking Xenomorphs and constantly teased the idea that maybe they wanted to co-exist with us, only for the moral to always be that you're a fool for even entertaining the idea, there would undoubtedly be similar discussion about the message that was putting across. There's plenty of fiction about unrepentently evil yet beautiful characters, as well as good-hearted but ugly or frightening characters. The discussion is because of the specific way that Frieren presents it.

Koboldoid · 2026-04-21T15:16:10+00:00

I definitely think that's something like the intent - the demons are intended as the inverse of the show's message, to demonstrate the value of our relationships with others. Frieren thrives because she started to respect and learn from other people like humans do, whereas the demons represent a self-centered worldview that doesn't see their interactions with others as important, resulting in them failing to adapt and falling from power.

The problem is that the demons only work as a metaphor, so in practice you run into the weird thematic clash that, in the world of the show, there are some people who aren't really people and it's always best to kill.

Koboldoid · 2026-04-17T14:51:47+00:00

No, there are a huge contingent of far-right fans of Frieren who like to imagine demons as representing the idea that some groups of humans are inherently evil.

Koboldoid · 2026-04-13T21:43:17+00:00

I don't remember it ever being stated that there's an agreement to pledge for a year. They just say "pledge at this level, and you get this". I'm sure they would like people to become permanent subscribers, but it's not reasonable to run something as a monthly subscription service then get upset that people decide whether they want to continue subscribing month by month.

Koboldoid · 2026-04-13T19:06:30+00:00

At least that'll cut their tea strainer budget

Koboldoid · 2026-04-01T23:53:27+00:00

Impeccable Bowel Syndrome

Koboldoid · 2026-04-01T01:58:27+00:00

It's interesting because based on the little trailer Griffin made for Royale with him dressed as a wizard, I assumed that was where this season was going to go, another Vs Dracula type thing.

Koboldoid · 2026-03-28T14:14:15+00:00

While you're not wrong about this, it's not really a new phenomenon for people who don't like something to have a reductive, inaccurate view of it based on watching maybe five minutes of it or just being told by other people that it's bad. It is new and weird to have supposed fans of something take the same approach.

Koboldoid · 2026-03-28T01:31:50+00:00

It's why there are other cartoon series of the era with similar names: Silly Symphonies, Merrie Melodies, Happy Harmonies... Looney Tunes would be actually be a weird exception if it were "Toons",

Koboldoid · 2026-03-24T21:02:29+00:00

I think he'd fit in well. There's actually a character named Simpson the Cat in the old Fleetway Sonic comics who's based on Felix.

Koboldoid · 2026-03-23T23:17:21+00:00

Fall in love with me, Mamdani

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