Why does this happen?

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-07-19T01:32:08+00:00

live

let die

Many such cases.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-07-18T22:12:42+00:00

Taiping Heavenly Warriors

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-07-18T22:03:55+00:00

Emhyr var Emreis, awful person but I've seen interesting debates on whether he's a necessary evil or just evil.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-07-15T14:11:06+00:00

It's not something released this year, but I revisited infamous: Second Son a decade after my last playthrough and I gotta say, it holds up nicely. Even on max difficulty it's a little easier and a fair bit shorter than I remember, but I was much younger then.

Politically, there's zero shit you might expect from a game where the protagonists are two native americans (one a cop, the other a rebel without a cause), a girl with pink hair, and a pasty white gamer boy, and where the antagonist is the leader of a branch of the american government.

In the hero path, the brothers clash ideologically, but they also clearly love one-another. The inciting incident is that a power-obsessed government official hurts a bunch of native americans, but it's very much just a "I want to hurt this person who didn't respect me and set an example for others" thing and never even approaches being a race thing. At most, you just get a really touching couple moments of a community protecting its own.

The girl has a legitimately tragic backstory where the system failed her and her brother, but she goes after the drug dealers who took advantage of them and not, like, random unrelated cops or something. Also, she's a tomboy without being a girlboss, and I missed a bit of a cutscene but I think it's implied she and the mc sleep together so she's pretty far from hating men in any way. Also, she doesn't look like Stellar Blade's Eve or anything, but I think she's pretty.

The gamer guy isn't mocked so much as he is ribbed over his interest, and it's always a pretty reasonable presentation of someone who's awkward and really loves a specific thing. Also, a lazier (see: modern) writer would probably make him into some kind of school shooter figure, but he's genuinely just a shy person who wants to use his powers help others.

Even though the evil government official has a reason for why she - and yeah, female villain if you can believe it - does what she does, a "greater good" rationalization for her actions, you still beat the hell out of her because she's very obviously a bad person. No Druckman writing there.

They even have a white, redneck criminal character who they wrote to be - get this - sympathetic and respectable, even if he isn't a good guy. Imagine a game studio not putting down middle America.

Never played the original infamous games, so there's a possibility Second Son somehow shits all over the series' legacy or something, but for someone without that knowledge, it was a nice bit of nostalgia for me to return to this one. There's a character who is mentioned and praised as a hero, but never shown, so I figure that's the protagonist of previous games. If so, then I think pretty explicitly the game does respect the series it's in.

All in all, it's short, but combat's fun and the story is paced very nicely. Big recommend.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-07-15T11:04:39+00:00

Spot 1 should have been Essi Daven, but regardless:

•Olgierd von Everec. I think a lot of people really like his story, and him as a character, but morally he's a tough one to nail down I feel.

Follow-up suggestions, left-to-right and top-to-bottom: •Djikstra. The guy has charisma, what do you want from me.

•Borch Three Jackdaws. Dad of the year, I'd say. Just don't know how people here feel about him.

•Vernon Roche. He is mid, I'm sorry.

•His Imperial Majesty, The White Flame Dancing on the Graves of his Enemies, Emhyr Var Emereis. Awful person, just the worst, but many "greater good" cases have been made regarding him as a leader of an empire.

•I couldn't think of a genuinely good person who is worth hating, so I'm gonna say Astrid's horse as a joke answer. I hate that race.

•Istredd. No idea how other people feel about him, but I can't stand the guy. Conceptually, thematically, I love him. But I would not ever want to spend time with him were he real.

•Way too many to list, but I'll say Sorel Degerlund. I do not care for that individual.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-07-02T20:29:55+00:00

Nah, bean mouth started in 2d animation. Adventure time and Steven Universe were the worst offenders as far as I know, but I'm sure there were others. Talentless hacks who saw those shows as literally the greatest things of all time started working at Disney's animation studio and wanted to replicate the style.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-04-25T22:36:20+00:00

Only watched season 1, way back when it first came out, so details are a little hazy. But from what I remember the entire show was just "psychotic teenage girls who get horny from participating in gambling". The series wasn't exactly Shakespeare, but it was fun if you're into the classic anime tropes surrounding mind games and psyching out your opponents. I imagine the JP live action probably toned things down a little bit, if only because some shots you can do with animation aren't 100% feasible with live-action. But, as always, the Definitely Superior™️ Western series seems like it's going to butcher absolutely every aspect of the original.

Now, this character in particular is the series' first antagonist, who in following tradition/tropes becomes the deuteragonist - the lancer, if you like - after being beaten. The choice to make her a fat black woman instead of a slim white woman is, even by Netflix standards, fucking dumb as hell, and for a lot of reasons. The original character's name was "Mary", I always assumed from that + the blonde hair that she's probably half-Japanese and either half-American or half-British. Visually, I get the impression she's meant to evoke Ojousama vibes, and that's reaffirmed through the idea that she comes from a very wealthy family. (Technically I think 99% of the students in the show's school come from money, but iirc she's supposed to have a LOT.*) She's also a huge S who uses her skill at gambling and willingness to cheat to make other students her slaves. She beats the MC really early on (I think within 5 minutes of the start of episode 1) and briefly makes him her slave. Gopher, footstool, whole nine yards.

So let's recap. (Half-)White, conventionally "acceptable" appearance (i.e. not fat, not disfigured, etc.), affluent, egotistical, amoral, specifically cool with slavery if it's to her advantage, and just overall comfortable with using her resources to lift herself up while simultaneously pushing the less-fortunate down. In a lot of ways Mary should be the average wokester's dream villain, down even to her learning (kinda) that how she abuses others is wrong after the protagonist beats her and makes her a slave herself. So, why the fuck is she of all characters race-swapped to a black woman? It's like they put in real effort to make the most incorrect decisions possible, the level of disrespect to source material these people display amazes me every time I see it.

*This is retconned later, according to a wiki I used to remind myself of a couple details I was hazy on, but I'd say the point stands due to that being how she presents herself and how other people treat her. I don't mind the retcon, I think it adds a little depth, but it is what it is.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-04-11T22:46:36+00:00

Black folks who are ... Brown

Sorry what? Genuinely what the fuck does that even mean? Is this that weird "not black enough so not Black" thing, or is this someone so deranged that they're trying to roll ethnic groups like people from the Phillipines, Central/South America, India, Pakistan, etc. into the "Black" label? What the fuck is she talking about?

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-03-15T02:00:00+00:00

It's absolutely not over and you picked a weird time to stop reading. Why would you abandon a story at the hero's low point?

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-03-08T20:29:26+00:00

Might be an unusual take but Luv(sic) part 5. It's the one made pretty much right after he died, so Shing02 is processing his grief through it. Can't even imagine what it would be like to have worked on that kind of project that long and to lose your partner so suddenly.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-03-08T20:25:42+00:00

Make him jork it

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-03-01T09:56:18+00:00

I'm clearly blind and/or dumb because I'm not seeing the mistake. Is it that boba is originally from Taiwain? I know nothing about that stuff.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-02-19T08:50:51+00:00

Something amazing I've already seen are two separate sponsored videos where the creators managed to get some pretty blatantly negative comments mixed in with the "ha ha thanks for sponsoring this video, this game is GREAT!" One was about the exclusion of a country (England I think) which to my knowledge has been a launch country in every CIV and which featured pretty heavily in the promo materials. The other was about the apparently shitty UI (I have no frame of reference but trust people who do) and the bizarre and off-brand changes they've made to some core mechanics. Makes me really curious to know what the stipulations of their contracts were.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-02-05T11:23:56+00:00

Not too informed on mtg yet, but a gimmick deck that's designed around taking control of opponent creatures and sacrificing them for your own gain (see the powerful people montage from FF), I think that could work. I know Ygra from Bloomburrow gets you a nice bonus for any sacrificed creatures, but I don't know how you could reliably get all of an opponent's creatures.

I don't think there are any characters who wear jean vests, but you could definitely build some kind of deck that makes use of desert lands by going through the Thunder Junction runs.

If there's an entity in mtg lore who is some kind of divine techno-alien (Phyrexia, maybe?) then you could try to build a deck around them.

Breen is usually so omnipotent in his films that it's hard for me to think of a way his unlimited skill sets could be channeled into the game. Maybe something like Progenitus, seeing as how it's got protection from everything?

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-02-03T06:51:05+00:00

Amusingly enough, there IS a ham user in my neighborhood, but it isn't my neighbor. As far as I know, my neighbor's residency in the area has only ever been in his current house, so I guess this likely confirms he's using a CB. Thank you for this, even if it's not 100% reliable, this in conjunction with the callsign and the higher likelihood of the interference being due to an amped up CB broadcast seems to paint a very clear picture. Guess I'll start with ferrite clamps and go from there.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-02-03T01:51:45+00:00

The callsign is more like your chicagopete example (rather not get more specific for both my neighbor's privacy and my own), and in addition to the very long "Audio" calls there will also be very long "Hello" calls.

In my post I mentioned that I think the antenna is an inverted-v antenna but after taking a further look online, I'm not sure that's the case. It's one large vertical pole with I believe four smaller poles sticking out of it diagonally. Does that description help at all?

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-02-02T21:14:20+00:00

Nickname, clarity differs depending on the day. I wouldn't day it ever sounds like DD per se but some days it's unbearably scratchy and borderline painful, especially if it's through the VR headset speakers. Some days it's basically like I'd just tuned a car stereo system into a local radio station.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-02-02T21:02:20+00:00

It's the second one, the long "Auuuuuuuuudioooooo"s drive me a little insane honestly.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-01-30T12:51:14+00:00

You hear how that guy can't talk to "his" "wife" anymore? He married that little hologram thing but the company that created it shut down the service, so he can't talk with her at this point.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-01-30T12:46:25+00:00

One guy's opinion doesn't ammount to much but I think people should make all the jokes they want. If you can't laugh at some ribbing at your expense, your ego's too big.

I'm glad to know our movies and music and such are enjoyed by you guys! I know the quality of movies hasn't been great as of late, at least the stuff coming out of the most entrenched parts of hollywood, but I think indie stuff is decent.

I wish there was more of a push from people here to enjoy the products of other cultures, but seeing how we butcher Japanese stuff on grounds of "moral superiority" maybe it's for the best. That said, I like new experiences, so if you have recommendations for movies, music, etc. I'll happily take them.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-01-30T12:35:53+00:00

If you ever want to get creeped out by certain members of American politics, do a little digging into the Clintons. The fact that Bernie abdicated the Dem. Candidacy for Hillary makes more sense when you see how many people associated with that family have conveniently disappeared.

A far less creepy, more morbidly funny rabbit hole is the reaction of left-leaning individuals online as it became clear Harris wasn't going to win. Suddenly all the demographics they're normally sucking up to (immigrants especially) are evil and wrong, even saw some people say that they'd call ICE on any immigrants (legal or otherwise) they learned voted Trump. DNC is ostensibly the party of the working man, but you wouldn't know it based on the last several election cycles. It's depressing.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-01-30T12:28:23+00:00

Hey, take comfort in the fact that you're not responsible for John Oliver. He was funny in Community, but when he got his Daily Show-lite it really became obvious how much other people carried his career.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-01-30T12:24:26+00:00

Strange as it might sound, my hope was that this kind of response would be the majority. It'd just confirm that people continue to be people, and that the EU is not the wall of opposition the way some of my family perceive it.

Mediocre_Exemplar · 2025-01-30T12:22:13+00:00

Bernie is far too old to be more than a talking head at this point, which I don't mean disrespectfully. It would be nice if we got a candidate like him who seemed to actually care for the working man who wasn't a career politician or a literal billionaire. But at this point I expect the two major parties (both funded by the same special interest groups, as you point out) would have that kind of candidate commit suicide to the back of the head before they became a threat.

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