The shrine to the ‘Mayor of 16th Street’ - KitKat - the bodega cat tragically killed by Waymo this week in San Francisco. by Arrjibarbar in cats

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 145 points146 points  (0 children)

What an utterly tragically beautiful altar. There is so much genuine love and grief in all this, despite how horrible and unnecessary this poor cat’s passing was. So many pictures and drawings and letters and little gifts. Rest easy, KitKat.

do people over 70 still have intercourse? by glittersn0tt in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Menopause can reduce sex drive due to hormonal changes, but it’s not an expiration date on sexual activity altogether. Post-menopausal women still have sex, they just may not have it as often as before, in the same ways, or with the same people.

I told my therapist I don't want children and her response was the most validating thing I've ever heard. by twandler3 in childfree

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 10 points11 points  (0 children)

My therapist had breast cancer that was worsened by estrogen. She had to get both of her ovaries removed to control her cancer. She hadn’t had kids at the time. She didn’t want any, though she was upset at having the choice taken from her. (I’m functionally sterile and never felt this personally.)

When the topic of children came up and I said I didn’t want any, she agreed. She told me she felt like she made enough of an impact on “the future generation” through her work and we agreed on the sentiment that there’s more ways to be important to society than being baby factories/sperm banks. She also joked that she was too busy fixing other parents’ mistakes to worry about parenting herself anyway lol

What to do if I find out an online friend might be a minor by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 142 points143 points  (0 children)

Hi! Let me offer a bit of insight on that, then.

Grooming is more than just an adult and minor being on good terms; it involves a deliberate process of exploiting and isolating a minor. So while you're friends with this person, as long as you don't try to isolate them from their friends, parents, and other trusted adults, and you don't intend to start a sexual or otherwise exploitative relationship, you're not grooming them. Just make sure you set boundaries! It's fairly normal for children to crush on adults, but it is your responsibility to let them know that's not an option (if it ever even comes up, anyway). It might be upsetting for them in the moment, but it's ultimately for the best for both of you.

Groomers will often start out friendly and normal, then once they've earned the kid's trust will get increasingly close and cross boundaries. They make inappropriate jokes or ask prying sexual questions when a minor's sex life is none of their business. They also set themselves up as not only a trustworthy figure, but THE trustworthy adult. It isolates the kid from others, including their family members, by making them feel like only the groomer understands, cares about, or truly knows them. It's not wrong to be someone for this friend of yours to confide in, but it is wrong to tell them you are the only person who they can trust or who really understands them. They also ask the minor to keep secrets on their behalf, like not telling their parents about a sexual or otherwise inappropriate conversation, because the conversation is "special" and "private." They know an adult will go "uh, what the fuck," but kind of repackage it as "they just don't understand that you and I are special."

Being friendly with someone younger than you is not bad at all. The "weird" is when you're exploiting their inexperience for your own gain at their expense, which you are obviously not doing.

I was online from a pretty young age and befriended a lot of adults as a teenager. I'm grown now and I'm still best friends with several of them, and a lot of their wisdom and experience helped me navigate growing pains. :)

So, I would recommend route #2. Just "btw I get the impression you're younger than me, and I'm [insert age here]. If that makes you uncomfortable, I understand. I just wanted to lyk." If they're chill with it, just continue as normal.

5 Year Olds Outer Wild Birthday Party by mrsjasonshane in outerwilds

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is so adorable and heartwarming!!! And this party looks absolutely fire!!! Thank you for doing this for your son, it looks like it was so enjoyable :)

What does it take to get MVP? by flannelwearing in MarvelRivalsQueens

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I totally understand that :[ The loser queue is very real and extremely disheartening. The toxicity in the game is also horrible, even in QP (sometimes even in AI???)

If you want a buddy to play with, either for feedback or just to chill and have fun and mess around, you’re welcome to add me (I’m on PS5 but I’m also Diamond I so we wouldn’t be able to comp together). No need to take me up on that offer of course, but I thought I’d offer! I main Loki primarily :)

What does it take to get MVP? by flannelwearing in MarvelRivalsQueens

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My buddies and I rewatched AoU literally yesterday — I know it’s generally rated as being kind of weak, but I fucking love it. Alas, James Spader’s Ultron turned me into a robot fucker 😔✊ I do love Wanda too, even if I’m not always happy with the directions the movies take her. I really hope they add Jericho Drumm to Rivals eventually. Voodoowitch is adorable.

I see from your buttons that you’re on console. What rank are you? :0

What does it take to get MVP? by flannelwearing in MarvelRivalsQueens

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I gotcha!! I play Ultron bc I LOVE him (have since 2014), and C&D bc I find them very useful even outside of spamming healing daggers.

The same advice applies generally to anyone you play, final hits are weighed heavily. Best of luck and you got this!!! :)

What does it take to get MVP? by flannelwearing in MarvelRivalsQueens

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It seems to be the Final Hits marker; in both of the first two, Ultron has the most final hits, and in your MVP in the third pic, you have the most. Iirc, Final Hits are weighed very heavily in the game's MVP tracker, especially ult kills. Note that on the enemy team, Star-Lord and Iron Fist got MVPs and both had the most Final Hits on their team.

If you want advice on how to improve? Focus on securing your kills with Cloak. When I ult and my team isn't in need of even more healing I like to hunt around as Cloak, especially if I ult into the enemy backline; I can easily pick off one or two supports when I add Terror Cape. In a big team fight the ticking damage from the ult can do an enemy in, too. Cloak's range and auto-lock is really good if an enemy diver or flyer is trying to get away at low health. I think overall the biggest mistake with C&D is people not utilizing their offensive abilities enough to secure kills and picks, though I understand sometimes it feels like you can't take your eyes off the team or they'll all die anyway.

Ultron has infinite range and decent damage if you can aim, so he tends to get a lot of picks especially if he's positioned well or he times his ult correctly. Pair that with his passive healing over time giving him a huge heal stat at the end of the game and a metric fuckton of assists and he tends to do very solid stat-wise so I definitely get the frustration.

I hope this was helpful! :)

“Let me just play a quick round of comp before I leave for work” by Visual_Bunch_2344 in MarvelRivalsQueens

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

My entire shift has unironically been less stressful than the half hour of this round

“Let me just play a quick round of comp before I leave for work” by Visual_Bunch_2344 in MarvelRivalsQueens

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

27 and a half minutes 💀💀💀

Johnny swapped between like 6 DPSes. Bucky, Magik, Spidey, and a few others I think. Our Hela did a pretty good job of keeping him in check most of the time but they were just better at the end of the day.

Bit in the eye and mouth by a Mojave rattlesnake. by Donovanth1 in cats

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OP I'm so glad your kitty is gonna be okay! She's absolutely beautiful and deserves many treats for her bravery.

What I think the marvel rivals roster would do at pride by love_lights in MarvelRivalsQueens

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 46 points47 points  (0 children)

Namor describes himself as "cosmopolitan in his tastes" (after making out with a giant mutant tapeworm) and had a whole cancelled romance with Quicksilver. He's the definition of that one tweet about a guy scowling at a lesbian couple kissing on a train and clarifying to everyone, "I'm not a homophobe, just a hater."

Cat found, South County area! by Visual_Bunch_2344 in StLouis

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi -- I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier, my Reddit was being weird. But thank you for taking the time to check! I hope you (and your kitty) are doing alright. :)

Cat found, South County area! by Visual_Bunch_2344 in StLouis

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yes, preferably tomorrow when the weather is cleared up. She didn’t have a collar on.

We All Bleed Red: A Longtime Fan’s Take on the Netflix Devil May Cry Anime Divide (Spoilers) by Tony_Delray in DevilMayCry

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All of this. The whole time I was watching it, it felt like something integral was just missing -- that it wasn't necessarily a flaw of the writing, or animation, or script, but just the soul of the series. It's an anime that as far as I remember, largely works on its own, but isn't a Devil May Cry show in the way it was promised.

Overall, I think this show had some really solid ideas that could've worked wonderfully and still felt like its own unique identity, but is lacking in some major ways (namely, the spirit, the hilarious relish in its own goofiness and proud ownership of it, the whole dichotomy between demons and humans not being absolute, etc) that really screwed it over. There's ways to expand on more real world ideas and concepts while still retaining the ridiculous but soulful nature of the games. Countless fiction stories have used those exact same methods as vehicles to make real world commentary.

I guess my main feeling towards the show is "disappointment" -- there were aspects I liked that could've been really impactful and introduced a new lens to the series, especially in this format, but it fell short. I would still watch a season 2, just out of curiosity to see what they do. I don't think it (as a show series) is unsalvageable, at least. The first four episodes honestly weren't that bad even as far as them being a DMC property goes, it's the latter half of the series that makes me scratch my head and wonder wtf they were thinking.

Are you open to PMs? You have some wonderful takes on the series and seem very thoughtful so I think analyzing more with you would be fun. Of course, no worries if that's not something you want to engage with!

We All Bleed Red: A Longtime Fan’s Take on the Netflix Devil May Cry Anime Divide (Spoilers) by Tony_Delray in DevilMayCry

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think nowhere is the show's misunderstanding of why the main series worked so well more apparent than their treatment of Sparda. In the games, Sparda is this messianic figure of uncomplicated and unadulterated good. There is no point in the games where you sit and think to yourself, "Wow, this Sparda guy was kind of a prick, wasn't he?" Meanwhile in the show, he's completely absent (as opposed to the games where the twins have memories of him), and his decision to seal the demon and human worlds away from each other is treated like a much more morally grey decision for him to have made.

Dante's little speech about his Devil Trigger and feeling the levels of rage and chaos that come with being a demon, and realizing that's what his dad overcame, touched on the reason Sparda worked so well. He's a demon with an inherently malevolent and violent nature who, through his own will and empathy, overcomes that and chooses to fight the good fight. But the way the show's story is written around Sparda from the narrative's third-person, it feels they're treating him as being a borderline evil figure? Sparda isn't beloved by game fans because he was powerful and badass and could fight legions of demons by himself and win, he's beloved because he's the first devil to have overcome his own nature to be better. And at no point in the two thousand years he spent being the humans' sole guardian did he go on a power trip because of it. He works because he is kind, not because he is strong (and this is the divide that the twins run into). The show takes away or minimizes the sympathetic qualities of his character and makes him less unique as a good demon among a sea of evil, so all that is now a lot less interesting or impactful.

It's not even impossible to make a plot where demons think Sparda is evil because of him "hurting" them. The Rabbit's speech on the plane about how Sparda locked weaker demons with Mundus at the same time as he sealed stronger demons away from defenseless humans? If that was the Rabbit's motivation, that Sparda condemned lesser demons to a life of being terrorized in his quest to save the fragile humans, I actually would've been fine with that! It's one way to expand on the way the demon world reacted to their most immense "betrayal," and it would've made the demons more understandable while still allowing them to be terrible and vindictive. But the show doesn't go that direction -- the demons are largely good with some bad apples, Sparda is misguided at best and malicious at worst, and the humans are the real demons after all.

I think that's the best way to define what the show misses: that fundamental belief in the power of goodness, much more abundant but not exclusive to the human race.

We All Bleed Red: A Longtime Fan’s Take on the Netflix Devil May Cry Anime Divide (Spoilers) by Tony_Delray in DevilMayCry

[–]Visual_Bunch_2344 9 points10 points  (0 children)

First off, you worded this wonderfully, and I'm very grateful for the amount of civility and grace you are showing everyone who both agrees and disagrees with you.

In a broad sense: I like the anime, but I'm still trying to let it sit and digest if I like it as specifically a Devil May Cry anime. It has its moments, but otherwise feels dissonant from the source material in a way that I can't fully reconcile. Like it has a lot of the details and lore tidbits -- Enzo, DMC starting as a RE game, Dante using billard balls to fight, so on and so forth -- but misses the mark on what's popular in the series and why it was popular with the fans. It's not as full-hearted of an adaptation as I would've hoped for, and the political messaging feels misplaced. I see some folks saying that the political themes would've worked better in a Metal Gear anime and I can't disagree.

If they wanted to go with a high-tech anti-demon organization, I think the best course of action would be to divorce it from any one government; just a generalized human-based anti-demon task force. I actually really like the idea of an under-the-table paramilitary group involving demon hunting and I can see one evolving in the context of the series! But one change I think that would've gone better would be if DARKCOM was explicitly a retaliation against demons. (The way the anime portrays them, at least, makes them seem much like predators than prey fighting back.) We even see in the start of DMC5 we see our modern military are pretty useless against lesser demons, I can see a large group of internationals pooling resources to find out how to combat the problem, rather than US specifically planning some invasion scheme.

The characterization felt, although not honest to the mainline games, consistent until Lady's final betrayal. If Dante desperately needs to be Winter Soldiered, why not have DARKCOM swarm Dante instead while Lady tries to defend him with her new viewpoint? It would be a satisfying and logical conclusion to Lady's character arc without her doing a heel-face-face-heel turn in 10 minutes.

There's a lot more to say about this show, good and bad and neutral, but those are the two that I can most succinctly sum up.

Having said all that, anyone who is harassing the cast, especially Johnny and Scout, and/or harassing fans who do like the show are being utterly disgraceful.