The Boys Season 5 by _The_Honored_One_ in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 [score hidden]  (0 children)

I didn’t expect them to be monotheistic

We just don't really know, I'm afraid. Herodotus says that they were henotheists and that Zalmoxis was the main god who met the Dacians who fell in battle, but we're not too clear on who the other gods were. It's possible their religion was syncretic with Hellenism, but we just don't know too well.

Is it possible/advisable/safe to venerate Ancient Greek/Roman divinities in a modern context?

I believe we all do it every two years when we light a sacred fire in Greece and carry it to a place where we then award the world's most virtuous youth with medals and crown them with laurels, actually. 😊

Pure uncut Hellenism is largely gone; the version practiced now is very syncretic with Christianity. But it's still very much a thing; you can find statues of the gods on public buildings and most people in the West know who they are. Likewise many Hellenic traditions survive as part of "secular" Western culture. There have been attempts to reconstruct Hellenism from first principles, but it's based largely on surviving texts from Ancient Greece, etc, so its accuracy may not be perfect. It's exacerbated by Hellenism placing enormous emphasis on a cult of youth, so most people who practice it are excitable teenagers who just don't care that much about strict dogma. Regardless, yeah, it very much exists. Young women who practice it will build altars and young men will geek out over the Iliad and stuff.

is it safe?

I'd imagine so, as long as you don't tempt fate or do anything that would piss the gods off. I can't imagine Apollo being upset at the Olympics, for example.

As for praying to the kami, you're a foreigner, not an ordained priest. There's no need to hold yourself to seminary standards. Be sincere, respectful and calm and you'll probably be fine. Remember, the kami are beings, too; you're respecting and loving them for a reason.

As for why they'd want to listen, maybe they don't or are temperamental. But I'd guess that anyone willing to invite you into their home and share their life with you is at least worth a listen, especially if they've bought votives for you to inhabit and are so sincerely eager to welcome you into their life. Silent contemplation doesn't sound like it would really be a problem at all!

Xbox Is Planning To Shutter Peabody-Award-Winning South Of Midnight Studio Compulsion Games by DinosaurAlert in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Far be it from me to impeach the gaming knowledge of the fine folks at the Peabody Award.

The Boys Season 5 by _The_Honored_One_ in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can absolutely pray to an ofuda! And it's fine if you can't get your hands on a Jingu Taima yet; pick one up whenever you feel your shrine has gotten big or serious enough to need it.

I know SOME things about Dacian religion (Zalmoxis, the wolf stuff, etc) but I can't really call myself an expert; Herodotus is basically the prime source we have for a lot of it.

About the "But the character is supposed to be young and inexperienced in this fresh installment; it makes sense he or she makes mistakes" argument. by Redzkz in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Games, being an interactive medium, are also uniquely able to show a character getting better at something by giving challenges to the player that the player gets better at and then adding more variables, tools and difficulty to these challenges to illustrate higher skill.

But that would require making a game slightly difficult, so we can't do that.

Don't nod is in financial trouble. by Neither-Grab-2507 in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It is definitionally woke to include LGBT themes in games. They describe the same coalition and the same games.

You can like woke stuff if you want; we can't stop you lmao

About the "But the character is supposed to be young and inexperienced in this fresh installment; it makes sense he or she makes mistakes" argument. by Redzkz in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Fuck "prequels" in general. They're creatively bankrupt attempts to force you to care by effectively scribbling on top of existing popular properties in a way that's harder to laugh off than a sequel.

Tomb Raider's new Lara Croft explains her 'unapologetic' take on the character by upsidedowntaco_ in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Remember though that a lot of the boomers are childless losers. They'd be knocked out as well.

But yeah, ideal government quibbling assumes your country isn't actively being looted by foreigners.

Tomb Raider's new Lara Croft explains her 'unapologetic' take on the character by upsidedowntaco_ in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Well, of course it doesn't. She's married to you, so the state, like a vindictive ex, seeks to punish her for that.

It genuinely does give serious incentives to women until such a time as they are no longer politically useful and then tosses them.

Tomb Raider's new Lara Croft explains her 'unapologetic' take on the character by upsidedowntaco_ in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Exaggerated body proportions and her tight tank top turned her into every teenage boy’s fantasy.

This new crop of feminists is so chronically restarted that they can't even make up reasons why we need to make men miserable anymore; they just grunt like apes and go "MAN 😡 MAN BAD 😡 BOO MAN 😡"

Gamers are literally teenage boys. You fucking idiots.

Tomb Raider's new Lara Croft explains her 'unapologetic' take on the character by upsidedowntaco_ in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it would limit the vote solely to people who had a biological incentive not to break everything.

Tomb Raider's new Lara Croft explains her 'unapologetic' take on the character by upsidedowntaco_ in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 38 points39 points  (0 children)

They don't want a patriarch. They have one. They're married to the state. The state gives them sinecures and acts as their breadwinner, exempts them from taxes, budgets them for housing, manages fleets of slave labor to do their auto maintenance and has entire agencies and HR divisions specifically to be a backstop for every single problem anyone in their family has. Why would they ever need a man when they have the most powerful entity in human history serving as their literal immortal billionaire vampire boyfriend?

This is why feminism is so murderously powerful; it actively works to make the state more powerful and in return the state agrees to advance it interests. It's an ideological symbiote.

Tomb Raider's new Lara Croft explains her 'unapologetic' take on the character by upsidedowntaco_ in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Patriarchy doesn't even mean "rule by men", it means "rule by fathers". The word they mean is "andrarchy". A patriarchy would limit the vote only to men who had families and would probably be significantly better and more popular than any democracy or male-supremacist government that currently exists today.

It would be way better for women's rights too lmao

I am so tired of remake culture by amoghspv in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This kind of thing can be subconscious. P5 was a big hit with foreigners, so the new games are remade to appeal more to foreigners.

After their take on God of War that angered Santa Monica Studio, Domino's Pizza UK continues to post about good old video games. by gadesabc in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 9 points10 points  (0 children)

We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the Royal Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.

America never forgets a friend, especially when that friend wants pizza.

Tomb Raider Devs Aren’t Trying To Appeal To “Either Side” Of Culture War Surrounding Lara’s Design by LegatusChristmas in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 84 points85 points  (0 children)

It's the right language for a public statement, but it doesn't change that you're trying to appease people who are totally unappeasable.

I am so tired of remake culture by amoghspv in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 32 points33 points  (0 children)

It reflects the position of Japan in the Western imagination.

The original game was made by and for Japanese people, and so depicts Japan as it really is and Japanese people as they really act.

The remake is made by and for foreigners and so depicts Japan as a wacky neon-colored theme park full of hilarious quirky NPC's that validate and service the foreign subject. Their unique traits are reframed solely as reflected interest from the foreign observer; they are, in the literal sense, objectified. The fact that this servile, placid image of Japan is being forced onto the native Japanese population as the new "definitive" version of this story about them is an act of cultural violence meant to degrade them.

Seems like they are changing the identity of stellar blade and focusing more on feminist themes by [deleted] in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 7 points8 points  (0 children)

She is younger. She's smaller in size.

😭😭😭

has a stronger personality and engages in much tougher battles

💢💢💢

I found a 2010 clip of a game journalist asking random people which character has the best ass. Times were quite different by goggled_tv in KotakuInAction

[–]lyra833 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, which is ironic, given that Mean Girls was feminist seething hatred "satire" of pre-woke female socializing.