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I Am Just a Box
Jul 20, 2011
I belong here. I contain only inanimate objects. Nothing is amiss.


"A nation reborn," "answer the call of duty to defend your nation," "to reclaim what was stolen," libertarianism and anticommunism...

This is going to be straight up "libertarianism is just fascism with a new coat of paint" with cartoon ponies, isn't it. These are fash ponies.

I Am Just a Box fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Apr 22, 2020

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I Am Just a Box
Jul 20, 2011
I belong here. I contain only inanimate objects. Nothing is amiss.

Big Mad Drongo posted:

What is it with ponies and libertarians? You'd think you'd see the occasional communist weirdo into this poo poo, but with ponies on the internet it's fash all the way down.

My guess? Bronies love a cartoon for children but toxic masculinity makes them insecure about it so they go out of their way to associate it with inappropriate poo poo. People less influenced by toxic masculinity who like the children's cartoon aren't motivated to write alternate history stories about ponies at war.

I Am Just a Box
Jul 20, 2011
I belong here. I contain only inanimate objects. Nothing is amiss.

Everyone posted:

There was mention of A Wizard in CoC and the interesting thing is that the A Wizard module kind of is CoC. The Wizard is at least within spitting distance of cosmic horror. The Abyss is kind of Dreamlands, a surreal space filled with weird, not-necessarily hostile gods, demons, etc.

Still, the best part of A Wizard is that the Wizard is still only within spitting distance of cosmic horror. Because the Wizard is petty and cruel in ways that the Great Old Ones kind of aren't. Cthulhu might swat you like a fly, but he's not going to waste his time pulling your arms and legs off to torture you so he can feel superior to you. The Wizard will.

One thing I find fascinating about A Wizard's use of economy of writing is the device whereby the Wizard directly addresses the reader at brief points, like that at which he spitefully chooses to interpret his own complete destruction as still a sort of victory if just one more person he hurt doesn't get closure or resolution. A Wizard doesn't explain this device. The Wizard's words are only set apart by boldface. The first few times it happens, the reader could reasonably interpret it as the voice of the writer simply turning ominous for a moment. Mia is a fool. It's going to happen again. There's no need to worry about them anymore. As the adventure progresses, the boldface text grows more personal and nakedly partisan, and the reader realizes that these are the words of the Wizard.

But hang on. Those aren't the first boldface passages in the adventure. Setting aside bold-italicized credits and titling, the first boldface passage is this:

quote:

RULES:
1. The Wizard is just that. He wears a pointed hat. Never refer to him as anything else, through description, NPC dialogue, etc. The characters find themselves unable to. He is the truth.

The Wizard is personally interjecting rules into the structure of this adventure, using some of the same words his mid-text asides will echo later.

It's one more way the adventure evokes both this cosmic aspect and personal pettiness with great economy without ever having to tell you that the Wizard is like this or that. The Wizard feels otherworldly not only because he is a being of alien aspect assimilating the trappings of a world he is invading, but because he's doing so on multiple levels. The entire adventure is itself A Wizard invading the world of the game, trying to poison it with his spite.

I Am Just a Box
Jul 20, 2011
I belong here. I contain only inanimate objects. Nothing is amiss.

Dallbun posted:

219: Twan San Po at the Bridge
The PCs come across a bridge being guarded by a dude in sweet armor decorated with fish and dragons. It’s a samurai (a non-Japanese samurai apparently, so that’s cool I guess) who declares that they must fight him, for nobody may pass without his permission.

Is it intentionally a non-Japanese samurai, or did the writer just not know the difference between Chinese and Japanese? (Not that "Twan" sounds like a Chinese name either.)

The character himself is pretty endearing though, all you have to do is ask. He just assumes that fighting the sentry is what you do.

I Am Just a Box
Jul 20, 2011
I belong here. I contain only inanimate objects. Nothing is amiss.

Mors Rattus posted:

Honestly, I’m still stuck on the fact that the evil villain plan is to fight bigotry in the most torn-from-CHUD-fever-dreams way possible, and the heroic act is to ensure bigotry continues.

It's really hard for me to ignore too. The Dark Lord's religion reads like a fusion of alt-right rhetoric and Alex Jones conspiracy theory. The evil goat symbolically wants to chop off your hands and feet and leave you unproductive and helpless; the severing of limbs is repeated too often to not be a point of emphasis. The enemy speaks of peace and love but it's all weasel words to seduce you into letting them trap and convert you. The message of peace and love stops a war between bitter enemies and brings men together and this is portrayed as brainwashing and a dark omen of things to come.

I'm not 100% sure what point the author is trying to make (a.k.a. "is he totally on board the chud train or is he a lovely edgy nihilist who says it makes you think about how this is bad but maybe that's worse"), but as has been stated, that this is uncertain is just as bad as if it were certain.

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I Am Just a Box
Jul 20, 2011
I belong here. I contain only inanimate objects. Nothing is amiss.

Falconier111 posted:

E: I also need you to choose one of the following options:
  • Kind of hosed
  • Rather hosed
  • Totally hosed

I want to suggest one kind of hosed and one totally hosed, because I want the gulf of magnitude :v: between these to come across. A deviant who's totally hosed really doesn't reflect a deviant who's kind of hosed.

JcDent posted:

Also, I don't think anyone mentioned that, but the whole SOULBROKEN CAN ONLY FEEL UNSUBTLE EMOTIONS is just them trying to justify superhero comic book morality in-universe, right?

I wouldn't say "justify," but "cause the behavior of," yes. It's talking about Conviction and Loyalty and how they warp your interactions with people, it's not talking about every emotion you ever have (or if it is you should ignore that).

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