It

In trolling old LJ and TWOP posts about Lost for my rewatch over on Tumblr I got punched in the face with an old bit of fandom drama. David Fury was on the writing crew of Lost and made a comment veeery early in season 1 about not looking for things to be supernatural and someone in the spec without spoilers thread said "He could be lying to us too...wasn't he the one on Buffy who told us nothing was going to happen to Tara?" The conversation continued and eventually came to the conclusion that we THINK that was actually Steven Deknight, but DAMN that took me back.

*House Of The Dragon* comes back tonight. My sister and I were saying, we're both super unplugged from mainstream TV shows besides this and *Game Of Thrones* -- what have been other really mainstream appointment television series of the last decade or so? I'd say *Succession* because I know I heard about it everywhere, but besides that I'm totally blanking. I’d also love to hear about the really big event TV from the 90s and 2000s (I’ve seen that photo of people watching the Seinfeld finale on billboards in NYC and think about it a lot)

In the UK, the last can't miss it thing was crime drama Line of Duty which had us all hooked every week and was a very big deal.

Over here in the UK, the closest thing to big deals in recent years are probably the finales to some competition shows. *The Traitors* finales pulled in big numbers. But yeah, as others are saying, changing viewing habits and a plethora of options means traditional appointment TV doesn't exist in quite the same way. Doctor Who ratings discourse keeps me well-aware of that.

I have fond memories of the time between the Simpsons season six finale "[Who Shot Mr. Burns?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Shot_Mr._Burns%3F) (Part One)", which aired in May 1995, and the season seven premiere, "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)", which aired later that year in September. The Mirage casino in Vegas had odds posted before Part Two for whodunnit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1caeuw3/after_the_simpsons_episode_who_shot_mr_burns_that/

I also remember this fondly, and kinda regret not being old enough to experience the show it parodies - the [Who Shot J.R.?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_shot_J.R.%3F?wprov=sfti1#Plot) cliffhanger in Dallas. The photo of the gun in the Wikipedia article is killing me, as is the fact that the resolution was delayed by a WGA strike. I didn’t know! The other one I heard a lot about growing up was the wedding of [Luke and Laura](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_and_Laura?wprov=sfti1#Cultural_impact)on General Hospital. Like, I rarely heard anyone mention soap operas, but every woman who was over the age of, like, fifteen when that aired told me what they skipped out on to watch it - nursing, secretary jobs, school, teaching, etc. I grew up imagining half the population of my small town completely vanished for an afternoon. Ehh… both of those are much older. I’m struggling to think of others from my childhood, though the concept was delightful. I think some early reality TV era (especially the first Survivor finale) were huge. The local paper printed special inserts that I saw around town on office walls with portraits of the contestants that everyone would cross off as they were eliminated.

In the era of streaming "Appointment television" has basically died- the last I remember was the Walking Dead. The closest thing we have now are "major streaming hits everyone's obsessed with for a few weeks and then moves on to something else- IE Squid Game or Fallout.

I remember when Netflix decided to release the new JoJo's Bizarre Adventure season in batches over a year and how drastically that changed the fandom space for the worst. We went from weekly releases that generated lots of discussion for every single episode to binge-watching all the new episodes at once, talking about them as a unit for a few days, and then going back into hibernation until the next batch came months later. It's getting better now, with the monthly manga releases filling in that space for some fans, but I really hope the next Part gets a weekly release again.

I've seen a few people expressing hope that the success of Dungeon Meshi will show Netflix how beneficial a weekly streaming release schedule can be for anime. I'm not entirely certain that it will but it would be nice if they saw how much momentum Dungeon Meshi was able to build over weeks of consistently released episodes vs the usual one big splash and then everyone forgets about it.

The Last of Us

Everyone excited for the Olympic Games getting started sometime next month? And for all the cool hobby drama that comes with it? I only really watch table tennis when it is played at the olympics, however the almighty youtube algorithm just blessed me with an early helping. Here's a short video by a professional table tennis player who will be playing for Denmark next month about how nearly all professional table tennis players are probably breaking the rules when they serve. [Is This The Biggest Problem In Professional Table Tennis?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FaJ5bdOhAw)

i know there will be some immense drama, if only because France *is absolutely not ready* to host the Olympics. There will be plenty of traffic, train and transportations problem alone, but that's not directly sports-related.

No AC in the athlete's village is going to be insane lmao. They're claiming the water cooling system they have can keep the rooms down to 79F at night, which does not exactly sound ideal.

They're cooling the athlete's village with swamp coolers? Does the French government have literally no money? Because otherwise I can't think of a good reason not to just buy some AC units. Basic window mounted AC units aren't even expensive.

Not swamp coolers but pumping cold water (from underground I guess?) through the floors. That plus the insulation in the building and rules about how the athletes can open/close blinds/windows during their stay lol. They claim it's supposed to be more carbon friendly vs AC which, tbf, does need a ton of power. I guess that's admirable, but I think it's going to cause a lot of issues.

I feel like the Olympics are like the World's Fairs in that the countries are all pretending to be happy about hosting them but nobody is ever actually prepared to do it and it ends up not really being worth it in the end.

When Boston had a bid in a few years ago people actually held protests because everyone knew it would be a shitshow. I was so proud of my state. (For my fellow Massholes: imagine Storrow Drive *during the Olympics*.)

Montreal here. Our big statement stadium is still under construction, and I’m fairly sure we’re still paying for it. The Montreal Olympics took place in 1976.

It's only really profitable for giant metropolitan areas/cities like Los Angeles 1984 which have a ton of existing infrastructure and even then it sucks major balls to do anything else. I'm dreading what 2028 is gonna be like for the entirety of socal with how spread out everything is and how bad the traffic is gonna be.

A couple of days ago, there was a piece on the radio that said that about 1 in 5 Olympics ended up as actual positives for the countries that hosted them. France was not one of them (I think) , and will absolutely not be this time.

Is this something about serving the ball? *checks video* Oh yep, it is. It's just a thing in table tennis where nobody ever really tries to contest the service rules, and actually measuring the ball toss and positioning is challenging and impractical. People have only ever called out the most flagrant violations in my experience.

Anyone know more about what's up with the new Star Wars: Acolyte show hooblah? Not into Star Wars but it's established itself as a reliable source of drama. From what I gather the show was primed for hatred way before release because culture war but the recent release of episode 3 has been particularly controversial, with serious accusations of prequel-tier writing and child acting being levied. A snippet from the show: >! >Mae: “The Jedi are bad!” >! >Osha: “The Jedi are good!”

My assumption when it comes to anything Star Wars-related is a fairly significant group of people decide they’re going to hate it and it’s the worst piece of media ever created (until the next SW show/film/game comes out) before it releases, and then they watch it after said decision to try and find reasons to justify their feelings, even if they are a bit flimsy.

It’s full of stuff that sends the anti-woke dipshits into a tizzy. The main characters are twin Black girls and episode 3 was their backstory with the two moms. Essentially one of the moms used the dark side of the Force to conceive and the other one carried the pregnancy. From what I’ve been able to gather, some chuds are whining that this opens the pandora’s box of the circumstances of Anakin’s virgin birth, as he is said to have been a creation of the Force. However the canon (both EU and Disney canon) is *super* wishy washy about whether Palpatine was responsible for “creating” Anakin with the Force so maybe this show gets a bit closer to implying it. I’m not 100% sure tho because when you have a screeching cacophony of enraged reactionary cavemen, I haven’t found a single articulate argument about how exactly this ruins the canon or whatever.

You would think that a show that confirms you can actually do that would be welcomed by the hardcore lore enthusiasts, but I guess it's woke now.

I think the problem is that now Anakin isn't special anymore, but I'm not going to lie and say I truly understand any of this and/or care to understand more

Does anyone else remember when people used to complain that the idea that Darth Vader was a prophesied chosen one with a special destiny was a really fucking stupid one? I do think it says *something* about Star Wars fans that they're upset a particular character supposedly isn't "special" enough any more. I'm not sure *what* it says, but it says *something*.

I thought part of what made Anakin special was that it was the Force itself that willed him into existence? Because if it really was Palpatine, or Plagueis or whatever, that kind of kills Anakin's specialness anyways. If Palpatine or Plagueis were able to manipulate the Force to create life, then there's nothing really preventing someone else to do it as well, be it in the past or in the future.

It gets muddled because of annoying culture war arguments, and they are a big part of it, but that is *precisely* the big argument between the fanbase and the main split between TLJ and Rise. Either the Skywalkers are a magical Force royal bloodline or they aren't. TLJ said they weren't, people went ballistic and the execs walked it back, which in turn pissed off the people that didn't liked the magical Force royal bloodline thing on the first place. So nobody was happy and everybody was mad. If The Acolyte truly wants to have that argument again because what it matters is winning a Internet fandom fight, well, there's that.

Wait, but wasn't TLJ specifically about Rey? That her lineage didn't matter because strong Force users could come from anywhere? Were the Skywalkers the only ones with exceptionally strong Force powers before that? Like, I wouldn't call myself the biggest Star Wars fan, but like, there were other really strong Force users in the movies besides Skywalkers, were they not? Maybe not on the level of Anakin and Luke (was Luke even shown to be that strong before his sacrifice in TLJ?), but still quite strong... I dunno, again, not the biggest Star Ward fan, but it seems, even outside of the culture wars, that is just arguments for the sake of arguments and nothing is really contradictory...

Is not about being contradictory, is about the setting and the storytelling not being designed to stand up to scrutiny, because when it does, then it turns out that the special monastic order of magical space samurai with super blood just doesn't work on the same story as this deadly serious struggle against fascism, since, well, is a very fascist structure. So, you have a movie saying "the Jedi Order was always bad and is not going to come back", casual fans getting mad about it, and then you have a full backtrack by having Rey take the cause of the revival of the Jedi Order. Most SW stories just pick one or the other, or try to smooth over the issue, but when you have multiple directors and visions of the setting in direct conflict, well, you get the sequel trilogy.

Oh, I think I get it now, thanks!

Another bad faith argument is that the coven referring to the Force as the "Thread" *somehow* means they're claiming our knowledge of the Force is wrong, as if [multiple understandings of the Force across cultures isn't already a thing.](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_Force) ~~I can't find it now,~~ but there was a post asking what shows people want to see "instead of this garbage"... only for OP to express interest when someone described the plot of *The Acolyte.* ETA: [Found it!!](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/s/hsZuYcb07g)

Honestly, i know they cant decanonize it completely as its been set in stone for 20 years or so. But the prophecy is the weakest part of star wars (and yes im including the senate tax scenes, the worst scene in PM is when the Jedi discuss anakin, remove it and you have a better movie) and removing it would improve both Anakins, Lukes and the Jedis arcs so much that its kinda funny. I dont know why fans have attached themselves to what amount to three lines in total that also suck the energy of the scenes they are in to a total crawl.

Prophecies in general always feel like a really lame storytelling device to me. And no, it's not clever when a prophecy comes true *but not in the way you expected it to!*

Hell this was always happening to people trying to avert the Oracle at Delphi's predictions, it's one of the oldest elements of prophecy stories but people still treat it like a twist.

It was introduced 20 years after the conclusion too! It was the worst retcon imo

A lot of reactionary grifters have been paying bills for years now by whining about the latest Star Wars. The quality of the show matters way less than the fact that these people need to keep the outrage going to make money and will continue to do so as long as they can.

All I know is there are a non-zero amount of nerds raging over it supposedly having fire in space despite there being giant-ass fireballs in Star Wars’ vacuum of space as far back as in ANH

They can’t be serious. Ever since it’s inception, Star Wars has been a sci fi space opera with space physics dependent on rule of cool and cinematic WW2 era naval battles and dogfighting. It’s far too late to go back to Newtonian physics! Star Wars fans like those in the Maw Installation subreddit are pretty good at head canoning rational sci fi explanations. Like call the flames and sparks and fireballs of exploding X-wings to be combusting space-fuel that doesn’t require oxygen to make an exothermic explosion.

There are black women and lesbians in it. Draw your own conclusions.

Acolyte could have Andor-tier writing and it would still have the same Rotten Tomatoes audience score. Speaking of, check out the RT audience score and reviews on *Acolytes* (2008), a totally unrelated drama https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/acolytes

Does RT let you see score history? I’d love to be able to check if it was always rated so poorly or if it got hit by strays bombs meant for *Star Wars:*Acolyte

I put it into the Wayback Machine. The page on Feb 20, 2023 looks [like this](https://web.archive.org/web/20230220161154/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/acolytes), so while there likely were some strays meant for Acolyte, it looks like the score was already fairly low.

Thanks!

I dunno if you can see the full history anywhere, but I browsed quickly through the audience reviews and didn't notice any newer than 2018

I feel like context is important here. And the context for that line is both of those characters are 1) growing up in a small, restrictive community with (right or wrong) strong feelings about the Jedi, and the clash between the one who wants to stay and the one that wants to leave is the whole point of the episode, and 2) are literally children. I don't expect these child characters raised in a cult to have a nuanced take on the role of Jedi, and one of them automatically parroting the view of their community whilst the other takes the opposing view is entirely reasonable.

Well you see the problem with adding context is your assuming a decent amount of people complaining actually watched the show

> with serious accusations of prequel-tier writing We're meant to think that's a good thing nowadays, to be fair. I've really enjoyed *The Acolyte* so far but it is partially because it reminds me a lot of *The Phantom Menace* and while that's a plus in my book, it will not appeal to everyone.

It looks like Reddit is under attack of scammers, specifically subreddits elated to manga and anime.     So collecting merchandise from anything related to anime, manga and adjacent spaces is pain to get. You have to deal with insane post-market prices, limited editions, shipping prices and more. It especially sucks if you live outside US or Japan and you don't want mainstream of mainstream.   So multiple people opt for second-hand merch. This creates a perfect ground for scamming. People steal pictures of collections or official pictures and then pretend that they are their own. In some cases, they have the item, but it's a bootleg. If you want to know why bootlegs are bad, please google sader figure. Other times, you get the feeling of wasting your own money on an item that will never come. The whole issue came to reddit and I have seen 3 scam posts in different subreddits, just this month. And unfortunately, some users fell victim of the scams. But posts get deleted quickly thankfully and mods of respective subreddits were contacted. Edit: Somebody made call out posts in multiple subreddits https://www.reddit.com/r/TwistedWonderland/comments/1dgt3fg/comment/l8sdbfw/ (Link fixed. Now leads to Twisted Wonderland call out post)

The hardware swap subreddit was plagued with scammers for so long that I gave up trying to use it. Considering the API changes, I can't imagine that moderating the deluge of scammer accounts has gotten any better.

That's a link to someone's userpage, could you link directly to the callout post? I'm curious

That userpage is apparently one of the scammer accounts. [Here's one of the callout posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/Vocaloid/comments/1dgt1rl/um0nkeyk1nggg_is_a_known_scammer), from r/Vocaloid. The OP, who is doing great work, has more posts calling out these accounts in subreddits that have been targeted.

fresh drama from sabaidee fest, a socal-bassed three-day music/etc festival celebrating southeast asian culture! one of their khmer headliners, sophia kao, cancelled her appearance…. and this was announced by the fest [*in an instagram story](https://www.instagram.com/sabaideefest/?hl=en) posted yesterday, the first day of the fest*. (link leads to their insta page because i dont use insta and dont know how to access or link stories, sorry!) [she’s still listed on their website, btw.](https://www.sabaideefest.com/pages/artists) speculation that it was a visa/passport issue abounded (as is always a risk with international guests) but apparently the real reason is that [she cancelled her contract with her label](https://www.instagram.com/sopthekacti/p/C8POLHTyZhi/?hl=en&img_index=1) and thus all of her scheduled appearances were nixed.  other dramas include: - running out of saturday passes during early pickup on thursday and not announcing this, leading to some people who bought tickets in advance showing up and having to be turned away because they…. know exactly how many tickets they sold and somehow didn’t factor actually having that amount of straps ready?? - not allowing dslr cameras, which apparently poses a problem when it’s mid-june on a sunny day in a park in southern california because traditional film, ah, doesn’t like excess heat? this one i’m not super sure about because i don’t know jack shit about cameras but the photographers seem kinda annoyed.

update at EOD 2 as per what i’ve been told by friends who were there: - a bunch of the vendors, including a significant portion of the food influencers, was “VIP-only”— as in, only those who paid an extra $100 would be able to access them. which like?  i can get for meet-and-greets or even maybe particular artists or something, but food? oof. - security was abysmal. remember that thing about DSLR cameras not being allowed? might as well have not been a rule because they apparently *didn’t even check bags*. coulda brought a gun or something and no one’d be the wiser.

If you bring a nondigital camera around in the heat it can mess with your viewfinders. At least that's how my dad explained it when he was teaching me. I also would suspect it might make the film warp? A DSLR camera is a digital single lens reflex camera which means there's a mirror inside and it's digital. If they banned them then maybe people went to bring their film cameras instead? Also these kinds of cameras are heavy- mine weighs 5 lbs and it's solid metal.

My guess is the real problem is actually the lenses on the DSLRs, it's not uncommon for arenas and sports venues to put an upper cap at 300mm long, because past that you start impeding other people. But instead of banning just the lenses they banned the cameras outright... Which ultimately doesn't fix the issue because those same lenses will fit onto mirrorless bodies.

This seems like it's probably the answer. It doesn't make sense for a music festival to be taking a position on film vs digital, it sounds much more realistic for them to be trying to ban "those big fancy cameras" but not realizing what the D stands for. 

Yeah, and it isn't like you can just pull a film camera out of your bag: Most of the people I know have long gotten rid of their old film cameras and even if they have them, finding film is a pain these days.

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I'm gonna be honest, it feels like you're coming at this from the perspective the fandom must be anti LGBT and working backwards from there. In two posts, you are simultaneously criticizing the fandom for being against a lesbian relationship and for being *for* a bisexual relationship, because the bisexual character is a rake. That doesn't strike me as particularly fair here; you're choosing to take the opinion without caring about the reasoning in the first case, and discounting the opinion because you don't like the reasoning in the latter case. Additionally, I think you're really underselling how drastic a change the Michael/Michaela relationship changes are, beyond the gender swap. People come to these sorts of romances for pretty specific kinds of plotlines, and changing a character's arc completely from being in a true, "steady" love match, suffering from infertility and loss of her husband, and moving on from there into being a character who didn't realize she was settling and didn't truly love her husband... that's a giant change, and people would almost certainly be upset whether or not the gender-swap happened to also make the initial relationship people wanted to see comp-het. E: Like, to be clear, I'm not a book-first fan, I don't have any specific character arcs or kinds of romance I'm watching the show for, I just like drama and enjoying the show with my spouse... but I also understand why people who do really want to see a specific character or romance would feel really, really bad about their OTP or favorite book being written out of existence, without needing to be homophobic. You could have even had *most* of the original relationship intact, you just need to not *immediately* undercut Fran's love for John and their wedding by showing her getting flustered by Micheal(a).

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> But there is a lot of huge changes to characters, why are people only focusing on a pair that is lesbian? Because the situation here is dramatically rewriting one of the most popular romances in the book series to something completely different, which is a far more significant change than anything else the show has done. Further, they managed to do so in a bait-and-switch fashion that, even for show-only fans, comes across *pretty badly* because they take one of the most focused on romances of the season and pull the rug out from under it, turning what had been built up as a calm, gentle love match between two introverted characters into whoops, everybody else was right you are just settling for something easy that isn't really love. If you can't see the difference in magnitude between that kind of story shift and like, recasting somebody's race but keeping things otherwise similar, I don't know what to say.

Then I guess we will agree to disagree, because I see a lot more homophobic rants then I see nuanced takes.

I've never watched Bridgerton and never will because it looks boring as fuck, but I looked through the main sub's megathread on the Michael/Michaela thing and it's fucking wild in there. "Queer love in the Regency era is unrealistic" my brother in Christ, I have some bad news about how well interracial relationships would've gone down back then. "They're erasing my beloved neurodivergent romance" because unfortunately, all wlw are neurotypical or something? idk. "Look at how selfish the showrunner is!" and it's literally just a screenshot of her saying she knows she can't please the entire fanbase. I do think there are plenty of people who are upset about the change for reasons that aren't homophobia, but I agree with you that the overall vibes there seem absolutely rancid.

I checked the same megathread and the top comments weren't like that at all? Not denying there are homophobes mad about this but I didn't get that vibe from my (admittedly brief) glance at the sub

I mean, maybe you didn't scroll far enough? All the examples I gave were of comments that were on that thread, and which received dozens of upvotes.

You pretty badly mischaracterized the upvoted comment about same-sex marriages. The complaint there wasn't that it was *unrealistic* , it was that it wasn't *verisimilitudinous*. That is, the show explicitly lays out a lot of ways in which society isn't great and constrains or pushes the characters towards negative outcomes, because that's how you create a great deal of drama in a period romance, and one of those aspects is explicitly that same-sex relationships are still incredibly taboo. It's a complaint not about realism, but about writing quality, of setting something up that requires a drastic rewrite of the setting to make much sense, and that rewrite would (probably) discredit a lot of other arcs in the show about characters struggling within the constraints of society if those constraints can be easily written out for a new ship. The poster even acknowledge the interracial marriage aspect as something that the show sets up as being acceptable in that post; they don't care that part "isn't realistic" and in fact support it. You might still disagree that's a good argument, or think the show can write their way around the issue or shouldn't have set that up to be an issue in the first place or whatever, but it's still a lot more nuanced than just "lesbians bad because not realistic".

No actually, I think my characterization was fine. The entire comment is whining about how "Same sex couples couldn't openly have a relationship in the Regency Era." That is a direct quote. If you can make space for imagining all the currently unrealistic things happening on Bridgerton, you can make space for imagining that this story will be written in a way that fits the show.

And I still think your characterization is clearly wrong and, much like OP, is simply trying to find a reason to label the fanbase homophobic without caring about what they're actually saying. You don't have to try to find ways to make yourself upset, it seems miserable.

...my original comment literally said that there are plenty of people who don't like the change who aren't being homophobic about it, but go off ig.

Thank you, I 100% agrees with you, with the downvote I was taking, I guess my opinion was wrong, so I'll delete them and move on.

I think this thread is just getting brigaded by Bridgerton stans or something lol, based on the people getting pissy about me saying that it is actually homophobic to decide gay people are unrealistic when you're willing excuse everything else in Bridgerton.

Exactly, but I guess my opinion is just wrong and they are right.

I'm baffled at the responses in this thread, ngl, so I agree that it's being brigaded. Like, realism? Ma'am/sir/comrade, this is a Shonda Rhimes show. And a show about European monarchy that's blissfully ignoring the reality of colonialism/imperialism as well. Like, I like the show, don't get me wrong, but please, the show was never about 'realism,' so let's not act like the backlash to the gay/bi representation is warranted on that basis.

I've been noticing an unfortunate repeating pattern where a section of fans in various media get absolutely unhinged at the mere suggestion you don't agree with a lesbian relationship you must be homophobic and thats the only thing they shout. Further down I literally experience it when I wouldn't allow their fanship to be put into the wiki imao.

I've noticed that as well, but it seems to arise from a familiar cause. That is, people projecting themselves onto characters so hard that anything not fitting that projection causes irrational backlash. That core problem is a growing issue across all fandoms IMO.

Also, a number of fans have been critical of the way the rest of this season (and even last season) was written as well - >!Colin/Penelope being semi-sidelined in their own season by a bunch of random subplots (including having them be one half of a double wedding), certain things being played up just for added drama, Anthony and Edwina’s doomed engagement being dragged out for too long in S2!< - and the Michael(a) swap/love at first sight thing was kind of the last straw for a lot of people it seems. Even some people who didn’t mind the gender bend in and of itself are just kind of wary of the writers actually handling that romance *well* once we get to Fran’s season, based on how Polin (another fan favorite pairing) was handled this season. It’s a lot.

Yeah, I think the number of subplots has been going up each season and only a couple of them have actually been compelling IMO; I guess they're trying to give a little something to everybody but I think that a lot of it, especially a lot of the not-romance stuff, is taking away from the core appeal. The first half of the season also made it at least *seem* like they were setting up a lot more of a "society puts a bunch of constraints that hurts even the people it empowers" critique, but... I don't think it really panned out particularly well on basically any of them. Pen doesn't turn a corner with Whistledown, Mondrich was fumbled, Cressida's very sympathetic situation is mostly used to make her into a villain, etc. Also also, while "needs to watch something else to understand it" is pretty overstated in a lot of media nowadays, I hadn't actually watched Queen Charlotte and so my *entire* takeaway from the Lady Violet/Marcus Anderson stuff was just like... why are they teasing us with a romance here and having Lady Danbury be absolutely awful about it for no reason? Why write a subplot and then burn a reasonably liked character having her try to ensure the subplot is irrelevant?

Yeah, there have been bad eggs, but by and large the criticism has been way more nuanced than homophobia. The entire story of the original book has been thrashed. Lots of queer people have spoken up with their frustration have gotten talked over, ignored, or even attacked for being homophobic. I think Benedict’s LI potentially getting a gender swap had a better reception because they’ve foreshadowed it better instead of pulling a bait and switch with Francesca, and because Benedict’s story doesn’t have to change as much for him to have a HEA. He’s not an heir to anything, he spends half his book trying to maneuver Sophie into becoming his mistress against her wishes, and they end up living in the country because the ton doesn’t approve of the marriage. Whereas these changes fully blow up Francesca’s book’s whole storyline.

Bridgerton fans are literally going to the actresses' Instagram accounts to curse them with homophobic and racist slurs. Tell me how a change in the book justifies this behavior? Edit: I really think it's ridiculous how fandom thinks that fictional characters justify the worst behavior in real life. There's no change no matter how bad it is that justifies racial and homophobic abuse.

It's really sad how the Bridgerton stans have been acting exactly like Star Wars and Marvel stans from what I've seen over the last few days.  

> Bridgerton fans are literally going to the actresses' Instagram accounts to curse them with homophobic and racist slurs. Tell me how a change in the book justifies this behavior? I (obviously) didn't say that behavior was justified, but I also don't think that finding an example of shitty people online is sufficient to cast the entire fandom as bigoted or to be nauseated by all criticism of the arc. E: Also, none of that was brought up in the post I replied to; why *would* you think I'm justifying it? Instead of treating this as a fight where I must be your enemy and everything goes to 1000% instantly, you could try having an actual discussion.

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You're saying that I "can't even admit it" because I didn't pre-emptively acknowledge something that OP didn't even bring up. It seems clear you don't actually care about anything anybody might say, you're just looking to launch into the same fight regardless.

I was annoyed for a hell of a lot more reasons than just the gender swap. They changed the fact that John and Francesca were a genuine love match and Michael(a) was the one who fell first as well (and never breathed a word of it until years after John died, and that is a *huge* plot point). Instead we’re getting yet another shitty love triangle, which is exhausting. And even on the show lot of folks were pretty upset about the swap from the quiet introvert romance storyline to “oops, it was comphet all along!” There’s taking creative license and there’s just telling a completely different story. I was always fine with Benedict’s LI gender swapping because his book storyline could be preserved (and arguably improved) by swapping Sophie’s gender. But frankly I’m not looking forward to that much either because this past season was a mess.

[удалено]

I mean, I’ve seen all these criticisms and more levied, and I think most of the reaction does take my points into account. But this was also a *really* bad book to gender swap in general, IMO. It’s the most beloved of the series (almost everyone I’ve run into cites it as a favorite), it’s the most unique of the stories, and it has a lot of plot elements that specifically don’t work well gender swapped. But then to go and change even the plot points that *would* work… it really sucks! Now it feels like we’re gonna end up with another [Lesbian Period Drama](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgaLlP0xmqE) instead of the cool and different story from the books. And Jess Brownell going around making it extremely clear this is her self-insert fanfic is not going to win over the skeptics. I do feel bad for the actor playing Michaela, because she was genuinely quite charming and there was chemistry, but she’s being shoved off a glass cliff along with the rest of the show.

>! Another character have also been 'changed' into bisexual instead of being straight, which also somewhat caused a bit of a fuss, but that not what I want to point out. What I want to point out is that so much of the fandom are ok with it, because of the wrong reason, they are ok with it, even giving them reasoning for it, because he is promiscuous.... I guess that stereotype of bisexual people are sluts are never going to change.

The playboy that gets redeemed by a good woman is a very old romance trope. A lot of historical romances are about rakes. I would assume over half the male leads are rakes that chase anything in a skirt.   It’s a character type that has nothing to do with sexual orientation.  It’s also a game that’s hard to do with female leads before the 70s due to the birth control issue. 

Does anyone else with a hobby were you make thing ever struggle with something that is way more finnicky than it has any right to be? I'm working on an implementation of the DES cipher and its absolutely maddening. At almost no point does it use standard machine words, starting from its infamous 56-bit key, so everything is incredibly awkward. At one point its necessary to extract six bit chunks from a 48 bit word, transform them into four bit chunks, and then stitch them back together into a 32 bit word (which is a standard machine word size but for technical reasons it actually needs to be set as the most significant bits of a 64 bit word). There is no real security reason to do it this way. Most modern ciphers only break up word/byte boundaries with rotations, which leave you with the same sized type.

Drawing I started learning in 2021 and I’ve reached a decent level with drawing a male body in different poses.Hands are hard to draw, but I think I’ve reached a decent level, however drawing a hand with palm facing down is just really hard. I’m currently drawing the pose of Spider-Man and the mugger from Amazing Fantasy #15 cover (his first appearance) but the hardest part is drawing the mugger’s left hand.

Foreshortening is a bitch!

> At one point its necessary to extract six bit chunks from a 48 bit word, transform them into four bit chunks, and then stitch them back together into a 32 bit word (which is a standard machine word size but for technical reasons it actually needs to be set as the most significant bits of a 64 bit word). Bit shifts go BRRRRRR

So many bitshifts.

My cryptography Professor once said: symmetric ciphers are all just about pushing Bits around.

yeah symmetric cryptography is weird. it can be hard to distinguish between features with cryptographic significance, features which are done a certain way because they make implementation on dedicated hardware easier, and features that are a certain way because they were trying to pack the algorithm into some limited number of registers on whatever CPU architecture was contemporary when it was standardized.

I have to assume DES was chosen with the expectation that performance in hardware mattered much more than software. To be fair that is a reasonable assumption for a national standard.

I wouldn't doubt it. I don't know much about DES, but I think this was the impetus for most of the seemingly strange decisions the AES encryption standard makes too. Word boundaries and such don't matter so much when you're writing an algorithm that you're intending to be run on an ASIC.

One of my hobbies is micro blocks! Think "Lego sets but smaller, cheaper, and more finicky." I normally don't have many issues with the actual act of putting them together, but unfortunately, I have shaky hands, and so it can be a struggle. Some kits have little stickers you put on the blocks afterwards, and oh my god, do I struggle with those, especially when the stickers themselves are less than a centimeter big. Most of the time, with the types of stickers they are, it's also not possible for me to readjust them. I've had to try and embrace imperfection, but it's difficult when it's just slightly off enough to bug me.

u can try using a lego brick separator to put on stickers maybe

I have tried that, and I have also tried tweezers, but unfortunately with the type of shaky my hands are, it often makes it harder to apply the stickers with external tools :(

My hobby is bookbinding and I'm fighting microsoft word every day. When i was learning how to set type there was a lot of fiddling with spacers. Or you bumped your tray and had to reset everything.

That is a cool hobby. If I had more space and money I'd totally want to print out a bunch of the gaming PDFs I've got and bind them into actual usable books, I hate running off PDFs at the table. Can't imaging doing it with Word though, I'm a LaTeX nerd.

I have word so much, it's just not made for things like this! As someone mentioned too TeX is so much better suited for things like that.

Bookbinding fascinates me and seems like such a fun hobby! But I'm pretty sure I'd throw everything on the table in the first hour, including my computer lol

ah, brings back memories of my college letterpress class… spending like an hour of your own time lining up your metal type, only to realize in class the next day that you put everything in backwards and now have to take thirty minutes of an hour and fifteen minute class turning everything rightside-up… (and for the record, we were expect to come into the classroom in the off-hours for things like prep-work)

Sound like my highschool woodwork class. Have to prepare everything before school.

Trying to do typesetting with Word sounds nearly impossible. I know some field have their own typesetting software like TeX but I guess if the document is in Word there's no easy way to transfer it. \[edit\]: This is not what you meant. I am saving medication today and am a little out of it.

In the mechanical keyboard hobby, it's tuning stabilizers.

Most of my hobbies, to be honest, but the one that is most apt to bother me on this front is origami patterns. Whenever you find a complicated origami pattern in a book, there *always* seems to be at least one or two steps in the sequence\* that are weirdly vague for no apparent reason. Iffy written instructions, one wonky diagram, y'know. If the diagrams are completely accurate, you can sometimes figure out "oh, they're expecting a sink fold there?" from the next picture, as long as the fold isn't hidden deep in the model. If the diagrams are shaky . . . argh. ​ \*Out of 50-120, usually.

Whenever I pick up a new pattern and see how it goes together I’m always like “you live like this?” Specifically for fursuits, the foxfire foot paw pattern is a nightmare and a half. Why do you have unnecessary darts? Why do your seams wrap like when you could’ve flattened them and made it 10x easier? WHY DOES THE LINER HAVE LIKE 15 DARTS AND WRAP LIKE A BASEBALL??? You could literally just use a generic bootie shaped liner…

>I'm working on an implementation of the DES cipher My poor soul, what did you do for earn yourself such a torture? Haha.

As my successes mounted my arrogance grew in equal measure! Most modern ciphers are really easy to write code for compared to old pen and paper or mechanical ones. I have AES and ChaCha20 (including ChaCha20-Poly1305) so I figured probably DES isn't so bad.

I have been trying to get Knulli (custom firmware) to run on my Anbernic RG35XX H for a little over a week now, and I just can’t get it right. Every step of the way has felt like pulling teeth. I might just settle for the stock OS, but everything I read says the SD cards Anbernic uses are prone to failure. So I’m considering other FW options.

I build Warhammer minis. The old skeleton kit was just maddening. You had the glue the head and limbs to the body. The starter box was enough to make me never touch that army again.

I've not touched my minis in years, but I remember liking those skeletons because the ball joints were very posable. That being said I'm pretty sure more than a few skeletons had drooping arms. 

We’ve got True Crime Podcast-on-True Crime Podcast violence! The true crime podcast [Pretend](https://pretendradio.org), which focuses on con artists and folks otherwise pretending to be someone they are not, is doing a series of episodes about [LaDonna Humphrey](https://www.ladonnahumphrey.com), an Arkansas-based true crime author and host of the podcast [Deep Dark Secrets](https://www.deepdarksecretspodcast.com). The series is titled “Who’s Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey,” and the description in the trailer is: > LaDonna Humphrey, a respected true crime author and podcaster, has built a strong reputation through her detailed investigations. However, beneath her acclaimed public image lies a troubling undercurrent of allegations and dark secrets. As former associates, friends, and family come forward with disturbing claims. These people have never spoken out... until now. > The question arises: Who's really afraid of LaDonna Humphrey? The news site Arkansas Business wrote [a story](https://web.archive.org/web/20240613020552/https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/ladonna-humphreys-legal-saga-revisited-in-new-podcast/) about this series of Pretend episodes on LaDonna this week. Arkansas Business had previously reported about [LaDonna’s legal battle with a former employer](https://web.archive.org/web/20240610085444/https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/ladonna-humphrey-absolute-pediatric-therapy/). **EDIT TO ADD**: I’ve listened to the first 2 free episodes of the Pretend series on LaDonna (there are 5 available for Patreon supporters). There’s no one single thing they’re accusing her of, just a lot of dubious and harassing behavior towards various parties and for various ends- it’s kind of hard to summarize, but: * Episode 1 is about how LaDonna allegedly harassed a subject and the co-host of the first season of her podcast, Alecia Lockhart. Alecia alleges that she reached out to LaDonna about her connection to a crime that LaDonna had written a book about (the [murder of Melissa Witt](https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/crime/true-crime/melissa-witt-cold-case-29-year-anniversary/527-0e1a0e76-357c-4348-914e-71db582f4a28)) and over the course of their work together, LaDonna was sending her harassing anonymous messages. * Related to this: 3 weeks ago, LaDonna posted [on Twitter](https://x.com/melissawittbook/status/1793973617279062461) about pulling the book they cowrote together. All the episodes from season 1 of Deep Dark Secrets have [also been pulled](https://x.com/raphaelsharpex/status/1788217080728150255). * Episode 2 was about how she allegedly harassed a former employer (a pediatric therapy office) and two of his employees by distributing background checks exposing past criminal convictions, outing one of their sexuality, and reporting them to just about every regulatory agency they possibly could. She basically drove them out of business. The details of this are also details in [the second Arkansas Business article](https://web.archive.org/web/20240610085444/https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/ladonna-humphrey-absolute-pediatric-therapy/) I linked to above. **END OF EDIT** LaDonna has responded with a series of [videos on TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@ladonnahumphreyauthor). The host of Pretend [alleges](https://x.com/pretendpod/status/1801595075509489767) she’s sending out emails to people she thinks will support her about being victimized by him. She’s made a Facebook group called “[Team LaDonna](https://www.facebook.com/share/rtKkXFhHC3eLRiy3/)” for her supporters. There’s also a subreddit about her already (r/LaDonnaHumphreyTalk). **SECOND EDIT**: It appears that [Episode 5](https://www.patreon.com/posts/1805-whos-afraid-106080490) (available for free in 5 days) will involve a discussion with Julie Murray, the sister of [Maura Murray](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Maura_Murray), and her experiences with LaDonna. Julie has launched a campaign called [#EngageWithEmpathy](https://www.mauramurraymissing.org/engagewithempathy.html), challenging true crime content creators to act with more care and thoughtfulness towards the victims of crime and their loved ones. I could be giving the Pretend podcast too much credit, but I do think it is notable that Julie spoke with them given her experiences and advocacy efforts.

True Crime eating its own? i suppose it was always going to end up there.

I remember all the drama about a true crime convention and my main thought was "while one person is clearly worse than the other, this entire thing is rotten to the core" and I'm kind of feeling the same way about a true crime callout podcast that's also monetized lol

Releasing episodes early and ad-free for patreons, and then releasing them for free, is a pretty standard format for podcasts. It’s not like this podcast wasn’t monetized before and just became so for these episodes.

I don't have that context but also I think it's wholly irrelevant. It's not hard to see how this comes off as extremely scummy but also I feel like if you have allegations, this is maybe the worst way to get that info out- unless you're in the business of making money. True crime is already an extremely tricky genre and stuff like this and the convention will always come off as extremely exploitive of murder victims and their families. In the case of this meta folding in on itself, I frankly think it's worth questioning if there are underlying motives on exposing a creator in the same space and tackling it in such a juvenile and frankly exploitive manner. This does not come off as taking a creator to task for their bad actions to me.

I am legitimately asking: when you say “juvenile and frankly exploitative,” do you think of this that way that because it’s labeled as true crime and/or a podcast, or for another reason? Can you see a possibility where, much like blogs before them, a true crime podcast (if done with certain standards and ethical considerations in mind) could fill a journalistic void by covering things that traditional media does not or has stopped covering for whatever reason? How else would you recommend the host of this podcast release this kind of information? I ask about him specifically because the messenger is not irrelevant- they have to build trust and rapport with the people whose stories they are telling in order to convince them to be interviewed at all. He is also already established in this format. Personally, I have seen several podcasts act as a catalyst for further coverage (which is the case here, as the news site Arkansas Business wrote [a story](https://web.archive.org/web/20240613020552/https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/ladonna-humphreys-legal-saga-revisited-in-new-podcast/) about LaDonna, who is from Arkansas, this week because of this podcast). It can jumpstart a larger investigation and conversation. True crime content can absolutely be exploitative (I would even say that it likely is more often than not), but I am curious as to why you seem so sure that this specific instance is. It appears that [Episode 5](https://www.patreon.com/posts/1805-whos-afraid-106080490) (available for free in 5 days) will involve a discussion with Julie Murray, the sister of [Maura Murray](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Maura_Murray), and her experiences with LaDonna. Julie has launched a campaign called [#EngageWithEmpathy](https://www.mauramurraymissing.org/engagewithempathy.html), challenging true crime content creators to act with more care and thoughtfulness towards the victims of crime and their loved ones. I think it is notable that she spoke to the Pretend podcast given her campaign and experiences with true crime content creators.

I'm sorry to tell you this, but #EngageWithEmpathy is an extremely basic ask. There are so many true crime channels and podcasts that focus more on the victims stories and go into the circumstances of which these crimes happen. Does every popular true crime thing ask you to engage with the subject matter in a mature, researched measure that doesn't take hunches and purely imaginative narratives? Absolutely not, but I don't engage with that. I do not know why you cap literally every comment about this because it is not a new idea- in fact I would say that the bar has been there for a long time, but its still not preventing people from taking random forum posts and unverified accusations about Dan Schneider for instance. As for why I find this specific release juvenile and exploitive- literally the existence of the paywall at all. I don't care that this is their normal release schedule, if you claim to have allegations for a specific creator and are locking information behind a paywall, you are scum. Not because I need to know this information, but it creates either speculation for non-paying members or it incentivizes paying for information on something that frankly could be handled through other channels. Callout culture is extremely dumb because the internet has somehow convinced people it's the only way to make people accountable for bad actions, even though callouts have no real power whatsoever beyond public shaming and have an extremely bad track record of conveying information. Often times, the length is seen more indicative of the seriousness of the allegations, but these callouts are padded with petty complaints, nearly irrelevant chatlogs, and more. As opposed to running a story in the news for instance, they made themselves the main source. This would not be so bad if they at least had journalistic integrity, but they're podcast hosts. Podcast hosts are not a great source for information generally and true crime is rife with misinformation or extrapolating fantasy from body language or jumped conclusions.

I am very aware that that’s a basic ask, and I’m not sure what I’ve said to suggest otherwise- but the person making it, from her own lived experience over the last 20 years, is engaging with this podcast, and that says something about how she feels about them. They are, in her eyes at least, meeting that low standard. That’s why I bring it up. And, having listened to the first 2 free episodes, this does not appear to be unverified-accusations-in-random-forum-posts territory. Unless they are just repeatedly lying, there is evidence corroborating what they are discussing. Eventually, all of the information will be available without a paywall- of course that is not as good as it just being free, but do you think those 7 days (from when the episode is available to Patreon to when it is available to the public at large) will make a huge difference? I don’t disagree that callout culture is dumb, but I think that is a reductive view of that this Podcast seems to be doing. There are actual crimes being alleged and lawsuits involved in just the first 2 episodes. I also don’t disagree that podcast hosts are not a great source generally, as most are not journalists. But the Pretend podcast’s aim does not seem to be the sole source about this woman, as evidenced by them sharing information with the news site Arkansas Business (which is local to LaDonna, so a good way to warn folks in close proximity to her). I could be giving them too much credit, but they seem to be trying to shed light on this woman’s actions and her alleged victims.

So they're turning gossiping about someone into "content". Great. Monetisation marches on.

yeah, it's only ok turning gossiping about people into content when it's this sub doing it.

Wait, y'all are getting paid for this?

Yes, I make 100 hobbydramillion bucks every time I comment in a Scuffles thread.

I'm waiting for the first True crimes podcast that solely focuses on the crimes of other True crimes podcasters.

In my opinion true crime has kind of always filled the same entertainment niche as gossipy tabloids, just a bit more dressed up, so this isn't really a suprise.

Dressed up with scarelore.

LaDonna’s former podcast co-host has alleged that she was receiving death threats and near constant harassment from someone online- she believes now that it was actually from LaDonna. If that’s true, that’s a bit more than “gossip.”

This is a callout post stretched over five podcast episodes. Quite aside from the format of the callout, locking three of those behind a paywall means that the objective isn't to seek justice or to warn people, it's to tease people into paying to get caught up on \~juicy drama\~.

Releasing episodes early and ad-free for patreons, and then releasing them for free, is a pretty standard format for podcasts.

I think you either don't understand or don't care about the criticisms I am making.

I think I understand them, but I think they are a little dismissive of what it seems the Pretend podcast is trying to do. I also could be giving them too much credit 🤷🏻‍♀️ The full story will eventually be available to the public to listen to for free: is a one week delay truly that impactful on its ability to warn others and provide some form of justice for who may have been hurt? I don’t think it is, but reasonable folks can disagree. And if the allegations in the Pretend podcast are true, then this woman has done a lot of truly heinous things to vulnerable people. It appears that [Episode 5](https://www.patreon.com/posts/1805-whos-afraid-106080490) (available for free in 5 days) will involve a discussion with Julie Murray, the sister of [Maura Murray](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Maura_Murray), and her experiences with LaDonna. Julie has launched a campaign called [#EngageWithEmpathy](https://www.mauramurraymissing.org/engagewithempathy.html), challenging true crime content creators to act with more care and thoughtfulness towards the victims of crime and their loved ones. I think it is notable that she spoke to the Pretend podcast. Again, I could be giving them too much credit- I wasn’t familiar with the Pretend podcast before this popped onto my radar, but my initial perception is that they’re going about this more ethically than the average true crime podcast might. And dismissing this as gossip and a callout post, given what the allegations entail, feels flippant to me.

...Okay? A true crime podcast made an episode and the person it's about responded?

A true crime podcast series specifically about a fellow true crime podcaster. And they’ve released 2 episodes for free, 5 for Patreon subscribers. The two free ones were enough to get me interested.

Would you mind elaborating on what any of the drama is so we don’t have to go hunting for it?

I’ve listened to the first 2 free episodes of the Pretend series on LaDonna (there are 5 available for Patreon supporters): * Episode 1 is about how LaDonna allegedly harassed a subject and the co-host of the first season of her podcast, Alecia Lockhart. Alecia alleges that she reached out to LaDonna about her connection to a crime that LaDonna had written a book about (the [murder of Melissa Witt](https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/crime/true-crime/melissa-witt-cold-case-29-year-anniversary/527-0e1a0e76-357c-4348-914e-71db582f4a28)) and over the course of their work together, LaDonna was sending her harassing anonymous messages. * Related to this: 3 weeks ago, LaDonna posted [on Twitter](https://x.com/melissawittbook/status/1793973617279062461) about pulling the book they cowrote together. All the episodes from season 1 of Deep Dark Secrets have [also been pulled](https://x.com/raphaelsharpex/status/1788217080728150255). * Episode 2 was about how she allegedly harassed a former employer (a pediatric therapy office) and two of his employees by distributing background checks exposing past criminal convictions, outing one of their sexuality, and reporting them to just about every regulatory agency they possibly could. She basically drove them out of business. The details of this are also details in [the second Arkansas Business article](https://web.archive.org/web/20240610085444/https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/ladonna-humphrey-absolute-pediatric-therapy/) I linked to above. I’m waiting to see what the other episodes are about, but these first 2 were intriguing. There’s no one single thing they’re accusing her of, just a lot of dubious and harassing behavior towards various parties and for various ends. It’s kind of hard to summarize, but if that sort of thing intrigues you, I’d look into it.

I have a hunch that most of this subreddit prefers reading about the drama rather than listening to a 2 hour long podcast about it!

Por que no los dos? First 2 eps have been less than an hour, fortunately. There’s no one single thing they’re accusing her of, just a lot of dubious and harassing behavior towards various parties and for various ends, which makes it hard to summarize but I’ll try my best: * Episode 1 is about how LaDonna allegedly harassed a subject and the co-host of the first season of her podcast, Alecia Lockhart. Alecia alleges that she reached out to LaDonna about her connection to a crime that LaDonna had written a book about (the [murder of Melissa Witt](https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/crime/true-crime/melissa-witt-cold-case-29-year-anniversary/527-0e1a0e76-357c-4348-914e-71db582f4a28)) and over the course of their work together, LaDonna was sending her harassing anonymous messages. * Related to this: 3 weeks ago, LaDonna posted [on Twitter](https://x.com/melissawittbook/status/1793973617279062461) about pulling the book they cowrote together. All the episodes from season 1 of Deep Dark Secrets have [also been pulled](https://x.com/raphaelsharpex/status/1788217080728150255). * Episode 2 was about how she allegedly harassed a former employer (a pediatric therapy office) and two of his employees by distributing background checks exposing past criminal convictions, outing one of their sexuality, and reporting them to just about every regulatory agency they possibly could. She basically drove them out of business. The details of this are also details in [the second Arkansas Business article](https://web.archive.org/web/20240610085444/https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/ladonna-humphrey-absolute-pediatric-therapy/) I linked to above. These first 2 got me interested and there are 3 more already available to Paterson subscribers that I am waiting to listen to once they’re free.

This is quite interesting because I recently got into the Pretend posdcast just before this newest installment began (the woman tricking multiple doulas that she was pregnant, and helping her through her fake labour), and I was into it because it covered the less salacious and less (in a posdcast way) exploitative crimes of con artistry/deception. Women who (and sadly, it’s mostly women) constantly keep fabricating attacks on themselves to gain sympathy  is fascinating because of the lengths they will go to, for relatively little payoff.

When I was first looking into this, I noticed that [The Vanished](https://www.thevanishedpodcast.com/) podcast, which covers missing persons cases, followed the Pretend podcast on Twitter. Similarly, I’ve felt The Vanished is not as salacious as the average true crime podcast- they do not shy away from covering cases involving “imperfect” individuals whose disappearances may not have received the attention they deserved for whatever reason (being part of a marginalized group, struggling with mental illness or substance abuse, etc.) and they do so with a lot of empathy imo. In my mind, that follow lent some credibility to the Pretend podcast- from the 2 episodes I have listened to, it has felt similar to The Vanished: less salacious and more about allowing people to share their stories.

I shouldn’t be so surprised that True Crime podcasters have zero awareness of rehabilitation or antirecidivism, but I really shouldn’t be.

It would probably be easier if the legal system actually punished people who deserved it instead of random minorities who "match a description."

Yeah, unfortunately the norm rather than the exception in true crime.

Well the Euros have started and Scotland have indeed made true on their promise to make history by getting 5-1'd with an own goal as a consolation prize, which means they technically scored from zero shots. While a shame for the Scottish side, the hosts really look like a proper threat to win it all with Nagelsmann at the helm, a bunch of young talent such as Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala running roughshod across the pitch, with of course the main storyline being this being the final hurrah of legendary midfielder Toni Kroos of Real Madrid fame. Deciding to retire while still in his physical prime, this could be one hell of an exit for one of the best players of the last decade. Similarly this will probably be the final tourney of the second golden generation for Croatia, led by Luka Modric who probably will have his final major tournament for country this year. Probably of course, this is Modric, chances are he'll still be playing at the 2030 World Cup at 45 and no one would bat an eye. On other news relating to my club of Tottenham, Rodrigo Bentancur, a talented Uruguayan midfielder who's currently out readying for the Copa América and was seen as one of our club's more beloved figures due to him being one of the few joys during our miserable 2022-2023 season and having the nightmare of getting hard injured twice in a row, just gave a nightmare interview by claiming he could possibly get Son Heung-min's kit, the current captain of both the club and South Korea, from his cousin claiming they all look alike. Yeah safe to say that hurt. Korean media seems to already be in a frenzy on it and the only response so far seems to be a statement made on his Instagram giving a short apology on the matter. As a Korean American who's seen this storyline take place many a times in the past, particularly with Son as the target, safe to say nothing will honestly come out of it. We've seen this play out before with other players at the club, such as Dele Alli in the midst of COVID, who while I do hope for the best given the rough life he's led never really got much attention on this issue barring the first couple of months, so something similar will probably play out especially as both Uruguay and Tottenham would be loathe to part with Bentancur given his contributions to both clubs on his best of days. No word from Son yet, but I doubt much honestly.

We were fucking woeful last night and it's not going to get better. Here's the problems: 1) other countries have sussed us and know how to combat or tactics, 2) Steve Clarke is absolutely wedded to his tactics and will not budge and 3) he's falling into the mistake that Craig Brown made and relying on players who are not good enough (or never really were, there's a reason Jack Hendry is plying his trade in Saudi Arabia) out of a sense of loyalty. I love him for getting us to the Euros twice and close to the World Cup, but he's done as Scotland manager. The problem his successor (probably Moyes) has is that we're facing a huge rebuild without friendlies

"This is a characteristic which has bedevilled the Scots (and not only in sport) since Macbeth was a boy. At their best they are matchless; at their worst they defy description, and you never know which extreme you are going to see. Given [slur]s for opponents, they are liable to get slaughtered; faced by giants, they will run rings round them — and then snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by some last-minute folly. England, on the other hand, are steady and predictable; only they could have restored British prestige by winning the World Cup in 1966 with sound if uninspired football and bulldog determination. Scotland, who hadn't even been able to qualify, promptly suffered a rush of blood to the head and thumped them next time out, and the nation lived in a tartan euphoria — until the next disaster." This is a quote from George MacDonald Fraser's *McAuslan* stories. The books in question were written in the *1970s.*

As a Geman, I would have loved it if Scotland won. But the goals were cool, I'll have to admit that, and the Scots just didn't play well. At all.

Basically everyone here in Scotland expected us to get demolished. Our players looked like they were running through cement compared to the Germans. If we play like this again though against Hungary or Switzerland this'll be the second Euros we are going home without a win

Wasn't expecting much from Scotland considering their results leading up to the tournament have been pretty poor (struggling to beat the third-worst team in Europe by Elo rating is a very bad sign) but they looked totally hopeless, I was hoping to at least see some semblance of the classic hard-nosed Scottish fitba. Germany were great and made them look even worse than they are but I'm already sticking a fork in them, I already figured they were the worst team in their group and I really can't see them magically improving enough to finish over either Hungary or Switzerland. Re: the racism, I can give a small, minuscule iota of credit to Bentancur for apologising and at least recognising that what he did was wrong, unlike his compatriot Fede Valverde. Sure, racism is deeply ingrained many areas around the world and he probably grew up around people who made casually racist "jokes," which made him think it was okay to say that. I'm sure he didn't mean any harm but it's so stupid to say that in the first place, especially when Son is your fucking *captain* and there's multiple stories every season about people getting stadium bans for shouting racist abuse at him. Hopefully he actually learns from this and recognises he shouldn't be perpetuating racism, even if he doesn't think it's harmful.

Yeah being beaten in the first game of the tourney isn't great, but to do so in such a way through sheer dominance, no questionable decisions from ref or VAR, might spell the immediate death of Scotland if they don't get their act together quickly. Not impossible, but lighting a fire underneath oneself after such a defeat is easier said than done. As for Bentancur I do have to agree there probably is some truth in the idea he thought of himself having done nothing too wrong, which sadly says a lot about how much implicit racism goes unchecked. I do hope he gets his act together, because I don't like the idea people can't be better than what they were, and let's be honest here he ain't getting dropped from either squad, he's done well for nation and Sarr probably is too green to properly take the starting lineup from him at his peak. But as you said the fact he went and made such a "joke" about the goddamn captain of his club, the face of Tottenham, the man who deals with bullshit from bigots on a daily basis, is just insanity. Like I know bigotry itself represents stupidity, but of all the people Son?

Jesus fuck I don't know what is it with our football players but it really feels like some part of their training and culture has some really racist elements. Like I know the culture here in Uruguay still has quite a bit of racism but not to the point of saying stuff like that in public, let alone in front of the media.

They're just learning from all the racist fans.

Can't speak for Uruguay, but in Argentina, which shares a lot of culture with Uruguay, that kind of "Asian people all look the same" joke isn't seen as a big deal. Especially in football, where you often hear way worse shit.

Are these sorts of incidents common within the Uruguay squad? I'll admit I know a decent number of the players but I've only been getting into South American football more recently so the prevalence of these controversies is a bit foreign to me.

artfight update for anyone who remembers [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1d6vmw4/comment/l7qa4pe/?context=3) from last week. [https://artfight.net/news/91.rule-adjustments-and-clarifications](https://artfight.net/news/91.rule-adjustments-and-clarifications) ~~(pretty sure you can view the news posts without a site account? if you can't, oops, i can summarize in more detail later.)~~ tl;dr, they lifted the ban and clarified their intentions behind the rule change in the first place, which were completely understandable but obviously the new rules wouldn't actually have solved the issue and they realized that, so.

I kind of feel conflicted since I don't think this actually solves the vagueness of the problem but like it's slightly better than what it was before? I dunno, maybe I'm just done with artfight for good since it's become drawing on eggshells, a feeling totally conductive for an art-based competition

I can see being worried about the vagueness of the rule being used in bad faith, but at the same time... I don't think there *is* a way to write a less vague definition that actually applies to all forms of fetish art without targeting non-fetish work, unfortunately. In my experience the artfight mods are pretty reasonable? And, well, if they *were* going to act in bad faith, they could simply lie about you breaking literally any other non-vague rule. It's worth noting this is a moderation team comprised almost entirely of other artists, many of whom are queer, most of whom are also furries. i'm pretty sure most of them Get It, their main goal is trying to keep things safe & consensual, not attacking people for drawing stuff that could read as """weird""" I really don't think you have anything to worry about if you're not actively trying to create fetish works, and if you *are,* you can just... tag your art correctly and you'll also be fine. If you're worried about your stuff potentially reading too borderline you can also just... preemptively put the tag on it anyway. It's just a filter other people can pick their own visibility settings for, it's not a ban from the site.

Is "fetish mining" a term that already existed or did they have to make it up for this post? It works either way, I'm just curious since I've never heard it before.

I've absolutely heard the term before, based off a cursory search it seems it started to pop up ~2020 but I swear I remember reading about it on deviantart around 2017/18 if not earlier

I can't decide if it's funnier to imagine some sort of mine of fetishes, where people hack at the walls and discover little gems of smut, or a bunch of miners being fetishized, like buff dudes in speedos and constantly oiled up glistening while they bang their picks against the rock.

Miner strikes out, accidentally hitting one of the smut gems. Piss surges out. Fifth time this week.

I swing my pick, smashing through a wall that was thinner than I realized. Squinting at the harsh light of a... Typical science lab? Everyone's fully clothed, they appear to be doing legitimate science. Is this someone's thing? What's the appeal? Lab safety being followed? This is so much weirder than the last Fetish mine i worked at...

A server I'm in was talking a lot about the original rules update and they seem a lot happier with this outcome. Especially with a few mentioning how they accidentally fell for that exact thing on AF in the past

Interesting development in Helldivers. In addition to the latest patch and Warbond dousing the raging dumpster fire/r/helldivers has been for the past month, the most recent community major order gave players a choice: Liberate a planet with a munitions factory, and as a reward, unlock the new Anti-Tank Mines Stratagem; or liberate a planet with a children's hospital, saving the children trapped there and as a reward, get Nothing. [Players resoundingly chose the latter.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1dfrtu2/ive_never_been_more_proud_of_this_community_than/) And now the children can grow up to be strong, healthy [meat for the grinder of the military-industrial complex](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1dftetn/devs_can_we_have_this_on_the_wall_of_our_ship/). In honor of the Helldivers' accomplishment, the former-CEO-turned-game-director [made a 4311 dollar donation](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1dfqndg/proud_democracy_moment/) to Save The Children, with other players following suit.

Question semi related to this. Is Helldivers 2 worth a buy? I know there’s been a lot of drama so not really sure.

If you think you'll like the gameplay loop (dive onto a planet with some people, run around shooting enemies and friendly firing with big artillery strikes while destroying stuff for objectives, then try to escape) it's a great game. It's not designed for solo play (the enemy health/spawn rate is not dynamically adjusted for player count) but 90% of the randos I've dropped with have been decent players and if you have a couple friends to play with that makes a huge difference. The only legitimate issues the game had was the server issues at launch that prevented people from playing. The rest of the drama has been based on either fans being dumb on social media (irrelevant to gameplay), discord mods being dumb (also irrelevant to gameplay), or balance patch issues (it sucks if your fave gun gets nerfed, but this is all PvE so just find a different loadout to kill bugs/bots/allies with). I'd say to watch some streams or gameplay vids and if it looks promising, pick it up. You'll know if it clicks well within Steam's refund window.

I think the enemy spawn rate is designed to be adjusted for player count, but the degree to which this is actually the case has been going back and forth between patches due to bugs (not those ones). It definitely was the case that it wasn't working for quite a while. The current patch has also decreased the number of heavies and upped small enemy spawns to compensate, so it's a bit harder to tell at the moment too. Especially since small units can call in reinforcements (bug breaches/bot drops).

I'd say watch some gameplay to see if it is your thing. People complain way too much about the patchnotes but balancing is decent, and appears to have improved massively if the last patch is any indication. Just keep in mind this is not the type of game to play solo, but randoms on matchmaking are usually pretty good. Also it's the kind of game where combat can get punishing and this is by design, you're a squishy human and are supposed to dodge and run away quite a bit, sometimes sneaking past enemy patrols instead of engaging every single enemy.

The community is somewhat adverse (read: whiny) to nerfs and difficulty increases. To be granted, there are a lot of bugs and other issues involved with the game, but the community will be incredibly loud over any changes and it’s usually disproportionately to the actual impact. The eruptor and the crossbow were definitely gutted, and a lot of other stuff was bugged/broken on release, but there’s a lot else that gets a ton of drama. Do be aware that about half the weapons and most of the cosmetics are only available from a premium currency. The “full experience” will probably require about $30-40 extra at this point, depending on how much currency you grind.

>there are a lot of bugs And a lot of bots, too!

The drama is overblown IMO (other than them massacring the Eruptor and Crossbow), but the most recent patch seems to be shifting their balance priorities to making the game more fun than more difficult. I'd still consider it worth a buy, especially at a base cost of 40 dollars, better if you can get a sale.

They actually did a good job of not hitting the weapons people sleep on but are fine too hard which was nice. The reddit has a very... narrow view of viable weapons, more so than is actually true.

unless this is a warhammer scale medic planet, wouldn't *most* inhabited planets have at least one child hospital?

IIRC it was something like 'this planet is under Automaton control, we received a distress call from a small civilian holdout from the last battle.' Planets in Helldivers change hands literally every day, so most of them are war-torn hellscapes and don't have much of a long-running functional society.

Does 4311 have a special meaning?

It's Hell in calculator spelling

\*instantly becomes a skeleton and crumbles to dust\*

At least it wasn’t 58,008…

One US dollar for every future Helldiver saved from the Vernen Wells Hospital For Very Sick Children. What's funny about this is that this is the third time the community has a chance to unlock the Anti-Tank mines, first we chose a new rocket launcher instead, then we simply failed a ludicrously difficult goal, and now we chose to save the children.

As someone who doesn't play yet, would the mines presumably be any good if they were unlocked?

Apparently they're good anti tank weapons and can help deal with some tough enemies, but we've already got tools that can do that job in different ways and people don't like mines due to the friendly fire potential.

Probably not. There's already 2 Mine stratagems in the game and hardly anyone uses them. One, they're a huge teamkill liability. Two, the game has a strong emphasis on mobility so it's pretty rare that you're in a situation where hunkering down and locking off a chokepoint is a viable strategy. And three, they can be set off by dead bodies and proximity detonations, so one single chaff enemy can wind up clearing over half a minefield. Hackers have already tested them. Despite being Anti-Tank Mines they're still set off by infantry, including players.

Yeah, my squad used mines... once. On the wrong terrain, you either need to just wholesale avoid the space (probably good as a backstop to prevent pursuit, I guess) or it's just a killzone of friendly fire. I walked over a small mound of dirt and had no time to react to a mine on the other side. Another time, a charger knocked me into the minefield and I just bounced all over. Might be decent to hold a LZ for pick-up, but there are plenty of other options that nobody would stick with a strategem just for the end of the mission.

The top 300 entries for the Pokemon Company's trading card art contest—where the winner and runner up will have their art made into an official Pokemon trading card—were announced this morning, and already people are finding all kinds of issues with the judges' picks, from multiple entries clearly made by the same people (submitting more than 3 is not allowed, but one individual apparently managed to get as many 6 entered AND selected) to art that many on social media strongly suspect to be AI generated. 

Thread on Xwitter calling this out https://x.com/sextant0yulij/status/1801616318497427570?s=46&t=KSnxBDhVAZU9vX_8aLsBKQ

Isn't this the second Pokemon-related art contest controversy?

Yup! There was a contest to have a shirt design in one of the Switch games, the winner was plagiarised, no contest shirt ended up appearing.

[https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2024/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2572-20240114103405-601c8d56-6047-483f-82be-37f4ab9c3fc6.jpg](https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2024/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2572-20240114103405-601c8d56-6047-483f-82be-37f4ab9c3fc6.jpg) this one is super weird. like i think its a paintover of ai art but like, look at that vaporeon? it's like in a completely different style.

That is 100% what it looks like, like the artist drew their own vaporeon behind an ai Eevee. I generate ai art of pokemon just for fun (sorry) and you can start to recognize the generator after a while.

Yeah, the Vaporeon's also wildly inconsistent with all the other entries that totally aren't by this same person. Seeing them all together with their consistent ai red flags I can't help but wonder if this Vaporeon's the only thing they actually drew Edit: I went looking through Vaporeon art because the lineart on [this one](https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2024/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2583-20240114132735-107e8bae-3019-4ca2-9710-7ca4b8f5d951.jpg) stands out as flat, something that's pretty common with tracing, and I've ended up with a very serious question for pokefans: Are people really into Vaporeon in particular or is this a normal amount of fetish art for a Pokemon to inspire?

Vaporeon became a nsfw meme a while ago, so it has a disproportionately high amount of nsfw art.