obviously people who are smarter and more knowledgeable than me have been over this shoutouttoarrow'swife but also. yayyy I think it's so fun to sit down and tear into innocuous details. like Yeah they said shortbread bc they thought it was evocative of scottish rurality (let's talk about that later) and Yeah they said cocoa grows in seheron because its Exotic and Far-Off and Yeah they made antiva have Coffee Culture (and forgot that thing they said about cocoa) because coffee culture is cute and metropolitan and its like. no you don't have to think through the full implications of everything you put in your fantasy setting but just be aware. someone will. and they will draw conclusions<3
Do we think there's something here to not only the cozy fantasy wish fulfillment of a white neoliberal Canadian response to COVID and lockdown, but also the way the fandom was deeply invested in coffeeshop AUs in circa 2019-2020 that left a lasting impression on the devs who are entirely too plugged into online fandom spaces?
WE ABSOLUTELY DO THINK THAT. like I definitely see a connection between the desire to make datv a Cosy Feelgood game and the total lack of interest in interrogating ANY of the mechanisms of empire set up in previous games, and the intense exposure of the devs to the evolving fandom culture on tumblr and twitter and bluesky. like not only chasing the zeitgeist Vibe Of The Moment (coffeeshops, l&l, found family trope) but also a total confident belief that the trope in itself is enough. like Yeah your coffeeshop au fanfic probably doesn't need to interrogate the imperialism inherent to coffee culture in the western world (or does it....?) but if you're making a professed Gritty dark fantasy which makes commentary on ideas of Empire and Cultural Exploitation then....yeah? absolutely you need to think about the implication. starts tearing up. the implication??!!
